Mike Giant: Kundalini Show at The Erotic Museum

MIKE GIANT: KUNDALINI January 20, 2005 to March 2005 The Erotic Museum, HOLLYWOOD The Erotic Museum presents a solo exhibition of sex-spiritual art by Mike GIANT, one of the most sought after graffiti and tattoo artists in the contemporary art revolution. The Kundalini series integrates Buddhist philosophy with punk sub-culture as it appears on the skin of tantric and tattooed girls. Adapting religious iconography and yogic desire to his black and white linear style, GIANT has painted the sirens of a new urban mythology. From graffiti to graphics, tattooing to publishing, GIANT’s steady hand continuously displays his confident and fearless attitude. Born nearsighted and colorblind, Mike LeSage was born into a black-and-white world. The unique letterforms and characters for which he is now known grew out of the lifestyle he increasingly embraced as a young college student – forty ounces, skateboards, and the occasional gunshot fired across a dusty Albuquerque yard. Drawn to the thrill and exigency of graffiti’s illicit nature, LeSage began his painting career on the Albuquerque freeways, eventually hooking up with writers DOC from Los Angeles and AGREE from Brooklyn, who were integral players in the formation of his graffiti art style. Physically large and visually hard to ignore, it’s no surprise that Mike Le Sage has come to be known as GIANT. Having been a client from the time he was nineteen, GIANT attributes his experiences getting tattooed as the best lessons in making tattoos. Working first on his own skin at home, and eventually at world renowned tattoo shops in San Jose, San Francisco, New York and Oakland, GIANT was soon one of the most sought-after tattooists in the United States. The intricacies of shading and color within the skulls, snakes and roses that he has drawn on his clients’ skin, as well as the difficulty of working on a moving, bleeding canvas, has pushed his drawings to a new level of detail and precision. Like many other graffiti artists of his generation, the name he built for himself with spray paint has proven to hold its weight beyond the word on the street. GIANT’s work has appeared on Think Skateboards, Upper Playground, Rebel 8 and Tribal Gear apparel. He had his first solo show at WDWA gallery in Brooklyn in February 2002, packing the house with his Victorian-inspired pen-and-ink drawings. He has shown at MOCA DC alongside DALEK, Richard Colman and ESPO in early 2003 and at the Revoluciones Collective Art Space in Denver with Sam Flores and Andy Howell in August of 2002. GIANT currently runs Skullz Press, an independent publishing outlet for the trashy, foxy girls that guard his black books, the venomous snakes that creep across his tattoos, and an assortment of collaborative efforts with like-minded art peers such as DALEK, JOKER and PERSUE. Opening Night: January 20, 2005 from 7 to 11pm 6741 Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood, CA 90028 www.theeroticmuseum.com

he still remains down to earth