No Can Left Behind - New Works by CANLOVE at 941 Geary

941 Geary is pleased to present the new works CANLOVE, whose exhibition, No Can Left Behind, will open June 16, 2012 at 941 Geary. The opening will be free and open to the public, and the show will run until July 28, 2012. Canlove is an LA-based Graffiti Recycling Organization founded and managed by creative partners DJ Neff and Paul Ramirez. The non-profit kicked off over two years back, but the guiding inspiration had an earlier birth. Neff, a graffiti artist who started in the nineties describes the idea as part of a natural evolution of his interest in spray paint: "I wanted to understand the can better than anything - to make it do everything." "There are too many cans everywhere to not use them," says Ramirez, "Canlove is much bigger than a couple of people. We're going to need a lot of help to bring our bigger vision to life."

Canlove aspires to transform every discarded spray can into its own work of art. Volunteer and clean up efforts are led by Michael Mazzola, who also documents and assists the collaborative's process at their studio, Chalk LA. The team regularly collects cans from Venice Art Walls run by the non-profit In Creative Unity (I.C.U.) as well as other popular graffiti yards, alleys, train tracks, and ditches. Their goal is to create a global system that will make it much more convenient for artists and organizations to give new life to their used cans.

No Can Left Behind will be the first large scale installation of the artist collaborative. This show exemplifies the full process of graffiti itself, taking the tools that have enabled street art culture and allowing them to stand alone as new visual art. To do so, cans are popped, cut open, and turned into "textiles", which are then assembled into a variety of colorful forms.

For this show, MTN Colors graciously donated 1,500 white, unusable cans of spray paint to the cause. Canlove used this opportunity to collaborate with a number of leading artists by creating fifteen of their "can-vases", made from one hundred flattened cans, measuring a large-scale 70"X45". Artists who "canlove" include EINE, Risk, Hush, APEX, Neon, Chor Boogie, Niels Shoe Muelman, Kofie, Codak, Haste, Mearone, KrushTWS, and PeopleLA.

In the center of the gallery, a massive geometric tree will stand tall, bearing hanging flowers all around. Flowers, formed from the top of the spray can, will then be arranged within a complete floral shop display, allowing visitors to customize bouquets. Can-popped paintings, made from the quick release of gas and paint, will be a vibrant piece of the install, featuring the color brilliance that spray paint lends our cities.

Established in 2010 in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, 941 Geary is an innovative exhibition space housed in a 3,000 square foot converted warehouse. 941 Geary highlights the works of internationally recognized contemporary artists and provides them with a space in which to activate the projects, installations, and exhibitions that push the boundaries of their own creative practice. Building on the success of White Walls and Shooting Gallery, curator Justin Giarla dedicates this exhibition space as a gift to San Francisco, offering its programming to the local and global arts venue as a way to engage in a cross-cultural dialogue and present 941Geary as the flagship gallery of the Urban Contemporary genre.