Author: RJ Rushmore

RJ Rushmore has been involved in contemporary art as a writer, curator, photographer, arts administrator, and fan since 2008. With a focus on street art, graffiti, and public art, RJ facilitates and promotes catalytic and ambitious art outdoors, in galleries, and online. He founded the street art blog Vandalog and has worked at The L.I.S.A. Project NYC, Mural Arts Philadelphia, and Creative Time. Currently, RJ is Co-Curator of Art in Ad Places.
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The Lush interview…

A Warning From the Editor: This interview is intended for mature audiences only. If you are not at least 18 years old, you shouldn’t read this. Or if you are at your office. Or you are my parents. This interview is definitely definitely definitely Not Safe For Work. There’s nudity, strong language and insults. Some people will find the visuals and/or text of this article offensive, vulgar and insulting. Others will find it hilarious. Personally, I think this might be my favorite interview we’ve ever had on Vandalog, but we take no responsibility for what Lush says. The views expressed are his own, and may or may not be the opinions of the Vandalog staff. So yeah, that’s your warning label. Consider yourself warned and proceed with caution. If you do choose to read the rest of this post, be prepared to laugh your ass off.

What can I say about Lush? If you think the South Park writers are too tame, Lush might be just the artist you’ve been looking for. If you think street artists are a bunch of pussies, Lush is definitely your man. I’d say that this graffiti writer out of Melbourne is taking the art world hostage, except that he’s not the type to take prisoners. He’d probably collect the ransom money and then shoot everyone in the head just for kicks. Lush seems to think that graffiti is too cutesy these days, so he’s pushing the limits of taste. In fact, it looks like he intentionally goes beyond those limits for the sake of being distasteful. Like graffiti is supposed to be. And, often times, his pieces are funny as hell too. Nobody is safe from Lush’s attacks: he goes after street artists, graffiti writers and even celebrities with unparalleled balls and cleverness (and I wouldn’t be surprised if blogs, including this one, end up a target as well). His first gallery show opened last year in Melbourne, and I loved what I saw. Now Lush is in California preparing for solo shows in LA and SF. The LA show opens this Friday. I sent a few questions over to Lush via email. Check out his unedited responses, plus some of his NSFW pieces and photographs, after the jump… Continue reading “The Lush interview…”

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C215 and AliCè hit London

C215. Photo by Romany WG

C215 and AliCè have been in  London for the C215/Romany WG show on now at Signal Gallery. While in town, they stayed busy getting up around Shoreditch and possibly other spots. Here’s a bit of what they were up to…

AliCè. Photo by Claudelondon
C215. Photo by Claudelondon
C215. Photo by Claudelondon
AliCè. Photo by Claudelondon
AliCè and C215. Photo by Claudelondon

So as I was finishing this post, I realized that Street Art London did pretty much the same post a couple of days ago. So check that out for even more pieces from C215 and AliCè.

Photos by Romany WG and Claudelondon

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Mobile graffiti machines

Photo by withassociates

With two new videos that have come out this week about artists making machines to spray paint using skateboards, I thought I’d mention some bike-based graffiti-making machines that have been made in the past before posting those videos…

In 2009, someone in London made a spraycan holding device that attached to a bike (similar to DTagno’s gadget from 2008, but mounted on a bike), so that they could ride their bike and paint at the same time. The above photograph show the results of that device. And then earlier this year, Akay did something similar with his spray-painting robot that can paint a rainbow. Those were both on bikes though. The two devices unveiled this week use skateboards.

D*Face returned to California to once again paint The Ridiculous Pool, an empty pool used for skating. Except that he didn’t paint it in a traditional way. Instead, he came up with a device that hooked up a spray can to the bottom of a skateboard so that the lines of each skater in the pool are painted onto the pool. Pretty cool. Check it out:

But that device is overly complex and difficult to build. Certainly not how I would have made it. Why did D*face have to cut the deck up? Dave the Chimp has a much simpler solution, and he’s been taking it to the street:

Dave says he made his device to encourage a punk/DIY spirit and get people to actually do stuff instead of just sitting around all day and thinking it takes money and months of research to do something cool.

Photo by withassociates

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Weekend link-o-rama

Labrona and Gawd. Click the photo to view it large.

Last night might have been my busiest 1st Thursday ever, and I didn’t even stop off everywhere I wanted to. Either way, I’ll have to go back to a few galleries this week to actually look at the art properly. Even with a cursory glance though, the Charming Baker show was the highlight by a mile. I’m not sure how sustainable it is to sell paintings at the prices they sold for last night, but damn it looked good. Here’s a few things I could have posted about last night, had I not been out being a gallery-hopping scenester…

Photo by Labrona

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New prints by Escif and San

Macarena by Escif. Click the print to see a larger sized image

San and Escif have each just release two prints through Upperplayground to coincide with their show at Fifty24SF. I know it’s not the most complex artwork every made, but I can’t help but laugh my ass off when I look at Escif’s Macarena print. Well done. You can view/buy the two San prints here and here, and the Escif prints here and here. They are all screenprints, editions of 50, 18 x 24 inches and priced at $175.

Image courtesy of Fifty24SF

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Nuevo Mundo book launch in London

Another show in London this Thursday evening. This time at Pictures on Walls. It’s the London book release party for Nuevo Mundo, a book about Latin American street art that comes highly recommended. The event will include a signing by the author, Maximilliano Ruiz, as well as many of the artists featured in the book (Thiago Alvim, Yusk, Don Lucho, Inti, Kelp, Saile, Stinkfish, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, Buytronik, Cix, Mones, Basik, Jade Physe Wesr).

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C215 and RomanyWG together at Signal Gallery

This Thursday, C215 and the photography RomanyWG have a two-man show opening in London at Signal Gallery called Border Line. My review of C215’s last show at Signal sparked a bit of discussion. From the photos that he’s posted on his flickr of work in this show, I think I’ll enjoy it a lot more. And I’ve been a fan of RomanyWG’s photos for a long time. This show will double as a book launch for his book about art in abandoned spaces, Out of Sight.

Both RomanyWG and C215 will be there on Thursday signing books (C215 will be signing his latest book, Community Service).

Photo by RomanyWG

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Your Ad Here – Shepard Fairey fights back at V1 Gallery

The Skewville-modified Icon by Shepard Fairey

About two years ago, Skewville made a simple modification to a Shepard Fairey piece in Bushwick. It simply said “Your Ad Here.” There is no doubt that Shepard Fairey’s Icon logo is a logo for a brand, and that while it may be art and/or graffiti, it is also an advertisement for everything Obey (clothing, fine art, screenprints, a design studio…). Skewville was taking a swipe at Shepard his that piece, but now Shepard has taken the phrase “Your Ad Here” and is using it as the title for an upcoming solo show at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. It seems nothing can escape the reach of Shepard Fairey’s appropriation, not even his critics. Of course, the flipside of “your ad here” is that Shepard Fairey began his stickering campaign as a college student and younger than I am now. He proved that anyone with balls and commitment can (eventually) advertise themselves on a tiny budget and still become a household name. So I guess that’s sort of what he’s going for. Shepard’s journey from an underground artist to a mainstream supposed sell-out is addressed in this recent interview on The Huffington Post (by the guys at Brooklyn Street Art).

Your Ad Here opens on August 5th at V1 Gallery and runs through September 3rd.

Photo by Becki_Fuller