Tim Hans visited London recently, where he met up with seven artists for our continuing “Tim Hans shoots…” series, where Tim photographs some of the world’s most interesting street artists and graffiti writers. First up from Tim’s London trip is Ronzo, for which Laura Calle conducted this accompanying interview:

Laura Calle: Can you tell us a brief story of what inspired you to create materials for public urban spaces?

Ronzo: Sometimes you just get new ideas from walking through the streets and talking to people. Most inspiration comes through that and through other artists, what’s happening in world right now, music, film, popular culture and many other things. You see spots in the city and you see opportunities. You think: This would be a great spot to do something… It’s a great gift to have but also a bit of a curse. Ones you start – you can’t stop!

LC: What’s it like to set up a large scale sculpture in such a densely populated city like London?

Ronzo: It’s good fun. You need a truck with a big crane. Also pray that the roof doesn’t collapse and a massive monster crushes everyone walking by. But once it’s up, the sun rises and people on their way to work stop, thinking “WTF – Where did this come from?” It’s beautiful.

LC: What are the main differences you experience when making sculptures for the streets versus murals in public? Do you think the public interacts with those mediums differently? How so?

Ronzo: Sculptures are just a bit more of a niche. They take 1000 times more work to do. That’s why nobody does them I guess. But that’s great – It that makes them more special when you spot one. Also cool – You can walk around them. You can’t really do that with a painting. (But paintings are cool too)

LC: Does your audience influence your art or the approach you take to your pieces?

Ronzo: Tricky one. The feedback you get from an audience always filters back into new work of course. Although I want to do keep doing what I think is dope. And not the other way round. Of course your audience finds it interesting too in the end.

LC: What’s next for Ronzo?

Ronzo: Big tingz. New paintings, new sculptures, new installations. Details are classified top secret at the moment but will be revealed through the year. Please stay tuned…

Photo by Tim Hans

Ronzo recently returned to Village Underground in London, where he also currently has a sculpture up, to paint this mural on one of the most highly-visible spots in Shoreditch (if I’m remembering the intersection correctly).

Fresh in Town – Roachio! from Ronzo on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of Ronzo

This weekend saw the return of the Whitecross Street Party and the Rise of the Non-Conformists Art Show. Each year, the event gets bigger and bigger featuring an array of talented artists that display their work for several months in the heart of London. Always a fan of White Cross, this year’s line-up was the best yet featuring large scale works by Malarky, Ronzo, Shepard Fairey, Conor Harrington and so many more which will be on display until September.

Below are just some teaser images of the work, but check back for pictures of the antics from the weekend.

t.wat

Joel Gray

Conor Harrington and Robots

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Ronzo and Conor Harrington

Dscreet’s latest film in the DOTS+ series is an interview with Conor Harrington. It was filmed while Conor was prepping for his recent landmark show at Lazarides Rathbone.

Photo by Russell Darling

Screw Conor Harrington. Screw Ronzo. Screw Remi/Rough. Not because all of those people aren’t great. Not because I dislike their work. Not because their interviews in Very Nearly Almost issue 18 are uninteresting. I don’t know Ronzo personally, but Conor and Remi have been nothing but nice to me. All three of them have made cool art. Their interviews in VNA are worth reading. But screw them because all of Very Nearly Almost issue 18 pales in comparison to their spectacular interview with the legendary Mode2. I’ll certainly admit that I don’t like everything Mode2 has ever done, but he has been an innovator in Europe for decades and when he gets it right, he gets it very very right. He is also very clearly a smart man. VNA’s interview with Mode2 is detailed, insightful and worth every moment you’ll spend reading it.

If you still haven’t picked up a copy of VNA18, I highly encourage you to do so now. You won’t regret it. Plus, after you’re done reading the Mode2 interview, Ronzo, Conor, Remi and the rest of the artists in this issue honestly do have some interesting bits to say as well, and there are some rare pics of How&Nosm’s work in Brazil.

Very Nearly Almost is available online.

Photos courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

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

Jade and Seth

So I’ve been working a lot lately on Re:Humanities, a symposium of undergraduate work in the digital humanities. It’s taking place next week at Swarthmore College, just outside of Philadelphia. I hope you’ll come check it out if you’re nearby. I’ll be speaking about how the internet has changed street art, and there are a bunch of other great topics up for discussion for anyone interested in the digital humanities. Okay, that’s my personal announcement for the week, now onto the news:

• Conor Harrington, Dscreet and Ronzo collaborated on this wall over in Dalston.
• Sweet Toof and Paul Insect have also been painting some fantastic walls in London.
• Okay so this video of a piece by Verbo isn’t the best quality, but the piece is pretty awesome and very different from a lot of what is out there. I wish I could have seen the animation in the flesh and I hope he continues to work with this combination of mural and digital projection.
• 2 Many Printers is a cool little clothing brand with t-shirts by Husk Mit Navn, Ian Stevenson and others.
• This mural is probably my absolute favorite piece of public art that I’ve seen related to the Egyptian Revolution.
• Glad to see I’m not the only one who thinks Anthony Lister’s “Planet of the Apes” mural was problematic and a disservice to the art community.
• C215 has a show in Paris of stained glass windows based on his imagery.
• Shepard Fairey is involved in a possible new film version of 1984. Could be cool, although it’s a bit ironic since Fairey was involved in trying to rewrite history himself when he submitted doctored evidence in a court case.
• Niels Shoe Muelman has a show opening this week at 941 Geary in SF.

Photo by Jade

Bom.k and Sowat of Da Mental Vaporz

There are so many interesting shows opening in the next week or two that I thought I’d just throw them all together into one post. Here’s what I think looks worth checking out:

• Yesterday, the Museum of Sex in New York opened a show that sounds absolutely awesome called F*ck Art. It’s on through June 10th and features artwork by Aiko, El Celso, Lush, Mode2, Cassius Fouler, Miss Van and many more.
• Love & Hate is a group show opening at StolenSpace this week and runs through March 4th. D*face, Dan Witz, Ronzo, Word to Mother, Jeff Soto, Eine, Charles Krafft and others are included.
• Chris Stain, Veng and Taka Sudo will be showing together at C.A.V.E. Gallery, beginning February 11th. Brooklyn Street Art has a preview of Chris’ work.
• Zes and Retna are together at Known Gallery in LA. LA TACO has the info.
• Nick Mann aka Doodles, Brett Flanigan, Craig Rodgers and Dan Bortz are collaborating with one another in Oakland, CA.
• Another collaborative group show will be in Da Mental Vaporz‘ (Bom.k, Blo, Brusk, Dran, Gris1, ISO, Jaw, Kan, and Sowat) show at Melbourne. That show, Le Venin, will be at RTIST Gallery from February 16th through March 4th.
• All Talk at Pandemic Gallery will include Aakash Nihalani, Cassius Fouler, Gabriel Specter, Jesus Saves, NohJColey and others and runs from February 17th through March 11th.

Photo courtesy of Da Mental Vaporz

Whitecross Street party 2010

This weekend, the 23rd and 24th of July, Whitecross Street in London is host to this year’s Whitecross Street Party. Last year featured artists like Dr. D, Filthy Luker and the Burning Candy crew. Expect more street artists at this year’s event including Milo Tchais, Shepard Fairey (probably not the man himself, but something from him) and Ronzo. There’s also an indoor art exhibition. Here’s the flyer, and there’s more info on the party’s website:

Photo by Keri.flickr

With the launch of Ronzo‘s latest solo show, “Crackney’s Finest,” Vandalog thought it would be a good idea to get to know the mastermind behind the roach pizza man and Crunchy. Here are some pictures of the opening night as well. And if you haven’t gone to see it yet, get your arse down to Brick Lane ASAP.

How did you get into art in the first place, eventually evolving into your aesthetic today?

When I was little I just always wanted to draw and paint. Later on in school it seemed to be a good career choice as it was the only thing I was  really enjoying plus I wasn’t good in anything else but art class. I think the result of my aesthetics today is a mixture of all the stuff that influenced me on the way, my own ideas/ things I think would be cool to do and the ‘Ronzo Credo’ which is: innovate – don’t imitate. I like my work to look a bit different to the generic perception of ‘Street Art’. That’s how I ended up with the look and feel we see now.

One of my favorite works of yours will always be the giant Crunchy on the Village Underground. It was one of the first pieces I saw when I lived in London a few years ago and I fell in love with the piece and the intent behind it. How did your notions of Crunchy begin?

Thank you – He’s my favourite too. I always try to melt non-fiction and fiction together. In case of Crunchy, I feel it couldn’t have worked out better. I lost my job then and so did many people I know. I felt it wouldn’t be much use to look for a new job as there weren’t any. Instead I wanted to spend my time on doing something in the public eye that is dealing with the subject. The result was ‘Crunchy’ – a mixture of a real life economy crises and a Godzilla fable creature. I had lot of help while doing it from my friends and Village Underground as well. I’m happy that we did it because I feel that people can relate to it. Everyone has their own experience with the recession and Crunchy reminds as a bit about it everyday.

Can you explain the use of unique materials in your work? I know I was surprised when i discovered what some of your works were made of?

I use spray paint, acrylics, pencil, paper, canvas, fiber glass, resin, wood, metal. clay etc. I’m interested in any materials really. But in the end of the day it’s just materials. They don’t mean anything. The Idea is the only important thing.

Congratulations on your solo exhibit, “Crackney’s Finest,” going on now at Stolenspace gallery. How did you decide what you wanted to do for the solo show?