Sexy Lil’Art Show

And Pens presents,
Sexy Lil’ Art Show
a group show curated by Darin Klein

Opening reception
Saturday March 9, 2024 from 6-9 pm
at
And Pens
4533 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA.

On display through April 1

Featuring the works of:
Ron Abram • Devendra Banhart • Happy Hour Ceramics • Mark Golamco • Mattazine Society • Oat Montien • sweaterqueens • WILE Scents • Frank Xarate

*with performances by Tyris Winter and Mark Golamco at 8pm

Info:

Sexy Lil’ Art Show at And Pens Art Book Store and Gallery in Eagle Rock to feature drawings, paintings, artists’ books, zines, ceramic sculptures, perfume, and fine art prints – all exploring intimacy, erotica, sex, sexuality, longing, and desire. Artists represented in the exhibition hail from Bangkok, Thailand; Buenaventura, Colombia; Granville, OH; Los Angeles, CA; and Portland, OR. Free admission, open to the public.

Master printer Ron Abram’s etchings and aquatints explore popular myth and stereotypes by including representations of Mexican Vaqueros that historically inspired the American Cowboy. In doing so, the work envisions a queer dance across our borderlands. Internationally renowned musician Devendra Banhart’s visual work represents “…a constellation of references akin to an Allen Ginsberg poem.” (Hyperallergic). Classically trained Viola player Mark Golamco’s musical background and visual art education have led him to create performances that combine his original music with artwork that ranges from painting, drawing, dance, and video. Happy Hour Ceramics (Ashley Campbell and Brian Porray) are lovers and best friends who make small-batch ceramic objects and home goods. Inspired by midcentury California design, Las Vegas signage, and Memphis furniture, the works in Sexy Lil’ Art Show mark the worldwide debut of their new line of whimsical dildo and butt plug inspired sculptures. Mattazine Society is a queer zine collective helmed by artist and Tom of Finland

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Foundation Artist Coordinator José Tinoco and artist Mark Timothy Hayward based in Los Angeles that publishes the ongoing series of fanzines, “For the Love of…” The series has profiled personalities Holly Woodlawn / Joe Dallasandro, Dennis Cooper, Kristian Hoffman, Cookie Mueller, and Julius Eastman. Oat Montien, 2022 and 2023 Tom of Finland Foundation Artist in Residence, has always been inspired by sexuality and nightlife. His background in museology has geared his artistic practice towards queering the historical canon. His drawings and paintings interrogate the intimacy between artist and model, with strong emphasis on their gender identities. sweaterqueens is prvtdncr and bodega vendetta. The duo have exhibited their collaborative work at venues and in exhibitions including Bitches Rule cycles 1-4, Luis De Jesus, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Annual Queer Pile-Up!, Upstairs at Paul’s, and Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair at the Geffen Contempory at MOCA in Los Angeles; [ 2nd floor projects ] in San Francisco; Printed Matter in NYC; Private Places in Portland, OR; and Dog & Pony in Spokane, WA. Their work has been described as “encrusted” in Artforum. WILE is an unapologetic and uncensored fine fragrance brand envisioned by Dan Lang with no limitations, inspired by the way scent unravels with the warmth of bare skin and the use of scent in intimate spaces. Spring 2024 Tom of Finland Foundation Artist in Residence Frank Xarate is a Black and Indigenous artist from Colombia, now based in Argentina whose work explores connections between the foundational imagery of his childhood dreams, Indigenous heritage, and modern life.

An ever-expanding, analog network of collaborators, Darin Klein & Friends presents dynamic and engaging exhibitions, arts programming, and artists’ publications. Collective endeavors have been featured in venues including Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH); Amy Adler’s Echo Park Studio, Craft Contemporary, Hammer Museum, LACMA, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Outfest Platinum, Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair (Geffen Contemporary at MoCA), REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, and Tom of Finland Art and Culture Festival (Los Angeles); Yale University (New Haven, CT); MOMA, Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair (Dia:Chelsea, Philips de Pury, MOMA PS1), and White Columns (New York); and 54th San Francisco International Film Festival, Baer Ridgeway / 2nd floor projects, ESP, New Langton Arts, scene/escena, SFMOMA, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco). With Saskia Wilson-Brown and the Institute for Art and Olfaction, Darin Klein & Friends has co-produced Scent Fair LA in 2016, 2018, and 2023.

Max Kuhn’s “Build My Nest On The Ground”

And Pens presents,
Build My Nest On The Ground
a solo show by Max Kuhn

Opening reception
Saturday February 3, 2024 from 6-9 pm
at
And Pens
4533 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA.

On display through March 3

Info:
Max Kuhn is a multimedia artist born in 1989 from Richmond, Virginia. Formerly a self-taught tattoo artist, Kuhn travelled extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe for over a decade.

Using limited painting techniques originally developed for making tattoo flash designs, he began illustrating an on-going travelogue on scrap cardboard and old book covers during long periods of solitary travel. His paintings and sculptures depict the folkloric characters of cowboy or hobo, often incorporating diaristic and confessional writing.

“For me, they are pretty untethered from any kind of real history or nostalgia or something. It’s just the use of simple icons to represent something harder to get your hands around. They act as alter-egos, a way of blending actual experience and memory with a more collective myth. I’m not so much attracted to a specific time period, I’m just moved by things feeling human and organic and there is less of that today,”

Pacific Boilerplate

AND PENS presents,
Unusual Pacific Boilerplate
A group show of ink drawings on paper (and/or monochromatic works) featuring artists from Canada and the USA (…and one from Switzerland).
Opening reception Saturday January 6th, 2024, 6-9pm

with special musical guest
(on display through Jan 28)

Featuring:
Anna Firth
Anders Nilsen
Ange Violent
Bridget Trout
Elmo Fogfood
Floyd Tangeman
Jonathan Peterson
Jordan Rae Herron
Keith Jones
Keith Shore
Marc Bell
Mark DeLong
Marly Beyer
Matthew Thurber
Mike Paré
Owen Plummer
Rachel Howe
Ron Rege Jr.
Sylvia Munson

Return of Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol

AND PENS presents,
Return of Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol
by David King
 
Opening reception Friday August 11, 2023 from 7:30-9:30 PM
with musical performance by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe

“In 1977, David King designed this logo for his friend’s zine cover and later that same friend’s band in Essex, England. This book playfully explores this iconic symbol and the mind of the man that created it.”

– from Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol, published in 2013 by & Pens Press. 

In the mid 2000s there was a brief controversy over the ownership and origins of the Crass symbol when a London fashion brand used it as part of a clothing line and then unsuccessfully tried to copyright it. David King (1948 – 2019) knew that over the years the symbol he designed had come to stand not only for the band Crass, but also for anarchy, peace, freedom, autonomy, DIY ethics, a rejection of church and state, a rejection of the system and, for some, a way of life. It was a symbol that could never be owned by anyone. It was designed to be easily reproduced, as evidenced by its proliferation on clothing, walls, badges, jewelry, human skin, the bottom of empty swimming pools, and almost any other surface that would take ink or spray paint. 

When faced with the suggestion of someone copyrighting or claiming ownership of his design, King decided to “free the symbol” with humor and color—qualities not always associated with anarcho-punk. His Secret Origins book and related projects expanded the notion of what the symbol could contain—including, but not limited to, wedges of cheese, extended serpents, the Batman logo, tea and coffee pots, smiley faces, the CND logo and more. Today reinterpretations and homages have appeared incorporating killer whales, rainbows and air dancers, to name a few. We know King would have loved these variations, and through them his idea continues to live on. 

Return of Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol is an exhibition of King’s process. Alongside the hand-lettered ink drawing for the original book’s cover, there are five scalpel-cut stencils thick with layers of spray paint. These stencils were used not only by King, but also by visitors to 2011’s Spray Day at San Francisco’s Goteblüd gallery, where anyone could apply the designs to clothing, skateboards, toilet seats and anything else they could carry in. Many were later photographed for the book David King Stencils, published by Gingko Press in 2019. These stencils are the literal origins for many reproductions of the Crass symbol, and they offer a simple diagram for how it all began.

David Anthony King (1948 – 2019) was a British born American artist, graphic designer, and musician. He is best known for designing the Crass symbol in 1977. As part of the New York No Wave scene in the late 1970s he played in the bands Arsenal and the Gynaecologists, and later moved to San Francisco where he formed Sleeping Dogs and Brain Rust. He created design work for Danceteria, the Peppermint Lounge, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Details magazine, and many others. In the 2000s he revisited and expanded his design for the Crass symbol through numerous exhibitions as well as producing dozens of self published books of photography and art. 

PLANT SALE!

AND PENS presents,
Jeff Canham’s Plant Sale!
Open reception Friday June 30, 2023
from 6:00-8:00 PM
with stripped down musical performance by The Intelligence

Join us as the gallery transforms into a plant shop filled with Jeff Canham’s inanimate leafy wooden plant sculptures.

Jeff Canham is an artist, designer, sign painter, and amateur woodworker based in San Francisco. Originally from Hawaii, he studied graphic design at the University of Oregon, and afterward became the Art Director of Surfer Magazine in Southern California. In 2005 he moved to the Bay Area and began apprenticing at New Bohemia Signs where he learned the traditional art of sign painting. With a BFA in graphic design and a very unofficial degree in hand lettering from New Bohemia, his colorful typographic compositions combine both new and old techniques. He currently works out of a studio space in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset district called Woodshop that he shares with a furniiture maker and a surfboard shaper.

PAPERWORK

AND PENS presents, PAPERWORK, a group show of works on paper by 23 U.S. and internationally based artists. This inaugural exhibition in AND PENS new space will feature the work of: Alicia McCarthy, Atelier Bingo, Bjorn Lie, Brian Lotti, Chris Baird, Cody Hudson, Corey Presha, Daniel Higgs, Johanna Jackson, John Herndon, Jomo Goodlife, Kyle Ranson, Leif Goldberg, Louis Schmidt, Nathaniel Russell, Nicole Monk, Paul Wackers, Ragnar Persson, Rainen Knecht, Ryan Travis Christian, Shobo Shobo, Terry Haggerty, and Ysidro Pergamino. Please join us for the opening reception on Sunday May 28th from 4:00 – 6:00 PM @ AND PENS, 4533 Eagle Rock Blvd. Los Angeles.

LA Art Book Fair 2017

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We’ve got some good things in store for this year’s LA Art Book Fair. Like what, you ask? …Well we’ll be releasing a two-color riso zine by Brooklyn based artist James Ulmer called “Grid Paintings” and a 4-color glossy book of Mark DeLong‘s salvaged produce box collages entitled “Stars Above, Snakes Below.” Both publications will be produced in editions of only 150 copies, so stay posted for more info as they’re bound to go quick.

New & Pens Press title: What A Time To Be Alive by Joakim Ojanen

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We are proud to present our newest title: What A Time To Be Alive by Joakim Ojanen – a full color, 60 page, perfect bound, glossy book published by & Pens Press in conjunction with Ojanen’s exhibition “New Paintings and Ceramic Work” at Richard Heller Gallery. Book available online and at our local LA annexes. *ONLY 300 MADE.

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Selected Press:
“Joakim Ojanen: Innocence and melancholy, sculpted into old souls and teary dogs” – LA TIMES
“5 Questions with Joakim Ojanen” – Elephant Magazine