Roa in London

Happy weekend. Hope you’ve had a less busy week than me.

• Various and Gould spotted this odd but awesome tribute to a piece of graffiti in Berlin.
• Jaz recently visited C215′s town of Vitry, France, where he painted this stunning wall.
• Meanwhile, Anthony Lister is going huge in LA.
• Also on the west coast, Aryz painted one of his best murals to date in San Fransisco.
• In Miami, the city commissioner complains that a mural risks making a neighborhood look like a ghetto. Kinda funny given how muralists have been accused of helping to gentrify Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood.
• Ben Eine is always a joy to watch on camera. A nice, honest guy who just doesn’t feel like giving his friends free paint.
• Mear One and Ben Slow collaborate in LA, and it’s Mear’s first mural with a brush.
• Invader hit London. What do you think about the Star Wars themed piece? It’s not for me.
• Rochester’s Wall Therapy mural project has an IndieGoGo campaign running to try and fund this year’s event.
• A bit late on this one, but tonight the shop/gallery/bookstore Needles and Pens celebrated 10 years of existence with a huge show at The Luggage Store in San Fransisco including work by Know Hope, Deuce Seven, Pez, and so many other talented artists. Luckily, the show is on through June 8th.
• Also late to mention that Martin Whatson had a show opening this week Reed Projects in Stavanger, Norway.

Photo by Unusualimage

Artifex Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium has a solo show from Franco Fasoli aka Jaz coming up on Friday. Jaz is one of my favorite muralists, and I think I like his indoor work even more. Dude can paint. Battlefield will include new paintings as well as studies on paper. Those works on paper sure to be great as well. His sketch in my blackbook, done in just a few minutes, is one of my favorite pieces in my collection.

Battlefield opens this Friday, May 3rd, at 6pm, and runs until May 26th.

Photo courtesy of Suben

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 »

In collaboration with Fountain Art Fair and Samson Contompasis’ The Marketplace Gallery, the people of Living Walls have been given 175 ft. of wall space to divvy out amongst artists at Fountain. From December 6 to the 9th, 22 street artists including Rone, LNY, Trek Mathews, Jaz, Ever, Dal East, Faith47, Pixel Pancho, Never 2501, Joe Iurato and more will be painting Fountain’s outdoor courtyard.

The rise in success of Living Walls over the last 3 years has been fascinating to watch. This is their second year at Miami Basel but their first year there curating walls. Indoors they’ll have a booth, showing the works of a few international artists like La Pandilla, Interesni Kazki, and some of the artists listed above, as well as a few Atlanta favorites. Definitely looking forward to seeing their contribution.

Video courtesy of Living Walls

Hyuro

Happy reminder that we’re less than a month from Christmas…

• This new print from Swoon, featuring one of her older images, is absolutely beautiful and available online through her studio.
• Yes. Kaws had a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Just like lots of other significant brands.
• Vhils has a show opening next week at Lazarides’ Rathbone Place location.
• Here’s a new collaboration from Jaz and Elian.
• London graffiti writer Oker was recently sentenced to two years in prison. Pure Evil Gallery has prints and canvases available to help support Oker’s family.
• Remed has a show opening next month in Marrakesh, Morocco.
• Graffuturism have curated a show which is due to open next month in LA. The extensive line up includes Delta, Mare139, Doze Green, DVS1, Eric Haze, Jaz, Futura, Greg Lamarche, Kenor, Sowat, and others.

Photo by Hyuro

Jaz — from Argentina — at work

During our brief visit to Puerto Rico, we had the chance to view Jaz — one of our favorite artists — at work and discover the enchanting aesthetics of Mexican artist Eyel and local artists Pun18 and Tony Rodriguez, Josue Oquendo, Aslan Uno, and Esteban Ruiz of the Puerto Rican arts collective, Hello Again. Here are some more images:

Eyel — from Mexico — at work

Pun18 in progress

Pun18, close-up from completed mural

Hello Again, close-up in progress

Photo credits: Jaz and Hello Again by Lois Stavsky; Eyel by Dani Mozeson; Pun18 in progress by Lenny Collado and close-up courtesy of the artist

Veni

Here’s some stuff I missed this week while sitting under a giant stack of books and papers to read, mostly stuff I was supposed to read for school but avoided because I was at Nuart last weekend.

• The British Zeus recently had a solo show in London. Sandra Butterfly got the photos.
• These throw-ups by CES mixing letters and characters are fantastic.
• White Walls Say Nothing is hopefully about to be a film about street art in Buenos Aires, but they are doing a Kickstarter project to raise the last $32,000 needed to finish it.
• A great quick video interview with Ron English. Must see for his fans.
• Sowat, Lek and John Giorno painted two walls at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
• This mural festival in Puerto Rico includes Jaz, Ever, Roa, Aryz, Celso, La Pandilla and others.

Photo by Colin Chazaud

Aryz in Næstved, Denmark. Click to view large.

Just a question: Anyone wish an air-conditioned home want to trade places with me until things cool down? Anyway, here’s some linkage to what’s been going on with art this week:

• Some innocent teenagers outside of Philadelphia were recently cited for drawing on the ground with chalk because the cops think it might discourage real graffiti writers. Why don’t towns hire smarter police?
• You can now get wall-graphics for your house with designs by Jim Houser.
• This collaboration between Jaz and Dotz is pretty spectacular.
• Futura’s got a massive solo show on in NYC now, in association with Valmorida.
• ECB just painted the tallest mural in Asia. Fantastic location and great painting.
• Dabs and Myla (plus friends) have a great looking show on now at Thinkspace.
• Endless Canvas’ Special Delivery show in a formally empty warehouse opens this weekend. The pics I’ve seen look great. Don’t miss this if you’re in the Bay Area.
• This project by Swoon to raise money for her work on Braddock, PA will be happening on Saturday in New York.
• Space27 is a new gallery opening in Montreal next week with work from a lot of street artists.
• Another show opening in NYC tomorrow night (there are so many) is this group show at Agnes B featuring Gaia, Faile, ND’A and others.

Photo by Henrik Haven

Click to view large. Photo by Jaz.

Jaz‘s latest wall continues his experimentation with using different materials for his paint. Eleccion was painted in Buenos Aires with coal and lime paint, the same kind of super-long-lasting paint that is used by politicians who hire crews of people to illegally paint ads for them all over the city. Here’s an example of one of those ads.

Jaz also has a print release this week with StreetArtNews. The print, Observadores, is a handfinished 1-color print depicting wrestlers in the ring. It will go on sale on the StreetArtNews website this Thursday. More info here.

Observadores. Photo courtesy of StreetArtNews

Photos by Jaz and courtesy of StreetArtNews

Jaz

ParisFreeWalls is a mural program in Paris that have organized 11 walls since last November, including contributions from some of my favorite artists. It’s being curated by MSAGallery. Here are a few of the highlights from the program so far.

Ever

Rone

David Shillinglaw

Roti

Photos courtesy of ParisFreeWalls