California-based artist, Aaron Noble, creates seemingly abstract compositions from imagery associated with commercial comic books. While the artist’s work is deeply rooted in superhero-based images, he manages to extract any form of narrative, leaving the viewer to decode the mass of ambiguous information as a unique form. Noble has new work on view in his first solo show with Pavel Zoubok Gallery in NYC, entitled “Rainbow 6: Warsong.” The exhibition, which opens this weekend, offers several newly constructed works that explore the various bosses and enemies that relate to the world of Manga Japanese animation. In addition to painting and drawing, Noble has also developed an extensive list of public wall murals that allow his imagery to unfold on a mass scale. Noble attended the San Francisco Art Institute before co-founding the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) in San Francisco in 1991. The artist has completed projects with the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, White Columns in NYC, and PeerUK in London.

The large scale photographs of Martin Schoeller have developed as one of the most distinctive photographic styles today. The artist produces large format color portrait photographs that are often presented as 4 foot high, tightly cropped images that contain no direct outside point of reference. The artist began his inventory of celebrity images in 1993 when he came to the U.S to work with Annie Leibovitz. This later developed into the artist directly working for magazines such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Esquire. Many of the photos negate the personality of the subject in exchange for a more structural matter-of-fact depiction. Much information is lost when a person becomes loosely familiar with the image of a particular celebrity, Schoeller’s work shatters this illusion as the viewer is directly confronted with factual rather than associated imagery. Schoeller has a new exhibition and opening tonight at the Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills, CA, featuring a mix on new and older work. The artist has exhibited internationally with recent shows at Gallery Wouter van Leeuwen in Amsterdam (2006) and with the Brancolini Grimaldi Contemporary Art in Rome (2006). In 2005, teNeues Publishing Group released an artist book entitled “Close Up,” with works by Schoeller.

Artist Jim Lee infuses his works with a unique humor that is presented as an abstract solution existing cleverly between sculpture and painting. Lee pays close attention to the formal elements of texture, color and form. While many of his works seem to be deeply rooted in Modernism, Lee actually draws much of his inspiration from industrial and consumer goods, often using related materials in the work in unsuspecting ways. The artist regularly challenges his seemingly aesthetic approach through the use of art historical references, specific titles and recycled materials. Lee received his MFA from the University of Delaware and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. The artist has completed several shows national and internationals exhibitions with CRG Gallery and Freight

+ Volume both in NYC, Larry Becker Contemporary in Pennsylvania and Galerie Markus Winter in Berlin. Lee currently teaches at Hofstra University and Queens College in NYC.

Opening today in Beverley Hills is the first exhibition by artist Tom Sachs presented by the Gagosian Gallery. Sachs, a previous DailyServing feature, has gained international acclaim for his technically meticulous sculptures of manufactured objects and structures. The artist crafts his sculptures with very basic materials often associated with model making such as foam core, chip-board and hot-glue. Over the last decade, Sachs has been engaged with the technical wonder and romance associated with the American Apollo space program. Through experimenting with individual models of various sizes, the artist has begun to develop his own fully operating conceptual space program. By working with high-style and production clothing companies such as Nike and Prada to develop items such as lab coats and space boots, Sachs has expanded his artistic vocabulary and inventory immensely. Sachs originally studied at the Architectural Association in London (1987), and later received a B.A. from Bennington College in Vermont (1989). Since the artist has exhibited globally and has work in the collections of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Centre Georges Pomidou.

New paintings by French-born, New York-based artist Jules de Balincourt will be presented in an exhibition entitled “Unknowing Man’s Nature,” opening this weekend at the Zach Feuer Gallery (LFL) in New York City. This will be Balincourt’s third exhibition with the gallery, featuring paintings that are often rooted in American political and historical themes, illustrated with text-based design. Balincourt has exhibited internationally at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Royal Academy of Art in London and P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center in NYC. The artist received his BFA at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco (1998) and his MFA from Hunter College in NYC (2005). Balincourt has also appeared in several publications such his review in Art in America (2005) and “Accidental Tourism and the Art of Forgetting” in the Exberliner.

Opening this Thursday at the RHYS Gallery in Boston will be an exhibition of several new works by Los Angeles-based artist Amir H. Fallah. On view in the gallery will be one of Fallah’s signature fort/terrarium installations which will contain live cacti and music by Minor Threat. Fallah, who is also the founder and creative director of Beautiful/Decay Magazine, has exhibited internationally with the Third Line Gallery in Dubai and participated in the recent Rogue Wave exhibition at the L.A. Louver Gallery. DailyServing recently spoke with Fallah about his upcoming exhibition, new directions in his work and his pick of L.A. artists, read the full interview below.

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The visceral paintings and works on paper by artist Paul Mullins seem to pay homage to the rural contentment and simplicity of life as represented by images of dogs, fish and land working people. However, the sensitivity of the artist’s renderings elevates the commonplace imagery, offering a more substantial look at this subject matter. Mullins’ new work is a departure from his previous imagery of muscle cars, grand champion hogs and bulls, which spoke much more of masculinity within that type of lifestyle, yet the focus still remains on rural American life. Opening this Saturday at the Nathan Larranmendy Gallery in Ojai, California, will be “Some Other Day in the Garden,” new works by Mullins. The artist has exhibited widely in the U.S. with shows at Heather Marx Gallery in San Francisco, Ambrosino Gallery in Miami, Florida, and Aron Packer Gallery in Chicago, among many others. He has been featured in Flash Art and Flaunt Magazine as well as Artnet.com. Mullins received his MFA from Ohio State University, and his BFA from Marshall University in West Virginia, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at San Francisco State University.