Category: Festivals

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A portrait of Atlanta

Here’s the mural that Ola Bad (who has no website but can be reached at olabad.art@gmail.com) and Howdy Nater collaborated on for Living Walls.

Ola Bad tells this story of how the mural came about…

This is my first wall which was done in collaboration with Howdy Nater. The wall is out in the West End of Atlanta on the border of two run down neighborhoods, Adair Park and Oakland City. It lies directly along the Northbound Marta Line which is what everyone coming into the city has to take from Hartsfield Airport. Living walls had started a few days before we started painting and we were just tripping out at how much all the out of town artists were talking about all the love they were recieving and how this felt truly like a home away from home. We had decided that because of the location we wanted to welcome every traveller into the city with the hope that they would experience the same feeling as the artists.

Howdy Nater came up with the saying Your Southern Home Away from Home. I wanted to do portraits but didnt know who. As HN was laying out some letters I walked across the street to goto the gas station to buy us some 40s of Colt 45. The gas station had two lines , mine which was barely moving and the other which was flying by. I decided to move over to the other line when I was greeted by a man named Fred. He had two gold fronts a towel over his shoulder and was completely thugged out. He congratulated me on my patience and offered to let me cut in line. We started a converstion when a homeless man i was talking to earlier came in and asked me to buy him a hotdog. Before I could even reply Fred interjected that anyone who was humble enough to ask for food deserved to eat and purchased the hotdog. Fred told me that he had lived in Oakland City his entire life. I was completely blown away by his kindness and the way he treated anyone in his neighborhood like family. I knew immediately that he was the perfect ambassador for the mural and got to work.

The second portrait is of a wonderful woman who is heavily involved in the atlanta graff/street art scene, whos name is Sharon. She and Fred both share the same love for Atlanta and its inhabitants no matter who they are or what they look like. Its rad to think that two completly different people with completely different backgrounds share the same love and the only hope I have is that there are people like this in everycity to welcome and love people.

Photos by Ola Bad

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Marco Sueño at Living Walls

More from Living Walls Atlanta. Today, Marco Sueño. Marco is a photographer from Peru who works with stickers and wheatpastes. He did a few murals for Living Walls. Here’s how he describes this series:

Sacha Project is a muralism, photography and public space intervention that proposes, through a series of compositions that highlight the hybrid nature of icons and objects a result from the fusion between modern urban culture and the andean culture traditions a visual explorations on the peruvian identity, seen from its own transfiguration. “Sacha Project” displays how the sacred and the “Hybrid” create a jigsaw of different realities interacting through synergies and fragmentation.

Photos by Marco Sueño

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Thank you Atlanta/Living Walls

Drew Tyndell, Ben Niznik and Derek Bruno

Over the last week or so, there have been a lot fewer posts on Vandalog than usual. Two reasons for that: This week I’ve been spending time with my family and relaxing, but last week it was because I was in Atlanta for the second annual Living Walls Conference. It was a crazy few days, resulting in some beautiful new murals for Atlanta (like these from Gaia, Nanook and Escif). I’ll be posting more of those murals over the next few days.

For now, I’d like to focus on a massive thank you to all of the volunteers, organizers, artists, speakers and sponsors at Living Walls. In particular, all the volunteers who spent their own money on gas to practically act as personal drivers to all of us without a means of transportation. And while there’s a long list of sponsors, here’s a little shout out to those that I had the pleasure of connecting with: Sam Flax South, Eyedrum, Dodekapus, Atlanta Beltline, Streetela, The Goat Farm, MOCAGA and The Sound Table. The artists and speakers at Living Walls are some of the most talented around, but they are also some of the most fun. So thank you to everyone involved in Living Walls on any level for all the hard work. It was an honor to be invited to speak, and I hope to return again next year.

Evereman projecting onto Jaz at The Sound Table

Photos by Drew Tyndell and Evereman

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Weekend link-o-rama

"A Study In Fecundity" by Elbowtoe

I’m baking alive here in Atlanta for Living Walls, but damn things are coming along nicely. Nanook and Gaia have finished a couple of walls, including this one. But Living Walls is a busy event, so I’ve been missing out on a lot this week, including some big news from Banksy. Check all that out here…

Photo by Elbowtoe

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Faile in Oslo and the T&J Art Walk

Faile have been painting this week in Oslo in preparation for the T&J Art Walk taking place this month for the benefit of Human Rights Watch. Faile are the first artists to get to Olso and start painting for the event, but Shepard Fairey, Logan Hicks, D*face, The London Police, Seen, Fenx, Galo and others will be taking part as well. In addition to 10 murals in central Oslo celebrating the work of Human Rights Watch and memorializing the victims of last month’s terror attack, there will be an exhibition from August 18th through September 4th at the Norwegian auction house Blomqvist for the benefit of Human Rights Watch.

Check out some of what Faile has been up to in Oslo after the jump, and expect to see more T&J Art Walk murals on Vandalog soon… Continue reading “Faile in Oslo and the T&J Art Walk”

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Living Walls 2011 – The city speaks

Doodles, Swampy and Greg Mike at Living Walls 2010

Later this month, Atlanta is going to be taken over by street artists from around the world for this year’s edition of the Living Walls conference, Living Walls: the City Speaks. From the 12th-14th of August, there will be film screenings, lectures and artists painting murals around the city. Living Walls have brought together an impressive artist roster from around the world including (but not limited to) Doodles, Swampy, Gaia, Roa, Labrona, OverUnder, Sam3, Freddy Sam, White Cocoa, Nanook, Greg Mike, Paper Twins, Clownsoldier and Gawd. And I can’t complain about the keynote speakers either: Tristan Manco, Gaia, Ricky Lee Gordon and me.

So if you’re in Atlanta, come out check out the opening party at The Sound Table on Friday the 12th, lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia on the 13th during the day, a party at The Goat Farm the night of the 13th and a tour of all the new murals on the 14th. I’ll post more details about exact times later. And of course, I’ll be posting plenty of photos from the conference as well.

In September, another Living Walls event will take place in Albany, NY. More on that later.

Photo by Greg Foster Photography

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Whitecross Street Party 2011

Whitecross Street party 2010

This weekend, the 23rd and 24th of July, Whitecross Street in London is host to this year’s Whitecross Street Party. Last year featured artists like Dr. D, Filthy Luker and the Burning Candy crew. Expect more street artists at this year’s event including Milo Tchais, Shepard Fairey (probably not the man himself, but something from him) and Ronzo. There’s also an indoor art exhibition. Here’s the flyer, and there’s more info on the party’s website:

Photo by Keri.flickr

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Weekend link-o-rama

Labrona and Gawd. Click the photo to view it large.

Last night might have been my busiest 1st Thursday ever, and I didn’t even stop off everywhere I wanted to. Either way, I’ll have to go back to a few galleries this week to actually look at the art properly. Even with a cursory glance though, the Charming Baker show was the highlight by a mile. I’m not sure how sustainable it is to sell paintings at the prices they sold for last night, but damn it looked good. Here’s a few things I could have posted about last night, had I not been out being a gallery-hopping scenester…

Photo by Labrona