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.

JR’s Inside/Out project inspires Long Beach

The international artist known simply as “JR” was recently awarded the TED Prize; this week in Long Beach he unveiled his latest project, Inside/Out, undertaken with the support of the TED Prize award.

The Inside Out project website describes the project this way:

INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world.

To launch this project, the exhibition JR@TED with Phantom Galleries LA in Long Beach featured a massive photobooth allowing visitors to receive their large scale black and white portraits on the spot.

Now a group of Long Beach residents led by Alexa Fleur (Critique It), Marjorie Hooper, and Jeff Rau (Sixpack Projects), have taken JR’s project immediately back to the streets of their community by posting their portraits across the windows of a large building at the corner of 3rd and Olive in downtown. Inspired by JR’s wish to have these posters be an opportunity for “messages of personal identity”, these participants were prompted to write a statement across their image with a personal declaration, “I am …”

Be sure to drive by the property at the corner of 3rd St and Olive Ave.
You can also view the slideshow below.

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

Eric Leonard Jones & Kevin Stewart Magee

All apologies for not having this info up on the blog sooner, but this weekend will be your last chance to see our current show at the Long Beach gallery! We will be open on Thursday evening, and they may also be an informal gathering on New Year’s Eve. So if you plan to be in Long Beach, please stop by to see us! More info on our next exhibit will be coming soon.

Eric Leonard Jones & Kevin Stewart Magee
December 11, 2010 – January 2, 2011
curated by Sixpack Projects

Sixpack Projects at Phantom Galleries Long Beach
170 N. Promenade, Long Beach

Images used courtesy of the artists.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

SixPack Projects is pleased to present the work of large-scale painters Eric Jones and Kevin Stewart Magee. This collaboration reveals similarities between the two artists as well as their singularity. Jonesʼ breaks his subject into fragments creating a psychological portrait that both reveals and conceals; Stewart-Magee depicts his subjects holistically, imbuing them with a sense of spirituality and power. Through scale, color and style, Jones and Stewart-Magee offer two different approaches to the human condition.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
ERIC LEONARD JONES is a painter of note whose work has been featured in several area galleries,including Jeffery Crussell Fine Arts and the California State University, Fullerton, Art For Health exhibition. He is the recipient of a 2009 OC Art Grant. Publications and press include The BUZZ, the Orange County Register and the cover art for R.A.I.N.B.O.W. Arts Ensemble. Jones lives and works in Orange County.

KEVIN STEWART-MAGEE is a full-time muralist and fine artist living and working in Southern California. He creates grand scale work for private, commercial and municipal projects in both paint and tile. In addition Kevin is working hard to create a healthy and green studio and is available to share what he has learned with schools, organizations and artists.

HAPPY HOUR exhibition at Memphis in Santa Ana

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
HAPPY HOUR gathers the works of artists from all over southern California. All the works presented in HAPPY HOUR are between 4×4 to 6×6 inches in format, and all are priced at $40.

ARTISTS:
Camille Alaras
Michael Alonso
Ginny Barrett
Katy Betz
Nathan Bockelman
Sapira Cheuk
Kyung Son Cho
Alex Cortes
Preston Daniels
Joe DeVera
Kimberly Dwinell
Cassandra Erb
Katlin Evans
Juan Gomez
Jade Jewitt
Eric Jones
Martin Lorigan
Tiffany Ma
JC Ornelas
Adonay Sanchez
Kevin Stewart-McGee
Patrick Strand
Rosemary Tesoro
Jackson Tsai
Minh Vo
…and more!

The Memphis Gallery is located in the historic Santora Building on the W 2nd Street promenade in the heart of the Santa Ana Artist’s Village. Gallery is immediately adjacent to the Memphis Restaurant (restaurant is at the corner of 2nd Street and Broadway at address 201 N Broadway). Aside from the special opening reception on November 6th, the gallery will be open regular hours as follows: Sunday-Monday 11AM-3PM, Tuesday-Friday 11AM-10PM, and Saturday 4PM-10PM.