A few weeks ago, Acrylic Walls shared photos of their mural residency in South Africa, which includes artists Gaia, Freddy Sam, Jaz, and Know Hope. Local Freddy Sam has brought together international artists for, what I termed, a love letter to South Africa. However, sometimes love bites back.

One local took to Gaia‘s wall to voice his disapproval of the piece with not enough buff paint. Being an advocate for community and public space, Gaia used what some would view as heartbreaking into an opportunity to engage with the surrounding neighborhood. A hand erasing his Edwardian-animal hybrid has been accompanied by the phrase “revisionisme, uit te vee,” or “to erase revisionism” in Afrikaans. By commenting on the methodologies behind his piece, Gaia acknowledges the temporality of his work as well as its effects on those who, by their proximity to the piece, become forced viewers.

Photos Courtesy of Gaia

Beginning in late December of 2012 and stretching into the new year, Freddy Sam brought together a group of artists known for creating art that engages their surroundings. The project, titled Acrylic Walls, is associated with his organization A Word of Art, which has been fostering contemporary art in the area through community outreach since 2009. While this project has the familiar ring of other blockbuster mural programs, such as Open Walls Baltimore, Freddy Sam has added a component that hopes to reach a larger audience than those who will immediately come into contact with their murals: a diary-like Tumblr for all on which all of the artists can contribute.

The Tumblr for Acrylic Walls allows all of the participating artists to post photos from their adventures as they travel from city to city painting and engage themselves with their surroundings. Whether they are recounting adventures in stick and poke tattoos, museums, or sharing stories of people they encounter, each artist brings a dimensionality to not only themselves, but this program through their photography. By sharing funny moments alongside those of poverty and historicism, Acrylic Walls gives an intimate and insightful view of personalities of the artists as well as the cities where they find themselves.

More photos after the jump. Read the rest of this article »

Rothko from beyond the grave by Freddy Sam

Not much to say this week except of course that I’m pumped for The Art of Comedy. Not too much news either, but some important stories…

• Bonhams is holding an Urban Art auction in LA (Christ, 5 years after I first heard it and I still hate that term). This has been going on in England for years and of course Doyles New York just did something similar in NYC, but this is the first time Bonhams is doing an Urban Art auction in the USA. Notable lots include this absolutely classic Banksy, some very expensive kindling, an alright Shepard Fairey (a bit special since his originals don’t go to auction often), a Calvin Klein ad by KAWS, a nice Barry McGee panel from 1996, another nice Banksy, one of Chaz Bojórquez’ Señor Suerte stencils on canvas, and a large COST and REVS collaboration from the early 1990′s (yes, its legit, and yes, I would like to hang it in my dorm room if anyone feels like gifting me $20,000).
• Caleb Neelon recently painted some work in Turkey.
• Butterfly and Opera Gallery London have teamed up for a show of 33 artists including Sweet Toof, El Mac, Roa, Shepard Fairey, Ron English and many more. It opens next month.

Photo by Faith47 and via Wooster Collective

Over the summer, Rochester, NY was treated to a few new murals by street artists from South Africa. Ian Wilson, founder of The Synthesis Collaborative, brought those artists to Rochester and organized a series of walls with Dal, Faith47, Freddy Sam and Mak1One and as well as Rochester-based artists. The project, Visual Intervention, tried to bring the simple message of “believe” to Rochester in an effort to improve the community. This video tells that story:

Ever and Freddy Sam. Photo by nickmickolas

In what is likely the second-t0-last post of murals from Living Walls in Atlanta, here’s work by Ever, Freddy Sam, Never, Gawd, Labrona, OverUnder, LNY, Sharktoof, Feral Child, Entes and Pesimo.

Feral Child. Photo by Feral Child

Labrona, Overunder and Gawd. Photo by nickmickolas

Entes and Pesimo. Photo by nickmickolas

Never. Photo by nickmickolas

LNY. Photo by nickmickolas

Sharktoof. Photo by Greg Mike

Photos by Greg Mike, Feral Child and nickmickolas

Doodles, Swampy and Greg Mike at Living Walls 2010

Later this month, Atlanta is going to be taken over by street artists from around the world for this year’s edition of the Living Walls conference, Living Walls: the City Speaks. From the 12th-14th of August, there will be film screenings, lectures and artists painting murals around the city. Living Walls have brought together an impressive artist roster from around the world including (but not limited to) Doodles, Swampy, Gaia, Roa, Labrona, OverUnder, Sam3, Freddy Sam, White Cocoa, Nanook, Greg Mike, Paper Twins, Clownsoldier and Gawd. And I can’t complain about the keynote speakers either: Tristan Manco, Gaia, Ricky Lee Gordon and me.

So if you’re in Atlanta, come out check out the opening party at The Sound Table on Friday the 12th, lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia on the 13th during the day, a party at The Goat Farm the night of the 13th and a tour of all the new murals on the 14th. I’ll post more details about exact times later. And of course, I’ll be posting plenty of photos from the conference as well.

In September, another Living Walls event will take place in Albany, NY. More on that later.

Photo by Greg Foster Photography

Freddy Sam

Last year, the Wide Open Walls project brought a number of street artists to The Gambia to paint in local villages. Subsequently, the project was criticized as a sort of “slum tourism” for artists as well as anyone who viewed photos of the project, with the artists taking advantage of the communities they were painting in. This year, Wide Open Walls brought more artists to The Gambia and made a point of examining the issue of responsible tourism. After all, part of the goal of Wide Open Walls is to encourage tourism to these villages.

For this round of Wide Open Walls,  the artist line-up was curated by Write on Africa and include Bushdwellers, Roa, Know Hope, Remed, TIKA, Freddy Sam, Selah, and Best Ever. The artists spent two weeks painting in The Gambia.

Remed

While the people involved directly in Wide Open Walls seem happy that they were responsible, made a connection to the communities they were in and made a difference or are in the process of doing so, it’s more difficult for me to post these photos without feeling that I’m participating in the sort of voyeurism that Wide Open Walls is trying to avoid. I wasn’t there, so I don’t have a personal connection to these villages or the people there (although some of the artists and other people on the trip have posted their reactions on the WOW website, which is something). Instead, I’m looking at the photographs and part of me is smugly thinking, “See, street art can make a difference. Yep. Smiling kids. People having fun in front of art. A building that looks cool now. Here’s proof that street art is a good thing.” And that makes me pretty damn uncomfortable.

Best Ever

What Wide Open Walls is doing can probably be compared in some ways to what JR has done working in the slums of Brazil and Kenya. Except that with JR, he makes a point of telling the stories of the people he is photographing, and he helps to improve their situations (like how in Kenya he fixed up people’s homes by printing his photos on water-resistant material and putting those prints on roofs). Wide Open Walls hasn’t really done anything like that yet beyond painting murals. I don’t know the stories of these villages and there isn’t much of a way to support the project or the people in these villages. Eventually though, that will change. There are plans for a book and an exhibition of photographs to help raise money for the villages. In the mean time, many more photos from this year’s Wide Open Walls can be found on Facebook.

Photos by Jonx Pillimer