Coming this May AR4T Gallery presents Lights Out Beach City, Ben Brough’s new solo show, presented as loud thoughts and after thoughts derived from nomadic journals kept from 1998-2012. Opens May 5, 2012.

Here are 4 Questions with the artist:

1. Will this show touch on your life of travel?
BB: Yes, definitely. I spent a great deal of my youth on the move and truly loved the different places I ended up in. No matter what, it’s influenced me wherever I was – that bar in San Sebastian Spain, getting a new surfboard in west Australia or hanging out on Catalina Island.

2. Why is AR4T the right gallery setting for this show and what are you going to do with it?
BB: Because the ocean is across the street and it’s Lights Out Beach City … I’m going to cover the space with paintings, collages, drawings and some empty wine bottles with the goal of making it all have a nice visual ring to it and making the moment pleasing to all who attend.

3. How does the California landscape influence your work?
BB: California has it all. I do miss Hawaii where I grew up, but you can go from the desert to the beach to the mountains and so many hidden gems all with the greatest of ease in California. The fast-paced consumerist lifestyle mixed with the richness of the laid-back surf history here, I’ve grown to see the great qualities of California.

4. Why delve back to 1998 for your work in this show?
BB: I wanted to put everything out there and somewhat behind me, kind of like an art cleanse. I like to work in different styles usually, and I wanted to see them all together in one room at one time. 1998 is the year I started really spending a lot of time abroad and recording images and fucking off on a professional level and enjoying life. Most of the work prior to this in inaccessible because it’s either with owners or destroyed.

Upcoming Russ Pope Solo Show April 5-28, 2012: Tax Included. Opening Reception Thurs. April 5, 2012 6-9pm. Here is a Q and A with the artist!

Q. What is the meaning behind he show’s title Tax Included?
Russ Pope: April is tax month. You’ll see some medium/large sized paintings on canvas, drawings on archival papers, 3 and 2-D painted wood pieces with acrylic paint, ink and aerosol paint.  Social commentary, tax info. Some installed pieces, those will be the wooded 3-D pieces.

Q: What kind of impact did winning Best Visual Artist of 2010 from OC Weekly have over the past year in 2011? Did it create any changes?
RP: It was a really nice gesture, happy to be included.

Q: What’s a common question that younger artists ask you, and what’s your advice for them?
RP: Two frequently asked questions are: “How do you find the time to produce so much work?” and “How do I go about showing my work?” You don’t find time, you take or make the time to produce work, is my answer on the first question. The answer to the second is more complicated. A big part of showing your work is based on relationships you have or need to have with galleries.

Q: How is 2012 shaping up for you? In addition to this show, what else do you have coming up?
RP: I have another solo show later in the year at Space 1026 in Philadelphia.  A mural project in L.A. and a 3 man show in S.F. that I’m curating and painting for.

Coming soon! Very excited for this!

Wolfbat Shamans and the Whale of Gratitude, Art by Dennis McNett: SAT. FEB. 4, 2012

1. Please introduce us to the Whale of Gratitude. What is it’s story?
Dennis McNett: The Wolfbat tribe has made its way west across North America to Laguna Beach where shamans from the tribe have gathered to invoke the Whale of Gratitude. Each year the tribe stops to reflect on fallen tribesman, opportunities they have had, new members they have connected with, pay respect to those who have paved the path before them, and express gratitude for the energy and breath of the Wolfbat spirit. We have much to be grateful for this year.

2. Share with us a little of what you have planned for kids’ art day and what gave you the idea to have a kids day.
DM: Youth are more connected with the energy and spirit of the Wolfbat. They are less connected to material things, their hearts and minds are not cluttered with paying bills, a career,  and other worries. They are more free. I will show them how to make Wolfbat tribes masks from paper mache and woodcut prints and extend an invitation to be honorary Wolfbats.

3. Very excited that you’re bringing your art to the Orange County audience for the first time. As someone who has traveled your art all over the U.S., with a handful of art shows in California, how do west coast art audiences compare to where you live and work in Brooklyn?
DM: Brooklyn is a really great home base because it has a lot of creative energy which is encouraging and motivating. However, Wolfbats can not stay stationary for too long and need to connect with a broader spectrum of souls. California has been really responsive, calming, and kind anytime the Wolfbats have flown through in the past. We are looking forward to coming out to Orange County to share some gratitude.

4. We find that metal and punk rock bands go well with art at our gallery… how has punk rock helped define your style as an artist?
DM: The graphics coming from the early 80′s skateboard and punk rock seen grabbed hold of my guts at an early age. The raw, contrasty, energetic marks and imagery were a huge influence then and I’m still inspired by it’s vitality now.

Wolfbat Shamans and the Whale of Gratitude is presented by Vans.
View Vansart.tumblr.com.

We have six Jon Humphries images as part of Still Life with Wood. Opens Saturday Jan. 7 and showing through Jan. 22.

// Jon Humphries has found success in both commercial and editorial photography, contributing to The Skateboard Mag and many others, capturing memorable shots of the most recognizable names in skateboarding, sports and culture. He lives in Portland, Ore.

Above: Justin Brock by Jon Humphries

1. Have you shared wall space with Grant, Miki, Dave, Atiba and James before?
Jon: Yes, I’ve been in a couple shows with this crew.  These guys are my heros, it’s cool to be on a wall with them.  Grant helped launch my photo career and I will always give him praise for that.  Thanks Grant!

2. Your portraits are amazing. What about people and their faces that grabs your interest?
Jon: I’ve always loved portraits, I wish I was even better at them.  I don’t really like photos without people in them.  People age, photos age, that makes them look even better.  I wish I could make a living just shooting creative portraits.

3. Can you tell us a little bit about the photos you selected for this show?
Jon: These photos for the show are all shots of my past.  As a photographer I tend to like photos that have aged a bit.  Not sure why, but it adds something to them.  And I like black and white fiber prints, which these photos are.

4. How are these photos a reflection of you and your style?
Jon: I’m drawn to black and white, my favorites images are black and white.  Not sure why, it’s just how I see things.  But I’m not color blind.  Maybe black and white is cheating because it makes everything look better.

On view at AR4T this January – six legendary skateboard photographers reaching back to show their favorite images in archival print form – including Grant Brittain’s personal selection from the 80s. Still Life with Wood OPENS JANUARY 7.

Grant Brittain picked up a camera at the ripe old age of 25 in 1979 and started shooting his friends skateboarding at the Del Mar Skate Ranch. The “Ranch” was a skatepark in the small beach town of Del Mar, north of San Diego, California that he worked at from 1978 to 1984, and it was there that he honed his photographic skills. After blowing massive amounts of film, he then took every photo class Palomar Junior College had to offer. And with that, he felt he finally learned how to manipulate his 35mm camera. // While at college, an influential instructor introduced Brittain to the vast world of photography, and set him on his creative path. In 1983, Grant was asked to contribute skate photos to the premiere issue of TransWorld SKATEboarding magazine and became its founding Photo Editor and Senior Photographer. // Over the last 32 years Grant has captured the best skateboarders of the last three decades many of his photos have become classics. He has also taught some of the best skate photographers, past and present, and helped them develop their own work. He hopes that they have gotten as much inspiration from him as he gets from them. // Over the years Brittain’s personal work- abstracts, portraits, landscapes and travel images seems to draw from the opposite energy of his action images. His “off hours” are consumed by a search for calmer and more serene subjects. Still lakes at night and solitary desert forms are among the subjects of his diverse personal work. Some of his portraits of well-known athletes even manage to divulge a more reflective side of their personalities. // Few photographers have pursued so wide a range of subjects and styles. But few individuals find themselves so central to such an active community, where one’s perspective is just a notch askew of the rest, and where movement and progression is the norm. // Grant Brittain’s body of work reflects his deep involvement in an emerging youth culture, as well as his escape from it. // In 2003, Grant Brittain, Dave Swift, Atiba Jefferson and Jon Humphries and a group of the skateboarding elite talent left TWS and started The Skateboard Mag, where they all thrive creatively to this day. — Miki Vuckovich

4-Question Interview with Grant Brittain:

1. How did you choose the photos for this show?
Brittain: I always get nervous when it comes time to select the photos for a show. I spend a lot of time going back and forth between photographs, “Should I run the classics, newer stuff, portraits, lifestyle?” Choosing for this show was a bit easier in my decision making knowing that James Cassimus, one of my favorite photographers from the 70s was showing his stuff. I don’t know which photos King James is exhibiting, but I know they will be the photos I studied for hours when I was teaching myself to shoot photos. So, using James’ photos as a base I decided to think of this show as a timeline for four decades of skate photography, with mine pretty much falling into the 1980s. I ended up picking some of my favorite classic shots of  the 80s and beyond and Skater icons, The Bones Brigade, Mark Gonzales, Chris Miller, Natas Kaupas, Mike Smith and Christian Hosoi.

2. Is there anything about you that we’ll see in this show that some people might not know about you?
Brittain: I think these photos pretty much show my 80s photographic style, which come to think of it isn’t much different from my 2011 style. I have always tried to simplify my shots down to the basics, nothing fancy, just good clean images, isolating the action with minimal distractions.

3. I love Miki’s line about your personal work seeming “to draw from the opposite energy” of your action shots – will we get to see what he means?
Brittain: No, I decided to only show my skate photography, the other non-skate photos are personal and I just want gallery visitors to enjoy some great skateboarding through the eyes and cameras of some amazing photographers.

4. Together you make an insanely solid group photography show. Have you shared wall space with these guys before?
Brittain: I have been in a couple of shows with all the photographers in this one. James Cassimus was one of my predecessors and I used to fan out on him when I was starting and he was The Man, and then I worked with him at TWS and became friends with him and I would be sitting there thinking, “I’m hanging out with Cassimus!”  I am friends with Miki who is one of my oldest friends from Del Mar and we have worked together for years, Dave Swift, one of my best friends and business partner at The Skateboard Mag, Atiba Jefferson, was my assistant at the old mag and became an icon in skate photography and also a partner in The Mag and Jon Humphries, a staff photographer with us and probably one of the best and most respected photogs in skateboarding. So, I get to be in an unbelievable show with my heroes and my peers.

Miller by Grant Brittain

Still Life with Wood shows the art of Jay Croft. OPENS JANUARY 7.

1. Tell us about your art.
Jay: It’s basically wood cut outs of my characters that I draw and paint. I really like the 2d aspect that they create, its almost 3d but not really. I’ve always drawn since I was kid and everything I do is just an extension of that, there really isn’t a technique, it just sort of happens.

2. Since this show is about personal style… are we going to learn anything new about you?
Jay: I’m not sure… I hope people learn that I am just some kid from the midwest that grew up skateboarding. Skateboarding taught me that I could do anything that I wanted to do. Whether it’s do an ollie, paint a picture or anything that I set my mind to, anything is possible.

3. Has being a skateboarder been important in developing your artistic style over the years?
Jay: Definitely. I have such vivid memories of staring at skateboard magazines for hours checking out people like Lance Mountain, Neil Blender, Chris Miller, the Gonz and just getting lost in what they did and continue to do. I wanted to do those things too. I’m a skateboarder, 100 percent, it’s a big part of who I am. I grew up with a great family teaching me right from wrong, but skateboarding really put everything into focus for me.

4. When it comes to the photographers in this show: Grant, Miki, Dave, Jon and James, what are some of your favorite style elements of their skate photography?
Jay: Again, I grew up just getting lost in skateboard magazines, I still do to this day. I am a magazine nerd. These guys all played a huge part in my upbringing. They just present skateboarding the way that it should be seen… honestly, creatively and raw.

Since his days on the California Amateur Skateboarding League contest circuit in 1983, Miki Vuckovich served for many years as Senior Photographer and Senior Editor for TransWorld SKATEboarding, Editor for Skateboarding Business, Associate Producer for the ON Video Skateboarding documentary series, and was a founding member of the Tony Hawk Foundation Board of Directors. Currently he contributes to a number of major skateboarding publications, serves on the Board Of Directors for USA Skateboarding, and continues his work with the Tony Hawk Foundation as Executive Director, helping bring free public skateparks to youth in low-income communities across the U.S.

Miki’s photography will be on view in Still Life with Wood this January at AR4T.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the photos you’re selecting?
MV: I’ve chosen a set from the past 25 years that seem to bridge the gap, so to speak, between 1986 and 2011. I’ll know for sure, when I see them all up, why I chose the images I did.

2. How are these photos a reflection of you and your style? What are your favorite photography rules to break?
MV: I don’t think there’s a single rule I’ve actually followed! As a photographer doing magazine work, often there’s pressure to get work done at the expense of careful planning and really choosing what you want to shoot. So when you’re able to line up all the elements (subject, location, lighting, etc.) you really want, it usually results in images that stand out among your work. These images represent that. These were memorable sessions that show some of my favorite skaters, their individual styles, and some classic spots.

3.  I read online that you were one of the first people to use Instagram? We here at ar4t are such big fans — average people relating to each other on a daily basis through photography. Do you feel the impact in your daily life too?
MV: Absolutely. Photography is something I always think about, and in the past that would only occasionally result in creating an image. The advent of the quality cell-phone camera (namely, the iPhone) and all the related photo apps, has made the act of creating photography a part of my daily life, for sure. So it’s no longer just about “thinking” of photography all the time, it’s about “doing” it. You see something, your phone’s in your pocket, you have no excuse (and you’ll kick yourself later if you don’t snap the photo).

I was definitely not one of the first to use Instagram, but I did “rig” my Twitter account some years ago by using its Twitpic feature to essentially turn it into a photo-sharing medium. Instagram was the answer to social media that I (and clearly millions of others) were waiting for–a way to communicate with people all over the world in a visual way that transcends language and culture. For some reason I “Follow” dozens of people from Indonesia on Instagram. I just love their photos. Go figure. I seem to have a geographically eclectic roster of “Followers,” too. Meet them at @mikivuckovich

4. Is it a challenge to balance photography and being exec. director of the Tony Hawk Foundation?
MV: Sure. We’re a particularly busy organization. It’s work we’re all passionate about (helping create free, public skateparks in low-income communities), so it’s a struggle to balance work with other aspects of our lives. But I just plan more carefully and focus on the things that are really important to me (family, work, photography, skateboarding, etc.). Everything gets its due time, somehow. I managed to put some work together for this show!

5. Have you shared wall space with Grant, Dave, Jon and James before? How far do you guys go back?
MV: This is a dream line-up for me to be included with. Even if I weren’t included, it’s a show I wouldn’t miss, for sure. JGB, King James, Atiba, etc.–these are legends of the medium. I’m really excited to see what they bring. I’m friends with all of them, so that’s a fun component to this show. I’ve known most of them 20 years or more.

In the early 90s, there were the first few “skate-art” shows in LA and NYC. I think some of us were among the artists contributing work to those shows. So some of us have exhibited before, in that capacity. But this show is much more focused, and we each have a larger set of images representing us. Good thing, too–a lot has happened in the past 20 years.

Neil Blender, Sandlands, 1989 by Miki Vuckovich

Miki Vuckovich

The “Monsters of Skate” in our gallery this January for Still Life with Wood: the photography of Dave Swift, Miki Vuckovich, Grant Brittain, Jon Humphries, Atiba Jefferson and James Cassimus.

Four questions with Dave Swift:

1. Together you guys make an insanely solid group show. What are some of your favorite all time photos by Grant, Miki, Atiba, Jon and James?
Swift: Favorite Brittain shot would have to be a photo of Mike Smith Acid dropping into the hip of the original Combi Pool in Upland, California. Cassimus’ would have to be Alan Gelfand doing an Ollie in the halfpipe at Lakewood skatepark. Jon Humphries in the way he could translate a scene into a photograph, A long time ago he shot a feature that was printed in a magazine on the Burnside Skatepark and I still think of that as his best work. All B&W. Atiba Jefferson has been a colleague of mine for over 15 years. In the early days he would actually come out and video while I shot photos, imagine that? There is a portrait he shot of Jeremy Klein getting kicked in the face for a Hook Ups ad that I really love. But of course there are hundreds more. Miki Vuckovich shot some cool stuff in communist Soviet Union of kids riding on hideous skateboards. I just loved the rawness of those shots.

2. How often do you get out to take photos these days?
Swift: I take photos about once a week nowadays.

3. What do we get to learn about you through this show?
Swift: Previous to my life as a skateboard photographer I was heavily into riding my skateboard and traveled all over the world as a factory team rider for Schmitt Stix skateboards. As the 80s turned to the 90s I was fortunate to work alongside J. Grant Brittain and learn about photography and was soon traveling the world once again, but this time taking photographs of skateboarders.

4. How did you pick the photos to show at AR4T?
Swift: I chose to use some of my favorites from the past 20 plus years. Always hard to narrow it down but I selected these based on both the skaters style and the terrain chosen.

Chase Adams is a self-taught jewelry artist whose copper and gemstone pieces are complex works of art you can hold in your hand. His new workshop is inside a glass-blowing studio!

1. Since you find a lot of your crystals and stones yourself, do you ever get attached to the pieces and have trouble parting with them?
Chase: I’m over that but I have a few things I keep for myself. Even when someone wants one of those, I see that strong feeling I had when I first saw it — then I want them to have it.

2. How did you get started making jewelry?
Chase: I’ve always done it. But I credit the down economy for really getting into it. I’ve read metalworking books, but never any formal classes. I just make jewelry for the way I wear jewelry.

3. Do you feel more productive now that you have a workshop?
Chase: So much more productive. I work nine to five every day. These guys are helping me so much with life in general.

4. Where do you find your materials?
Chase: I collect a lot of them. Near Lake Tahoe, Arizona. And I have a good relationship with my vendors. I get deer skin leather from a mom and pop shop in Colorado that I found when I was driving the 70 once, and now I order from them all the time. I found the piece of wood [amazing Ar4t dreamcatcher display] in Sedona.

Workshop

Pendants

A glass-blowing friend

BECOME A BETTER YOU. Corey Smith Solo art show opens November 2nd. Mark your calendar. These 4Q’s with Corey were done September, keep an eye out for show updates SOON.

Out of many of the artists I’ve met over the past ten years, you seem to be showing your art quite regularly (and all over the world). Yeah I guess that’s true. Since much of my work is fairly simple and easy to make I’m able to make a lot of it. My work is more about sharing ideas rather than taking a year to finish a classical painting. I have a lot of ideas and I just need to manifest them as immediately as possible. I really enjoy showing my work. I really enjoy talking with people and sharing ideas.

What have been your favorite shows and where have you been showing in the past year? My favorite show was a solo show I had in 2010 at the Worksound Gallery in Portland Or. http://www.openwidepdx.com/?p=2798 It was my largest solo show. I haven’t really shown much in 2011 since I’ve was living in Tahoe and working on my Spring Break Snowboards project. Over the summer I’ve shown a collection of my existing work at the Blank Space pop up Gallery on La Brea. It was my most successful show to date, so I’m really happy about that.

You are making all new art for this show, what is your inspiration? Yes, I am attempting to make all new work. My inspiration for this show comes from get-rich-quick schemes, excersise equipment, extreme sports, weight-loss plans, and strategies for happiness.

Are you using any new techniques? any medium (or ideas) that you are experimenting with? I’m actually going back to mediums and techniques I developed years ago, very clean, minimalist line drawings, on wood panels, with high gloss finish. I guess that’s my style so I’m sticking to it.