Logan Hicks sent me some more pictures from Wide Open Walls in Gambia. Lucy McLauchlan’s piece looks awesome.
Photos by Logan Hicks
More from Wide Open Walls
Taking From The Tip Jar – Jordan Seiler in Philly
Jordan Seiler is one of the artists that I’ve been most interested in recently. Through a great coincidence, his upcoming solo show at the Vincent Michael Gallery is the first gallery opening that I’ll be going to in Philadelphia. Taking From The Tip Jar opens on November 5th (also Guy Fawkes Night, which is sort of fitting I guess since Jordan is trying to change the world, but not by blowing things up) and you can be sure that I’ll be there.
For this show, Jordan has made art and framed it in phone booth advertising cases that have been removed from the street. This way, even in his gallery work Jordan is working to eliminate public advertising on some level.
Everything that I know about Jordan tells me that he is one street artist who is really at it for the “street art” and activism, not just to get his name in the press and get his art in galleries. And he’s not the type to take the transition indoors lightly. Although he’s produced work for group shows, this is Jordan’s first solo show in over 5 years. I can’t wait to see it in person.
Photos courtesy of Vincent Michael Gallery
Fata Morgana – a Swoon solo show in Paris
Swoon’s solo show Fata Morgana opened at Galerie LJ in Paris this weekend. The show is a huge installation with full-sized woodblock prints like Monica and the portrait of her father, but to me the best bits seem to be her papercut pieces. Some truly amazing work from my favorite living artist. Guillotine has lots of images from the show.
Photo by Guillotine
Weekend link-o-rama
Some friends came over today and we had a bit of a photoshoot for the upcoming line of Vandalog t-shirts. More about that in the next few days. Here’s a teaser of the shirts. So next week is going to be an exciting one on Vandalog. In the mean time, here’s what I wish I’d spent more time covering (it’s kind of Swoon and Retna heavy this week though):
- David Choe and James Jean have a show coming up in Japan.
- This, I may actually write about again before the show opens and I’ll certainly be mentioning it after the opening: Street/Studio 2.0 at Irvine Contemporary in DC. It’s a group show in two venues with artists including Swoon, David Ellis, Gaia and José Parlá. The show opens on November 6th.
- Also on November 6th, Kaws has a solo show opening in Paris.
- The first two Untitled street art books were interesting, now there’s a third.
- Juxtapoz brought a bunch of artists including Swoon and Retna to Detroit to paint some houses.
- So apparently Swoon had a show open in Paris tonight?
- Os Gêmeos have been painting a bit in Brazil.
- Miso and Ghostpatrol have some nice new pieces up in Fitzroy.
- Bo130, Microbo, San and 2501 were recently busy painting some walls in Milan.
- I’m only half way through this video so far myself, but the producer and editor of Exit Through The Gift Shop recently took part in an in-depth video interview.
- Retna has just released 12 beautiful monotypes. As of this post, some are still available online.
Video interviews with Steve Powers and Eine at Moniker
While Ben Eine and Steve Powers were painting at Moniker Art Fair last week in London, Babelgum spoke with them about their work and what they were doing for the fair.
Here’s Steve:
And Here’s Eine:
Best Ever at Stroke.03 in Germany
Here are two pieces that Best Ever painted for the Stroke.03 fair in Berlin earlier this month. The above piece was outside, and I believe this second piece was inside the fair (click on the image to see a larger sized photo):
Arrested Motion has more photos from Stroke.03 including walls by Roa and Alexandros Vasmoulakis.
Photos by Best Ever
Brazilian artists and Panik ATG at Pure Evil Gallery
Sort of killing two birds with one stone here.
Right now through October 30th, Pure Evil Gallery is showing Culture Shock, a show put together by the fine folks at Choque Cultural. Of particular note are the two large canvases by Zezão and that stunning Fefe Talavera and Doze Green collaboration on glass that has been in the gallery for quite a while (what can I say? I guess I’m a sucker for anything from Doze in black and white). That said, all those pieces are downstairs in the gallery and there are a few pieces upstairs by Presto, so it may be best to just run downstairs and enjoy that part of the show.
And November 11th at Pure Evil Gallery is the opening Panik’s latest solo show.
TreeHugger’s top eco artists
The environmentalist blog TreeHugger recently posted a list of their top 5 “environmental artists.” Props to TreeHugger for putting Banksy at number 5 and then John Fekner at number 3. They put together a nice slideshow of some of their favorite work from Fekner, something I’ll eventually do here as well.
Photo by John Fekner
Beautiful Losers film now streaming online
Beautiful Losers, the film about some of low-brow and street art’s 1990’s pioneers, is now streaming online on Babelgum. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, now you’ve really run out of excuses. If you enjoy reading Vandalog, this is a key film for you to see. Artists interviewed include Barry McGee, Steve Powers and Shepard Fairey. I think it even includes one of my all-time favorite quotes about art:
“From a distance it might look straight, but when you get close up, you can always see the line waver. And I think that’s where the beauty is.” – Margaret Kilgallen
So yeah, get over to Babelgum.com/beautifullosers to watch the entire film. Now I kind of feel like an idiot for buying the dvd…
Nick Walker – In Gods We Trust
Last week, I went to the opening of Nick Walker’s latest solo show. In Gods We Trust is on now at Art Sensus (formally Orel Art UK) in London. Nick Walker’s 2008 solo show was (I think) the very first art gallery opening event that I went to in London. This blog’s name comes (in part) from Nick’s Vandal character. Still, I think most of Nick’s fans can agree that it was time to find something new after The Vandal. This was meant to be that new direction.
Some of the work in In Gods We Trust are the same images that Nick has been putting outside recently, and outside, most of them are okay. In a white walled gallery, they don’t stand up as well. Banksy once said “I can’t help feeling it was a bit easier when all I had to compete against was a dustbin down an alley rather than, you know, a Gainsborough or something.” Well, he makes a good point which applies to many street artists, and I think it applies to this recent body of work from Nick Walker and could have been the toast of Frieze, had the paintings been shown there.
That said, there are two very notable exception that more than offset the rest of the show. There are two pieces that work purely as indoor works, and I think they are screenprinted, not stenciled. Nick’s two Warhol Towers are pretty much what the title says: the paintings that Warhol would’ve made had he been alive for 9/11. I mean that in the best possible way. The image of the twin towers, repeated over and over in black and grey, is maybe the most serious and best work that I’ve ever seen from Nick.
In Gods We Trust is on view now at Art Sensus in London. The gallery is open on Saturdays from 11-5pm.