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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Weekend link-o-rama

Sowat DMV and Gris

This might have been one of the least productive weeks of my life. Just one of those weeks. Here’s some of the stuff I didn’t post about while procrastinating 30 minutes of homework for 3 hours on Thursday:

Photo by Sowat DMV

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Stickers by 301

Photo by 301

Back in September I posted a photo of a sticker by TR£§ ØH UNO (301) on Vandalog’s Facebook page. It was a cool sticker, but I didn’t think too much about it after that. Then, I started to see 301’s stuff pop up in Lois Stavsky‘s photostream, and I really began to take notice. 301 was putting up some cool stickers. After an interview that Lois did with 301 on Bomit, I got hooked. He’s only been putting up stickers since September 2010, but already this guy is make some of my favorite characters. Can’t what to see where his work goes next. Here’s some of what he’s been up to already:

Photo by Lois Stavsky
Photo by Lois Stavsky
Photo by 301

Photos by 301 and Lois Stavsky

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Mike Ballard – Community Thunder

Mike Ballard, aka Cept, has a show opening this week in Cork, Ireland. Yep. Cork. Sounds like a kind of random place for a show an artist like Mike Ballard, but then again, Mike is not the type to do things the usual way (like the substantial differences between his art as Mike Ballard and his art as Cept). Over the last couple of years, Mike’s work has continued to grow on me. At first, I just trusted nolionsinengland when he said how great it was, but I’m not sure I could quite see it. Now though, I get that awesome sense of wonder when I see something by Mike Ballard. I’m excited to see that Mike is bringing his work to new audiences in Ireland.

The show, Community Thunder, will take place at Triskel Arts Centre, opens this Saturday from 6-9pm and runs through March 23rd.

PS, I don’t mean to say that Cork or Ireland in general sucks, I’m just saying it’s not known for a thriving street art or graffiti scene besides a few exceptions.

Photo courtesy of Mike Ballard

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Street Art Pop Up Store in LA

Bomit is putting together a pop up shop in LA and it opens next week. The Street Art Pop Up Store sounds pretty cool. A lot of galleries like to say “Look. We’re not a ‘street art gallery.’ We just show lots of artists who happen to work outdoors. But really we show ‘contemporary art.'” Well this shop says “Screw that! We only show street artists.” Only artists who put hard work into getting up outdoors will be shown in the store. I think that’s fantastic.

Some of the artists in the shop will include Gaia, Dickchicken, Ludo, Love Me, Sweet Toof and Bigfoot.

The store organizers are looking for help putting the store together, so if you have any cool art trinkets that you’d like to donate to the store like stickers, shirts, toys or whatever else, they’ll take it.

The Street Art Pop Up Store will open on March 4th in LA. Keep an eye on their website for more info on the location.

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Printmaking Today and Roa at Black Rat Projects

This Thursday, Black Rat Projects has their first show of 2011. Pritmaking Today is their annual group print show. There’s a long list of some talented artists with work in the show, including Swoon, Know Hope and Matt Small. There will be new prints from Swoon, Candice Tripp and Matt Small. There’s also something from Hirst, but that should be easy enough to ignore. We’ve got a couple photos of Swoon working on her print:

In addition to the prints, there’s also an installation from Roa. His installation is part of a new project space/artist residency project at Black Rat Projects.

Roa at Factory Fresh last year. Photo by C-Monster

And all this opens on this Thursday night at Black Rat Projects in London.

Photos by C-Monster and courtesy of Black Rat Projects