Wow. I’d love the meet the building owner who asked Ludo to put this massive piece (titled War Bug) on their picturesque building in Lille, France. Fantastic.

Photos by Ludo

“Abstract Ace” in Paris by Ludo

It’s a bit late, but it’s link-o-rama time…

• CRASH painted the wall at Bowery and Houston. He is the first train painter to paint the wall since it became a curated spot a few years ago excluding the collaborative Martha Cooper 70th birthday edition of the wall (although DAZE did paint it back in the 1980′s).
• A Love Letter For You, the dramatic film made around Steve Power’s mural project of the same name, is screening in Chicago this month.
• Vagrant Space, AVOID pi’s new space/residency/project based in North Carolina, has a show at Tender Trap in Brooklyn next month.
• S.Butterfly has photo of Horfee’s London show.
• Do you hate assholes? Do you love people who act like human beings? So does Morley.
• The Centre-fuge Public Art Project is trying to raise some money to expand their work.
• Mumbo Sauce, a group show co-curated by Roger Gastman, opens next month at The Contemporary Wing in DC. The show includes work by BORF, Mark Jenkins and others.
• Shepard Fairey has designed the official mission patch for a space mission. Yes, it’s kind of an odd collaboration and other 100 artists probably could have designed something good for this patch, but I really like Fairey’s design. Great art? I dunno. Solid design? Definitely. Hyperallergic has more examples of patches for space missions.

Photos by Ludo

“Modern Tulipa” by Ludo

Bit of a shorter link-o-rama this week. I’ve been with my parents in Colorado, trying to get some work done on my upcoming book. The hope is that Viral Art will be released for free online in mid-June. There’s still a fair bit of work left to do though. Anyway, the links…

• Don’t Fret had a show in Chicago earlier this year around the theme of internet dating. Great stuff.
• Liqen’s latest piece is a call to preserve a wildlife sanctuary in Ecuador.
• A.CE has a new print out at Station16.
• Sweet piece by 45RPM on a huge airplane. Anyone know the story here?
• Sowat painted in the historic Paris nightclub Les Bains next to a Futura piece from the mid-80′s.
• Paul Insect and Sweet Toof have been getting up around London. It looks like his time spent with Bast while in NYC recently may have influenced him a bit, as some of Paul Insect’s work is in a more naive style reminiscent of Bast or Haring that I don’t think I’ve seen from him before. Looks good.

Photo by Ludo

Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada

This year’s edition of the Moniker Art Fair opens in Shoreditch this Thursday. This year, Moniker will be more focused than ever before on installations rather than traditional art fair gallery booths. Actually, the show will be entirely installations. Niels ‘Shoe’ Meulman, Ludo, Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada, C215, Remi/Rough, Ben Slow and others will be there.

Moniker opens on Thursday from 7-9pm, and will be open Friday and Saturday 11-7pm and Sunday 11-5pm.

More info on the Facebook event page.

Photo courtesy of Moniker Projects

Ludo‘s latest solo show, Metal Militia, opens this Friday at Galerie Itinerrance in Paris. The show will include works on paper and canvas and sculptures. The show should be worth checking out, and there’s plenty of time, as it runs through October 10th.

Photos courtesy of Ludo

EVOL, Denis Meyers & MUGA seen in the La Louviere exhibition.

The small town of La Louvière, in Belgium is host to a brilliant Urban Art exhibition being held at “Centre de la Gravure et de’limage imprimée” (The Center for Engraving and the Printed Image). Showing through September 2, 2012, “Vues sur Murs” (Wallscapes: Prints in Street Art) features an impressive list of international artists, many making new work specifically for this exhibit and also hitting the town with huge pieces.

Invader, C215, Jef Aérosol, EVOL, Ludo, Denis Meyers, Obêtre, Muga, Doctor-H, Sten & Lex, Swoon and OBEY (Shepard Fairey) are all featured in this show which spans three floors of the gallery. The show’s curator, Marie Van Bosterhaut, had the seed of the idea in 2009 after seeing an OBEY print at the home of a collector. She contacted Fairey’s people for what was initially planned to be an OBEY retrospective…

“But then it appeared it might be more interesting to invite more artists using printing techniques in street art,” said Bosterhaut of the project’s evolution. ”It was really great to have all these artists working inside the museum, and also outside. There was like a great energy.”

While some of the artists knew each other, others met for the first time. “This created some small surprises,” said Bosterhaut. Evidence of this is seen in one of the exhibition’s highlights located on the top floor. There, Berlin-based EVOL has transformed several structural columns, which protrude at various levels into the exhibition space. They now appear as EVOL’s signature-style buildings and “artists like Denis (Meyers) & Ludo made some tiny stencils or billboards, creating a kind of interaction between the artists,” Bosterhaut said.

Ludo’s mini-billboard seen on an EVOL “building.” The billboard ad disruption on a Kinder Bueno candy box measures about 3 inches high. Full size pieces from both artists appear in the background.

EVOL’s other works include some exquisite urban-themed paintings on cardboard.

Another highlight of the show is Brussels-based artist Denis Meyers. Mostly known for the large faces he paints, he also prints unique stickers and uses hand-made woodcuts and rubber stamps to produce a wide variety of work which all screams out with his signature style. Many of his sketchbooks are also on display as well as other elements which offer a peek into the artist’s process.

Just a bit of the Denis Meyers section from the show.
(see more in the photo gallery)

Long-time French favorite Jef Aérosol‘s  large iconic work greets you at the entrance of the exhibit but some of his smaller, printed images are framed on the sides and offer a more intimate experience with the artist. Jef also hit the town, painting a three-story-tall face of rocker Jimi Hendrix.

Jef Aérosol’s work greets you at the entrance.

Aerosol’s Hendrix

In addition to his brilliant mini-billboard, the Paris-based paste-up master Ludo and his unmistakable green paint occupy a notable section of the top floor, including a full-scale bus shelter (crappy tags included.)  For the real experience though, pick up the map supplied at the front desk and follow it to the various “treasures” left by artists around the city. Ludo has posted three large pieces out on the town.

LUDO work on Rue René Magritte in La Louvière.

A favorite of mine is “C215” (Christian Guémy.) The Parisian stencil artist painted a large mural for the show. There are also many photographs of his stencil works, and several other painted “objects,” including three mailboxes, a shoeshine box, and a metal sign among other things.

Mailbox by C215

The pioneering Italian artistic duo of Sten & Lex display some of their strong, black & white portrait posters, but the real treat from them requires a 10 minute walk to a parking lot down the road a bit. There, a dramatic and elaborate composition of black & white zig-zagging lines reveal a face that fills the wall and towers over the cars and shopping carts.

Sten & Lex Wall

Sten & Lex Wall Detail

Of course the anchor of the exhibition is an extensive collection of OBEY works by American artist Shepard Fairey. In addition to a short documentary video, the display spans his career from his quirky beginnings making “Andre the Giant has a posse” stickers, to the slick, celebrity and political-themed posters pumped out by the Obey Giant Worldwide Propaganda factory today. There are dozens of his limited-edition prints with their graphically-pleasing imagery, and even a trio of OBEY skateboard decks. A definite treat for any Fairey fan.

OBEY poster restrospective.

The show concentrates on the printing aspects of urban art but there’s a ton of other multi-media work to see there as well. Too much art to mention in this article, including great stuff by Invader, Obêtre, Muga, Doctor-H & Swoon.

This is a severely edited version of a much longer story from my newly started blog, LABEAURATOIRE where you can read the whole story & see a slideshow with more than 50 photos. 

IF YOU GO: Smack-dab in-between Paris & Cologne, La Louviere is about a two and-a-half hour drive from each, and just 45 minutes south of Brussels. Definitely worth the trip. But remember, it’s only showing through September 2, 2012 – so get going!

Photos by Lance Aram Rothstein (many of these photographs were shot with Film Cameras. Long Live Film!)

I’m absolutely loving these new pieces by Ludo, especially the simple ad disruption.

Photos by Ludo

Roa

In continuation of Katowice Street Art Festival – part 1, this post concludes the two-part series on the Katowice Street Art Festival, which took place last month from April 20th to the 29th.

Toward the end of last month the Katowice Street Art Festival came to a close. Held in southern Poland, the festival featured a reputable lineup of street artists from around the world including Roa, Ganzeer, Escif, Hyuro, Ludo, M-City, Olek, Mentaglassi, and more. The energy surrounding these artists provided the opportunity for a few local artists to exhibit some work on the streets as well (though not affiliated with the festival). Here are some more of the completed murals, and an interesting collaboration between Mark Jenkins and Moneyless; the only two artists involved whose outdoor work primarily consist of sculptures.

Aryz

Mark Jenkins and Moneyless collaboration

Mark Jenkins and Moneyless collaboration

Swanski

Hyuro

Etam Cru

Photos by Kalevkevad

Ludo has a new sculpture going for sale this week on his website. Half of the proceeds from the Grapes of Wrath sculpture will go to Skateistan, the charity using “skateboarding as a tool for empowerment” in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Pakistan. The edition of sculptures are each laser sculpted and then spraypainted. They measure 12cm x 16cm x 7cm. This is definitely one of my favorite images from Ludo, so I’m very excited to see it in sculpture form and with proceeds going to such a worth cause.

Grapes of Wrath will be available for 400 Euros plus shipping this Thursday on Ludo’s website.

Photos courtesy of Ludo

Escif. Photo by Foto Sigma DP1S

Poland is playing host to some of the world’s most talented street artists and muralists for the Katowice Street Art Festival. From April 20th to the 29th, the festival will feature artists such as Escif, Hyuro, Mark Jenkins, Ludo, M-City, Olek, Roa, Moneyless, and many more. Here are a few of the pieces already in progress or completed. There are many more photos on the festival’s facebook page.

Fantastic piece by Olek. Courtesy of Arrested Motion.

Ludo’s piece is a massive wheatpaste that incorporates paint. It looks great, but the one worry I have for this piece is that someone will probably have to paint over the eyesore that’s left when the paper weathers and inevitably comes down.

Ludo. Photo by Wojciech Nowak

Mark Jenkins. Photo by Foto Sigma DP1S

Hyuro in progress. Photo by Paweł Mrowiec

Tellas and Moneyless. Photo by Tellas

Photos by Foto – Sigma DP1S, Wojciech Nowak, Tellas and Paweł Mrowiec, also courtesy of Arrested Motion

Via Arrested Motion and Street Art News