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

Things Left Standing Behind is the second part of Know Hope‘s two-part series of solo shows at Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv. If you missed Things Standing Between, the first show in the series, we posted photos last week. Things Left Standing Behind is open now and runs through April 6th. For those of us not in Tel Aviv, Know Hope sent over these photos of the show.

One of the reasons I really love Know Hope’s artwork is that I find individual works interesting and precious, but taken as a whole, his overall body of work has a lot of depth to it too, a balance that I sometimes fear is missing with a lot of street artists. These two shows really exemplify that. The first primarily consisted of illustrative paintings and drawings hung on the walls of the gallery, while this part of the show continues the same narrative but centers on an installation titled The Tangled Hollow. Both shows dealt with the idea of fences and walls (things that stand between). Know Hope explained that the wall that makes of The Tangled Hollow is meant to have been constructed by the tree stumps in the center of the wall, which have now been cut down to nothing as a result of building the wall. So what does the wall protect now? Nothing except an idea of what once was. The paintings on the wall are whitewashed so that images only barely show through, like memories of events that were portrayed in the first part of the show.

The Tangled Hollow

Photos courtesy of Know Hope

Know Hope is currently half-way through a two-part solo show at Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv. Here, I’ve got photos of Things That Stand Between, the first part of this show which opened at the end of February. The second part, Things Left Standing Behind, opens today (Thursday) at 7:30pm. As I understand it, this second part of the show will involve a complete reinstallation of different work in the gallery.

Read the rest of this article »

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 »

Zéh Palito and Tosko

It is time for me to get a reasonable number of hours of sleep. Until I have to get up in the morning. Here’s what we didn’t get to write about on Vandalog this week:

• These two prints from Tristan Eaton and Everlast come from 1xRun and benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so you’ve got great artists, a great print studio and a great cause all in one package, but less than one week left to buy.
• Two updates on Hyuro’s wall in Atlanta: The neighborhood organization has voted to ask the property owner to remove the mural, and someone vandalized it anyway.
• This freight by MERS is stunning.
• This piece by Batis is pretty great too.
• Buff Monster, David Meade and friends of Vandalog Hrag Vartanian and Adam COST will be speaking on a panel at Doyle New York next week in anticipation of their upcoming street art auction.
• NYC has some great art on its trucks and vans.
• Endless Canvas’ Special Delivery warehouse show looks like it’s got some cool work from Swampy, GATS, Feral Child and others, but really it’s clear that photos do not do the show justice and that you had to be there.
• Adam Neate has a solo show coming up at Elms Lesters in London.
• And Gris1 has a solo show coming up in Marseille.
• My final show to mention this week is Roa’s show opening on Saturday at 941 Geary in SF.
• Know Hope’s latest zine is now available.
• SFMOMA as acquired a huge Margaret Kilgallen piece.
• Invader actually sent a space invader to space.
• Leon Reid IV’s The Hundred Story House project has been installed and is now active.
• The Weird crew’s latest mural features some nutty Disney characters.

Photo by Zéh Palito

Close-up of Zero Cents in Bushwick, Brooklyn

Zero Cents‘ distinctly disfigured – often disturbing — characters have been part of Israel’s visual landscape for years. It was quite a thrill to see his work this past week in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Zero Cents with Know Hope in Haifa, Israel, fall, 2010

Photos of Zero Cents in Bushwick by Tara Murray; photo with Know Hope in Haifa by Lois Stavsky

Know Hope has gone in bit of a different direction lately with his street work. As we saw during the Brandalism project, the text/poetry that has long been in Know Hope’s work has come to the fore and the characters have (at least for now) disappeared. Of course, he’s not the first to write short quips or poems on the street, but they are nice. What do you think of this sort of new direction for Know Hope?

Okay this piece has a flag in it too, which is like some pieces Know Hope has done in the past, but I like it so I’m including it in this post anyway.

Photos by Know Hope

Paul Insect in Leeds

Brandalism is a large-scale billboard hijacking project up right now throughout England. The organizers have put artwork over ads in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and London over the past few days, and they’ve worked with dozens of artists from 8 countries to do it. So far, about 35 billboards have been taken over and replaced with art, but there may be as many as 50 when the project is finished. The project calls itself the “the world’s first international, collaborative subvertising project,” which is not true, but it is still very exciting and a high-impact way to show what could be in our public spaces instead of advertising. Some fantastic artists have contributed to the project including Jordan Seiler, OX, Ron English, Cleon Peterson, Paul Insect and Know Hope.

You can read more about Brandalism in The Independent or on the project website.

Check a bunch more disruptions from the Brandalism project after the jump… Read the rest of this article »

Seth in Cambodia

Julien Seth is a public art documentarian for French television. The job’s required traveling has given Seth some interesting opportunities. Plenty of street artists these days travel and put work up around the globe, but instead of sticking to some blandly universal subject matter, Seth’s murals are inspired by the countries they’re painted in.

Here are a few examples of Julien Seth’s work. For more, check out his Facebook or his Flickr.

Seth in South Africa

Seth in India

He’s collaborated with Know Hope and Broken Fingaz in Israel, with El Decertor, Entes & Pessimo, Jade in Peru, and he is part of the “French Kiss“ collective with Dem189, Lek and Swiz in his home country of France. Currently, Seth is in the Ukraine, painting with Kislow and Teck.

Seth with Unga in Paris

Seth in Hong Kong

Seth in Chili

Seth in Cambodia

Photos by Seth

Rizzoli recently published the official book documenting The Underbelly Project, We Own the Night: The Art of The Underbelly Project. If you haven’t heard of The Underbelly Project, check out my firsthand account. Basically, over 100 artists were taken down to an abandoned subway station beneath New York City to put up artwork and explore hidden depths of the city. Artists involved in the project include Revok, Roa, Anthony Lister, Faile, Ron English, Dan Witz, Gaia, Know Hope, Haze and many others.

In December, a collector’s edition of the book was sold at The Underbelly Project’s show in Miami. Until now, that show was the only place to pick up a copy of this special edition of We Own the Night. The collector’s edition version includes a hardcover copy of the book, nine photographic prints from the project, and comes in a handcrafted and laser-engraved oak box. This package is an edition of 100, plus 10 APs, and a handful were held back in Miami to be sold later. Now, the remaining collector’s editions are available online for the first time exclusively at The Vandalog Shop.

The Underbelly Project is one of the most fascinating projects to ever happen in the street art or graffiti worlds. While there are photos all over the web showing what the project looked liked, reading We Own the Night is just about the only way to get a sense of what it was actually like to participate in The Underbelly Project. I saw The Underbelly Project in the flesh, but hearing other people’s stories shed new light on it even for me. I’m extremely pleased that The Vandalog Shop will be selling the collector’s edition of We Own the Night, giving people who couldn’t make it to Basel Miami a chance to pick up a copy. My copy of We Own the Night was the best thing I’ve received under a Christmas tree in years, and I hope other people will enjoy the book and the photographs as much as I do.

Here are a just a couple of the photographs included in the set:

Photo by Emile Souris

Kid Zoom. Photo by Ian Cox

Other images include work by Roa, Anthony Lister, Skullphone, Kid Zoom, Revok, Ceaze and Jeff Soto.

Only a few of these collector’s editions are remain, and The Vandalog Shop is the only place you’ll find them online. They are available for $250.

We Own the Night is also available in a regular paperback edition.

Photos by Ian Cox, Emile Souris and The Underbelly Project