JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

Mike Graves life involves lots of painting.  Since we met Mike a couple years ago, we’ve never known a time when he wasn’t working on a new series of paintings for a new show.   He blows our minds every time. This go round it’s Lucha Libre at The 400.  The show opens on Thursday, July 17th.  Check it out.

Mike Graves has been ferociously attacking the progressive art world, having recently shown in SF, with his figurative character work. And it’s both “Legit” and “Awesome.” Hence the title of Mike’s show this Saturday night, April 12th at Dee and Daves’ emporium of wonder, the Plastic Chapel. Legit and Awesome opens Saturday night at 7pm. It’s gonna be rad so go check it out.

The EHF collective including Markham Maes, Scot Lefavor and Mike Graves will be showing new works this evening at the D-Note in Old Town Arvada. The show curated by Shitty Kitten himself, and entitled Magic Beans for Sale is sure to impress. Other participating artists include, Anthony Salazar, Josh Holland, Mike Gallegos, and Sean Gilbert. Beats will come heavy via JapaDapta w/ our boy Robin Samples on the mike. Look-out, yo!!! Here’s a sneak peek from EHF crew!!!

Mike Graves and Shitty Kitten have been pow-wowin’ on the weekends and paintin’ their arty lil’ asses off. Shitty seems to be pushin’ Graves out of his comfort zone, and Graves is inspiring the hell out of Markham. They’ve been collabbin’ on some toys for Plastic Chapel’s upcoming show, all sorts of wood panels and some other yet to be announced goodies. Shitty whipped out some samples when we hung last and they’re lookin’ tip-top… they’ve got a ways to go, but oughtta be awesome! Rumor has it that Lefavor is gonna be gettin’ involved with the duo real soon… We’ll be waiting with baited breath.

Who won? We called it a draw. Individually both cats (hailing from the DF Crew) put together super great work and every piece they collaborated on was f*ing stellar. We’re less familiar with Jive’s fine artwork (more familiar with his work in the street), but his transition to the gallery setting was flawless. As for Mr. Mike Graves, we witnessed some of his smallest, and cleanest paintings yet - and the reveal to wood was sick! The show will be running for a month, so if you didn’t make it for the opening you should swing by. Big ups to Indy Ink for holding it down, they have great shop that definitely warrants a visit.

Mike Graves just sent over some sneak peeks of his work for tonight. Lookin’ good! We’ll be out for sure. Can’t wait to see what Jive has cookin’! Check out the show tonight, 7 - 11 at Indy Ink.

The best battle since the Thrilla in Manila… Jive and Graves will duke it out at INDY INK on February 1st. We’ve all been waiting for this one. We spoke to Graves today, and he’s pretty much foaming at the mouth. Jive best bring his A-game. We heard “Madd” Mike’s been bangin’ heavy in the gym and barely made weight??? Mark your calendars.

Madd Mike Graves and the rest of our homies over at Fighting Fifth threw down today with some stellar photos of their toy collection. Excellent retaliation to the toy collection challenge, Mike. We’ll be reorganizing our troops here soon in an effort to combat your all out designer toy infiltration. Thanks bro!!!

fightingfifth.com

Fightingfifth.com recently went live. Stop by and have a look. The site features highly consumeable ultra-dope goodies by the likes of Mike Graves, Scribe, the rest of the DF crew ( you can grab a copy of “Idiots on Parade“), and we’re guessing work by other sick graf, street, and fine artists to come soon. CHECK IT OUT, yo.

fightingfifth.com | scribeswalk.com | Idiots on Parade

Mark you calendars casue there’s some shit goin’ down… Mike Graves latest show opens on October 24th. And one week later, for first Friday on Colfax NewSpeak (INDY INK’s latest venture - retail & tattoos) opens with the DF crew (Emit, Cycle, Keith Jive, East, D. Ross - Scribe, Jason Brunson, Quisp, and Vogues) + more of Mike Graves and a bit of Jher 451 proudly presenting “Die Famous” on November 2nd. Hot shit goin’ down.

indyink.com

…Straight from the man himself, have a read, “Finally got this in the mail the other day. Its a sick magazine out of Australia (why are all the really sick mags from other countries?) called Wooden Toy. It has a bunch of great art and photography and interviews with the likes of Anthony Lister, Lyrics Born, The Autopsy Gallery, Brendan Monroe…. and a little write up on me! I’m international, baby! Check it out!” - John Fellows

NICE FELLOWS WITH A PAPERCUT
John is one fellow from Colorado we have been glad to make acquaintances with. We are sure they are all nice in Colorado, but perhaps not all as nice as John. You see even though we are only so-called “internet friends”, John has been sending us meticulously prepared little design care packages on a regular basis. He knows that here at Fad Experiment HQ we need out design-in-the-mail fix or we go mad! Who doesn’t like something fresh turning up in the mailman’s arms every couple of weeks? For my money there is nothing better than getting an envelope all covered in doodles (the drawing kind…of course) and wondering excitedly what kind of goodies lay waiting for you inside (apart from being told that your real father is Hugh Hefner and he wants you to move home…).

When John’s first mail package came we were aghast. Where had it come from? Who was John Fellows? Who spends so much time on the outside of an envelope? Why didn’t the postie pocket it? Is the postie mad? Then we realized we were spending way too much time thinking about it and decided to rip the fucker wide open before someone snatched it from our star struck hands. Surely someone who spent this much time on the package would have spent even more time on whatever lay inside, right? As expected, John didn’t disappoint.

In parcel #2 John included loads of original limited edition linoleum carvings, a copy of his latest “PAPERCUT” B&W ‘zine featuring even more of his super stylee lino cuts and a bunch of stickers. Again - who does this?

Then there’s the matter of stickers he actually made for us! John went so far as to design Wooden Toy stickers, have them printed and send them to us. We laughed, we cried, we stuck. Either John has friends in high places, they sell pre-made die cut stickers in the US, or he is Bill Gates. We are awaiting confirmation. Either way he’s one hell of a nice chap cut from a mould of old and we suggest you check out his stuff.

johnfellows.net | woodentoyquarterly.com

Friday night was a gas! The show was set up and rollin’ with plenty of time to kick back and relax (usually only with minutes to spare). We even had sick little special edition screen printed “CAMPEON del MUNDO” bags in celebration of Mike’s show. The show took a few hours to get a crowd gathered, but shortly after the sun made it’s last appearence for the day, the shop filled up quick. Graves had 21 hand made boxes covered with his rad new series of characters. People made plenty of comments in regards to the presentation of the show and work. Everything went super smooth, and only a couple of crazy people showed up, (there are always a couple of “odd” people who make an appearence at our lovely little event). Unfortunately we have no pictures to share with you at this time. For those of you that must have been in labor or in a gun battle, you missed an outstanding show.