Year: 2012

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Ripo is so surreal

Ripo painted this piece, Surreal But So Real, for this year’s Avant-Garde Urbano Festival in Tudela de Navarra, Spain. Besides the obvious (Steve Powers), Ripo is probably my favorite artist juggling signpainting, muralism and graffiti. I think the great thing about this wall, like many of Ripo’s walls, is that you can look at it from a variety of distances and angles and it should still be interesting. From straight on and a distance, there’s text to read or you can just look at it for its aesthetic value and ignore the text. From an angle, at least the colors brighten up an otherwise blank walls. From close up, there are details to catch.

Photos by Ripo

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A wooden sculpture by 2501

2501 recently installed this sculpture made of parts of dead trees at the architectural museum in Como, Italy. The piece, In cammino per trasformarsi nell’istante presente (moving to transform into the present moment), is a surprising and I think very successful departure for 2501 whose outdoor work usually looks more like this. Here are some more photos of the sculpture:

Photos courtesy of 2501

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Weekend link-o-rama

El Curiot

It seems that the world never slows down. I’m supposed to be on vacation and it’s been one of my busiest weeks all year, so here’s what’s been going on elsewhere across the web:

Photo by El Curiot

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Stik hits Bushwick rooftop

In NYC for a few days this past week, the legendary UK-based artist Stik left his mark at Bushwick Five Points. Here are two more images:

Stik begins
Stik at work; mural by Concrete Jungle below

Photos by Lenny Collado, Dani Mozeson and Sara Mozeson

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Stinkfish in Paris

Stinkfish is letting everyone on the streets of Paris know that he’s in town. He’ll be making his way to England soon for his first London solo-show opening at High Roller Society. The show, entitled Espina, opens to the public on the 27th and runs until November 11.

Above and Stinkfish on a truck in Paris
Despite being atypical of his signature colorful and detailed portraiture, this simple black, white and red piece is the most powerful piece in the collection to me. Definitely my favorite. Juxtaposed to this, the colorful portraits even look like they’ve been overworked.

Photos by Stinkfish

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Introducing: Benjamin Murphy

I will be the first to admit, that I am terrible with my e-mail. I actually open e-mails and if I don’t see an image right away or worse – SPELLING MISTAKES, than your correspondence goes right into trash. This morning, however, an e-mail from an artist caught my eye that I thought would be worth posting about. Benjamin Murphy is a British artist who uses electrical tape to create ephemeral works on the streets. The idea isn’t novel in the slightest, but his bio made me chuckle so I had to open the image attachments and was pleasantly surprised to see some tantalizing images of women and one in an oven. Anyone who sends the following to a blog is alright in my book:

Benjamin Murphy a manchild from Yorkshire who likes to frequent the ladies section of Primark. He likes to draw on other peoples property with electrical tape, creating something he likes to call ‘art’. This method of creating something people can point and gawp at, is more ecologically sound than putting a cow in formaldehyde and chopping it in half.

While I heard the name from his work for Anti-Slavery International in which he created a 16 story piece on Great Eastern Street to promote the event, I never had the chance to really look into his work. Here are a few images that I thought I would share with everyone. And I look forward to seeing more when he opens his first solo show at Hoxton Gallery on November 1.

Images courtesy of Benjamin Murphy

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New murals from Gaia

Gaia next to How and Nosm in Philadelphia. Photo courtesy of Gaia. Click to view large.

Gaia has recently finished two really interesting murals in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

In Philadelphia, Goldman Properties and the Mural Arts Program brought him to town to paint a portrait of Edmund Bacon, a city planner who Wikipedia tells me is considered by some to be “The Father of Modern Philadelphia.” That mural is at 13th and Sansom, right near murals by Kenny Scharf and How&Nosm.

“Arabbers” in Baltimore. Photo by M Holden Warren. Click to view large.

In Baltimore, Gaia painted a wall about Baltimore’s Arabbers, which Gaia explains:

The Arabbers are a dying Baltimore tradition of horse-drawn fruit vendors that have long been a staple of this remarkable city. I was attracted to this particular stable in the Sandtown neighborhood preparing for a documentary. These men and women define hustle, trotting along both desolate and vibrant landscapes selling their goods and making ends meet. This mural depicts four generations
starting with the great grandfather Manboy in the middle and to Fruit’s son on the top right. The arabber portraits are mixed with the logos on the containers in which their produce comes: a global economy meets a fading, tough tradition.

Photos courtesy of Gaia and by M Holden Warren

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Causey Contemporary Presents “Purple”

Priscila De Carvalho, Heavy Load (detail)

Produced by YOUNITY, an international collective of urban female artists, and curated by Alice Mizrachi and Diana McClure, Purple opens tomorrow from 6-9pm at Causey Contemporary Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Featuring an eclectic range of artworks by female artists from across the globe, the exhibit will remain on view through November 19, 2012. Here’ are two more images from the exhibit:

Lady Pink, Imperial Eaglet
Diana McClure, Crown Chakra Shakti #2 (triptych)

Images courtesy Causey Contemporary

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Meggs: “Truth in Myth II” at Backwoods Gallery in Collingwood

Melbourne’s Meggs (Everfresh) is back home and has a solo show opening this Friday at Backwoods Gallery.

From the press release:

After a successful residency and solo exhibition with Whitewalls Gallery in San Francisco, Meggs returns to his hometown of Melbourne for ‘Truth in Myth II’ at Backwoods Gallery in Collingwood.

Fusing elements of contemporary superheroes to ancient mythological beings, ‘Truth in Myth II’ is a collection of new artworks that expressively reference classic renaissance composition and contemporary pop culture. A continuation of Meggs’ search for balance and the understanding of physical and ideological duality in self.

“We live in the stories we tell ourselves. In a secular, scientific rational culture lacking in any convincing spiritual leadership, superhero stories speak loudly and boldly to our greatest fears, deepest longings and highest aspirations… the best superhero stories deal directly with mythic elements of the human condition… they help us confront and resolve even the deepest existential crisis. We should listen to what they have to tell us.” – Grant Morrison, ‘Supergods’, Spiegal & Grau, New York USA, 2011.

Photos courtesy of Backwoods Gallery