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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Kid Acne’s Stabby Women fanzine

Kid Acne‘s “stabby women” have been found all around the world. Of course, I’m most familiar with them in London, but I’ve also found them in cities like New York and Barcelona. These women are some of the most interesting pieces of street art to come across. From the day they are pasted until they are completely rusted through, these seemingly simple characters inhabit space in such an interesting way.

Now, Kid Acne has made a fanzine devoted to his women. Like a true fanzine, this isn’t some overproduced art book, but a labor of love. In the zine, Kid Acne has documented some of his best stabby women from around the world. Maybe it’s just because I’m still decorating my college dorm, but, for me, the best part of the zine were the series of postcards that come with it (not that the zine isn’t fun too). I’ve stuck most of the postcards on my wall and I’m sure I’ll be mailing the rest. The stabby women fanzine and postcards are available online now for £15.

I think I’ll end this post with a quote from SheOne, found in the stabby women zine:

She called me over with a wink, head tilted, smiling, sword drawn, in a doorway in Brooklyn.

I leaned close, and through wispered detail unveiled her warrior status, paper crusader, leader of a beautiful army. Right there I was sleign.”

You can find the limited edition zine as well as some limited edition stabby women shirts at Kid Acne’s online store.

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Banksy in Hastings not considered “graffiti” by city officials

I wasn’t planning to make much mention of Banksy‘s latest work (the above stencil which can be found at a beach in Hastings). As usual though, it seems the story surrounding the art is more interesting than the piece itself: The Hastings graffiti removal squad will be leaving Banksy’s work alone. Not something entirely new from town councils. What I really love about Hastings though is what councilor Jay Kramer has said about the situation:

I think this is great.

I know that we have a zero tolerance policy on graffiti, and that is absolutely right. However, we have to be flexible so on this occasion I have agreed that Banksy can be an exception to our rule and can stay.

So, the town has a zero-tolerance policy on graffiti (and presumably street art too) except in cases where the work is an instant tourist attraction. In those cases, the policy is not so zero-tolerance. That’s a “Banksy-tolerance” policy, and that’s a pretty short-sighted way of doing things.

Via Banksy Prints

Photo by world of emma

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Brad Downey’s latest: The prank of an evil genius and/or brilliant art

What is there to say about this latest piece from Brad Downey? I figure this is either something devised by an evil genius or a brilliant urban interventionist, or a bit of both. This might make me a bad person, but I’m definitely laughing. What do you think? The first image is a “before” and below is the “after.”

This was done in Essen, Germany and was paid for by Hacking the City.

Photos courtesy of Brad Downey

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Playing catch-up: It’s a link post!

Been in NYC for the last few days. Besides being busy, it seems like the hotel I was at still hadn’t quite figured out the concept of wifi extending to all rooms in the hotel… So now I’ve got a lot of stories to post about. Here’s what I missed while I was away, though you may have read about it elsewhere:

  • I’ve actually been meaning to post about this for a while. Ken Harman from Arrested Motion and the Hi-Fructose Blog, just curated one of the better group shows I’ve seen. Some artists of particular note would be Emory Douglas (a major influence on Shepard Fairey and important propaganda-maker in his own right), Dabs, Myla, Mike Shine and Monica Canilao. A Decade With No Name is open on Saturdays and Sundays through September 12th at 54 Washington St. Oakland, CA. My Love For You Is A Stampede of Horses has photos of Monica’s installation, and Spoke has photos of everything else and is where you can purchase the artwork.
  • Papergirl NY is bringing Germany’s Papergirl concept to the USA. Basically, artists get together to distribute a bunch of free art to members of the public by riding around on bikes. Their YouTube video shows what happens in a bit more detail. Papergirl NY events are taking place in New York City this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday they will be at the DUMBO Arts Center, and then Papergirl will move to The Armory where you can find them Friday through Sunday.
  • Mobstr hasn’t been around forever, but his humor can already rival Banksy.
  • Blu and Ericailcane are in Stavanger for Nuart, and their wall is one of Blu’s boldest political statements yet (after all, Stavanger is an oil-funded city, and oil money from taxes pretty much funds Nuart). Nice stuff.
  • I’m loving Shepard Fairey’s portrait of Johnny Ramone at Signal Gallery’s Beyond Punk show.
  • Graffiti in New Orleans after Katrina.
  • Luzinterruptus has made some “urban nests.”
  • I’m hoping to post some more about this in the coming days, but Jordan Seiler as written on his blog about his experiences at Living Walls.
  • Once5 aka Jeffrey Pena has a solo show coming up at My Addiction Gallery in Tucson, Arizona. Pena has a nice timelapse on YouTube of him putting up a large paper-cut in Brooklyn.

So that’s it for now, but I should be back to daily posts now.

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New images from Ludo

Ludo has a made couple of new images for his ongoing Nature’s Revenge project. Luckily, Jake pointed these out over on Streetsy, because I’ve been traveling all day and I needed to find something interesting but quick to post. I think the above beetle is one of Ludo’s technically strongest images yet.

If you have any suggestions of places I should check out while I’m in NYC for a few days, let me know in the comments. Tomorrow, I’m planning to stop by Joshua Liner Gallery, Jonathan LeVine Gallery and MoMA.

Photos by Ludo

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The continuing story of Ron English and Electric Windows

Ron English was pretty active recently at the Electric Windows event a few weeks ago, not only painting a panel but also putting up a few posters.

Turns out, not all the locals in Beacon were happy with English’s work.

Here’s something from Ron English:

The Electric Windows Project in Beacon was a great success this year, getting out some great art and bringing together Brooklyn hipsters and longtime Beacon residents…

But by Tuesday, dozens of outraged townies assembled at the Beacon city planning board meeting to protest a couple of pieces I did. After a quick briefing in closed session with the city attorney, who went over the first amendment with planning board members, the board announced that although it had no legal right to order the work taken down, it would allow the public to express their outrage over the fact that I used Jesus as a corporate spokesmodel and “Crack” as a criticism of fast food in a couple of “subvertisements.”

The board let me speak first, and I expressed surprise that my work created such a furor. I’m always surprised when this kind of thing happens… which is often and usually propagated by people who don’t understand or fully take in the work but instead attach their own agenda to it.

After I spoke, a wave of angry Christians took their turns at the mike. One woman wanted to know why she couldn’t paste up the photos of dead fetuses that she routinely held up at the health clinic. Others wanted to know what gave me the right to comment on the most powerful religion on the planet. And one board member expressed outraged that I was promoting crack… to the children. Afterwards, a teacher got up to helpfully explain that children don’t understand metaphor.

Then a self-professed stateside noncombat post traumatic stress-afflicted veteran informed me that he had notified Miller High Life about my offensive parody of their brand..

So English returned to Beacon and modified the posters. Check out the new posters on his Juxtapoz blog.

Photos by LoisInWonderland

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Sweza’s lightbox

Sweza, probably best known for his Graffyard project, recently installed one of his latest pieces with Just there to take photos. Solarlichtraum is a small wooden box with an LED backlit piece of graffiti on the inside. During the day, the solar cell on top of the box charges the LED, and when the solar cell is covered (or the sun sets), the LED turns out and you can look inside the box to see Sweza’s mini graffiti-style piece.

Solarlichtraum was installed on the streets of Berlin.

What you see when you look inside the box

Just also accompanied Sweza while installing another piece in Berlin.

Photos by Just (except the last one which is by Sweza)