This series by photographer Fred Lebain looks like a modern re-interepretaion of surrealist painting. Lebain has shot at various locations around NYC, printed the results, then returned to the locations to create a cut and paste juxtaposition of art and reality. The real character in this series comes from what Lebain chooses to hide, show, or mask, with the re-incorporated prints. There’s something very Magritte about this, but it still feels fresh and fun despite the conceptual reference.

via Design Boom

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For this series, artist Ben Turnbull whittled symbols of violence into school desks. The series explores childhood fascination with violence. Born in 1974 and and working out of London, he is a passionate critic of the contemporary American political system, and explains why toys are central to his work: “Force fed on violence, abused by a controlling superpower and blackmailed through patriotism, the public are ultimately as disposable as the toys they once played with.”

Turnbull is fascinated by the global dominance of American culture, and his works unsettling effects result from re-presenting the toys of our innocent youth in symbolic forms that reveal the shocking truths about war, death and guns in the world’s most powerful country. Above all they take a satirical look at the lengths that the country’s political elites go to in order to control and manipulate the way we think, from our first days of play to the last time we cast our vote.

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Thurs, Nov. 5th 7-10PM
Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art
1257 N. La Brea Ave in West Hollywood / 323.969.0600
“Dark Doings” featuring new works and an installation from Dan Witz
(On view through Dec. 3rd)
www.carmichaelgallery.com

Fri, Nov. 6th 7-11PM
C.A.V.E. Gallery
507 Rose Ave in Venice / 310.428.6387
“The Hinterland In My Room” featuring new works from Anthony Clarkson, Ciou, Emma Overman, Macsorro and Rudy Fig + live painting from John Park
(On view through Nov. 28th)
www.cavegallery.net

Fri, Nov. 6th 8-11PM
La Luz De Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles / 323.666.7667
“And We All Go” featuring new works from Mark Bodnar
(On view through Nov. 29th)
www.laluzdejesus.com

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Fri, Oct. 23rd 7-11PM
Gallery 1988 Los Angeles
7020 Melrose Ave in Los Angeles / 323.937.7088
“SMart: Artwork inspired by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier’s SModcast” featuring works from David MacDowell, Scott Campbell, Lesley Reppeteaux, NC Winters, Misha, Roland Tomayo, Kiersten Essenpreis, Israel Sanchez, Andrew Wilson, Tom Haubrick, Sean Clarity and many more
(Special one-night only event hosted by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier)
www.nineteeneightyeight.com

Fri, Oct. 23rd 10AM-10PM (check site for details)
Royal/T
8910 Washington Blvd. in Culver City / 310.559.6300
“Three Apples” special event celebrating 35 years of Hello Kitty including a group show featuring Hello Kitty inspired works from over 80 artists including Gary Baseman, Ron English, Amanda Visell, Buff Monster, Camilla d’Errico, Tara McPherson, Kathie Olivas, Aiko, Andrew Brandou, FriendsWithYou, Natalia Fabia, Mark Dean Veca, Luke Chueh, Jeremyville, Travis Louie, Yoskay Yamamoto, Deph, Melissa Haslam, Hush, Nate Frizzell, Colin Christian, Yosuke Ueno and many more plus a special product retrospective, a Hello Kitty ‘apartment’ installation, a pop-up shop with tons of limited edition items for the event, a Hello Kitty themed café menu and be sure to check out the site for a slew of events going on throughout the exhibition including a Halloween part on Sat, Oct. 31st – don’t miss that!
www.sanrio.com/threeapples
(On view through Nov. 15th)

Sat, Oct. 24th 6-10PM
Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street in Los Angeles
“Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 F*cking Years” featuring major new works from David Choe, Souther Salazar, Rob Sato, James Jean, kozyndan, Jeff Soto, Stella Lai, Theo Ellsworth, Deth P. Sun, Jack Long and Albert Reyes along with a special collaboration from Le Merde, David Horvath and Yukinori Dehara plus indie video games and a photo retrospective of the last 15 years of Giant Robot and in a second hall, a 50+ person group show featuring works from the likes of Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Apak, Bigfoot, Bwana Spoons, Dan-ah Kim, Edwin Ushiro, Hannah Stouffer, Jen Corace, Jon Burgerman, Luke Chueh, Mari Inukai, Marci Washington, Mark Todd, Matt Furie, PCP,
Robert Bellm, Scrappers, Thomas Han and many, many more.
(On view through January 24th, 2010)
www.giantrobot.com/biennale
http://www.janm.org

Sat, Oct. 24th 7-10PM
NONI Boutique
225 North Larchmount Blvd in Los Angeles
“Fall To Pieces” featuring new works from Augustine Kofie
www.keepdrafting.com

Sat, Oct. 24th 8-11PM
Solid Gallery One
334 N. Fairfax Ave in Los Angeles
“Halloween In Heaven” group show featuring works from Ted Von Heiland, Paul Torres, Axis, Miss Wendy, Michael Baylis, Yushi, Squindo and many more
www.solidgalleryone.com

via Sourharvest

Speaking of action painting, performance art duo Bruno Levy and Blake Shaw ( aka Sweatshoppe ) have taken it to the next level by coming up with a way to “paint with video”.
From what we understand there is no actual paint involved. Instead the rollers have LEDs which are motion tracked by a projector yielding the results seen in the video above. This is a very cool idea and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot more of this in the future. Sweatshoppe developed the software that drives this themselves and are said to be releasing it to the public as they work out some of the bugs.

via Wooster Collective

Dan McPharlin’s work takes us back to the weird fantasy/Sci Fi cartoons we (vaguely) remember from late seventies to early eighties concepts like Fantastic Planet, Heavy Metal, and basically anything by Roger Dean.
Mix that with a few Iso 50ish references to analog electronic music devices (moog keyboards anyone?) and you’ve got quite an array of stunning work to choose from.
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Sat, Oct. 17th 7-10PM
Black Maria Gallery
3137 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles / 818.613.9090
“When Smoking Was Cool” featuring works from Anthony Ausgang, Sharktoof, Sam Saghatelian, The Pizz, Paul Chatem, and many more
(On view through Nov. 14th)
www.blackmariagallery.com

Sat, Oct. 17th 9PM-1AM ($8 at the door / $6 in costume)
Cannibal Flower
5797 Washington Blvd in Los Angeles (near Culver City gallery district)
Bi-monthly group show and performance – special Halloween party, so come in costume – with featured artist Mickey Edtinger and a group show featuring works from Mark Mothersbaugh, Chris Peters, Chet Zar, Mear One, Alex Garcia, Ekundayo, Paul Chatem, Dabs Myla, Nate Seubert, Craig ‘Skibs’ Barker, Tiki Jay One, Joe Bravo, Michael Pukac, L. Croskey, Delphia, Nicole Bruckman, Macsorro, Paul Torres, Patrick Hammerlein, Michele Waterman, Douglas Alvarez, Shahid Brown, John Hicks, Ted Von Heiland, Jose Carabes, Snow Mack, and many more plus music from resident DJ’s Mr. NumberOnederful and X-Point plus guest DJ’s Jas Shepherd of KPFK’s ‘Forward Motion’ show along with DJ Bus Rider and Patrick Icon of CAVE Gallery plus a performance by Zombies Without Borders and Live Painters Michael Pukac and Yuki Miyazaki
www.cannibalflower.com

Sat, Oct. 17th 7-11PM
Cella Gallery
5229 Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood
“Persona” featuring new works from Mark Gleason
(On view through Nov. 14th)
www.cellagallery.com

Sat, Oct. 17th 6-9PM
Gallery Eight Two Five
825 N. La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles
“The Lingering Feast” group show juried by Merry Karnowsky
(On view through Nov. 13th)
www.laaa.org

Sat, Oct. 17th 6:30-10PM
GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd in Los Angeles / 310.445.9276
“Zoetic” is an exhibition of new artwork by Yellena James with a special presentation of ‘Aquarium’ with the help of Fashionbuddha Studio and Radium Ltd.
(On view through Nov. 11th)
www.gr2.net

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The work of installation artist Esther Stocker reminds of what we love about modern art. When we see an artist take simple ideas like lines and space and turn them into dozens of unique and beautiful pieces, we know we’re looking at something special. For all the students out there, keep in mind that it’s much easier to make something built up, overdone, and clunky, than to make somethign clean, simple, and elegant.

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Fri, Oct. 9th 7-11PM
Thinkspace
4210 Santa Monica Blvd (Sunset Junction area of Silver Lake) in Los Angeles / 323.913.3375
“Farewell Avery” featuring new works from Esao Andrews + “Mary In BronxZooLand” from Tony Philippou in our project room & “Tempo Momento” from Joshua Mays as part of our ‘Fresh Faces’ series
(On view through Oct. 30th)
www.thinkspacegallery.com

BEYOND EDEN ART FAIR
A multi-gallery event celebrating the new contemporary art scene in Los Angeles

Sat, October 10th Noon till 5PM – open for viewing
Sat, October 10th 8PM-Midnight – opening reception with cash bar provided by Bigfoot Lodge and tunes from DJ Mr.Numberonederful and tons of live painters & much more
Sun, October 11th Noon till 5PM – open for viewing with a special 2PM free screening of ‘Scribble.08’ by Murphy Fine Art Films

Taking place at the LA Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park
4800 Hollywood Blvd.(near the Vermont intersection) in Los Angeles
For full details, check out www.beyondedenartfair.com

Sat, Oct. 10th 7-11PM
Gallery Nucleus
210 E. Main St., Alhambra / 626.458.7482
“Creature Features: October Shadows” featuring works from Chet Zar, Travis Louie, Cam de Leon, William Stout, Dan Brereton, Gris Grimly and Jordu Schell
(On view through Nov. 2nd)
www.gallerynucleus.com

Sat, Oct. 10th 7-10PM
SCION Installation L.A.
3521 Helms Ave in Culver City / 310.815.8840
“Infinity” group show curated by Andrew Schoultz and featuring works from Butt Johnson, Xylor Jane, Richard Colman, Andreas Guerrero, N. Dash, Aaron Noble, Ryan Wallace, Joseph Hart, Ryan Travis Christian, Chris Natrop, Noah Davis, Andy Diaz Hope, Chris Duncan and more
(On view through Nov. 7th)
www.scion.com/space

Sat, Oct. 10th 7-10PM
Billy Shire Fine Arts
5790 Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles / 323.297.0600
“Hubris” featuring new works from Frank Kozik
(On view through Nov. 7th)
www.billyshirefinearts.com

via Sourharvest

We’ve seen our share of “artist” who work with found (junk) materials, but rarely have we seen any one take it to the level of UK duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster. These pieces featured here are intricately constructed piles of garbage that reveal beautiful silhouettes when light is cast upon them.
More images after the jump.

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