Damn. It’s almost May! Sorry this is so late but it’s worth the wait. March was another action packed month in Melbourne.

Starting off with Baby Guerrilla‘s show in Footscray. Baby Guerrilla’s paste ups have been adorning Melbourne’s walls for a few years now, and they are some of my favourites, her gallery work was new for me and I loved seeing a different side of the artist.

Adnate was 1 of 3 Melbourne graffiti/street artists that entered the renowned Archibald prize. From the Archibald website “The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.” It’s great to see some more modern painting techniques making it into this more conventional competition. Adnate painted a portrait of Samantha Harris; an Australian indigenous model. Also make sure you check out the video by Michael Danischewski below.

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Category: Events, Gallery/Museum Shows, Interview, Photos, Random, Videos | Tags: 2013, Adnate, Archibald Prize, AWOL, AWOL Crew, Baby Guerrilla, backwoods gallery, Be Free, blo, cdh, Collingwood, DaMentalVaporz, David Russell, Dean Sunshine, DMV, DVATE, E.L.K, Fitzroy, futura, GENT, Hancock and RAD, Hennessey, Invurt, jaw, Kaffeine, Luke Cornish, Luke McManus, lush, MArch, Melbourne, Melbourne Monthly Madness, Melbourne Monthly Madness March, Michael Danischewski, Samantha Harris, SDM, SDM crew, Shane from AllThoseShapes, Shida, slicer, Sulman prize, Think, vhils, Will Coles

The Walls Project is a series of legal spots organized by the folks behind Global Street Art. To date, they’ve organized over fifty of spots in London for local and international artists to paint. A lot of the spots they find are the roll-down shutters for shops in East London. It’s great to know that there are a couple of friendly guys in London who are simply interested in helping artists find more spots to paint and making their daily commutes a bit more interesting. You can see more of the walls and a map here.

A side note: Global Street Art are currently working on releasing their first book through Unbound, a sort of Kickstarter for books.

Here are a few of my favorites shutter pieces from The Walls Project:

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Category: Featured Posts, Photos | Tags: 2rise, Ador, anthony lister, bom.k, brusk, bue, chase, da mental vaporz, dank, gris, hunto, jaw, malarky, milo, poeta, resto, roma, the krah

It’s time to read about the news I missed this week, if you missed it too.

• Jorge Rodriguez Gerada’s latest show looks absolutely fabulous.
• Faith47 gets it right again.
• My friends at Station16 released prints last month with LNY and Enzo & Nio.
• Graffuturism provides an introduction to Zoer CSX.
• A Kid Acne solo show just opened in LA.
• Sad news but expected for the world graffiti community: 5Pointz, a graffiti Mecca in New York City, is going to be demolished around September 2013.
• Wondering what Revok has been up to since moving to Detroit? Here’s your answer: Some good stuff.
• New mural from the DMV guys.
• Lewy BTM hit the side of the Brooklyn Bridge, something that happened in 1988 with Sane and Smith and then again in 2000 with Year and Sace, but certainly isn’t an everyday occurrence. Lewy’s work has already been buffed.

Photo by Rai Cruz

Category: Art News, Festivals, Gallery/Museum Shows, Photos, Random, Videos | Tags: blo, brusk, cave gallery, da mental vaporz, detroit beautification project, dran, enzo, faith47, jaw, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, kan, kid acne, lewy, lny, nio, rai cruz, revok, sace, sane, smith, year, zoer

Lek and the Da Mental Vaporz crew (Blo, Brusk, Dran, Sowat, Jaw, Gris1, Kan and Iso) collaborated on this installation of a Madonna at the Artaq Festival in Angers, France. It’s always great to see what the DMV guys can do when they get together, and this is no exception.

Photos courtesy of Lek and DMV

Category: Festivals, Gallery/Museum Shows | Tags: blo, brusk, da mental vaporz, dran, gris, iso, jaw, kan, Lek, sowat

Da Mental Vaporz’ (Bom-K, Blo, Brusk, Dran, Gris1, ISO, Jaw, Kan, and Sowat) exhibition at RTIST Gallery in Melbourne in still open for a few more days, but if you can’t make it down, here’s a short video giving an idea of what’s going on (including a mural)…

DMV ~ Le Venin from Rtist Gallery on Vimeo.

Photo by S.Butterfly

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows, Videos | Tags: blo, bom.k, brusk, da mental vaporz, dran, gris, iso, jaw, kan, sowat

There are so many interesting shows opening in the next week or two that I thought I’d just throw them all together into one post. Here’s what I think looks worth checking out:

• Yesterday, the Museum of Sex in New York opened a show that sounds absolutely awesome called F*ck Art. It’s on through June 10th and features artwork by Aiko, El Celso, Lush, Mode2, Cassius Fouler, Miss Van and many more.
• Love & Hate is a group show opening at StolenSpace this week and runs through March 4th. D*face, Dan Witz, Ronzo, Word to Mother, Jeff Soto, Eine, Charles Krafft and others are included.
• Chris Stain, Veng and Taka Sudo will be showing together at C.A.V.E. Gallery, beginning February 11th. Brooklyn Street Art has a preview of Chris’ work.
• Zes and Retna are together at Known Gallery in LA. LA TACO has the info.
• Nick Mann aka Doodles, Brett Flanigan, Craig Rodgers and Dan Bortz are collaborating with one another in Oakland, CA.
• Another collaborative group show will be in Da Mental Vaporz‘ (Bom.k, Blo, Brusk, Dran, Gris1, ISO, Jaw, Kan, and Sowat) show at Melbourne. That show, Le Venin, will be at RTIST Gallery from February 16th through March 4th.
• All Talk at Pandemic Gallery will include Aakash Nihalani, Cassius Fouler, Gabriel Specter, Jesus Saves, NohJColey and others and runs from February 17th through March 11th.

Photo courtesy of Da Mental Vaporz

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows | Tags: aakash nihalani, aiko, blo, bom.k, brusk, cassius fouler, cave gallery, charles krafft, da mental vaporz, dan witz, dface, dran, eine, el celso, gris, iso, jaw, jeff soto, jesus saves, kan, Known Gallery, lush, miss van, mode2, nohjcoley, retna, ronzo, sowat, specter, stolenspace, taka sudo, word to mother, zes

Earlier this month the DMV (Da Mental Vaporz) Crew collaborated on this amazing wall for Crimes of Minds in Brest, France. The whole process was caught on camera and Awouell has just published this great ‘making of’ video…

Category: Festivals, Videos | Tags: avec, blo, bom.k, brusk, da mental vaporz, dran, gris, jaw, kan, sowat

Had about 4 days away from a computer and it’s taken me nearly as long to catch up on emails. This post should help to finish that task. Here’s what I missed while I was away:

• Aiko has a show at Pure Evil Gallery opening today. It’s called Unstoppable Waves, which was the name of her recent show in Amsterdam, so it will probably be some of the same work.
• Some cool walls from Hyuro (especially this one).
• Sickboy also has an upcoming solo show in East London. His show runs November 3rd-6th.
• Lazarides’ Minotaur show/restaurant in the Leake Street Tunnels is open now, and, regardless of the ridiculous high-society vibe of the event, the art looks good. S.Butterfly has plenty of images. Additionally (and counteracting a small portion of that high-society vibe), Lazarides’ The Outsiders webstore has 3 unlimited run screenprints available now from ATMA, David Choe and Stanley Donwood.
• Dale Grimshaw has a solo show on now at Signal Gallery in London.
• Da Mental Vaporz (Avec, Dran, Bom K, Sowat, Kan, Brusk, Blo, Gris, and Jaw) painted this mural in Brest, France.
• Here’s the latest from Isaac Cordal.
• If you’re a fan of ephemera and art from Colab/ABC No Rio/Fashion Moda and the like, check out Gallery 98 Bowery.
• Similarly, Printed Matter in NYC has a show opening this weekend about Colab.

Photo by Other

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows, Photos, Random | Tags: 1010, abc no rio, aiko, atma, avec, blo, bom.k, brusk, colab, da mental vaporz, dale grimshaw, david choe, dran, fashion moda, gris, hyuro, isaac cordal, jaw, kan, lazarides, pure evil gallery, sickboy, signal gallery, sowat, stanley donwood, troy lovegates

As we mentioned the other day, Roa and the French Da Mental Vaporz crew (Blo, Bom.k, Brusk, Dran, Gris, Jaw, Kan, Sowat), as well as others, were recently in Copenhagen painting for the Galore Festival. Here are some photos of the festival by S.Butterfly, mostly of DMV’s wall. You can find more pictures from her on flickr or her blog.

First though, this is a video by S.Butterfly of DMV working on their mural…

Da Mental Vaporz at Galore DK from Butterfly on Vimeo.

There’s actually an interesting story behind the mural. S.Butterfly explains, “The mural is a satyrical reference to unscrupulous people who are willing to deface street art walls for profit. The DMV also incorporated a tribute to Kase 2 (RIP), as well as Copenhagen landmarks, including the infamous  Christiania market, where you can find anything.” So the crew painted segments of the mural on removable panels, which they then moved to the end of wall and hung next to the “street art shop” (pictured above and below). In place of those panels, they painted windows to other places, as if the wall itself had actually been removed.

And the entire mural is huge and super wide, so the best way to view large it is by clicking here.

Photos by S.Butterfly

Category: Featured Posts, Photos | Tags: blo, bom.k, brusk, da mental vaporz, dran, gris, jaw, kan, sowat

You know what’s weird? Hanging out with all your friends from high school and then actually seeing current high school students from your school. Those kids are so young! While I was freaking out about no longer being a teenager and enjoying the beautiful London weather (I’m serious about this one), here’s what I almost missed this week:

• Ok let’s start with something self-promotional – I was interviewed and photographed by my friends at The Ripe Apples. Definitely the most relaxing and fun situation to have ever involved my face in front of a camera.
• The full Da Mental Vaporz crew (Dran, Bom.K, Sowat, Brusk, Lime, Kan, Iso, Blo and Jaw) put together a show in Toulouse. The crowds look massive and the art looks great. S.Butterfly has all the photos you need here and here.
• Neckface used his installation in Art in the Streets to film a movie trailer.
• Jordan Seiler at PublicAdCampaign took Neko around NYC and the result was a series of beautiful ad disruptions.
• Sometimes Every time I think about it, I get annoyed by the close relationship of Juxtapoz and Upper Playground (Matt Revelli is editor-in-chief at Juxtapoz and founder/creative director at Upper Playground). Not so much because of any “journalistic integrity issues,” but because Juxtapoz gets lots of great exclusive Upper Playground related content. This time, they have photographs from a trip on freight trains with Swampy, and they’ve interviewed Swampy for the July issue of Juxtapoz. Definitely check those out. Swampy of course has a show opening next week in San Fransisco at Upper Playground’s Fifty24SF.
• Myne has a nice new print out.
• This piece by Simple is crisp.
• One of my favorite painters in New York, Don Pablo Pedro, is in a group show opening today in Brooklyn.
• If you’ve spent time in Williamsburg, you’ve seen that pink cloud and lightening bolt logo around and probably wondered about it. Well, it’s by Abel Macias, and he’s got some really nice Pink Cloud shirts available.
• Anthony Lister is going to do a 6-day painting marathon in Berlin starting June 9th. And you’ll be able to monitor his progress online.

Photo by Luna Park

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows, Interview, Photos, Print Release, Random, Videos | Tags: abel macias, anthony lister, blo, bom.k, brusk, da mental vaporz, don pablo pedro, dran, iso, jaw, jordan seiler, kan, lime, myne, neckface, neko, simple, sowat, swampy