111 Minna Gallery is proud to present “LETHAL INJECTION” – a group show featuring the work of Robert Bowen, Nicolas Giraud (aka 100taur), Isaac Pierro, Philip Lawson. It also includes portraits of featured artists by Jason Mitchell & Stacey Ransom (aka Ransom & Mitchell).
Here is a link to a great overview of the artists by Empty Kingdom: EK Exclusive: Lethal Injection @111 Minna gallery.
“Lethal Injection” will display the severe imagery and extensive work ethics of two local San Francisco artists, Robert Bowen and Isaac Pierro as well as the tediously dedicated, Nicolas Giraud, who hails from Toulouse, France. Although these three artists practice a variety of artistic mediums successfully, they will primarily be focusing on and delivering paintings for the Lethal Injection exhibition, but special guest artist, Philip Lawson will display his handmade weapons of light.
His work is a strange, swirling brew of colorful contradiction that is not easy to define or even understand, but that seems quite the point. Throughout his body of work, Bowen takes familiar iconography and handily corkscrews it with his own unique brand of humor and distinct painting style. Bowen’s ability to reappropriate contradictory symbols into unsettling situations puts him in league with greats like Ron English, and Andy Warhol. He continues to walk the line between charming humor and blasphemous sarcasm with symbolic imagery that leaves the viewer both curious and confused.
Lucky Strike 8 – We Are Superior Pollinators
Lucky Strike 6 – Turbulence
A Magnificent Shame
Bowen had a terrific feature in the August Issue of Juxtapoz Magazine. If you can’t fine it on your newsstand, back issues can still be ordered.
From my @hld4ransom Instagram feed. “‘Congrats to Bowen for his 10 page feature in Juxtapoz Mag !! Jason Mitchell & I had a blast shooting his portrait. Most of the splatter was on a set wall but a few were created by Bowen & we added them to the image later. This canvas is one of my favorite photo shoot souvenirs!”
Below are a few photos of Bowen’s studio to show the richness of his work space.
Lastly, here is a shot I snuck of Bowen speaking at the artist talk while I was on stage. He’s charming, well-spoken AND talented. What a nice combination.
Monstas Défénitif
100Taur is an extrodinarily talented, diverse artists who handily masters painting, drawing, sculpture and graffiti. I have followed his work for a very long time and I wrote about him a few years ago. Through the years, I’ve had the pleasure of becoming his friend. I have had this to say about his work:
“100TAUR’s work mixes popular culture into a delicious cocktail of savagery and wry humor. The span of work is an impressive compendium of street art, paintings, drawings, sculpture and installations. I am enraptured by the complex details even as my heart tightens at their grotesque assemblage. He seamlessly weaves nostalgia with nightmares… [viewing his work] is a glimpse into a ferociously, clever mind that will surely scratch a pleasing oily mar upon your eyes.”
dead polar bear with butterflywings
dead mutant sponge
centaur megaloblaste / giclee-print limited edition print available at the show
échec et mat mon fils / mixed media
The following pieces are not in the show at 111 Minna, but I wanted to include them to show some of the sculptural works 100TAUR has created in the recent years.
japanese fisherman, 2011
limace mise en situation, 2010
arachno au sol, 2010
… and lastly, here is a shot of 100taur on stage during the artist talk for the Lethal Injection show and a sketch he did at my studio to post on his instagram @100taur
Philip Lawson
“My reasoning behind the series “Weapons of Light” is not to glorify the gun but use it’s form as a vehicle to communicate an idea. Weapons of Light are a conceptual series representing peaceful solutions to resolving conflicts.”
Larson photos courtesy of Nastia Voynovskaya of Hi-Fructose.
Isaac Pierro
“Most of my work is story based with themes of love, heartbreak, drugs and music. Even the character portraits I do usually have a specific story behind them. Most of my inspiration comes from emotions I have about experiences in the past, present, and also aspirations for the future. My work has a heavy tattoo influence as I am also a tattoo artist.”
Jason and I were honored to be invited to show our portraits of Robert Bowen and 100TAUR at the show. We have an ongoing artist portrait series where we take photographs of the artists we admire and try to tell a personal story that resonates with their work. We work closely with the artists to craft the concept and then usually custom build sets so that the scenes can be highly personalized.
If you’ve made your peace than the nosebleed is really a Rainbow / Portrait of Robert Bowen, 2011
Jason and I take our work very seriously and most of our imagery is rather dark and deals with heavier issues, but we always have fun on set and never take ourselves too seriously. We have an on-going tradition of shooting what we call Karma Shots. This is a goofy photo of everyone who was on set that day. It has become a superstition now. It seems every time we do it, we love the final images, when we don’t, something often seems to be missing. As Ricky Ricardo said, “can’t splain it.”
Karma shot from on-set with Robert Bowen. That’s milk, folks. Only unicorns drool rainbows.
This portrait isn’t in the show, but we love it so much I thought I’d share it in this post.
BFFs / portrait of Robert Bowen, 2011
Funky Fresh Pee Pea / Portrait of artist 100TAUR, 2011
The karma shot with Jason Mitchell and Nicolas Giraud.
Below is the set that I created with Nicolas. It is somewhat rare for me to be able to actually build a set with whatever artist Jason & I are shooting with since many of the artists do not live locally. But in this case, Nico was able to come into town early and we worked on the set together. I truly enjoyed this day of the two of us collaborating.
When it came time to take the set apart, I was so sad to think that it would be destroyed, I carefully pealed the facade off and reinstalled it in the office Jason & I share.
This is a shot from my Instagram feed (@hld4ransom) of Nicolas standing in my studio office standing next to a part of the wall. It was really nice to have him come back to our studio and be able to show him this permanent installation.
For both portraits, we thought it would be a nice touch to customize the frames for this show. Below is a picture from my Instagram feed of me working on the frames.
On a side note… Jason & I are thrilled to also announce we will be debuting our solo show of our portraits and fine art work with Varnish Fine Art, in San Francisco, Sept 8th, 2012. Along with showing many new works, we will be creating a special installation and are very happy for this opportunity.
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So in closing….. this show “Lethal Injection” at 111 Minna rocks and if you are in San Francisco, I hope you will be able to stop by this show. Thank you to curator, Micah LeBrun and all the artists.
