LA to Tijuana to Long Beach......

It's been awhile since I did a blog entry but better late than never. A few weeks ago, we took a very short trip down south.

First we headed to LA to check out the LA Art Fair. Saw some familiar faces and work of many talented artists. It was interesting to see what types of works were being showcased from paintings, photography, sculpture, and performance art.

We walked to cross the border into Tijuana to visit a long time friend and artist who has been living there for about 4 years now. Many people have a perception of Tijuana but it's not like it used to be. This is a place where there is a growth in the art and culinary worlds. We were able to try some of the delicious foods from creative chefs out there. We spent time with Neto Soza talking about building and creating something artistically. Stay tuned!

Last stop was Long Beach, CA. We visited another friend/artist as he drove us around Long Beach and made a few stops into Compton and Watts. What people don't know is these neighborhoods have some good mom and pop shops as well as some artistic public art to enjoy!

Until next time! :)

KQED Arts article for E7S

With everything going on in the country, there is one thing we can all do, and that's create to connect change. E7S was built on wanting to change the dynamic for artists not having opportunities elsewhere in SJ.

Behind me in this photo, the mural is not just for pretty colors, or for street art credentials, and decor. It is a tribute to Oak Flat Reservation by two Native American Artists.

These two artists have not stopped activation through their paintings. Spencer Keeton Cunningham was recently in North Dakota at Standing Rock, Washington DC, and Jaque Fragua got the attention of @instagram by posting a street piece "This is Indian Land " that shut his account down. Illegal but necessary and impactful.

The irony since booty, titty, and graffiti pics are 100% fair game, and we all enjoy depending on preference. Why take it down? Not sure maybe IG didn't take it lightly. Here we are again raising awareness for what counts.

Thanks to Rachael Myrow from our favorite educational institution @kqed_arts came to visit and ask us how, and where we are with finding a new home. Since we don't like to spill the beans before they even sprout, it was difficult to translate all the work that it is taking to create a permanent foundation for independent arts establishments, like ourselves.

Much work to do, and we are not giving up. Give it a read Anjee from Macla comments on it, and keeps it real.

Thanks for viewing: https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/01/17/future-uncertain-for-san-joses-priced-out-empire-seven-studios/?utm_content=buffer8be69&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

Metro San Jose at our last opening...

Metro San Jose came to our opening last Friday to take some photos of people celebrating our space. Many people are wondering what's next. We haven't found a new home yet but that doesn't mean we won't be continuing to do things and stay active creatively and with our community!

Continue to follow us to see what we are up to and please help spread the word on our campaign!
https://www.gofundme.com/save-empire-seven

Sunday Funday in SF!

In between our busy schedules, we try to make time to check out other art shows and hang out with friends. We double dated with Girafa up to SF to check out the Thomas Campbell exhibit at the Mollusk Surf Shop, Jayde Fish exhibit at Fifty24SF Gallery and the Barry McGee mural at the Moscone Parking lot.

All phenomenal work and so inspiring!

#bayareatalent #thomascampbell #jaydefish #barrymcgee #twist

E7S Family

Last Friday's opening was filled with so much love from all our friends, family and community....supporting what we have done over the 8 years and looking forward to many more on our next chapter.

Being in this space for the last 10 years has had many memories and we've created many friends that have become part of the E7S family.

We want to say "Thank you!" and "let's keep art alive" as we continue to make things happen!

xoxo,
Carlos and Jen

 

Three shows opening up tomorrow night!

Here is one of the three openings for tomorrow night!

Mesngr classically trained in the eighties, a generation that took advantage of opportunities to get creative with spray paint on the city's landscapes. Mesngr has painted several monumental pieces throughout the years and has been contributing to the graffiti movement for several decades now both in the Bay Area and nationally. 

His latest work is a combination of aerosol with oil base paints that are used to illustrate a new geisha series; which are definitely a main attraction. Although the traditional conservative narrative is not in play or hold to the conceptual Japanese narrative, each geisha has her weapon of choice and are portrayed as warriors just as a samurai if you may. Mesngr doesn't really plan to cause conflict through his work but merely expresses a merge of pop, skate, punk, culture he finds interesting and enjoys.

He expresses that "If my work does in fact raise a brow, isn't that what art is supposed to do? In that sense I'm doing something right." 

Please join us this Friday night 7-10pm for our last show of the year and from the place we called home for the last 10 years!

"Chris" by Cristovoe opening in project space this Friday!

Chris also known as Cristovoe is making his gallery debut this Friday at E7S within our project space gallery!

 

After years of dedication to crushing over thousands of trains, Chris has put his graffiti career on halt when his partner in crime Benny DIAR suffered an accident that tragically paralyzed him. Chris has been caretaker of DIAR and only the closest of friends that attends to his daily necessities.

 

Chris, also co-founder of the legendary Clout Graffiti Magazine, a publication that served thousands of graffiti writers before the social media and smart phone craze. Writers from all over the country and the world, would snail mail their photographs hoping that they would make the cut.

 

Clout Magazine Headquarters has also victim to the housing developments. Since closing the shop in 2015, Chris has been running Clout online and focused on painting at his home studio located in the East Side San Jose. His paintings are a kaleidoscope splash tryptic style deconstruction of what his work was with aerosol years in the making.

 

Join us this Friday as we celebrate our last shows here at Empire Seven Studios.

 

#cristovoe #chris #e7s #clout #graffiti #watercolorart #littletokyo

One of three new shows opening at E7S this Friday!

This Friday from 7-10pm is the opening of "DY•NAS•TY" with new works by Sfaustina.

SFAUSTINA is an Artist and Graphic Designer who thrives on making works of art and design reflecting the everyday elements in life through merging illustration, collage, graffiti, and graphic design. He has contributed artistically to public works project in the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. SFAUSTINA has been featured in numerous youth culture publications both internationally and domestically. SFAUSTINA art directed, designed and published the first online graffiti magazine, BLOODWARS. He recently designed and co-authored, Bay Area Graffiti ‘80’s-‘90’s: Early Bombing. For over a decade he’s works for The Family Coppola as Artist/ Senior Graphic Designer.

#sfaustina #dynasty #e7s #graphicdesign #grafitti

Tomorrow night! Closing reception and live music....

Tomorrow night, we have Live Performances by Q&A, Ben Henderson, Asha and Avery Palmer.

We are collecting canned goods at the door for #secondharvestfoodbank.

10 cans of food gets you in the show otherwise it's $5 at the door. Please take a moment to donate to families in need. Every little bit helps.

Show starts at 8pm. All ages welcomed.

Flyer artwork by @ohmaigawd

Currently showing works by Carlos Agrillo in our projects space. Avery Palmer & Lacey Bryant are both sharing the main space with solo shows.

Still some artworks available, they make beautiful collections for your home, office, bachelor pad, penthouse etc.

#artwork #penthouse #88 #siliconvalley #condos #homedecor #performance #poetry #music #art #supportlocal

New mural by Sainer

New wall by @sainer_etam in San Jose.

We worked all week during the holiday to paint this mural and give something special to the city. Sacrificing spending time with family just to make new long life friendships, and create a landmark. It's been an honor to serve you all. Be good SJ.

Thank you @sj_downtown for making this possible!
Special thanks to @directormarlo for bringing his team in to film. Stay tuned....

@stayamplified @bamnsquadent @neebamedia#Sainer #etam #e7s #2016 #E7SwallSJ #SJDA

New mural by Roan Victor

Roan Victor just completed her first outdoor mural in downtown San Jose for the Harts Dog Park. While she was creating this beautiful piece, it was great to meet so many dogs and their owners who had the opportunity to stop in to see the process.

#roanvictor #sjdowntown #hartsdogpark #sjda

Opening of 3 shows last Friday..

Last Friday we had the opening of three separate shows within one night. Each artist have their own following of friends and art supporters so this was a great opportunity to have everyone together.

If you missed the opening, the exhibit is on view until December 2.

Studio visits - Avery Palmer and Lacey Bryant

This past weekend we visited the studios of Avery Palmer and Lacey Bryant for this week's opening of "Homeward" and "The Perpetual Circus"

It just seemed like yesterday when we meet with them over coffee/breakfast to discuss booking a show for November! What they have produced since will amaze you! A large amount of work with intricate details and thoughtful consideration into how although independently separate from each others work, they come together to produce a cohesive show within one large space.

Looking forward to seeing it all come alive this Friday! Come celebrate and immerse yourself in the world of Avery Palmer and Lacey Bryant as their work takes you to a different place of imagination!

Carlos Agrillo studio visit for his upcoming show......

New works by Carlos Agrillo (@los_art ) Exhibit Opens November 11, 2016.

This summer Carlos participated in our anniversary show executing a Mayan skateboard inspired by his close friend artist Drew Flores. The candy flake hypnotized guests for two months while on view.

His most recent, dedication to airbrush, clear coat and metallic flake. A traditional technique in the automotive industry. Only he applies it to creating his art, which can consist of portraits, and most recently comics. . Mixing both medias paints, and collage for a new series of a dozen or more new pieces of work for his Solo show in our artist in residency project space.

"When coming up with this show, I wanted to tie in my past with my present. As a kid, I would spend countless hours trying to mimic my favorite covers. As an adult, I am always trying to learn new things, thus beginning my interest in painting motorcycles and helmets, airbrushing with Kandy paints, and using flake. I ended up being able to create awesome pieces by incorporating my flake process with a more contemporary form of art. My show Stripped is the first installment of panels with images representing my childhood past, and the flake mediums to represent me in present time."

We've worked with Carlos Agrillo back in 2012. He showcased alongside friends Drew Roulette, Colin Frangicetto, in the Day Broo Yay exhibit. His portrait painting of pop icons like Mr. Miyagi, bias due to our love for Karate Kid make you reminisce.

He's doing it again, taking you even further to childhood DC, Marvel comic days, hanging in out in your onesies pajamas with the thick plastic bottoms.

We look forward to hanging out and packaging some of this awesome art for Holiday gifts, a great unique way to surprise your loved ones.

See you November 11th, 2016. 7-10pm #carlosagrillo #littletokyoprojectspace #e7s #november #holiday

Recent events......

These last couple weeks have been a whirlwind! We had the opening of "In Retrospect. The Lines From Then Til Now" with works by Emonic and Tamiko Rast. On the same night, in our project space we had the opening of "New Attitudes" A Pellet Factory Presentation! What a great collective under one roof on opening night!

Last Wednesday we hosted the Filipino American National Historical Society's "1946 and 2016" A dialogue and member event. Delicious home made food at this event full of positive vibes and community support.

Finally, last Friday we hosted "A Night of Acoustic Artists featuring Love District, Socorra, Heavy Mello and Pat Parra" We were with a full packed house as people were able to enjoy some delightful music by local talented musicians!

We plan to continue doing as many fun filled events until our doors temporarily close due to us losing our building. Please continue to come support in the next couple months as we will have new shows (opening second Fridays!)

Also, a friendly reminder to please help spread the word about our campaign www.gofundme.com/save-empire-seven

Save Empire Seven Studios!

The last couple weeks have been pretty crazy...... we just finished Art Party and amidst it all, we recently launched a Go Fund Me project to help us build a new home for E7S. As many of you know, we will be losing our current space at the end of this year. Our goal is to build and own a place so we won't have to recreate the wheel all over again.

For more info, please watch: https://www.gofundme.com/save-empire-seven

 

Art Party SJ a success with great vibes!

We are thankful for Anne and Mark providing us with 10K square feet of space during their annual Art Party at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds! They had every bit if confidence that we would put together a fun program full of art, live painting, installations, live music and performances!

We had the honor to collaborate with Athen B. Gallery, local art gallery out of Oakland. They brought out their family of artists and we seamlessly put on a phenomenal show.

Saturday night was the Opening Gala from 7pm-12am. Music by Sonido Clashwith special guests Salvaje & Mark PLSTK . Sunday's hours were from 11am-5pm, you were still able to check out the exhibited art! Music by Chulita Vinyl Club and Q&A.

E7S showed works by:

Carlos Agrillo, Nancy Ahn, Ben Alexy, Jason Arnold, John Barrick, Jill “Horiyuki” Bonny, Sean Boyles, Cristove, Ken Davis, Aaron De La Cruz, Benny Diar, Tim Diet, Jessica Eastburn, Jayde Fish, Force 129, Colin Frangicetto, Erlin Geffrard, Girafa, Chris Gonzales, Abel Gonzalez, Andres Guerrero, Chad Hasegawa, Ben Henderson, Tyson Johnston, Frances Marin, Lauren Napolitano, Daisy Ortiz, Pacolli & Mildred, Chris Patton, Pellet, Anabella Pinon, Gwen Mercado Reyes, Renos, Sam Rodriguez, Matteo Serna, Kori Thompson, Joe To, Roan Victor.

#artpartysj #E7S #athenbgallery #sonidoclash #chulitavinylclub