Tokyo-based painter RIEKO SAKURAI draws obvious inspiration from the likes of Margaret Keane, traditional Japanese Nihonga painting, and the ubiquitous Manga of her native Japan. The resulting oil paintings are an ominous hybrid of unsettling imagery that portrays the dark undercurrent of Japan’s sugary Pop Culture and offers a noir meditation on the omnipresent cult of “kawaii” (super-cute) imagery that so deeply pervades the island nation’s youth culture. On display now at Tokyo’s GALLERY UNSEAL, the new series shown here constitutes one of the best shows of the city’s fall gallery season. HAVE A LOOK:
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BEIJING///SUPERTOUCH AT THE OLYMPICS…

With all the mainstream news outlets presenting the “official” view of the 29th OLYMPIC GAMES in Beijing (including computer-generated fireworks and lip-synching 6-year-old body doubles), Supertouch brings you a street level look at the real haps around town from the back alleys to the 798 Arts District, you won’t see anywhere else…
NYC///ART CRIMES///ESPO UNVEILS “WATERBOARD THRILL RIDE” ON CONEY ISLAND…
As we previously reported, New York artist STEVE POWERS (aka: ESPO) has been working on a torture-themed art project for a while now and in conjunction with CREATIVE TIME as part of its national public art initiative “Democracy in America: The National Campaign,” he’s just opened the Guantanamo Bay-themed “Waterboard Thrill Ride” on Coney Island in the shadow of the legendary Cyclone roller coaster and Nathan’s hot dog stand in an empty storefront on West 12th Street. When a dollar is fed into a machine standing outside Powers’ mock jail cell installation featuring paintings by the artist inside and out, viewers can climb a short flight of steps to peer through cell bars and view an animatronic torture scene of a hooded jailer pouring water down the throat of an orange jumpsuit wearing Gitmo detainee…
NYC///FILM///INSIDE THE “BEAUTIFUL LOSERS” MOVIE…
Bringing the low-fi art world of BEAUTIFUL LOSERS to the big screen with a full-length documentary on the movement is director and Losers mastermind AARON ROSE, who will debut the film in NYC this Friday, August 8th (aka: 08.08.08) at the IFC CENTER. Presented by NIKE SPORTSWEAR, the film chronicles the lives and creative process of artists including Shepard Fairey, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, Stephen Powers, Geoff McFetridge, Thomas Campbell and Ed Templeton, among others, whose DIY attitudes informed the aesthetics and ethos of their generation….
BOOKSMART///INSIDE PETER BESTE’S “TRUE NORWEIGAN BLACK METAL”…
For those scratching their heads at the sight of the following images, in the last two decades a bizarre and violent musical subculture called Black Metal has emerged in Norway. It has its roots in a heady blend of splatter movies, heavy metal music, Satanism, Pagan mythology and adolescent angst. In the early-mid 1990’s, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards…
NYC///SOUND & VISION///MUST-SEE SHOW: DAVID BYRNE’S “PLAYING THE BUILDING” INSTALLATION…
Talking Heads founder DAVID BYRNE has had one of the most varied and original careers in rock, constantly vacillating between the worlds of music and visual art with rare grace. Throwing yet another curveball through the rarified air of NYC’s art world, Byrne presents music as art in “Playing the Building,” his new CREATIVE TIME-sponsored 9,000-square-foot, interactive, site-specific installation that transforms the interior of the landmark Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan into a massive sound sculpture that all visitors are invited to sit and “play”…















