Category: Gallery/Museum Shows

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Botulism: a Bäst solo show at Lazarides

There aren’t many artists with more street cred than Bäst. He’s been getting up consistently for about a decade now, and he’s not half bad at collage either. While I find his work most interesting on the street, but that doesn’t mean I hate to see him indoors from time to time. And it’s about time. On August 20th, his latest solo show will open at London’s Lazarides Rathbone Place. Botulism is going to be Bäst’s first solo show at Lazarides, but he exhibited there earlier this year with Faile for their Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. Lazarides promises that for this show, Bäst will be “developing past preoccupations in an exciting new direction.”

Here’s are a couple of teasers from Botulism:

Botulism runs from August 20th through October 1st with a private view on August 19th.

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The Lost Ones in Mexico City

The Lost Ones is a group show opening this week at Fifty24MX, Upper Playground’s Mexico City gallery. The show is being curated by New Image Art Gallery‘s Marsea Goldberg and features some great street artists like Retna, Shepard Fairey, Judith Supine and Neck Face.  The Lost Ones opens on Friday. I wonder of Arrested Motion will have photographers there, because I certainly don’t know anybody who will be there taking photos and I’d like to see this once it’s open.

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Specter’s solo show at Pure Evil Gallery

Specter‘s show at Pure Evil Gallery opened a few days ago, and one thing’s for sure: the judges on Work of Art would hate Specter’s new work (sorry Jerry Saltz, but you don’t need to include somebody’s face in a portrait for it to be a portrait), but that may just be proof of how good it is. Almost all the paintings are portraits of artists who have influenced Specter, as represented by pieces of fabric and clothing.

While my favorite artworks from Specter are still his sculptures and readymades, these new paintings are definitely interesting. Perhaps most importantly, they show how much Specter is thinking outside the box that so many street artists become trapped in.

And since Specter is in London for this show, he’s also been getting up outside:

Specter’s show is on now at Pure Evil Gallery through August 24th.

Photos by artbleat, unusualimage and Specter

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EVOL and Judith Supine at Jonathan LeVine

Somewhere in Kreuzberg by EVOL

Jonathan LeVine Gallery‘s annual summer group exhibition is on right now, and there are a few noteworthy pieces that I just had to share.

EVOL is one of the artists really pushing forward the use of multi-layered stencils, and he doesn’t get enough credit for it. His cityscapes on cardboard are something special. And, unlike a few other artists who depict the urban environment and attempt to achieve something nearing photo-realism with stencils, EVOL’s style doesn’t look like a ripoff of Logan Hicks.

Simple Solutions by EVOL

And then there are the new paintings by Judith Supine. Like his painting at Shred, these two paintings seem to have that glossier-than-a-sheet-of-glass look. Personally, I think it’s great. Other people don’t like it. But I’m pretty confident that the super-glossy look makes theses paintings look even better. As usual, Supine has made something beautiful, mesmerizing and disturbing.

The Lives of Lee Miller by Judith Supine
X-ray Eyes by Judith Supine

Jonathan LeVine Gallery’s summer group show runs through August 21st.

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New Fame Fest pieces from Word To Mother and Lucy Mclauchlan

As Fame Festival get closer, more and more work is popping up in Grottaglie. The latest are Wordtomother‘s walls and the making of an indoor piece for the gallery exhibit, as well as some pretty intricate black and white outdoor jobs by Lucy Mclauchlan. I cannot wait to see the work created for the gallery by the artists. Less than two months away guys!

Wordtomother
Wordtomother installation piece
Lucy Mclauchlan
Lucy Mclauchlan

All images by Fame Festival

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From the Street to the Cube at 941Geary

Opening today and running until August 28 is a new group show at 941Geary (White Walls, Shooting Gallery, Gallery Three) entitled from the Street Art to the Cube. There are some pieces that I am really loving for this show, especially the following pieces by Greg Gossel, Dan Witz and Best Ever.

Dan Witz
Greg Gossel
Best Ever

Yet, and this is my real issue with many group shows, there is not one cohesive theme to the exhibit at all. Street art is not really a theme anymore, when there are so many facets. This particular show just jumps around so much with the works, that I do not think it works at all. Plus, within the past few months other galleries exhibited many similar pieces (or other editions) from this particular show by Miss Van, Blek la Rat and Best Ever. When you are constantly seeing the same artists name mentioned every month, the work starts to blend and is not fresh anymore. Even worse, as RJ kindly pointed out to me, that most of the artists in this show are not even street artists, not even “once upon a time.”

I guess my point is exactly that- there is not really an interesting angle that catches my interest, which is a shame because group exhibitions either showcase high profile talent really well or brings to light a batch of new artists. This show does neither.

All images by 941Geary

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Friends With Knives at Crewest Gallery

Opening August 9 is a really cool looking exhibition at Crewest Gallery in LA strictly featuring stencil artists. Not only do I love the line-up, but for me at least, standout stencil pieces by Blek la Rat, Banksy and Nick Walker are what originally interested me in street art in the first place. The varied list of artists include Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, Chris Stain, Dave Lowell, E.L.K, Greg Boudreau, HAHA, Joe Iurato, Koleszar, Henry Quiara, Leckomio, Mefee, Nathan Phaneuf, PaperMonster, Peat Wollaeger, Scotch and Shai Dahan. This really is not a show to miss, especially since my first look at the Papermonster piece for the show seems pretty impressive.

Your Own Worst Enemy by Papermonster

For more info check out Crewest Gallery

Photo by Papermonster

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Shepard Fairey, JR and Pedro Alonzo on the radio

A few weeks ago, KPBS, a San Diego public radio station, conducted a very insightful and intelligent interview with Shepard Fairey, JR and Pedro Alonzo (curator of Viva la Revolución at MCASD). At nearly 40 minutes long, it’s an interview that you really need to set some time aside for, but it’s still worth listening to or reading. Especially if you enjoyed Vandalog’s coverage of Viva la Revolución. Check out the interview on the KPBS website.

Via Juxtapoz

Photo by Hargo

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Moniker International Art Fair is going to kick Frieze’s ass

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating just a little bit, but I’ve been following Moniker’s progress for a while now and it looks like they are going to put on quite a show.

The Moniker International Art Fair is, I suppose, the first UK art fair for street/low-brow/urban art (and probably the first major fair of its kind in the world, though that could be debated). The fair is going to take place in London during Frieze week this October, so it will be a competitor/satellite fair in the same vein as SCOPE or (in previous years) Zoo. In fact, Moniker will be taking place at Village Underground, just blocks from last year’s Zoo Fair and the location of the show I put together last November.

The galleries involved in Moniker are practically a best-of of international “urban art galleries:” Patricia Armocida (Ericailcane, Jim Houser, Os Gêmeos…), New Image Art (Date Farmers, Shepard Fairey, Judith Supine…), Circle Culture (Pho, Dtango, Stefan Strumbel…), Carmichael Gallery (Dan Witz, Aakash Nihalani, Mark Jenkins…), Campbarbossa (Herakut, Case, Faith47…) and Black Rat Projects (Swoon, Matt Small, D*Face…). In addition to gallery booths, Moniker will also feature artist project spaces from Herakut and Steve Powers aka ESPO. Another little side note, Babelgum will be hosting a pop-up cinema at the fair, so expect to see a few videos from RJ’s Street Art London.

I’m sure that I’ll be writing a lot more about Moniker in the coming months, but put it on your calendars now: Moniker runs October 14th-17th.

Via VNA

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Specter at Pure Evil Gallery on Thursday

It’s a bit short notice, but here’s my recommendation for where Londoners should be this Thursday evening: The opening of Specter‘s first London solo show, which will be at Pure Evil Gallery. The gallery’s newsletter was pretty vague about what people should expect to see (there was no text, just some photos of Specter’s street art), but Specter is one of New York City’s more interesting and unique active street artists.

Pure Evil Gallery is the place in London for emerging street artists to try crazy things, and few street artists are as well-equipped or brave as Specter to experiment. Specter always seems to have a new series up his sleeve.

The only hint of what Specter might be up to are a couple of paintings by him on Pure Evil’s website that I haven’t seen before. They are portraits of Specter’s artistic influences, but they are abstract portraits of fabrics that remind Specter of those people. Here’s one titled ‘Derek Mehaffey’:

Photos courtesy of Pure Evil Gallery