THE Magazine - Los Angeles

Owen Smith's lurid figurative art often depicts the basic, sometimes base elements of life. Inspired by popular culture and artwork of the first half of the 20th century, his works are reminiscent of the robust style and subject matter of Depression Era art. Smith's paintings mirror our current social and economic climate. His archetypal characters inhabit the boxing rings, construction sites, flophouses and burlesque theaters of urban America. Like the characters from Film Noir, Smith's subjects seem to survive on their wits, sexual allure and violent tendencies, trapped by life, circumstances and social roles. Smith paints in oils with rich colors and shadings that emphasize movement and volumetric form. Smith also creates large charcoal drawings. His tight compositions heighten the sense of tension between the figures. Smith enjoys playing the line between serious art and kitsch, making comments about society at the same time he is having fun with a romanticized view of America's tough past. ...more info

Painter, illustrator and author Mark Todd was first inspired to become a visual artist by the comic books and adventure movies that captured his imagination as a child. These realms of fantasy still populate his art, a body of work in which superheroes and villains are altered but still archetypal. In pieces that blend images, words, and iconography-and that are both vividly action-packed and cleanly minimal-classic Silver Age comic book covers are the subjects of Todd's forthcoming show "Juggernaut: New Comic Paintings and Collage Works on Paper."...more info

Mars hopes his work causes the viewer to question the nature of evaluation and labels, be it by investigating the meaning of beauty or by casting aside the exclusion of the meek, the forgotten, or the enemy. ...more info

In this exhibit Wosk again explores the relationship of humans and animals to nature. Tim Tate blends a traditional craft with new media technology in new works....more info

Comprising twenty-three oil paintings and five large-scale charcoal drawings, Opened Apples reveals the artist's intense ecological anxiety. ...more info

A solo exhibition of new paintings....more info

A Fundraiser to benefit the Bob Baker Marionette Theater...more info

"Rolling Vengeance" features several large scale mixed media paintings. Incorporating photography, acrylic paint and collage, the new works address a wide range of issues from rampant cultural commercialization and omnipresent corporate branding to human sexuality and even the war in Iraq....more info

Jessica Joslin's "Clockwork Circus" draws from the whimsical, decadent aesthetic of the fin de siècle circus. As in Esther Pearl Watson's previous works, these paintings chronicle her life growing up with an eccentric father whose obsession was building spaceships out of scrap metal in the backyard. The often disastrous results forced the family to move again and again, one step ahead of trouble. ...more info

New paintings exhibited in two solo concurrent exhibitions....more info

4 concurrent solo exhibitions....more info

Three concurrent solo exhibitions. ...more info

Three concurrent solo exhibitions....more info

Four concurrent solo exhibitions....more info

Three simultaneous solo exhibitions....more info

In Gallery II: SHAG Swapmeet...more info

Credited with single handedly reviving the “lost” art of the concert poster, Frank Kozik’s creative career grew largely out of his enthusiasm for Austin’s growing underground rock scene in the mid-eighties. Starting with black and white flyers for friend’s bands posted on telephone polls, his reputation grew as an artist whose work was graphically compelling as well as culturally gripping. With hundreds of full-color, limited edition, silk screened posters under his belt for such renowned artists as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Beastie Boys, he has also been the subject of many magazine articles such as Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Spin, and Details. During Kozik's poster art era, he also headed up the legendary Man's Ruin Records label which released about 200 elaborately packaged titles on vinyl and CD. ...more info

During his lengthy and successful career in the West Coast contemporary music scene of the 1960s through the end of the 1990s, David Anderle continually perused his passion for painting. "Though I always thought I would quit and paint, and in fact took a number of jobs just to make money to keep painting," he says, "I started producing and fell in love with working with musicians." Anderle was A&R for Elektra Records, as well as Director of Talent Development, V.P. of Film Music and Senior V.P. of A&R for A&M Records. He worked with such well-known artists as Brian Wilson, Frank Zappa, The Doors, Leon Russell and Sheryl Crowe and produced albums for Judy Collins, Rita Coolidge, Kris Kristofferson, Chris DeBurgh, The Circle Jerks plus many others. Anderle also music supervised and produced the soundtracks for "The Breakfast Club" and "Pretty in Pink." In 2007 his passion for painting was fully realized with his first gallery show and monograph, "David Anderle: Better Late Than Never" for Billy Shire Fine Arts. ...more info

Minneapolis-based artist Chris Mars brings his exhibition “In Preparation of Barrier Transcendence” to renown Culver City gallery Billy Shire Fine Arts this December, presenting the sole commercial offering of work from the show which debuts at The Longview Museum of Fine Arts (Texas) in September before traveling on to The Phipps Center for the Arts (Hudson, Wisconsin) in February 2010 and Mesa Contemporary Arts (Arizona) for an extended run commencing in March. ...more info