One of the views from Poketo HQ… always inspiring to see snow capped mountains to the east and skyscrapers to the west.

Super stoked to get a little care package in the mail from this artist. He’s part of an upcoming series we’ll be launching next month… a series like no other we have released before. Guess who it is and we’ll send you a pre-release before it comes out! You can comment and guess here or on our facebook, we’ll pick someone lucky today…. it could be you, do it!

Commissioned by Oakland Museum of California, an awesome video with a glimpse of Barry’s studio and a time lapse of the installation at the museum. It’s great to see his studio, all the order/disorder and to see the process and head scratching involved in putting one of his large installations together.

If you are in LA, you’ve probably seen the many street banners of Barry McGee’s work advertising an exhibition at The Hammer. Currently on view is Outside The Box, an exhibtion with master print maker, Jacob Samuel. One might wonder, why is Barry McGee’s work on the banners? From the Hammer website,

Working primarily in series in intaglio mediums such as etching, drypoint, and aquatint, Samuel has invited artists to create prints in his Santa Monica studio but has also traveled internationally to collaborate with artists in their own studios. The number of prints included in each portfolio range from 6 to 36, with more than 550 individual prints included in the 43 portfolios.

Barry McGee is one of the artists that Samuel has collaborated with in a series of new prints, there is a video where you can see the process and collaboration between Samuel and many of the artists.

For those that were there (seriously, what seemed like a thousand of you), that staked out their spot starting at 2pm sound check, for those that supported the band and bought tons of art-wallets-prints-music, for those that were singing out loud, for those that that held their camera phones up the entire show, for those that got their shoes signed, for those that were blown away by the art of “Los Angeles, I’m Yours”, for those that climbed on top of the roof to see the show, for those that were so cool and waited patiently for Portugal to rock your world… It was an epic night, one that will go down in Portugal history, our history…. on behalf of Poketo and Kitsune Noir… Thank you for being rad and know that on May 1, 2010, we shared a night that could only be relived in our memories, our hearts. Yes, it was that good.

These two were the first to arrive at 2pm. I made sure they knew the band wasn’t coming on until 8pm. They knew. The already toured the gallery, ate lunch, and now about to enjoy a special sound check and one on one with the band.

John Gourley and Austin Sellers hold their Portugal x Poketo wallets! Only 150 of the designs made!!

That is Martin of Poketo (middle). Martin started as an intern with Poketo and quickly became a permanent part of our team… he got “all access” to take the many incredible pictures you see here and on our flickr.

Super stoked to have this picture with frontman, John Gourley, Portugal artist Austin Sellers, me and Angie (Poketo). John and Austin collaborated on art for the show, two original one off pieces sold that night. Lucky for the collector that got these one and only.