RJ Rushmore – Page 234 – Vandalog

November 1, 2009

MNMNT Snowboards

I might actually buy one of these. MNMNT Snowboards makes snowboards (duh) with great artwork. Snowboarding is pretty much the highlight of my winters, but it can be nearly impossible to get a board with cool artwork. MNMNT might just be changing that.

Welcome to the 2009-10 MNMNT Snowboard collection. Each season Creative Director, Christopher Glancy curates an ever-growing pedigree of artists to create site-specific art and deliver the highest quality product on the market.

Turning our back to momentary trends, vapid graphic design and company branding, we focus on the visual impact and technical superiority of our boards. Our dedication to provide premium products drives us to search for new and unique approaches to enhance riders’ snowboard lifestyles worldwide.

Started in 2001, based on a collective of Mid-Atlantic artists, Monument Snowboards was started and driven by art. Providing unique products to riders. Today, that collective is worldwide, with many artists across the globe contributing to our vision.

Here are two of my favorite boards:

November 1, 2009November 1, 2009

Nike/Livestrong Stages hits NYC

Yesterday was the opening of the New York City leg of the Nike/Livestrong Stages exhibition which also had a stop in France. While some of the work was the same, there were some new artists in this show like Os Gêmeos. Arrested Motion was there and took plenty of photos.

The lineup for stages is full of some of the best artists in the world. José and Rosson Crow are two of my favorite artists who aren’t “street artists.”

Photos from Arrested Motion. AM also has a bunch more photos from the show including artwork from Kaws, Futura and JR.

October 31, 2009

Nomad at Circleculture

Nomad

Last night was the opening of Nomad’s first solo exhibition over at The Circleculture Gallery in Berlin:

The Circleculture Gallery is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition featuring the artist Nomad. As an original street artist, he developed his expressional variants conceptually and technically through interactive projects in interior and exterior spaces: combining writing and street art with poetry and classical painting. In this context, we become acquainted with Nomad’s “street art” in the gallery as part of a holistic work of art. The works shown move between humour, satire and human drama. At the centre is the clown or fool, who mirrors the ambiguity of human existence.

In his works Nomad connects his sensitive artistic side with the ornamental style of his street art and the graphic with the sketchy. There are clearly influences from classical painting, in particular from the Renaissance period. As a result, Nomad’s painting does not aim to be complete – it is a inventory of the here and now that adapts social reality and processes it multidimensionally. It retains the ease and aesthetic of his freely improvised work on the street.

The works exhibited by Nomad move to and between humorous ease and deep emotionality. Tragedy, love and emotion come up against humour, laissez-faire and improvisation. As a result, he uses on the one hand marker aesthetics in the form of lines, which express the human need for order. On the other hand, he lends his artworks an artistic component with coloured and sketchy elements, which symbolise the chaos of existence. The message is one of self-irony and a positive worldview, which are meant to encourage the observer to think.

Nomad is invited regularly to street art festivals, exhibitions and performances. He counts among the most enduring street artists in Berlin and the world. In the last six years he has painted 2000 to 2500 rubbish objects, which were quickly snapped up off the street by passionate collectors. In the summer of 2009 Nomad worked with American actor Ashton Kutcher to paint the roof of Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. The large-scale art campaign received international attention.

“Everything I do is based on spontaneity. My art arises locally and on the spot. On the street I have learnt to adapt, to merge existing reality into my art.” – Nomad

Nomad

October 31, 2009

Conor Harrington – Headless Heroes

IMG_5322 Photo © 800 Wide WK Copy

Thursday night was the opening for Conor Harrington’s Headless Heroes show at Lazarides Gallery on Rathbone Place. The gallery was pretty busy, and as a few people pointed out to me, a number of attendees were people who rarely make it to other openings and are really just die-hard Conor fans.

IMG_5301 Photo © 800 Wide WK Copy

As usual, Conor’s paintings combine graffiti, fine art, realism and abstraction.

IMG_5386 Photo © 800 Wide WK Copy

IMG_5958 Photo © 800 Wide WK Copy

Some of the best pieces weren’t canvases but the sketches and studies. In fact, I think it would be great to see an entire show of Conor’s studies.

IMG_5912 Photo © 800 Wide WK Copy

Photos by Ian Cox. More photos on his flickr

October 30, 2009January 10, 2010

The Art Street Journal Issue 4 – November

100 copies of issue 4 of The Art Street Journal arrived at my door today. The newspaper is put together by the folks at Carmichael Gallery and with issue 4 they’ve continued to expand their coverage and fill the paper with great interviews and photos. There are interviews with Hush, WK-Interact and Dan Witz and Sebastian from Unurth even put together a page of his favorite street pieces from the last month. It’s also the only place (for now) that you can read a half-decent explanation of The Thousands and why I’m putting on an art exhibition.

The best way to get The Art Street Journal is their website. You can sign up and they’ll send copies anywhere in the world for free. I’ll also be in Shoreditch tomorrow putting them in shops. And of course, there will be a few copies at The Thousands.

October 30, 2009

Other Side live painting

Looks like this should be a nice event to get down to in London. Live painting is always fun to watch.

Here’s all the details:

Silhouettes with spray-cans glinting in the darkness have long journeyed through the East End to the austere walls of the rail arches in Mile End, an underground showcase of underground art.

Now, in broad daylight, the elegant new Mile End Arts Pavilion opens its doors to some of the most notorious graffiti artists in East London.

This unique venue offers the opportunity for you, the viewer to observe from behind glass or get down and dirty with the artists painting LIVE! (Protective masks are available on the door)

Each week will feature a new wave of artists, sourced locally with a smattering of special guest painters.

Show is open each Wednesday to Sunday from 12-6 pm

Wednesday 4th November – Sunday 29th November.

Artists: Stik, Elate, Milo, Spat, Teddy Baden, Run, Fuel, Snoe, Smaki, Grems, Stenzilla, Suns, and Roots

I definitely want to go and see Elate, Milo and Run painting.

October 30, 2009

Interview with RJ on Inspire Collective

Thanks to Inspire at Inspire Collective for interviewing me about street art. Here’s a snippet:

“RJ, tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into appreciate graffiti, street, and public art in general?”

My dad actually got me into the whole scene. He came home from work one day almost two years ago and asked me if I knew about some guys called Faile. He’d bought a print by them. Neither of us had been seriously interested in art before that, but we both fell in love with the world of street art and haven’t looked back since. Right now I’m taking a gap year before heading off to university next fall, and street art is the overarching theme for my year.

“Its always good to see another public art site out there appreciating independent artists, how did Vandalog begin?”

I started Vandalog about 1 year ago as a way to keep up to date on street art news and increase my involvement with the street art community. Because I post something every day, I always have to be on the look out for news or something interesting to write about, and when I go to gallery openings or visit another city, I can reach out to artists or blog readers and immediately I have some connections in that city who can tell me all the cool things to do. And of course, it’s a great way to help promote my friends’ projects.

Read the rest of the interview on Inspire Collective

October 30, 2009October 30, 2009

Hrag talks to Public Ad Campaign

Hrag Vartanian has a really interesting interview on Hyperallergic with Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign, the organizer of the New York Street Advertising Takeover (NYSAT) (as mentioned previously). Here’s a snippet:

Hrag Vartanian: Is the NYSAT campaign an art or activist project or both?

Jordan Seiler: Activism informed by art and the artistic process. Sometimes it takes a few hundred artists to move the law forward

HV: If it’s art, what would you consider the aesthetics of the project?

JS: Aesthetics? I don’t think this is visual as much as about mental clarity.

HV: Were you surprised that the advertisers were able to react as fast as they did this time to the street project? Most of the ads didn’t last through the day, did they?

JS: No. Many location saw ads go up a mere hour afterward.

HV: That’s incredible. How are these illegal ad companies able to avoid arrests for their illegal activities, while activists who are covering the same space with non-corporate ads aren’t?

JS: I am not sure. But I did call the cops while they were posting ads on Sunday and they did not listen to my complaint about them not having permits. I think it speaks to the fact that the city is ready to defend the private over the public.

Read the rest on Hyperallergic

October 29, 2009November 18, 2009

The Thousands

Here’s a little update on The Thousands, the art exhibition that I’m curating and organizing in London next month. Just a few weeks to go before it opens, and I’m working my ass off. There is really an amazing line up of artists. Subject to slight changes here and there, here’s the full line up:

Adam Neate
Aiko
Anthony Lister
Armsrock
Banksy
Barry McGee
Bast
Blek le Rat
Burning Candy
Chris Stain
David Ellis
Elbow-toe
Faile
Futura 2000
Gaia
Herakut
Jenny Holzer
José Parlá
Judith Supine
Kaws
Know Hope
Nick Walker
Os Gêmeos
Roa
Sam3
Shepard Fairey
Skewville
Swoon
WK Interact

So the artwork is amazing, but The Thousands is also the book launch for my book, The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In. Hope to see everybody there on the 18th.

October 29, 2009August 14, 2010

Sneaking in to see Burning Candy and others

The latest in my series of videos for Babelgum Metropolis is online. Essentially, I’ve figured out how to best enjoy the latest large mural from Burning Candy as well as new pieces by Blek le Rat and Pure Evil which have popped up in East London.

Also, yesterday I meant to post a video of me at MuTate Britain, but accidentally posted another video of the show. Well here is the video I meant to post: