Well, somebody had to make the worst looking advertisement of the year, I just didn’t expect it to be Hounslow:
More info on the campaign at the press release.
Via Animal New York
Found on Flickr
Found these on flickr today. I don’t know this guy’s name, but it looks stunning.
Photos from a guy whose name consists of symbols
Faile Prayer Wheel in New York
This “prayer wheel” popped up recently in New York City. Don’t expect it to last long though, after all, its only made of wood.
A number of these were in Faile’s fall show in London in 2008, and it’s great to see them on the street. If I remember correctly, the wheels are all hand carved and painted (though if that’s done by Faile or by some assistant they’ve hired who knows woodworking, I’m not sure).
Photos by sabeth718
Aaron Rose Curates at Circleculture Gallery
Aaron Rose of Beautiful Losers fame is currated a show currently at Circleculture Gallery in Berlin with Barry McGee, Ed Templeton, and Raymond Pettibon. All the vital info can be found here. A few images below:
More on the show here
Jonathan Jones’ Attack on Street Art
I’ve just read Jonathan Jones’ piece on why he considered nominating Banksy for the Turner Prize. In it Jones brushes street art aside as a lesser art form and nothing but “something that scares old people on estates.” This is not the first time Jones has been critical of street art or Banksy in particular, but it is odd, as just a few months ago, he suggested that state-funded graffiti murals could help discover the next Jackson Pollock.
So maybe Jones only likes graffiti and not street art. Fine. I’ll accept that, even though it raises the much larger issue of what is graffiti and what is street art (a topic for another day, not that anybody really knows a good answer to that question). Back to Jones’ original point.
The paragraph I take the most issue with is this one:
Anyway, I believe in education. The reason I don’t like street art is that it’s not aesthetic, it’s social. To celebrate it is to celebrate ignorance, aggression, all the things our society excels at. For middle class people to find artistic excitement in something that scares old people on estates is a bit sick.
How is street art not aesthetic? How can Jones look at the work done by artists like Adam Neate or Swoon and say “those artists clearly had no intention of creating a beautiful image, or if they did, they have failed miserably?” Maybe Jones is just not exposed to enough street art. The media tends to focus on street artists doing stencils (all good and well, just not usually, save for C215, primarily about creating a pretty picture), and Jones is in the media so he sees the street art that the rest of the media shows him.
And again, this whole bit about street art scaring old people. Has he ventured to look outside of Banksy, Nick Walker, and D*Face? Jose Parla is certainly not intending to scare old people with his work.
There is hope for you yet Mr. Jones. I would urge you to have a look at a few of these street and urban artists who might be more to your liking:
1. Adam Neate
2. Matt Small
3. Jose Parla
4. Judith Supine
5. Keith Haring
6. Dan Witz
7. Swoon
8. Doze Green
9. Faile
10. JR
Any other suggestions for Mr. Jones? I just did this list off the top of my head, so I’m sure I’m missing plenty of people.
Thanks to Caroline W1 sending me Jones’ article
Latest ABOVE Print Release
This has got to be ABOVE’s best print release in a while (or maybe I’m just starting to love British culture after 4 years here). “Union Jack Arrows” combines Above’s classic arrows with his tendency to embrace other cultures where he paints. As Art of The State points out, this print is based on an image ABOVE painted in the UK back in 2005. I’m seriously tempted to pick this print up, but I’m saving most of my money right now for summer travels.
Here’s the press release (and you can buy it here):
PRINT NAME: “UNION JACK ARROWS”
EDITION SIZE: 70 REGULAR EDITION (RED/BLUE) + 20 SPECIAL EDITION (ORANGE/GREEN)
PRICE: REGULAR EDITION (RED/BLUE) = 69.00 BRITISH POUNDS /// SPECIAL EDITION (ORANGE/GREEN) = 99.00 BRITISH POUNDS.
LIMIT PER PERSON: 2 PRINTS PER PERSON TOTAL *(ONLY 1 SPECIAL EDITION PER PERSON)
PAPER/INK: 7-COLOR HAND PULLED SCREEN PRINT ON 22 IN. X 15 IN. ( 56 cm. X 38 cm. ) LENNOX 100 ARCHIVAL WHITE 250 GSM.
*EVERY PRINT IS CUSTOM EMBOSSED, SIGNED, DATED AND NUMBERED BY ABOVE.
AS ALWAYS, ABOVE DESIGNED AND SCREEN PRINTED EVERYTHING HIMSELF. IT DOESN’T GET MORE PERSONAL THAN THIS!
And here is the special edition orange and green version:
Buy the print on ABOVE’s website.
Art on Fire
Street art seems to encompass just about everything under the sun that can be done outside. Now that includes setting things on fire.
Recently, Ellis G. used spray cans as flamethrowers for the Hollowood show at the Carmichael Gallery (yes that was inside, but its a street artist, and he may very well try this technique on the street, who knows?):
And Hurt You Bad recently featured work this from Daniel Art on flickr:
See the awesome result after the jump… Continue reading “Art on Fire”
Enjoy Banking
Last month I posted about recession inspired street art. One of the pieces I put in that post was a wheatpaste that said “Enjoy Economic Slowdown.” Turns out, that was made by a person/group called Enjoy Banking and they’ve got a whole set of these slogans. Apparently, they’ve been popping up in New York lately.
Gaia’s Predator
While I was away on vacation, Gaia released a new print at Paperworks Laboratories called “Predator.” Unfortunately, the print has already sold out, but it looks pretty as a print and on the street, so it’s worth a look:
Matt Small Video Interview Part One
A little over a week ago I had the chance to see with Matt Small and we spoke about his show Youngstarrs, which is currently on at Black Rat Press in London. Here’s part one of that interview, the rest will be coming online in the coming days. The audio isn’t great, so below the video you can read the transcript.
Also, for some great pictures of the show, check out WallKandy’s flickr set.
Transcript:
RJ: Okay, so we’re here with Matt Small at Black Rat Press for what’s the show called?
Matt: It would be called Youngstarrs.
RJ: Right. It opened last week, and I guess you’re gonna explain to us some of the paintings.
Matt: Well, the show, Youngstarrs, kinda I wanted to do a project about kids I suppose. At the end of the day, these kids are us. Because that’s who we are: big kids. I just thought I thought it would be lovely to have this huge theme of young people. Young people that are living and growing up in today’s society. These young kids who walk round up the roundabouts and they’ve all got their futures ahead of them. You know whatever in the end, whatever negative things, so many worrying stories about what’s happened with our youth and we worry about where they’re gonna be. I’ve got a young child myself, he’s seven. He’d say that’s your formative years. You know that’s really where you become who you are as a person. That’s where [inaudible]. That’s where futures start to really kind of, you know, to be cemented and such. As well as [inaudible] you really kind of becoming you as a person, which is like: do we believe that, [inaudible] we can tell with the recession and [inaudible] and this crime and do we think that our little kids are gonna be down in the scrap heap or do we just see them as these beautiful little angels like “young stars” as such? They’re like stars in the sky. They’re shining bright and that be me is what I think that my little kid, that’s what I thought of him. I can’t see him in a negative way, I can’t see his friends in the negative, I can’t see their futures in anything but the positive, a positive termed vernacular, because I think that that would be failing them. And I’m getting sick and tired of The Daily Mail and all those sort of papers that just talk about how everything’s terrible and the world’s gone to pot because I can’t think like that. So that’s more than your [inaudible]. That’s in the same vein as like, the concrete people, and I’ll do my best to sort of make my kid’s future as bright as possible and I think that’s the [inaudible] in kids. That’s the potential of them all. I think that that should be giving the right message that I’m trying to say, and it is saying that we’ve all got stories, we’ve all been somewhere, we’ve all wanted to have something different in our lives and [inaudible] sometimes takes us to where we don’t wanna be [inaudible] everyone’s got a story. And I’d like to think that when people look at this they sort of see themselves in them. These little young people. It’s like, well, I had the whole world ahead of me, and my story is still continuing but things I might have wanted to do or things that I think I can’t do, I didn’t get the chance, or I wish that this didn’t happen. I might be this place. Or I just think it’s really interesting to think about these children who, they are us. They got the world ahead of them. I think of these as self portraits. They’re all me. I was that little kid once. I don’t know why what happened to me [inaudible] there’s things I could have done I didn’t do it because of life’s little scenarios and what we thought we couldn’t achieve if someone’s saying you can’t do it. And that’s what I’m saying, life starts to inform your mind and tell you what you can and can’t do and I just think, I don’t want that to happen around my kid. I think each one of these kids has got the potential to become world leaders and something incredible [inaudible]. It doesn’t matter if they’re from dodgy or a bad estate or bad area or they’ve got bad things happening around them. They’ve got the chance to grow in a positive place. These are the young stars.
RJ: So it’s sort of like right before, or right as they are sort of realizing that the world might not be that perfect place, but at this point, it still is for all these people.
Matt: It’s totally that. That’s what I see. Like within contemporary London (for me) or wherever you live. You think that these kids are gonna be all savvy and they’re gonna be all different to how we were when we were as little kids. They’re not. They’re still playing tag and they’re still very cheeky and funny and they haven’t been burnt yet. They haven’t had their fingers singed. They’ve still got a lot of energy and a lot of potential. I think that’s exactly what I see every day. As I say I’m at my child’s school. I see that.