We here at Gallery1988 are major Bill Murray fans, so much so that I have a cat with the same name. I feel like our parents had Peter Sellers, their parents had Buster Keaton, and we have Bill. An absolute eccentric genius who has inspired so much in our generation, he almost warrants a "OH MAN" every time you start rattling off the movies he's been in. That's why we decided to tribute Mr. Murray with our newest show, "Please Post Bills." Opening Nov. 3 at the Melrose gallery, next Thursday, this exhibit will feature 80 artists, all creating paintings, sculptures and prints influenced by the movies, TV appearances and iconic jokes of a comedic legend.
Our friends over at SlashFilm posted the first preview to "Please Post Bills," so we wanted to share the love over here at our blog.
Miranda Dressler reminds us what the best part of re-living Feb. 2nd over and over would be.
Rich Pellegrino earns his Stripes.
Kiersten Essenpreis take aim at one of the most iconic Bill Murray moments. I think he can hear you, Ray.
Jesse Riggle looks at the many layers of the classic funnyman.
Jeff Boyes, one of my personal favorite screenprint artists, reminds you of some of Bill's best roles.
Dave Perillo got you, babe.
Remember, this show opens next Thursday, Nov. 3rd from 7-10 PM here at Gallery1988 (Melrose). Celebrate a legend and see what he's inspired. The artists came, and saw, and kicked its ass.
As we get closer to Alex Pardee's Sweet 16 Pizza Party and Raffle this Saturday from 12-2:30 PM at G1988 (Melrose), I like reflecting back on "The Butcher Kings," and laughing at its insanity. A lot of people ask me what working with / hanging out with Alex and Skinner is like. Luckily, our friends at SPY have created a video to give you that exact experience. Enjoy.
Happy to unveil the 5th poster in the collaboration between filmmaker Jason Reitman and Gallery1988, for his upcoming movie "Young Adult." This print was created by Furturtle for October 25's surprise screening in San Francisco. We love working with Jason and Paramount Pictures and we're only going to warn you one more time, follow the social media sites for Young Adult to see if a screening will be popping up in our backyard soon.
We are so excited to announce our new Venice show featuring Scott Campbell, Olly Moss, Rexbox and Jon Klassen. The show features new originals and prints inspired by... GHOSTS! The show opens on Nov. 10th at Gallery1988 Venice.
In celebration of our upcoming "Ghosts" show, we're releasing a brand new Scott Campbell "Great Showdowns" print set. And the best part is YOU get to decide which prints make it into the set! That's right, we're taking a poll. Email us at gallery1988venice@gmail.com with your top five choices from the list below. The poll will end this Sunday.
1. Kill Bill 2. The Neverending Story 3. The Labyrinth 4. Amelie 5. Life Aquatic 6. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure 7. Fargo 8. Pan's Labyrinth 9. Army of Darkness 10. Friday 11. The Godfather 12. Misery 13. The Professional 14. Stand By Me 15. Blues Brothers
ALSO - stayed tuned for more info on a Scott Campbell book signing for his newly released "Amazing Everything" on Nov. 12 at Gallery1988 Venice!!
November will be a BIG month at G1988, so stay tuned...
Like a young Herman Cain, we want to bring the pizza to you! With Alex Pardee, celebrating quite the important birthday milestone with us, we invite you to party and purchase prints!
It's Alex Pardee's Sweet Sixteen Party! Join us this Saturday, for the last day of The Butcher Kings exhibit, as we release 3 new prints, and eat pizza like fiends. From Noon - 2:30, Alex and the gang from G1988 will all be chilling out, laughing and eating Italian pies. IN ADDITION to the prints, if you just show up, you'll be added into a free raffle, where we will have 16 PRIZES (one for every year Alex has been alive), which will include original art and prizes. You only turn 16 once!!!! Don't miss this, Pardee fans.
So happy to finally unveil the 4th Young Adult poster, for a screening in Austin, TX, by NY artist Tara McPherson. Tara's work was actually featured in Jason's award-winning movie "Juno," so this one should come as no surprise. And neither should Tara's incredible work, but it's still shocking to see how beautiful her work is, no matter how much she knocks it out of the park every time.
Stay tuned to the blog and to Young Adult's social media sites:
Young Adult Facebook - www.facebook.com/youngadultmovie
Young Adult Twitter - www.twitter.com/youngadultmovie
And stay tuned to our blog, because you never know when a screening might just pop up in your backyard...
Tonight, Young Adult was secretly screened to a packed theater in Chicago, and the third collaboration between Gallery1988 and Jason Reitman was given out the lucky moviegoers. This screenprint was created by artist Anne Benjamin and it's really impressive.
Stay tuned to our blog and these Young Adult sites to learn more, and see if a screening will popping up in your city!
As reported by Slashfilm, our second collaborative poster with Paramount Pictures and Jason Reitman, for his upcoming film "Young Adult," has been released at a secret screening in Minnesota, where Jason and writer Diablo Cody introduced the movie. This poster was by Minnesota native Aesthetic Apparatus and is incredible...
Stay tuned for more cities and more posters and you check out more about Young Adult, and possible screenings in your city, by going to these sites -
We'll be teaming up with Jason again, and this time with Paramount Pictures, for his new upcoming film, "Young Adult." Check out the words from Slashfilm...
Paramount Pictures is running unannounced pop-up screenings of Jason Reitman‘s new film Young Adult in cities around North America. The first screening took place in Toronto Canada tonight. As a special bonus, Jason and Paramount enlisted the curatorial services of Los Angeles’s famous pop culture art gallery Gallery1988 to pick the artists and produce limited edition pieces of art for the surprise screenings.
This has been another one of those secrets we've been holding onto, and we're so excited to show you what artist Lil' Tuffy came up with...
We loved working on this project, as Jason wanted to really focus on the tradition of "gig posters", like you'd see available for purchase at your favorite band's intimate concert locally. He wanted to shy away from the artist movie poster take that's popping up every day, which ourselves, and most importantly the artist, a lot of freedome when making awesome screenprints to take home from the screenings.
Stay tuned to our blog, as we can't wait to show you what else this project entails...
We are so happy to finally be able to announce this secret...
We worked with film director Jason Reitman, and the good people from LACMA, to create limited edition screenprints for the upcoming Live Read events that are just too good to be true. Jason has selected classic movie screenplays, and enlisted his talented friends to come in and table read the entire film in front of an audience. The first event, which sold out in mere minutes, will be The Breakfast Club and goes down this Thursday. So we've enlisted Matt Owen to customize his Breakfast Club poster, and make it exclusive for LACMA.
Jason has kept this whole thing really secret, but he has announced these actors/actresses being involved -
JK Simmons will play Carl the janitor
James Van Der Beek will play Andy, originated by Emilio Estevez
Mindy Kaling will play Allison, originated by Ally Sheedy
Patton Oswalt will play Brian, originated by Anthony Michael Hall
Going to be pretty amazing. Again, it's sold out, so we're totally rubbing this in your face, but the good news - there are more coming. So stay tuned to our blog, and LACMA's site for announcements.
We are so honored to have been asked by Jason to be involved and hope to see you at one of these very special events.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Venice gallery last night for the opening of Peter Gronquist's "The Evolution Will Be Fabulous." It is so insane and beautiful inside the gallery and now that the mystery has been lifted, we can show you what Pete has created.
The entire show can be shipped safely and is stunning.
But check out our friend Jean's coverage over at NotCot by clicking the picture below:
Here's a tease of the NotCot article, as all these pictures were taken by them:
The show runs through November 4th at our Venice location, so please make sure and stop by. Seeing this in person is well worth it!
And at our Melrose location, the Butcher Kings are still up and running! Our friends over at Wired wrote up the show. Click the picture below to read it:
Stay tuned to the blog and our website to learn about a special Butcher King closing party, with prints being made available for the first time! More on that later, Mort.
Peter has dropped off all of his new work for his solo show, and it's INSANE. The pieces are epic and Peter has really outdone himself. You cannot miss this show, which opens this Friday, Oct. 14th at Gallery1988 Venice, 7-10pm.
In the meantime, here are a few detail shots (we didn't want to give away too much)...
One of the most identifiable artists we've worked with, Peter Gronquist, is back in the gallery next week with his new solo show, "The Evolution Will Be Fabulous." Forever growing and evolving, we're always excited to see what Peter will do next, and his new show definitely does not disappoint!
Gronquist is probably most well know for his designer weapons, which we featured "The Revolution Will Be Fabulous" in 2008:
The show was widely covered in the press and even featured on Kanye West's blog, resulting in a hand-delivered cease and desist letter. The weapons, a favorite amongst buyers in the entertainment industry, can be see at the Hard Rock Hotel and Angels and Kings in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Since 2008, Peter has left the designer labels behind, and has merged the worlds of gold-plated weapons and taxidermy. We first saw an example of Peter's new style in 2009 at the Vivisect Playset in San Francisco:
Peter's new show, "The Evolution Will be Fabulous" features an entire show of embellished animal trophies, but even larger and more fabulous than any of his past work (check out the postcard image). BUT you'll have to wait for the show to open to see the new pieces, as we won't be previewing this show. It's going to be a surprise, so stay tuned!
The boys are in town and causing quite the insanity. The Butcher Kings, Alex Pardee & Skinner, will open their 2-man(iac) show Thursday night, 7-10 PM at our Melrose location - and it's actually crazy. Not crazy in the way Prince might ask you to a dance at his concert, but crazy in the way that John Wayne Gacy may have asked you to dance before he killed you. Per request of the artists, all images have been kept secret until the opening party, where both will be in attendance, so I have very little to show you. You'll have to trust me when I tell you - this stuff in bonkos, so if you're in LA, stop by.
“The BUTCHER KINGS is f*cking hilarious. This show is the most fleshtacular event of the decade. It does for the mind what meat does for teeth!”
-Matt Maiellaro, co-creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force
"A stunning example of how many monsters exist within the confines of pop culture and a funny brand new take on characters that have been cemented in our collective conscience."
-Pete Wentz
"Pardee and Skinner conjure up images that you might see in a sweaty dream after a night of heavy drinking and late night street meat eating. These are the images you'd never share with anyone for fear they'd think you were disturbed. Part terrifying part familiar, they are modern day clown portraits that used to hang in your family's doctor's office. In other words I love it."
-Paul Scheer, creator of NTSF:SVU:SD
When we do open up the doors on Thursday night, you'll see over 80 new pieces (all priced between $300-1,000) that completely destroy all of our memories of the pop-culture icons we have grown to love, then channel the soul of a cynical, witty, self-destructive and borderline insane man-child.
DISCLAIMER - This show contains graphic imagery and is not suitable for children.
With that in mind, I've started a new podcast (NSFW), partnering up with filmmaker, and G1988 homie, Kevin Smith's podcast network (also NSFW), and it's called "Get Up On This." Each week, I'm joined by a guest and we go over a few things, whether it's a movie, music, website, comic book, etc., that people should know about, but don't yet. Things that are bubbling in the underground and soon to hit the mainstream. Look at it as a "Cool Things" type of show. Past guests include Mike Shinoda, Jonah Ray, Casey Veggies, DC Pierson, Pete Wentz and Wallpaper. This week I had the pleasure, and absolute nightmare-ish feelings, of having The Butcher Kings on the show and the results are successful (if you consider the Titanic maiden voyage successful because it made for a good movie).
In case you haven't figured it out, this Thursday's Melrose show, "The Butcher Kings," with art from Alex Pardee & Skinner is going to be both fun and twisted.
I know we've kept this show in a shroud of utter secrecy, but we figured we'd let you in a little. Here's a statement from the Kings themselves:
-----------
When Skinner and I met in the late 90's, the Internet hadn't yet been integrated as a common marketing tool for artists and musicians, and the actual outlets that WERE available for us to spread our imagination and artwork out to were limited to friends, family, schools, the local comic shops and the occasional small cafe-galleries and musical acts that catered toward non-traditional artwork. The bi-product of being undeniably driven by the passion to create without having outlets for either critiques OR validations, however, was that we both created our artwork strictly for ourselves and to make US happy. Over the course of the last decade, as the Internet has become a more common and extremely useful tool in all aspects of art appreciation, execution, networking, and entrepreneurism, Skinner and I have attempted to adapt our thinking and artistic approaches in conjunction with this accelerated technology, but on numerous occasions we have also caught ourselves falling victim to this new widespread accessibility to our artwork.
The Internet provides such a rapid firing of both criticism and praise that, over the course of the last few years, has made both Skinner and I almost TOO aware of what people will like or dislike when our work is displayed publicly, causing us to recently questions just who we are no creating art for. Are our imaginations subconsciously aware more so now of what others will think about our art? Are we now being secretly driven to create something that more people can "relate" to in hopes that we will in turn get more Twitter followers and more Facebook likes and somehow transcribe that invisible validation to more monetary success? In short, Skinner and I both realized that, for whatever reasons, we were taking ourselves too seriously.
Well, f*ck that.
We missed creating art with the sole purpose of making ourselves smile and laugh. We missed no caring if we "lose a follower" by offending someone with a drawing of a demonic dick if that dick was fun to draw. And trust us, dicks are fun to draw. And they are hilarious.
So in an attempt to re-unite our fearlessness, and to simply have fun using our separate memories and inspirations as our tools, Skinner and I present to you, "THE BUTCHER KINGS."
Using existing pop culture icons that we adore, and mutually drawing inspiration from various sources including Gary Larsen's 'The Far Side', Jack Kirby, Wheel of Fortune, Carrot Top, Filmation Cartoons, Robot Chicken & Aqua Teen Hunger Force, we imagined what would happen if all of a sudden the memories of every pop culture property has begun to be torn apart by an unknown force and, in order to save the memories from total eradication, had to be gathered and reassembled by someone who was goofy, cynical, socially inept and slight insane. That person...is us.
Enjoy.
--------------
Well, don't say you weren't warned.
Disclaimer: A lot of the artwork that will be displayed in this show are of an adult nature. Since a majority of our shows at Gallery1988 are child-friendly, we suggest this is one that the little ones should sit out.
