HPM Print with HARMAN PROJECTS for DesignerCon2022

Tuesday, November 15th, 2022

Harman Projects presents:

Den-City, 2022

24″ x 18″

Limited edition HPM (Hand Painted Multiple) archival pigment print

signed and numbered edition of 30.

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Available this weekend at the Harman Projects booth at @DesignerCon 2022 in Anaheim, California.  Booth 427.

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*Online Release: An online release of prints  will take place on Black Friday, November 25th at www.harmanprojects.myshopify.com

Exhibition: PRISMA solo show | KIRK Gallery

Monday, November 7th, 2022

PRISMA 
Recent works on canvas, collage on wood and soundtrack.

AUGUSTINE KOFIE

PRISMA

5 – 26 November


It is with great pleasure we are about to open a solo show with Augustine Kofie.
Made in 2022, the PRISMA series of works on canvas is part of Kofie’s ongoing industrial approach to fine art, which incorporates techniques such as overspray, tape blocking, detailed handwork, deconstruction, and draftsmanship drawn from architecture and graffiti. Despite the precision produced by these techniques, PRISMA was created through freestyle, intuition, and improvisation, producing a painterly, atmospheric series in a dusky palette, while still exploring collisions of forms, layers and transparencies to create abstract scenarios that somehow hang outside of time.

MURAL IN AALBORG

As a native of Los Angeles, Kofie was struck by the unfamiliar pattern of triangular rooftops that repeats across Aalborg’s residential skyline. This pattern informed his first mural in Aalborg, Ekkolokation, painted as part of the 2021 Out in the Open Mural Festival, and appears again in these new works on canvas. The circular form, always prominent in Kofie’s earlier work, appears here as a background horizon or a fragment in the foreground. The visual form that dominates in PRISMA are the splintered breaks produced by the friction of shapes clashing against each other. These splintered fractures, which gather and refract all the light in the paintings, are the offshoot of Kofie’s graffiti work and hold all the pleasure, energy, and symbolism of that work.

SOUNDTRACK FOR THE SHOW

For every solo exhibition, Kofie creates a soundtrack. The music is assembled as part of the work process, which is both sonic and pictorial. This mix blends experimental chill hip-hop beats, including extended, up-cycled sophistso-pop saxophone, new wave blues breaks, lo-fi telefilm intermissions and poignant dialogue relevant to the exhibition theme and tone.

Opens Saturday, November 5, 2022

KIRK Gallery
Danmarksgade 8, 9000 Aalborg
Denmark Tlf +45 98 14 11 44
mail@kirk-gallery.com

Made in 2022, the PRISMA series of works on canvas is part of Kofie’s ongoing industrial approach to fine art, which incorporates techniques such as overspray, tape blocking, detailed handwork, deconstruction, and draftsmanship drawn from architecture and graffiti. Despite the precision produced by these techniques, PRISMA was created through freestyle, intuition, and improvisation, producing a painterly, atmospheric series in a dusky palette, while still exploring collisions of forms, layers and transparencies to create abstract scenarios that somehow hang outside of time.

As a native of Los Angeles, Kofie was struck by the unfamiliar pattern of triangular rooftops that repeats across Aalborg’s residential skyline. This pattern informed his first mural in Aalborg, Ekkolokation, painted as part of the 2021 Out in the Open Mural Festival, and appears again in these new works on canvas. The circular form, always prominent in Kofie’s earlier work, appears here as a background horizon or a fragment in the foreground.  The visual form that dominates in PRISMA are the splintered breaks produced by the friction of shapes clashing against each other.  These splintered fractures, which gather and refract all the light in the paintings, are the offshoot of Kofie’s graffiti work and hold all the pleasure, energy, and symbolism of that work.

Exhibition: ROTATIONSHIPS at Heron Arts, SF

Monday, April 11th, 2022

Heron Arts Gallery presents:

R O T A T I O N S H I P S

Opening March 12th – April 9, 2022

7 Heron St,

San Francisco, California 94103

ROTATIONSHIPS is Augustine Kofie stripped down to the essence of his practice.  Created over the past three years, the series reflects the artist’s longstanding interests in salvaging the forgotten remnants of the past and elevating these through futurist aesthetics. For years, the artist has obsessively collected, archived, and repurposed pressboard, a heavy, multi-ply paper stock used in packaging and office supplies from the 1950s to the 1980s. Previously, pressboard appears as the hidden architecture of Kofie’s collages, subsequently covered with layers of paint, ink, and spray.  In ROTATIONSHIPS, the only “paint” used is the colored pressboard itself; brushes only apply adhesive and varnish.

Even when painting, Kofie describes his process as one of building. In this series, construction is centered in a series of “rotationships,” a word the artist coined to describe his ongoing relationships with circular forms, which always represent the feminine ideal in his work, taming and controlling the more hard-edged, angular work.  Here, circles are everything—centered, interlinked, stretched into oblongs, layered transparencies—in different explorations of joining.

Kofie’s respect for pressboard stems from its durability, malleability, and shelf appeal: it can be scored, folded, coated, screen-printed, embossed, while retaining its structural integrity.  Steno notepads, file folders, album covers, industrial packaging—pressboard often packages old technologies from a predigital, bygone era.  The artist has sourced this modest refuse of the past at estate sales in the greater Los Angeles area (as well as flea markets the world over), from the homes, workshops, and garages of the elderly, who saved everything, when things were made to last.
A self-defined “compartamentalizer,” Kofie breaks his work process into phases. In his studio, the pressboard has been meticulously inventoried—archived by color palette, thickness, and category in vintage industrial file cabinets, “sometimes for years, sometimes for that day,” until they make their way into an assemblage.  The blank file folders he screen-prints himself, making his own packaging by silk-screening salvaged security envelope patterns and other half tones onto the pressboard. Using found metal circles (also sourced at estate sales) as templates and found metal objects as weights, the only contemporary material is the wood panel support.

Production is a meditative, intuitive, embodied process. Beginning with a simple pencil sketch on wood panel—a few circles, a few crosscutting lines—Kofie then lets the given selection of pressboard guide the work, manually cutting the pieces, one by one, fitting them into a section, letting each determine the one to follow. The results are reminiscent of mandalas in the way they focus our attention, calm our spirit, and center us in an abstract space, but here these are built out of the industrial arts of our recent, collective past. Even as we enjoy the perfect symmetries, we try to read the images, to decipher the past lives of what we see.  In this way, ROTATIONSHIPS is the ultimate manifestation of Kofie’s career-long commitment to salvaging the past and building it into a future. 

Curated by Heron Arts director Tova Lobatz, ROTATIONSHIPS marks Augustine Kofie’s first time showing this body of work.

CLICK HERE FOR EXHIBITION VIEW, VIDEO AND SOUNDTRACK

Group Show + Print release

Monday, November 29th, 2021

Sugarpress Art presents: Altered Perspectives – The Art of Non-Objective Abstraction.
Curated by SugarPressArt & GuerillaOne to benefit  Artists For Trauma

Non-objective art is abstract or non-representational art. It does not represent specific objects, people, or other subjects found in the natural world. Leaving it up to the viewer to determine what they see.

Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez aka Heaven, Adia Millett, Jim “TAZ” Evans, ORION OWENS, Adam Bravin, Ryan Campbell, DONX, Christopher Tice, Tommy Hollenstein 
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Print Info:18 x 24 Archival pigment print on sustainable Bamboo Paper; edition of 100; hand signed and numbered by artist with chop mark. $175 AVAILABLE HERE

Augustinekofie.info

Monday, November 8th, 2021

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The official collection of up to date studio works, mural and exhibition archives can be found at augustinekofie.info. KEEP DRAFTING will be a hub for archives, select limited releases and news.

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Solo Exhibition: STATE OF MIND with HASHIMOTO CONTEMPORARY, NYC

Monday, April 19th, 2021

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Enlighten-moment, 2021
39.5 x 32 x 1.5 in / 100 x 80 x 4.5 cm
Acrylic polymer on synthetic polyester canvas; finished in satin varnish;
strip framed by artist.

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AUGUSTINE KOFIE – “STATE OF MIND”
17 APRIL – 8 MAY 2021

HASHIMOTO CONTEMPORARY NYC

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Hashimoto Contemporary is pleased to present State of Mind, our debut solo exhibition with Los Angeles-based artist Augustine Kofie. Made over a period of nine months under quarantine, the collection is part of Kofie’s ongoing industrial approach to fine art, which incorporates techniques such as overspray, tape blocking, detailed handwork, deconstruction, and draftsmanship drawn from architecture, graffiti and California car culture.

The particularities of quarantine shaped the process and thus the work itself. Unlike the usual linear development of paintings from start to finish, the State of Mind collection took a much more circuitous route.

“Some of these works were very frustrating to manifest. On the one hand, I had all this extra time, but on the other, it took much longer than usual for things to take shape. Emotionally and tonally, the works run the gamut from angst to harmony. My feelings are in the brushstrokes, the movements, the process of repeatedly adding and taking away, the layers of time it took to complete these paintings,” stated the artist.

The circular form, always prominent in Kofie’s earlier work, appears here to be breaking down.

“Where your eyes want to continue to complete the circle, you are stopped. With painting, I am in control. The pandemic was a stop, an interruption, a loss of control. So these interrupted circles, which break off and take new paths, are life interrupted,” Kofie elaborated.

With art supply stores and estate sales—Kofie’s two primary sources of tools and materials—shut down, a new technique emerged. Three of the works in the collection have a textural wood support, created by collaging found materials from the artist’s archive onto hand-made wood panels. This underlying structure, painted over entirely, comes through nonetheless, adding a hidden layer of meaning, a pentimento that also speaks to our varying, overlapping states of mind this year.

For every solo exhibition, Kofie creates a soundtrack. The music is assembled as part of the work process, which is both sonic and pictorial. This mix blends experimental hip hop with chill wave, including extended, up-cycled sophistso-pop saxophone, 80s synths, new wave breaks, lo-fi telefilm intermissions and poignant dialogue relevant to the exhibition theme and tone.

The gallery will be open by appointment only. In order to ensure the health and safety of visitors and staff, please note that masks are legally required for entry. To schedule an appointment, please click HERE.

The exhibition will be on view Saturday, April 17th to Saturday, May 8th. For more information, additional images, or exclusive content, please email NYC Director, Jennifer Rizzo at nyc@hashimotocontemporary.com

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JUXTAPOZ review

WIDEWALLS review


Interview with VANTAGE POINT

Tuesday, September 1st, 2020

Had the great opportunity to speak with the good folks at Vantagepointradio.com in the first half of 2020. Spoke freely on my creative endeavors and how I attempt to manage my outputs.  Also had the chance to share some music that inspires me including Yusef Lateef, Narada Michael Walden, Sadistic Candle and The Nonce.

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Streaming on Vantagepointradio.com as well as iTunes, Spotify & Mixcloud.

Solo exhibition| Adventures In Tonality | Openspace, Paris

Friday, January 10th, 2020

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Installation and further exhibition details can be found here.

Galerie Openspace Presents: AUGUSTINE KOFIE  | Adventures In Tonality
116 boulevard Richard Lenoir, 75011 Paris
+33 9 80 66 63 94
contact@galerieopenspace.com for all inquiries.

Opening Saturday January 18, 2020

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Adventures in tonality” is a term coined by George Russell, an American modern jazz musician and theorist, for the first codified original theory to come from jazz. The theory re-conceptualized the matching of scales and chords, granting the player or composer tonal freedom. I drew inspiration from this notion of freedom, as well as jazz’s processes of improvisation.

A technical illustrator at heart, my painting and collage is often based on sketches. This time, I used no sketches as reference. Instead, the work in this run was created through freestyle, intuition, and improvisation, producing a painterly, atmospheric series in a dusky palette, while still exploring collisions of forms, layers and transparencies to create abstract scenarios that somehow hang outside of time.

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The show’s accompanying 20-minute soundtrack samples my personal collection of jazz records, boasting extended, up-cycled, dusty jazz loops, spacey atmospheric transitions, lo-fi vintage cinematic intermissions, and relevant dialogue pupped from films. These sounds are the driving force behind the artworks.

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Solo exhibition| Darkest Before the Dawn | StolenSpace, London

Friday, February 1st, 2019

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StolenSpace gallery Presents:

Darkest before the Dawn

Opening Reception : 07.02.19, 6 – 9pm

Exhibition Dates: 08.02.19 – 03.03.19

StolenSpace gallery

17 Osborn Street,

London UK E1 6TD

P: +44 (0) 207 247 2684

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StolenSpace Gallery are excited to present ‘Darkest before the Dawn’ an exhibition of new work by Augustine Kofie.

Having lived in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains in Los Angeles County, Southern California, this new series of painting and collage by Kofie explores transition and juxtaposition. Created during fall/winter, this new body of work is inspired by the low winter sun rising against the mountain, the sky opening up, the change in colour, and wet wood after rain.

The palette builds on the fundamental contrast of darkness and brightness: starting from a darker base and building towards light. The dark, earth tones refer back to an architectural, hard-edge aesthetic; the jewel tones emerge from them in a new version of the dichotomy of infrastructure and nature, with which Kofie’s work constantly battles.

Kofie’s mechanical details as always, are there, but the work this series is more painterly. The first base layer is made by free styling, gestural brushstrokes with fast momentum. The second layer is structural and technological, at times interacting with the base, at other times hovering over it. The third layer, through the use of overspray, is an atmospheric overlay.

This series is not darkness as pessimism, but rather optimism in difficult times.

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Graffuturism Coverage

Group Exhibition| ABSTRACT STREET ART, Bayonne France

Wednesday, April 11th, 2018

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Natural system central, 2016

52×60 inches | 132x153cm

Acrylic on canvas. Finished in satin varnish. 

 

Space Junk Art Centers present:

ABSTRACT STREET ART I COLLECTIVE EXHIBITION

35 Rue Sainte-Catherine, 64100 Bayonne, France

12/04/2018 – 02/06/2018

JonOne, Futura, Kofie Augustine, Tanc, MadC, Sowat, LX One, Lek

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“Abstract Street Art” is a collective exhibition presenting the work of 8 artists.

Abstract art was immediately invited into Street art. Whether reinterpreting the artists of the movement “Abstract Expressionism” after the war or by assuming the technique called “Freestyle”, akin to the work of colorists …

And then, over the years, new forms of abstraction have appeared, each time calling on the history of art: Futurism, Automatic Writing, Optical Art.

Spacejunk invites you to discover in this new original exhibition, the footbridges that street artists have created between the history of painting and the movement of Street art.

 

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Solo Exhibition| MKNZM | Swinton Gallery, Madrid

Wednesday, March 7th, 2018

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MKNZM

Opening reception:
Friday, March 23rd – May 27, 2018 

8-10 pm

C/ Miguel Servet 21 28012, MADRID, Spain

0034 91 4496128 

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MKNZM (Mechanism), at Swinton Gallery, is Augustine Kofie’s first solo show in Spain.

Comprised of the artist’s signature constructivist, graffuturist aesthetic, the show includes collage on wood, painting on canvas, and etched found clipboards. Beginning with a three-month-long process of mechanical drawing, Kofie created a collection of sketches which would become the basis for collage and painting. Stretching the circle which anchors much of his work into an oblong pushed the sketches in a highly technical, mechanical direction (hence the title). The oblongs began operating like belts, linking parts of conceptual machines, evoked in 2D as parallel, fold-out worlds. Combining Spanish ephemera (sent by Swinton) with paper from his deep inventory, Kofie built up a collage series in which individual works explore gradients of a single color, determined and inspired by the found paper. Once the color palette for the show had been established, the paintings followed suit.

 A soundtrack created for the show by the artist is available on Mixcloud.com/4x4tracktor, and for only the second time in his career, as a physical, limited edition release on C60 cassette.

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  An exhibition log can be found at Augustinekofie.info 

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Group Exhibition| East Looking West | Heron Arts, San Francisco

Friday, September 15th, 2017

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ShapingUp Series No. 01 – In good hands Details H E R E

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Jonathan LeVine Projects and Heron Arts are pleased to present:  ‘East Looking West’, an exhibition of artists currently based on the West Coast, curated by Jonathan LeVine.

September 16 – October 7, 2017 | Opening reception: September 16 from from 7:00-10:00 PM.

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Jonathan LeVine is known for introducing the West Coast lowbrow aesthetic to the East Coast. With a particular style, vision, and palette influenced by comic books, B-movies, advertising, and car culture, the lowbrow aesthetic is both a cultural reality and a romantic encapsulation of how The West is seen from afar. It represents eternal sunshine, a way of life, the possibility of escape, and a fresh start. ‘East Looking West’ is a stylistic melting pot showcasing West Coast natives and transplants. Revisiting our roots, we focus the lens on the West Coast and take a look at what is happening now.
 

Group Exhibition| Abstrakt Forum 2 | FORUM Przestrzenie, Poland

Monday, July 17th, 2017

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Iso-Stereophonic, 2017
24 x 36 x 1 inches
Found paper, screen-print, acrylic, ball point pen and white-out on cradled birch panel.
Sealed in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin varnish.
Framed by artist with found yardsticks.

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Abstrakt Forum 2
// July 22, 2017
Pawilon Letni
Hosted by FORUM Przestrzenie and NAWER

FORUM Przestrzenie Marii Konopnickiej 28, 30-302 Kraków
Confirmed artists:

AUGUSTINE KOFIE, POESIA, MAD C, SATONE, ROBET PROCH, REMI ROUGH

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ABSTRAKT FORUM 2  //PAWILON LETNI

What happens when graffiti abandons its classical form, forgets its assumptions and stops looking at the canons? Which decks of new possibilities conceal abstraction, which is limited only by the imagination of the artist? We wanted to see where its boundaries lie and whether they exist at all, inviting contemporary co-authors of abstract paintings, whose common denominator is widely understood street art. The result of our efforts is the exhibition of images ABSTRACT FORUM 2017, which will soon appear on the walls of the Summer Pavilion Forum Space.

ABSTRAKT FORUM is a collective exhibition of works by unconventional artists, whose work escapes the common definitions of classical graffiti. Curators of the exhibition – Łukasz Habiera Nawer and Maciej Malinowski – have selected outstanding contemporary painters whose roots are firmly embedded in the street arte, but what they are creating now strives for unstrained abstraction, deprived of principles, key motifs and specific graphic forms. The decisive aspect in choosing artists was the idea of “Graffuturism” – an innovative concept that, although it helps to classify the presented, difficult to define images. The new, exciting possibilities, unlimited imagination and creativity of the invited creators are the decisive components of the ABSTRAKT FORUM exhibition, which is the first in Poland to explore and expose the audience about abstraction by street artists.

The exhibition of paintings will be available at the Summer Pavilion of Forum Spatrzenie ul. Konopnickiej 28 in Cracow.

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Co-organizer of the exhibition is the Krakow Festival Office
Patron: Pilsner Urquell, Liquitex, Windsor & Newton
Partners: Boom apartments, Forum Island
Media Patronage: Off radio Krakow, Sosm.pl, Lounge

For info on the exhibition:
maciek@forumprzestrzenie.com

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#abstraktforum

 

 

Group Exhibition| ADVENTURES IN MODERN ABSTRACTION | STOLENSPACE, London

Monday, July 3rd, 2017

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LOS

30 x 30 x 1 3/4 inches, 2017

Found paper, acrylic, screen-print, ball point pen, graphite and white-out on cradled birch panel

Sealed in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin varnish. 

Framed by artist with mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks.

 

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Blush response rotation No. 2

30 x 30 x 1 3/4 inches, 2017

Found paper, acrylic, screen-print, ball point pen, graphite and white-out on cradled birch panel

Sealed in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin varnish. 

Framed by artist with mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks. 

View LARGE images here.

 

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ADVENTURES IN MODERN ABSTRACTION

STOLENSPACE SUMMER GROUP SHOW

 

17 Osborn Street London

E1 6TD

United Kingdom

P: +44 (0) 207 247 2684

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Opening Reception Thursday 6th July, 6-9pm

Exhibition Dates : 07.07.17 – 06.08.17

 

Featuring work by:

Felipe Pantone, Jason Woodside, Zest, Jeremy Brown, Clark Goolsby, 

Remi Rough, Mad C, Augustine Kofie, Roids, Florence Blanchard, Muro

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Influenced by both Urban Art and Abstract Contemporary, we present works from a group of artists who merge the way between these styles focusing the energy and rawness of classical graffiti with abstract expressionism.

Works feature noticeable spray can strokes, fat cap lines, drips and splatters and all the other elementary components of classic graffiti as well as works with more graphic clean lines of geometric precision.

 

Abstract both in the visual language and approach, ‘Adventures in Modern Abstraction’ showcases a collection of works that embrace a vibrant approach to the outer limits of urban art and graffiti.

 

Serigraph: Innferold-Overwhelm for Jonathan LeVine Projects

Thursday, June 22nd, 2017

kd-innerfold-overwhelm.jpg Innerfold-Overwhelm
24 x 24 inches
4-color Serigraph on 290gsm Coventry rag fine art paper with deckled edge.
Hand pulled by @Seriopress fine art editions, Pasadena, CA.
Edition of 100
$150
Photo: Michael Underwood

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I will be releasing my first Serigraph in 3 years this weekend [June24th] with Jonathan LeVine Projects for the group show ‘Multiples of Multiples’.
‘Innerfold-Overwhelm’ is based on my marker techniques sketches, referencing an illustration executed in the last 6 months. Each of the 4 transparencies was hand painted to give the piece a painterly and hands on, illustrated feel. This would be considered my most dense and heavily structured print to date, reflecting a feeling of being engulfed and surrounded. The overwhelming, constant barrage of the unwanted, be it politics, authority overstepping, or just good old general anxiety.

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Available exclusively at the ‘Multiples of Multiples’ group show as well as the online store.

‘Multiples of Multiples’ – Group exhibition of prints and editioned work by Ashley Wood, Augustine Kofie, Ben Tolman, Ben Venom, Brett Amory, Dennis McNett, Dylan Egon, Hellbent, JeffSoto, Jeremy Fish, João Ruas, John Jacobs Meyer, Nick Walker & Shepard Fairey. On view from June 24 – July 22, 2017

Jonathan Levine Projects is now located at Mana Contemporary
Suites 415 and 344
888 Newark Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm
201-763-6998
info@jonathanlevinegallery.com

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Solo Exhibition| BUILD FROM MEMORY with Galerie Openspace, Paris

Friday, February 24th, 2017

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Aquatico afterthought

60 x 60 inches, square

Acrylic and spray paint on primed cotton duck canvas.

Finished in satin varnish. 

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AUGUSTINE KOFIE Build From Memory [solo show] 

Exhibition from 25 February -1 April, 2017 

OPENING SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY FROM 6PM TO 9PM WITH THE ARTIST

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GALERIE OPENSPACE 

116, boulevard Richard Lenoir 75011 Paris, France

For any further information or catalogue request : contact@galerieopenspace.com 

+ 33 9 80 66 63 94 

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*Soundtrack stream and download HERE

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The Openspace Gallery is pleased to announce Build From Memory, the third solo show of the Los Angeles-based artist Augustine Kofie, which work is represented by the gallery since 2013 in France. 

The title chosen for this new exhibition by Augustine Kofie’s showcasing 2016-17 new series of collage, painting and installation speaks to our human ability to acquire knowledge and repetitively apply it to the material world. We are defined by our ability to manipulate nature, and by our experience of being in time. What we learned and remember is essential to what we make. In this way, we make the future out of the past through our present action, through building from memory, reassembling a mutated, partially preserved set of fragments into something new. There is loss in this, but there is gain as well. 

Kofie continues to push and explore technologies and strategies to build up space within his work, and in each series he poses himself a new problem to be solved. Build From Memory began with the challenge of how to produce dynamic movement from a stable, static (horizontal/vertical) foundation. The answer came in the form diagonal “breaks”, perspectival lines that produce volume, protrusion, immersion, and depth in the horizontal-vertical system. It is these breaks that are built from memory and inspire the title of the collection, for they come directly from the 3D technique of traditional letter writing practices such as sign painting or graffiti. “If I draw from muscle memory, without thinking, I build a static foundation and then insert such 3D breaks to produce new shapes and space,” Kofie explains. “3Ds come from an imaginary point of perspective, from multiple points of perspective, multiple memories.” 

This classic compositional element and representational strategy informs both collage and painting. “The collage is my drafting room, constructivist technique. It’s the finding, recovering, prepping—the mosaic, collage, and transformation of the materials. It’s the closest I can come to building a painting, using the material as a color, using paint only to accentuate what is already there.” Each fragment has been salvaged out of the destructiveness of time, each holds a memory, each is a portal onto a moment, each font or graphic or color opening onto a memory path. 

As always, Kofie’s paintings begin in sketch form, but the sketch is not projected or directly copied onto canvas. Position, scale, the relation of shapes, of negative and positive space—all change with the switch in medium. Muscle memory comes in anew—now it is not the embodied knowledge of years of drawing letters bur rather that of painting large public walls that comes into play. “I am loosening up my canvas technique now,” Kofie says, “painting as I would do a wall. The body comes in – it’s a workout – the canvases are done in quick, repeated spurts, in a painting style I learned from street work, so they have a very loose, active energy. But then I always go back for the refinements, moving through brush sizes from large to small—moving from big dirty mini-roller, from raw brush lines, raw spray paint lines, overspray, that is then finessed and cleaned up with the rigger brush. It’s that relationship of gestural freedom and control that always interests me.“ 

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GALERIE OPENSPACE 

16, boulevard Richard Lenoir 75011 Paris, France 

Wed- Sat ; 2-7 PM

 For any futher information or catalogue request : contact@galerieopenspace.com 

+ 33 9 80 66 63 94 

 

Sales manager: Nicolas Chenus 

Press contact: Samantha Longhi

 

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Photo:  François-Xavier Laurent

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View the Build From Memory exhibition as well as updated links to reviews via Augustinekofie.info

Group Exhibition: WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY @ Jonathan Levine Gallery

Sunday, February 12th, 2017

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Full shot and detail of 

Modernizing room

24 x 60 x 1 3/4 inches, 2016 

Found paper, ball point pen, acrylic and spray paint on cradled birch panel.

Coated in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin gel medium. 

 

Framed by artist in mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks.

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WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY

Jonathan LeVine Projects Inaugural Exhibition in Jersey City at Mana Contemporary

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February 18 – March 18, 2017

Opening reception Saturday, February 18, 6-8 pm

888 Newark Ave, Jersey City,

New Jersey 07306

Group exhibition featuring Adam Wallacavage, AJ Fosik, Alessandro Gallo, Alexis Diaz, Andy Kehoe, Ashley Wood, Augustine Kofie, Beth Cavener, Camille Rose Garcia, Carlos Ramirez, Chloe Early, Cryptik, Dan Witz, Diego Gravinese, Dylan Egon, Eloy Morales, Erik Jones, EVOL, Gary Taxali, Handiedan, Haroshi, Hush, Jeff Soto, Jim Houser, Joel Rea, John Jacobsmeyer, Jorg Heikhaus, Josh Agle (Shag), Kazuki Takamatsu, Mab Graves, Martin Wittfooth, Mary Iverson, Matt Leines, Matthew Grabelsky, Michael Reeder, Miss Van, Nick Walker, Nychos, Phil Hale, Ron English, Shepard Fairey, Tara McPherson & Tristan Eaton

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News on the recent relocation of Jonathan LeVine Gallery 

FBook event page

Group Exhibition| RESET | Athen B. Gallery, Oakland

Wednesday, January 4th, 2017

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Magnetic quality overcast, 2016

36.5 x 36.5 x 1 3/4 inches

Found pressboard, acrylic, pencil, ball point pen, white-out & screen-print  on cradled birch panel.

Sealed in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin gel medium. 

Framed by artist in mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks.

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Glendorafied System, 2016

24 x 24 x 1 3/4 inches

Found paper, ball point pen, acrylic and water-based spray paint on cradled birch panel.

Sealed in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin gel medium. 

Framed by artist in mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks.

View LARGE HERE

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R E S E T 

AUBREY LEARNER | AUGUSTINE KOFIE | CHRISTIE YURI NOH | CURIOT

DAVE KINSEY | DUNCAN JAGO | JEAN NAGAI | KELLY ORDING

MARTINA MERLINI | NICOLAS ROMERO | PAKAYLA RAE | SMITHE

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Athen B. Gallery is pleased to present “Reset”, a group exhibition coming to Oakland January 14th featuring the works of twelve local, national and international artists. 

Some of the artists in the exhibition, like Augustine Kofie, Dave Kinsey and Duncan Jago, are considered to be veterans in the urban contemporary movement.  They will be hanging alongside emerging artists like Aubrey Learner, Christie Yuri Noh and Pakayla Rae. By hand selecting a diverse array of techniques, styles, and aesthetics, we have aimed to make this our most surreal exhibition to date. We’re excited to have Smithe, Pakayla Rae, Kelly Ording, Duncan Jago, Dave Kinsey, Curiot and Augustine Kofie joining us for the first time.  We couldn’t be happier to welcome back Nicolas Romero, Martina Merlini, Jean Nagai and Aubrey Learner back for another exhibition at Athen B. Gallery in Downtown Oakland.

Be sure to join us Saturday, January 14th at 7pm for the opening reception of “Reset”.  We’re conveniently located in Downtown Oakland at 1525 Webster St. just off both 12th and 19th Ss. Bart Stations.  The exhibition will be on view through February 3, 2017.  

To inquire about available works contact info@athenbgallery.com

Athen B. Gallery

1525 Webster | Oakland, CA | 94612

Contact | info@athenbgallery.com

Hours | Tuesday to Friday 12-6pm, Saturday 11am – 5pm

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Gallery Press release

Exhibition view via Instagram 

INSTAGRAFITE coverage of exhibition 

ArtshareLA Presents: ABOVE THE STREETS 2016

Saturday, October 22nd, 2016

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The 3rd Annual Above the Streets fundraising event benefitting Art Share L.A. will be held on Thursday, October 27, 2016 6PM – 10:30PM. This year we will honor the 6th Street Bridge Project for contributing to the transformation of Downtown Los Angeles.  And we have the pleasure of highlighting artist/muralist Augustine Kofie.

Augustine’s work will be splashed around the City of Los Angeles through different outdoor media channels: large billboards, digital billboards, bus bench ads, and more!  Using drafting as his inspiration, Augustine’s architectural images align with the many new buildings and changes coming to our city.

Each year, Art Share L.A. serves our community of emerging artists and supports them through their artistic journey.  Last year we shepherded, 350 artists through our gallery and opportunities programs; hosted 4,500 attendees to various events; held 25 gallery shows; 150 musical performances and 50+ readings and poetry events.  Art Share is where you come to discover new talent – Art Lives Here!

 Your sponsorship will ensure Art Share’s ability to continue to support local, emerging artists in their journey of becoming professional artists

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Limited Edition 12x 12, 18x 18 and 24×24 inch, Moab Entrada 290 GSM, Cottonrag available for local Los Anggeles pick up only. NO SHIPPING. 

Group Exhibition: Please Don’t Touch! @ Openspace, Paris

Saturday, September 10th, 2016

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 Installation shot of  Maroon Base1′ and  ‘Azul Unfold’ along with cement sculpture by DELTA.

Photo: Openspaceparis

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Please Don’t Touch

Gallery Openspace
116, bd Richard Lenoir, Paris 11e

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To celebrate the return and the first last year in its new space Boulevard Richard Lenoir,
the Openspace Gallery decided to think big by offering a selection of important pieces from
his own collection together unpublished works of its artists.
Canvas large format as well as sculptures up the exhibition “Please Do not Touch”. Starting
from the simple fact that the plethora of works and artists proposed by the galleries and auction
houses makes today any act very difficult decision, this event was truly thinking
for and with our collectors.

The team of artists of the gallery is in the spotlight in this event with works – across space – Augustine Kofie,
Robert Proch, Nychos, Addam Yekutieli (Know Hope), Rafael Gerlach (Satone), Doze Green, Lacan Eric Bruno Leyval,
Stéphane Moscato, Taku Obata, Emanuele Vittorioso, nawer and Jana & Js. They will be presented throughout the exhibition
through an evolutionary collision. Some innovations are being unveiled, with among others the return to France
the protégé of Gêmeos Os, Brazilian artist Nunca, works spectacularly futuristic Belgian Frédéric Platéus and a presentation of
works by C215 for his first exhibition with the gallery in 2017 Openspace.

“Please Do not Touch” is also an opportunity to discover a selection of masterpieces from the collection of the gallery,
artists such as Roa, Crash, or Mark Jenkins Smash 137 as well as some very fine editions of Cleon Peterson, Boris Tellegen,
Bom.K and Parra.

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Group Exhibition: Grand Opening at Matthew Namour Gallery, Montréal

Wednesday, June 29th, 2016

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Acknowledge Rotation

24.5 x 24.5 x 1 3/4 inches

Found paper, ball point pen, acrylic and water-based spray paint on cradled birch panel.Sealed in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin gel medium. Framed by artist in mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks.

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Group Exhibition | Matthew Namour Gallery | Opening | Mtl
June 29th | 17-19h

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It is a pleasure to be part of the collective show on the occasion of the opening of the new space Matthew Namour Gallery, expansion of the Yves Laroche gallery.
GRAND OPENING
Located in a historical building in the heart of Old Montréal, The gallery’s mission is to showcase cutting edge contemporary art.

Matthew Namour Gallery expands on Yves Laroche’s long-established legacy of presenting the best & most recognizable of lowbrow & street art. Rooted in traditions of graffiti, tattooing, comics, pop art, illustration, and surrealism, Matthew Namour is proud to bring an eclectic selection of artists to Montreal’s most visited neighbourhood. This gallery is here to uphold the city’s position as an evolving force in the global art map.

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Galerie Matthew Namour, 217 Boulevard Saint Laurent, Montréal (Québec) H2Y 3T9
514 903-1987 | OPENING HOURS | Everyday: 10am-6pm

 

Group Exhibition: Brick to Canvas @ Tinney Contemporary, Nashville Tennessee

Wednesday, April 20th, 2016

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Detail ofOvercast air’

24 x 60 x 1 3/4 inches, 2016  

Found paper, ball point pen, acrylic, screen print and spray paint on cradled birch panel.

Coated in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin gel medium. 

Framed by artist in mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks.

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 Full shot of and details of ‘Overcast Air’ HERE

Tinney Gallery presents: BRICK TO CANVAS: A survey of international street art

Herakut  –  Rone  –  Niels “Shoe” Meulman  –  Adele Renault  –  Augustine Kofie

Part I:

May 7th – May 28th, 2016

Tinney Contemporary

237 5th Avenue North

Nashville, TN 37219

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  Tinney Contemporary is pleased to present a two-part exhibition curated by the founders of the Nashville Walls Project, Tova Lobatz and Brian Greif. Brick to Canvas – A Survey of International Street Art is a multidimensional look into the world of contemporary street art, urban contemporary or new contemporary. All the artists represented have extensive experience painting murals and have been exhibiting in galleries and museums around the world. Brick to Canvas – A Survey of International Street Art is on view until July 25th, 2016 at Tinney Contemporary and is free and open to the public.

Part I: May 7th – May 28th:  Nashville Walls Project Exhibition:  In conjunction with the “Nashville Walls Project” inaugural mural project in Nashville, Tinney will show works by international street artists – Herakut – Germany, Rone – Australia,  Niels “Shoe” Meulman – Amsterdam, Adele Renault – Amsterdam,  Augustine Kofie- United States, and Dal East- South Africa. Inside the gallery Herakut will be producing an experiential installation along with hanging 2D works. Herakut, Rone, Meulman and Renault will be in Nashville to paint public murals and will be present for the opening reception.

In addition, Tinney will also be exhibiting Banky’s “Haight Street Rat”.   The 7-foot tall beret wearing Rat is one of Banky’s most famous street paintings.  The public will be able to see the Rat for free during the course of the exhibit.

The Nashville Walls Project aims to bring internationally known street artists to Nashville. The founders, Brian Greif and Tova Lobatz, are art advisers and curators who met in San Francisco. Greif, based in Nashville, has spent a majority of his career in media, produced a number of movies (including “Saving Banksy”, a documentary about the infamous piece that will be hanging in Tinney Contemporary in May), and has been involved in the arts for decades. Lobatz, based in San Francisco, was the director of the leading urban contemporary gallery in the United States. She has founded her own public arts organization in San Francisco, and continues to advise private collections, corporations and curates independently.

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Group Exhibition: EXCEPTIONAL @ Scream Gallery, London

Thursday, April 14th, 2016

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Full and detail of ‘Assembly Instructions’, 2016

91 x 91 x 4 cm   /  36 x 36 x 1 3/4 inches

Found paper, ball point pen, acrylic and water-based spray paint on cradled birch panel.

Sealed in archival matte varnish. Finished in satin gel medium. Framed by artist in mahogany stained pine and found yardsticks. 

 

 

 

 Animation of 6 Found Clipboard paintings for the exhibition

12.5 x 9 inches  [22 x 32 cm ]

Acrylic on found clipboard (pressed hardboard masonite wood). 

Finished in satin gel medium.

 

 

 

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EXCEPTIONAL (ADJECTIVE: UNUSUAL, NOT TYPICAL.)

Curated by REMI ROUGH & Ruth Wilkinson

 

14TH APRIL – 29TH APRIL 2016 AT SCREAM LONDON

 

A group exhibition featuring:

Jerry Inscoe (USA)  –  Augustine Kofie (USA)  –  Zanny Mellor (UK)  –  Martina Merlini (ITALY)  –  Steve More (UK)  –  Charley Peters (UK)  –  Livvy Turner (UK)

 

 

Scream London present ‘Exceptional’, a group exhibition that connects seven artists with disparate working practices who share a minimalist sensibility. Employing a range of different methods, each artist has developed a unique way of working with processes such as erasure, visual systems or spatial investigation. Their practices are often labour intensive, contrary to the reductive nature of the final work.

 

The work presented in ‘Exceptional’ offers a contemporary vision of the traditions of abstraction. Some of the artists draw inspiration from the lines of urban architecture, some from surface and texture, and others from vintage system grids. Their work, however, avoids a nostalgic view of modernism and sits confidently within a post-digital landscape. The distinctive journeys that each of the artists go on in their daily routines in the studio are what brings them together in this exhibition.

 

‘Exceptional’ because nobody else makes work in the same way that these seven artists do. ‘Exceptional’ because the work is unique, not printed or manufactured but considered, built, erased, layered, constructed and painted by their own hands, using their own inimitable processes with incomparable results.

 

 

Scream LondonEastcastle House, 27-28 Eastcastle St, Fitzrovia, London W1W 8DH

 

 

Group Exhibition: Cosmic Flush: Celebrating the life and work of the legendary Rammellzee, London

Thursday, December 10th, 2015

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They knew I had wounds from platoons of the stars

39.5 x 39.5, 2015

Acrylic polymer & spray paint on primed duck canvas.

Finished in satin gel medium.

 

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GammaProforma Presents: Cosmic Flush Exhibition, celebrating the life and work of the legendary Rammellzee.

Magda Danysz Gallery, 61 Charlotte St, London. December 10th, 2015

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Rammellzee passed away in 2010, but before he left us he recorded his magnum opus, Cosmic Flush with producer Jonah Mociun. Unreleased, eight years have passed. The collection of breakcore and speed metal-influenced rap tracks stand as a futuristic relic which is just now about to see the light of day.

Cosmic Flush fully realises Rammellzee’s complex philosophy and unique vision of futuristic hip hop, apocalyptic science fiction, and extreme sonic exploration.

To celebrate the life of one of our culture’s great minds we are releasing Cosmic Flush as a commemorative series of records and prints. There are 7 core tracks, each will be reinterpreted and remixed by a visual and audio artist.

Illustrating the groundbreaking influence and genius of the artist, The Rammellzee. Works from Futura, Doze Green, Ian Kuali’i. Delta, sheOne, Augustine Kofie, Poesia, Toxic, Dr Zulu, Will Barras, Divine Styler, Mr Len, Edan, Beans and more TBA.

View all of the paintings from the Cosmic Flush project and hear the album and remixes at Magda Danysz Gallery, London on Thursday 10th December, 2015.

We’re producing a commemorative catalogue for the show which includes all of the artwork. A limited number of these are available to order here.

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Solo Show: I N V E N T O R Y @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery, NYC

Friday, November 6th, 2015

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A post shared by Augustine Kofie (@keepdrafting) on

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I N V E N T O R Y :  New works by Augustine Kofie

Jonathan LeVine Gallery, NYC

November 21 – December 19, 2015.

#inventorystøries

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Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present INVENTORY, new works by Los Angeles-based artist Augustine Kofie, in his first solo exhibition at the gallery. In the exhibition, Kofie explores the role of inventory in his work.

The word inventory, “a complete list of items such as property, goods in stock, or contents of a building,” comes into English from the Late Latin inventarium, a “list of what is found,” from the Latin invenire, “to devise, discover, find.” Invention and inventory are thus linked: the making of something new comes from the discovery of something existent, its subsequent cataloguing, storing, and use as stock.

The inventory in question consists of found, reclaimed press- or chip-board, a heavier paper stock used in packaging and office supplies from the 1950s to the 1980s: steno notepads, file folders, envelopes, index cards, or industrial packaging designed, printed and manufactured in the USA. These are old technologies, now rendered obsolete, used for organizing in a predigital, bygone era. Kofie finds and collects these at estate sales in the greater Los Angeles area in a highly specific form of “controlled hoarding,” in the artist’s own words. He gleans this refuse of the past—forgotten, unwanted, unseen—from the homes, workshops, and garages of the elderly, who saved everything, back when things were made well, made to last.

Kofie explains his attraction to office supplies through his obsessiveness with organization, not order so much as cataloging. A self-defined “compartamentalizer,” he breaks his work process into phases, especially for a cohesive, coherent collection such as the one in this exhibition. He begins by drawing small case studies on notepaper or note pads—loose leafed, easily discardable. These become reference for collage work, in which the discovery and collection of forsaken materials is the first step. Next, the materials enter his studio, where they are meticulously inventoried—archived by color palette, thickness, and category in vintage industrial file cabinets, “sometimes for years, sometimes for that day,” until they make their way into an assemblage. Finally, layers of pencil, ballpoint pen, silkscreen, and acrylic ink cover the assemblage, making it cohere.

Kofie describes his process, both in collage and in painting, as one of building, like an architect making a model in two dimensions for a structure that will never be built. The found materials are the first building blocks of this process, essential to it. The painting and drawing that follows brings them into new purpose, new life. “I’m not building brand new systems, I’m building systems that have existed and have been forgotten.”

This method of citing systems that have existed in the past—the process of discovering, isolating, and repurposing in something existent a component of new creative possibility—defines sampling. A parallel version of the process forms the basis of Kofie’s soundtracks for his exhibitions (under the moniker 4X4Tracktor), many of which sample records found at the same estate sales as well as marginal cinema from the same era. But whereas sampling poaches bits of work made by other artists, amassing and repurposing an inventory of predigital office supplies does not infringe on anyone’s creative copyright. Flipping the materials becomes an act of elevation, of salvage from oblivion. INVENTORY focuses on reappropriation as the very beginning of Kofie’s work.

-Ruti Talmor

       

MasterMix Soundtrack for INVENTORY @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery, NYC / 39 min by 4x4tracktor on Mixcloud

Group Show: SENSITIVE EYE @ David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech

Friday, September 11th, 2015

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SENSITIVE EYE – SEPTEMBER, 11 > OCTOBER, 19 2015

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Following the success “Sensitive Eye” in February 2014, the David Bloch Gallery is pleased to announce its new exhibition entirely dedicated to Optical, Kinetic and Architectural Art.

The Op art, or optical art, is a term used to describe some artistic researches that have started in the 1960s, with the view of challenging the eye’s reliability through illusions or optical games.

Mostly abstract, the Op art works give the impression of movement, shine of light, vibration.They provide the viewer with a feeling of vertigo, between

pleasure and unstability.

These visuals stresses are at the core of some of the resident artists’ body of works, such as Sebastien Preschoux or Lx One. They also characterize the

creations of new talents to the gallery : Arthur Dorval and Swiz.

This Group Show will consist in artworks on canvas, on papers but also in installations made on an individual or multi-handed basis

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Group Exhibition: A Study Of Camouflage @ Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne

Wednesday, May 20th, 2015

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Detail of:

Woodland Infrastructure, 2015

23 x 15 inches [35.5x56cm

Acrylic on 100% cotton, 300gms Arches paper.

Finished in archival satin varnish.

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Arctic Infrastructure, 2015

23 x 30 inches [56x71cm] 

Acrylic on 100% cotton, 300gms Arches paper.

Finished in satin varnish. 

 

 

[It’s a pleasure to be invited to share works for shows with a solid theme and lineup. I will have 2 recent works on paper for this one. LARGE view of  Arctic Infrastructure & Woodland Infrastructure at AugustineKofie.info]

 

Backwoods Gallery proudly presents A Study Of Camouflage – a new show within the A Study of… exhibition series. 

 

This is the fourth exhibition in row in the long-term project consisting of annual shows that focus on different study subjects. After more than successful exhibitions A Study of Hands, A Study of Eyes and A Study of Hair, the new show is focusing on a completely different subject – camouflage.

 

The exhibition will open on Friday, May 29th, and will be on view until Sunday, June 7th. It will take place at a warehouse space, just next door to Backwoods Gallery, at 5 Easey Street, Collingwood.

 

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With this series of exhibitions, we are creating a vivid archive of works by renowned artists from around the world whose works intersect on the same subject-matter. No matter the artistic style or technique used, a magnificent plurality of different approaches and representations of a single subject contextualises it, and places it in a dominant understanding of both the artists’ and audience’s views. Logically, this library becomes a diverse overview of different representations of a single subject, as seen and created by leading contemporary artists.

 

A Study of Camouflage brings together some of the leading contemporary artists whose art, in some way, touches the subject of camouflage. In collaboration with DPM-Studio (Disruptive Pattern Material), our concept seeks to deconstruct the dominant perception of camouflage from its military driven narrative, and to bring back the camouflage patterns to its natural roots. Camouflage is usually linked with military uniforms and inherently with violence and rigorousness. However, camouflage patterns are much more than a simple military feature. Its different forms can be observed and understood as an artistic product, both in terms of aesthetics and conceptuality. Aesthetically, camouflage can assume different shapes and forms, creating beautiful design and art products, while conceptually, it may be detached from its military connotation, and transformed to different purposes depending on the given context. Always depending on artistic approach towards it, camouflage has enormous potentials for being a perfect medium for countless interpretations of contemporary society. The use of camouflage in art may lead to more abstract forms, while on the other hand it can serve as the perfect material for figurative and conceptual approaches as well.

 

Each artist participating at A Study of Camouflage uses the concept of camouflage in different ways. The artists featured in the show are: Aaron de la Cruz, Acorn, Alexander Mitchell, Ashley Wood, Augustine Kofie, Beastman, Clemens Behr, Hardy Blechman, James Greenaway, Jaybo Monk, Jon Fox, Jun Inoue, Kano Hollamby, K-narf, Madsaki, Mark Bode, Mark Drew, Masaho Anotani, MoneyLess, Nelio, O-Two, Petro, Raphael Sliks, Remi Rough, ROA, Senekt, SheOne, Shida, Shohei Takasaki, Shun Kawakami, Slicer, Stabs, Stephen Ives, TwoOne and Yusk Imai. 

 

 

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Email sales@backwoodsgallery.com for the exhibition catalogue.

FBook Event page 

Early teaser on instagram

 

 

 

Group Exhibition: AGGREGATE @ Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles

Saturday, April 18th, 2015

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Refacciones Circulate

26 h x 29 w x 1 3/4 in, 2014

Found paper, acrylic & ball point pen on cradled birch panel..

Finished in archival varnish and satin varnish. 

Framed in mahogany lattice & found vintage yardsticks.

VIEW LARGE 

 

 

 

AGGREGATE

OPENING RECEPTION : SATURDAY APRIL 18th, 7-10 pm

 

KP PROJECTS // MKG

170 S. LA BREA AVE. LOS ANGELES, CA 90036

323.933.4408

info@mkgallery.com

 

 

Aggregate is an exhibition of the work of 17 artists, curated by Kirk Pedersen from the roster of visionaries published by his imprint, ZERO+ Publishing. Running the gamut from street art to pop surrealism to illustration to fine art—and sometimes blending genres in ways that defy categorization entirely—this group of artists could hardly be more eclectic. Yet they all share a passion for exploring other dimensions—uncharted territories that are both spatial and emotional, metaphorical and metaphysical. In addition to an original artwork by each artist, the gallery will display a number of unique artist-made deluxe box editions that have been created through the collaborative rapport that gradually evolved between these artists and their publisher.

 

 

From its inception, ZERO+ Publishing established a manifesto of sorts—it would publish limited editions of 1,000 that would never be reprinted, using the finest paper and printing methods available, and most importantly, design and edit each book in collaboration with the artist, recognizing that their insight is integral to creating a truly great book. In consequence, each book would be unique, taking its form according to the innate requirements of each artist’s body of work. For many ZERO+ titles, another level of artistry would be revealed with custom-made deluxe box editions, each of which would include original artwork. Ultimately, what makes ZERO+ unique in the publishing world is Kirk Pedersen’s sense of adventure and keen curatorial eye. The editions displayed in this exhibition share with their artist subjects a resonance and integrity that belie the perception of books as products—for in many ways, these books are themselves works of art.

 

 

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Preview on Hi Fructose

 

 

 

Solo Exhibiton| OFF/GRID | David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech, Morocco

Monday, March 23rd, 2015

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MasterMix Soundtrack for ‘OFF/GRID’ @David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech by 4x4tracktor on Mixcloud

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Solo Exhibition |  “OFF/GRID”  | David Bloch Gallery   |  Marrakech, Morocco.

Recent works on canvas and wood created in both the US and during studio residency in the Kasbah, Marrakech + on sight installations and mural interventions.

Streaming and free download of a curated 4x4Tracktor soundtrack here.

#KOFGOESOFFGRID

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The opening will be held in the presence of the artist at the gallery on March 27 at 7:00 pm.

The exhibition will continue until April 26, 2015.

The title of Augustine Kofie’s 2015 exhibition OFF/GRID refers to the tension that animates his work: the juxtaposition, and then synthesis, of opposing forces.  This tension operates at a number of levels. In the arena of style, the vintage and the futurist collide.  In the arena of formal composition, shapes and lines are built within a strict grid format but then break from this grid, playing off a tilt, shifting off of the established pattern, in an improvisational, freestyle experimentation.  In the arena of medium, a collage technique using industrial packaging and office supply materials from the 1950s to the 1980s is filtered—rendered contemporary—through painting.  There is the constructivism of the work, which Kofie approaches like a builder—an architect or engineer—a draftsman, not a painter, making preliminary, two-dimensional sketches of a structure, but one which will never be built.  This produces a paradoxical sense of time: the structure simultaneously exists in a future that will never take place, while referring back to a past that has been forgotten.  OFF/GRID refers to this sci-fi temporality, a push and pull between past and future, a tilt off of the grid of time.

OFF/GRID, which opens at David Bloch Gallery in Marrakech in April 2015, pushes this ongoing exploration further, this time in dialogue with its context.  Kofie will be exploring oppositional synthesis by collaborating with craftsmen to produce work that merges established Moroccan artistic traditions with his own brand of American contemporary expression.  The title OFF/GRID therefore also refers to the way this body of work is made off the grid of Kofie’s usual cultural milieu.

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WIDEWALLS preview

GRAFFUTURISM preview

Group Exhibition: Beyond Graffiti 2 @ A+D Museum, Los Angeles

Monday, March 23rd, 2015

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Architects and Designers Museum Presents | BEYOND GRAFFITI 2 group exhibit | CURATED BY THE LOS ANGELES ART COLLECTIVE

 

Recent works by iconic Los Angeles Graffiti artists, defining the rich history of the urban art scene as it pushes past the preconception of the spray can as a form of aggression. Graffiti is more than just adding color or words to a wall – it is an expressive gesture vis à vis architecture, design, and the landscape of the city in which we live.

With installations and recent works by:  Eder, Aise, Axis, ATLAS, Defer, EyeOne, Fishe, Gajin Fujita, Swank, Kofie & Chaz 

 

A+D Museum 

Saturday, March 28 @ 8:30 PM

6032 Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, CA. 90036

 

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#beyongfaffiti2 links 

Group Exhibition: GRAFFUTURISM 5 Year @886 Geary, San Francisco

Thursday, March 12th, 2015

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Different plane of existence No. 2, 2015

48 w  x  65 h  x 2 inches   /   4  x  5.5 ft.    /   121.92 x 165.1 cm

Acrylic polymer & spray paint on primed duck canvas.

Finished in satin gel medium.

 

  

 

 

886 Geary Gallery presents:

Graffuturism 5 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Curated by Art Poesia 

An International Group Exhibition at 886 Geary Gallery, San Francisco

Saturday, March 14th  through April 4th, 2015.

 

[ Larger image at augustinekofie.info ]

 

PREVIEW 

 

 

886 Geary Gallery will celebrate Graffuturism’s 5 Year Anniversary with an international exhibition opening March 14th. Graffuturism has exhibited as a group over the past 5 years in cities such as Glasgow, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Miami and San Francisco. Graffuturism has chosen 886 Geary to hold its anniversary show bringing together an impressive group of International artists to exhibit. Poesia has curated a lineup of premier Urban/Graffiti Art artist who have been pivotal in the development of Graffuturism the past 5 years, or who have been closely associated with the group.

 

Artists exhibiting new work will be,

Aaron De La Cruz, Augustine Kofie, Basik, Bom.k, Boris Delta Tellegen, Carlos Mare, Chazme, Christopher Derek Bruno,Duncan Jago, EKG, Geso, Gilbert1, Jerry Joker Inscoe, Kan, Kema, Kwest, Matt W.Moore, Moneyless, Morik, Nawer, Nelio, Pener, Poesia, Pro176,

Remi Rough, Saber, SatOne,Thomas Canto, Tomek, Vesod, and West One.

 

About Graffuturism and the Artists

Graffiti/Urban Art has flourished and established itself in the contemporary art scene over the past decade, yet it remains a relatively new art form in the historical sense. In 2010 Graffuturism started a blog that set out to showcase the work of fellow Graffiti/Urban Artists who were underrepresented. There was a gap in how the media had been covering the art form: one side being about the new street art, and the other about traditional graffiti coverage. There was no middle ground or coverage of graffiti artists who had pushed forward to explore progressive hybrid directions, or about the newer street artists who worked more like graffiti artists.

 

This is where Graffuturism started and established itself as an alternative to what was taking place in the Graffiti/Urban Art media. Expectantly the blog would strike a chord with fellow artists from around the world, and would go on to establish one of the most organized international group of artists within the larger Graffiti/Urban Art scene. Graffuturism is composed of an emerging progressive global art form that in its natural environment on urban streets around the world has far surpassed any recent contemporary art form. While other art movements or groupings may have taken place due to common theory, ideas, schools, or location, Graffuturism has utilized social media and the Internet to connect and assemble through a common interest in this new progressive Graffiti/Urban Art.

 

What started out as a blog has now become something larger. The term might imply a movement by utilizing the ism in its name, and also reference Futurism within its title, but it had no intention of either being an art movement in the modernist sense of the word nor is it based on futurist principles. This doesn’t mean that Graffuturism does not share certain characteristics of an art movement or deny the fact that some of the artists reference futurism aesthetically in their work. Graffuturism is just another word. The real power of our art form is in our actions as artists collectively.

 

We don’t set out to define where we stand in today’s lexicon of art terms, instead we offer proof of our existence with our work. Our art form was born out of the need to express ourselves through art and aesthetics in the urban streets. With this grouping of artists for this Exhibition we set out to showcase a group of artists that have been part of Graffuturism over the past 5 years in some form, and bring together a wide range of aesthetics that exemplify the essence of this Othercontemporary movement Graffuturism, and also to explore where this movement is heading.

 

Through Graffuturism we have found a base to have this conversation amongst each other as International Peers. We move forward with or without the acceptance of academia, engaging the world the only way we know how – through our work in the streets and in the studio. The latter engages an older system of art with a structure much different than the art we create on the streets for the public and ourselves. Without the context of our street work, our studio work would seem impure, dishonest, out of place and out of context.

 

About The Gallery

886 Geary Gallery is a urban and contemporary art hub based in San Francisco. Combined with sister space White Walls Gallery and 4 project spaces, our state of the art 5,000 square

foot space is one of the largest galleries on the west coast.

Poesia, main curator of 886 Geary Gallery, has worked as an artist for over 2 decades in the San Francisco Bay Area and over the past 5 years curated multiple exhibitions internationally. Having started the internationally recognized website Graffuturism.com as well as Graffuturism Movement in 2010, he has now focused his attention to curating and bringing

emerging artists to San Francisco.

 

886 Geary is the curator’s newest project and venture into the commercial gallery space. Poesia will continue to bring artists from around the world to San Francisco and establish 886 Geary Gallery as the premiere destination of urban and contemporary art in the SanFrancisco Bay Area.

 

 

@886Geary

886 Geary Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

408.805.5626

Group Exhibition: Mapping The City @ Somerset House, London

Sunday, January 18th, 2015

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Overcast Angeles, 2014

18 x 24 x 1 5/8 inches

Found paper, ball point pen, correction fluid,

spray paint & acrylic on cradled birch panel.

Finished in archival varnish and matte varnish.  

Framed in mahogany lattice & found yardsticks.

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Mapping the City

22 January – 15 February 2015
Daily 10.00-18.00 (last entry 17.30)
Enter via the River Terrace

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Somerset House London, in association with collaborative arts organisation Approved by Pablo (AbyP) will present an innovative exhibition of works by established and emerging artists from the Street art & Graffiti scenes. To complement the exhibition there will be a diverse series of events, including a series of film and music evenings, artists talks, performances and interactive workshops.

For a complete breakdwon of the exhibition and events visit: http://bit.ly/1rwYUN0

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View the work larger at AugustineKofie.info

Brooklyn Street Arts review of the exhibition

Solo Show: TAKING SHAPE @ Openspace, Paris documented by Un oeil qui traine…

Monday, December 1st, 2014

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An excellent set of TAKING SHAPE opening night photos from Lionel Belluteau of Un oeil qui traine are available here.

Solo Exhibition: TAKING SHAPE @ Openspace, Paris documented by François-Xavier LAURENT

Sunday, November 30th, 2014

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An excellent set of TAKING SHAPE opening night photos from François-Xavier LAURENT are available to view here.

View the exhibition installations here. 

Solo Exhibition| TAKING SHAPE | Openspace, Paris

Thursday, November 27th, 2014

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AUGUSTINE KOFIE

“TAKING SHAPE” SOLO EXHIBITION

27 November – 13 December, 2014

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OPENING 27 NOVEMBER AT 6:30 PM

Immersive, impressive, and scenographic at Bastille Design Center, Paris

 After the success of his first Paris solo show, “California Soul”, in April 2013,  Openspace Gallery is delighted to invite Augustine Kofie again to exhibit in the French capitale. The Los Angeles-based artist is one of the leaders of the Graffuturism movement. Practising graffiti in the 90s, exhibiting his studio work in the early 2000s, 2009 marked a turning point in his career, laying the foundations for his current work.
His artworks full of lines and structured shapes are composed with a mastery of scale and movement. A vintage feel also pervades his work; from the 60s magazine illustrations he uses for his collages to the salvaged materials he uses as media, through his choice of colours.

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The event
TAKING SHAPE is in 2 parts:

• IMMERSION
Friday 28 November and Saturday 29 November
open 11 am- 7 pm
and Sunday 30 November open 11 am- 5 pm
Bastille Design Center
74, bd Richard Lenoir

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THE EXHIBITION

Following the off site exhibition by the French artist Éric Lacan, the Openspace gallery is curating Augustine Kofie’s second exhibition in France, from 27 November to 13 December. Once again, the exhibition will take place in the architecturally monumental, majestic 19th-century setting of the Bastille Design Center, where wood reigns supreme (even on the floor), 

Group Show: ‘The Soze Collection’ Colaboration with MODERNICA

Friday, October 24th, 2014

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Never take a seat to taking shape, 2014

Acrylic polymer and enamel spray paint on fiberglass.

Finished in satin varnish. Signed on back.

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The Soze Collection

Group Exhibition / Nov 1 – Nov 14, 2014

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SOZE Gallery is pleased to present an exhibit of unique custom painted Modernica fiberglass shell chairs made on the original Herman Miller Equipment to benefit THE ART OF ELYSIUM.  Established artists including: RETNA, Erin Riley, Aaron De La Cruz, Ben Frost, Mel Kadel and many others will display custom painted chairs that are works of art in and of themselves.  A portion of the proceeds will go directly to THE ART OF ELYSIUM to support the incredible work they do.

RETNA, Cleon Peterson, Anthony Lister, Neckface, Augustine Kofie, Ben Frost, Gregory Siff, Aaron De La Cruz, Crash One, Seratla, Rolland Berry, Jaybo Monk, Marco Pho Grassi, Cole Sternberg, Mel Kadel, Ciler, Hueman, Brittany Segal, Erin Riley, Kristin Bauer, Emmitt Potter, Karen Bystedt/Mar, Paige Smith

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Group Exhibition: Experience 11: Scratch at El Segundo Museum of Art, CA

Sunday, July 20th, 2014

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WCA Wall curated by David Cowan (MINER) with works by,

Pedro Balugo (PJ), Steven Tishkoff (Mist), Devin Flynn (Relm), Jeffrey Saunders(Dye5), and Augustine Kofie.

Museum instalation. Created on sight.  Acrylic, spray paint and paper (pre-printed, found, reclaimed). 2014.

20′ x 24′

Photo by SteadyJenny.com

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Experience 11: Scratch – Jun 8 until Sept 21, 2014

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Many of LA’s most influential graffiti and tattoo artists will cover the walls and floors of ESMoA to publicly launch their 21st century encounter with an artistic tradition: The Getty Graffiti Black Book.

In 2013 more than 150 of LA’s leading graffiti artists responded to a 16th century manuscript from the vaults of the Getty Research Institute called a liber amicorum (book of friends) by contributing works on paper to be bound into a single book and created the Getty Graffiti Black Book. Street artists have used black books for decades to create a visual memory of drafts and to serve as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. The extraordinary competition that occasionally arises among such artists can also lead to respect as rivals invite each other to “hit” their black books with original works. The contributing artists decided to give the Getty Black Book the title, LA Liber Amicorum, to capture the spirit of its transformation of rival ‘writing-crews’ into a Los Angeles Book of Friends.

Now, ESMoA and the Getty Research Institute have invited Getty Black Book artists Axis, Cre8, Defer, Eyeone, Fishe, and Miner to co-curate those crews of creative friends from the LA graffiti art community and turn the art laboratory of ESMoA into an open black book. Graffiti and tattoo artists will transform the space into a cathedral of urban art for the first presentation of the LA Liber Amicorum to the public with SCRATCH.

Graffito is old Italian slang for “a little mark,” and graphein in Ancient Greek meant “scratch, draw, paint” long before it meant “to write.” Graffiti artists craft letterforms, draft perspective, and merge line, color, and form with the same techniques employed by Renaissance masters like Albrecht Dürer.

The first edition of Dürer’s landmark book on perspective was just one of the many rare books that the artists viewed at the Getty Research Institute in the process of creating the LA Liber Amicorum. Some of those jewels in the history of calligraphy, engraving, and emblematic symbolism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as well as sixteenth-century painted friendship-books that inspired the project, will be installed in the space surrounded by the graffiti-writers’ art. iPads will be mounted, so visitors can ‘e-flip’ through the books and not only share the artists’ own creative experience and response to the impact of viewing these rare books, but also continually co-curate the space by choosing which page-openings will be in dialogue with the art on the walls and floor.

The SCRATCH art experience is curated by GRI Rare Books Curator, David Brafman.

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LA Liber Amicorum

The Getty Black Book Project was the brainchild of donor and art collector Ed Sweeney, who approached the GRI with the idea and brought the graffiti artists together, ultimately donating the book to the Getty Research Institute.

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Solo Exhibition: YESTERDAYS ADVANCE, Celaya Brothers Gallery, Mexico City

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

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Augustine Kofie, Circulación Templo

165 x 170 cm / 64.9 x 66.9 in, 2014

Acrylic polymer and spray paint on heavy canvas.

Finished in semi gloss gel medium

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Rotationship, 2014

On sight Installation, Various size. 

Recycled wood (various), found paper,twine, nails, 

plastic cassette tape & enamel paint.

 


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Celaya Brothers gallery 
Celaya Brothers gallery and ARTO are pleased to present:

YESTERDAYS ADVANCE

Recent work by Augustine Kofie

Celaya Brothers Gallery

Zacatecas 194, Roma Norte,

Mexico City D.F.

(between Tonalá and Monterrey).

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Celaya Brothers Gallery (CBG) is a unique space that challenges the creative limits of the participating artists. A contemporary art gallery with a proactive offer that invites international artists to develop unique concepts and defy the parameters of their time. CBG is based on the Celaya brothers’ involvement in the artists’ process and their absolute support in the creative freedom for all of their artworks. This is what shapes the spaces of the gallery. Thus, CBG is involved in the artist’s professional development, guiding him to experiment, risk and explore innovative ways of expression, always maintaining the quality and aesthetic discourse of each style.

 

This first time around, Augustine Kofie is in charge of inaugurating the walls of the gallery with his exhibition Yesterday’s Advance | Avances del Ayer. In it, he depicts a moment, an experience, materialized into tangible artworks. Every piece is a result of his recent residency in Mexico City.

 

 

His use of recycled materials, geometric composition, collages, a mixture of paper and ochre tones, emphasize the Californian artist’s experimental nature as the main creative agent in the pieces of Yesterday’s Advance | Avances del Ayer. Kofie portrays his fascination for structures and architectural forms through the use of earthly tones to create a modern dynamism in the composition, a style he calls “vintage futurism.” Renowned in the urban art world for the quality and detail of his pieces, Kofie portrays his obsession with perfect angles and his immaculate linear work by reviving the washed out colors of certain façades, damaged by time and history. The peach, cream and turquoise tones of the Porfirian buildings of the Roma and Condesa neighborhoods as well as the art deco architectural ensembles are – consciously or unconsciously – the core of the pieces presented in this exhibition.

 

Exhibition will be open to the public from May 9 to June 6, 2014

Zacatecas 194, Col. Roma

Mexico City

Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

+ 52 (55) 6391 5541

paula@arto.mx

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Exhibition view at augustinekofie.info

Celyay Brothers Opening photos

The City Loves You

Vinareal

Assioma: 2 Man show with Moneyless @ Avantgarden Gallery, Milan

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

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A. Kofie & Moneyless  / Assioma No. 01

30 x 42 (76 x 106 cm) acrylic on paper.

Acrylic on 300 lb acid free paper. Finished in satin varnish.Framed.

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A.Kofie & Moneyless/ Assioma No. 02

39 x 27.5 in. (100 cm x 70 cm)

Acrylic and spraypaint on wood. 

Finished in satin varnish. Framed.

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A.Kofie & Moneyless/ Assioma Installation

Acrylic & spray paint

231 sq ft, 7 x 11 = A.Kofie, 14 x 11 = moneyless 

View Large 

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Gallery view of the Assioma exhibition at Avantgarden Gallery, Milano, Italy

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 Assioma

A. Kofie & Moneyless

Avantgarden Gallery, Milan

March 20 – April 23

Avantgarden

Via Cadolini, 29
20137 Milano

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The ASSIOMA is the ultimate Starting Point.

By definition and its nature it doesn’t require any arguments to unravel, there are no secrets to uncover, no relativistic misunderstandings when you state it. In Math it’s a self-evident concept, a postulate whose Truth is proven and taken for granted in an immediate and intuitive way; an axiom is therefore obviously indemonstrable and yet basically already demonstrated because it comes with an irrefutable universal recognition, given its lack of mathematical and narrative rhetorical connections.

What is an axiom then, if not the Original and unquestionable concept from which all theories flow like a waterfall? It’s the safe foundation on which we can “gamble“ in order to give life to new variables, that are driven by ground rules that turn hat’s necessary into something useful to analyze reality.

These two artists met in San Francisco in 2010. They share a mutual respect, on a personal and professional level, and a similar sensibility for Geometric thinking a bond that will take them all the way to Milan, Italy where they collaborate artistically for the first time.

With ASSIOMA Moneyless and Augustine Kofie meet at the Avantgarden Gallery to explore a new theory, finding together all the similarities and differences in their works, juxtaposing them. Moneyless takes care of building a solid foundation and Kofie begins a process of research combing Geometric and Hyperuranic Platonic perfection with the virus of reality. The work of Augustine Kofie therefore becomes one of the possible variables directly connected with Moneyless’ axiomatic purity.

The image of a circle shown over and over in its perfection in Moneyless’ new works is a mantra that doesn’t leave any space for questioning. Immediately one recognizes its beauty and lives its perfections. The effect is overwhelming, complete and totalizing. The thought process behind ASSIOMA is complemented by Kofie’s approach that starts from architecture, from everyday reality, and uses geometry to create futuristic scenarios that encompass serial tastes and important analog incursions. The result is a brilliant balance between abstract geometric shapes objects that belong to an organic, warm, human reality.

Thanks to both artists, Geometry, usually seen as an abstract model of reality and a dry set of rules, theorems and demonstrations, brings its soul back to life, a soul lost shortly after his origin when it was the source of inspiration and took on a role of its own changing History.

Through ASSIOMA, Moneyless and Kofie work on a joint experimental project. Avantagarden Gallery has in fact invited them for ten days of collaboration where they are expected to conduct a sort of “controlled improvisation”. Geometry defines lines and borders, deduction is the basis of reasoning and in this particular case, of artistic expression.

ASSIOMA is a challenge that turns the method into the primary source for creative inspiration. Art then relies on the typical creativity of theoretical science, which comes up with news ideas always starting from universal and fixed theories.

The axiom of transitivity is, on the other hand, inferred from the theory of a consumer’s preferences and it determines the logical coherence of the choices of a typical consumer.

Moneyless’ mission has always been linked to reestablish a certain kind of order in consuming materials and Kofie’s rationalistic approach is actually a simple proposal for an unpretentious architectonic world that shouldn’t lose its accessibility and its beauty in being relatable.

The expressive needs and the preferential choices of the two artists start from different backgrounds and independent paths but it becomes almost obvious, self-evident, natural the fact that they complement each other so well. ASSIOMA is the point of encounter of two very distinct paths that carry within them two very kindred spirits.

Francesca Holsenn for AvantGarden Gallery, Spring 2014

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BIO

MONEYLESS – Teo Pirisi

Born in 1980, known as Moneyless, he lives between Milan, where he was born, and Lucca. His mission is clearly suggested by his pseudonym: Moneyless, a name that underlines his goal of making art with simple material and without wasting resources, like it often happens in our omnivorous consumer-driven society in which we live in, utilizing this material at its best. Famous for his works in public spaces, the artist explores lines and volume, his creations find inspiration in nature: they are minimalistic geometric shapes, essential and at the same time majestic, mystical in way, that stand out in the space as if suspended and silence us, make us reflect and think about the relation between us and time passing.

AUGUSTINE KOFIE

Informal American Artist, born in 1973, well-known name among street artists in Los Angeles he is considered one of the most significant exponents of Graffuturism. 

His style has been defined Futuristic Vintage, and he finds inspiration in modern architecture, Jazz music and his passion for lettering. 

His art is characterized by an instinctual reasoning, when the artist works according to a fluid thought but with an order that revelers his search for balance, his focus on form and composition.

Group Exhibition: Exhibit Z @ Library Street Collective, Detroit

Friday, March 7th, 2014

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After finishing up their big mural project, the Library Street Collective recently opened a group show featuring artwork from all the participating artists. Covering a wide range of styles, techniques and mediums, artists from all over the globe gladly partook in one of the biggest urban and contemporary art shows Detroit has seen in a long time. Featuring works by such names as Dabs Myla, How Nosm, Interesni Kazki, Tristan Eaton, Cyrcle, Revok, Gaia, Remi Rough, Sam Friedman, Maya Hayuk, Augustine Kofie, Pose, Logan Hicks, and more, the exhibition is a colorful overview of the infinite creative energy from the 27 artists featured in this project.

While the large murals created inside of “The Z “garage in downtown Detroit represented the street expression of their art, the sculptures, paintings and drawings exhibited at the LSC gallery showcased the participants’ fine art side. Ranging from surrealistic to expressive, abstract and futuristic, with lots of elements and influences of graffiti and urban art mixed in, the works in this show surely have something for everyone to enjoy. The exhibition is planned to be on view until the end of April, so make sure you check it out in person for a full experience.

Text: Arrested Motion   Photo credit: Sal Rodriguez 

Group Exhibition: Three The Hard Way: 
A.Kofie / Jerry Inscoe / Christopher Derek Bruno at Breeze Block, Portland

Thursday, November 7th, 2013

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Three The Hard Way:
Augustine Kofie /
Jerry Joker Inscoe / Christopher Derek Bruno

Three-person exhibition curated by Sven Davis

Breeze Block Gallery Portland OR.

7 November – 30 November, 2013

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For the month of November, Breeze Block Gallery is very proud to present Three The Hard Way; a three-person exhibition featuring Augustine Kofie, Jerry Joker Inscoe and Christopher Derek Bruno.

All three artists come from a graffiti background, and are firmly established members of the pioneering Transcend graffiti collective. These highly versatile artists are equally known for their large-scale mural projects, as well as their own very individual voices in a gallery setting. Traditional letterforms are abstracted into geometric configurations within their work; and dimension, form and space are considered and explored within their dynamic compositions.

Their collective approach to art-making is steeped in academic discourse, and whilst retaining the vibrancy of their graffiti backgrounds, traditional art movements such as Futurism, Abstract Expressionism and Precisionism are also embraced by the visual vocabulary imbued within their work. The exhibition title itself is a literal reference to the historical terminology Hard-Edge painting; which was first coined in the late fifties and used to describe intense and abrupt delineation of color within the burgeoning Geometric Abstraction and Op-art movements. Whilst these artists acknowledge and embrace movements of the past, they confidently stand outside of historical classification and have established themselves as a core group of protagonists defining a contemporary movement they have made their own.

Whilst the three artists have shown together previously in larger group exhibitions, Three The Hard Way is the first time that this trifecta has shown together in a collaborative environment. For the month of November the three artists will take over both of Breeze Block’s gallery spaces for an installation that incorporates the full range of multi-facetted oeuvres from each of these influential creators. Continue on..

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+PDX Art review by Richard Schemmerer

+High Fructose Studio preview

+Arrested Motion coverage

+Graffuturism coverage

+Vandalog interview

+Brooklyn Street Art preview

+Slam X Hype

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A recent interview posted on GRAFFUTURISM conducted by Carlos MARE 139 discussing my partisipation in the Three The Hard Way exhibition at Breeze Block Gallery, Protland. A pretty through interview covering interesting points, including my recent show Structurally Sound’ at White Walls, SF.

Many thanks to Graffuturism, Carlos MARE 139

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Solo Exhibiton: Structurally Sound at White Walls SF

Saturday, September 14th, 2013

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Structurally Sound, Sight specific fond object installation

2013, 4′ 6″ x 14″ x 4′, Found wood, clipboards, paper, light box & drafting table.



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View installation at Augustinekofie.info 

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Structurally Sound: New Works on paper, wood and canvas by Augustine Kofie

Opening Reception September 14, 2013

On View Through October 5, 2013

White Walls 

886 Geary St,

San Francisco, CA

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White Walls is pleased to present Augustine Kofie’s Structurally Sound, as the artist’s third solo show with White Walls, directly following his sold-out exhibition in Paris.

The opening reception will be Saturday, September 14, from 7-11 pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through October 05, 2013.

Comprised of works crafted in his Los Angeles studio from May to August, 2013, this recent collection began with a series of small notes and doodles on found paper, “a usual task in the studio,” Kofie said, “but this go around I kept the idea in mind of sound structures and systems of reliability.”

Case study-like illustrations on found file cards became the catalyst for large scale works on canvas that question if these shapes and forms can stand the weight; are they now and could they continue to be successfully reliable over time? Frequently praised for compositions that recall architectural drafting, Kofie’s new body of work was partially inspired by the idea of what would happen if these compositions could be physically constructed.

With canvases reaching up to five by six feet, Kofie has crafted work that pulls viewers into a new realm of possibility. Sharply-defined angles butt up against cylindrical forms in complex arrangements of geometric potential. A mix of neutral tints, peach and copen blue add dimension, and provide expanses of space that balance areas of dense linework.

From the artist:

I am a painter, yes. I fall under this category by default, but what I feel I do is construct and assemble. I build paintings. These pieces then go through a process of deconstruction to free the painting up to breathe, but that simplification could in turn weaken the foundation of the piece as a whole.

In this show, a mock dialogue began with the search for relationships between an engineer’s tongue and a constructivist visual response. An affinity to compartmentalizing forms represented in both an angular and horizontal fashion leads to works that are visually strong, but subconsciously touch on the idea of instability.

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GRAFFUTURISM Preview 

Solo Exhibition: Arrested Motion coverage of Structurally Sound by Joe Russo

Saturday, September 14th, 2013

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Photo credit: Joe Russo for Arrested Motion.
Complete post here..

Group Exhibition: De La Ligne A L’abstraction, Montreal, Quebec

Saturday, August 24th, 2013

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Detail of GoldCoast Incline

65 x 48 x 1  [2013]

Acrylic and spray paint on primed duck canvas

Finished in satin gel medium. Framed by artist in mahogany stained pine.

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Detail of System shift in Sequoia reds 

22 × 30 inches (559 mm × 762 mm) Unframed [2013]

Acrylic on 300 lb Soft Press Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper.

(Two natural deckles and two cut edges). Finished in satin varnish.

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Yves Laroche Galerie d’art presents:

FROM LINES INTO ABSTRACTION

Yves Laroche Galerie, Montréal, Quebec

September 12th – October 11th, 2013

6355, Boul. Saint-Laurent

Montréal, QC, H2S 3C3

info(at)yveslaroche.com

tel. : 514.393.1999

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Yves Laroche Galerie’s next show opens on September 12th. “From lines into abstraction” will showcase new works by a group of Graffiti artists from across the globe. Guest curator Patrick RESO Jungfleisch has gathered a collective of active Graff  artists whos works transcend their foundations of their respected Graffiti arts into the realms of abstraction, expressionist and modern territories.

Artists include fellow Agent Of Change, Remi Rough as well as Zoer, 123Klan, Dems333, Alex Scaner, Doc TC5, Bacon, Greg Lamarche, Reso, Pose, El Mac, Pro, Sen2, Stare, Victor Reyes, Wane, Yes2, Zek One and Cope2.

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Group Exhibition: Out With The Old at Library Street Collective, Detroit

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

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Circulation of the navy peak

36 x 36 x 1.5 inches [2013]

Acrylic and spray paint on primed duck canvas

Finished in satin gel medium

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Where the action is 

24 x 24 x  1 5/8 inches [2013]

Found paper, acrylic, ball point pen, white-out , screenprint &  spray paint on wood panel.

Coated in archival matte varnish. Finished in matte gel medium. 

Framed in mahogany lattice & found yardsticks.

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Library Street Collective Gallery:

OUT WITH THE OLD

AJ FOSIK – ALEX LUKAS – AUGUSTINE KOFIE – CLEON PETERSON 

DABS & MYLA – DANA OLDFATHER – DAVE KINSEY – HACER – JIM HOUSER 

KELSEY BROOKES – MR JAGO – NICK JASKEY – OMENS – POSE – PUSH – REVOK 

REYES – RICHARD COLMAN – RIME – SAM FRIEDMAN – TRISTAN EATON – VIZIE – ZES

Saturday August 3rd- October 1st, 2013

Public opening: August 3rd, 6PM – 9PM

Library Street Collective

1260 Library Street

Detroit, Michigan. USA 48226

info@lscgallery.com

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Solo Exhibition: California Soul at OpenSpace Opening Photos

Saturday, May 25th, 2013

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OPENSPACE GALLERY Presents:

GRAFFUTURISM Paris Exhibitions series

35 Artists – 1 Group Show – 4 Solo Shows

Augustine Kofie | California Soul

May, 25 – June, 06, 2013

OpenSpace Galeri

56, rue Alexandre Dumas. Paris 11e France

09 80 66 63 94

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Archive and installation of the exhibition can be found here

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I am very pleased to be contributiong to another international GRAFFUTURISM project. Samantha Longhi and Nicolas Chenus of GRAFFITI ART Magazine & OpenSpace Galeri reached out in early 2013 to begin talks on this extensive Graffuturism Paris exhibition, including 4 solo shows to follow the highly anticipated Group show in April. My inclusion marks my first true solo show outside of these United States as well as my first solo in Paris… A great personal accomplishment for me.

As most of my shows I do my best to solidify a theme and a fitting title that best describes the works as well as continues to highlight my style. California Soul came to me as a perfect direction. A great way of bringing some of this progressive West Coast aesthetic and a costal cool sunwashed color pallette to Paris.

A little over a dozen new works on paper, wood and canvas will be on display from May 25 – June 6th, just a bit shy of 2 weeks. With all new works created since February, I continue my theme of finding balance with shape and form in each of the pieces, whether big or small. Contrasting soft color fields and washes with grid work and linear forms that speak of transition and structure. Themes touch on a golden state of mindovercast optimism, southlandishness and the complexities of the good life in the rural paradise that he saw bulldozed into urban submission. 

 

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Art Fair: Urban Art Biennale 2013 at Völklingen Ironworks, Germany

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

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Circulatory System No. 24, 2012

60 x 60 x 2 inches, stertched.

Acrylic, spray paint, white-out & bitumen on canvas.

Finished in matte satin varnish.

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Urban Art Biennale 2013

Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte

World Heritage Site, Völklingen Ironworks

Germany

March 24, 2013 to November 1, 2013

Europäisches Zentrum für Kunst und Industriekultur
Generaldirektor Dr. Meinrad Maria Grewenig
66302 Völklingen / Saarbrücken, Germany

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Since 2008 a new, young trend has splashed onto the international art scene: Urban Art. In the meantime Urban Art proponents have conquered museums and galleries commanding high prices for their works. In 2011 the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks presented the internationally regarded exhibition “Urban Art – Graffiti 21”.

 

From 2013 the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks is to provide a regular platform for Urban Art. Every two years, the European Centre for Art and Industry Culture, will display new and significant positions of art that has developed from graffiti. The first “Urban Art Biennial” is to begin on Sunday 24th March 2013, with stars from the scene in Europe and America.

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Billboard for Art Share LA. Photos by Todd Mazer

Monday, March 11th, 2013

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#ARTSHARE LA 


The Seventh Letter

Known Gallery

 

Billboard is located south of Santa Monica Blvd. on Vermont in East Hollywood near Los Angeles City College.

Photo: Todd Mazer

 

Ed Fuentes at KCET explains more on the project HERE

Group Exhibition: GRAFFUTURISM LA @ Art Share, DTLA

Friday, December 14th, 2012

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The circulation of a process of elimination [2012]

47 x 65 x 2 inches 

Acrylic, enamel, white-out & enamel spray-paint on canvas.

Finished in matte satin gel medium. 

Framed in mahogany lattice

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Soze Gallery presents “Graffuturism”

Curated by it’s founder Poesia [Transcend]

LA Artshare Building
801 East 4th Place,
Los Angeles, CA 90013

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Featuring the works of:

2501, Aaron De La Cruz, Augustine Kofie, Boris “Delta” Tellegen, Carl Raushenbach, Carlos Mare, Clemens Behr, Derek Bruno, Doze Green, Duncan Jago, DVS 1, El Mac, Eric Haze, Erosie, Franco “Jaz” Fasoli, Futura, Gilbert 1, Greg “Sp One” Lamarche, Graphic Surgery, Hense, Hendrik “ECB” Beikirch, Jaybo Monk, Joker, Jurne, Kema, Kenor, Lek, Marco “Pho” Grassi, Matt W. Moore, Moneyless, O.Two, Part2ism, Poesia, Rae Martini, Remi Rough, Samuel Rodriguez, Sat One, Sever, Shok-1, Sowat, Steve More, West, Will Barras.

 

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“Over the last year the Graffuturism blog has become a major player in the documentation of artists who share a Graffiti background/history but have taken their work to new heights, leaving the ‘rules’ of writing behind.  

 

This December, in collaboration with Soze Gallery, the folks at Graffuturism are hosting a large group show featuring some of the major players in the genre. Obviously, this is not showing everyone who is doing amazing work work that falls into this category, but it is a great selection. Hopefully the show will become an annual event to give opportunities to more and more artists as the blog, and the genre, continue to grow.”

                                                        –Jerry JOKER Inscoe, Fall 2012

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2 Man Show: Conversations with Jaybo Monk | Soze Gallery, LA

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

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SOZE Gallery presents:

C o n v e r s a t i o n s 

New individual and collaborative work by Augustine Kofie & Jaybo Monk of Agents of Change

 

+ the release of 2 zines in a limited edition of 30, “When The Seas Catch Fire’ by JAYBO and ‘OBSERvations’ by KOFIE 

Public opening:

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

7-11 pm

Show runs till November  22

Soze Gallery DTLA [New Location]

2020 E 7th St Unit B

Los Angeles Calif. 90021

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Images of works at Soze Gallery 

Graffuturism preview

2 Man Exhibition: ‘Gather’ documented by Gregor Rohrig, Cape Town

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

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Cape Town based photographer Gregor Röhrig documented myself and Paul Senyol over a period of two weeks, while we worked independently and collaboratively on artworks for the ‘Gather’ live exhibition presented by The Lovell Gallery in association with Salon91 Contemporary Art Collection.

 A link to the complete photo essay. 

Group Exhibition: FUTURISM 2.0 at Blackall Studios, London

Friday, September 28th, 2012

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FUTURISM 2.0 / SYMMETRY ACROSS CENTURIES / Group Exhibition 

Augustine Kofie, Phil Ashcroft, Boris Tellegen (Delta), James Choules (sheOne), Matt W. Moore, Mark Lyken, Sat One, Christopher Derek Bruno, Moneyless, Mr Jago, Nawer, O. Two, Morten Andersen, Keith Hopewell(Part2ism), Jaybo Monk, Poesia, Derm, Jerry Inscoe (Joker), Remi/Rough, Divine Styler and Clemens Behr.

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Blackall Studios

73 Leonard Street

Shoreditch, London,

EC2A 4QS.

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7739 9551

Public Opening/

Friday 28th September 2012, the gallery will be open to the public all day. DJ’s and drinks from 6pm.

The exhibition will run from Thursday 27th September – Tuessday 2nd October.

Friday – Saturday 11am – 8pm
Sunday 12pm – 5pm
Monday – Tuesday 11am – 8pm

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“We stand on the last promontory of the centuries! Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.” – Marinetti, Futurist Manifesto, 1909.

SYMMETRY ACROSS CENTURIES

In 1912, just three years after the manifesto was published, the Futurists exhibited in London for the first time. A hundred years later on September 27th, 2012, just three years after the creation of Graffuturism.com, the Graffuturists will exhibit for the first time in London at Blackall Studios.

THE IDEALS OF DYNAMISM AND PROGRESSION

At the core of both movements are the parallel ideals of “dynamism” and “progression.” Both of these keywords conjure a sense of action, motion and movement, wavering disturbances of change pulsing forward, like an electrocardiogram, along a historical continuum into the future. Marinetti extolled the virtues of a dynamic art form that was alive and motivated; Poesia, the founder of Graffuturism.com, has stated that the word Graffuturism was inspired by the desire to articulate a progressive impetus for graffiti.

URBAN, ONLINE, GLOBAL

Uplifting arms together in spirit, both these movements revel in the urban environment as a petri dish for the advancements and inventions of their age. Just as Futurism embraced the Industrial Age and its recently mechanized urban centers, Graffuturism embraces the Digital Age and its recently wired urban-global community. For the Futurists, the ideals of dynamism were expressed in images of their century’s new inventions, such as the motor car, the steam engine, the airplane, the telephone; whereas for the Graffuturists, the icons of salvation are the subway car, electric/ diesel freight trains, markers, spray paint, rollers, fire extinguishers, and so on. A different set of symbols for this century, but still imbued with the same impetus.

GRAFFITI, PAINTING AND ABSTRACTION

Because of the global composition of the group, the Graffuturists consist of disparate backgrounds, professions, and locations. They create in different styles, but their unifying theme is abstraction, their medium is painting, and their influence is graffiti. In their work on the streets and on canvas, these painters aspire to a high level of proficiency at their craft, which creates a visual poetry of depth and complexity. The Graffuturists could be classified as a High Style New Millennium Painting movement, consisting of a long dialectic and cross-pollination between advanced graffiti and fine art painting techniques.

Wildstyle Graffiti is combined with Abstract Expressionism or Geometric Abstraction, then transposed through the artist’s unique vision into a personal vocabulary of hybrid techniques, an experimental mix of the high and low, the intellectual and visceral, the visionary and the primitive. Whereas the Street Art movement of the mid-2000s tended to focus on collaged and wheat-pasted illustrations and figurative stencils, this group of artists focuses on the act of Painting, whether on the street or off, whether with spray paint or oils, with a fat cap or a sable brush.

Just as Be-bop developed from jazz, Raw Magazine from Superman comics, and Wildstyle from Original Writing, Graffuturism progresses from graffiti, and then takes up the oily-rag torch to ignite the future.

                                                                          –Daniel Feral (Pantheon Projects / 12oz Prophet)

Portrait Photo: Todd Mazer 

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Opening night photos via HookedBlog

Opening night photos via Unusualimage

FUTURISM2.0 Official 

RemiRoughs post for the show

Art Fair: The Board Dripper Festival 3; Querétaro, Mexico

Monday, September 3rd, 2012

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Mural progress with Smithe & DhearOne, 2 amazing artists from Mexico D.F In Querétaro at the UAQ.

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Board Dripper 3// Collage 2012

Querétaro, México

September 3 – 8, 2012

The THE BOARD DRIPPER© festival cares to encourage the youth in using recycling to reinterpet the spaces it provides them. Thanks to the support of government and private institutions, the festival has succeeded in positionning itself within the younger crowd of the population. The specific objectives of this event are to encourage a culture of recycling, cultural exchanges and the search for self-expression in the communal spaces.

Partisipating Artists:

Onesto /Brazil 

Tyza /D.F. Mexico

Exops, Nickel’One, Payo, Olito, Mathieu Labrecque, Sarah L’Herault & CY  /Quebec, Canada 

Caracrimen /D.F. Mexico 

Dhear One, Fusca & Smithe /D.F. Mexico

Terror Queretaro, Mexico

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 I will be in attendance for this great project givint a talk to students at the Universty about my artworks with emphasis on my mix media collage. There are laso exhibitions planned as well as plans to paint at the University during my stay.

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Group Exhibition: West Coast Art at Mirror Gallery; China Town, LA

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

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Incised Series No. 16 [2012]

24.5 x 24 x 1 5/8 inches

Acrylic, screen print and incising on masonite panel.

Finished in matte satin varnish. 

Framed in found yardstick & mahogany lattice.

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WEST COAST ARTISTS Crew

Group Exhibition

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Mirror Gallery in historic China Town
963 Chung King Rd.
LA, CA. 90012

Contact: Eric Barrette EB@mirrorfilms.tv

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One of Los Angeles’ first, most well known, and most well respected crews. Founded in 1985, and consisting of some of the biggest names in the graffiti art community for almost 3 decades.

 

Many members have grown to become the worlds foremost tattooists, gallery artists, graphic designers and many members own some of the worlds best known graphic design firms and clothing companies. What started as a group of young kids in Los Angeles, with a mutual love of a new artistic art form, has grown to become a legacy of creativity, originality and respect worldwide.

 

ACE • ALIAS • ASH • BATES • BAZAR • BRAIL • CARTOON • CAZAR• CLAE
COOL BOY • COOZ • CRE8 • D-ROCK • DASH • DEN • DESIGN9 • DYE5
EDIT • EVOLVE • GASO • GIGS • HASLER • KOFIE • MAKE • MINER • MEAR
MUNK • OG ABEL • PJAY • PENO • PONY BOY • POWER • PRYER • PYRO
RAK • RAKUS • REMI ROUGH • RESEK • RETNA • RIVAL • RISK • SED • SEL
SER • SEVERE • SHADOW • SINER • SKILL • SKIT • STORMIE • STYLIE3
SWAN • TRIXTER • TYER • VEX • VISION • WISK • ZANE

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Solo Exhibition: Working An Angle @ Known Gallery, May 26-June 9, 2012

Saturday, May 26th, 2012

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Known Gallery Presents:

Working An Angle

Recent works by Augustine Kofie

Opens: May 26, 2012 | 8-11pm

Runs: May 26 – June 9, 2012

Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Exhibition view and archive available at augustinekofie.info

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Working An Angle is a recent collection of work by Los Angeles-based artist Augustine Kofie. This will be Kofie’s first solo show with Known Gallery and will include 40 recent works including hand painted multiple screen prints, collage on wood as well as paintings on canvas and wood.

 

The works comprising Working An Angle feature found paper collage, clean line work, delineation of geometric forms and divisions of space with a technical precision that resembles a modernist like archtectype drafting. Kofie’s unique understanding of placement and line work results in a style of meticulous rendering that never seems cold or sterile due to the delicate sense of balance maintained within each drafted creation. Compositions incorporating found papers and ephemera from various hunts for the refuse of the past tend to help give these recent works an ‘old soul’ type vintage mood, while still holding a structural heart. Dusty pinks, mauves and mint greens compliment a muted palette to soften the sharp streaks of line work, and imparts a simple elegance to the complicated arrangements of each circular form and shape. 

 

Half a dozen larger works will be on display as well as a number of pieces from the artists ‘Incising’ series where acrylic paintings on clayboard are lightly carved to exposing the underlining color forms,  continuation in the artists curiosity with layering, movement and linear connections.

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Mural Intervention: ‘Graffuturiste’ | Art Basel:MIAMI with MTN Colors

Monday, December 5th, 2011

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‘Graffuturiste’ or ‘Timeless’

Miami, Florida during Art Basel|Miami

Spray paint, Laytex paint & bitumen on cinderblock and plaster

Wynwood District

December 2011

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MTN colors @ The Kohn Compound

219 NW 24th St

Key notes to the mural:

01. The point here was to reproduce the energy and direction of some of my recent studio paintings in a large scale format.

02. The ‘teeter effect’ or ’tilt’ of the overall composition leads to an off-centering that gives the idea of movement.

03. The earth tone palette is not a new concept for me, but due to the bright and vibrant murals throughout the compound, it makes the subtleness of this piece shine in contrast.

04. Both assisted straight lines ( straight edge and/or masking tape) and traditional manuel lines are executed in order to keep balance. The larger circles were assisted with the help of a center point. The smaller arch and circles were completed manually.

05. The majority of the left side of the mural was completed before I finalized the right side.

06. The majority of the mural was painted in one day. The following 4 days consisted of clean up, fine tuning and adjustments.

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Mural Intervention: Art GRAFFUTURISM ‘In Situ’ mural installation during Basel:MIAMI

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

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Graffuturism mural installation project at Art Basel Miami , 2011

 

The installation titled “In Situ” will took place in the Wynwood Art District at the Kohn Compound during Art Basel|Miami 2011

 

With mural installation by:

Eric Haze, Mare 139, West One, Poesia, Aaron De la Cruz,

Kema, Jurne, Sueme, Remi Rough, Greg Lamarche, Rae Martini,

LX One, Matt W. Moore, and Augustine Kofie.

 

“The title “In Situ” is a reference to the Mural installations that in the definition of the term will be made and created for the site specific to this event. Permanent Murals that will be placed in a unique and contrary to traditional compositions. As graffiti enters its place among the art world as legitimate art form, we have put together this lineup with the intention of showcasing some of our cultures important figures. With most, if not all the artists having an extensive background in traditional graffiti we have tried to bring many aspects of our current culture. From Legends Like Mare 139 & Eric Haze to emerging stars like Sueme and Jurne. We have picked a wide spectrum of talent. International additions like Remi Rough and She One will also contribute, reminding us of how far our culture has reached. We offer a different vision, modernist at times to street art and traditional graffiti. The great part of the Art Basel event that spreads into the streets of the Wynwood arts district, is that all angles are represented. We now add our version this year with In Situ. We hope you stop by and say hello. The graffiti Avante Garde as some have called it is here and we hope you enjoy what we will be bringing to the table this year.”

Special thanks to MTN Colors for being the paint sponsor for this event.”

 

 

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The official GRAFFUTURISM post with a forward by HAZE

Hypebeast Reposts In Situ Installation

MWM documentation of In Situ

Solo Exhibition: Circulatory System @ White Walls Gallery

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

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Circulatory System: Recent Works by Augustine Kofie

Opening Reception – November 12th, 2011, 7-11 pm

On View Through December 3, 2011

White Walls

835 Larkin St,

San Francisco, CA

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Archive and installation of exhibition can be found at augustinekofie.info

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White Walls is pleased to present Circulatory System, the new collection of work by Los Angeles-based artist Augustine Kofie. This will be Kofie’s second solo show with White Walls, and will include 30 recent works including smaller collage case studies on paper, hand painted multiple screen prints, assemblage on wood, paintings on canvas and wood and a large wall installation. The opening reception will be Saturday, November

12th, from 7-11 pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through December 3rd.

The works comprising Circulatory System feature a clean delineation of geometric forms and divisions of space with a technical precision that resembles architectural drafting. Kofie’s understanding of illustration and linework results in a style of meticulous rendering that never seems cold or sterile due to the delicate sense of balance maintained  within each composition. The muted palette softens the sharp lines, and imparts a simple  elegance to the complicated arrangements of shape.

The vintage-toned color scheme- the pale seafoam and mint greens of the sixties and the varying beige shades of worn paper- fit perfectly with the collage aspect of the work. Found imagery and ephemera are interwoven into many of the paintings, constructing a new way of looking upon fragments of the past. 

Kofie uses a similar approach of artful combination, rearrangement and layering to create  a soundtrack that will accompany the exhibition, reflecting the theme as well as setting  the tone for the collection. The 40 minute soundtrack is not an itunes mix but what Kofie  calls a true mix, meaning a well- collaged assemblage of original beats, pulled dialogue  from various films and re-edited songs. 

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Group Exhibition: Rudimentary Perfection in Glasgow, Scotland

Monday, June 27th, 2011

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Circulations of gentleman in colorama [2011]

 

10 3/8 x 10 3/8 x 1 inches

26.4  x  26.4 x  2.5 cm

Found paper, ball point pen, ink, acrylic & spray paint on wood panel.

Framed in vintage yardsticks.Finished in matte gel medium.

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Triangulations circa 1952 [2011]

10 3/8 x 10 3/8 x 1 inches

26.4  x  26.4 x  2.5 cm

Found paper, ball point pen, ink, acrylic & spray paint on wood panel.

Framed in vintage yardsticks.Finished in matte gel medium. 

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 Rudimentary triangulations, perfected [2011]

10 3/8 x 10 3/8 x 1 inches

26.4  x  26.4 x  2.5 cm

Found paper, ball point pen, ink, acrylic & spray paint on wood panel.

Framed in vintage yardsticks.Finished in matte gel medium.

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Recoat Gallery Presents:

Rudimentary Perfection

Proudly showcasing recent work by:

-SheOne -Duncan Jago -Jaybo Monk -Matt W. Moore -Augustine Kofie

-Poesia -Nawer -Derm  -Morten Andersen

-Mark Lyken 

Recoat Gallery 

323 North Woodside Road G20 6ND Glasgow United Kingdom

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Opening on 1st of July 2011, 7-10pm, Scotland’s Recoat Gallery will host the UK’s first comprehensive Graffuturism Exhibition titled “Rudimentary Perfection“. The exhibition pulls together an impressive group of notable international artists linked by their innovative spirit & shared graffiti heritage. The project has been heralded as one of the finest of its kind to take place anywhere in the world this year.

Each of these artists has ventured down unique paths in their post graffiti output & each offers a radical take on expressive, figurative & letter-based abstraction. These works, while differing in approach & execution retain the sense of movement, assured marks & imperfect beauty of graffiti itself.

About Recoat:

Recoat is an exhibition space in Glasgow, Scotland. We exhibit illustration, graphic art, photography, street art and graffiti, showcasing Scottish talent alongside artwork from all over the world.

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Group Exhibition: Street Cred: Graffiti Art from Concrete to Canvas; Pasadena Museum of California Art

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

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Dark Side of the Triangulations No. 1 [2010]

5 x 7 x 2 1/2

Acrylic & spray-paint on canvas.

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Street Cred: Graffiti Art from Concrete to Canvas 

May 15, 2011 – September 4, 2011

Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA)

490 E. Union Street

Pasadena CA 91101

OPENING RECEPTION

Saturday, May 14, 2011

7:00 – 10:00 pm

$5 admission

Free for PMCA Members

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PASADENA, CA – The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) announces the first museum exhibition that joins the work created by Los Angeles graffiti artists for a fine art context with their graffiti art made in the streets. Internationally renowned as one of the most fertile grounds for graffiti art, the City of Angels has its own idiosyncratic graffiti styles created from the innovative New York “wildstyle” that heralded the birth of graffiti as it is seen today, filtered through local influences such as gang writing styles that greatly predate the modern movement. 

The artists for the exhibition have been consistently making influential public work, but their practice has expanded into work that is viewed in galleries and museums. Street Cred was first conceived in 2008 by PMCA Exhibition Manager Shirlae Cheng-Lifshin, who subsequently brought on Los Angeles graffiti historian Steve Grody as co-curator. Grody, who is the author of Graffiti LA, has been documenting high-quality work in the streets of Los Angeles since 1990. The exhibition will include his photographs from the crucial years of the graffiti scene, providing key insights into the visual “language” of graffiti, its development in Los Angeles, and the ways in which the street work informs the canvas work in the exhibition. 

Ironically, the fine art production of these artists are meant for wider audiences than their graffiti works, so the artists incorporate a more universal pictorial language than the specialized typography evident in graffiti in situ, usually readable only to other graffiti artists. Yet the artistic skill and dialogue with modernism displayed by many of these artists demonstrates that their place in the continuum of art history is well deserved. Works in the exhibition will also be grouped according to style, further underscoring both the breadth and depth of this contemporary art movement. Taken as a whole, Street Cred will show how a genre born on concrete translates into canvas, and how the two worlds interact. 

Artists featured in the exhibition include Michael Alvarez, ANGST, AXIS, Chaz Bojórquez, CODAK, CRAOLA, DASH 2000, Ekundayo, EYEONE, HASTE, Paul SKEPT Kanemitsu, Alex Kizu, KOFIE ONE, MAN ONE, MEAR ONE, Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez, Jose Lopez, Erick Montenegro, Nicnak, PUSH, RISK, Jeff Soto, Evan Skrederstu, RETNA, REVOK, SABER, SHANDU, Jesse Simon, SINER, and ZES.

Made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division.

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About the PMCA: 

The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) is dedicated to the exhibition of California art, architecture, and design from 1850 to the present. Informed by the state’s rich mixture of cultures and inspired by its impressive geography, California art has long been defined by a spirit of freedom and experimentation. PMCA exhibitions and educational programs explore the cultural dynamics and influences unique to California that have shaped and defined art in all media.

Hours: 

Wednesday – Sunday, 12:00 – 5:00 pm. The Museum is closed July 4th, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Admission:

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Students with valid ID; free to PMCA Members and children under 12. Access for people with disabilities is provided.

Location/Parking: 

The Museum is located at 490 East Union Street. From the 210 Freeway, take the Lake Avenue exit. Go south and take a right on Union Street. From the 110 Freeway/Downtown Los Angeles, follow the freeway until its end, then take Arroyo Parkway and turn right at Colorado, then left at Oakland to get to Union Street. Parking is available at the Museum.

PMCA Information: 

For information, the please call 626-568-3665

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Group Exhibition: Dreams Deferred; Artists Respond to Immigration @ The Chinese American Museum (CAM

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

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Objection to the rule

32 x 40 inches  [2010]

Acrylic washes & fluorescent spray paint on acid-free and lignin-free Crescent mounting board.

Finished in 2 layers of acrylic matte varnish.

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Subdue your enthusiasm 

32 x 40 inches  [2010]

Acrylic washes & fluorescent spray paint on acid-free and lignin-free Crescent mounting board.

Finished in 2 layers of acrylic matte varnish.

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Dreams Deferred: Artists Respond to Immigration

Dec. 10, 2010 – May 22, 2011

425 North Los Angeles Street

Los Angeles, CA 90012-2939

(213) 485-8567

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The Chinese American Museum (CAM) and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument is proud to present Dreams Deferred: Artists Respond to Immigration Reform opening on December 10, 2010. This exhibition will showcase local artists exploring the tensions, repercussions, hopes, and dreams of immigrant communities in the face of new immigration legislation, through a broad spectrum of art including street art, graffiti art, sculptures, painting and multimedia installations.U.S. immigration laws have long reflected a lasting legacy of racial exclusion starting with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the first legislation to restrict immigration based on race and ethnicity. This legacy of immigration legislation targeting immigrant communities has since reemerged in the recent decades with California’s Proposition 187,and Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, as attempts at inhibiting the livelihoods of undocumented immigrants.Dreams Deferred continues the current national dialogue about immigration, kicked-off by the recent opening of CAM’s Remembering Angel Island, an exhibition commemorating the 100th year anniversary of the opening of the West Coast’s first immigration station. Both exhibitions will serve to shed light on the parallels of past and current immigration policies and reform, and how Los Angeles’ diverse immigrant communities collectively share not only their immigrant histories, but also many of the challenges facing new immigrant communities today.

Artists participating in this exhibit include:

Augustine Kofie, Cache, Eriberto Oriol, Ernesto Yerena Montejano, Eyeone, K. Lovich, Jesus Barraza of Dignidad Rebelde, Joel “rage.one” Garcia, John Carlos De Luna, LeHumanBeing, Oscar Magallanes, Patrick Martinez, Sand One, Shark Toof, Shepard Fairey, O.G. Slick, Swank, Tempt.

Sponsors:Chinese American Citizens Alliance | Grand LodgeCommunity Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los AngelesFriends of the Chinese American Museum

Co-Sponsors:Asian Pacific American Legal CenterMid-City ArtsSelf Help GraphicsThe UCLA Labor Center

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Group Exhibition: HACER Presents: DUALITY Exhibition, Downtown LA

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

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HACER Presents:

DUALITY  

CB GALLERY

408 S. SPRING ST

LA, CA 90012

Public Opening during Artwalk:

THURSDAY, NOV. 11, 2010 

6-9 PM

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Exhibition Flyer

G-H Studio Statement 

Artist statement HERE 

Daily Dujour Press & Photos

Mention of DUALITY on StyleSectionLA

Known Gallery POST 

 

 

Reaching back to his roots, Hacer has invited both established and emerging graffiti artist contemporaries Retna, Kofie, Saber, Tanner, Sharktoof, Eyeone to engage in a dialogue about the duality inherent in “public” art by making their mark on the inner panels of red-orange [Hacer’s signature color] 1/8 scale, origami-inspired, abstract forms; the full scale versions of which will be publicly installed as a multi-dimensional, Richard Serra-scale wall.

Once installed, the outwardly facing red-orange panels [signifying traditional notions of public art] will stand on the flipside of their inner graffiti-covered equivalents [signifying an equal but yet-to-be embraced form of public art]; creating a legitimate place for the duality of sculpture and graffiti to co-exist .

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 “(It is necessary for artists) to create work on the most visible sides of high modern buildings, in the most artistically strategic places in working-class districts, in Union halls, in public squares, in sports stadia, in open air theaters.”  [1](Siqueiros’ 1933 A Call to the Artists of Argentina)

In the very same manner that Siqueiros madea call to artists in Argentina in 1933 to create a mural, Gerardo Hacer reachesback to his graffiti roots and calls established and emerging graffiti artiststo join him in the creation of, “Duality”.  

Duality is Hacer’s response to inquiriesinto his “ability to protect the sculpture from graffiti” from local and stategovernment organizations while trying to secure right of entry for installationof his public works.

A former graffiti artist who credits theartform for his development, he responded by inviting graffiti artist s to maketheir mark on the inner panels of one-eighth-scale, red-orange,origami-inspired, abstract forms; the full scale versions of which will bepublicly installed as a multi-dimensional, Richard Serra-scale wall.

Once installed, the outwardly facingred-orange panels [signifying traditional notions of public art] will stand onthe flipside of their inner graffiti-covered equivalents [signifying an equalbut yet-to-be embraced form of public art]; creating a legitimate place for theduality of sculpture and graffiti to co-exist .

Hacer’s choice to embrace graffiti and combine this ancient form of expression with his sculptures, an equally ancientmode, is reminiscent of the Venus of Willendorf’s (sculpture, circa22,000 B.C.E.) co-existence with the Upper Paleolithic cave paintings (theoldest form of graffiti[2]) in the Lascaux and Altamira caves. 

Isabel Rojas-Williams

Art Historian-Curator

November 2010

[1] Rochfort Desmond. Mexican Muralists. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998, 148.

[2] Graffiti (Italian plural of graffito/graffio, scratch or scribble), derived from “graph” is based onthe Greek graphein, or “to write,”[2]hence Graffiti’s scratching on walls is not much different from ancientwritings on the walls of sepulchers in the catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii.Graffiti. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti 

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Solo Exhibition: Retrofitted & Other Forms of Vintage Futurism at White Walls, San Francisco

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

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White Walls is pleased to present

Retrofitted and Other Forms of Vintage Futurism

a solo exhibition by Los Angeles based artist, Augustine Kofie.

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The artist examines the dynamics that emerge when new elements or techniques are built upon existing material. The exhibition will include a series of wood triangle collages, medium-sized assemblages on wood, acrylic paintings and an installation. The opening reception for Retrofitted and Other Forms of Vintage Futurism, will be held at White Walls on Saturday, October 09, 2010 from 7-11 pm. The exhibit will be on display through November 06, 2010 and is free and open to the public.

With a deep interest in process and structure, Augustine Kofie creates works of intense detail centered around the order of balance. The precision of Kofie’s “drafted” art is strongly inspired by modern architecture as well as the form and shape of typography.  In his quest for balance, Kofie harmonizes opposing and contradictory dynamics in his work by setting futuristic compositions against vintage earth-toned palettes, and creating organically complex formations through meticulously structured line-work and layering.  Active in the Los Angeles graffiti scene since the mid-nineties, the artist’s work reflects his ever growing influence of street culture, the craft of deconstructing lettering, contemporary music as well as 1960’s-70’s iconography.

Retrofitted and Other Forms of Vintage Futurism, Kofie’s debut solo exhibition with White Walls, continues his exploration of the process of organization, deconstruction and form while adhering to a controlled and tuned uniformity.  In this collection the artist poses a broader range of color set against his signature earth-toned palette.  The works conveys a ”push and pull” movement through the composition of the shapes and through the enhancement of classic or found material treated with newer counterparts.  The works for the exhibition are comprised of acrylic and spray paint on canvas, found paper and mixed media on wood, and found-wood sculptures and installations.

Kofie is a self-taught artist living and working in Los Angeles.  He has shown extensively  worldwide with highlighted shows in California, New York, Basel Miami, Japan, The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. The artist has been featured in Juxtapoz, The Huffington Post, LA Weekly, Project Room and Studio Voice.

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3 Man Exhibition: VOX HUMANA: Live art at VOLTA 6: Basel, Switzerland

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

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VOLTA 6 Art Fair: Basel, Switzerland


Live Art by El Mac, Retna, Mear & Kofie

 Presented by The LA Art Machine 

 

June 16-20, 2010

 

Volta 6

Dreispitzhalle

Dreispitz Areal

Tor / Gate 13

Helsinki Strasse 5

CH-4142 Münchenstein / Basel

 

 

L.A. ART MACHINE and Rivera & Rivera Gallery are proud to present, VOX HUMNANA at Volta6, Basel. Curated by Bryson Strauss, VOX HUMANA is a live art performance by legendary Los Angeles street artists Mear One, Kofie, Retna, and El Mac that will take place at VOLTA6 in Basel, Switzerland, June 16-20, 2010.Street artists work on the fly and in the open to create works of art that change the way we see, feel, and interact with our urban environments. The VOX HUMANA happening will provide an opportunity for VOLTA patrons to witness how street artists work and watch the live unfolding of “pieces” within the context of an international fine art fair.

 

For the five-day run of the fair, these four artists will create large-scale (up to 3.5 meters x 7 meters) pieces in their signature styles using acrylic and aerosol paints. VOLTA attendees are invited to witness the completion of these monumental works on Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 2 PM, and participate in a closing celebration.


VOLTA 6

VOX HUMANA @ VOLTA 6 Post

 

Group Exhibition: CONTEMPORARY CORRUPTION REVISITED

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

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Pro Testing My Patience 2010

8.5 x 11 inches

Sharpie & Pilot Ink illustration on aged vellum.

Photo taken from the interweb.

 

Pro Testing My Patience is one of 3 of my line art sketches and a refrence for one

of three painting I will have on display at Mears CONTEMPORARY CORRUPTION 

 

 

 

Mear One & Mid-City Arts In Association W/ The L.A. Art Machine Presents:

 

CONTEMPORARY CORRUPTION REVISITED

An Art Exhibit & Installation

 

Asylm + Atlas + Cache + Eye One + Kofie + Mear + Siner + Vyal

Curated By: MEAR ONE

 

CELEBRATING MEAR’S OFFICIAL DVD

RE-RELEASE OF “LIVE ART EXPERIENCE”

 

Sponsored By 33third Los Angeles

 

Saturday May 15, 2010

7:30p-10p

 

Mid-City Arts Gallery

5113 W. Pico Blvd.

Los Angeles, Calif. 90019

(310) 694-3460

Open 7 Days A Week

 

 

 

Mural Intervention: ‘JUSTICE’ Mural with El Mac & Retna for Manifest Equality

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

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El Mac, Retna & Kofie: JUSTICE Mural for Manifest Equality- Time lapse: from Augustine Kofie on Vimeo.

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Acrylic and enamel spray paint on primed brick, exterior

El Mac, Retna and myself were commissioned by Yosi Sergant to create a mural for the Manifest Equality event held in Hollywood, Calif from March 3-7 of 2010.

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From February 26 to March 2 we painted day and night using imported spray paint and 3 scissor lifts to create the 20 x 100 foot semi-grayscale mural located in the parking lot of the former Pic-n-Save/Big Lots.

Retna’s type reads ‘JUSTICE’ from left to right. El Mac Painted the portrait of the woman, the sword as well as the scales, all created from his own photo reference. I painted the large circular frame caping each end as well as the halo’s behind each hand.

It was a pleasure working with both artists again and even more so together in a trifecta of sorts for Los Angeles.

Many thanks to Tom, the Sergants, Apple Via, FAIR & Mid-City Arts for the support.

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LARGE landscape photo here

Group Exhibition: STREET LEGAL & VOX HUMANA Mear, A.Kofie, RETNA & El Mac

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

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LA Times Article | Juxtapoz Article | Press Release | Show Catalog

LA Art Machine Presents:

STREET LEGAL

Works by Mear One, Kofie, Retna & El Mac

January 22 – February 27, 2010

Artists Reception: January 22, 2010 7 PM

Rivera&Rivera Gallery

1100 S. Hope Street

 

Los Angeles, California

 

RIVERA & RIVERA Gallery is proud to announce the opening of Street Legal, an exhibition of original artwork by legendary Los Angeles street artists, Mear One, Kofie, El Mac, and Retna.

Opening in conjunction with Vox Humana, a live art performance by these same artists at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the L.A. Art Show 2010, this exhibition will showcase more than 25 works of art, including the unveiling of Mear One’s monumental sculpture entitled “Pillar of Consciousness.”

While wildly diverse in styles, media, and scale, this unique group of artists have transcended street writing and evolved their work into one of the most challenging and sophisticated contemporary art forms.

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The Circulations of a Formal Convention [2010]

Acrylic on Lucius Hudson canvas.

Finished in Matte Gel Medium.

138 x 138 x 2.5 inches

[Painted live at the Vox Humana Exhibition during LA Art Show 2010 at The Los Angeles Convention Center. Curated by Bryson Strauss of The LA Art Machine.]

Solo Exhibition: Vintage Futurism at Zero1 Gallery, Downtown Los Angeles

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

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Found Object Installation, 2009

9 x 12 x 4 ft.

Colby posters, discontinued spray paint, used paint brushes, found wood,found street

signage,used wood boxes, wood top drafting desk, drafting stool & drafting supply.

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The Triangulation’s of the Letter K, 2009

54 1/2 x 54 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches

Spray paint and acrylic on primed duck canvas.

Finished in matte gel medium.

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The Triangulation’s of Baby Minto, 2009

22 1.2 x 46 1/2 x 2 inches 

Found paper, packaging and chipboard, ball point pen and acrylic ink on wood panel.

Finished in matte gel medium. Framed with Yardsticks and found wood.  

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Zero One Gallery presents:

“Vintage Futurism”

Recent works by Kofie One

Saturday, February 28th. The show will stay up through March 29th.

Zero One Gallery

530 South Hewitt Street

#141 / Los Angeles

Archive and installation shots can be found here

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Vintage Futurism was a seminal exhibition of recent works on paper, wood and canvas. An installation, light mural and new furniture pieces were on display for the month of March, 2009. I also produced a special 1-Hour mix set of  Jazz loops and atmospheric soul especially made to accompany the exhibition. .

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2 man show: ‘Thanks’ Frowhawk 2-Feathers & A. Kofie

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

thanks07.jpg2007. Unitard Gallery presents ‘THANKS’. A selection of new individual works & some collaborative efforts by my man Frohawk Two-Feathers & myself.The theme was tossed around all year leading up to the show, ranging from Colonialism in the early Americas, to going back in time & capsizing the Mayflower. In this 2-Man effort we went with a theme dear to our hearts and our own bloodline. Merging history with reality. Embellishing wood panels with soul & heart. Giving thanks and acknowledgment those before us. This was a holiday season show, so I felt it was necessary to have straw strewn throughout the gallery. B&W photo courtesy of Malakinetics.

Installation: Architects + Designers Museum, Los Angeles

Sunday, May 20th, 2007

ad-museum07.jpg2007. ‘From LA With Love Installation Exhibit’ .  The A+D Museum off  Wilshire in Los Angeles.Large scale installation of found aged wood, metal signs & siding, Light box as well as a steel Drafting Desk. A handfull of recent works inspired by architecture & the beauty of urban decay also adored the display which was on view for 3 months. Video of installetion by Theo Jemison.

Solo show: Hands On at Transport gallery, Los Angeles

Saturday, February 4th, 2006

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Solo Exhibition

Hands On

New works in Black, White & Grey

February – March 2006

Transport Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

Curated by  Michael Russek

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This was my first solo show in some time & I knew I wanted to go simple, but big. Over 25 new works were on display as well as a few light murals of Hands & my shapes. Kutmah & Coleman played very select instrumental beats & Jazz sets while over 200 people made their way in and out of the gallery. One wall installation consisted of over 40  individually screen printed Colby posters printed just for the event.