New 24 Hour Print Release This FRIDAY!

Here at Zerofriends, we love the number 1, almost as much as the kids with those foam hands, and DEFINTIELY more than that guy that came in second.  In the spirit of the greatest number (not the lonliest number, as some of you may have previously heard) we’re having a Sale on June 1st, for 1 day only!  For those of you who are still learning how to speak binary, here’s the breakdown:

THIS FRIDAY, June1, starting at 12:01AM, we will be re-releasing one of our popular sold-out prints in an all new Limited Edition Colorway, and it will ONLY BE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE AT ZEROFRIENDS (Both Online & In Our Retail Store) FOR ONLY 24 HOURS! After the 24 hour period, we will NEVER sell this print in this colorway and size again.

At the end of the 24 hour time period, the exact number of prints that we sell will be the exact number of prints released for the edition. So, if only 3 people, one spam email and one armadillo buys them, then the edition will be 5. Cool? We think so!

So yes, on June 1, from 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM and any single minute in between those times, you can purchase this new "HANDFUL: The Baby Grimace Edition" Limited Edition Print (as seen above) either online at ZEROFRIENDS or in person at our Zerofriends Retail Store in Oakland.
Our Oakland store is located at:

489A 25th St (at Telegraph)

Oakland, CA

QUAKE Retrospective Show!

Something really really exciting, humbling, and something that I feel honored to be a part of is happening at our Zerofriends Oakland gallery starting this Thursday (and all through June).
For about 17 years now, QUAKE, one of the most prolific, consistent, and influential graffiti artists in the SF Bay area has been both a best friend and a mentor to me through my entire life after high school. Over time, we have explored different directions and mediums art-wise, but we have been side by side the whole time, with Quake being 1 of the 4 vital owners and blood of Zerofriends, a company that we all started together 5 years ago. While I sit at home, or in a cave, or under a table with a laptop, or in a pizza parlor drawing dicks and big googly eyes with my girlfriend, Quake continues to juggle operating Zerofriends while traveling the world, pushing his aerosol skills incredibly, all while making a million friends and admirers along the way. Which is why I am excited to announce THIS...See you there!(and for fun check out some of our old work together,


Zerofriends is proud to present an enormous retrospective featuring 26 years of the continuous, uncompromising, vibrant pubic art of one of the Bay Area's most prolific and loyal artists, QUAKE. Showcasing hundreds of photos taken from around the world alongside sketches, relics, prints and a massive ongoing slide show, we will celebrate the insanely colorful career of not only one of our favorites, but one of our OWN.
Opening reception with the artist in attendance is this THURSDAY, MAY 31 from 7-10 PM and will be on display all through June.

Zerofriends Oakland
489A 25th St (at Telegraph)
Oakland, CA

(Above portrait shot by the incredible PUREBRED PHOTO team.)

and for fun check out some blasts from the past with some old times when Quake and I would adventure together in the middle of the night like awesome weirdos.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
In 1986, in an unknown locale, an ageless, faceless man was hunted and killed in the arms of a famous Necromancer, who, upon his death, whispered this to the man:
"All colors in your world have different powers when applied in different ways. I will resurrect you eternally on the sole condition that you dedicate every moment to painting as much of our world as possible. With every different color you apply, a different effect will take place in our world. Do not question these changes. With this power, you will alter the world....and stay alive." At this moment, that dead, faceless man was resurrected and given a name: Quake.
Spending the last 26 years unflinchingly and unquestionably performing exactly the task that he was given, Quake has travelled the globe, leaving his chaotic and beautiful marks in thousands of places with the intention of visually altering the world around him.
Throughout his travels, Quake has found inspirations for his artwork ranging from hip hop and heavy metal cultures, to alien conspiracy groups, Chaos magic, and tribes of train-hopping hobos. Over the course of his art-ventures, Quake has also managed to become not only a leader in the eyes of hundreds of other artists, but also one of the most consistent, prolific, and loyal Bay Area artists to ever hold an aerosol can.
He continues to live out his promise by traveling weekly, staying alive by staying creative, all while co-owning and operating ZEROFRIENDS, an art and apparel company that he started in 2007 with longtime friends and artists Alex Pardee, Darren Scott and Dave Correia.


Quake & I, circa 1996-1997

"Tu'Mor Or Not Tu'Mor?"

I have a fun new solo show opening in NY at Tara McPherson's Cotton Candy Machine on June 8.

Its my first NY solo show, so why not make it a game show too. Sound good? Cool. More info soon. Maybe. But I like secrets. Especially weird secrets.

5-Color Sharkasus Screenprint Now Available

There's something about the feel of a screen-printed poster that makes my fingers tingle with imagination. The smooth but subtly speckled texture of the dried ink feels like it was made from the crushed teeth of a brightly colored monster. Seeing the slight imperfections of overlapping inks when one of the colors gets too unruly to follow the directions and jumps ship. Or maybe it's just because I am obsessed with the color black, and you can't get a richer, darker black using any other printing method other than good old, hand-pulled, hand pressed screen printing.
Whatever the reasons are, we love creating screenprinted posters. So every once in a while we like to forget that there's been a technological revolution in the last 20 years and completely disregard modern computers and printers and instead call our friends over at Bloom Press in Oakland who still cook over a fire and make inks out of berries and burnt hair, and collaborate with them on some limited edition, old school art prints.
Our latest release is just that. Limited to only 100, these new 18" x 24" signed, numbered, and hand made 5-color screen prints of THE SHARKASUS are available to buy online NOW for only $50.00! Click here or on the pic to purchase. I actually wrote this newsletter on the wall of a cave with a stick and some bear dung, but only like 4 people saw it and I was forced to eat one of them so we couldn't TOTALLY disregard technology for this release.

HUGE PRINCE!

Attention, fans of the future! We here at Zerofriends have found an ENLARGER PISTOL buried under a raspberry beret that we found "beret'd" under the dirt behind our warehouse! And after shooting it at a pile of donuts and dying with joy, we are shooting it at my artwork!
In order to not get our new toy seized by the department of the government that is keeping THIS under wraps, however, we are just gonna play it off like we are using terrestrial technology to make such small things so HUGE!


Future space guns or not, this weekend we are taking a HUGE risk and doing something based on what YOU GUYS have been asking us to do for a while: starting this WEEKEND we are releasing SUPER LIMITED EDITION HUGE GICLEE ART PRINTS featuring some of our most popular SOLD OUT print images.


I don't know if any more explanation is needed, but here are some specifics as to what is being released and how much they cost. And make sure to read this whole thing so that you can find out how to get FREE TINY 5" x 7" PRINTS OF THE "HUGE PRINCE" PRINT YOU SEE ABOVE (as that image is guaranteed to motivate you to work out and/or weird you the fuck out!)


Q: What is being released?
A: 12 different OVERSIZED Super Limited Edition Signed & Numbered Giclee prints. 6 of the designs will be HUGE (40" x 60") and the other 6 designs will be BIG (24" x 36").
Q: How "Limited" are they?
A: The "HUGE" Prints will be limited editions of 20, and the "BIG" prints will be limited editions of 30.
Q: Can we expect the same quality as the usual Zerofriends Giclee prints?
A: Absolutely. They are printed using the same equipment, technology, and museum-quality inks and paper stock that all of our prints are produced with.
Q: Where will these HUGE prints be on sale?
A: They will all be released on the ZEROFRIENDS WEBSTORE this Friday, May 4th at 12PM (noon) Pacific Standard Time. They will ALSO be on display and on sale in our RETAIL STORE in Oakland, CA, starting Friday also, just in time for the First Friday ART MURMUR.
Q: How much will they cost, and will you ship them outside of the U.S.?
The "HUGE" Prints (40" x 60", LTD Edition of 20) will be on sale for $300.00 each. The "BIG" Prints (24" x 36", LTD Edition of 30) will be on sale for $150.00 each.
Q: Well then, that's all good and jolly, but HOW DO I GET A FREE TINY "HUGE PRINCE" PRINT??
A: If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, then that's EASY. If not, it may be a little hard. This Saturday, May 5, simply be one of the first 50 people to GO INTO THE ZEROFRIENDS OAKLAND RETAIL STORE any time between 11AM-6PM and ASK FOR ONE! But please note, this is an IN-STORE RELEASE ONLY. There will be no "Huge Prince" Prints distributed online at this time.


So anyway, hope to see you online or in the store this weekend, but tell NO ONE about our enlarger ray! We need it for all of the tiny giraffes that we have running around.
Meanwhile, check out these photos by PAUL BUSTAMANTE of the Zerofriends crew and I preparing the prints. Word!

I Will Have The Weirdest Boner this FRIDAY!

Unlike "THE OFFICE", Boners will always be funny.
So I jumped at the chance to draw boners when Gallery 1988 asked me to create a Meme-ispired piece for their "MEMES" group art show opening this Friday, May 4, in LA.
Actually, I think I got overwhelmed by the opportunity because there are so many silly and ridiculous memes to draw inspiration from so I had no idea what I wanted to do until Chloe and I were sitting at the Ghostbusters library in NY and she said "You like weird boners, why don't you draw boners?"
And after saying "Dude, I love you for recognizing my boner-love", I got to work.
Now, before I continue, unless you sit in your own sores at your computer drawing boners like I do, you may not even know what a "MEME" is. So here ya go:

So there ya go. A meme is an internet phenomenon, some based solely on one image, some based on videos, some based on a mixture. Rebecca Black. The Bed Intruder. Double Rainbow. Steve Buscemi Eyes. Chocolate Rain. Y U No. ORLY? All memes.
Got it? Good.
So here's what I chose, Donald Glover's character in Community said one small phrase that became the catchphrase for inappropriate boners throughout the world:

Soon the following image accompanied celebrity gossip, odd cartoons and other news sites:

And then....the internet did what it does, and I fell in love with it:

So here, created in the New York Public library with Chloe and I verbally battling over what boners would be the funniest, is my weird boner contribution to the Memes show:

BUT....a meme doesn't become a meme without a bunch of different variations, so I couldn't just stop there. These will also be on display at the gallery:



Also, because I usually can't help myself when it comes to allowing YOU to help participate in my dicky ideas, there will be Draw-It-Yourself Boner Flyers being passed out at the gallery for free so you, too can draw a weird boner! Like this:


And, if you can't make it to the show, or you want to just get an early start on your future career as an illustrious Exterior Boner Designer, you can DOWNLOAD & PRINT A HIGH-REZ BONER SHEET HERE:
So have fun, draw weird boners, upload them to Instagram and tag @alexpardee on them so that I can melt with pleasure at the sight of other weird boners.
Thanks! Here's the official info for the show this Friday:
Gallery 1988 Melrose
7020 Melrose Ave
LA, CA
Friday, May 4. 7 - 10PM


Now we can just add these weird boners to the other bizarre Memes I got so obsessed with I made things for: