While I was cut off from the world…

Posted: June 14th, 2010 | Author: | Category: Art News, Books, Gallery/Museum Shows, Photos, Print Release, Random, Site News | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

BETTEN in NYC. Photo by a friend of the artist.

Since the end of May until a few days ago, I’d been more or less cut off from the street art world. I was driving around Europe with my friends. That’s not particularly important, though I would like to thank Logan Hicks, Ripo, Paulo, C215, Nunca and (especially) Angelo for spending time with us.

Here’s some of the things that I missed while I was away…

  • Penny’s latest piece kicks ass
  • Os Gêmeos have been crazy busy, so here’s one of the things they did: A few paintings at FAME Festival.
  • And Blu has been to FAME recently too.
  • I’m loving a lot of the pieces Skewville’s show Shift Work Disorder at Factory Fresh.
  • Some local residents completely misinterpreted the meaning behind some Shepard Fairey murals and painted them over. Actually a really interesting story. I suppose that when it is a reality of everyday life, people don’t like to be reminded that the police will “kick your ass and get away with it.”
  • Lazarides’ latest show in LA is Eurotrash with Vhils, Micallef and JR. Hi-Fructose has pictures.
  • Alison Young’s book Street Studio had a launch party in Melbourne.
  • High Roller Society has a massive group print show on right now. I stopped by on Saturday. If you like affordable prints and drawings, check this one out.
  • Daily Mail reports that Banksy has painted some pub in Primrose Hill. Reality: It’s a PR stunt by the pub’s owner, but at least now they have some artwork on their walls.
  • The New Grand Tour, a group show including Jose Parla, Rey Parla and Rostarr, is open now at Bryce Wolkowitz in New York City.
  • Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman, former gallery directors at Deitch Projects, have started up their own gallery in NYC called Hole. I’m not exactly sure how much street art or graffiti you’ll be able to find at the Hole when it opens later this month, but they sent me a press release, so presumably they haven’t ditched street art entirely. The Wall Street Journal has more.
  • Hrag Vartanian has started an interesting discussion on Hyperallergic about a new piece by Mark Jenkins which could easily be mistaken for trash. And by the way, if you don’t already read Hyperallergic, you should start. It’s perhaps my favorite art blog at the moment.
  • Armsrock has a solo show on right now at Signal Gallery. I’m going to check it out tomorrow, but based on the photos on Arrested Motion, I couldn’t be more excited. Armsrock is massively talented and just keeps getting better.

Related posts:

  1. Retna: Hallelujah World Tour in London
  2. RETNA’s Hallelujah World Tour Opening, NYC

  • http://www.flickr.com/itstea its tea

    gotta comment on the way Cincinnati’s responses to the recent Fairey murals have been taken…

    To me, it seems like the street art scene is being somewhat dictatorial in the way a community responds to a mural (and, in this case, what many have been recently equating to advertizing)… to say that the residents “completely misinterpreted” the murals is a stretch. There’s no guideline for “how to interpret a mural” and it’s obvious Fairey had little knowledge of the community in which he pasted such a visually intrusive piece.

    Shep says: ” By covering up the mural, the perpetrator is demonstrating that there are still people in the world who have a fear of artistic and free expression and want to stifle the dialogues I hope to spark with my art.” This is true, but the bigger issue is: a) that people still have a very real fear of the cops’ misuse of power; and b) not being sensitive to that fear, blaming them… “oh its their fault for not getting it.”

    Also who’s to say how a community should or shouldn’t react to a piece of art pasted on a wall by an out-of-towner stopping through for the night.

    I’m not trying to start wars, but I felt like people were portraying Cincinnatians (those meant to see the work) in a bad light.

    reppin OHIO all day… O-H

  • http://www.vandalog.com RJ

    By saying that they misinterpreted the meaning, I meant to say that they didn’t see the mural in the way that Shepard intended. Of course, that’s not to say that the local community members can’t have their own interpretation, but their interpretation made incorrect assumptions about where the mural came from (just like Shepard may have made incorrect assumptions that everybody would notice his use of satire). Nothing meant against Cincinatians.

    But yeah, Shepard definitely did not deal with this situation very well.

  • http://www.flickr.com/itstea its tea

    I completely agree…. what would have made his art more meaningful is if he would’ve said, “This is exactly the reason that I do my work. It’s unfortunate that people’s lives are rooted so deeply in the reality of issues I address in my work, that the satire incorporated becomes overshadowed by anger and fear, stemming from what they see on a daily basis. Hopefully my work and their reaction will spark new conversations in Cincinnati about police-community relations.”