Paul Insect and Sweet Toof

Sweet Toof, Paul Insect, and Lush met up in Mexico for some fun and a lot of painting. So much good work. You can find it yourself in Mexico City and some of the surrounding suburbs, but I’ve got a lot of it here too…

Paul Insect

Lush, Sweet Toof, and Paul Insect

Paul Insect and Sweet Toof

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Alo

I’m going to be visiting London in a few months, so I thought I’d catch up on who’s been getting up on the street there. I found all of these pieces on Unusualimage’s flickr.

Bortusk Leer

Ronzo

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Psychedelic saints

The first time I saw any artwork by UK’s Paul Insect was about six years ago on the Separation Wall in Bethlehem. I was instantly enthralled. Since then I’ve seen his art here in NYC printed on stickers and featured in a few group exhibits. But as RJ blogged earlier this week, Opera Gallery is currently presenting Paul Insect’s first solo exhibit in New York City. And it is ravishing – both aesthetically and conceptually. Meticulously crafted paintings, sculptures and installations on a range of themes – from the media and the environment to religion and identity — reflect the artist’s imaginative sensibility and astounding array of skills. Here are a few more images:

Madonna

Anatomical silhouette

Clockwork America

Sculpture, close-up

The exhibit continues through December 21 at 115 Spring Street in SoHo.

Photos by Lenny Collado and Lois Stavsky

“Butterfly Face Hoodie”

As a great follow-up to their Ron English show, the next show at Opera Gallery’s New York location is a solo show with Paul Insect. Out of Chaos is Paul’s first solo show in New York City, despite seriously great and equally successful solo shows in London and LA in the past. The show opens November 29th from 6-9pm. I’m going to miss it, but I have a good excuse: I don’t live in the state. If you do live in New York, you’d best be there.

I’m a fan of a lot of Paul’s work on the street and in the gallery (as are people like Damien Hirst and Patrick Miller and Patrick McNeil Faile), so I’m excited that New York will finally be properly introduced to him (although he has had work in group shows at Opera Gallery in the past). Arrested Motion has photos from a studio visit with Paul Insect with more previews of what to expect at Out of Chaos. There are definitely a few pieces in the post on AM that could be mistaken for Banksy pieces or look heavily influenced by Banksy, but it’s worth noting that Paul Insect has some close ties to the Banksy camp and Opera says that Paul has been involved in “graphically developing [Banksy's] work.” So, can you really blame a guy for making work that resembles the work of another person whose work he has helped to develop? While the Banksy-esque stuff isn’t usually my favorite of what he does, I’m also not going to call Paul Insect just another Banksy rip off artist either, because that’s not what Paul at all.

Photo courtesy of Opera Gallery

Judith Supine

Sven Davis, probably best-known for being Arrested Motion‘s UK Director, has curated a show that will be taking place next month in Portland, Oregon. SPACE//FORM is a massive group show involving over 100 artists who were each given a 10×10 inch panel on which to work. The results are looking good. Plus, the show will include installations by Mark Dean Veca and Michael Murphy. Here’s the full list of artists:

Aakash Nihalani, Adam Normandin, Adam Wallacavage, Alex Lukas, Alicia Dubnyckyj, Amy Casey, Anthony Zinonos, Augustine Kofie, Ben Eine, Bill McRight, Blaine Fontana, Brendan Monroe, Brett Amory, Carl Cashman, Carl Riddle. Cheryl Molnar, Chloe Early, Chris Ballantyne, Chris Scarborough, Christian Mendoza, Christopher Derek Bruno, Clayton Brothers, Cleon Peterson, Dabs Myla, Dana Brown, Dave Kinsey, David Kassan, David O’Brien, Deedee Cheriel, Doze Green, Drew Tyndall, Eric Shaw, Eric White, Erik Mark Sandberg, Francesco Igory Deiana, Frank Gonzales, Gary Taxali, Geoff McFetridge, Ghostpatrol, Greg Eason, Greg Lamarche, Hamishi, Henry Gunderson, Ian Francis, Jacob Magraw Mickelson, James Marshall (Dalek), Jason Thielke, Jeff Depner, Jeff Soto, Jim Houser, Jordin Isip, Josh Keyes, Joshua Krause, Judith Supine, Kai & Sunny, Karin Krommes, Karl de Vroomen, Katrin Fridriks, Kenji Hirata, Kevin Cyr, Kevin Earl Taylor, Kevin Peterson, Kid Acne, Kozyndan, Kris Lewis, Kristen Schiele, Lex Thomas, Logan Hicks, Lola Dupré, Louis Reith, Lucas Price, LX One, Mario Wagner, Marissa Textor, Mark Dean Veca, Mark Schoening, Mark Warren Jacques, Mark Whalen, Mars-1, Martin Wittfooth, Mary Iverson, Matt Leines, Maya Hayuk, Michael Murphy, Mike Stilkey, Moneyless, Nick Walker, Pakayla Biehn, Paul Insect, Pete Watts, Reginald S. Aloysius, Remi Rough, Rich Jacobs, Richard Colman, Ricky Allman, Rostarr, Russell Leng, Ryan Shaffer, Ryan Stewart Nault, Sage Vaughn, Saner, Seonna Hong, She One, Sidney Pink, Sinc, Slinkachu, Stephanie Buer, Sweet Toof, Teresa Duck, Tim Biskup, Tom French, Tristram Lansdowne, Wayne White, Will Barras, Winston Smith

SPACE//FORM opens September 6th from 6-10pm at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland and runs through September 29th.

After the jump, check out a preview of some of the work in the show, including pieces by Lucas Price, Paul Insect and others… Read the rest of this article »

Earlier this week, I hosted a movie night at The Wren’s Nest in Atlanta for the Living Walls Conference. Living Walls asked me to put together a list of some short films to show, and I ended up with 27. A few people have asked me to post those films online to share with friends or just to see a film that they missed while they were getting some food, so after the jump you’ll find embedded versions of all 27 films that were screened at the movie night (many of which have appeared on Vandalog before). Enjoy! Read the rest of this article »

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 »

Chris Stain

All too often, I get the same basic press release in my inbox. It reads something like this:

Dear Arrested Motion editor,

Gallery X, the hippest gallery in the USA even though you’ve never heard of us before, is super excited about their upcoming show Lame Pun for a Name, a group show featuring prints from the world’s most exciting street artists. We have 15 artists you’ve never heard of or have heard of but don’t care about who we think are making a real splash and 2 artists you’ve heard of but whose prints we found on eBay for the purpose of including them in this show. Oh, and yes, we have a Banksy print! This is sure to be the best show ever in the history of the world even though we only just discovered that street art is a thing after my mom told me about this movie called Exit Through the Gift Shop.

I hope you’ll post about our show. An inconvenient to download and use pdf file is attached.

Sincerely,

Gallery Girl

Because of emails like that, my tolerance for group shows of prints is pretty low these days. I pretty much write them off as ignorable when I hear about them, even when I like some of the artists in the show. Well, I’m extremely thankful that two of my friends dragged me to New York’s Hendershot Gallery last week after I had written off their latest group print show, (Re)Print.

Troy Lovegates

(Re)Print features ASVP, Clown Soldier, Chris Stain, Troy Lovegates, Labrona, Judith Supine and others. It achieves that combination of well-known and extremely talented but up-and-coming artists that nearly every group show strives for but few manage to pull off. If you’re looking for work by artists who don’t get the attention they deserve, (Re)Print is the place to see a whole lot of them. In particular, the new prints by Chris Stain and collages by Clown Soldier are a real treat.

Here are a few bits from the show, but if you’re in New York at all this summer, definitely try to make it over to Hendershot Gallery to see the entire show. (Re)Print is open through August 15th.

Clown Soldier

Paul Insect

Troy Lovegates

Photos courtesy of Hendershot Gallery

Book Shredding. Photo by Colin M. Day

In the aftermath of another fantastic gallery show, this time at White Walls in San Francisco, Sickboy took some time out from painting massive walls with Eine to answer a few questions.

Shower: How did the concept of the Wonder Club arise? Can you give some examples of the daydreams that have inspired this body of work?

Sickboy: I used to have an illustrated picture of the Mad Hatters Tea Party in my bedroom as a kid, and it’s still in my family home. To this day I pondered on the thought of its inspiration on my life and that opened up a chasm of ideas. I have also been known to have some crazy dreams, I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s possible to transcribe some of them from the Wonder Club body of work.

You delved into the world of ‘mixed media ephemera’ as part of the show. Can you explain how and why?

Yeah sure, I spent the month prior to the show working and living above a studio in San Francisco, courtesy of the gallery. In that time I collected many story books from local shops and found some great surfaces to paint on including some metal drawers. All of these were included in the show. Many of the books were used in the temple assemblage. I’d remove the covers and paint on the backs of them. It’s satisfying to know that those pieces would never have been created without spending time in San Francisco.

As part of the Wonder Club you aimed to revisit your inner child for inspiration. When I was a kid it was all about Lego and Thunderbirds. Was there a certain toy, film, comic or fairytale that inspired you?

I guess I refer more to what art has represented to me in my youth. I copied Sweeny, the toddler comic strips, and gave them as Christmas presents once, and later down the line my first graffiti pieces mean a lot to me in their naivety. I lost a big bag of photos that had my first pieces in it but I can remember their metallic holts duplicolour essence, that to me is my inner child. Read the rest of this article »

Malarky x Pez in London (and spot the Mr. Penfold). Photo by HookedBlog

I have always been a fan of colourful character based street art. For me personally, there is only so much of the polar opposite, stencil art, I can take before I find it all merges into one large mess of overlapping ideas and style. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy the use of stencils on the street, and there are a few artists that I really appreciate, Mobstr for one. But I rather enjoy seeing streets of brightly painted walls and shutters with a variety of characters and shapes popping out at me.

HUH? by Mobstr. Photo by HookedBlog

There seems to be a steady increase in the amount of artists painting in this style, one in which I feel the Burning Candy Crew recently promoted in the UK, but has been pushed by a variety of other artists including Malarky, Lucas, Ronzo, Billy, Sweet Toof, Paul Insect, Vinnie Nylon, and Mr. Penfold, among others.

My enjoyment of character based street art has been stirred this week by Pez, painting some nice pieces in the run up to his show at Tony’s Gallery, but also through Mr. Penfold’s exploits in Birmingham. I hope you enjoy them all as much I as do.

Pez in London. Photo by HookedBlog.

Mr. Penfold x Tempo 33 in Birmingham. Photo by Mr. Penfold

Mr. Penfold in Birmingham. Photo by Mr Penfold

Photos by Mr Penfold and HookedBlog