Mini Size Me at BMOA

Sixpack Projects is proud to announce an exhibition curated by our very own Jillian Nakornthap, Mini Size Me: A Monumental Critique on Today’s Hand-held Society currently on view at the Bakersfield Museum of Art.

June 16 – August 28, 2011

Curated by Jillian Nakornthap
Featuring: Larissa Bates, Joe Davidson, Thomas Doyle,
Misako Inoaka, Adia Millett, Coke Wisdom O’Neal and Slinkachu

Bakersfield Museum of Art
1930 R Street, Bakersfield, CA

Coke Wisdom O'Neal, Chris and Mike O'Neal,
2005, c-print, 36 x 29 in.
Courtesy of the artist and Mixed Greens, NYC

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
MINI SIZE ME: A Monumental Critique on Today’s Hand-held Society. There is a long standing tradition of creating miniature artwork from Persian miniatures to dioramas. The instinct to create obsessively detailed, miniature versions of the world we live in has captivated artsists and audiences for centuries. Even now, with the advent of Smartphones, PDAs and iPods, we thrive in the miniature, often preferring the four by two inch digital facsimile in our hand to the real world. “The bigger the better,” has become an outdated statement. Artists, whether consciously or not, have responded to the shift by critiquing society in various small mediums. Some of these artists take a voyeuristic approach when analyzing society while others question our values. The seven artists in Mini Size Me challenge society’s values while maintaining the longstanding tradition of diminutive artwork.

MUSEUM INFO:
The Bakersfield Museum of Art is located at 1930 R Street in Bakersfield, CA. The museum is open to the public Tuesday-Friday 10am-4pm and Saturday-Sunday 12-4pm; Closed on Mondays and holidays. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $2 for students (and free to members). Every third Friday of the month, all admission FREE! The Bakersfield Museum of Art provides a broad spectrum of visual arts experiences through the exhibition and preservation of fine art, educational programs, community outreach, and special events.

The current exhibitions will be on view June 16 – August 28, 2011. For more information contact Beth Pandol, 661-323-7219 or visit www.bmoa.org.

CARROTS AND APOLOGUES: James F. Lorigan

**UPDATE: This exhibition closed on May 30th**

CARROTS AND APOLOGUES: James F. Lorigan
Organized by Alyssa Cordova and Sixpack Projects

Opening reception: Saturday, May 14, 6-9 PM
concurrent with Long Beach Downtown Art Walk
Exhibition dates: May 14 – 30, 2011

Sixpack Projects @ Phantom Galleries Long Beach
170 N Promenade, Long Beach, CA 90802 (map)

Sixpack Projects is proud to present CARROTS AND APOLOGUES, an exhibition curated by Alyssa Cordova featuring selected work by Southern California artist James F. Lorigan. Lorigan’s work are contemporary, allegorical narratives filled with rich illustrative imagery of nature, animals, and mesmerizing still-life compositions. Lorigan invites viewers into the stories he paints, inviting them into a dialog of imagination and self reflection.

JAMES F. LORIGAN came from the mid west to Southern California in 1966. He enrolled at Fullerton College in 1968 before joining the Navy. He returned to college in 1972 and began working professionally as an artist and art restorer of 16th and 17th Dutch art and antiques, later becoming an apprentice printer at Spectrum press in Orange California. He graduated from Cal State University Fullerton in 1994 with his MFA in painting and printmaking. He also completed his MA in printmaking in 1993. Lorigan has participated in over 90 exhibitions featuring his paintings and prints and is a Master Printmaker who until recently owned Watermark Printmaking Workshop in Santa Ana, California. He has produced fine art intaglio, relief prints, lithographs and digital prints in limited editions with artist of merit since 1974. A fulltime teacher since 1990, James is also the Chair of the Art Department at College Of The Canyons in Santa Clarita, California, where he teaches Drawing, Painting and Printmaking.

ABOUT THE GALLERY:
Sixpack Projects is a collective of six artist/curators organizing innovative contemporary art exhibitions and events throughout Southern California. We are: Alyssa Cordova, Jennifer Frias, Lilia Lamas, Jillian Nakornthap, Jeff Rau, and Heather Richards. The Sixpack Projects Gallery at Phantom Galleries Long Beach features special curatorial projects by the members of our collective and is intended to be a forum for engaging the community in important and relevant cultural discussions through the exhibition of contemporary art. For more information please visit www.SixpackProjects.com

Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach is located at 170 N. Promenade, Long Beach, CA 90802. in downtown Long Beach at the corner of Broadway and Promenade. Gallery is open limited hours and by special appointment; there is 24/7 pedestrian viewing. To schedule a viewing contact Sixpack Projects at info@sixpackprojects.com, or for more information visit www.SixpackProjects.com and www.PhantomGalleriesLA.com, or visit us on Facebook at Facebook.com/sixpackprojects.

Preston Daniels and Patrick Strand

PRESTON DANIELS Neighborhood Watch & PATRICK STRAND Archipelago
Organized by Jennifer Frias and Sixpack Projects

Opening reception: Saturday, March 26, 6-9 PM
LB Downtown Art Walk: Saturday, April 9, 6-9 PM
Exhibition dates: March 26 – April 16, 2011

Sixpack Projects @ Phantom Galleries Long Beach
170 N Promenade, Long Beach, CA 90802

Sixpack Projects is pleased to present two separate bodies of work by two emerging southern California artists. Preston Daniels and Patrick Strand produce works that seize the humanization of architectural, communal and spatial elements occupying our modern environs. The artists’ re-contextualization of transcendental communities is realized through architectural foundations in decline from their majestic poise (Daniels) or through fragmented drawings of multiple cities assembled together into one island (Strand). Both Daniels and Strand produce works that represent the physical changes reflected in our living spaces and how they embody our everyday lives.

PRESTON DANIELS attended the Chatauqua Institute School of Fine Art in New York and received his BFA from West Virginia University in 2007. He received an MFA on a Hallsburg Scholarship from California State University Fullerton in 2010. He has exhibited works throughout the US including The OsCene at the Laguna Art Museum (2010), Crussell Fine Arts in Orange CA, SCA Project Gallery in Pomona, Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana and others. He has collaborated with artist and film director Tim Burton on his sculpture “Robot Boy” for the exhibition Tim Burton that opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2009, and is scheduled to open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in May 2011. His works are included in numerous private collections around the country such as the collection of Barbra and Victor Kline located in Southern California. He currently lives and works in Santa Ana California.

PATRICK STRAND holds two BFA degrees, the first in drawing and painting from the University of Southern California (1998) and the other in character animation from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (2002). In 2010 he received his MFA in Painting from Cal State Fullerton. He has exhibited at numerous southern California venues such as Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, dA Center for the Arts in Pomona, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery in Los Angeles and the Palm Springs Film Festival. With his background in animation, drawing and painting, he has taught at Maxis Studios/Electronic Arts in Redwood City and Walnut Creek, CA, ABC Family in Los Angeles, California State University at Fullerton and Watts Towers through the Community Arts Partnership in Watts, CA.

ABOUT THE GALLERY:
Sixpack Projects is a collective of six artist/curators organizing innovative contemporary art exhibitions and events throughout Southern California. We are: Alyssa Cordova, Jennifer Frias, Lilia Lamas, Jillian Nakornthap, Jeff Rau, and Heather Richards. The Sixpack Projects Gallery at Phantom Galleries Long Beach features special curatorial projects by the members of our collective and is intended to be a forum for engaging the community in important and relevant cultural discussions through the exhibition of contemporary art. For more information please visit www.SixpackProjects.com

Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach is located at 170 N. Promenade, Long Beach, CA 90802. in downtown Long Beach at the corner of Broadway and Promenade. Gallery is open limited hours and by special appointment; there is 24/7 pedestrian viewing. To schedule a viewing contact Sixpack Projects at info@sixpackprojects.com, or for more information visit www.SixpackProjects.com and www.PhantomGalleriesLA.com, or visit us on Facebook at Facebook.com/sixpackprojects.

Coming soon @ Sixpack Projects

UPCOMING PROJECTS @ SIXPACK PROJECTS

Christopher O'Leary, video still from ''Giant-Sized Issues'', 2008-ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.

BETA RELEASE: Experiments in video, sound + performance

Opening reception: Saturday, March 12, 6-9 PM
Concurrent with the Long Beach Downtown Art Walk

Organized by Jennifer Frias, Jeff Rau and Sixpack Projects.
Featuring the works of Georg Burwick, j.frede, JEFF & GORDON, Christopher O’Leary, and shea M gauer!

BETA RELEASE: Experiments in sound, video, and performance is a one-night-only event inviting the viewer to actively engage with a variety of time-based works. From JEFF & GORDON’s playful exploitation of filmic conventions, to Christopher O’Leary’s ostensive super-power “documentation” films. With shea M gauer’s sonic spill, j.frede’s electronic experiments in translating digital images into digital audio, and Georg Burwick’s collection of photographs of unfamiliar familiar stomping grounds. All these works offer explorations into the many ways evolving technology continues to shift our perceptions and the means by which we engage the world around us.

Also on view, public photo-murals by international street artist JR cover the exterior windows of the gallery along both Broadway and Promenade. This work was installed to celebrate the launch of his latest project, Inside/Out, on the occasion of his being awarded the prestigious TED Prize. The murals will be removed soon; this weekend is your last chance to see them!

AND COMING SOON…

PRESTON DANIELS: Neighborhood Watch | PATRICK STRAND: Archipelago
March 26 – April 30, 2011
Opening reception: Saturday, March 26, 6-9 PM
Long Beach Downtown Art Walk: Saturday, April 9, 6-9 PM

Organized by Jennifer Frias and Sixpack Projects

Sixpack Projects is pleased to present two separate bodies of work by two emerging southern California artists. Preston Daniels and Patrick Strand produce works that seize the humanization of architectural, communal and spatial elements occupying our modern environs. The artists’ re-contextualization of transcendental communities are realized through architectural foundations declining from their majestic poise (Daniels) or through fragmented drawings of multiple cities assembled together into one island (Strand). Both Daniels and Strand produce works that represent the physical changes reflected in our living spaces and how it embodies our everyday lives.

Constructions & Excavations

Sixpack Projects is proud to present CONSTRUCTIONS & EXCAVATIONS, an exhibition of painting and sculpture curated by Jeff Rau, highlighting recent bodies of work by artists Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff.

CONSTRUCTIONS & EXCAVATIONS
Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff
January 8 – February 5, 2011
curated by Jeff Rau

Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach
170 N. Promenade, Long Beach
2hr free parking available at parking structure on 3rd Street

OPENING RECEPTION:
Saturday, January 8, 2011, 6-9pm
concurrent with Long Beach Downtown Art Walk

Jonathan Anderson, Life of Tree #2 and Nathan Huff, Glory Fall.
Courtesy of the artists.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
Sixpack Projects is proud to present CONSTRUCTIONS & EXCAVATIONS, an exhibition of painting and sculpture curated by Jeff Rau, highlighting recent bodies of work by artists Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff. Though differing somewhat in their choice of subject matter and conceptual approach, the work from these independent projects reveals overlapping concerns with the nature of language, representation, and memory.

Anderson’s bodies of work entitled “Constructions” and “Impasse” establish a consistent conceptual framework that uses the flat surfaces of painting to investigate tensions that exist in our understanding of both image and word. It is no small mystery that a flat panel should appear to occupy a deep space–the flat abstract arrangement of paint on a surface evoking an experience of the sensible world–or likewise that written language which exists only in flat, abstract letter-forms should express emotion or speak to the infinite. Yet simultaneously, the painting and the text never forsake their flatness. Rather than propose solutions to this tension, Anderson constructs carefully rendered spaces with both physical and represented obstacles that prevent the viewer from ever fully entering the work, thus forcing the viewer to wrestle with these opposing forces of invitation and obstruction.

By contrast, Huff offers no impediment but invites us down the rabbit hole to revel in realized impossibilities. His series of “Absurd Excavations” fully invites the viewer to enter a new reality where objects and memories are transformed and re-imagined through paint and sculpture. Mining his own personal history and family folklore, Huff begins his work from a very real grounding and then embarks on a wholly original journey. This new narrative lacks a linear path, but proceeds in a series of intersecting tangents that refer back to both real and newly manufactured histories. This complex and playful process continues to inspire new revelations in the work while simultaneously challenging the veracity of the memories on which we ground them.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
JONATHAN ANDERSON produces oil paintings and is actively exhibiting, both locally and nationwide. He holds an M.F.A. from California State University Long Beach, receiving the Distinguished Achievement Award in Drawing & Painting. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Art at Biola University, where he has been teaching since 2006. He currently lives and works in Long Beach, CA.

NATHAN HUFF produces oil paintings, drawings, and sculpture that create freewheeling narratives: personal stories of suspending gravity, traversing emotional vertigo, and sorting reservoirs of memories. He earned an MFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach in 2010, a degree in art education from Azusa Pacific University and has also studied art in Italy, France, the UK, and Spain. His work has been collected throughout the west by universities, churches, and private collectors. He currently lives and works in Long Beach, CA.

GALLERY INFO:
Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach is located at 170 N Promenade in downtown Long Beach at the corner of Broadway and Promenade. The exhibition will be on view, January 8 through February 5, 2011. Gallery admission is free. Gallery is open Thursday through Saturday evenings and by special appointment; regular hours are THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY 4 – 7pm (there is 24/7 pedestrian viewing). To schedule a viewing contact Sixpack Projects at info@sixpackprojects.com, or for more information visit www.SixpackProjects.com and www.PhantomGalleriesLA.com. Also on Facebook at Facebook.com/SixpackProjects