Ethos sent over some photos of his recent walls. Some good stuff as usual.
This was is in Berlin, not sure where the others are:
Photos by Ethos
Some upcoming shows
Here are a couple of shows opening this month that should be worth checking out…
1. C215‘s book launch in Paris: Community Service at Gallerie Itinerrance is a solo show for C215 and will also serve as the book launch for his upcoming Community Service book. The show opens on November 12th at 6pm.
2. Gallery Heist‘s 1-year anniversary exhibition: Till Death Do Us Part is a group show c0-curated by Allison and Garrison from Ad Hoc Art to celebrate Gallery Heist’s 1st birthday. The list of artists here is long but includes Gaia, Ludo, Mike Giant, Justin Lovato and Miso. The show opens on November 13th from 7-11pm, and runs through the 27th. And this show is not at Gallery Heist’s usual space. It’s at 1036 Hyde Street in San Fransisco.
3. Ghostpatrol and DeadLeg in Manchester: Mooch N4 in Manchester has a group show towards the end of November. I don’t know much about Mooch N4, but anybody who is showing Ghostpatrol outside of Australia is okay in my book. And DeadLeg has done some nice collaborations with Best Ever, so that should be interesting too. That shows opens on November 25th and runs through January 31st.
The Underbelly Project: The aftermath, one week in
It’s barely been one week since The Underbelly Project was revealed across the web and in print. In my first post about the project, I wrote:
When the last artist finished painting the last wall, Workhorse and PAC made access to The Underbelly Project nearly impossible by removing the entrance. Even if any of us wanted to go back (and I do), even if we could remember how to get there (and I don’t), we can’t. Nobody can. For now, The Underbelly Project has become a time capsule of street art, somewhere in the depths of New York City.
Well I guess getting to the station wasn’t made as difficult as had been expected, because it took less than a day for the station’s location to hit the web and for people to attempt to gain access themselves. Naturally, some of the first people to reach the station were haters with paint in hand. They splashed some of the paintings and knocked over sculptures. So much for the station becoming a time capsule of street art. Here’s some of the damage:
That’s street art and graffiti. It goes away. Maybe it was naive of me to think that The Underbelly Project would be any different.
But not everybody trying to visit the station has been successful. Apparently, a number of reddit users have been arrested by NYPD for trying to access the station and spent the night in jail. I hope I don’t sound like asshole by saying “I saw this amazing thing in person, now you should see it in photographs,” but that’s exactly what I’m going to suggest to anybody thinking about visiting The Underbelly Project. Especially anytime soon. It’s just going to be a honeypot for police with cops stationed there most nights to make easy arrests. And, more importantly, it’s dangerous. The LTV Squad, a team of NY urban explorers, explains:
Don’t go into NYC subway tunnels. It’s bad idea. Tunnels are confined spaces where injury and death are readily possible. The photos of this project are all over the internet. People continue to send us these photos. They are not hard to find. If you want to see the art, do so from your own home.
Photos by RJ Rushmore and paulbesteves
Kaws – Pay the Debt to Nature (video tour)
Guillotine made this video tour of Kaws’ new solo show in Paris at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin:
Kaws – Pay The Debt To Nature – Paris – Opening from Guillotine on Vimeo.
Faile – Bedtime Stories at Perry Rubenstein Gallery
Faile‘s latest solo show, Bedtime Stories, opened a few days ago at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York City. I might be in the city next weekend, and this show will be one of my first stops. I’m usually a big huge fan of Faile, so I’m liking the new imagery and styles in these pieces, as well as the revival of some old favorites. And they’re in a “proper” contemporary art gallery, not a place pigeonholed as a gallery for street artists, so hopefully a new audience will be exposed to the madness that is Faile. Here are some pictures from the show:
Photos by Matthew Kraus and Christopher Vidal
Small Acts of Resistance – Swoon, Armsrock and more at BRP
Small Acts of Resistance, the latest show at Black Rat Projects, opened on Thursday evening. It’s another one of my dream group shows from Black Rat, with a number of my favorite artists represented. Peter Kennard in particular seems to have really outdone himself with his installation, although I’m hoping to see some more high-res images of that work. Here are a few photos of work by Armsrock, Swoon, Peter Kennard and Know Hope:
Photos by unusualimage and walkingwalls
Swoon and Bastardilla in London
Swoon and Bastardilla, two artists who were in this year’s FAME Festival, have got some new work up in London recently. Swoon is in London as part of the current group show at Black Rat Projects, something I’ll be posting about soon.
Photos by Hookedblog, Claudelondon, HowAboutNo! and Marie A.-C.
Weekend link-o-rama
Just got back from Jordan Seiler’s show at Vincent Michael Gallery. I’ll have more on that in the next few days, but I found an awesome store in the same area as the gallery: Jinxed. It sells cool toys and the like. Here’s what I didn’t write about this week while I was busy procrastinating and thinking about The Underbelly Project.
- Os Gêmeos and other artists are selling posters for a penny each (plus shipping)! I bought some.
- HowAboutNo! and Nolionsinengland found a bunch of new pieces by Burning Candy in London.
- Romanywg has compiled a book for photographs of abandoned buildings.
- Jace paints some nice walls.
- Askew’s essay on the economics of graffiti and graffiti removal needs to be read. I think it’s exaggerated some of his estimates, but his point remains valid.
- Michael Aaron Williams understands placement.
- Best Ever have a solo show opening next week in London.
- JR’s artwork in Shanghai might be some of his best yet.
- Apparently Banksy went to Mexico a decade ago and pictures are just coming to light now.
- Ron English and Chris Brown? Umm…
- Elisa and maybe other Vandalog writers are going to disagree with me on this, but I’m not really digging Aakash Nihalani’s new work at his solo show in New York. I guess I just prefer Aakash outdoors.
- Okay, this is just annoying. When you give people freedom to say anything, of course some asshole is going to be racist once in a while, but that doesn’t mean free speech should stop. These are college students, they should be able to think this through beyond the immediate things going on around them. Or just paint the damn tunnel in murals of people of all races and creeds holding hands?
- Hrag on Hyperallergic points out that in Vegas there are miles of storm tunnels where people live, and parts of the tunnels are covered in really nice graffiti. That’s awesome! He goes on to say that this is much more interesting than The Underbelly Project. I would disagree. Those tunnels are important and interesting, but they aren’t as unique as The Underbelly Project. New York’s own Freedom Tunnel was once a very similar space until it was reopened for trains and I’m guessing that there are similar sites in other cities around the world.
Photo by nolionsinengland
Block Party at Carmichael Gallery with Boxi, Dan Witz and more
Next week is going to be a difficult one for art fans in LA. On the one hand, Roa has a solo show opening with Thinkspace (but not at their usual space, which would make things easy because Thinkspace and Carmichael Gallery are practically next door as I understand it). And on the other, Carmichael Gallery has Block Party, a solid group show opening on the same night. Both shows open next Saturday. But this is about Block Party.
In addition to street artists Boxi and Dan Witz (you have no idea the joy I felt when I heard that my dad picked up a good Dan Witz painting recently), there are some other interesting artists in the show. Of particular note is probably Gregor Gaida, whose piece was one of my highlights of Moniker last month.
In addition to original works, Boxi will also be doing an installation in the gallery, so that may just tip the scales in the Carmichaels’ favor over Roa for me, but both shows should be something to see for sure.
Photos courtesy of Carmichael Gallery
A few more from The Underbelly Project
I’ve got a few more exclusive pics to share from The Underbelly Project (previous posts here and here). Also, Ian Cox has uploaded some more pictures on his blog and there is a flickr group for the project.
Photos by Workhorse, PAC and Ian Cox