There have been two very interesting interviews with gallery owners to go online in the last week.
First, Juxtapoz post a three-part profile/interview with Jonathan LeVine (of Jonathan LeVine Gallery). Here’s part one, and links to parts two and three are at the bottom of each post in the series. Before reading these, I knew that LeVine had been in the art game for a while and had to taste, but the Juxtapoz profile explains exactly how that all came together, which is pretty interesting.
And on Wednesday, The Shooting Gallery blog posted a Q&A with gallery owner Justin Giarla. Okay, yeah, that’s going to be a bit of a puff piece, but so is just about every art or music-related interview ever. With three galleries now, Justin has his own little empire in San Fransisco, but somehow he still manages to sell great art and be cool guy.
So Banksy is on the cover of Time Out London this week, which is pretty awesome of Time Out, and Banksy seems to be acknowledging that he has been embraced by the most gentrified segments of society, which is pretty honest of Banksy.
The real treat is inside the magazine though. Banksy has been interviewed by Ossian Ward, the editor of Time Out London’s art section. The full interview has been posted online, and here are some excerpts:
What’s this battle with Robbo and Drax all about, then?
‘I didn’t deliberately start a battle with Robbo – have you seen the size of him? In the ’90s him and Drax were infamous enough that we’d even heard about them in Bristol. The truth is I didn’t paint over a piece that said ìRobboî, I painted over a piece that said “nrkjfgrekuh”. But either way, I don’t buy into the idea a wall “belongs” to a certain writer, or anyone else for that matter.
…
Can street art ever be shown in a gallery?
‘I don’t know if street art ever really works indoors. If you domesticate an animal, it goes from being wild and free to sterile, fat and sleepy. So maybe the art should stay outside. Then again, some old people get a lot of comfort from having a pet around the house.
‘It’s hard to capture the adrenaline of street painting when you’re in a nicely lit studio with the kettle on. Maybe the people who steal graffiti off walls are on to something – the edge is still there. But those people are funny – they ask me for a letter of authentication saying I painted a certain piece, but that’s basically a signed confession on headed notepaper.’
…
What do you make of the financial value of your works? Do you mind people trading them like property or luxury goods?
‘My lawyer’s opinion is that the cops might not actually be able to charge me with criminal damage any more – because theoretically my graffiti actually increases the value of property rather than decreasing it. That’s his theory, but then my lawyer also believes wearing novelty cartoon ties is a good look.’
The Citrus Report recently posted a Q&A with California graffiti artist Augor. He’s a really interesting character.
TCR: You are an extremely active graffiti writer in Los Angeles. What is the atmosphere like down there these days? Who is getting up, who is making waves, in your opinion?
Los Angeles has always been the area where shit cracks. We do more, shine harder, and floss harder in every form of our lifestyle. It’s the city where stars are made so naturally being a graffiti writer in this town you adorn that same attitude of “making it.” MSK which is the crew that I represent has always had a choke-hold on the city and doesn’t seem like were going to be letting go anytime soon. If I had to name anyone besides us, I’d say my friend TANK, APEAR, and DR.SEX.
TCR: You are making a transition to gallery work, especially with the elaborate show at FIFTY24LA Gallery. The funny thing is, your work on the street was so elaborate and unique that it was hard not to consider it fine art. How is the approach different?
I’m approaching a larger audience. One that hasn’t seen me grow from a toy into whatever people consider is so great about me now. I’m not approaching the transition like “Okay, I have to bring my street shit into a gallery and try to fit my name on a square canvas.” I take it as a chance to re-create my vision in a new way that fits the space. I don’t want kids to think I’m changing up what I stood for. Some might not like the shift, but I think its good to play 2 fields at once. It’s kinda like a kid who has a loving family that trusts and adores him then he grows up and moves out. The outside world doesn’t know shit about you and its up to you to prove that all the positive shit your mom said about you was true.
I Love Graffiti has posted two great interviews this week. The first is with graffiti legend Taki183 and the second is with Robbo (of fighting with Banksy fame).
With Taki183:
Taki, where did you grow up?
I grew up in Washington Heights, moved there when I was a little kid. A lot of Greeks at the time stayed with the Greeks, then that changed with the Heights, the183th street, hung out with everybody and it was a pretty nice place to grow up.
Is it safe to say Washington Heights was the birthplace of modern graffiti in New York City?
I would say the east side of Manhattan was the birthplace of graffiti because that’s where the media picked it up. They couldn’t give a crap what happened in Washington Heights or the Bronx. When it happened on the east side, that’s when it was in the paper.
When you started writing graffiti, what were you calling it? Did you call it tagging or writing?
I think we were calling it writing, but if we saw a subway car we would say, “Let’s go hit the car.” If you hit it from end to end, you’d “kill the car”— that was how we talked Part of the reason it became big during the summer of ’70 is because I was going to summer school at George Washington High School and my desk was full of graffiti. I had written my name and all these people would write on my table also. I already had a name and people were meeting me and they would go out and write. That was the big summer I was working as a messenger. I was in a lot of places and I just kept writing; as long as I had a marker I’d keep writing. It was addictive.
You were doing this solely for the purpose of writing your name?
And with Robbo (which was actually the English translation of an interview done for a Hungarian blog):
When did you start writing graffiti, and what did inspire you?
Robbo: Back in the late 70″s and early 80′ i was a young skinhead writing on wall’s before i new what graffiti was. About 1983 i had seen graff on tv. films ie; the worriers, at about that time i noticed a tag named KOSH and realized that he was a writer a well and thats where it all began.
How did you tell your parents, that you’d like to do this? What was their reaction?
Robbo: My mum was cool about it as graff was not the social problem that it is today. I never lived with my dad but when i see him he always said he new i was ok coz he See my name everywhere.
How did you feel, and what did you paint on your very first painting?
Robbo: My first piece was of (THE MASTER ROBBO) with a ghostbusters character. I felt very prod and excited.
What names and crews have you painted so far? When and how did your current crew founded, and what does it’s name stand for?
Robbo: ROBBO,ROB484,ROBSTER and ROBER. WRH (we rock hard.1986 till now)
WD (world domination. 1987 till now). PFB (only crew members are allowed to know what it stands for. 1989 till now ). My first crew was THE ART MASTERS (1984‐86).
Thanks to Inspire at Inspire Collective for interviewing me about street art. Here’s a snippet:
“RJ, tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into appreciate graffiti, street, and public art in general?”
My dad actually got me into the whole scene. He came home from work one day almost two years ago and asked me if I knew about some guys called Faile. He’d bought a print by them. Neither of us had been seriously interested in art before that, but we both fell in love with the world of street art and haven’t looked back since. Right now I’m taking a gap year before heading off to university next fall, and street art is the overarching theme for my year.
“Its always good to see another public art site out there appreciating independent artists, how did Vandalog begin?”
I started Vandalog about 1 year ago as a way to keep up to date on street art news and increase my involvement with the street art community. Because I post something every day, I always have to be on the look out for news or something interesting to write about, and when I go to gallery openings or visit another city, I can reach out to artists or blog readers and immediately I have some connections in that city who can tell me all the cool things to do. And of course, it’s a great way to help promote my friends’ projects.
Hrag Vartanian has a really interesting interview on Hyperallergic with Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign, the organizer of the New York Street Advertising Takeover (NYSAT) (as mentioned previously). Here’s a snippet:
Hrag Vartanian: Is the NYSAT campaign an art or activist project or both?
Jordan Seiler: Activism informed by art and the artistic process. Sometimes it takes a few hundred artists to move the law forward
HV: If it’s art, what would you consider the aesthetics of the project?
JS: Aesthetics? I don’t think this is visual as much as about mental clarity.
HV: Were you surprised that the advertisers were able to react as fast as they did this time to the street project? Most of the ads didn’t last through the day, did they?
JS: No. Many location saw ads go up a mere hour afterward.
HV: That’s incredible. How are these illegal ad companies able to avoid arrests for their illegal activities, while activists who are covering the same space with non-corporate ads aren’t?
JS: I am not sure. But I did call the cops while they were posting ads on Sunday and they did not listen to my complaint about them not having permits. I think it speaks to the fact that the city is ready to defend the private over the public.
A little more than a week ago, I had the wonderful delight of receiving Steve Harrington from Brooklyn Street Art into my home, my city and my school. The product of that spontaneous, short but undeniably sweet visit to Baltimore and the studio has been published on the BSA blog in two parts! Check it out, pass it on and share it!
Brooklyn Street Art: So what’s the best part about making street art?
Gaia: So this is obviously a question that I’ve tried to investigate throughout my entire process, beginning at an extremely basic place when I first started, and I have to constantly revisit it. What’s the best part of making street work? I always have to investigate my motive and if there is a process from conceptualizing to composing to drawing to putting it up to viewing the reception, .. If, in any of those steps I’m not really deriving a sense of fulfillment, that can be problematic. I have to always come back to these different steps and say “what’s going on here?” Honestly sometimes I consider my process kind of arduous. Sometimes it’s a real struggle for me. It’s cathartic but it’s not perfect or pure, it’s not what I enjoy. It’s a constant fight with the medium, with myself, with my concept, my intuition.
A little more than a week ago, I had the wonderful delight of receiving Steve Harrington from 
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