Amusement, a show from twin street artists Skewville, is on now through May 4th at White Walls in San Fransisco. How I wish I could experience this show in person (and when it comes to Skewville, even non-interactive pieces seem more like something to experience than to “see”). Amusement has paintings, sculpture, and even a ride. Skewville are, in my opinion, two of the most underrated street artists around, and this show only provides further evidence of that.

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You know those amazing identical twin artists who do a lot of work outdoors and create work about an invented world? No, not them. The ones who live in NYC. No, not them. The ones who work with shoes, Skewville. Well, they might not be the best-known pair of identical twin street artists, but they are pretty awesome in my book. The folks at White Walls Gallery in San Fransisco seem to agree, because Skewville’s latest show opens there on April 13th. Amusement includes a mixture of 2D and 3D work and is pretty much guaranteed to make you smile. Definitely check this one out. The show runs through May 4th.

Photos courtesy of White Walls Gallery

The Street Museum of Art has launched its second venture in “guerilla curating” in London’s artsy district of Shoreditch. Like their first exhibition, it’s basically a self-guided street art tour with museum-like wall labels. The exhibition’s title, “Beyond Banksy: Not another gift shop“, is likely a tongue and cheek reference to the commercial attention that street art has received in London these past few years, with Banksy at the forefront of the movement. In all fairness, Banksy has become enough of a household name that he and Exit Through the Gift Shop are frequently my reference points when speaking about street art to people outside this niche community. For that, I am thankful that I get to SMoA advises that the name is not meant to undermine the work of the beloved stencil artist, rather it is to encourage those who have Banksy as their token understanding of street art to the diversity of the other talented artists on the streets. This exhibition highlights works by artists such as C215, Christiaan Nagel, Eine, Mobstr, Pablo Delgado, Phlegm, Roa, Run, Skewville, Space Invader, Stik and Swoon.

The map of the exhibited works are available here and the hours are… well, unlimited.

Photo by Street Museum of Art

Stormie Mills

Dozens of artists and scores of folks — all of diverse backgrounds – came together Saturday to celebrate year three of  The Welling Court Mural Project, organized by Ad Hoc Art.  Here are some scenes from the day:

Joe Iurato

Flying Fortress

Sinned

Billy Mode

Skewville

Hell Bent

Kimyon Huggins

 Photos by Tara Murray

Ludo in Paris

It’s officially spring break, which meant the last week for me has primarily consisted of sitting at my desk where I read and type furiously until my eyes are tearing up and my fingers are sore. It also means I could only blog when procrastinating and that the next few days should be a chance to write some longer posts that I’ve been sitting on. In the mean time, here’s what I’ve been finding around the web this week:

• The man who came up with the Broken Windows Theory died this week.
• Great piece by You Go Girl on a bus.
• If you like graffiti writers moving beyond text and generally pushing graffiti’s boundaries, make sure to check out this video of Askew.
• Todd James has a new print out at Pictures on Walls.
• Great group show coming up in London with Matt Small, MyMo, Sickboy, Fefe, Monica Canilao, Remi, Best Ever and more.
• Stinkfish‘s work is on the cover of Diplomat Magazine this month thanks to Jeannine Saba. Here’s the cover.
• David de la Mano did a fantastic job brightening up this spot in Uruguay.
• Interesting article about street art that definitely makes a real difference in the world.
• Plaztik Mag’s latest video features work by Skewville, Roa and Bast and is creepy/awesome.
• The Living Walls Conference has two great announcements this week: 1. They are now a 501(c)(3), aka an official non-profit organization. 2. In addition to the annual conference, there will be 6 “Living Walls Concepts” mini-events throughout the year, starting in March.
• Craig Ward wrote a letter critiquing Banksy’s critique of advertisers. Given: Banksy is one of the world’s best marketers himself. Beyond that, the letter is a bit of a mess and Ward points out that he has worked in advertising himself. Clearly, it’s written from the perspective of someone who has lost his perspective and seems to boil down to “There’s worse stuff in the world, so umm, please leave advertisers alone.” No doubt that there are greater evils in the world than the public advertising that seems to be the primary target of Banksy’s critique of advertising, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Additionally, one of Ward’s points as to why traditional advertising isn’t as bad as Banksy’s advertising is that traditional advertisers pays for the locations they use. With that argument, Ward completely disregards both the negative externalities of massive ad campaigns that occur regardless of how much the advertiser pays (compared to the documented positive externalities of Banksy’s street art) and the illegal nature of many advertising campaigns which do not pay the government for the space that they use. By his standard, hiring an assassin to kill someone might be better than doing it yourself, because at least there’s money involved and somebody is getting paid for their time.

Photo by Ludo

An indelible part of Brooklyn’s visual landscape, Skewville’s works can now be seen in Factory Fresh, as well.  Here are some images from the streets of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Dumbo:

And at Skewville’s 80th Birthday A Retro Retrospective @ Factory Fresh, 1053 Flushing Avenue in Bushwick, — 3.11:

Photos on the street by Lois Stavsky; @Factory Fresh by Lenny Collado

Ima Golden Phoenix by Loaf

Fun side note from my week: William Parry, author of Against The Wall, spoke at my college today. He’s currently on a speaking tour around the USA, so if you happen to hear that he is in a town near you, I highly recommend going to see him. And here’s the link-o-rama:

• The Art Newspaper has a piece about the lack of authentication for Banksy’s street pieces.
• Skewville’s retrospective at Factory Fresh is a must-see.
• Check out these pieces by ORFN.
• One of Jaz’ best walls yet.
• Some great pieces by Burning Candy members, Sickboy, Nemo and others have been buffed and covered a mural-like advertisement for Coca-Cola.
• The Zes and Retna show on at Known Gallery looks absolutely amazing.
• Interesting interview with Shepard Fairey. Shepard and I definitely don’t agree on everything, but it’s cool to hear what he has to say and exactly how he defends his work.
• Speaking of Shepard Fairey, he will be guest-starring on The Simpsons soon alongside Ron English, Kenny Scharf and Robbie Conal. If The Simpsons had not officially jumped the shark before, this is it. Still, I’ll be watching.
• Cool video showing Conor Harrington at work in Ireland.

Photo by Loaf

As expected, Skewville‘s latest show looks like it kicks ass. Playground Tactics is on now through February 4th at White Walls Gallery in San Fransisco and the Skewville twins have once again put together a perfect combination of smaller drawings, paintings, sculptures and large installation work. It’s playful, but what better way to do art about a playground? Curbs and Stoops have pics of the installation, and here are some of the paintings, drawings and smaller sculptures…

Also, Factory Fresh in Bushwick is hosting a retrospective of Skewville’s work next month. Skewville’s 80th Birthday: A Retro Retrospective opens on February 3rd and runs through March 11th.

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Skewville at Nuart 2009

My second favorite identical-twin street art duo, Skewville, have a show opening this month at White Walls in San Francisco. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Depending on my mood and the particular work I’m looking at, Skewville sometimes surpass Os Gemeos as my favorite identical-twin street art duo. Their 2011 shows in Chicago and London were big hits (and the “Check Uself” mirror was a highlight of the show MaNY and I put together last spring), so White Walls could not have picked a better show for their first show to open in the new year. Playground Tactics will include dozens of artworks, including an installation. The show opens on January 14th from 7-11pm, and runs through February 4th.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

The Eternal Infancy of Art by Ron English for The Underbelly Miami

On Monday, The Underbelly Project announced two big things: 1. They did a Paris version of The Underbelly Project, which we’ll have more about soon, but The Huffington Post has info on for now; and 2. They’ve changed the location of The Underbelly Show opening this week in Miami to 78 NW 25th Street in Wynwood. That, and an exclusive preview of that show, will be the focus of today’s Underbelly post.

The Underbelly Show may be the new kid on the block during Miami Art Basel, but it has arrived as a force to be reckoned with. It will featuring brand new work from over 30 artists who participated in the New York and Paris Underbelly Projects, as well as a host of other installations and events. This is not just another gallery show during a busy week. It’s an experience. Starting with the RSVP-only opening party on Tuesday, Thursday will see a Secret Wars battle, Friday the space opens to the general public and includes the launch of a limited edition version of The Underbelly Project’s book We Own the Night, which won’t be on sale in stores until next year. And that’s just the stuff I can tell you about. I can’t even guess at what else the Underbelly crew have got planned, but this is definitely the one must-see thing in Miami this week.

While setting up the show at the original location on Collins Avenue this week, the team realized the amount of art and their vision was too big for that space, so they moved to a warehouse in Wynwood at 78 NW 25th Street.

In a rare statement, the usually silent Workhorse told Vandalog:

The scope of the Underbelly Miami show grew larger than we had expected. Originally our idea for the location in South Beach was to showcase selected works in a high traffic area so as many people could see it as possible. As the works started to come in, we realized that we were going to run out of wall space. One of the Swoon pieces is 21 feet wide by 13 feet tall. The L’atlas piece is nearly 12 feet tall. We have over 70 pieces of work and most all of them are 4×6 feet and larger. The work is massive. So we began to look for additional space and realized it was best to move the show to Wynwood so that we could feature the works without being crowded and crammed onto the walls.

Undergound Brooklyn by Skewville for The Underbelly Miami

Photos courtesy of The Underbelly Project