From September 10, 2010, P•P•O•W (511 West 25th Street, Room 301, New York, NY 10001) will present the next installation of Sandow Birk’s American Qur’an.

In this ambitious project, Birk has been transcribing the entire Qur’an into English along with illustrated narratives. The complexities of the relationship between Western and Middle Eastern societies have been heightened since the events of September 11th, and the lack of knowledge about Islam and the Qur’an, which is frequently cited in the media, is something Birk realized he and most Americans struggle with. Through the American Qur’an series, Birk presents a new version of this holy book that is more accessible and also shows how the teachings can be applied to the daily experiences of American life.

In this exhibition there will be seventeen suras (chapters) on view, each of which are on paper and measure 16 x 24 inches. Using stylized calligraphy, Birk transcribes translated text of the Qu’ran and then illustrates a scene from everyday life to emphasize what is in the text. Scenes such as golfing, shoveling snow, Hurricane Katrina, and surveillance in city streets are all visual interpretations of the text which induce the reader to see how these teachings can be applied to familiar scenes. Birk’s compositions mix the influences of Persian miniature painting and medieval manuscripts, as well as incorporate contemporary street stylizations and graffiti art.

Sandow Birk received his BFA from Otis Art Institute in 1988. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and grants, including: Guggenheim Fellowship, J. Paul Getty Fellowship, NEA grants, COLA fellowship in Visual Art, and Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship Award. He has had several solo museum exhibitions including: Katzen Art Center, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Jose Museum of Art, the Laguna Art Museum, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, and the Heidelberger Kunstverein in Heidelberg, Germany. His work is in numerous museum collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Harvard University Museum, the De Young Museum, The Getty Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Jose Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.

Birk’s work will remain on view through October 9, 2010. More images of American Qu’ran after the jump.

Quite a few good things happening in San Diego at the moment.

I mentioned the exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego a few weeks ago, and to complement that want to alert readers to Survey Select. Set up by the fine folks at Mark Murphy, Survey Select works as a community space sharing a range of artist endeavor. Nightly events compliment the installation, with new and exciting bits and pieces added with great regularity. (Plus some great work from Shawn Barber).

The fun continues through September 5, 2010. All the information at Mark Murphy.

The Art Street Journal continues to grow and improve.

Volume II Issue I has just been released, and comes chock full of reviews and features covering the latest in contemporary art. Included are reviews of “Viva La Revolucion” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and Ben Eine at Lazarides. Photographer Boogie is covered, as is Dan Witz. The street art photography section comes back bigger and better, now expanded to 2 full pages.

In addition to the great material inside, the stock of paper has also been boosted. For those that haven’t got their mitts on a previous copy of The Art Street Journal (easy as hitting the above link), you are missing out. It is, in my humble opinion, one of the better outlets in our niche.

Some interior shots of Volume II Issue I.

One issue with street art, as I see it, comes in a difficult translation to pieces that can enter the collectors market. How does one, for example, turn Invader’s site specific mosaic into easily transported commodity?

The latest print offerings from Pictures on Walls do a good job capturing the spirit of Invader’s work. The prints are embossed to give tiled effect to the paper and ultimately working to keep the low relief of the artist’s pieces at the fore. In all, there are three prints, simple enough, and varying in edition from 25 to 50.

Avid readers of this site may also have noticed Invader’s work as found on the building of the Contemporary Art San Diego. If so (or not), let us take this time to remind you of Bike to the Museum Day coming up on August 1, 2010.

A full look at the Invader prints after the jump. Full purchase info at POW.

A solid follow up to the previous post and a solid promotion -

For one day only, ride your bike to MCASD Downtown and receive two-for-one admission to the Museum! Park your wheels in the bike valet and enjoy a tour of Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape and other special programming throughout the day.

It’s all happening on August 1, 2010, from 11am to 5pm.

Visit MCASD for more information.

Representative images from Viva la Revolucion after the jump.

On Sunday March 7, 2010, Los Angeles’ Mid-City Arts presents “On a Sunday Afternoon.” Once again, they bring together some of the finest contemporary graffiti muralists for an afternoon of live painting. A Free signed limited edition Dabs & Myla poster will be available for first 50 people. The action starts at 12pm and goes to 5pm.

BooksIIII (Miami), Dabs & Myla (Australia), Jim Darling (Los Angeles), Kofie (Los Angeles), Mear (Los Angeles), Retna (Los Angeles), Risk (Los Angeles), Slow (Miami), Surge (San Diego), and Typoe (Maimi) are the featured artists.

Mid-City Arts is located at 5111 W. Pico BLVD, Los Angeles, CA.

Organized by the Menil Collection, Joaquin Torres-Garcia: Constructing Abstraction with Wood includes 40 works of art from the 1920s through 1940s. The pioneering artist has emerged as one of the leading figures in Latin American art. Renowned as a painter and a teacher, Torres-Garcia’s his wooden abstractions are shown for the first time in North America through this exhibition.

Joaquin Torres-Garcia: Constructing Abstraction with Wood opens tomorrow at the San Diego Museum of Art. It’s the second and last venue for the exhibition. Running through May 30, 2010.

Opening today at Quint Contemporary Art in La Jolla, CA, Kelsey Brooks’ Bigger, Brighter, Bolder. Brooks is based in San Diego and his new works thrive on an interplay of figure, abstraction, and text. The paintings are meditations on spirituality and humanity, Eastern religions being an important component of the artist’s life.

The above video previews Bigger, Brighter, Bolder. (via Wooster Collective).

Jolby (Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols) open their first solo show next week at San Diego’s Subtext Gallery. The work is an extended narrative about a boy named William and his quest to find the true meaning of “home.” Charming stuff. (via It’s Nice That).

“Home is Where You Make It” runs from February 21 to March 22, 2009. Subtext Gallery is located at 2479 Kettner Blvd, San Diego, CA.

Previews after the jump.

Mark Dean Veca: Drawings, Wall Paintings and Collaborations opened last week at University Art Gallery, University of California San Diego. The exhibition traces Veca’s career from early drawings through his collaborative efforts with the likes of Kaws and Nike, and concludes with a collection of recent works. Included are the wall paintings shown here, part of the interior lounge in the gallery. (Via Supertouch).

The retrospective is open until March 15, 2009.

Details of the wall paintings follow.