Let’s start in Brooklyn: M-City has just painted this huge wall. Brooklynite Gallery was there to take plenty of photos. Here are some detailed shots:
And all the way on the other side of the country in Los Angeles: Carmichael Gallery have a show with M-City in their showcase space. It opens on this Saturday, July 10th. Something definitely worth checking out.
Photos by Brooklynite Gallery
This is about a week old now, but I’ve just seen that the NYTimes has done an article on Jeffrey Deitch and his transition from running his Deitch Projects gallery to now being the director of LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Of course, the article is mostly about how Deitch is handling that transition and why his move from running a gallery to running a museum is so unique. Okay. Nothing new here. People have been talking about that transition for months.
There was one particularly interesting sentence though: “And he is working to put together a major exhibition about the influence of street art, a movement that was central to the identity of Deitch Projects in recent years.”
Of course, I’d heard plenty of speculation that something like that would happen, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen it confirmed and stated as fact. Awesome. There probably isn’t anyone in the world better positioned than Jeffrey Deitch to put on a major street art exhibition in a major museum. Sounds like this is still the early days of planning, so maybe the show is a long time away and maybe it won’t end up happening, but at least we now know that it might happen and that Deitch would like it to.
Photo by sabeth718
There are a lot of art books in my house. From time to time, I like to spend an afternoon just flipping through book after book. But there is one that I keep returning to time and time again: Laser 3.14’s Are You Reading Me. It’s been sitting on my desk for the last few months. Okay, so part of the reason it’s been there is that I keep meaning to write about the book here, but it’s also because I can flip through a few pages of Are You Reading Me? whenever I am looking for inspiration.
Usually, I like to read art books from cover to cover in the order they were intended, but Laser 3.14’s work defies that sort of logic. It’s more fun to just flip to a random page and see what he has to say. Laser 3.14 is a master of re-using found text and coming up with quick little thoughts that stick with you. His are some of the most interesting tags to come across in the real world, and having so many of them all together book in a book is a treat.
One more interesting thing about the photos in Are You Reading Me? is that they aren’t all taken 30 seconds after Laser 3.14 has finished his piece. A number of the images are of pieces that have been half-buffed or tagged over or even turned upside down when a piece of wood is re-used on a new hoarding. Street art is an ephemeral medium, and even though Laser 3.14’s artwork probably should be seen right-side-up and untagged, the reality is that the work does get messed with, and that’s acknowledged perfected in this book.
While not the easiest book to find outside of the Netherlands (where it was published), UPDATE: The book is now available for sale online and ships internationally. Are You Reading Me? is definitely something worth searching for if you are looking for a slightly different street art book.
Photo by andrevanb
Blam has painted this piece in London for Trekstock’s pop-up store just off of Carnaby Street. Looks even better in person.
Trekstock is a UK charity supporting young people with cancer, so I’d venture to say it’s a pretty good cause. Usually, Trekstock teams with major figures in music and fashion to spread it’s message and raise money, but for this pop-up store, they have also brought in some artists. Blam and David Walker have painted the walls, and artists including Eine and Mysterious Al have donated screenprints. The shop is open from now through July 15th and also features new t-shirts from bands like Local Natives, Bloc Party and Foals for just £10 each. So you can help raise money for charity and get band t-shirts at half the price of what you might have to pay at a concert.
Trekstock’s shop is located at 65-67 Broadwick Street, W1, London
Photo by blam2002
Last week, Best Ever had a 1-night mini-show at London’s 55DSL store. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time I arrived, but the photos look amazing. Best Ever brought new canvases to hang and painted the store’s walls. The show was a teaser for a larger solo show that Best Ever are putting together for later this year.
Photos by s.butterfly and Ian Cox
Looks like Giant Robot’s GR2 store in LA will be a Buff Monster fan’s paradise on Saturday. Buff Monster has brought together almost 50 artists to customize blank Buff Monster toys. And the list of artists is impressive. I can’t wait to see what Flying Fortress, Skinner, Tristan Eaton, The London Police, Travis Louie and so many other talented people have come up with.
Speaking of Buff Monster, he’s been putting up some posters in LA recently:
Photo by Reserve Result
Armsrock was in Cairo, Egypt recently for a Streets of Cairo festival. Naturally, he did some work outside, mostly more events in his continuing series of projecting drawings onto city walls.
Armsrock also put up at least one wheatpaste in Cairo. With permission, he pasted one image of an Egyptian man outside of Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery:
But by the next day, Egyptian police had seen the artwork and decided that they didn’t like it. The police painted the figure white:
Armsrock’s reaction? Not what you might have expected:
When I interact with the streets I want something to happen, some sort of situation should occur, and it always does. I have only never experienced such a direct form of censorship before, and expressed in such an interesting manner, and that was what I thought was a good thing.
You can read more about what Armsrock thought of the censorship at The Daily News Egypt and his blog.
Photos by Armsrock
Aryz and Ripo recently painted this wall in Barcelona. I’m loving it. Here’s a detailed shot of Aryz’s bit:
Via Ekosystem
Photos by -zwosiba.blogspot.com-
Looks like Everfresh aren’t the only Australians getting their street art into print. Street/Studio is a new book from some of Australia’s top street artists and street art experts. Alison Young works at the University of Melbourne and occasionally posts here on Vandalog, Miso and Ghostpatrol are Australian street artists and Timba publishes Wooden Toy Quarterly. Street/Studio has its UK launch next Thursday (July 8th) at Black Rat Projects.
Their flyer has all the rest of the info you should need:
Toronto’s Show & Tell Gallery has something big planned for next week: Anthony Lister’s latest solo show, The Beauty of Failure. A lot of artists paint superheroes. Most of the time, I don’t care for those artists. Lister is one of my exceptions. He doesn’t just paint, he actually knows how to paint, something which is surprisingly rare.
The gallery says:
The Beauty of Failure is a unique look at the reward and punishment systems, and more specifically when the two overlap.The paintings and sculptures in this show demonstrate a tounge in cheek look at contemporary pop culture through Anthony‘s signature artistic style.
Lister has been doing sculptures for a couple of years now. I think the first one was made for his 2008 show at Elms Lesters in London. These new sculptures are completely different though, and you probably won’t immediately recognize them as being made by Lister. Here’s one:
The Beauty of Failure opens July 9th at the Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto, and the show runs through August 8th.
