Here’s a guest post from Caroline, who will hopefully be taking some more photos for Vandalog – RJ
I had the pleasure of visiting the studio of Brooklyn based artist Gabriel Specter recently. Getting to see how these notoriously massive pieces come together exposed the incredible amount of detail in each of his pieces. What’s more is that these intricate, hand-painted giants take a beating from whatever the weather can bring, and last not nearly as long as us viewers might like. But at the rate Specter’s been getting up (internationally at that), with gallery shows, and an increasingly large following on the web, ephemerality has nothing on him.
Speaking with Specter, it’s clear that the detail is very obviously not just in the aesthetics of the finish product. Every piece he showed me came with a captivating explanation.
Specter has been really busy these pasts few months, from his Things Change solo show in Paris, his Repeat Offender show at Pawnworks in Chicago, and he’s hoping to do more city commissioned mural work in the near future, which is essentially doing the same thing he’s been doing, but maybe a little bigger since he’ll have the city’s written permission.
While he’s not planning any solo shows for the near future, we’re gonna be seeing a lot of fresh stuff from Specter indoors and on the streets soon. Catch him in the up coming group shows Crown Heights Gold opening July 28th (6pm – 8pm) @ Skylight Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, as well as Street Art Saved My Life @ C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice(LA),California on August 12. This September, Specter will be traveling to Tajikistan to put up new work.
Photos by Caroline Caldwell