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

LNY in Baltimore

Caroline and I were in Baltimore this week checking out Open Walls Baltimore. If you have the chance, definitely make a trip over there. Full posts about Baltimore coming soon. Point is, between Baltimore and moving this weekend, I’ve been lax this week. Things should return to normal on Wednesday or Thursday, but in the mean time, here’s what I’ve been meaning to post about:

• An update on the Kidult/Marc Jacobs situation: Marc Jacobs have turned a photo of the vandalism (or maybe commissioned tag) into a t-shirt that they are selling for $689, and at least one has sold already.
• Barry McGee’s show at Prism (his second, if you include his 2-man show with Phil Frost) has opened and is of course a must-see.
• Okay yes, it’s another Shepard Fairey show with images we’ve seen before, but there are a few gems in there. Specifically, the painted printing plates.
• A Basquiat painting went for over $16 million at a Phillips de Pury auction.
• This piece by Phlegm is one of my favorites from him in a while.
• Tes One and Bask collaborated on this dinosaur-themed mural in Florida.
• This group show at Opera Gallery’s NYC location looks like a top-tier show for being a group show. Anthony Lister, Interesni Kazki, Roa, Mark Jenkins, Bast, Swoon, Faile, so many more…
• Nychos and his crew paint some crazy stuff.
• Afeura, a mural festival in Peru, is using Kickstarter to raise funds for the project. So far, Escif, Bastardilla, Desertor and Jade have signed on to painting at the festival.
• In a move of crass commercialism reminding us that perhaps street art is dead, some artist made a really beautiful mural for the sole purpose of releasing a print of the same image.
• Sonni (the guy who did that crazy boom box in Miami) has a show opening this month in New York.
• Faile released some new prints on their website this week (sold out already of course), and intend to do so much more often from now on.
• The DMV and 1984 crews pulled the crazy stunt of putting on a one-day illegal show in Paris on the day of the French elections.
• Depoe is part of a two-man show opening on Saturday evening in New York. He has preview photos here.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Jack Murray aka Panik ATG

Exciting week next week: Troy Lovegates and Labrona will be coming to Haverford to paint a mural here, so look forward to some pictures of that… If I find the charger for my camera. Also, I’ve taken the plunge and I’m finally on Instagram. Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:

• Troy Lovegates has a show on this week in Halifax.
• There’s a new ezine by Overunder.
• Joe Iurato and others painted a mural in New Jersey that included a tribute to Trayvon Martin. Of course, ridiculous controversy ensued. Here are some thoughts from Joe.
• More murals in Richmond, Virginia (including Dalek breaking out some of his Space Monkeys).
• I’ve mentioned this before, but here’s a reminder that No Longer Empty is hosting a talk about the Fashion Moda this Sunday moderated by Joyce Manalo and including Stefan Eins, Lisa Kahane, Crash and Lee.
• Faile’s new mural in Williamsburg is something quite different and unexpected.
• Chaz Bojorquez has his first show in Australia this weekend.

Photo by Jack Murray

Rizzoli recently published the official book documenting The Underbelly Project, We Own the Night: The Art of The Underbelly Project. If you haven’t heard of The Underbelly Project, check out my firsthand account. Basically, over 100 artists were taken down to an abandoned subway station beneath New York City to put up artwork and explore hidden depths of the city. Artists involved in the project include Revok, Roa, Anthony Lister, Faile, Ron English, Dan Witz, Gaia, Know Hope, Haze and many others.

In December, a collector’s edition of the book was sold at The Underbelly Project’s show in Miami. Until now, that show was the only place to pick up a copy of this special edition of We Own the Night. The collector’s edition version includes a hardcover copy of the book, nine photographic prints from the project, and comes in a handcrafted and laser-engraved oak box. This package is an edition of 100, plus 10 APs, and a handful were held back in Miami to be sold later. Now, the remaining collector’s editions are available online for the first time exclusively at The Vandalog Shop.

The Underbelly Project is one of the most fascinating projects to ever happen in the street art or graffiti worlds. While there are photos all over the web showing what the project looked liked, reading We Own the Night is just about the only way to get a sense of what it was actually like to participate in The Underbelly Project. I saw The Underbelly Project in the flesh, but hearing other people’s stories shed new light on it even for me. I’m extremely pleased that The Vandalog Shop will be selling the collector’s edition of We Own the Night, giving people who couldn’t make it to Basel Miami a chance to pick up a copy. My copy of We Own the Night was the best thing I’ve received under a Christmas tree in years, and I hope other people will enjoy the book and the photographs as much as I do.

Here are a just a couple of the photographs included in the set:

Photo by Emile Souris

Kid Zoom. Photo by Ian Cox

Other images include work by Roa, Anthony Lister, Skullphone, Kid Zoom, Revok, Ceaze and Jeff Soto.

Only a few of these collector’s editions are remain, and The Vandalog Shop is the only place you’ll find them online. They are available for $250.

We Own the Night is also available in a regular paperback edition.

Photos by Ian Cox, Emile Souris and The Underbelly Project

Snyder in Beijing

While I spend my day at my other job explaining to people how a skee-ball tournament is art (seriously), I hope you’ll enjoy these newsbites from the past two weeks:

• Almost everything I’ve seen of this show looks absolutely amazing: Saner’s solo in SF opening today.
• You can listen to this conversation between Retna and his friend Med if you want a bit of insight into the Bowery/Houston mural, although it may just confuse things further in a good way.
• Escif has been doing some really cool work lately and I’ve been neglecting to post it, but here’s one of my favorites.
• Steve Powers and Faile designed potential covers for New York Magazine. Powers’ was used, but I’m a sucker for anything Faile so I definitely would have gone that route.
• I meant to put this piece by Marco Sueño as the image for last week’s link-o-rama, but then my hostel didn’t have wifi so there was no link-o-rama.
• Jaz took it up a notch with this mural in Lima.
• S.Butterfly’s photos of the DMV crew show in Australia are finally online and the show looks great.
• Eine painted the outside of Village Underground in London to raise awareness of the Homes for London campaign.
• GrafRank is an attempt to graph the popularity of street artists and graffiti writers online using data from flickr. Interesting idea, but they need your feedback to make sure they are getting things right.
• Juxtapoz is turning 18 and they are celebrating with a show later this month in Santa Monica. Artists include Retna, Shepard Fairey and Neckface.

Photo by Snyder

Nunca

The Boneyard Project at the Pima Art & Space Museum in Tucson looks absolutely fantastic. Saner, Faile, Bast, Aiko, Shepard Fairey, Tristan Eaton, Nunca, Futura, Retna and many other artists have been brought together by Eric Firestone Gallery to paint old airplanes and airplane parts. Of course, the full-sized planes look to be the most impressive parts of the show. Just imagine watching Nunca’s plane, shown above, landing at your local airport. The Boneyard Project is on display at the museum through May 31st. For more photos of the show, check Arrested Motion and The Flop Box

Faile

Photos courtesy of Arrested Motion

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.