111230. Year End.

As the Year 2011 comes to a close, New York is witnessing some unusually warm highs and quite a terrific weather of spring like conditions in the morning and looks like cloudy as I write. I just got an email from a good friend , Yuri Shimojo, with a message of hope for 2012. I think what she is saying is so awesome, I wanted to share it with you.



Painting is by master Yuri Shimojo.
"Voices from 2011"




*

Dearest friends and families

As year of 2011 is closing I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude and love to you

This global upheaval year has brought many of us to face inner revolution
Our mother land guided us one of the big examples too
2011 became the year zero for me as Japanese and as an artist

May all humans can appreciate what we learned from 2011 when we look back year of zero one day

May all humans can live in peaceful coexistence with nature on beautiful earth one day

I painted this piece this year with my prayers
dedicating for children

May all your prayers and dreams you manifested this year will seed, root and bloom
2012

The year of the shift

Warmly open to the beautiful light


Happy New Year !


LOVE

Yuri Shimojo

11-11-08. TED Rochester POP UP SHOP 1975!!

I was part of a group show in Rochester NY last month to celebrate my friend's art gallery, 1975. It was their 3rd anniversary show and it has been going strong, growing themselves into a bigger show space and also growing their stables of upcoming, outstanding and next generation artists. Rochester is not only the 3rd largest city in New York State, it is also a strange town of some creative peoples all bursting at the edges and exploring all sorts of stuff. It is an important enough city that TED talks decided to host a show in Rochester this week!
As such events go, there is always a carnival feel because how exciting and wonderful sharing new ideas are. The only way to really get that idea impact out is by having parties and events to grow on the main event( ie. miami basel, nyc armory show, greenroom festival japan, sacred craft, etc...)!
1975 hosted a pop up shop and fortunately, my submitted piece was on display!! Thank you so much, 1975 et Erich Lehman!! Thank you Rochester for hosting the event and Thanks for checking out this blog, y'all!!

111025. BPMW PressDay

BPMW Agency and I created a poster for their Spring/Summer 2012 Press Day Event. There were AWESOME brands there and give aways for the press! 1 of 50 silk screen posters especially for the event! Good eats, good Agency! Thanks!!



Shades of Grey.


Amongst Friends.

Mismo.


Clae.


Undefeated.




Reyn Spooner.


Mark McNerry


Penfield.


Tretorn.




Stussy/ Stussy Deluxe.


Wolverine 1000 Miles/ 1883.


*Not Shown.. Original Penguin. Feit.

111018. Opening Nite.

A Really Cool Looking Lamp at Nepenthes.




Thursday night was opening night for some galleries in NYC. I attended three of them, Joshua Liner Gallery, Nepenthes Gallery and EV Gallery. It's always nice to check these events out because you never really know who will show up and for me, it s always alot of friends from different professions. It s usually time to catch up on last months happenings and maybe toot my own horn about my own happenings. Whatever. The images are rather spartan and I have to admit, as opening images or even event photos, they are so random that maybe I shouldn t even talk about openings but just say, 'these are images from thursday night.. and I took some snap shots of some friends and art. Enjoy'

The very Stylish , Eri Sorayama.



Hand in hand. Photographer and Stylist. Eri and Yuri Shibuya. EV Gallery.



Getting ready in the back. Nepenthes.



Getting Ready in the Front. Nepenthes. VSOP Show.




The Man at the Nepenthes. Angelo caught surprised by my camera's proximity.



Doing some time at Nepenthes. Kenta. Designer.



Post O'alls' Art Show. Chattin it up at the counter.



Post O'alls and Hells Kitchen Sounds. Very Nice Vibes in Nepenthes.

going mobile!

111019. Joshua Liner Gallery and Nepenthes

Thursday is a very busy day in the art world. Well, from what my wife says, thursday is a busy day in any world... the day before friday. The day where we try to nail it all shut before the weekend and the day before the end of the 'work' week. Accordingly, thursday, people seem to let off enough steam so that they can stumble back into friday and finish up the week before taking off to go weekend. So, by this idea, we have three GREAT Distractions to set off your Thursday Steam Out!


Joshua Liner Gallery is presenting two solo shows this thursday.


Chloe Early Invitation.

They are by artists Chloe Early and Ryan McLennan. From what I am gathering from the flyers, it is going to be abstract representational type imagery! Should be an exciting show for the senses!



Ryan McLennan Invitation.

Joshua Liner Gallery is located at 548 west 28th street, Chelsea Manhattan. 3rd Floor. The opening is from 6 - 9. See you there!

and the third distraction, you say....

Nepenthes is presenting: 'My V.S.O.P.' by Takeshi Ohfuchi and Throne of Blood for HKMS






Here is what I got...

'Dear friends,

This Thursday October 20th, we will have an opening reception for our new exhibition My V.S.O.P. by Takeshi Ohfuchi of Post O'alls. Post O'alls will also be featured at our new pop-up shop on the mezzanine.

Nepenthes is also be proud to unveil the next segment of the Hell's Kitchen Music Society - the NYC-based dance music record label, Throne of Blood.

From 7PM to 9PM, we will have refreshments and music (live DJ set by Throne of Blood artist POPULETTE) at our NNY store so please come by, say hello, and enjoy a night with your Nepenthes friends.

We look forward to seeing you then.'

Nepenthes NY is located at 307 west 38th street. Ground Floor. I hope to see you there, as well!

Cheers to Thursdays!!!!

111019. Yuri Shibuya's group art show! THE INFERNO

On thursday , October 20, 2011, my good friend , Yuri Shibuya is in an art show! Coming from a string of runaway hits in JAPAN, she is bringing her visual aesthetics to NEW YORK CITY!
From what I am gathering of the presenters of the show, it looks to be heavy on the documentary and fly on the wall images as well as up close and in the mix looks! It should be quite an eye opener and a fun one to boot!!
Hamburger Eyes from what I ve seen is pretty RAW and Imaginative! This should be one for the ARTS!
The Opening Reception will be from 7 - 10 at 208 east 7th street, New York, NY... east village! If you have a chance, come by and gape!

11-10-13. Art Benefit for Tibet!!

Art for Tibet Online Art Auction Open Now
Click here to preview artwork and pre-bid:http://benefitevents.com/auctions/sft2011
Online Auction Closes October 14th at 3pm (EST)

For more information and to view the contributing artist list (in formation):
http://www.artfortibet.com
We hope you can join us for this exhibition and special event. If you are not able to attend to bid on artwork in person, we offer a concierge bidding service for absentee bids. These can be placed through SFT at 212-358-0071 or
benefit@studentsforafreetibet.org until 3pm (EST) the evening of Oct. 14th.

*All proceeds from benefit Students for a Free Tibet, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working for human rights and freedom in Tibet.

Art for Tibet pays tribute to the cultural renaissance flourishing in Tibet in spite of continued repression of Tibetan artists, poets, writers, musicians and intellectuals. In the spirit of this renaissance, the event explores the intersections between contemporary art, freedom of expression, and the Tibetan freedom movement.


This event is open to the public.


Thank You.




This is my submitted piece. 'Green Tiger' (2010)

11-10-10. a video scaped up from the past!

This is a quick little video directed by my good friend, Yuri Shibuya. Check it!







I think its from the archival files of 1957.. sometime around the great one, Von Dutch. It was a swinging era! Everything was new! Even the surfboards were getting smaller and I m pretty sure Von Dutch created the first Kustom Surfboards out of fiberglass cos he was doing all that with his cars. Anyways, Enjoy!





Bottom of the Board.




Top of the Board.

110915. NAOMI KAZAMA and FT GREENE's MOEs

Artist, gallerist, creative being and all around eccentric guy, Naomi Kazama of DYZ-EXP fame and AUTOCIDER is bringing his show to Brooklyn, NY for a weekend event of Live Screenprinting with his gang, STRANGE, jewelry by Maya and some sample sales and what nots. Please come. South Portland and Lafayette. Sat and Sun, September 17 and 18.

11-09-12. Virgin Free Fest and Kiyocera Shuji

Help Japan and your wardrobe.

Virgin Free Fest was in the woods this year! It was a good ol' festival in nature with ferris wheels, carnival tents and a skatepark! Kiyocera was one of the main sponsors of the event and they pumped it up with innovative sound/sight experience in form of outdoor dance party coupled with high tech camera/sound/sight bending non stoppable party dancing, space aliens dancing...



An alien in a suit!



A tree tall alien!




Twin Dancing GLOB Aliens!


... a solar charging stations with benches and lounge chairs AND shuji on tee shirts by masters/artists;
Mayo Kohama, Eiko Berkowitz, Yoshiko Komatsu, Yuri Shibuya, Asako Miyahira and me, Mike Ming!






Art is an expression and extention of ourselves. Yuri Shibuya and Asako Miyahira extending and expressing.




Japanese culture emphasizes subtlety. Yu-chan and Eiko-chan emphasizing.



Man on phone: ".. YES! SHUUUUJJJJIIIIII by masters!! I m going to get 'GAMMBARREE JAPAN!!! "



It was a non-profit $5 donation for a shirt with Japanese Calligraphy! As expected, this event was a smash! From the time the gate was open until even after the lights went out, there were people trying to scramble for tee shirts. It was a successful all day affair that saw throngs of people wanting to help Japan and get something special written on their tee shirts in return.



The Angels, the crowds and the shuji tent.






Lights out in our tent, party is ON at Kiyocera Sight/Sound Tent!


I would like to thank those who were involved and organizing this event and for allowing me to participate for a wonderful cause.

Kiyocera for making it happen, Virgin Mobile for the event, Mother NYC for production, Mayo Kohama for displaying amazing Shuji Power(!!!), Eiko-chan and Yu-chan for all the help in figuring the characters out and for dealing with all those customers who were 'outside the box' (I overheard more than 1 strange request coming from their direction), Yuri Shibuya and Asako Miyahira for traveling with me and having patience to deal with me, Charles Lahti for calling us out and envisioning this amazing event, Christine from Mother NYC to produce this event and trusting us to do the amazing job we needed to do, Kiyocera Angels for keeping the tent running smooth in the chaos of all those shirts getting written on and drying, all those who donated for an excellent cause and Hurricane Katria to wander away from the proximate seaboard and leaving us the beautiful weather to fill in for her insted!! Thank youses!!



Me with my custom Mayo Kohama shuji shirt!!

110912. QuiksilverPro Vitamin Water Mural

Vitamin Water Shack in business.


New York City saw its first ever WCT surf contest at Long Beach, New York this month. Prior to the event, there were advertisements popping up as billboards on bus stops, buses and in subway cars. It is not the first surfboarding contest but it IS the first contest of this caliber, the top 32 competitive surfing professionals, battling it out in New York City.



Contest.



Taj Burrows getting in and burnin!

For such an event, my good studio 195 partner, Hugh Gran and I, were asked to paint a mural for Vitamin Water for this special event. The week before the event, hurricane Irene came ashore for a quick visit and her presence made painting a mural outdoor pretty unnegotiable. Thankfully, the great people at Critical Massive, who produced this mural, got us an indoor studio and we proceeded to paint. We worked from a sketch done by Hugh Gran but we took artistic liberties once the paint hit the board.



The Mural before it left for the beach. Apocolyptic Future NYC Wave Riders.

It was quite a fun project to work on and although the Quiksilver event did go down, all the hype of a music festival to murals were all tapered down to a few shacks and a store, it was a great time had by all.




We all like Free Stuff.

110804. Snacky and Mike Ming

Snacky is an awesome little dig that serves up a nice asian affair tapas on Grand Street in cozy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Its an establishment that has spent over ten years being the hip bar/restaurant before it was hipster-burg.




When the owner, Sandy Pei, decided to renovate the look, she honored me with a call to do up the roll gate box. I thought it would be appropriate to hit it with the red and gold, chinese festivity colors, and keep the look free-stripped and abstract.
It was a beautiful day to paint the outside and a great photographer friend of mine, Yuri Shibuya, came through on her bicycletta and took some flicks before she went off on her next adventure.. oh, the travelling photographer.





Snacky is located 187 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Yuri Shibuya is located where ever she pleases, camera in tow and ready to
shoot whatever she pleases.
www.yurishibuya.com