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.
Blu has been busy recently. Here are two huge walls he painted in Berlin. I’m not so sure what the meaning of this first one is though. Something about the Berlin Wall and the Euro. I am woefully unprepared to hazard any guesses about European politics.
On the other hand, this piece is a bit easier to understand:
And that global warming mural is painted right next to a classic Blu (and around the corner from an Os Gemeos):
And so long as we’re on the topic of Blu, it’s worth mentioning two more things: A. This wall in Warsaw and B. Blu will be at Nuart in Stavanger later this year along with Roa, M-City, Evol, Ericailcane and others.
I’m a bit slow posting about these pieces by Phlegm, a Sheffield-based artist whom I had not heard of until about a day ago. One day shouldn’t be too long of a delay, but Phlegm’s work is spreading through the internet with lightening speed.
RomanyWG, one of the UK’s top street art and graffiti photographers, has only just posted a few pictures on his flickr of Phlegm’s murals. Of course, because Phlegm is a talented artist that not many people have heard of, Unurth was the first blog to post RomanyWG’s photos. Unurth always seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes finding talented and relatively unknown artists from around the world. Not long after that, Jake posted about Phlegm over at Streetsy.
And now it’s my turn. So, if you haven’t already, have a look at this guy. Phlegm is, at the very least, pretty technically talented, and you can be sure that if he were based in New York or London, this wouldn’t be the first time you’d have seen his paintings.
New York’s Faro has just put out his first zine. It’s a 24 page overview of Faro’s drawings and graffiti in black and white. Faro is one of New York’s up and coming graffiti/street artists, so who knows, maybe this zine will be a collectible one day like Neckface’s book Satan’s Bride. But more importantly, it looks like it’s full of fun content and plenty of Faro’s trademark mummies. I may get one just to rip it apart so that I can stick individual pages to the walls of my room.
Here’s some of what’s inside:
But where can you find The Broken Casket? Just get in touch with Faro on flickr to get your copy.
Retna has a sick looking installation opening for one night only on July 29th in LA. Rivera & Rivera are saying goodbye to their current location in South Park by letting Retna paint the entire thing. This is definite something to see. Such a shame that the show is only on for one night. The gallery will be open on Thursday from 8-11pm. Remember to rsvp at by emailing rsvp@riveraandrivera.com.
Last week, C215 opened his latest solo show at Signal Gallery in London. Midnght Dreams is his second solo show at the gallery, and possibly third in London (Nolionsinengland seems to recall a solo show at Pure Evil Gallery). I’ve been a fan of C215 since seeing his art at Cans Festival, only months after I first got interested in street art, and an interview with C215 was one of the first things that I posted on Vandalog. In my house, we have a few pieces by C215. That said, Midnight Dreams isn’t at all what I was hoping for.
Photo by Nolionsinengland
C215 has two primary styles that he cuts his stencils. The first, the one that I prefer, is what he does for 1-layer stencils. To oversimplify things, I guess you could say that the definition in those images comes from C215 cutting lines that look like cracks running throughout the piece. This style is the one that’s so heavily influenced by Artiste Ouvrier.
And then there are C215’s multi-layered and often more colorful images. These stencils look like the above and below images from Midnight Dreams. I just don’t like looking at these pieces nearly as much as the 1-layer stencils and the subject matter is less interesting to me as well.
Photo by Nolionsinengland
My favorite pieces by C215 have always been those 1-layer pieces, maybe with a bit of color thrown into the background. C215’s street pieces tend to use those 1-layer stencils. That’s why, I’m loving these two pieces that C215 has put up in London recently:
Photo by C215Photo by C215
You may also notice that the people C215 is making portraits of is different indoors and outdoors. To me, somebody who first found C215 from his street art, he will always be intimately connected with the streets. I tend to prefer C215’s paintings when the subject matter reflects his relationship to the streets. With Midnight Dreams, C215 has tried to distance his gallery art from his street art. It’s a move that a lot of street artists attempt and I think C215 has good reasons to separate the two worlds, but that just results in me becoming uninterested in his gallery art. I’m sorry to say that Midnight Dreams has disappointed me so much, but at least he’s still active outdoors and has been refreshing London with his artwork, since a lot of his work has been buffed since he last painted there.
So now that I’ve gone on dissing C215 for a few hundred words, I’d like to remind readers that there are other opinions out there. Nolionsinengland, one of the art bloggers and photographers that I most respect, enjoyed Midnight Dreams and has reviewed it on Graffoto (and he’s actually seen the show in person instead of just through jpegs).
Midnight Dreams runs through August 7th at London’s Signal Gallery.
This Friday, Barcelona’s Montana Gallery will be opening Escif‘s second solo show. In April, Escif was at Pictures on Walls for Around The Wall. Continuing on that theme, this new show is titled Against The Wall. His show at POW was a big hit, and I think we can expect more awesomeness from Escif this week in Barcelona.
Here’s a teaser of some of the work at Against The Wall:
One thing that surprised me at Around The Wall was Escif’s conceptual video art. Looks like there will be more of those videos in Barcelona, as he’s posted this video on YouTube as a teaser for Against The Wall:
Yesterday’s post about Brush Strokes, Lydia Fong (aka Barry McGee) and Todd James’ current show at V1 Gallery, was woefully incomplete. The originals at V1 aren’t all that these artists have gotten up to in Copenhagen. They also worked on a total of 6 lithographs at Edition Copenhagen. James has made three prints, McGee has made two and both artists have collaborated (along with McGee’s assistant Amaze) on one print. LaMJC has all the info on edition sizes as well as paper type and size (and it’s where we got these images). No official word on pricing, but it looks like those interested in purchasing one or more of these prints should contact Edition Copenhagen.
Todd JamesBarry McGeeTodd JamesBarry McGeeTodd James, Barry McGee and Amaze
PRISM, that crazy-awesome gallery in LA, has what might be their best show yet opening on Thursday. Come As You Are features work from artists like Clare Rojas, Os Gêmeos, Ed Templeton and Dennis Hopper. The New Image Art blog has some photos of two new Os Gêmeos artworks that will be in the show.
Il Baro tipped me off about Illegal Atelièr, an ongoing project at an abandoned factory in Italy. So far, the pictures coming out of this thing just look amazing. Some of my favorite artwork has been painted in abandoned spots just like this one. I’m not sure exactly how many artists are involved in Illegal Atelièr or what the timeline is for the project to be completed, but I’ll definitely be continuing to keep an eye out for more photos. Here’s a wall that Il Baro painted with a number of other artists:
Il Baro, Verbo, Hemo, Zebz, Zed1, Alfa, Sea Creative and Dice (click image to view large)
Besides looking great, this piece actually asks an interesting question of the art world. Eine and RYCA have literally used the same stencils, the same ideas, the same paint and the same spot to paint this piece. Ben Eine’s work gets publicized by major newspapers, and RYCA isn’t nearly as well known outside of the street art world. In fact, Eine’s involvement in this wall is probably why I’m writing about it. So yeah, the art world is kind of silly. But this also speaks to the beauty of street art when it’s outdoors. The thousands of people who will walk by this wall every day have no idea if those words were painted by me, Hackney Council, Eine and RYCA or maybe even Banksy; they just enjoy the message.
