sculpture

STEVE LOPEZ

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(Los Angeles, US)

Born in Los Angeles, Steve Lopez was heavily influenced by hip hop culture and graffiti art. He is a painter who has emerged from the graffiti subculture and academic influence. While attending the University of Oregon Lopez studied under the guidance of master sculptor, Dora Natella and design theorist, Leon Johnson. Lopez absorbed attention to form associated with Natella’s sculptures, while refining his conceptual vocabulary through Johnson’s critique on visual continuity.

In 2000, Lopez Received his B.A. in Fine Art. His work can be found within a myriad of corporate and private art collections both in the United States and abroad. He currently lives and works in the City of Los Angeles.

RON ENGLISH

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(1966, Texas, US)

Ron English is an American contemporary artist who explores brand imagery and advertising. He is known for the use of color and comic book collage.

One of the most prolific and recognizable artists alive today, Ron English has bombed the global landscape with unforgettable images, on the street, in museums, in movies, books and television. English coined the term POPaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, populated with his vast and constantly growing arsenal of original characters, including MC Supersized, the obese fast-food mascot featured in the hit movie “Supersize Me,” and Abraham Obama, the fusion of America’s 16th and 44th Presidents, an image widely discussed in the media as directly impacting the 2008 election. 

Other characters carousing through English’s art, in paintings, billboards, and sculpture include three-eyed rabbits, udderly delicious cowgirls and grinning skulls, blending stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America’s Premier Pop Iconoclast. English was one of the on-camera subjects interviewed for the documentary Super Size Me (2004), which showcased his McDonald's-themed artwork -- inspired by English's belief about the effect of fast food franchises andrestaurant chains on the American culture.

Watch this interview by Hurley:


RICO DENIRO

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Rico Deniro leans on the last men and women of the earth who don’t use computers or technology to make things. People that use no power, and use only primitive tools and the precision of their hands to interpret dirty contrived icons of the world that the so-called “advanced civilizations” worship.

The artisans have little or no relationship with most of the icons and people represented in this body of work. Highlighting the emptiness that is in direct conflict with the billions of dollars spent convincing us that these icons do have value and worth.

The resulting masks show these idols at a level which we rarely see them: exposed. Not in the way that the news media ‘exposes’ celebrities, because in that case there’s a symbiotic dependency, but in the way that these idols are exposed for their lack of substance other than the media and marketing that convinces us of their substance.

Watch this video by Walrus TV:


LANCE DE LOS REYES

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(1977, Texas, US)

Lance De Los Reyes was born in Texas and studied painting, performance, sculpture and video at the San Francisco Art Institute. After moving to New York City he assisted artist Donald Baechler and has exhibited with The Journal Gallery and Peter Makebish

De Los Reyes is a believer, for what it’s worth, and believes that painting can communicate sacred truths, powerful ideas or important complexities. The artworks feature symbolic imagery, inventive forms, color patterns derived from alchemical tables and beliefs. Many works feature archetypes or concepts that have a pan-global mythological inspiration and take from many archaic belief systems to imbue meaning. Like Julian Schnabel he believes in man, myth and magic in painting and has the power, energy and almost manic intensity to create with similar ambition. Though an emerging artist, he is unafraid to try to “stand on the shoulders of giants” to stretch himself to new heights.

FAILE

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(1999)

FAILE is the Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller. Their name is an anagram of their first project, “A life.” Since its inception in 1999, FAILE has been known for a wide ranging multimedia practice recognizable for its explorations of duality through a fragmented style of appropriation and collage. While painting and printmaking remain central to their approach, over the past decade FAILE has adapted its signature mass culture-driven iconography to vast array of materials and techniques, from wooden boxes and window pallets to more traditional canvas, prints, sculptures, stencils, installation, and prayer wheels.

FAILE’s work is constructed from found visual imagery, and blurs the line between “high” and “low” culture, but recent exhibitions demonstrate an emphasis on audience participation, a critique of consumerism, and the incorporation of religious media, architecture, and site-specific/archival research into their work.

Watch this video on their permanent installation by Vice:

ERICAILCANE

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(Bologna, Italy)

Ericailcane is an Italian artist, street artist, illustrator, draftsman and sculptor. He makes graffiti worldwide. According to the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, Ericailcane "belongs to the new generation of European street artists that have revolutionized how to design public space".

The works of Ericailcane are characterized by scientific precision. The artist presents different variations of disturbing animals human-like, in strange contexts, sometimes charged with a social or ecological significance. He often depicts majestic, unpleasant or monstrous figures resembling the Middle Ages. These aquatic or terrestrial animals are often drawn fighting in more or less hostile or adverse environments. The same iconography is used in its refined drawings in his books, in his collages, in her videos and installations, such as the huge puppet presented in 2009 in Bologna for traditional Vecchione, traditionally burned at midnight December 31 in the Maggiore plaza.

Watch this video of the making of a mural in Bastardilla:


DENNIS MCNETT

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(1972, Virginia, US)

Dennis McNett has been carving surly block prints for over 18 years. His encouragement as a kid came from his blind grandfather, who told him over and over again that his drawings were good. Later influences came from the raw high-energy imagery pouring out of the early 80's skateboard and punk rock scene.

His graphic aesthetic and love for narrative work has been translated in many ways. His work ranges from larger than life Viking ship performances and parades in Philly, resurrecting Nordic giants on West Broadway in Manhattan, Dragon slayings in Oklahoma, masks, installations and sculptures to unique hand-carved wood cut pieces, traditional relief prints, and graphics. 
 

Participating in both the fine art and design worlds, Dennis has been fortunate enough to create series’ for Anti-Hero skateboards, design shoes for Vans, have work fill the windows of Barneys, NY, and participate in the Deitch Artparade. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Juxtapoz magazine, Thrasher and Complex Magazine. 

Watch Dennis in his studio by Vans:



CODY HUDSON

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(1971, Wisconsin, US)

Cody Hudson works as a multimedia artist, but is often considered a painter and a graphic designer. His use of graphic line work and a palette of bright colors have coalesced to create a body of paintings that reference his narrative of longing and hopefulness while also finding context within contemporary abstract painting. 

The artist is interested in the elemental use of shape as signifier, but he has gone further by allowing the forms that take place in his paintings to be direct extensions of the poetic content of the painting itself. He has also focused on sculpture and text, introducing found and constructed wood forms, color and graphic images to his totemic structures. Ranging from tabletop constructions to large freestanding pieces, his three dimensional work has become a major focal point of his process as a whole.

Watch a video by Vans:


CHARLES GLAUBITZ

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(Tijuana, Mexico)

Glaubitz's work could be described as mythical, pictorial, illustrative, cosmological, and relating to sequential art and comics. It combines elements of myth, religion, and spirituality with comics, hermetic ideas, alchemy and science. He works in painting, drawing, watercolor, sculpture, installations, animation and comics.

"There have been two very important changes in my work. In the beginning of 2001 the work was influenced by the surrounding environment of Tijuana and characters from Tijuana and Mexican folklore, myth and pop culture. I call this work the “old world”— El Viejo Mundo— which is about our relationships to the exterior, whether it be relationships that are more indicative of a clashing against ideas of the border, or are more parallel to what the physical border means in real life.

In 2007 a change occurred in my work when “the old world” ceased to exist and I created two archetypes to confront each other in a final battle, the Capitalist King and the Gardener. In battle they ended up being more complementary and less oppositional and together they created a small big bang, and this big bang gave birth to the new world. This new world in my work is a realm of the “starseed” children and illuminati secret society.

My newer work addresses the idea of borders/limits within oneself, one’s own limits internally. I’m interested now less in physical borders and more in the borders that exist between imagination, abstraction, myth and fantasy; the internal conflicts as opposed to the external."

Watch this video by Creative Mornings:



ADAM HARTEAU

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(1977, Los Angeles, US)

This self-made artist, Adam Harteau, works adroitly in a flurry of mediums, each informing the other, and serving its creative purpose as the project presents itself. An imaginative artist, designer, draftsman and problem solver, he moves with ease between painting, photography, drawing, collage, printmaking, sculpture, graphic and fashion design. At 18, he moved to Los Angeles to attend Otis College of Art and Design, where he received a scholarship for fine art painting. He has remained in Los Angeles since then, balancing his diverse and eclectic artistic endeavors with grand explorations of the world, which have all brought great inspiration to his life and work.

Watch Adam, Emily and the rest of the Harteau family take a break from their endless travels to join us as the next in our Dreamers + Doers series. See what it really takes to start a life of adventure, a family and an exciting new business from the open road:

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