Miami Art Basel Part 1

Another Miami Art Basel has come and gone, another month's worth of art viewing rolled up into a few days has passed. It was intense, man. It was absolutely nutz. Yes nuts with a "Z".

Scion flew my pal Jon and I out and put us up at the Royal Palm in Miami Beach. Lot of the same characters from last year but a whole slew of new ones too. Seemed like the artwork I wanted to see was more concentrated on the mainland- Miami's Wynwood district.

Here's a few of the 300+ pictures I took:

Dallas Airport Magic Castle

Mandatory out the airplane window shot

After a whole day of traveling we're finally in Miami

When we got settled we headed out to see friends Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters who had rented a Miami Beach condo for the weekend. Mark Murphy and a sleepy Chris Ryniak were also there.


It wasn't the creepy clown or the mirrored kitchen that got me. It was the custom lamps that looked kinda like a dog skeleton with an internal butt plug. These things were tripping me out, we were afraid that when Brandt plugged it in it'd start vibrating or something. The owners of the condo had some strange things going on, but right on, that's pretty cool. Do it your own way!

Next day got up on California time, nice weather, warm breeze blowing. Let's get some food and go see some art.


Pulled pork sandwich. Good, but the watermelon was a little unripe. This the South Beach diet?

Ran into Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson on bikes. No helmet for Mark. Then we caught the free shuttle to the mainland...


Fred Stonehouse at Aqua. Philip Slein Gallery.


A giant woodblock print by Tom Huck at Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions at Aqua.

One of my new favorite artists- Jean-Pierre Roy at Alix Sloan Fine Art.

Alix Sloan with a nice Marion Peck canvas.

Gary Baseman with Jonathan Levine Gallery's Laura Pinello and Malena Seldin, and the wicker hat bandit himself.

Mario Martinez piece on paper. Very cool.

Jonathan "Straw hat" LeVine co-chillin.

A.J. Fosik (center) with Travis and David B. Smith of the newly renamed David B. Smith gallery.

Jon capturing some Shepard Fairey magic with his iPhone.

There was a lot of street art going up in the Wynwood district courtesy of Primary Flight.

Madman Will Barras up on the high ladder.

Sever


Logan Hicks with giant stencil piece.

WK Interact... we heard he was beat pretty seriously by an L.A. graffiti crew who thought he had painted over some of their graf. Heard they had dogs on him too. Crazy. I hate graffiti/gang shit like this. One of the reasons I quit graffiti. I hope what I heard was just rumors and I hope you're doing alright Mr. WK..

Not 100% sure who's work this is but it was dope. *Edit* Artist is L.A.'s own Asylm SH. Click on the link to his blog for tons of flcks from Miami, wow I missed quite a bit!.

Stopped in at a print show hosted by Theme Magazine. Some nice work in there. Tomokazu Matsuyama print.

Maya Hayuk print.

Kenji Hirata print.

Deanne Cheuk print.

Colin Christian's space lady at Vanguard fair.

A.J. Fosik sculpture.

Then back to Miami Beach for the Scion party. I had painted a car for Scion- a slammed XB Bonneville Salt Flats Racer. It was a little hard to see in the dark though.



Yoskay, a guy who's name is slipping my mind, Nate Frizzel (who's cousins with Mike Scaduto- a kid I grew up with), and Tessar at the Scion thing.

Edwin Ushiro, Souther Salazar and Kelsey Brooks at the party.

David Choe hooked me up and signed me a copy of his new book. Thanks homie.

Scion party pics:


People at the party had a view of a couple putting on a show with the drapes open. You pervs, hehe.

After the party it was time to get some Cuban food. Apologies to any vegetarians out there, but it was damn goood. I think I ate too much pork on this trip..

Then we went to some party that everyone was calling the "Shepard Fairey" party. DJ Z Trip was spinning and there was free drinks, but the best thing was the warm feel good vibe, seemed like lots of friends and artists all around. Had a great time.

Souther "L.A." Salazar and LeVine.

My head is not that huge in real life. Me and LeVine and Shepard.

David "Westside" Choong Lee was in the house.

Dalek is tall and gave me a hug. Baseman and Minnie Driver's little sister.

Miami Beach car porn.

Next entry coming soon...

Turning In Circles preview

Here's a preview clip of my show from Analog Color. Thanks Jeremy and Nick!


Jeff Soto 'Turning in Circles' Preview from Modus Films on Vimeo.

Jeff Soto: Turning in Circles at the Riverside Art Museum

This is the solo project I've been working on and not returning phone calls for. Come by if you have a chance. The show opens to the public on December 2nd but I will be in Miami for Art Basel. The actual public reception is Saturday December 13th, 6-9pm, I will be there and hope some of you can make it too. Most of the work is available through Kinsey/DesForges Gallery, contact jana@kinseydesforges.com for more info. Thanks!

Jeff Soto: Turning in Circles
December 2, 2008 – February 21, 2009
Reception: Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 6-9pm
Riverside Art Museum
3425 Mission Inn Ave.
Riverside, CA 92501
(951) 684-7111

Riverside Art Museum

On a side note, and probably of no interest to pretty much anyone reading this haha, I recently found out that my texting was accidentally turned off my phone about a year and a half ago. I never used it and just thought no one was texting me. Well I was wrong and apparently missed the memo that texting is the new way everyone is communicating. I'm finding out many of my friends have sent me texts and wondered why I didn't respond. It's because I have not received any of them. The most current text message on my phone is from May 2007. Apologies to anyone waiting to hear back! I need to get things fixed...

Soto book signing in L.A.

I have a book signing this Saturday night at La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles. They will have copies available of my newest book, "Storm Clouds". Come get a doodle in your book and say hi. Here is the info, hope to see you there:

Saturday, November 8th from 6 PM to 9 PM
La Luz de Jesus, (Wacko)
4633 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90027


P.s. there is also a show that will be on display at La Luz from my friend P-Jay Fidler, "The Permutation Generator". Here's one of his pieces...

Time to vote!

Here goes another election. It's Monday and who knows what will happen tomorrow. I'm rooting for Obama as you can see. He's in a good spot, but who knows what will happen. His supporters need to come out and actually vote! We put up some banners yesterday, I think Shepard's now iconic image looks a little odd surrounded by greenery, but it's very visible from the very busy street below. Derric and I also put up a larger banner on his place. Looks great from the street.



So I went down to vote early today at the Registrar of Voters in Moreno Valley. I have never seen turnout like this in an election! To my surprise the lines were long and the wait was 2 hours to vote. I saw many people leaving but most were staying and waiting. It seemed like those who were waiting around were either younger (possible first time voters) or minorities (African American, Hispanic). And there was a very positive air even though people were waiting for hours in the sun. I don't know if that makes much of a difference for Obama in little old Riverside County (since CA electorates are almost a given for Dems), but it could be seen as a sign of what's going on all over this country. Democratic voters are actually voting! Republicans ALWAYS vote. They will vote in small elections, the big ones, they will brave snow and rain, and they will vote well in advance so they don't have to worry about it on Election day. Democrats need to take note.

In any case, I had things to do today so I decided not to wait. Tomorrow I cast my vote, and I'll probably be waiting in a longer line but that's how it goes! I think the important thing is that we all have a vote and that's really the only way to exercise our opinions. Get out there and vote tomorrow!

Turning In Circles

My next exhibit, "Turning In Circles" opens at the Riverside Art Museum Saturday, December 13th, 2008. This exhibit is made up of ideas and paintings from the last 12 months. There will be around 20 new paintings and I'm currently finishing a large 50' wall installation. I will post more as we get closer.

I'm happy to be doing a show in my hometown, and it's great that the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) has been involved with some very progressive exhibits in the last year- Barry McGee and Clare Rojas, Skullphone, Sea No Evil, Raymond Pettibon. I'm looking forward to this show and hoping to see everyone in December!

The Riverside Art Museum is located at: 3425 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside CA 92501

Sales will be handled by Kinsey/DesForges Gallery. Please contact Jana DesForges for more info: jana@kinseydesforges.com

Thanks,
Jeff

Racism in the I.E.

What's wrong with people? I wish I could say I can't believe that someone would do this, but it just goes to show how much racism is still prevalent in our country.

This image was distributed in a newsletter by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, a Republican group in the Inland Empire. Their president, Diane Fedele apparently thought it was funny and did'nt see any racism in the picture- "I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else." Yeah right. You're nothing but a racist byatch.

One of their members, Sheila Raines, who is African American herself said, "This is what keeps African-Americans from joining the Republican Party... I cried for 45 minutes."

It's really sad, and I know this is not the first attack on Obama of this kind but I think it hits home a little more because I live in the Inland Empire where this took place. Being in Southern California, a huge melting pot of all kinds, you'd think this behavior would not exist. I feel like the younger generation is more accepting and less racist, maybe because we have grown up in said melting pot unlike some of our parents and grandparents. Or maybe it just seems like that to me because most of my friends are liberal artsy types. Okay, this is an art blog so I won't get too political. Cause I could write for a while about the election/Inland Empire/Rep. vs. Dems/racism, etc...

Here is the full article at the Press Enterprise.

And here is Diane Fedele's email in case you want to send her something: ChaffeyCommunityRWF@cfrw.org

Babytattooville 2008

This was the second annual Babytattooville event. It's Bob Self's creation, and I don't know how he pulls these things together. The name is kinda weird as it has nothing to do with babies or tattoos (that would be an awful combination!). It’s a Friday through Sunday event that took place here in Riverside at the Mission Inn. It is hard to describe, it’s sort of like “hang out with artists and get art merchandise”. Well, I don’t care about the merchandise, I like the “hang out with artists” part, and that's what I did.

Here’s the featured artists.... Thomas Han, Joe Ledbetter, Michael Whelan, Shag, Glenn Barr, Brandi Milne, Amy Sol, Daniel Peacock, Ana Bagayan, Dave Cooper, and Bob Dobb.


After an artists’ introduction at the Mission Inn, everyone was shuttled over to my studio which was the secret dinner destination for the evening. Two bus loads of people descended on my workspace- holy shit were there alot of people! Pretty sure over 100 art lovers. There was beer and sodas, pizza, some fancy finger foods, tons of art nerds (and I say nerds with a lot of love), and of course all the artists. Some of the artists from last year were there along with several friends and relatives. I had a good time.


The artists started the “Art Jam”, a collaborative painting to be completed by all the featured artists. This is them about to get started..


Despite the crowd, there was only one casualty- my trusty old stereo was attacked and gutted, which I wasn’t very happy about. Fuck, now I gotta get a new one.


Then it was back to the Mission Inn for a figure drawing session and more painting on the collaborative piece. It's interesting to see it transform over a couple days as artists added and painted over areas.


The Mission Inn is world famous, it’s a fancy old hotel and of course it’s haunted. It's perfect for this art event. I’ve stayed there a few times but never noticed anything but definitely felt a little creeped out. Our first stay (during our wedding night no less) was in room 401, Aunt Alice’s room. I found this info on the room:
“Alice Miller's ('Aunt Alice') room 4th floor, south east corner. This two-level room is very active. Reports of cold spots, touches, apparitions. Strong presence of Alice.” Creeeepy... then Jennifer told me she thought she saw a figure walk through our room late Saturday night.. jeeez.. We thought this hallway looked straight outta The Shining.


This is the five story Rotunda, you have to see it in person. Jennifer went to high school with a guy who fell and died in there.


Beau from Project Gallery with Tessar Lo and Nate Frizzel talking to attendee Andrew Wong.


Shannon hanging out.


Nathan Spoor and Lola. Nice to meet Nathan for the first time. And always nice seeing Lola- we went to school together a long time ago, guess we're both products of Riverside.


Dave Cooper worked on 50 drawings for attendees, he is a madman. His family was awesome! If you read this Julie, thanks for hanging out with us!


Shannon found a new friend in Jake Cooper!


Amy Sol painting with the iPod action...Joe Ledbetter and Gris Grimley putting final touches on the Art Jam....


Michael Whelan was also working on 50 paintings for attendees. He was pretty much working constantly, turning out spontaneous artistic visions. It was nice to connect with Michael, he’s an inspiration from when I was a teenager and great to talk to finally.


By Sunday I was pretty tired and didn’t take any more pictures, there’s a new site that has more coverage from Babytattooville- Arrested Motion. It was a fun event, but as is the same with the Comicon, I feel like I need a vacation.

No time to relax in sight though- my next show is looming on the horizon. Here is a piece I’m about finished with...


More info soon...