We like the way NYC’s Opera Gallery  integrated some of the more established street artists with the likes of Chagall, Picasso and Matisse in their current exhibit featuring a remarkably diverse range of portraits. The exhibit continues through February 19 at 115 Spring Street.  Here are a few faces we captured when we stopped by this past week:

Aiko

Ron English

Faile

Logan Hicks

Judith Supine

The London Police

Photos by Lois Stavsky & Tara Murray

In this video with Ride5 Films, Faile explain the use of the space shuttle Challenger in their work. Coincidentally, their explanation sounds a lot like the John Fekner’s random date work from the 1970′s.

FAILE from Ride5 Films on Vimeo.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Remember this cryptic video from last year? Or these shots of Nunca painting a giant airplane? Well all of that is finally coming together and will be on view for the public… The Boneyard Project: Return Trip is the fully-formed vision that was hinted at by the Nose Job show last year at Eric Firestone Gallery. In addition to some of the Nose Cone pieces and some new work on airplane nose cones, this iteration of the Boneyard Project will feature disused planes that artists have painted all over.

According to Aviationpros.com, “More than 30 artists have participated in Round Trip including DC Super 3 planes painted by graffiti artists How & Nosm, Nunca, and Retna, a C97 cockpit by Saner, a C45 plane by Faile, and a Lockheed VC 140 Jetstar by Andrew Schoultz.”

Return Trip opens at the Pima Art and Space Museum in Tuscan, AZ on January 28th and runs through May 31st. Check out Aviationpros.com for more info.

Vandalog’s friends at Arrested Motion have curated their first show, due to open this week in Hong Kong. East West Connect consists  of an impressive group of13 artists who are either of Asian heritage or whose art has been influenced by the Far East: Luke Chueh, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Evah Fan, Stella Im Hultberg, Tat Ito, Akino Kondoh, Travis Louie, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Brendon Monroe, Edwin Ushiro, Nick Walker and Yoskay Yamamoto.

East West Connect will be at Above Second from November 25th through January 12th, with an opening on November 25th.

Faile shocked their fans and detractors alike last week when they unveiled their newest body of work at Lazarides’ Gallery’s Rathbone Place location in London. The show, Fragments of Faile, features two distinct series. One is pretty much what you might expect from Faile: Familiar trademark imagery, styles and themes, mixed with some small steps forward. As usual, it was the introduction of new ideas into the Faile repertoire alongside the classics. If you’re a fan of Faile, you’ll like those pieces, and if you’re not, well the new twists probably won’t convince you. Most people I’ve spoken with say these are their favorite pieces in the show, and I have to agree. But those pieces are also getting very little attention compared to the completely new body of work that Faile introduced at the show: 100% painted (no screenprinting) portraits of women made up of abstract fabric patterns and bits of Faile iconography on top of very calm and un-Faile-like backgrounds. While there are a large number of people speaking out and saying how much they enjoy this new twist from Faile, among the people whose views I respect, the majority would not hang these paintings on their walls (although some would). Nuart’s reviews seem to best exemplify the reaction that I’m getting most often from those that I respect. Among that group, the new style has been met with general disappointment and confusion, with some people comparing it to a less gritty Bast or derivative of Miss Bugs (of course, Bast and Faile have collaborated numerous times in the past, and Miss Bugs has in the past been thought of as derivative of Faile). Nonetheless, nearly everyone I’ve heard from has also expressed great excitement that Faile have tried something so unexpected. My thoughts and some perspective from Faile themselves after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Surge, Gaia, Stormie, Remi/Rough and in The Underbelly Project

UPDATE – LOCATION CHANGE: The Underbelly Show has moved to 78 NW 25th Street in Wynwood, Miami to accommodate the large scale of the artwork in this show.

The Underbelly Project is back. Last year, I posted a lot about the project where 103 artists from around the world secretly painted an abandoned/half-completed New York City subway station. After that initial burst of press here and around the web, The Underbelly Project organizers stayed silent. With only occasional vague tweets from a mysterious twitter account and the appearance on Amazon of an upcoming book about the project. Yesterday though, The Underbelly Project announced that they will be participating in this year’s Basel Miami Week madness with a pop-up gallery in South Beach Wynwood.

The organizers of The Underbelly Project and The Underbelly Show, Workhorse and PAC, have this to say about the show:

Workhorse: The New York Underbelly was an important chapter for us, but the story hadn’t been comprehensively told. The Underbelly Miami show gives us a chance to present the broad scope of documentation – Videos, photos, time-lapses and first hand accounts. The project is about more than just artwork. This show gives us a chance to show the people and the environment behind the artwork.

PAC: While the experience each artist had in their expedition underground can never be captured, it is my hope that this show will highlight some of the trials and tribulations associated with urban art taking place in the remote corners of our cities. Too often the practice of making art in unconventional venues remains shrouded in mystery and I hope this exhibition will shine a faint light on those artists who risk their safety to find alternative ways to create and be a part of the cities they live in.

35 of the 103 artists from The Underbelly Project will be exhibiting art in The Underbelly Show, plus video and still footage of the artists at work in the tunnel. Here’s the full line-up: Faile, Dabs & Myla, TrustoCorp, Aiko, Rone, Revok, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Mark Jenkins, Anthony Lister, Logan Hicks, Lucy McLauchlan, M-City, Kid Zoom, Haze, Saber, Meggs, Jim & Tina Darling, The London Police, Sheone, Skewville, Jeff Stark, Jordan Seiler, Jason Eppink and I AM, Dan Witz, Specter, Ripo, MoMo, Remi/Rough, Stormie Mills, Swoon, Know Hope, Skullphone, L’Atlas, Roa, Surge, Gaia, Michael De Feo, Joe Iurato, Love Me, Adam 5100, and Chris Stain.

For this show, the space will be transformed into an environment imitating the tunnel where The Underbelly Project took place, right down to playing sounds recorded in the station while The Underbelly Project was happening.

If you absolutely cannot wait until February to get We Own The Night, the book documenting The Underbelly Project, a limited number will be available at The Underbelly Show in a box set with 9 photographic prints and the book all contained in a handcrafted oak box. Additionally, you will be able to your book signed by the artists participating in The Underbelly Show.

The Underbelly Show will take place at 2200 Collins Avenue, South Beach, Miami 78 NW 25th Street, Wynwood, Miami. There will be a private opening on November 30th, and the space will be open to the general public December 2nd-5th, with a general opening on the 2nd from 8-10pm.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Jaz and Laguna in Madrid (click to view large)

This week just keeps getting better. Looks like we’ve got a bit of NYC coming to Philadelphia with a show curated by Matt Siren. Here’s what I meant to blog about this week:

• Faith47 and DAL collaborated on this wall.
• If you’re a big fan of ABOVE, you need to see the special edition of his new book.
• Here’s a number of photos from Os Gêmeos’ latest museum show.
• Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s billboard takeovers from the 1970′s and 1980′s are great.
• Boe is doing something a bit different with his graffiti.
• Barry McGee has found new gallery representation in NYC.
• Blek le Rat, Aiko, Sickboy, Faile and Swoon give props to their favorite living street artists.
• Graffuturism are curating some walls in Miami next month and the line up is solid as can be.

Photo by Jaz

Faile are back at Lazarides Gallery and this time it’s going to very different. After a 3 year London hiatus, they return to the city with a solo show that “strikes out in a sophisticated new direction.”

Fragments of Faile sees the artist’s work stripped down to its bare essentials, promising to explore the “archetypical structures” beneath their decade of remixed mass culture artwork.

As Lazarides Gallery states in it’s elaborately worded press release, “Assembled from the artists’ own archive, Fragments of FAILE represents not a radical departure, but a rare opportunity to see their iconic practice anew.”

It certainly sounds interesting, but I’m a little puzzled as to how the work is ‘new’ whilst also assembled from the their archive. I’m imagining single layered images that hark back to Faile’s roots and go some way to forming the multi layered work we are used to seeing from the duo – a bit of image recycling maybe. Although that view could have something to do with the following picture.

Images of the work are currently being kept underwraps, literally, but here’s a little sneak preview thanks to Steve Lazarides…

The show is open to the general public at Lazarides Rathbone from 4th November and runs until 3rd December, Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 7pm.

For more details about the show, including the press release, head over to the Lazarides website.

Photo courtesy of Lazarides Gallery

One last post about Faile turn at the Bowery and Houston streets mural in NYC. Over the weekend, we posted Dani Mozeson’s photos of the duo finishing up the wall, but now that the wall has been finished, here are some photos and video of the final product by Matthew Kraus. His got a larger set of images over on flickr.

Photos and video by Matthew Kraus

As RJ mentioned earlier, the members of the Brooklyn-based Faile are the latest artists to hit the wall at Bowery and Houston.  These images were captured this afternoon:

Photos by Dani Mozeson