And while we’re on the topic of Know Hope, any readers in Toronto and in a fortunate position: Know Hope has a solo show coming up next month at Show & Tell Gallery. No doubt this show, There Is Nothing Dear (Nothing Is Too Much Dear), will be something special. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while.
Before Vienna has a chance to recover from the general awesomeness of the BLK River Festival, another art exhibition with some international urban artists will be taking place in the city. Escape 2010 will be an indoor exhibition taking place from October 1st-24th in Vienna. Xoooox, Stefan Strumbel, Faith47 and a number of other urban artists will be taking part in the show.
Word To Mother, an artist I enjoy as much for his tags and pieces as his completely different indoor work, has a solo show opening in a few weeks at StolenSpace Gallery in London. StolenSpace actually has a show opening this week about posters that have been in Don’t Panic packs, but WTM’s show is much more interesting to me, so I’m posting about that even though it’s not the next show at the gallery.
WTM’s Blind By Stardom opens on October 7th and runs through the 24th (so I’ll unfortunately miss the opening, but be back in town to at least see the show – more on my upcoming trip back to London soon). This will be his 4th solo show at StolenSpace, with the previous shows being very warmly received. I’d say it’s common for “street art fans” and “street art collectors” to have very different ideas of what is good, but Word To Mother seems to be one that everyone agrees about. Work at his shows sells quickly and the regular Thursday-night crowd are at the gallery for the art, not just the free beer.
I vaguely remember Word To Mother saying something to me last year at FAME Festival about how he was going to be changing things up for his next solo show. While I enjoy WTM’s work, I must admit that I kind of brushed this comment aside as the typical artist plugging himself and feigning growth, but clearly I was wrong. From what I’ve seen so far, these paintings are a step forward for Word To Mother both in style and content.
The themes behind Blind By Stardom are meant to be celebrity culture and how people consume media. This is definitely something that a lot of artists deal with, but WTM doesn’t seem to be as annoying about it as so many Banksy-wannabes (and even sometimes masters like Ron English) are. I’m looking at these paintings and getting the message, but I don’t feel like I’m beaten over the head with it.
This is one show not to miss, so make sure to stop by Stolenspace between October 7th and 24th.
Dan Bergeron, aka fauxreel, had a show open last week at Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto. Faces of the City focuses on Dan’s recent series of portraits. There are some beautiful pieces on wood, but since this series really is all about the city and how the work interacts with the wall it’s on, Dan has also included a number of photographic prints showing the portraits as they looked outdoors. And I’m not sure how’s he’s done it because it is such a challenge, but Dan has managed that delicate balancing act of using found or otherwise distressed wood has his canvas without it seeming too contrived and fake. That’s not an easy thing to do, so I’m glad to see that Dan has pulled it off.
One of Jenny Holzer's Inflammatory Essays. She had better be in this show if it's to be any good
A few months ago, this was mentioned briefly in an NYTimes article, but now the first real information is starting to come out about Jeffrey Deitch’s upcoming street art show at MOCA in LA. Culture Monster has a post all about the show, Art in the Streets. I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about this event for a while, but it’s all been rumors, so it’s nice to finally get some facts to write about.
Deitch says that Art in the Streets aims to be a broad look at street art, but will also dig deep into the history of outdoor art. That sounds like music to my ears, but it also sounds like a nearly insurmountable challenge. For example, the show will certainly involve graffiti, but so much graffiti had localized differences that now influence modern street artists and writers. So where do you draw the line at what to include? And what about the Philadelphia Mural Arts program, created to eradicate graffiti? It’s not street art, but it might deserve a place in a show titled Art in the Streets… Anyway, I’m sure we’ll know more in a few weeks when a formalized press release is sent out.
In the mean time, here’s what else is known…
Art in the Streets opens April 2011 at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary
The show will include work from the last few years as well as art from as long ago as the 1970’s, which seems about right.
There will be around 25 artists doing installations/murals.
Banksy will be involved, so yeah. That’s interesting I guess… I’m not his biggest fan lately, so it’s hard for me to get excited about that.
Over 100 artists will be represented in the show.
Aaron Rose (from Alleged Gallery/the Beautiful Losers film) and all-around graffiti and street art expert Roger Gastman are helping to curate the show.
This show could be the best thing to happen to street art since… ever. But even if it’s not perfect, it’s still going to be pretty damn good. Deitch isn’t going to screw this up. He, Rose and Gastman all know their shit.
I meant to write about this show weeks ago, but I kept debating whether to stay true to my snarky self and write what I really think about Buff Monster’s latest solo show at Corey Helford Gallery. Finally, and by my peers’ encouragement, I sad “screw it” and am just going to be honest. The work is terrible. Not to hate on cute cartoon art because some artists do it pretty well at times, but Buff Monster’s one dimensional childish monsters remind me of scratch and sniff stickers or the sadistic product of Lisa Frank and Hello Kitty. On the streets, the characters look cutesy, colorful and fun, but within gallery walls they translate as shallow and not genuine.
The following pictures are several works featured in the current show. Inspired by what looks like complete anarchy in Candy Land, an emo Spongebob on hallucinogenic drugs, and a futuristic mythical anime world, the pieces display little design concept and thought. The whole show further saddens me about the art world, since many outlets praised the works with no critical eye. Those reviews are fluff, just like Buff Monster’s art.
Ultimately, in my opinion, Corey Helford made a huge mistake with this show. After forging a name internationally for their curatorial work in collaboration with the Bristol Museum with Art from the New World (one of the best urban art group shows to date), this show confuses me as to why they would plan and host such an atrocity. As a gallery well known for marketing and branding of their artists and exhibits, Buff Monster seems like the perfect choice for just that, since all he stands on is those aspects.
There is a major debate raging in the art world whether street art can translate inside gallery walls, but Buff Monster’s show gives another point to the doubters. Maybe if there was an installation, sculptures, or even a giant mountain of his plush toy in the gallery, I may not be so harsh. But Buff Monster’s work is so commercial that it has to be branded as such, because fine art surely is not it. Maybe, next time Buff.
A couple of weeks ago, I briefly mentioned that Herakut have a show opening on September 18th (this Saturday) at LeBasse Projects in LA. Now, there’s a bit more to say about the show. Hope’s Reply will include 10 new paintings, and it sounds like they will all be on canvas. It’s also being said by LeBasse Projects that the canvases will be displayed in a more traditional gallery setting and without Herakut’s usual installations. Although I’m disappointed about the show not having an installation component, it will definitely be interesting to see how Herakut’s art is received in a white-walled gallery setting (of course they’ve been in galleries before, but there is usually some sort of installation or painting on the gallery walls or whatever). So many street artists have a hard time making that transition and maybe use installations and indoor murals as a crutch (though an interesting to look at crutch), but it seems like from all I’ve seen of Herakut that this transition shouldn’t be a problem.
I know this post may be a little late, since the show opened the 11th, but Vandalog was given some great photos of Ron English’s prep work for the pieces exhibited. Taking place at The Opera Galleryin New York City currently, the site hosts a rare exhibition of new and old favorites of English (and yes, his Ronald McDonald makes multiple appearances. Thank God for that). Known for hosting a fellow pop “artist’s” solo exhibition a little while back (please do not make me say his name. I actually begin to taste vomit in my mouth when I think of that sad excuse of an “artist”), Opera decided to take it up a notch and put on a real show this time around pulling out all the stops for English. Paying homage to Keith Haring’s cultural commodity store (or maybe even just a simple play on the “pop” word), The Pop Up Shop, the show is sure to be an incredible display of creative talent. Most street artists experience that harsh epiphany when they realize that that most of their work refuses to translate into the white cube, but English surpasses the dilemma with his sarcastic, and sometimes sadistic, play on popular culture. Exhibiting works in several mediums- painting, mixed media and sculpture, the Status Factory is sure to be a widely talked spectacle of the fall art season.
Below are some of the works included in the show. You can see pictures of most of the works here.
As a harsh critic of Shepard Fairey, I feel a bit hypocritical posting about this show, but I really feel like it deserves some attention. Printed Matters is the name of Fairey’s latest show taking place at Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles. What interests me most about this exhibition is the fact that it is a show purely compiled of Fairey’s prints. With the increase in popularity of street art books (incidentally Fairey will be signing copies of Beyond the Street Art at the opening reception), the hit the economy has incurred in the past year and the launch of Christie’s Multiplied Art Fair, prints are becoming an essential component of mainstream commercial art work. Usually working with the themes of repetition, borrowed images and urban cultures, Fairey’s prints remind the viewer of classic dated typography and muted design, while still managing to fuse Dada-esque collage in his work. Hopefully, Printed Matters will finally show some new work by Shepard Fairey that breathes some life back into the stale overused pieces that have been pooping up in group shows and outdoor murals this past year. Give me something to be positive about, please. It is pathetic when the nicest words I have for an artist’s work coincide with the launch of a vinyl toy (which was indeed pretty awesome to say the least.)
On September 9, the famed contemporary curator and artist, Aaron Rose, will unveil his latest solo exhibition at CircleCulture Gallery in Berlin. Best known for his international launch of graffiti and street art into the mainstream conscious with the touring show Beautiful Losers and the documentary by the same name, Rose premieres Trouble as an homage to the readymades made famous by art pioneers like Marcel Duchamp. Rose uses mostly found suitcases form the 50’s and 60’s as the base of his colorful artworks, but also incorporates chairs, guitars, and lamps as mediums. While this show may be a far cry from his championing of early Shepard Fairey and Barry McGee, it proves an exhibit does not need to be groundbreaking to be thought provoking and interesting to view. Beauty and talent are sometimes enough, as long as there is depth to the work. There is nothing wrong with concentrating on pure aesthetics.
The opening reception will take place September 9 and will run until September 25.
