Longtime readers will know that I am a big fan of Very Nearly Almost, a British art magazine for street art, graffiti, illustration and the like. Their latest issue has been a very welcome reprieve for me as I’ve turned to it in between writing essays upon essays for my final exams. Issue 22 features interviews with Vhils, Vexta, Cranio, Moneyless, Husk Mit Navn and more.

The Vhils and Husk Mit Navn interviews in particular make this issue worth seeking out. Vhils talks about his early career as a graffiti writer and suggests that he’s still active today, although the work isn’t traceable back to his career as a fine artist or muralist. This certainly isn’t unheard of for street artists who have “gone legit,” but it’s still a bit surprising to hear him talk about it, and about how graffiti still informs his work today. And Husk Mit Navn is an absolutely fantastic and underrated artist (check out some of his work here) who also has a lot to say about how his work is perceived in galleries, on the street, and online. Good stuff.

Although he is interviewed, the one thing this issue doesn’t answer for me is what people see in Cranio’s work. Seems to me like Nunca + Os Gêmeos – awesomeness/originality = Cranio, but people seem to go nuts over it. Is he a really nice guy? Is it just that people are so in love with what Os Gêmeos and Nunca are doing that they’ll accept a substitute when the masters aren’t available? This isn’t one of those times where I’m gonna say a grey wall would be better than Cranio’s work. There’s plenty of street art in the world that’s better than a grey wall but still doesn’t need to be celebrated like it’s the next big thing, and Cranio seems to me to fall into that category. If you have an answer or an opinion, I’d love to read it in the comments. Anyway…

You can pick up a copy of VNA 22 here.

Photo courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

Category: Books / Magazines | Tags: cranio, HuskMitNavn, moneyless, very nearly almost, Vexta, vhils

Damn. It’s almost May! Sorry this is so late but it’s worth the wait. March was another action packed month in Melbourne.

Starting off with Baby Guerrilla‘s show in Footscray. Baby Guerrilla’s paste ups have been adorning Melbourne’s walls for a few years now, and they are some of my favourites, her gallery work was new for me and I loved seeing a different side of the artist.

Adnate was 1 of 3 Melbourne graffiti/street artists that entered the renowned Archibald prize. From the Archibald website “The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, ‘preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.” It’s great to see some more modern painting techniques making it into this more conventional competition. Adnate painted a portrait of Samantha Harris; an Australian indigenous model. Also make sure you check out the video by Michael Danischewski below.

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Category: Events, Gallery/Museum Shows, Interview, Photos, Random, Videos | Tags: 2013, Adnate, Archibald Prize, AWOL, AWOL Crew, Baby Guerrilla, backwoods gallery, Be Free, blo, cdh, Collingwood, DaMentalVaporz, David Russell, Dean Sunshine, DMV, DVATE, E.L.K, Fitzroy, futura, GENT, Hancock and RAD, Hennessey, Invurt, jaw, Kaffeine, Luke Cornish, Luke McManus, lush, MArch, Melbourne, Melbourne Monthly Madness, Melbourne Monthly Madness March, Michael Danischewski, Samantha Harris, SDM, SDM crew, Shane from AllThoseShapes, Shida, slicer, Sulman prize, Think, vhils, Will Coles

Vhils (aka Alexandre Farto) is here in Australia. Sadly (for me anyway) he’s up north in Sydney, so I won’t get to see him or his new show, “Dissolve” presented by Skalitzers Art opening tomorrow on the 21st of March. I DID however manage to get a really great interview with him (via email) over on invurt. Definitely worth a read. For me, Vhils brings a different angle to street art. His chiseled walls and sculptured realistic characters bring a depth and feel to street art that I really appreciate. I also love different techniques, tools and textures so Vhils ticks all of the boxes for me.

The show opens today (March 21st) and runs through to the 6th of March at 140 George St, The Rocks, West Circular Quay, Sydney. Facebook event page here.

I’m a huge fan of Vhils’ work so it makes it even harder not being able to see the show. Some of the preview photos look very exciting. Check them out below.

All photos courtesy of Skalitzers Art

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows | Tags: skalitzers, vhils

Sorry I missed the link-o-rama last week. Was having a fantastic birthday in NYC. Thanks to everyone who came out to say hello.

• I just picked up the recent Troy Lovegates book (now sold out), and I wish I could pick up this print as well. Absolutely beautiful stuff.
• Nice little Pink Floyd-themed stencil by Plastic Jesus.
• Interesting JR-esque posters in UK mines.
• Philippe Baudelocque in Paris.
• Judith Supine on being bored with street art.
• Leon Reid IV’s latest sculpture addresses the crushing personal debt of so many Americans.
• Tova Lobatz curated a show at 941 Geary with Vhils, How and Nosm, Sten and Lex, and others.
• Shepard Fairey released some prints using diamond dust, which is quite interesting. As the press release says, “Perhaps most famously used by Andy Warhol, who understood perfectly how to convey a message, Diamond Dust was used to add glamour, transforming ordinary images into coveted objects. The material aligns with Shepard’s work and interest in the seduction of advertising and consumerism. Diamond Dust, literally and metaphorically is superficial, applied to the surface of the print, the luminous effect is both beautiful and alluring.” But it’s one of those things that just gets me thinking about how the art world, much like capitalism, seems so good at absorbing critique and spitting at back out as product. People love the meaningless OBEY icon, so Shepard sells it. Shepard needs to make more product to continue selling to this market he has created, so he takes an old design (or a slight variant, I’m not positive), and adds meaningless diamond dust to it and sells it as something new. The best critiques participate in the system which they critique, but that’s a risky game to play. Of course, I say all this with a print by Shepard hanging on my wall.
• OldWalls is a project where the photographer took photos of graffiti in the early 1990′s and recently returned to those spots to take the exact same shots, and then each matching photo is displayed next to its counterpart.
• Artnet’s latest street art and graffiti auction has a handful of interesting pieces (Artnet is a sponsor of Vandalog btw). Here are my favorites:
  • Greg Lamarche’s Krylon boxes
  • A nice Futura with a character from 2006
  • A classic Richard Hambleton print. He wheatpasted this self-portrait on the streets of New York in the early 1980′s.
  • A great Todd James on paper

Photos by Luna Park

Category: Auctions, Books / Magazines, Gallery/Museum Shows, Interview, Photos, Print Release, Products, Random | Tags: 941 geary, artnet, futura, greg lamarche, how and nosm, jr, judith supine, leon reid iv, overunder, philippe baudelocque, plastic jesus, shepard fairey, sten & lex, troy lovegates, vhils

Back to school on Tuesday. Actually, I’m okay with that. And of course, it means more time blogging because it means more time procrastinating. Here’s some of what we missed this week while Caroline and I were on vacation:

• New print from Ron English of his Obama/Hulk custom toy.
• If you’re a fan of Remi/Rough, you should have a look at his new book.
• Vhils has a new mural.
• And Elbowtoe put up a huge new wheatpaste based on one of his collages.
• Martha Cooper and Ian Cox discuss photographing the Paris edition of The Underbelly Project.
• Dan Witz has a show coming up at Lazarides’ Rathbone Place location.
• Zeus (British, not French) also has a show coming up in London.
• And then there’s the show with Nice One and Lucx at Chicago’s Galerie F which opened on Friday night.
• Complex.com has some advice for success as a street artist from Kid Zoom, How&Nosm, Eric Haze, and others. Kid Zoom’s tip? “Don’t be a street artist.”

Photo by Ankles

Category: Books / Magazines, Gallery/Museum Shows, Photos, Print Release, Random, Videos | Tags: ankles, dan witz, elbowtoe, lazarides, martha cooper, remi/rough, ron english, underbelly project, vhils, zeus

After seeing that Brooklyn Street Art is running a contest for the best street art photos of 2012, I thought to myself that maybe I should enter. Then I remembered that I’m not actually a great photographer. I’m competent and I still post photos to Flickr and Instagram, but there are a lot of people with a lot more talent than me. So instead of submitting to BSA’s contest and surely losing, I decided that I would just highlight a few of my favorite shots here on Vandalog. So, here are my 10 favorite photos that I took in 2012… Read the rest of this article »

Category: Featured Posts, Photos | Tags: ever, gaia, living walls, nanook, Obey, odd, open walls baltimore, overunder, shark toof, sten & lex, vhils

Happy reminder that we’re less than a month from Christmas…

• This new print from Swoon, featuring one of her older images, is absolutely beautiful and available online through her studio.
• Yes. Kaws had a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Just like lots of other significant brands.
• Vhils has a show opening next week at Lazarides’ Rathbone Place location.
• Here’s a new collaboration from Jaz and Elian.
• London graffiti writer Oker was recently sentenced to two years in prison. Pure Evil Gallery has prints and canvases available to help support Oker’s family.
• Remed has a show opening next month in Marrakesh, Morocco.
• Graffuturism have curated a show which is due to open next month in LA. The extensive line up includes Delta, Mare139, Doze Green, DVS1, Eric Haze, Jaz, Futura, Greg Lamarche, Kenor, Sowat, and others.

Photo by Hyuro

Category: Gallery/Museum Shows, Photos, Print Release, Random | Tags: Carlos Mare, delta, doze green, dvs1, elian, eric haze, futura, greg lamarche, hyuro, jaz, kaws, kenor, lazarides, oker, pure evil gallery, remed, sowat, swoon, vhils

Henrik Haven visited FAME Festival in Grottaglie, Italy for the festival’s opening events last month. Naturally, he took plenty of stunning shots of the new work there. In a two-part series, we’ve selected some of our favorite pieces from FAME 2012. In part one here, we’ve got walls by Erica il Cane, Conor Harrington, Interesni Kazki, Vhils, Moneyless, Brad Downey, Akay and Cyop & Kaf.

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Category: Festivals, Photos | Tags: Akay, brad downey, conor harrington, cyop e kaf, ericailcane, fame festival, Interesni Kazki, moneyless, vhils

Note from RJ: We at Vandalog are excited to publish Tristan Manco‘s first post on the site, hopefully the first of many. Tristan is one of contemporary street art’s greatest champions and most-distinguished writers. Tristan curated by iterations of Cans Festival, worked at Pictures on Walls for half a decade, has written or in some way contributed to 8 art books since 2002 as well as numerous magazine articles in publications such as Juxtapoz. I’ve known Tristan for a couple of years, and he is one of the people whom I really trust when it comes to art.

Taking place in the 24-hour daylight of a Northern Norway summer on a small island town called Vardø north of the Arctic Circle – Komafest was always going to be a unique event…

Vardø is the oldest settlement in Northern Norway and in recent years has become depopulated with many buildings left empty, partly as a result of the collapsing fishing industry. The curator and organizer of the festival, the Norwegian artist Pøbel saw the potential of a street art festival to make a visual transformation of the town and to show the local people it was possible to make changes. While developing the idea Pøbel spent time getting to know the locals and with his unassuming nature and enthusiasm he began to gain their trust. Soon the public began to get behind the idea and offer up buildings for artists to paint on and volunteering to help in the organization. It became a truly grassroots movement rather than something imposed on the community.

The island, shaped like a butterfly, has an otherworldly atmosphere and is only accessible overland by a winding 3km undersea tunnel, which appears out of the ground like something out of a science fiction movie, but the real stars of the show are its traditional wooden buildings. Many of the wooden jetties, warehouses and buildings are abandoned, weather-beaten and in a state of beautiful decay. Although standing empty these heritage buildings all have owners who are often unable to afford their proper restoration. The idea of project is that the art that is created on them can awaken these buildings out from a coma, giving the festival it’s name – Komafest.

What I found inspiring about this project was the way the invited artists responded to the place. Each artist had some idea of what they might experience but in most cases their preconceptions soon changed once they began to speak to the locals and learn more about their environment. According to local fisherman Aksel Robertsen, Philadelphian artist Steve Powers had many ideas planned but scrapped them as soon as he began to meet the people and experienced the place for himself – all those encounters shaped his final murals; such as “Cod is Great” and “Eternal Light – Eternal Night”. The French artist Remed painted a mural on an old seafront warehouse, which took some of its imagery from the seascape but included the text Hellige Heks Fortuna, (Hellige Heks means Holy Witch in Norwegian). This references to witches dates back to the Vardø witch trials that were held there in 17th century resulting in many of the accused being burned alive at the stake.

More after the jump… Read the rest of this article »

Category: Featured Posts, Festivals, Guest Posts, Photos | Tags: conor harrington, e.b. itso, ethos, Horfé, HuskMitNavn, ken sortais, komafest, remed, roa, steve powers, vhils

The week isn’t over yet, but this week’s news is going to be old if I don’t mention it soon. Here’s some of what I missed this week:

• The D*Face Smirnoff collaboration was anything but normal.
• Ian Stevenson’s show at Lzarides’ Newcastle space looks good.
• This is a one of Dal’s most complex walls yet.
• Vhils has a show opening this week in Paris as well as some new walls there.
• The new issue of Very Nearly Almost features Anthony Lister on the cover and will be launched on June 28th.
• Shok1 painted a great tribute to StayHigh149.
• Pixel Pancho, Never2501, GGT, Moneyless and Martina Merlini all collaborated on this wall in Milan.
• I really like this new print about to be released by Dolk.
• If you like UFO’s work in 2-demensions, you’ll love it in 3! Actually that isn’t the only sculpture he has made, but it is the newest.

Photo by SMKjr

Category: Events, Gallery/Museum Shows, Photos, Print Release, Products, Random | Tags: 2501, anthony lister, daleast, dface, DOLK, ian stevenson, lazarides, moneyless, pixelpancho, shok1, specter, stay high 149, ufo, very nearly almost, vhils