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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Travels through Europe

Months late, I’ve finally uploaded all the photos from my 3 week holiday traveling through Europe in June/July to flickr. You can see the full set of street art photos here, but I thought it would be fun to pick out a few highlights.

First, Venice. The Swimming Cities were gone this time I was in Venice, but the Biennale was still on, and Miranada July’s sculptures deserve a mention. Here’s a photo of me with one of July’s sculptures.

July

And if anybody knows who painted this piece, let me know. It was also in Venice:

Venice

But most of the street art I found was in Berlin. Here’s some of that:

Kripoe
Kripoe
Blu
Blu
The London Police
The London Police
Os Gemeos
Os Gemeos

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Kindred Times and Future Goodbyes

So a week or two ago Know Hope says to me that he has a secret project in the works. Something about taking over an abandoned house. Sounded like a great idea, but I wasn’t sure if anything would actually come of it. Turns out, Know Hope and his friends were further along than I realized. The project, now called Kindred Times and Future Goodbyes, was well underway. In fact, it’s going to be opening at a secret location in Tel Aviv on Saturday. This is what street art is about.

Zero Cents

KINDRED TIMES AND FUTURE GOODBYES

This Saturday
12.9.2009, 17:30-20:30

An Exhibition in abandoned house in the form of a collaborative effort between : Foma <3, Klone, Know Hope, Zero Cents.

This exhibition came to life as a natural extension of the constant collaborative creation of the group.

The location is secret on account of legality issues and therefore will be announced at noon time, on the day of the opening.

The exhibition is located in a derelict building that has been abandoned for many years,and was once used for residence. The building remained texture-ridden and saturated with old memories, memories which the artists translate into present time through their artistic interpretation.
The wall paintings are a new periodic layer of paint that add on to the already existing peeled layers of time. The artists use these longstanding layers, which represent remains of personal stories and traces of memories, absorbing the existing textures and inhabiting the building with their artistic and contemporary interpretation.

Although the new layer of paint created for this exhibition is soon to become covered with new layers of a renovated building, it is added to a pool of memories which can’t be evaded and enriches it, when it is bound to be preserved between layers of past and future times.

The location and further details to be announced on www.kindredtimes.blogspot.com

The artists have been prepping the building recently. Here’s a couple pics (plus the Zero Cents piece above is part of the show):

Know Hope

Foma

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Nuart news

On Thursday I’m headed to Stavanger for Nuart 2009, so as a little taster, I’ve been checking out this trailer for a documentary about Nuart 2008.

And of course, been looking at the photos coming out of Nuart 2009. Chris Stain is already there and has put up a few stencils. While they have unfortunately already been buffed, Ian Cox of WallKandy was there to snap some pics. You can see more of Ian’s Nuart photos on his flickr stream.

Chris

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Bomb It screening online

Bomb It is a graffiti/street art documentary with interviews from some of the best known street artists in the world, including reclusive ones like Revs. It’s a great film, but what’s really exciting is that on September 15th it will be available for free online at Babelgum.com. There are already some interviews online with artists like Vitche and Blek le Rat, which you find on the Bomb It microsite.

81_4a9463cd

Also, Babelgum are running a few contests right now relating to street art. The first contest, in conjunction with Bomb It, is the chance to go to Meeting of Styles Sao Paulo. And then there are two contests for film makers. The Metropolis Art Prize is a chance for artists to make films about their work and win $20,000. And there is a separate category for street art videos with a $5,000, so street artists are eligible for both video competitions.

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New Dr. D film

Most of the time I think Dr. D’s work is very hit or miss, but you’ve got to respect the guy for getting up on all those billboards and whatnot. Here’s a new short film about him that shows some of his work and lets the man himself explain a bit why he does what he does.