Image courtesy of Respect-mag.com.

ROA has been painting animal murals across the world for years, and his latest batch is in Panama City. He chooses his subjects from the zoology native to the region, and these creatures end up in unexpected places within the urban landscape. His last show with us was Dominant Species in the old 941 Geary space. The website Respect-Mag, who describes ROA as ‘the Da Vinci of the Streets,’ covered his latest work in Panama, and pulled some quotes from the artist:

“Since I was a kid I drew animals, so I wanted to paint like I draw, but more plastic and looser. I gave it a try on the wall… I got inspired to go up to paint in left-behind factories and hidden places and experiment with lines and scales. I was still enjoying it because every wall is different; the environment, the social life around it, the external conditions, the size, the depiction, the challenge is always there.”

We can’t wait to see where ROA will end up next!

Follow the jump for more of the latest ROA. Read more »

The non-profit Hospitality House has been serving the Tenderloin since 1967,where they offer social services such as housing and benefits advocacy, harm reduction-based substance use counseling, emergency shelter, money management support, creative expression, and job creation. White Walls and Shooting Gallery have donated pieces by some of our top artists including Chad Hasegawa and Ferris Plock to the Hospitality House’s 28th Annual Art Auction. Over 150 works will be on display from various artists, and the event will feature Shoe Shine Wine from the small, San Francisco micro-winery. Come and enjoy complimentary validated parking at 855 Geary Street Garage, delicous wine and hors d’oeuvres, reception entertainment by the Eric Markowitz Trio, and a wonderful atmosphere for supporting Tenderloin community artists!

Go to Hospitality House’s Facebook page to vote for your favorite artist who will be featured at the auction.

Tickets are still available here.

Event Details:
White Walls and Shooting Gallery
886 Geary Street
San Francisco

Thursday, May 9th from 6 – 9 PM.

View some of the works that White Walls and Shooting Gallery have donated to the Hospitality House’s 28th Annual Art Auction after the jump. Read more »

Ludo, a Parisian street artist, well known for his graphic insects and acid green color murals that he wheat pastes on walls across Europe, has caught our eye with his current works. Recently he was commissioned to install a public work in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where he decorated the air vents in the square with lush, plant imagery. The Centre is a bustling tourist destination, with a vast library, the Musee National d’Art Moderne – the largest modern art museum in Europe, and the IRCAM – a center for music and acoustic research. The No New Enemies Network recently covered these murals, which are part of the exhibition Ex-Situ, where the artist will also be leading a workshop on co-branding to create fake advertising.

Ludo will be bringing his work to San Francisco with a show in the WW Project Space on September 14, 2013.

Follow the jump for more photos of the new installation.

Read more »

For Immediate Release:
Contact White Walls – Justin Giarla
Justin@whitewallssf.com

White Walls Project Space Presents:

Before the Sun Dies, Part II
“Kingdom of Night”

White Walls Project Space is pleased to present Before the Sun Dies, Part II “Kingdom of Night” by San Francisco-based artist C3. The opening reception will be held Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 7-11pm with the exhibit free and open to the public through June 01, 2013.

“Kingdom of Night” is the second exhibit in a narrative trilogy following 2011’s Before the Sun Dies, Part I “Tempest Horizon,” which introduced aristocratic cult leaders and anti-heroes through finely drawn graphite portraits. Whereas “Tempest Horizon” was about the dawning realization of living within a darkly complicated world torn by opposing forces, “Kingdom of Night” illustrates an uprising of sorts, with a Christ-like character and an oracle at its center.

C3 describes the five pieces titled “Kingdom of Light” as a reference to the savior’s perception upon awakening, “[He] has been asleep for a generation and when he awakens the sun blinds him for a time. He begins to receive and perceive his world in flashes of light and symbols. He then begins to realize what he must do and what the two beings that have awakened him want from him. This in turn will lead into the third and final chapter in the trilogy.”

Many of the works for the show fade into drawn line, hinting at the process involved in works which otherwise could appear to be photographs preserved from an earlier era. The aesthetic of faded Victorian snapshots and old Westerns is transformed into something entirely new in the hands of C3, whose uniquely compelling vision continues to unfold through beautifully detailed drawings.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Tulsa, Oklahoma native Christoper C. Curtis currently lives and works in San Francisco. Known for his photorealistic renderings, C3 creates striking works woven together through an overarching narrative that explores a land filled with uncertainty and danger. The most immediate aspect of the artist’s work is its direct and unabashed confrontation of the grotesque. His tightly rendered graphite drawings display a haunting, vintage quality of antique portraits. As a graduate from the Academy of Art, C3 has exhibited throughout the Bay Area including solo shows at Shooting Gallery, Gallery Three, and Babylon Falling.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

White Walls Gallery has worked for a decade to exist as the premiere destination for urban art in the Bay Area. Combined with the Shooting Gallery and two project spaces, this 5,000 sq ft space is one of the largest galleries on the west coast. Justin Giarla founded the gallery with a commitment to furthering the urban art movement, drawing directly from street art and graffiti culture. Named for its plain white walls, the gallery takes a backseat to the real focus: the work of our artists.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Media Opportunities:
Interview with artist C3
Interview with owner/founder/curator Justin Giarla
High-resolution images available upon request

Event Information:
Before the Sun Dies, Part II “Kingdom of Night”
Opening Reception – May 11, 2013, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2013
@ White Walls Project Space (www.whitewallssf.com/projectspace)
886 Geary
San Francisco, CA

RJ Rushmore writes that Skewville are two of the most “underrated” artists in Street Art today in this Vandalog post, which covers the duo’s show Amusement, now in White Walls until May 4, 2013. Rushmore astutely describes the work of Skewville when he explains that “even non-interactive pieces seem more like something to experience than to ‘see.’” We couldn’t agree more with this appraisal, especially since their exhibition with us included a merry-go-round and carnival-esque games.

View photos from the opening of Amusement by Joe Russo, after the jump. Read more »

Arrested Motion (who visited the twins’ Bushwick basement studio in 2011) put up this post today about Skewville’s opening for Amusement in White Walls. Photographer Joe Russo took some dazzling photographs of the brothers at work and play. The exhibition showcases 30 of their latest pieces including TV facades that hang on the wall, as well as Skewville’s signature geometric figures and blocky typography. The show is up through May 4, 2013.

Check out more of Joe Russo’s images, after the jump. Read more »

For Immediate Release:

White Walls Presents:
Control, a Solo Show by Nick Flatt

White Walls is pleased to present Control, a solo show by Nick Flatt. The opening reception will be held Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 7-11pm with the exhibit free and open to the public through June 01, 2013.

At its core, Nick Flatt’s Control is a response to Guy Debord’s book Society of the Spectacle, where Debord expounds that authentic experience has been subverted by the mere representation of it, outlining the spectacle as a system fed by the mass media’s control of images and the social relationship people have with these images.

Flatt opens a dialogue on the pseudo needs and boundless pursuit of gratification this type of system has supported with a series of 5ft x 7ft oil paintings which depict models sporting necklaces that read “MORE” resting on their chests. Three different 10 layered stencils displayed in duplicate form seem to comment on the production and commodification of desire, the fact that, in Debord’s words “In a consumer society, social life is not about living, but about having […]”

By placing the stereotypical ideals of beauty used in advertisements, and showing specifically, without illusion, what is being sold, Flatt attempts to draw attention to how art, sex, and even rebellion are reduced to commodities. A grandiose installation featuring a crushed car built by Flatt himself instills the show with an air of threat, but whether the threat is in denying the spectacle or feeding into it is left unclear.

From the Artist:
The person to the left of you has more than you do. The guy to the right’s girlfriend has bigger tits than yours. The averages seemed to have been raised, and you’re left wanting more. The bombardment of advertisements is a constant source of corporate bullying. People that are prettier and happier than you telling you to buy stuff that will make you pretty and happy. So go whiten your teeth, get a job producing more shit, strive to drive a luxury car, and maybe, just maybe the next time you’re in public your girlfriend will have the biggest boobs in the room. Control.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Texas-born Nick Flatt, is known for his large scale photorealistic black and white portraits, often with provocative themes gleaned from titles like Blow Me, Pussy Fingers, and Nip Slip. By using models who physically resemble the prototype of those commonly used in mainstream advertising, Flatt whets the viewer’s unconscious appetite for consumption. However, their extreme, lascivious gestures distort our desire to the point of discomfort. By exposing the cheap triggers employed by these glossy glamazons, Flatt invites us to be repulsed by their honest unmasking.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Media Opportunities:
Interview with artist Nick Flatt
Interview with owner/founder/curator Justin Giarla
High-resolution images available upon request

Event Information:
Control, a Solo Show by Nick Flatt
Opening Reception – May 11, 2013, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2013,
@ White Walls (www.whitewallssf.com)
886 Geary
San Francisco, CA

Skewville, whose show “Amusement” is in White Walls

Fecal Face mentioned our current shows Skewville’s Amusement in White Walls and Mark Warren Jacques‘ Small in a Big Way in the WW Project Space, and we hope everyone in the Bay Area gets a chance to come see both shows. Skewville transformed the entrance of our gallery with a carnival theme that included a functioning merry-go-round, and paintings that recalled vintage signs. Mark Warren Jacques displayed a collection of smaller pieces with intricate and rhythmic line-work, as well as a larger one with a neon light (which he collaborated on with artist Meryl Pataky.) The two shows are running through May 4, so there’s still time to catch these artists at their finest!

See more photos from Fecal Face after the jump.

Read more »

Skewville – Amusement opening night recap from Brock Brake on Vimeo.

If you missed Skewville’s opening for their solo show Amusement last Saturday at White Walls, then you missed all the fun! Brock Blake documented the shenanigans of the evening in this great little video. People got to ride a working merry-go-round powered by vintage Apollo bikes, throw balls at a line-up of bottles, and enjoyed the general mirth and merriment.

Don’t get too down if you missed Skewville’s opening, because Amusement runs through May 4 so there’s still time to see it.

We also have a new opening the second Saturday of every month, so check out our calendar to see what’s coming ahead.

View more photos by Brock Blake of Skewville, after the jump. Read more »

Skewville, “3 Hour Lunch”

Relive your youth, if you happened to be born during the ’70′s and ’80′s, by visiting Skewville’s current show in White Walls. It got listed in 7×7 SF‘s Four Galleries to Visit This Week by Alex Bigman, where they commented on Amusement taking “an especially carnivalesque turn, referencing pop culture entertainment items from their youth and, in a large central installation, reconstructing a merry-go-round out of Apollo bikes.” The show features a brief-case size meta-lunch box assemblage, as well as other toys that that are specific to the era.

The show runs through May 4, 2013.