The Wa, OaKoAk and fra.biancoshock recently teamed up on a project across cities where all three of them made work on the theme of a “safari in the urban jungle.” The work was made in Milan, Berlin, Dusseldorf and St. Etienne. The three artists agreed on a theme, but beyond that each of them had no idea what the other two were making for their contributions to the project.
Photos courtesy of The Wa
ChrisRWK is an artist whose work I’ve followed pretty much since I got interested in street art. He has a strong cult following of fans who love how his work brings joy, and he’s probably one of the go-to artists that people getting started in stickers look to. Chris is the latest artist in the space across the street from Woodward Gallery and he and Veng recently painted a wall in Little Italy for The L.I.S.A. Project (for which I am a co-curator). And then I read this interview and found out that’s he and Veng are doing a print with 1xRun, whom I’ve worked with as well. Basically. All in all, seemed like a great time to ask Chris a few questions…
RJ: What do you look for when you’re thinking about collaborating with another artist?
Chris: Over the years I’ve learned a lot from Collabing with artists. I remember asking artists if they would like to collab back in the day and people had no clue what I meant. Mainly cause no one was doing it on stickers. I had collabed with artists for years on murals and artists have collabed on canvases for years. Some that always struck a chord with me was the Basquiat, Warhol and Clemente canvases. So I figured bring it to stickers. I had been making stickers for years and they’ve always been a favorite medium of mine. From collecting to making, I always loved em. So with some artists I know to just do some hand drawn ones but with other artists I do printed ones. Some artists like El Toro, Bob Will Reign, Under Water Pirates I’ve collabed with for years, since around 2004. With guys like them I always love doing hand drawn ones because of the diversity. They would always do something new. Artists like Royce, MCA/Evil Design, Flying Fortress I’ve done both hand drawn and printed. Printed because of the strength and iconographic imagery.
RJ: Why are stickers an important part of street art and graffiti?
Chris: Stickers have been in graffiti for years but people never paid attention to them. I remember seeing ones with tags on them in the early 90’s when I’d go into Manhattan. In the late 90’s stickers started gaining popularity overseas from what I saw. In 2001 when kevin and I launched robotswillkill.com, stickers were starting to catch on in the US as its own scene. I remember when PEEL magazine contacted me about doing the cover for their first issue. I was amped, a zine all about stickers?!? And I was doing the cover?!? That was in 2003. In the past few years the Graff scene has rediscovered stickers and seems like their appreciation has grown for them. For years it was like they looked down on them. The sticker scene itself has grown over the past few years which is good and bad. You have tons of “artists” who just collect them and use the ones they get to trade up. It’s the baseball card theory, well for this generation maybe the Pokemon card theory. Don’t get me wrong – collecting is cool, but to an extent.
RJ: About how many stickers do you draw or print each year?
Chris: Print I’d say 15-20 thousand. That’s mainly for trades, giveaways etc. I always liked putting up hand drawns. Printed are great for putting up because of longevity and ability to grill an area but there’s something about finding an original on the street. So hand drawn ones I’d say around 10-15 thousand. It’s tough to say cause I just sit down and throw on a movie and do em until the packs empty or the movie is over. So that could be a hundred or couple hundred in a sitting. Also depends on what style I’m doing. If they are black line ones then those I fly threw. If I’m doing color fills, shading etc it’ll be less.
RJ: A lot of your recent paintings feature your trademark characters less prominently than your work has previously. Where are they going? Where are you going?
Chris: Well I’ve always had an array of characters but the Robot always caught everyone’s attention. He became the icon for the stickers, clothes etc. I did him on paintings for years also. The boy and girl characters have gained more recognition in the past few years. Between the murals and canvases I can have them convey more emotion or tell more if a narrative. It’s funny because for years when I’d paint something everyone would say, “Are you doing the robot? I hope you do the robot!” So I did the robot. Nowadays people don’t say that because they’ve become familiar with the rest of my work. Granted when I sign black books, do stickers etc I do the robot. The newer work has subconsciously become more autobiographical. When I was talking to a friend of mine, he made that remark. So I started to think about it and he’s right on some levels. For example Veng and I did a show at Low Brow Artique called “From the Start: a collection of studies” and when I chose my 5 study subjects, they all had a deep connection to me and my life. So for the newer works, I try to tap into that more.
RJ: How was it painting your version of the Mona Lisa in Little Italy?
Chris: To be honest, tough at first. When Wayne from The L.I.S.A Project mentioned it I automatically thought ok time to paint a Mona Lisa. For some reason it didn’t dawn on me right away to do it in my style. I just figured paint Mona Lisa. So after a few sketches I did my style. Wayne showed it to the owners and they loved it. I showed it to Veng and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. This was the perfect project for him to bring back his circles. We put together the sketch fully and it was def meant for the spot. The L.I.S.A Project has a great thing going. It’s funny too because my best friends Godfather ran the restaurant where we painted for years.
RJ: You’re pretty popular on Instagram. What do you think Instagram has done for street art or stickering?
Chris: Things like Instagram have definitely brought more attention to things like street art and stickers. It’s quick and has its own scene. Once you mix things that have their own subculture it’ll only help promote each other. Blogs and stuff helped promote street art for years but were mainly constrained to desktop computers etc so with something like Instagram you have it right on your phone at any moment of the day. People love instant gratification. And to be able to post something from anywhere in the world for anyone in the world to see is amazing.
RJ: Have you got any upcoming projects that you can let us in on?
Chris: I just finished up 4 panels for the Woodward Project space across from the gallery. It’s titled “Those Summer Daze”. Veng and I have a print coming out with 1xRun soon. I’m involved in Sticky Situation NYC by Ink Monstr. I’m working on inventory pieces for Dorian Grey gallery. I’ll be painting at Jersey Fresh Jam. I also have a two man show coming up at Mighty Tanaka with Michael Banks(Sugar Fueled) this October. Oh and also finishing up issue #3 of Surface Area zine. Of course there’ll be some other outdoor art going on.
Photos by ChrisRWK
Shepard Fairey has expressed his disappointment in Obama before, but maybe never with such strong language as he used on his own blog recently when discussing Edward Snowden’s release of documents relating to PRISM and other NSA domestic spying programs. The posters Fairey designed promoting Obama are some of the most iconic political images in a generation, but now Fairey writes, “The extent of Obama’s spying is unacceptable and I feel sickened and betrayed by someone I dedicated a huge amount of time, energy, and money to support based on the way he presented his views as the antithesis of Bush’s. The charge of Edward Snowden with espionage for exposing the Prism program only dims my view of the Obama administration further.”
In the same blog post, Fairey defends Snowden writing, “I got choked up today thinking of the courage it takes to expose a horrible problem when you know you will be brutalized as a consequence. I see nationalism as falling in line with the govt. agenda regardless of how morally flawed it is, while I see patriotism as doing what pushes the country in a morally superior direction, even if it conflicts with govt. policy. We need more patriots and fewer nationalists.”
There have been a few great parodies of Fairey’s Obama images in light of Snowden’s revelations, and Fairey told the LA Times that he’s happy that people are subverting his work to critique Obama.
You can read Fairey’s full post about Snowden, Bradley Manning, and Prism here and his full comments to the LA Times here.
Photo by Daquella manera
Thanks to the always reliable Ekosystem for turning me on the work of SY. I’m really liking his crisp and clean style, looks like a 3D animation or graphic designed in Illustrator and then printed out onto the wall, but it’s paint.
Photos by SY
I’m enjoying these two new works by 2501 in Bastiglia, Italy. They were painted for the Icone 5.9 Festival, where each artist in the festival paints a wall in a different town in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Last May, an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 5.9 hit the region, hence the name of the festival and the motivation behind it.
I especially like this second wall because it’s part of 2501’s Dynamic Influences series, where he works with the space he is given and embraces the changing shadows as part of the work rather than thinking of the shadows as a hindrance to properly viewing the piece.
Photos by 2501
Okay I’m gonna write this quickly and get outside, because it’s basically been cloudy and rainy for two straight weeks in Philadelphia and now there’s finally some sun. But just in case the weather where you are isn’t so nice, here are some links:
Photo by carnagenyc
Chicago’s Vertical Gallery has a group show opening this weekend featuring the work of some of the world’s top stencil artists (and some artists who are just stencil artists in the world). sten(t)-səl includes over a dozen artists, including John Fekner, XOOOOX, Aiko and Rene Gagnon. It opens this Saturday from 6-10pm and runs through July 27th.
Photos courtesy of Vertical Gallery
Here’s more from Public Art Horsens in Horsens, Denmark, organized by Henrik Haven and ArtRebels’ Simon Caspersen. Today we have some work from Escif and Pøbel. Pøbel is funny as usual, but Escif really knocked it out of the park with this one. Personally, I look at his piece as a commentary on the way that murals have become a new form of plop art.
Photos by Henrik Haven
I love when paintings, and particularly murals, look like they are capturing a bit of motion rather than some static eternity, and that’s why I love this mural by INTI. It was painted in Hasselt, Belgium for Street Art Festival Belgium. The title is San Dunguero 2.
Photos courtesy of Street Art Festival Belgium
Brad Downey was just in Horsens, Denmark for Public Art Horsens. While Sam3’s visit very clearly resulted in some nice public art. Brad was his usual awesome self, so his contributions were a bit more complicated and I’m not sure how they will be received (but I’m sure glad for the photos).
Photos by Henrik Haven
