We eagerly await Robert Burden in White Walls for this April’s group exhibition, New Territory. Robert is best known for his large scale oil paintings of his childhood action figure toys, one of which was displayed in our 2009 Winter Group Show. However Robert offers a more intimate look at the nostalgic objects through blind contour drawings created without looking at the paper. Below is a quick walk through Robert’s studio with explanations of his new works, as well as a recent video interview by Vimby. Take a look and come by White Walls on April 3, 2010 from 7-11pm to see another side of Robert Burden.

“My current body of work is creating epic ‘portraits’ of the small action figures that I played with as a boy. I remember these figures as being magnificent. They represented power, beauty, morality, and they captured every aspect of my imagination. After discovering a box of my old toys years later, I was disappointed with what I had found. The reality of the toys did not live up to the memory. I want to depict the toys as fantastically as they had been in my younger self’s imagination.”

“As a young adult, these toys are wonderfully nostalgic, but they’re no longer amazing to me. But there was a freedom in my childhood. It was free from the politics of race and religion. It was free from the burdens of history. It was free from apathy and ambivalence. It was free from rhetoric and paranoia. It was free from cynicism and despair. There is nothing profound about commenting on the minor tragedy of losing one’s innocence, or the struggle to maintain my idealism. I just want to renew my faded sense of awe. Large-scale oil paintings seemed like the best way to accomplish this.”

“However, in the upcoming White Walls exhibition I’m going to be showing a bunch of blind contour drawings, which are basically a side project to the paintings. The paintings are very large, detailed, colorful and labor-intensive. The drawings are the exact opposite of the paintings, and yet I find something very intimate and cathartic in the creation of these blind contour pen drawings.”

“I draw the toy figure without looking at the paper. This creates a very naive, childish image, yet it achieves a very pure line due to the intimacy of the process. By never taking my eyes off the toy, I’m losing myself in the drawing… literally, and forming a bond with the figure. The drawings, I believe, are even more of a testament to my forgotten love affair with action figures than the epically-scaled paintings, however the drawings are not about achieving any sense of wonderment or awe, just reflection and intimacy.”

Photos © Robert Burden

Henry Gunderson has been brewing up a new collection in his San Francisco studio to be displayed at White Walls starting April 3, 2010. He gave us a little walkthrough of his studio via video and photographs, along with a few abstract words to describe the new works. Read on for a sneak peek and come by the gallery on April 3, 2010 from 7-11pm for the opening reception of New Territory.

What does this collection of new works represent?

My work is slowly reaching maturity and this work is a step in a slightly different direction. I’m trying things out and seeing what works. I’m trying to make things harder for myself. Exploration.

Explain your medium, technique, and process.

I mostly use acrylic paint and sometimes small touches of other mediums. I start out by painting one image and then decide why it’s there and collage other images on the painting although I dont cut out pictures, I collage solely with paint.

What is the conceptual basis for your subject matter?

My conceptual nature is like that of a white hole ejecting matter from its event horizon. I don’t speculate the origins of this matter but it does appear. It most likely entered through a black hole then was processed and ejected. When matter is ejected concepts are inevitable and often based on very casual ordinary visions.

What is your inspiration?

As a small boy I spent my days in a cardboard box watching a television I had drawn on the wall. I only had one channel but it always played exactly what I wanted to see with no commercials.

Photos © Henry Gunderson

New Territory

New Works by Henry Gunderson, Akira, Cheryl Molnar,

Robert Burden, and Mark Warren Jacques

Since we couldn’t make it to Portland for a studio visit with Mark Warren Jacques in anticipation of our April show, this multitalented painter/designer/filmmaker held us over with a “Mind Visit.” As Meighan O’Tool of My Love for You puts it, this video is “a sweet and breezy view into Mark’s work and how his mind works.” Play on for Mark’s creation featuring music by Grizzly Bear:

You may recognize Mark’s cosmic paintings from our Winter Group Show and from Gallery Three’s exhibition, This Is All We Know. A recent interview with the dreamer was also published on Juxtapoz, where he explains his philosophy of “Shredding the Now”:

“By Shredding the Now I allow myself the fantasy of constantly “riding the wave.” The skateboard is a vehicle just as painting is a vehicle and a poem is and music is or talking to friends or making love or answering questions for the Juxtapoz blog, these are all waves that I am hopefully having a blast shredding…. ha. And if I’m not having fun then hopefully I will mindfully put myself where the waves are good. Though some waves get gnar and I eat shit, still laughing. I will always believe in myself and what I’m into.” -MWJ

We eagerly await his new paintings to be on display in the White Walls group show, New Territory, opening April 3rd 2010. The show runs through April 25th, don’t miss it!

We were checking out Greg Gossel’s blog to get a glimpse of his upcoming solo show at White Walls this June when we stumbled upon this little ditty. Gossel just finished this commission for Interscope Records featuring Lady Gaga, and we hope to see more of where that came from.

Stay tuned for Greg Gossel’s solo exhibition at White Walls opening June 12th, 2010.

High five to Kevin Cyr for his recent feature in the SF Examiner on March 4th, 2010. Virginia Pelley writes, “There is perhaps no better way to explore the urban culture of America than through its vehicles. Dented, dirty and graffiti-plastered delivery trucks are elevated from utility to art in the work of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Kevin Cyr.”

While discussing Kevin Cyr’s 2010 West Prize winning Camper Kart, Kevin Cyr added:

“It’s partly a reaction to materialism and excess, but it’s really about human perseverance and self-reliance. It’s comforting to think that I can make a shelter out of a shopping cart, and in a catastrophe, something like ‘Camper Kart’ or the ‘Camper Bike’ could provide a temporary mobile shelter.”

Click here to download the article pdf and be sure to see Kevin’s array of 25 truck paintings, 3 model trucks, and 3 photographs currently on view at White Walls through March 27th, 2010.

Hugh Leeman has been known to plaster the walls of San Francisco and New York with his wheat paste images of homeless Tenderloin dwellers, but this time he’s taken it to the extreme. We just got word from the Bay Area artist as he travels through India, pasting up art all the way:

“These pieces I recently put up in Varanasi, India just as Holi festival began. They are on the ghats near the Ganges river. This was one of the most amazingly bizarre places I’ve ever been. I was working on these just before sunrise, while off in the distance from many different directions you could hear the chanting of monks and holy men coming from ashrams (as Varanasi is the holiest of cities in the Hindu religion). All while wild monkeys watched me from above and crows cawed as small black birds with brilliant orange specs ate at my excess drips of wheat paste. Further down the river banks bodies are cremated or floated down this holy river. A very strange trip indeed.” -Hugh Leeman

Hugh is best known for his public outdoor pieces, but he also does oil paintings and mixed media collage. More from Hugh:

Hugh Leeman Street Art in San Francisco

Hugh Leeman Video Interview

Jessica Whiteside brought Saturday night’s party upstairs to Gallery Three with appropriate entertainment: four peacock-feather adorned burlesque dancers. The ladies were hamming it up all night, bringing a festive spark to the already celebratory evening. View the Innocence Perceived exhibition catalog or continue on for a few highlights from the evening!

Jessica in blue

Thank you to Dayna Stanley, Jaime, Chris Blackstock and Christine Ha for contributing photographs! More event photos can be found on our flickr page or at SF Station. Be sure to stop by before March 27, 2010 to see this one of a kind show in person!

Thank you to everyone who made it out for the opening reception of Temporal Surfaces! Curator Lainya Magana was in the house with her sweet baby Kingston, and artists Jessica Hess and Kevin Cyr were all smiles while the public viewed their new collections for the first time. Take a peek at our opening night recap (thanks to photographer Chris Blackstock) and be sure to check out the online exhibition catalog!

Jessica Hess and Kevin Cyr (Photo ©Dayna Stanley)

Brandon holding down the fort (Photo ©Dayna Stanley)

Jesse Hazelip with Lainya Magana and baby Kingston

Akira Beard and Justin Giarla

Jessica Hess

Kevin Cyr and Lainya Magana with friend

See flickr and SF Station for more!

Yesterday was bright and warm in the Tenderloin, perfect for welcoming Jessica Hess and Kevin Cyr into the gallery. Both flew out from not so sunny cities (Jessica from Boston and Kevin from Brooklyn) to set up their joint show, Temporal Surfaces opening this Saturday. Unpacking Kevin’s series of 20 tagged up vans was the highlight of our day. His birch panels released a wonderful fresh aroma as we unwrapped the colorful paintings- far more vibrant in person than we imagined. As expected, Jessica Hess (interviewed) was exercising her obsession with photography during the whole installation process (she snapped 3,000 photos last time she visited SF!).

Also check out Meighan O’Toole’s studio visits with Jessica Hess and Kevin Cyr back on the East Coast- and see below for a few of our own snapshots (more to come)!

Justin, Kevin and Leigh

Jessica Hess installation with Kevin Cyr’s trucks in the background

Justin hangs the grid

silkscreens

Jessica Whiteside also arrived from LA yesterday to install Innocence Perceived in Gallery Three. She has an all-encompassing installation planned for the space, not to mention the four burlesque dancers that will be in full costume during her opening. Check it out!

We hope to see you all at White Walls, The Shooting Gallery and Gallery Three this Satuday, March 6 from 7-11pm. This night also marks The Shooting Gallery’s 7 Year Anniversary, so wear your dancing shoes!