The definitive guide to visual art in New York and baby sister to insane D.I.Y. mega-project Tokyo Art Beat has launched!

Tonight: A celebration of ten years of LOST, L.A.'s primero graffiti magazine, celebrating the anniversary and the release of the new LOST book. 

The book contains highlights of the past decade editor/designer EyeOne has spent documenting LA writing. Includes imagery by Atlas (if you haven't caught the documentary on his work, watch it now!), Pale, Cab, Haeler, and more. Screenprinted board covers, numbered limited edition of 2000.

Even if you are not a graffiti fan per se, the LOSt book is a musthave for folks interested in Angeleno culture. More about LOST here. 

LOST is a picture-perfect example of designer as author. 

Thursday, May 1 the CalArts graphic design T-Shirt Show. T-shirts designed by design students, faculty, and alumni will be sold to raise money for the CalArts AIGA student group, for workshops, shows, and other events for the students.

Where: CalArts, Tatum coffee shop
When: May 1st, 7:30pm - 11pm

The shirts are always super-rad at this event. Go early to score new designs from famous alumni!

CalArts' graduating graphic design MFA class  is selling sets of the visiting artist posters on ebay. There are a few sets of all 24 posters and several sets of 6. The auctions will be going up throughout the week, so check back often.

They are selling them to raise money for a class trip and for the AIGA student group.

Own a piece of history. 

My book, Parallel Strokes, is available now via the book website.

Click to read more ...

Tentacles, Horns, and Scales
April 19th Thrash Out in Koenji, Tokyo.
Artshow, toy release, sneak  attack.
Featuring all new works by Koji Harmon , Bwana Spoons, and Martin Ontiveros.
Sponsored by Dekline footwear.

 Come join us for good times, art, toys, prizes, and a few big suprises.
Thrash Out is the Flagship store and gallery of mind bending vinyl pioneers Gargamel.

Gargamel makes toys that look like Jolly Rancher coated diamonds.

Koji, Bwana, and Martin make art and toys that explode with color, depth, and endless imagination.

Collector and fan Takaomi Fujiki put it best when he said “Happy Beam Discharge!”

For more info as it becomes available,

Click to read more ...

The seventh annual Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival (PDX Fest, for short!) is just two short weeks away! This year the festival will be taking place at the historic Hollywood Theatre from April 30 – May 4, 2008.  We will also be hosting an exciting sidebar program of video installation work and multi-media performances at galleryHomeland. This year's festival is easily our biggest yet featuring five jam-packed days of provocative, artistic and firmly uncompromising films and videos from around the globe.  The full schedule is now up for your eager eyes at www.peripheralproduce.com. Check it out!

Click to read more ...

J&L BOOKS - is a non-profit Atlanta / New York based publisher of artists' books. Since 2000, we have been committed to producing well-designed books of previously unpublished or rarely seen work by contemporary artists. J&L has established a reputation for quietly delivering books that are works of art in themselves. By printing small runs of 1000 to 2000, we are often able to take chances with artists who are relatively unknown. J&L produces 2-5 new books each year with the support and collaboration of individuals and institutions. (description taken from here)

Death by Audio is a small effect pedal company / venue based out of Brooklyn, NY. We specialize in making one of a kind custom fuzz, overdrive, distortion, noise makers, oscillators, filters, white/pink noise generators, vocal delay, octavia, ring modulation, feedback inducers, sub bass boosters, interference, wah, anti-wah, modulation, light control, splitters, couplers, true bypass loops, loops with boosters, simple samplers, drum modules, tremelo, rotary sound simulator pedals, and will try to make anything you need to make your music sound the way you want it to. We also have a line of effect pedals that offer a unique approach to sound sculpting and manipulation. Go to the site and check it out. deathbyaudio.net (discription taken from DBAMYSPACE) DBA also has shows!!

The Pecha Kucha Night: A Celebration book is finally available online. Pecha Kucha Night is a series of global events where 20 presenters take the stage to present 20 slides, about which they will speak for 20 seconds each.

This book is a "best of", with presentations by Japanese super-architect Toyo Ito, Marcus Fairs, PKN founders Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of the insanely awesome and talented Klein Dytham architecture, Tokyo dance group Strange Kinoko, graphic designers Namaiki, type designer Odod Ezer, and British designer Sebastian Conran.

The book was edited by Uleshka deshou, founder of PingMag, and designed by, um, Ian Lynam Design. It weighs in at 176 pages, softcover, and has a nice UV gloss screenprinted cover. The text is a mixture of English and Japanese.

At ¥2000 ($18.75) each, including global priority shipping from Japan, it's a steal.

A ton of new (and/or recontextualized) content up on Néojaponisme from Mumbleboy, E*Rock, Jean Snow, Eiko Nagase (AQ/Tokyo Art Beat), Audrey Fodecave Tsujimura (OK Fred Magazine), Nobuo Ikeda, Matt Treyvaud, and David Marx. Includes an article about a weird 80s skiing movie from Japan (with video); the removal of rum, sodomy and the lash from Japan's production of the musical Hair; intense illustrations; Japan's infatuation with raw concrete architecture; and inspired collages.

The official announcement of the launch of this new site:

PingMag MAKE is the sister site to PingMag.
We use an interview format to put the spotlight on a wide range of
people active in rural areas. We document the voices of these
unknown heroes and broadcast them to the world. It's the
Japan-based magazine about people and making things,
coming out once a week. We're passing on the passion,
ideas, skills, and life stories of people who are building today
and exploring tomorrow: craftsmen, engineers, entrepreneurs, and inventors.

The unofficial announcement from my end:

This is a really great idea- there are so many small cottage industries from "days gone by" that produce amazing handmade goods that could benefit from a bit of exposure and hopefully some fresh clientel. The site opens with a visit to a custom umbrella maker (folks use umbrellas here regularly, mind you) and a prosthetics shop.

SF: Hey Morgen what is this site?

MS: it's a site where these guys record bands that are passing through town on tour and post the stuff online to download. They record the bands in one take, live all at the same time without overdubs, warts and all. I like what they're doing and they get some interesting stuff on there sometimes. I like the dirty projector tracks on there too... check out - Daytrotter

I love any creative agency in Sweden that comes out with their own brand of jeans. Oh, and their work for clients is brilliant too. Here are some short cuts because the site is pretty deep and some of the best gems are hidden. Here here, here, here.

Founded by Christopher Sleboda and Kathleen Burns, Part of It works with artists to create products about causes they are passionate about. Sales from products benefit charities chosen by the artists.

Part of It stems from our belief that artists (and conscientious consumers) can make a positive difference in the world by supporting causes close to their heart. Expressions of protest, simple declarations, moving graphics that encourage conversation and dialogue—there are many ways to enter into and encourage civic discourse. We believe activism can be fun, personal, beautiful and engaging; we can all play a part in making a better world for ourselves, for our communities, and for future generations.

What a nice lineup of creatives. Thanks for sending this Mark.

Daniel Eatock
Geneviève Gauckler
Dustin Amery Hostetler (Upso)
Mark Owens
Michael Perry
Ryan Waller

While looking for something else over at cpluv I saw RBG6 has updated. They are always on point with projects ranging from type design to a broadcast campaign for Orange. I love this new stuff for H+M and Joost. I had one of those moments when you want to redesign your own site or get it up in my case.

Long overdue, Neojaponisme launches with an initial manifesto, outlining the magazine's strategy for broadcasting cutural criticism, design writing, historical essays, music, and original artwork from Japan to the world.

 

Existing to encourage the heroic experiments of the gracefully over-ambitious, Machine Project presents workshops, events, installations and performances on a semi-regular basis. For more information check out the mission statement. (taken from http://www.machineproject.com) Call in sick for work and take some workshops.

The jocks from Athletics put up a new and improved web GUI. Thanks for the swag Matt! Athletics on flickr

The Graphic Graphic is a multi-disciplinary art & design collective working out of Portland, OR

The Graphic Graphic