"Happily..." opening

here are some photos from this past friday's opening of Happily Ever After? 2

after two days of hanging the show, i got to spend friday relaxing and passing out fliers around town for the opening. sohaila, johnny, and i went to honey hole for the most delicious sandwiches ever. i had the pulled bbq pork sandwich with coleslaw, johnny had the beef brisket, and she had a yummy turkey/havarti/amazingness sandwich. the fries were perfectly crispy and the perfect portion.

we dropped by goods, an urban fashion-sneaker-skate shop to visit my friend george otto who i had met during the weiden + kennedy 12 weekend. while we were there, we had a redbull and watched japanese bug fighting. every "round" involves a match between two deadly insects/arachnids and they pretty much fight until one eats the other one. i thought it was quite disturbing - might be more of a 'boy' thing, but here's a link.

{i had wanted to go to the butterfly house at the pacific science center, but we ran out of time. i think that last time i went to something like that was when i was aged in the single digits. i guess i ended up seeing some bugs anyways, though not quite as graceful.}

we headed back to the gallery for some last minute preparations, a celebratory drink (or 1/4 of one), and had our opening!





the weather was lovely, so there was a lot of foot traffic and i talked to so many people that night, my throat was sore after we closed that night.



{look at tons more show photos here}

early in the evening, before it got too crazy, the three of us ventured over to roq la rue and BLVD for their openings. travis louie and femke hiemstra were showing at roq la rue and graffiti artist ghost was at BLVD.



i met travis a few months ago while i was down in LA at audrey kawasaki's solo at copro nason. it was really nice to see him again and as always, his artwork was mind-blowing. i know the description says acrylic, but i can't even see any brushstrokes!





i really appreciate the time and care travis puts into every piece he does. he even writes little stories about each character he creates. this one is about Eunice. an artist AND a storyteller? fabulous!




(look how tiny!)

femke's pieces were so delicate and super detailed. i loved how they were painted on old books, tins, and holy water fonts and were displayed in elaborate gilded frames.


ghost's artwork at BLVD.

i was able to sell a few pieces and several prints during the opening (yay!) and afterwards, we went to The War Room for their 3rd year anniversary. george got us on the guestlist and we shook our booties til the early morn. i'm so glad i was able to spend a few days in seattle, it was good to see old and new friends, have a great art show, and a few mini adventures.

"Happily..." installation!

getting ready for my opening (TONIGHT!) for Happily Ever After? 2" at suite 100 gallery in seattle.

i got everything hung wednesday and spent yesterday painting little foresty elements to frame the pieces. my friend and artist Sohaila Adela helped me paint the title. um...i'm sure you know by now (especially because it's in my header) that i am not an artist myself, i just curate. so it was a pretty intimidating and frightening to paint on the walls for this show.

last time, my friend erik helped me and i pretty much just filled in the color, but this time it was all me. scary! i'm pretty proud of how everything turned out. i love those stupid mushrooms! (^__^)

happily ever after 2!

my show Happily Ever After? 2 opens next weekend at Suite 100 Gallery. very excited! and also starting to feel the tinges of stress coming on. but more excited than stressed, which is always good. {view artwork here}

after this and my photography show This Place is a Prison (also at Suite 100), i'll probably be taking a little sabbatical from curating because i got accepted into Wieden + Kennedy's 12 program and will be moving back up to portland and starting class next month. i'm a little scared and a lot excited about the opportunity to work my butt off in a field that is not that familiar to me. my class (of 12 people) will be working on actual advertisements for actual companies that W+K work with, so i'll be updating as projects are completed and who knows, maybe you'll see something i made on tv! (^__^)

that said, i plan on attending and updating on a lot of artsy goodness happening in the portland area. i feel like i've missed a lot in the 4 months i've been away and i can't wait to get back.
tonight was another round of First Thursday openings in portland and Usugrow is showing at Fifty24PDX! so sad that i missed that opening, because i'm sure he flew out for it. Compound Gallery is having a remix the masters show and tomorrow, Grass Hut Gallery is having their opening for a two person show with Trish Grantham and Amy Ruppel.
too many great shows that i'm missing. (-__-) *sigh*

stella im hultberg opening

eek! i hate editing photos. oh dear.
well, here are the photos from stella's opening that turned out to be very interesting due to a cup of beer for me an a bunch of artists armed with sharpies.

the show was really beautiful and REALLY well received. lots of people came out despite the rain (for SF people it's rain!) and i got to finally meet some art people that i've been in touch with but have never met face-to-face before.


the lady of the hour


so many people were gathered around when we tried to take this picture, it was pretty embarassing.


josh of The Creep Machine art blog.


isaac pierro and katie of gallery 1988 with stella


this guy came up to stella with a stack of her gelaskins (to sign for ebay?)


flowers and beer


kukula wearing one of her new necklaces that you can buy here.


everyone wanted sketches except for me


i opted for a neck tattoo




which was very well received by marcus and hung-hei of the Sleeps to Dream blog. i had actually sold three of stella's paintings to hung-hei from my show at Compound Gallery last january and he is good friends with Luke Chueh as well and is an extensive and very knowledgeable collector of low brow, but i never put two and two together and realized that he was the same doctor who bought the pieces from me a year ago. small world.


peter gronquist insisted that he get in on the action. he also insisted that i go to isaac pierro's house and get his drawing inked right away. i have photos, so i'll think about it. ;P


with my new neck tattoos, i was feelilng pretty tough. i've been throwing up gang signs too much in blogs i think.

enough, enough, about neck tattoos. here's the art. these are my favorite pieces, but you can see all the artwork as well as stella x Gallery 1988's exclusive prints here.


favorite


most most most most favorite! stella's tea and ink staining really brings such a great quality to her drawings. (0_o) beautiful!




stella's canvas pieces turned out really gorgeous too, stella and audrey both doing canvases? eek! hurray!


favorite canvas piece. (i have many favorites)




i look so small here.


the hultbergs. long story.


bear cup waves goodbye!


oh...and then there was food.