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OX-OP ARTS PRESENTS:
KII ARENS-YARD SALE
Artist Reception Saturday Apr. 9TH, 7:00 PM-10:00pm

Show runs Apr. 9th-Apr. 28th
(Postcards have a typo that show Friday Date, Show Opener is indeed on Sat. APR 9!)



Kii Arens is an artist whose style is meticulously fun. Making the old look brand new. Mulit-format, every changing and growing. His introduction into the art world is a series of large SPIN-ART pieces which were recently featured at the M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, The Outre in Melbourne and OX-OP in Minneapolis. His frist SPIN-ART piece entitled 'La-La Land' has become the album cover for Cheap Tricks' latest release entitled 'Special One'. Kii states, "This was an idea conjured up at a Spin-O-Paint booth at the Minnesota State Fair about three years ago. I have this never-ending tendency to tickle the memory banks of my childhood through my design. This body of work is a reflection of my playful design sense through shape balance and color juxtaposition"

Kii's latest art obsession is 3D, backlit pieces that involve motion and are worlds on to themselves. Imagine old moving waterfall beer signs taken to the next level. The main motivation behind these pieces are to simply blow peoples minds, including his own. "I get such a kick out of doing things that make people say "WOW!" When I finish a new piece I get a feeling inside that just feels right. At that point I know my piece of art is done. Move on to the next hair-brained concoction."

Here's a bit of background on Kii. He's a Pop-Artist with a bent towards Rock-N-Roll. Never formally trained, this St. Paul, Minnesota native grew up with a fascination for album covers, band logos, and font styles. He credits Saturday mornings in the '70's spent watching Sid and Marty Krofft as his main inspirations for color. His big break came when working in the main office of Woodstock '94 in upstate New York. After noting that all of the designs submitted for the event looked as though they were made in 1969, he created a design for the backstage passes that wasn't a tie-die and was immediately reassigned as their new graphic designer for the event. Upon his return home from "Mudsville", he received a phone call from Niceman, a Rock-N-Roll merchandising company who hired him to design tour shirts for their never-ending roster of artists. Working in an office at Twin-Tone Records, he created designs for such artists as: Cheap Trick, Sheryl Crow, R.E.M., Helmet, Liz Phair, Soundgarden, Seal, Van Halen (with Sammy... boo-hoo), Marliyn Manson, Everclear, and more. While at Twin-Tone, he was also asked to design album covers as a return favor for all of the free late night computer time. Since then, Kii has designed a ton of packages for various artists. He also has created a few orignal fonts. In 1999, Kii was once again hired by Woodstock to design the look for the 1999 event. Before agreeing on a fee for his work, they used a design of his in a full-page ad in U.S. Today without permission. Due to their mistake, Kii gained a chunk of change and, believe it or not, a spot on the main stage for the rock band Flipp. The Woodstock designs allowed him to move from his basement apartment a warehouse loft in Nordeast Minneapolis and now in his new art gallery in Hollywood called La-La Land. (lalalandgallery.com)

OX-OP is open to the public
Tuesday through Friday 4-8pm
Sat 1-5pm, or by appointment
New shows opening the first Saturday of every month.


Rob McBroom
wes@ox-op.com

Tiff Larkin
tiff@ox-op.com

612-259-0085

OX-OP
1111 Washington Ave S.
(Behind Grumpy’s Bar)
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Ph. 612-259-0085
www.ox-op.com

Art Dealer

Art Attack on the Suburbs-Grumpy’s Art Unveiling Party
Aesthetic Apparatus-"2nd Annual Kindling & Litter-Box-Liner Sale"
"Rome is Burning/The New School"
Aesthetic Apparatus-"The Official Aesthetic Apparatus Kindling & Litter-Box-Liner Sale"
Gary Baseman- "MOD Manifestations Of Desire"
Mark Mothersbaugh-"Postcard Diaries"
Gary Taxali-"Chumpy's Specials"
Nathan Jurevicius-"Tunnel Vision"
Shepard Fairey "Visual Disobedience"
Jaime Hayon: "Mon Cirque"
Derek Hess: "Descent from Grace"
Shag-"Push Your Luck"
Billy Childish-Paintings, Prints, Poetry & Performance
Kii Arens-"The Yard Sale"
Burlesque of North America: First Blood, Part III
"Triangulated Fire" paintings by Naoto Hattori, Ryan Kelly & Chris Ryniak
BuffMonster-"Dulces Locos"
Dalek- "The Return of the Space Monkey"
Yumiko Kayukawa & Oksana Badrak
Glenn Barr-"New Paintings & Prints"
KRK Ryden-"The Atomic Glob Show"
Camille Rose Garcia-"Works on Paper"
"Qeedrophonic"
Frank Kozik-"All Your Base Are Belong to Us"
Bwana Spoons & Martin Ontiveros "Like Sqeezing Juice from a Stone"
"Rated XX"
Aesthetic Apparatus
George Thompson-"Bachelor of Fine Arts"
Mark Mothersbaugh-"Beautiful Mutants"
Charles S. Anderson Design-"Awful Pretty: Original Art"
Jeff Soto-"Complete Domination"
Dave Burke-"New Paintings"
Tim Biskup-"The Phantom Thread"
Shag-"Tell No One: Paintings and Prints"
Niagara-"Paintings,Prints and General Artistic Mayhem
Shepard Fairey -"Prints and the Revolution"
Gary Baseman-"Open Wounds (and other paintings about vulnerability)"
Dalek-"Two Fingers of Milk"
"Big Bang"