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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Inside MCASD’s “Viva La Revolucion”

This Os Gêmeos work was made using unused parts of Swoon's installation

The urban art event of the summer took place over the weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD). Viva La Revolucion is a massive show. On Vandalog, we’ve been covering the outdoor parts of the show, but there’s a major indoor component as well.

Calma

Of course, our friends at Arrested Motion were at MCASD with cameras. Elisa Carmichael was in the space a bit early and caught some of the artists working, and AM’s San Diego correspondents made sure to take plenty of photos on the opening evening. From what I hear though, these photographs still don’t capture the entire indoor show. There’s an entire room full of Banksy prints, and probably some more things that I haven’t heard about yet.

Looks like JR has replicated his installation that was at Lazarides a while back. It’s a room covered in posters of his contact sheets, with a film about his flavela project playing:

Swoon’s installation is another iteration of her Konbit Shelter project, which will culminate in her building shelters in Haiti:

Photos by Arrested Motion, who have plenty more photos of this show on their website

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Lister at Show & Tell Gallery

Been a bit slow posting about this one, but I’m definitely liking it. Anthony Lister’s The Beauty of Failure is on now at Toronto’s Show & Tell Gallery. Looks like a good mix of sculptures, paintings and (most importantly for some of the people I’ve spoken to although it’s not my major concern) images that don’t involve superheroes. Definitely check this out if you’re in Toronto and let me know what you think. I will be very jealous of you.

This has got to be my favorite piece in the show:

But these are pretty sick as well:

Photos by Show & Tell Gallery and check out pictures of the opening night on their flickr

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New from Mobstr

Mobstr. He’s definitely want to keep an eye on. Always up to something. Mobstr is one of the few street artists out there who have been heavily influenced by Banksy, but are actually at least as creative as him.

Then again, I recently had the chance to meet John Fekner and Don Leicht; John is the true godfather of text-based stencils and (along with a few others) political stencils as art, so maybe we should stop crediting Banksy with that distinction. But John and Don are another (upcoming) post entirely.

Back to Mobstr. Another great piece he’s put up recently is this billboard:

A cool piece, but what really makes it work is this story from Mobstr:

When I was photographing this an old lady approached me and questioned, “Do you mind me asking why you are photographing that?”

“Because its weird init,” I replied.

“I think its stupid,” the old lady stated, “It’s a waste of space.”

…………my thoughts exactly.

Photos by Mobstr

“What Billboard” via Public Ad Campaign

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New from Word To Mother and Sickboy

A big thanks to Hooked for catching this one first. Not much of a surprise though: Word To Mother and Sickboy’s latest wall looks great.

I always love to see Word To Mother’s graffiti. Such a contrast from his gallery work (which I still tend to like).

For more like this, definitely check out the pieces that Word To Mother painted recently with Nylon.

Photos by Hooked

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Just what I’ve been waiting for: Roa and Sweet Toof

Just the other day, I was thinking about how, now that I don’t live in London, I’ll probably post less about artists like Roa and Sweet Toof, whose work I saw on such a regular basis. And then they go and paint this collaboration in London and I can’t not say something about it. Two of my favorite street artists working together. Good stuff.

Photo by Nolionsinengland

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Escif, from paper to walls

This wall by Escif was just painted for San’s Insitu Festival. What I find really cool about it is that I’d seen this design from Escif before. At his recent show at Pictures On Walls. This wall is based on the largest work on paper from that show. You can see it in the video I made there. Most street artists would paint something on a wall, wait for it to be popular and then reproduce it as a screenprint or painting inside. Escif has said before that his indoor work is really just preparation for walls he wants to paint outside. I guess he’s just provided some evidence to support that claim.

Via Unurth

Photos by Escif

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Lucy McLauchlan’s “Together…” at Lazarides Rathbone Place

There were a fair number of new shows opening on this month’s first Thursday, but the place to be in London was the opening of Together… Lucy McLauchlan’s latest solo show at Lazarides‘ Rathbone Place gallery.

This is a really solid show. I enjoyed just about every piece except for the watercolors. It’s also a progression for Lucy. She probably could have gotten away with painting the same pieces that we’ve seen from her in the past, but instead she successfully pushed forward and has noticeably matured.

Installation detail

While there was no shortage of work for sale, Lucy also made a sizable site-specific installation and drew little bits on the walls and ceilings around the gallery.

Some of McLauchlan’s best work happens when she constrains herself by painting on found objects:

At first glance, an abstract piece. Look closer and see how many figures you can count (I can spot about 10):

Photos by artbleat and sven / a million pieces

Check out artbleat and sven‘s flickr sets of the show for more photos