Jason Salavon in the Windy City

Looks like this is a big weekend for many of MMG’s artists, as Jason Salavon is also opening at Tony Wight Gallery tomorrow (March 13, 2010)!

While the formal artist reception will take place on March 20, from 5-8pm, the exhibition, “Old Codes,” will be on view starting Saturday, and runs through April 10th.

For more information on the exhibition or reception details, visit the gallery’s exhibition page.

Jeremy Fish Stops Off in Austin

If you happen to be in the Lone Star State tomorrow night – specifically, Austin – don’t miss Jeremy Fish’s first stop on his mobile art tour, “The Road Less Traveled,” at Okay Mountain Gallery!

The opening stop of six scheduled appearances, Jeremy’s show at Okay Mountain is merely the beginning to a Kerouac-esque existence for the artist, and his partner in crime, James “Jimi” Changa. While Jeremy has been keeping us abreast of his adventures, you may also follow his chronicles on the Upper Playground website, where the two adventurers are submitting meticulous notes on their experiences.

For more information on the opening event, email info@okaymountain.com.

Fair Results Abounding

As we dust ourselves off from the NYC fair madness, catch up on our sleep and prepare for installation week, we came across a couple noteworthy tidbits that highlight our experience at PULSE Contemporary Art Fair this year.

ArtInfo’s Amber Vilas wrote a thorough wrap-up of PULSE’s run, including a prominent feature on MMG’s solo booth of works by Kim Dorland and special public installation by Tim Bavington. She also made mention of Dorland’s paintings at Mike Weiss Gallery, who exhibited at Scope this year, and Ali Smith, who showed at Freight + Volume. Read her full article here!

Additionally, ArtLog hosted a poll for readers to vote for their favorite booths at each fair during Armory Week. We’re pleased to announce that MMG snagged first place for PULSE! Check out the results of our fair, and others, here!

More to follow soon…in the meantime, make a note to come to Kim Dorland’s opening reception at MMG on March 20, from 5-7pm! Perfect opportunity to make it up to yourself in case you missed his works in NYC.

Live, From NY, It’s PULSE

Better late than never.

After seven days in the Big Apple, MMG can officially dub PULSE NY 2010 a success. Our days were peppered with finicky heaters, tinkling gelato carts and hundreds of pounds of oil paint (literally) – not to mention TMZ-worthy celebuzz and waning cell phone reception in the concrete bunker that is 330 West Street.

Kim Dorland churned out what was easily the most “hold-up-omg-is-that-all-paint?!” collection of works to date. With a solo show in Santa Monica just on the heels of his solo booth (opening March 20th), we can safely assume prolific tendencies are not an issue when it comes to him. Kim assured us we would be delivered a show-stopper, and show-stopper it was…also a spine-stopper as the focal point of the booth, “Star Gazing,” weighed over 250 pounds. Kim – clearly – has a sharp sense of humor, but with seven paintings finding homes in excellent collections, we will allow him to continue with his gluttonous oil-and-acrylic shenanigans.

A special public installation by Tim Bavington garnered quite a bit of attention as well. Between the Vegas-strip-esque striped wallpaper and amorphous paintings, the corridor between the entrance and the coat check was transformed into a vibrating optical rabbit hole. Four of these studio-fresh works found homes on just Day One of the fair.

In the few minutes that the MMG crew had to stray away from the confines our our booth, we saw a few familiar faces (so to speak): Ali Smith and Kenichi Yokono in Freight + Volume’s booth, as well as new works by David Ryan and Kiel Johnson with Davidson Contemporary looked uber-fabulous, and ultimately found their way into some choice collections.

A few other highlights:

- Dinner with Yigal Ozeri and the crew from Mike Weiss Gallery included meeting Jessica from “Jessica with Vines” – a featured painting at PULSE Miami this past December. Turns out Yigal’s accuracy is staggering, as is the length of Jessica’s strawberry-hued hair.

- Guest appearances by Dimitri Kozyrev, David Ryan, Ben Weiner and Kim Dorland - with his family in tow.

- A brief foray into the Armory Show, where DCKT’s solo booth of new works by Cordy Ryman prompted much drooling and jaw-dropping. So much so, that owner Mark Moore practically barreled over Bjork in an effort to make it back to the booth for a second viewing.

All in all, we suspect we’ll be back next year – hopefully without Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” on repeat in our brains. Adios, NYC. Love ya, mean it, kiss, kiss.

Kim Dorland’s “Star Gazer”….like most good things in life…difficult….

It weighs how much….?

Use your knees!

Facing death by 300-pound painting deserves a victory photo

Perfect for the whole living room, yes?

Up goes the wallpaper

Interior view

NYC Office

Exterior side view

“Angel of Death”

Love those silver walls

About ready to hang some “Covers”

Chatting away

Works by Kenichi Yokono and Ali Smith with Freight + Volume

Kiel Johnson in Davidson Contemporary’s booth

David Ryan represents in Davidson Contemporary’s booth

Welcome

Hilarie Moore with Bavington’s “Get Happy!”

Gallery Manager, Catlin Moore, with Fair Director Helen Allen (R-L)

Kiel Johnson in Art in America

You may remember Kiel Johnson’s mega-solo show here at MMG last year, but in case you need a refresher, Art in America just published a fabulous review by Janet Koplos in their most recent issue.

Koplos notes that Johnson’s “Publish or Perish” “highlighted the manual dexterity and conceptual wit that have earned him recognition in L.A.”

Check out the full-length review HERE!

MMG at PULSE: New York 2010

We can’t believe it’s already March, but apparently it is and we’re getting on a plane to go to New York on Monday for art fair week!

PULSE New York is moving to a new location at 330 West Street, at the corner of the West Side Highway and West Houston Street. The new venue, a former New York Central Railroad freight train terminal housing five blocks of the original High Line, has 30-foot high ceilings with varying levels of lofted space to be used for special projects. The fifth edition of PULSE New York will take place March 4 through 7, 2010.

Mark Moore Gallery will be featuring a solo booth of new work by Canadian painter, Kim Dorland, in Booth A-16. These paintings have never been seen previously, are studio-fresh and created especially for MMG’s booth at PULSE NY. Additionally, artist Tim Bavington has been selected to create a special public installation near the entrance of the fair venue – complete with new works!

To preview the Bavington and Dorland works going to PULSE, visit our art fair preview page. Additionally, you can keep abreast of all the fair activity by reading our Fair Reports here, or following our updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Planning on heading to the fairs, or being in the New York area? Send us a message on Facebook or @-reply us on Twitter, and we’ll send you day passes!

Nobu Nishigawara and Ali Smith at LAM

If you’re in the Orange County/Southern California area, better swing by the Laguna Art Museum for their current exhibition, “The OsCene: Contemporary Art and Culture in OC,” featuring MMG artists Nobuhito Nishigawara and Ali Smith, alongside artists like Ryan Callis, Kendell Carter, Virginia Katz and Noah Thomas.

The exhibition, curated by Grace Kook-Anderson, “is a survey of contemporary art and culture in the OC featuring some of the most provocative painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, multi-media installation, video, architecture, performance, music, and design that Orange County has to offer.”

The show will be on view through May 16, 2010.

Kim Rugg/Josh Azzarella Open in LA

As we’re preparing for the upcoming New York fairs, we’ve fallen a tad behind on posting Will Tee Yang’s lovely photos from Kim Rugg and Josh Azzarella’s opening on February 13th. While you’ve most likely seen them on our Facebook Fan Page (*cough, cough*), we always like to post them here as well for your viewing pleasure.

Be sure to come out to the next opening on March 20th, from 5-7pm, for Kim Dorland! More info to come soon…

Ryan Taber to Have Museum Solo Exhibition

Ryan Taber will be the first artist featured in the Torrance Art Museum’s “Sunrise Series,” an annual solo exhibition featuring a unique emerging artist from the SoCal area (though international artists may be included on occasion).

Taking over the main gallery of the museum, Ryan has created a new body of work specifically for the museum, which will serve as his second museum solo exhibition.

Surely not to be missed, the opening reception will take place Saturday, March 6, from 6-9pm. The exhibition will be on view from March 6 – April 17, 2010.

Josh Azzarella is Bi-Coastal!

As of tonight, Josh Azzarella officially has two solo exhibitions open at the same time: his first LA solo show here at MMG (which opened last Saturday, on view through March 13, 2010), and his third solo gig at DCKT Contemporary in New York.

On view through March 21, 2010, DCKT is featuring an exhibition of Josh’s newest photographs, which range in images derived from cinema, journalism and amateur photography.

For more information about this exhibition, or DCKT, visit the gallery website.