WK Blows Us All Up

WK Interact

I can’t believe it’s already been a week since WK Interact‘s latest solo exhibit, How To Blow Yourself Up, opened here in LA. For anyone Cali-based who missed the reception, you can still check out the work and installation at Subliminal Projects until December 5th. And for everybody else, here are a few pics from the night! It was definitely one of the most fun events over this way in a while.

Aside from the excited buzz in the air and line out the door of people waiting to get photographed and fingerprinted for WK’s awesome mug shot wall, the work itself did not disappoint. The gallery was decked out with a fantastic range of three-dimensional mixed media pieces (from wood panels, skate decks and boxes to a custom-built bike and a series of doors you have to see to believe) and there was even one of his mind-blowing Motion Portraits (my personal favorite).

Hype aside (and he’s underrated, in my opinion), WK is simply one of the most important street artists in the world and those who have the opportunity to see or own his work are just plain lucky.

WK Interact

WK Interact

WK Interact

WK Interact

WK Interact

WK Interact

WK Interact

Pictures generously supplied by the lovely Lord Jim.

Banksy IKEA/IEAK punk wall removed

And here’s the latest in the saga of Banksy’s IEAK Punk piece in Croydon… The owners of the wall have removed it. They are saying that the removal to prevent more tagging because the piece has been severely tagged over. I hope that’s true. I give the owners a pretty good chance of trying to sell the wall tomorrow (hopefully not on eBay). The Sutton Guardian has the full story.

Steve Powers’ A Love Letter For You book

Steve Powers aka ESPO recently put together an amazing project in Philadelphia called A Love Letter For You where he made a series of beautiful large scale murals (previously mentioned Vandalog, twice). Now you can buy the entire series of murals in book form from Gingko Press, so that’s exciting. I’m ordering my copy tonight. This totally makes up for his recent print release at Pictures on Walls (I think the image is less than awesome and only relevant to New Yorkers)

a-love-letter-for-you-front

You can buy the book at Gingkopress.com for $14.95

Correction, this book unfortunately does not seem to be for sale just yet but it should be out soon.

The Art Street Journal Issue 4 – November

Art Street

100 copies of issue 4 of The Art Street Journal arrived at my door today. The newspaper is put together by the folks at Carmichael Gallery and with issue 4 they’ve continued to expand their coverage and fill the paper with great interviews and photos. There are interviews with Hush, WK-Interact and Dan Witz and Sebastian from Unurth even put together a page of his favorite street pieces from the last month. It’s also the only place (for now) that you can read a half-decent explanation of The Thousands and why I’m putting on an art exhibition.

The best way to get The Art Street Journal is their website. You can sign up and they’ll send copies anywhere in the world for free. I’ll also be in Shoreditch tomorrow putting them in shops. And of course, there will be a few copies at The Thousands.

Faile sells for $50,000 at FIAC

In a very important test for Faile, they seem to have passed with flying colors. FIAC, the major art fair currently open in Paris, has a booth from Faile’s new New York City gallery: Perry Rubenstein Gallery. Perry Rubenstein is a contemporary art gallert, not a “street art” gallery, so that puts their work in front of a very different set of collectors. Artinfo is reporting that the below Faile has sold for $50,000 to a French collector. A beautiful piece with imagery spanning Faile’s career, and perhaps evidence that Faile can break into the larger contemporary art scene.

Faile

Banksy self portrait to be revealed?

Apparently there is a Banksy self portrait set to be revealed next week at a bar in Islington.

I’m not even going to link to this story. Google it if you think it’s interesting, but it sounds like PR hype to me.