El Decertor

Thanks to spending the weekend in NYC for Skewville’s show at Factory Fresh (on now and great), I am late with this week’s link-o-rama. Nonetheless, here it is:

• When David Choe painted Facebook’s offices back in 2005, he was given two options: He could either take a couple thousand dollars as payment, or stock in the company. He chose the stock. Assuming that Choe has held onto that stock, the New York Times estimates that Choe may be worth $200 millions pretty soon. So of course, Choe ended up on the front page of the NYTimes and is being written about all over the web, but he is also a talented artist. Here’s some of what he painted in Facebook’s offices (he just painted their new offices as well) and here’s what Choe and a few friends got up to in Denver recently.
• Eloquent Vandals, a film about the Nuart festival, is now streaming online.
• Ron English has two great new sculptures that are well-worth checking out: Fat Tony (the tiger) which will be for sale as a toy and Hulk Obama, which looks like a customization by Ron that may or may not ever be for sale.
• Another great wall by Phlegm in Sheffield.
• Dabs and Myla have a touching Christmas tradition (now let’s get a fun discussion going in the comments about the ethics/humility of making a video about that tradition).
• This collaboration between Reka, Ghostpatrol and TwoOne turned out really nicely.

Photo by El Decertor

Laurence Billiet sent over this photo of a piece she spotted in Paris, referencing Damien Hirst’s spot paintings. Hirst’s spot paintings have currently taken over all 11 Gagosian galleries in 8 countries. While some people may think that Hirst may be a lazy artist making art for lazy people, so far three people (including Tanley Wong of Arrested Motion) have completed the “spot challenge” and visited all 11 exhibits, so at least some of Hirst’s fans are pretty driven.

On a similar note, Kaws released a new toy this week.

Photo by Laurence Billiet

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

The latest KAWS toy is available today at 1pm Eastern time. This three colored edition figure is nowhere near some of the artist’s best figurative and the whole idea reeks of shameless self-promotion, but it’s still a cute addition to any toy collection. It reminds of the Hello Kitty Dunny’s or a surprisingly well done McDonald’s toy. I would much rather this than a Scooby-Doo kaleidoscope.

MILO can only be purchased at http://www.kawsone.com. Well, at least until it goes on Ebay tomorrow.

Photos by KAWS One

Like the guys at Very Nearly Almost, I’m not a toy collector on the level that some are, but I still love this new Buff Monster toy, The Destroyer. Hell, I’m not even a big fan of Buff Monster. Still, he seems to do it right when it comes to toys, and this is no exception. This colorway of The Destroyer will be available exclusively on Buff Monster’s website on Thursday.

Photo courtesy of Buff Monster

Three color variations of the latest Kaws companion are up for sale on the artist’s site. Designed in conjunction with Robert Lazzarini, the 8″ toys retail for $180 and will surely sell out. The melting design is really innovative, and in my opinion, are some of the best sculptural work I have seen yet. Certainly a bit more interesting than a play on a Disney or Looney Tunes characters.

After procrastinating and procrastinating about writing this post, I missed Hanukkah and Eid, so I guess this is a gift guide for Christmas. Sorry for the delay.

Here are a few street art related products that have come out in the last year or so that I think are pretty cool. If you’re looking for a last-minute holiday gift for the street art obsessive in your life, hopefully this will help…

• DB Burkeman’s book Stickers: Stuck Up Piece of Crap is one of the best art books I have ever read. I cannot recommend it highly enough if you have even a passing interest in stickers. If you buy one thing off this list, it should probably be this book. The photo at the top of this post is for the deluxe edition which comes with signed stickers, but that version doesn’t come cheap.

• Laser 3.14 recently made the above t-shirt. It’s available online for about 25.95 euros plus shipping. Over the summer, I listened to The Kinks way too much, so this phrase couldn’t be better.

• Now, the flip side of that anti-fashion comment, I want to remind everyone that Vandalog still has shirts available from Gaia, Troy Lovegates and Faro. These very limited edition shirts are $30 each and you can buy them online.
• Martha Cooper’s latest book is Name Tagging, a book about the Hello My Name Is stickers and graffiti. Personally, I prefer Going Postal, her book about postal stickers, but Name Tagging is a good quick read too. It has brief interviews with Twist, Sure, Cost and others plus plenty of photos.
• These Buff Monster plush toys are on sale for $12.00 right now. Very cute.
• If you want a unique iPhone case, either Incase or Uncommon seem like good options. Incase has that Jose Parla iPhone case and Uncommon let’s you customize your own case with designs from a number of artists including David Ellis, Dennis McNett and MQ.
• I’ve only just started to read Trespass, but I’ve heard from others that it is a great book.

Or, if you’re a street artist, you could go out on Christmas, brave the cold, and do some art. Give a gift to the rest of us. Not enough street art happens in the winter months.

I’m a HUGE fan of Jeff Soto and having already had the opportunity to interview him a long time ago, I can safely say I’m a fan for life. There was also that one time when I stood next to him at the opening of his debut UK solo exhibition and didn’t have the balls to say hello, but let’s not talk about that! Instead lets talk about Maxx242 vs. Jeff Soto; a new collaborative project between the two artists and longtime friends which will focus on releasing limited edition items such as toys, skate decks, apparel and prints. The project also includes two limited edition decks made for REAL Skateboards (seen above), both made in limited quantities. The boards (which will have a special coinciding Bearbrick Toy for special release at Unit in Tokyo, Japan) were both made at a quantity of 200, with 50 of each going straight to Japan, so only 150 will be available in the US!

Maxx242 and Soto have worked together on various projects over the past 20 years and have always pushed each other to progress as artists and more importantly, they share a deep respect for one another. Now they are joining forces again to make some cool shit for the world!

For the first time in 11 years, Obey will release his second toy to date. In conjunction with Strange Co., Mr. Spray is a physical manifestation of a 2004 print edition of Shepard Fairey’s, which he took from an advertising design from the 1950′s. The figure comes in 4 colors (black, red, silver, and gold) and will each respectively be sold through select retailers, Strange Co,, and the Obey website. To see more pictures and decide which toy you are going to buy (I want gold) head to www.strangeco.com/mrspray

Mr. Spray black

Mr, Spray gold

Photos courtesy of ObeyGiant

Looks like Giant Robot’s GR2 store in LA will be a Buff Monster fan’s paradise on Saturday. Buff Monster has brought together almost 50 artists to customize blank Buff Monster toys. And the list of artists is impressive. I can’t wait to see what Flying Fortress, Skinner, Tristan Eaton, The London Police, Travis Louie and so many other talented people have come up with.

Speaking of Buff Monster, he’s been putting up some posters in LA recently:

Photo by Reserve Result