Never2501 recently painted a truck and a wall for the ParisFreeWalls project, an ongoing mural project in Paris.
Photos courtesy of ParisFreeWalls
Never2501 for ParisFreeWalls
Jetsonorama in Durango, CO
Jetsonorama was recently invited to Durango, Colorado to put up a mural, but the story of how the wall came to be is as interesting as the finished product. The mural, headless heroes of the apocalypse, is from a photo that Jetsonorama took while he was in Baltimore earlier this year for Open Walls Baltimore, and now it seems that Durango’s city council is warming up to public art a bit like Baltimore, with special thanks to an 11-year-old boy. Here’s what Jetsonorama wrote about the situation:
in durango my crew there (nick jones, aaron schmitt and brian raymond simmonds) told me about what they went through to get the wall i was going to work on. this past spring they had a graff show called open art surgery: an exploration of public art where a small group of artists from all over the country came for a gallery show. several people collaborated for a kick ass mural loved by the community on the side of a gas station with the owner’s approval. however, the mural violated the city’s sign code. so rather than let the wall go since the mural had so much community support, aaron and his friends met with the city council (i think it was) and presented information at a public forum on the issue as to why the mural should keep running. one of the objections the city had was that the artists hadn’t prepped the wall and the mural was already starting to peel.
dig that. that was one of the city’s concerns as opposed to being totally closed to the possibility of starting a mural program. one of the people who stood before an audience of his community members was 11 year old nick brieger, a big time fan of street art. he was devastated at the thought of the mural leaving. he and his dad know where the spots are around town and will go watch writers paint asking them questions about the process. brian totally digs the art form.
yeah, so anyway – nick was happier than a pig in stink to be working with us yesterday and we were happy to have him there. it’s his wall. he stood before city council and fought for it.
Photos by Jetsonorama
Nanook updates (plus a bit of Ever)
The work of Baltimore-based artist Nanook has been appearing around the world a bit lately. Here’s work of his in Italy, Germany and Canada. His mural in Foligno, Italy with Ever is part of Attack Festival, which looks like they will have more artists coming to Foligno through September including Ericailcane, Sten&Lex and Moneyless.
Photos courtesy of Nanook
Weekend link-o-rama
I’m off for a few days of traveling. Expect lots of pictures. Here’s what we missed on Vandalog this week:
- Endless Canvas has organized a show of murals in an old factory in the Bay Area. They are using Kickstarter to get the show off the ground, and could use some help.
- These abstract pieces by 1010 and Bemie are pretty great.
- And more abstract work by Cron.
- The zine and print from Lush’s London show are now available online.
- Saber and Revok have shows opening Saturday evening at Known Gallery.
- A stellar new print from WK Interact is available at Jonathan Levine Gallery.
- The ATG crew will be showing at Stolenspace Gallery in August.
- Arrested Motion has a preview of the upcoming Barry McGee retrospective.
- Keep an eye on 12ozProphet’s Instagram for behind-the-scenes photos of the upcoming Os Gemeos show at the ICA Boston, opening next week.
- Some beautiful new work from MOMO in Spain and Rome.
- Something a bit different from Pixelpancho in Russia.
Photo by Rub Kandy
NYPD paints over a legal mural by KET
A mural by Alan Ket, Noxer and Tres (pictured above) was buffed by two NYPD officers this week. Ket says that the store owner was contacted by the police about having the painting removed, even though it was painted legally. Ket was planning to go talk to the police and see what was up, but then the police just went ahead and painted over it. The owner of the store where the wall is let the police go ahead and paint over the wall once they had started because she did not want any problems with them. More on this censorship at Hyperallergic.
Photo courtesy of Alan Ket
NoseGo painting live this Friday
NoseGo, one of Philadelphia’s best-loved and most-talented muralists, will be doing some live painting in Philadelphia this Thursday FRIDAY on at The Shaft, an open air gallery space on Broad Street.
The exhibit is part of a curatorial practice program being taught to UArts MFA students by Maiza Hixson and Lauren Ruth.
If you search around the internet, you may notice that Artists 4 Israel (a controversial organization) had been advertising this exhibit and saying that they are involved in it. This is no longer the case. Based on the group’s Facebook page, it appears that they are interpreting this situation as being “banned in Philly” and “censorship,” but I’m pretty sure that a gallery/curators deciding to part ways with an organization is not the same as censorship of that organization (although, ironically, I did have to Photoshop the Artists 4 Israel logo out of the above flyer). Personally, I would not work with a Tea Party-affiliated organization on an exhibit, but I’m not trying to censor tea partiers. Anyway…
Let’s all have a good time seeing NoseGo paint some cool stuff on Thursday FRIDAY!
WALL\THERAPY – part 1
WALL\THERAPY, Rochester’s mural festival, looks like it’s going well so far. Here are a few shots of walls in progress (from Liqen, Case, How/Nosm and DALeast), plus How and Nosm’s completed mural…
Photos by Erich Lehman
Seeing the city with OX
OX has the very admirable ability to look at the city and see the potential for art just about anywhere. He finds billboards, looks at what’s around them, and uses those surroundings to inspire his takeovers of billboard spaces. For OX, even things as seemingly mundane as a concrete wall can provide inspiration. If street art is about making people look at the city differently, OX has most other street artists beat. Here’s some recent work from him in and around Paris.
Photos by OX
Banksy weighs in on Olympics, but what’s the next step?
Today Banksy‘s website was updated with two new Olympics-themed pieces. It’s not yet clear where these new stencils are located, but London is a good bet. If they are in London, that’s going to make for an interesting situation as someone is going to have to decide whether or not to paint over these walls which are suddenly valuable tourist attractions. The stated position of the authorities is that any illegal Olympics-themed street art or graffiti is going to be destroyed ASAP, but maybe public outcry and monetary incentives could make Banksy an exception. This is especially interested given the recent round-up by British police of former graffiti writers. The Atlantic has more on this potential controversial situation.
I like seeing more art on the street, and I like these pieces by Banksy. If this work is buffed, that’s two more grey walls in London. But allow them to remain unbuffed sets an unfair double standard (particularly punishing graffiti writers). The system would be preserving street art, but in an unjust way. So, should they stay or should they go? What do you think?
Via Colossal
Photos courtesy of Banksy
ND’A and LNY in Mexico City
LNY and ND’A visited Mexico earlier this month. Of course, they did some painting while they were there, including at el Museo Del Juguete Antiguo Mexico.
Photos courtesy of LNY and ND’A