Juxtapoz 15th Anniversary Art Auction

Originally from Indio, California, the two attribute their paintings, collages, and three-dimensional pieces to inspiration from Mexican-American traditional values and contemporary west coast culture. The artists look to graffiti, Mexican street murals, traditional revolutionary posters, sign painting, prison art and tattoos for their influence.

The Date Farmers prefer to use scavenged materials, often found near their desert homes in southern California and nearby Mexico. “Using stuff that was thrown away is Mexican ingenuity. People’s idea of art is that it’s really expensive and [made of] nice materials, but found objects are so abundant, they’re much easier and freeing for us.”

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Much like the delicately surreal 3D animal monsters she crafts, Liz McGrath resembles some kind of magical forest dweller.

Almond eyes, porcelain skinned, and just over 5-feet tall, the sculptress, who is one of the reigning queens of lowbrow, could easily be mistaken for a wood nymph from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or even a petite 11 courtesan from middle earth.

She developed the psychological world of escape at 13 when her parents sent her to a hellfire-and-brimstone Fundamentalist Baptist correctional institution called the Victory Christian Academy. At the time young Liz had a Mohawk and a pet rat, and loved nothing more than hanging at Billy Shire’s La Luz Gallery on Melrose. That all screeched to a halt as soon as she was delivered to the home.

She developed the psychological world of escape at 13 when her parents sent her to a hellfire-and-brimstone Fundamentalist Baptist correctional institution called the Victory Christian Academy. At the time young Liz had a Mohawk and a pet rat, and loved nothing more than hanging at Billy Shire’s La Luz Gallery on Melrose. That all screeched to a halt as soon as she was delivered to the home.

McGrath was placed in a tiny cell called the “Get Right with God Room” and kept on lockdown for two weeks as girls read passages from the Book of Revelation outside her door around the clock. The vegetarian McGrath was force-fed steak, given ice-cold showers, and strongly advised to praise Jesus at every given opportunity.—Caroline Ryder

Caroline Ryder: How did you start getting creative again?

Liz McGrath: It took a long time. I got back with my punk friends and we started the band called Tongue, an all-Asian punk rock band. That kind of gave it all back to me. I got put away for punk rock, and then punk rock saved my life again.

–Excerpt from Interview with Liz McGrath (Juxtapoz # 83), December 2007

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I fucking hate this guy. I know great art is supposed to inspire and evoke happy thoughts, but whenever I see Mac paint, I get fucking angry and I want to break his fucking hands!

Graffiti in general is pretty messy and for most people looks the same anywhere you go. So once in a blue moon, when someone comes out with some new shit you’ve never seen before, it makes someone like me excited to see that new shit, but then right away gets me angry that I didn’t think of it first or can’t paint just as good. Mac is this fucker. I got to paint with him a few times and the guy is unstoppable; he paints with bionic robotic killer precision, and his aim is so tried and true, you want to ravish the women he paints. And he’s a workaholic like me. I’m going to use this interview as a guise to steal all his secrets. —David Choe

David Choe: What’s your secret?

Mac: Perfectionism, or maybe the fact that I’ve neglected a bunch of other basic aspects of life and really just tried to be good at making art. I’ve been focused on that most of my life. As a result, I’m maybe not the smoothest most exciting person in the world.

Excerpt from Juxtapoz # 103, August 2009

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Tessar Lo

The Show & Tell Gallery in downtown Toronto is a welcome fresh face in the international art community. Opening as recent as the summer of 2008, Show & Tell Gallery has already hosted several formidable solo and group shows, one such highlight being this summer’s “Get Over It”, featuring Steve Powers, Greg LaMarche and Greg Gossel.
Brian Donnelly

Equally impressive as the exhibition space itself is the roster of artists associated with the Show & Tell Gallery. Taking inspiration from city walls, train yards, classic typography, digital design, comics and comix, tattoo culture, amongst other influences, the artists of Show & Tell Gallery continue to push the limits of contemporary art.
Vladimir Kato

For the Juxtapoz 15th Anniversary Art Auction, Show & Tell Gallery generously donated work from four of their stellar artists: Rey Ortega, Brian Donnelly, Tessar Lo, and Vladimir Kato.

Rey Ortega

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If Courtney Love had modeled for Rembrant, classical painting might have presaged the artwork of Natalia Fabia.

From punk to pinups, Natalia’s work infuses all of the artist’s favorite influences into painting after painting, each more vibrant and inspired than the next. Bubbling with personality, Natalia’s work offers viewers a sweet slice of reality that’s both fantastical and rooted in her everyday life.—Katie Zuppann

“I’m obsessed with light. I see light in everything and reflecting off of everyone. That’s why I use colors, gels, strobes, and all that stuff. I get a light orgasm when I see beautiful natural lighting.”—Natalia Fabia

Excerpt from Katie Zuppann’s interview with Natalia Fabia, Juxtapoz # 103, August 09

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