Year: 2012

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An Interview with The London Police

Photo by Lord Jim

This is an exciting time for The London Police. Celebrating their 10th year in the art world, gracing streets around the world with their iconic LADS characters, Chaz and Bob now celebrate the opening of their first solo show in Newcastle A Night with the London Police, which opened on Thursday and will continue through May 18th. Sorry you missed spending a night with TLP and still in the area? You still have a chance to catch them in action, as they will be painting a large mural in Newcastle.

Amidst all the activity, Chaz was kind enough to divulge some of the lesser known details about The London Police to Vandalog.

Which came first: your signature style or your aptness for vandalism?

My aptness for vandalism started as I was tagging my full name in crayon down the staircase walls in our house when I was 3. I hadn’t learnt that an alias might have helped or that it was wrong to even do it and so my father administered some quick and effective physical abuse to begin my rehabilitation. The signature style LADS characters began 20 years later.

Did you try out other names/styles before you established TLP?

We never had another name before The London Police. TLP was originally making photographs with a view to pasting them up on the streets (which we never did). The characters came later. Bob’s illustrative input later still. Continue reading “An Interview with The London Police”

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Broken Fingaz crew leaves London with a bang

Photo by HookedBlog

Just after the closing of their first major UK exhibition “Crazy Eye Hotel” at the Old Truman Brewery, Broken Fingaz let loose on the streets of East London. The Israeli crew, consisting of Tant, Unga, Kip and Deso, was able to put on the indoor display of their comic-strip-acid-trip-illustrations through support from the British Israeli Arts Training Scheme; a program built from a bilateral agreement between the British and Israeli governments that enables a creative exchange between the nations’ artists.

Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz
Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz

What better way to say “thank you” to the political effort funding your first major solo show in England, than to further-exhibit your art illegally? On one hand, London is without a doubt one of best cities for street art, so can you blame them for getting up while there? On the other hand, if the British Council, the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Ministry of Culture and Sport, all of whom provide funding for this program, believed that perhaps they were actually funding some no good vandal punks to get up abroad, would it jeopardize the program?

The fact that they were putting up work was no secret, in fact it seemed advertised almost as much as the show itself. …But on that first hand, Broken Fingaz crew is phenomenal. What do you think?

Photo by HookedBlog
Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz
Photo by HookedBlog
Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz

Photos by Hookedblog and courtesy of Broken Fingaz Crew

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Interview :: Makatron

Makatron

Mike Makatron (another member of the Everfresh crew) is a master of mixed media. His recent show “Mother of Millions” was amazing and showed off his skills across a variety of media and styles. I also love stumbling upon his giant pieces around inner Melbourne like the giant fish on Smith st Collingwood and the Vet Clinic on Johnston st Fitzroy. Mike’s art, both street and studio, clearly shows his interest in flora and fauna.

As well as making the walls of Melbourne beautiful, Makatron has traveled and painted abroad in places including New York, Berlin, and India and Brazil.

I caught up with Mike and this is what we talked about… The interview has been in the vault for a while though, so a few of the references to dates are a bit, well, outdated. Continue reading “Interview :: Makatron”

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Come and Get It! Half Price: The Apprentice Takes on Urban Art

As most of you may know, last night premiered the latest episode of The Apprentice UK concentrating on the sales of urban art. The two teams were split up and tasked to represent two street artists and flog their work the public in East London at a night only gallery show. Obviously knowing very little about the genre himself, Lord Sugar set the teams up with car company Renault and gin manufacturer Beefeater in attempt to generate big sales for the teams by way of a corporate client. And then the circus ensued…

The episode opened with the teams standing looking frightened in Leake Street Tunnel in Waterloo with an ominous video of Lord Sugar talking them through the task. The candidates were then immediately split into their teams with half traveling to Bristol “the birthplace of graffiti” and the other half staying in London to source artists. In Bristol, the candidates met with SPQR and Copyright. Not liking the controversial wares of SPQR (the hypodermic needle freaked them out) the team fell for the stencil/tattoo-like stylings of Copyright. One of the guys kept trying to offer his own ludicrous interpretation the work as the camera panned to the silent artists making the situation just as uncomfortable for the viewer watching. In London, the teams met with Pure Evil, Nathan Bowen, and James Jessop. The teams fought over who wanted to sell Pure Evil’s work as he eventually went with the team that showed more enthusiasm rather than the pretty boy who kept talking out of his ass about how much he knew about street or rather that he may have viewed Exit Through the Gift Shop and retained a few facts. Bowen was also chosen to be shown, in order to impress Beefeater with his London centric characters. It was, however, ironic that half the team saw his work outside in Bristol and expressed how much they hated only to find out that they were selling it the next night. Nice job boys. The other team settled on Jessop and Copyright in the hopes of selling a large Jessop canvas to someone who was drunk enough to drop 10,000 pounds securing the team the win.

The shows themselves took place in Black Rat and Arch 402 with the usual street art crowds and bankers trolling through. The teams had no idea how or who to sell to, but just talking bullshit as if they were selling insurance. I’m just hoping that the artists who were involved were happy clearing overstock that night and making some extra money. Pure Evil alone sold over 10,000 pounds worth of work apparently. Not a bad haul and I’m sure some great publicity will come from it. Bowen got into the spirit by doing a live canvas based on the London landscape that could have gone to Beefeater, but with his representatives crappy client skills, the company left empty handed and their pockets still teeming with money. But in the end, the team that had Pure Evil won, even though it was only by 173 pounds. Bit of a shame. If only someone had enough space for any one of those 10 feet Jessops…

So what is the lesson here boys and girls? Is that anyone can sell urban art nowadays? Is it that almost anyone will buy something if you tell them it is cool/hip/trendy/up and coming? No no no. The lesson is that if you paid full price for any artists’ works than you paid too much. With an hour left to selling the teams started giving 50% discounts to some of the work. Half Price! Come and get it! Because that is not in bad taste whatsoever…

Images courtesy of BBC

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Mau Mau certainly knows how to put on a show

Westbank Gallery welcomes Mau Mau. Photo by Unusual Image

Last Thursday, May 3rd, Mau Mau‘s solo show Pigs Might Fly opened with a private view at London’s Westbank Gallery. I say private view, but with a guest list of over 500 people it was hardly private, more like a public view with a party list, all crammed into the two storey gallery.

Having seen some of the preview images I gave a little heads up prior to the show last week, mainly on the basis that I was actually excited to see the pieces for myself and to see how the installations looked up close.

Unfortunately I could not make the opening, but thanks to Beejoir (one of many who helped curate and hang the show) I has given the opportunity to have a look around a couple of hours before the doors were flung open. And I have to say the show did not disappoint. Continue reading “Mau Mau certainly knows how to put on a show”

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Cake’s Women at Home off the Bowery

About four years ago, I began noticing Cake’s women wheatpasted onto the walls of  Williamsburg and Chelsea.  Their poignant elegance transfixed me.  Even in various stages of decay, they never lost their heart-rending beauty.  Thanks to Keith Schweitzer and MaNY, in collaboration with FabNYC, three of Cake’s women have now found a home off the Bowery in Lower Manhattan.  Here are some scenes from today’s installation:

And a wonderful full view of the installation can be seen on Cake’s page.

Photos by Lenny Collado and Lois Stavsky

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Word to Mother can’t afford to be broke

Word To Mother is busy preparing for his upcoming show in San Fransisco at White Walls Gallery, Can’t Afford to be Broke. After years of successful solo shows in London, it’s great to finally see Word To Mother getting the attention he deserves in the USA too. The show includes new original pieces on wood, painted baseball bats and zines with a screenprinted cover.

Can’t Afford to be Broke opens on May 12th (7-11pm) and runs through June 2nd.

Photo courtesy of White Walls Gallery

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Kidult against/for Marc Jacobs

It looks like Kidult hit a Marc Jacobs store in New York, but rather than panic, buff and pretend it didn’t happen like most other stores that Kidult has hit, Marc Jacobs’ Twitter has claimed the work. Of course, they still buffed the piece. The New York Observer has more, and as they point out, maybe Kidult was commissioned to do the piece, as has often been speculated about his work. After all, it’s well-known that KAWS was approached by companies to do ad disruptions for him (which he eventually sort of did, in that he has designed work for use on billboards, but without the illegal look).

Via Street Art News

Photo courtesy of MarcJacobsIntl

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Street art stories – LNY in Baltimore

LNY was in Baltimore recently to check out Open Walls Baltimore (exactly what Caroline and I are doing right now actually). He had quite a time while there and put up a couple of very Baltimore-specific pieces. Here’s what he has to say:

So I got a story to tell you and some pics to share, see I ended up making these drawings in Baltimore by randomly running into this group of urban horseback riders galloping down an East Baltimore neighborhood while visiting Gaia and Nanook. It was Sunday so what would be better than to go on a horse ride right? So I took some pictures and then made some work to later find out that they are part of this old Baltimore tradition of Huckstering, basically going around in a horse drawn cart selling vegetables. These guys are also called Arabs, which comes from the term “street Arab” as in an abandoned kid who roams the slums, and I was lucky enough to find a stable in South West Baltimore where horses are bred and taken care of by the community. All of which blows my mind because these guys were so happy and excited about my posters as I was about meeting them and discovering this otherwise invisible history of a city I am completely alien to. As I was putting the work up I got a lot of feedback from the neighborhood and they read the images in so many different ways that I had never even considered; we talked about resilience, beauty, vision, excellence, dead space, gold, bling and the efforts of Sowebo to rejuvenate the neighborhood from the inside. I feel totally overwhelmed by the way the work was able to engage and be fulfilled by having this conversation with the neighborhood. All of this thanks to Martha Cooper who introduced me to Sowebo and has been constantly engaging and documenting the area, these are her pictures and a lil clip I took of the spot.

Photos by Martha Cooper