Pop Disaster Opens in Milano, Italy: 27th of Nov.

POP DISASTER
Nothing exists anymore. Everything changes. Evolves. What was once dangerous is now harmless, sold to the masses. Expressive urgency, instead, is constantly changing. It fluctuates and its boundaries are continously redefined. It surely feeds on fantasy, and fantasy is nothing else than a face of memory unbound by the order of time and space. This might be the reason those who feel like artists always live between dream and reality. But a question arises spontaneously: does art still exist, nowadays?Pop Disaster will not answer that question. Pop Disaster was born to focus on the great number of creative sources colliding against each other. To exhalt the value of anomalous phenomena. To demonstrate that content overules form. To prove that real art is a game and that there are no specific laws in our culture to live new sensorial experiences. Pop Disaster proves that the creative act is central to the world and that if you’re looking for consolation
in lasting items, Pop Disaster will change your life!

Artists to be exhibited in Pop Disaster Include:
Stratolin, Fabio Marras, Ufo 5, Microbo, Bo130, Mr. Jago, Squaz, Money-less, Diego Lazzarin, Poilacartabrucia, Gianluca Sbrana, Seńor B, Riccardo Bargellini, Rayan Dooley, Andrea Geremia, Camilla Candida Donzella, Valeria Maggiani, Franco Brambilla, Giacomo Spazio,Thomas Ray, Inserire Floppino, Harto, Valeria Petrone, Paola Sala, Ron English, Signorina Gorza, Guido Scarabottolo, Stratolin, Fake, Galo,108, DEM, Guido Borso, Massimo Basili, Elvezio Ghidoli, Mr. Degrì, Cecilia Granata, Giovanni Bianchini, 8185 Lascimmia, David Vecchiato, El Euro, Silvia Moro, ErikailCane, Bugo, Shepard Fairey, El Gato Chimney, Alessandro Baronciani, Cristiano Guerri, Tatiana, JuJu’s Delivery, Allegra Corbo, Will Barras

Opens the 27th of November at LIMTED NO ART GALLERY

Via Porpora 148, 20131 Milano

Info: http://limitednoartgallery.com/home.html

All you ever wanted to know about Jim Mahfood! Exclusive interview by Hunt & Gather

Jim Mahfood or Food One is a comic book artist, rad illustrator and a hip hop loving kind a guy, born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri. By the age of 18 he was getting an inch to pack up and start the road to adulthood so strolled on over to art school to the Kansas City art institute. After graduating and starting his own comics book company called 40oz Comics, he moved to Arizona and started to really develop a career in the arts and now he happily resides in downtown Los Angeles which he describes as “the place to be in the art world.”

Tell us Jim, how did you get addicted to comics?
I got in to comics when I was a little kid, I kind of learned how to read by reading comics. I must of been 7 o8 when I started buying comic books.

Did you have a older sibling who influenced you to get in to comics or did you just pick one up one day and you knew that was it ?
No, not really. I used to watch Sesame street and the Electric company on PBS , the Electric Company had these spider man segments on it, it was this live action thing were was guy dressed in a spider man suit going on adventures. And that’s really when I fell in love with Spider man, so naturally when I found out that there were spider man comics I started collecting comics and then it started..

So I guess spider man was kind of the reason I got in to all of this.

Wow, that’s a good story. So from that point on you became an addict to collect Spider man, but were you also drawing at the time?
I started to buy comics and then after that I started to draw my own version of comics, and started creating my own books and just stapling them together.

Were you in a lot of art classes in high school or was it only when you moved to Kansas City to go to Art school that you became so focused on wanting to become a comic designer?
I was never really around a lot of artists, I drew with friends in Saint Louis at my high school but I was really kind of the art guy at my high school, I drew the team logos and drew for the yearbook. I was that guy ya know. But even though I wasn’t good at all, people thought I was good. I did end up meeting this guy Lorenzo Lizana who was publishing his own comics so I stated to apprentice with him and he really taught me about all the right pens and brushes to use
But when I went to Art school I got my ass kicked, I was around people that were older and way better than me. I met these really cool dudes Mike Huddleston and Paul Friswald and we all made our own comic books.

You went off to art school and during your time there you formed 40oz Comics. How was your art college experience, was it all the broacher’s said it would be?
The school itself wasn’t anything really that big, I learned a lot because I learned from the guys I hung out with. I met my best friend Mike Huddleston there who I think was the best guy in our illustration department, we both immediate clicked because we both liked rap music and comic books. So we started drawing our own comics together, we tried then to get in to the industry and submitted our comics to publishers, but we just got rejected for years.

So you formed your own comic book company instead?
Yeah, In school we had access to printing labs so we just started publishing our own stuff. We distributed it ourselves through the mid-west, and kind of developed a little following. That was the birth of 40oz comics. Mike pretty much taught me everything I know about drawing.

Are you two still best buddies?
Definitely, I still work with Mike, but I have also been doing my own thing and so is he, but we are still collaborating. We have a sketch book that we keep mailing back and forth to each other. He will draw on five pages that he will mail to me, Ill jam on those five pages and collaborate and then Ill start my own five pages and mail it back to him. When the book is completely done, then we will publish it. Its just a fun no pressure project.

No ones going to pay us to collaborate together, so we just decided to do it .

Who are your big influences in the comic book world?
Jack Kirby, is kind of known as the king of comic book art. I love his stuff. Jaime Hewlett, he did all the Tank girl comics. When I discovered Tank girl comics in ‘92 it really blew my mind. It was exactly what I wanted to do. Hot chicks with guns, and punk rock. He just really had his own thing, I actually was trying to figure out my own style, so I kind of used him as my main influence and started kind of coping his stuff.

Can you give us an example ?
I did my first Girl Scout comics in 95, and I kind of did the whole tank girl thing, the theme of hot girls and punk rock, and I just did it with my own version, hot girls and hip hop and guns. Its kind of that formula but different.

How do you find yourself fitting in to the more contemporary art and gallery world?
I think my generation of under ground comic book artist are the first to try to cross over to other scenes.
That’s the only problem I have discovered about art, you can be totally established in one scene, but when you try to enter another scene you have to start all over again.
Everyone knows me in Comics, which is great. but when I moved out here and tried to get a cartoon going, and started talking to animation people, I was like oh shit, you have to start from scratch. Its the same with the gallery world, no one really knew who I was .

When did you first start the transformation from comic books to gallery walls?
When I met Jon Gibson at Gallery 1988 and the I AM 8 bit shows, that kind of when I started getting in to the gallery scene. It just takes time ya know, you have to jump scenes and really just establish yourself all over again.

I know you have collaborated with Def Jux record label and worked on some hip hop album covers, can you tell us a bit more about your love for hip hop and how you have combined comics and hip hop?
I grew up just being a huge fan of punk rock and hip hop. When I was a kid, in 86 and 87 we were all riding skateboards and listening to public enemy. I was always really moved by all that culture. When I went to art school, I started going to underground hip hop parties, where there were Djs, and graffiti artists, and that when I really first saw live art. Then we had the idea of hanging art at the shows, doing hiphop-art shows. And my whole art style, I wanted it to look like the whole vibe of the Hip hop culture. I wanted the characters to really give the vibe that this culture, the attitude of hip hop.
I met Murs in Arizona, we met, I liked his music and he liked my art so he asked me to do art for some of his projects. He introduced me to slug and the rest of the Rhymesayers crew. And then I went on to write and draw a comic book for Murs and Slug’s Felt 2 album.

Through your experience you see Hip hop and comics having a lot in common?
Most underground hip hop people are comic book fans. I think its because both art forms are based around story telling. Like if you’re a good rapper your not just shouting out catch phrases, but your actually telling stories with your raps. Comic books are really just visual story telling. The art is meant to service the story. Both forms of expression are in the servitude of telling a story.

That’s a great way of putting it, I never thought of that.
You lived in Arizona before coming to Los Angles, why did you decide to change locations and how was that move for you?
My best friend in Arizona was Z-trip and he decided moved to LA, as soon as he moved it kind of killed things for me in Arizona and I was kind of left there hanging solo. I got then also an optioning deal to do my own cartoon show with Disney, so all the ingredients were pointing me to California. I kind of already had a crew established here, some good friends were working in Burbank at the animation studios. So I moved to Burbank to work on my show for Disney, but it never made it on to tv or anything.

That sounds like a great reason to move, but I don’t picture you the type of guy to work in a corporation like Disney, or be drawing in an office. Do you work with a company now, or are you independent?
Well I have always done my own thing; I have never been an in-house kind of guy. When I work on my own stuff I like to be at my apartment, alone with my music loud hanging out in my underwear. I couldn’t really sit in a cubical and draw, I can do live art in front of people but for me to really write and draw my own comics I really have to be in my own element.

How is that working out for you, don’t you find it can be harder running your career independently than just getting that office job?
I think I am lucky , I mean if you were with these big companies you get all the medical benefits and your set up for life. But the trade off you know, I just rather do it the way. Im doing it now and I have always done it this way. It does take a lot of self discipline you know.

You recently started doing something a bit different with your gallery work, I have noticed your now working with photos and incorporating them in your illustrations. How did that project start?
It all started when this guy named Jeff Shagawat aka “Bill Shag” moved in to my apartment building. We would hang out in my building just listening to records. He had all these clunky old 70 and 80s cameras, so we just started going out to the bars together and gallery shows and he would just shoot hundreds of photos. So he had a stack of photos, so I just picked one up and started drawing out of the photo.

How do you make your selection of what photo to use?
The photos I pick and choose are ones that are cropped. Like the legs or arms are chopped off. So I can go off of that and draw the hands.

How are people responding to this new collaboration and style?
People seem to really respond to them differently. All of a sudden there is a photo in it and it turns in to a different thing. I can actually charge more for them as well, they have almost become this new art think. I went on to art shows in Arizona, France, London and New York based on this really weird collaboration
The only other photographer I have worked with his Akriophoto, so me and him will be working together for the future shows.

Going back to your comics, how do you come up with your own stories since you write and draw your own stuff, where do you find that these ideas come from?
I just think about what I want to draw. Most of the comics that are coming out now, most of the stories are based around music. I wanted to tell a story where I could draw hip hop oriented things, like hot chics and violence. So I wrote a story about a guy who is literally a monster who becomes an international pop star. The whole joke is that in the future that our society will be so naïve and corrupt that a murderous monsters can become a pop star and people don’t really notice. It was just like my excuse to draw, and drawing him and the hot girls in it all came out really ironic and dark comedy, So basically its just wanted I wanted to do at the time.

What else are you in the middle of?
The book that Im working on right now is bit si-fi and Barbarella type thing. Its just me wanting to draw this sexy barbarella. So that’s the great thing about writing and drawing your own comics, you can do just what you enjoy drawing. So I don’t want to draw it I wont ever have to.

Your latest collaboration was with COLT 45, which by the way I had the experience of drinking a few during my travels, and I realized that in just one can I went from being Buzzed to drunk to hung over.. that beer is incredibly painful, but the art work is great. Is it just ironic that you go from having a company called 40 oz comics to having your own beer cans, or was that part of your dream?
No,, really its just a coincidence When me and Mike started 40oz Comics, it was because we would sit around at night drinking 40z, the dollar fifty beers because we were poor art students. So to have it come full circle, and to do work for a beer company, its kind of ironic. The Colt 45 guys didn’t even know I had a label called 40 oz comics, it was just one of the design guys who saw my art and thought it would fit with the label.

Are you happy with the turn out of that collaboration?
I think it worked really well, I mean they really let me be me, they didn’t really art direct me too much. Most of the drawings revolve around my characters partying and looking cool drinking beer. So as long as I was aloud to do my own thing, it was a perfect mix.

How does it feel going in to a liquor store and seeing your work cooling away on a beer can?
Im really excited about it, but I also think its really kind of funny. For me its kind of like I have put my mark on pop culture. When its all said and done in like 10 years when no one remembers it, I will have this weird memento when my art was on a beer can. I don’t think it’s the classy artistic achievement, its not like showing at the MOCA or anything. But hey, I have my own beer can so that really cool.

What should we call you Food One, or stick with the birth name Jim Mahfood, I see you use both ?
Its kind of confusing probably having two names like that but, if someone cant pronounce my last name. With my comic books I still use my real name, because I’m more known in the comics as Jim Mahfood, but Ive been using Food One more for my live art stuff and gallery work.

Did Food One start as your graffiti name, or why did you choose that?
True story, back in the mid 80s my older cousin, Mike Mahfood had this rocky balboa firebird and had a customized license plate that just said FOOD1, so it wast really the graffiti name influence but it was this license plate that my cool older cousin had.

To wrap this up, can you fill us in on what are you currently working on?
The new comic book is called KICK DRUM COMIX, and the first one came out Sep 10, and the second one comes out Oct. 29. Mix tape art book Vol. 3 comes out in early February, its my hard cover art book series. Its like an on going art book series Im doing, about 2 o 3 of those.

So the question of the day, where do you see your self and your art career in the future?
Im really interested in branching out, I will always have one foot in comics because I love it, I love telling stories. I want to keep branching out and keep doing my art on products. I just joined Andy Howells Artsprojekt.com, where there is a handful of artists participating. It’s an exciting project, its all on-demand art, I have about 30 skate deck images up and prints available. There is no waste, everything is produced once its ordered.

Are you interested in following the trend of making your own Vinyl Toy? I think one of those hot drunk hip hop chicks would make a great toy.
Yeah im trying to get that going, so hopefully I would like to have something be done by next year Comic Con. People are always asking me, how come I don’t have a toy.

If you were to meet a young kid just starting to draw comics, what advice would you give him o her?
The main thing is to really do your own thing, find your own style and your own voice. Every thing has already pretty much been done, but you really need to stand out and create your own style. You also need to have the discipline and the skills to sit down and make a 24 page book. Its a lot of hard work but its really rewarding.

Big thanks to Jim for a great interview.To see more work from Jim’s work Please visit:

WEB: http://www.40ozcomics.com

BLOG: http://www.foodoneart.blogspot.com

MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/mahfood

Final Video from ABOVE and RIPO South American Tour!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2275900&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
SouthCentral: Part 4 (The Final Chapter!) from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Another great tour video from ABOVE and some work by RIPO! This tour has made people all over the world draw their attention to south America and get interested in these two amazing street artists. I just got back from having a coffie with RIPO, and i can personally say he is such a good guy, really nice, humble and truly passionate for art. So check the video, and make sure you do your research to find out more about ABOVE and RIPO!

Tiffany Liu new print brought to you by A Paper Tiger

A PAPER TIGER and Tiffany Liu give us this great print from a painting in her last solo show at the Corey Helford Gallery this summer. A confessed exemplar of the Peter Pan Syndrome, and happily ensconced in a personal “Never-Neverland,” Liu has never lost her childlike spirit.

The artist estimates that approximately 50% of her waking existence has been spent in “one big daydream.” Liu’s work reflects the visions and fantasies of her imagination. Her canvas is her playground…

…and now you can purchase this limited edition 8″ x 12″ print exclusively on Paper Tiger!

Visit A Paper Tiger to see this print and a few other great prints they have.

Robert Burden’s Voltron: from start to finish

Here is a humbling and kind of hypnotic video from Robert Burden where he works from start to finish on this huge scale Voltron transformer.
Its really nice to see how much a piece transforms and how rad the finished painting turns out. This piece was on display at the I AM 8 BIT art event this past August, and I had the great honor of watching them pull it out of that massive Uhaul truck and load it in to the gallery. The scale of it and the detail really makes it such an impressive piece of work and almost overwhelming.

Sozyone presents Million Gonzalez, it kills to live at Intoxicated Demons gallery in Berlin

SOZYONE “MILLION” GONZALEZ – CAMINA O REVIENTA / MATA PARA VIVIR – VIVE PARA MATAR“It kills to live – it lives to kill” – what seriously sounds like it may have been taken out of Darwins book “Origin of Species” is not a part of the description about dangerous animals. It’s not even fiction! It’s reality! We’re talking about the most dangerous gang in the world. They call themselves “Mara Salvatrucha” better known as “MS-13”. In the early days founded by kids and teenagers in LA to defend themselves against the bloods, the crips and the mexican mafia, MS-13 quickly turned into a very aggressive and violent gang. As a result of the “zero tolerance law” in the USA, young criminals were deported back to their home countries as quickly as possible.

As soon as they arrived back home, they started to develop their own gang system. Today the “MS-13” is the fastest growing gang in the world. The number of members seems to be around 100,000 worldwide. There are ony 2 ways to get out of the gang: One is prison, the other is to get killed!

Sozyone grew up in a world of criminals and villains. To escape from that surrounding he decided to study art. After a while he discovered the aesthetic vandalism of metropolitan graffiti. In 1996 he created the Ultra Boys International with Gold Jaba,Prince Pro, Turs, Byz and Kool Recto. The crew developed a new form of Graffiti, a brutally refined mix of Marvel Comics, abstract futuristic mathematics, alphabetical constructivism and facial Picassonic cubism. In 2004 Sozyone officially jumped into the gallery scene having shows all over europe.

In his Berlin show, Sozyone will show new work strongly influenced by the topic of the “mara salvatrucha”. Working on the mystic and symbolic aspects he will show the dark side of the gang to find out where they’re dangerous dynamic energy is coming from.

INTOXICATED DEMONS GALLERY November 28th to December 21st 2008

Opening reception: November 28th 2008 / 7 pm
Go to Intoxicated demons gallery HERE!

Handiedan presents Sirenum Scopuli at Phone Booth Gallery

Phone Booth Gallery is proud to present “Sirenum Scopuli,” a solo exhibition of fifteen mixed media works by the Amsterdam based artist HANDIEDAN.
“Sirenum Scopuli” is a unique collection of classic pinup influenced cut-and-paste delicacies wrapped in contemporary antiquity. Using yellowed sheet music, old fashioned playing cards, pinups, and a playful mixture of filigree and doodles, she creates a newfangled amalgamation of imagery. Exploring many concepts such as temptation,beauty, and deceit, it is by no coincidence that the show’s title is drawn straight from Winslow Homer’s “The Odyssey.” Surrounded by vintage salon seats adorned with hooded hair dryers,
Salon Pop and Barber Shop in Long Beach provides the setting for the evening’s events. A stripped awning out front, throwback green/blue paint on the inside and a soundtrack of 60’s and 70’s rarities is sure to attract an inquisitive mind.

The exhibit will run from November 29, 2008 to December 31, 2008 at www.phoneboothgallery.com and the opening party will be held on November 29 from 7pm-10pm. The All
Ages event will be located at Salon Pop and Barber Shop, 1085 Redondo
Ave., Long Beach, CA 90804, www.salonpopandbarbershop.com.

Grenade Art in London presents: Mistermn on the 28th of November

The guys over at Grenade Art gallery in London have another great art show coming up at the end of the month. The exhibition is called Myth & Magic and is presenting MISTERMN’s work from the 28 November to the 8 December.

If you haven’t yet heard of Mistermn’s before here is a little introduction for you, “MN is an emerging graffiti artist from France who has recently been featured in the book Street Art London 2, published in 2007.

The humanity of MN’s paintings touch on the divine; their gaze, their gestures and the mystery that surrounds them are signs to be interpreted in order to find the key of the majesty, the dignity and the spirituality of humankind.

The presence of Egyptian goddesses, Antique muses and mythological characters fill the paintings recalling the weight of wisdom, intrinsic and universal truth and the beauty that lies behind a common vision of reality. The purist ethic and the spiritual aesthetic of MN’s work are opening a new way for graffiti, expanding the art form by looking both backwards towards the origins of art, and forwards towards the future of art.

Visit Grenade Art Collective and Gallery Here~!

Romanowsk presents Small Works for Great Minds

Romanowski is at it again, this Saturday the 22nd of November in San Francisco, Romanowski will present his latest body of work, Titled Small Works for Great Minds at Fabric 8.
On 3318 22nd Street in S.F.

Im sure there will be great music and a welcoming atmosphere and of course the fantastic works from Roman!

Opening Reception: 5pm to 9 pm, on the 22nd.

The show will be up until the 21st December.

C215 Questions and Answers with Wooster Collective!

The good ol’ Wooster Collective has started up again on doing their “The A’s to our Q’s” and had a chat with artist C215, the world recognized Stencil Artist from France.

Age: 35
Hometown: Paris
Where do you now live?: Paris – Belleville
Where would you most like to live?: Morocco
Who was your first “hero” in life?: Indiana Jones
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: To know it I should stop working some day
What is your favorite color?: Blue
Who (or what) do you love?: my 5 years old daughter Nina
Who and/or what are some of your influences?
Ernest Pignon-Ernest is my main reference, being the first French street artist in history, and doing amazing stencils and silkscreened posters outside already in the 70’s.

What other artists do you most admire? I am a big fan of the portraits of Stéphane Carricondo, from the 9th Concept crew, I love James Jean drawings and the watercolours of my very good friend Dan23. In the streets the best for me is for sure mister Banksy.

Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
C215: I am for one year traveling the world to paint contextual stencils in the streets, mostly by day and without any authorization. I like to paint portraits, but also animals and complete streetscapes. You can find my works on tagged doors, rusty mailboxes or int he corner of your street. I like to interact with locals, where ever I go, cutting ad hoc stencils for each trip : Brasil, Israel, India, Morocco or Poland streets can not be hit in the same way. I try to express with stencils something not so easy to get with such tools : to provide feeling and emotions to the passing by people.

Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
C215: I would love to play piano, but I am quite dyslexic

Wooster: What do you fear the most?
C215: Losing the use of my right hand or my both eyes (losing all this at the same time i would be very unlucky !)

Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
C215: To teach my daughter my technical skills if she could be interested and make her proud of her father when she will be older

Visit Wooster Collective to stay up to date on the international street art culture.
You can see more of C215’s work here.