In a recent exhibition with the Peres Projects in Los Angeles, artist Matt Greene presented new works that addressed the feminist identity and the inherent possibilities of a male painter creating work centered on feminine qualities. The exhibition was titled “The Defenders of the Reality” and featured appropriated images of women in sexual poses, overlaid in a field of each other. While these images could quickly be pegged as a byproduct of an overactive male gaze, the viewer will find, upon closer investigation, that the artist is recreating a collective conscious that’s filtered through the eyes of 20th-century psychologists and filmmakers. This is Greene’s fifth exhibition with the Peres Projects, spanning a period of four years. This year, the artist will be featured in “Eden’s Edge,” curated by Gary Garrels at the Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and in a solo exhibition at the Deitch Projects in New York City. Greene has been featured in Art Forum, I-D and Flash Art. The artist has an upcoming exhibition with the Peres Projects in Athens, Greece, titled “Gravity’s Rainbow.”

Currently on view at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York City is “E Pluribus Venom,” a solo exhibition featuring new works by California-based artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey, who is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Art and Design, gained much notoriety even before attending school for his iconic renderings and street campaigns of former wrestler Andre the Giant. The title “E Pluribus Venom” translates as “out of many poisons” and is derived from “e pluribus unum,” or “out of many, one,” which was used as an early motto by the U.S. government on coins and dollar bills. Fairey’s works investigate symbols that are associated with the ideologies of the American Dream. The artist organizes his imagery through a graphic language, employing the ideas of propaganda, advertising and anarchy. Fairey was born in Charleston, S.C., and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Fairey has grown a design empire that reaches into the markets of clothing, skateboards, publications, corporate icons, stickers, stencils and posters. In 2005, the artist co-founded Swindle Magazine, and, in 2006, he released his latest book, “Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey,” and was a resident artist at the Honolulu Contemporary Art Museum. Fairey’s works have been exhibited internationally in numerous museums, including the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art in New Castle, UK, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.

New York City-based artist SWOON creates fantastical cityscapes that are delicately rendered through cut paper and often posted publicly on the streets of New York. In the above video, the artist presents her work as part of this year’s “Conversations with Contemporary Artists” series at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. SWOON introduced herself to New York by covering the city’s streets with her signature public works, including cut-outs, billboard alterations, poster campaigns and street parties. The artist creates life-sized installations, indoors and outdoors, that depict friends and families engaging in a variety of everyday activities that take place within the city. SWOON gained much notoriety from her outdoor works, especially her street peepholes that, once discovered, allow viewers a glimpse into a secret world. The artist has been traveling for several years, exhibiting works across the United States and Europe. SWOON has collaborated with such groups as the Barnstormers, Glowlab and Change Agent. She has exhibited in the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center‘s “Greater New York” show in 2005 and has exhibited a massive walk-through installation with the Deitch Projects in New York City.

Artist, illustrator and designer John Malloy was born in rural Pennsylvania and began drawing cartoons, rock stars and other related material at a very young age. The artist’s interest eventually developed into graphic novels, comics and the contemporary arts. Malloy continues the illustrative tradition of rendering the narrative through figuration and text. The artist currently lives and works in Baltimore. This month, Malloy will be exhibiting at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) in New York City. Malloy’s illustrations and designs have appeared in several national publications, such as Dazed & Confused and BPM.

The collaborative works of artist Ryan Trecartin are approached much in the same way that a director approaches filmmaking. Using a cast of the artist’s friends, Trecartin is able to experiment by allowing fellow artists the opportunity to carry out loose plots by participating in the creative process and by contributing their own works of art. Trecartin is currently living in L.A. as a displaced citizen of New Orleans, post hurricane Katrina. The artist has expressed his displacement through a variety of works including “World Wall,” a form of disaster therapy that involves ideas of dislocation and loss as well as festivity and rebirth. The artist often explores the ideas of sets and narrative by approaching his work through stories and dialogue. When speaking of his works, Trecartin has said: “We consume and consume and puke, more than fetishise the objects and information we use. … We don’t act inside or outside of consumer culture, entertainment, or art culture, we consume and translate, we’re a by-product of it.” Last year, the artist exhibited “I smell pregnant” at the QED in Los Angeles and was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial “Day for Night.” Other notable group exhibitions include “Sympathetic Magic, and Yo a romantic comedy” at Planaria, New York, and works with the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Spanish artist Gonzalo Puch is a native of Sevilla and currently lives and works in Madrid, Spain. The auto-photography, video and performance of the artist are rooted in academics such as math, science, music, biology, physics and environmental studies. Puch demands the environment to be valued in order to ensure the survival of art as a whole. The artist stages and develops a series of videos and photographs related to survival and the human life cycle. In what would seem an exaggerated way to approach photography and artmaking, Puch’s work comes in direct conflict with the landscape and with nature itself. Through this process, the artist is able to express the idea that man’s destruction of nature will lead to or cause the death of art, showing that art can’t exist without nature. The artist currently teaches at the University in Cuenca and is represented by Julie Saul Gallery in New York City. Puch has been reviewed in The New York Times and has more videos posted on youtube.com.

The large-scale photographs of Brian Ulrich embody a distanced awareness to usually familiar environments. Encouraged by the response to the Bush Administration’s call to citizens to strengthen the economy through shopping in 2001, Ulrich created the ongoing “Copia” series that offers an acute look at life in commercial settings. “Copia” not only explores the everyday activities of shopping, but also the economic, cultural, social and political implications of commercialism and the roles played in self-destruction and over-consumption, as well as those played by marketing and advertising. His imagery is made of personal moments in public spaces that are essentially enclosed virtual worlds, such as big-box retailers and thrift stores. The artist received a photography degree from the University of Akron and a photography Master’s from Columbia College in Chicago. He teaches photography, Web design and visual literacy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College. Ulrich is also a frequent contributor to Adbusters Magazine. The artist is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco and Julie Saul Gallery in New York.