Studio Number One is an LA-based creative/marketing/design agency founded by the street art & design legend Shepard Fairey and led by former Juxtapoz editor Jamie O'Shea. The agency is an authoritative gateway into the realm of "underground art" in all its diverse genres, with unprecedented access to relevant and cutting-edge artists and creatives within the industry. On a weekly basis, Fairey and O'Shea will be bringing you a look at what's moving them in the worlds of art, music, and creative culture at large, and offering insights into the workings of the Studio and its network of collaborators & co-conspirators.
"Debuting last weekend at Culver City's Western Projects gallery is a fantastic new show of paintings by our good friend, artist Mark Dean Veca. A recent NYC transplant now indulging in the hedonistic Southern California lifestyle full-time, Mark has created his strongest body of work to date with this new show that 'chronicles the end of one American era and the beginning of another; the dissolution of the 'American Dream' amidst the collapsing economy and the lost dominance of America in the world order.' In short, these cartoon-y images of dollar signs, Uncle Scrooge, and the Ramones-esque Presidential seal, all rendered in the artist's trademark hyper-detailed organic style, offer beautiful visual commentary on the end of an era we might never glimpse again."
Have a look at detailed images of the show and additional words from the Studio Number One crew on Veca's show after the jump.
"Veca's impolite paintings are both fast and immensely slow to reveal themselves. His monochrome backgrounds hold an atmospheric tension, while the figures upon close inspection are created with thousands of lines as festering and decaying shapes, giving them a palatable presence. Drawn with India ink by hand (no digital overlays or screening), the rich details reinvent the characters as both humorous and poignant. Mirroring our cultural attitudes of greed, violence, and rampant materialism, the paintings also invoke the tradition of history painting and the genre of social portraiture. In line with Goya's court paintings and William Hogarth's scathing satirical works, Veca points to a culture gone wild; his "Armor in Command" uses Big Daddy Roth's Vietnam-era hot-rod imagery to evoke a war machine run amok, and Warner Brothers' beloved cartoon graphic, That's All Folks! as a cancerous colon/void for the post 9/11 world. But the slowest aspect of the works is its intrinsic devotion to truth—his immaculate craftsmanship is a passionate hat-tip to the punk ideal (Never Mind the Bollocks was a romantic scream) of a better world ahead; destruction unearths something better ahead—and jostling the funny bone helps along the way."
On display until October 23rd, the show is a must-see for anyone calling Hollywood "home"...
Marc Dean Veca (left) with artist John Bauer
Artist Gomez Bueno & family
Mark in the path of the War Machine
Mark with artist Seth Kauffman. "That's All Folks"...
