“Ghosts of the Barbary Coast” is a solo exhibition by Jeremy Fish, a fine artist and illustrator based in San Francisco. North Beach, the neighborhood in San Francisco that Jeremy Fish calls home, is the inspiration behind “Ghosts of the Barbary Coast.” Through his research, Fish found that San Francisco is a city “built on an adventurous pioneer spirit. In “Ghosts of the Barbary Coast,” Jeremy Fish celebrates the individuals that chased their dreams all the way to San Francisco. The show features over 35 new works, including large woodworking projects.

“Still A Little Magic” is a solo exhibition by Miss Van, a fine artist from Toulousse, France and now based in Barcelona, Spain.Miss Van first gained acclaim painting walls in the streets of Toulousse,France. She unknowingly made a splash in the graffiti world by painting with acrylic paint and brushes, rather than the usual medium of choice, spray paint. Miss Van’s “Still A Little Magic,”features new drawings and paintings, and will be on display at the lower level of the FIFTY24SF Gallery from December 4-30, 2008.

Images and flier for both artists after the jump.

Another month, another set of artist driven New Era caps from Upper Playground. The brands hat is an ode to billiards, with the walrus logo featuring on the balls. Morning Breath finds inspiration from advertising for his “Too Times Rich” hat. The three hats above were designed by Mickey Duzyi, the RIZEN collective and Denis Kennedy, respectively. Dog Racing, Robots and basketball drive their hats.

All five can be found online and at the Upper Playground flagships.

View more of the Upper Playground November New Era Drop after the jump.

Brooklyn-based Serbian-born photographer, Boogie, has released the second volume in his city series entitled ‘Istanbul.’ The book is a result of a week long stay Boogie had in the city of Istanbul where he shot photos 15 hours a day. The result is 96 pages of black and white photography that give a starkly honest and transparent look at the feel and nature of this Turkish city. Along with the book, we’re releasing two tees on our FIFTY24SF line featuring the images from two pages out of the book.

The T-shirts are available in men’s sizes for $24, and the book is retailing for $20. All three are available at our retail locations and at: http://www.upperplayground.com.

Check out more images of the book and of more Upper Playground x Boogie collaboration t-shirts after the jump.

Each season superFishal introduces a new series of three collaborative board graphics which are screenprinted in small limited editions. The concept is to take two artists with completely different styles and have them converge to make a really unique board graphic. This Fall/Winter season sees Jeremy Fish collide with skater/artist Andy Howell to form ‘The Spirit’ deck, which features a couple of Jeremy’s classic figures set in a back drop of Howell’s intricate brush strokes. In his collaboration with Mike Giant entitled ‘The Serpent’ we see Jeremy’s style mashed into Mike’s tattoo based creations. And Jeremy’s conspiring with Scrawl Collective’s WIll Barras leads to a board called ‘The Stack’ which features the motorcycle version of Noah’s Ark.

Jeremy Fish’s most recent New Era collaboration has also arrived. The “Bunny Head” generated some smiles amongst the crew when we were at MAGIC. It is a genuinely amusing design.

All available at Upper Playground.

Check out the New Era after the jump.

While the fall classic celebrates the end of Major League Baseball for 2008, Upper Playground gear up for winter ball. With Morning Breath pitching designs, UP comes with a set of t-shirts representing their own fictional league. LA has the Diablos. The Hood’s come from Seattle. Coke capital Miami is repped by the Kilos. Philadelphia, Boston and Brooklyn round out the hard hitting six. The t-shirts are out now direct from Upper Playground.

When the winter changes so do wardrobes. Often, this means exchanging t-shirts for hoodies. That is, in essence, what Upper Playground and their stable of fine artists have done. For fall 2008 Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Usugrow and OBLVN all work the canvas to drastically different effect. Fish is classic in his interpretation, whereas Usugrow gets a little more contemporary.

Follow the jump to view details of the fall 2008 Upper Playground hoodie collection.

As part of his superFishal collection for Upper Playground, artist Jeremy Fish presents this season the Barbary Coast Collection, a premium accessories line for Fall 2008.

Pieces in the collection include a premium leather belt, cigarette cases, notebooks, lighters, hats and also a tweed coat. All pieces feature the bunnyskull theme, that Jeremy Fish is so well known for.

Have a detailed look at the complete superFishal Barbary Coast Fall 2008 collection after the jump.

Today, Upper Playground opened its latest retail space in New York’s East Village. Included is a mural by David Choe and some special edition New York product from Grotesk and 12Grain. Choe is a NYC native and his artwork will remain on permanent display.

Images of the mural and the NYC series t-shirts from the Upper Playground NYC Store after the jump.

Artist driven New Eras are something of an Upper Playground hallmark. The results are always interesting and often inventive. October has a rather distinct theme, Halloween. Chris Lee and Dora Drimalas are rather direct on their take. Sam Flores, however, makes a hat that is less connected to the month, but equal in creative impulse.

View each hat in detail after the jump.

Upper Playground continues to fight the Democratic fight.

“There was a time when John McCain would speak off the cuff, on record, and in plain view of his traveling press corps. He was the “maverick,” with the ongoing campaign to rid the Republican Party of its dependence on cultural wars and right-wing religious zealots. He was a honored POW. He wanted to respect Geneva Conventions. He even wanted to select Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running mate in these elections.

And then the walls caved in. Palin was picked, the cultural wars created by Richard Nixon in the late 1960’s to attack the liberal East and West coast media bias seeped into his campaign, and the Rove machine has dictated every McCain speech. He wouldn’t allow an unscheduled interview of question. He became a prickly zombie. He became the Manchurian Candidate.