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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Banksy’s “A Bit Like An Elephant” tank for sale

UPDATE: Before Banksy came along, a man had been living in the tank for 7 years.

Melrose and Fairfax, and LA-based street art blog, has been following the Banksy drama in LA very closely (check out these posts – although that last one is basically a forum user pulling claims out of thin air which may or may not be true M&F points out that The LA Weekly has backed up some of the claims in that last post, which seems a lot more reliable to me), so of course, they were the first to discover that the above Banksy, recently painted on an old water tank as part of Banksy’s pre-Oscars campaign in LA, is for sale. Banksyelephant.com is attempting to sell the tank. While the site claims that the owners “personally acquired ownership to preserve and protect the work of Banksy in hopes that it will end up exhibited in a respected museum where his work will live on without harm,” I think it’s safe to say that money was a bit of a motivator too. Of course, Elephant will never get Pest Control certification (they do not certify street pieces) and without that, the value of a work by Banksy drops dramatically.

Historically, the water tank has been a bit of an eyesore that residents have tried to get rid of, but the owner would not remove. Melrose and Fairfax wonders if maybe Banksy was aware of that history and painted it knowing that the owner would finally remove the tank in order to try to sell or protect it.

Photo from Banksy’s website

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Best of Philly sticker art: Part two

Roger, UnderWaterPirates and Ghoest. Photo by RJ Rushmore

Following up on last week’s post about the sticker art in Philadelphia, here’s part two of Vandalog’s series on some of the top sticker artists in Philadelphia. Thanks again to El Toro for his input in developing this list. Here are the artists (in no particular order):

1. Roger

Roger. Photo by Roger
Roger. Photo by Roger

2. Radius

Radius and Blip. Photo by Damonabnormal
Radius. Photo by RJ Rushmore

3. Gonz

Gonz. Photo by Damonabnormal
Gonz. Photo by RJ Rushmore

4. WTF and Dash

WTF. Photo by Damonabnormal
WTF and Dash. Photo by damonabnormal

5. Two artists I’m liking whose names I don’t know (but let me know if you do)…

Photo by RJ Rushmore
Photo by RJ Rushmore

Photos by RJ Rushmore, Damonabnormal and Roger

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Edible Genius goes to the NY fairs

Since I couldn’t be in town last week for the New York art fair extravaganza, Edible Genius (recently interviewed on Brooklyn Street Art) took some photos for Vandalog. Here are just a few of the highlights from the fairs. For more in-depth coverage, I would suggest Arrested Motion and Hyperallergic.

Rebaroque Artist Series Sound Wall at Scope
Kaws
Faro at Fountain
R. Robot at Fountain
Todd James at The Armory Show
How and Nosm at Contra Project's booth at SCOPE

Photos by Edible Genius

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Best of Philly sticker art: Part one

El Toro and Derto. Photo by RJ Rushmore

Although I’ve been living outside of Philadelphia for about 6 months, it’s only recently that I’ve begun to get a handle on the street art in Philadelphia. The overwhelming trend here is stickering, particularly by artists who draw logos instead of names. Given that my favorite art book of last year was probably a book about stickers, this is a coincidence that I’m loving. I wanted to do a post or two about some of Philadelphia’s best sticker artists, but realized that I am definitely not an expert on the local scene. Luckily, El Toro was happy to help me out in compiling the majority of this list. Also, a big thanks to Damon Landry aka damonabnormal for being such a dedicated photographer of these stickers and allowing Vandalog to rely heavily on his photos for this series. So here’s the first of two posts on some of Philadelphia’s best sticker artists (in no particular order)…

1. UnderWaterPirates

Photo by damonabnormal
Photo by damonabnormal

2. Bob Will Reign

Photo by damonabnormal
Photo by damonabnormal

3. Bad Dog

Photo by damonabnormal
Photo by RJ Rushmore

4. El Toro

Photo by damonabnormal
Photo by damonabnormal

5. Ticky

Photo by damonabnormal
Photo by damonabnormal

Photos by damonabnormal and RJ Rushmore

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Bound By The Ties – A new book by Know Hope

Next week, Know Hope will be launching his latest book in Tel Aviv. Bound By The Ties is a 160-page full-color book from one of my favorite young street artists. Know Hope’s work really tugs at the heart strings, and I think that the impact of his art is strongest when seen en-masse, so a book like this seems like a perfect way to view his art.

Know Hope describes the book as “a collection of drawings, writings, photographs and other side-seen moments, some from the recent past, and some from very close to the present” and “a folk tale of some sort, collective memories compiled like a time-capsule, or fireworks in a jar.”

For those in Tel Aviv next Thursday, there will be a launch event where you can be among the first to see the book. You can find more info on Know Hope’s flickr. That launch will include a display of all of the original drawings and texts used in the book.

Bound By The Ties is printed in an edition of 1000. There is also a special edition of 75 which each have unique handmade covers.

On Friday March 11th, the day after the book launch event, Bound By The Ties will be available online.

Photo courtesy of Know Hope

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Good Folks – Two years of Show & Tell Gallery

Derek Mehaffey aka Troy Lovegates aka Other

The latest exhibit at Show & Tell Gallery is Good Folk, a group show celebrating the gallery’s 2nd anniversary. Here’s the line up: Swoon, Monica Canilao, Jeremiah Maddock, Derek Mehaffey aka Troy Lovegates aka Other, Labrona and Troy Dugas. It’s an impressive line up of folk-art influenced art. Good Folks opened this week and runs through March 27th. Here’s a sample of what is in the show:

Monica Canilao
What looks to be a new image from Swoon (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)

Photos courtesy of Show & Tell Gallery

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JR and his TED Prize wish/project: Inside Out

Some of the first posters going up for JR's Inside Out project. Photo by raudog

I’m still not sure how I feel about JR‘s new project, Inside Out, which was launched this week at the TED conference. Here’s a summary of the project and here’s his speech from the conference (which will not show up if you’re reading this post in certain RSS readers):

The basic premise is that JR’s studio will print out black and white photos that you take and send you the posters if you’ll post them outside. There was even a photo booth in Long Beach, California where people could get posters printed instantly, but that has closed. Perhaps I’m being a pessimist, but I am not sure that Inside Out will change the world. I just imagine a bunch of self-important wanna-be Lindsay Lohan’s printing out pictures of themselves because they think it will make them famous. That said, I can certainly see the benefits of this project in the sort of communities that JR traditionally works. The question is, will those communities have enough access to cameras and awareness of the project? And compared to previous TED Prize projects, the potential impact of Inside Out is very different. The impact of Inside Out is just so individual. Not that that’s a bad thing, it just seems odd for TED. But hey, so many more people are being exposed to JR’s projects, and that’s a good thing.

So we’ll see how Inside Out goes. While I’m not confident that it is going to be a success, I’m hopeful.

Photo by raudog