As Fame Festival get closer, more and more work is popping up in Grottaglie. The latest are Wordtomother‘s walls and the making of an indoor piece for the gallery exhibit, as well as some pretty intricate black and white outdoor jobs by Lucy Mclauchlan. I cannot wait to see the work created for the gallery by the artists. Less than two months away guys!
All images by Fame Festival
And so it is, the only piece that has been buffed in DC since my recent visit in July has in fact been a permission wall. Due to complaints from local neighbors, the manager of Whole Foods circumvented the building owner and had the piece painted over. The result of which is a perfect reflection of the former Rooster figure and two hands in negative space. For the full description on the whole ordeal visit Worn Magazine http://www.wornmagazine.com/2010/08/gaia-painted-over/
I just stumbled across this piece by Cahbasmn and Swampy, two writers who I don’t mention enough of on Vandalog. Swampy is based on the West coast, while Cahbasmn is a new york graffiti staple. When I was in New York last month, I saw a bunch of brand new work from Swampy, who had just been in town. Probably my favorite photo ended up being this sticker that I saw with Luna Park.
Photo by Cahbasmn
Seacreative, Pixelpancho and Eleuro just painted these three neighboring buildings in the Italian countryside. Seacreative’s piece in particular looks great. I’d seen a wall or two from Pixelpancho before, but I think this is the first time heard of Seacreative and Eleuro. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more walls from all three of them in the future.
Photos courtesy of Seacreative
Shepard Fairey and Mike Giant recently put up this collaborative wall in LA. Turned out pretty well I think. And don’t miss the great series of Skullphone posters at the top of the wall.
Photo by jadafiend
Blu has been busy recently. Here are two huge walls he painted in Berlin. I’m not so sure what the meaning of this first one is though. Something about the Berlin Wall and the Euro. I am woefully unprepared to hazard any guesses about European politics.
On the other hand, this piece is a bit easier to understand:
And that global warming mural is painted right next to a classic Blu (and around the corner from an Os Gemeos):
And so long as we’re on the topic of Blu, it’s worth mentioning two more things: A. This wall in Warsaw and B. Blu will be at Nuart in Stavanger later this year along with Roa, M-City, Evol, Ericailcane and others.
Photos by Just
I’m a bit slow posting about these pieces by Phlegm, a Sheffield-based artist whom I had not heard of until about a day ago. One day shouldn’t be too long of a delay, but Phlegm’s work is spreading through the internet with lightening speed.
RomanyWG, one of the UK’s top street art and graffiti photographers, has only just posted a few pictures on his flickr of Phlegm’s murals. Of course, because Phlegm is a talented artist that not many people have heard of, Unurth was the first blog to post RomanyWG’s photos. Unurth always seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes finding talented and relatively unknown artists from around the world. Not long after that, Jake posted about Phlegm over at Streetsy.
And now it’s my turn. So, if you haven’t already, have a look at this guy. Phlegm is, at the very least, pretty technically talented, and you can be sure that if he were based in New York or London, this wouldn’t be the first time you’d have seen his paintings.
Photos by RomanyWG
Last week, C215 opened his latest solo show at Signal Gallery in London. Midnght Dreams is his second solo show at the gallery, and possibly third in London (Nolionsinengland seems to recall a solo show at Pure Evil Gallery). I’ve been a fan of C215 since seeing his art at Cans Festival, only months after I first got interested in street art, and an interview with C215 was one of the first things that I posted on Vandalog. In my house, we have a few pieces by C215. That said, Midnight Dreams isn’t at all what I was hoping for.
C215 has two primary styles that he cuts his stencils. The first, the one that I prefer, is what he does for 1-layer stencils. To oversimplify things, I guess you could say that the definition in those images comes from C215 cutting lines that look like cracks running throughout the piece. This style is the one that’s so heavily influenced by Artiste Ouvrier.
And then there are C215’s multi-layered and often more colorful images. These stencils look like the above and below images from Midnight Dreams. I just don’t like looking at these pieces nearly as much as the 1-layer stencils and the subject matter is less interesting to me as well.
My favorite pieces by C215 have always been those 1-layer pieces, maybe with a bit of color thrown into the background. C215’s street pieces tend to use those 1-layer stencils. That’s why, I’m loving these two pieces that C215 has put up in London recently:
You may also notice that the people C215 is making portraits of is different indoors and outdoors. To me, somebody who first found C215 from his street art, he will always be intimately connected with the streets. I tend to prefer C215’s paintings when the subject matter reflects his relationship to the streets. With Midnight Dreams, C215 has tried to distance his gallery art from his street art. It’s a move that a lot of street artists attempt and I think C215 has good reasons to separate the two worlds, but that just results in me becoming uninterested in his gallery art. I’m sorry to say that Midnight Dreams has disappointed me so much, but at least he’s still active outdoors and has been refreshing London with his artwork, since a lot of his work has been buffed since he last painted there.
So now that I’ve gone on dissing C215 for a few hundred words, I’d like to remind readers that there are other opinions out there. Nolionsinengland, one of the art bloggers and photographers that I most respect, enjoyed Midnight Dreams and has reviewed it on Graffoto (and he’s actually seen the show in person instead of just through jpegs).
Midnight Dreams runs through August 7th at London’s Signal Gallery.
Photos by Nolionsinengland and C215
Il Baro tipped me off about Illegal Atelièr, an ongoing project at an abandoned factory in Italy. So far, the pictures coming out of this thing just look amazing. Some of my favorite artwork has been painted in abandoned spots just like this one. I’m not sure exactly how many artists are involved in Illegal Atelièr or what the timeline is for the project to be completed, but I’ll definitely be continuing to keep an eye out for more photos. Here’s a wall that Il Baro painted with a number of other artists:
