ARTISTBIOS

RVCA HOLIDAY 07 CONTRIBUTING ARTIST BIOS Andrew Pommier Andrew Pommier finds himself living in Vancouver after his move in 2004, from the eastern mega city Toronto. His days are spent mindlessly wandering around the house, drinking coffee and counting the wasted hours. When not cursing his time management skills, he will be drawing and painting or sadly spending hours in front of a computer which is almost fun. His outside activities include riding his bike up and down the hills and valleys of the city, and not gardening. Mr. Pommier has shown drawings and paintings around the world, beginning with smaller canvases and progressing to larger scale. In early 2006 he had his first solo show at the Monster Children Gallery in Sydney Australia. Ashley Macomber After living in Rome and New York, Ashley Macomber now stays and works in Los Angeles. Originally from Massachusetts, she received a BA in paining at Rhode Island School of Design. Her work focuses on human relationships with an emphasis on family dynamics and the patterns that repeat themselves in American society. She is also concerned with the limited visibility of women in the art world as well as the narrow representations of women in general popular culture. When she isn’t painting, she plays fetch with her cat, rides her bike, and enjoys watching video blogs online. Ben Horton Ben Horton first gained notoriety through graphics he created for skateboard decks - himself a skateboarder, with over fifteen years of disservice to his joints. Horton's ideas come from photographs and his life experiences. The people that inhabit Horton's canvases have an indefinable connection, something gleaned from their expressions or eyes. There is richness and a familiarity in his cast of characters. Birds are a common theme, swooping and soaring throughout the foregrounds and backgrounds of the works. Horton explains, “I just feel close to them. I think it must go back to before my Grandmother passed away. We would just sit and watch birds in the late afternoon, and talk about them. Mockingbirds, Orioles, Warblers, Hummingbirds; you can learn so much about behavior of all living things from birds.” He exploits his artistic talents on various mediums such as canvas, paper, and wood using acrylics, house paints, ink, and sharpie pens - whatever is lying around and easily available to him. His detailed drawings stretch over painted canvases with text circulating throughout. Each work is filled with a multitude of layers for the eye to navigate. David Choe This South Bay graffiti artist has run through cities with aerosol, acrylic, and watercolors and is celebrated for the use of intense colors and street imagery, his work connecting street and gallery art. He portrays deep emotion in his work, and it has been what draws in devoted fans. With time, the price of his work began rising and he was doing more and more gallery shows. During a trip to Tokyo in 2003 for an art project, David had a run-in with the law. It was here that he was charged with “committing violence” and spent three months in prison, where he discovered salvation through the Bible. He is affiliated with RVCA, Giant Robot, Upper Playground, Vice, and Scion. He has provided numerous shirt designs for RVCA and has done live demos. Ed Templeton All of Ed Templeton’s “work” is seen through a self-placed filter formed by his experiences. He currently resides in Huntington Beach, and describes it as a hotbed of right-wing conservatives, skinheads, and religious fervor, as well as being a beach community full of surfers and skaters. In 2000, his first book Teenage Smokers won the Search for Art competition in Italy. It is a collection of photographs and Polaroids of teenagers smoking. Teenagers from all over the world are featured in his book, most of who are young teenagers. Templeton was amazed the way they act with cigarettes; the way they dress and hold themselves hit him in an interesting way. It was in 1999 at his solo show, “The Golden Age of Neglect” at the Alleged gallery, where he finally joined his painting and photography for the first time. Since then, he has been to the Netherlands, France, Milan, Rome, England, Finland, Canada, and Germany for an abundance of solo and group tours. Kelsey Brookes Is a former biochemist who attributes his raw style to an education system "that refuses to teach scientists to draw". He abandoned biochemistry because "I thought I was going to be there for a few months to get myself some money. Three years later I was left wondering if I had become what I always despised - the funny guy at the water cooler ... Except not so funny. I was the confused not so funny guy at the water cooler." Science's loss is art's gain and Kelsey's powerful canvasses attracted due attention when he showed in London for the first time at Santa's Ghetto last year. The work's potency arguably lies in the way its clash of ancient and ultra-modern references even drown out the sex and death which also features heavily. He describes his art as "an unrefined and some would say unskilled mix of sex, comedy and animals which is derived from a true passion for all three, except not necessarily at the same time.” Kevin Ancell Kevin Lloyd Ancell was adopted at a young age and raised by a group of southern California surfers. They were the movers and shakers of the 1970s surf scene, and for Ancell, surfing became a way of life as well as a teacher of discipline; it helped him meet challenges and overcome fear. That is where the art comes in. For Ancell, art is an exploration of the inner self and another form of self-expression. Ancell draws most of his inspiration from Manuel Ribeira — a Spanish painter who lived in Italy. He also draws inspiration from the works of Rembrandt, Caravaggio and the old, Flemish masters. Though he now lives and works as a full-time artist in San Francisco, Ancell's past wanderings have included Mexico, Costa Rica, and China. In China he studied Wu Shu and taught American culture at the Beijing Institute of Science and Technology — until he was expelled for "improper political and spiritual activity." When he's not painting, he's out surfing — or making surfboards. Mark Mulroney Mark Mulroney’s art involves drawings about martyrs, myths and the geographical locations of divine intervention. His work has appeared: Mixed Greens Gallery (New York), the dumpster outside his apartment building (San Francisco), The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Richard Heller Gallery (Santa Monica), his nephew’s night stand (Eugene, Oregon) and Gregory Lind Gallery (San Francisco). Megan Whitmarsh Whitmarsh's work primarily consists of embroidered depictions of Yetis, Elves and various pop icons. These characters are sewn in numerous arrangements over monochromatic stretched fabrics. Scenes include socializing Yetis, people from the future chased by geometric shapes, or Elf-girls chatting on cell phones. For her first show with Sixtyseven Whitmarsh presents her most recent embroideries, a series of drawings and a video entitled “The Life of a Yeti”. Whitmarsh’s choice of medium bring to mind the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1970’s while other elements in her work relate Minimalism and Pop Art. Since her cast of characters is sewn over flat backgrounds, the pieces resemble color field paintings with little specks of color. A closer look reveals a tiny cigarette held by a Yeti or a golden necklace worn by an Elf. Some pieces include more familiar references: The band Kiss or Darth Vader can be found inhabiting a monochrome… Other pieces include art historical inserts: A Yeti next to a Franz Kline painting, King Kong staring at a Robert Indiana sculpture and so on. Megan Whitmarsh holds an MFA from The University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana and a BFA in painting from Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri. She makes a comic “Snow Monkeys” and various merchandise under the moniker “Tiny Industries”. Her work has been exhibited at Gavin Brown Enterprise, Andrew Kreps, Clementine and Lyonsweir in New York; Parlour Projects, Brooklyn; sixspace and Millicent Gallery in Los Angeles; Deluxe Projects and the Texas Ballroom in Chicago; Jody Monroe and The General Store in Milwaukee and at Branch gallery, Carrboro, NC. RETNA RETNA (Marquis Lewis) came into this world in the City Of Los Angeles. In the 90's, his work started to appear on the walls, trains, bridges and freeway overpasses throughout Los Angeles. When the school of Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston offered him a full scholarship to study, RETNA turned it down, fearing the loss of his hard-won street surfaces he had claim on the West Coast. Though it is a move he has questioned in retrospect, the decision has not hampered his vision of success. In 1997, a friend looking thru RETNA's sketch book said, "That thing is a waste of time - Here paint on this". He handed RETNA a magazine ad and thus, the artist one of a kind product was born. The final piece layered time and color, couture and street culture, the spiritual and the sensual, fluidity and grit. Three weeks later, RETNA was on his way to New York to participate in an art auction where his pieces were hung between graffiti legends such as Keith Harding and Dondi. RETNA is no stranger to luminaries. One of his pieces - A Marvin Gaye painting appeared in an MTV Cribs episode featuring R&B Artist Usher's home. (The singer since has commissioned two more pieces-a Sade and a "RETNA-fied" Miles Davies.) RETNA himself has appeared on MTV's Video Music Awards alongside Metallica where he created one of his signature pieces live on stage. The artist added dimension to Kyle Minogue's video "Red Blooded Woman" via a 20x20 ft. enlargement of his work on a clear plexi-glass, and will offer backdrop art of Will Smith's new video "Switch". By "borrowing" a poster-sized advertisement, amplifying the photograph with color and claiming it as his own, RETNA mirrors visually the compositional approaches of some of the musicians who seek out his work. He merges Mayan, Egyptian and Asian motifs with contemporary images, promoting the onlooker to ask themselves “Am I viewing the past? Is this a version of the future? Or is this my day, my culture wearing a shade of lipstick that tastes like the streets?” In his newer pieces, RETNA is involved in every "layer" of the work - collaboration with photographers to create an original image. Aside from his paintings, RETNA has also designed clothes for the Japanese line Sarcastic and for the Seventh Letter. From Beverly Hills Hotels and Sunset Boutiques to music videos and installations in Japan, New York, Milan and Australia, RETNA will undoubtedly continue to amplify images, layer visions, and leave his mark in multiform ways.