Dart, PC, Curve, Rams, and Sane

As I’ve been gearing up for midterms, I’ve missed posting some great outdoor work (and other things) this week.

• Does the buffman have a sense of humor or did mobstr do this himself?
• Barry McGee, Chris Johanson, & Laurie Reid showing together in SF.
• You may have seen the video of Margaret Kilgallen on Art21 before, but here’s some previously unseen footage of her and Barry McGee from that shoot.
• I love this piece by Disk.
• And also this one by the highly underrated Ludvig.
• There’s a fundraiser to benefit Essam, the artist who was beyond those brilliant drone strike posters and then subsequently arrested, taking place later this month.
• Graffiti geeks will love this tattoo flash.
• Jack Murray aka Panik ATG has written a must-read post about some historic London graffiti on The Foundry being covered by a street-art-emulating ad for Microsoft’s Surface. Hopefully somebody once again uses that surface for something creative very soon.
• Ron English has a new colorway of his Temper Tot art toy for sale exclusively on his website.
• I’m not quite sure what has happened here. First, an artist who goes by the name Edwin painted this piece in Hackney Wick. Now, it looks like this. It seems to me that Sweet Toof went up and added his teeth to the piece as a subtle diss to Edwin for ripping off Lenny The High Roller, the character that Sweet Toof and Cyclops used to paint back when their Burning Candy crew really dominated Hackney Wick. Yes, lots of street artists paint skulls and graffiti writers paint skulls, but the similarities here, particularly the eyes and given the location, are too much to ignore as mere coincidence. Also, this might be a stretch, but the hands in Edwin’s piece kinda look like Gold Peg’s hands (who also painted with Burning Candy in Hackney Wick and elsewhere).
• This film about M. Chat is screening in Philadelphia next week at the Slought Foundation. Strange thing though. The description of the film actually never gives the name of the artist, but M. Chat has a Wikipedia article and a Twitter account and shows work in galleries. Additionally, the Slought Foundation has posted downloadable templates of M. Chat’s work for people to customize and put up on their own. I called up the Slought Foundation and was told that Thoma Vuille, the man who it seems was behind M. Chat, is not involved in the show, although the man I spoke with suggested that the M. Chat logo may have been painted by a collective rather than just one man (like The Toasters collective with one logo and multiple members). So, is this appropriation of an unexplained urban mystery or theft an artist’s creation? I’m not one for strict copyright laws, but it does seem to me like the moral thing to do here would be to at least give some credit to Vuille aka M. Chat rather than pretend that the cat is still a complete mystery.

Photo by Carnagenyc

The piece in question

Update 1: Wet Dog, another Banksy street piece which was up sale in the same auction as Slave Labour, was also withdrawn at the last minute. Wet Dog was recently shown in the controversial Banksy: Out of Context show in Miami last December, where it was reported that the piece was not for sale.

Update 2: Wow. Slave Labour wasn’t just withdrawn from the auction, it was withdrawn in the middle of the auction after there were already 3 bids for it! (Thanks to Wooster Collective for this tip)

Update 3: Here’s a statement from the auction house, Fine Art Auction Miami: “Although there are no legal issues whatsoever regarding the sale of lots 6 and 7 by Banksy, Fine Art Auctions Miami convinced its consignors to withdraw these lots from the auction and take back the power of authority of these works.” and a statement from the owner of Wet Dog, Stephan Keszler (who will not say whether he also owns or represents the owner of Slave Labour) “We pulled it because of the hype. We did not feel comfortable in this environment. But I think we are very happy that an auction has tried to get Banksy’s street works into auction. It’s a breakthrough.” (via)

The Banksy street piece shown above (named Slave Labour (Bunting Boy) by the auction house which was trying to sell it), which a few days ago we mentioned was up for sale at an auction house in Miami, did not end up selling at the auction yesterday as had been the plan. Instead, the piece was withdrawn from auction, there has been a public outcry to return the piece to its original site, and investigations by British police have begun into how the piece was removed from London and put up at auction in the first place.

The local outcry about the piece’s removal reached a particularly hilarious point when a member of the local government arranged a protest requesting that the piece, which presumably was painted illegally, be withdrawn from auction and returned to its original location. Sounds like they might be successful in that effort, but I expect that the piece would be quickly destroyed by haters and/or street art/graffiti purists if it were returned to the street at this point.

Even the FBI got involved, asking the British police to investigate the origins of the piece. It’s still not 100% clear whether or not the piece was removed from the street with the permission of the property owner, but the owner has so far refused to comment, so at this point I’m guessing that they saw a chance to make a few bucks and organized the removal themselves.

While we’re on the topic of Banksy, I’d like to discuss dispel two Banksy-related rumors that popped up elsewhere on the web last week as a result of a lack of fact-checking by journalists and bloggers.

The Haringey Independent has published two stories about what they call “a new ‘Banksy’” on the same street where the Slave Labour piece once was. The piece is a stenciled image of a rat holding a placard with the question “Why?” on it. The only hint in either article that the new stencil might not be by Banksy are the quotes, but there’s no real discussion and it’s basically assumed that the piece is legit. After even just a quick glance at the piece, I’m 99% certain that it was not done by Banksy, but was just an homage and comment on the removal of the real Banksy piece. The rat stencil is poorly cut, poorly sprayed, the font on the placard isn’t one of Banksy’s standard fonts, I don’t believe Banksy has done a 1-layer rat stencil since 2009, and (save for the Banksy versus Robbo events) I can’t think of any instances of Banksy doing a street piece which directly addresses a specific controversy of his career. Of course, the funny thing is that the property owners where this new rat is seem to think it’s a real Banksy, since the second article reports that the non-Banksy is now covered in a protective layer of plexiglass.

And then there’s the hoax story that Banksy was supposedly arrested in London last week. A press release posted to prlog.org claimed that Banksy had been arrested. The news quickly spread on Reddit and Twitter. Although the press release was quickly removed from the site, UK Street Art has the full text available. Give the press release a read. Think about it for a second. Does it sound legit? Blogs such as Jezebel and Death and Taxes, and Clutter Magazine reported the story as fact. At least Complex.com made clear that the release was basically an unconfirmed rumor. If those blogs wanted some hits, posting that press release without actually thinking about it was probably a good move. But it wasn’t too difficult to determine that the press release was a very likely hoax, even before it was removed from prlog.org. And the press release was a hoax. Betabeat has a good brief summary of how the hoax happened, some reasons why it was a hoax, and who was behind it (it seems that site was). Reddit and The Banksy Forum have more detailed discussions as to why the press release was clearly a hoax.

With Banksy, things are rarely 100% clear, which opens up the door for hoaxes (I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I’m sure I’ve fallen for one or two before), but if we exercised a bit more caution, perhaps these kinds of hoaxes and misattributions wouldn’t be quite so common.

Photo courtesy of Banksy, aka lifted from his website

As I tweeted the other day, my mind is kinda stuck on how much I wish the Parra show at Jonathan Levine Gallery opened today and not on Saturday so that I could go see it. So while I’ve been distracted by that point, here’s some of what I almost missed this week:

• KATSU’s April Fools prank is a bit early, but still pretty funny.
• The Outsiders / Lazarides has some really nice prints by Ron English. They are variations on his Figment image, aka Andy Warhol wig and a skull.
• Barry McGee, Chris Johanson and Laurie Reid are showing together at City College and SF starting today.
• Here’s a new piece from the always-interesting 0331c, but if you don’t know 0331c’s work, here’s an introduction.
• Nice video of Eine updating one of his walls in London from saying PRO PRO PRO to PROTAGONIST. Interesting comment about street art being a thing that “looked like it would offer what graffiti promised but didn’t deliver.”
• Nychos x Jeff Soto = Yes!
• New work from Isaac Cordal.
• Woah. Nice work from How and Nosm in San Fransisco.
• Jonathan Jones is up to his old tricks of dissing Banksy to get more hits for his column, and I’m biting. He writes, “Banksy, as an artist, stops existing when there is no news about him.” Even if that is the case, is that the end of the world? Does that relegate Banksy to “art-lite”? No. Banksy is one of the most talked-about artists in the world. I would bet that the same criticism was leveled against Warhol, who I believe Jones likes. Banksy’s manipulation of the media, playing it like a damn violin sometimes, is some of his greatest artwork of all. He manipulates the media to spread a message. The best example of this was probably him going to Bethlehem to paint on the separation wall because he knew that the media would cover it. He was able to play the media to draw attention to an issue that he felt strongly about. Banksy’s paintings are sometimes great and sometimes not. But his ability to make people fascinated with him and his paintings is just as much of an art, and that shouldn’t discredit him.

Photo by Luna Park

Yes. KATSU is the man. He continuing to explore what graffiti can look like in this century and he’s leaving most street artists in the dust in the process. These screenshots are from a piece by KATSU within the game Minecraft. I’m not a gamer, but, as far as I understand it, the vast majority of Minecraft games are not played in an online multiplayer setting, but they can be. So, like Franco and Eva Mattes performing during a game of Counter-Strike or Diego Bergia getting his graffiti into Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (which spread his Where’s Lepos project from the street into a game), KATSU has brought his graffiti into the digital world and could potentially put it in places in the digital world where others could see it. Most likely though, this throw-up wasn’t made in a multiplayer game and won’t be, so in that sense it’s more like doing something in a sketchbook and posting a photo of the sketch to Instagram than doing a piece of graffiti, but it’s still pretty cool and it’s another step for KATSU towards doing graffiti in the world of 1′s and 0′s.

The project was announced through F.A.T. Lab, where KATSU is currently an Artist in Residence. In that post on F.A.T. Lab’s website, KATSU says “The future of graffiti for me will be in the form of black hat tactics.” For those who may not know, “Black hat” is a term used to describe hacking which would typically be considered invasive or malicious in some way, rather than the good kind of “white hat” computer hacking. I can’t wait to see what KATSU does next. A move from physical graffiti to the digital graffiti of website defacement could be very interesting.

Images courtesy of KATSU / F.A.T. Lab

Screenshot of Banksy’s website

Banksy‘s website was updated recently with an animated tribute to Nekst, a very talented internationally recognized graffiti writer who died last year. The screenshot above gives you the basic idea of Banksy’s tribute, but you can see the piece in action on his website. This is the first update we’ve gotten from Banksy in a little while. I think the last street pieces he put on his site were the Olympic-theme pieces from last July.

Banksy in London. Photo courtesy of Banksy.

In other Banksy-related news, the above Banksy piece was recently removed from the streets of London and put up for auction in Miami at Fine Art Auctions. The piece, of course not authenticated by Pest Control but is pretty clearly by Banksy seeing as it’s on his website. The BBC has more about the removal of the piece. At this point, the legality of the removal is unclear, but the community is certainly disappointed. That same auction also includes another street piece, Wet Dog, which was painted in Bethlehem and was removed a while ago (it was also featured at the Context art fair in Miami last year, supposedly not for sale at the time).

Screenshot and photo from Banksy.co.uk

MOMO in Baltimore for Open Walls Baltimore

Earlier this month, I wrote about my 25 favorite murals of the year over at Complex.com. Check out the list and let me know what you think. One caveat: I submitted the list to Complex before Miami, so nothing from Miami this year was considered for it.

Photo by Geoff Hargadon

NEKST. Photo by C-Monster.net

So much news this week, but first and foremost is the untimely death of NEKST, a globally respected writer.

• I love trains like this with messages instead of names.
• But I love how 0331c uses extinguishers even more.
• Here’s a porcelain sculpture by Horfe.
• VNA has released a sticker pack with stickers by D*Face, Invader, Kid Zoom, Nychos and others.
• Great wheatpaste by Cannon in Oakland.
• Kathy Grayson defends Jeffrey Deitch, and Shepard Fairey backs her up. I’ve got to agree. He’s been getting a lot of shit for what he’s been up to as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and I’m sure Kathy’s right that he’s not always the easiest guy to get along with, she’s also entirely right that he’s also put on good shows at MOCA and attendance has gone up because Deitch isn’t willing to be as elitist about as others in the art community would like him to be.
• ZEVS hit this massive iPad ad in NYC.
• Brooklyn Street Art has a great post about Overunder’s artist residency in Reno, specifically ND’A's time there.

Photo by C-Monster.net

Nosego (left) and Swoon (right)

Both Swoon and Nosego are involved in active Kickstarter projects that are fundraising right now.

Swoon is headed back to Haiti for the latest iteration of the Konbit Shelter Project. That Kickstarter is looking to raise $30,000 to build their third building in a small town in Haiti. The money will primarily go to purchasing building materials and paying community members to help the Konbit Shelter team with construction. This time around, the hope is that the team will be able to use building techniques that are more affordable and sustainable than ever before. After the third building is finished, a book will be published explaining the techniques that Konbit Shelter has been honing for the past three years so that they can be used by others. You can contribute to that project here. Rewards include lots of beautiful artwork. And here’s a video about the project:

Nosego’s project is a sort of followup to the highly addictive iPhone game Catball Eats It All, a game which extensively features artwork by Nosego. The new game being developed is Rusty the Rainbow Whale. Again, all the graphics will be based on paintings by Nosego, and the plot of the game sounds a lot like him too: Rusty the Rainbow Whale can make a giant rainbow by eating tasty hamburgers, and he waits to make a rainbow so large that it makes everyone in the world smile simultaneously, so he has to eat a lot of hamburgers. The project needs $5,000 to help fund the game’s development. You can help fund the game and learn more by going here. Rewards include lots of Rusty-related products and artwork, or even your very own Nosego mural.

Photos by RJ Rushmore

OX in Paris

This weekend I’ve been without solid internet access, and Caroline and I have both been knee-deep in exams and final essays for the last week, so here’s a belated link-o-rama…

• The New York Times has a story on Living Walls, centering on the removal of Hyuro’s mural a few months ago and now the removal of Roti’s mural. I hope that this does not dissuade artists or the amazing people behind Living Walls from doing more of the amazing work that they have become known for over the last three and a half years.
• Beau Stanton has a new print at 1xRUN. Just a few hours left on it though.
• And then there’s this Kid Acne print that’s perfect for Christmas.
• Jeff Soto now has his work on t-shirts. Very cool, and at an affordable price.
• Henry Chalfant has a new ebook out in the Apple iBook store with high-res photos of subway cars. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, but it sounds great. The NYTimes has a bit of a preview and the story behind the photos (in case you don’t already kn0w).
• Don’t Fret is always good for a smile or two.
• Remember that Aakash Nihalani piece from last week? Well here’s something similar from Elfo from a couple of years ago.
• On a similar note with that great video of Just that Caroline posted this week, it’s worth remembering KATSU’s instructable from 2007.
• Ripo can paint quite a mural, but sometimes simple is best.
• LNY is back from his trip to Korea, but he left some beautiful work there.
• It’s certainly interesting to see Shamsia Hassani from Afghanistan and El Mac collaborate.

Photo by OX

Jade

It’s the weekend…

• This is not your average train-bombing video.
• Lois Stavsky interviews Stikman.
• Dennis McNett has an open studio this weekend, with some prints available at 25% off.
• Troy Lovegates has a new limited edition book available.
• Aiko, Ron English, Swoon, How & Nosm, Logan Hicks, Kenny Scharf, and Futura are showing work indoors at Wynwood Walls this week in Miami.
• Speaking of Miami, Brooklyn Street Art have a round up of great things to do and see in Miami this week.
• This work from Aakash Nihalani was done during Nuart earlier this fall, and I love it. It’s simple and site specific. Remember, always practice good placement. If you do that, you don’t have to paint 7 stories tall just to catch people’s attention.
• What Are You Doing To Participate looks like a great show of zines opening this week in LA with work from Mel Kadel, Matt Leines, Pez, and many more.
• Sickboy and Word To Mother have a show together in London next Thursday for one-night only.
• In Syria, street art and graffiti can get you killed.

Photo by Jade