He’s been called The Spanish Banksy because the media are lazy and feel the need to label artists like that, but honest to God he does some really cool stuff. SpY has popped up in a few places this week, and so I thought it was about time I jumped on the bandwagon.
Here are some of my favorite pieces by SpY. I particularly like how his style is constantly changing.
All images from SpY’s website
Thanks to Inspire at Inspire Collective for interviewing me about street art. Here’s a snippet:
“RJ, tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into appreciate graffiti, street, and public art in general?”
My dad actually got me into the whole scene. He came home from work one day almost two years ago and asked me if I knew about some guys called Faile. He’d bought a print by them. Neither of us had been seriously interested in art before that, but we both fell in love with the world of street art and haven’t looked back since. Right now I’m taking a gap year before heading off to university next fall, and street art is the overarching theme for my year.
“Its always good to see another public art site out there appreciating independent artists, how did Vandalog begin?”
I started Vandalog about 1 year ago as a way to keep up to date on street art news and increase my involvement with the street art community. Because I post something every day, I always have to be on the look out for news or something interesting to write about, and when I go to gallery openings or visit another city, I can reach out to artists or blog readers and immediately I have some connections in that city who can tell me all the cool things to do. And of course, it’s a great way to help promote my friends’ projects.
Read the rest of the interview on Inspire Collective
Here’s a little update on The Thousands, the art exhibition that I’m curating and organizing in London next month. Just a few weeks to go before it opens, and I’m working my ass off. There is really an amazing line up of artists. Subject to slight changes here and there, here’s the full line up:
Adam Neate
Aiko
Anthony Lister
Armsrock
Banksy
Barry McGee
Bast
Blek le Rat
Burning Candy
Chris Stain
David Ellis
Elbow-toe
Faile
Futura 2000
Gaia
Herakut
Jenny Holzer
José Parlá
Judith Supine
Kaws
Know Hope
Nick Walker
Os Gêmeos
Roa
Sam3
Shepard Fairey
Skewville
Swoon
WK Interact
So the artwork is amazing, but The Thousands is also the book launch for my book, The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In. Hope to see everybody there on the 18th.
There are street artists who are really just unskilled designers with nothing better to do at night, there are street artists who are good within this small genre of art, there are great street artists who make some interesting pieces indoors, and then there is Os Gêmeos. These Brazilian twins are without a doubt two of the most talented artists in Brazil (or anywhere I can think of for that matter) today. A few days ago they had a show called Vertigem open at the Museu da FAAP in São Paulo, Brazil. This might be the best art I’ve seen all year; it’s definitely up their with Swoon in Venice and Banksy versus The Bristol Museum. Here are some images:
Photos by Lost.art.br
Aakash Nihalani and Know Hope just got back from the Blk River Festival in Vienna. Here’s a cool time lapse of one of their collabs. More work from Aakash below, including a playful addition to a classic Banksy image (photo by Yvonne Kaufman), plus a close up of the piece you see in the video.
The first (along with the time lapse video of Roa painting) in a series of videos I’ve started to make for Babelgum.com is this tour of The Brick Lane Zoo, a show that just closed at The Brick Lane Gallery. Every week there will be two new videos going online: one will be a sort of different video like a time lapse or an extended interview, and the other will be me checking out the latest street art gallery openings.
In this video, make sure to listen to what Pure Evil says toward the end about street art and graffiti. And hey, there’s an interview with Roa so that’s awesome.
Two timelapse videos to share today.
The first is this one by the Brazilian street artist Mundano:
And the second video is kind of special. This video of Roa painting outside of Urban Angel in London is the first in a series of videos that I’m making for Babelgum.com’s Metropolis channel. Let me know what you think.
This is the finished piece in daylight:
Organized by Sarah Doherty Axis Alley seeks through creative engagement to utilize the backyards of vacant properties and vacant lots as a canvas for creative works that transform, activate and revitalize the overlooked, under-attended areas of Baltimore’s back alleys. In neighborhoods where the vacancy rate of properties runs high, the alley seems to become the indicator of urban difficulties…trash, rats, homeless people, prostitution and drugs. These somewhat forbidding alley’s (dark and unlit at night),while speaking of endemic problems in the city, possess a certain toxic beauty and provide a fascinating possibility of urban intervention and creative gesture.
Here’s an interesting letter from Shepard Fairey that showed up on his website yesterday:
In an effort to keep everyone up to date on my legal battle to uphold the principle of fair use in copyright laws, I wanted to notify you of a recent development in my case against The Associated Press (AP).
On October 9, 2009, my lawyers sent a letter to the AP and to the photographer Mannie Garcia, through their lawyers, notifying them that I intend to amend my court pleadings. Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garcia photo I used as a reference to design the HOPE image. The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another.
The new filings state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used as a reference and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong.
In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images. I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment and I take full responsibility for my actions which were mine alone. I am taking every step to correct the information and I regret I did not come forward sooner.
I am very sorry to have hurt and disappointed colleagues, friends, and family who have supported me in this difficult case and trying time in my life.
I am also sorry because my actions may distract from what should be the real focus of my case – the right to fair use so that all artists can create freely. Regardless of which of the two images was used, the fair use issue should be the same.
– Shepard
Thanks Shepard. You had a court case that could have helped to show the problems in the completely screwed up American copyright system, and now it’s going to be about how you doctored evidence.
Via Papermag
There has been a lot of cool work going up for the ARTotale event at Leuphana University, but this is one particularly interesting piece by Brad Downey.
And no, McDonald’s did not pay for that.
Here’s a bit of an explanation from Daniela Kummle, one of the university students:
With the change of university board in 2006 arrived an era of radical reformations at the Lüneburg university. This reformations did not only include the mandatory realization of the Bologna process but also a massive restructuring of the university. Especially the re-naming and the aligned marketing- and image campaign caused public stir. The new image of the university is clearly influenced by marketing considerations such as in private economies. A well-known German advertising agency invented the new name “Leuphana” and developed a “brand” logo which – in some peoples view – rather evokes associations of a car brand than of a university.
Along with these changes comes another big project – the building of a giant lecture hall (Audimax) by the world wide famous architect Daniel Libeskind. The costs are said to add up to a 62 billion euro. In order to avoid a public bid invitation for the building contract, Libeskind was made part-time professor at the Leuphana – not for the benefit of the students though – as he is rarely giving lectures at all.
Overall, the reformation of the university has aroused remarkable suspicion and critique both amongst students and lecturers. In the light of marketing campaigns and a giant construction project, many expressed intelligible suspicion about the use of tuition fees. In 2007, a website appeared which caused further confusion. ‘leuphana.de.vu’ is a mock university homepage which resembles the business-like tone of the new university president. As the page copies the official university pages visual style they look at first sight almost identical. The page also contains an “advertisement” video for the university. This video portraits the university’s campus as a high security area where access is only possible after showing one’s ID. It furthermore shows the university as being sponsored by Coca Cola.
Brad Downey’s contribution to the Art Totale, which goes in line with the welcome week for the first semester students, has lead to further discussions about Leuphana’s politics. An artwork that could in other context be read as a plain provocation acquires a deeper social and political meaning within in the recent history of this specific university. It imbibes the earlier articulated fears of critics, that forsee Leuphana becoming somewhat of a private university serving primarily economic interests. By raising disturbance and maybe even irritation, it functions well as a means of re-initiating the current discourse amongst the students. It will now take time to see, whether the Leuphana will incorporate its own institutional critique by allowing the work to be a permanent installation.
And there is a short interview with Brad about the piece over on Ekosystem.
Just has plenty of other photos from the event.
