Weekend link-o-rama

Unit 12, maybe. Photo by Dani Mozeson.
Unit 12 or Unit 112, maybe?

This link-o-rama is super helpful for me, because all week I’ve been working on my upcoming ebook instead of blogging. Hopefully the ebook will be out in November… Anyways, links:

  • I love that this show at LeQuiVive Gallery reframes a certain kind of work that often gets lumped in with street art or urban art as Neu Folk Revival, which describes the work much better than calling it street art or urban art or low-brow art. Some real talent in this show: Doodles, Troy Lovegates, Cannon Dill, ghostpatrol, Zio Ziegler, Daryll Peirce, Justin Lovato… It opens next month.
  • This piece by Part2ism needs to be seen. And look closely. That’s not just paint on the wall. Very interesting. I am glad to see Part2ism on the streets again, and I can’t wait to see what he does next. Once again, he has shown that he is ahead of the rest of us. This piece doesn’t look like graffiti. It doesn’t look like street art. It looks like art on the street, and that’s much too rare.Swampy has relaunched his website and posted a video diary sort of thing. I’m very curious what people think about it. Have a look and let me know.Check out this concept from Jadikan-LP: Art that only exists within Google Maps. Click the link. Explore the room. I normally hate lightpainting or “light graffiti,” but I absolutely love this piece. As far as I’m concerned, the internet is a public space and Jadikan-LP has invaded it with artwork, so this project is street art.
  • CDH wrote a really fascinating article in Art Monthly Australia about the commodification of street art. While I don’t agree with him entirely, I think it’s a must-read because at least it sparks some thoughts. It’s one of the best-written critiques I’ve read of the capitalistic nature of contemporary street art. Over on Invurt, they have posted CDH’s article as well as a response by E.L.K. (who CDH calls out in his critique). In his article, CDH called out E.L.K. for using stencils with so many layers that the work isn’t really street anymore, since stencils were initially used for being quick and a piece with 20 layers isn’t going to be quick. It’s just going to look technically interesting. Well, E.L.K. shot back in his response and made himself look like an idiot and seemingly declaring that all conceptual street art and graffiti is crap. There were arguments he could have made to defend complex stenciling or critique other points of CDH’s article, but instead E.L.K. mostly just attacked CDH as an artist. Anyway, definitely read both the original article and the response over at Invurt. The comments on the response are interesting as well.

Photo by Dani Mozeson

Visiting the Atlanta Prison Farm

Feral Child
Feral Child

Earlier this month, Caroline and I and some friends (guided by Rob Dunalewicz) visited the abandoned Atlanta Prison Farm, a prison that was in active use for a good chunk of the 20th century and it now mostly abandoned, save for the occasional police training exercise. Today, the prison is covered in street art and graffiti. For me, it was interesting to see old work by Never, from before he began to focus on his owl characters that you can see around Brooklyn today. What’s so cool for me about artists working in abandoned spaces is that there seems to be a freedom to a lot of the work that isn’t found in their work when they are working in public spaces or making work for sale. Here’s a sampling of what we saw:

Never
Never

P1090958

Nos
Nos

Continue reading “Visiting the Atlanta Prison Farm”

Illegal Baltimore part three: The city’s streets

Doodles

Part one of the Illegal Baltimore series can be found here, and part two can be found here.

Walking around in the abandoned areas of Baltimore gave me a peace of mind that the NYPD would never allow in New York. However, engaging life-long citizens of Baltimore about the graffiti surrounding them in the streets came with its own merits. The blending of New York and Baltimore-based artists that I saw in the the city’s innards was mirrored in its streets. With the, then recent, invasion of international artists for Open Walls Baltimore, the city had become a hub for any east coast street artist to visit. As long as you had friends in the area or on the roster, chances are you ended up there. Continue reading “Illegal Baltimore part three: The city’s streets”

The Painted Desert Project – round 1, post 2

Tom Greyeyes

This is part 2 of our series of The Painted Desert Project, in which Gaia, Overunder, Doodles, Labrona, Jetsonorama, Tom Greyeyes and Breeze painted and wheatpasted in the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. The first post can be found here.

Here’s how Overunder describes the impetus for the project:

The Painted Desert Project began as Jetsonorama, aka Chip Thomas pasted one of his photographs on an abandoned roadside stand only to return months down the road and see the very same stand now open for business. Amazed, he pulled over and chatted with the folks only to learn that their impetus to re-open was based on seeing tourists stop to take photos of the art work. They figured it was the best captive audience they’d seen in years and the only thing to make it better was if there was another one for traffic going the opposite direction. Unabashadly Chip let them know about his altar ego Jetsonorama and the cogs started turning.

Before the paste could dry Chip and fellow street artist Yote had a plan to bring some of their favorite artist to the Painted Desert to paint run-down stands in an attempt to rejuvenate the life of those in need of business and as Chip states, “explore how this might build community.”

Overunder has more about his part in the project on his blog.

After the jump, we have photos of work by Jetsonorama, Doodles and Gaia… Continue reading “The Painted Desert Project – round 1, post 2”

The Painted Desert Project – round 1, post 1

Tom Greyeyes

Last month, Gaia, Overunder, Doodles, Labrona, Jetsonorama, Tom Greyeyes and Breeze participated in the first iteration of The Painted Desert Project, a project developed by Yote and Jetsonorama and which took place in the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona.

Of the project, Jetsonorama says:

We hoped to connect artists with vendors working along the roadside in homemade structures where food and jewelery are sold. We attempted to familiarize artists with the culture before they started painting. Because of the location of this project where large walls are few, the emphasis was on establishing a connection with the community. Both Tom Greyeyes and Breeze are Native American and came to the project already sensitized. We’d hoped to get more local youth involved in working with the artists but will have to pursue this with future iterations of the project.

As much as I enjoy the mural projects going on around the world right now, things like The Painted Desert Project are fantastic low-key but potentially impactful counterpoints to the hype and huge walls that seem to accompany more urban festivals.

Some of the crew

Jetsonorama is a talented photographer who took some spectacular photos of the artists at work and of the finished walls and signs, so it’s going to take more than one post to show everything. After the jump, we’ll start with work by Labrona, Breeze and Overunder… Continue reading “The Painted Desert Project – round 1, post 1”

Preview: Young New York auction

Overunder

As Caroline mentioned earlier this month, the group Young New York is having a charity art auction this Tuesday at White Box Gallery in New York to raise money for their restorative justice art workshops with teenagers who have been put into the adult court system in New York.

Here are just a few of the dozens of artists with work in the auction: Steve Powers, NohjColey, Joe Iurato, Cake, Overunder, Gaia, Rudie Diaz, LNY, Blackmath, Mare139, Doodles, ND’A, Radical!, C215, Clown Soldier, Jill Cohen, Labrona and Luna Park. And here are a few of pieces that will be on offer:

Cake
Sean Lugo and Blacksmith
Radical and C215

Photos courtesy of Young New York

Young New Yorkers

Young New York: A Silent Art Auction & Fundraiser is an fundraising initiative for the Young New Yorkers (YNY) program, which aids and raises awareness for teens who have been legally classified “adults” and thrown into New York State’s adult criminal justice system.

The silent action will be happening Tuesday May 29th from 6pm-10pm at WhiteBoxes projects, and feature works by Steve “ESPO” Powers, LNYSteven Holl, Gaia, LabronaNohjColeythe YOK, ASVP, Doodles, Radical!, Feral Child, Cake, Ian Kuali’i and many others. All proceeds will go toward enabling workshops with successful artists, designers, teachers and social workers who will use creative theraputic methods to reach out to these teens in New York State’s criminal justice system.

You can purchase tickets to attend the auction here. For more information check out the YNY website or Facebook.

New walls in Baltimore

Maya Hayuk. Photo by Martha Cooper

Thanks to Open Walls Baltimore and also Martha Cooper, there are a lot of new murals coming up in Baltimore these days. Here are a few from Maya Hayuk, Swoon, Nick Mann aka Doodles and Interesni Kazki for Open Walls Baltimore and a wall by Never2501 and Pixel Pancho organized by Martha Cooper.

Swoon. Photo courtesy of Open Walls Baltimore
Never2501 and Pixel Pancho. Photo by Martha Cooper
Interesni Kazki. Photo courtesy of Open Walls Baltimore
Nick Mann aka Doodles. Photo by Martha Cooper
Nick Mann aka Doodles. Photo by Martha Cooper

Photos by Martha Cooper and courtesy of Open Walls Baltimore

Via Street Art News

Let’s not forget about Doodles

Made for Living Walls Albany. Photo by Doodles

Artists whose work I follow somehow slips through the cracks and, even though I’m a fan, their doesn’t wind up on Vandalog for whatever reason. When I realize these slips ups, I try to correct them. One mistake that I noticed this week is that it’s been far too long since I posted about Doodles. So here are a few random shots of his work.

Doodles with Luke Ramsey. Photo by Doodles
Something simple in Atlanta. Photo by RJ Rushmore

Photos by Doodles and RJ Rushmore