In the upscale São Paulo district of Jardim Europa, perhaps the only São Paulo neighborhood whose walls are graffiti-free, the Museu Brasileiro da Escultura (MuBE) is presenting GRAFFITI FINE ART, an exhibit featuring the work of 20 street artists. Thanks to a tip from MUNDANO, we stopped by a few hours before the exhibit officially opened last night and liked what we saw. Curated by Binho Ribeiro, it continues through July 24th at Av. Europa, 218 in SP.
Vito, photo by Lois StavskyNadu, photo by Lois StavskyOpni, photo by Sara MozesonBinho, photo by Lois Stavsky
And we discovered the following mural outside MuBE. I later found out that it was created for the 1st International Biennial of Graffiti Fine Art that was held at MuBE in 2010. I took this shot from street level:
This New Zealand born street artist recently appeared out of nowhere on the streets of Melbourne. I became an instant fan, as did many other Melbourne street art lovers.
Her pieces feature an iconic red hooded lady with striped stockings and a hidden face, giving them an air of beauty and mystery. Spend some time to check out some of her street work, just amazing!!
This is urbancakelady‘s first solo show and it has definitely been worth the wait. RTIST Gallery (Prahran) and urbancakelady have done a great job.. Check out the photos.
A photographer takes a picture through the railings at Admiralty Arch, 1953. Photo by Bob Collins.
Firstly I will admit that this post is not necessarily street art based, but it is photography art and the photos are from the street, so perhaps we could, or should call it street art.
Anyway, last weekend I headed to the Museum of London to check out their London Street Photography exhibition which is open until September 4th. The temporary, but free, exhibition showcases over 200 candid photos of everyday life on the streets of London dating back to 1860. Think black and white images of horse drawn carriages, groups of street urchins peering into camera lenses, and Teddy Boys with their immaculate hair and stylish threads.
Recruiting Sergeants at Westminster, c.1877. By John Thomson.
Personally I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and spent over two hours immersed in the photos, staring into the faces of unexpected victims of early point and shoot photographers whilst imagining what it would have been like to actually be living in London during the Victorian age or throughout the Blitz. So if you have a spare afternoon, head along and check out the work of the 59 photographers, their own relationship to the street and ultimately how photography has developed over time. It really is very interesting.
Burning Candy have a show, A Fist Full of Paint, on right now at Tony’s Gallery in London. There’s work by Rowdy, LL Brainwashed, Sweet Toof, Dscreet and Mighty Mo. For the most part, it’s the sort of show you’d expect from Burning Candy. I’m a fan of the crew, so I enjoyed it. But most of the work wasn’t going to convert any new fans. The possible exception to that are the pieces by Mighty Mo. He has continued to develop his style of making realistic models of his outdoor work. These pieces were what everyone at the show was talking about, and they were as fun as ever. In fact, I think Mighty Mo is getting even better.
Photo by S.Butterfly
While Steph can go on about Morley all day long, Mighty Mo an artist who is actually finding an interesting way to transition from the street to the gallery. Like pieces by Invader, many of Mo’s sculptures depict actual street pieces, so the work acts as a sort of nostalgia trigger and documentation/preservation of outdoor pieces. At the same time, there’s a high level of craftsmanship.
Photo by S.Butterfly
And Mighty Mo can paint well on more traditional canvas as well. Check out this collaboration with Rowdy. It’s a knock-out… (yep, had to say it)
Mighty Mo and Rowdy. Photo by Alex Ellison
S.Butterfly has more photos from the show on her flickr, and if you’re curious about all the paint splatter on the walls of the gallery, watch this video.
Labrona and Gawd. Click the photo to view it large.
Last night might have been my busiest 1st Thursday ever, and I didn’t even stop off everywhere I wanted to. Either way, I’ll have to go back to a few galleries this week to actually look at the art properly. Even with a cursory glance though, the Charming Baker show was the highlight by a mile. I’m not sure how sustainable it is to sell paintings at the prices they sold for last night, but damn it looked good. Here’s a few things I could have posted about last night, had I not been out being a gallery-hopping scenester…
Everfresh have created the graffiti writer’s dream machine: The Graff Mobile.
Conor Harrington has been painting some murals of bulls in Ireland. I like this one. This one, not so much. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out why that is about either of the walls.
Showpaper has done round 2 of its Community Serviced project where they get artists to paint newspaper bin boxes for Showpaper. Check out all the photos from round 2 here.
This Thursday, C215 and the photography RomanyWG have a two-man show opening in London at Signal Gallery called Border Line. My review of C215’s last show at Signal sparked a bit of discussion. From the photos that he’s posted on his flickr of work in this show, I think I’ll enjoy it a lot more. And I’ve been a fan of RomanyWG’s photos for a long time. This show will double as a book launch for his book about art in abandoned spaces, Out of Sight.
Both RomanyWG and C215 will be there on Thursday signing books (C215 will be signing his latest book, Community Service).
About two years ago, Skewville made a simple modification to a Shepard Fairey piece in Bushwick. It simply said “Your Ad Here.” There is no doubt that Shepard Fairey’s Icon logo is a logo for a brand, and that while it may be art and/or graffiti, it is also an advertisement for everything Obey (clothing, fine art, screenprints, a design studio…). Skewville was taking a swipe at Shepard his that piece, but now Shepard has taken the phrase “Your Ad Here” and is using it as the title for an upcoming solo show at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. It seems nothing can escape the reach of Shepard Fairey’s appropriation, not even his critics. Of course, the flipside of “your ad here” is that Shepard Fairey began his stickering campaign as a college student and younger than I am now. He proved that anyone with balls and commitment can (eventually) advertise themselves on a tiny budget and still become a household name. So I guess that’s sort of what he’s going for. Shepard’s journey from an underground artist to a mainstream supposed sell-out is addressed in this recent interview on The Huffington Post (by the guys at Brooklyn Street Art).
Your Ad Here opens on August 5th at V1 Gallery and runs through September 3rd.
As you can read in the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost, Burning Candy is a crew in the midst of upheaval right now. Nonetheless, the remaining members of the crew have a show opening this week in London at Tony’s Gallery (just off of Brick Lane). Sounds like A Fist Full of Paint is going to be a madhouse, but what else would you expect from Burning Candy? BC hit the front of the gallery last week with a fire extinguisher full of bright red paint, and extinguishers are due to play a large role in the show itself too. Two members of BC held a showdown with extinguishers in the gallery, and part of the show will be an installation of the aftermath of that fight, as well as a short film depicting what went down. The show will also include some more traditional work from members of Burning Candy and more new footage from Dots, the film the crew have been working on I posted footage from about a month ago. That said, Burning Candy shows always seem to come together and evolve at the 11th hour, so there’s just one thing that can be said for sure about A Fist Full of Paint: Expect the unexpected.
The show opens on Thursday and runs through August 21st.
On July 21, Moniker will be opening a show at Blackhall Studios in Shoreditch entitled Gossip Well Told. Featuring the likes of artists Swoon, Eine, Dabs and Myla, Case and Herakut. There will also be some great street art photos from Cheryl Dunn that I am really looking forward to seeing as well. Below is one of her photos from the Twist/Barry McGee mural on Houston Street in New York City.
Barry McGee’s latest show, simply titled New Work, opened this week at Stuart Shave/Modern Art in London. While not the craziest show Barry McGee has ever done, pretty much everyone I spoke with came away thinking this show is one of the best things they’ve seen recently (except for maybe the Miro show at Tate Modern, apparently that’s going to be a difficult one to top). As usual, McGee straddled the worlds of graffiti and fine art, high-brow and low-brow, concept and aesthetics.
This is a close-up of a table full of zines and sketches by McGeeA number of pepole I spoke with said this was their favorite pieceBut this was my favorite
New Work is on now at Modern Art through August 13th. For more photos, checkthesephotosets.
