Nug show coming soon to Amsterdam

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Swedish graffiti writer Nug (of running around a train station like a crazy man fame) will be showing later this month at Unruly Gallery in Amsterdam. I’m a big fan of Nug and the folks at Unruly, so I’m glad to see them getting together.

Nug is one of the most controversial artists in Sweden, with the country’s Minister of Culture being a particularly famous hater. I love these quotes about Nug’s work by current and former Ministers of Culture from around Europe:

  •  “This isn’t art. This is damage and vandalism.” – Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth (Minister of Culture, Sweden)
  • “A Minister of Culture should not decide what is art and what is not. As a happy reminder of this, I have a print of Nug’s Territorial Pissing hanging on my office wall.” – Paavo Arhinmäki (Minister of Culture, Finland)
  • “A Minister of Culture is allowed to think a lot of things about about art and culture. That it should tempt people to watch or listen to it. That it should be relevant to society. That it should be critical; encourage change. But beautiful or ugly? Fortunately, that’s not up to the Minister to decide.” – Hedy d’Ancona (former Minister of Culture, Netherlands)

The show opens on April 26th (5-8pm) and will only be up for that weekend. Opening night will also double as the launch of a new book from Nug. Get there early because Nug will be signing 70 copies of his book and the first 10 people to purchase a book will also get a vinyl record of Nug’s soundtrack.

Nug’s book, I am just Trying to be Nice, will be available online here after the launch. Each copy of the book features a unique cover painted by Nug. This video sheds some light on that:

I am just trying to be nice – NUG from John on Vimeo.

UG_NUG_invite

Photos courtesy of Unruly Gallery

Nug at Skalitzers Gallery

Nug, the artist best-known for basically going crazy with a spray-can in hand, has a solo show on right now at Skalitzers Gallery in Berlin. I’m not sure what I think of the work (which is a sort of installation), but I have a feeling that looking at it online is a very different experience to seeing it in person. Seems to me that Nug is most interesting when doing performance art, but it’s difficult to say based on only seeing jpegs. If anyone has seen the show in the flesh, I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments. Human Behaviour is open now through June 2nd.

Photos courtesy of Skalitzers Gallery

Weekend link-o-rama

Elfo and BR1 (BR1 won the game)

Late link-o-rama this week. Troy Lovegates and Labrona are visiting to paint a mural at Haverford College, and it’s the week of all my final exams. Here’s what I’ve been reading to distract myself:

Photo by Elfo

Weekend link-o-rama

Labrona and Gawd. Click the photo to view it large.

Last night might have been my busiest 1st Thursday ever, and I didn’t even stop off everywhere I wanted to. Either way, I’ll have to go back to a few galleries this week to actually look at the art properly. Even with a cursory glance though, the Charming Baker show was the highlight by a mile. I’m not sure how sustainable it is to sell paintings at the prices they sold for last night, but damn it looked good. Here’s a few things I could have posted about last night, had I not been out being a gallery-hopping scenester…

Photo by Labrona