It seems that Illumination, too, must end...

This Sunday (August 29th) marks the final day of exhibition for Christopher Ulrich's Illuminator: The Royal Wedding. As a special treat, the artist will be discussing the work and signing books and prints, which will be available for direct purchase. Following the lecture, at 6 PM, if you purchased a painting or drawing or digital proof edition, you will be able to take it with you.

Ulrich's paintings are steeped in allegory, and it will be a challenge to cover every aspect of each piece in the allotted time frame, so this is your chance to engage the artist with your own insight of his work and pick his brain about the piece that greatest embrace you. Christopher is incredibly easy to approach and talk to, and while some of the paintings are rather intense, this is a great opportunity to expose young people to fine art –presenting a rare opportunity for juvenile artists to ask questions about technique and integrity.

In just one week we'll be opening solo shows for Yumiko Kayukawa's 49 Days and Nathan Ota's An Unforeseen Homecoming. Previews for each show are already posted, and work is beginning to sell. Yumiko is flying down from Seattle so both artists will be attending their opening on Friday, September 3rd, and in celebration of the occasion, we're releasing posters free to the first 100 people through the door. The artists have agreed to sign them for one hour preceding the opening of the exhibit, starting at 6PM.

Nathan received preview coverage for this, his first solo show on Hi Fructose's website, and will be live painting on Thursday evening at Montana Cans paint shop on Sunset Blvd., from 7-9ish in a collaboration with L.A. graffiti legend Risk.

This is followed by a weekend of outta sight book signings. On Thursday, September 9th from 6-9PM, we welcome Brian McCarty as he signs and discusses his book Art Toys, an extensive photo-tome of the secret lives of designer toys. Then on Friday, September 10th, we welcome back author Mick Farren to sign his latest mind-bending, counter-culture non-fiction work: Speed-Speed-Speedfreak: A Fast History of Amphetamine, tracing the cultural and criminal use of this very dangerous narcotic. There will be a story contest and musical performances, so rush on over from 6-9PM! At the end of the month we'll be welcoming back Dave Cooper, to kick off the tour of his new book Bent, which is much more than just the catalog of his sold out 2008 BSFA show. Info soon!

A special mid-month exhibition of the art of Dee Dee Ramone will debut on the punk rocker's birthday of September 18th. A special Memorial poster will commemorate the show, and rare, classic photos of Dee Dee from the Jenny Lens Photo Archive will be made available as oversized, signed, numbered Museum quality prints. The very next weekend La Luz de Jesus pal Brad 'Tiki Shark' Parker opens his Ocean Dreams exhibit at the Manhattan Creative Arts Center. That's on Saturday, September 25th, and it runs through October 14th. We're handling the sales, so let me know if you want to buy anything. The preview is posted.

Hi Fructose readers will also be familiar with the Art of the Lowbrow Tarot exhibition that guest curator Aunia Kahn has assembled in anticipation of a new book and tarot card deck featuring the art of 23 of the biggest name in pop-surrealism and the pieces they created specifically for this project: Carrie Ann Baade, Christopher Ulrich, Edith Lebeau, Cate Rangel, Kris Kuksi, Chris Mars, Christopher Umana, C.C. Askew, Brian Viveros, Claudia Drake, Heather Watts, Molly Crabapple, David Stoupakis, Laurie Lipton, Patrick 'Star 27' Deignan, Chet Zar, Jessica Joslin, Danni Shinya Luo, Jennybird Alcantara, Angie Mason, Scott G. Brooks, Aunia Kahn, and Daniel Martin Diaz (pictured left) have all brought their A game, and this exhibition is sure to be talked about for a long time after it's over. This show opens on October 1st, but the preview is already posted, and I wouldn't be surprised if everything sold before the opening reception.

Also on the walls in October is Art Center alumni Karen Hsiao, who's been catching much press in the UK, Europe and Asia for erotic painted photography art and has just seen the publication of her first book, Rubber Duck, alongside recent Art Center grads Christine Wu (whose painting in the recent 100 More Artists See Satan exhibition sold pre-opening) and Matt Wood (whose Mom's in Prison show warrants Art in America coverage).

I didn't even get to mention the TIKI FARM 10th Anniversary show in October! Watch this space for more info soon!

The Eve of Illumination!

"There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic." – Anais Nin

Tomorrow night the gallery will be filled with patrons, artists, chaos magicians and simple passers-by. Their one commonality will be awe, as Christopher Ulrich unveils his masterwork, almost three years in the making, Illuminator: The Royal Wedding. The reception begins at 7PM, when Ulrich will be celebrating (and signing) the official release of his 16 image print collection, each of which is limited to only a dozen editions. He'll also have the last remaining copies of his Demoneater tome available for purchase. The grand opening celebration will start one hour later, and I honestly can't prepare you for what you will see if you are lucky enough to attend.

We just finished hanging the entire show, and it's grandiose on an unsurpassed scale. This is the first exhibition of the New La Luz de Jesus, to utilize both rooms. This is a journey: a full gallery takeover by one artist. The front room has all of the drawing studies, which line the south and east walls. The print editions are lined in a double row along the west wall. And on the North wall...

You'll just have to come and see.

It's the perfect springboard for the doorway into the back gallery, which houses the rest of Illuminator: the Royal Wedding!

Black Cracker Bastille

It's happening now!

Wyatt Doyle has just read the first excerpt from his novella Stop Requested, and Josh Alan Friedman is in the middle of reading from Black Cracker, his autobiographical recollection of surviving a lynching while growing up as the only white kid at the last segregated school in New York.

After Josh, Los Angeles legend Chris D. will be reading from his collection of fictional truths and factual lies, A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die.

This is the New Texture Tour, which is the key-note performance for the second celebration of The July Exhibitions. We could call it a soft opening, but there's nothing soft about this bunch!
Their first three books will debut at in-person events across Los Angeles this week. The three aforementioned authors will be at all events, with special guest appearances at many venues. You can get your books signed here or call in an order to have them personalized and sent to you, but time is running out...

I'm happy to say that I will be among the guests at Saturday's Reading series at The Echo this Saturday at 6 PM. So come on down and listen to the first ever public reading from "The Panik Diaries."

In just a little while, Josh will be providing a set of atomic acoustic guitar, and Chris D. is rumored to be joining in musically, so whatever you're doing, stop, and get over here. The New & Improved La Luz de Jesus Gallery is fast becoming the location of legendary, must-be-here events, and this is definitely one of them.

The carnival before the storm...

Congratulations to Fiddle Tim, whose entire debut exhibition Scumfuck, was completely SOLD OUT –and also made it into the Huffington Post!

There was a spectacular turnout for last night's opening reception, and the gallery line was ringing off the hook with long distance phone calls from patrons on the east coast and Europe maintaining late hours to secure their purchases once news of this show hit the wire.

Lauren Gardiner is also on the verge of a complete sell out, with only one painting from her exhibition, Unfit Saints, unsold as of this writing. This would be her second consecutive sold out show after last year's Royalty Before Surgery, and I'll be surprised if it's not off the market by the time the first bottle rockets whistle skyward tomorrow."St. Agatha: Patron Saint of Bigfoot" is actually quite large by Lauren's standards, but still only measures 8.25" x 9.5"
(with doors opened).

Damian Fulton seemed to be holding court with a constant flow of friends and colleagues from surf, animation and advertising circles and was offered a publishing deal right there at the opening! I promise to disclose the details as everything becomes more concrete, so meanwhile, you can follow the adventures of "Sue Nammi" right here on the gallery walls as part of Damian's latest magnum opus Surfploytation!

Robert Palcios' work complements it perfectly on the two opposing walls that house Gallery I. His Loteria themed show, Game of Life, garnered comparisons to both Mark Ryden and Jose Guadalupe Posada.

Frijol Boy and Cristina Paulos each drove in from Las Vegas to revel in the carnival atmosphere of the La Luz de Jesus Independence Day Weenie Roast. Each has explored different routes from animation to fine art, with spray acrylic and reclaimed paper playing a major part in their respective exhibitions. Michael Brown was unable to attend, but Alyson Souza was on hand to discuss her gorgeous oil on wood and multi-media constructions.

If you missed the opening, you've got just under 30 days to catch it!

In five days we welcome New Texture Publishing for the L.A. Weekly's Pick of the Week for Thursday, July 8th. Josh Alan Friedman will be playing guitar and reading from his book Black Cracker, the heartbreakingly funny four-year odyssey of the only white kid at the last segregated school in New York. He'll of course be signing copies of his book, and he's bringing along friends Chris D. (of The Flesheaters and Divine Horsemen fame) to read and sign his collection, A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, and publisher/author Wyatt Doyle, who'll be signing his Los Angeles bus memoir, Stop Requested.

So there you have it: at least eleven reasons to get your tookus on down here!
See you soon.

Independent, Independence!

This Friday we're kicking off Independence Weekend with a July 2nd BBQ for our biggest opening reception yet in the newly designed space. We're going to internationalize the most American of all holidays by adding a little Mardi Gras, Dia de los Muertos and Bastille Day for Carnival - La Luz de Jesus style!

Damian Fulton is quite simply the pre-eminent surf painter of this generation. What better way to celebrate the first ten days of summer, than by tossing back a cool one in front of two dozen painted boards, decks and canvases?

Robert Palacios has been the best kept secret in Los Angelino contemporary art until now! His Loteria-inspired pastiches will linger until you rush back here to buy one!

And the six very different artists in the Summer Showcase represent animated graffiti, radical puppetry, tiny portraiture, reclaimed materials, mechanical craft and teenage angst.

Gallery I: Damian Fulton & Robert Palacios
Gallery II: Michael Brown, Frijol Boy, Lauren Gardiner,
Cristina Paulos, Alyson Souza, and Fiddle Tim

PREVIEWS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR EACH! CLICK THE IMAGES!

DAMIAN FULTON
Preview online now!
"Surfploytation" opens 7/2

Damian Fulton is fascinated by the dichotomy and duality of Los Angeles seaside culture. The proximity of one of the world's most diverse and congested cities to the Pacific coast provides fertile material for Fulton's dark take on the California dream. Perhaps it's in the water.

Surfploytation continues Fulton's twisted ride down Pacific Coast Highway where Surf City is way more gritty than groovy. Car chases, girls with guns, noir nostalgia, a visual narrative that reads like conceptual art for a fictional surfploytation movie. For this show, experimentation with new materials native to his environment, balsa wood and fiberglass, skate decks, and surfboard fins, have this new work amped up to 11.

ROBERT PALACIOS
Preview posted!
"The Game of Life" opens 7/2

Robert Palacios was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Drawing inspiration for his paintings from his childhood impressions and memories, life experiences
and his American/ Latino heritage, Robert's work is whimsical, playful and childlike.

He breathes life into his characters with careful thought and unique insight and defines his style as Pop Surrealism. One of his abiding inspirations has been a board game that he played often as a child called La Loteria ( the Mexican lottery game) which is played similarly to bingo but with a deck of cards with numbers and wonderful, mystical, magical symbols and drawings. "I still bring out that deck and peruse them for inspiration."

Cristina Paulos & Michael Brown
Previews posted!
Exhibitions open 7/2
Cristina Natsuko Paulos is an American born Artist of Japanese and Portuguese ancestry, growing up in the San Fernando Valley of southern California. She received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Animation. She spends her time making comics, painting, illustrating, constructing puppet shows, and creating short cartoon films from her studio in Las Vegas, NV. "Intrinsic Duality" is her first featured exhibition at La Luz de Jesus.

Michael Brown's artwork is a tapestry of many mediums including acrylic, polymer clay, enamel and more, inspired by 1930's and 40's cartoons, hot rod art, and 70's pop culture. Throughout his diverse body of work there is a continuous theme of dark humor and addiction. "Invisible Friends" is a collection of small, but detailed pockets of dark humor that pull from historical events, medical rituals, magic, secret societies and the dark underbelly of what is considered taboo.

Frijol Boy
Preview posted!
Exhibitions open 7/2

Tijuana born artist Juan Muniz grew up in San Diego and learned English by watching Saturday morning cartoons. He moved to Las Vegas then attended Collins College in Arizona to learn more about animation. After moving back to Las Vegas, where he became a tattoo artist involved with the First Friday art openings, he acquired the moniker Frijol Boy which provided an outlet for him to show his "weird little character paintings." He's always trying new mediums, and has built a following for his multi-plane paintings which mix acrylic on plexiglass with pastel on wood. "In a world full of beauty and horrid things, I'm just trying to reflect it through my morbid, cute art."

Lauren Gardiner & Fiddle Tim
Previews now posted!
Exhibitions open 7/2

La Luz de Jesus alumni Lauren Gardiner's painted portraits have a habit of selling before they even hit the walls, such is the demand for her work among her collectors. Never one to sit on her laurels, she consistently improves with each show. There will be 8 paintings in total. A preview will be available just prior to opening.

Fiddle Tim is a pseudonym.
This is the debut exhibition of someone very special, and you'll kick yourself if you miss this. "Scumfuck" is a notebook show. The centerpiece of this exhibition is a portrait of G.G. Allin -the only among the dozen drawings included in this exhibition to reference fame of any kind. The fact that the this subject sought fame at any cost juxtaposes the chosen anonymity of the artist. This exhibition is an important pop-culture event, with artwork priced quite affordably. Prices and images are slowly posting, and a complete preview will be posted by tomorrow evening.

Alyson Souza
Preview posted!
Exhibitions open 7/2

Alyson Souza works in a very meticulous manner and believes strongly in creating well-crafted objects. She paints thickly, though realistically, with oil on wood. In the past her work has been three dimensional somewhat like an image in a pop up book. It has incorporated found objects and mechanical or electrical components. Most recently the work has been flat and painted on shaped wood panels. The largest of these are cradled to prevent future distortion. The term "New American Surrealist" has been used to describe her work and as labels go this is fairly accurate.
Also check out new Available work from Nathan Ota, Bob Dob & Ana Bagayan at Grand Central Art Center's
100 Artists See Satan Fundraiser

125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Saturday, July 3rd, 7-10PM
(Click HERE for an online preview)


No RSVP necessary -and you can even invite your friends!
You may reserve purchases by calling the gallery director and arranging payment. I also encourage you to take a look at the Upcoming Exhibition Schedule and sign up for the artist notification lists of your choice. Aside from the upcoming shows previewed above, we've also got Christopher Ulrich, Nathan Ota, Yumiko Kayukawa, Jessica Joslin, The Art of the Lowbrow Tarot, Daniel Peacock, Christine Wu, Matt Wood, Laurie Lipton and many more! We're also hosting book readings, signings and special performance events, like the NEW TEXTURE release party for Drew Alan Friedman on July 8th.

So do yourself a favor and check out the new and improved La Luz de Jesus Gallery. We've been breaking ground and pushing the envelope for nearly 25 years, and we've got no intention of stopping!

If you haven't done so, sign up for our newsletter to receive invitations to our gallery openings, book signings, musical performances and other special events. You can alter your notification settings to add specific artist event notifications and ensure that you receive previews for the artists of your choice!

All the small things...

On Friday night Rick Araluce debuted his latest collection of painstakingly crafted miniatures -his first area exhibition in over a decade and a half. There hasn't been an art event this important in a good long time, and the names that come to mind by way of comparison are Koons, Hirst, Murakami and Ruscha.

If you haven't visited the New La Luz de Jesus, you really need to get in here!

Rick's miniature masterpieces are crafted with a level of detail that would drive lesser (ie. most) men mad. Handwritten letters are rendered in nano script. Wallpaper, tiles and bricks are each designed by hand to maintain the illusion achieved in these micro-scale decors. Araluce has built working light switches, bulbs and clocks that wouldn't dwarf an insect, and designed end pages for books stacked 42 high, barely thick as a thumbnail. He makes everything -including the boxes that house the pieces, by hand. Inside the opened doorway of the piece pictured is a microscopic painting, that can only be seen from the extreme left side. Rest assured that tiny is the next big thing!

Also on display are works by Bonni Reid, JAW Cooper, Jessica Dalva, and Krystopher Sapp (who also has a piece in the 100 Artists See Satan fundraiser at Grand Central Art

Center).

On Thursday, from 6-9PM we'll be hosting a book signing for L.A. Weekly "Night Ranger" columnist Lina Lecaro's Los Angeles's Best Dive Bars, a testimonial to this city's best watering holes. This event will feature special guests and special cocktail concoctions courtesy of Sino Tequila.

In Los Angeles’ Best Dive Bars, you’ll get the scoop and the poop on the city’s liveliest, lowlife n’ liquor-soaked landmarks. This essential booze bible has the lowdown on which bars serve free food, which have great—and not so great—karaoke, bars that appear in your favorite movies and much, much more. Whether you’re looking for a friendly spot where “everybody knows your name,” a filthy blackened cave where nobody ever will, a gently-gentrified hole specked with dive-obsessed hipsters or a dusty relic full of hip-replacements, you’re sure to find a spot to soak up—and get soaked in—here in these pages.

And we know how to party! Check out these shots from Friday night's opening. The steely-eyed among you may notice (in addition to the artists whose work was on display) Billy Shire, Robert Williams, Nathan Ota, Andrew Hem, Jon Beinart, Daniel Lim, Misato Otake, and a few other La Luz de Jesus Alumni.

Photo credit: Isabele Craik

Just locking up for the night!
Here's a preview of tomorrow night's opening. That chandelier is about mid-way installed. Jessica Dalva will be coming in tomorrow to put the finishing touches on everything. We've got all of JAW Cooper's paintings on the walls, and we'll be positioning the Beast Rug under Dalva's chandelier. Krys Sapp has got the west wall to himself. His stuff is up, but we'll be tweaking the positioning a bit in the AM.

The front gallery is completely hung, but I know that photos won't really capture the essence of Rick Araluce's dynamite display. So you'll have to come in and see it in person. Bonni Reid's paintings face Rick's boxes, and we've sold a third of her show already. Rick's got more volume, but his red dots are stacking, too. This is going to be a blast!