As mentioned a few days ago, Dennis McNett‘s solo show at Joshua Liner Gallery kicked off on Thursday with a crazy parade through the streets of New York City. Tod Seelie was there and took some great photos. Here are some of my favorites, but you can check out the entire set on his website.
Photos by Tod Seelie
New Yorkers, there is one place to be this Thursday night: Out with Dennis McNett making sure the rest of the city is alive. Dennis has a solo show opening at Joshua Liner Gallery, and that show will open with a parade through Chelsea with one of Dennis’ 26-foot long viking ships (shown above and below). The Passing of The Wolfbats promises to be quite the event. It’s described as a parade “to wake up the city’s sleeping spirits of creativity, expression, and personal soulfulness.” There will be costumed participants, McNett’s wolfbats, drummers and other musicians, dancers and of course, members of the public who want to join in the festivities. The parade will be taking place in West Chelsea this Thursday evening.
In addition to the parade, McNett also has a show inside at Joshua Liner Gallery opening on Thursday and I’m loving what I’ve seen from it so far. I think it is hard to dispute McNett’s technical brilliance in many things, and he’s developed a powerful and interesting iconography that he continues to develop.
Here’s a preview of the show:
I think that this show, particularly on Thursday in conjunction with the parade and the energy that should bring, has the potentially to be something very powerful. Until today, I was planning to take a bus to NYC on Thursday and another back to Philadelphia that night just to see it, but unfortunately school work has gotten in my way. Expect more photos on Vandalog next week after this has opened.
Photos courtesy of Joshua Liner Gallery
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…
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.
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.
Joshua Liner Gallery’s summer group show opens this Saturday evening. Personally, I’m most looking forward to seeing new artwork from Swoon, Dennis McNett, Mac and Kris Kuksi, but list of artists in this show is extensive and impressive: Cleon Peterson, David Kassan, Dennis McNett, Evan Hecox, Ian Francis, James Roper, Jeremy Fish, Jessica Joslin, Kenichi Yokono, Kris Kuksi, Mac, Mi Ju, Mike Davis, Oliver Vernon, Pema Rinzin, Pete Watts, Ryan Bradley, Ryan McLennan, Shawn Barber, Swoon, Tat Ito, Tiffany Bozic, Tomokazu Matsuyama and Tony Curanaj. Oh, and the Swoon piece in the above photo is actually from the gallery’s Barnstormer show earlier this year, so don’t expect to see it in this show.
The show runs from August 14th through September 2nd at Joshua Liner Gallery in NYC.
According to The World’s Best Ever, The Barnstormers, David Ellis’ art collective, has a show at Joshua Liner opening March 18th. Should be really great.
Here are just some of the artists in the show:
Alex Lebedev, Alice Mazorra, Bluster One, Che Jen, Chris Mendoza, Chuck Webster, David Ellis, Dennis McNett, Doze Green, GION, Guillermo Carrion, James Lynch, Joey Garfield, Jose Parla, Kenji Hirata, Kiku Yamaguchi, KR, MADSAKI, Manny Pangilinan (WELLO), Martin Mazorra, Maya Hayuk, Mikal Hameed, Mike Houston, Mike Ming, Miyuki Pai Hirai, Naomi Kazama, Pema Brush, Romon Kimin Yang (Rostarr), Shie Moreno, Swoon, West One, Yuri Shimojo and more.
In fall of 2008, Andrew Michael Ford curated Dark Pop, a show at Last Rites Gallery which challenged artists to create a piece of “dark” art. It was a big hit. Since then, Andrew has begun working at Last Rites, and now Dark Pop 2.0 is almost here. Looks like a very interesting show.
Last Rites Gallery has again decided to find out what several of today’s brightest art stars are capable of when asked to create ONE piece of what could be considered truly ‘dark art’. Many artists find themselves in a nice groove of creating a certain mood or emotion through their work and have, understandably, become quite comfortable following this path in their art-making. We were curious, however, what would happen if things were to get a little uncomfortable, as the artist challenged themselves to search through new or buried feelings and emotions, the kind which might find their place on the ‘darker’ side of the artistic spectrum. With that in mind, Last Rites Gallery proudly presents “Dark Pop 2.0″: A collection of truly ‘dark art’ from an incredibly talented and diverse group of artists who would normally never get anywhere near this stuff! If the first Dark Pop was any indication, Dark Pop 2.0 is guaranteed to astound.
Participating Artists Include: AIKO (Aiko Nakagawa), Lisa Alisa, Esao Andrews, John Cebollero, Benjamin Clarke, Joshua Clay, Molly Crabapple, Amy Crehore, Yoko d’Holbachie, Leslie Ditto, Mickey Edtinger, Mark Elliott, Eric Fortune, GAIA, Stella Im Hultberg, Sarah Joncas, Aya Kakeda, Ben Kehoe, Dan-ah Kim, Daniel Hyun Lim (Fawn Fruits), Danni Shinya Luo, David MacDowell, Mike Maxwell, Simone Maynard, Dennis McNett, Tara McPherson, Michael Page, Nathan Lee Pickett, Leslie Reppeteaux, Mijn Schatje, Tin, Dan Witz, Jaeran Won and more.
Dennis McNett just made me feel much better about going to school in Philadelphia next year. Finally, there is a cool art gallery I can point to and say, “See, there’s still art for me in Philadelphia” when people ask how the hell I’m going to handle being so far from the art I like.
Here’s the info on his latest show at Space 1026:
“Year of the Wolfbat”
An installation by Dennis McNettShow dates: October 2nd –October 31st
Opening Reception: Friday October 2nd 7-10pm
Where: Space 1026, 1026 Arch St. Philadelphia, PA 19107The “Year of the Wolfbat” began in NYC in June and has since trekked across the US stopping for exhibitions, artist talks and workshops along the way. The migratory flight of the Wolfbats has swooped in for shows at Fecal Face Dot Gallery in San Francisco and Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles. Their tour will culminate at Space 1026 in Philadelphia with an installation of print-derived sculpture and mural, accompanied by unique and editioned works both large and small.
You can expect to see a loud psychedelic woodcut landscape covering several walls of the gallery in which nature’s bass has been cranked up to 11. Duck your head walking in and make way for an entire flock of hotheaded Wolfbats swooping overhead, not to mention the supercharged eagles diving out of their path to let them through.
Also on view will be several new wood carved pieces, relief cut prints, masks and oversize tapestries. Leopards with serpent tails, goat heads wrapped in snakes, angry beasts, eagles fighting snakes, bats, and of course, Wolfbats are just a few of the images you’re likely to come across.
For information please contact Space 1026 gallery@space1026.com
Recently, Juxtapoz has had three interviews with some of the more interesting emerging street artists I can think of: Gaia, Imminent Disaster, and Dennis McNett. Gaia and Imminent Disaster are both friends of the blog (and of course, Gaia posts here from time to time) so it’s always exciting to see them getting press from the big guys like Juxtapoz. Here are my favorite parts from each interview:
If you could punch one living contemporary artist, who would it be?
There are better people to hate on the planet than other people that make things.
Street artists often profess this war of conscience around the gallery/street issue, but you don’t seem to share those conflicts.
My perspective is I get up, I do work in the street, and I try to make it good and valuable, so that the experiences augment each other. Institutions provide certain opportunities but you have to go through these filters. There are no filters in street art—except for the obvious one, the law. Beyond that, there’s no curator deciding where you put up work, how you put up work…
Institutions provide other opportunities. If there’s this populous notion of ‘I want to show my work to as many people as possible’—you’re going to get that done a lot better institutionally. You may get a lot of passerby on the street, but think about how many people move through The Met each day.
Imminent Disaster (part one, part two)
Along the notion of “reclaiming public space,” why is street art is concentrated in “hipster” or gentrifying neighborhoods?
It’s a valid observation, and comes up often in the street art scene. It probably has to do with the fact that street art is a scene with a different audience. There are obscure graffiti spots in abandoned buildings or tunnels that are more about the difficulty of getting to the spot and therefore, will likely only be seen by other writers. Whereas street art tends to prefer to be seen by the scene—people who watch, collect, curate but do not necessarily do street art.
The duration of the mediums also might factor in on this. If wheatpaste was a more permanent mark on a wall, street artists might be more exploratory with their placement and find more obscure spots that would get much less traffic but last much longer. A look to stencil artists might prove this theory wrong, however. Even though it would last forever, I’ve never seen a celebrity head stencil in Queens.
I know I’ve personally been very lax on interviews on Vandalog for a long time, but I’ve got 2-3 coming up soon so keep an eye out for that.
It doesn’t get much better than Dennis McNett. I mean, this guy knows printmaking. Well he’s got a show coming up at ThinkSpace in LA, but it is only on for two days. So if you are in LA on August 8th or 9th, you’d best make your way down to see McNett’s work.
More at Brooklyn Street Art
