Those who read my posts about Baltimore graffiti have already seen the pieces, rollers, and tags of Maryland-based NGC crew. Recently, for the New York Art Book Fair, the group debuted a zine detailing their quests painting throughout the gritty spots throughout the city. Opening today, “Kids Eat for Free” expands the reach of their exploits from East to West coasts.This show as an extension of their earlier zine, both being accompanied by personal work, documentary photography, and inside jokes. Only instead of taking on Baltimore, NGC took on the entire country.

-Rhiannon

Press release:

On Thursday December 13, 2012 from 6pm – 10pm The Superior Bugout presents the opening night of Kids Eat for Free with artwork from North Carolina’s infamous NGC crew. Artists FISHGLUE, MTN, RODA and Thomas Bachman share their photos, sculptures, and diatribes of tales from their travels and mischief. Much of the work appeared in Miles Michaels’ 1480 Gallery in Detroit, MI earlier this year in August, and has now traveled with additional new work to Brooklyn.

The artists’ work documents the past Summer, traveling across America’s northeast corridor, southern and mid-western states and New York City stealing freight train rides and paint. Along the way they’ve reworked the visual landscapes of the towns they passed through with colorful signage, roller pieces, and urban scrawlings. The show will be on display throughout the new year.

Accompanying the artwork will be an experimental sound set with MIND DETRGNT BKF playing eclectic samples and sounds from his vast collection of tape cassettes.

Photos courtesy of the artists

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. Read the rest of this article »

(Left to Right) Droid and R2, Droid and Avoid, and NGC

Opening to the public this weekend, the New York Art Book Fair brings together the academic art history books with the grittiness of zines. This year, several graffiti zines have teamed up to display their wares at the Pantheon Books table. With zines from Baltimore’s NGC crew, 907, and Subway Art Blog, this weekend will be one that you need to fit into your tightly wound schedules (don’t forget it’s also Dumbo Arts Festival). Vandalog was lucky enough to be able to preview these zines before the public and the results were astounding. In the week since I have received these zines I have found myself flipping through them over and over, rereading passages and revisiting my favorite layouts.

NGC

NGC

The sick rollers and pieces seen in my recent Vandalog posts are echoed within the pages of NGC’s zine. A few of the spots I was lucky enough to see are document within their zine as well as several that remain unseen. An excellent pairing of inside jokes and montaged pages of tags and personal photographs, NGC gives you a taste of what it is like to be writers in Baltimore. Like Natty Bo, it’s cheap, awesome, and sure to show you a good time.

Droid and R2

Droid and R2

Being only familiar with the street work of 907, I didn’t know what to expect when opening the pages of their zine. The cover is decked with tags by some of the top writers on the East Coast, giving a hint that you are probably in for a read that is going to rock your brain. Droid and R2 have brought some of their favorite cudi spots together with some premium interviews. Between the eye catching pictures and a particularly moving narrative about loss, Droid and R2 have pieced the perfect pairing of opposites for this release.

Avoid and Droid

Avoid and Droid

In addition to his release with R2, Droid and Avoid will be showing their zine from last year, which features stories from their adventures riding freights across the country. In the urban jungle where pretty much everything gets you arrested, their tales of run-ins and writing trains is enough to make any New Yorker want to eject themselves from the city for a taste of the fun.

Cover (Courtesy of Subway Art Blog)

(Courtesy of Subway Art Blog)

(Courtesy of Subway Art Blog)

Last, but not least, Subway Art Blog has teamed up with the graffiti writer-based zines to prove to New York that, yes, there is in fact still art in the subways. Now in it’s second issue, Jowy Romano has focused this production on etches and scratchitti. By bringing together graffiti writers as well as enthusiasts, the New York zine table provides short reads for visitors of all tastes.

To pick up copies of these zines visit table A12 (Pantheon Projects). The New York Art Book Fair will be open to the public this weekend from:

Friday, September 28, 12–7 pm
Saturday, September 29, 11 am–9 pm
Sunday, September 30, 11 am–7 pm

All photos by Rhiannon Platt unless noted

Overunder, Avoid, Gaia, and Tence

Part one of the Illegal Baltimore series can be found here.

Due to the layout of Baltimore, the city makes the perfect playground for rollers. Built of bridges and tunnels, most of the graffiti spots contain elaborate pieces at eye level with equally as astounding rollers above them. The combination of these tunnels and the large amount of abandoned factories in the area makes for perfect spot to do elaborate, typographical rollers.

Nugz, Nanook, and Overunder

Even more astounding to me than the work itself was the number of familiar names I came across in, essentially, middle-of-nowhere Baltimore. People like Reverend, Nugz, Overunder, and Cash4, who had become my household names in New York had found themselves equally as prolific in this city. Through partnering up with local artists such as MTN NGC and Avoid, these New York artists seamlessly blended into the Baltimore scene, creating some interesting visual combinations in these spaces.

Avoid and Fisho

Reverend, Nugz, and Tence

Cash4 and Droid

NSF

Tence and Star

Nugz and Val

Gauz

Avoid

Gaia

MTN NGC

Nanook, Overunder, and Bloks

Cash4 and Droid

Hell Nation

Cash4, Avoid, and Droid

Photos by Rhiannon Platt

Stab HOD

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Baltimore during their Open Walls Baltimore mural program. In addition to being fortunate enough to meet some of the most amazing artists from around the world, I was also able to explore the many hidden graffiti spots that the area had to offer. With a local writer as my guide, I was able to document over two dozen spots and see a wide range of work. Due to the prolific nature of Baltimore’s graffiti scene, the posts have been divided into three parts: pieces and freights, rollers, and street pieces. Read the rest of this article »

Chris Stain

While Caroline and I visited Baltimore with the goal of seeing Open Walls Baltimore, but we also got a bit of a taste for the larger street art and graffiti scene there, including a lot of work that has been done without permission. We even went out with a few local writers (Avoid, Fisho and Mountain) to watch them paint. Here are some of my favorite pieces that we came across in Baltimore that are not murals, including a few of photos have been posted on Vandalog previously.

Other

LNY

More after the jump… Read the rest of this article »