Richard Colman lives in San Francisco, so lucky for him, he just needed to roll himself down 3rd Street to the Juxtapoz offices to drop off his work for the 15th Anniversary Benefit Auction. And what a bit of work he brought to us: Two very nice original paintings for you, the viewer and audience, to put a bid down on. Good luck.

Evan Pricco: What do you like in the art world right now?

Richard Colman: I haven’t really been that into looking at art lately. Mostly I have been watching a lot of documentaries about people. Some of them are about artists. Does that count?

What kind of work did you donate to Juxtapoz for the 15th show? Two pieces, right?

Yes, two small paintings. I guess they are the sort of paintings I usually make but a little different.

What else do you have going on? Shows, books, murals?

I’ve been redesigning my site for the past few weeks; it’s looking rad and should be done soon. I have some stuff in a book you guys are putting out but I’m not sure when that will be out (Editor’s note: Juxtapoz Dark Arts, out later this year. Keep that in mind). Some of the shows coming up are the Juxtapoz show, Art Copenhagen in September, Infinity; a group show curated by Andrew Schoultz at the Scion gallery in L.A. October 10th, a solo show with KRETS in Malmo, Sweden October 17th, an auction benefiting DIFFA with VIPP October 28th in New York, and I have a solo show coming up at New Image Art in L.A. scheduled for March.

Stay up to date on all Auction goings on at

Ghostface Gears up for Battle

Interview and text by Rek

Dirty cops, hookers, and murder by kung fu. Codirectors Brian Wendelken and Erick Sasso throw all the right elements into Raekwon’s House of Flying Daggers visual to keep it extra grimy, edgy, and indubitably Wu. Scroll down like papyrus to see what they had to say about the creative process, and working with the Chef.

Give us a little background about yourselves. What’s Chain Gang Productions?

Erick Sasso: We started it towards the end of high school, and once we got to college we put our ideas into what we wanted and put the name on it. It’s a team that’s actually going to be part of a bigger team. We’ve got a lot of friends we’re going to start working with more. It’s all about not doing things solo. Working with people will benefit you in the long run. (more…)

We’ve been graced by the presence of Albert Reyes in the city for almost two weeks now. I’ve continued to bump into him all around town, at parties and art openings. His show at White Walls opens this Saturday and is massive. There are 150 pieces for sale starting as low as $50, and there’s a little something for everyone.

Many of you may recall the excited announcement from Los Angeles Police in December 2008 when they apprehended Los Angeles tagger “Buket,” aka, Cyrus Yazdani, a tagger known for his daring stunt over an LA freeway in broad daylight, which was posted on YouTube. The case finally came to and end today, as Yazdani was sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in California state prison for felony vandalism.

According to the LA Times, “Cyrus Yazdani, 26, was on probation after pleading guilty in December to 32 felony vandalism counts. In July, he pleaded no contest to one count of felony vandalism and accepted financial responsibility for five vandalism incidents. Four of the counts were dismissed today. Yazdani must pay $117,196 in restitution.

“Los Angeles County sheriff’s transit investigators arrested Yazdani in May after Buket tags appeared on the 7th Street Bridge, the Cesar Chavez Bridge and in the 4200 block of South Broadway.” […]

“That case stemmed from a tagging spree between 2005 and 2007, during which, authorities said, the 26-year-old San Jose State University graduate slapped his tags on buses, freeway walls and overpasses as well as the concrete lining of the Los Angeles River.

“Yazdani became something of an Internet sensation when he plastered his Buket bomb 20 feet above the busy Hollywood Freeway — vandalism that was captured on videotape and posted with a rap soundtrack on YouTube and numerous tagger-related blogs.” […]

“A YouTube video that captured both tagging exploits has more than 450,000 views. But the notoriety also got the attention of sheriff’s transit investigators, who arrested Yazdani in May.

“Sheriff’s officials said they had evidence that Yazdani had marked hundreds of freeway overpasses, concrete walls and transit buses across the state and southern Nevada.

“Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers identified at least 20 Buket scrawlings along a stretch of the river spanning a couple of miles, causing an estimated $60,000 in damage.”

Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

The Case for Delirium by Eric “Generic” Marquez (Contributor: Fanzine Magazine)

The ending of Taxi Driver has generated a lot of controversy and confusion because most people tend to assume that it’s a simple continuation of the narrative of the film. In critical studies, however, the possibility is often raised that the end (after the the shoot-out scene to the end of the movie) is no less than Bickle’s dying delirious imagination. I want to set forth the case that this is so.

First, at the end of the shoot-out scene, Bickle rolls his eyes backwards in the classic movie signature of death. Just before, of course, he put his blood-dripping finger up to his temple and mimed blowing his own brains out (after having

failed with the empty real guns). Bickle is suicidal, dying, and will not recover.

(more…)

Starting in the January 2010 issue (which is a lot closer for us than for you, I understand that), Alexander Tarrant will be the new New Media / Technology Editor for Juxtapoz. I’m bolding all of those key words so if you don’t read anything else, your eyes will immediately gravitate to the whole point of this post.

What does New Media/Technology art mean? Well, there are video games, there are digital artists, there are people who make art with 3D plotting technologies (think Radiohead “House of Cards” video) . . . basically a whole grip of artists who are making interesting work in 2000s that we feel should be included in all things Juxtapozian. Hence, Alex being our newest contributing editor.

A little background. You see that video up there for the song “D-UP” by Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, and DJ Big Wiz? Well, Alex directed and art directed this brand new piece. We’re not messing around; he’s the expert on New Media art, so we have passed the baton to his intellect and let him drive the boat.

Look for his work starting with January 2010… it will be Xmas before you know it anyway.

Dunny Series 9 produced by Kidrobot, featuring the Jeremyville ‘Free Hugs’ dude. Artists in the series include: Amanda Visell, Andrew Bell, Amy Ruppel, Brandt Peters, Dalek, Devilrobots, Gary Taxali, Mori Chack, Huck Gee, Jeremyville, Kozik, Kronk, Luke Chueh, Mad, Pon, MR. Shane Jessup, Shawnimal, SupaKitch, Travis Cain, and Thomas Han

We stopped by New York City’s Deitch Projects this weekend for the opening of Kehinde Wiley’s Black Light, a show of new works by Kehinde utilizing his skills as a master of collage photography, blurring, in his typical manner, the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation.

Black Light thrusts the black male image, captured by means of light manipulation and digital technology, into new focus.

Rendered in a realistic mode, Wiley’s subjects appear both comfortable and awkward surrounded by ornate and colorful background imagery, while sporting modern hip-hop attire commonly seen on the streets of his home, New York City.

These contemporary urban African American men, in poses and backgrounds taken from the annals of art history, touch on issues of masculinity, power, comfort, and identity.

Through the 17 photographs on display, Wiley produces an intimate study of embattled psychologies whose adherents are at once flawed and majestic, canonized and misunderstood. Here are a few of our favorites:

The exhibition Black Light will be accompanied by, Black Light, a full-color book published by Powerhouse and will be available at Deitch Projects.

Black Light runs September 3rd – 26th, 2009.
More at www.deitch.com and www.kehindewiley.com