For Immediate Release…

GoTellMama!

Got Next Tour 2008

GoTellMama! Is pleased to announce the general election Got Next Tour 2008 Art Series. A Traveling Art Exhibition of Barack Obama inspired works with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Austin, Atlanta, Chicago and New York. The tour begins in July and runs through October.

The GoTellMama! Got Next Tour 2008 is ­brought to you by artist Ray Noland aka CRO. The show is part of a two-year artists run and operated independent political art campaign in support of Barack Obama. The previous Officially Unofficial Show was a huge success with exhibits in Chicago, Philadelphia, Raleigh and Portland during each of their states 2008 primary election. We are focused on communicating with voters in an array of contemporary grassroots methods such as a national street campaign of posters and stencil art, animated viral videos, and creative use of internet technology.

GoTellMama! was created in November 2006 while Noland was recovering from a severe bicycle crash — jaw wired shut for six weeks and mending a dislocated shoulder. The Chicago-based artist devoured Senator Barack Obama’s book, ‘Dreams from my Father’ and became consumed with the man and his story, but also the potential of his [Obama's] window into the 2008 election.

What began as the simple production of 25 (pre-ordered) limited edition ‘Dream’ screen-printed posters has grown into a collection of prints, stencil graphics, gocco prints, fine art pieces, animated videos, an aggressive national street campaign and a series of art exhibitions across the country.

The ambition of the GoTellMama! campaign is to heighten awareness of Barack Obama using non-traditional tactics. GoTellMama! exhibits the collection of screen-printed & offset posters, stencils on canvas, guest artists works, and original videos dating back to 2006. 10% of show sales donated to Obama for America.­

About the Artist: Ray Noland is a Chicago-based artist and designer working under the alias CRO. He has been an artistic driving force behind the scenes for over 10 years, and is now trying to unshackle the political world from its outdated rules for campaigning. Noland has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (’95) and has worked as art director for Scion & URB Magazines. His clients include, Ogilvy & Mather, Arc Worldwide, Burrell, FCB Draft, Eat/Drink & Vessel Ideation. His art & illustrations have been published in Straight No Chaser, Beautiful Decay, Victionary, ExitStrategy, Faesthetic, Yo! What Happened to Peace, Lumpen and XLR8R.

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Montreal 2004
Political Minded II, ver 2.0
(May You Live in) INTERESTING TIMES

Heavyweight Art Installation first unveiled its latest series, Political Minded, in 2003 in San Fransico at the RedFive Gallery. The second installment came a year later in Los Angeles’s 33 1/3 Books and Gallery in the spring of 2004, followed by an independently produced exposition in Montreal on July 7th, 2004. The series is a collection of portraits and hommages of people, activists, political figures and cultural icons whose work, lives and sometimes their deaths reveal vital details about the reality of our world and the shape of our own social political perspectives. The next installment, Political Minded III, is in the planning for September 2004 in New York City and then Los Angeles.

For the past five years, Heavyweight Art intallation’s live painting canvases have featured the portraits of favorite musical influences and cultural icons, writers, and artists celebrating their contributions to our cultural lives. In the Political Minded series - now created in studio, we have directed the focus on the lives of people who help define the meaning of activism and/or whose work or careers reveal information about a political climate that can often be missed in corporate media. The figures represent stories in which people insist on putting their careers, lives and freedom at stake in order to provide qualified, educated information about important world situations and strife. Others whose confrontations with policy, authority and inhumane idealologies highlight the struggle against injustice, and in some cases their actions typifying the qualities that we would hope of from our own leaders, society and policies. Some figures represent voices of impassioned leadership, the goals for progressive political objectives through basic democratic principles, or the yearning of the oppressed to be heard.

CESAR E. CHAVEZ
SHIRIN EBADI
PAUL KRUGMAN
SALVADOR ALLENDE
ROMEO DALLAIRE
NOAM CHOMSKY
RENE LEVESQUE
FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI
HELEN THOMAS

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THE BIKE SHOW

OPENING 7 – 10PM
SAT. SEPT. 29.07

Bikes by :
TOBIAS ADOLFSSON (SSON - SWEDEN)

Artwork on Bikes by :
PARRA • BRENT ROLLINS • 
GEOFF McFETRIDGE • WILLO PERRON 
TYLER GIBNEY • ADRIAN NYMAN • GROTESK 

“The details are not the details. They make the design.” —Charles Eames

On 29 September, HVW8 Gallery hosts the U.S. unveiling of Sson 003, the bicycle series created by Swedish design innovator Tobias Adolfsson. Suggestive of Charles Eames, Adolfsson creates clean, well-crafted yet affordable bicycles, appealing to those within his culture of fashion, music and design. Eames was heavily entrenched in process, with the process to finalize a product often taking many efforts of trial and error. Adolfsson relates this spirit to his own design principles, resulting in the 3-speed, coaster brake, freewheel and BMX commuter models of Sson 003.

“I mix and match from my personal back catalogue of memories and the urban culture around us,” says Adolfsson. “People with fond memories of their childhood BMX riding around the block, listening to hip hop and watching ET, might know what I mean when riding the Sson 003.” Adolfsson became interested in bicycle design after becoming aware of the fact that most bikes look tacky, likely created by lazy designers. He then engaged in a strategic planning process to fabricate a well-designed, yet low cost and low maintenance bicycle. 

The latest Sson bike series brings all Adolfsson has researched, crafted, owned and dreamt about since age four. The actual planning process over the last six years results with a limited edition series of Sson 003 bikes, all painted white to finalize the last step, artistic collaboration. 

As Adolfsson believes a bicycle can be as much a fashion product as a pair of modish pants, he leaves it to experienced artists and designers, who are also based in the avant-garde culture, to finalize his most recent craft. Although rooted in strong production principles, the bike surface remains simple, offering the opportunity for others to create a design reflecting their interests and curiosity. 

HVW8 Gallery and Sson personally invited 7 artists to translate a model from the 003 series, to reflect their style and preferences of the Swedish handicraft. Paint, drawings, photographs, among other visual aesthetics complement the bike design. 

Visit http://www.sson.org to view the previous Sson 003 artist campaign, featuring Swedish artists The Jens, Fox, Burfitt, CKR, Fienden, Stickkontakt, IOH, Strüwer and Ziggy. The opening was held earlier this year, at Stockholm’s Boutique Sportif.

Images from the SSON Show

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Established in 2005 in Los Angeles, the HVW8 ART + DESIGN GALLERY is a studio/gallery space for HVW8 and friends. The current mandate is supporting avant garde graphic design such as Dutch designer/illustrator Parra (opening April 7th, 2007), American designer Brent Rollins (August 8th - Sept. 23, 2007), Swedish design SSON and Kevin Lyons (May 10th - June 15th, 2008).

The Gallery is located at 661 N. Spaulding Ave., Los Angeles CA, 90036. The gallery is open Wed. thru Sat. 1 - 5 pm or by appointment at 323 655 4898.

To purchase or inquire about any works please contact Tyler Gibney .

Printed Ephemera and New Works
by Kevin Lyons

Opening Friday, May 9th, 6 - 10 pm,
Show runs May 10th - June 15th

HVW8 Art +Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Gallery open: Wed - Sat, 1- 5pm
Or by appointment:
323 655 4898

Kevin Lyons is a 1992 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a degree in film. After working for Nickelodeon / MTV as an Associate Producer, he co-founded the NYC based design firm, stereo-type which for two years was responsible for much of the graphic look of the New York City underground Hip-Hop and Acid Jazz scene. This included the logo design for the long standing NYC based club, GIANT STEP. Stereo-type’s client list also included Soul Kitchen, 555 Soul and the LA-based, Brass Recordings. After receiving his masters degree from CalArts in 1998, Lyons has gone on to work for Nike, both in and out of house, was the former Art Director of Urban Outfitters on two separate occasions, and has been Art Director for filmmaker Spike Jonze’s Girl Skateboard Company. He was also the original US Art Director for TOKION Magazine and maintains long-standing freelance relationships with Nike, Jordan Brand, Adidas, Stussy and Stussy Japan, Beams Japan, HUF, Nieves Books, Stones Throw Records, Commonwealth Stacks, and long-time friend and collaborator NYC artist, SSUR.

A typographer, an Art Director, a designer, a teacher, and a father. In 2001, he was named as one of “The Top Forty Designers Under Thirty” by ID Magazine. His work has been published worldwide from Thrasher to The Face to Lowdown to Anthem and Refill. He has shown worldwide including solo shows in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tokyo. He has written articles for the AIGA Journal, as well as addressing the AIGA on two occasions including once as a published recipient of its Fresh Dialogues Series. He has also held teaching assistant positions at both RISD and CalArts, and has been a visiting critic at the Yale Graduate School of Design. He was an Assistant Professor at the Pratt Institute teaching Typography from 2000 -2002. Most recently, Lyons was the Design Director of the legendary Stussy and then Creative Director for the alternative retail giant, Urban Outfitters from 2003 - 2007.

He is now the Design Director for New York City based Anomaly, a brand incubating, marketing juggernaut with plans on running the world. He also produces three clothing lines; one for 2K called Atlantis, We Free Kings, and the third under his personal namesake, NATURAL BORN. All are distributed globally. Currently, Lyons also maintains his own small experimental graphic project also under the namesake, Natural Born in Philadelphia , PA where he lives with his wife and two daughters drawing type and bumping Twin Hype.

Kevin’s Letter

please post this open letter as much as you can. new marketing approach from a new marketer.

I want to extend an invitation to you all to attend my opening at the HVW8 gallery on Spaulding in West hollywood here in LA on friday, May 9th. I also want to forewarn that in and of itself this is no literal art show. It is riddled with sketches, visual rants and pointless, aggressive dribble. it is unframed, unedited and purely self- indulgent. I am in all truth as you all know an Art Director/Creative Director, not an artist by any stretch, and I have never pretended to be as such and this show will fully reenforce this very reality. All of that having been said, even with lack of focus and in all seriousness a lack of actual work, it winds up ironically being the first show which i actually show any raw emotion. It is work that wound up personal and silly and not over thought. Recently I worked for a retail machine that kept me very busy methodically and very intentionally calculating exactly what “kids” want to see and purchase. I went through a fairly emotional roller coaster there which made me realize that I wanted to go in a very different direction. Along side this work, I was also experiencing total freedom in my personal freelance work and getting paid to simply be me. The less I thought and obsessed over the work the more people responded to it backwards George day. Now I am experiencing a very different ride in working for a pseudo ad agency trying to break out of the ad agency model. I commute for nearly 4 hours a day and in that time while riding bumpy trains, I find myself drawing for drawing’s sake. I put my laptop away and abandon fonts and grids and simply draw monsters, and ice creams and Stars of David riding skateboards. They are goofy, angry, and emotional. These are some of the treats that you will see at my show. Nothing fancy. Tape and tacks. wrinkled, non-archival, and devoid of color. Just sharing, warning, but not apologizing. I will carry all the art in a carry on bag on the plane and put it up in less than 24 hours. Please come out. One of my favorite dj’s will be there, Sureshot, an old reggae head who shares my love of early reggae soul seven inches.

nuff’said. sho’nuff. by any means necessary.

Kevin.

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And Opening Night Photos