Ishmael inspired art and graffiti

EVENT DETAIL

Familiar Strangers 10/22/2010 Time: 6pm-10pm (Friday) Location: 103 Spring St, Charleston SC Email: info@eyelevelart.com web:www.eyelevelart.com "Familiar Strangers" is more than a group art show. It is a celebration of friendship between artists Bigfoot, El Kamino, Ishmael, Chip 7, and Patrick Griffin. Over their nationally acclaimed careers as graffiti artists, the participants of this exhibition have crossed paths repeatedly through their shared experiences in various youth cultures. The artists will converge from across the country in Charleston for the exhibition, which will include paintings, drawings, silkscreen prints and photographs. Chip 7 Is a mixed media artist, creating work that draws from his father's Thai heritage, and his love of comic books and animation. His work appears as cartoonish abstract patterns, but upon closer inspection reveals miniature worlds of neon skulls, ghouls, ghosts, and floating eyeballs. Patrick Griffin Is a Texas born photographer who currently lives and works in New York. He has exhibited in Rome, Paris, New York, San Francisco and his work captures the scenes he has encountered on his worldly travels. His down to earth nature is evident in his simplistic and honest depiction of the world around him. Bigfoot Came to fame in San Francisco with his iconic street imagery developed from the mythical creature of the same name, which he portrays in a variety of eco friendly adventures. With an impressive list of commercial clients including Hurley and Northface, Bigfoot has taken his graffiti character from the streets and launched a prolific international commercial art career. Ishmael Spanish born local legend presently lives and works in Charleston, South Carolina as a mixed media artist and painter. His subversive imagery, based in Daniel Quinn's book Ishmael, focuses on spreading the message that the book encompasses. El Kamino Is an American painter whose work depicts the interaction of the wildlife he encounters in his home state of Virginia. Birds and snakes, life and death, and nature versus technology are themes he explores with heavy brushstrokes and a hyper-colored palette.