Toby Sells on Dirty Jobs

Atlanta's own special effects guru/zombie enthousiast, Toby Sells will be featured on tonight's episode of Dirty Jobs. [Tuesday, October 30 at 9pm on the Discovery Channel] He has produced effects and gore for tons of local horror films including a handful of my favorites: The Signal, Blood Car, and Pushing Up Daisies.

Deconform Lives

The once defunct Atlanta underground art magazine is back. You can read all about its return here at Ghostmap Microwave, and read a pretty cool article about Beep Beep Gallery that didn't make the cut here.

Destruction Manifesto

Fears and Monsters

Halloween must be getting close. Art House is having a sketchbook show about fears at its new west side location this Friday and next Monday MINT is opening its "Monster Wars" group show of collaborative battling beasts at Apache Cafe.

Weekly Street Art: Evereman Production Party

Be on the lookout for these new Evereman tile/flowers made a couple weeks ago at Evereman's secret lair by him and a handful of lucky guests. Also check out this experimental Evereman tile that I made at the event.

New Paintings by Steven Dixey

Local artist Steven Dixey has been hard at work preparing for his upcoming solo show at Eyedrum this December. With the opening still over a month away, we are lucky enough to be able to catch a glipse of what he has lined up on his website, StevenDixey.com.

Works on paper?

I admit I was a bit skeptical when I heard that graffiti artists HENSE and BORN were doing experimental prints on paper for their show at Beep Beep Gallery tomorrow. I got a look at the work and lets just say you will not be disapointed. Go see this show. It opens Sat. Oct. 20th, 8-12.

What a weekend...

Along with Beep Beep, Rabbit Hole, and Nightmoves, there are several other chances to support local art this weekend. Keep-a-Breast Charity auction at Luxe Atlanta on Thursday from 6:30-10:00. And on Friday (7-11 at 678 MORELAND AVE, #7, LIL 5 PTS), an open house of work by Albino Mattioli who showed at New Street earlier this year. Speaking of New Street Gallery, tonight from 6-8 is a panel discussion with artist of their current show and social activist Ernesto Cuevas, along with three of the youth who are subjects of his paintings and the founder of the National Coalition for At Risk Schools, Jimmy Garcia.

Saturday Night

Would you rather go to an art show that wants to be a party, or a party that wants to be an art show? I may go to both.

EC sticker hunt for free stuff

Epidemik Coalition has announced that they will be giving away tee's and other stuff to anyone who spots their stickers and sends a pic to info@epidemikcoalition.com. I'll give you a hint. They're everywhere.

"Uncloudy Day" Benefit at Rabbit Hole

Group show, silent auction to benefit the production of the independent feature film "Uncloudy Day." Its at the Rabbit Hole Gallery this Friday, with the auction ending at 10:30. The video below, courtesy of Blake Myers, is from an early barn destroying venture to collect set building supplies for the film.

Bring it @ MINT

Every third Tuesday of the month (thats tomorrow), MINT hosts "Bring It", a chance to collaborate, hang out, find out what MINT is up to, drink some beer, draw people, draw on people, whatever you want. MINT Gallery is located at 684 B John Wesley Dobbs in Inman Park/4th Ward or something. This would also be a good time to take a look at the concert photography show that is currently up if you missed the opening. 7-11

Atlanta Celebrates Photography

With all of the photography shows going on around town, some part of ACP and some not, what are the best ones you've seen? I know I've seen a handful and my favorites have been Nubar Alexanian's photos in gallery 4 of The Contemporary and Raymond McCrea Jones' portraits of straight edge culture at Youngblood Gallery. I was also pretty impressed with the non-traditional photography at Beep Beep Gallery's toy camera group show. What else have people enjoyed?

As usual, you can see some overviews of a lot of the shows around town at Local Ephemera, including the Beep Beep show and all the exhibits at The Contemporary. You'll have to stop by Youngblood to see that one.

Some stuff...

Blood Car will soon be available on DVD. Check their myspace page for upcoming screenings and purchasing information.

You can thank Atlanta Creatives Project for leading me to this clip of The Black Lips on Conan from a couple of days ago.

Rock and Roll

One way or another you can rock out with some art this weekend. Saturday hosts Beep Beep Gallery's custom Guitar Hero controller show/concert and an opening of concert photography at the MINT Gallery.

Triptychs

The new show has gone up at San Francisco Coffee (N. Highland between Ponce and North) and its really cool polaroid portraits presented in triptych form, from local designer and polaroid enthusiast Lee Summers.

Defending Juxtapoz

I hear a lot about how the "Juxtapoz aesthetic" is too amalgamated, how "this graffiti, looks like this tattoo, looks like this painting, looks like this..." I hear the complaint that Juxtapoz has perpetuated these styles in a broader scene and is forcing a globalized aesthetic of lowbrow and pop-surrealism. First of all, I think a lot of people use these two terms (lowbrow and pop-surrealism) interchangeably and incorrectly. My understanding is that pop-surrealism is just as it states: an art form that draws upon popular culture while being expressed visually without regard to reason or other laws of reality. Lowbrow, I believe, is a broader descriptor, encompassing art that draws inspiration from outside of the fine art world. This includes tattoos, comic books, graffiti, and animation among other sources. Back to the point. As artists become influenced by more and more of these sources, and in turn influence other artists, the pool of influence becomes incestuous and murky. I will admit that a handful of Juxtapoz's "go to artists" may represent this trend. Sam Flores, Jeff Soto, Jeremy Fish, and Bigfoot are among the chief culprits, with their clean, cartoonish figures, always looking the same with their tentacle arms or giant hands. I think that people see these artists that Juxtapoz comes back to repeatedly and attributes their style to Juxtapoz, lowbrow, and pop-surrealism. I'd love to make a list of all of the artists that don't fall into this camp that the magazine features each month, but fortunately for me, Juxtapoz has, with its latest effort, condensed my defense into one amazing issue. Sure about a third of the artists covered are typical but the other half two thirds blew me away. Go buy the new issue and check out ridiculous art by Mear One, Gajin Fujita, Anthony Lister, Kenzo Minami, AJ Fosik, and even a page featuring locals Urban Medium.

Missed a couple...

A couple of photography shows slipped through the cracks. Both open tonight.

"Hardcore to Hip Hop" - 25 Years of Music Photography by Frank Mullen / Matteblack
Opening Thursday, October 4, 7pm-10pm, at the Sun Dial Restaurant, Bar & View

Openings this weekend...

New Street Gallery is opening its new show on Friday from 7-11. Its a solo exhibition of Ernesto Cuevas' paintings called "MyCODE MySPACE." You may remember him from the Pinata Show at Youngblood a while back.

"OUT of STEP: Faces of Straight Edge" opens at Youngblood Gallery on Saturday from 7-11 as usual. Portriats by Raymond McCrea Jones explore the many facets of straight edge culture. This is part of a project that will be availible in book form very soon. More info here.

Puppets

Have you heard all the hype surrounding the adult puppetry underground, but have yet to experience it? Me neither, but it sounds interesting. Here is your chance.

There will also be an art exhibit curated by MINT to coincide with the Puppetry.

Weekly Street Art: Broken Camera Edition

My camera is broken and I have been unable to document street art for a little while now. I'm planning on picking up a sweet new Nikon, but until then I will rely on the photography of others for my weekly street art posts. So if you see anything good shoot me an email. This photo of a wonderful BORN piece was taken by a friend of mine, Bobb Lovett, and is part of the Pullman Yard Flickr Group that he recently created. Check it out for some more graffiti and other cool photos all taken at this abandoned Kirkwood spot.

By the way, BORN, along with HENSE make up the next show at Beep Beep Gallery (October 27th) and Bobb Lovett will have photography in the Concert Photography show at MINT (October 13th).