“Not since Zakir Hussain’s stint in Oregon has a percussionist sounded as commanding in both Indian classical tabla styles and straight-ahead swing drumming as Sameer Gupta does in his inventive quintet, Namaskar, in which he’s joined by sitar player Neel Murgai and pianist Marc Cary, among others..”  - Time Out New York

“…Mr. Gupta explores a personal fusion of modern jazz and ancient Indian music…“ - The New York Times

On Namaskar, acclaimed percussionist Sameer Gupta (Marc Cary, Wallace Roney, Vijay Iyer) combines well known compositions from the Indian Golden Era of Bollywood with North and South India Ragas, and modern American jazz in all its diversity, to craft an irresistibly beautiful artistic statement. Namaskar musically embodies the integrative spirit of our time. An original musical voice in jazz, world, and fusion music, Sameer Gupta is known as one of the few percussionists representing the traditions of American Jazz on drumset, and Indian Classical music on tabla. Namaskar features a cadre of highly celebrated musicians, including pianist Marc Cary, who adds an urban inflection with his vibrant acoustic piano and fender rhodes gliding effortlessly between jazz and Indian themes, and Anindo Chatterjee, who is widely considered to be one of the world’s greatest tabla masters.

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More info on Sameer Gupta

Scion Presents: FLUX SUPER 8 from Scion ART on Vimeo.

SCION INSTALLATION L.A. GALLERY PRESENTS “FLUX SUPER 8”:
EIGHT EMERGING FILMMAKERS, VIDEO ARTISTS AND DESIGN COLLECTIVES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

First Annual “Flux Super 8” Showcase Features Exclusive Installations By The Blackheart Gang, Max Erdenberger, Saam Farahmand, Sophie Gateau, Miwa Matreyek, Terri Timely, United Visual Artists, YesYesNo

Opens Aug. 15 Through Sept. 5

Opening Saturday Aug. 15, eight of the world’s emerging filmmakers, video artists and design collectives present exclusive installations for “Flux Super 8” at Scion’s 4,500 square foot Installation L.A. gallery in Culver City.

The “Flux Super 8” is the first annual showcase that celebrates eight of the most exciting and emerging young artists working in film, video, music and design. Flux is a global creative community and collective led by RESFEST founder Jonathan Wells and designer/gallerist Meg Wells. Flux is an online journal, concept space, film/art/event hub where individuals from various creative fields can meet and share their work. Visit for www.flux.net more information.

As part of this creative expression, the following artists will develop site-specific installations created exclusively for the exhibition, making the works true originals.

The Blackheart Gang, hailing from Cape Town, South Africa, includes illustrator Ree Treweek, creative director Jannes Hendrikz and musician/writer Markus Smit (Wormstorm).  Known for their icy cold bravado, whimsical commercial works and monolithic life long project, “The Household,” the trio presents “The Tale of How,” a short film shrouded in mystery and supernatural forces.  The exhibit features the acclaimed second part of “The Dodo Trilogy” with a full print series, sculptures and the freshly pressed “Tale of How” book.  Visit  www.TheBlackHeartGang.com for more information.

Max Erdenberger works at the intersection of art and technology, whether creating celebrated yet controversial music videos for Gnarls Barkley, promoting environmental responsibility through design, or lending his visual talents to many of the world’s largest brands at Wieden & Kennedy.  The Portland, Ore.-based artist founded Viewers Like You, an international blog dedicated to visual culture and music, and showcases his personal work at www.Central-Office.org.

Saam Farahmand directs films in the context of art, music, fashion, television, performance, virals and documentaries. Farahmand’s bill of buzzworthy films include colorful and clever music videos for Klaxons, Hercules & Love Affair, Janet Jackson and Simian Mobile Disco, a documentary featuring Soulwax, and a fashion film for Alexander McQueen. The London-based artist opened his own gallery, Boyschool, in the city’s East end to support the work of emerging artists and develop future projects.  Visit his portfolio at http://partizan.com/partizan/musicvideos/?saam_farahmand

Sophie Gateau is a multi-disciplinary Parisian artist who explores space and design from the perspective of an architect, art historian, graphic designer and filmmaker.  Gateau began her filmmaking career creating visually stunning live action films for fashion runways and has since worked as a commercial and music video director, as well as a graphic artist on top-tier films including “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions” and Wong Kar Wai’s “2046.” Visit her Web site at  www.sophiegateau.com.

Miwa Matreyek is an award-winning animator, designer and multimedia artist who creates animated short films and performance-based installations that manipulate time vs. real time and composed spaces vs. real spaces.  Based in L.A., Matreyek is the founding member of Cloud Eye Control, a performance media group that tells stories of human adaptation to a technological society using animation, live camera imagery and theatrical expression.  To view her portfolio, visit www.semihemisphere.com.

Terri Timely is a San Francisco-based duo made up of Ian Kibbey and Corey Creasey.  Their award-winning directors craft extraordinary films, commercials and music videos amplifying images and scenes from every day life. Kibbey and Creasey have developed their immersive portraits of hyper-reality for bands including Modest Mouse, Joanna Newsom, Midlake and Bobby Birdman, as well as major brands like Comcast, Amazon, Adidas and Footlocker.  To view their work, visit www.territimely.com.

United Visual Artists (UVA), established in 2003 by Chris Bird, Matt Clark and Ash Nehru, creates large-scale, light-based installations that are as much about spectacle as they are about people.  Each installation translates into a powerful social experience that turns the audience into active participants and collaborators.  The London-based UVA has worked with Giorgio Armani, Prada, Sony, Nokia, The Chemical Brothers and Battles, and continues to research and develop works with a wide range of artists and companies.  Visit  www.uva.co.uk  for images, video and more.

YesYesNo is a new interactive collective founded in 2008 by leading interactive specialists Zachary Lieberman, Theo Watson and Joel Gethin Lewis.  Aiming to develop work that puts creativity and awe at the forefront of interactive media, YesYesNo specializes in creating engaging installations that combine creativity, artistic vision and cutting edge research.  View their latest work at  www.yesyesno.com.

More information on this and previous exhibitions is available at www.scion.com/space.

The opening reception takes place on Aug. 15, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. at the
Scion Installation L.A. Space, 3521 Helms Ave. (at National), Culver City, CA 90232.  The reception is free with complimentary valet parking and an open bar.  All artists are flown in to install their work and attend the event.  The exhibit will run until Sept. 5, 2009.

Dedicated to fostering independent artistic expression, Scion Installation L.A. is a space that allows artists to explore their creative visions. The Scion Installation L.A. Space hosts art shows and art-related events for cutting-edge contemporary artists from across the globe. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM and by appointment – 310.815.8840.

Ironlak US Team @ 33third Los Angeles from 33third Los Angeles on Vimeo.

Retna & The Mac – Mid-City Arts – Preview from elemental on Vimeo.

Scion Presents: ’1000 DAYS’ Preview from Scion ART on Vimeo.

SCION PRESENTS: 1000 DAYS
Curated by Seth Curcio, founder and publisher of DailyServing.com

1000 Days, curated by Seth Curcio of Daily Serving.com opens on May 23rd at Scion’s 4,500 square foot Installation L.A. Gallery Space in Culver City. The exhibition celebrates the upcoming 1000th feature for DailyServing.com, an online contemporary art publication that showcases some of the most innovative contemporary visual artists working today. 1000 DAYS will present seven emerging artists in the United States whose work represents the graphic aesthetic and innovative artistic process for which the publication’s features are known. These artists, all of whom have been previously featured on the site, work in a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and new media.

Collectively, the artists address many of the major issues found in contemporary art today, combining conceptual and aesthetic elements of post-modernism, while highlighting topics such as pop culture, technology, and current social issues, often through the lens of art history. The work of Caleb Weintraub (Bloomington, IN) explores the future of humanity through large-scale hyper-colored narrative paintings, which depict a world where children have taken control and turned against adults. Caleb utilizes humor, pop culture and art historical imagery to illustrate his complex and ongoing narratives. Similarly, Mark Mulroney (Rochester,NY) is an artist whose works are linked together with an unmistakable humor and graphic sensibility. The artist moves seamlessly through several types of media, including installation, painting, drawing and photography, not allowing any one medium to define his practice. For 1000 DAYS, Mark will create a site-specific wall painting. Michael Rea (Chicago, IL) creates highly imaginative would-be technological objects out of obsessively constructed wood. However, the material used renders the objects useless and opens a dialogue about a world of possibilities that simply can never be. The artist often utilizes objects related to popular culture movies, and recreates the idea of that object, forcing it to remain only a dream. Chris Scarborough (Nashville, TN) is a draftsman and photographer who links the archetypes and cultural concepts of cuteness and beauty found in Japanese animation with American pop culture sensibilities. Chris employs a dark humor that seduces the viewer in order to draw a parallel between pop-culture in the East and West.

Julie Henson (Charleston, SC) explores current social issues as they relate to religious extremism in the U.S. Through haunting drawings on frosted mylar, which evoke an unfamiliar mysticism hidden in modern society, the artist is able to highlight cultural and religious trends that are prevalent, but often unnoticed by the average person. Tivon Rice (Seattle, WA) is new media artist that explores how traditional methods of learning are influenced by mass media and digital technology, typically calling for the viewer’s participation to activate the piece. Tivon’s sculptures relate a dialogue between the distanced, purely optical domain of the televisual with a sensual awareness held in our body and mind. Similarly, photographer, Christina Seely’s (San Francisco, CA) images illustrates the worlds reliance and connection to modern technology while creating a tension between the surface documentation of a photograph and the complex reality that lies beyond that surface. Her works investigate how inherent beauty often has the power to obscure a darker and more complicated truth. Matt Phillips’ (North Hampton, MA) approaches painting and collage as both object and illusion, utilizing a methodology that folds the formal concerns of Modernist painting into the intimacy of folk art. Many of Matt’s works create both optical and conceptual illusions, which attempt to create visual rhythm and turn the idea of light into sound.

The opening reception takes place May 23rd, 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. at the Scion Installation L.A. Space, 3521 Helms Ave. (at National), Culver City, CA 90232.  The show will run until June 13th.

Dedicated to fostering independent artistic expression, Scion Installation L.A. is a space that allows artists to explore their creative visions. The Scion Installation L.A. Space hosts art shows and art-related events for cutting-edge contemporary artists from across the globe. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM and by appointment – 310.815.8840. For more information, visit www.scion.com/space

About DailyServing:
Artist, curator and publisher, Seth Curcio, created DailyServing.com in the fall of 2006 as an online publication for the contemporary visual arts. Through interviews, articles, artist videos and daily features, the site serves to highlight the most innovative visual art made today. DailyServing is designed as an information portal, directly linking the user to countless artists, curators, residencies, schools and art spaces from around the world. With an active and growing team of contributors in places such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Sydney, the publication keeps its finger on the pulse of contemporary art, globally.

About Scion:
Scion, from Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., was developed with a new generation of youthful buyers in mind.  Scion’s mission is to provide distinctive products, the opportunity to personalize, and an innovative, consumer-driven process at the retail level.  The Scion brand features three ground-breaking models with a wide array of standard features: the xD urban subcompact five-door, the iconic xB urban utility vehicle, and the tC sports coupe.  The brand often applies new practices in all aspects of its business and pushes the creativity envelope with non-traditional advertising and marketing to engage young consumers. Scion also supports originality through its programs in the artistic community.  For more information, visit www.scion.com.

Scion Announces Creative Capital As Beneficiary of National Art Tour INSTALLATION 5: Self Portrait

Scion’s Installation 5 Art Tour, which will benefit Creative Capital, arrives in New York, NY in May. The opening reception will take place Thursday May 7th from 7pm – 11pm at The Showroom NYC, 117 2nd Avenue (& 7th Street), 2nd floor, New York, NY 10003. Artists Blek le Rat, Christina M. Felice, Edwin Ushiro, Angela Boatwright, Logan Hicks and Tessar Lo will be in attendance. Turntable Lab affiliate Blue Jemz, who recently released a CD through Scion A/V, will be spinning.

The fifth installment of Scion’s Installation Art Tour was launched in October 2008. The program is designed to give exposure to both established and emerging artists. Installation 5: Self Portraits highlights a diverse array of artists from around the world and will visit nine cities in total including Miami, New York, Portland, Minneapolis, San Jose, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.  The tour features new markets Phoenix and Detroit, where the show kicked off.

For Installation 5 each artist was asked to create his or her literal, or non-literal interpretation of the theme ‘Self-Portraits’.  Video art will be included for the first time in the tour’s five-year history,alongside painting and photography. Artists on the tour will include: AJ Fosik  (3-D painting), Alex Hornest (painting), Andrew Schoultz (painting), Andy Howell (painting), Angela Boatwright (photography), Asylm (painting), Blek le Rat (painting), Christina M. Felice (photography), Codak (painting),  David Choe (video art),  Edwin Ushiro (painting), El Yem (video art), Eriberto Oriol  (photography), Eye One  (photography), Francesco LoCastro  (painting), French  (painting), Geoff Oki  (video art), Ian Lynam (video art), J. Shea  (painting), Jamel Shabazz  (photography), Jeff Soto  (painting), Kelsey Brookes  (painting), Kofie  (painting), Lisa Alisa  (painting), Logan Hicks  (photography), Mark Mothersbaugh  (rug), Nicholas Harper  (painting), Patrick Martinez  (painting), Peter Beste  (photography), RETNA  (painting), Rick Rodney  (photography), Rob Abeyta Jr.  (painting), Ron English  (painting), Saber (photography), Sage Vaughn (painting), Skypage  (painting), Stormie Mills (painting), Tessar Lo  (painting), Too Tall Jahmal  (photography), Usugrow  (painting), Will Barras  (painting), Yoskay Yamamoto  (painting) and more.  As the tour travels, more artists will be added to the roster.

The final tour stop will be at Scion’s own 4,200 square foot Installation L.A. gallery space where all artwork will be auctioned off to the public, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go toward Creative Capital. The goal of Creative Capital is to create an artistic home and supportive community to nurture some of the country’s most extraordinary artistic creators and to help provide the skills and confidence for these artists to realize their most ambitious dreams. Creative Capital has advanced the careers of 411 grantees through financial support and advisory services, and has reached over 2,200 additional artists through its Professional Development Program in workshops across the country.  As the premiere national artist support organization, Creative Capital is committed to the principal that time and advisory services are as crucial to artistic success as funding. “Creative Capital is honored to have been selected to be part of Scion’s Installation Five art tour,” said Ruby Lerner, president of Creative Capital.  “We are so pleased to partner with an organization that recognizes the critical importance of supporting individual artists and helping to bring the next generation of artists forward.  We look forward to joining Scion as Installation Five continues its tour and shares these exciting projects with audiences across the country.” For more info: http://www.creative-capital.org

Last year’s Installation 4 tour raised over $50,000 on behalf of Art From Scrap, an organization encouraging creative expression in the arts and promoting a greater understanding of environmental issues.  Over the last four years Scion’s Installation tour has raised more than $190,000 for art-related non-profit organizations.  Launched in 2003, Scion Installation is a revolutionary art tour affirming the brand’s ongoing commitment to support independent artistic expression and featuring work from an unprecedented collective of contemporary artists, designers and photographers.  Previous participants include: Andre from Paris, Gary Baseman,  Freddi C, Mr. Cartoon, Crash, David Ellis, Daze, Blaine Fontana, Sam Flores, Futura,  Mike Giant, James Jean, Caia Koopman, Krush, Mel Kadel, Mear One, Travis Millard,Andy Mueller, Andrew Pommier, Ricky Powell, Rammellzee, Rostarr, Kenny Scharf, Wearesupervision, Chris Yormick and many others.

For more information on the tour, the artists, the artwork and details from past tours
please visit: http://www.scion.com/installation

About Scion:
Scion, from Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., was developed with a new generation of youthful buyers in mind.  Scion’s mission is to provide distinctive products, the opportunity to personalize, and an innovative, consumer-driven process at the retail level.  The Scion brand features three ground-breaking models with a wide array of standard features: the xD urban subcompact five-door, the iconic xB urban utility vehicle, and the tC sports coupe.  The brand often applies new practices in all aspects of its business and pushes the creativity envelope with non-traditional advertising and marketing to engage young consumers. Scion also supports originality through its programs in the artistic community.  For more information, visit www.scion.com.

This album charts many of the collaborations thorugh The Angel’s career. From back in the day; the one-time Garth Trinidad (KCRW) favorite by Jaz Klash, “Thru The Haze (The Angel Remix),”  where The Angel remixed her jazzy dnb collaboration with Bristol’s More Rockers, to new remixes courtesy of DJ Drez, who gives both versions of The Angel’s “Destiny Complete” feat Mystic, the Jahta  treatment. Divine Styler appears on the album on both sides of the mixing board; remixing The Angel’s “Make It Betta” (feat Tre Hardson), originally a limited vinyl only release, while also guesting on vocals on both the “Act I” and “Act III” mixes of  “Act As If.” The Dread Flimstone & Pale Face remix redub of 60 Channels’ “Ride With The Flow,” originally a limited vinyl only release, the O.G. version of which was featured in the TV shows “Six Feet Under” and “La Femme Nikita.” Headset’s (Plug Research) unreleased remix of “OK…Alright” by Mystic, recently unearthed, available here for the first time. Tre Hardson “10 Million Ways,” produced by The Angel is also previously unreleased.

Promotional MP3s for posting:
“Make It Betta” (Divine Styler Remix) The Angel ft. Tre Hardson

“Ride With The Flow” (Reflow Remix Redub) 60 Channels feat. Navigator & Cokni O’Dire

iTunes purchase:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=310692108&id=310691991&s=143441

If you are a member of IODA’s Promonet you can access a promotional download of The Angel “Destiny Complete (Bittersweet Version)” ft Mystic & DJ Drez

Check out Tre Hardson DJ-ing a set of songs from his collabs with The Angel and his own catalogue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmGKK6MHcoM&feature=channel

Tracklist:
1 Baltimore (Supa Crucial Mix)     The Angel feat. Mystic
2 Act As If (Act III Mix)      The Angel feat. Divine Styler
3 Ride With The Flow    (Reflow Remix Redub) 60 Channels feat. Navigator & Cokni O’Dire
4 Destiny Complete (Bittersweet Version) (DJ Drez Remix)  The Angel feat. Mystic
5 Make It Betta     (Divine Styler Remix) The Angel feat. Tre Hardson
6 Thru The Haze     (The Angel Remix) Jaz Klash
7 OK…Alright     (Headset Remix)  Mystic
8 Ride With The Flow (Supa Crucial Mix)    60 Channels feat. Navigator & Cokni O’Dire
9 10 Million Ways       Tre Hardson
10 Destiny Complete    (Ming+FS Remix)  The Angel feat. Mystic
11 Steppin’ To Tha Lite      The Angel feat. CB, Blake & Cokni O’Dire
12 Act As If (Act I Mix)      The Angel feat. Divine Styler
13 Thru The Haze  (Spearhead Blak Militia Remix Redub) Jaz Klash
14 Destiny Complete    (DJ Drez Remix)  The Angel feat. Mystic
http://www.theangelsoundclash.com/theangelblog/
http://www.twitter.com/supacrucial