Video of Herakut painting in Russia at a children’s home.
Blu print release
Later this month will see the release of Blu‘s latest print release for Studiocromie. The piece is based off the artist’s mural in Rennes, France last year. According to Nuart, all of the kinks haven’t been figure out with prices and edition numbers, but the physical size of the print will be a staggering 70 x 90 cm. At least the detail is trying to be preserved. The smaller the size, the crappier it will be.
Photo by Blu
D*Face in LA
A little bit late on this show, but it is impossible to forget about it all together. “Going Nowhere Fast” opened last week at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles. The highly anticipated solo show by British street artist D*Face debuted a lot of brand new work, and with the gallery space, it is no wonder there was so much to see.
Showing everything from screenprints, sculpture, readymades, taxidermy and spray paint, D*Face really outdid himself with the array and quality of what was shown. While not every piece is everyone’s cup of tea, there is definitely something for everyone. Moving further away from his patented logo character, this show places this type of art in an indoor setting, which is a change that is quickly occurring with street artists as they separate their outdoor and indoor work.
What I find most interesting about “Going Nowhere Fast” is the amount of publicity the show received before it even opened. Whether it acted as a comeback show for D*Face’s career, a reintroduction of a new direction of work or a debut in the west coast markets, the show is not just another gallery opening. That’s for sure. Plus with Art in the Streets opening this weekend, it is no surprise that the surrounding area galleries are putting on grandiose shows like this while the street art market descends on Los Angeles.
Staying true to his outdoor routes, D*Face created this mural (in similar fashion to the paintings for sale) outside the gallery.
Photos by butterfly except mural photo by futuradosmil
Art in the Streets Book
Since we haven’t posted about Art in the Streets in a few days, we thought now would be the best time to release some photos of the accompanying exhibit book for the show. Put together by the curators of the show, Roger Gastman, Aaron Rose and of course, Jeffrey Deitch, the book acts as an international retrospective of art, or as much as can be packed into the pages.
Also, here are some more names featured in the show (and book) as well. These could have been guessed, but now they are confirmed: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Stelios Faitakis, Futura, Phil Frost, Os Gemeos, Keith Haring, Todd James, Margaret Kilgallen, Lady Pink, Barry McGee, Steve “ESPO” Powers, Lee Quinones, Retna, Kenny Scharf, Swoon, Ed Templeton
Again, some were known, but now we are starting to get more of an idea what the show is shaping up to be. I’m still surprised what a well-kept secret it is thus far.
All photos via FreshlySerious
Buff Monster in London
God help us all. On April 28, Stolenspace Gallery in London will play host to one of Los Angeles’ most hyped up street artists: Buff Monster. The show is entitled The Reign of Pink. I cannot wait to put on my Harajuko outfit and show up to the opening smiling and all the cutesy and colorful crap that Buff has to offer. If he paints a wall or wheatpastes in London, well I doubt the paint would be dry before someone rips it down/covers it up/throws up on it.
I don’t normally copy and past press releases, but this one is now a personal favorite of mine to describe this upcoming bastardization of urban art:
Buff Monster lives in Hollywood and cites heavy metal music ice cream and Japanese culture as major influences. The colour pink, a symbol of confidence, individuality and happiness is present in everything he creates. Buff Monster’s creative endeavors began by putting up thousands of hand-silkscreened posters across Los Angeles and in far-away places. His frequent poster missions developed into a productive street art career and he now works on fine art paintings, collectible toys and select design projects. He paints on wood, taking great care to create his images as flat as possible, and his work has been shown in galleries worldwide, often accompanied by large installations. Buff Monster works tirelessly day and night to spread happiness, joy and a love of pink.
I was going to try and retype a press release that would be even more affable than the actual one, but I just couldn’t think of anything funnier than the aforementioned. Ok, I will try to be nice here and give Buff credit where credit is due. He is standing up for all of the real men who wear pink, like Hello Kitty and wish anime characters were real women. Those are causes that definitely need to be artistically expressed. Spread the pink!
Eh, at least he makes decent toys.
Photo courtesy of Stolenspace
Flogging a Dead Horse: The Aftermath
I tried to ignore Steal From Work‘s recent Flogging a Dead Horse Show in Bristol last month for awhile, but I just can’t anymore. Originally, I found the concept to be really clever. The marketing and hype by curators who wouldn’t release the name of the artists titillated an audience who know most show schedules months in advance. Not until after the show’s opening did I realize the entire point of the exhibit was to poke fun at successful street artists by recreating their works in a “humorous” manner. Some pictures made me laugh (I admit I did not attend the exhibition), like the Banksy balloon girl spread over five canvasses, but the overall effort was quite poor.
In December, we posted about artist Lush, who put on a similar concept show making fun of street artists, except his art was so much stronger. It felt like/was a real show driven by witty sarcasm, not bitterness and jealousy of more successful artists. Actually, come to think of it, the Flogging show is a lot like a certain street art blog a lot of us are familiar with, also driven by a nihilistic view of street art today.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love the concept of the show. I just think the execution was an overall sad effort. I feel that this would have been much better played as a pop-up show where the “art” could be sold as commercially viable items, i.e. t-shirts, mugs, etc. since that what artists like Invader, Mr. Brainwash and Nick Walker have become. It could also have worked as a purely outdoor show, with these work put up illegally in a city to get their point across. That would have been a more clever joke and one that a lot more people would have enjoyed.
A later addition that I discovered the other day is a link to an E-bay listing of the Obey/Ebay for a print edition. Since the work at this show was sold and is now being flipped, it seems there was no true subversive statement being made at all. Just maybe, the curators were trying to make a quick buck over the controversy over the commercialization of street art. If you want to purchase the print, don’t worry, you won’t be paying big bucks for it. There are no bids thus far and it is only 99 p. Plus you get three Banksy color strips thrown in! What a deal.
For the entire photoset of the show visit Laptop Lunch Box’s Flickr
RJ and Steph’s Big Announcement
As some of you may know already, RJ and I have some really big news for you. We will be adding someone new to the Vandalog family! We figures since Marc and Sarah Schiller (of Wooster Collective) have a kid, we should too. I’m only a few months along, and yes it has been difficult having my future baby daddy in the States, but we are determined to make this work. Instead of showing you my sonogram pictures, because I am sure most of you have to see your friends/coworkers/people you hated from high school’s pictures on Facebook pop up and don’t want to see mine, we are using this picture from Sweet Toof instead. Fitting right?
Thank you all for the continuous support and RJ and I welcome all name possibilities. I am thinking Munko if it is a boy and Poupee if it is a girl.
Photo courtesy of High Roller Society
Remi/Rough x Stormie in Newcastle
At the end of May, Hoults Yard, Newcastle will see the invasion of England’s Remi/Rough and Australia’s own Stormie Mills. The indoor show may not open for months, but I’m sure you will get to see some of their outdoor work sooner. Talented artists individually, they also surprisingly work well as a team despite their contrasting styles as evident by their wall in Miami and placement of their pieces in The Underbelly Project. This is definitely a show to get excited about.
Robbo thinks he is being clever
Another Robbo show, this time at Signal Gallery. Opening April 8, the gallery walls will be graced again with Robbo and friends’ cheeky works making fun of some of his more famous contemporaries. Maybe this time he will do something more original since people still seem interested in what he has to contribute to “art.”
Vandalog is Tumblin’
So even though Vandalog is an online blog, we are always trying to expand into different media. We have our Twitters (RJ, Tom, Elisa and myself, Facebook page, Flickr, Babelgum videos and now we have Tumblr. It is a bit daunting, but we like to post so many different bits everywhere that it just makes sense. The Tumblr page will primarily be run by myself and will be a mix of Vandalog posts, reposts from other people’s blogs, rants, raves and just generally more informal writing for those of you who appreciate my sarcastic style. So if you have a Tumblr follow us at: Vandalog.tumblr.com
And if you are that keen to follow my personal page (which I doubt unless you want to hear talk from a 22 year old female) you can find me here. Convince RJ to make one too. His personal life is far more interesting than you all know.