Gregory Porter, nominated for 2 SoulTracks awards (Best Indie Album and Best Male vocalist), has been receiving great praise for his accomplished debut album “Water”:

“Porter’s conviction and traditionalism cuts a retro figure, but also delivers another refreshing, contemporary male jazz voice worth savoring. (4 out of 5 stars)” — L Michael Gipson, Creative Loafing

“…an absolute showstopper of personalized soul…As an impressive, substantive vocalist…he’s right up there with Jose James as the next big male vocal jazz star.” Allmusic.com

“Porter may count (Nat King) Cole as his primary influence, but his vocals and his ability to spin a musical yarn call to mind…Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks, Lou Rawls and Kevin Mahogony.” — Soultracks.com

“…sheer genius…. quite possibly the year’s best jazz recording. Porter is one of the most inspiring jazz performers of the last decade. 5/5: Soulmattersmag.com

“Simply put, Gregory Porter may be our next great jazz singer.” — Straight No Chaser blog

“…one of the best artists in modern jazz today.” — Cashbox.com

More info on Gregory Porter

“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.

Download a free MP3

More info on Sameer Gupta

Scion Presents: The 2010 Vice Photo Show from Scion ART on Vimeo.

After nine years, the annual Vice Photo Issue and Exhibition has become an anticipated cultural institution.  This year, Vice’s Photo Issue is comprised entirely of still life photography – a departure from years past.

For the photography exhibit, opening August 14 at Scion Installation L.A., the curatorial reigns have been handed to Jonnie Craig, longtime staff photographer of the British edition of Vice magazine.  About the theme of the show, Jonnie says: “The pictures gathered for this exhibition express youth in a number of forms—from train surfing to hiking in the woods to working a dead end job—every image acting as an entry of what I have experienced youth to be.”  The featured photographers are Angela Boatwright, Asger Carlsen, Jonnie Craig, Jackson Eaton, Seth Fluker, Nicholas Haggard, Jerry Hsu, Kevin Long, Ross McDonnell, Sophie Mörner, Patrick O’Dell, Alex Olson, Valerie Phillips, Jared Ritz, David Benjamin Sherry, Peter Sutherland, Patrick Tsai, Sean Vegezzi and Gavin Watson.

The opening reception takes place on August 14, 7 – 10 p.m. at Scion Installation L.A., 3521 Helms Ave. (at National), Culver City, CA 90232. The reception is free with complimentary valet parking and an open bar.
The exhibition will run until September 4.  Johnnie Craig and a number of the photographers will be in attendance.  Free copies of The 2010 Vice Photo Issue will be available at the gallery.

About the photographers

Angela Boatwright was born in Columbus, Ohio, and survived her Mid-western adolescence by taking photographs of her skateboarding friends while listening to heavy metal. Boatwright has since relocated to New York where she works for various fashion publications and commercial clients. Her work has been featured in many exhibitions, magazines, and books, including The Vice Photo Book, The Art and Design of Hip Hop, and she will soon be a featured in Juxtapoz’s upcoming book of photography.

Asger Carlsen is a Danish born, New York-based photographer.  Carlsen is one of the few artists that manage to tastefully execute extreme digital manipulations of his photographs with success.  His series, Wrong, was recently published by Mörel Books. The work was exhibited at the prestigious V1 gallery in Copenhagen.

Jonnie Craig is a London-based photographer whose work has been featured in numerous publications and shown in galleries worldwide.  He released his first book, Untitled, with Mörel Books in 2009, and is currently working on a new project about skateboarding with the working title “I’ll Kick You in the Head With My Energy Legs”.  He is the picture editor of HUH. Magazine; a free, London-based arts and culture paper.  He has also been one of Vice UK’s staff photographers since he was 19.

Jackson Eaton is an Australian photographer who documents the weird situations he sees from day to day.  Often appearing in his own images, parts of Jackson’s life story are revealed as you go back through his portfolio; his relationship with Hasisi Park, his trips though various countries, and the small, intimate moments he’s experienced.

Seth Fluker is a self-taught photographer who has developed an acute ability to expose a hidden world that is often overlooked.  In the past couple of years, Seth’s work has been exhibited internationally, printed by various publishers, and featured on numerous websites.  In 2010, Seth founded his own publishing house called Schnauzer, which has released one title called “Before Things Change”; this book is a small insight into Seth’s undesirable job as a kitchen porter at Whole Foods Market in London, England.

Nicholas Haggard is a California-born photographer who describes his photography as part of his everyday life, each image acting as a visual diary entry.  Nicholas approaches projects in a documentary style, photographing things or people he finds particularly interesting, while paying close attention to the light, which is his starting point for making imagery.  He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, New York, and Italy and has a forthcoming show at 107 Shaw in Toronto.  He has also published a selection of zines with Swedish publisher Cederteg.

Jerry Hsu is a San Jose-based professional skateboarder, riding for companies like Emerica, Enjoi and RVCA.  Since a young age, Hsu has obsessively photographed the world around him, which often seems to present various situations of humor, irony or sadness.  In recent years, Hsu began a sporadic career in editorial photography, shooting portraits for magazines like The Journal and Vice.  In the coming months, Hsu will release his first publication with Mörel Books.

Kevin Long has been a professional skateboarder and artist since a very young age.  After dropping out of school, Long rose to fame for his talents within the skateboarding world.  However, more recently he is becoming known for his artwork.  Long, spending most of his days on the road with his teammates, snaps photographs on his cell phone. These simple, humorous snaps have been part of group exhibitions in Japan and America.  He is currently working on a body of work to be exhibited and published.

Ross McDonnell is a documentary photographer and filmmaker hailing from Dublin, Ireland.  His work contains imagery of various strife-stricken areas of the world, documented in both photographic and video form.  McDonnell has had his work published by prestigious publications including The New York Times, Art In America, and the Observer.  He has been twice nominated for an Irish Film and Television award, and his documentary; Colony, received the First Appearance award at the IDFA in Amsterdam.

Sophie Mörner is a Stockholm-born photographer and curator.  After graduating from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2003, Mörner founded Capricious magazine, which she continues to publish bi-annually.  Her work has been included in various group shows over the years as well as having work published in magazines like ANP Quarterly, Blend and Famous.

Patrick O’Dell is an American photographer and filmmaker who maintains a photographic blog called Epicly Later’d, which became the title of his critically acclaimed series of ongoing documentaries about professional skateboarders with Vice’s online television network, VBS.TV.  O’Dell was responsible for the recent skate video retrospective at the MOMA in New York, which included various important skateboard videos, a performance by No Age, and a talk with skateboarders and filmmakers including Mark Gonzales, Spike Jonze, and Ed Templeton. O’Dell continues to work on various video projects for bands and brands.

Alex Olson is a world famous skateboarder who recently lent his hand to photography. Alex’s photographs contain insights into the lives of the elusive professional skateboarders he shares fame with.  Alex’s work is featured on a collective blog called No Retrospective, as well as having his work featured in HUH. Magazine among others.

Valerie Phillips was born in Manhattan but now lives and works mainly from London. Valerie became known for her extensive book-form portraits of middle-American adolescent girls.  While continuing to work on personal book projects, Valerie shoots constantly for advertising and editorial projects for clients like Doc Martens, Paul Smith, Urban Outfitters, and Virgin Atlantic.

Jared Ritz was born in Havre, Montana, and describes his youth as being very isolated. Jared’s “untrained” images have an oddly surreal quality to them, highlighting the split-second oddities in suburbia.  Jared also co-runs a zine collective called the Bad Boy Racing Club.

David Benjamin Sherry is a photographer, living and working out of his New York studio. After receiving an MFA at the prestigious Yale University School of Art, Sherry has gone on to exhibit prolifically worldwide, as well as publishing an extensive book with Damiani.  Sherry is currently working on his first solo show at a gallery that is yet to be announced.

Peter Sutherland is a New York based photographer who sprung to the eyes of many after releasing his book “Buck Shots” in 2007 with Powerhouse books.  Since then, Sutherland has continued to make books with various publishers from around the globe, as well as creating advertising projects with an array of brands, and shooting portraits and editorial projects for magazines like Vice and HUH. Magazine.

Patrick Tsai was born in Pennsylvania, but shortly after, was uprooted to Stockton, California, which he describes as a particularly uncultured place.  After graduating from a New York film school, Tsai moved to Tokyo, where he currently lives and works on photographic and video projects.  Patrick’s photographs contain various depictions of the bizarre and surreal situations he seems to happen upon regularly.  Tsai recently released a collaborative zine featuring the works of Coley Brown and himself called Growing Up.

Sean Vegezzi is an eighteen-year-old born-and-bred New Yorker.  His photographs document kids on silent missions into unexplored, remote, urban areas.  The starting point of Vegezzi’s work can be traced back to the September 11th attacks, when, at twelve years old, he lived four blocks from The Twin Towers.  Forced to find something positive from the situation, Vegezzi braved Ground Zero, escorted by construction workers and armed with a video camera.  From then on Vegezzi has found comfort viewing and documenting his world through a lens.

Gavin Watson started taking pictures at the young age of 14, after being given a primitive 110-format camera.  A few years later, Watson upgraded his equipment and started photographing his world; coincidentally being the first wave of the British skinhead scene in the 70s.  Watson’s work shot to fame in the mid 90s after having his first book published entitled Skins.  He has exhibited his work in an astonishing amount of galleries over the years, most notably the V&A museum in London, as part of an exhibition about subculture.  Watson continues to shoot advertising and editorial projects for magazines like Vice, Art Rocker, Serafini, Fred Perry, and Kappa.
More information on this exhibition is available at http://www.scion.com/space

From the Motéma blog:

Recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, The Storyteller features new arrangements of Weston classics and includes accompaniments by Alex Blake on bass, Lewis Nash on drums, Benny Powell on trombone, TK Blue on flute & saxophones, Neil Clarke on percussion, and music by the Jazz Heritage Orchestra of Cleveland State University.

Weston’s Motéma debut The Storyteller will be released in November, and coincides with the 50th Anniversary of Weston’s landmark 1960 recording, UHURU Afrika which helped introduce jazz to Africa, and African rhythms to jazz. Weston’s most recent accolades (of the scores) include a win in the Composer category in The annual Downbeat Critics’ Poll as well as being named to the Hall of Fame joining jazz legends and piers Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane. He was also inducted into ASCAP’s “Jazz Wall of Fame” this year.

Read more about Randy Weston’s The Storyteller on the Motema blog.

Watch Motema’s Randy Weston video playlist

The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk and Jarritos seem to go hand in hand, as the perfect opportunity to showcase the “Flavor City” art submissions amongst a thriving Angeleno audience.
On July 8, 2010, the artists and judges came together in one room to celebrate the announcement of the winners and runners up at the Bang Gallery. Thousands of patrons strolled through the gallery, grabbed a cup of Jarritos and listened to the latest spins of LA’s top Djs.

http://jarritosflavorcity.com/

THE WINNERS

1st place: Paul Naveda

Paul Naveda was born in Puerto Ordaz, Bolivar State – Venezuela, on December 16, 1988. Since he was attracted by the paintings and drawings approximately in 1999 he attended painting classes for two years. After living a while in the capital city began an interest in graffiti.

Begins to experiment doing some sketching, observing and knowing all kinds of letters and styles in the streets and thats when begins the real passion for graffiti. After sometime and a long process of evolution, in 2005 he moved to Maracaibo, Zulia, and began his career as a graphic designer and himself as graffiti artist on the streets.

In 2009 he graduated with a degree in Graphic Design at the same time being a very good evolution in the graffiti participating in several events at national and regional levels. Currently works as a freelance Graphic Designer and Illustrator under the same name. He has worked and experimented in many fields of graphic design to learn new things and new experiences. His work focuses on illustration, logo design, type treatment, Murals and a little of Graffiti. www.be.net/elspo

2nd place: Brandon Blazerd

3rd-a place: Lori Ashcraft

Lori invented the Rocket Shoe in 1976. If she’d known who to contact to get a prototype built, this would be quite a different bio. But she was only 9 years old, so she tucked away the drawing of the tennis shoe with pop out wheels and multicolored exhaust, and went back to playing football and helping her dad make things in the garage.

She majored in Advertising/Mass Communication and worked for Condé Nast’s House and Garden magazine in New York for a couple of years before heading back to California to work as an Art Department Coordinator. Despite working on a number of films such as The Big Lebowski, Superman, A Walk in the Clouds, Virtuosity and One Fine Day, Lori became bored and started creating art for friends which led to some freelance design for Sega GameWorks and then another company and another, until hoola design was launched in 1999.

Beyond her graphics skills Lori does a respectable moonwalk. She is no longer bored at work.

3rd -b  Place : Veronica Oliva

Scion Presents: Ed Emberley and Friends from Scion ART on Vimeo.

Opening Reception July 17, 2010, 7-10 p.m.
On view July 17 Through August 7, 2010

Ed Emberley’s wonderfully simple books—Ed Emberley’s Big Green Drawing Book; Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals; Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Weirdos and dozens more—taught a generation of children to draw using the simplest of ingredients. Squiggles, triangles, dots, circles and the other building blocks of drawing came together in clear, step-by-step recipes.

Of course, some of the kids who surrounded themselves with Emberley’s books grew up to be professional artists. Opening July 17 at Scion’s Installation L.A. Gallery, “Ed Emberley & Friends” will demonstrate the breadth of influence that Emberley’s encouraging books have had on a generation of artists.

Curated by Caleb Neelon, the exhibition features Ed Emberley as well as five artists who were inspired by him. The artists include Raul Gonzalez, Seonna Hong, Matt Leines, Christopher Kline and Saelee Oh.

For “Ed Emberley & Friends,” each artist will create a six-foot-by-six-foot wood panel that is a mash-up of their own style and that of Ed Emberley’s instructional drawing books. The tribute paintings will be exhibited alongside examples of each artist’s individual work. After the show, each of the large painted panels will be donated for long-term display in children’s hospitals around the United States. Emberley will have the largest presence in the show, contributing work from his archives including dozens of pages from the 1970s original mockups of his books. He will have recent drawings of his classic characters for sale, as well as a limited-edition print made especially for the show.

The opening reception takes place on July 17, 7 – 10 p.m. at the Scion Installation Space, 3521 Helms Ave. (at National), Culver City, CA 90232. The reception is free with complimentary valet parking and an open bar. All artists will be present, and available for comment.

The exhibition will run until August 7.

About Ed Emberley
Ed Emberley has been operating on the fringes of art education for nearly 40 years, not as a classroom teacher but as an author of step-by-step drawing books. In so doing, he has helped hundreds of thousands of kids keep an interest in art by offering the simplest of encouragements: Try it again. You can do it. Here’s how.
Emberley was born in 1931 in the Boston suburb of Malden and was raised by a working family in nearby Cambridge. After graduating from what is now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1967, Emberley and his wife Barbara made a children’s book called Drummer Hoff. It was a critical success, winning the Caldecott medal, the most prestigious annual award in children’s book illustration. Trying to buy time while he prepared a follow-up masterpiece, Emberley pitched to his publisher: “I said, well, I’ve got this squirrely little idea for a drawing book that I could knock out in a month. Everybody’s gonna criticize it, and you’re probably not gonna sell very many of them, but it would be kind of fun. It’s a rote copying book, which you’re gonna get all kinds of people coming after you for, but why don’t we do this?” They did, and in 1970 Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals became the first in his namesake series, which has sold over a million copies.
Ed Emberley certainly has a habit of success. He’s worked on more than 80 books and has found a responsive commercial audience in Japan, where he has licensed his imagery for hundreds of products. The family business is now into its second generation. His children are both illustrators of books for young people as well, having learned by helping their parents. Emberley has kept up a steady stream drawing exercises that continue to inspire young people, just like they inspired a generation of now-adult artists.

About the Artists
Raul Gonzalez is an Artadia award-winning artist from Somerville, Massachusetts. He is a founding member of the Miracle 5 artist collective and has exhibited at Carroll and Sons Gallery and the Mills Gallery in Boston. In 2010, he will begin a residency at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and start preparations for an exhibition in the Linde Family Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

Seonna Hong graduated from California State University Long Beach, and spent several rewarding years teaching art to children. In 1999, she made the transition into the animation industry, and in 2004, received an Emmy Award for Individual Achievement in Background Styling for her work on the Nickelodean show My Life as a Teenage Robot. She continues to keep her plate full with national and international gallery shows, and in 2005, released her first moving picture book, Animus.

Matt Leines is a Philadelphia-based artist. His finely detailed paintings and drawings are an amalgam of memories, filtered influences from the long and varied histories of art and culture, and life’s obsessions. His work has been showcased in exhibitions and collections across the globe, and his first monograph, You Are Forgiven, was published by Free News Projects in 2008.

Christopher Kline was born in Pennsylvania, currently lives in Philadelphia and works out of the Chinatown gallery and studios, Space 1026. Kline makes multi-colored screen prints, colored pencil drawings and the occasional collaborative zine. His work has been shown in New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Austin and Philadelphia.

Saelee Oh is an American artist of Korean descent who currently lives and works in Los Angeles. In 2003, she graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with a BFA in illustration. She has given presentations at Saint Lawrence University and Harvard University, and her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States, as well as in the UK and Japan.

About the Curator
Caleb Neelon is an artist and writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Recent projects of his have been displayed in the past year at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Children’s Hospital Boston, and in his 2009 monograph from Gingko Press, Caleb Neelon’s Book of Awesome, which collects his mural and gallery works from around the world. He is co-author of the forthcoming HarperCollins book The History of American Graffiti. He still has his childhood drawings based on Ed Emberley’s drawing books.

More information on this exhibition is available at http://www.scion.com/space

About Scion Installation L.A.
Dedicated to fostering independent artistic expression, Scion Installation L.A. is space that allows artists to explore their creative visions. Scion Installation L.A. hosts art shows and art-related events for cutting-edge contemporary artists from across the globe. One-hundred percent of all sales go directly to the artists. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment: 310.815.8840.

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 brand features three groundbreaking 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. Scion launches the all-new, premium micro-subcompact iQ in early 2011. The Scion 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 Thursday, July 8th during the LA downtown art walk, the submissions will be on display and will be judged by a panel featuring prominent members of the LA art community:
Estevan Oriol, Raymond Roker of URB Magazine, Roger Gastman of R. Rock Enterprises, Stephan Malbon of Frank 151, Amir Fallah of Beautiful Decay, Casey Zoltan of The Seventh Letter and Known Gallery, Mark The Cobra Snake, Retna, Brandy Flower of Hit and Run, Chris Grosso of GuerillaOne.com.

The event takes place at:

July 8th,
7pm – 11pm

BANG GALLERY
354 S. Spring St.
LA, CA 90013

DJ set by Adam 12 & Justin Warfield from She Wants Revenge
http://www.banggalleryla.com
http://www.jarritosflavorcity.com