FREE HUMANITY: Planting Seeds of Positivity Through Art and Consciousness

Free Humanity is a Los Angeles-based street artist working with stencils that are hand painted directly on the wall, which he shares with his city. We are thrilled to welcome work from the artist to the brand new exhibition space at The Service Station, opening for the first time with Hello World this Saturday, April 20th.

Free Humanity's mission statement is to take back "the Humanity stolen from our minds by social manipulation and planting seeds of positivity through art and consciousness." Come and experience the revolution at Hello World!

Fiber Artist Katherine Lawrie Reminds Us Art Comes in Many Forms

Sometimes we may forget that art is not always about paint and canvas. It is not always about ink on paper, or even spray paint on walls. Art comes in so many forms, and we’re thrilled to be presenting urban art in all its wonderful, creative media, including fiber art, at Hello World, opening this Saturday, April 20th at The Service Station. 

Katherine Lawrie is a talented fiber artist from Los Angeles, specializing in weaving, embroidery and quilting. Through narrative self-portraiture, she explores discovery, confrontation, and preservation of image and identity. Lawrie’s work has been shown in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Seoul, South Korea. You can see it this weekend in Los Feliz/Silverlake.

Iviva Olenick Will Have You in Stiches

Hello World is blessed to welcome yet another amazing woman to the line up of our first in a series of urban art events at The Service Station in Los Feliz. Iviva Olenick is a Brooklyn-based artist focusing on the intersection of women's handcrafts, particularly embroidery; contemporary language; and our reliance on digital media (Facebook, Twitter, text messaging). Muriel Guepin Gallery represents Iviva's small-scale, narrative embroideries in New York City. Additionally, Iviva has exhibited at the Center for Book Arts in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Denise Bibro Fine Art in New York, and other national venues. Currently, Iviva is embroidering Twitter "poetry" through her Brooklyn Arts Council-funded project, @EmbroideryPoems #BrooklynTweets. Tweet her @IvivaOlenick or @EmbroideryPoems, and your "poem" might end up in stitches.

Come and see her work in person this Saturday!

Joseph Bottari is DOPE

Public art is about getting people to notice. It is about drawing the eye, creating a bond through expression, facilitating interaction and new conversations about art, creativity and community. It is sometimes about developing an icon or paying homage to one that already exists. For New Jersey artist / welder / drafter Joseph Bottari, inspiration came in the form of Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE sculpture, which he has adapted to read DOPE in response to what he refers to as “the controversy in today’s world.” The first pieces in this ongoing series will be revealed at Hello World April 20th. 

Let’s keep the conversation going!

Ashira Siegel - A Strong Woman Artist!

Hello World is pleased to welcome some hella strong women to our very first showcase of urban art at The Service Station in Los Feliz this Saturday. Among the best of them is Ashira Siegel, a multi-faceted artist from the east coast, who is bringing some very special work to share with you!

 

Ashira works to reconfigure fragments of human experience through the assemblage of multimedia elements. Her art work mimics the reconstructive activity of sight, mind and memory, merging paining printing and dying techniques, collage, photography, video, glass, ceramics, sewing and sculpture. A member of Swoon's art collective, "Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea," among others, Ashira is poised to make a huge impact on the urban art scene.





See her here first at Hello World, April 20th!

Intricate Stencils, Impressive Style: Hello World Welcomes Dave Lowell

Sometimes the absolute skill involved in a piece of art work inspires such awe it helps us to remember why we love art in the first place. Dave Lowell's extremely intricate stencils and free-hand aerosol techniques are one example of art that gets us exhilarated.

With hard-to-match technical cuts and a direct, communicative style have brought Lowell's work to exhibit with legends of the street art genre and current leaders of the new contemporary movement. Hello World is proud to welcome Dave Lowell April 20th at The Service Station.

Exploring the Evolution: Enik One

We're having a great time exploring the evolution of street art through different styles, media and subject matter; through different artists and their stories... and we're so excited to share it with you April 20th at the opening of Hello World, a unique presentation of art and community envisioned by urban art curator, Luna George.

As the show takes shape, we're excited to share the work of EnikOne, a Southern California native who's unique body of work has matured into an amalgamation of graphic designs, mixing his street art, graffiti, typography, stencils, stickers, paste-ups, and silk screens into a style emblematic of the City of Quartz. With over two decades of perfecting these methods on the streets, EnikOne has earned the attention of national and international artists, earning prizes in Los Angeles, Portland, and Germany and has received invitations to show his work in Italy and South Africa among other international locations.

www.enikone.com 
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Hello World, I'm a Writer - DEMER

Demer embodies the original essence of graffiti, passing up the title of "artist," in favor the street-borne category "writer" in homage to the roots of his craft. In a world where so many writers seem to be scrambling to leave their vandalistic origins behind on the way into the art world, this east coast piecer has remained true to his beliefs about graff. 

Meres, Shiro and Demer - NYC

Having started as a writer on NYC subway cars in the early days, Demer has enjoyed success piecing all over the world from France to Greece and all over the United States. His work was included in last year's Whitney Biennial, and he continues to enjoy commercial acclaim for projects with such clients as Raekwon, Donald Trump (for the Apprentice), Coors Light and more. 

Despite having been hired as an artist and included in art world institutions, Defer insists on remaining a "writer." After all, that vandal spirit is still at the heart of this artform. 

See new work from Demer at this month's opening of Hello World at the Service Station, and experience real graffiti.  

Armando Soria's Gonzo Hip Hop Surrealism

Armando Soria's intricate gonzo surrealism presents an alternate universe of undulating mindscapes that leaves the viewer slightly uncomfortable - as any good art should do. Incorporating elements of 90's hip hop graffiti with comic book influences and the tradition of surrealist painting, Soria infuses a stimulating new style that we're excited to share with you at the opening of Hello World April 20th.

Hailing from the San Fernando Valley (CA), Soria grew up watching his cousins write graffiti and discovered painting in college, where he studied graphic design as a career move, but fell in love with painting on a fluke in an elective class. Fascinated by surrealism, the nascent artist spent weeks on end with his nose in Salvador Dalí books, and remains hooked on the style today.

"Surrealism offers such freedom. You're not limited by anything, and you can just create without worrying about the set up, the composition, the subject, the background, the landscape. If you want to include something, you just find a way to work it in. It's so much freedom," says Soria.

View Armando Soria's work up close and personal this April 20th at the opening of Hello World at The Service Station.

Who is The Cat Cult?

Part of the experience of urban LA is the blur of colors and slogans and slurs shouting out at us from structures and walls in the form of graffiti, wheat pastes, signs and even sculpture as we whirl past in our cars, busy at life. And, from time to time, an iconic image begins to crystallize, borne of repetition, size and creative impact. And these iconic images, even neon cats, become embedded in our experience of our environment. Meow!

One creator of such public content is LA artist collective, The Cat Cult, presenting work at urban art curator, Luna George's Hello World, April 20th.

ARTIST BIO:


Cat Cult is a collective of artists who are based in Los Angeles, California. Its participants create work both individually and under the singular identity of Cat Cult, displaying work in galleries as well as on the streets. Cat Cult embraces a variety of mediums, including printmaking, illustration, photography, painting, sewing, and graphic design. From trickster characters to divining spiritual guides, cats have been used throughout history to represent important figures within ancient fables and myths in cultures and societies across the globe. Cat Cult embraces these multidimensional identities that the cat embodies and plays upon these iconic ideas in playful and ironic ways throughout the urban environment.

Straight to the Freight - with Dytch66

As graffiti continues to evolve and regenerate within the sphere of fine art, it is important to remember its genesis - the public spaces open to claims of heart and reputation, an ever evolving battle for expression. The essence of graffiti is in its public-ness; its unpredictability; its chaos. And, to honor that spirit of claiming and transforming the surfaces of the urban environment, Hello World will feature site-specific works on the surface of freight containers, in homage to the uncontrolled and uncontrollable nature of what the fine art world knows as Street Art.

This is the canvas we're offering to Dytch66 April 20th. WHAT?!?!

This April 20th, Dytch66 goes straight to the freight at Hello World.

A fine artist, muralist and graffiti head of the highest caliber, Dytch66's journey spans from early involvement in the inner circles of graffiti in LA to international acclaim as a muralist and painter of nearly unmatched execution and originality of style. We'll be unveiling the artist's site-specific work at the event April 20th, so stay tuned for more info and video as we kick off an ongoing public art series.

Dytch66 - courtesy of Dytch66.com

 
PS. The week after Hello World opens at The Service Station, you can catch a glimpse of Dytch66's curating talents at the GFA (Graffiti Fine Arts) Showcase in Los Angeles April 27th. Featuring an international line up of renowned artists from the US, Brazil, France, the UK and Japan presenting works on the sky high concrete walls of the Graff House. GFA events started in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and showcase graffiti murals, installations, sculpture, canvases and live painting. You can find out more here.

Living Life with No Regrets! Ben NAZ

We just received artwork for the Hello World art show from Ben NAZ of the UK, and the energy of having this in our hands right now is so overwhelming, we had to share it with you. This is a special moment for us as Ben is truly living his mantra of "Live Life with No Regrets" and continuing to create art and share his vision with the world while undergoing an extremely tough battle with cancer.

Including Ben NAZ's work is especially close to our hearts, because our own curator, Luna George, has just overcome the same battle and emerged to share her own vision of art and community with the world. "I feel a special connection with Ben and his work, because in the last year, it was almost like we were cancer buddies together, providing support for each other in a really difficult time. It is unbelievable how hard it is to continue to create and stay connected when you feel so sick. I am so humbled and honored to have Ben's work in the show, and it feels amazing to hold it in my hands right now. I can't wait to share it with you."

FULL ARTIST BIO:

Ben NAZ is a Filipino-French street artist and one of the most recognized street artists in the Philippines. Born in Strasbourg, France in the late 70’s by a Filipino father and a French mother, Ben NAZ migrated back to the Philippines on the early 80’s during the heavy political outcry there.

Branded as "Manilla's Finest," Ben NAZ's dramatic, political scenes and heart breaking stencil works captured attention almost immediately. Depicting a struggle between the rich and the poor, deep-rooted and emotional images characterize eye-opening scenery to the people of the Philippines.

Ben NAZ was instrumental in getting the political message out in Manila at a time when all street art was considered propaganda by the rightist/rebels, and when he left the Philippines and went back to Europe to continue his career as a guerrilla street artist, he started placing his works on the walls of London and Paris to showcase the real political outcry of the Filipino people.

Dave Mac Dowell, Mural, What?

Are you hearing correctly?  Dave Mac Dowell is painting a mural?  Is this true?  How?  When? 

Ladies and gentlemen, this is such exciting news.  It really is.  And a true honor.  Dave Mac Dowell will be painting his very first mural in collaboration with Van Saro and John Park.  This mural is to be unveiled on April 20, 2013. 

Dave Mac Dowell is a mad man on canvas.  He's been knocking out some of the most complex paintings one after another. 

It is now time for Dave to go LARGE and hit the walls with his creativity.  We are so looking forward to Dave's creation for this upcoming mural.  Fan's and collectors for the first time ever will be given the opportunity to see Dave live and in action painting on April 20, 2013 at the HELLO WORLD opening event at The Service Station.  This will be something not to miss.