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.
Posted on

Opening soon at Carmichael Gallery

This month’s offerings at Carmichael Gallery are a bit different from their usual fare. In the front gallery, Guy Denning has a solo show, and in the rear gallery, an all female group show called A Mirror Distorted. I say these are a bit different because only one artist of the whole bunch works on the street. The rest are considered part of the enigma that is urban art. Both shows open on August 6th.

Guy Denning

From Slamxhype:

Celebrity Will Eat Itself explores the notion of the eternally solipsistic über-celebrity in all its splendor, hedonism, and pain. With intense brushstrokes and a dynamic use of texture, Denning unravels the darkness inherent in the socially dysfunctional idols of our time and the potentially damaging effects of Hollywood idolatry on both the idols and the idol-worshippers.

Says Denning, “I think this obsession is damaging not only to cultural growth but also to general social well-being and development.”

Denning has long entranced fans with the striking style and ethereal beauty of his androgynous portraiture. Sexual and temporal politics, objectification and isolation are illuminated through a carefully honed juxtaposition of shape and shade. His paintings blend an elegant classical form with an unflinching reflection upon issues that dog contemporary Western society.

Carmichael

From Carmichael Gallery:

Carmichael Gallery invites you to attend A Mirror Distorted, an all-female international group show featuring new works on canvas, paper and mixed media fabric by artists Andrea Michaelsson, Candice Tripp, Cherri Wood and Pam Glew.

Posted on

A Vandalog street art exhibition

Could I be anymore excited right now? Probably not. Finally, it’s time to announce what I’ve been planning quietly for a while now.

Vandalog Impressive

This November, I’ll be curating an exhibition of jaw-droppingly impressive street art in London. One day, street art will be in the Tate Modern and there will probably be a museum or two devoted to it, but for now, there is London on November 18th. This exhibition will feature original work by some of the top names in street art: Faile, Banksy, KAWS, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Herakut, Barry McGee and many more. Most of the work will come from private collections, but there will be a few brand new pieces direct from the artists. Naturally I’m bias about this whole exhibition, but I think it’s going to look pretty amazing.

Last summer, the Tate Modern put street art outside their museum, and this year the Bristol Museum let Banksy take over for a few months. Those are definite steps in the right direction, but I’m organizing this exhibition to show to the art world and the public that there are great works of art within the sphere of “street art,” and that street artists deserve a place in art history. Unlike any show that a gallery can organize (not that there’s anything wrong with art galleries), the goal of this exhibition is not to sell work, but to publicize it, and the vast majority of the work on display won’t be for sale. It’s on loan from collectors. To help extend that promotion effort even further, Drago Lab will be publishing a companion book to the exhibition.

You might be wondering, why it is that I keep saying “the exhibition” instead of whatever I’ve decided to call this project? I’ve decided to reach out to the greater street art community for suggestions on what I should name the exhibition. I had a few ideas myself, but I figure somebody out there must have a better name for it than I can possibly come up with. So if you have an idea of what I should call this project, just email it to rj@vandalog.com and let me know.  I don’t want to turn this into a contest, since it’s more about trying to reach out to the global community of street art fans, but whoever comes up with a name will definitely get a shout out on Vandalog.

The exhibition will be open from November 18th through the 22nd of November at Village Underground in London (54 Holywell Lane, London, EC2A 3PQ).

Also, if you’re a UK based street art collector and interested in getting involved with this project, I’m still looking for more artwork to borrow so just shoot me an email (rj@vandalog.com).

Posted on

Vhils book and print releases

Italy Vhils

And Vhils is back on top in my book. Man has he been busy. First, the work he’s done at Truman Brewery here in London. Then his work at the Fame Festival in Italy (photo above). Now, he’s got a super limited edition book being released and some new hand worked prints at Lazarides. In the gallery, prints are what I think Vhils does best, so a new print from him is always exciting to me. Here’s some info from Lazarides about the prints and his book:

As the hugely successful “Scratching The Surface” exhibition by Vhils (aka Alexandre Farto) draws to a close at our Rathbone Place gallery this Saturday, the action moves to our Greek Street Shop this coming Friday, the 31st of July, with the highly anticipated release of a rather special edition of our favourite Portugeezer’s first book and 3 new hand-finished prints for Lazarides.

Featuring a lazer-cut front cover, the full colour, 80 page, 28 x 22 cm, hard-back book ‘Scratching The Surface’ is also signed by the artist, is strictly limited to only 100 copies worldwide, and costs £45.

Vhils has also been hard at work hand-finishing 3 new prints for us, and we’re pleased to announce that we’ll be making available 10 variants of each edition to be displayed at our Shop on Greek Street from 10 am this Friday. Each print is from an overall varied edition of 30, measures 70 x 49.5 cm, is signed by the artist, and available to purchase at £350. Whilst both the book and prints can be ordered by calling the Shop on 0203 214 0055/0066, those buying in person have the advantage of being able to select their favourite version and take it home right there and then.

Vhils print

Posted on

Jonathan LeVine summer show

levine

Beach Blanket Bingo is the summer group show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York. Some of the artists I’m looking forward to seeing work from are AJ Fosik, Onesto, Anthony Lister, Ron English, Elbowtoe and Dan Witz. In fact, here is one of Elbowtoe’s pieces, which I absolutely love. I think it might be a bit London inspired.

Elbowtoe