I went to sleep last night with Lisa Solberg’s paintings as the last thing I saw on my laptop, and I think some of her works snuck into my dreams. It isn’t hard to imagine. Her subject matter ranges from cowboys and Indians to tigers (or tiger masks) to topless girls vomiting rainbows — and of course there is the Mexican wrestler party. Did I mention that some of the works require 3-D glasses? As if you didn’t need another reason to understand just how her fun and strange her works can be. She has a new collection going up at Kinsey/DesForges in L.A. Opening reception is this Saturday, October 11th at 6 p.m. The show runs through November, but if you can’t make it to Los Angeles, have a look at the paintings up on her website (you will have to provide your own 3-D glasses).

Just newly opened like a fresh cereal box at Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles is Vida e Morte spotlighting three deserving talents from Brazil you likely haven’t heard about yet — Alexandre Anjo, Andre Firmiano and Pankill — whose works were done in a variety of media. Anjo’s art focuses on fire, earth, air and water; Firmiano visually discusses the metropolitan growth of Sao Paulo and how it affects the social and economic order there, and Pankill (go girl!) tackles good versus evil. Get these three on your radar. The exhibit runs till Oct. 12.

We’re happy to share the news that Jeff Soto’s Storm Clouds book is out and if it does as well as his last one, Potato Stamp Dreams, you better get a move on it because it’ll also sell out. The 154-page illustrated tome shows us a more serious side to Soto, which is a step away from his classic robot creatures we’ve been long familiar with. It reflects an inside-out look at the prolific artist and how he feels about the world churning around him. Storm Clouds is also bulked up with commentary from Soto colleague David Choe.
In other Soto news, he’s preparing for his first solo show coming to SoCal in December. We’ll keep you posted.

A Los Angeles Chinese antique store turned art exhibition space will play host to an ink drawing and sculpture show that conjures up memories of MC Escher’s layered drawings (if Escher used color and submarine themes). Kiel Johnson’s solo show The Awesomist Tomorrow opens on Satuday, September 6, and will remain in POVevolving’s Chung King Road space throughout September. The artist, who has collaborated on collections for designer Todd Oldham, has shown his wood and painted paper creations at myriad contemporary museums in L.A. and New York. Angelinos are in for some imaginative eye candy in Johnson’s cardboard radios and 3D survival vest. The show’s location is similarly multifaceted: when it’s not showing up-and-coming artists’ work, POVevolving also serves as a figure drawing class space and studio for yoga studio and archival printing. But of course.

It seems like Steven Harrington is always up to something. He’s like our own personal Ryan Adams. The guy is always busy. After pulling off his traveling art show for his Our Mountain book and spending the summer traversing the European continent, the National Forest Design principle is back in the States. That doesn’t mean he’ll be kicking up his feet any time soon. Harrington is set to release Our Mountain domestically, and what book release would be complete without a book release party? Answer: No book release. So in order to celebrate more stellar output, Harrington along with Sixpack France will be presenting their own little shindig at the Subliminal Projects Gallery on L.A.’s Sunset Blvd on Thursday September 4th from 6 to 10 p.m. Steven and book designer John Harrington will be signing copies of their new book. So if you’re in the mood for a good time gathering and getting a sneak peek at some fine work, we recommend being there.

Our old friend MWM (Matt W. Moore) got a nice push last week for his soulful geometrics when L.A.’s REVOLVE Clothing featured 16 new pieces from his Vectorfunk series at their flagship store. REVOLVE boasts a synchronized online and physical store, allowing shoppers to request clothes online which become available in the store the next day. We didn’t get a chance to head out there, but you can check out photos of the event on MWM’s blog and REVOLVE’s online store.

California-based artist Amandalynn paints canvases, motorcycles, and murals, but her current exhibition, “move A head” at West Hollywood’s Carmichael Gallery has put the street artist into a uniquely naturalistic context. Last Saturday, Amandalynn’s nymph-like ladies — which can frequently be spotted around town as part of murals by boys like Saber and Revok — were paired with the floral art of L.A.’s Renee Fontana, creating an organic/manufactured environment that mashed bright paint with leafy bursts of shrubbery (man I love that word). We didn’t make it to the opening, but pictures we’ve spotted since are making us turn wistful gazes towards the West coast. So if you call that area home, get thee to La Brea Avenue.

If this were a celebrity gossip magazine, I would say this and call it a wrap: Mel Kadel lives with her boyfriend in an old Mormon stagecoach. Unfortunately, the just slightly higher journalistic standards of this site force me to fill in some blanks. (Or just skip the next paragraph and head right for the interview.)

For more inquiring minds, these are the details: The stagecoach really only represents part of the house (the kitchen), and the boyfriend is more commonly known as Travis Millard (also known as the man behind Fudge Factory Comics). Mel herself is quite literally known as Mel, but is also known as an incredible artist with a style all her own. If you had to place her in a category, she would land in the genre of art that is cooed over by Fecal Face (and their leagues of in-tune followers), but as the days go by, her breezy drawings have caught the eye of even wider audiences. You probably like to place yourself within the “in-tune” category, and if so — voila — a new interview with one of your all time favorite artists. If not, read up.
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If you were ever wondering what gifted individual produced the beats behind those black-screen, white-text bumps on Adult Swim the answer is: a lot of people. Every music geek favorite from Madlib to Squarepusher has taken a turn, but there’s one cat you may have never heard of. Flying Lotus is an L.A.-based producer that has a way with ambient sound and atmosphere, piecing together one pretty mess at a time. Adhering to laptop sequencing, FlyLo keeps the beatstyles messy yet organized. To oversimplify, think of Jay Dee drums and Scott Herren (Prefuse 73, Savath & Savalas, etc) melodics, with the funk squeezed to the surface. His new LP, Los Angeles, is fresh out on Warp Records and will inevitably lead you to his Plug Research release, 1983, as well as other EPs since he signed to Warp. The three-part L.A. EP series will be released over the summer.

The story of a rejected artist finally making it big time is as familiar as the tales our grandparents like to tell us: “I walked 17 miles, barefoot, through three feet of snow; I dog-walked in New York through rejection letter after rejection letter …” The similarities are noticeable, and the struggles equally ruthless. And while there’s a good chance that your aging grandpa has taken to spicing up his retirement with total B.S., the stories of struggling artists are mostly true, and there are only a few that come out of the fight still holding a paintbrush.

Casey O’Connell is one artist who has prospered, and even though she is finally content in her position as one of the West Coast’s most fawned over new artists, she’s too fresh off the track to have forgotten how she got there. Several cities, plenty of dog walks, and even more broken hearts paved the way for this young painter. But, we couldn’t be happier that she’s arrived.

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If you’re in the market for haute headgear, whether it be a fine fedora or a dapper derby, look no further than Los Angeles-based ELM Company. Their new spring/summer collection runs the gamut from retro to modern with a classic line of Copelands or a few slick fitted caps that they don’t sell at Lids.

If you took a listen to Jessie Baylin’s new record Firesight without glancing at the album cover, you’d probably guess she was older than her 24 years. Based in Los Angeles by way of New Jersey, Baylin has a voice that is comforting, but not defenseless. There is a noticeable fight in the folk/jazz singer’s tone. Working with an all-star cast of producers and songwriters, and featuring guest appearances by Hotel Cafe alumni Cary Brothers and Brett Dennen, Firesight is easy listening at its finest. Baylin has been featured on the forth-annual Hotel Cafe Tour, sharing the bill with other singer/songwriters such as Ingrid Michelson, Greg Laswell, and the aforementioned Brothers. Her album drops June 24th. You can listen to a stream of her single “See How I Run” here.

If you need any reason to drop the mid work week blues and are in Los Angeles, change up the go-home-and-watch-whatever’s-on-WB routine by heading out on Wednesday night to check out French street artist and moviemaker Mr. Brainwash’s premiere Life Is Beautiful show at the old CBS studios on Sunset Boulevard, which will open its doors under the support of Swindle Magazine. The story of Mr. Brainwash goes that he was filming a doc about street artists in California but ended up exchanging the camera for spray paint, coming into full effect with a style that purposely regurgitates iconography into irreverent images. While the promise of a signed, hand-done print for the first 200 attendees is a great incentive, equally so is an installation made from 100,000 shoes and the presence of painter Edward Hopper’s super-famous Nighthawks in life-size form. Sounds like a good reason to not crash out in front of the boob tube.

L.A.-based singer/songwriter Alu is set to drop her sophomore album, “Lobotomy Sessions” August 5. I’ve always said that music nowadays is difficult to pigeonhole, and often it’s an amalgamation of multiple genres. Alu’s music is dark yet whimsical at times. The intros always give you about half a minute to settle in as they invoke memories of everything from Persian music to the circus. With track titles such as “Casket Salesman” and “Martian Rendezvous,” you are not sure what to expect. I’ve been critical of artists’ voices lately and while there were a few instances where I found her’s to be unpleasant, it is mostly very comforting and mature for her age. I have not heard her work previously but I am glad I know about her now. If you are a fan of Bjork, Portishead, Tori Amos, Massive Attack, or Tom Waits, you may want to check her out when the album is released. In the meantime, here is a free downloadable track of the aforementioned “Martian Rendezvous”.

No one expects a hip-hop producer to be a guy named Alfred Darlington, but that’s exactly what long-haired, tuxedo and top hat wearing hipster Daedelus is. Named for the mythological Greek artisan said to have invented images, the L.A.-based beatsmith has been known to dish out refreshingly weird compositions utilizing classic breaks, mismatched melodic samples, and heavily processed analog sounds and effects. A further departure from the forefront of modern abstract beat work, the first single from his tenth major (and cleverly titled) album Love To Make Music To can be heard at Daedelusmusic.com. The record is due out June 8th.