Stephen ‘Espo’ Powers

V1 Gallery in Denmark celebrates its 10th year with Tonight We Won’t Be Bored; a massive show of 100 new works by artists like André, Kenny Scharff, Futura, Faile, Lydia Fong (aka Barry McGee), Barbara Kruger, Shepard Fairey, Steve Powers, Todd James, Andrew Schoultz, Thomas Campbell, Erik Parker, André, Neckface, Eine, Wes Lang, Clayton Brothers, and many others. The show opened on November 30th and runs through January 12th.

The Copenhagen gallery got its start in 2002, in a space which had formerly been used as a bakery. With their first exhibition being with Faile, they got the ball rolling pretty quick. By 2007 they moved to a larger space and later started curating shows and participating in art fairs around the world.

Barbara Kruger

Shepard Fairy

Faile

Left to right: Jakob Boeskov, Misha Hollenbach, HuskMitNavn, HuskMitNavn, Eine, and Søren Solkær Starbird

A one of a kind zine by Lydia Fong (Barry McGee)

Photos by Henrik Haven

The Skewville-modified Icon by Shepard Fairey

About two years ago, Skewville made a simple modification to a Shepard Fairey piece in Bushwick. It simply said “Your Ad Here.” There is no doubt that Shepard Fairey’s Icon logo is a logo for a brand, and that while it may be art and/or graffiti, it is also an advertisement for everything Obey (clothing, fine art, screenprints, a design studio…). Skewville was taking a swipe at Shepard his that piece, but now Shepard has taken the phrase “Your Ad Here” and is using it as the title for an upcoming solo show at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. It seems nothing can escape the reach of Shepard Fairey’s appropriation, not even his critics. Of course, the flipside of “your ad here” is that Shepard Fairey began his stickering campaign as a college student and younger than I am now. He proved that anyone with balls and commitment can (eventually) advertise themselves on a tiny budget and still become a household name. So I guess that’s sort of what he’s going for. Shepard’s journey from an underground artist to a mainstream supposed sell-out is addressed in this recent interview on The Huffington Post (by the guys at Brooklyn Street Art).

Your Ad Here opens on August 5th at V1 Gallery and runs through September 3rd.

Photo by Becki_Fuller

A.Bot

If you’ll notice that there were a good number of posts on Vandalog this week, you’ll notice the opposite thing next week. With family in town visiting and moving in with some friends and starting the couch-hopping segment of my summer in just a few days, things are rather busy. And so is the art world. Here’s what I have been reading this week:

• Romanywg has a new book out about art in abandoned places.
• The indoor segment of Bristol’s Upfest looks really great.
• Swampy’s show in San Fransisco looks like it would have been spectacular to see in person. I’m jealous.
• Two fabulous new murals by Blu and Ericailcane.
• Essu makes great stickers (if you’re okay with a strong McGee influence).
• Someone seems to agree with me on the court case that Mr. Brainwash recently lost. Fair use applies even to bad art.
• Skittles needs to find a new advertising company.
• Faile have a prints show in Venice Beach.
• San and Escif are collaborating.
• Everyone’s talking about this Shepard Fairey thing, but frankly I don’t really care. Dude was being hassled and got a bit irritated and snapped. We all do it. Oh and didn’t everyone know that he has assistants to put up his street work?
• This video features Marcelo, who is one of the 127 carts that carry the art of the graffiti artist Mundano, and just one of the 20.000 that have in São Paulo.
• Some Banksy pieces are up for sale at Sotheby’s.
• Performance artist is jailed for not harming anything at all.
• Photos from the show that Barry McGee and Josh Lazcano curated at V1 Gallery.

Photo by Get.off.My.Spaceship!

Lydia Fong aka Barry McGee at New Image Art Gallery in 2009

V1 Gallery in Copenhagen has a group show opening next Friday curated by Barry McGee and his long-time assistant/collaborator Josh Lazcano aka Amaze. Let’s Go Bombing Tonight will open on Friday June 10th and runs through July 9th. The show consists of artists who come from or who have worked in San Fransisco. Keep in mind when you read the line up that a number of these artists are known by pseudonyms or are using here. We’ll give you one: Lydia Fong is one of Barry McGee’s pseudonyms.

Here’s the flyer:

Days is Steve Powers‘ latest solo show, and it opens next Friday at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. Should be a good one. It runs through June 4th.

Todd James

Yesterday’s post about Brush Strokes, Lydia Fong (aka Barry McGee) and Todd James’ current show at V1 Gallery, was woefully incomplete. The originals at V1 aren’t all that these artists have gotten up to in Copenhagen. They also worked on a total of 6 lithographs at Edition Copenhagen. James has made three prints, McGee has made two and both artists have collaborated (along with McGee’s assistant Amaze) on one print. LaMJC has all the info on edition sizes as well as paper type and size (and it’s where we got these images). No official word on pricing, but it looks like those interested in purchasing one or more of these prints should contact Edition Copenhagen.

Todd James

Barry McGee

Todd James

Barry McGee

Todd James, Barry McGee and Amaze

Via Slamxhype

Lydia Fong

A few weeks ago, Lydia Fong (aka Barry McGee) and Todd James opened their Brush Strokes show V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. Finally, I’ve gotten around to checking out images of the show and I feel like an idiot for waiting this long. Phluids has a great set of images from Brush Strokes on his flickr which McGee/James fans should check out, but here are a few of my favorite pieces:

Todd James

Lydia Fong

Todd James

Lydia Fong

Lydia Fong

Lydia Fong

Photos by Phluids