I was walking around Shoreditch the other day to kill some time, and I came across a few new bits on the street that caught my eye.
I went by the RareKind Gallery last night for their opening, and was very presently surprised with the quality of work. Their Chrome and Black crew have been doing great work throughout London lately, but this sticker confused me. I mean, it’s a sticker that says believe in the spray can. They couldn’t at least stencil that?
This mural was always very nice, but I guess Sickboy thought the spot needed an update. Can’t say I mind though, this new piece is pretty nice as well.
No idea who this is by, but the concept is awesome. It’s wheatpasted photos of a piece by Klone that was recently up in the area. I’d like to see more of this, but I’m scared to see them show up for sale next month in the Brick Lane Gallery or somewhere.
I’m just in the middle of watching this video myself, but I’m liking it. Marc and Sarah Schiller of Wooster Collective did a talk at the Tate Modern (a similar one I think), and I was devastated to miss it, so this video was a very exciting find for me. It’s their recent talk from PSFK:
Last week I had the chance to spend 2 days in New York City. New York is where modern graffiti and street art originated (yes I am aware that Cornbread was from Philadelphia), so it was a trip I had been looking forward to for a while. I crammed as much art into my visit as a possibly could.
First, before getting to New York, I was in Baltimore for a day. While there, I had lunch with Gaia. One of the topics we spoke about, the perception of street art as a democratic process, turned into a post on his blog, and soon (probably after finals are over) I think I’ll be doing a similar post.
My first day in New York, I made sure to see a number of galleries. I’m sure I’ll forget to mention somewhere I visited, but here’s a summary.
First I went to the Jonathan LeVine Gallery for their Phil Frost show. I’m not the biggest fan of Phil Frost. I own one small piece by him, and I really like it, but for the most part, I just don’t get his work. I had never seen more than 2 or 3 pieces together at a time though, so I thought that maybe seeing an entire show would convert me to a fan. It did not. I’m still pretty indifferent to his work.
Next, I made a quick stop at the Doma Café and Gallery for a show by Erik Otto. I’d never heard of Otto, but it was recommended by Hooked. I was in a rush, so I only browsed the show quickly, but it was pretty impressive for artwork in a café, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for Otto in the future.
Naturally, Deitch Projects was a place I had to stop, and though I originally had little interest in Ryan McGinness’ show there, a few pieces definitely caught my eye.
After popping in at Glowlab and then seeing the amazing wall where the above video took place, I was headed to Williamsburg, the heart of NYC’s street art scene… Continue reading “Vandalog Visits New York”
I’ve just read Jonathan Jones’ piece on why he considered nominating Banksy for the Turner Prize. In it Jones brushes street art aside as a lesser art form and nothing but “something that scares old people on estates.” This is not the firsttime Jones has been critical of street art or Banksy in particular, but it is odd, as just a few months ago, he suggested that state-funded graffiti murals could help discover the next Jackson Pollock.
So maybe Jones only likes graffiti and not street art. Fine. I’ll accept that, even though it raises the much larger issue of what is graffiti and what is street art (a topic for another day, not that anybody really knows a good answer to that question). Back to Jones’ original point.
The paragraph I take the most issue with is this one:
Anyway, I believe in education. The reason I don’t like street art is that it’s not aesthetic, it’s social. To celebrate it is to celebrate ignorance, aggression, all the things our society excels at. For middle class people to find artistic excitement in something that scares old people on estates is a bit sick.
How is street art not aesthetic? How can Jones look at the work done by artists like Adam Neate or Swoon and say “those artists clearly had no intention of creating a beautiful image, or if they did, they have failed miserably?” Maybe Jones is just not exposed to enough street art. The media tends to focus on street artists doing stencils (all good and well, just not usually, save for C215, primarily about creating a pretty picture), and Jones is in the media so he sees the street art that the rest of the media shows him.
And again, this whole bit about street art scaring old people. Has he ventured to look outside of Banksy, Nick Walker, and D*Face? Jose Parla is certainly not intending to scare old people with his work.
There is hope for you yet Mr. Jones. I would urge you to have a look at a few of these street and urban artists who might be more to your liking:
1. Adam Neate
2. Matt Small
3. Jose Parla
4. Judith Supine
5. Keith Haring
6. Dan Witz
7. Swoon
8. Doze Green
9. Faile
10. JR
Any other suggestions for Mr. Jones? I just did this list off the top of my head, so I’m sure I’m missing plenty of people.
I’ve been away from my computer for a few days, and though I’m still on vacation, I’m trying to get caught up on the news of the street art world. Here are a few of the things I’ve been looking at:
The Carmichael Gallery has some cool exhibitions on right now and the work is now online:
– Boxi, one of stencil art’s greatest talents, has a solo show titled “Grey Area”
– Zeus and the Neo-Cons (PosterBoy, Aakash Nihilani, and Ellis G.) in their surprise show “Hollowood.” Yes, PosterBoy is selling prints here, but they are unsigned. I’m really liking Aakash’s prints, Zeus’ installation, the PosterBoy prints if you’re not in it for investment (good for you), and the Ellis G. work on linen.
“Justice” is in Bristol with C215, Bruno Leyval, Dan23, Least Wanted, and MC1984. Great use of an old police station. Arrested Motion has images.
Street Art Dealer is a new concept meant to avoid the gallery system. Participating artists (such as Dotmasters and Graffiti Research Labs) tag their street work with a QR code, and by photographing the code, people can buy a piece they see on the street. So is this an innovation that will take galleries out of the art selling equation, or the logical conclusion of street art becoming nothing more than advertising for print releases?
The Chinese contemporary art market bubble seems to have burst. Luckily it wasn’t this bad in the world of street art. Maybe it is time for street art to move in to fill the hole in the market that may be left by the Chinese market (though hopefully we won’t create the same bubble). Phillips de Pury is selling a good number of street art works in their April Saturday sale in New York City by artists such as Keith Haring, Barry McGee, KAWS, and Date Farmers.
My French is pretty terrible (just got back from France, realized I couldn’t say much more than ‘merci’ after 9 months not taking the language at school), but what this video is still pretty cool, and I Love Graffiti was able to help sort out with the details about Le Tag.
Le Tag is an exhibit in Paris of graffti by 150 writers. It is currated by French architect Alain-Dominique Gallizia.
Artists in the exhibit include (and I can’t believe this first one) Taki 183, Seen, Doze Green, Phase2, and L’Atlas.
I know that in some ways Taki 183 is just one guy that the New York Times picked up on as an early tagger, but the article featuring him inspired so many people to start tagging, and he was one of the first to really get their name throughout New York City. I didn’t even realize he was still writing his name. The last I’d seen of Taki 183 was in Bomb It the movie, and he didn’t seem too interested in graffiti. Even though it’s “just a tag” and I really like Seen and some of the other artists in this show, Taki 183’s stuff is my personal highlight of Le Tag.
A few weeks ago I posted about The Treatment Rooms. In that post, I briefly mentioned the Angola 3 and Kenny Zulu Whitmore. They are prisoners in Angola Prison who have spent over 30 years in solitary confinement. Their stories are really terrible, and you can learn more on Wikipedia or Zulu’s website.
The Free Zulu organization is trying to get justice for Zulu and raise money for his legal defense fund (currently, Zulu doesn’t even have a lawyer). Their efforts are largely funded by art projects. Right now they have “OBEY” style tshirts for sale and some tiles from The Treatment Rooms. Later this year, Matt Small will be painting a portrait of Zulu, and hopefully more artists will get involved in the future.
These are the sort of things that make me really glad I’m involved in street art and really upset that I’m from America, but at least we can do something to help.
This is a friend of a friend if anyone feels to donate would be amazing.
Help Bring Holli Home
Bay Area artist Holli Hawthorne recently traveled to India to visit her boyfriend and was involved in a horrible motorcycle accident last Tuesday when a motorcycle in front of her with three passengers skidded out, and she either swerved to avoid them or ran into them. She was wearing a helmet at the time. Her friend Harrison was on the scene to give her CPR until the ambulance arrived. She has been in a coma with a serious brain stem injury since. Stanford Medical Center has offered to take her in for free as she has no health insurance. That’s the good news. The bad news is that she’s still in India thousands of miles from the hospital and needs $200,000 for the medical transport from India to Palo Alto. Her friends and family are reaching out for donations. http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/
Tomorrow is the opening of Part2ism’s show Artillery for Pleasure at The Art Lounge, but it also marks the release of his book which will be for sale there.
