The Robots Will Kill crew has a show in Philadelphia opening on April 1st. Never Say Die, a 10th anniversary show for the crew, will be at Vincent Michael Gallery. ChrisRWK, KevRWK, veng, ecb, peeta, JesseRobot and Flying Fortress will all be in the show.
I will definitely be at the opening of Never Say Die. Here’s a flyer:
Photos courtesy of veng
Kid Acne recently painted the above giant “art fag” in Sheffield, UK. Check out the tiny Kid Acne standing above it. Sven at Arrested Motion says that the mural can be seen for miles around. What I’m wondering is how long the mural will last. After all, most of the mural is a giant white wall, perfect for some fresh graffiti. I don’t want to encourage that to happen. I like the mural. I just think the site looks too tempting for certain writers to ignore. I just hope that Kid Acne is well respected in Sheffield.
Photos by Sven/A Million Pieces for Arrested Motion
Katsu seems to be continuing and innovating on the project that he started last year with AVONE to promote a show: He is taking over phone booth advertisements with graffiti which is very obviously an advertisement. It’s not a new insight that graffiti is advertising, and this certainly isn’t the first advertising takeover by graffiti writer (Kaws, Barry McGee/Twist, Retna, Augor, and so others…), but I think there is something cool about these advertisements that I haven’t seen very often before: most of these advertising takeovers make it look like Katsu and the brand are working together. Now, of course, Kaws was famous for doing just this same thing. The difference with Katsu is that Kaws took actually advertisements and modified them while Katsu is concocting the entire ads in his studio. He’s associating his identity with cultural icons like Kurt Cobain and brands like Nike, but those brands and icons weren’t even advertising in these places to start with (at least not with these particular ads). It’s a great technique for getting noticed. I’ve similar things before, but I don’t think they were by as high-profile writers at Katsu, and, for better or worse, his name adds some legitimacy to the idea, which is kind of ironic given the idea. Plus these are better executed than any similar things I can remember, and that definitely counts too. Also, a bit of a surprise to me, Jordan Seiler likes these things. Anyway, enough of my rambling, here are more examples of these ads:
Check out more at The Street Spot.
Photos by Luna Park and Sabeth718
Martha Cooper is one of graffiti’s most influential photographers, particularly for being half of the duo (the other half being Henry Chalfant) who photographed and wrote Subway Art back in the 1980’s. For many street artists and graffiti writers, Martha is a large part of how they got started not just painting outside, but with art in general. Martha Cooper: Remix is the next show at Carmichael Gallery, and I just love the idea – Some of street art and graffiti’s greats from the 1980’s through today have reinterpreted Martha’s photographs in their own style and Remix will show the original photos alongside these reinterpretations. Remix opens April 9th and runs through May 7th, so it is timed to coincide with MOCA’s Art in the Streets show, which Martha Cooper is also included in.
Artists in Remix include Aeon, John Ahearn, Aiko, Bio, Nicer & B-Gee, Blade, Blanco, Mark Bode, Burning Candy, Victor Castillo, Cey, Cekis, Claw, Cosbe, Crash, Dabs & Myla, Anton van Dalen, Daze, Dearraindrop, Jane Dickson, Dr. Revolt, Shepard Fairey, Faust, Flying Fortress, Freedom, Fumakaka, Futura, Gaia, Grotesk, Logan Hicks, How & Nosm, LA II, Lady Pink, Anthony Lister, The London Police, Mare 139, Barry McGee, Nazza Stencil, Nunca, José Parlá, Quik, Lee Quinones, Kenny Scharf, Sharp, Skewville, Chris Stain, Subway Art History, Swoon, T-Kid, and Terror161. So yeah, this should be interesting.
With most other photographers, I might quickly right this idea off as gimmicky and I think artists might half-ass it, but there is so much respect for Martha Cooper, the line up is so strong (and varied) and the photos are so interesting that I think this has to be a success.
All the LA galleries are really pulling out all the stops for this April and Carmichael Gallery is no exception.
Photo courtesy of Carmichael Gallery
A couple of months ago, I posted about The Reader, a book by Reader. Reader is one of my favorite writers, and also one of the most reclusive writers. Not that I would know exactly how reclusive, I’ve never met the guy. But that’s the rumor, and before this, I’d never heard of him doing a book or a zine or print or original artwork for indoors or anything like that. So when The Reader came out, I immediately picked up a copy. While I could tell from some photos online that this would not be your typical graffiti book, I had no idea how far removed it would be from Subway Art and the like. The Reader has just one photo of Reader’s graffiti. Instead, it is full of collages and stickers.
A mix of (I think) his own words and appropriated texts, The Reader sets out a unique worldview. If Reader is a modern hermit, The Reader is his manifesto. While I can’t say I agree with everything in The Reader, I loved reading the book and found it hard to put down. This isn’t an art book, although it is definitely a work of art. The Reader is a crash-course in a certain philosophy.
The Reader is available online for $18. Also, since the book came out, Reader has also released what I think is his first screenprint.
Photos by Operation Madman
So much going on behind the scenes this week for a couple of upcoming events. Can’t wait to say more. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to write about one of them. Here’s what I didn’t have a chance to post about this week:
Photo by Galo
Ben Eine’s first major solo show since David Cameron gave President Obama an Eine artwork as a gift opened last week at White Walls Gallery in San Fransisco. While normally I would say that while I like an Eine canvases here or there and definitely love his murals, a solo show of 40-some pieces which get repetitive pretty quickly is not something I would enjoy, but with the tongue-in-cheek title of Greatest, I’ve come around to really liking this one. Is Eine the greatest artist or street artist or graffiti writer or screen printer or greatest anything of all time? Nah. He’s good. Few murals have had a stronger impact on me than his SCARY mural in Shoreditch. I’ve got a couple of prints from him. But I wouldn’t call him the greatest. And I don’t think he would call himself the greatest either. But David Cameron sure made him look like the greatest something. Especially when that gift to Obama was actually a trade for an Ed Ruscha print. Damn. Hype has been surrounding Eine for a year and people have been calling him the greatest, but he knows the hype won’t last forever and has even mentioned it in an interview or two, so why not play up the hype with a knowing smile? Well, that’s just what he’s done at White Walls. Check it out:
Hey, maybe, by being so clever, Eine is the greatest… Nah, just great.
Photos courtesy of White Walls Gallery
Cost, one of New York’s most legendary writers and (though I’m sure he’d hate the label) an unwitting pioneer of street art along with Revs, has just released his first ever screenprints. They are available now at Brooklynite Gallery. They are based on two of his classic paste-ups from the 1990’s. There are 6 different prints available, all 5.5 x 4 inches.
The two 1-color prints above are editions of 500 and they cost just $25 each. They are available online.
Additionally, there is a 4-pack available for $150 with some brightly colored backgrounds (they’re an edition of 50):
Photos courtesy of Brooklynite Gallery
Michael de Feo‘s first solo show in London opened last week at Orange Dot Gallery, and while in town, he put up some posters around the city. I think Michael de Feo is one of those street artists whose street art best embodies the street art ethos of giving. What better to give to the residents of the city than a flower?
Regrettably, I’m way late with this post and the gallery part of this show has already closed, but the work is for sale on the gallery website and here are some photos of the installed show. And of course, his posters are still up on the street.
Photo by HowAboutNo!
