Category: Featured Posts

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No Oscar for Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop

Well, there you go. Banksy‘s film Exit Through The Gift Shop, while a good film, was apparently just not good enough for The Academy. The film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature but lost to Inside Job (a win which will probably has a larger postive impact on the world than a win for Exit).

While I can understand that some people were not excited when Exit was nominated, and I also certainly saw it as a sign of Banksy’s mainstream popularity and pandering, for better or worse, I would have the say that once it got nominated, I wanted to at least see it win.

Better luck next time Banksy…

Photo by Trick Kid

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Concrete Voices: a short film about The Living Walls Conference

The Living Walls Conference took place last August in Atlanta and included some Vandalog favorites like Chris Stain, Gaia, Jordan Seiler and Swampy. In fact, Monica Campana, a recent addition to the Vandalog bloggers, organized Living Walls (and that plays into the series of coincidences of how we met, but that’s a story for another day). Christine Sylvain just posted this short video from the conference:

CONCRETE VOICES from Birds of Prey Productions on Vimeo.

I’m also pleased to say that Living Walls will be taking place again this summer, and in two locations. There will be a conference in Atalanta again in August, plus another one in Albany, NY from the 16th-18th of September. For more info or if you think you would like to help make this year’s Living Walls conferences a success, email livingwallsconference@gmail.com for Altanta or livingwallsalbany@gmail.com for Albany.

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More from JR in LA (including at MOCA)

JR seems to be going non-stop with putting put murals in LA right now. The LA Weekly are covering that pretty well, but the above wall deserves a special mention. It’s part of the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA, the same building where Blu‘s mural was buffed last year. This isn’t the same wall, but it’s the same building and JR did this mural for the same even, MOCA’s upcoming street art show. This is interesting because of the outcry over the buffing of Blu’s mural. There was definitely speculation that artists would pull out of the show over issues of censorship and to stand in solidarity with Blu. JR is the first artist since Blu to put up a wall as part of the MOCA show, which opens in April. Not to gloss over the events with Blu, hopefully this is a sign that the show will continue on without any more glitches and be a success. I suppose the other side of this is that someone could say that JR is turning his back on his principles or something, but I think that the TED folk generally are pretty smart about who they give large grants to.

Via MOCA’s blog

Photo courtesy of MOCA

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Banksy hits LA

Photo by Lord Jim

So with the Oscars less than a week away and an Oscar nomination under his belt, of course Banksy has hit up LA with some new work. Some of it’s good, some of it is barely worth a mention and all of it is getting lots of attention.

My personal favorite from this series of hits is the above billboard, the aftermath of which can be seen in this video. Expect it to show up on eBay any day now.

The other piece I really like is this Charlie Brown on a burnt out building:

Photo by Lord Jim

Hieronymus spotted the Charlie Brown piece getting covered by the property management company. His thoughts on the subject as well as on the general way that Banksy’s outdoor work has such a strange life these days are worth checking out. I would pretty much echo his sentiments. There’s also this video of the piece getting covered, but not much is clear except that the building owners want the work covered for now.

I think with either of those two pieces, they’d be worth mentioning even if they weren’t by Banksy, and that should be the measure by which his work is judged. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and massive amounts of attention have also been paid to every new Banksy in LA, even the two mediocre ones. First, there’s Dog Wizz, which is kinda funny I guess but definitely not top-notch Banksy work:

Photo by Hieronymus

And then there’s this piece which looks to me like something Mr. Brainwash would dream up after looking at Banksy and Dran’s stuff for a bit too long:

Photo by Lord Jim

Besides being a really weak concept compared to the rest of Banksy’s work with kids drawing, there are a few crazy things about this crayon-gun stencil: It was first “discovered” by Lauren Conrad from The Hills and she posted a photo on her twitter. As Hrag speculates, this was pretty clearly staged for maximum publicity for both Lauren and Banksy. Additionally, there’s this painting by Nils Westergard from about a year ago that is pretty similar, so if you like this Banksy but can’t afford to hire somebody to chop a wall out for you, you can always buy the Westergard version on canvas for $500. I’m not saying that Banksy ripped off Westergard, just trying to point out how simple the concept of a crayon-gun is (then again, you could argue that the simple concepts are what makes some of Banksy’s art so good). Finally, I think it’s pretty hilarious to see Banksy fans loving this piece when the first thing it made me think of is that infamous Mr. Brainwash image of Elvis holding a toy gun instead of a guitar. Honestly, the concept of this piece seems so MBW-esque to me, even though the style is obviously Banksy’s. Oh, and it looks like somebody trashed this wall already.

So that’s Banksy’s most recent LA advertising campaign. Some good art and lots of hype. Hopefully it all works in his favor, because I’d still love to see him win that Oscar on Sunday. I just re-watched Exit Through The Gift Shop last week for the first time since the premiere, and I liked it more the second time around. It’s not a bad film.

Photos by Lord Jim and Hieronymus

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Interview with OverUnder

I found out about OverUnder last year during the Living Walls conference here in Atlanta, Ga. Hellbent, who was participating in the event, had brought with him a bunch of OverUnder’s wheatpastes for me to put up as part of the event. After that, I took a trip to NYC and on almost every street I would find an OverUnder tag. I saw so many that I started to count them and play games with friends to see who could find the most. Later that year I went to Miami for Art Basel, and the first thing I saw was an OverUnder tag on a huge plastic pink snail, and then all over Miami. I knew it then, I needed to meet him, and find out who was this OverUnder guy I kept seeing all over (in Atlanta, in NYC and in Miami). The best thing about finding an OverUnder tag  is the fact that they all come with a personalized phrase to go with it, and they all are so fun and clever, it is really a true joy to find one!

I sent him some questions through the wonderful world of the internet, and OverUnder as awesome as he is, was very quick to reply, so here you have it: my OverUnder interview, Enjoy!

To see more of his work you can visit his Flickr or website.


What is the meaning behind the name OverUnder?

Well the name has several meanings to me but I guess Over Under is the message of graffiti. It’s a reminder of what you gotta do to get up and what will inevitably happen to your work in the end. Writers, toys, the buff, weather, all of it are constantly erasing your work and you have to always come back to the fundamentals of writing, or “getting over”. When ESPO’s book came out it must have struck a chord because around that time I made my first movie called ‘Overunder, The Art of Getting Over’. It documented the guy who buffs graffiti in Reno and then I mimicked his work but made buff marks that looked like cartoon-stylized explosions. You know, like, Batman style POW and KABOOM marks. I started expressing the term but never used it as a handle till more recently.

How and why did you come up with the OverUnder tag (floating paper planes tag)?

I’ve been trying to look back in the archives and figure that one out myself, and as far as I can tell, it originated from the back of an envelope flap. There are two things I love: Traveling and mail! I used to mail my friends all the time. Eventually my mail art world collided with my street art world and I began painting flying envelopes. Some 7 years later and they now resemble flying pieces of paper, birds, and sting rays. But to me they are a movement, a tumbleweed, a reminder to see what is at the top of a fire escape or behind a fence. I like that they are evolving. And I can see that they are still changing.

Do you usually come up with a phrase to do with the tag before hand or do you come with them on the spot? Would you tell me your favorite phrase so far?

I usually come up with them on the spot based off the conversations around me. I try to make mental notes of OVER UNDER phrases but lately it’s been much more exciting to abandon the O.U. ball and chain and write loosely about life. My most favorite recent phrase was, ‘A man who walked in front of bullets never felt so at home until it knocked on his door.’ And my favorite PG-13 one is, ‘Highway to the blow job zone’.

What inspires OverUnder?

Does FourLoko count? Semi just kidding. I’m inspired by long walks and short thoughts. My brother inspires me. My family inspires me. My family by other blood inspires me. Knowing that I’m more temporary than my art inspires me.

Why do you choose to put your work on the streets, what and why are you trying to communicate to the vast audience you have on the streets?

I don’t choose to put my work on the streets, I just put it outside because that is where it is supposed to go. On the other hand, I do ask myself why I should put work on the inside of spots. This is contradictory since I have shown work in galleries but I strive to make work that is crafted and knowledgeable of its environment, whether it’s inside or outside. I think growing up in a place like Reno that is surrounded by either huge mountains or vast desert really affected my perception of space. The environment rewired my concept of scale and as I learned about graffiti from the older generation of local writers it just made sense. It didn’t make sense to be cooped up in a studio working on a master piece when the trainyard was down the block. Now artists like Cai Guo Qiang inspire me to look at open space even grander.

I lurked around and I found something about a cabin, would you tell me more about it?

Good hunting. Yes, I moved back to NY, homeless and with limited funds after biking across Europe with OTHER. A friend in Williamsburg had a lean-to in their backyard and offered it to me for $150/mo. I moved in and scavenged wood, windows, and hardware to seal it up and make a home. White Cocoa moved in with me a few months later and together we framed out the front, added a wood burning stove, layed wood flooring, and built a patio out of barricades. It’s a small 110-sq foot space but we’ve made it our home and already withstood some crazy weather this year. In a way, it’s our protest to the ridiculous price of New York real estate and a return to Walden Pond. An urban Walden Pond.

I saw you all over Art Basel last year 2010. Did you like Miami? Any awesome stories from that trip?

I got to swim and walk around in shorts. How could I not like going from Brooklyn to Miami in December! It was my first time to ArtBasel and I loved it! Since I was only there for 3 days, I tried to make the most of it and I’ve got the blisters to prove it! White Cocoa and I walked two laps of Miami Beach one day (15+ miles); the first lap finding spots and the second lap putting in work. The story that made the headlines was the one about those ridiculous pink snails but aside from that the best moment was racking a box of paint from Mr. Brainwash while he and his 3-dozen assistants were deciding which way to position his awful paintings. I figured he was going to waste it on something silly anyways.

Favorite place to do street art? Favorite place in the world?

It’s kind of situational. I joke with my friends about how certain places tell me to do it. As if I have no self-control. Then again, maybe I don’t. But I suppose I love ruins. Contemporary ruins. New York has its fair share although they are becoming few and far between. Berlin has great alleys. Paris has great vans. Portland has great trainyards. Cuba has great texture. New York has great roll up gates. Everywhere has its reason. And if not, you’ve always got your imagination.

Favorite street artists?

Matthias Wermke, Mischa Leinkauf, OTHER, Jan Danebod, ADAMS, E.B. ITSO, AKAYISM, Felice Varini, MOMO, BLU…

Any words of encouragement/tips to new aspiring street artists out there?

Don’t ask, don’t look, don’t think about it too long. Just make it your way.

BONUS: (this is one only for cool points): draw a picture of yourself or how you see yourself (this might require scanning, but gives you total creative freedom) or tell me a joke.

Sorry, don’t have a scanner. But I heard a good joke recently from my man PET: What is Snoop Dogg’s favorite weather? Drizzle.

Photos by OverUnder

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Classic street art – Christy Rupp’s rats from 1979

A lot of people were first introduced to street art through Banksy and his rats. Then, you learn that Blek le Rat was painting stencils of rats back in the 1980’s. What people don’t often realize that one of street art’s early pioneers beat both of those artists to stenciled black rats. The Rat Patrol project by Christy Rupp, from 1979, consisted of wheatpasting images of rats all around New York City. Street Art, a book from 1985, is the invaluable resource that first introduced me to Rupp’s artwork, but since then, I don’t think she has been acknowledged for her work as one of the first street artists, and possibly the first street artist to use rats extensively, a character that has become iconic within the movement.

Here’s how Rupp describes the project:

Life size image of a rat placed amongst accumulated garbage. I started pasting these up during the 3 week garbage strike in May of 1979. Never intending to defend rats, I wanted to point out how we had created a habitat for them, and they would naturally occupy it. The city has it’s own ecosystem with a delicate balance. Rats were very visible in those days where I lived in the Wall St. area. Especially around dusk when the human traffic would abruptly taper off leaving all the days harvest for the first rats to discover. During this time I studied rat behavior and found them to be similar to people in many ways, not least of which was the ability to work together as a community, making them possibly better suited to living in NYC at times. Also it has been said that rats possess a culture- if you define culture as the ability to pass information through generations without direct experience- such as a fear of predators and pesticides. Humans are the only other species that can do that.

Also, there were even Rubble Rats, which took the form of sculptures:

Rupp’s artwork is a piece of street art history that should be longer be ignored. Certainly something that should be kept in mind with LA MOCA‘s upcoming street art show.

On her website, you can purchase a print of the 2nd photo in this post.

Also, I was looking around the rest of Rupp’s website and there are a number of other cool artworks worth checking out.

Photos by Christy Rupp

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RETNA’s Hallelujah World Tour Opening, NYC

Last night I had the chance to check out the opening of RETNA’s Hallelujah, presented by Valmorbida (the people behind Richard Hambleton’s show last year) and curated by RVCA’s PM Tenore in a giant pop-up space on Manhattan’s west side. RJ saw the show in the process of being set-up, and the finished product was certainly spectacular (not to mention really crowded. Cue me getting nervous as people bumped into the work). The artist’s glyphic pieces were presented on a series of very large mediums – most were canvas, some were ink on handmade paper, and a few had plaster (I think) letters rising out of the piece itself. Five sculptures in the middle of the room spelled out a monumental RETNA.

What the script on the pieces spelled out, I’m not entirely sure  – but the effect was certainly cryptic, not to mention really beautiful. Others seemed to think so too, as the vast majority of the work had already been sold by the show’s opening. Like a lot of his other stuff, the pieces subsumed the space, covering nearly the entire wall from floor to ceiling, and in the dark of the warehouse, it was completely immersive.

When I could get close enough to a piece to really see it, the intricacy of his process was apparent, with the handmade paper and ink pieces, the textured paint on canvas, or his evolving use of negative space.

The sculptures I mentioned before, particularly their surroundings, were the only parts that may have taken away from the general strength of the show. Scattered around/under/on top of the sculptures were ropes, industrial pallets, and empty paint cans. Whether it was about paying homage to the process, or likely to his more graffiti-oriented beginnings, the props seemed unnatural in the space, particularly in the whole glamorous-company-collaboration context. If anything, it made me want to see his work outside of this setting, or at least caused me to question what it means, and whether its good, bad (or both) to move from street to a show like this.

Hallelujah will be making two more stops, in Venice and London, as it completes its tour. You can check out the New York show at 560 Washington St. in the West Village. Also, if you haven’t seen it, make sure to watch the epic video that accompanies the show.

Photos by Frances Corry

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Printmaking Today and Roa at Black Rat Projects

This Thursday, Black Rat Projects has their first show of 2011. Pritmaking Today is their annual group print show. There’s a long list of some talented artists with work in the show, including Swoon, Know Hope and Matt Small. There will be new prints from Swoon, Candice Tripp and Matt Small. There’s also something from Hirst, but that should be easy enough to ignore. We’ve got a couple photos of Swoon working on her print:

In addition to the prints, there’s also an installation from Roa. His installation is part of a new project space/artist residency project at Black Rat Projects.

Roa at Factory Fresh last year. Photo by C-Monster

And all this opens on this Thursday night at Black Rat Projects in London.

Photos by C-Monster and courtesy of Black Rat Projects