Here’s a hodge-podge of photos of some of my favorite murals from Miami this year… Probably more to come in future posts as well. Most of these were part of Primary Flight.

Photos by S.Vegas, Hargo, tatscruinc and courtesy of Thinkspace and Remi

Category: Featured Posts, Festivals, Photos | Tags: barry mcgee, Dabs Myla, ema, hargo, how, Invader, jeff soto, kid acne, Maxx242, nosm, primary flight, remi/rough, shepard fairey, stormie mills, the london police, will barras

One of my roommates came by a few minutes ago and asked “So, did shit hit the fan?” He knew I was posting something about Underbelly yesterday, but he’s not really the artsy type so he didn’t know quite what it was.

Well indeed shit has hit the fan, but mostly in a good way so far. The Underbelly Project made it into The New York Times and The Age. Also, Ian Cox and Luna Park have posted their photos on their respective blogs. And their photos are much better than mine, so check them out.

It seems most people are liking the project, even if some have some reservations. As one commenter on my last post pointed out, maybe you had to be there to experience some of the awesomeness, but it’s still pretty cool. I think that’s a fair assessment. Some artists’ work is best viewed in person, and the best artworks in The Underbelly Project tend to fall into that category. Posterchild put up an interactive sculpture, and Dan Witz’ art is definitely more powerful when it comes as a surprise and in person.

But there’s been one criticism that I absolutely don’t buy: That The Underbelly Project was conceived and executed purely for commercial gain. Yeah, later this week I’ll be posting a trailer to a documentary about the project, but the organizers, who I think are two very bright people, would have to be complete idiots to do this project if their only interest was a sick book deal. Yeah, there are street artists and graffiti writers out there who do illegal work to get attention and doing well-promoted street art can sell a painting or two. I’ve called out people on doing things like that before. That said, the scale and risk of The Underbelly Project is greater than what could be often by any likely monetary rewards. It would be much easier and less risky to either fake the entire project in a warehouse somewhere or just do something that relies on one or two big events instead of a year of secrecy and dangerous activities. I highly doubt that The Underbelly Project will be an efficient way to make money for the participants, even with any future books or films or anything like that. When I was first told about The Underbelly Project, it was little more than an idea, and the idea was to create a secret street art and graffiti Mecca, not to make a million bucks.

Here are some more photos from down in the tunnel:

I’ll continue this week to post more photos, but you can check out a more full set of my images on flickr.

Photos courtesy of The Underbelly Project (by Workhorse, PAC and Garrett) and by RJ

Category: Festivals, Photos | Tags: 1010, ceaze, con, gaia, indigo, jeff soto, m-city, mark jenkins, paper twins, revok, roa, sinboy, stormie, surge, underbelly project

This summer, I sat in a massive pitch-black room and muttered “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit…” over and over again. I couldn’t stop repeating “Holy shit” for maybe for five minutes. I’d been anticipating this moment for nearly a year. I was somewhere underneath New York City. I was waiting to be shown The Underbelly Project. Technically, I was there to take photos, but really I didn’t care at all if images came out or not. Really, I just wanted to see firsthand what was going on 4-stories below the streets of New York City.

Imagine Cans Festival, FAME Festival or Primary Flight: Some of street art and graffiti’s best artists all painting one spot. That’s kind of like The Underbelly Project. Except that The Underbelly Project took place in complete secrecy, in a mysterious location and without any authorization. Over the past year, The Underbelly Project has brought more than 100 artists to an abandoned and half-finished New York City subway station. Each artist was given one night to paint something.

Workhorse and PAC, the project’s organizers, have put countless hours into their ghost subway station, and now they’re finally ready to unveil it to the world, sort of (more on that later). So I guess that’s why I was in that dark room, sitting in silence, waiting for them to give me a flashlight. I’m still not sure why I’d been extended the invitation to see the station firsthand, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity. The Underbelly Project is going to be part of street art history.

Eventually, Workhorse and PAC came over to where I was sitting and lent me a flashlight. I stood up, already coated in dust and probably dirtier than I’ve ever been, and got a full tour of the station. I’m not somebody who is good at estimating the size of a space, but The Underbelly Project took place in a space that was meant to be a subway station, so I guess it was the size of a subway station with a few tracks. The station is like a concrete cavern: random holes who-knows how deep into the ground, dust thick like a layer of dirt, leaky ceilings and hidden rooms. Except the whole station is covered in art. Think of FAME Festival’s abandoned monastery transplanted to beneath New York City. I’m not an urban explorer, so I had no idea that there are abandoned subway stations throughout New York, but The Underbelly Project seems like just about the best possible use of one.

Of course, having been down there myself, I’m going to be prone to hyperbole. Even at it’s simplest, even if The Underbelly Project is “just another mural project,” it’s a story that the artists can tell for years, and it may even be evidence that street art isn’t so far gone and corporate as some people have suggested.

The list of artists who painted for The Underbelly Project goes on and on, but here are just a few:

Swoon

Gaia

Know Hope

Revok

Roa

Dan Witz

Jeff Soto

Faile

Mark Jenkins

Elbow-toe

TrustoCorp

On my visit, The Underbelly Project wasn’t finished. In fact, somebody was painting there that night. Nonetheless, the space was already substantially painted and postered. I spent that night wandering around the tunnels, taking photos and getting lost (and also scared – Damn you Mark Jenkins! You can’t put a sculpture like that at the end of a darkened hall. I thought it was a person!).

And what now? The walls have all been painted and the artists have moved on to new projects. When the last artist finished painting the last wall, Workhorse and PAC made access to The Underbelly Project nearly impossible by removing the entrance. Even if any of us wanted to go back (and I do), even if we could remember how to get there (and I don’t), we can’t. Nobody can. For now, The Underbelly Project has become a time capsule of street art, somewhere in the depths of New York City.

Brad Downey once explained to me why he thought Damien Hirst’s diamond skull is interesting. It had something to do with what people would think of the skull in 1000 years, when its original meaning has been lost to time. That’s when the skull is going to become a true icon and object with immense power. In some ways, The Underbelly Project is like Hirst’s skull, without the price tag. One day, decades from now hopefully, somebody may rediscover that old subway station and have no idea what they’re looking at. Hopefully, they’ll just feel that it’s something incredibly special.

Here are some more images from The Underbelly Project, and expect more over the coming days on Vandalog and around the blogosphere… Or you can pay £1 to read an in-depth article about it in today’s Sunday Times.

Photos by RJ Rushmore, Workhorse and PAC

Category: Art News, Featured Posts, Festivals, Photos | Tags: 1010, bigfoot, ceaze, con, control, dan witz, elbowtoe, faile, gaia, imminent disaster, jeff soto, jice, know hope, l'atlas, mark jenkins, Meggs, mr di maggio, nick walker, pac, paper twins, remi/rough, revok, roa, sheone, skewville, stash, stormie, surge, swoon, trustocorp, underbelly project, workhorse

I’m a HUGE fan of Jeff Soto and having already had the opportunity to interview him a long time ago, I can safely say I’m a fan for life. There was also that one time when I stood next to him at the opening of his debut UK solo exhibition and didn’t have the balls to say hello, but let’s not talk about that! Instead lets talk about Maxx242 vs. Jeff Soto; a new collaborative project between the two artists and longtime friends which will focus on releasing limited edition items such as toys, skate decks, apparel and prints. The project also includes two limited edition decks made for REAL Skateboards (seen above), both made in limited quantities. The boards (which will have a special coinciding Bearbrick Toy for special release at Unit in Tokyo, Japan) were both made at a quantity of 200, with 50 of each going straight to Japan, so only 150 will be available in the US!

Maxx242 and Soto have worked together on various projects over the past 20 years and have always pushed each other to progress as artists and more importantly, they share a deep respect for one another. Now they are joining forces again to make some cool shit for the world!

Category: Random, Toys | Tags: jeff soto, Maxx242, Real Skateboards

Update: The original headline on this post, and the one that you probably saw if you are found this on your RSS feed, mentioned a new toy. Then I decided not to mention Jeff Soto’s new toy because I went on a rant about art versus advertising. If you’re curious though, Hi-Fructose has some info on the new toy that Jeff is working on.

Looks like Jeff Soto just painted this piece outside of Eyebeam in NYC.  Which reminds me, if you’re in NYC, tonight would be a good night to stop by Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Jeff Soto and Dave Cooper both have solo shows opening there tonight (those shows run through July 24th). Arrested Motion recently posted a studio visit with Jeff, which includes some of the artwork that will be at his show tonight.

Now, I don’t mean to direct any potential negative attention towards Jeff Soto, but this piece reminds me of an interesting argument that I had last night with a friend of mine, who I’ll call James because I’m sure he doesn’t want me to publish his name. I said that I’d rather not be subjected to advertising while I’m in a public space, especially illegal advertising. Naturally, James brings up that I’m more than okay with artists putting up street art illegally. He thinks that I’m hypocritical for hating illegal ads but loving illegal art, especially since the definition of what is art is subjective. I say there’s a big difference, since street art, public art and architecture aren’t trying to sell you anything. Naturally, James makes the point that when a street artist puts up a piece, that’s advertising for their own work. In the case of Jeff Soto, Jeff rarely paints outside anymore, and this particular wall is clearly a form of promotion for his show with Jonathan LeVine Gallery. So it’s an ad, right? Not in my opinion. Yes, it’s an ad, if you know who Jeff Soto is and you know that he has a show opening tonight, which is probably less than 1% of the people who walk by Eyebeam today. For the vast majority of New Yorkers, that’s just a piece of art. Even if Jeff had signed his name, it’s not like he’s put a sign next to it saying “You can buy this image as a print for $70 at potatostamp.com!” (although, actually, you can).  Maybe murals like Jeff’s and 99% of street art is a form of guerilla marketing, but it’s only seen as marketing by a tiny minority of the population. For the rest of the world, it’s art in the place of a grey wall, and there’s nothing better than that. So that’s my rant about the different between street art and advertising. Hopefully you agree with me, otherwise I may have just turned a few people off of Jeff Soto, which would suck.

Photo by amc_

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows, Photos | Tags: jeff soto, jonathan levine gallery

Yes, Babelgum still has plenty of videos to post from the fairs in Miami. The latest is of Jeff Soto working on his wall for Primary Flight:

Category: Videos | Tags: jeff soto, primary flight

So maybe this is the first of a few posts with street art related gift ideas, maybe not. Here are some prints that are available online for a very low price (but they aren’t cheap. Right Zeus?).

1. Logopops by Sickboy. Last night was Sickboy’s one night only show, Logopops. Lots of hand finished prints are available online for as little as £35 (though you are meant to get a few of them to create a custom cluster of prints).

2. Storm Clouds by Jeff Soto. I must admit that I am becoming more and more of a Jeff Soto fan, especially the watercolor pieces. At just £75, it costs a lot less than I expected.

3. Sprout by Josh Keyes. I am very very wary of recommending this. Josh Keyes is an amazingly talented painter and I do like his work, but I’m not sure if you get the same feel for it through a giclee print. You kind of need to see the originals in person to see what sets him apart from all the other guys painting post-environmental-apocalypse art. Could be awesome though, and it’s a book and (very large editioned) print for $85 so that’s nice.

4. Tempo Boxer by Ace. A staple of the London scene (Blackall Street in particular), Ace does some nice work and a nice print from him goes for between £50-55.

5. Dalek Blue by Dalek/James Marshall. Dalek has two “Space Monkey” prints available on his site, both very nice, but I prefer the blue one.

6. Homeless, Not Hopeless by Above. I mentioned this print the other day, but it’s worth showing again because all the profits go to a good cause.

7. Better Than Nothing by Kid Acne. I suppose you either like his warrior women or you don’t. I do.

8. Make Room For The Emptiness by Jim Houser. This is the print that I want to buy with my grandma’s Christmas money. Love it. And at just $75, I can’t believe it hasn’t sold out yet.

9. Mama Quilla by Fefe Talavera. Another beautiful and affordable print from The BLDG.

10. The Answer by Hera. This lithograph by Hera looks great and comes with my book The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In. It’s £100 for the set, and since the book retails for about £25, that’s an affordable print if I ever saw one. The print is of a sketch by Hera, and she really knows how to sketch.

Category: Featured Posts, Print Release | Tags: above, ace, dalek, fefe talavera, hera, jeff soto, jim houser, josh keyes, sickboy

My highlight of Art Basel was almost definitely Primary Flight, the huge mural project in the Wynwood district. They had over 100 artists painting murals, from big names like Shepard Fairey and Nick Walker to local graffiti writers. Here’s some of what they did.

Joe and I made a video about the project:

Many many more photos on Jeremiah Garcia’s flickr

Category: Art News, Featured Posts, Photos, Videos | Tags: gaia, jeff soto, nohjcoley, pose, ron english

There is so much going on next week in Miami, that some events are bound to be lost in the sea of parties and paintings. I’ve recently come across a few events lesser-known that have gotten me pretty interested.

1. ART BURN: The Most Combustible Art Show in the World

ART BURN, the most combustible art show in the world, will combine an international selection of original art with fire. Original works on canvas, wood and paper by a selection of more than three dozen international artists will be displayed and then flambeed in Miami on the evening of Thursday, December 3, 2009 at sunset. The exhibition/grilling, curated by NYC artist El Celso, will take place in the Wynwood Arts District, within walking distance of Miami’s lesser contemporary art fairs.

An exclusive selection of more than three dozen exceptional pieces by the hottest renowned artists and sizzling, cutting-edge newcomers will be displayed from 1pm until sundown. After the brief exhibition, all of these original works will be burned for the public’s viewing pleasure. Nothing is for sale.

Venue
TBA
Duration and opening hours
Thursday, December 3, 2009
One day only from 1pm to sunset.

SPONSORS

c-monster.net
HYPERALLERGIC
BROOKLYN STREET ART
KINGSFORD® Charcoal

For the latest updates on ART BURN Miami, visit http://elcelso.com/

Artists include:

El Celso, Skewville, Darkcloud, Elbow-Toe, Royce Bannon, Gore-B, Matt Siren, Robots Will Kill, Michael DeFeo and many more…

2. Chimera at Scope

This line up looks great. I’m especially looking forward to seeing Stephan Doitschinoff aka Calma’s piece.

Here’s the full line up:

Pedro Barbeito, Melissa Brown, Stephan Doitschinoff (aka CALMA), Doze Green, Luis Macias, Christof Mascher, Fernando Mastrangelo, Dave McDermott, Ted O’Sullivan, Jeff Soto, Christoph Steinmeyer, Ouattara Watts, Andrzej Zielinski and Kevin Zucker.

And of course, it’s at SCOPE, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

3. Graffiti Gone Global

Juxtapoz has the info on this show:

Curated by James and Karla Murray, authors of best-selling titles Store Front-The Disappearing Face of New York, Miami Graffiti, Broken Windows and Burning New York, the exhibition will feature a selection of work from today’s top street artists. This groundbreaking exhibition, set to take place in a 4,000 square foot venue in the Midtown Arts District, will be the largest of its kind in Miami.

Exhibiting artists include: 131 Projects (Argentina), Aiko Nakagawa (Japan), Armogedon 2057 (Armenia), Billi Kid (Colombia), Crome (Miami), Cycle (NYC), David Cooper (NYC), Doze Green (NYC), Ewok One 5MH (NYC), Flip (Brazil), Ghost aka Cousin Frank (NYC), Jana Joana (Brazil), Lady Pink (Ecuador), Nina (Brazil), Shiro (Japan), Smael (Brazil), Sofia Maldonado (Puerto Rico), Suiko (Japan) and Vitché (Brazil).

Graffiti Gone Global Show Info:
Location
3252 NE 1st Avenue
Suite 101
Miami, FL 33127

General Hours
Friday, December 4: 12 – 8pm
Saturday, December 5: 12 – 9pm
Sunday, December 6: 12 — 3pm

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows | Tags: calma, doze green, elbowtoe, jeff soto, skewville

Here’s a few things that I could/should have done full posts about, but I’d just like to quickly cover before they become too old and get lost in my inbox.

• Until May 30th you can get a special “early bird” rate on tickets to OFFSET2009, a 3 day conference taking place in Dublin this November. A number of street/urban/low-brow artists will be there including D*Face, Asbestos, and Brad Downey.
• Faile put up another prayer wheel in New York. Unfortunately, @newyourpulse has just tweeted that the piece is gone. A picture below (and more here):
  
• Jeff Soto has been in London. I’ve never been a fan of his work (admitted, I have only seen jpegs), which is why I didn’t cover his current show at StolenSpace Gallery, but he’s also done a couple street pieces which I like much more than his gallery work, so below is one of those. Also, here’s a recent interview with Soto for Civil Clothing.
  
• Public Ad Campaign‘s recent New York Billboard Takeover was even larger than I could have imagined. They’ve just released a Google map detailing all the work that was done. Great job guys. Looks like you took over the city (if only for a day or two).
• And lastly, the Brooklynite Gallery‘s latest show has brought a bit of London to New York, with Sweet Toof and Cept getting up in across the pond.
  

Jeff Soto photo by Sabeth718, other photos by SMKjr

Category: Random | Tags: cept, faile, jeff soto, offset2009, sweet toof