Commissioned piece for Mother's Day!

A client sent us a photo (left) and said she wanted a painting of this with a different background as a Mothers Day gift. Final painting (right) by resident artist Ivan Gonzalez @itg3000 Thank you for creating something so quickly last minute in time for the holiday! What a unique gift for someone special!

#artforgifts #artcollector #commissionartwork #mothersdaygift #ivangonzalez #E7S

"Self-Portrait", by Artist-in-Residence Chad Hasegawa at the De Young Museum

We went to visit Chad at his opening last Friday evening at the De Young Museum. This was kind of a opening and closing reception to the artist-in-residence project Chad worked on on-site. The Museum had given visitors the opportunity to work directly with Chad on a large collaborative painting, working with the same brushes and paints he typically uses, and learning his technique of applying paint onto a canvas with oversized brushes.

For more info, please visit: http://deyoung.famsf.org/calendar/self-portrait-artist-residence-chad-hasegawa

"Beats, Rhymes and Life" opened last Friday!

"Beats, Rhymes and Life" new works by Will Moran opened last Friday....

It was a evening full of friends, family and art enthusiasts coming to support Will and all the hard work he's been putting in these last six months.

A special "thank you" to Will Moran for bringing phenomenal work, Jaybiz for spinning records and West Wing food truck for providing such delicious eats!

If you missed the show, there is still time to check it out. Come visit the show and check out what new zines, merch and prints we have in our shop!

The exhibit is on view until May 20th.

Our hours are Wednesday-Friday 12-6pm, Saturday 12-4pm and by appointment.

Cheers,
E7S

SAVE THE DATE: "Beats, Rhymes and Life" new works by Will Moran

Opening reception will feature:
West Wing food truck
Music by DJ Jaybiz
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"William Moran is a fine artist and muralist from San Jose, CA. He is an artist that believes liberation and freedom can be found through the practice of self-expression. It is through observation and reflection that allows an artist to openly explore their subject matter through the spiritual, social, and political lenses. Through these lenses new spaces of expression can be found and focused upon. As a public artist William recognizes that the community is essential for the arts to survive and flourish. Within his works an open invitation for collaboration and dialogue is always integrated.

As an instructor and art educator Moran has taught his craft to people of all ages. He has conducted workshops at elementary schools and community centers all around the United States. With each unique setting he has made sure to teach the importance of how art can impact personal and social change within a community.

Portraits are an opportunity for Moran to capture the essence and spirit of a person’s individuality. By mimicking their expressions, emotions, and nuances, he finds a way to pay homage to these lives, acknowledging their impact to the world around us. By painting portraits of Jazz and Hip Hop musicians he takes these personas and makes them larger-than-life. Immortalizing their visages and sounds through paint and passion. Emulating the soundtrack that’s channeled through the canvas and the pulse of the speakers.

With this first solo show Moran hopes this gathering creates a platform for collaboration that goes beyond the gallery walls. With these pieces he hopes to inspire the human spirit found in still life sermons, and extend the hand of connectedness in each and every inspired mind. This is what being an artist means to him. Connection."

-By Danny Le

New limited editions coming to E7S!

New zines, books, sticker and button packs and other merch available at our shop. Works by Abraham Menor, Pacolli and many more to come.

Come by to pick up some limited edition pieces to add to your collection!

KFJC Record Swap returns! Save the date: Saturday, April 2 (10am-5pm)

KFJC 89.7fm is partnering for a second time with Empire Seven Studios (E7S), to bring this free and all ages event to San Jose. The event will feature local shops and avid record collecting vendors. Guest DJs will spin favorites from their personal collections while shoppers browse. In addition to music there will be refreshments and food.

KFJC began the tradition of the Record Swap in the 80’s. We are excited for to present the 2016 Spring KFJC Record Swap at E7S. Once again, we approached this swap with curators’ ears, seeking local vendors and DJs with a variety of styles and merchandise.

Local vendors will be selling music of all styles in various formats. Local vendors will have one of a kind music memorabilia, cds, cassettes, records, clothing, and accessories for sale. E7S will be showcasing artwork from various artists.

We have curated a handful of DJs from the area to play favorites from their record collections. The schedule is as follows:

10-11am: DJ BELLA
11am-12pm: EDDOUXXL
12-1pm: DISCOSMAS
1-2:pm: AKRO1
2-3pm: TURBO SONIDERO
3-4pm: DAVID MA
4-5pm: B-RICH

A complete list of vendors will be updated and available at www.kfjc.org/swap


 

Opening of Space 236 in SF

We are happy for our friends Barry and Nancy who opened up their concept gallery located in SF's Tenderloin District. Curated by Design Rehab. They opened up with new works by Erik Otto and Chris Stokes. Looking forward to many more new exhibits!

For more info, please visit www.space236sf.com

E7S and Ben Henderson was hired by Pace Gallery to paint the exterior of a old Tesla warehouse in Menlo Park, CA. For these last couple months, the team had been working in between the rainy weather to paint the exterior building, map out a color schemed floor and create various signage.

This empty warehouse and transformed into a magical space for TeamLab, the Japanese art collective recognized for challenging and expanding the digital art making practice. Pace Art + Technology is presenting Living Digital Space and Future Parks. The large-scale installation invites participants of all ages to immerse themselves in the multi-room environments spanning 20,000 square feet and showcasing twenty digital works. Viewers are encouraged to partake in this digital playground for all ages and experience the pioneering concepts and visually morphing beauty of the dynamic works. Inherently interactive, the exhibition is a powerful testament to the advancement of and growing interest in digital art, as well as its unique ability to nurture creativity and curiosity through technology.

 

Saturday night art openings in SF and Oakland

Last Saturday night, we drove up to Oakland to support our very own Jessica Eastburn's solo show opening at Totally Rad Gallery. Jessica's work portrays contemporary digital overload by illustrating layers of pop culture iconography that's created within a collage of patterns and shapes. In a world of“drag and drop” digital technology, everything is hand drawn and painted by Jessica. Most people cannot believe her work is not digitally produced!

While we were visiting Jessica, there was the opening of a new space called Somewhere Else Gallery, opened by a mutual friend HellaBreezy (and her friend Mexakitsch). The show was "Midnight Love" with artwork by El Oms. Werewolf cholo art....pretty cool stuff!

In between there was a vintage shop, a DJ playing records and some bomb ass home made tacos!

 

Next we headed over to SF to visit our buddies having a show at Luggage Store Gallery.

"Gentrifried" with new works by Spencer Keeton Cunningham, Erlin Geffrard, Daisy Ortiz, Daylin Ra, Jaque Fragua, Don't Fret, Robin Birdd

This was a fun show with a serious underlying message on gentrification in San Francisco.

 


Team San Jose X E7S at Super Bowl City

This past week we have the opportunity to work with Team San Jose to have artists paint live at Super Bowl City in San Francisco. Team San Jose wanted to show visitors that San Jose is a City full of culture, diversity and artistic minds....not just your typical Silicon Valley.

Team San Jose took a shipping container and had it created into a space where people could come up and receive info, get their faces painted, check out diverse entertainment such as Aztec dancers, live bands to local ballet performers and the ability to watch artists paint live on blank panels.

There was a different artist daily with some coming out to paint for 2 days. It was a fun and "once in a lifetime" experience to be part of such a epic event. We are thankful for the opportunity with Team San Jose, for our artists pulling through last minute and for all the visitors who stopped by to appreciate arts and culture!

Artist roster: Bigfoot, Jimmy Fonseca, Chad Hasegawa, Will Moran, Lauren Napolitano, Drew Roulette, Kori Thompson.

#SB50 #IKnowTheWay #WeAreSanJose #E7S

 

SAVE THE DATE - "Club Lido: Wild Eyes & Occasional Dreams"

Opening reception: Friday, February 12
Exhibit on view: February 12-March 4, 2016

Works by Angelica Muro and Juan Luna-Avin.

The Club Lido project examines the impact of Asian and Latino cultures. Although San Jose, CA is home to a large Mexican and Vietnamese demographic, these two cultural groups rarely come together. Collaborating artists Juan Luna-Avin & Angelica Muro propose a narrative where these two cultures intersect in both a fictional space as well as a real location, an entertainment venue in downtown San Jose called Lido Night Club. The cultural balance at this venue teeters between a downstairs Mexican cantina and an upstairs Vietnamese dance club. Luna-Avin & Muro look at the cultural similarities of these two immigrant groups through the lens of this unique dance club and bar through sculpture, drawing, and video.

Since 2006, artists Juan Luna-Avin and Angelica Muro have collaborated on various inter-disciplinary projects that revolves around the cult of personality in pop culture through fictitious characters, sub-cultures, urban myths, and legends.


Painting live for Super Bowl City in SF, CA

SBC.jpg

Have you heard Super Bowl 50 is coming to the Bay Area?? We are collaborating with #TeamSanJose at Super Bowl CITY! If you're in San Francisco, stop by our booth #17 starting January 30th through February 7th.

Artists will be Painting Live representing arts culture for San Jose at the #iknowtheway custom container booth.

Live Painting Roster:
Bigfoot (@bigfootone) • Jimmy Fonseca (@fonseca.jim) • Chad Hasegawa (@chad_hasegawa) • Will Moran (@wi1_7) • Lauren Napolitino (@peptalks) • Drew Roulette (@drewroulette ) • Kori Thompson (@kori15 ) • Juan Carlos Araujo (@juan_carlos_araujo_art)

#SB50 #IKnowTheWay #WeAreSanJose #E7S

A successful VIP and Opening night weekend!

Last weekend we had two jam-packed opening nights for the Screaming Hand 30th Anniversary show. Friends, family, artists, media....they all came out to support over 50 artists who have created a piece that tributes the original Jim Phillips Screaming Hand icon.

For those of you who had to wait in line, thank you for your patience and we hope you had an amazing time! This exhibit started off in LA early 2015 and has been traveling throughout Europe and Asia. It's now back at the States for 2016....kicking off at San Jose and then traveling throughout the US. The final destination will be back at Santa Cruz, CA.

For those who missed the openings or just want to come back, the show will be up daily until January 30th.

Below are the hours:
Monday-Friday 12-8pm
Saturday-Sunday 12-6pm

Don't miss out!



Jim Phillips Sr. has influenced many artists since the 1970’s, with his biggest impact being the body of work he created in the 1980’s skateboard industry, including his creation of the Screaming Hand logo in 1985.  The primary goal of the art show is to honor Jim Phillips Sr., The Screaming Hand, as well as all the participating artists by displaying their unique interpretations of the iconic Screaming Hand.

When visitors leave the art show, they should say to themselves “I just saw a piece of original skateboarding history and was able to connect with Jim Phillips, Sr. and these many artists, to see how they were influenced by Jim and for a moment, get inside their artistic view of interpreting an iconic piece of art.“

Many of these artists remember the moment they first saw a piece of Jim Phillips Sr.’s artwork. It could have been a skateboard deck graphic, a rock poster or this Screaming Hand logo. The art show will display their interpretation of “The Hand”, but also give a brief back story of what their first Jim Phillips experience was, as well as background on why they created and chose the piece of art on display.

The art show has been traveling all of 2015 in places such as: Vancouver, UK, Spain, Germany, France, Holland, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. Starting in 2016, the show will be traveling to 10 USA locations such as San Jose, New York, Boston, New Jersey, Atlanta, Miami, Austin, Phoenix, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, and Portland  and then end back into Santa Cruz, CA.

The opening will be on Saturday, January 16 from 7-10pm.

 

Nosego blesses Japantown with new mural

As part of the E7SwallSJ Project, we brought out Philadelphia artist Nosego to paint the side of Japantown’s Nichi Bei Bussan, located at 140 Jackson Street in San Jose, CA 95112*.

Without a preliminary sketch, Nosego met with the business owner, Arlene, to hear some of her stories about the history around her family establishment and ties to Japantown. The inspiration that helped create the beautiful mural titled “Little Moment”

Many of the neighbors and business owners came out to support and see the progress of the newly emerging mural. We also met many dogs who came out to enjoy the emerging blue creature.  I saw creature because it is left up to each individual’s imagination. Some say it’s a wolf, a dog and even a dragon!

*This particular mural was funded from a grant we received last year from the Knight Foundation.