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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Let’s talk: Discussions this week in NYC and ATL

Gaia and Nanook

This week, there are at least three discussions about street art and graffiti that look worth checking out.

The first two events are in New York at screenings of the film Vigilante Vigilante. VV is a film that I’ve been hoping to see for at least a year. It’s about the people who take graffiti removal into their own hands and paint over graffiti without permission. Here’s the trailer. VV has two screenings in New York this week at the Maysles Cinema: Wednesday and Friday at 7:30pm. After Wednesday’s screening, there will be a discussion with director Max Good, artists ESPO (aka Steve Powers) and Lava 1 & 2. After Friday’s screening, there will be a conversation between Max Good and retired Vandal Squad Cop Steve Mona. Either event should be interesting, but I’ll be at Friday’s screening (although I might have to bail on the discussion in favor of Fountain’s opening party. We’ll see). You can buy tickets for Vigilante Vigilante and read more about the film and the post-screening events online.

The final discussion is on Sunday evening in Atlanta. Living Walls Concepts is bringing Gaia and Nanook, both participants in the Living Walls Conference since its inception, to town to discuss “the impact of mural projects on urban areas” and “the importance of illegal street work and direct action.” Given their years at Living Walls and other mural festivals and Gaia’s experience starting up the brand new mural project Open Walls Baltimore, this should be something pretty special. You can find details of the event here.

Photo by Nanook

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Retna at the historical Bowery/Houston wall

Photo by i_follow

Keith Haring. Daze. Os Gemeos. Barry McGee. All of these artists have painted murals at the same spot at Bowery and Houston in New York City. The Street Spot has a history of the spot over the last five years, but it’s been being painted since at least the 1980’s. This week, Retna became the most recent great artist to paint at Bowery and Houston. Unfortunately, I’m not on the east coast right now because I would have loved to have seen this mural being painted, but plenty of New York photographers have been over to document the new mural both in progress on Monday and Tuesday and as a completed piece. Check out some of my favorite shots by Matthew Kraus after the jump… Continue reading “Retna at the historical Bowery/Houston wall”

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Sickboy’s heads to White Walls with “Wonder Club”

Sickboy has a solo show coming up next week in San Fransisco at White Walls Gallery. It will be Sickboy’s “first major US solo show” (whatever that means). Wonder Club, made up of a new body of work, opens on March 17th and runs through April 7th. While Londoners are probably quite familiar with Sickboy’s work on the street and in the gallery, this show should be something a bit new and very fun for San Franciscans.

Photos by Joanna Dudderidge

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Weekend link-o-rama

Ludo in Paris

It’s officially spring break, which meant the last week for me has primarily consisted of sitting at my desk where I read and type furiously until my eyes are tearing up and my fingers are sore. It also means I could only blog when procrastinating and that the next few days should be a chance to write some longer posts that I’ve been sitting on. In the mean time, here’s what I’ve been finding around the web this week:

  • The man who came up with the Broken Windows Theory died this week.
  • Great piece by You Go Girl on a bus.
  • If you like graffiti writers moving beyond text and generally pushing graffiti’s boundaries, make sure to check out this video of Askew.
  • Todd James has a new print out at Pictures on Walls.
  • Great group show coming up in London with Matt Small, MyMo, Sickboy, Fefe, Monica Canilao, Remi, Best Ever and more.
  • Stinkfish‘s work is on the cover of Diplomat Magazine this month thanks to Jeannine Saba. Here’s the cover.
  • David de la Mano did a fantastic job brightening up this spot in Uruguay.
  • Interesting article about street art that definitely makes a real difference in the world.
  • Plaztik Mag’s latest video features work by Skewville, Roa and Bast and is creepy/awesome.
  • The Living Walls Conference has two great announcements this week: 1. They are now a 501(c)(3), aka an official non-profit organization. 2. In addition to the annual conference, there will be 6 “Living Walls Concepts” mini-events throughout the year, starting in March.
  • Craig Ward wrote a letter critiquing Banksy’s critique of advertisers. Given: Banksy is one of the world’s best marketers himself. Beyond that, the letter is a bit of a mess and Ward points out that he has worked in advertising himself. Clearly, it’s written from the perspective of someone who has lost his perspective and seems to boil down to “There’s worse stuff in the world, so umm, please leave advertisers alone.” No doubt that there are greater evils in the world than the public advertising that seems to be the primary target of Banksy’s critique of advertising, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Additionally, one of Ward’s points as to why traditional advertising isn’t as bad as Banksy’s advertising is that traditional advertisers pays for the locations they use. With that argument, Ward completely disregards both the negative externalities of massive ad campaigns that occur regardless of how much the advertiser pays (compared to the documented positive externalities of Banksy’s street art) and the illegal nature of many advertising campaigns which do not pay the government for the space that they use. By his standard, hiring an assassin to kill someone might be better than doing it yourself, because at least there’s money involved and somebody is getting paid for their time.

Photo by Ludo

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New London gallery opens with Cheryl Dunn solo

Okay this is a little bit outside of Vandalog’s usual coverage, but the fantastic street photographer and filmmaker Cheryl Dunn has a show opening in London this month at a brand new gallery run by Pedro Matos called Ivory & Black. Dunn’s work was included in the Art in the Streets show at MOCA in LA last year and also in the classic documentary Beautiful Losers. Dunn’s show, Sometimes the Answer, will open on March 23rd from 6-9pm and run through April 21st. Work for the show will span Dunn’s 30-year catalog of images and there will be a book published to accompany the show.

Ivory & Black promises to be an important addition to London’s art scene. They are working with Andrew Schoultz, Cleon Peterson, Cheryl Dunn, Deanna Templeton, Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, James Jean, Pedro Matos, Richard Colman, Ryan Travis Christian, Skullphone and Wes Lang.

Photo by Cheryl Dunn courtesy of Ivory & Black

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Above: What goes up…

It’s great to see Above doing text work. Definitely what I prefer over his stenciling. What Goes Up was painted at Origin Wines in Cape Town, South Africa.

Speaking of Above, Fecal Face have just posted a preview of the special edition of his book Passport. I’ve also got one of these giant books leaning on my wall. Hopefully that will be a good enough reminder that I need to bring my passport to the airport on Friday even though I’m not flying internationally. Hopefully.

Anyway, here’s a video of What Goes Up getting painted…

WHAT GOES UP from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Photo by Above

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New shirts from Labrona at The Vandalog Shop

Today we are relaunching The Vandalog Shop and kicking off a new series of product releases with two t-shirts designed by Labrona which are now available online. Starting with these shirts, The Vandalog Shop will be releasing a new product / artist collaboration every month. We will focus on releasing affordable products ranging from apparel to posters to whatever else we think would be fun. We can’t say yet just what else we’ve got up our sleeve, but these shirts by Labrona are only the beginning…

Labrona’s shirts are based on a new image called Lying in Wait. The shirts are unisex, come in two colorways of either purple and teal or blue and yellow, and each colorway has a print run of just 20 tees.

Why is Labrona the artist we chose to help us relaunch The Vandalog Shop? There are a lot of talented artists in the world, but Labrona stands out to me because he is one of the nicest and humblest guys around. The first time I met Labrona, he convinced me to buy a painting by one of his friends. It wasn’t until after he had left the room that someone showed me Labrona’s own artwork. We met again years later. That time, we slept on a floor with about a dozen other men and women at the Living Walls Conference in Atlanta. Some people might have complained about the accommodations, but Labrona was just ecstatic because he had the opportunity to paint a mural and put up posters in Atlanta. At Vandalog, I want to bring great art to as many people as possible, but that great art has to be made by artists who are great people too.

Marketing people tell me that mild rebellion sells and Banksy seems to agree. But are they right? Let's find out...

Both versions of Lying in Wait are available online now at The Vandalog Shop for $30 each plus shipping and handling.

The shirts were printed at Station16 in Montreal, and Labrona has also worked with Station16 to release a fine art screenprint of Lying in Wait. Each colorway of the prints is an edition of 16. The print is also for sale beginning today and can be at their online shop.

Photos by Dan Schaub