Guerrilla Spam recently took over a tunnel in Turin’s Parco del Valentino for their “Shit Art Fair,” competing with the malls that call themselves “art fairs” and putting art up on the street rather than in a hyper-commercial space. With nothing for sale, it’s a shitty art fair indeed, but a great street art installation. In addition Guerrilla Spam’s own work, they included pieces by JBRock, Galo and others.
More from the fair after the jump…
Continue reading “Guerrilla Spam’s Shit Art Fair”
Ever since he helped out Ron English on Ron’s Little Italy mural, I’ve been hoping to see Beau Stanton‘s own work on Mulberry Street. This month, everything finally came together and Beau painted the above piece at Mulberry and Grand as part of The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. When we’re arranging murals for The L.I.S.A. Project, I particularly like when we can bring in something fresh that doesn’t totally leave the context of the area behind. With the neighborhood’s rich history of immigration, I think Beau’s mural is a perfect fit. I have to be honest though, this wall was entirely organized by Wayne Rada and Rey Rosa, with me watching jealously from the sidelines here in Philadelphia.
Photos by Rey Rosa for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC
It’s already fall! Time is running out and artists too… The weather was sweet and warm at the beginning of the season, enough to have a comfortable atmosphere conducive to creation. A real indian summer that brought some good stuff in the streets. With the collaboration of my partner in crime, Space27, my eyes in Mtl when I’m far away, and with the support of some beautiful artists, the girls of Off-Murales, Labrona, Banksy…….. oh… WAIT ! WAIT ! Banksy was in town ??? No way ! No…no… it is BadVilx!!! phew… I can show you some street art works by Labrona, Vilx, Open Mind, The chief, Oh well!, MissMe, Qbnyc, Zola, Harpy, Lilyluciole, Scaner, Stikki Peaches, Mathieu Connery.
Continue reading “Street Art in Montréal, Canada, Fall”
Today we have Lush‘s 7th comic in a 10-part series. If this is a topic that interests you, maybe check out this article. It’s not quite about graffiti, but it’s at the top of my reading list. – RJ
Comic by Lush
A note from RJ: Augustine Kofie, Jerry ‘Joker’ Inscoe and Christopher Derek Bruno will be showing together this month at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland, Oregon in the show Three The Hard Way, curated by Sven Davis. I saw that lineup and was curious and excited for the show, but I knew there was someone out there with much more knowledge about these artists than I’ve got, so I asked my friend Remi Rough to write something about the importance of this show. He kindly obliged and offered to interview all three of the artists involved. Three The Hard Way opens on Thursday and through the end of November. Do check it out if you’re in Portland, and keep an eye on all four of these artists careers as they continue to take what they learned in graffiti and push beyond its boundaries. Here’s Remi…
Three artists, three very differing aesthetics and three extremely good friends of mine…
Two of these three artists also happen to be fellow Agents Of Change… I have shown work and painted alongside all of them at one point or another and I have work by all three hanging proudly in my home. This show is an important step for them all.
The work these three artists make is important! They are artists in the mid strides of their careers, producing work that signifies an intense shift from the street art or graffiti style that so many people seem to connect with.
It’s not simply abstract as some seem to call it. Their work is constructivist, minimalist and, in Derek Bruno’s case, verging on the sculptural.
Work like this is not mainstream. It swims against that with every fibre of it’s being. It struggles for a lager acceptance because people opt for the safety and reassurance of the obvious. This isn’t only the case with the viewers and art fans, it’s largely the case within the whole graffiti movement itself… But the fact that these 3 have managed to command the respect they so rightly deserve from the more traditional fraternity only goes to secure their places in the future of the art world.
I asked all three a set of tailored questions and asked them all to supply one image taken by Android phone. My thoughts were that in modern society we all have at least 3 points to make everyday and all use our phones as visual reference on a daily basis.
Continue reading “Three the hard way: Triple interview with Kofie, Joker and Derek Bruno”
As Shepard Fairey suggests in his artful introduction to this first-rate survey of D*Face’s artwork and life, D*Face is a master of art that is both subversive and skilled. And of particular appeal to me is that despite his commercial success, the artist continues to use the streets as a canvas.
Like so many artists I’ve spoken to and interviewed, D*Face hated school and survived it through drawing and doodling anything — from bubble letters to cartoons — all over his school books. Through a mix of fortuitous circumstances, hard work and extraordinary skill, he emerged from a working-class family to become one of the globe’s most successful urban artists. Prodded by his determination not to ever work at a job he hated — as he had seen his mom and too many folks do — he was saved by the skateboarding culture that introduced him to graffiti.
He began tagging while looking for spots to skate, and with the discovery of Thrasher Magazine, Subway Art and Spraycan Art, he was on his way to forge a successful career as a street artist, fine artist and designer. And with the launch of his gallery, Stolen Space, in 2005, he’s paved the way for other artists, as well.
Always experimenting and evolving, D*Face represents the best of urban art. With his particular fusion of pop culture and graffiti meshed with his rebellious streak and ingenious imagination, D*Face draws both our eyes and minds into his vision. With its dozens of first-rate images and engaging text, The Art of D*Face: One Man and His Dog — published by Laurence King Publishing — is a model of an artist’s monograph. It came my way just as Banksy left town and it was the perfect antidote!
Photos courtesy Laurence King Publishing
RAE’s “Word of Mouth” is perhaps the most entertaining exhibit I’ve yet to experience. And it is an experience! In his recreation of an East Village bodega, RAE places his wonderfully zany characters – crafted from and on just about every imaginable surface – amidst surveillance cameras, lottery tickets, plastic EBT cards, loaves of bread, sundry cans of beans, lose cigarettes and just about anything you’d expect to find in a bodega. Here are a few images:
“Word of Mouth” continues through November 16 on the corner of Avenue C and East 12th Street. It is open Thursday through Saturday from 2 to 7 p.m.
Photos by Dani Reyes Mozeson, Tara Murray and Lois Stavsky; image of bodega as seen when open courtesy of RAE
Last week, Elian finished a piece titled Environmental Influences, situated in the outskirts of Cordoba.
Elian’s work captivates shapes, colors that contribute to building structures in a way that can definitely bring life back to the space and, as he put it, the environment. I appreciate the thoughtful intent in all his works found in different places, even in abandoned country sides (like this one).
The explanation to his interventions is cohesive and shows strong efforts to communicate with the already built structures that are then enhanced by transformative colors and shapes that play in just right.
Photos courtesy of Elian
Banksy finished Better Out Than In today with the above piece in Queens. The balloons didn’t last long when people tried to steal them and then the NYPD came to take the balloons and arrest the would-be thieves (more on that on Hyperallergic). And Jerry Saltz be damned, this is one of my favorite pieces of the show. Jerry Saltz may say he has no problem with graffiti, but I’m not sure he quite understands it either.
The location of this piece is perfect, with a NEKST tag (and remember what Banksy did on his website when NEKST died), an ADEK tag, two ADEK throwups and two LEWY throwups all visible in the above photo, which is the lead image for the piece on the Better Out Than In website. And of course, Banksy went higher up on the wall than all of those writers, but in a cheeky manner. I’m not saying that Banksy is still a hardcore train bomber, although he did pull of quite a few stunts this month, but he certainly has respect for traditional graffiti. Banksy could have installed those balloons anywhere, but he chose that particular spot and was able to highlight serious graffiti by some of the best writers in the city.
The audio description for this piece includes a serious note:
Banksy asserts that outside is where art should live, amongst us. And rather than street art being a fad, maybe it’s the last thousand years of art history is a blip, when art came inside in service of the church and institutions. But art’s rightful place is on the cave walls of our communities where it can act as a public service, provoke debate, voice concerns, forge identities. The world we live in today is run – visually at least – by traffic signs, billboards and planning committees. Is that it? Don’t we want to live in a world made of art, not just decorated by it?
I can’t think of a better way to close out the show.
But I’m not done. We still have our final + 5 featuring Poster Boy, COST, ENX, Invader (who has reportedly been arrested in NYC!), Ludvig, Swoon, GANE and TEXAS…
Photos from banksyny.com and by Poster Boy, Luna Park, Ludvig and RJ Rushmore
Spaik got an early start on his mural for Street Skills in Colombia. The mural is part of the third edition of Street Skills, a festival aimed to gather street artists and graffiti writers to showcase their works in various cities throughout Colombia.
Street Skills will be taking place in 3 different Colombian cities throughout the month of November. Invited artists include Does (Brazil), Lelin (Brazil), Lola (Brazil), El Pez (Spain), Cix (Mexico), Olfer (Peru).
Photos courtesy of ANCK and Spaik
