The work of San Fransisco based artist Jesse Hazelip can be seen all over the streets and walls of downtown Berkley, Oakland, and San Fransisco. Hazelip’s wheatpaste art is wry, and weird, and strikingly huge. His work features imposing images of mutant birds and beasts: half animal, half military machine. Pasted along walls and walkways, the presence of Hazelip’s monsters give the feeling of being in a wild urban tundra. Hazelip’s new solo show The Belle of the Brawl continues to develop the ideas explored in his previous work. A statement from the exhibition’s curator had this to say:

“In The Belle of the Brawl, the artist continues his ongoing examination of the sociopolitical patterns of repetitive historical mistakes. As the dust settles from the war in Iraq, the anxiety of crisis looms large over Afghanistan. The artist seeks to address the pending inevitability of violence and destruction through a visual examination which will include iconographic imagery from the artist’s earlier work: herons, buffalo and WWII weaponry, while introducing a new assembly of symbols and motifs.”

Hazelip created a special video preview to the exhibition. The Belle of the Brawl opens January 15th at San Fransisco’s 941 Geary and is free to the public.