The paintings and drawings of artist Kelly McLane are rooted in images of nature. McLane lives and works in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and draws much of her inspiration from the landscape, people and animals of that area. Interrupting the imagery are references to the media culture via telephone and cable lines, internet search engines, and bizarre CNN news tales. The artist’s previous work depicted post-apocalyptic events, while her current work takes place in the present, investigating concepts of supremacy and social development through metaphors. McLane was born in 1968 and now lives and works in Los Angeles, Calif. Currently, the artist has an exhibition on view with CRG Gallery in New York. The artist is also represented by the Angles Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.

Ryoji Ikeda is one of Japan’s leading electronic artists/composers today, presenting concerts, installations and recordings, while integrating sound, acoustics and related imagery in venues around the world. The artist combines music, time and space as he explores mathematical relations to sound by manipulating its physical properties. Ikeda pushes the boundaries of both visual and sonic media by using new computer and digital technologies focusing on ultrasonics, frequencies and sine waves. This October, the artist will present his first performance in Ireland with the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which will be in association with Forma, Note Productions and Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival. Ikeda has presented works in the world’s leading festivals and venues including Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and the Tokyo International Forum. In 2001, the artist received the Ars Electronica Golden Nica prize in digital music.

“UNEASY ANGEL / IMAGINE LOS ANGELES, Artists from Los Angeles Addressing Intersections Between Reality and Fiction” is an exhibition opening tonight in at Monika Spruth Philomene Magers and Spruth Magers Projekte both in Munich, Germany. Artists such as Doug Aitken, John Baldessari and Barbara Kruger and shown along side the writers and filmmakers that are all living and working in L.A. The culture of L.A. as a city where the boundaries between reality and fiction are often blurred is explored in a variety of ways by each creator. As an artist in a city that is by hyperreal and to some degree post-historical, L.A has become a place of myth, where the entertainment and media industry can willingly shape and construct the city’s own reality. The exhibitions are curated by Los Angeles-based Johannes Fricke-Waldthausen, and will be on view into the start of November.

The work of Taylor McKimens is included in the new exhibition “Mail Order Monsters,” on view this month at Deitch Projects in New York City. McKimens creates an array of comics, zines, paintings, and site specific cut-out installations. The artist has stated being interested in “everyday things that are loaded somehow,” portraying the tragic and the humorous with equal strength. Many of the artist’s sculptures look as if they are three dimensional cartoons taken from another context and placed before the viewer.

McKimens is currently represented by Galerie Zurcher in Paris, Perugi Arte Contemporanea in Padova, Italy and Galleri Loyal in Stockholm, Sweden. The artist has appeared in Art Krush, Tokyo Art Beat, and idPure Magazine, Issue No.9.

Oakland-based artist Chris Duncan recently opened an exhibition with the Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco titled “The Beginning. The Middle. The End.” The artist has been interested in exploring concepts related to process, transformation, and reduction. Duncan is known for his work involving intricate string sculptures, and has now begun to literally explore the threads that tie nature, science, and the sprit into life. The artist equally centers the work on personal and political issues, including works like “World War 3D,” which is composed of a globe, a cube, and panel that is littered with dots that represent chaos and destruction. Duncan received his BFA for the California College of the Arts, and is the co-creator of the art zine Hot and Cold. The artist has exhibited “Kults, Werewolves and Sarcastic Hippies,” at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco as well as “The Continued Exploration of Pink and Brown,” at the Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York City. In 2006, Duncan received the Goldie Award for Visual Art.

GEISAI Artists at Giant Robot is an exhibition presented by Scion, Giant Robot, and Kaikai Kiki which features work by aspiring artists in Japan. The show which opens next week at GR2 was developed and organized by internationally renowned artist and curator Takashi Murakami and Eric Nakamura, publisher of Giant Robot Magazine. The two hand picked the artists to have their work presented in Los Angeles during this exhibition. GEISAI will feature the work of Yasushi Ebihara, Hisashi Kondo, Sashie Masakatsu and Rie Kawashima, Jaga Ichiro, Rieko Sakurai, Miki Taira and Erika Yamashiro through painting, sculpture and installation.

On Sept. 14 Belgian artist/designer Arne Quinze’s latest work “Cityscape” will open on the suburban streets of Brussels, Belgium. The enormous wooden sculpture is 131-feet long, 82-feet wide and 39-feet high and will stand for year in Brussels’ luxury district. Quinze, the artistic director of design company Quinze and Milan,says of his piece, “‘Cityscape’ resembles a frozen movement, speed caught in time.” The piece encourages interaction, people are able to walk through and experience the changes in light as the sun comes through the wood. The aritst built a similar structure last year at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. At the end of the festival the structure was set on fire. A self-taught artist, Quinze first found his creative outlet with graffitti as a homeless 15-year-old. Later this month Quinze has several pieces in Mutagenesis, a solo exhibition at the Abitare Il Tempo design exhibition in Verona, Italy. To listen to a discussion with the artist on WPS1 Art Radio click here.