Surge, Gaia, Stormie, Remi/Rough and in The Underbelly Project

UPDATE – LOCATION CHANGE: The Underbelly Show has moved to 78 NW 25th Street in Wynwood, Miami to accommodate the large scale of the artwork in this show.

The Underbelly Project is back. Last year, I posted a lot about the project where 103 artists from around the world secretly painted an abandoned/half-completed New York City subway station. After that initial burst of press here and around the web, The Underbelly Project organizers stayed silent. With only occasional vague tweets from a mysterious twitter account and the appearance on Amazon of an upcoming book about the project. Yesterday though, The Underbelly Project announced that they will be participating in this year’s Basel Miami Week madness with a pop-up gallery in South Beach Wynwood.

The organizers of The Underbelly Project and The Underbelly Show, Workhorse and PAC, have this to say about the show:

Workhorse: The New York Underbelly was an important chapter for us, but the story hadn’t been comprehensively told. The Underbelly Miami show gives us a chance to present the broad scope of documentation – Videos, photos, time-lapses and first hand accounts. The project is about more than just artwork. This show gives us a chance to show the people and the environment behind the artwork.

PAC: While the experience each artist had in their expedition underground can never be captured, it is my hope that this show will highlight some of the trials and tribulations associated with urban art taking place in the remote corners of our cities. Too often the practice of making art in unconventional venues remains shrouded in mystery and I hope this exhibition will shine a faint light on those artists who risk their safety to find alternative ways to create and be a part of the cities they live in.

35 of the 103 artists from The Underbelly Project will be exhibiting art in The Underbelly Show, plus video and still footage of the artists at work in the tunnel. Here’s the full line-up: Faile, Dabs & Myla, TrustoCorp, Aiko, Rone, Revok, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Mark Jenkins, Anthony Lister, Logan Hicks, Lucy McLauchlan, M-City, Kid Zoom, Haze, Saber, Meggs, Jim & Tina Darling, The London Police, Sheone, Skewville, Jeff Stark, Jordan Seiler, Jason Eppink and I AM, Dan Witz, Specter, Ripo, MoMo, Remi/Rough, Stormie Mills, Swoon, Know Hope, Skullphone, L’Atlas, Roa, Surge, Gaia, Michael De Feo, Joe Iurato, Love Me, Adam 5100, and Chris Stain.

For this show, the space will be transformed into an environment imitating the tunnel where The Underbelly Project took place, right down to playing sounds recorded in the station while The Underbelly Project was happening.

If you absolutely cannot wait until February to get We Own The Night, the book documenting The Underbelly Project, a limited number will be available at The Underbelly Show in a box set with 9 photographic prints and the book all contained in a handcrafted oak box. Additionally, you will be able to your book signed by the artists participating in The Underbelly Show.

The Underbelly Show will take place at 2200 Collins Avenue, South Beach, Miami 78 NW 25th Street, Wynwood, Miami. There will be a private opening on November 30th, and the space will be open to the general public December 2nd-5th, with a general opening on the 2nd from 8-10pm.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Ron English, for his recent show at Lazarides in London

Anonymous Gallery, the mostly New York-based pop up gallery, has put together a show that will open later this week at the Wooster Street Social Club, aka the site of the show NY Ink. Flash includes original artwork as well as designs by those same artists that people can get put on them by the tattoo artists at Wooster Street Social Club. Flash opens on September 17th, runs through October 29th,  and includes Anthony Lister, Curtis Kulig (aka Love Me), Dan Witz, Eric White, Greg Lamarche, Kenji Hirata, Kenzo Minami, James Jean, Logan Hicks, Nick Walker, Ron English, Shelter Serra and Tristan Eaton.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Shepard Fairey

Something for all the family is a show that The London Police have curated at GO Gallery in Amsterdam. The show includes Shepard Fairey, Logan Hicks, Will Barras, Lunar, Swanski, Joe Holbrook and Vanwa. It opens on Saturday, September 3rd from 5-8pm, and runs through October 20th. Check out more preview pieces for the show on the GO Gallery website.

Photo courtesy of GO Gallery

Logan Hicks in progress. Photo courtesy of Logan HIcks

Here’s the latest from the T&J Art Walk in Oslo. Previously, we’ve posted about Faile and Shepard Fairey‘s murals for the event, and Brooklyn Street Art has some photos of what The London Police are working on. Most recently, D*face, Galo and Logan Hicks have finished their walls. Art Walk’s indoor exhibition to benefit Human Rights Watch also opened at Blomqvist opened on the 19th. But here are the new walls…

D*face. Photo by Ole Walter Jacobsen

Galo. Photo by Ole Walter Jacobsen

Logan Hicks. Photo by Ole Walter Jacobsen

Logan Hicks. Photo by Ole Walter Jacobsen

Photos by Ole Walter Jacobsen and courtesy of Logan Hicks

Faile have been painting this week in Oslo in preparation for the T&J Art Walk taking place this month for the benefit of Human Rights Watch. Faile are the first artists to get to Olso and start painting for the event, but Shepard Fairey, Logan Hicks, D*face, The London Police, Seen, Fenx, Galo and others will be taking part as well. In addition to 10 murals in central Oslo celebrating the work of Human Rights Watch and memorializing the victims of last month’s terror attack, there will be an exhibition from August 18th through September 4th at the Norwegian auction house Blomqvist for the benefit of Human Rights Watch.

Check out some of what Faile has been up to in Oslo after the jump, and expect to see more T&J Art Walk murals on Vandalog soon… Read the rest of this entry »

The latest issue of Very Nearly Almost, issue 15, went on sale last month. As a fan and occasional contributor to VNA, it’s a magazine that I always pick up. This issue is particularly cool though because it might have the more interviews with artists that I’ve written a lot about on Vandalog than any other issue of VNA. This is a coincidence, but certainly a happy one for me. Besides the interview that I did with Jordan Seiler, there is of course a detailed cover article where VNA speaks to Shepard Fairey, some very insightful words from Logan Hicks, a crazy series of conversations with members of Burning Candy (the VNA team might have been the only people to ever get the full nine current and former members of BC in one room at the same time) and interviews with Ripo and Nychos (who I haven’t written about too much, but now I want to) as well. As always, the guys at Very Nearly Almost have put together a quality zine and I highly recommend picking up a copy.

Here are a few teasers from this issue:

Photos courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

Logan Hicks’ show on now at Opera Gallery in NYC has some new work from him on anodized aluminum. Those pieces are of greyscale figures or scenes on what looks like a solid piece of black aluminum. In reality, the aluminum has been anodized/dyed black. In this new video, Logan explains the process of how his artworks on anodized aluminum are made:

Logan Hicks – anodized aluminum from Logan Hicks on Vimeo.

"Circus" ad disruption in Philadelphia by Sorry

Wow, last week went by quickly. And Steph moved in with me today, temporarily. Should be a crazy few weeks. Here’s what I’ve been meaning to write about:

• JR’s show at Centre Pompidou is open.
• Ludo’s got a new sculpture for sale.
• Faile’s new print with Paper Monster could have been great, but I think they picked such a weak image to work with. Oh well. I’m sure there will be more and better Faile prints in the future.
• The remnants of a historic Cost/Revs piece can now be seen up close from a newly opened section of the Highline in NYC.
• Banksy is sponsoring Art in the Streets at MOCA in LA so that visits are free every Monday from 11-5 through the rest of the show’s run.
• A large Kaws sculpture moved from the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum to The Standard Hotel in NYC. And there’s this new video interview with Kaws too.
• New from Phlegm.
• Lois posted some photos, but here’s even more from Logan Hicks’ show at Opera Gallery.
• I’ve never heard of Anton Steenbock, but I want to see more like this.
• Glen E. Friedman has won his lawsuit against Mr. Brainwash for using Friedman’s iconic photograph of Run DMC. I still say I’d rather have seen MBW win this case. Not because I think MBW’s work based on that photo looked good, but because I’d rather see more room for artists to re-appropriate content and less restrictions on copyrighted material. What MBW did to Friedman’s photograph was transformative. The original photo is a great photo and an iconic one. What MBW did was make it look totally silly. And that should be covered by fair use, for the benefit of better artists.

Photo by Carolinecaldwell

I’d always identified Logan Hicks with meticulously stenciled urban landscapes.   I was awed by his pieces that I saw at London’s Cans Festival in 2008 and at Brooklyn’s Willoughby Windows in 2009.  It was only earlier today at Opera Gallery in SoHo that I discovered his stunningly-crafted portraits, including of the lovely Monica LoCascio.

@ Cans Festival, London, 2008

@ Willoughby Windows, Brooklyn, 2009

@ Opera Gallery, NYC, 2011

Photos by Lois Stavsky

Logan Hicks’ much anticipated solo show at Opera Gallery in NYC opens on Thursday. I saw some of the work for Pretty Ugly while I was in New York recently, and, as always, Logan is a master of technique. You don’t want to miss this show. Here’s a little preview of what to expect…

Untitled from Logan Hicks on Vimeo.

And don’t forget that Logan was interviewed for the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost.

Photos courtesy of Logan Hicks