Drawing for the Masses is a group show of about a dozen international street showing, not just any drawings, but personal drawings and prepatory sketches that would be the blueprints for eventual murals. While a rough sketch of an existing mural may not seem that exiting, 999 Gallery assures you that these works are sometimes more precious to the artist than the public work since these were not intended for others to see. So, stop by to see see the personal work of 108, AndrecoBorondo, Gaia, 2501, Guy Denning, Hitnes, Lucamaleonte, Martina Merlini, Moneyless, Ozmo and Tellas.

The show opened last night in Rome’s 999 Gallery.

2501′s first solo show in the states, at Soze Gallery in Los Angeles, opened last week. While he was in LA, 2501 met up with Tim Hans for the latest in our continuing series of photo-portraits of artists by Tim Hans, and I asked 2501 a few question about his work.

RJ: How do your indoor and outdoor works relate to one another?

2501: My whole body of work is connected. That’s also one of the subjects of my first solo in USA “see you on the other side”. I see my work as a full circle where I’m trying to bring what I learn from muralism into the video or into the sculptures and vice versa. The connection from the inside and the outside is the way I approach problems. Art is definitely also problem solving. I think that art is all a matter of experimenting with new ways of saying things, new languages, research.

RJ: Why do you paint outside?

2501: I don’t know why I paint outside, it just happens and now it is too late. I can’t stop anymore. I come from scientific school and then film school so I learned to paint by doing graffiti outside. My mother use always to say that graffiti is a kind of sport and painting together… plus adventures I will say.. so the perfect mix body and mind.

RJ: How important is documentation for you? Would you be happy to just paint something and leave it, or is documentation part of your artistic process?

2501: Documentation is important. As a collector (I collect zines, comics, old strange stuff, etc) I was always involved in collecting pictures of what we did from film to digital. A lot of my friends ask me for picture from 10 years ago because they know I have them.

RJ: Can you talk about your thinking behind your Dynamic Influence wall from last fall?

2501: Dynamic Influence is a wall that change with the light. The all concept is about transformation. All the things that we look at are not the same twice. I’m preparing other work with the same or similar concept of changing.

RJ: Where does the number 2501 come from?

2501: 2501 is the number of my rebirth as an artist and also the date of founding of Sao Paulo in Brasil, my second hometown.

Photos by Tim Hans

2501 has his first LA solo show opening later this month at Soze Gallery in Los Angeles. 2501 has very quickly become a must-have artist on the global mural festival circuit, and so I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of new work from him this summer, but his indoor work is equally breathtaking. The show, See you on the other side, opens DATE. Soze Gallery will follow up 2501′s show with a solo show from his friend Pixelpancho in June.

2501 also sent me this text to serve as an introduction to the show. It is written from the perspective of Gargamella, the villain from The Smurfs:

How many lines (circles) (shapes) did I paint (draw), altogether?

The question seems plain. Indeed, actual numbers are often given. But they disagree and – other than variants of “many”- most of them are meaningless because they give equal weight to flea-rabbit and horse-elephant.

The circle shape (form) and its content (lines or void or macchie) discourage the search for a single numerical answer.

With minimal aesthetic of the monotone use of color (variations of black and white with glance of gold and fluo steam) 2.501 questions the deeper meaning of a propensity toward abstraction and toward infinity.

Playing hide and seek with lines and into circles, 2501 creates a vast moving image pervaded by dialectic between seriality –(reality) and disruption, between repetition and variation. (Roughness and smoothness)

Lines highlight the dynamics of graphic influences trough a constant evocative crescendo of juxtaposing and layering; video, tools, images and sounds trace a living path that weaves between explosions and silence, devastation and contemplation, (rise and fall).

Acting as a portal to somewhere else and as a threshold to the exhibition, the circles reveal a process of hidden connections and cuts, became a bridge without linear shape through which the comprehension of the ways of seeing are challenged. Evolving (animated) surface suggest vertiginous ways of experiencing / seeing/ visualizing, according to the point of view that sight is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around itself, constituting what is present to people as they are.

How many circle (lines) (shape) will I paint (draw), altogether? I don’t know but I keep looking for (looking at- we only see what we look at) an infinite (we never look at just one thing) numerical answer. Because the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. And the aim has been to start a process of questioning.

(to look is an act of choice and a process)

Photo courtesy of 2501

2501 has a solo show, Vajrapani, on view now at Elastico Studio in Bologna, Italy. The show runs through February 9th, and anyone who goes to visit is someone I will be extremely jealous of. It looks like this much-hyped artist really met the challenge of meeting and actually exceeding expectations in his first solo show since becoming so popular for his outdoor work. With Vajrapani, 2501 seems to have managed juxtaposing the mad rawness of graffiti and city walls with traditional fine art precision and beauty without coming of as the least bit corny, something which would have been all too easy.

More photos after the jump. Some of 2501′s art might not be safe for work though, so consider yourself warned. Read the rest of this article »

Tellas and Ciredz

Looks like the art world has gotten back on track after the holiday season. Lots of links this week.

• Over at Complex.com, I wrote about the 10 (well, actually 12) street artists that I think people should be watching for in 2013.
• Rae, one of the artists on that list of mine, has a solo show opening at Signal Gallery in London later this month.
• Broken Fingaz are also on that same list, and it looks like they have some new work up in London.
• Sten and Lex get up in an ancient church.
• I’d never heard of Kraser Tres before, but damn can he paint.
• And so can Sokram.
• Faile are working on a huge project with the New York City Ballet. It sounds like a bit of a strange collaboration at first, but I’m excited to see the results. It seems like this has given Faile an opportunity to develop new work in a direction that they would have otherwise never gone, and the results that have been teased so far look strong.
• 2501 has a show opening this month in Bologna.
• A lot of Rammellzee’s work is on display now at New York’s Children’s Museum of the Arts.
• There’s some great work available in the Iron To Gold/Ashes To Hope benefit auction which will help to fund an artist residency program in Detroit.
• Here’s a nice video of Kid Zoom at work.
• I might have asked this question before, but can someone please explain the appeal of Barry McGee’s recent Brooklyn mural to me? The first of the videos here has some info about it, but I need more. McGee has previously stated his objections to painting so-call beautifying murals. The only time in recent memory that I can recall seeing anything similar to the Brooklyn mural is the one he painted a few years ago in Miami, but even that piece included a fair bit of traditional graffiti. Plus, the Brooklyn mural was painted by the billboard painting company Colossal. I’ve got no problem with artist assistants or anything like that, but the whole thing strikes me as McGee just saying “Sure, if Cadillac wants to pay me a bunch of money to license one of my images and hire someone else to paint it on a building, I’ll take that paycheck.” And hey, more power to the guy if he can get Cadillac to pay him for that, but is that all that’s going on here or am I missing something? Has McGee’s philosophy about public art changed?

Photo by Tellas

Ever, 2501, Pixelpancho and (below) El Topo. Photo courtesy of Ever. Click to view large.

This recent collaboration in Miami includes some of 2012′s breakthrough street artists sharing a wall: Ever, 2501, and Pixelpancho, plus a base (although I don’t have a good photo of this part of the wall unfortunately) by El Topo.

Ever. Photo courtesy of Ever.

2501. Photo courtesy of Ever. Click to view large.

Pixelpancho. Photo courtesy of Ever.

El Topo with 2501 at work. Photo by Wil Hughes.

Photos courtesy of Ever and by Wil Hughes

2501

Two frequent collaborators, 2501 and James Kalinda, produced these pieces this week in an abandoned factory in Parma, Italy (the work above was just 2501 and the figure below was a collaboration between the two). It’s a little morbid, but it works and 2501′s bird head is a great effect.

2501 and James Kalinda

2501 and James Kalinda

Photos by 2501

In collaboration with Fountain Art Fair and Samson Contompasis’ The Marketplace Gallery, the people of Living Walls have been given 175 ft. of wall space to divvy out amongst artists at Fountain. From December 6 to the 9th, 22 street artists including Rone, LNY, Trek Mathews, Jaz, Ever, Dal East, Faith47, Pixel Pancho, Never 2501, Joe Iurato and more will be painting Fountain’s outdoor courtyard.

The rise in success of Living Walls over the last 3 years has been fascinating to watch. This is their second year at Miami Basel but their first year there curating walls. Indoors they’ll have a booth, showing the works of a few international artists like La Pandilla, Interesni Kazki, and some of the artists listed above, as well as a few Atlanta favorites. Definitely looking forward to seeing their contribution.

Video courtesy of Living Walls

Click to view large

2501 painted this simple and beautiful mural recently in Sarasota, Florida at their Chalk Festival. Pixelpancho also painted at the festival.

Photos by 2501

Pixelpancho and 2501. Photo by Elisabetta Riccio. Click to view large.

Pixelpancho and 2501 were recently in the Navajo Nation region of Arizona for the latest round of The Painted Desert Project, which has previously brought Gaia, Overunder, and others to the region. Here’s what Pixelpancho and 2501 managed to paint:

Pixelpancho. Photo by Elisabetta Riccio. Click to view large.

2501. Photo by Elisabetta Riccio. Click to view large.

Read the rest of this article »