Spoke Art is proud to present "The Black Robe" a three person exhibition featuring Barron Storey, M Ian Dringenberg and Keita Morimoto, curated by Eidolon Fine Arts. "The Black Robe" brings together three generations of notable artists and their interpretations of legendary Japanese Tanka poet Ono No Komachi.

Taking in account the surrounding environment and visually interacting with it, Paris-based artist, Ox has created several new works each stylistically different but all having their own unique effect.

The Shooting Gallery is pleased to present, Madness, by Seattle-based Japanese artist, Yumiko Kayukawa. This new collection of works will be her eighth solo show at the Shooting Gallery and will feature her acrylic and ink paintings on canvas. The opening reception of Madness will be held at the Shooting Gallery on June 8, 2013 from 7-11pm. The exhibition will be on view through June 29, 2013 and is free and open to the public.

We are in the our summertime mood, putting together a few special issues this season with school out and galleries getting ready for their summer breaks. After our special June Beastie Boys issue, today we are happy to show you a preview of our new July 2013 issue, Comic-Con: Past + Present + Future. We asked our friend Skinner to contribute to the cover, and interviewed a range of Comic-Con staples like Gentle Giant Studios, Sir Richard Taylor and WETA Workshop, Robert Willliams, Kenny Scharf, Ben Jones, Matt Furie, Aiyana Udesen, Last Gasp, Esther Pearl Watson, Jackie Estrada, a survey of Zine Culture and a full Comic-Con guide by Alex Pardee. 

James Dive of The Glue Society recently squished, crammed, and compacted an entire amusement park including rides and prizes into a 4-meter cube. Entitled Once, the piece is on show at Sculpture by the Sea in Aarhus, Denmark. Up until July 1st, "The project is about the finality of a missed moment," says Dive. "Creating [it] was undoubtedly the most violent process I've ever embarked upon."

We were browsing the interwebs (we do a lot of that) and happened upon a photograph of Thomas Heatherwick's UK Pavilion from the Shanghai Expo 2010. This led us to discover many of Heatherwick studio's other projects as well! So, this morning we bring you a collection of their work and a video about the very cool looking UK Pavilion.

Sometimes the idea of sticking a another boring cube into our coffee gets us down. Luckily, a designer by the name of Snow Violet created these brilliant skull and cross bones cubes so we can make our morning routine of staring into our coffee cup a bit more sinister... (if we can figure out where to get some)

This morning we take a look at he work of Berlin-based artist Clemens Behr. Clemen's process "begins with space, which acts as a basis for planning." According to the artist, "the space defines the colors and shapes, as well as any fixing or mounting possibilities and the dimensions of the piece." Once he has an idea or composition visualized, he usually begins by painting cardboard and screwing together a wooden frame to fix the cardboard to.

This morning we take a look at the Brighton-based artist and illustrator Sam Chivers. Sam is drawn towards a sort of unconscious surrealism, fusing graphical and figurative elements. Often depicting science fiction, cosmical and fantastical-themed scenes, Chivers mostly works with screen-printing collage, but also occasionally paints. 

One of our European contributors, Butterfly, recently heading out to the studio of graffiti artist Gris1 in Lyon, France to see what the artist have prepared for the rest of his 2013 calendar year. From the looks of it, he has lots of trains, spraycans, post-its, paintings, sketches, and notes coming into fruition. We have covered Gris1 a ton on our site and in our Graffiti Department in recent years, as well as a bunch of French writers, and we were very appreciative that Gris let us into his space.