This week San Francisco is hosting the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), and lucky for us locals, the Hotel des Arts is celebrating by opening their unique space to the “Into the Pixel” and “Video Game Art Show” exhibitions. Opening night is this Thursday, March 11 from 6pm – 10pm, and is free to all. The show will be up through April.

I found it surprisingly difficult to find out much about the event, as unfortunately the Hotel des Arts’ website hasn’t been updated recently. But according to Game Scenes:

In addition to the Into the Pixel exhibition on the main floor of the Hotel des Arts, all five floors of San Francisco’s ‘Art Hotel’ will be filled with artwork ‘from and inspired by video games’. … Gallery partners for this unique VIDEO GAME ART SHOW include Super7, Gallery 1988, Project One Gallery, and the START SOMA art gallery.

Joystiq also reports that the entire fourth floor will be dedicated to art from the making of EA’s “Dante’s Inferno”. The Game Scenes article also has some interesting history on the “Into the Pixel” shows, as well as some examples from last year. I’m loving this sneak peek of some art which will be shown at the Video Game Art Show, from 3 Fish Studios (my original source for the show). Eric shared the image above in his March newsletter. Keep reading for directions to the show, along with a view of one of Hotel des Arts’ rooms.

Thanks to Grain Edit (a great design and illustration blog), I discovered Hey Studio and their Calendar they produced in December, which featured a new character for every day of the month. The site is in Spanish, but if you can’t read it, the images are pretty easy to understand or Google Translate does a pretty good job. I love the graphic, black-outline aesthetic, and simplified geometric shapes that tie all the characters together. And I’m a sucker for redesigning classic pop culture icons (Darth Vader, Mary Poppins, Ghostbusters?! – so awesome!). I wonder how they decide on each day’s character (CJ Parker from Baywatch??).

Plus, they instantly made me think of the Android toys by Andrew Bell that were recently released – and sold out ridiculously quickly. Now if we could just get these two together for a second series…I would buy those figures in a minute!

Note: Android figures are being released to select stores, so check with your favorites and snatch some up while they’re still available!

This post marks the first contribution from our new team member ChelC! We hope to offer you more West Coast coverage with her addition to the site. With that said, we are quite grateful to have her voice on the site, and we hope you’ll give her a warm welcome. Yay!

Gallery 1988 SF just opened a new show two weeks ago, and after perusing the pieces they posted online, I’m really looking forward to checking them out in person. What stood out immediately though, was this print by Roland Tamayo, entitled “Battle for My Affection.” This is a piece that will appeal to those of us Atari and old-school arcade fans, or just those of us wishing to regain some of the innocence and joy of our childhood. I really like the style of the piece as well. The original being done on wood (as many of these pieces are), it already appealed to me. But what I really love is how Tamayo has thrown in all these Arcade classic icons almost unobtrusively. Die-hards will recognize Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Frogger, and Dig-Dug hiding in the alley, but the heart of the piece is the little boy and his dog sitting on the sidewalk in front of the arcade window. I love how the artist has let the wood texture show through in the entire piece, and limited his color palette to the red tint, white highlights, and the little bit of blue on the boy’s shirt. The prints are a limited run of 100 and available for $75 for an 11”x14” giclee print.

It’s official, my titles keep getting longer and longer– so from now on– I’ll refer to this series as: “MtVD Gift Guide.” In this series of gift recommendations, we focus on the moustache aficionado. I myself am a fan of moustaches, I can’t help but like that fuzz on a man’s face– it’s not the same on women though, unless its gender breaking photography. Anyway, keep reading to check out some of my hairy finds.

Scene: New Moon 2010 from IHCS on Vimeo.

Last week Friday, was the 2nd annual New Moon show at MyPlasticHeart. I’ve been waiting for this show for a while, especially when I began to overhear the names of some of the participating artists. Lou Pimentel, Andrew Bell, kaNO, Stella Im Hultberg, Yumiko Kayukawa, Leontine Greenberg, and many more of my favorite artists and people were in one single exhibit. And!!! I scored a sketch from Stella, this time for real– not the whole I’m so excited and I’m holding my sketchbook ready to ask you for your soul and in my excitement have forgotten to ask you for a sketch kind of way. hahaha. >___<

As you can tell from my run-on sentence, the night was a blast and I even took cupcakes to the opening. They’re too rich I’m told, so I will work on my recipe… in the meantime, hit the jump to check out my favorite pieces and some photos from the ultra-packed gallery.

Wow, Dragatomi is really working hard this year (not that they haven’t been already– but you get where I’m going). They just held their Art for Wishes opening, and have just announced their upcoming show with kawaii extraordinaire NReazon!

I’ve been aware of nreazon’s works for a while, I have a radar for cute, but in the last couple of weeks I’ve found myself continuous “window shopping” on her site. I like t-shirts with underwear on them. haha! I’m curious to see her body of work and can’t wait for sneak peeks in anticipation for the show.

I’m in the process of researching her, as I’ve got loads more questions about who she is and how her art came to be– which leads me to the following request: if you could ask her anything in regards to her as a person and artist, what would it be? While I learn more about her, I recommend you stop by her site and even watch some of her v-blogs. The Mr. and I were watching some the other night, and really enjoyed them.

Artist Series: kaNO from IHCS on Vimeo.

It’s been ages since we’ve been able to deliver an Artist Series, but thanks to kaNO for granting us some time– here we are. Our interview with kaNO was the first that happened on the move. We started out in Dumbo, Brooklyn– one of my favorite areas in NYC, and moved its way to kaNO’s home and studio. For more from kaNO, consider following his blogs: Kimanyen | Kano Kid and his Twitter.

For those unfamiliar with the Artist Series segment, the Mr. and myself like to crash a New York City artist’s home and studio to understand how they work, where they started and what the future holds. The point of these interviews is not for a quick view, but is instead intended to really highlight some of the work that these incredibly talented artists have produced and have therefore been designed to watch at a leisurely pace. Hope you enjoy.

Can I just hit the replay button and say it again: this weekend is mad with show openings! On Saturday, Dark Pop 2.0, at Last Rites Gallery will be opening. The 2.0 suggests that maybe they’ve curated this show in the past– something that I missed if they did. In any case– the theme of the show is DARK. According to the description, they asked artists to create dark peices. My instant reaction is that I may get a little freaked out. Some of the participating artists include Joshua Clay, Stella Im Hultberg and Tara McPherson.

I just wanted to share something that occured the night before. I know I haven’t posted about Audrey Kawasaki’s opening at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery– it was amazing!– but I did post the pictures up on my flickr. Anyway– if you checked out my flickr, you’ll notice that I not only met Audrey Kawasaki, but I finally had the pleasure of meeting Stella Im Hultberg. I got to hug her, share my love of her art and even compliment her kick-ass bicycle pin. In my excitment however, I forgot to ask her for a sketch. I could’ve sworn I did. I mean– I have a memory of asking her for it and handing her my moleskine and everything. WRONG. It wasn’t a memory, it was yet another dellusion. I, immediately got out of bed, searched for my sketch book and flipped through the pages awaiting to find my ever so lovely Stella sketch (because I know I’d love it), and what I found was a blank page behind Scott Campbell’s pyramid mummy sketch. WHAT! So, this leads me to the following… I hope to make it out to Last Rites, and I hope to run into Stella yet again (hopefully I won’t be a total fangirl), and this time I hope to score a sketch.

These weekend Thinkspace will be hosting their group show, A Cry For Help, a benefit show for the endangered species of the world. The show will feature many of my favorite artists including: Amy Sol, Apak, Dan May, Jason Limon, Leontine Greenberg, Travis Louie and Yoskay Yamamoto. Wow, that’s a lot of artist, and that’s not even a quarter of the participating artists in the show. What I appreciate most about the show is their following request:

We will also be accepting donations of old blankets to give to shelters so dogs don’t have to sleep on cold concrete floors
as well as old/new pet beds, towels, comforters, treats, toys, leashes, collars and carriers/crates
(please bring all you can weekend of Jan. 9th/10th).
http://operationblanketsoflove.org/

Look forward to a live painting session, and exclusive print releases. Please share photos if you attend the show.

This Saturday the great duo that is Dragatomi, will be showcasing their first art show of 2010, and they’re starting their year off with some great karma points. Their show, titled Art for Wishes, will host the artwork of kids! Not just any kids, but the kids of some of our favorite artists and customizers! Not only will this feature kid’s works, but the net proceeds will be donated to the Sacramento Make-A-Wish chapter.

Wow! These two, Joanne and Ray, are some of the most supportive and selfless people I’ve met. I can’t wait to see the works that these young artists create. The list includes: Alexa Dewitt (Grimsheep), Elliot and Aidan Olson (Motorbot), Arata and Akira Ketner (Smallandround) , Eliana and Vanessa Hernandez (Jesse Hernandez), Sophie “Mini Punch” Miller (UltraPunch), Elijah and Jonah Ross (Scribe), Isis and Izik Wheeler (Haseown), Isobel and Chloe (Drilone), and Kayla and Ryan Suavillo (Dragatomi).

If you’re in Sacramento this weekend, please stop by Dragatomi and take some pictures. Give Joanne and Ray my best too please, and let everyone know I wish I was there. <3