London’s got a new art gallery opening next Friday. If I’m in town, I’ll definitely be down to check out their first opening.
Interesni Kazki exhibition in Paris
Interesni Kazki are pretty much what people think of when they think of street art in Ukraine, so I’m excited to see that they are bringing some of their work to Gallery All Over in Lyon, France. The duo’s imagery is somewhere between Date Farmers and Os Gêmeos, but still all their own.
For the first time in France, Ukrainian artists AEC and Waone from Interesni Kazki will exhi- bit their last work in the gallery All Over, in Lyon, for a show called “Paranoya & Shtrihi”. Their enchanting world of animated objects, symbols and characters will be displayed with work on canvas, papers, and murals. Opening will be on thursday the 4th of february and the show will runs until the 4th of march 2010.
AEC (Aleksei Bordusov) and Waone (Wladimir Manzhos) are two precursors of graffiti in Eastern Europe. Both grew up in Kiev, Ukraine, where they developped their art among the collective IK they created in 1999. At first, these initials corresponded to Ingenuous Kids, a crew of 11 friends who practiced graffiti. As their art evolved over the years, in 2005 the two friends continued their passion under the name of Interesni Kazki (that we can trans- late as “interesting tale”) in order to slowly break with traditional graffiti codes. They stood out for example, by excluding lettering from their paintings in order to represent fantastic and surrealistic characters. This new art bears a certain relationship to the South American Muralism movement, whose practice consists of painting murals with political content over the walls of cities, especially on public buildings.
They usually work together, which allows them to be better organized, and therefore even more efficient. They also use very large areas such as entire building facades, a dozen of which have already been completed in Kiev, as well as more than 50 other paintings all over Ukraine.
All these paintings share the fantastic sphere proper to Interesni Kazki representing the imagery of fairy tales, magic, space, mysticism, science and religion. This world of living objects, symbols, and magical beings is “an all-embracing image of the universe” which denies the ordinary and senselessness. Through this paradoxical universe the two artists wish to represent reality the way they perceive it and in turn allow the spectator to discover his or her own respective reality.
Here’s some of their artwork:
Mark Jenkins at Carmichael Gallery
This Thursday, LA is in for a treat: The opening of Mark Jenkins’ solo show Meaning Is Overrated at the Carmichael Gallery.
In January 2010, Carmichael Gallery presents Meaning Is Overrated, a solo exhibition of new hyper realistic conceptual works and site-specific installation pieces by Mark Jenkins that reconsider the aesthetic and practical qualities of the human body. Works range from those in which the human is recast as a specialized object, such as Spokes, which features a tape cast sculpture of a girl fashioned to function as a bike, to those in which human posture is contorted to resemble that of another animal. Each piece is “an exploration of evolution within the realm of the absurd,” says Jenkins.
There will be an opening reception for Meaning Is Overrated on Thursday, January 21 with Jenkins in attendance. The exhibition will run through February 18, 2010.
Mark Jenkins is an internationally acclaimed American artist known for the mixed media sculptures and street installations he places throughout urban and environmental settings, sometimes with, but often without, permission. Playful and enigmatic, his work successfully transforms the ordinary into the unexpected.
Jenkins’ process involves dry-casting everything from fire hydrants and toy ducks to baby dolls and people, often himself or his assistants, with box sealing tape, the latter often dressed to appear scarily life-like. When placed outside or slipped indoors, announced or otherwise, these sculptures have the ability to both camouflage into their surroundings and elicit spectacular amounts of attention from viewers.
Jenkins’ works have been observed lounging atop billboards, slumped over on cafeteria tables,
panhandling in the streets, emanating from street poles, drowning in bodies of water, clinging to statues, overturning street signs and more in locations such as Belgrade, Vienna, Washington D.C., London, Barcelona, New York, Moscow and Seoul. By situating his pieces within such peculiar contexts, the artist brings cities, landscapes and interiors to life in a unique and thought-provoking manner. Whether indoors or out, his work engages its viewers and provokes a complex examination of self and surroundings.
Doze Green and Josh Keyes at Jonathan LeVine tomorrow
Yes. Doze Green and Josh Keyes. Does it get any better?
On Saturday, three shows open at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York City. They are solo shows for Josh Keyes, Saelee Oh and Doze Green. Honestly, I have no idea about Saelee Oh, but Josh Keyes and Doze Green are two very talented artists.
Doze started out writing graffiti and was a b-boy with the legendary Rock Steady Crew, but now his work has transformed to a point that most people would never realize that Doze has picked up a spray can. To me, that transformation is evidence that Doze Green takes his art more seriously than 90% of the artists out there. I’ve got a few paintings by Doze Green in my house, and his painting at SCOPE Miami was quite impressive, so I am anxiously waiting this new work. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed that Doze Green has been put in the Project Room instead of the main gallery. After all, he just did that project in Vegas with artists like Jenny Holzer and Richard Long.
And of course, Josh Keyes. Yes, online, his work looks like something that could be done by any talented graphic design student in Adobe Illustrator, but you have to see these paintings in person before you judge to harshly. I was blown away the first time I saw Josh’s work in the flesh. The detail is spectacular. He is one of the few artists I like whose paintings fall into that typically very boring “environmental disaster” genre.
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is going to be THE PLACE TO BE Saturday night in New York.
Photography exhibition in Berlin
This looks like a pretty cool exhibition. Timo Stammberger and Norman Behrendt take photos of German urban artists, and they look pretty great. The show opens tonight at Fotogalerie Friedrichshain. Some more info here.
artrepublic street art competition
artrepublic has put together a competition for street artists to get legal wall space and raise awareness of homelessness in the UK with the charity StreetSmart. The competition is being judged by Inkie, Pure Evil, Static and Ben Eine. Here’s a video about the competition:
The winner of the competition will be announced on January 28th, so if the work is any good, you’ll see it here on Vandalog.
Aakash Nihalani at Carmichael Gallery
Aakash Nihalani’s solo show, On & Off (Often On), is opening in a few weeks at the Carmichael Gallery in LA. I’m a fan of his public work and indoor installations, and I’m really curious what sort of pieces could be for sale and what the metal sculptural pieces will be like.
In January 2010, Carmichael Gallery presents On & Off (Often On), the first West Coast solo exhibition of Aakash Nihalani. In addition to a characteristically arresting site-specific installation comprised of brightly colored tape, Nihalani introduces a new artistic direction by using metal and plastic to create sculptural objects.
There will be an opening reception for On & Off (Often On) on Thursday, January 21 with Nihalani in attendance. The exhibition will run through February 18, 2010.
Aakash Nihalani is fast becoming recognized as one of the US’s most striking emerging installation artists. Celebrated for his ephemeral modifications of the urban landscape, the young Brooklyn-based tape specialist wields an abstract narrative of isometric shapes and flamboyant hues grounded in quiet irony and idiosyncratic precision. The fluidity of his simple, colorful style, which employs familiar shapes to produce unexpected visuals, initiates an inviting, living dialogue that traverses the chaos of city streets, the white walls of the gallery and the constancy of home.
Nihalani has built a global fan base by selectively placing his artwork on sidewalks and public spaces around New York. His squares, rectangles and cubes, which are constructed from strips of instantly identifiable fluorescent tape, give three-dimensional qualities and a new, often humorous, perspective to the windows, doorways, cement pavement, floor tiles, chain-link fences, bricks, building contours and
subway spaces within which they are embedded. Nihalani completes all public art pieces on site with little to no advanced planning. His style readily adapts to the interior gallery space and into individual works of art, thereby escaping its customarily fleeting existence while continuing to fuse his aesthetic and conceptual objectives.
Nihalani has fashioned a visual language all his own. The neon in his work highlights details that might otherwise go unnoticed, while his minimalist patterns form self-contained pockets which encourage examination both within the isolated space and of the world at large. His work often engages the public by creating three-dimensional environments that can be physically entered, transforming passersby or gallery visitors into participants and offering them a momentary escape from daily life.
Os Gêmeos in Milan
Yes! The first big event of the new year and it’s one of my favorite artists: Os Gêmeos. The twins are having a solo show in Milan at Galleria Patricia Armocida. The show, called Nos Braços de um Anjo, opens on January 25th. Definitely check out Arrested Motion for more photos of new artwork and details about the show.
Photo from Arrested Motion
Dark Pop 2.0 at Last Rites Gallery
In fall of 2008, Andrew Michael Ford curated Dark Pop, a show at Last Rites Gallery which challenged artists to create a piece of “dark” art. It was a big hit. Since then, Andrew has begun working at Last Rites, and now Dark Pop 2.0 is almost here. Looks like a very interesting show.
Last Rites Gallery has again decided to find out what several of today’s brightest art stars are capable of when asked to create ONE piece of what could be considered truly ‘dark art’. Many artists find themselves in a nice groove of creating a certain mood or emotion through their work and have, understandably, become quite comfortable following this path in their art-making. We were curious, however, what would happen if things were to get a little uncomfortable, as the artist challenged themselves to search through new or buried feelings and emotions, the kind which might find their place on the ‘darker’ side of the artistic spectrum. With that in mind, Last Rites Gallery proudly presents “Dark Pop 2.0”: A collection of truly ‘dark art’ from an incredibly talented and diverse group of artists who would normally never get anywhere near this stuff! If the first Dark Pop was any indication, Dark Pop 2.0 is guaranteed to astound.
Participating Artists Include: AIKO (Aiko Nakagawa), Lisa Alisa, Esao Andrews, John Cebollero, Benjamin Clarke, Joshua Clay, Molly Crabapple, Amy Crehore, Yoko d’Holbachie, Leslie Ditto, Mickey Edtinger, Mark Elliott, Eric Fortune, GAIA, Stella Im Hultberg, Sarah Joncas, Aya Kakeda, Ben Kehoe, Dan-ah Kim, Daniel Hyun Lim (Fawn Fruits), Danni Shinya Luo, David MacDowell, Mike Maxwell, Simone Maynard, Dennis McNett, Tara McPherson, Michael Page, Nathan Lee Pickett, Leslie Reppeteaux, Mijn Schatje, Tin, Dan Witz, Jaeran Won and more.
Sickboy’s Logopop show
This week, Sickboy’s latest solo show, Logopop, was open for all of three hours. Looks like a solid show.
Sickboy’s large original works have a crazy amount of detail. I really want to see one of these in person:
And then there are his Logopops. They are small screen prints with hand finishing. You can buy 1-2, or 10 and put them all in the same frame.
Some artwork still available on Sickboy’s website.
Many more pictures from the opening on Smart Hype’s flickr