The London Police head to Newcastle

The London Police are getting ready for their first solo show in Newcastle at Unit 44. A Night with The London Police opens on May 11th (6-9pm) and runs through the 18th. So it’s not actually just one night with TLP, but if their past openings are anything to go by, that will be the night to go and check out the show. In addition to prints and paintings at the show, The London Police will be painting a “huge” new mural while they are in Newcastle.

Photo courtesy of Unit 44

Eloquent Vandals: A History of Nuart Norway

Chris Stain at Nuart 2009

The Nuart festival of Stavanger, Norway is one of a handful of trailblazing street art festivals that have been popping up over the last decade or so. Actually the predate most, if not all, of the significant festivals. Last year, the organizers of the festival put together a book documenting Nuart’s history, Eloquent Vandals: A History of Nuart Norway.

Extensive photographic documentation of Nuart is already available, but Eloquent Vandals also has texts that you won’t find anywhere else. Essays by Logan Hicks, Carlo McCormick and Brooklyn Street Art’s Steven Harrington and Jaime Rojo provide some context for the festival and the festivities that happen there.

Hicks gives the inside scoop on what it is like to be a participant at Nuart. He acknowledges what so many artists and festival organizers really love about places like Nuart: The best festivals are made up of the best people, and the best parts of the festivals are the unexpected fun bits, not the murals. The artwork mostly just facilitates the good times and helps to justify to the rest of the world why a bunch of people getting together in a small city in Norway.

McCormick’s essay begins with one of my new favorite quotes about public art “Public art, when it is commissioned and produced according to some vague idea of the public good, is by and large really lousy art – and as such arguably the very last thing people need.” He goes on to show how festivals like Nuart can breath new life into the realm of public art.

Harrington and Rojo’s essay is not only the most important in the book, but one of the most important essays written about street art in this decade. They lay out what so many of us have thought about, but few have written about so eloquently and with such serious consideration: THE INTERNET IS REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF CONTEMPORARY STREET ART. Sounds simple and obvious right? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than what I just wrote and the complicated aspects of this obvious fact deserve serious consideration, a conversation that Harrington and Rojo have now begun.

If you are interested in street art festivals like Nuart, and especially if you are one of the many people out there thinking of starting a street art festival, I highly suggest that you pick up a copy of Eloquent Vandals: A History of Nuart Norway.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Jeff Soto for Chevy

Jeff Soto recently worked with Chevy on an ad for the Chevy Sonic. I’ve got some problems with advertising, advertisers working with artists and advertising that co-opts street art and graffiti to sell dumb crap. But I’m pleasantly surprised that this advertisement actually kind of works. At the end of the day, the world is left with a new mural by Jeff Soto, and that mural doesn’t have a massive Chevy logo on it, just an engine block. Is the concept a bit cheesy? Perhaps. Is calling the piece “street art” irritating? Sure, but expected. Even I oversimplify at times by calling murals (or in this case, pseudo-murals) street art. And the ad still way better than 90% of the street-art-related advertisements out there. So, an awkward kudos to Chevy for not screwing this up, I guess…

Also, Eine later modified the mural.

Via Arrested Motion

Retna – Time Traveler trailer

Retna‘s latest solo show opens on April 24th at Art Careyes Gallery at the Costa Careyes resort in Careyes, Mexico. And yes, I just repeated “Careyes” 3 times, but it’s not my fault that everything relating to this show seems to have that in the name. Anyway, the show is called Time Traveler. Here’s a beautiful video trailer for the show:

Completed G40 murals in Richmond, Virginia – Part 3

Angry Woebots. Photo by Bill Dickinson

Our coverage of all the murals for Art Whino‘s G40 Art Summit finishes with work by Pixel Pancho, Angry Woebots, 2501, Jaz and Lelo. Check out part 1 here and part 2 here. My goal over these posts was to get completed photos of every mural. Unfortunately we didn’t accomplish that goal, but I got close and at least posted all of the major ones. Such is the curse of trying to only use photos with the photographer’s permission… Anyway, most of the last of the G40 Art Summit murals can be found after the jump. Continue reading “Completed G40 murals in Richmond, Virginia – Part 3”

Weekend link-o-rama

ND'A in Bushwick

This week I’ve got a rather major correction to make. A few days ago, I wrote about a piece by Jeice2 where it looked like he went over a bunch of tags with with a poster. Turns out, the poster was just taped on for the purpose of a photograph, and so the graffiti was not covered.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been looking at this week:

Photo by Mike Pearce