The Holy Batman, Oil on Canvas, 95×146″ Framed

Robert X. Burden‘s show Toy Box in the Shooting Gallery was written up in the SF Weekly last week, and posted online just the other day here. Toy Box will be on view in the Shooting Gallery until June 1st. Stop by anytime between Tuesday and Saturday 12-7pm.

“Epic battles were waged, blood was spilt, villains vanquished, heroes triumphed and love endured, all on the battlefields conjured in our childhood bedrooms. Action figures from GI Joe to Barbie, just inches high, loomed larger than life in our imagination. But then you grow up. To recapture what he calls “that faded sense of awe,” artist Robert Xavier Burden recreates Batman, Spiderman, and Thundercats as he remembers them: bold, bright, magical, and 11 feet high.

‘If it was to scale, really Voltron should be a 65-foot painting’ Burden says, almost apologetically, of the super robot. ‘They needed to tower over you when you stepped into the gallery space. I wanted it to be something that’s imposing.’ His solo show, Toy Box, features sixteen oil paintings. He began the series in 2006, with some pieces taking more than a thousand hours of work over a year to complete. Many of the paintings are paired with taxidermy, including a rat he commissioned and imported from England.” via

The Shooting Gallery recently hosted the group show Hard Time Mini Mall, curated by the Red Truck Gallery last month. We’re sorry to see them go, though they have another showing in San Francisco at artMRKT. The festival is starting tonight, May 16 – 19, at Fort Mason Center – Festival Pavilion.

Looking back on their time with us, here are some photos from FecalFace’s website of our opening with Red Truck in April. Rachel Ralph reflects on the event, “This is my favorite show (so far) in the Shooting Gallery’s new space and was packed full of art, a mini bar, and cowhide rugs. The Red Truck Gallery chose works with clear craftsmanship and it was easy to see in Ian Berry‘s denim assemblages and Chris Roberts-Antieau‘s awesome quilts. The space was completely packed, making it hard to see each piece individually, but this show deserves a second trip anyway.”

The Red Truck Gallery is curated by New Orleans native Noah Antieau. It is his vision that determines the line-up for their exhibitions. To learn more about Noah and Red Truck, see our interview with him we posted last month.

While Red Truck may be leaving us, we eagerly await the solo show of one of their artists, Jason D’Aquino in the SG Project Space starting July 6.

Follow the jump to see FecalFace’s opening photos of Hard Time Mini Mall. Read more »

We previously posted about Robert X. Burden‘s time-lapse videos that reveal the process behind making his massive canvases. This hypnotic short film translates months of his work into a few minutes on visual record. The video displays the final piece Autobot (measuring in at 140 x 90″)  as it hangs in Burden’s solo show Toy Box in the Shooting Gallery. This particular work took up to 8 months to complete!

Toy Box runs through June 1, 2013.

“When I knew I needed some photos to send to Art Nerd, my friend Dave, who happens to be a photographer, offered to help. You will probably be able to tell which photos are provided by Dave, as we go through these together. Here I am looking at a big pile of matchbooks on my dining room table , which we never eat on…”

We are pleased to be seeing so much of Jason D’Aquino this year! His miniature matchbook art was featured in the Shooting Gallery‘s group show Hard Time Mini Mall, curated by the Red Truck Gallery, and he is having a solo show in the SG Project Space in July. The website Art Nerd: New York recently featured the artist in their Dear Diary segment, where D’Aquino sent them photos of his artwork, his studio, as well as his daily activities.

Its obvious D’Aquino leads a more interesting life than most, as he sent us some memorable pics in this earlier post. Lori Zimmer describes him as a “modern but old timey Renaissance man- a miniaturist, tattooist, collector of oddities (read pack rat), vintage clothing expert, mustachio and cool enough to hang with my parents at Christmas.”

Mark your calendars for Jason D’Aquino’s return in the SG Project Space on July 6.

And follow the jump to see D’Aquino bare all on a bear skin rug (no, seriously).  Read more »

Last Saturday was teeming with visitors at 886 Geary Street: Robert X. Burden opened his show Toy Box in the Shooting Gallery, and Van Arno‘s exhibited Tame Nor Sane in the SG Project Space. In contrast to the stark black-and-white realism of the White Walls shows, with Nick Flatt‘s Control in the main gallery and C3‘s Before the Sun Dies, Part 2 in the WW Project Space, Burden and Van Arno’s work was more fantastical and bursting with color. The Shooting Gallery housed several massive canvases by Burden, as much as 11 feet tall, with portraits of miniature toy figures blown up to epic proportions. Van Arno featured paintings of nudes in whimsical, Rococo-esque postures that float within their compositions.

The Shooting Gallery shows also ran with two openings in White Walls, with Nick Flatt’s exhibition Control in the main gallery and C3′s Before the Sun Dies, Part 2 in the WW Project Space.

If you missed the openings, all shows will run through June 1, 2013.

Follow the jump to see more photos from opening night. Read more »

Fingered! from Eighty Four Films on Vimeo.

Ferris Plock‘s iconic figures are featured in this short animation directed by Jim Dirschberger, and produced by Eighty Four Films. Plock’s signature characters are hybridized animal cartoons, rendered in ornate detail, who don skateboards, San Francisco Giants caps and other street wear. The intriguing, albeit bizarre, short film Fingered! features a wild exchange of dismembered body parts against a background of the Victorian houses and steep hills of San Francisco.

Independent animation production company, Eighty Four Films, is the brainchild of Jim Dirschberger, who has produced over 100 short films including one with Jay Howell (with Creature) in the film Shred Party, NeckFace in Fight Rats, and the web series The Forest City Rockers. Dirschberger is also co-creator and executive producer of Nickelodeon’s Sanjay & Craig.

In the past Ferris Plock has also spearheaded another cartoon with Eighty Four Films, where he collaborated with his wife, artist Kelly Tunstall. The animation takes place on the open waters with the Seafarers and their quest for the “Trident of Power.” Check it out below and see Plock’s work form his last show with us, Carry On, here.

The Seafarers – Trident of Power from Eighty Four Films on Vimeo.

Tonight, Robert X. Burden opens his show Toy Box in the Shooting Gallery from 7-11 PM. This is Burden’s first solo show with us, and the exhibition features four massive canvases and a series of more moderately sized ones. The gargantuan portraits of plastic figurines are ornately detailed, where their scope and intricacy is a testament to the magical aura that these little toy objects once possessed to Burden during his childhood. The smaller series showcases these comic characters with actual taxidermied animals that associate them to the creature they embody. Robert X. Burden’s Toy Box will show through June 1, 2013.

Come and visit us tonight!

Toy Box, A Solo Show by Robert Xavier Burden
Opening Reception – Saturday, May 11, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2013
@ Shooting Gallery (www.shootinggallerysf.com)
886 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

Follow the jump for more detail shots!

Read more »

Artist Robert X. Burden. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired

Robert X. Burden‘s show Toy Box opens tonight in the Shooting Gallery, and in anticipation, the ‘techie’ magazine Wired just posted this highlighting the artist. Lewis Wallace interviewed Burden, who paints superhero figurines and comic book characters that are enlarged to epic proportions. The article focuses on the sheer amount of labor that goes into making massive paintings. Working on a ladder to reach every part of the canvas, Burden paints pieces that can reach up to 11 feet high. Buried within the detail of a painting like The Holy Batman are numerous obscure references to the series that only the most seasoned comic conniosseur could decipher. Burden explains ” “Somebody asked me why the hell would I put Predator in there?” (It’s a reference to a DC Comics/Dark Horse crossover titled Batman Versus Predator.) Elsewhere in the gridlike composition, Disney’s Mad Hatter and The Wizard of Oz’s Scarecrow make appearances. Discerning eyes will spot nods to individuals, both real and imagined, who inspired Batman’s creators, Bob Kane and Bill Finger.”

Burden also explains that the essence of his work is not to solely fetishize a nostalgic toy, where collectors own and showcase specimens from their childhood. In these paintings, Burden wishes to go a step further by re-imbueing them with the wonderment and majesty they once possessed – to elevate them to the same reverential degree as they appeared to a child, “Burden stresses that his paintings, which turn tiny plastic superheroes into towering immortals akin to Greek gods, are not about his love for the toys themselves. ‘It’s about my love for my view of it when I was a kid,’ he said, recalling the now-distant excitement he felt when he received a new plaything as a child. ‘I don’t really consider myself a toy collector, because if the toy was enough, I wouldn’t make the paintings. If I was still in kind of awe of the toy, and still absolutely adored the toy, then I could just put that on my shelf and that would be enough. But it’s not anymore.’”

Come tonight to see the opening of Robert X. Burden’s solo show Toy Box at the Shooting Gallery!

Toy Box, A Solo Show by Robert Xavier Burden
Opening Reception – Saturday, May 11, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2013
@ Shooting Gallery (www.shootinggallerysf.com)
886 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

RSVP.

View more images of Burden’s work, and excerpts from the article after the jump! Read more »

Robert X. Burden in his studio. Photo by Randy Dodson.

Artist Robert X. Burden paints largescale, intricate representations of small, plastic figurines from his childhood. The pieces also contain the actual toy or a taxidermied animal that relates to the work, in the same fashion that a Catholic reliquary displays the body part of a saint under their respective icon. These paintings feature ornate backgrounds that infuse the composition with an almost frenetic religiosity, and Burden acknowledges that his Catholic background may have affected his aesthetic adding, “but maybe an equally religious experience as a kid was going to the toy store.” In this exclusive interview, the artist discusses what it’s like to be part of the last generation of children who grew up without the internet, how many hours it takes to paint an 11 foot piece, and what it takes to keep “the code of Thundera alive.”

Come this Saturday to see the opening of Robert X. Burden’s solo show Toy Box at the Shooting Gallery!

Toy Box, A Solo Show by Robert Xavier Burden
Opening Reception – Saturday, May 11, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2013
@ Shooting Gallery (www.shootinggallerysf.com)
886 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

RSVP.

View images of Burden’s work, and the interview, after the jump. Read more »

Hi Fructose just posted this on the opening of Van Arno‘s solo show Tame Nor Sane this Saturday in the SG Project Space from 7-11 PM. Van Arno’s hyper real depictions of the human form are as classically Mannerist as they are plastically pornographic. Author Nastia Voynovskaya describes the figures as “nude women with voluptuous bodies partially covered by fetish costumes [who] find themselves battling death or conjuring Earth spirits. Van Arno’s deft hand captures their straining muscles and knitted brows in these exaggerated struggles.” We certainly enjoy this erotic twist on the classics!

Don’t forget to RSVP.

Tame Nor Sane, by Van Arno
Opening Reception – May 11, 2013, 7-11 pm
On View Through June 01, 2013
@ Shooting Gallery Project Space (www.shootinggallerysf.com/projectspace)
886 Geary Street, San Francisco CA 94109

See more images of Van Arno’s work after the jump. Read more »