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.
LA’s Corey Helford Gallery (who do advertise on Vandalog) have teamed up with London’s Black Rat Projects to put on a show, called Letters From America, in London on the 4th of July. Because the 4th is Independence Day in America, Corey Helford Gallery are bringing over a team of four American street artists to show at Black Rat Projects: Risk, Saber, TrustoCorp and Ron English. There aren’t many more details available for now, but I’ve been a lot of very exciting whispers about this show…
Israeli street artist Klone sent over photos of some of his recent works in Tel Aviv and Berlin. Residents of Berlin should keep an eye out for Klone, as he has a show opening there soon.
We’ve got more today from Ad Hoc Art’s Welling Court Mural Project. John Fekner and Don Leicht (studio visit) are two of my favorite stencil artists, and two of street art history’s most underrated pioneers. John sent over these photos of their contributions to this year’s Welling Court Mural Project, which included new works and additions to their piece from two years ago. About the additions, Fekner says, “We were prepped to do a new wall ¢hange$, but decided to update the wall as a tribute to graffiti artist Comp, Michael Wolovich (1989-2012) who painted the original wall with us in 2010.”
John Fekner. Photo by Jeewon Shin.
Here’s what Fekner has to say about this piece:
The stencil project, He Was Simply A Guy Who Painted Messages In The Street is intended to function on two levels.
Most every artist will do a self-portrait at some point in his or her career. Mine is not a traditional portrait; it is a self-portrait with words.
Every individual is unique in the world and has something to contribute no matter how small the thought or message might be. Perhaps a work on the street may provide a laugh or help someone get through a difficult moment, an anxious night, a period of strife or uncertainty in their life. Yes, some people may not like it; but art on the street is for everyone. It may be funny, soothing, insightful, joyous or reflective. It is an instant of communication intent on causing an immediate reaction on the viewer.
The project is also a tribute to every unknown individual whoever grafftied, scrawled, scratched, wheat-pasted, stenciled or spray painted without the public ever knowing the name of the anonymous person.
An artist’s knowledge is their trade. Artists are here to visually express and share universal concepts of peace, love, hope, compassion, equality and understanding with the general public. Art in unexpected places: anywhere, anytime, anyplace and everyone.
ParisFreeWalls is a mural program in Paris that have organized 11 walls since last November, including contributions from some of my favorite artists. It’s being curated by MSAGallery. Here are a few of the highlights from the program so far.
Thanks to Target for introducing me to the work of Pantónio, who has been getting up in the city of Porto in Portugal. Here are a few of Target’s photos, and you can find many more on his blog.
After months of work, Olive47 has finished this large mural which wraps around an entire block of buildings. It’s in the Lakewood Heights neighborhood of Atlanta.
SKL0 is a street artist in Singapore who may be facing up to 3 years in prison for allegedly putting up fantastic stickers and fake road signs. This petition was started to hopefully get the authorities in Singapore to lessen the charges against SKL0.
This post on Hyperallergic pretty much exactly echos my thoughts about a Kickstarter project that hopes to raise $1 million to temporarily cover New York’s water tanks in art by celebrities and celebrity artists (and a couple of cool artists too, admittedly).
Chelsea Davison is a copywriter in New York City who recently came up with a great new way to play the classic game Truth or Dare. She made a series of 300 cards, each with an option for a “truth” and an option for a “dare” on them, and distributed the cards in Washington Square Park. Some of happened next is shown in this video:
While in town for his fantastic solo show, Jaz spent a bit of time putting up a mural in Barcelona (not an easy thing to do legally due to some mural regulations about as screwed up as what LA has, except the laws in Barcelona are actually enforced).
