New Year's Eve....Hotel des Street Art, San Francisco

If you are heading to San Francisco for New Year's Eve, then you can't find a better art-inspired hotel than Hotel des Arts in downtown near the Embarcadero which also acts as an art gallery.

Sam Flores, CA

You could be sleeping with David Choe, Buff Monster or London Police. My choice would be Sam Flores ;) But get you minds out of the gutter. I'm talking about the artists who designed the rooms of this boutique hotel!

Book'em Dano Check out the complete list of artists and rooms if you're looking to stay at Hotel des Arts.

Hotel des Arts
447 Bush Street
San Francisco, California 94108
USA

Tel: 1.415.956.3232 or 1.800.956.4322
Fax: 1.415.956.0399
reservations@sfhoteldesarts.com


Find the best prices on Hotels.com

David Choe tribute to beaten Chinese kid

David Choe tribute to Chinese kid beaten by teens, 2012

On plain sight, this graffiti mural of a young man facing the wall looks innocent enough. At best, it could be a series of characters that might pop up across cities begging the question "what does it mean?"

But celebrated (graffiti) artist, David Choe, is highlighting something far more significant. The hidden, but common, act of bullying led by teens. Only this month, the case of the 68-year old grandma who was set upon by three teenage boys on a school bus was widely reported. (So much so that a vacation fund in her name raised $500,000 from outraged citizens.)

This Choe graffiti tribute is for another victim who may not get such a public outpouring. A Chinese foreign student teen from the Chicago suburb of Bridgport who was beaten by a gang of teens and then robbed of his wallet and shoes - which were used to beat him. Luckily, he escaped by running through the snow, nearly barefoot. See Choe's mural featuring the kid's barefeet!

"My tribute to all the f.o.b.ly [fresh off the boat] dressed oriental kids who never take off their heavy backpacks even when they're getting their faces kicked in." David Choe

And now back to the studio  This CBS2 News report below shows some of the cowardly acts.



Here's some propoganda for you: CBS2 News reported, "...police say it was not a racially motivated crime, but in retaliation for a fight a few months back..." Oh really?!

This is the three-minute video that inspired Choe to paint his tribute. It's disturbing. And this is the latest report on the arrest and charging of seven teens, including a girl?!

David Choe exhibition in Beverly Hills 90210

I finally saw this David Choe solo exhibition in Beverly Hills last weekend that I blogged about a few days ago.

Check out the inflatable wounded whale in the middle of the "gallery," aka Anthropologie. I wonder if Choe is a Greenpeace and WWF supporter and is against the recent lifting of the 25-year whale hunting ban? Not sure, but that would be one of the few clearly political statements in this body of work.

David Choe has "Dirty Hands"

To overlap with Choe's solo art show, "Nothing to Declare" (23 April-23 May,) in Beverly Hills, hosted by Lazarides, an indy film about Choe's vandalism and other exploits is released in Los Angeles.

"Dirty Hands" opens in L.A. today for one week only. The trailer shows us some pretty mindless vandalism which is the ugly side of graffiti depending on your point of view, but there's no denying Choe's talent when you look at his studio and gallery painting.

Get your tickets at Laemmle Sunset 5 cinema and decide if you love or hate his art. There isn't any middle ground.

"David Choe, a young artist with a large appetite for vandalism and crime, eventually gets caught and pays for it in solitary confinement. Upon his release he reenters the world with a new faith full of overzealous hopes to find redemption by resisting his demons and devoting himself to a higher cause. When he fails at religious devotion, he rediscovers instead his newfound success – an upgraded grander version of his former lifestyle that keeps his man-boy adventure alive."