Year: 2009

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Jim Houser

Tomorrow Jim Houser has a solo show opening at Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York, and next week he also has a beautiful new screen print being released by The BLDG.

Jim Houser Print_hi

From The BLDG:

This print, published in conjunction with The Jonathan LeVine Gallery, is entitled, “Make room for the Emptiness” It is an 11″x14″, 6 color hand pulled screen print, edition of 200 on 100% Cotton Rag Stonehenge paper. It goes on sale on www.BLDGrefuge.com at 11a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29th for $75.

Great price for something so cool.

Also, check out this video of Jim working in his studio:

A Day In The Studio of Jim Houser from Art In The Age on Vimeo.

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No Longer Empty

No Longer Empty (NLE) is comprised of arts advocates, curators and artists who orchestrate public art exhibitions in vacated storefronts and properties in New York City. The non-profit organization was conceived as an artistic response to our present economic condition and to revitalize empty spaces and areas around the venues by bringing thoughtful, high-caliber art installations with accompanying programs to the public

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Faile sells for $50,000 at FIAC

In a very important test for Faile, they seem to have passed with flying colors. FIAC, the major art fair currently open in Paris, has a booth from Faile’s new New York City gallery: Perry Rubenstein Gallery. Perry Rubenstein is a contemporary art gallert, not a “street art” gallery, so that puts their work in front of a very different set of collectors. Artinfo is reporting that the below Faile has sold for $50,000 to a French collector. A beautiful piece with imagery spanning Faile’s career, and perhaps evidence that Faile can break into the larger contemporary art scene.

Faile

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New Gaia Interview and Studio Visit on Brooklyn Street Art

A little more than a week ago, I had the wonderful delight of receiving Steve Harrington from Brooklyn Street Art into my home, my city and my school. The product of that spontaneous, short but undeniably sweet visit to Baltimore and the studio has been published on the BSA blog in two parts! Check it out, pass it on and share it!

Part1:http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=5416
Part2:http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=5442

Here is a sample

Brooklyn Street Art: So what’s the best part about making street art?
Gaia: So this is obviously a question that I’ve tried to investigate throughout my entire process, beginning at an extremely basic place when I first started, and I have to constantly revisit it. What’s the best part of making street work? I always have to investigate my motive and if there is a process from conceptualizing to composing to drawing to putting it up to viewing the reception, .. If, in any of those steps I’m not really deriving a sense of fulfillment, that can be problematic. I have to always come back to these different steps and say “what’s going on here?” Honestly sometimes I consider my process kind of arduous. Sometimes it’s a real struggle for me. It’s cathartic but it’s not perfect or pure, it’s not what I enjoy. It’s a constant fight with the medium, with myself, with my concept, my intuition.

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Dan Witz and Dark Doings at Carmichael Gallery

I would absolutely love to see something by Dan Witz in person one day. If you’re in New York, that’s been possible since the 1970’s, but now Dan Witz has a solo show coming up at the Carmichael Gallery in LA.

Dan Witz

The press release:

Carmichael Gallery is proud to present Dark Doings, a solo exhibition of new works by Dan Witz. This is the Brooklyn based artist’s first US west coast solo exhibition.

In Dark Doings, Witz will showcase a selection of pieces from his expansive summer street project of the same name. Created both for the street and gallery, the subtle, haunting images of human and animal faces trapped behind dirty glass windows are inspired by a recent visit earlier in the year to the red light district of Amsterdam.

In speaking about the philosophy behind this body of work, Dan explains, “I’m trying to exploit our collective tendency towards sleepwalking by inserting outrageous things right out there in plain view that are also practically invisible. My goal is to make obvious in your face art that ninety-nine percent of the people who walk by won’t notice. Eventually when they stumble upon one or find out about it I’m hoping they’ll start wondering what else they’ve been missing.”

Artwork at the show will comprise of mixed media on digital prints on plastic, presented either framed or mounted to wood doors, the latter serving as both canvas and contextual framework through which the work can be viewed. A selection of photographs depicting the Dark Doings series in situ will also be exhibited at the show. They will be displayed alongside the piece with which they correspond.

About Dan Witz:

Dan Witz is one of the most prolific artists working on the streets of New York City today. With a career that dates back to the 1970s, he continues through each project to refine his technique and style, yet never loses sight of his original aesthetic and ideological goals. Acknowledged as one of the most important voices in the history of the movement by critics and peers alike, he both defines and challenges what it means to be a street artist.

Dan Witz

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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.

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Banksy self portrait to be revealed?

Apparently there is a Banksy self portrait set to be revealed next week at a bar in Islington.

I’m not even going to link to this story. Google it if you think it’s interesting, but it sounds like PR hype to me.

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Video from The Brick Lane Zoo

The first (along with the time lapse video of Roa painting) in a series of videos I’ve started to make for Babelgum.com is this tour of The Brick Lane Zoo, a show that just closed at The Brick Lane Gallery. Every week there will be two new videos going online: one will be a sort of different video like a time lapse or an extended interview, and the other will be me checking out the latest street art gallery openings.

In this video, make sure to listen to what Pure Evil says toward the end about street art and graffiti. And hey, there’s an interview with Roa so that’s awesome.