Gomez Bueno and Kassia Meador at Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow

Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow

EXHIBITION
ANNOUNCEMENT

Gomez Bueno, "CH#12," acrylic, spray paint and oil on canvas, 20 x 30".

Cloud Hunters:
New work from
Gomez Bueno & Kassia Meador

May 2 - May 26, 2013
Opening Reception:
Thursday, May 2, 6-9pm

Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow
210 North Coast Hwy.
Laguna Beach, CA 92651

Phone: 949.988.0603
Email: info@ar4t.com
Website: AR4T.com
Hours: Thursday - Sunday, noon - 6pm, and by appointment.

Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow is proud to present Cloud Hunters, new works by Gomez Bueno and Kassia Meador. The opening reception, Thursday May 2nd will coincide with Laguna Beach First Thursday's Art Walk. Cloud Hunters marks the second time Gomez Bueno will show work with Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow in Laguna Beach, and this time he invites fellow artist and friend, Kassia Meador to join him.

Kassia Meador is a painter that uses a camera instead of a brush. Gomez Bueno is a painter that reads books upside down from right to left.

Gomez Bueno: "The abstract concept of a 'Cloud Hunter' was an ideal point of departure for our project. It is a romantic and poetic concept, a person that hunts clouds...There was a time not that long ago when people looked to the sky when they needed answers. Instead of 0´s and 1`s running through optic fiber, the key to open the doors of knowledge was the interpretation of clouds pushed by the wind. A beautiful concept of people chasing dreams, hunting clouds... following always the enchanting visions of tomorrow."

Gomez and Kassia are free spirited inhabitants of the world, their paths crossing time and again in microscopic hinges of life. Gomez Bueno is a widely celebrated artist whose diverse and amazing collection of work over the past two decades has shown internationally in places such as Phuket, Bejing, the Palace of El Embarcadero in Santander, Spain, Galeria Moriarty, China, and Robert Berman, Santa Monica. Kassia Meador is one of the worlds most prominent longboard surfers. She is a nomad moving from country to country, from the water to photo shoots, fashion design to announcing and hosting events. Through her travels she makes beautiful relationships with people and places and her photos speak volumes of the movement, emotion and dreams of our current generation.

Although he has not released his love of the underground, graffiti and protest, Cloud Hunters is a departure to a different side of Gomez. He plays with new material in a series of smaller format paintings infused with "more oxygen... more light." Kassia Meador presents a set of photographs she created while layering varied places and times over each other by exposing different moments to one piece of film. The concepts of time travel, new realities, blurred realities, contrasting moments in the same moment and dreams stream from her mind to ours.

Both artists explore the ways in which figurative representation allows for the transmission of meaning. Using references as diverse as art history, still life, comic book imagery, commercial illustration and industrial design, they both achieve to dissolve the constrains of time, genre or similar cardinal forces. The substance of Cloud Hunters is a subtle subversion of our mass culture environment that communicates trough different channels to different audiences. Behind the wrapping paper surface we can find from humorous analysis of political situations to reinterpretations of popular forms of expression such as movies or publicity.

CLOUD HUNTERS runs May 02 - May 26, 2013 at ARTISTS REPUBLIC 4 TOMORROW, 210 North Coast Hwy. (between Broadway and Cliff), Laguna Beach, CA. Opening reception Thursday, May 2nd from 6 to 9pm is free and open to the public. Parking Meters free after 7pm. Works are for sale. Winter Gallery hours: Fri-Sat-Sun noon to 6pm. www.AR4T.com.

Gomez Bueno, "CH#11," acrylic,
spray paint and oil on canvas, 16 x 24".

Kassia Meador, “Endings,” double exposure
archival pigment print, 20 x 30".

Kassia Meador, “Blurred Out,” double exposure
archival pigment print, 20 x 30".

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

GOMEZ BUENO is a Dadaesque cipher who is everywhere, here, there, and nowhere at all. Bueno is the antidote to the preciousness of the aesthetic marketing combine. Bueno is a billboard in Times Square: GOMEZ BUENO WILL SAVE U. He is a bumper sticker on a Hollywood taxi cab: SEND GOMEZ BUENO YOUR MONEY. He is the faded and tattered poster on the rear wall of the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad: GOMEZ BUENO FOR PRESIDENT. - Craig R. Stecyk III.

Gomez Bueno's work encapsulates and overlaps genres. Linking fine art to commerce, his past pieces jumped from the state of spiritual counseling to fashion shows, surf & skateboards, classical art and portraiture. Iconoclastic, tongue in cheek, the ideas in his universe play with the conceptual and the quotidian. Gomez Bueno has exhibited in Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, England, Mexico, Japan and the U.S. Published works include Gomez Bueno Predicador and Gomez Bueno for President.

Mia Sevier wrote “Gomez Bueno is playful at heart. He appreciates irony, humour, and novelty and these themes run throughout his extensive body of work. While other artists often find and capitalize on one particular means of expression, Gomez Bueno values wit and innovation, seeking fresh expressions with each project. Paintings of perfectly round enormous black stereo speakers, colourful portraits of love-loran classified ad placers, prestigious gallery logos in the fonts of famous rock bands, a surf shop, stickers of large assemblages of faces on actual cars, and a stint as a priest promising redemption are just a few of Gomez Bueno’s productions. He delights in new creations and experimentation, mixing elements together to create novel and unexpected combinations of popular culture and art, mischievously producing good natured creations that tease and amuse. Crossing genres and boundaries, his work cannot be easily categorized or labelled. Conceptual, pop, commercial, fine, cartoon, surf, skate, street, and classical, it is clearly creative. To understand it, it is best to view it.”
http://www.gomezbueno.com

For KASSIA MEADOR, becoming a surf icon was just the start of a spectacular rise to international regard. Often called the Grace Kelly of longboarding, the professional surfer is emerging as a lavishly gifted phenom who has earned esteem for her ventures into the worlds of photography, fashion, music, and film. A Valley girl turned global cultural ambassador, Meador now serves as a muse to fashion editors and envelope-pushing fine artists while ceaselessly exploring fresh new ways to fulfill her own hyper-creative spirit.

After learning to surf at age 14 and going pro at 18, Meador quickly gained acclaim for her uncommonly graceful surf style (a dance-like elegance that prompted the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis to liken her to “Ginger Rogers on a surfboard”). While roaming the globe on her surfing excursions, the Roxy poster girl began taking photographs to capture the rugged beauty and scrappy glamour of the surf lifestyle — then showcasing her photography work in galleries around the world. Meador’s artistically ambitious endeavors next extended to UFO 2012 (a Los Angeles-based psychedelic crystal-bowl ensemble), Frequencies (a surf-film project co- helmed by director Bruce Muller, cinematographer Sonny Miller, and L.A. band E.S.P), and a host of collaborations with leading-edge labels (including a sleek yet punk-inspired signature line of wetsuits for Roxy, as well as boldly inventive collections for Swatch, Stance Socks, and Captain Fin Company).

With a line of home goods featuring her photography and design among her most recent undertakings, Meador continues to balance her breezy energy with boundless passion and visionary ambitions. “People tend to focus on Kassia as a surfer, but for me it’s about her vision,” notes Richard Phillips, who cast Meador as Lindsay Lohan’s stunt double in his art film First Point. “She’s a 21st century renaissance artist who brings a mastery to every thing she does, and whose contagious energy simply changes everything around her in a positive way.”
http://kassiameador.com