Always a pleasure to party with the guys at VNA. Celebrating the launch of Issue 14, featuring Sickboy as their cover artist, the festivities included booze, beards, and brilliant art. I loved the special edition of the Sickboy cover (pictured above) and cannot believe the growth of such an amazing endeavor. Congrats to everyone at VNA for creating, yet another, fantastic zine this month.

Below is a teaser video that VNA put together to promote the latest issue. It might make you a bit nauseous, so put down your tea.

VNA issue 14 from Make Some Tea on Vimeo.

To order Issue 14, click here

Pictures by the lovely butterfly. Click here to view the full set.

The above flyer says just about all you need to know. The next issue of my zine of choice, Very Nearly Almost, will be released next week, with the usual launch party in London and special edition cover available there. I can’t wait to read their interview with Doze Green.

Here’s a little bit of what we’ll find inside VNA 14:

Photos courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

UPDATE: Sounds like the above image may also have something to do with an issue of Very Nearly Almost coming out in the next two weeks…

Sickboy has a solo show coming up on February 3rd at the Montana Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal with Yellow Pants Gallery. Yellow Pants are new, but their last show looked pretty cool and had a very strong line up, so I’m expecting big things from them, and this Sickboy show might just be one of those big things. Sickboy is a UK-based street artist and graffiti writer and I’ve really enjoy his work indoors and outdoors for the last couple of years. He also really knows how to do a show right. He had a show in Bristol that was only open for 3 hours and one in London that completely transformed a giant space. Who knows what he’ll get up to in Lisbon… Here’s the flyer:

Photos by Viktor Vauthier

Elfo

So, I like to procrastinate. This week, I didn’t get to post everything I wanted to here because I was catching up on homework. I spent 12 hours on trains and buses last weekend, and didn’t get a single piece of homework done. Because of that, I haven’t been able to write about everything awesome in street art this week, but other people did:

• Unurth had some fantastic posts this week: It looks like Swoon was in New Orleans, and Zilda has put up some beautiful wheatpastes in Brittany.
• Also from Swoon, here’s some photos of work by her and C215 in Venice.
• Similarly, Target posted some photos this week that you have to check out: Bruno Santinho’s placement is spot-on, and of course there’s Vhils’ wall for Nuart.
• The Ma’Claim crew (Rusk, Tasso, Case and Akut) are in LA right now painting. Haven’t seen any pictures yet though. And if you’re in LA, they’ve be doing some live painting followed by a talk on Saturday. Sour Harvest has the details on all that.
• Dran, Bom.K and Sowat have been up to some craziness in Spain.
• Steph mentioned that Ron English has a massive show on in NYC right now called Status Factory, but I just want to remind everyone to check out the sculptures from that show. For me, some of the most interesting work Ron has done indoors. And to check out the entire show, of course Arrested Motion has the photos you want.
• Jenny Holzer (one of the original street artists from way before I was born) has made some sneakers with Keds to support The Whitney. They’re out of a lot of sizes on the Keds website, but Bloomingdales.com seems to have a slightly better selection. Still, both sites are out of low-top black ones in my size, so if anybody has that in a 9, let me know.
• Ross Morrison has been posting some stunning portraits of urban and street artists.
• Sickboy and Shepard both have some new books (actually Shepard’s is an updated version of his recent Arktip magazine). Shepard’s looks nice and I like Sickboy, but I’m not sure I need a whole book from him just yet.
• Quel Beast has his first solo show coming up on October 9th. Andrew Michael Ford is putting the show on at King’s Country Bar in Brooklyn. Should definitely be worth checking out. It’s always interesting to see how street artists bring their work indoors for the first time.
• Nolionsinengland has photographed two awesome rollers: Mighty Mo & Gold Peg right next to Village Underground and Type with a sort of ESPO tribute roller I guess.

Photo by Elfo

A big thanks to Hooked for catching this one first. Not much of a surprise though: Word To Mother and Sickboy’s latest wall looks great.

I always love to see Word To Mother’s graffiti. Such a contrast from his gallery work (which I still tend to like).

For more like this, definitely check out the pieces that Word To Mother painted recently with Nylon.

Photos by Hooked

Here’s the latest from Sickboy and Word To Mother. Cool stuff.

Photos by Savetheyouth

Sickboy‘s been in Bristol lately for the Bristol version of his Logopop show (Guillotine has some photos). Of course, he’s also painted a few pieces outside as well. These two pieces are a bit different from his usual street work, but I like them.

Via UK Street Art

Photos from Sickboy’s blog

Here are some new prints at Pictures on Walls from Sickboy and Sweet Toof.

Cheech Toof by Sweet Toof
79.5 x 57cm
Edition of 100
£95

Loveland by Sickboy
57 x 56 cm
Edition of 100
£120

This week, Sickboy’s latest solo show, Logopop, was open for all of three hours. Looks like a solid show.

Photo by Smart Hype

Sickboy’s large original works have a crazy amount of detail. I really want to see one of these in person:

And then there are his Logopops. They are small screen prints with hand finishing. You can buy 1-2, or 10 and put them all in the same frame.

Some artwork still available on Sickboy’s website.

Many more pictures from the opening on Smart Hype’s flickr

So maybe this is the first of a few posts with street art related gift ideas, maybe not. Here are some prints that are available online for a very low price (but they aren’t cheap. Right Zeus?).

1. Logopops by Sickboy. Last night was Sickboy’s one night only show, Logopops. Lots of hand finished prints are available online for as little as £35 (though you are meant to get a few of them to create a custom cluster of prints).

2. Storm Clouds by Jeff Soto. I must admit that I am becoming more and more of a Jeff Soto fan, especially the watercolor pieces. At just £75, it costs a lot less than I expected.

3. Sprout by Josh Keyes. I am very very wary of recommending this. Josh Keyes is an amazingly talented painter and I do like his work, but I’m not sure if you get the same feel for it through a giclee print. You kind of need to see the originals in person to see what sets him apart from all the other guys painting post-environmental-apocalypse art. Could be awesome though, and it’s a book and (very large editioned) print for $85 so that’s nice.

4. Tempo Boxer by Ace. A staple of the London scene (Blackall Street in particular), Ace does some nice work and a nice print from him goes for between £50-55.

5. Dalek Blue by Dalek/James Marshall. Dalek has two “Space Monkey” prints available on his site, both very nice, but I prefer the blue one.

6. Homeless, Not Hopeless by Above. I mentioned this print the other day, but it’s worth showing again because all the profits go to a good cause.

7. Better Than Nothing by Kid Acne. I suppose you either like his warrior women or you don’t. I do.

8. Make Room For The Emptiness by Jim Houser. This is the print that I want to buy with my grandma’s Christmas money. Love it. And at just $75, I can’t believe it hasn’t sold out yet.

9. Mama Quilla by Fefe Talavera. Another beautiful and affordable print from The BLDG.

10. The Answer by Hera. This lithograph by Hera looks great and comes with my book The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In. It’s £100 for the set, and since the book retails for about £25, that’s an affordable print if I ever saw one. The print is of a sketch by Hera, and she really knows how to sketch.