This weekend, sets your sights on Thinkspace Projects and new exhibitions by Scott Listfield, Shar TuiʻAsoa, Cheese Arnon, Mr. Kreme and Craig “Skibs” Barker. Immersive, cunning, and fluent in our shared artistic language, this collective takes us by the hand and guides us through each unique perspective. Gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of each piece, we can see the nuances and complexities that exist as we make our own interpretations.
With distinctive aesthetics and narrative techniques, the skillful visual storytelling and compositional artisanship delivers a creative spark that’s sure to set fire to your imagination. Don’t miss the opportunity, visit Thinkspace Projects Saturday August 24th for the opening reception and join the celebration of creativity that transcends boundaries.
Craving more inspiration? Thinkspace Projects also offers a full schedule of events, interviews, and much more to keep you and your creative needs fully immersed. Be sure to follow their blog Sour Harvest to stay updated on all the artsy things you love! With just a few clicks, you can browse through an extensive selection of art. Take a moment and visit Thinkspace Projects’ online store to view all available inventory, created by talented artists from around the world!
Thinkspace Projects Presents
Listfield | Arnon | Mr. Kreme | TuiʻAsoa | Skibs
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 24, 2024 | 6:00-10:00pm
Be sure to come hungry, the gallery will have @5cazuelas serving amazing tacos + @bluenovala will be bring you homemade ice cream bars + madbarista with coffee, tea + Thinkspacwe Projects has an open bar + GoopMassta’s Night Market featuring vintage finds from @tallcan4mayor & artist booths. Additionally, @ari.bean.things @chompton_ @bbeachbboyzz & @alipancho + outdoor murals & installations. What more could you possibly ask for?!
Exhibition Dates: August 24 – September 14, 2024
Thinkspace Projects
4207 W. Jefferson Blvd. | 4217 W. Jefferson Blvd. | Los Angeles, CA 90016
#310.558.3375 | Tues. – Sat. Noon to 6PM
thinkspaceprojects.com
For all inquiries please contact the gallery via email at contact@thinkspaceprojects.com
Search their hashtags: #thinkspaceprojects #thinkspacegallery #thinkspacefamily
About the Thinkspace Projects //
Thinkspace Projects was founded in 2005; now in LA’s burgeoning West Adams District, the gallery has garnered an international reputation as one of the most active and productive exponents of the New Contemporary Art Movement. Maintaining its founding commitment to the promotion and support of its artists, Thinkspace Projects has steadily expanded its roster and diversified its projects, creating collaborative and institutional opportunities all over the world. Founded in the spirit of forging recognition for young, emerging, and lesser-known talents, the gallery is now home to artists from all over the world, ranging from the emerging, mid-career, and established.
The New Contemporary Art Movement, not unlike its earlier 20th Century counterparts like Surrealism, Dada, or Fauvism, ultimately materialized in search of new forms, content, and expressions that cited rather than disavowed the individual and the social. The earliest incarnations of the Movement, refusing the paradigmatic disinterest of “Art” as an inaccessible garrison of ‘high culture’, championed figuration, surrealism, representation, pop culture, and the subcultural.
By incorporating the ‘lowbrow,’ accessible, and even profane, an exciting and irreverent art movement grew in defiance of the mandated renunciations of “high” art. Emerging on the West Coast in the 90’s partly as a response to the rabid ‘conceptual-turn’ then championed on the East Coasts, the Movement steadily created its own platforms, publications, and spaces for the dissemination of its imagery and ideas.
SCOTT LISTFIELD, ‘Oh, Dystopia’ (Gallery I)
Show statement:
Are you feeling stressed or anxious? Has the erosion of democracy and the feeling of impending societal collapse got you down? Are you tired of technological solutions no one asked for? Worn out by end stage capitalism? Sick of social media? Billionaires? Traffic? War? The Supreme Court? Well then, have I got just the thing for you!
My next solo show, “Oh, Dystopia,” a show about finding beauty in the end of things, opens Saturday, August 24th, 6-10pm at Thinkspace Projects in Los Angeles.
Friends, let’s go off into the end times together. We’ll frolic amongst the leftover bits of our civilization: Crumbling skyscrapers! Partially destroyed machines! Piles of trash! A giant donut! Sad robots! The remains of a sunburnt Earth! We’ll leave our names on a broken building and hope that our distant ancestors find it one day and remember us.
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
Artist Bio:
Scott Listfield is known for his paintings featuring a lone exploratory astronaut lost in a landscape cluttered with pop culture icons, corporate logos, and tongue-in-cheek science fiction references. Scott grew up in Boston, MA and studied art at Dartmouth College. After some time spent living abroad, Scott returned to America and, shortly before the real life, non-movie version of the year 2001, began painting astronauts and, sometimes, dinosaurs.
Scott has been profiled in Juxtapoz, Wired Magazine, the Boston Globe, New American Paintings, and on at least one local television station. He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, London, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Montreal, Boston, and many other nice places.
SHAR TUI’ASOA, ’Time Before Us’ (Gallery II)
Artist Statement:
In some of our Pacific Island languages, our terms for speaking of the past, ka wa mamua in Hawaiian, or kuonga mu’a in Tongan, translates into “time ahead” or “time in front”. Conversely, when we speak of the future, our terms translate into “time behind”. When we speak about time in these terms we are saying that as we stand in the present we can see clearly the roots and pathways of our history because our past and our ancestors are standing there before us.
The future, however, is behind us. We cannot see it. It is unknown and so we look to the time before us to guide us in our present day lives, our decisions, and in the things we create. Our indigenous languages hold so much philosophy and beauty and they teach us so much about who we are, where we come from, and where we should strive to go.
“Time Before Us” is a whimsical display of the cultures of the pacific and how our traditions of the past inform the ways in which we show up in our modern world. Each piece is a personification of traditional ideas and practices of the pacific, made modern with bold colors, shapes, and imagination. Every symbol considered. Every detail woven with meaning.
Tongan scholar, Epeli Hau’ofa, spoke of the collaborative nature of the arts in oceania and believed that we could propel forward our oceanic mark in the world through meaningful collaborations with other pacific artists and makers. For this show, I collaborated with Kumu William “Miki” Kalaniopio Cook, on several custom built and carved wooden frames. Miki is a professor of Hawaiian language, history, and traditional wood carving, kalai la’au, and his knowledge and thoughtful perspectives are imbedded into every piece in this show.
In every artwork I produce, and in every mark I make, I am guided by my culture, our moana (the ocean), and her people. This body of work is meant to spark joy and curiosity in the viewer. In the paintings of this collection, lies a journey of modern existence through color, patterns, and the whimsy of our present day and woven into every mark and every brush stroke there is a story of a time before us.
Artist Bio:
Shar Tui’asoa is a Pacific Islander artist of Tongan decent, born and raised in Hawai’i on the island of O’ahu where she runs her illustration business “Punky Aloha Studio”. She received her Fine Art certificate from Windward Community College in 2010 and earned her BFA in illustration from Laguna College of Art and Design in 2015. She is full-time freelance illustrator and has created artwork for Target, Disney, Pixar, Apple, The New York Times, Alaska Airlines, Facebook, Amazon, Starbucks, Harper Collins and many more.
Shar also spends time outside of her studio painting murals throughout the Hawai’i island chain and the states. Her work is most recognized as a celebration of her Pacific Island culture which she shares through bold color pallets, stylized shapes, and most notably, strong statuesque femme subjects depicting the people of the pacific islands in her oceanic home.
CHEESE ARNON, ‘One Step Closer’ (Gallery III)
This project with Thinkspace is considered a collection of all the experiences I have encountered, both positive and negative. It reflects my own identity through various artworks. Before reaching this point, I have experienced both happiness and sorrow. To overcome the hardships, it required tremendous perseverance and years of dedicated work, even though nobody saw it.
Today, I am ready to showcase to the world that if you strive for success, it will come. However, success comes hand in hand with sweat and tears. Prior to this, nobody knew me, but I always believed in myself and remained confident that one day people would appreciate my work just the same.
The character of the fox symbolizes the ability to adapt well in any situation, no matter how dire. Regardless of how villainous the circumstances may be, the fox can still survive. Therefore, I praise the fox as the main character in my story, as it truly reflects my own identity. It hasn’t been easy to come to this point. It has taken time, perseverance, and resilience. I am grateful to everyone who loves this fox character.
Artist Bio:
Arnon Neiysoongnoen (aka Cheese Arnon) was born in 1986 in Thailand. He embarked on his artistic journey in the realm of traditional arts. He embraced a self-taught methodology, immersing himself in the teachings of established artists who came before him, and fearlessly experimenting with a wide array of techniques.
Throughout his artistic career, Arnon has remained versatile, continuously honing his skills across various formats. One of his notable creations, “The Fox,” serves as a testament to his versatility, as it beautifully showcases a multitude of art styles in a carefully arranged composition.
Just like the cunning nature of a fox, Arnon’s artistic approach is characterized by wit, improvisation, and the ability to thrive even in the harshest of circumstances. He effortlessly flows with the inherent imperfections of his chosen medium, allowing them to become integral parts of his designs. Furthermore, he fearlessly creates cracking surfaces to accentuate his artistic vision, transforming what could be perceived as flaws into captivating elements of his work.
MR. KREME, ‘Floral Muse’ (Gallery IV)
Mr. Kreme is a Thai / Hong Kong artist who is passionate about the style of vibrant colors of found objects in the mid 80s and the early 90s. He’s known for street art, art toy design, and painting. He finds inspirations from objects that are personal to him which leads to a nostalgic feel. His cherished childhood visions are emulated and retold in his work, much like a storybook. Scenes from the artist’s nocturnal story, some pleasant dreams, others nightmares, but the entire composition is full of awareness and open for all to explore.
The main character design of his art evolves around a family of furry monsters with vibrant colors and unique personalities. His art is often recognized as pop surrealism. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a Masters in Industrial Design.
“The charisma and allure of bedtime stories is that because adults have a lifetime of experiences, they will understand them more deeply than young children.. A young child who reads them is sure to have an unbounded imagination that adults might not comprehend.
Many if not countless bedtime stories will include written words to guide the reader through the story. The visuals are purely illustrative in nature. This implies that written words determine the story, rather than with the aide of visuals. However, I feel that the written plot should not be used to constrain the visual comprehension of the stories. Similar to a child’s free imagination, the visuals will be able to open up our visions to new perceptions of the same stories.” – Mr. Kreme
CRAIG “SKIBS” BARKER, ‘Dot-Dash’ (Dog House Gallery)
Craig “Skibs” Barker grew up in Southern California during the early 80’s and the explosions of both punk rock and surfing culture. With a healthy dose of punk flyers, album covers, and surfing magazines buzzing through his head, Craig began making flyers and t-shirts for his friends and his own punk bands. Fast-forward to today; Craig’s most recent paintings infuse his long-standing love for painting and rendering the human female figure with his punk fueled graphic design.
Mixing different approaches, techniques, and mediums, he creates a sense of memory, personal history, and appreciation for the female form. Combining elements of pop culture, literary censorship, and a positive mental attitude, he creates layered scenes of voyeuristic mischief. Craig’s work explores the junctions between past and present, memory and imagination, fantasy and reality, while creating a dialog between image and viewer.
