JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

Limited Addiction’s founder, David B. Smith, has a real knack for finding and bringing those at the top of their art game to his gallery in Denver. Gregory Euclide is one such artist at the top of his game. Mr. Euclide creates two types of work that seamlessly integrate with one another. He creates both what he refers to as “flat” work and what he refers to “relief” work. The term “relief” is sort of an understatement in Mr. Euclide’s case (the accompanying photos ought to justify). Hailing from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Euclide’s local environmental inspiration is clearly visible. According to his artist statement, “My work explores the way we experience nature and how this is tied to the cultural practice of constructing landscapes as idealized images.” Landscapes… to say the least. Have a look.

There’s a lot of really talented artists showing work at a number of what ought to be spectacular openings this evening. Here’s our 4 favorite in no particular order, well not really. Lefavor gets to sit at the top.

1. Merge, Andenken, 2990 Larimer – Amanda Marie, Scot Lefavor and Vincent Comparetto.

2. Gregory Euclide, Limited Addiction, 825 Sana Fe – Gregory Euclide

3. Molten, Space Gallery, 765 Santa Fe – Rafa Jenn, Trevor Alyn, Alicia Bailey, Andrew Chapman, Jeff Navarro, Ryan Rosburg, Regan Rosburg, Heather Seeley, Katie Taft, Jason Thielke, and Rutherford Witthus.

4. The Gritty & Itty Bitty, AITC Gallery, 2762 Walnut – Max Kaufman, Bethany DeMarco, Ray Young Chu , Wendi Harford, Bob White , Ethan Wenberg, Christina Dillon, Ella Trujillo, Stephanie, Auld , Matthew Doubek, Melissa O’Dell, Dan Lopez – Music by Andrea Ball – Live Graf by the Magnet Mafioso.

We had one hell of a Saturday night. It started off at Limited Addiction for the annual group show. The work was amazing, if you just checked it out online get off yer ass and get down there – it’s stunning in person. Next we headed over to The Shoppe for Josh’s birthday. En route we snagged some photos of Chris‘ Obama propaganda – awesome! The shoppe was packed, cereal and cupcakes flying everywhere. The lovely folks of Plastic Chapel let us in after hours to check out the YOK show. It was great to see a mix of his newer painting style and his classic one color illustrations. Back at The Shoppe we had a serious Tetris throw down (for the record TB blows). Later we even ended up at Sam’s – one of the founders of 303 Boards – and peeped some classic Lefavor decks. All in all, it was a pretty amazing artsy fartsy night! Enjoy the pics!

Jason Thielke will be taking center stage at Limited Addiction Gallery this Saturday, January 12th with his latest works entitled, “PSiLOVEU.” Based on LAG’s reputation within the art world it’s safe to say that this is Jason’s biggest and perhaps most significant solo show to date. He’s been preparing meticulously in typical Thielke fasion and producing some truly spectacular work. Personally, I feel that LAG teaming up with Thielke is the start to a brilliant future for not just Jason and LAG, but for the entire Front Range art community. It’s been a bit since I was this excited about viewing one of my friends bodies of work. You’ll have to wait until Saturday to see the whole show, but in the mean time, here’s a sample of what’s in store.

Fontana | McCormick | Naccarato & Stein

11.30.07 through 12.23.07 – Opening reception Friday, November 30th, 7-10pm
NOTE: The artists will be painting live in the gallery both tonight and Saturday evening!

“After several years of working and showing together, these four west coast artists come together for “Children’s Hour” (A collaborative exploration of children’s fables, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes). Work produced at live painting events, through the course of friendship, and a workshop like comradery for each others painting techniques, inspired the pursuit of a more focused collaborative effort. Without the time constraints [a usual tendency of live painting events], it was agreed that the resulting work had become more than the sum of it’s parts, in addition to telling it’s own type of unique folk tale.

“With this presentation we invite you into our working world. The four of us have come together and bonded over our love for spending every possible moment making art. With a completed series of works, combined with live painting the night of the opening and the following day, we hope to give you a glimpse into our reality.

During the last few decades cascading waves of entertainment minutia continue to gain momentum, leaving few pastime gratifications that have a lasting effect on society. Children’s narrative, whether fable or lullabye, story or song, has increasingly become a victim. An increasing homogenization of adult and child demeanor has rendered classic tales almost obsolete. With “Children’s Hour,” we’ve come together in collaboration to show appreciation for what we believe should remain timeless and relative.”

Thanks and hope to see you there.” – Blaine, Tim, James & Jophen.

limitedaddictiongallery.com

The show was dope. If you made it out you know how sick the work was, if not, well that’s what we’re here for. Enjoy the pics. Big thanks to everyone at Limited Addiction for a great show and to the artists for the great work.

limitedaddictiongallery.com | joshkeyes.net | oliververnon.com

For starters I’ve gotta say Chris Cox is a really stellar guy. Aside from being a spectacular, illustrator, graphic designer, ad guy, and website designer – Chris can paint. I have proof. I, well we (the greater JoyEngine posse) now own a Cox original. Chris and his wife Alex came down to kick it yesterday and shoot the design-life shit and they left us with a painting. How fucking rad is that, right? The newly acquired Cox painting topped off a really great art weekend. Saturday night I took my Mom and Sis (who just happened to be in town) down to Dave’s gallery (Limited Adddition Gallery) for the Blaine Fontana opening where my Sis kicked down and bought me an early b-day present in the form of a Fontana print (you can see it below – JR picked one up too). I grabbed Lucian’s Ryan Bubnis painting that he picked up from Limited Addiction’s inaugral group show – which is Awesome! To really ice the cake Dave handed me a copy of BUA’s new book, “The Beat of Urban Art” upon leaving his gallery. Dave had BUA sign the book for me prior to his latest show at Limited Addicition (which I missed due to less than ideal time management and a heavy workload and subsequently feel like a real jack-ass and like I missed a major opportunity to be really, really inspired – I guess I’ve got the book though). Thanks Dave. Oh, prior to that we hit up the new Denver Art Museum where I think I drooled so much all over one of Murakami’s pieces on loan to the museum from the Logan’s that it’s now ruined. Sorry, Takashi. From there hit the The 400 to show off the shop to the fam and get them a peak at the rafajenn.com piece I recently acquired (which is unfuckingbelievably great by the way) Pretty arty weekend, eh? I think I’m beginning to understand why I’m broke… art?
changethethought.com

blainefontana.com

“Taxonomy Animalia” by Blaine Fontana opens tomorrow night at Limited Addiction Gallery. The opening reception runs from 7 – 10pm. Blaine will be in attendance for all you Fontana junkies (which pretty much includes our whole posse). Limited Addiction Gallery is located at 825 Santa Fe Drive in Denver, CO. You don’t want to miss this show, so get off your ass and represent. You can get a sneak peek of Mr. Fontana’s latest works online here. Enjoy. Hope to see you tomorrow night.

Limited Adddition Gallery

The Limited Addiction concept began when a group of collectors nationwide created an art discussion forum in March, 2005 around an emerging art movement. The rapid growth of the forum sparked the development of the Gallery, and it grew organically in line with the interests of the forum’s community.

The Limited Addiction Gallery represents both world-renowned and as yet undiscovered innovators of this new art movement – otherwise labeled Pop-Surrealism, Urban Contemporary and 21st Century Figurative Art.

Limited Addiction had their first formal opening last night, a group show entitled Elevation, and it was mind-blowing to say the least. We’ve been geeked up about Limited Addiction’s inaugural reception for some time. The gallery was totally dialed, the Limited Addiction crew was on their game, and the peops that turned up seemed astounded, as assumed and we’re subsequently spending real dollars to consume art. We approximated roughly 200 pieces on display in about a 1000 sq. ft. The artwork was arranged flawlessly, allowing each piece to stand on its own merit, and receive the admiration and recognition deserved. Our homey, Denver’s newest golden boy up on the urban contemporary art scene, Jason Thileke, was reppin’ hard for the local crew with a gorgoeus piece, entitled South Side. For a local artist like Thielke, and everyone in the Denver art scene last night marked a turning point. The Denver art scene has been flourishing for some time, yet on a subterranean level – slightly below the surface of the larger traditionally defined metropolitan art community rooted on the far-right coast particularly within New York City, and on the far-left predominantly in Los Angeles and San Francisco. While a number of the artists with work on display last night reside on one of the coasts a good portion of them do not.

We tip our hats to the Limited Addiction crew for pullin’ off a series coup in the Denver art scene and realizing a dream that as far as we know has been a long time in the works.

The line-up last night read like an annual review of Juxtapoz, check it out:
APAK, Attaboy, Anthony Ausgang, Ana Bagayan, Brian Barneclo, Leia Bell, Robert Bellm, Tim Biskup, Mark Bryan, BUA, Ryan Bubnis, Guy Burwell, Paul Chatem, Sean Christopher, Josh Clay, L. Croskey, Matt Curry, Dalek, Ekundayo, EMEK, Gregory Euclide, Michael R. Everett, Ewik, Natalia Fabia, James Fish, Blaine Fontana, Justin Hampton, Thomas Han, Robert Hardgrave, Josh Hart, Naoto Hattori, Dennis Hayes / 7teen, Stella Im Hultberg, Sylvia Ji, Colin Johnson, Audrey Kawasaki, Josh Keyes, Caia Koopman, Joshua Krause, Dennis Larkins, Craig LaRotonda, Francesco LoCastro, Lola, Jack Long, Alex Lukas, Chris Mars, MARS-1, Dan May, Dan McCarthy, Tim McCormick, Lyle Motley, Mark Murphy, James Naccarato, Lynne Naylor, Caleb Neelon, Niagara, Randy Noborikawa, Kathy Olivas, Martin Ontiveros, PCP, Brandt Peters, Kevin Peterson, Shaunna Peterson, Joshua Petker, Plankton Art Co., Chris Reccardi, Jermaine Rogers, Reuben Rude, KRK Ryden, Souther Salazar, Scott Saw, Tra Selhtrow, SHAG, Ryan Jacob Smith, Jeana Sohn, Amy Sol, Joe Sorren, Jeff Soto, Bwana Spoons, Nathan Spoor, Jophen Stein, Becky Suss, Jason Thielke, Preston Thomas, Miles Thompson, Mark Todd, Joe Vaux, Mark Dean Veca, Oliver Vernon, Michele Waterman, Esther Pearl Watson, Justin B. Williams, Jeff Wood, Jasmine Worth, Chet Zar and more…

Here’s some pics to get a closer look at the caliber of art on display in Limited Addiction’s new gallery space at 825 Santa Fe Drive, in Denver, Colorado – holdin’ down the 80204.

NOTE: We’re organzing our pics and they’ll be added sporatically over the next few days.