Author: Elisa Carmichael

Loans for 1000 dollars.
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San Diego Street Art Walk

Seth and I decided to drive down to San Diego on Friday to see in person all the street art that has been appearing around the city in preparation for Viva La Revolucion at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. I’ve recreated our trip in order of what we saw, which was everything that had been created as of then. Shepard just came over and said he did another couple walls yesterday afternoon – we’ll go check them out after lunch.

I’ve included the locations of everything in case you’re in San Diego (or are planning a visit) and want to check them out for yourself – which I highly recommend!

First stop: osgemeos – Horton Plaza mall, Downtown, G St at 2nd Ave

It was a little weird to see osgemeos on a Westfield parking structure with a Nordstrom next to it, but it’s a good high wall and gets a lot of attention from passing pedestrians. It’s a fun piece – see some detail shots of the little guys below (close up of my favorite, the wedgie dude, at the top of this post).

The guy at the bottom must be really strong!

Second stop: MCASD and more osgemeos (the actual artists this time)

I’ll post pictures later of what we saw inside the museum when we previewed the show, but as we were about to go in the door, we saw the Date Farmers sitting outside and, around the corner, osgemeos painting a van (yes, that is a cameo from me in the background…) We also saw one of the two Vhils pieces, but we forgot to take a picture of it. Oops. Sorry.

Third stop: Vhils and Dr. Lakra – Downtown, 11th Ave and Broadway

Dr. Lakra’s piece obviously isn’t finished so it’s hard to judge it, but I really like the Vhils (and I personally think it’s a lot nicer than the one we forgot to get the picture of). These two share a wall in the museum, too. I’m not sure who the person doing the wild style on the right is. Please leave a comment if you recognize it!

Fourth stop: JR and Barry McGee – Downtown, Everything $5 Clothing Store, corner of 5th Ave and C St (JR) and California Theatre, 4th Ave and C St (Barry McGee)

The JR just blows away everything else on the street, in my opinion. It’s also very easy to miss if you’re not looking closely – it blends amazingly well into its environment.

The Barry McGee, on the other hand, really isn’t so special, unfortunately. I’m not an expert on wildstyle, but I do know when I like it. I also couldn’t understand why there was no work by him inside the museum – I love him so much and was looking forward to seeing it. Don’t you think that’s a bit strange?

Fifth stop: Invader – Downtown, The Art Center, Park Blvd and G St

Apparently this is the biggest Invader in North America. It’s really quite impressive. There are also about twenty small ones scattered on various streets – we saw quite a few of them. For the museum, Invader made a video showing his travels around the city putting them up – the path he took makes one giant Invader. If you feel like a long walk, you can recreate this path, too – I believe the museum can give you a map.

Note: Shepard just told me that he and Amanda used to live in San Diego and that this building used to be their office!

Sixth stop: Swoon – Downtown, E St between 13th and 14th Ave

I love this image so it was nice to finally see it in person. The colors and texture are amazing. It’s one of my favorite Swoons to date. Her piece inside the museum is also gorgeous – definitely one of the highlights of the show.

Seventh stop: Shepard Fairey Number 1 – Hillcrest/Urban Outfitters, 3946 5th Ave

If you like Shepard, you’ll probably like this wall – it combines a lot of his most iconic images. You can see the Obey Eye peeking out as you drive down the street toward the wall – it looks really cool.

Eighth stop: Shepard Fairey Number 2 – South Park, 30th Ave and Ivy St

We were really curious to see this wall as Shepard and Dan (Shepard’s assistant) told us it was all hand-painted! It is very impressive in person. Nick, another member of Shepard’s friendly, hard-working team, and Sonja were hanging out (and randomly just walked into the lobby as I write this).

Ninth Stop: Stephan Doitchinoff (aka Calma) – Downtown, 16th Ave and J St

Stephan just told me that this piece isn’t finished yet, but I think it already looks really nice. (And yes, everyone is staying in the same hotel – you’d think there was only one in this town! osgemeos, the Date Farmers, David Ellis, Dr. Lakra, Shepard and his team, Pedro Alonzo and probably everyone else involved in the show is here.) I was going to post a picture of myself standing next to the wall as the tights and sunglasses I was wearing that day were practically the same shade of blue/green as the background color in the piece, but I’ve decided that would be a little too weird of me…

And now I’m going outside – I’m sick of sitting in this lobby and watching everyone come and go without me. The opening for the show is tonight (Saturday) and will probably be quite busy, but I’ll try to post some of my pictures from the press preview in the morning.

– Elisa

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Street Art New York Book Signing at Spoonbill & Sugartown in Williamsburg

Two of my favorite street art bloggers, Jaime Rojo and Steven P. Harrington from BrooklynStreetArt.com, will be signing copies of their new book, Street Art New York, next Thursday, July 22nd, at one of my favorite bookshops, Spoonbill and Sugartown on Bedford in Williamsburg. If you’re in the neighborhood, make sure to stop by for a drink, pick up a copy of Street Art New York and have a chat with the authors.

Incidentally, Spoonbill recently held a signing for another great street art book – Dan Witz: In Plain View. I’m not sure if they still have copies left, though; if not, you can visit Dan’s site.

Find out more about the Street Art New York event here.

– Elisa

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Boogie and M-City at Carmichael Gallery

I have been awfully busy recently with my various gallery and journal duties, but I just wanted to take a second to quickly share the way things are looking here at the moment. Boogie is the first photographer to have a solo here at Carmichael Gallery so it’s an important show for us. I’ve loved his work for a really long time (you can see more of it here) and the pieces we’re showing this month mark a really special stage in his career. I was curious to meet someone who’s lived and documented the world the way he has, and as I’ve gotten to know him this week I’ve really come to understand where that fascinating understanding of humanity comes from. He’s an amazing person.

As for M-City, anyone who knows me at all knows I’m a massive fan and have long supported everything he does. The last time we worked with him was a group show back in 2008 and we never talked seriously about working together again until just recently. My long-held belief that he is one of the world’s most talented street artists hasn’t changed from meeting him – I just know now that he’s a really nice person, too. He’s also very hard-working – he literally hasn’t stopped since he got here and now that the show is up, he’s going off to work on a huge wall downtown! I’ll keep you posted.

Anyway, there’s my promotion of my gallery and the artists currently inhabiting it. I really am proud to be working with these two.

– Elisa

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Booked – Group Exhibition and Book Day at Carmichael Gallery

It’s been a long time since Seth and I have had a group show this big at Carmichael Gallery – there will be over 35 artists represented on the walls when we open “Booked” on Saturday, June 5th! Some of the artists we’ve worked with for several years and others we’ll be showing for the first time. We’re also going to have lots of great art books and magazines from publishers like Drago, Gingko, Studiocromie (I really enjoyed opening up the box of Blu and Sam3 books!) and VNA. Books and art are two of the best things in the world, in my opinion, so it should be a fun event! We will be open from 12-8pm on Saturday for Culver City Art Walk (make sure to visit all the other galleries on the block if you come by; there will be lots of cool things to see) and the reception itself is from 6-8pm.

Here are some of the pieces in the show.

Martha Cooper

Escif

SpY

Anthony Lister

Lucas Price (aka Cyclops)

Bumblebee

Brad Downey

Here’s the full line up of artists and publishers:

Aiko, Banksy, Beejoir, Blek le Rat, Boxi, Bumblebee, C215, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, D*Face, Brad Downey, Eine, Ericailcane, Escif, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Gaia, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Dave Kinsey, Know Hope, Labrona, Anthony Lister, Lucy McLauchlan, Aakash Nihalani, Walter Nomura (a.k.a. Tinho), Other, Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), Lucas Price (a.k.a. Cyclops), Retna, Saber, Sam3, Sixeart, Slinkachu, SpY, Judith Supine, Titi Freak, Nick Walker, Dan Witz and WK Interact

Drago, Gingko Press, Murphy Design, Prestel, Rojo, SCB Distributors, Studiocromie, Very Nearly Almost, Zupi

The show runs from June 5 – July 3. Drop in to say hi if you’re in LA!

– Elisa

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Poster Boy in Jail

Seth and I were really sad to hear this morning that our good friend Poster Boy has been sentenced to 11 months in jail. Things weren’t looking good for him, but it’s just awful to hear that they have come to have this.

Animal New York reported the news here and also commented on the fact that PB missed his court date on May 6th. It seems that if he had been present that day, all of this could have been avoided. I couldn’t think why he wouldn’t have gone so I talked to a mutual friend and the truth is that Poster Boy simply got the date wrong; he thought he was supposed to come in the next day. Unfortunately, now he’s really paying for his simple mistake. As Animal goes on to note, he came in on May 7th to apologize, but it was too late:

Although PB did miss his May 6th court date, he did come in the following day around 2PM on May 7th to apologize, however the court wasn’t hearing any of that and he was taken into custody. He spent the weekend at Rikers and it was this morning that he was sentenced to the 11 months. “It was unwarranted,” says Gotlib, who promised to absolutely appeal the “shocking decision.” He was expected to get 3 years probation, not jail time.

On April 30th, sensing the urgency of his case,  PB sent an email out asking for support from the greater art community.

Here’s an extract:

“A graduate of NYU, Henry is a working artist and activist based in Brooklyn. His most recent participation with the Poster Boy street art movement resulted in legal trouble. Initially, Henry was hit with misdemeanor charges and community service as a result of these activities. However, the district attorney has since tried to pursue Felony Class charges based partially on the false testimony of a transit officer. It is important to note that this is Mr. Matyjewicz’s first offense. Despite these facts, the District Attorney is unwilling to view this case reasonably.

At one point during these proceedings the DA asked for bail to be set at an unprecedented $20,000. This extremely high amount is more in line with bail requests for violent felons accused of dealing drugs or for cases involving weapons.

Perhaps more telling, the DA is attempting to send Mr. Matyjewicz to prison for a year. All of this for the alleged defacement of a few ad posters, a victimless crime, and clearly not a felony.

Fortunately we have recently gained the support of prominent Civil Rights Activist and Best Selling author, David Mixner. David is best known for his important work in anti-war activities and gay rights advocacy. In light of these recent developments, Mr. Matyjewicz has decided to take his case to court and fight these outlandish charges.

Regardless of whether you agree with the views of Mr. Matyjewicz or the Poster Boy movement, we should all be able to agree that this is an assault on the art & culture community.

We respectfully ask for your signature to show your support of Henry and to help keep New York City safe for artists and independent thinkers. Many thanks for your support.”

When I last saw Poster Boy, which was when I was last in New York barely a month ago, he was really excited about the release of his upcoming book and was talking about some of the fun ideas he had to promote it when it came out. The book is mostly composed of work that has never been made public, so if you’re a fan, you’re in for a nice surprise.

The fact that he is in now jail for his art just disgusts me. Think of all the people out there who commit real crimes, yet live their lives unpunished, and compare them to the actions of an artist who was only making the streets and subways look a bit more interesting. This world is really messed up.

We need to do something about this and help get Poster Boy out of here.

–      Elisa

Image via Poster Boy’s flickr.

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Fame Fest 2010: Swoon

It’s no secret that RJ and I are big fans of FAME (it’s also where we met, incidentally) and had an awesome time in Grottaglie last September. A few weeks ago, our friend Angelo announced this year’s tentative line up and when I spoke to him the other day, he mentioned that Swoon and Ben Wolf had just been to visit. Unfortunately, there are no photos of Ben Wolf’s work as it was destroyed before it could be documented, but there are some great images of Swoon’s gorgeous pieces, both in the monastery and around town. I really hope they survive over the next five months!

Let me know if you’ll be coming this year – Seth and I will be there for sure.

– Elisa

(Thanks for the images, Angelo.)

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Know Hope: The Use of Empty Spaces in Copenhagen

Know Hope just got back to Tel Aviv after an intense lithography workshop at Edition Copenhagen. I’ll put up an image of the print he finished there as soon as I have one.

He also put up some great street pieces during his stay, such as this one marking the entrance to the tunnel below Dr. Louise’s Bridge. Seems like this is a regular spot for artists there to hit.

– Elisa