Thanks to Unurth for introducing me to the work of Hyuro from Spain. Hyuro paints some really qualities walls, sometimes collaborating with Escif. Here are a few of my favorites:
And one of his sketches:
Photos from Hyuro’s flickr
Admittedly, East Meets East might be a bit out of the way for some people, but their line-up is a solid one. I’m not really familiar with Nasimo’s work, but it looks interesting. The rest of the artists are some of London’s best. Blam and Busk are top-notch writers, Run is London’s answer to Blu or San, and kennardphillipps (Kennard in particular) have been making excellent propaganda since before Shepard Fairey had ever heard of Andre the Giant. I’m really looking forward to checking this out.
I think that the Swimming Cities project is one of the most inspiring things to happen in the art world in recent years: a bunch of artists get together to built barely float-able rafts and travel rivers around the world. The 2010 project takes the Swimming Cities crew to the Ganges in India. To raise funds for the trip, there will be a silent auction in New York City on March 5th. Participating artists in the auction include Swoon, Imminent Disaster, Spy and Ben Wolfe.
This piece by Imminent Disaster is one of the artworks in the auction:
Last week was the opening of Jonathan LeVine‘s 5th anniversary group show. The full list of artists in the show is pretty staggering, but here are a few of my favorite pieces. These photos are from Arrested Motion, where you can find plenty more about the show.
Photos by Joe Russo for Arrested Motion
The New York Times is given you a chance to ask graffiti legend and talented fine artist Lee Quinones (aka Lee) a question. I don’t get star-struck often, but he was at the Primary Flight opening in Miami last year, and I just froze up whenever I caught sight of him, this guy is a legend. Just go to their website and post a comment on the article to ask your question. The first set of questions will be answered on Wednesday.
There are a lot of people commenting already. One of my favorites is from Anne. She asks, “Since it appears you have profited as a result of your graffiti art, have you made any effort to pay restitution to the city or other property owners of locations you vandalized?” That’s probably the most inteligent way I’ve ever heard somebody ask a graffiti artist how they feel about coming from an illegal art movement into something legal that profits from those illegal actions. Much better than how Nolane put it.
Via I Love Graffiti
This could be the best piece of street or public art ever to grace the streets of New York City. I guess we’ll see…
March 2-8 2010, during the Armory Arts Week and in addition to a booth at SCOPE Art Show, Anonymous Gallery collaborates with the Times Square Alliance to present a public installation from artists David Ellis and Roberto Lange. The kinetic sound sculpture, conceptualized by Ellis and composed by Lange, will be carefully positioned in the Duffy Square area of Times Square near 46th and Broadway.
The sculptures are made from scavenged refuse found on the street: buckets, bottles, trash cans, paper shreds, cardboard boxes that are syncopated using programming and player piano actuators to create percussive, rhythmic beats and tones. The installation, as only a collection of debris, plays on the public’s perception of trash. The placement, and more importantly the activation in the public arena, creates dialog with unassuming crowds that amass.
Although the public installation is meant for undiscerning spectators, similar works by David Ellis and Roberto Lange can be found in permanent collections including The Margulies Collection and most recently, through Anonymous Gallery, The Saatchi Collection.
If you’re not already familiar with Ellis and Lange’s trash sculptures, here are some videos of their work in Miami (the piece that Saatchi bought I believe).
Last year, JR made a version of his Women Are Heroes project in Paris, covering bridges and walls along the Seine. He’s recently posted this video documenting the project:
Via Nuart
I don’t pretend to totally understand the bike-culture phenomenon (Critical Mass and whatnot), though I assume it has something to do with a combination of environmentalism, health and hipsterism. But I do love a good propaganda poster. This one is by Paul Barron and has appeared in Berkeley, California.
Photo by Endlesscanvas.com
Other has been pretty active on flickr recently, with a number of new outdoor and indoor pieces these last few weeks. Both paintings are for sale, so you can contact troy.lovegates@gmail.com if you’re interested.
Photos by troy-lovegates
Hrag Vartanian has a fantastic article on Hyperallergic about Fauxreel and what it means when street artists take do corporate jobs outdoors. Fauxreel found himself labeled a sell-out a couple of years ago when he partnered with Vespa for a campaign that involved illegal wheatpastes on the streets of Toronto. The whole debate is very interesting, because really, all street art is advertisement to some degree, so where do we draw the line at what is acceptable? And of course, do artists have a right to partner with companies on advertising campaigns, and if so, how should they go about it? Personally, I’d say it’s generally great when artists collaborate with corporations on projects, but they need to avoid any illegal pieces for that advertising campaign.
Here’s some relevant thoughts from Fauxreel, taken from a recent interview on Unurth:
I definitely think artists can work commercially and with a conscience, however, I think that if you are going to do this you should be aware of the differing motivations and you should try to make the commercial project provoking to the public in some respect. Because I like blurring the lines and playing with the public’s perceptions in some of the work I create, I immediately realized that the difficulties surrounding an illegal street campaign completed by a commercial interest would be a perfect fit for me. So I approached the Vespa Squarehead project with the goal of raising questions about the role of advertising in public space, examining the grey area between street art, graffiti and advertising and attempting to make connections between products and people’s identities. If I can complete a series of work that will pose and examine these types of questions and it will allow me to make some money at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
Will working on a project like that endear you to the public? Probably not, and for me that’s okay. I think the notion a great deal of the public holds, is that street artists should all fall under the same political leftist umbrella and they should all be anti-capitalism. This is certainly untrue (think about Banksy or Shepard Fairey as businessmen and Princess Hijab as a right wing street artist) and it would be boring if it were. Although the simple act of placing up illegal artwork can be said to have political connotations, if the work in question is a stencil of Talib Kweli or a paste up of fried chicken, the work is then purely aesthetically based and not political at all.
In terms of drawing a line between street art and street advertising and deciding what distinguishes the two, I am not the one to be judging that. I am far more interested in the overlapping areas in between and engaging with audiences who appreciate work that challenges the political status quo associated with street art, or art in general, as well as talking to fellow artists who understand these nuances and who utilize them within their work and their approach to developing their practice and essentially their brand.
Hrag’s analysis of the issue is insightful and definitely an interesting read. He’s one of the few bloggers who really writes about street art in a serious academic fashion, in addition to enjoying the art.
Photo by icathing
