Pipe Dreams marks not only Sheryo and the Yok’s first exhibition together in the United States, but also a departure from what viewers have come to expect from the duo. As of late, the artists have been defined by their use of a red, black, and white palette to portray unique vision of reality. However, don’t be concerned that these changes mean that the work is missing the cartoonish, pop imagery seen in past pieces. The pizza, drugs, and other wild things are still present, just reimagined.

During their travels to through South East Asia, from Sheryo’s native Singapore to Vietnam, the artists began to infuse their work with the surrounding culture. Now, geishas and dragons have become central characters alongside smoking pizzas and skateboards. While visiting Vietnam, the artists took advantage of the opportunity to begin painting pottery, starting with vases and later expanding in the States to plates. Initially, the work appears a light air blue, mimicking the smoke emanating from elongated cigarette holders. After three coats, the plates begin to don the cobalt blue associated with Eastern ceramics.

Beyond these surface appearances, this influence extends to deeper meanings, including numerology. During the studio visit, patterns of 4 (4, 8, 12) began to emerge within the bodies of work, however intentional or not. Sheryo was quick to speak about the auspicious meanings of the numbers 4 and 8 in Chinese, representing wealth and death respectively. Other coded beliefs trace their way through the different media in the exhibition, including the Illuminati. The all-seeing-eye positioned atop a pyramid has become a widely recognized symbol for the alleged secret society. Through these allegorical codes, an air of mysticism is hidden within their playful cartoons. Read the rest of this article »

Brooklyn-based Dega Films launched a Kickstarter last week to fund their upcoming series of street art films, Wild In The Streets. To me, the series looks like Dega Films is trying to make street art videos in the style of skate videos. It’s a really cool idea. I’m not sure if it will work, but it’s definitely worth a shot. Obviously graffiti writers have been making bombing videos for decades that work on that same principle, but those were always circulated among other writers and not really made for the general public.

Here are two of Dega Films most recent videos:

ART POLLUTION: The Yok & Sheryo – 5Pointz – Queens, NY from DEGA films on Vimeo.

Wild In The Streets: Jilly Ballistic from DEGA films on Vimeo.

Sheryo and The Yok painted the above piece in New York’s Little Italy earlier this week as part of the Little Italy Street Art Project that Wayne Rada and I have been organizing there.

The piece comes just a few weeks before the duo have a show walking distance away at Krause Gallery. That show, Pipe Dreams, opens May 16th from 7-9pm and runs through June 16th. The show center’s on the couple’s recent travels in Asia and includes ceramic work from them in line with what you might have seen at Krause Gallery’s booth at Scope NY earlier this year. Should be a fun one.

Photo by Wayne Rada

Note: This article is the third in a three part series that discusses how three artists dealt with the topic of histories within their Bushwick Collective murals. Check out part 1 here and part 2 here.

Recently, the Yok and Sheryo shared their “Pipe Dreams” with 5 Pointz in Long Island City. This past week, the duo chose to show the Bushwick Collective their present rather their future. Emblazoned with the locals of Bushwick, such as roaches, rats, pizza, and the devil, their composition contains memories of their travels as well as these traces of home. Titled “Road Trip,” skeletons can be seen surfing, which the Yok took in while in Australia, alongside various characters painting and drinking. Together, each of these cartoons rides an extended motorcycle, joining memories of home and far off excursions.

The complex narratives in their collaborative walls often contain coded jokes as well as the dominant narrative; Ping Pong nicknames references to cartoons find their way into the descriptive elements of each figure. Most endearing of any character Sheryo has created was one that surfaced recently in the crew of cyclists. An alien with other worldly features and was placed between a bearded man and a surfing skeleton in the central part of the piece. The artist said that it represented herself as an illegal alien, going so far as to create a unicorn on the being to match her own clothing that day. This self-portrait sees the artist riding alongside representations of her travels and local friends, enjoying the ride.

Photos by Rhiannon Platt

The Yok and Sheryo are the latest artists to paint in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago courtesy of Pawn Works with support from Alderman Danny Solis, The Chicago Urban Art Society and the Pilsen neighborhood. Their trip also included a tour of Chicago’s many hotdog spots, although I’m guessing they missed my favorite spot since it’s out in the suburbs.

Photos courtesy of Pawn Works

The Yok and Creepy

For two years the wall shown above remained a fixture at 5 Pointz in Long Island City. Few artists see that amount of exposure on the building’s rotating facades. At the time that they were visiting, few walls were adorned with their signature characters, and even fewer pieces could be seen at this scale in New York. The combination of Creepy’s cute winged man combined with the Yok’s pensive owl made for a moving aesthetic combination that moved viewers to visit the work multiple times during its life.

Sheryo

The Yok

Since this piece came into realization, we have seen the Yok and Sheryo become regular painting partners as well as (semi)regular residents of New York City. It seemed only fitting that the long running Creepy and the Yok wall should come to an end in order to usher in Spring and with it the Yok and Sheryo’s return to New York.

Sheryo

The Yok

A constant fixture of last year’s warm weather, the return of the Yok and Sheryo signals the shape of things to come: warmer days, and of course more walls. That being said, a downpour postponed finishing the last fourth of the wall for a later day. It seems that the warm weather is just a “Pipe Dream,” like their wall. But it’s technically spring, right?

The Yok and Sheryo. Photo courtesy of The Yok.

Photos by Rhiannon Platt and courtesy of The Yok

Sheryo and The Yok in Scarborough, Western Australia

The Yok and Sheryo have finally returned to NYC after a good few months traveling and painting around the world. We posted a few pieces from this trip back in November, but that wasn’t the whole trip. Here are a few more of my favorites (I think they’ll all located in Australia), plus a video of the above wall being painted.

The Yok in Fitzroy, Australia

Sheryo in Perth, Australia

Sheryo

The Yok and Sheryo in Perth, Australia

The Yok

SCARBOROUGH video from theyok on Vimeo.

Photos courtesy of The Yok

Chicago’s Galerie F has a group show opening tomorrow and it looks really fun. Don’t Sweat It is curated by Luke Pelletier and features work by The Yok, Sheryo, and many more artists.

As you can see from the video teaser below, the premise show is pretty straightforward: It features artists to draw cool stuff well.

Sheryo and The Yok in Wollongong, Australia

Sheryo and The Yok have spent the last few months traveling, and as a result they’ve painted in a lot of different cities over the last few months. Here are some of my favorite recent-ish walls from them in the USA, Vietnam, and Australia.

Sheryo and The Yok in Sydney, Australia

The Yok and Sheryo in Perth, Australia

Read the rest of this article »

Stephen Powers, who has a show coming up at Joshua Liner Gallery

There are a lot of shows coming up soon worth checking out. Here are some of I wish I could check out in person…

• This week, the Iranian brothers Icy and Sot will have their first New York solo show, and it’s only open this Thursday through Saturday. Made in Iran will be at Openhouse, 379 Broome Street, New York.
• Lush also has a show opening in NYC this weekend. His will be a show of drawings at Klughaus Gallery. It opens on August 25th from 6-10pm. Lush’s show are practically a place to expect surprises, so best get their opening night before a blog like this one ruins the shock value for you on Sunday. If you do miss opening night, the show runs through September 7th.
• Next month, Stephen Powers aka ESPO will have his first New York solo show in over 7 years. A Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures opens September 7th from 6-9pm at Joshua Liner Gallery.
• Galo Art Gallery in Turin has a great two-man show coming up with Bue and Chase. Brothers from Different Mothers opens September 9th from 5:30-9pm.
• aMBUSH Gallery in Sydney, Australia has a big group show coming up with 67 artists including Anthony Lister, Askew, Does, Numskull, Vexta and The Yok. For Black and White All In Between, all the artists have painted on canvases of uniform sized and only used black ink. The show opens on August 31st from 6-9pm.
• Jonathan Levine Gallery‘s next three solo shows open on September 8th and you will not want to miss any of them: Judith Supine, Audrey Kawasaki, and Jeff Soto. All three shows open from 7-9pm on the 8th. And speaking of Levine, I caught their current show earlier this week and it is great. Go it see before it closes.
• Gold Peg’s Release The Wolves go-karting project in South London will have a gran-prix expo on September 1st. It’s gonna be some crazy and fun stuff. And art too, but I think that’s secondary.
• Shepard Fairey is finally showing those paintings he did for Neil Young’s latest album. The few pieces I’ve seen photos of are impressive. Americana opens at Perry Rubenstein Gallery (which recently moved to LA) on August 25th from 7-10pm.
• Finally, this last one is a mural festival, and it promises to be a big one… This year’s Urban Forms festival in Lodz, Poland includes Os Gemeos, Aryz, Inti, Otecki, Lump and Shida. Certainly the most-anticipated work of Urban Forms is the promised collaborative mural between Os Gemeos and Aryz. The events run from August 24th through September 30th and will bring the total number of murals organized in Lodz by the Urban Forms Foundation to 22. I can’t wait to see the photos of these pieces.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Liner Gallery