Temporary mural at Haverford College by Jedi5, Col and Broker. Photo by Broker

Update: Part 2 of this series is now online.

This is the first post in a two-part series on Artists 4 Israel and a series of events they put together, the Defend The Future Tour. This first post is an attempt at giving an account of my personal experiences with Artists 4 Israel and the DTF Tour. There are two primary reasons for this post: A. To give a firsthand account of what it is like to be subject to attempts of manipulation by Artists 4 Israel and B. To acknowledge some of the personal experiences and biases that I am bringing to the table when I write about Artists 4 Israel. This is done in an effort to be honest with Vandalog’s readers. Part 2 of this series, dealing with Artists 4 Israel in a wider context than myself and giving the organization’s take on the DTF Tour, will be published tomorrow. As is always the case on Vandalog, this post is mine and may or may not represent the views of any other Vandalog writers. - RJ Rushmore

On November 17th, the Defend The Future Tour came to Haverford College, spray cans in hand, in what now seems to me to have been an attempt to manipulate students into having a greater hate and fear of the Arab world and a greater love for Israel. This would have been fine, except for the manipulation. I go to Haverford College, so I experienced the DTF Tour myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember when I posted a little while ago about the StealBanksy pr sunt in Melbourne? Well someone actually managed to steal it and not in a very creative way either. Posing from as a staff member from the Art Series Hotel (the hotel owners behind the gag) agency, Maura Tuohy stole No Ball Games out of The Blackman Hotel.

Apparently, the agency got so much press for this they are doing it all over again (for a final time supposedly) with Banksy’s  Pulp Fiction until January 15th. Rememebr if you want to try your hand at stealing this piece you have to a guest at the hotel. Of course that’s the catch. There is always a catch.

Photo courtesy of Art Series Hotel

Sorry in Philadelphia

Just a heads up in case you don’t like murals, unless I get really into procrastination through blogging (which isn’t unlikely), the blog will probably continue to be pretty Miami-centric for the next week or so as I’m bogged down in finals. Now that you’ve got fair warning for that, here’s what I’ve missed covering over the last two weeks in art:

• Rowdy and Run both have updated websites.
• Arrested Motion’s show in Hong Kong looks great (you can guess who has the best photos).
• Some people destroyed a legal and commissioned piece by Olek in Poland, but rather than charge them with vandalism or something like that and give them a fine, Olek requested that the men crochet some scarves for the homeless. Good move.
• Gotta love this abstract piece in Hollywood that’s been made out of colored tape.
• Here’s a video interview with Zevs without a mask and saying his name (it’s Aguirre Schwarz). It’s in French though, so if anyone wants to offer up a translation of the interesting bits…
• Always a busy man, Lister has show on in Melbourne, Australia.
• The car company Fiat settled a potential lawsuit with NYC’s TATS Crew after the company used one of TATS Crew’s murals in an advertisement. If you’re interested in the issue of copyright concerning public art, here’s one place to start.

Photo by Caroline Caldwell

Photo by S.Butterfly

We’ve got a few bits of Banksy-related news to share, so it’s all being lumped together here:

• It looks like there will be a new Banksy print this Christmas March 2012 from Pictures on Walls (no surprise). The print will be based on this gorilla image, which was recently buffed accidentally. Even Pictures on Walls’ description of the print in a bit tongue-in-cheek about the recycling of this older image into a print with different glittery color options.
• A number of people have emailed me after seeing this Banksy installation (photo by Just) at Pictures on Walls’ winter group show (which Just has plenty more photos of) because it looks a bit like this sculpture by Giles Walker and Peter Dunne from a couple of years ago. Personally, I prefer Dunne and Walker’s piece, but I don’t think the pieces are too similar for comfort. Could Banksy have seem the work by Dunne and Walker and been inspired partially by that? Definitely. But it’s not just an outright copy, and I’m often hesitant to say that any Banksy idea has been outright stolen from another artist, since most of his ideas rely on pretty simple themes and symbols, so it’s likely that others have tried similar things before whether Banksy knew about it or not.
• It now seems unlikely that we will ever get confirmation from Banksy’s website that the piece pictured at the top of this post and covered on Vandalog last month is a Banksy. Foreignstudents.com happened to catch some photos of the work being put up. No faces of the artist or his crew, but the site did get images of a scaffolding being put up that covered the work while it was being done, and they say a man posing as a security guard stayed at the scaffolding for some of the time that it was up. So if this wasn’t Banksy’s work, someone may still come forward claiming responsibility. I’m confident however that this was the work of Banksy, so given these photos and any more that might be out there, taking responsibility seems risky for his anonymity.

Photo by S.Butterfly

Last week Graffuturism posted a preview of L’Atlas‘s upcoming solo show at the David Bloch Gallery in France. The show’s name, Morphologie, is perhaps a hint that L’Atlas has strayed from his signature style to try something a bit different.

"Here, for the first time, the letters stand out and hug each other and then a third dimension appears" - press release

L’Atlas typically works with black and white in his abstract, geometric typography, which is commonly his own name. At first glance, it looks like he has abandoned these trademarks in his new work. However, his new use of color has worked to encrypt his signature in more complex patterns.

Personally, I think his style works best at its simplest, black and white. I’m a very big fan of L’Atlas, particularly his lettering, so I’m interested in others think of this new direction.

Photos courtesy of Graffuturism

Each time we visit Bushwick, surprises await.  It’s always fun to come upon an artist at work, and this time we met one painting on the streets for the first time.  Daniel Gausman, who recently made the move from the Midwest to Brooklyn, NY, draws his inspiration from “geometry, quilting and color.”  Still in progress, his huge mural on Varet Street is a homage to all three.  Seeking larger walls than his local apartment can provide and at home interacting with passersby, Daniel is likely to grace more NYC walls with his talents.

Daniel Gausman @ work on his mural, photo by Lois Stavsky

Close-up of wall in progress, photo by Tara Murray

A wall in Munich

Sorry this is coming a day late, but Thanksgiving and related activities took priority. Here’s what I missed posting about this week:

• Roa and Resto collaborated on this wall in the Netherlands.
• Peter Bengtsen has written some thoughts on a controversial Boris Hoppek product.
• Invader has a solo show opening at Lazarides’ The Outsiders next week. It will include Invader-shaped waffles.
• Dabs and Myla have designed a toy.
• James Marshall aka Dalek recently had a show at Womb Gallery in Oklahoma City. Arrested Motion has photos and there’s a behind-the-scenes video as well.
• On December 9th, Mighty Tanaka in Brooklyn has a group show opening with Robots Will Kill and other artists that they crew have selected.

Photo by Luna Park

As an avid fan of ‘zines and independent publications, I particularly love the ones I come upon on my visits to Colombia, SA.  Produced and edited by Marcelo Arroyave, Sursystem is among my favorites. Marcelo. on his recent visit to NYC, explained that Sursystem’s  mission is to create and reflect the artistic fusion among distinct cultures, one of the positive effects, he maintains, of globalization.  Featured this fall in independent zine festivals in Paris and in Buenos Aires, Sursystem includes many images — and stickers – crafted by artists who also maintain the streets as their canvas. Marcello reports that Sursystem is seeking talent for its upcoming  issue.  Info follows:

Colombia's Sursystem distributed on the streets of Catalonia, June, 2011

"I love this world," by Angela Rodriguez Aristizabal & "Masters" by Juan Felipe Guirales from Sursystem 4

"And everything is just around the corner," Wizard in Sursystem 5

All images courtesy Marcelo Arroyave

Keely

This week the Occupy Wall Street live streams have been very effective at distracting me from Vandalog, which I’m not too upset about. The violent and suppressive eviction of Occupy Wall Street is certainly more important that the latest swindle that some art gallery is trying to pull. Nonetheless, I have been paying attention even if I haven’t been writing, so here’s what’s been going on in the street art world this week:

• AEC and WAONE aka Interesni Kazki have their first US solo show opening this weekend at Mid-City Arts in LA. Arrested Motion have a preview.
• This Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn, Todd James and Steve Powers are showing their work from their installation Street from the Art in the Streets show at MOCA in LA earlier this year. Other members of Powers’ ICY Signs studio will also be showing their work.
• Graffiti writer and notorious sticker-er BNE started a foundation for clean water projects earlier this year, and 12oz. Prophet has interviewed him about it. Great to see writers doing such admirable work.
• Hope has a flickr stream with photos that graffiti geeks (and I say that in the best possible way) absolutely have to check out.
• This show at MK2 Projects includes Shepard Fairey, Matt Small, Aiko and more.
• Here’s a new painting by Judith Supine.
• C-Monster has photos of two stencils in Tahrir Square.
• EVOL is to be the star of this year’s Pictures on Walls holiday extravaganza, and he is already in London putting up some of his signature stencil work.
• Swoon musical project in New Orleans, Dithyrambalina, is coming along. Artists involved in the collaborative installation are performing a show called The Music Box on November 19th and December 10th. Here’s a trailer, which includes some of their October 22nd performance. Beautiful work, but I’m sure it’s something that really needs to be seen in person.
• Complex has their list of the top 25 Parisian graffiti writers.

Photo by Damonabnormal

There are two new Kickstarter projects that look very worthwhile for the graffiti and street art worlds. Kickstarter is the website where people can crowdsource funding for their ideas. Both of these projects are looking for about $30,000.

On the set of Style Wars. Photo by Martha Cooper

The first project is the restoration of the 30 hours of unseen outsides from Style Wars, the ultimate classic graffiti and hip-hop culture film for inclusion on a blu-ray rerelease of the film. Here’s what Henry Chalfant, a co-producer of the film, has to say about the project:

Shepard Fairey's first billboard takeover, done in 1990. Photo by el-pablo

The second film is a new one, but it also tells a true story from before I was born: Julian Marshall is a filmmaker currently attending RISD, the college that Shepard Fairey attended. He would like to tell the story of Shepard Fairey’s early career. Julian’s film will focus on Shepard’s first billboard takeover, pictured above, the idea for which came from a class assignment at RISD. It’s kinda like The Social Network for Shepard Fairey (so less coding and more bombing). Here’s what Julian has to say about his film:

Each of these films only have about 3 more weeks to reach their funding goals on Kickstarter. Any contributions or help spreading the word could make the difference that these ideas need to see the light of day. To support the Style Wars outtakes project, go here. To support the authorized OBEY origin story film, go here.

Photos by Martha Cooper and El-Pablo