Dabs Myla

LA’s Thinkspace Gallery is coming to my city of Philadelphia soon for a show they’ve curated at Philadelphia’s Gallery 309. LAX / PHL will include work from dozens of artists including Dabs Myla, Gaia, Ghostpatrol, La Pandilla, and Pixel Pancho, but the highlight is likely to be an installation by NoseGo. Thinkspace Gallery is suggesting that this show includes artists from the “New Contemporary Art Movement.” I call it that movement “The artists that Juxtapoz might cover,” but whatever. The point is, there’s gonna be a lot of really impressive artwork at this show.

LAX / PHL opens on Saturday, May 11th from 6-10pm, and runs through June 21st. There will be a second opening reception on June 7th from 6-10pm to coincide with Philadelphia’s First Friday art events.

Photo courtesy of Thinkspace Gallery

Dabs Myla at Metro Gallery – Photo by Dean Sunshine

Here’s some of the amazing stuff that happened in Melbourne last month. I’m sorry it’s so late – I am already working on the March post. Damn I am proud to post about my home town. So much goodness every month. Enjoy!

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Joe Iurato

Logan Hicks has organized an online auction to benefit the PTA at his son Sailor’s school, PS 132 in Brooklyn. Toe The Line includes contributions from Joe Iurato, Swoon,  Shepard Fairey, Chris Stain, Dabs and Myla, How and Nosm, Eric Haze, Faile, and others. Logan’s girlfriend and Sailor’s mother Kristen Zarcadoolas is the PTA president of PS 132, and they organized the auction after after yet another funding cut at the school.

“There is a lack of resources at every level within the public school system and I want to do all that I can to ensure that my son has a proper education,” says Hicks. “There is a moral responsibility to do everything possible to help support the public education.”

The auction went live just a few hours ago. You can see all the works and bid here.

Swoon

Photos courtesy of Logan Hicks

Photo by Luna Park

For the last week or so until today, we’ve been in the process changing Vandalog’s web hosts. No need to get into the technical details, but now the site should run more smoothly and with less downtime. Unfortunately it means that we haven’t been able to write anything new on the site since that process began (everything that’s gone online was pre-scheduled). So this is a mega-link-o-rama combining the usual weekend link-o-rama content with stuff that I could have written about last week even if I’d had the time.

• Martha Cooper turned 70 this weekend, and the graffiti community came together at Bowery and Houston to give her a giant surprise birthday present (pictured above). How and Nosm told Cooper that they were planning to repaint their piece at Bowery and Houston and told her to come by at noon on Saturday, but they didn’t tell her how they were going to have to piece repainted. They brought together a bunch of new and old graffiti legends and painted a giant blockbuster tribute to Cooper. BSA has plenty more great photos of the piece in progress and a perfect shot of Cooper reacting to seeing the mural.
• WK Interact’s pop-up show in NYC is absolutely fantastic, a must-see show. Think it this way: This show, as I understand it, is a retrospective but it’s made up of the work that WK had in his studio, not work borrowed or on the secondary market from collectors, so this is a lot of unsold work. And yet, the show is still one of the strongest I’ve seen from any artist in quite a while, and the work holds up just fine next to anything else by WK. Even the work that has been sitting in the WK’s studio for a few years is just masterpiece after masterpiece. Good stuff.
• I love this t-shirt designed by Snoeman for Carnage (Snoeman is the zine’s featured artist in their latest issue).
• Sick new Dabs and Myla mural in Melbourne.
• Mr. Brainwash has lost another lawsuit by a photographer upset with MBW’s appropriation. Basically, it boils down to MBW’s work being too similar to the original photograph, with no original contributions to the work by MBW.
• Aiko’s installation at the Japan Society in NYC is beautiful. Can’t wait to see it in person.
• Sounds like Logan Hick’s show in LA was a big hit. Here are photos of the finished and installed work.
• Some crazy walls from Abik.
• This year’s OFFSET lectures in Dublin will include JR and Faile.
• NYC has some amazing graffiti on trucks.
• A quick Overunder tag.
• Os Gemeos talk about their show at the ICA Boston and their massive mural there from last summer (if you can spot me in the video, you have eagle eyes by the way).
• It appears that Phil Frost hit a massive billboard in LA, and then the billboard was stolen. But the whole thing seems like a shady PR scam for Ace Gallery. Melrose&Fairfax has the full story, but one point they don’t make is that Ace Gallery has a history of controversy, so that makes me even more doubtful that this billboard and its theft are real. Also, let’s face it, there’s a good chance that the billboard is illegal anyway since this was in LA, so who cares if the ad was stolen off of the billboard?
• Is this new David de la Mano piece a comment on the removal of Hyuro’s Atlanta mural?

Photo by Luna Park

Opening at 6:30pm on February 1st and running until the 9th, Dabs and Myla have a solo show entitled “All Good Things…” at Metro Gallery in Melbourne in affiliation with LRG. The Australian natives have been living in Los Angeles recently and this marks their first show in their home country in over 3 years. If you’re in the area, this really looks worth seeing.

Photos courtesy of Metro Gallery

This is the first in what will hopefully be a long series of a posts where Tim Hans photographs artists and someone at Vandalog interviews them. I’ve known Tim since we were in high school together and been a fan of his photography for nearly that entire time, so I’m excited that Tim will be sharing his work with the Vandalog community.

To start off this series, Tim met up with the Australian duo Dabs and Myla. I interviewed Dabs and Myla last summer as part of the research on the book that I’m working on, and I’m now publishing some highlights from that interview for the first time.

Dabs on getting into graffiti in Melbourne:

I grew up in Melbourne. I didn’t even venture that far off my own train line. I lived on a trainline called the Belgrave Line. I lived way out on the end of the line, so most of my time was spent traveling in and out of the city on that line. So I didn’t really see much other than my local graffiti. I didn’t have that much money for magazines and books either, I had a handful of magazines, which were mostly an Australian magazine called Hype, but I didn’t really look beyond Melbourne even into other parts of Australia other than those few mags. The only graffiti I was paying attention to was what I was seeing in Melbourne at the time and what had come before me.

Dabs’ early views on street art:

When street art really started to boom, I was really against it for some reason. Graffiti writers didn’t like putting the two things in the same category: Like a skateboarder and a rollerblader. When people started putting those two things together, skateboarders started hating rollerbladers. I think it was a similar thing with graffiti and street art. But over time I guess I got a bit more tolerant and a bit wiser to what it is. Now, I don’t really have a problem with street art! But I do think the two things need to be segregated more because they really are so different.

On why their work has found an audience:

Myla: I think what people say continuously is that it makes them feel happy when they see our work. I think that’s why people like it. It’s because everything we do is so positive.

Dabs: The most common thing we hear is, ‘I really like your work. It just fucking makes me smile.’ Even from the hardest dudes. It’s cool when anyone says they appreciate or like our work, if its like an old lady, a little kid or a middle-aged girl or whatever, but I love it when super-hard dudes say that. I get a kick out of it.

Dabs on working both indoors and outdoors:

The transition from a street-based artist or a graffiti writer to fine art is notoriously hard. It’s a really difficult thing for people to make that transition. So many people I know have found it hard. They are so far away from each other, and finding a way to make that transition other than just reproducing it onto a canvas can be a super bitch. For us, it was pretty easy I think because we always went at it on a completely different path. That was one of the reasons why we never painted characters on walls was because we where trying to keep our graffiti and illustrations separate from each other, and I remember about 4 years ago Rime said to me ‘Why wouldn’t you paint characters on walls? That’s stupid. That’s what your paintings are. Why wouldn’t you do that? It helps tie things to your paintings.’ Originally, when we started working together, our graffiti was our graffiti and our paintings were something different. Even though they are under the same name and made by the same people, it was like we were attacking them as different people, just with the same name. We tried to push the two away from each other, and eventually the roads have kind of worked back into each other. I’m happy for it to be like this though!

Photos by Tim Hans

Aryz in Næstved, Denmark. Click to view large.

Just a question: Anyone wish an air-conditioned home want to trade places with me until things cool down? Anyway, here’s some linkage to what’s been going on with art this week:

• Some innocent teenagers outside of Philadelphia were recently cited for drawing on the ground with chalk because the cops think it might discourage real graffiti writers. Why don’t towns hire smarter police?
• You can now get wall-graphics for your house with designs by Jim Houser.
• This collaboration between Jaz and Dotz is pretty spectacular.
• Futura’s got a massive solo show on in NYC now, in association with Valmorida.
• ECB just painted the tallest mural in Asia. Fantastic location and great painting.
• Dabs and Myla (plus friends) have a great looking show on now at Thinkspace.
• Endless Canvas’ Special Delivery show in a formally empty warehouse opens this weekend. The pics I’ve seen look great. Don’t miss this if you’re in the Bay Area.
• This project by Swoon to raise money for her work on Braddock, PA will be happening on Saturday in New York.
• Space27 is a new gallery opening in Montreal next week with work from a lot of street artists.
• Another show opening in NYC tomorrow night (there are so many) is this group show at Agnes B featuring Gaia, Faile, ND’A and others.

Photo by Henrik Haven

Judith Supine

Sven Davis, probably best-known for being Arrested Motion‘s UK Director, has curated a show that will be taking place next month in Portland, Oregon. SPACE//FORM is a massive group show involving over 100 artists who were each given a 10×10 inch panel on which to work. The results are looking good. Plus, the show will include installations by Mark Dean Veca and Michael Murphy. Here’s the full list of artists:

Aakash Nihalani, Adam Normandin, Adam Wallacavage, Alex Lukas, Alicia Dubnyckyj, Amy Casey, Anthony Zinonos, Augustine Kofie, Ben Eine, Bill McRight, Blaine Fontana, Brendan Monroe, Brett Amory, Carl Cashman, Carl Riddle. Cheryl Molnar, Chloe Early, Chris Ballantyne, Chris Scarborough, Christian Mendoza, Christopher Derek Bruno, Clayton Brothers, Cleon Peterson, Dabs Myla, Dana Brown, Dave Kinsey, David Kassan, David O’Brien, Deedee Cheriel, Doze Green, Drew Tyndall, Eric Shaw, Eric White, Erik Mark Sandberg, Francesco Igory Deiana, Frank Gonzales, Gary Taxali, Geoff McFetridge, Ghostpatrol, Greg Eason, Greg Lamarche, Hamishi, Henry Gunderson, Ian Francis, Jacob Magraw Mickelson, James Marshall (Dalek), Jason Thielke, Jeff Depner, Jeff Soto, Jim Houser, Jordin Isip, Josh Keyes, Joshua Krause, Judith Supine, Kai & Sunny, Karin Krommes, Karl de Vroomen, Katrin Fridriks, Kenji Hirata, Kevin Cyr, Kevin Earl Taylor, Kevin Peterson, Kid Acne, Kozyndan, Kris Lewis, Kristen Schiele, Lex Thomas, Logan Hicks, Lola Dupré, Louis Reith, Lucas Price, LX One, Mario Wagner, Marissa Textor, Mark Dean Veca, Mark Schoening, Mark Warren Jacques, Mark Whalen, Mars-1, Martin Wittfooth, Mary Iverson, Matt Leines, Maya Hayuk, Michael Murphy, Mike Stilkey, Moneyless, Nick Walker, Pakayla Biehn, Paul Insect, Pete Watts, Reginald S. Aloysius, Remi Rough, Rich Jacobs, Richard Colman, Ricky Allman, Rostarr, Russell Leng, Ryan Shaffer, Ryan Stewart Nault, Sage Vaughn, Saner, Seonna Hong, She One, Sidney Pink, Sinc, Slinkachu, Stephanie Buer, Sweet Toof, Teresa Duck, Tim Biskup, Tom French, Tristram Lansdowne, Wayne White, Will Barras, Winston Smith

SPACE//FORM opens September 6th from 6-10pm at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland and runs through September 29th.

After the jump, check out a preview of some of the work in the show, including pieces by Lucas Price, Paul Insect and others… Read the rest of this article »

A mural in LA by Dabs and Myla

You may have a partner with whom you get along very well. You and your partner may love each other as much as any two people have ever loved each other before. You and your partner may work together on projects all the time. But you are not Dabs and Myla. This is how perfectly in sync Dabs and Myla are as a couple and as artistic collaborators:

Photo by sabeth718

Via VNA

There are a bunch of shows open now or opening in the next month that I’d like to mention, but there are only so many hours in the day. So here’s a bit of a round-up:

• Détournement: Signs of the Times is a group show that just opened at Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC. It was curated by the legendary Carlo McCormick and features artists who “subvert consensus visual language so as to turn the expressions of capitalist culture against themselves.” Some of those artists in Détournement are Aiko, David Wojnarowicz, Ripo, Posterboy, Ron English, Shepard Fairey + Jamie Reid, Steve Powers, TrustoCorp and Zevs.
• Chris Stain and Joe Iurato are showing together for a two-man show at NYC’s Mighty Tanaka. The show opens on Friday. These are two great and underrated stencil artists. I highly recommend checking out this show, particularly given the superb quality of Stain’s recent indoor work.
• Sweet Toof has a solo show opening this week at High Roller Society a pop-up space in Hackney Wick, London.
• Contemporary Wing’s (Washington, DC) latest group show, opening on the 16th, is an exhibit of secondary market work, but there should some nice stuff, including work by Shepard Fairey, WK Interact, Gaia, Faile and Blek le Rat. I must admit that I’ve included a piece in this show, but I’m not going to say which one (so if you want to help me out, just buy the entire show…).
• Finally, Dabs and Myla have curated a show at LA’s Thinkspace Gallery which will open September 1st. In addition to their own paintings and installations, the show features 32 of their friends, plus a solo show in Thinkspace’s project room by Surge MDR. Those shows open September 1st.

Photo by Susan NYC