Faile‘s latest solo show, Bedtime Stories, opened a few days ago at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York City. I might be in the city next weekend, and this show will be one of my first stops. I’m usually a big huge fan of Faile, so I’m liking the new imagery and styles in these pieces, as well as the revival of some old favorites. And they’re in a “proper” contemporary art gallery, not a place pigeonholed as a gallery for street artists, so hopefully a new audience will be exposed to the madness that is Faile. Here are some pictures from the show:
Photo by Christopher VidalPhoto by Matthew KrausPhoto by Christopher VidalPhoto by Christopher VidalPhoto by Christopher VidalPhoto by Matthew KrausPhoto by Matthew KrausPhoto by Matthew Kraus
Bastardilla. Photo by HookedblogBastardilla detailed. Photo by ClaudelondonBastardilla detailed. Photo by ClaudelondonSwoon. Photo by Marie A.-C.Swoon. Photo by Claudelondon
Seth and I are finally back in LA after our trip to London and Paris. I had jet lag the whole time I was in London, then got it again when I got home, so that wasn’t particularly enjoyable, but other than that we did some fun things. Now we’re working toward Block Partywith Boxi, Krystian Truth Czaplicki, Gregor Gaida, Simon Haas and Dan Witz + a showcase with Sixeart, which opens here at Carmichael Gallery on Saturday, November 13, and putting together the Miami issue of tasj.
I just wanted to quickly share some highlights from the current issue of tasj (vol ii – issue iii). As always, it’s free to subscribe to, no matter where you live.
As you can see from the cover, this is Part II of our Backstage Series (see who was in Part I here). One of my favorite interviews is with Mike Vargas and Moni Pineda, who run the web series/blog Friends We Love. I recommend checking out the site if you haven’t been on it yet; there is so much great content up there!
In addition to our Unurth, auction and art fair pages, we also have several new regular sections: Special Event (for shows taking place outside traditional gallery/museum settings – you’ll read about Blk River in here), Stopover (our city guide – this issue highlights London), Limited Edition (for prints and multiples – Faile, Bumblebee, Eine and Zeus are street artists who feature) and Newsstand (an off-shoot of Bookshelf and a place to support our fellow magazines and newspapers).
This summer, I sat in a massive pitch-black room and muttered “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit…” over and over again. I couldn’t stop repeating “Holy shit” for maybe for five minutes. I’d been anticipating this moment for nearly a year. I was somewhere underneath New York City. I was waiting to be shown The Underbelly Project. Technically, I was there to take photos, but really I didn’t care at all if images came out or not. Really, I just wanted to see firsthand what was going on 4-stories below the streets of New York City.
Revok and Ceaze. That light comes from the lights that were set up temporarily for an artist who was painting that night.
Imagine Cans Festival, FAME Festival or Primary Flight: Some of street art and graffiti’s best artists all painting one spot. That’s kind of like The Underbelly Project. Except that The Underbelly Project took place in complete secrecy, in a mysterious location and without any authorization. Over the past year, The Underbelly Project has brought more than 100 artists to an abandoned and half-finished New York City subway station. Each artist was given one night to paint something.
Know Hope had this entire room to himself. What was this room meant to be? An elevator shaft? An office? I have no idea.
Workhorse and PAC, the project’s organizers, have put countless hours into their ghost subway station, and now they’re finally ready to unveil it to the world, sort of (more on that later). So I guess that’s why I was in that dark room, sitting in silence, waiting for them to give me a flashlight. I’m still not sure why I’d been extended the invitation to see the station firsthand, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity. The Underbelly Project is going to be part of street art history.
Surge, Stormie Mills, Remi/Rough and Gaia
Eventually, Workhorse and PAC came over to where I was sitting and lent me a flashlight. I stood up, already coated in dust and probably dirtier than I’ve ever been, and got a full tour of the station. I’m not somebody who is good at estimating the size of a space, but The Underbelly Project took place in a space that was meant to be a subway station, so I guess it was the size of a subway station with a few tracks. The station is like a concrete cavern: random holes who-knows how deep into the ground, dust thick like a layer of dirt, leaky ceilings and hidden rooms. Except the whole station is covered in art. Think of FAME Festival’s abandoned monastery transplanted to beneath New York City. I’m not an urban explorer, so I had no idea that there are abandoned subway stations throughout New York, but The Underbelly Project seems like just about the best possible use of one.
Of course, having been down there myself, I’m going to be prone to hyperbole. Even at it’s simplest, even if The Underbelly Project is “just another mural project,” it’s a story that the artists can tell for years, and it may even be evidence that street art isn’t so far gone and corporate as some people have suggested.
Swoon and Imminent Disaster. Disaster's piece is stunning beyond belief and fits the space so perfectly.
The list of artists who painted for The Underbelly Project goes on and on, but here are just a few:
Swoon
Gaia
Know Hope
Revok
Roa
Dan Witz
Jeff Soto
Faile
Mark Jenkins
Elbow-toe
TrustoCorp
Mark Jenkins and Con. This is at the end of a long and dark tunnel that, at the time, was not otherwise painted.
On my visit, The Underbelly Project wasn’t finished. In fact, somebody was painting there that night. Nonetheless, the space was already substantially painted and postered. I spent that night wandering around the tunnels, taking photos and getting lost (and also scared – Damn you Mark Jenkins! You can’t put a sculpture like that at the end of a darkened hall. I thought it was a person!).
TrustoCorp
And what now? The walls have all been painted and the artists have moved on to new projects. When the last artist finished painting the last wall, Workhorse and PAC made access to The Underbelly Project nearly impossible by removing the entrance. Even if any of us wanted to go back (and I do), even if we could remember how to get there (and I don’t), we can’t. Nobody can. For now, The Underbelly Project has become a time capsule of street art, somewhere in the depths of New York City.
Meggs
Brad Downey once explained to me why he thought Damien Hirst’s diamond skull is interesting. It had something to do with what people would think of the skull in 1000 years, when its original meaning has been lost to time. That’s when the skull is going to become a true icon and object with immense power. In some ways, The Underbelly Project is like Hirst’s skull, without the price tag. One day, decades from now hopefully, somebody may rediscover that old subway station and have no idea what they’re looking at. Hopefully, they’ll just feel that it’s something incredibly special.
Dan Witz. This was the first time I'd seen his street art in person. It's the perfect setting for Dan's Dark Doings series.
Here are some more images from The Underbelly Project, and expect more over the coming days on Vandalog and around the blogosphere… Or you can pay £1 to read an in-depth article about it in today’s Sunday Times.
Stash (well, part of his piece). This is another room like Know Hope's area.Swoon and ListerL'Atlas, Mr Di Maggio, 1010, Paper Twins, Bigfoot, Control/Jice. Photo by WorkhorseFaile. Photo by PACSkewville, PAC, SheOne, Revok/Ceaze. Photo by PAC
As you may have seen mentioned on my Twitter, I’ve been working with a few artists that I admire to make a series of t-shirts.
Today, the first three in a line of Vandalog t-shirts are available online. All three are designs are artworks by people that I admire. These aren’t your standard artist collaborations though. There are a few things that make these shirts unique. Yes, Vandalog now has a clothing label, but nowhere on these t-shirts will you find the Vandalog name. This project was conceived as being about the artists as much as possible. Additionally, these aren’t the sort of thing that you’ll find 40 of in every Urban Outfitters throughout the world. There are less than shirts 40 with each design in the world. That was intentional. These t-shirts are screenprints, except that they were printed on fabric instead of paper and they aren’t signed by the artists. Luckily, all these shirts are significantly cheaper than screenprints on paper, at $30 each plus shipping.
Faro’s shirt is an edition of 34. Faro is a mummy-obsessed artist and graffiti writer who you may have seen around New York City. His graffiti is cool and it’s how we at Vandalog first heard about Faro, but his drawings are what really sets him apart, which is why Faro’s shirt is based on this drawing.
Other
Troy Lovegates aka Other’s shirt is an edition of 35. Troy Lovegates is a Canadian artist who likes to draw outside, often with his friend Labrona, as well as make beautiful prints and paintings indoors. I’d say Troy is probably my favorite Canadian street artist. Also, he recently had a cool book of his art published.
All these shirts are available now at Vandalog’s online shop for $30 each plus shipping.
Swoon’s solo show Fata Morgana opened at Galerie LJ in Paris this weekend. The show is a huge installation with full-sized woodblock prints like Monica and the portrait of her father, but to me the best bits seem to be her papercut pieces. Some truly amazing work from my favorite living artist. Guillotine has lots of images from the show.
Okay, so yeah, GRL’s Laser Tag thing is cool, but it’s more of a fun trick than it is graffiti. This new thing is pretty awesome too though, and I think it might be a big development in the world of graffiti: Letterbombing. Improve Everywhere’s Charlie Todd first posted about this form of internet graffiti. Check out the video:
In recent months, I’ve been suggesting that the best piece of street art or graffiti ever would be to hack the Google homepage if even for a few seconds. Then, just a few days ago, I went on a rant to a friend about how computer hackers who do things like this are a new generation of taggers. Letterbombing seems to fit perfectly within the sort of things I’ve been imagining, and if I’m on to anything, letterbombing seems to be the next development in online graffiti. Like moving from tagging to wholecars, letterbombs might not last as long as a hacked website, but they are more refined, can hit bigger targets and will probably be seen by more people. Of course, letterbombing isn’t illegal like graffiti or hacking, but it’s still damn clever.
Are there any other examples of online graffiti out there that I’m forgetting about?
Due to legal concerns, I’ve decided that the best move is unfortunately to disable all comments on this post. – RJ Rushmore
This is probably old news to a lot of readers, but maybe not to all: LAPD’s art fraud unit is currently investigating JetSet Graffiti for various allegations of theft and fraud. JetSet Graffiti is an online gallery run by Daniel Lahoda to sell prints and occasionally original work by street artists and graffiti writers. In the past, JetSet Graffiti has released prints with artists such as Ron English, D*Face and Saber. This isn’t the first time that accusations have been made against JetSet Graffiti, but to my knowledge this is the first time that police are investigating the business.
On August 31st, a message appeared on the Urban Art Assocation/Banksy Forum. Silky, the forum moderator, posted an email from an investigator at the LAPD. You can read the message on the forum, but it essentially said that the LAPD were trying to reach anybody who had had bad business experiences with Lahoda.
Then, around September 16th, the LAPD posted a “Crime Alert” about Lahoda on their website. The crime alert (available online) is an information request once again asking for anyone potentially defrauded by Lahoda to come forward as well as a warning about complaints that have been received. The LAPD says that they have gotten complaints including “art ordered and paid for but never delivered,” “taking art on consignment and diverting the art and money obtained for his own use,” “selling unauthorized prints” and other issues as well. The alert also claims that Lahoda was fired from three jobs over the last 6 years for embezzling funds (I’ve attempted to reach these companies, but could only get a hold of one. They declined to comment). It’s important to note that even given all these things, the report states that Lahoda “is not wanted by the police at this time.”
I spoke with Detective Don Hrycyk at the LAPD, the officer in charge of investigating Lahoda. He gave one example of the numerous complaints that he had received which he believed to be true: Allegedly, a buyer in England gave $8000 to Lahoda for a Banksy print, but never received the artwork.
Lahoda and I were in touch by phone and email both before and after the crime alert was posted online. He offered to answer some questions for Vandalog in an effort to explain his side of the story. Despite repeated emails to Lahoda and his repeated assurance that he would be responding to the questions in a matter of days, I’ve still not heard back from him after a few weeks, so I’ve had to publish this without his comments.
It’s been a crazy week in London. Moniker and all that. But here’s what has been going on with street art elsewhere:
Okay, so I will mention one thing about Moniker: Graffoto seems to be the first to post a review, and what a review it is. Doubtless, Vandalog will be posting something in the coming days, but in the mean time, check out Graffoto to see all that Moniker goodness.
Mudwig is part of the Meta Snout show opening today at High Roller Society in London.
I’ve tried twice to see Word To Mother’s solo show at Stolenspace, but they always seem to be closed when I am near the gallery. Photos look great though and I’ve only heard good things.
Old-school graffiti writer Duster UA has a solo show coming up in December at London Miles Gallery. Tickets are on sale now for a special event at the gallery during the show.
As promised in Tuesday’s post, here’s more from the set up process at Moniker Art Fair. Unfortunately I had to stay home on Wednesday, but I was out taking photos on Tuesday and of course plenty of other people like Hooked Blog were out taking photos.
Eine's installationPolly Morgan's installationHerakut's installationA piece by Swoon. Photo by HookedBefore the galleries moved in...Faith47 painting
Steve Powers and Faith47 have finished their spots, 3 to go. Photo by nolionsinengland
And there are some Moniker videos to mention as well. The folks from Babelgum have been working non-stop doing editing at the fair. Here’s their time-lapse of Eine’s mural:
Calculate isn’t really for me and I’ve heard more than one person suggest that Eine should have repainted his Vandalism image which was on this same wall, but Eine fans seem to be liking this new piece as well.
S.Butterfly made this video interview with Steve Powers:
All in all, Moniker is shaping up to be everything that I and it seems everybody else have been hoping for. The fair opens on Thursday night from 7-9 and I’ll be running tours of the fair on Friday at 11:30 and 1:30, so I hope to see as many people there as possible.
