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

Stik in “AgitPOP” in Chelsea, Manhattan. Photo courtesy of Stik.

In NYC this past weekend for the opening of AgitPOP, a group exhibit curated by Anthony Haden-Guest, London-based artist Stik also made it to the Winter Mural Project at Bushwck Five Points.

Stik at Bushwick Five Points. Photo by Lenny Collado.

Stik signs fan’s black book. Photo by Lenny Collado.

Photos by Lenny Collado and courtesy of Stik

Abu Sami’s Family in Jabal Al Qala’a overlooking downtown Amman

The Jordanian Jabal Al Qala’a community, situated on Amman’s highest hill, had a rare treat earlier this month. Through the efforts and support of the British Council, noted London-based street artist Stik brought his talent and passion to this historic district, where – Stik notes — “stray cats rummage through rubbish tips and children play in the streets.” In partnership with An Urban Reflection Residency Project and Creative Jordan: Platform for Visionary Ideas Festival, Stik, along with 10 local Jordanian artists, worked with local children to transform the visual landscape of this special space. Here are a few more images:

I love the way Stik and a growing number of street artists facilitate community art projects, using street art as a social tool. Since the festival was launched, the area has seen crowds of tourists, a fashion shoot and a hip-hop music video crew. For more images from this project, known as Outer Space in Al Qala’a, check here.

Photos courtesy of Stik and Alaa Qattam of the British Council

In NYC for a few days this past week, the legendary UK-based artist Stik left his mark at Bushwick Five Points. Here are two more images:

Stik begins

Stik at work; mural by Concrete Jungle below

Photos by Lenny Collado, Dani Mozeson and Sara Mozeson

It’s Frieze week and London is in full swing with pompous art enthusiasts and decrepit rich men buying art and prostitutes all around the city. While most people get excited about the Fair itself, here at Vandalog, we like the satellite events happening that let the galleries go all out and give us a break from snobbery that encompasses Frieze. So besides Moniker and Lazarides’ Bedlam, Imitate Modern is joining the ranks of outsider shows with Just Be You Tiful – a solo show by Rich Simmons.

While most of our readers know Rich as Opera Gallery’ poster boy for commercial street art, this guy has really come into his own in 2012. While he may get a bad rep from all of the publicity that Opera threw at him, Simmons is one of the most hardworking artists I have had the pleasure of knowing. Always willing to lend a helping hand and constantly scrutinizing his own work, Simmons is his own worst critic (not the naysayers on the Banksy forum).

For Just Be You Tiful Simmons has been locked in the studio producing an entirely new body of work to showcase during Frieze at Imitate Modern. Known for its sold out Stik show last year, Simmons has impressed the gallery with his own brand of stencil and collage works. The master of the exacto knife, these intricate multi-layered canvasses are sure to turn a few heads when they find out this is Simmons’ new style especially the Sailor Jerry homages and naked pin-ups. Ooh La La!

Just Be You Tiful opens October 12 at Imitate Modern in London.

All images courtesy of Rich Simmons

Here’s something fun from Stik to start off the new year. You can find it yourself on Pitfield Street in East London.

Photo by Claudelondon

Portrait of Steve Jobs in France

This weekend I’ll be in Boston. If you have any ideas for what I should get up to, leave a comment. I’ll definitely be checking out Swoon’s installation at the ICA Boston. Here’s what’s been going on in street art while I’ve been locked in my room studying all week:

• Steve Powers aka ESPO designed some beer cozies for The World’s Best Ever. They’re pretty okay, but should your beer cozy really be more than pretty okay? I would honestly feel a bit weird of my beer cozy had some brilliant high-brow design on it. Much more impressive is the latest in Powers’ Love Letter series.
• Philips de Pury and MTV had a charity auction for MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, with particularly nice work by Shepard Fairey and Faile.
• Stik’s latest solo show just opened in London.
• Some beautiful pieces by Sam3 in Porto, Portugal.
• AvoidPi designed the latest cover of Showpaper.
• Blu’s latest mural is in Greece.
• A nice booth for Joshua Liner Galler at Pulse in LA.
• Mr. Brainwash has a show opening soon in LA, but it’s going to be full of other people’s art. Anyone can submit work to be wheatpasted around the exhibition. On the one hand, yay, artists can benefit from Mr. Brainwash’s stupid fame and hype. On the other hand, I guess Mr. Brainwash has acknowledged that he doesn’t have any ideas for art, so he’s just openly benefiting from the art of others to further his own art career. So it’s mutually beneficial, except that individual artists submitting work will gain a lot less from this arrangement than Mr. Brainwash will gain overall.

Photo by Abode of Chaos

Peter Fuss

This week the link-o-rama is coming from Steph’s room, where I’ve been staying. After all, got that beautiful baby boy to take care of… Here’s what’s been going on elsewhere in street art this week:

• Margaret Kilgallen’s show at Ratio 3 is open.
• Faile are releasing some gold prints at their print show in LA (opening tonight). Because gold = awesome. Or something like that.
• Cyop and Kaf painting for FAME Festival. And they now have a book.
• Definitely check out this video of Anthony Lister, Mymo and others in Berlin.
• Loving this portrait of a certain clown named Ronald by Zoltron.
• ABOVE has a book coming out later this year.
• This war memorial in Bulgaria has been taken over by superheroes.
• Mathieu Tremblin is interesting as always.
• West Berlin Gallery is showing some photos by Brenna.
• A nice interview with Stik.

Photo by Peter Fuss

Overunder

This week is spring break, so I’ve been enjoying some relaxation and watching too many films on Netflix, but in the mean time, there were of course some stories that slipped by me. Here are some of them:

• Some of my favorite photographers in the UK have put together a graffiti zine.
• So apparently, the name Banksy written on a piece of cardboard automatically adds exactly $68,500 of value to said piece of cardboard.
• Speaking of Banksy, this post raises some questions about what really separates Banksy from the crowd.
• Todd James, Steve Powers and Barry McGee, the three artists behind the legendary Street Market show are reuniting at LA MOCA’s Art In The Streets exhibit next month.
• Mark Dean Veca is going to be doing a live painting event in New York for most of next week.
• Stik’s show in London is at possibly the coolest indoor gallery venue imaginable.
• Becca has some new work up.
• This piece by Snyder has fantastic placement.
• That cool-looking film about the guys who illegally buff graffiti, Vigilante Vigilante, is almost done but needs a bit more money for editing, so they’ve got a Kickstarter campaign started.
• Looks like The Leonard Street Gallery saga from a few years ago isn’t quite over.

Photo by Overunder

Poster by Morley

Wow. This week has gone by really quickly. I guess the world feels like it is moving faster when you are running on less sleep. Such a counter-intuitive thing. Anyway, here is what has been going on that I didn’t have a chance to write about this week:

• Two members of the Russian artist/activist group Voina are finally out on bail, in part thanks to Banksy.
• These doors to nowhere sound like a fantastic project.
• Arrested Motion has a studio visit with Luc Price.
• I love this new wall from Oker and Mr. Dheo.
• Stik has a show in London next week.
• Mau Mau’s new work is simple, but it made me smile.
• The line up for Contra Projects’ booth at SCOPE NY next week is looking pretty good.
• Vhils and Brad Downey in Lisbon.
• One of these two Banksy’s is terrible, one is one of his strongest all year. Can you guess which I think is which?

Photo by Morley