A wall in Munich

Sorry this is coming a day late, but Thanksgiving and related activities took priority. Here’s what I missed posting about this week:

• Roa and Resto collaborated on this wall in the Netherlands.
• Peter Bengtsen has written some thoughts on a controversial Boris Hoppek product.
• Invader has a solo show opening at Lazarides’ The Outsiders next week. It will include Invader-shaped waffles.
• Dabs and Myla have designed a toy.
• James Marshall aka Dalek recently had a show at Womb Gallery in Oklahoma City. Arrested Motion has photos and there’s a behind-the-scenes video as well.
• On December 9th, Mighty Tanaka in Brooklyn has a group show opening with Robots Will Kill and other artists that they crew have selected.

Photo by Luna Park

Faile shocked their fans and detractors alike last week when they unveiled their newest body of work at Lazarides’ Gallery’s Rathbone Place location in London. The show, Fragments of Faile, features two distinct series. One is pretty much what you might expect from Faile: Familiar trademark imagery, styles and themes, mixed with some small steps forward. As usual, it was the introduction of new ideas into the Faile repertoire alongside the classics. If you’re a fan of Faile, you’ll like those pieces, and if you’re not, well the new twists probably won’t convince you. Most people I’ve spoken with say these are their favorite pieces in the show, and I have to agree. But those pieces are also getting very little attention compared to the completely new body of work that Faile introduced at the show: 100% painted (no screenprinting) portraits of women made up of abstract fabric patterns and bits of Faile iconography on top of very calm and un-Faile-like backgrounds. While there are a large number of people speaking out and saying how much they enjoy this new twist from Faile, among the people whose views I respect, the majority would not hang these paintings on their walls (although some would). Nuart’s reviews seem to best exemplify the reaction that I’m getting most often from those that I respect. Among that group, the new style has been met with general disappointment and confusion, with some people comparing it to a less gritty Bast or derivative of Miss Bugs (of course, Bast and Faile have collaborated numerous times in the past, and Miss Bugs has in the past been thought of as derivative of Faile). Nonetheless, nearly everyone I’ve heard from has also expressed great excitement that Faile have tried something so unexpected. My thoughts and some perspective from Faile themselves after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Faile are back at Lazarides Gallery and this time it’s going to very different. After a 3 year London hiatus, they return to the city with a solo show that “strikes out in a sophisticated new direction.”

Fragments of Faile sees the artist’s work stripped down to its bare essentials, promising to explore the “archetypical structures” beneath their decade of remixed mass culture artwork.

As Lazarides Gallery states in it’s elaborately worded press release, “Assembled from the artists’ own archive, Fragments of FAILE represents not a radical departure, but a rare opportunity to see their iconic practice anew.”

It certainly sounds interesting, but I’m a little puzzled as to how the work is ‘new’ whilst also assembled from the their archive. I’m imagining single layered images that hark back to Faile’s roots and go some way to forming the multi layered work we are used to seeing from the duo – a bit of image recycling maybe. Although that view could have something to do with the following picture.

Images of the work are currently being kept underwraps, literally, but here’s a little sneak preview thanks to Steve Lazarides…

The show is open to the general public at Lazarides Rathbone from 4th November and runs until 3rd December, Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 7pm.

For more details about the show, including the press release, head over to the Lazarides website.

Photo courtesy of Lazarides Gallery

1010 and Other aka Troy Lovegates

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

Opening in a few days at Post No Bills in LA, English 101 is a solo show of prints and other limited edition artwork by Ron English. Interestingly, Ron recently had a solo show of original works at Lazarides in London (Steve Lazarides is a co-owner of Post No Bills), he’ll have this show of limited edition works at Post No Bills and then he has a solo show of original works next month at LA’s Corey Helford Gallery.

Sam3 in France

This week it seems like I’ve been appearing elsewhere on the web as much as here on the blog. I’ve been more active than usual on Vandalog’s tumblr, which I’ve finally getting a feel for; I was interviewed by Brian Sherwin over at FineArtViews; and I wrote a post for my friend at Hyperallergic about advertisers utilizing the style of Liu Bolin to sell stuff. Here’s what didn’t make it to Vandalog:

• Revok called out Fab 5 Freddy for appropriating (or in Revok’s words “stealing”) letters from other artists including Sever and using them in his own work. You can read Revok’s post here, and hopefully I’ll have some thoughts about it in a post on Vandalog over the weekend. A commenter on Vandalog actually noted that Fred was doing this about two months ago.
• New York Magazine published an article, and not a particularly brief one, all about a painting that is supposedly by Jean-Michel Basquiat but was denied by his estate’s authentication committee. Well, while the writer of the article tries to get readers to sympathize with going through a potentially daunting and certainly not transparent authentication process, there was really no point for the whole thing: The painting is clearly by Phil Frost, something that the article doesn’t mention at all. So, umm… good work. Thanks to Known Gallery for pointing this all out.
• Nunca, Titifreak, Invader and more at this show in Paris.
• Retna painted a mural in Miami.
• Here’s some images of Bast’s show in Newcastle.
• The New York Times went with graffiti writer Freedom back to The Freedom Tunnel where he used to paint and took some photos.
• A street art / mystery investigation documentary film thing. Looks kinda cool except that they are trying to “out” an artist, so I’m not sure I’m 100% cool with that.

Photo by Sam3

Emory Douglas, aka the former ‘Minister for Culture’ for the Black Panthers and a major influence on artists like Shepard Fairey, has a show opening this week at The Outsiders, Lazarides’ Greek Street space in London. I’m a huge fan of Emory Douglas’ work, and I think he has been massively underrated, in large part because a lot of his original work was destroyed, but also because it was so controversial. Decades late, he is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Douglas is the master of revolutionary and political artwork. This show runs from August 18th through September 10th. I highly recommend that anyone with an interest in the intersection of art and politics check it out. Douglas’ work is political art that actually means something and changed things, compared to a lot of today’s “political” street art.

Images courtesy of The Outsiders

Conor Harrington at Hell's Half Acre

Lazarides are headed back to The Old Vic Tunnels off of Leake Street in London, the site of last year’s Hell’s Half Acre show and Banksy’s launch for Exit Through the Gift Shop. If you thought Hell’s Half Acre was a bit of a posh haunted house, you ain’t seen nothing yet. From October 10th through November 4th, Lazarides are turning the tunnels into an art exhibition space, but also a Michelin Star pop-up restaurant. The show is called The Minotaur, after the Greek legend. The absurdity of the whole thing leaves me speechless. As for the art, there will be a labyrinth-esque installation with new work from a number of artists including Conor Harrington, Stanley Donwood, 3D and Lucy McLauchlan. Unfortunately, it will cost £5 to get in if you aren’t under 18. Entry is free to some, but by some I mean it’s free if you’re eating at the restaurant for £65 a head, haha. On the plus side, there’s a bar, so you’ll be able to drink away the pain of having spent £65 to eat in a dilapidated storage room.

I dunno. Maybe this will be fun and full of amazing artwork and food. It probably will be enjoyable for the select few who get to experience it, but The Minotaur still strikes me as absurd and way over-the-top. Kind of like a real minotaur.

Photo by IanVisits

Boxi looks to be the latest artist to join the roster at Lazarides Gallery. Time Of The Signs is his solo show open at Laz’ Rathbone Place location from this Friday. Ever since seeing Logan Hicks’ stencil work at Black Rat Projects a little over three years ago, I’ve been a fan of the hyperrealistic stenciling that artists like Hicks and Boxi use. It seems strange to have Boxi at Lazarides though. I like his work, but it’s much more meditative and calm and just less loud/pop than what Lazarides seems to be about. Now I’m curious if we’ll see anything completely new and out of the box from Boxi, something that fits more with what I’d expect at Lazarides. Sorry to ramble on a bit, but this show seems to me equal parts confusing and exciting. It opens on Friday and runs through September 1st.

Last month, I had the chance to visit Ron English‘s studio in New York. At the time, he was just about to ship out his upcoming show at Lazarides Gallery in London, open from June 24th. Here are some photos from the visit:

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