Lydia Fong and HuskMitNavn in Belgium

Lydia Fong, aka Barry McGee, and HuskMitNavn have a two-man show opening on March 25th at the ALICE Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels called The Last Night. Should be awesome. I think that’s about all I need to say. Hopefully I’ll take a train over for the opening and take lots of photos.

Random Coolness

Time for some links to other blog’s cool posts:

• Arrested Motion has some photos from the Keith Haring 20th Anniversary show at Tony Shafrazi Gallery.
• Alison from Images To Live By has posted an insightful essay on Jenny Holzer, after seeing Holzer speak at an event recently. Lucky her. Holzer is one of the most often ignored street artists, because her early illegal posters have been largely overshadowed by her more recent works which fall more into the realms of fine art and public art.
• The World’s Best Ever has taken photos of a copy of Hoss, an exhibition catalog for a Barry McGee show from 1999.

Barry McGee at SFMOMA

Photo by telmo32

Okay, I am way late on this, but I was talking to somebody last night at The High Roller Society and they reminded me that Barry McGee is currently part of a show at the SFMOMA. Above is a pic of his massive installation. Steve Rhodes has dozens more pictures on the piece on his flickr.

London’s February auctions

On February 11th-13th, Sotheby’s Christie’s and Phillips de Pury will all have auctions in London which include a fair amount of street art. Here’s a selection of most of that work.

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction. February 11th, from 2pm.

• Lot 230: Untitled by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Estimated £70-90,000
  RJ’s thoughts – Meh. It’s an okay sketch. For the £70,000 estimate, wouldn’t you rather have a kickass José Parlá?
• Lot 233: Kate Moss by Banksy. Estimated £25-35,000
  RJ’s thoughts – I’m not a fan of the Kate Moss prints, but I seem to be the only one in the world who isn’t. Also, how cool is it that Sotheby’s gets the joke has lots 232 and 234 are both by Warhol?
• Lot 284: Bomb Hugger by Banksy. Estimated £25-35,000
  RJ’s thoughts – Usually I don’t like the poorly executed original works that Banksy made around this time, but this one I love for some reason.
• Lot 285: Amoured Car by Banksy. Estimated £25-35,000
  RJ’s thoughts – Pretty much the same as my thoughts on Bomb Hugger, except that the reason I like this piece is the title.

Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction. February 12th.

• Lot 269: Untitled (Robots Amaze) by Barry McGee. Estimated £30-40,000
  Elisa’s thoughts – Both this piece and Lot 271 could be tough sells as they are not “typical” McGee works, plus they’re installations, but this one is certainly fun. It’s not for me, but I have to admit that it’s a cool piece to observe in person – it has that eerie aura to it that all animatronics have. But how does one get the tag on the wall? Does Barry come over and do it for you himself? That would be cool. Otherwise, how does the piece work? I’ll also add that it is interesting to see both this lot and Untitled (Car Boot) at auction – whether you like the work or not, it shows the wider art world that Barry’s scope is greater than his gorgeous trademark clusters and individual portrait pieces.
  RJ’s thoughts – From what I hear, the piece doesn’t come with the “Amaze” tag, and if you want one, you have to paint it yourself. That is so disappointing. This will only sell to a museum or somebody who wants to donate it to a museum, if it sells at all.
• Lot 270: You Told That Joke Twice by Banksy. Estimated £100-150,000
  Elisa’s thoughts – This is a strong, intelligent piece from Banksy. The estimate is high, considering the market, but it’s a big piece and I hope it performs well as it shows Banksy off at his best. I love it.
  RJ’s thoughts – Yeah it’s a high estimate, but as Elisa says, it’s quite a big painting. And it’s one of my all time favorite Banksy’s. Definitely one of his strongest works. And in terms of the art market, it definitely helps that this piece was in Banksy’s book “Wall and Piece” and that it’s a total one-off.
• Lot 271: Untitled (Car Boot) by Barry McGee. Estimated £15-20,000
  Elisa’s thoughts – This works as a cool installation piece within a larger exhibition context and links to the great larger car installations Barry is known for, but on its own it looks a bit dead and pretentious. It should go to a museum, some other kind of institution, or else a McGee fanatic who owns hundreds of pieces and can put lots of other work around it to give it the life it deserves.
  RJ’s thoughts – I think that a museum could do better, maybe will a full car, but a really ambitious collector with some McGee clusters already could make this piece the centerpiece of their collection.

Phillips de Pury Evening Sale: Contemporary Art. February 13th.

• Lot 18: Cash Crop by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Estimated £600-900,000
  Elisa’s thoughts – This is an interesting piece because it reflects an important period in Basquiat’s history. It’s a very introspective, personal piece, which makes for a tension that appeals to me, but it’s not his strongest work.
  RJ’s thoughts – Agreed, it’s not his strongest work. I wouldn’t care if this was on my wall or not, except for the fact that it was painted by Basquiat. “Year of the Boar” sold at Phillips de Pury back in October for £1.1 million, and that painting looked 10x better to me.
• Lot 19: Vandalised oil #001 by Banksy. Estimated £60-80,000
  Elisa’s thoughts – This is an iconic crude oil from Banksy. If you’re a fan of Banksy and like this series, I say go for it.
  RJ’s thoughts – Pricing for Banksy’s crude oils can be so screwy that it’s nearly impossible to know what a fair market price is, but this is definitely one of the better ones.

Phillips de Pury Day Sale: Contemporary Art. February 13th.

• Lot 138: Two works – Untitled by Kaws. Estimated £10-15,000
  Elisa’s thoughts – In my opinion, there is no artistic merit in works like these. The estimate is about right, but it’s beyond me why someone would pay that for them.
  RJ’s thoughts – I’m not a Kaws collector, but we all know one (or are one). For Kaws fanatics, these two pieces would be great additions to a collection. But yeah, otherwise, who else cares? They’re just his skulls by themselves. It’s more like buying a Nike logo, not an OBEY Giant poster.

RJ’s final thoughts – Overall, wow. Maybe not all of these pieces are amazing, but the artists are all top-tier. There are no unproven street artists in these sales.

The Deitch Projects booth at Basel Miami

I did not spend nearly enough time at Basel Miami this year, but I did have a chance to stop by the Deitch Projects booth, because they are amazing. Here’s some of what I saw (though I think one of those Keith Haring pieces is from another gallery):

Video from Babelgum

Welcome to Miami

Seth and I haven’t even been in Miami twenty-four hours yet, but I wanted to quickly share a few of the things we’ve seen so far. There’s still time to buy a plane ticket if you haven’t already – this year is going to be one of the best yet and you don’t want to miss it. The piece above is by Nina, one of the artists participating in Deitch’s Wynwood Walls. osgemeos are beginning their work alongside her below (that’s Otavio in the pic).

A block away is the Barry McGee building.

Then Shepard’s wall, the first of several he’ll be working on in Miami.

Then there’s the main complex; when we were there last night, Nunca, Aiko and Clare Rojas were hard at work.

Then there’s SCOPE, not too far down the street. This is the Vandalog fair! Gaia’s piece is looking amazing outside.

And here’s a peek at our booth, #127. Just waiting for Nunca’s piece to come back from the framers, then we’re ready to hang!

Bodega’s wall vinyl artworks

Bodega looks cool. I might have to get one of the McGee or Rostarr pieces for my room. Prices are pretty good, but the fact that the pieces can’t be reapplied is a bit annoying.

The press release:

We are proud to announce the launch of Bodega™ Wall Vinyl.

Bodega™ is a curated collection of large scale, eco-friendly, temporary indoor art. The concept is to make the art of emerging and established artists alike, affordable and available to the public. Each piece is delivered as a complete package for the consumer and includes a ready-to-apply art piece and tools for installation. Obsessed with process, Bodega creates high quality, layered die-cut vinyl art editions; representing some of the most captivating artists of our generation.

We use eco-friendly inks and vinyl to create layered die-cut, gallery quality vinyl that can be applied to any flat surface. The vinyl is low-tack and can be removed without damaging the wall; however, the art work cannot be reapplied to a surface after removal. Bodega’s intrinsic characteristic is to retain the divide between the original art and our editions, encouraging consumers to continue exploring their living environment by embracing new art in everyday life. Our packaging is made from 70-100% post-consumer recycled paper. Our vinyl, with an indoor life expectancy of at least 5 years, is low-impact on the environment through strategic engineering design to maximize energy efficiency and eliminate harmful emissions through recycling and reuse.

Bodega™ is available online at Arkitip.com and worldwide at select accounts including Colette Paris (www.colette.fr)

Bodega™ will also be available at the Scope Art Fair “Covet Garden” during Art Basel Miami Dec 2-6, 2009. (www.scope-art.com)

Artists in Bodega™ include:

Barry Mcgee, Clare Rojas, Cleon Peterson, Cody Hudson, Darcel, Delta, Harsh Patel, Hisham Bharoocha, Kevin Lyons, Kenzo Minami, Maya Hayuk, Michael Leon, Mike Giant, Rostarr, Steven Harrington, Surface to Air, Wood Wood, and more.

Bodega™ will release a new artist periodically every month and Arkitip.com will release new offerings in conjunction with Bodega™.

Preview: Murals in Miami

This year the art fairs in Miami are going to be complimented with two massive mural projects.

First, the classic: Primary Flight came out with their promo video yesterday. PF have been doing a mural project in Miami for a few years, and their line up is a grab bag of awesomeness with artists like Ron English, The London Police, Logan Hicks and Revok. Here’s the video:

Primary Flight 2009 Teaser from Primary Flight on Vimeo.

And then there is a the guy in town: The Wynwood Walls is a project by Jeffrey Deitch. The line up isn’t as expansive, but the names are all international superstars like Swoon, Barry McGee, Futura, and Os Gemeos.

There’s even a lot of overlap between the projects with artists like Shepard Fairey and Aiko painting for both groups.

Naturally, I’ll be there filming for Babelgum and taking photos for Vandalog.

Barry McGee and Phil Frost in LA

A few days ago I mentioned that Barry McGee and Phil Frost had a two man show opening at the brand new PRISM Gallery in LA. Last night was the opening, and it looks spectacular. Arrested Motion has dozens of pictures, but here are a few that I’ve taken from them.

Of course, Phil Frost is The Guy when it comes to painting tiki-themed artwork.

And then there is Barry McGee. Brilliantly awesome.

All images from Arrested Motion

McGee and Phil Frost in LA

Barry McGee and Phil Frost are showing together at LA’s brand new PRISM Gallery. I’m not usually a fan of Phil Frost, but I think he and McGee will look great showing together. I think that’s really all I need to say about a show of this awesomeness.

Via Slamxhype