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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Basik goes meme

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Haha, wow. At first glance, this piece by Basik in Rimini, Italy might appear to be a beautiful painting of two hands with a heptagon in between the hands. But, particularly keeping in mind the “CX” in the middle of the heptagon, see if it reminds you of anything a bit less nice to look at.

The piece, titled Goatse is a reference to the goatse.cx meme (don’t worry, that’s just a link to Wikipedia), a disgusting/super not safe for work shock image that has been floating around the web since the late 1990’s. It’s one of the more disturbing non-violent images on the internet. I’m not sure what to think about this wall, but this seemed worth sharing.

Photo courtesy of Basik

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Living Walls release their first printed project

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Living Walls, Altanta’s public art organization focused on work by street artists and graffiti writers, are released their first printed work this week. Living Walls Volumes focuses on their work with the French artist Roti and his experiences in Atlanta (the most famous experience being that the mural he painted was partially buffed by local community members who objected to the content). The launch party for the book is on Tuesday at Criminal Records in Atlanta.

I haven’t seen much of the finished product, but I’m really excited for Living Walls Volumes. The Roti story is a really interesting and complex one that deserves some serious consideration, the book looks really well designed, and I wrote the forward. So, if you make it out to the launch, leave a comment in this post and let me know what you think of the book.

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Photos courtesy of Living Walls

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Watch: OBEY THE GIANT, first Shepard Fairey biopic, now online

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OBEY THE GIANT, the long-awaited short film by Julian Marshall, is now streaming for free online. The film tells the story of Shepard Fairey‘s first billboard takeover, which he did for an assignment while he was at the Rhode Island School of Design. This is not a documentary with grainy footage from 20 years ago. It is a biopic staring Josh Wills as the college-aged Shepard Fairey. Such a cool project. A must-watch for fans (and also probably haters) of Shepard Fairey. I’m glad to be able to share OBEY THE GIANT with you here:

OBEY THE GIANT – The Story of Shepard Fairey from Julian Marshall on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of OBEY THE GIANT

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Nug show coming soon to Amsterdam

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Swedish graffiti writer Nug (of running around a train station like a crazy man fame) will be showing later this month at Unruly Gallery in Amsterdam. I’m a big fan of Nug and the folks at Unruly, so I’m glad to see them getting together.

Nug is one of the most controversial artists in Sweden, with the country’s Minister of Culture being a particularly famous hater. I love these quotes about Nug’s work by current and former Ministers of Culture from around Europe:

  •  “This isn’t art. This is damage and vandalism.” – Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth (Minister of Culture, Sweden)
  • “A Minister of Culture should not decide what is art and what is not. As a happy reminder of this, I have a print of Nug’s Territorial Pissing hanging on my office wall.” – Paavo Arhinmäki (Minister of Culture, Finland)
  • “A Minister of Culture is allowed to think a lot of things about about art and culture. That it should tempt people to watch or listen to it. That it should be relevant to society. That it should be critical; encourage change. But beautiful or ugly? Fortunately, that’s not up to the Minister to decide.” – Hedy d’Ancona (former Minister of Culture, Netherlands)

The show opens on April 26th (5-8pm) and will only be up for that weekend. Opening night will also double as the launch of a new book from Nug. Get there early because Nug will be signing 70 copies of his book and the first 10 people to purchase a book will also get a vinyl record of Nug’s soundtrack.

Nug’s book, I am just Trying to be Nice, will be available online here after the launch. Each copy of the book features a unique cover painted by Nug. This video sheds some light on that:

I am just trying to be nice – NUG from John on Vimeo.

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Photos courtesy of Unruly Gallery

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Weekend link-o-rama

"The American Cousins" by Cekis in Fleury-Les Aubrais, France
“The American Cousins” by Cekis in Fleury-Les Aubrais, France

So as finals exams and essays begin to creep up on me (70-ish pages to write in the next month), these link-o-rama posts are going to become essential until the school year is up, so you know, I encourage you to read them closely.

Photo courtesy of Ville de Fleury-les-Aubrais

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Henrik Haven’s Copenhagen – Part 1

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Click to view large

It’s damn near impossible to get a sense of a city’s street art or graffiti from a handful of shots, but Henrik Haven has gone above and beyond with this set of photos of graffiti in Copenhagen. We’ll be posting the photos in four parts over the next few days. Rather than mention some artists in the photos and neglect others, I’m just going to leave the photos without artist credits. Read the names if you’re interested in who painted what.

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Continue reading “Henrik Haven’s Copenhagen – Part 1”