Enough cans o’ paint to make the rail squad faint.
Photos by BadDogWhiskas, Heavy Artillery, Soke, Spam Crew and TheSaltr,
Wild Style Wednesday!
Faif understands. Do you?
This is my running hypothesis: Sarcasm is how self-aware, suburban youth make sense of urban culture. Faif understands. Do you?
Photos by Faif
Young New Yorkers
Young New York: A Silent Art Auction & Fundraiser is an fundraising initiative for the Young New Yorkers (YNY) program, which aids and raises awareness for teens who have been legally classified “adults” and thrown into New York State’s adult criminal justice system.
The silent action will be happening Tuesday May 29th from 6pm-10pm at WhiteBoxes projects, and feature works by Steve “ESPO” Powers, LNY, Steven Holl, Gaia, Labrona, NohjColey, the YOK, ASVP, Doodles, Radical!, Feral Child, Cake, Ian Kuali’i and many others. All proceeds will go toward enabling workshops with successful artists, designers, teachers and social workers who will use creative theraputic methods to reach out to these teens in New York State’s criminal justice system.
You can purchase tickets to attend the auction here. For more information check out the YNY website or Facebook.
An Interview with The London Police
This is an exciting time for The London Police. Celebrating their 10th year in the art world, gracing streets around the world with their iconic LADS characters, Chaz and Bob now celebrate the opening of their first solo show in Newcastle A Night with the London Police, which opened on Thursday and will continue through May 18th. Sorry you missed spending a night with TLP and still in the area? You still have a chance to catch them in action, as they will be painting a large mural in Newcastle.
Amidst all the activity, Chaz was kind enough to divulge some of the lesser known details about The London Police to Vandalog.
Which came first: your signature style or your aptness for vandalism?
My aptness for vandalism started as I was tagging my full name in crayon down the staircase walls in our house when I was 3. I hadn’t learnt that an alias might have helped or that it was wrong to even do it and so my father administered some quick and effective physical abuse to begin my rehabilitation. The signature style LADS characters began 20 years later.
Did you try out other names/styles before you established TLP?
We never had another name before The London Police. TLP was originally making photographs with a view to pasting them up on the streets (which we never did). The characters came later. Bob’s illustrative input later still. Continue reading “An Interview with The London Police”
Broken Fingaz crew leaves London with a bang
Just after the closing of their first major UK exhibition “Crazy Eye Hotel” at the Old Truman Brewery, Broken Fingaz let loose on the streets of East London. The Israeli crew, consisting of Tant, Unga, Kip and Deso, was able to put on the indoor display of their comic-strip-acid-trip-illustrations through support from the British Israeli Arts Training Scheme; a program built from a bilateral agreement between the British and Israeli governments that enables a creative exchange between the nations’ artists.
What better way to say “thank you” to the political effort funding your first major solo show in England, than to further-exhibit your art illegally? On one hand, London is without a doubt one of best cities for street art, so can you blame them for getting up while there? On the other hand, if the British Council, the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Ministry of Culture and Sport, all of whom provide funding for this program, believed that perhaps they were actually funding some no good vandal punks to get up abroad, would it jeopardize the program?
The fact that they were putting up work was no secret, in fact it seemed advertised almost as much as the show itself. …But on that first hand, Broken Fingaz crew is phenomenal. What do you think?
Photos by Hookedblog and courtesy of Broken Fingaz Crew
Wild Style Wednesday!
The college of street knowledge.
Photos by Doslcf, HowAboutNo!, RasHe, SOKE, Tha Seig Monsterrr and Tatscruinc
Mobstr helps us “get” art
Katowice Street Art Festival – part 1
Poland is playing host to some of the world’s most talented street artists and muralists for the Katowice Street Art Festival. From April 20th to the 29th, the festival will feature artists such as Escif, Hyuro, Mark Jenkins, Ludo, M-City, Olek, Roa, Moneyless, and many more. Here are a few of the pieces already in progress or completed. There are many more photos on the festival’s facebook page.
Ludo’s piece is a massive wheatpaste that incorporates paint. It looks great, but the one worry I have for this piece is that someone will probably have to paint over the eyesore that’s left when the paper weathers and inevitably comes down.
Photos by Foto – Sigma DP1S, Wojciech Nowak, Tellas and Paweł Mrowiec, also courtesy of Arrested Motion
Via Arrested Motion and Street Art News
Wild Style Wednesday!
Graffiti is a gateway crime.
Photos by Gargantuen, Morac19, Tatscruinc, and Voodoodi London
Real talk with LNYLNYLNY
Have you ever seen a street piece that, for whatever reason, made you really wonder “What kind of person does this?” Not everything I walk by captures me like that, but on rare occasions, something will be so provocative, unusual, outstanding, or even awkward, that I’m lured deeper than just what I’m looking at, toward piecing together the person behind it and what they’re all about. It’s pretty rare that I actually get to ask.
LNY is one of these artists where the back-story is as enticing as the art. While I cannot promise that this interview makes him any less of a curiosity, I can say that this is one guy worth checking out.
1. Describe one of your first experiences with street art.
I fondly remember getting buffed for the first time because It made the whole experience of working in public space come to life. Having someone buff your work is like a pat in the back begging you to keep going, like “try again man, try again”… that buff is still running to this day in Weehawken, New Jersey.
2. One reason you do it.
Easy; because I believe art is a powerful vehicle for change and a practice that can positively impact the world, myself, and those I work with. There is nothing else I would rather do with my life than this, there were never other options just random distractions. In the end I don’t really define what I do as street art or inside art or what not because the work sometimes doesn’t fit those categories so I don’t bother, and defining something does more to constrict than expand. Anyway, I’m just doing me.
3. Current muse.
Coffee. Continue reading “Real talk with LNYLNYLNY”