I discovered Ian Francis‘s work in 2008 at the Outsiders NY group exhibit that Steve Lazarides had brought to the Bowery. This afternoon I checked out his first NYC solo exhibit, Fireland, at the Joshua Liner Gallery in Chelsea. Infused with both abstract and figurative elements, the mesmerizing works exude a sense of fragile alienation in an uncertain world teeming with contradictions. Fireland continues through April 2 at at 548 W. 28th Street in NYC.
Photos by Lois Stavsky
This week was exam week, so that means that the majority of my time was split equally between studying and procrastinating with my roommates on N64 and that this week’s link-o-rama is a bit longer than usual:
Photo by RJ Rushmore
Next week is going to be a big one for Brian Adam Douglas, aka Elbow Toe and his UK fans. Due Dates, his solo show at the Warrington Museum in the UK, will be moving to Black Rat Projects. Due Date opens next Thursday evening, March 10th. If you already saw Due Date at the Warrington, it will still be worth checking it out again at Black Rat Press, as the show will include one very special collage that has not been seen before. Additionally, the relaunch of Due Date at BRP will double as the launch for his first book, Paper Cuts.
Photo courtesy of Elbow Toe
With two midterms exams tomorrow, I’m rushing this post, but here’s a simple list for some of what to check out at the art fairs in New York this week.
I won’t be in NYC for the fairs myself, but I’ll hopefully have some photos to post. Otherwise, the places I will be getting my art fair news will be Hyperallergic and Arrested Motion.
Photo courtesy of Volta Art Fair
So here it is, Japanther, who infamously arrived at one of Swoon’s first installations at Deitch in a Uhaul to perform, will be playing for John Felix Arnold’s show in SF, press release after the jump…
Continue reading “Japanther playing at John Felix Arnold’s show in SF”
El Celso‘s solo show ¡No Habla Español! is opening at Brooklyn’s Pandemic Gallery on March 11th. The story behind this show is pretty interesting. I’m just posting the press release because that explains it pretty well:
¡NO HABLA ESPAÑOL! is El Celso’s most personal show to date. This new series of works was inspired by a recent trip to Peru where the artist became obsessed with posters made in the “chicha” style. These hand-made posters line city streets all over Peru and generally feature an eye-popping neon color palette and commercial graphics-inspired lettering. They are generally used to advertise working class concerts and other events. During a recent trip around Peru, in 2010, Celso began collecting discarded and out-of-date fragments of these posters – known as afiches chicha in Spanish – from the streets of towns such as Chachapoyas, Chiclayo, Cajamarca and Lima (to name a few).
Further inspired by their look, he established contact with the esteemed Fortunato Urcuhuaranga at Publicidad Viusa, the print workshop that originated this iconic DayGlo look back in the 1980s. (Urcuhuaranga is a former radio DJ and he originally created these posters to advertise his station’s musical happenings.) Based on the outskirts of Lima, in the suburb of San Juan, Ate, this renowned family-run studio has produced posters for countless local Peruvian acts, as well as visual artists and arts organizations around the world.
In collaboration with the Urcuhuarangas, Celso created a series of posters inspired by the Peruvian chicha style. However Celso’s posters are a wry play on the idea of the advertisement: event posters created for non-events. Since last year, he has installed dozens of these on the streets of New York and Miami.
The posters look pretty cool, and the whole concept reminds me of one of my favorite comments in the film Beautiful Losers. One of the artists, whose name I forget, says something like “I love old advertisements. The kind that can’t hurt you anymore because they’re selling typewriters.” I think that is part of the idea behind El Celso’s posters, but then the question has to be asked about to what degree is street art advertising? So while I love the idea behind these posters, it’s difficult to say that they are not selling anything. After all, the posters say El Celso’s name and I’ve become familiar with these posters as they have appeared on the street, so I already knew a bit about them before reading about the show and that probably made me more likely to post about them on Vandalog. Still, I like the posters and I’m not gonna call out El Celso too severely unless he makes a poster specific to this show and starts pasting it up around NYC. That’s when, for me, things shift occurs from art with a bit of advertising to advertising with a bit of art.
And yes, obviously graffiti is advertising names too, but writers aren’t claiming to not be advertising. On the other hand, El Celso does seem to be attempting non-advertising, the type of advertising that can’t “hurt you anymore.”
Here’s a flyer for the show:
Photo by C-Monster
Ben Eine is in California preparing for his show at White Walls in San Fransisco. (The, I think, ironically titled) Greatest opens on March 12th and runs through April 2nd.
The show consists of two parts. First, the indoor side at White Walls: There will be 10 new works on canvas from Eine. I’ve always preferred Eine outdoors to indoors and thought of the indoor work similarly to how I see Invader’s gallery art: as reminders of what we’ve seen and loved outdoors, so we’ll see how that part of Greatest goes. The other half of the show is that Eine painting a full alphabet with permission on roll-gates in San Fransisco and will continue to do so for a couple of weeks, so that’s great. Eine holds a special place in my love of street art because he was the first artist besides Banksy whose work truly grabbed on on the street, so I’m pleased to hear that San Fransisco will be getting a little taste of Eine. The roll-gate letters don’t quite grab the viewer like SCARY did for me, but they do brighten up the streets. I’m looking forward to seeing how San Fransisco reacts a new Eine alphabet.
Also, I think this is his first solo show since Obama was given one of Eine’s paintings as a gift.
Photo by Steve Rhodes
The latest show at the relatively new gallery Mallick Williams & Co is Hueless, a group show of 21 artists, but all the artwork is in black, white and shades of gray. The show opens this Friday, March 4th. I chanced across the last show at Mallick Williams & Co when I was last in NYC and really enjoyed it. With Hueless, the line up looks strong once again, with highlights including Shepard Fairey, Skullphone, Faust and Katsu (yes, the writers Faust and Katsu!). Here’s the flyer:
Photocollage courtesy of Mallick Williams & Co
UPDATE: There are just a few days left for the Pantheon fundraiser on Kickstarter. There are some cool rewards for supporting this show, so check it out.
Abe Lincoln, Jr., John Ahearn, Adam VOID, Cahil Muraghu, Cake, Darkclouds, Droid, El Celso, Ellis Gallagher, Faro, John Fekner, Freedom, Gen2, Goya, Groser, Richard Hambleton, infinity, Ket, LSD Om, Matt Siren, Nohj Coley, OverUnder, Oze 108, Quel Beast, Royce Bannon, Sadue, Skewville, Stikman, Toofly, UFO, and even more artists are all part of a group show opening in New York on April 2nd. Pantheon: A history of art from the streets of New York City aims to bring together multiple generations of street art (and, to a lesser degree, graffiti) from New York City and tie them together into a cohesive history. There are some real under-appreciated gems in that line up like Richard Hambleton, Skewville, John Fekner, Don Leicht and Faro.
Pantheon will take place in New York City at chashama/Donnell Library Building, right across from MoMA and run through April 17th. I’m really disappointed that I won’t be able to see this show in person. It should make a nice counter-point to MOCA’s Art In The Streets show opening in LA around the same time. If you do make it to Pantheon, be sure to check out the catalog, which Vandalog’s Monica Campana has contributed to.
Here’s a little preview of some of the street work from artists in Pantheon:
Photos by Luna Park
WorldWarWon has a pop-up solo show in Amsterdam opening on March 4th. Should be interesting. You never know what WWW is going to get up to. Here’s the flyer:
You can rsvp by emailing manuelaklerkx@gmail.com.
Photo courtesy of WorldWarWon
