Trustocorp

Today I’m finishing my exams and packing up my dorm. Sunday, it’s off to London. Can’t wait. Here’s what I’ve been distracting myself with this week:

• Would you be so kind as to fill out this research survey for a friend of mind about street art, graffiti, and society?
• Anthony Lister is getting up in Miami.
• HBO is airing a documentary about JR’s Inside Out project.
• A painting by Basquiat set an auction record for the artist this week, selling for nearly $50 million.
• A prankster/artist is having some fun with that famous Belgian statue of the child pissing into the fountain.
• Jaybo Monk, Carlos Mare, Remi Rough, Derm, LX One, and Steve More painted a mural in Morocco.
• Tile graffiti (not by Invader or someone whose work is extremely derivative of Invader’s).
• Great balance between abstract graffiti and traditional graffiti from Beside, Spielerei and Erosie.

Photo courtesy of Trustocorp

Roa in London

Happy weekend. Hope you’ve had a less busy week than me.

• Various and Gould spotted this odd but awesome tribute to a piece of graffiti in Berlin.
• Jaz recently visited C215′s town of Vitry, France, where he painted this stunning wall.
• Meanwhile, Anthony Lister is going huge in LA.
• Also on the west coast, Aryz painted one of his best murals to date in San Fransisco.
• In Miami, the city commissioner complains that a mural risks making a neighborhood look like a ghetto. Kinda funny given how muralists have been accused of helping to gentrify Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood.
• Ben Eine is always a joy to watch on camera. A nice, honest guy who just doesn’t feel like giving his friends free paint.
• Mear One and Ben Slow collaborate in LA, and it’s Mear’s first mural with a brush.
• Invader hit London. What do you think about the Star Wars themed piece? It’s not for me.
• Rochester’s Wall Therapy mural project has an IndieGoGo campaign running to try and fund this year’s event.
• A bit late on this one, but tonight the shop/gallery/bookstore Needles and Pens celebrated 10 years of existence with a huge show at The Luggage Store in San Fransisco including work by Know Hope, Deuce Seven, Pez, and so many other talented artists. Luckily, the show is on through June 8th.
• Also late to mention that Martin Whatson had a show opening this week Reed Projects in Stavanger, Norway.

Photo by Unusualimage

Rone

A note from the editor: This is a guest post by Peter Drew, a street artist originally from Adelaide, Australia.

Although Adelaide’s urban art scene is the underdog to Melbourne, its larger and louder interstate cousin, recent years and new blood have seen Adelaide catching up to Melbourne’s lead. Oi You: Urban Art Festival marks a high point for Adelaide as a private collection of 70 works by ‘the worlds urban art megastars’ visits the city, on view now at the Adelaide Festival Centre through June 2nd.

As crowds flock to the glamour and safety of ‘street art’ in a state gallery, Adelaide’s artists are using the exhibition as a catalyst for painting new walls. In addition to Anthony Lister, Rone and Beastman, local artists Kab 101, Jayson Fox, Vans the Omega, Fredrock, Seb Humphreys, Gary Seaman, Shane Cook and Store are contributing to the +12 murals going up across the city. Organised by Matt Stuckey, this aspect of the festival couldn’t have happened a few years ago. “We actually ended up with more walls than resources to paint them this time” says Matt.

Seb Humphreys

Graffiti first hit Adelaide in the mid 80s and its tradition’s continues with most of the artists involved in the Oi You festival. After trying to eradicate graffiti for years The Adelaide City Council now seems to think that street art is the solution to their problem. According to Adelaide’s Mayor: “it’s frustrating that we spend more cleaning up ugly vandalism and graffiti than we do investing in street art…young artists could be tapping into an opportunity that’s going to bring the city to life.” Read the rest of this article »

Anthony Lister visited London last fall and painted quite a few pieces around Shoreditch. The piece pictured above is in a Shoreditch carpark where art is organized by End of the Line, who have just released a nice short film of Lister at work. Check it out:

Photo by Alex Ellison

Anthony Lister in London

It’s almost December, and this December I’m going to be taking a bit of a holiday. For most of the month, Caroline Caldwell is going to be doing most of the writing for Vandalog, while I focus on another project. But, of course, the more important thing about it being almost December is that it means Basel Miami craziness is about to be upon us. Some artists are already in Miami (specifically Wynwood) and painting their murals. Not to piss all over that parade, but I’d like to quote Workhorse of The Underbelly Project. He once said to me, “It’s sorta sad that an entire district of 7-story-tall murals is becoming blasé, but it is.”

• Essam Attia, allegedly the artist behind the NYPD drone ad disruptions of earlier this year (interviewed here) was arrested recently and charged with over 50 charges. I guess the NYPD didn’t take too kindly to a friendly critique. Well, you know… Hopefully Attia gets off without too much trouble.
• Bilos is a bit of a Greek Horfe, so take that for what you will.
• It’s always good news when Kid Acne puts a zine for sale.
• DALeast has a show opening at Jonathan Levine on Saturday evening.
• Why would you carve “S.O.S.” into the ground at a size of 5 km x 1.7 km? Not without good reason.
• Concerned New Yorkers have been distributing some fake parking tickets asking people just what they think of the NYPD.

Photo by Alex Ellison

Chase

The Walls Project is a series of legal spots organized by the folks behind Global Street Art. To date, they’ve organized over fifty of spots in London for local and international artists to paint. A lot of the spots they find are the roll-down shutters for shops in East London. It’s great to know that there are a couple of friendly guys in London who are simply interested in helping artists find more spots to paint and making their daily commutes a bit more interesting. You can see more of the walls and a map here.

A side note: Global Street Art are currently working on releasing their first book through Unbound, a sort of Kickstarter for books.

Here are a few of my favorites shutter pieces from The Walls Project:

2Rise and Gris

Ador

Roma

Read the rest of this article »

Anthony Lister has a show opening this week with Lazarides / The Outsiders spanning both of The Outsiders’ locations (London and Newcastle). While in the UK for the show, titled Unslung Heroes, he’s stayed busy by painting a bunch of walls. They can all be seen, along with a few older Lister pieces, on Ian Cox’s fickr. Unslung Heroes opens on Thursday in both London and Newcastle.

Photo by AdversMedia

We’ve got 5 issues of Very Nearly Almost magazine’s latest issue to send off to Vandalog readers. I’ve been a fan of VNA since around the time I started Vandalog, and it’s a magazine that I always recommend as an alternative to Hi-Fructose and Juxtapoz.

For issue 19, they’ve got a great cover article on Anthony Lister, as well as interviews with Twoone, Remed and others. As it tends to be with VNA, my personal favorite part of this issue is not what you might expect (the interviews) but their photos of graffiti and street art in Newcastle. Of course the interviews are great too, particularly Lister’s.

We’ve got 5 copies of VNA issue 19 up for grabs, just answer this question in the comments: What country is Anthony Lister from? Out of those who answer correctly, 5 will be selected at random and sent a copy of the magazine. Answer by noon East Coast time on Saturday, September 8th. We’ll notify the winners via email shortly after that.

Photos courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

Stephen Powers, who has a show coming up at Joshua Liner Gallery

There are a lot of shows coming up soon worth checking out. Here are some of I wish I could check out in person…

• This week, the Iranian brothers Icy and Sot will have their first New York solo show, and it’s only open this Thursday through Saturday. Made in Iran will be at Openhouse, 379 Broome Street, New York.
• Lush also has a show opening in NYC this weekend. His will be a show of drawings at Klughaus Gallery. It opens on August 25th from 6-10pm. Lush’s show are practically a place to expect surprises, so best get their opening night before a blog like this one ruins the shock value for you on Sunday. If you do miss opening night, the show runs through September 7th.
• Next month, Stephen Powers aka ESPO will have his first New York solo show in over 7 years. A Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures opens September 7th from 6-9pm at Joshua Liner Gallery.
• Galo Art Gallery in Turin has a great two-man show coming up with Bue and Chase. Brothers from Different Mothers opens September 9th from 5:30-9pm.
• aMBUSH Gallery in Sydney, Australia has a big group show coming up with 67 artists including Anthony Lister, Askew, Does, Numskull, Vexta and The Yok. For Black and White All In Between, all the artists have painted on canvases of uniform sized and only used black ink. The show opens on August 31st from 6-9pm.
• Jonathan Levine Gallery‘s next three solo shows open on September 8th and you will not want to miss any of them: Judith Supine, Audrey Kawasaki, and Jeff Soto. All three shows open from 7-9pm on the 8th. And speaking of Levine, I caught their current show earlier this week and it is great. Go it see before it closes.
• Gold Peg’s Release The Wolves go-karting project in South London will have a gran-prix expo on September 1st. It’s gonna be some crazy and fun stuff. And art too, but I think that’s secondary.
• Shepard Fairey is finally showing those paintings he did for Neil Young’s latest album. The few pieces I’ve seen photos of are impressive. Americana opens at Perry Rubenstein Gallery (which recently moved to LA) on August 25th from 7-10pm.
• Finally, this last one is a mural festival, and it promises to be a big one… This year’s Urban Forms festival in Lodz, Poland includes Os Gemeos, Aryz, Inti, Otecki, Lump and Shida. Certainly the most-anticipated work of Urban Forms is the promised collaborative mural between Os Gemeos and Aryz. The events run from August 24th through September 30th and will bring the total number of murals organized in Lodz by the Urban Forms Foundation to 22. I can’t wait to see the photos of these pieces.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Liner Gallery

Morning Breath

One of the coolest spots in Manhattan’s Lower East Side/Chinatown neighborhood is the Klughaus Gallery, as it features some of the best graffiti and street art to be found anywhere. I haven’t been getting down there often enough, but when in the neighborhood earlier today, I dropped by. And it couldn’t have been a more perfect time, as the gallery was getting ready for Thursday evening’s Australia’s “Kingbrown Magazine” / Launch and Opening Exhibition. Curated by Fountain’s John Leo and Melissa McCaig-Welles in collaboration with Kingbrown and Morning Breath, the exhibit features a range of wondrous works. Here are some favorites:

Beastman

Reka

Anthony Lister

The Yok

Daek

More about the wonderful Kingbrown Magazine – that I’ve only recently discovered – in a future post.

Photos by Sara Mozeson & Lois Stavsky