Galo, 2051 and Ottograph

So much going on behind the scenes this week for a couple of upcoming events. Can’t wait to say more. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to write about one of them. Here’s what I didn’t have a chance to post about this week:

• Sick burner by Jume.
• I wish I could have seen Mark Jenkins’ installation at Carmichael Gallery’s Volta booth in the flesh.
• OaKoAk: A french street artist who is kind of awesome.
• Some shots from Vhils‘ latest solo show in Portugal.
• Someone is placing “hipster traps” around NYC.
• Shepard Fairey’s Revolutions show looks pretty cool.
• Check out Contra Projects’ booth and murals from Scope NYC.
• The LA Police are trying to interfere with a graffiti writer’s art career by not allowing him to use his name (Smear) with anything relating to his artwork. And then they arrested him.
• Just rediscovered this piece from last year by WorldWarWon where he “graffiti-ed” an iceberg.
• Tika has a show coming up in Berlin.
• Galo, 2051 and Ottograph have a show opening soon in San Fransisco at Lower Haters Gallery.

Photo by Galo

UPDATE: Before Banksy came along, a man had been living in the tank for 7 years.

Melrose and Fairfax, and LA-based street art blog, has been following the Banksy drama in LA very closely (check out these posts – although that last one is basically a forum user pulling claims out of thin air which may or may not be true M&F points out that The LA Weekly has backed up some of the claims in that last post, which seems a lot more reliable to me), so of course, they were the first to discover that the above Banksy, recently painted on an old water tank as part of Banksy’s pre-Oscars campaign in LA, is for sale. Banksyelephant.com is attempting to sell the tank. While the site claims that the owners “personally acquired ownership to preserve and protect the work of Banksy in hopes that it will end up exhibited in a respected museum where his work will live on without harm,” I think it’s safe to say that money was a bit of a motivator too. Of course, Elephant will never get Pest Control certification (they do not certify street pieces) and without that, the value of a work by Banksy drops dramatically.

Historically, the water tank has been a bit of an eyesore that residents have tried to get rid of, but the owner would not remove. Melrose and Fairfax wonders if maybe Banksy was aware of that history and painted it knowing that the owner would finally remove the tank in order to try to sell or protect it.

Photo from Banksy’s website

Since I couldn’t be in town last week for the New York art fair extravaganza, Edible Genius (recently interviewed on Brooklyn Street Art) took some photos for Vandalog. Here are just a few of the highlights from the fairs. For more in-depth coverage, I would suggest Arrested Motion and Hyperallergic.

Rebaroque Artist Series Sound Wall at Scope

Kaws

Faro at Fountain

R. Robot at Fountain

Todd James at The Armory Show

How and Nosm at Contra Project's booth at SCOPE

Photos by Edible Genius

Poster by Morley

Wow. This week has gone by really quickly. I guess the world feels like it is moving faster when you are running on less sleep. Such a counter-intuitive thing. Anyway, here is what has been going on that I didn’t have a chance to write about this week:

• Two members of the Russian artist/activist group Voina are finally out on bail, in part thanks to Banksy.
• These doors to nowhere sound like a fantastic project.
• Arrested Motion has a studio visit with Luc Price.
• I love this new wall from Oker and Mr. Dheo.
• Stik has a show in London next week.
• Mau Mau’s new work is simple, but it made me smile.
• The line up for Contra Projects’ booth at SCOPE NY next week is looking pretty good.
• Vhils and Brad Downey in Lisbon.
• One of these two Banksy’s is terrible, one is one of his strongest all year. Can you guess which I think is which?

Photo by Morley

Finally, some new Mark Jenkins works to drool over. I’m a big fan of my DC homeboy, so it is about time to see a new crop of Jenkins, even if it is in a show setting. Taking place at VOLTANY in Brooklyn from March 3- 5, the fair hosts a slew of galleries and artists, not just more street art in a gallery setting. Thank god. The Jenkins pieces will be at the Carmichael Gallery booth, so go say hi to our good friends Seth and Elisa. And don’t forget to point and laugh at them as their freeze their asses off in the Northeast winter, since they are California transplants and don’t know what cold means.

Photo via Carmichael Gallery

While Ben Eine and Steve Powers were painting at Moniker Art Fair last week in London, Babelgum spoke with them about their work and what they were doing for the fair.

Here’s Steve:

And Here’s Eine:

Here are two pieces that Best Ever painted for the Stroke.03 fair in Berlin earlier this month. The above piece was outside, and I believe this second piece was inside the fair  (click on the image to see a larger sized photo):

Arrested Motion has more photos from Stroke.03 including walls by Roa and Alexandros Vasmoulakis.

Photos by Best Ever

BEST EVER X Deadleg in London

It’s been a crazy week in London. Moniker and all that. But here’s what has been going on with street art elsewhere:

• Okay, so I will mention one thing about Moniker: Graffoto seems to be the first to post a review, and what a review it is. Doubtless, Vandalog will be posting something in the coming days, but in the mean time, check out Graffoto to see all that Moniker goodness.
• Mudwig is part of the Meta Snout show opening today at High Roller Society in London.
• NYC graffiti legend Cost collaborated with the folks at Supreme on some t-shirts. They are available online now.
• Erica il Cane and Lucy McLauchlan painted a huge wall in Lisbon.
• JR is getting up at the Shanghai Biennale.
• Bumblebee’s first solo show looks really great. Way better than I had expected.
• I’ve tried twice to see Word To Mother’s solo show at Stolenspace, but they always seem to be closed when I am near the gallery. Photos look great though and I’ve only heard good things.
• Microbo is part of a two-man 2-person show at Galo Art Gallery.
• Old-school graffiti writer Duster UA has a solo show coming up in December at London Miles Gallery. Tickets are on sale now for a special event at the gallery during the show.

Photo by unusualimage

Photo by unusualimage

As promised in Tuesday’s post, here’s more from the set up process at Moniker Art Fair. Unfortunately I had to stay home on Wednesday, but I was out taking photos on Tuesday and of course plenty of other people like Hooked Blog were out taking photos.

Eine's installation

Polly Morgan's installation

Herakut's installation

A piece by Swoon. Photo by Hooked

Before the galleries moved in...

Faith47 painting

Speaking of Faith47, check out her new mural in South Africa on Wooster Collective.

Steve Powers and Faith47 have finished their spots, 3 to go. Photo by nolionsinengland

And there are some Moniker videos to mention as well. The folks from Babelgum have been working non-stop doing editing at the fair. Here’s their time-lapse of Eine’s mural:

Calculate isn’t really for me and I’ve heard more than one person suggest that Eine should have repainted his Vandalism image which was on this same wall, but Eine fans seem to be liking this new piece as well.

S.Butterfly made this video interview with Steve Powers:

All in all, Moniker is shaping up to be everything that I and it seems everybody else have been hoping for. The fair opens on Thursday night from 7-9 and I’ll be running tours of the fair on Friday at 11:30 and 1:30, so I hope to see as many people there as possible.

Photos by RJ, unusualimage, nolionsinengland and Hooked

Village Underground is where it’s at this week. The Shoreditch warehouse off of Great Eastern Street is host to Moniker Art Fair. Hookedblog has a much better description of the fair than what I could throw together right now, but the fair opens Thursday night and it’s going to be a highlight of the street art calendar in London this year. Big names from around the world have are taking part in this fair and there’s lots of great art to see and fun events planned (including some tours led by me on Friday afternoon at 11:30 and 1:30). I’m on my way out the door to go see how the set up is going today, but here are some photos that I took yesterday as things were getting set up:

A certain British signpainter's installation...

Steve Powers aka ESPO is in town to paint a Love Letter

And he's been tagging up the building a bit...

Expect more photos tonight or tomorrow and hope to see people there on Thursday…