Last Wednesday was the opening of The Thousands, the art exhibition I curated. The photos are on flickr and the blog posts are online, and yet, I haven’t mentioned the show much on Vandalog since the opening. It’s been busy, so now I’m making up for that.
The folks at Babelgum have been super-supportive, with three videos about the show. The first is a behind the scenes look at the show, a bit of the set up, as well as a chat with me about the exhibition. The nexttwo are tours of the exhibition.
And there are hundreds of photos on flickr in The Thousands’ group pool of all the pieces in the show.
Just hours before opening, the books arrived. The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In was sold at the show, and now you can buy it on Drago’s website. And forget about hours, minutes before we opened the doors, Hera finished signing her prints for the special edition of the book with a lithograph of one of Hera’s sketches (you can get those at CampBarbossa £100).
Photo by Tim Boddy
Of course, the opening was packed. Thanks to BrewDog, there was a steady supply of their Punk IPA beer until 15 minutes before closing time. And Gold Peg was also there selling some ice cream at the Mad Beef Ice Cream Parlour. I was worried about who would show up on Wednesday, but not only did we have artists like Know Hope, Hera and the Burning Candy crew, but there were people I didn’t recognize! That felt pretty cool.
I think The Thousands looked amazing, but I’m not the only one. Here are some reviews I found:
The Future Tense were there taking some great pictures and chilling with Hera. They say “most people agreed it was a welcome opportunity to attend a show solely to celebrate the medium rather than to buy or be sold to”
Arrested Motion sent s.butterfly over to have a look. They say “RJ Rushmore’s debut exhibition highlights some of the strongest representatives of the street art scene.”
It was great to finally meet Sean from Organ Magazine. He says “The Thousands is a triumph.”
Art of The State has some cool photos including both sides of Roa’s piece.
The 405 says “The goal of The Thousands was to attempt to show the art world and the public that there are great works of art within the sphere of “street art” and that street artists deserve a place in art history at least equal to that of The Young British Artists or the great pop artists; And hells yes, that was indeed achieved.”
Of Burning Candy’s mural, Hookedblog says “get down and check it out.”
Which brings me to the murals. The murals looked amazing. As planned, Burning Candy showed up to paint this (daytime shot here):
Photo by Marta Ka
Unexpectedly though, I found out that there were 3 small walls on the building that I could have painted, so I invited Inketish, Pure Evil and Know Hope to come by. Here are those results:
Know HopePure EvilInkfetish
And here are some interviews and articles that were done in the lead up to the show:
This year the art fairs in Miami are going to be complimented with two massive mural projects.
First, the classic: Primary Flight came out with their promo video yesterday. PF have been doing a mural project in Miami for a few years, and their line up is a grab bag of awesomeness with artists like Ron English, The London Police, Logan Hicks and Revok. Here’s the video:
And then there is a the guy in town: The Wynwood Walls is a project by Jeffrey Deitch. The line up isn’t as expansive, but the names are all international superstars like Swoon, Barry McGee, Futura, and Os Gemeos.
There’s even a lot of overlap between the projects with artists like Shepard Fairey and Aiko painting for both groups.
Naturally, I’ll be there filming for Babelgum and taking photos for Vandalog.
The latest from Blu after his work in Bogota – looks like he might not have finished it yet, although it’s already looking amazing! More to come. Images via him.
Looks like Elbow-toe isn’t the only artist releasing art for super cheap this holiday season. Dave The Chimp is holding his Lucky Dip sale for the 2nd year in a row.
If you like Dave’s work, this is your chance to get an original piece for next to nothing.
From Dave The Chimp’s website:
Every Lucky Dipper gets an original, one-off “Human Bein” painting, pulled randomly from a stack of 70 (that’s the “Lucky Dip” element!)
PLUS a signed copy of my book “Part of Rebellion 2: Dave the Chimp”, a copy of my latest zine “Recycle Ya Bastards issue 2” (hot off the press this week) and a copy of the Vanzine, which folds out into an A2 sized 2 colour poster.
All for just 35 euros (Europe only. 40 euros rest of the world due to shipping costs)
Interested? Then email me for further instructions on how to play: davethechimp@gmail.com
We picked the December issue of The Art Street Journal up from the printers last night and have spent the day sending it out around the world! This is a fun issue – it has a guide to what’s going on in Miami next month (all the fairs, Primary Flight, Graffiti Gone Global, etc – and as RJ mentioned, the whole Vandalog team is going to be there so make sure to come hang out with us if you will be, too!), plus interviews with Kelsey Brookes and Ethos (more on his upcoming show soon), features on osgemeos’ amazing show at FAAP and Barry McGee and Phil Frost at Prism, another great page curated by Vandalog’s close friend Sebastian from Unurth, and a lot more.
If you’d like a free copy of the paper to arrive on your doorstep every month, sign up here!
A reputed tagger who was paid $1,000 to be a featured “guest artist” at a self-described graffiti art store was arrested at the downtown store this weekend after authorities found him carrying spray tips, which are used in tagging, officials said today. Jason Williams, 32, who was on probation and goes by the name REVOK, was appearing Sunday as the guest of honor at the 33rd Graffiti Art Store, said Sgt. Augie Pando of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The store was exhibiting Montana spray paint, a brand used by taggers, Pando said.
During a later search of Williams’ home, deputies found several hundred paint cans, a police badge and a fire extinguisher, Pando said. They also found a stolen detour sign and digital photos of his graffiti work on his phone.
I’m very interested to hear how the LAPD plans to show that those particular caps were used by Revok for illegal tagging. The fake police badge could be a bit of a problem though…
It looks like the whole Vandalog team will be together in Miami in a few weeks for the art fairs.
Congratulations to Gaia, a fellow blogger here on Vandalog, for not only being included in SCOPE-Miami with Irvine Contemporary, but also for getting the opportunity to create a 40 foot long mural the the fair’s entrance.
Elisa Carmichael will also be at SCOPE at the Carmichael Gallery‘s stand where they will have artwork from Boxi, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Nunca, Simon Birch and Sixeart.
And I will be in Miami to check out SCOPE, Basel, Primary Flight and all the other events and fairs.
Don’t think Kelsey Brookes‘ new show, Bigger, Brighter, Bolder has been mentioned here yet. It opens Friday, November 20th at Quint Contemporary Art in San Diego. Kelsey’s both a great artist and a lovely human being so I’m really looking forward to spending some time with him and seeing these pieces, which look awesome in these progress pics, in person.
I’ve really been enjoying watching this beautiful installation take shape at Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (Masp) recently. Curated by Choque Cultural, it features Titi Freak, Zezão, Stephan Doitschinoff, Ramon Martins, Carlos Dias and Daniel Melin, a list that includes some of the Brazilians I’m most excited about these days. Entitled De dentro pra fora / De fora pra dentro, the exhibit opens this Wednesday, October 18th.
These pics are off Facebook so the resolution isn’t great. Best to check out Louise and Ignacio of Lost Art’s gorgeous documentation of the work in progress.
