The semi-regular “Come on Shepard, seriously?” post

Most days, I’m a fan of Shepard Fairey. He’s been getting up longer and harder than almost anybody else in street art, he’s a talented artist and few others have done more for the street art scene. But nobody’s perfect, and the bigger the star, the more bigger those imperfections. Every once in a while, I do a post like this about the latest crazy things Shepard has said or done.

Joaquin Phoenix

1. There are the posters depicting Joaquin Phoenix which have been popping up in a few major US cities. Forget about this being illegally place guerrilla advertising for some film, they’re pretty unappealing to look at. Even if they were straight up street art, they’d be pretty unremarkable, unless you were remarking on their poor design. Well, according to New York Magazine, these posters were designed by Shepard Fairey and they are presumably being placed by his street team. The poor design of this image is EXACTLY WHY people criticize 1-layer stencils and Shepard’s poster style as nothing more than failed art students putting a photo through Photoshop. And that’s not what all 1-layer stencils or Shepard Fairey images are. Some of them are brilliant (I think). Then again, the rumor about this Joaquin Phoenix documentary is that the last two or so years of Joanquin’s life have been some elaborate performance piece about a man gaining fame through a career path that he has no business being on. Kind of like the ending that everyone was hoping for with Mr. Brainwash in Exit Through The Gift Shop, except that Joaquin is trying to be a rapper. So if the rumors are true, maybe this sub-par poster is just another component of the hoax.

2. Last week, a mural Shepard recently put up in San Diego was partially tagged over by a fire-extinguisher-wielding writer going by the name of Polo Joe. It was a nice mural. It’s a shame to see it written on so swiftly. I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with me on that point, but I liked the mural. Unfortunately, pieces getting covered, written over, removed or even just decaying is part of street art and graffiti. Every artist that I know accepts this as part of the culture. Typically, street artists are more open to this than graffiti writers. And yet, I’m not that shocked by Shepard Fairey releasing a statement about this wall getting written over. After all, a lot of people who enjoy that mural might have expected it to last longer. What did surprise me a bit was what Shepard said in his statement: “The endeavor fulfills some need for the heckler but has no redeeming value to any of the other participants, but I firmly believe in street art as a democratic forum. In street art, tenacity always wins and I’m not going away.” That just sounds a bit supercilious to me. Polo Joe is not merely a “heckler” who should be completely ignored. He was making a statement with his tag. I wouldn’t expect Shepard to agree with Polo Joe, but since Shepard has been involved in street art for longer than I have been alive, I figured he wouldn’t just brush aside such an important part of graffiti and street art culture so simply. Like Team Robbo writing over Banksy, Polo Joe might be annoying and ruining a piece of art history and I might wish he didn’t do it, but he has as much right to tag over a Shepard Fairey mural as Shepard has to put up a poster without permission. I think it’s unfortunate that Shepard agree (or if he does, won’t admit that he does).

Via Animal NY

Photo by EL AYE ONE

Megaphone print from OBEY

Shepard Fairey’s prints can be pretty hit or miss, but the Obey Megaphone is definitely a hit. The print will be for sale from a random time on Friday August 13th at the OBEY website. The print is an edition of 230 and, as usual with Shepard, the price is just an affordable $45.

The Lost Ones in Mexico City

The Lost Ones is a group show opening this week at Fifty24MX, Upper Playground’s Mexico City gallery. The show is being curated by New Image Art Gallery‘s Marsea Goldberg and features some great street artists like Retna, Shepard Fairey, Judith Supine and Neck Face.  The Lost Ones opens on Friday. I wonder of Arrested Motion will have photographers there, because I certainly don’t know anybody who will be there taking photos and I’d like to see this once it’s open.

Shepard Fairey, JR and Pedro Alonzo on the radio

A few weeks ago, KPBS, a San Diego public radio station, conducted a very insightful and intelligent interview with Shepard Fairey, JR and Pedro Alonzo (curator of Viva la Revolución at MCASD). At nearly 40 minutes long, it’s an interview that you really need to set some time aside for, but it’s still worth listening to or reading. Especially if you enjoyed Vandalog’s coverage of Viva la Revolución. Check out the interview on the KPBS website.

Via Juxtapoz

Photo by Hargo

Signal Gallery – Beyond Punk

This is sort of a different show for Signal Gallery. Beyond Punk will consist of artwork by punk musicians (plus Jamie Reid, Shepard Fairey and Dale Grimshaw). Personally, I’m most looking forward to Jamie Reid, Gee Vaucher and Shepard Fairey. Oh and I’m curious to see what Steve Ignorant comes up with. Crass were some of the early UK stencil artists, and they used their albums to help promote the making of political stencils, but (if I’m not mistaken) Gee and Steve weren’t as involved in making stencils as some of their other band mates.

Beyond Punk opens August 12th at Signal Gallery in London (yes the flier says it opens on the 13th, but the private view is on the 12th).

OBEY (Mike) Giant

Shepard Fairey and Mike Giant recently put up this collaborative wall in LA. Turned out pretty well I think. And don’t miss the great series of Skullphone posters at the top of the wall.

Photo by jadafiend

Definitely go see: Shred at Perry Rubenstein Gallery

Faile

Among the street and low-brow art communities, the Shred show on now at Perry Rubenstein Gallery is probably the most-talked-about exhibition currently on in New York. Shred is a show of collaged-based artwork which has been curated by Carlo McCormick. While Shred is by no means intended as a show about “street artists,” there are works by a number of street artists hanging alongside classic collage artists like Gee Vaucher. Perry Rubenstein Gallery is a major New York City gallery, and to my knowledge, this is the first time they have exhibited work in their gallery by the current generation of street artists (although there is a Faile solo show at the gallery later this year).

Gee Vaucher

After speaking with a few people about this show, but not yet having seen it in the flesh myself, I was disappointed. Most of the people that I spoke with were of the general opinion that although the show might have one or two solid pieces, it wasn’t really worth stopping by and it was generally not as good as anyone had expected. Luckily, I didn’t listen to those friends and stopped by the gallery anyway while I was recently in New York. I can’t figure out what people were complaining about. The show has plenty of solid pieces along with some of the best work I have seen from Judith Supine and Shepard Fairey.

This piece by Judith Supine is one of my favorites that he has ever done (I always seem to say that when I see his work in the flesh, but he just keeps getting better). Unfortunately, this photo just doesn’t do the work justice. The varnish that Supine often coats his paintings with has been lapped on extra thick and reflective here and the green specks throughout the piece are actually fake nails embedded into the varnish. I’ve heard complaints that the work is too reflective, but I have to disagree. Besides, most any frame that the work’s owner might put on the piece would be reflective as well unless they decided to spend extra money on non-reflective glass. New Yorkers really need to go see this one in person. It’s a real beauty.

Judith Supine

And Shepard Fairey’s piece is a retired stencil; in fact, it’s one of the best retired stencils I’ve seen from Fairey.

Shepard Fairey

Shred marks the start of something new for Brian Adam Douglas (did you know that Vandalog recently interviewed Brian?), with his collages moving from portraits to a new narrative subject matter:

Brian Adam Douglas

Finally, there is Swoon’s contribution to Shred. While I’m not really liking this new image that she’s been using recently (the man’s head looks like more of a caricature than her typical portraits which bring out the inner beauty of her subjects), the collaged details are what makes this piece so interesting. It’s definitely not a typical Swoon. For this work, Swoon has taken to doing Fairey-like collages of newspaper artists and tiny screenprints in the background of the work. Unfortunately, I don’t have an image that really shows these off well, but the small screenprinted designs towards the bottom of the work are stunning.

Swoon

Shred runs at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York City through August 27th, and I urge you to go have a look in person.

Photos courtesy of the artists and Perry Rubenstein Gallery

Whitecross Street Party

On July 24th and 25th, the “Whitecross Street Party: The Rise of the Non-comforsits” will be in full swing in London.  The whole street will turn into a creative canvas for leading street artists including Shepard Fairey, Dotmasters, Filthy Luker, Eelus, Burning Candy,  and much more. Right now, everyone involved is starting to put up the public pieces, but come the weekend, the road will be turned into a giant block party. Let’s just hope these pieces get to stick around for awhile because I am really liking what I see thus far.

The full list of artists and activities can seen on the Whitecross website here.

Here are some pictures of the setup of the event that were caught today.

Mr.E.Dawe

Shepard Fairey, Peter Dunne and Filthy Luker

Burning Candy

All Photos Via Wxstreet Party

Obey X Strange Co. Present Mr. Spray

For the first time in 11 years, Obey will release his second toy to date. In conjunction with Strange Co., Mr. Spray is a physical manifestation of a 2004 print edition of Shepard Fairey’s, which he took from an advertising design from the 1950′s. The figure comes in 4 colors (black, red, silver, and gold) and will each respectively be sold through select retailers, Strange Co,, and the Obey website. To see more pictures and decide which toy you are going to buy (I want gold) head to www.strangeco.com/mrspray

Mr. Spray black

Mr, Spray gold

Photos courtesy of ObeyGiant

Stolenspace “Summer Group Show” Opening

Finally we have pictures from the Stolenspace “Summer Group Show” in London last Thursday.  Not only was the event jam packed, but the original works were incredible. Below are just some of the photos from the opening, but you can visit Stolenspace to see all the pieces in the exhibit. Personally, I am really loving “Taking the Mickey” print by WordtoMother, O_scar (Beauty is Only Skin Deep) by D*Face, and “Rose” by Paul Alexander Thorton. I  just wish I had the opportunity to see many of these works in person, unlike RJ, who did. Jealous.

Photos by amillionpieces

Chloe Early "Rocketeers"

Shepard Fairey

All photos by amillionpieces
For other photos visit s-butterfly