Year: 2013

Posted on

TrustoCorp at LeBasse Projects

-1

TrustoCorp have a show opening this month at LeBasse Projects in Los Angeles. The Future is Blight opens April 13th from 6-9pm and runs through May 11th. The show will tackle issues of income inequality in LA. TrustoCorp say, “Underneath the glossy veneer of tabloid magazines and Hollywood movies, the former middle class is struggling, families are facing poverty and America is slowly becoming a third world country. In the absence of any real help or solid solutions, there is hypocrisy, greed and hopelessness. Through our work, we hope to call attention to this reality, crack a few smiles and hopefully make some people think along the way. After all, when the mistakes of the past are repeated, the future is blight.”

Photo courtesy of LeBasse Projects

Posted on

From the Outside: Vagrant Space at Tender Trap

PeterDear
Peter Dear

At the heart of graffiti is the old adage “if there’s a will there’s a way;” this idea manifests itself through the practical application of fire extinguishers, home made etch, and other DIY solutions. Opening this week, Vagrants will focus on the work of what DIY curation Vagrant Space defines as “social outsiders.” On view will be the work of Adam Void, Peter Dear, George Charles Bates, Andrew H. Shirley, Jefferson Mayday Mayday, Chelsea Ragan, Craig Mammano, Jeffrey Vincent, Dylan Thadani, Edwards Harper, Margaret Rogers, Emily Campbell, Misha Capecchi, and Safwat Riad. A combination in the curation efforts of Andrew H. Shirley and Vagrant Space, this show is one not to miss for those who love the grime and DIY ethos behind graffiti.

For a more in depth look at the ideologies behind this project, the following press release offers a key to understanding the work of artists who position themselves outside of traditional contact and society.

SafwatRiad
Safwat Riad

From the press release:

Vagrant Space is an ongoing curation for a new generation of Outsider Artists. This new school no longer fits the caricatured confines of the self-taught, emotionally troubled, and uneducated recluse promoted by the Folk Art gallery world. Coming of age during the transformative years of globalization, internet proliferation, and social media, these artists share the affects traditionally ascribed to social outsiders: many of them don’t utilize contemporary social media skills, eschew the responsibilities of ‘maturity,’ and most importantly, genuinely reflect the homelessness that is hallmark to this era of twenty and thirty-year-olds.

The fourteen artists featured in the first round of Vagrant Space hail from Asheville, Seattle, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Portland, San Francisco, and Sydney. They all represent this new generation of outsider artist. Many of these artists are travelers, recluses, graffiti artists, and social outcasts. Vagrant Space seeks to share their work with the public at large through a series of pop-up shows, print publications, and an online gallery.
AdamVoid
Adam Void
Night_Woodsresized_o
Jeffrey Vincent
ChelseaRagan
Chelsea Ragan
AndrewHShirley
Andrew H. Shirley

Vagrants_VagrantSpaceedit1

Vagrants, the first group show from this collective, will take place Thursday, April 4th from 6-10pm at Tender Trap (254 South 1st St. Brooklyn, NY).

Photos courtesy of Vagrant Space

Posted on

Tim Hans shoots… Ben Eine

Eine1

Ben Eine is a busy man these days with lots of shows, walls, and a move to San Fransisco. Tim Hans met up with Eine in Shoreditch while he was painting for the latest in our continuing series of photo-portraits of artists by Tim Hans.

RJ: How did changing the Pro/Anti walls in Shoreditch to the Extortionist/Protagonist walls come about?

Eine: Basically I have just moved my studio from Hastings, the courier company wouldn’t allow me to ship the spray paint, I had a few thousand cans. so I thought I would use as much of it as I could. LondoNewcastle who own the building with anti anti anti on it had contacted me around the time of Shepard paintings down the road to see if I was up for repainting it. Yes was the answer, I then spoke with Mother who own the propropro wall, they were up for it as well but no one had any budget for paint or anything, wankers. The old paintings had been there for nearly 3 years and were looking shabby, plus I never liked the way antiantianti photographed, the contours of the wall made it look weird, the challenge there was to paint something that photographed better than the old anti.

RJ: Why the move to SF? What’s that been like?

Eine: I fell in love with San Francisco and a lady called Carrie, plus London is easy for me. I wanted to paint somewhere where walls are harder to get and not everyone is on your side. The move has been fucking slow and expensive, my new studio is 4 times as expensive as my old one in Hastings.

Eine2

RJ: How do you think the recent harsh prison sentences for graffiti in London have affected the work that is going up or not?

Eine: It’s bollocks, Oker had almost stopped, he has kids and a job, nothing violent in what he does, I don’t think he was that much of a menace that he needed to be sent to prison especially for 2 years, we just did an art auction for his wife at pure evil gallery, so at least she doesn’t have to worry about loosing the house while her man is inside. I’m not sure if these crazy jail sentences really stop people from painting trains and bombing. Getting caught is part of being a vandal.

RJ: What’s a dream location for you to paint?

Eine: More cities in America, big walls in New York, SF, LA and some other cities I can’t think of.

RJ: What upcoming projects can we expect to see from you?

Eine: I got a show in Paris, Galerie LE FEUVRE (164, Faubourg St. Honoré 75008 Paris) which closes April 21st. It’s a group show with Sickboy, and Shoe from Amsterdam. Then a solo show with Corey Helford opens June 15th, and then a few big walls around.

Eine3

Photos by Tim Hans

Posted on

Tag Happy, Rx Uppers – spraycan sculptures by Caroline Caldwell

Cans

Vandalog is proud to announce the latest product in The Vandalog Shop and our second product in the shop by a Vandalog contributing writer. Tag Happy, Rx Uppers is an edition of sculptures by Caroline Caldwell. These relabeled spray cans include veiled references to key people and places in the history of graffiti. How many can you spot?

Two cans 640

Tag Happy, Rx Uppers comes in black or pink versions, each an edition of 10 which are signed and numbered on the underside of the sculpture. When shipped within the continental United States, Tag Happy, Rx Uppers will arrive as a full can of real spray paint. For all other orders, the cans will be emptied and a small hole will be put in the bottom of the piece. Tag Happy, Rx Uppers are available now at $22 for one black or pink sculpture, or $40 for a matching set of black and pink pieces. Each sculpture also comes with a set of handwritten instructions.

three cans 640

I’ve had an early version of the Tag Happy, Rx Uppers sitting on my shelf for the last year alongside sculptures by artists including Faile, Sweet Toof, and Skewville, and it more than holds its own against those classics. Caroline’s sense of style is perfectly encapsulated in these pieces, and they’re a friendly reminder for the vandal in all of us.

Starting today, you can find Tag Happy, Rx Uppers in The Vandalog Shop.

pink can 640

Photos by Caroline Caldwell

Posted on

Art.com to compensate street artists whose work they sell

6207134565_68a3169699_z

Wooster Collective announced tonight that they have been and will continue to be working with Art.com to solve a very frustrating problem that many street artists face: Photographers will take pictures of street art and graffiti and then license those images to online and physical shops around the world so that they can be printed onto t-shirts, canvases, posters, bags, clocks, and other knick knacks. The street artists and graffiti writers get no money from the sale of these photographs. While I’m not a big fan of our current copyright laws and I’d rather they be much more lax, this is pretty clearly a case where the morally right thing to do would be to pay the artists whenever possible.

Art.com is a major online seller of these offending photographs. According to Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective and at the couple’s urging, Art.com “has agreed to remove every photograph of street art in which the artist who’s work is in the photograph is not being compensated, and does not want photographs of their street work to be sold in this manner.”

As for how things will work under this new arrangement, the Schillers write:

While we’re still working out the details, in the coming weeks we will be working with Art.com to help identify the artists who’s work is being featured in over 600 street art photographs currently being sold on the site. If the artist wishes to have the photograph removed, Art.com has agreed to remove it. If the artist wishes to replace the existing unauthorized photograph with a new photograph or image that they own themselves, we will be assisting the artist in putting a licensing agreement in place for their work to be sold on the site.

This is exciting news for street artists and graffiti writers everywhere. It doesn’t solve the problem entirely since Art.com is not the only company currently selling street artists’ work in this manner, but it is a step in the right direction. The exact copyright issues could be debated in court, but Art.com has done the right thing in offering artists the opportunity to control their work if they wish to do so.

This all came about because the Schillers and Evan Pricco (Editor-in-Chief of Juxtapoz) will be having a public conversation this coming Thursday evening in NYC at an event sponsored by Art.com.

Read more about Art.com’s new policy and the upcoming conversation between Marc, Sara, and Evan over at Wooster Collective.

Photo by canonsnapper

Posted on

KAWS’ Companion sculpture and more in Philadelphia

Companion (Passing Through) at the Aldrich
Companion (Passing Through) at The Aldrich

KAWS’ 16-foot-tall sculpture Companion (Passing Through) is making a stop in Philadelphia soon thanks to The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). The sculpture has already visited The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, The Standard Hotel in NYC, and other locations. From April 11th through May 14th, it will be on display at 30th Street Station, Philadelphia’s main train station.

Then, in October, KAWS will have two sculpture projects at PAFA. One, in a PAFA project inspired by the Fourth Plinth in London, will be a public sculpture placed outdoors atop the entrance to PAFA’s museum in Philadelphia. The other project, an exhibition of KAWS’ sculptures inside PAFA’s museum, will go on at same time.

Three KAWS projects in Philadelphia in one year, with two of them taking place outdoors. Good stuff. For more info, check out PAFA’s site.

PS, the following excerpt from PAFA’s blurb about these projects is hilarious:

The exhibition offers an exciting opportunity to engage in an artistic dialog about PAFA’s past and present, and to link the exterior of the Historic Landmark Building to the work on view inside. Placing KAWS’ sculptural works throughout PAFA’s historic galleries will further the ‘graffiti effect,’

Photo by Mike Simonds

Posted on

Ludo’s War Bug

-2

Wow. I’d love the meet the building owner who asked Ludo to put this massive piece (titled War Bug) on their picturesque building in Lille, France. Fantastic.

-1

Photos by Ludo

Posted on

Weekend link-o-rama

Villeneuve-st-Georges--2013
OX

It’s content I missed. Check it out.

Photo by OX