Booked – Group Exhibition and Book Day at Carmichael Gallery

It’s been a long time since Seth and I have had a group show this big at Carmichael Gallery – there will be over 35 artists represented on the walls when we open “Booked” on Saturday, June 5th! Some of the artists we’ve worked with for several years and others we’ll be showing for the first time. We’re also going to have lots of great art books and magazines from publishers like Drago, Gingko, Studiocromie (I really enjoyed opening up the box of Blu and Sam3 books!) and VNA. Books and art are two of the best things in the world, in my opinion, so it should be a fun event! We will be open from 12-8pm on Saturday for Culver City Art Walk (make sure to visit all the other galleries on the block if you come by; there will be lots of cool things to see) and the reception itself is from 6-8pm.

Here are some of the pieces in the show.

Martha Cooper

Escif

SpY

Anthony Lister

Lucas Price (aka Cyclops)

Bumblebee

Brad Downey

Here’s the full line up of artists and publishers:

Aiko, Banksy, Beejoir, Blek le Rat, Boxi, Bumblebee, C215, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, D*Face, Brad Downey, Eine, Ericailcane, Escif, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Gaia, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Dave Kinsey, Know Hope, Labrona, Anthony Lister, Lucy McLauchlan, Aakash Nihalani, Walter Nomura (a.k.a. Tinho), Other, Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), Lucas Price (a.k.a. Cyclops), Retna, Saber, Sam3, Sixeart, Slinkachu, SpY, Judith Supine, Titi Freak, Nick Walker, Dan Witz and WK Interact

Drago, Gingko Press, Murphy Design, Prestel, Rojo, SCB Distributors, Studiocromie, Very Nearly Almost, Zupi

The show runs from June 5 – July 3. Drop in to say hi if you’re in LA!

- Elisa

The 41st Parallel from Drago and Wooster Collective

Drago (the wonderful Italians who published my book last year), Wooster Collective and Meet At The Apartment have a very cool sounding event going on next week in New York City. The 41st Parallel is a special Q&A event with some of street art’s biggest names. Some artists from The Thousands (Chris Stain, WK Interact, Elbow-toe and Swoon), other Drago-affiliated artists like Logan Hicks, Drago’s founder Paulo von
 Vacano and Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective will all be there. I spoke with Paulo today, and it sounds like the artists might be signing books as well. Unfortunately, I’ll be here in London, but I’m sure this is going to be the place to be in NYC next Wednesday evening. Check it out if you want to meet some artists, ask them questions and maybe pick up my book if you’re so inclined…

And yes I realize that I’ve been criticizing people recently for advertising stuff without really saying that they are advertising things. So, I guess this is an advert in the hopes that more people will buy my book, but if you’re flat broke or just don’t want to buy a book, this should still be a nice Q&A with some of the most influential people in street art.

Re-Creation II at Ogilvy & Mather New York

Last week, Carmichael Gallery took over the Ogilvy & Mather offices in New York for Re-creation II, a show with installations and/or paintings from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. The show will be on until the end of July, so there’s plenty of time to stop by if you’re in New York.

Ethos

Will Barras

All these Aakash Nihalani artworks look great next to each other:

Aakash Nihalani

Labrona

Boxi

My favorite part of Re-Creation II has to be all of the things that WK Interact did:

WK Interact

WK Interact

Lots more photos of the show on Carmichael Gallery’s flickr…

Re-Creation II, the Carmichaels go to NYC

If you follow Elisa Carmichael on twitter, you may have noticed that she’s been dropping some hints recently about a big secret show that they’ve been planning. Well here it is: Re-Creation II features artwork from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. I know Seth and Elisa have been working like crazy to pull this all together, and it sounds like it’s going to be amazing. They’ve flown some of their favorite artists to New York to work on installations in the space, and with the show running for so many months, plenty of people will have a chance to see what’s created.

In collaboration with Carmichael Gallery, Ogilvy & Mather New York will host Re-Creation II, a global exploration of emerging art, from March 5^th through July 2010.

The exhibit will be held at the new Ogilvy & Mather headquarters on New York City’s West Side at 636 11^th Avenue. Re-Creation II will showcase some of the most important emerging contemporary artists from around the world.

Large-scale murals, installations and original canvas, sculpture and mixed media works will be on display from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. Many of these artists, who are based in the UK, Hong Kong, Germany, Brazil, the US and Canada, have never shown in New York before, and have never shown together.

Ogilvy & Mather will transform five floors and the lobby space of its new headquarters in The Chocolate Factory into a museum-quality exhibition space. As viewers ascend each floor, they can experience the upward momentum of the artwork. Re-Creation II is the second exhibit to be hosted by Ogilvy & Mather in its new space.  It follows the inaugural Re-Creation exhibit, which featured the work of 12 emerging artists who use recycled materials to create unique forms of art. That exhibit will also be viewable through the end of March.

The opening reception of the exhibit will be held on Friday, March 5 with several of the artists in attendance at Ogilvy & Mather. The exhibition will run through July 31, 2010. Opening on March 5th in the middle of the Armory Art Fair week, the exhibition will run through the end of July 2010.

Doors are open to the viewing public, by appointment only, Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm by contacting Jun Lee at jun.lee@ogilvy.com.

On a side note, this is the 1000th post on Vandalog. Almost a year and a half in, we’ve averaged over 2 posts per day, posting almost every single day.

WK Blows Us All Up

I can’t believe it’s already been a week since WK Interact‘s latest solo exhibit, How To Blow Yourself Up, opened here in LA. For anyone Cali-based who missed the reception, you can still check out the work and installation at Subliminal Projects until December 5th. And for everybody else, here are a few pics from the night! It was definitely one of the most fun events over this way in a while.

Aside from the excited buzz in the air and line out the door of people waiting to get photographed and fingerprinted for WK’s awesome mug shot wall, the work itself did not disappoint. The gallery was decked out with a fantastic range of three-dimensional mixed media pieces (from wood panels, skate decks and boxes to a custom-built bike and a series of doors you have to see to believe) and there was even one of his mind-blowing Motion Portraits (my personal favorite).

Hype aside (and he’s underrated, in my opinion), WK is simply one of the most important street artists in the world and those who have the opportunity to see or own his work are just plain lucky.

Pictures generously supplied by the lovely Lord Jim.

Linking it up

Street art news seems to come in cycles, right now there is a lot of news coming in. Here’s a few highlights:

• Sam3 has a new book out with Studiocromie and it looks great. More info at Feed Your Wall.
• Shepard Fairey’s opening at the Warhol Museum looks amazing, but as Richard Lacayo points out, the AP case might have run into another snag for Fairey since the AP has countersued again on the basis that either Fairey only spent about 5 minutes “transforming” the photo into his poster or he is lying again and didn’t forget which image he based HOPE on. One thing Lacayo and the AP seem to have forgotten is that Fairey has a bunch of assistants. I don’t know how his studio functions, but it seems a fair assumption that Fairey sent his assistants a photo and they developed poster from there, or they gave him an already cropped photo based on his specifications and he went from there. It’s definitely not as simple as Lacayo is making it seem.
• Elbow-toe still has a few prints left for sale on Etsy.com for only $30!
• Anthony Lister has put up a beautiful new piece in Brooklyn.
• Damon Ginandes has also been painting murals in New York.
• This new video interview with Swoon is a must-see.
• I missed this piece by Vhils inside the monastery at FAME Festival. It’s just too awesomely well-hidden.

WK is coming to LA

US west coast fans of WK Interact, get excited: he is coming to LA! How To Blow Yourself Up opens November 7th at Subliminal Projects.

Unlike his solo exhibit in New York at Jonathan Levine earlier in the year, which showcased his fantastic motion portrait series, this show looks like it it’s going to feature a range of smaller, mixed media works. Here are a couple sneak peeks.

Invader & WK Interact @ Jonathan Levine

This is a guest post by Tanley Wong. Tanley is the Co-Founder of Arrested Motion.

Hey guys, my name is Tan and this is my first post on Vandalog. It’s an honor to be invited to back-up RJ, as we’ve long been a fan of his street art coverage “across the pond”.

On Saturday, Invader and WK Interact drew a big crowd trying to catch a glimpse of the two hard-working artists from Europe’s Street Art scene. It was a treat to see both artists create large sized works to fill the walls of Jonathan Levine’s multi-room gallery. The works from WK conveyed much raw energy and emotion as hinted in our preview. The door installations were astonishing as each one was adorned with endless details that had to be seen to be enjoyed.

Invader was equally entertaining, as his works tested your vision. Each piece required multiple looks as we deciphered the pixelated colors of each image. It was fun to see his classic “street invader” pieces remixed with the Macintosh colorways. Both artists were on hand to sign their books for their adoring fans. WK’s energy mimicked his pieces as he bounced around the gallery greeting his fans. Invader was a little more playful with his pixel shoes with rubber soles that doubled as a stamp to do a quick tag for anyone who asked nicely. He as mysterious as his reputation, but we caught a got a few shots of Invader “unmasked!” Check out the pics after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

WK-Interact at Jonathan LeVine

WK-Interact has been around forever and I think his style is pretty identifiable on the street, but his latest show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery is a new direction for WK. “12 Angry Men” opens on the 27th, and while the fascination with motion is still clear, there is a new focus on faces. Can’t wait to see the whole series.

Also opening that night at the same gallery is a solo show by Space Invader. Although I love Invader’s little mosaics, this show seems MUCH less interesting. The rubik’s cubes were cool at first, and I respect that he actually takes the time to properly put the colors in the right spots on each cube, but these album covers seem boring to me. Have a look:

Thoughts on Bonhams February Auction

Spent some time today checking out the catolog for the February 24th urban art auction at Bonhams in London. A few people have noted the extremely high number of Banksy lots (22 of 78) and dismissed this auction, but I’ve found a few potential deals to be had. If you’ve got the money to spend and you can weed through the crap, people are looking to sell some really nice work. Here’s what I’ve found:

1. Banksy – Kate Moss (series of 6)
Estimate: £100,000 – 150,000

There was a time when just one of these 6 could go for £100,000. Perhaps Banksy’s most sought after print. The winner of this auction will be a very lucky man/woman in a decade. Read the rest of this entry »