Last week, a new installation by Swoon appeared in the great hall of the New Orleans Museum of Art. NOMA has had a Banksy piece on display, but I think this is the first artwork that the museum has commissioned by a street artist. The installation is called Thalassa after the Greek goddess of the sea. Thalassa will be on display through September 25th. Check out more photos on Arrested Motion and flickr.
Photos by josh.brasted
We’re way late on this one, but Gabriel Specter had a show at Pawn Works Chicago last month. Here are a few of my favorite works from Repeat Offender. Check out the rest at the Pawn Works website.
Photos courtesy of Pawn Works Chicago
If you’ll notice that there were a good number of posts on Vandalog this week, you’ll notice the opposite thing next week. With family in town visiting and moving in with some friends and starting the couch-hopping segment of my summer in just a few days, things are rather busy. And so is the art world. Here’s what I have been reading this week:
Photo by Get.off.My.Spaceship!
Opening tonight from 6:30 – 9:30 at the new FB Gallery at 368 Broadway is Zéh Palito’s solo exhibit, Love Peace Unicorns. As the title suggests, the exhibit brims with whimsical fancy. We stopped by last night as Brazilian native Zéh Palito (Danilo Ricardo Silva) was completing an indoor mural of playful, colorful geometric figures and forms. We spoke to him briefly:
When did you first start getting up in the streets? About 11 years ago. I was 14 and hanging around with my cousin who was quite a tagger. He and the movie Beat Street were my inspirations. At first, I was just into getting my name up in the style of the pixadores. It seemed like the thing to do.
Have you had any formal art education? When I was 12 years old, my mother enrolled me in a special public school, where I studied oil painting for two years. I continued to study fine arts and then graphic design as an undergraduate.
Do you feel that your formal education helped you develop as an artist – an artist whose preferred canvas is the streets? I would say, “Yes.” Certainly the people I met while I was studying art did. One of my closest friends is a former art teacher.
Why have you chosen the streets as your primary canvas? I love sharing my art with others. I feel depressed when I can’t, and I feel happy when I see people responding with smiles to my work.
Where do you most like to paint? I love painting on the countryside. People are friendlier and more appreciative.
Besides Brazil, where else have you painted? I’ve painted in Chile, Bolivia and Peru. I spent six months as a volunteer in Zambia and painted there. I’ve also had a solo exhibit in Santiago, Chile.
How do you feel about bringing your art into a gallery setting? I’d rather paint in a public space, but showing in a gallery allows me to do that.
If you could paint with anyone, with whom would you choose to collaborate? Remed…he’s one of my favorite artists.
What is your most memorable experience as a street artist? I’d say painting in an orphanage in Zambia. The experience has motivated me to become more involved with international NGO’s in the years ahead.
How do you feel about NYC? I love it. I plan to be here for at least a few weeks. I’m looking forward to finding some outdoor spaces and collaborating with some of the local artists.
Photos by Lois Stavsky
Last month, I had the chance to visit Ron English‘s studio in New York. At the time, he was just about to ship out his upcoming show at Lazarides Gallery in London, open from June 24th. Here are some photos from the visit:
Continue reading “Studio visit with Ron English”
Carmichael Gallery‘s next show is Playing Field, a group show of secondary market works. It opens this Saturday, June 18th and runs through August 9th. The line up hits most of the big names you’d expect to see as well as a few surprises: Banksy, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Sixeart, Os Gêmeos, Mark Jenkins, JR, KAWS, Barry McGee, José Parlá, Judith Supine, Swoon, Titi Freak, Dan Witz.
These sort of shows tend to be either really good or really bad. I’m liking the above piece by Barry McGee, so I’m thinking this should fall on the really good side of things. But LA residents can see for themselves starting on Saturday. The opening is from 6-9pm.
Photo courtesy of Carmichael Gallery
Last week, Retna’s Hallelujah World Tour stopped in London. The show is open June 27th at The Old Dairy, a warehouse space at 7 Wakefield St, London, WC1N 1PB. If you go to see this show, you may think you’re lost. It does not look like there’s an art show at 7 Wakefield Street, but trust me, there is. It just might take a bit of searching to find. Once you do though, you realize that Retna has taken over a huge space with some equally huge paintings. I’ve seen a lot of Retna’s work over the last seven months, so I’ve been a bit spoiled for choice and certainly have some favorites in this show (the work on metal and a few others) and some that I don’t think were notable at all. Nonetheless, if you are in the UK and have not seen Retna’s work in the flesh, this is a show that you definitely should not miss. I spent about half an hour wandering the show and intend to revisit the it at least once. I just hope that in the future Retna has more time to paint his shows. It looks like most of this one was painted on site in London, which I don’t think nearly as bad a thing as I’ve heard people tell me it is, but it does limit what he can do. Here’s a sampling of the show…
Check out more images here.
Photos by RJ Rushmore
It’s been about two years since Ron English‘s last solo show in London, but he is back in a couple weeks for a solo show at Lazarides Gallery at their Rathbone Place gallery. If somebody could please explain the name of the show to us, that would be awesome. It is Skin Deep: Post-Instinctual Afterthoughts On Psychological Portraiture. So I’m not really sure what that’s about. But I did have a chance to get a sneak peak a much of the work for Skin Deep last month during a visit to Ron’s home and studio and I fell in love with a couple pieces. Expect a photos from that visit posted on Vandalog sometime soon. In the mean time, pop surrealism fans should mark their calendars: Skin Deep will be open at Lazarides from June 24th through July 21st.
Photo courtesy of Lazarides Gallery
Rone and Meggs from Everfresh Studio each have solo shows opening later this month. Rone will be at Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne. Meggs will be at Redbull Studios in London. Meggs’ so is presented by ZeroCool Gallery, so let’s hope this does not end in a repeat of their show last April. Very Nearly Almost has more info and teasers for both Rone’s show and Meggs’ show, here are the flyers:
Logan Hicks’ show on now at Opera Gallery in NYC has some new work from him on anodized aluminum. Those pieces are of greyscale figures or scenes on what looks like a solid piece of black aluminum. In reality, the aluminum has been anodized/dyed black. In this new video, Logan explains the process of how his artworks on anodized aluminum are made:
Logan Hicks – anodized aluminum from Logan Hicks on Vimeo.
