Sorry I missed the link-o-rama last week. Was having a fantastic birthday in NYC. Thanks to everyone who came out to say hello.
- I just picked up the recent Troy Lovegates book (now sold out), and I wish I could pick up this print as well. Absolutely beautiful stuff.
- Nice little Pink Floyd-themed stencil by Plastic Jesus.
- Interesting JR-esque posters in UK mines.
- Philippe Baudelocque in Paris.
- Judith Supine on being bored with street art.
- Leon Reid IV’s latest sculpture addresses the crushing personal debt of so many Americans.
- Tova Lobatz curated a show at 941 Geary with Vhils, How and Nosm, Sten and Lex, and others.
- Shepard Fairey released some prints using diamond dust, which is quite interesting. As the press release says, “Perhaps most famously used by Andy Warhol, who understood perfectly how to convey a message, Diamond Dust was used to add glamour, transforming ordinary images into coveted objects. The material aligns with Shepard’s work and interest in the seduction of advertising and consumerism. Diamond Dust, literally and metaphorically is superficial, applied to the surface of the print, the luminous effect is both beautiful and alluring.” But it’s one of those things that just gets me thinking about how the art world, much like capitalism, seems so good at absorbing critique and spitting at back out as product. People love the meaningless OBEY icon, so Shepard sells it. Shepard needs to make more product to continue selling to this market he has created, so he takes an old design (or a slight variant, I’m not positive), and adds meaningless diamond dust to it and sells it as something new. The best critiques participate in the system which they critique, but that’s a risky game to play. Of course, I say all this with a print by Shepard hanging on my wall.
- OldWalls is a project where the photographer took photos of graffiti in the early 1990’s and recently returned to those spots to take the exact same shots, and then each matching photo is displayed next to its counterpart.
- Artnet’s latest street art and graffiti auction has a handful of interesting pieces (Artnet is a sponsor of Vandalog btw). Here are my favorites:
- Greg Lamarche’s Krylon boxes
- A nice Futura with a character from 2006
- A classic Richard Hambleton print. He wheatpasted this self-portrait on the streets of New York in the early 1980’s.
- A great Todd James on paper
Photos by Luna Park