Photos – Page 12 – Vandalog

March 31, 2014March 24, 2014

Tim Hans shoots… Dan Witz

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Dan Witz is one of the original New York street artists, with almost 35 years of experience getting up. He’s also one of my favorite realist painters and pranksters. If you want to see some of Dan’s work in person, he’s got a solo show opening this week at Jonathan Levine Gallery‘s 529 West 20th Street space in New York City. Tim Hans met Dan at his studio for the latest in our continuing series of photo-portraits of artists by Tim. I asked Dan a few questions over email.

RJ: What’s the best prank (involving art or not) that you’ve ever pulled?

Dan Witz: Hmm-best? Hard to say: I mean most of my street stuff over the past 35 years could be described as pranks. I wouldn’t want to single out a winner, but probably the one that consistently gets the most ‘likes’ out of all my one-off pieces would be the clown face house in Brooklyn.

RJ: How did your work with Amnesty International come about and what keeps you working with them?

DW: They got in touch with me. Or, actually, an ad agency that was handling them in Germany reached out to me. Like most street artists I get a lot of e-mail probes from marketing types eager to link their product or cause with urban art. It’s been pretty easy for me to avoid this because my stuff works much better if I keep my identity, or “brand” as much under the radar as possible. When Amnesty International got in touch though, I was so honored and such a long-time supporter of theirs that I was willing to consider it. And I’d already been working with figures trapped behind grates in my WHAT THE %$#@? (WTF) series, so advocating for illegally detained prisoners was an easy fit.

I am so incredibly glad I opened up to this. The 20 or so Wailing Wall pieces in Frankfurt became one of the peak experiences of my career. Oddly, even with all the media frenzy (and the accompanying police attention) there was no pressure on me to compromise my normally aggressive installation tactics (these days, to avoid easy theft I anchor my grate pieces into the wall, which involves serious industrial adhesives and a hammer drill). It turns out that Amnesty international, despite its mainstream respectability, is a surprisingly bad-ass organization. They recognized that my methods, although illegal, were the most effective way to galvanize public attention. If anything they even pushed me to go larger and bolder than I usually do. I date a huge growth in my street practice to that first Amnesty project.

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RJ: Whose artwork hangs in your home and why?

DW: There’s a rotating selection of friends’ work, a few copies of old master paintings I’ve done, (in gold frames, which really class the place up), and the usual magnetized refrigerator masterpieces from our two year old. I have to say, I’ve really been enjoying fooling around with the non-toxic kiddie art supplies. Don’t look for a new Crayola series from me or anything, but it’s reminded me how great it is to draw just for the fun of it

RJ: The kitschy artist Thomas Kinkade called himself a “painter of light,” but that description is probably more appropriate for you. What fascinates you about light in paintings?

DW: Didn’t that guy copyright or trademark the “Painter of Light” thing? And isn’t he like the best selling artist, ever? I’ve never seen one in real life but I bet they have a nice heartwarming glow. To be honest, not to put him down, but simulating light with oil paint isn’t really that hard to do. And yeah, like him (I’m guessing) I’ve never gotten over what a miracle it is. It’s magic. And addictive. Same for me with creating trompe l’oeil illusions of space. I never get sick of it. I guess I should be grateful to artists like Kinkade: if it wasn’t for them I might forget how easily these effects can turn into clichés.

RJ: What are you working on at the moment?

DW: As usual I’ve got a few projects simultaneously dead-lining in my studio. Right now, on easel one I’m preparing this summer’s street art; and easel two has my ongoing Mosh pit painting series. Most days I bounce back and forth—I get sick of one and take refuge in the other. But in a few weeks I’ve got a show, NY Hardcore, opening at Jonathan Levine Gallery so we’re frantically varnishing and framing and e-mailing and packing. Fortunately my studio has a separate ‘dirty’ room in the garage downstairs so I can spray and do woodwork without endangering the artworks and my family’s health. But it’s out of control over here. Which used to be an unbearably stressful way to live, but I’ve gotten used to it, and sometimes (like now, answering these questions) I even get a brief moment to step back and appreciate how lucky I am to be so busy and have all this crazy shit going on.

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Photos by Tim Hans

March 30, 2014April 8, 2014

Labrona and Jason Botkin in Mexico

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This past February a group of Canadian artists including Jason Botkin and Labrona were invited to Mexico to paint at Fiap, International Festival of Public Art, in Holbox. While they where there, they met friends who invited them to paint in Cancun and Mexico City. In Cancun, Labrona and Botkin joined Liz Rashell, a local artist, who organized a mural (below) with the support of the CRAD, Cacun Riviera Arts Destination. The mural above, also located in Cancun, was organized by Leon Alva and painted by local artists Alva, Marisol d’Estrabeau, Carlos Generoso and Canadian artists Ruben Carrasco, Labrona and Botkin.

Labrona, Jason Botkin and Liz Rashell in Cancun

In Mexico City, Labrona and Botkin had a lot of fun painting a mural, wheat-pasting and exploring the capital. The mural was done at a school. Labrona said, “It was an amazing place to paint because all the children got to see us painting and maybe some of them will be inspired to try art. Also, when we were painting, the teachers brought there kids out to watch and draw.”

Photo by Jason Botkin

March 29, 2014March 28, 2014

Zoo Project, Parisian street artist, is dead at 23

3974742492_d36985ed53_z — Photo by urbanartcore.eu

Some very sad news. Earlier this week, we posted about the graffiti at Detroit’s Brewster Projects. What we did not know at the time is that Zoo Project, a 23 year old street artist whose work is very well known in Paris, had been found murdered at the Brewster Projects last summer. His body has only just now been identified.

I remember seeing a lot of Zoo Project pieces around Paris the last time I was there. They seemed to be everywhere and they immediately caught my eye. Unfortunately, I’ve never been all that good about covering Parisian street art on Vandalog, and I absolutely failed to properly cover Zoo Project’s work while he was alive. The why of that is unimportant right now. Zoo Project was like a young Blu: Painting large pieces on the street in black and white or muted colors, commenting on society, politics and technology with surreal imagery… He will be greatly missed, and his death is a loss to street art. To make up in a very small way for me neglecting his work on Vandalog despite my admiration for it, here are a few Zoo Project pieces…

Photos by urbanartcore.eu, gildas_f, G@ttoGiallo, kayexalate, Gaël Chardon, marcovdz, gillesklein and Béatrice Faveur

March 28, 2014March 27, 2014

Nanook gets lost in the sunset

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Last month Nanook ventured to Central America to paint for Mamutt in Mexico City. “Perdido en la Puesta del Sol,” or “Lost in the Sunset” draws upon the local history as well as the site. The former flour production factory Nanook painted this mural on is located in the very industry driven neighborhood of Camarones. Nanook speaks of the enmeshing of narratives, stating:

“About 15-20 years ago many of the factories closed and moved either outside of the city or out of the country. The neighborhood subsequently fell into decline. The parrot wing is representative of two things 1. The nickname for cocaine is parrot, while the neighborhood was losing industry many people began using and selling drugs. 2. The wing is also representative of the Quetzalcoatl, which had many meanings, but one of which was fertility and growth. It is attached to the corn and the woman squinting into the sun as a representation of growing past the loss of industry and ultimately the rebirth of the industry.”

While exploring the representation of local history, the artist continues his experimentation with portraiture and landscape. The juxtaposition is reminiscent of a mural he created last year for Living Walls Atlanta, which set two figures against a pastoral scene. As Nanook continues his nomadic lifestyle, the artist grows from the local experiences, leading viewers to imagine what the next amalgamation will be.

Photos courtesy of Nanook

March 25, 2014March 23, 2014

The life and death of Detroit’s Brewster Projects

My first encounter with the Brewster Projects was in June of 2012. In the middle of a sunny afternoon, the heat was relentless. The sun bleached, weed filled center circle drive stood out in harsh contrast to the dark empty windowed towers looming around in a group. On my first trip to Detroit at the time, I was too intimidated to venture any further than the ground level perimeter of the site. I had been told it was a sketchy neighborhood and that there was security. I never saw any and there were no fences, so I took pics of Flying Fortress and Nychos hitting up the bottoms of the towers.

In the summer of 2012 the European graffiti crew JBCB (Juke Box Cow Boys) were in town along with other international artists involved with the Detroit Beautification Project.

By the time I got to Detroit there were only 4 remaining of the big, 15-story towers. There used to be 6, but 2 were torn down in 2003. The towers were called the Frederick Douglas Apartments and were built in the 40s and 50s. This was the housing project where singer Diana Ross grew up and where, in the rec center, boxer Joe Lewis trained. The projects are right across the freeway from Ford Field and downtown Detroit. There were other low rise apartment houses there too, but they have been removed in pieces over the years.

rem and ff — Nychos and Flying Fortress, June 2012

I moved to the Detroit area in the fall of 2013 and made it back to the Brewster towers in October of 2013 determined to check out the inside. On that trip I made it to the top of one tower. In the 15 months since I’d last been there, tons of graffiti had been added to the towers. The bottoms were now grilled with tags, throws and pieces. More noticeably, 3 epic 15-story top to bottom rollers had been executed. In addition, Gats, Feral Child, and Ghost Owl had done rollers at the top of another tower, prominently placed and visible to highway traffic heading south into downtown Detroit. As I climbed I noticed preparations for demolition, but didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. There had been ongoing delays and interruptions in the effort to complete the removal of the projects.

Feral, Gats, Ghost Owl and more, October 2013. — Feral Child, Gats, Ghost Owl and more, October 2013

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March 24, 2014March 22, 2014

Tim Hans shoots… Mike Ballard aka Cept

Mike Ballard, perhaps better known to graffiti and street art fans as Cept, is one of the UK’s most fascinating artists or graffiti writers. His artistic output includes oil paintings, video art, sculptures, screenprints, graffiti, murals and highly conceptual installation projects. Tim Hans met Ballard at his London studio earlier this year for our continuing series of photo-portraits of artists by Tim, and I asked Mike a few questions over email.

RJ: What are you working on at the moment?

Ballard: I’m working on a new series of paintings in oil, a new future primitive series, darkly psychedelic baroque hip hop with cosmic nomad overtones. They will form part of a new installation with video and sound, hoping to show it next year, as there is a lot of work to do.

RJ: What is the separation between Mike Ballard and Cept?

Ballard: The work I make under Mike is more patient and considered, it’s the opposite end of the scale from the work as Cept. The work on the street is instant, mostly made up on the spot and executed within a couple of hours, I’ve painted so many pieces, it’s like I’m on auto pilot most of the time, I rarely think about what colours i’m using, unless doing characters, I let the letter pieces flow and see what happens, I rarely draw outlines these days and have started to go straight in with the final outline first. Cept is very impatient, get it done, let’s go to the pub and look at the photos, whereas with my studio work I’m in for the long haul, using brushes and oils, mixing colours, it’s a world away from graffiti, the work on canvas is a lot more considered, it’s a new world to me painting with oils, so I’m learning all the time, new techniques, different pigments, it’s like getting into graffiti again, I’m super buzzing about it, want to know everything. The studio work allows me to expand my artistic ideas beyond graffiti, but maintaining a sensibility that comes from my years of painting on the street.

RJ: In mainstream contemporary art, there seems to be this idea that the writers who get into highly conceptual art leave graffiti behind and “graduate” from writing, but artists like Barry McGee and yourself keep a foot in both worlds. What continues to appeal to you about your work as Cept that you don’t get from your work as Mike Ballard and vice versa? Is it a false dichotomy to position writing and conceptual painting, video, sculpture and installation art as different things?

Ballard: Once you’re really into graffiti, I feel there is no stopping, serious writers don’t give up, it goes in waves, sometimes I’m painting a lot outside and sometimes not, but never falling out the game, I’ve been painting for too long to ever stop or turn away from graffiti, what I’ve seen of late in London is a lot of people claiming to be street, coz they done a couple of roller pieces in the wick, painted on the street for 2 minutes then claim to be making some big transition from street to gallery, these are just people who make money not art, and have no integrity in what they do, it’s simply to be famous and get some money, they don’t graduate from writing, they use it as some kind of badge to make them seem cool, and have no presence on the street anymore.

Graffiti is a massive part of me, it is who I am , how I grew up and the friends I have made, I get a lot of satisfaction painting graffiti, it’s instant, in your face, burners all over the place, the whole action of painting a huge piece, it can’t be beat, it’s a feeling like nothing else, where as completing a painting on canvas is a different feeling, it’s again one of satisfaction and challenge, but more personal, a bit more shy and reserved, a whole different context of making stuff, bipolar.

I think it’s how you pull these things together and again in what context you experience them, I incorporate all these elements into my installations, it’s not that they are different things, divisions but whether they have the artist’s style and ideas running throughout the different mediums, to form one big piece of work from many elements.

Photo courtesy of Cept — Photo courtesy of Mike Ballard

RJ: What is the riskiest artwork you’ve ever made?

Ballard: Riskiest in terms of shocking? or riskiest as in most crapping myself? If it’s the latter, probably doing a back jump on the New York subway.

RJ: What’s the strangest dream you’ve had recently?

Ballard: I always have strange dreams, but telling them to people is like looking through someone else’s holiday photos, a bit boring, you can’t convey the feeling of the experience…

Photos by Tim Hans and courtesy of Mike Ballard

March 19, 2014March 23, 2014

Doel, somewhere between paradise and hell

The most spellbinding urban exploration I ever experienced in an doomed place…walking down the streets of this town, the heavy silence all around you, and all the amazing art everywhere on the walls trying to bring back to life the so desperately abandoned and empty houses… Doel is a small town close to Antwerp, in Belgium. Despite a rich history build over several centuries, the government decided in the 1970’s to erase Doel from the map in order to make way for the extension and widening of Antwerp’s port. Despite decades of protests, the residents had no choice but to leave their homes. Some residents proudly continue to resist, but you can presume that the game is over. It’s this mix between human tragedy and beauty of art that made this place so attractive to me. I had a vague idea of the art I would find in the streets, Doel is now an urban art legend, but I never expected to be affected like this! And even if the most of the art has suffered from the passage of time and vandalism, it has been a blast! Here is the work of ROA, Santos, Resto, Psoman, Rotti, Koekoes, Asep, Lastplak, Jiem, 0331c, Show, Bue, Amigo, Reab, Topo, Steaz, Wacks. And more from Doel here.

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March 13, 2014March 12, 2014

“The Jerk of Steel” by Jerkface

This week The L.I.S.A. Project NYC invited Jerkface to Little Italy to paint a door on Mulberry Street at the corner of Mulberry and Hester. Since last July, this door is where one of my favorite pieces by ND’A had been, but it was time to change things up. I love how, even though this spot is a bit recessed into the wall, Jerkface’s piece, titled The Jerk of Steel, really pops and still manages to catch people’s attention as they walk by.

Jerkface has this to say about the piece:

My work, when broken down, is a simple game of color. The proper distribution of color can generate various emotions from the viewer. When using iconic characters in my work, I try to minimize their facial expressions so that the more obvious mood generated from the face does not override the subtle mood created by the color play.

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March 12, 2014March 12, 2014

Adnate – Paint UP – Hosier Lane – Melbourne

I’m happy to finally share this project with Vandalog. Completed in late February, Hosier Inc’s 1st project “Paint UP”. It’s been a long time coming and lots of hard work by the members of Hosier Inc, a not for profit community association made up of anyone that loves Hosier and Rutledge Lanes, the community, residents, local businesses, and artists themselves. (Formed in order to oppose the installation of CCTV cameras in the lanes).

Not to mention the amazing piece itself by Adnate! Painted over 3 days using a swing stage to access the canvas, conveniently available while the building owners repaired the damaged wall. Not only is it a beautiful piece, it also has real meaning and a real affinity to the location.

The project was called Paint UP; a simple play on words; extending access to artists to the untouched walls (never painted before) above ground level in Hosier and Rutledge lanes, 2 of Melbourne’s most recognised street art locations.

From Hosier Inc: “Six artists were invited by Hosier Inc to submit a concept for a large-scale image to be painted on the rear of McDonald House in Hosier Lane. The successful proposal was to demonstrate a rationale and a design that showed an affinity with the location of the wall & building. Members voted and selected Adnate’s submission”.

Adnate’s submission was a portrait of an indigenous boy looking over the lane way & out towards Birrarung Marr – a sacred indigenous land mark in the centre of the city.

(For more information on the project check out the Hosier and Rutledge lanes blog and the vimeo page).

I’ve always thought we are missing one vital element as a recognised street art city, more giant murals in the city itself. This is a good addition to the few we have in central Melbourne and I hope there are many more to come!

The reaction to the piece was also very welcome. Two major newspapers ran the story, as well as every Melbourne news station the evening the piece was completed.

This great video by Michael Danischewski gives you a glimpse of the piece being painted over 3 long days, as well as these awesome photos by David Russell.

HOSIER INC, Paint Up! round 1 : ADNATE from Michael Danischewski on Vimeo.

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March 6, 2014March 6, 2014

Pose comes to NYC for VOLTA and a mural

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Yesterday morning, Pose MSK finished up this mural for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC at 188 Lafayette (Lafayette and Broome). This is phase one though. Later this year, Pose will be back to paint the entire five story wall.

Pose’s mural was organized by The L.I.S.A. Project NYC with support from Robin Mui, CEO of Sing Tao Newspapers NY, and Kate’s Paperie, which is right next to the mural.

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Pose in in New York City because he’s showing with Jonathan Levine Gallery at VOLTA this weekend for Armory Week. VOLTA tends to be one of my favorite fairs, along with Fountain and Scope. Fountain is great because it’s unpretentious and fun, Scope tends to have the most artists whose work I’m familiar so it’s a nice way to see what people have been up to, and VOLTA is where I go to find great new artists. VOLTA’s format is a bit abnormal, but it works great. Each gallery only shows one artist in their booth, so (at least compared to other fairs) it feels a lot less like a flea market or a mall. For a more detailed list of the art fairs happening in NYC this week, check Hyperallergic.

Here are some more photos of the new mural:

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