Where: Loakal
Event Date: July 5, 2013
Event Time: 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Location: Loakal 560 2nd St. at Washington Oakland, CA
Exhibit Dates: July 5 -
For more details: https://www.facebook.com/events/542193302503700/?fref=ts
This month, Loakal presents two solo shows: Nite Owl’s “Aesthetic Transience” and Chris Granillo’s “The Sacred Language of Mystics.” Join us for the opening reception on July 5, 6-10 pm during Oakland Art Murmur. This will be the first event in our new space at 560 2nd St., so come celebrate with us in our new, permanent location with beer, good people and good art!
About Nite Owl:
Based in Oakland, Nite Owl is one of the most prolific street artists in the East Bay. His iconic owl character can be seen in posters, murals and stickers across the Bay Area. Inspired by cartoons and the Super Flat movement alike, Nite Owl’s vibrant work pays homage to graffiti, filtering elements of street culture through his color-saturated lens.
“I’m not an artist; I’m a psychic link to a parallel world that exists inside my brain. I’ve visited other dimensions and returned to channel these visions through my art. My physical travels across the globe have also played a large part in influencing the themes in my pieces,” said Nite Owl. “The secrets of nature, hidden deeply in the backcountry, influence me just as much as the harsh urban settings of Oakland, in which I reside. As a young child I was stricken with Chronic Doodling Disorder. Over the years I’ve channeled this sickness into a library of characters.”
Nite Owl’s involvement in the Oakland street art scene extends beyond his artwork. He is a co-curator at Chopsticks Urban Art Space and runs his own graffiti blog, Midnite Mobbin.
About Chris Granillo:
Born in the Coachella Valley, Granillo found early artistic and creative inspiration through his science classes and a back yard shared with the wild animals of the desert. Although desert inspiration was not hard to find, art supplies were limited and expensive to come by. The alternative was to create using found objects and affordable supplies unearthed at local thrift stores. Many of Chris Granillo’s early works appear on recycled surfaces and discarded objects.
Granillo found it interesting — sharing the earth with animals that once controlled the surface of the land but have now been driven underground by commercial development. This conflict fascinates him, and frequently is depicted in his work. Granillo subjects of preference are Mexican folk art, the human figure, nature, mystery, and underwater organisms. His paintings are influenced by religious renaissance painting and a mixture of street art.
In 2003 Granillo relocated to the thriving San Francisco Bay Area art community. Still mostly working on recycled mediums, Granillo dabbled into the wider pallette of artistic mediums such as printmaking, sculpture, photography, graphic design and murals. Chris Granillo’s work can be found displayed in numerous galleries throughout the US and on walls around the Bay Area.
