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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Weekend link-o-rama

Jade in Ecuador

It’s still technically the weekend for a few hours, so writing this is the perfect procrastination tool before I get down to doing homework. Hopefully you can take advantage of these links in a similar fashion:

  • Phlegm has a new print available. Quite a beauty.
  • A Love Letter For You, a film related to Steve Powers‘ project of the same name but also not the standard documentary you might expect, will be released soon. Here’s the trailer.
  • It’s definitely NSFW but also definitely worth checking out: F*CK ART at the Museum of Sex.
  • I’m guessing Vandalog will cover this in more detail with a full post and not just this tiny mention, but here are a boatload of shots from Os Gemeos’ show in LA.
  • Unurth happened to post cool optical illusion pieces this week by e1000ink and Rub Kandy.
  • Few things I’d rather see on a truck than a horse by Reminisce.
  • High Rise Murals is sort of a new project from Monorex. It organizes all of their murals (read: massive painted outdoor advertisements) under one banner. They launched High Rise Murals in two ways: By having INSA paint a mural and painting a massive Coca-Cola advertisement over some great graffiti. After someone very publicly shamed them, High Rise Murals selectively buffed the advertisement to make it look intentional and not about the massive tag (HW stands for the location of the advertisement, Hackney Wick). Over Twitter, Monorex said that they “are now in phase 2, re commissioning wall with artists.” This phase is also known as phase oh crap, we really screwed the pooch on this one and it’s time to backpedal. Monorex claim that phase two was always the plan, but I don’t see any reason to believe that. Artists need to get paid and painting advertisements can be a lucrative way to do that, but I think we can all agree that painting over graffiti and street art to replace it with advertising is not cool. Let’s hope High Rise Murals have learned from this experience and stop going over murals and art with advertisements.

Photo by Jade

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Shepard pleads guilty to contempt during AP case

Looks like Shepard Fairey‘s problems stemming from his Obama “Hope” poster just won’t stop. Hyperallergic reports that today Fairey “pled guilty to one count of criminal contempt for destroying documents, manufacturing evidence and other misconduct” relating to the AP’s lawsuits over the source photograph for Fairey’s image. The fact that Fairey did all this is nothing new. He admitted so himself back in 2009. He settled those civil lawsuits with the AP, but this charge is a criminal charge brought against Fairey by the state of New York. By pleading guilty, Fairey faces up to six months in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. The sentencing will happen on July 16th.

Check Hyperallergic or The Boston Herald for more details.

Photo by craigCloutier

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Reka at Backwoods Gallery

Reka, of Everfresh Studio, has a solo show opening next week at Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne. Primary Suspects opens on Friday and runs through March 18th. Reka says that Primary Suspects is an exploration of what choosing graffiti and street art as a career choice means for those artists.

Here’s a video trailer for the show. I’m not sure it says much about what sort of artwork we can expect at Primary Suspects (although Reka describes the video as a metaphor for his job as a vandal/artist), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching…

Check out more previews from Primary Suspects after the jump… Continue reading “Reka at Backwoods Gallery”

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Invisible Minority by Milo Project

If you thought Dan Witz did a good job at freaking people out on the street, Milo Project have taken his idea to another level with sculpture. Milo Project have consistently taken ideas from others (Mark Jenkins, Evereman and now Dan Witz) and taken them one step further, so I think there’s some cause for concern there if Milo Project tries to start selling their work, but in the mean time it’s just a bit of fun on the street and it’s not like they are painting over work by the artists that they emulate. Anyway, here is some of Milo Project’s Invisible Minority series:

Photos by Milo Project

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This week in LA: Os Gemeos, Anthony Lister and Herakut

Herakut, Os Gemeos and Anthony Lister (interviewed) all have separate shows opening in Los Angeles later this week, so basically I’d like to be in LA right now.

Anthony Lister’s solo show is at New Image Art Gallery. Work for this show will focus on the beauty of dancing ballerinas. It opens on Thursday the 23rd and runs through April 27th.

Anthony Lister @ New Image Art (2012) Teaser… from Carlos Gonzalez on Vimeo.

Herakut are exhibiting at LeBasse Projects‘ Chinatown location with a show titled After the Laughter. The show will include sculpture, photography and wall installations. After the Laughter will open on February 25th from 6-10pm (with Herakut signing copies of their new book from 6-7pm) and runs through March 17th.

Os Gemeos’ show Miss You will open on Saturday the 25th from 6-9pm at PRISM and runs through March 24th. Miss You is almost certainly LA’s most anticipated show by street artists or graffiti writers so far this year. Do. Not. Miss. This. (sorry Herakut). If you are not sure about seeing this show, just have a look at some of Os Gemeos‘ previous installations.

Photos courtesy of New Image Art Gallery, LeBasse Projects and PRISM

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An introduction to Catlanta

Catlanta is an Atlanta-based street artist with a cult-like following. Catlanta posts photos of his cat-shaped artworks online as soon as he leaves them outside for the taking. Almost instantly, a fan will track down the piece and snatch it for themselves. It’s all part of a game that Catlanta is playing with the residents of Atlanta. Here’s a video with more about Catlanta:

catlanta from Room Eleven Media on Vimeo.

Photo by Catlanta

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Outside In – A documentary about “Art in the Streets”

Outside In: The Story of Art in the Streets, the Levi’s-sponsored official documentary about last year’s Art in the Streets show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, is now streaming online. If you missed the screenings that took place last spring, you can finally watch the full documentary here:

OUTSIDE IN: The Story of Art in the Streets from Patrick Simpson on Vimeo.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

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Mathieu Tremblin’s “Graffiti Statue”

I am loving Mathieu Tremblin‘s latest work, Graffiti Statue. It was made for Art4Context’s 1+1=1 1+1=2 residency. The piece almost perfectly encapsulates the strategy of the stereotypical modern street artist: Only make art when you’re getting paid and make art that looks mildly rebellious but is actually socially acceptable and perfectly legal. Here’s a video documenting Graffiti Statue:

GRAFFITI STATUE Mathieu Tremblin (2012) from Mute Mutiny on Vimeo.

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Weekend link-o-rama

Ima Golden Phoenix by Loaf

Fun side note from my week: William Parry, author of Against The Wall, spoke at my college today. He’s currently on a speaking tour around the USA, so if you happen to hear that he is in a town near you, I highly recommend going to see him. And here’s the link-o-rama:

Photo by Loaf

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Ever’s latest murals

"Religious silence in a communist context." Photo courtesy of Ever

Here are two of Ever‘s newest murals. The one above is in Mexico city and was organized by Mamutt Creatividad and Cauce Ciudadado.

And just this week Ever finished this mural, Les enfants observaient le progres de la ville communiste quand le capitalisme est arrivé (“The children are looking at the progress of the communism city when the capitalism arrives) is in Buenos Aires. Graffitimundo has a great explanation of what exactly Ever is getting at with that wall.

Photo by Graffitimundo

Photos courtesy of Ever and by Graffitimundo