Rico Deniro’s month long ‘Native Expatriots’ show at FIFTY24SF Gallery will be opening tomorrow (Saturday) at noon.  For the show, Rico has presented people that live outside of technologically based civilizations in the rural villages of Mexico with images of first-world pop culture icons and employed them with one task: to interpret those icons in a traditional Mexican wooden mask.  The craftsmen of these masks have no reference point to these images, no sense of importance tied to the celebrities that they were given, no inundation of cultural significance by media sources – and instead translate the images into form at a completely superficial and innocent level.

The resulting masks show these idols at a level which we rarely see them: exposed.  Not in the way that the news media ‘exposes’ celebrities, because in that case there’s a symbiotic dependency – but in the way that these idols are exposed for their lack of substance other than the media and marketing that convinces us of their substance.

The masks created in Mexico will be on display at FIFTY24SF Gallery at 218 Fillmore Street, San Francisco from January 6th, 2011 – January 26th, 2011.

(Photo taken by Estevan Oriol)

New York based artist, Swoon, has teamed with us at Upper Playground, to release the limited edition Walki print - 100% of the proceeds from the print will go towards support of The Konbit Shelter Project.

The Konbit Shelter Project was created with the idea that a group of artists, engineers, architects and builders could pool their individual knowledge, resources and time to make a lasting difference in post-earthquake Haiti. Konbit Shelter is a rebuilding initiative, which uses dome-style structures and the super-adobe technique of earth bag architecture to create sustainable, inexpensive and dependable housing for the people of Haiti.  While the structures are extremely resistant to natural disasters, they also have the major benefit of being comprised of 90% earth and requiring no specialized scaffolding and understructure to build – making it a viable option for the people of Haiti to continue building on their own once they learn the method.

At the center of this project has been NYC-based Swoon, whose intricate wheatpastes and paper-cutouts have been seen on the walls of countless cities and  galleries. While humanitarian architecture and street-based art that Swoon is known for appear to be vastly different mediums, the concepts behind them remain the same to her: “To bring things of beauty to people where they are, where they need it. To turn up where you are not expected to be, and to make everything out of love.”

During the summer of 2010, the team behind The Konbit Shelter Project traveled to the village of Bigones, Haiti with the goal of educating and employing the local residents while constructing a community center using this technique. Now, the team will be returning again on December 21st to begin construction on single family homes, and the sale of Swoon’s Walki print will immediately go towards funding the construction of these homes.

The efforts of the individuals involved in The Konbit Shelter Project are an amazing example of people doing everything in their power to give back. While we who make up the general public don’t always have the time and resources to do incredible things like this on our own, it’s important that we support those who take it upon themselves to do what we can not – which is the idea behind the sale of Swoon’s Walki print.

The Walki print itself is an immediately touching portrait by Swoon of a boy named Walki who lives in the village of Bigones and spent time with the Konbit Shelter team at the community center building site this last summer.  The print is made of a three-layer screenprint on handmade Indian jute paper measuring 13″ x 21″ and is limited at an edition of 300 signed and numbered prints – all proceeds from the sale will go towards support of the Konbit Shelter Project.

The print will only be on sale for a limited time until January 1st and is priced affordably at $125 so that as many people as possible can be involved with this unique project.  The print is available exclusively online at the Upper Playground Web Store.

Friday December 10th at 7pm marks the opening of the Bruce Bacca Pop-Up Church at 248 Fillmore St., San Francisco.

Like the earth itself, it took 7 days to construct this church and it’s vague system of beliefs based on the 1988 film Die Hard, it’s mythical leading man Bruce Willis, and an exquisitely carved wooden Chewbacca Mask.

Churchgoers will want to bring their cameras to capture the moment they walk the carpeted broken glass gauntlet, wear the wooden mask, and become an indoctrinated member of this temporary system of worship.

Following the dry baptism, available for $10 is the short(er) film “Incident at Nakatomi” – a pious remastering of the classic film Die Hard (1988) in which the image and voice of Bruce Willis has been completely removed. The resulting film is introspective and thought provoking, yet still contains enough explosive excitement to keep even the most discerning action fan satisfied.

The church will be open from December 10th – 26th, and will be performing the civic duty of holding a soup kitchen on Christmas Day.

Correlating with the opening of Ericailcane’s “We Were Living in the Woods” show at FIFTY24SF Gallery, we’re releasing a line of low edition prints – five etchings printed by Ericailcane in his studio on found and Magnani “Havana” paper and two screen prints made by Squadro on 300 gsm Fabriano white paper – all in various sizes.

The etchings on found paper come from two different sources. Ericailcane speaks of finding the paper: “The first, is paper of an 1800’s french book ‘La Vie de la perfection’ that I found in a flea market. The book is from a monastery in France and is about teaching monks to reach the right way for illumination, the second set of prints is on paper that I found in an abandoned train factory in Italy. The paper is from 1952. The writings are about credits and debits of the train factory”

AMADEO(4” x 7”) is limited to edition of 16, LA CASA DELL’ALBERO (4” x 7”) is limited to edition of 25 and PAOLO MARCHI USURAIO (8” x 12”) is limited to an edition of 25.

The SERVAL (14” x 22”) print was first etched on plexiglass and printed on 200 gsm 100 % cotton Magnani “Havana” paper.  It comes in two versions: black and white in an edition of 23 and a hand watercolored version limited to an edition of 4. Magnani is a traditional Italian paper company which has been producing high-quality paper since 1404.

The screen prints, SCARPE VERDI and PICCIONI were made by Squadro, a renowned portuguese designer with showrooms in Sao Paolo and Belo Horizonte.  The two screen prints are finished with a flocking and printed on 300 gsm Fabriano white paper – both are limited to an edition of 150.

The “We Were Living in the Woods” exhibition will run at FIFTY24SF Gallery from November 11th – December 19th, for work from the show please visit: http://www.fifty24sf-com/present.  (PICTURES OF ALL THE PRINTS AFTER THE JUMP)

Upper Playground is releasing the ‘Compound Headwear Collection‘ comprised of three brand-new ‘baseball’ style caps and nine styles of beanies.  The three caps are innovative styles featuring multiple color options constructed with premium materials – making them the perfect addition to anyone’s unique wardrobe.  The ‘Dre Dog‘ adjustable cap features five panel construction with four different color-ways.  The ‘Rod‘ cap has adjustable sizing with two color options of premium corduroy exterior, and the Upper Playground ‘Classico’ logo intricately embroidered across the front.  While the ‘Donny‘ hat features the ‘old-school’ construction style of mesh exterior in the rear and four plaid color choices for the front panels and bill.

The nine beanie styles are carefully constructed with materials made for warmth and comfort – and each one is distinctively styled and fit for an exclusive look.  The ‘Emmit‘, ‘Mickey‘, ‘Gershon‘ and ‘Alabama‘ beanies all feature ski-style poms at the peak and are each available in two style specific color-ways.  The ‘Al‘, ‘Anita‘ and ‘Cindy‘ beanies are constructed of knit material which gives each piece a unique stretchability and texture.  The ‘Meth‘ and ‘Santiago‘ beanies include a styled and embroidered cuff and two color options for each beanie.

All the headwear in the collection is available exclusively in our online store. (Individual pics of the hats after the jump)

FIFTY24SF Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Italian street muralist and fine artist, Erica il Cane, entitled, We Were Living in the Woods. The exhibition will be the second solo show that Erica has held in the United States.

As a major contributor to an increasingly progressive and elaborate street art and mural movement occurring in Europe over the past 5 years, Erica il Cane (translating to “Eric the Dog”) gained international recognition for his anthropomorphic  building-sized animal murals throughout Italy and the continent. With fellow contemporaries Blu, Sam3, Escif, and San, Erica’s large-scale murals have been viewed as fine art done within the public’s view. We Were Living in the Woods will feature works on paper and on-site installations.

Born and studied in Bologna, Italy, Erica’s evolution to gallery work has seen depictions of animals in unique, human situations rendered in Victorian-like style illustrations, etchings, and short animated films. The art is often described as imagery from a dark fairy tale, in which animals are shown within the darkness of human nature, focusing on themes of alienation, satire, existentialism. Both gallery and mural work has also been hailed as influential works advocating vegetarianism and animal rights.

Erica il Cane has shown throughout Europe, including Lazarides Gallery, Banksy’s Santa’s Ghetto, the Fame Festival, and gallery shows in Milan, Rome, London, and Barcelona. He has also shown in Los Angeles and Chicago. 

 Erica Il Cane’s “We Were Living in the Woods” will run from November 11th – December 30th, with an opening reception on Thursday, November 11th, from 7:30PM – 10:00PM. (Pictures of some of the work below)

Yup, that’s what you think it is.  That’s Robin Williams wearing a superFishal Upper Playground t-shirt last night while firing up the crowd before the San Francisco Giant’s big playoff win over the Atlanta Braves (the tee’s called ‘Fog’).  Jeremy Fish, nice design. Robin, you’re a Bay Area legend and thanks for the support.  Tim Lincecum, we love you.

Check out Robin’s cheer leading in the video below.

Upper Playground is releasing a collection of four t-shirts designed by Alex Pardee.  Fresh off of opening a pop-up shop in San Francisco for his partner brand, Zerofriends, Alex has delivered four t-shirts – Hellraiser, Spider Ram, The Carpenters, and The Second Hugging -  exclusively to Upper Playground that all stay true to Alex’s twisted animation style.  Alongside the release of the tees, Upper Playground and Alex Pardee are offering an opportunity to snag some limited edition giclee prints – the first 15 purchases of each of the four t-shirts in the Upper Playground online store will receive a corresponding giclée print of the design starting on 10/7/10.  The giclée prints measure 5″ x 7″ and are printed with archival inks on velvet cotton rag paper – each print is extremely limited to a quantity of 15 and is hand-signed and numbered by Alex Pardee.  All four t-shirts are available exclusively at the Upper Playground web store and at Upper Playground retail locations. (Pictures of the tees and prints after the jump)

Giclee Print Availability:

Hellraiser – NOT AVAILABLE

Spider Ram – NOT AVAILABLE

The Carpenters – NOT AVAILABLE

The Second Hugging – NOT AVAILABLE

Upper Playground and Snoop Dogg are releasing a limited-edition micro collection of three t-shirts designed by Dustin Canalin (the creative director of UNDRCRWN).  “This is a natural collaboration for me,” explains Snoop. “Upper Playground and Dustin understand my style, so they took a little bit of that classic Snoop Dogg and made it pop.”

Injecting a fresh take on an old-school style, Dustin Canalin uses the innovativeness that he’s brought to the table when working on logos for athletes like Chauncey Billups, Jason Richardson, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan (to name a few) to design this new Snoop inspired collection.  The result? Three brand-new t-shirts titled ‘Chronics‘, ‘Hockey Snoops‘, and ‘You Don’t Love Me‘ inspired by Snoop’s “Gin & Juice” music video which are available in very limited quantity exclusively at Snoop Dogg’s “Snoopermarket” and all of our retail locations and online store.

To celebrate the release of the tees, Snoop Dogg wants to give piece back to his Twitter followers who recently helped him break the “two million followers” mark – so Upper Playground and Snoop are holding a special giveaway where one person will receive the whole t-shirt collection and a VIP trip for them and a friend to see Snoop perform live and meet him after the show.  To win, follow Snoop’s Twitter page and also be a fan of Upper Playground’s Facebook page – then post your twitter handle on our Facebook wall and make a post on Twitter that includes “#SNOOPUP” – the winner will be announced on Snoop’s Twitter page and Upper Playground’s Facebook page on October 8th, 2010. (Pics of the individual tees after the jump)

We’re releasing a very special limited edition hand-made box designed and crafted by Tiffany Bozic and master woodworker, Francisco Robles.  The idea and inspiration for the box came naturally when the lines and similarities between Tiffany’s ornate artistic style and Francisco’s intricate wood-working ability were taken into account – and the two artist’s crafts get taken to a distinguished level through this coupling.

Tiffany Bozic’s career has been built on an ability to take the natural world and present it in a gruesome yet beautiful way, which never feels disingenuous.  Because of her unique style and perspective her work has been shown at the Laguna Art Museum, the California Academy of Science and will be featured in an upcoming solo show at the Joshua Liner Gallery in New York City.  The piece silk-screened directly onto the Native Box features the organic elements which make her work so compelling, inspired by the beauty of two White-Eye birds that Tiffany recently witnessed playing in Papua New Guinea.

Francisco Robles’ ability to craft furniture and wood was seen in full force in 2008 when he crafted a line furniture with Upper Playground designed by David Choe, Jeremy Fish, Sam Flores and Tiffany Bozic.  With this background of coupling furniture with contemporary art, he has crafted the Native Box with the interior divided into four sections and the exterior given a five half-round bead detail as a play off of classic moulding.

The Native Box comes in a burgundy edition (limited to 32 pieces) and a gun metal edition (limited to 18 pieces) and are each hand signed and numbered.  The box is comprised of 100% US wood, has been silkscreened and made by hand in San Francisco, CA and is available exclusively at Upper Playground’s online store.