Canadian artist Kristi Malakoff's paper sculptures and installations inhabit the space they are in... in fact you could say they swarm the environment entirely. These sculptures are made from a number materials such as foreign currency, stamps, thousands of color copies of scientific bee or butterfly illustrations, ply wood, photographs of flowers and of course paper. Malakoff is interested in, among many other things, swarm theory - self-regulating communities, decentralized control. Heady stuff though the concepts are so beautifully articulated with her cut paper creations the work speaks for itself. We did a short interview with Kristi here... http://www.kristimalakoff.com/

Photos from Saturday evening at The Shooting Gallery to another packed house, where the 6 person Dutch collaborative Antistrot was on display. Next door White Walls hosted the group show "Never A Dull Moment" curated by and featuring the talent of 16 artists curated by iO Wright. And if you get the lame double entendre in the title of this post there's a chance you're too old to be reading this. More...

I've always been moved by Brendan Monroe's amoebic paintings and they've always had more soul in them then you'd expect. Shapes swirl around and separate like blood platelettes, waves of organisms evolve before you as anthropamorphic trees sprout. But, have you ever seen Monroe's sculpture installations? I can't get enough of them.

The ambiguous nature of Kate Eric's collaborative creations makes it all the more intriguing. What it is might be a creature but at what stage of development it's in would then be the question. Microscopic or aerial view? Spore, chicken, plant, marshmallow? The duo (Kate Tedman and Eric Siemens), mostly based in San Francisco, though their time is also split between Italy, began collaborating in 2000. Their show Bug War Over Two Blue Mountain will open at San Francisco's Frey Norris Gallery in March 2010.

Talk about team work. Antistrot is a group of six Dutch artists who came together during their years in art school through a mutual dislike of the conventions and restrictions around the making of art making as well as their professor, Strot, hence the name. Solid Cold an exhibit of their collaborative efforts which they are known for, will be on view at San Francisco's The Shooting Gallery, opening February 6th.

Sculptor Mike Leavitt has sculpted many Hi-Fructose featured artists like Amy Sol, Audrey Kawasaki, Luke Chueh, Chet Zar, and many more. This time, he's created an amazing and huge articulated Robert Crumb, and we can't wait to see what the sculpted hidden lady inside Crumb's head looks like (really!). See it in person at the Fantagraphics Book Store and Gallery. February 13th.

Artist Daniel Danger and band mate Justin Myer, recently collaborated to design their own tour poster for their musical ensemble A City Safe From Sea.

Loving Camilla D'Errico print "Neo New York" as her January print of the month. Also taken with this collaboration she did a few months back with designer/artist Jared Nickerson. Lots more fun work by Jared on his Flickr page...

This year, Hi-Fructose will be taking a look at a few of the influential art galleries that showcase and support the art which we cover in the pages of our magazine. Our first foray leads us to New York's Joshua Liner Gallery.

New York native Joshua Liner has carved a respectable niche in the gallery world, bringing innovative artists to the forefront of critical view for the last several years. Liner has showcased Hi-Fructose features artists like Robert Hardgrave, Kris Kuksi, Tiffany Bozic, Candice Tripp, Josh Keyes, Damon Soule and HF cover feature Greg Simkins. His keen eye for talent has garnered him the praise of many a collector, curator and artist alike. But who is this person of interest, and what goes on inside that constant thinking machine of his? Join us as Nathan Spoor takes a few minutes to sit down with one of the art scene’s highly regarded playmakers. Complete interview and images from exhibitions here.