Month: March 2012

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Gaia and Nanook for Living Walls Concepts

Photo by Gaia

Gaia and Nanook were just in Atlanta for their turn at the new Living Walls Concepts series of mini-conferences that are an extention of Living Walls. Here’s what Joshua Rackliffe, Living Walls’ director of programming, has to say about their visit:

Living Walls Concepts, a year-long extension of the conference’s programming, hosted its first collaboration of 2012 with seasoned Living Walls artists Gaia and Nanook. Over the course of their 4-day visit, they produced an original work in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. The creation spans the western wall of a structure on Edgewood Avenue, located on the opposite side of a building that displays another Living Wall by Tel-Aviv artist Know Hope. In addition to their mural, Gaia and Nanook hosted an open conversation and lecture pertaining to their experiences in street art and how it engages community, activates space, and conveys messages about the state of the urban environment. These two have been consistent representations of the Living Walls mission, and are enthusiastic about continuing their participation with the organization.

Living Walls have just gotten their status as an official non-profit organization and are starting on a big fundraising drive. I hope you will support them if you can.

Check out some photos and video of the wall coming together after the jump… Continue reading “Gaia and Nanook for Living Walls Concepts”

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Weekend link-o-rama

Snyder in Beijing

While I spend my day at my other job explaining to people how a skee-ball tournament is art (seriously), I hope you’ll enjoy these newsbites from the past two weeks:

Photo by Snyder

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“My Turn” at Carmichael Gallery: Jaz, Hyuro, Klone, Stinkfish and more

Although I have yet to make it to its Culver City space, I became an instant fan of Carmichael Gallery after seeing its astoundingly beautiful 2010 Recreation II exhibit in collaboration with Ogilvy & Mather in New York City.  If I were anywhere near the West Coast, I would definitely make it to its upcoming exhibit, My Turn. Curated by Los Angeles-based artist Bumblebee, it opens this Saturday evening featuring work by some of the most provocative and passionate artists working on the streets across the globe today.  Personal favorites include Jaz, Hyuro, Klone and Stinkfish. Here are a few images:

Jaz, based in Buenos Aires
Hyuro, based in Valencia
Klone, based in Tel Aviv

Photos courtesy of Carmichael Gallery

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Tilt’s “Panic Room” – the video

You’ve almost definitely seen a photo at some point over the last few weeks of Tilt‘s Panic Room installation at The Hotel Au Vieux Panier in Marseille, France. Well now Tilt has released a video of how the project was done. It’s pretty much what you’d expect: Tilt and friends going a bit wild over a couple days in the hotel room. But just because it’s what you might expect doesn’t mean it can’t also be fun to watch. I am absolutely not a fan of Tilt. Almost everything I’ve seen from him has been boring and old cliches from street art and graffiti: Hot naked girls, basic bubble letters, and simple pop art iconography. But Panic Room is hard not to love. Here’s the making of video:

TILT – PANIC ROOM from BIG ADDICT on Vimeo.

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Geo Street Art iPhone apps launch + Street Art NYC

Damon Ginandes mural

Geo Street Art launched two iPhone apps this week for locating street art in NYC and London. The Street Art NYC and Street Art London by Lois Stavsky (also a Vandalog blogger) and Griff respectively. Basically, the apps are street art guides to individual cities with both hundreds of currently running pieces and historical data and bios of artists you might come across. Lois and Griff are out hitting the streets all the time, so these apps actually have a good chance of staying up to date. Similar iPhone apps have often relied on crowdsourcing their data and that’s not a bad idea, but maybe it’s time to try putting a small monetary incentive behind the work of keeping a street art map up to date and relying on experts. Each app costs a few dollars and since I’m not in either city right now, I haven’t purchased them myself, but the screenshots definitely make the app look quite professional and the map in NYC already includes over 400 active locations to spot art.

In conjunction with the app, Lois has also started up a new blog, Street Art NYC. If you love Lois’ posts here at Vandalog like I do, I highly recommend checking out Street Art NYC.

The Geo Street Art apps are available in the App Store now.

Hopefully this project will finally result in up-to-date maps of interesting street art, something I’ve been interested in seeing for years.

Photo by Lois Stavsky

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What not to do with Kid Acne’s coloring book

I can’t draw. When I was in 4th grade, my teacher told my parents that I was drawing naked people in class and that the behavior had to be corrected. What she meant was that I was drawing stick figures. They didn’t have clothing, but they didn’t have genitals either. For her, those stick figures were enough to say I was drawing naked people. For me, her worries were enough to bury any interest I had in drawing for nearly a decade.

That’s why, when Kid Acne offered to send me a copy of his recently reprinted coloring book Colour Me Bad Vol. 1, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. The book is 36 pages of classic Kid Acne drawings ready for customization. I didn’t want to say no, but I also did not want the book to end up with every page looking like this. So now, I’ve flipped through the book a few times and it’s going to sit on my shelf, indefinitely devoid of color. But there are still another 499 copies of Colour Me Bad Vol. 1 out there in the world. Don’t let them go to waste. Pick up a copy of Colour Me Bad Vol. 1 online now for £6 plus shipping, and make sure to draw a little something in it or at least color in a character or two. Trust my 3rd grade self: It’ll be fun.

Photo courtesy of Kid Acne