A great friend Martha Rich opens at SFA Projects

Martha Rich

"Nuts, Charm & Rejection"

@ CultureFix, 9 Clinton Street, NYC

Opening Reception: Friday, January 14th, 7-9pm

Show runs through February 6th.

Manned gallery hours are Friday through Sunday, Noon to 6.

View the entire show online at:http://www.sfaprojects.com/11RichCF.html 

Here is a link to my feature with The Advocate.

ADVOCATE.com

I wrote the introduction for my friend marion Peck's monograph.

"Animal Love Summer"
A new exhibition book by Marion Peck.
Forward essay by Aaron Smith

Marion will be signing copies of her new exhibition book "Animal Love Summer" during her upcoming exhibition at Alix Sloan Fine Art in New York, NY.

Booksigning: Saturday, December 18th, 3 to 5 pm

Sloan Fine Art
128 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
212.477.1140
Sloan Fine Art
info@sloanfineart.com

Marion Peck News

Some great press....

I am pleased to share that the 2010 Summer Issue of NY Arts Magazine features a spread on my work as well as the dang cover! Here is a link to read the text. http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=575734:victorian-excavation&catid=440:voices

Art Center Illustration Has Joined Facebook

AC- Illustration has started a Facebook fan page to keep all abreast of the department's events and alumni achievements. I hope you'll join.

Illustration/122613954436256http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Center-College-of-Design-Illustration/122613954436256

Group Show "Kink" at Koplin Del Rio Gallery

There are two new paintings of mine in summer group show.

http://www.koplindelrio.com/

“Rip-Staver”, 2010, oil on panel, 60” x 48”

“Chivvy”, 2010, oil on panel, 42” x 36”

Friends with Cursors

The Lower East Side's most visible gallery, Sloan Fine Art is a clean, well-lit mecca of contemporary art in Manhattan's epicenter of all things trending. Truth-be-told, Alix Sloan is not only my art dealer, but she has long been a best-friend-in-all-the-world to me. So with rampant self interest, and a shameless insider's point-of-view, I encourage all readers to follow the gallery's new blog. It promises to give a nice picture of Lower Manhattan's artistic life.

http://sloanfineart.blogspot.com/

Pictured above:
Kristen Schiele
"Sin With Me"
2010
38" x 45"
silkscreen, airbrush & oil on canvas

I have a new photostream on Flickr

Aaron Smith, "Huey Lakins", 2009
Originally uploaded by Mucksnipe

I Got a Virtual Bear Hug!

Finally some love from those kindly, cuddly creatures of the (mostly) gay community. ART BEAR has posted images of a few of my bearded men paintings...

ART BEAR - Paper & Ink & Beards & Kink.

Check it out. Once you're there, click on the blog's title to see the latest hirsute related artwork.

Of course to see much more visit AaronSmithArt.com.

Diane Barcelowsky returns to Sloan Fine Art, NY.

Diane Barcelowsky is an artist that raises my endorphin levels. Running one's eyes over her seriously psychedelic, slightly psychotic paintings produces the best kind of contact high. Brilliant colors, fascinating patterns, and tiny scenes of often hilarious goings-on combine to produce a heady state of blissful overstimulation. Where does she get this stuff? Who cares. Her inventive paintings are visually abundant and narratively slippery.
Sloan Fine Art in New York's lower east side just opened a stunning show of Diane's mixed media paintings. A former student of mine, the talented Edwin Ushiro creates a different kind of lush magic, with his light filled mixed media pieces in the gallery's project room. The show's dates are March 24 to April 17, 2010.
Find Diane's blog and Sloan Fine Art in my link list.

I've moved into a new studio.

I'm in a show in DC....

My friend Trevor Young has curated an interesting show in Washington DC. Click on the image to read the details.

A Memorable Show Opens at Sloan Fine Art, NY.

Aint Art grand? Every so often a show comes along that gives me happy butterflies in my stomach. This is one of those shows.
This week Sloan Fine Art presents a group of deceptively produced foam rubber cuckoo clocks that warm the heart while hinting of menace. Sculptor Nathan Skiles draws one in with nostalgia, then startles with a surprise.... Not unlike the little creature who lies in wait inside each of the real Black Forest contraptions. I love these pieces so much, I'm taking one home with me.
Heather Sherman's paintings in the project room thumb their noses at suburban attitudes. This young woman can paint! The paintings are a perfect compliment to Skiles' work with their fearless mixture of humor and rage.
Good times.
To see the work online, go to sloanfineart.com


Nathan Skiles pieces shown:
"Der Jordan-Sprudle" 2009
"The Vanitas of Vineta B" 2009
-both are corrugated plastic and foam rubber.

Heather Sherman pieces shown:
"Umbrella" 2009
"Suck It, Suburbia" 2009
-Both are oil on paper.

Blissful and Bewildered.

Life can be strange. Today, my husband Tom and I had our first wedding anniversary. Just a year ago we were celebrating our union with 150 friends and family members on the rooftop of Art Center's South Campus. Days later, Californians would vote yes on Proposition 8, leaving Tom and I in the bizarre position of being married but protesting for marriage equality.
Tom and I have been together for almost 14 years. We have always determined what our relationship means on our own terms. Suddenly, perfect strangers voted to express their disapproval. Now, on our anniversary, Maine is facing a similar vote. I have never expected strangers to appreciate the beauty of my relationship, but I never expected them to feel they had the right to legislate it into oblivion.
Bliss, wedded or not, is the best revenge.

...our wedding day as photographed by Nathan Smith

"Flicker" 2006, oil on canvas, 48"x40"

I'm not much of a joiner but.....

I can be a bit of an artistic loner, but the great painter Kent Williams asked me to participate in a group show he was curating at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in LA. The opening was crazy/crowded and looked great. Most of the artists work in a brooding figurative style, so I was a little bit of an oddball with my saturated color. It was a thrill to find that Peter Liashkov, an influential teacher of mine at Art Center was in the show. One of my favorite former students of from AC, Sara Escamilla showed some haunting and sensitive sculpture. It's fun playing in a different sandbox. Thanks Kent.

Pictured are;
"Bearded" 2009, oil on panel, 25"x23"
"2 Beards" 2009, oil on panel, 60'x48"

and the invitation featuring Kent Williams' work.

Merry Karnowsky Gallery
170 S. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90036
www.mkgallery.com

Curating is fun!

Alix Sloan is a gallerista goddess. She has also been a peerless friend for eighteen years. So, when she asked me to curate a landscape show at her gallery, I said "yes please". Here are some photos of the installation, as well as shots of the opening. The cityscape is by Erik Benson. The nice looking folks posing together are three of the artists: Clare Grill, Ryan Mrozowski, and Jean-Pierre Roy.

"Relocation"
Sloan Fine Art
128 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
http://www.sloanfineart.com

October 14 - November 7

With works by Erik Bensen, Thomas C. Card, Clare Grill, David Jien, Ryan Mrozowski, Marion Peck and Jean-Pierre Roy.

Hello world, this is Aaron....

What can I say? I have finally conquered the crippling perfectionism that prevented me from posting a blog. I have decided I can live with a sporadic, impulsive, and rambling blog. After all, it just might be more accurate than a slick one.

This is Aaron Smith. I am a painter living in Los Angeles. As part of my blogger's block recovery, I make no promises about any subsequent content. Here goes...