2009 – Page 68 – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

January 10, 2009July 4, 2010

Nick Walker and Gauging The Street Art Market

Next Tuesday the London Art Fair opens, and the world is watching. Bloomberg, Animal New York, The Art Collectors Blog, Artbleat, and others have all been talking about Black Rat Press’ print release Tuesday evening at the private opening: Nick Walker’s latest “Morning After Series” print. this one feature’s New York city and the Empire State Building. It’s an edition of 175, for £475 each.

Nick Walker's Morning After NYC — Nick Walker's "Empire State"

Besides just a print release, this particular print is being viewed as a sort of barometer for the state of the art market. Usually, Nick Walker prints are instant sell-out items for Black Rat, but nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen with so many collectors reluctant to spend. Continue reading “Nick Walker and Gauging The Street Art Market”

January 9, 2009

Two New Auction Saboteur Exclusives

So Auction Saboteur released two new exclusive canvases today for not very much.

First, Lee Ellis has this black and white stencil of a woman.

It’s for sale at only £125 (edition of 10).

Second, is T*3. I hadn’t seen his work before today, but as you can see from the image below, he’s not bad. I mean, who doesn’t like images of girls in short skirts?

This canvas is £150 and also edition of 10.

January 8, 2009January 9, 2009

An Introduction to LukeDaDuke

LukeDaDuke is an artist I’ve had my eye on for a while. He’s part of the VST crew (check out a great interview with fellow VST crew member FarkFK at Concrete Canvas), and it sounds like 2009 will be a big year for LukeDaDuke and his dog.

RJ: How did you get started in art/graffiti/whatever you consider what you do, and what do you consider what you do? Is it street art, urban art, graffiti art, just plain art, or something else?

LukeDaDuke: I started somewhere in 1997 or 1998. I was intrigued by graffiti since I was young, and I decided it was time for me to get noticed.

Noticed I got… 2 tries, 2 times busted.

I still wanted to go out and make myself known. In Eindhoven, a city in the Netherlands that I often visited, the stickerscene was boiling hot and I went along with it.

First a little tag on a sticker, later nude girls, and after a while, I came up with the dog.

I think my work comes close to streetart. But perhaps stickerart is a better word for it… and posterart.

Continue reading “An Introduction to LukeDaDuke”

January 7, 2009July 3, 2010

Aakash Nihalani is a Square

It is long overdue that I cover Aakash Nilhalani on Vandalog. He’s been doing some really intersting work in New York for a while now.

Similar to Ellis G, Nilhalani doesn’t do anything destructive or particularly technically challenging (then again, I’m quite bad at geometry, so maybe I’m wrong), but he does create something simple that makes you look at it and challenges your expectations of what you’ll see walking while walking down the street.

Nilhalani makes boxes out of tape. He just puts neon tape on the street and makes the shape of a box with it. Simple, but effective. Continue reading “Aakash Nihalani is a Square”

January 5, 2009January 5, 2009

A Very Different Post About Gaia

If you took Gaia to a high school drawing contest he might place first or second, but put his efforts on the street and it becomes worth half as much as a real Swoon. It may be a testament to street artist Swoon’s influence and popularity, that an influenced artist can find a ravenous audience without a new style, technique, or thought for where/how to install it. As a derivative work, its more saccharine, dim witted, but just about as popular. Gaia plays the Monkey’s to Swoons Beatles.

That’s one way to think about Gaia. In fact, that diatribe is a portion of a faux New Yorker article which was wheatpasted right next to a Gaia piece.

On the other hand, Gaia might be really good. That’s what I’d say. His work is powerful and the melding of man and animal creates some very beautiful results. Gaia’s the first to admit that his work is influenced by Swoon, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. All artists have influences. I asked Gaia about his, and about his thoughts on people who say he is too much like Swoon.

Gaia: I think that it is quite apparent in my work that Swoon is a strong influence but I believe that the comparison is a little tired now because I really do feel that my pieces are distinguishable. I believe that these comments and mistakes also stem from a real lack of understanding of the the Street Art scene. Once the viewer has a true awareness and visual literacy for the work that is on the street, then such confusion is avoided. Continue reading “A Very Different Post About Gaia”

January 2, 2009January 29, 2009

Preview of From the Streets of Brooklyn @ Thinkspace

Some great teaser shots of the first big show of ’09 over at Arrested Motion.

“From the Street of Brooklyn” opens January 9th at LA’s Thinkspace gallery. The show is curated by Brooklyn’s Ad Hoc Art. Vandalog’s Q&A with Ad Hoc Art’s Director, Andrew Michael Ford, can be found here. They’ve gotten some of New York’s best and most prolific street and graffiti artists together for one large group show. Looking at the artist lineup, it seems like the only way this show could bring Brooklyn to LA any better would be to transplant a street.

From the Streets of Brooklyn

See more at Arrested Motion

January 2, 2009

Iranian Street Artist A1one

Beautiful Crime brought Iranian artist A1one to my attention the other day, and I’ve been spending a good deal of time looking through his flickr. Adam at BC likes him “because it’s raw, effective comment.” As for me, I just think his work is extremely varied, and that that’s something that isn’t always true of street artists. Also, I was surprised that street artists could be so prolific in Iran.

My friend K recently wrote a paper for his art history class comparing Iranian calligraphy and Eine‘s work. I wish I’d found A1one a month ago, because A1one’s work would have been perfect for K’s paper. A1one’s lettering is beautiful on the street, and it’s an interesting twist on classic graffiti.

Now, this last one is sure to strike some people as very similar to work by José Parlá, and I love Parlá’s work, but what’s nice about A1one is that his pieces can actually be read by people other than the artist. For example, the above piece says “Nefrat” or “Hate”. A1one also notes that while Parlá works on expensive materials, A1one uses found materials as a canvas.

Check out more at A1one’s flickr.