The 2012 Living Walls Conference is about to begin, and the line-up of events and murals has finally been announced. Once again, I’ll be participating at the conference. I’ll be speaking at a panel on the issue of gender, hosting an evening of short films and maybe doing a Pecha Kucha talk if I come up with something to talk about.
But of course, the highlight of Living Walls is going to be the murals. For this year’s conference, the festival organizers have decided to go with an (almost) all-women lineup of muralists including Fefe, Hyuro, Miso, Cake and Olive47, plus photographers Martha Cooper and Teen Witch.
Other speakers at the conference include Living Walls alums LNY and Gaia, as well as Ian Wilson, who recently organized the Wall\Therapy mural festival in Rochester, NY.
Living Walls will take place August 15th-19th, with special events every day. For the full lineup a comprehensive listing of events, check the Living Walls facebook event.
It’s a mega link-o-rama this week because I’ve been traveling from last Saturday until Thursday morning.
Here’s a video of Morley’s show at Lazarides Newcastle. When I first saw Morley’s work about a year and a half ago, I thought it was hilarious and touching. Now though, while I appreciate that he has tried to literally make his gallery work 3D and therefore a bit different from what he does on the street, I’m kinda bored of it. Anybody else feeling this way?
WALL\THERAPY, Rochester’s mural festival, looks like it’s going well so far. Here are a few shots of walls in progress (from Liqen, Case, How/Nosm and DALeast), plus How and Nosm’s completed mural…
Case’s wall in progressHow and Nosm at workHow and Nosm’s wall in progressDALeast’s wall in progressHow and Nosm’s finished wall. Click to view large.
WALL\THERAPY is a mural event in Rochester, NY being put together by, Dr. Ian Wilson and The Synthesis Collaborative, the same people who organized last year’s Visual Intervention. This year, artists from Rochester and around the world will be painting as part of WALL\THERAPY: Faith47, DALeast, Ben Eine, Liqen, Case, ROA, Cern, St. Monci, Mr. Prvrt, Thievin’ Stephen, How & Nosm and Siloette.
The murals will be painted July 20th-27th, so that might be a fun time to visit Rochester.
For more information about WALL\THERAPY and events surrounding the festival, check their facebook event page.
The team over at Living Walls in Atlanta has some exciting news this week. Possible Futures will match up to $10,000 of donations made to Living Walls between now and August 1st. Living Walls is, in my opinion, the best mural festival or conference in North America, but the conference relies on donations to make it happen. Thanks to Possible Futures, any donation you make now through August 1st will go twice as far, so even if you can only spare a few dollars, I hope you will consider donating to Living Walls.
We’ve got more today from Ad Hoc Art’s Welling Court Mural Project. John Fekner and Don Leicht (studio visit) are two of my favorite stencil artists, and two of street art history’s most underrated pioneers. John sent over these photos of their contributions to this year’s Welling Court Mural Project, which included new works and additions to their piece from two years ago. About the additions, Fekner says, “We were prepped to do a new wall ¢hange$, but decided to update the wall as a tribute to graffiti artist Comp, Michael Wolovich (1989-2012) who painted the original wall with us in 2010.”
John Fekner. Photo by Jeewon Shin.
Here’s what Fekner has to say about this piece:
The stencil project, He Was Simply A Guy Who Painted Messages In The Street is intended to function on two levels.
Most every artist will do a self-portrait at some point in his or her career. Mine is not a traditional portrait; it is a self-portrait with words.
Every individual is unique in the world and has something to contribute no matter how small the thought or message might be. Perhaps a work on the street may provide a laugh or help someone get through a difficult moment, an anxious night, a period of strife or uncertainty in their life. Yes, some people may not like it; but art on the street is for everyone. It may be funny, soothing, insightful, joyous or reflective. It is an instant of communication intent on causing an immediate reaction on the viewer.
The project is also a tribute to every unknown individual whoever grafftied, scrawled, scratched, wheat-pasted, stenciled or spray painted without the public ever knowing the name of the anonymous person.
An artist’s knowledge is their trade. Artists are here to visually express and share universal concepts of peace, love, hope, compassion, equality and understanding with the general public. Art in unexpected places: anywhere, anytime, anyplace and everyone.
Dozens of artists and scores of folks — all of diverse backgrounds — came together Saturday to celebrate year three of The Welling Court Mural Project, organized by Ad Hoc Art. Here are some scenes from the day:
Joe IuratoFlying FortressSinnedBilly ModeSkewvilleHell BentKimyon Huggins
ParisFreeWalls is a mural program in Paris that have organized 11 walls since last November, including contributions from some of my favorite artists. It’s being curated by MSAGallery. Here are a few of the highlights from the program so far.
SKL0 is a street artist in Singapore who may be facing up to 3 years in prison for allegedly putting up fantastic stickers and fake road signs. This petition was started to hopefully get the authorities in Singapore to lessen the charges against SKL0.
This post on Hyperallergic pretty much exactly echos my thoughts about a Kickstarter project that hopes to raise $1 million to temporarily cover New York’s water tanks in art by celebrities and celebrity artists (and a couple of cool artists too, admittedly).
