Category: Gallery/Museum Shows

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ARTotale: another street art festival

Artotale

Artotale

Rik Reinking’s latest curatorial project looks to be his biggest yet. He is going the FAME Festival route and just about taking over a city. Leuphana, Germany will be the site of the ARTotale – Urban Art Project from October 5th to 9th.

Here’s the press release:

More than 35 internationally renowned streetartists have been invited to install their work at various locations throughout the city centre and university campus. They are encountering broad support among the city‘s population. Numerous house owners have agreed to their buildings‘ walls being used for graffitis and other artworks. As part of Leuphana’s 2009 Welcome Week, the Urban Art Project will be recorded by 1.200 first-year students who will document the event by shooting videoclips that will be presented through an online media platform. The renowned urban art curator from Hamburg, Rik Reinking, will be leading the creative direction of the event. Expanding the potential spectatorship of this event well beyond the city‘s physical boundaries, public television stations will also document the interaction between artists, students and the population of Lueneburg during this rare presentation of contemporary art within the context of the city‘s medieval centre.

The artists invited to participate on this project come from a diverse mixture of nationalities and contemporary art backgrounds. They will reshape the appearance of Lueneburg’s historic township using: murals, classic graffiti writing, cut-outs, sculptures, installation art and performance art. The incorporation of this wide selection of urban art forms as well as their unique technical and contextual application in the historical center of Lueneburg have already begun to make it clear that this project will be a landmark event in the development and presentation of contemporary urban art. The artists participating in this event are leaders of their genre, a new generation of emerging creative producers. Their highly refined and precisely contextualized work is an indication of the future aesthetics of contemporary public art. Without loosing their deep connection to urban culture and the public sphere, these artists have already begun to assume representation in leading museums and galleries worldwide.

And who are the artists involved? Well it’s a long list:

Adam & Akay, Akim, Alex Diamond, Almut Linde, Ash, Ben Eine, Brad Downey, Boris Hoppek, Boxi, Bronco, Daniel Man, Dave the Chimp, D*face, DTAGNO, Faith47, Flying Förtress, Herakut, Herbert Baglione, Jay-One, Loomit, Mirko Reisser (DAIM), Moki & 1010, Mode2, Pius Portmann, SKKI, Swoon, Tilt, Trica, Tryone, Vitché & Jana, Word2mother, Zevs, Zezao, 56K

Highlights from that list for me are Brad Downey, Herakut, D*face, Faith47, Zezao, Swoon and Vitche. I might just have to try and visit the festival myself for the chance to see Zezao’s work in person. If only I weren’t already going to both Nuart and FAME (not that those won’t be awesome as well).

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Dalek and Delta at Elms Lesters

Dalek & Delta is the latest show at Elms Lesters in London, and of course it is a two person show with James Marshall aka Dalek and Boris Tellegen aka Delta. It’s open now and a great show for lovers of geometry.

Dalek
Dalek
Dalek
Dalek
Delta
Delta
Delta
Delta

Photos by s.butterfly

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Cept at new gallery The Writers Bench

Cept

Got this kind of confusing press release in my inbox today. For what I’ve been able to gather, there is a new London art gallery opening next month in Kings Cross. The Writers Bench is a gallery for graffiti. Their first show will be a solo show with Cept called “A Frozen Explosion.” That show opens on September 3rd and runs for most of the month. For me, Cept’s gallery work can be hit or miss (my preference being his superhero work, not so much the purely text-based paintings or the Zodiac series), but I do like it when I think it works, so I’m curious to see what he’s got in store. And with a show title like “A Frozen Explosion,” I think it’s safe to say we can see cool pieces like this:

cept

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The London Police at Carmichael Gallery

The-London-Police

The London Police have been making a comeback this year, and their next stop is Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles. I don’t know if The London Police getting better or I’m just warming up to their style, but their work in Amsterdam and some of these works-in-progress for a show at Carmichael Gallery are looking pretty cool.

The-London-Police-3

The-London-Police-2

The-London-Police-1

“Brothers In Arms,” The London Police’s solo exhibition at Carmichael Gallery opens September 10th, and Dan Baldwin has a solo show opening in Carmichael Gallery on the 10th as well.

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Green Day meets street art

Logan Green Day
By Logan Hicks

Green Day and Logan Hicks have teamed up to create a traveling street art exhibition which will be with Green Day on their world tour. Some of the artists involved include Logan Hicks (of course), M-City, Ron English, Broken Crow and Sixten. These artists have created pieces which are inspired by Green Day’s latest album, 21st Century Breakdown.

As a fan of Green Day (don’t lie, you know you like American Idiot as much as I do), I’m excited to see them bringing street art to a new group of fans. Here’s a sample of what will be in the exhibit:

Ron English
By Ron English
By Meggs
By Meggs

Check out an interview with Logan Hicks about this show on Brooklyn Street Art.

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Artival

If you’re in London next Saturday, head on down to the Queen of Hoxton for Artival, an art festival to support SHP, a homelessness charity.

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Here’s what the Artival people are saying:

Artival is a one-day arts festival to promote social inclusion and prevent homelessness in London.

The event is hosted by homelessness charity SHP to celebrate use of the arts’ to develop confidence and enable expression. It is the climax of an urban arts project involving Matt Small, Carrie Reichardt and other leading urban artists who have been using their skills to include clients who are usually excluded from opportunities to create and be heard.

Artival brings together leading musicians, painters, mosaicists, performance poets, comics, dancers and a host of other artists, all of whom recognise that art is a vital tool for empowering and including marginalised people in our communities.

The festival will be buzzing from 12-6pm, so arrive early to make sure you get in. There are four floors of art and performance to explore, as well as a BBQ and the extensive Queen of Hoxton bars.

  • Basement: Urban art cave
  • Floor 1: London’s leading musicans and comedy stars
  • Floor 2: Launch of a youth led social enterprise supported with very special surprise DJ guests.
  • Roof top terrace: live painting and mosaic sessions, Jerk chicken BBQ, chill out

The Line Up:

Musicians: Speech Debelle, Rubicks, Betty Steeles, Floetic Lara

Artists: Matt Small, Carrie Reichardt, Mark Wydler

DJs: Gael la Gosse, DJ Slasher

Animation and film: Unballanced, Jemal mahamed

Comedians: Barnaby Thompson, Anthony Miller, Daniel James, Kenny Campbell, Danny Hurst, Jonny Melamet, Boyce Bailey, Max Turner, Jenny Lockyer, Gwilum Argos, Brad Zimmerman, Pete Hall, Aaron Shakespeare

Story Teller: Craig Jenkins

About SHP

SHP was set up 30 years ago to support vulnerable homeless people in London. Today we work with more than 2,000 people each year, providing a wide range of accommodation and support services to help those facing homelessness and chronic social exclusion.

Our clients’ needs are diverse and our work reflects that.

Working across 13 London boroughs, we provide support services to some of the capital’s most vulnerable people including substance misusers, offenders, those with mental ill health, care leavers and other young people at risk.

For more about SHP visit http://www.shp.org.uk

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Shows this week

I’ve got a few shows opening this week to highlight, most of them in London, one in Brazil.

sixeart

Let’s start in Brazil. Sixeart has his first solo show in Brazil opening on Tuesday the 11th.

Sixeart

Sixeart “Sueñan las gallinas con ser humanas”

In 2008 the Spanish artist Sixeart achieved international fame by participating in “STREET ART AT THE TATE MODERN” in London, along with brazilian Os Gemeos, and Nunca,  french JR, united states Faile and italian Blu. Today his works are shown in Spain alongside those of Miró, Chillida and Tapies.

“Sueñan las gallinas con ser humanas” is series of 13 new pieces on paper made exclusively to be exhibited in ROJO®artspace Sao Paulo from 11.08.2009 to  05.09.2009.

ROJO®artspace Sao Paulo
POP. Rua Virgilio de Carvalho Pinto 297,

Pinheiros. 05415-030 Sao Paulo. Brazil
talk: +55 11 3487 1677 online: http://www.rojo-saopaulo.com

And now back to London.

My Thursday evening starts off with a stop over at Lazarides‘ Rathbone Place gallery for Invader show ‘Low Fidelity’. There should be everything we’ve come to expect from the Parisian globe trotter: mosiac video game characters, rubix cubes, QR codes and even sculpture. Personally, I’ve always preferred the thrill of discovering an Invader on the street to seeing it in my home, but that hasn’t stopped me from buying one in the past. I’m curious, though not enthusiastic, about what this show will bring. Plus, everybody knows that Lazarides throws great opening parties.

Then it’s off to Pure Evil’s gallery for his solo show which mixes art and music.

Pure Evil

And then maybe a stop over at Urban Angel for “The Sentiment of Love,” a show of erotic photography.

Friday night I hope to be back in Shoreditch for the launch of London Handstyles at Rarekind Gallery. Another London graffiti book.

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Viss Van at StolenSpace

I’ve been eyeing a piece by Miss Van in the office of StolenSpace Gallery for some time now, which is why this announcement caught my attention:

Miss Van

‘Lovestain’

By Miss Van
1st – 18th October 2009

StolenSpace are proud to present ‘Lovestain’ a UK premier solo show from world renowned female street artist, Miss Van. A retrospective as well as a new body of work and taking over two exhibition spaces at StolenSpace, this will be her largest solo show to date.

Toulouse native and current Barcelona resident Miss Van started to paint her graffiti on the streets during the 90s, at the age of 18. Her overtly feminine street art was a breath of fresh air in a traditionally masculine movement of urban art and paved the way for many contemporaries. Now her infamous sultry female characters, known as her ‘Poupes’, are seen on the streets and in galleries alike all over the world.

From these pouting, sulky girls emerges a certain sensuality and disconcerting eroticism that is frank and unabashed. Their thoughts are palpable and the paintings become real in both flesh and spirit.

Miss Van creates her characters with an innovative spirit.  Affirming her style, the artist infuses into her work traits from her own personality, rendering them thus, self-portraits. It is through their fantasy that the sensitivity and fragility of the artist is expressed. She takes pleasure in playing with ambiguities, her dolls are childlike women that are equally angelic and devilish. They have a rare appeal that transcends gender-an appeal that also extends to the work that she shows in galleries.

Over the years, Miss Van’s characters keep evolving. They have become less cute and  more dangerously alluring, edgier – their sexy aura made all the more complex by their increasingly ambiguous facial expressions. The more she has moved into gallery work and can work with the nuances of more fragile media than the streets allow (pencil, for one), her characters have grown even more sensitive, subtle, and delicately rendered.

Featuring a retrospective of her work & new paintings this show will also see the release of a rare exclusive hand pulled limited edition screen print from Miss Van.exclusive hand pulled limited edition screen print from Miss Van.