Category: Gallery/Museum Shows

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KAWS @ Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Surely one of the most talked about exhibits going on currently is KAWS at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut.  As a fellow New Jerseyian, I feel it is my duty, nay my privilege, to hail from the same state as such an incredible street turned gallery artist.  Made famous for his defacement of bus shelter advertisements back in the day (thanks to Barry McGee who gave him the key to the locks), KAWS continually reinvents his art taking it one step further with each new endeavor.  What truly amazes me is that his aesthetic hardly changes, and KAWS’ logo/monster/creature-like-thing is still his work’s trademark embedded into nearly every piece.

Even though one might deem that KAWS’ work is out of place in a white walls museum stiff setting, the pieces are so loud and speak individually, that the white walls are a nonfactor in this instance.  I especially enjoy the fusion of his colorful character and celebrity or model portraiture.  The pieces are comical, yet strangely sadistic, in the sense that KAWS’ creatures own the subject and are not just a form of vandalism; rather, they belong in the picture.  In some odd welding of pop, street, urban, and collage art, KAWS’ new works seem right at home on these walls, and I would be hardly surprised if they do not begin to appear in galleries or modern art museum collections more often.

The exhibit also boasts many of his more affordable collaborations like shoes, skateboards, etc. KAWS’s style just goes to show everyone that his work truly is relatable to and for the public, even in museum space. So if anybody wants to buy me one of the skate decks, I definitely would not decline such a gift.

Oh, and the music is a bit cheesy. You might want to turn it on mute. Or play a little Bruce in Kaws’ honor.

KAWS @ The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum 6/27/10 Ridgefield, CT from OsirisOrion on Vimeo.

Video courtesy of OsirisOrion

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Sten & Lex

Photo by Sten

It looks like Sten & Lex have been keeping busy. They had a new book published by Drago earlier this year, have been putting up some murals in Rome (including the massive 26 meter tall one in the above photo), there was that great solo show in Paris and now they have a show on at a museum in Italy.

There don’t seem to be any press releases in English, so I’m not 100% sure what is going on at the Carandente Museum in Spoleto, Italy, but it looks like Sten & Lex’s show is taking place in addition to a massive group show of pop surrealists called, unsurprisingly, Pop Surrealism, which was previewed on Arrested Motion.

As the show just opened this weekend, hopefully there will be some pictures surfacing online soon.

Photo by Sten

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Mr. Jeff Soto in NYC

Update: The original headline on this post, and the one that you probably saw if you are found this on your RSS feed, mentioned a new toy. Then I decided not to mention Jeff Soto’s new toy because I went on a rant about art versus advertising. If you’re curious though, Hi-Fructose has some info on the new toy that Jeff is working on.

Looks like Jeff Soto just painted this piece outside of Eyebeam in NYC.  Which reminds me, if you’re in NYC, tonight would be a good night to stop by Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Jeff Soto and Dave Cooper both have solo shows opening there tonight (those shows run through July 24th). Arrested Motion recently posted a studio visit with Jeff, which includes some of the artwork that will be at his show tonight.

Now, I don’t mean to direct any potential negative attention towards Jeff Soto, but this piece reminds me of an interesting argument that I had last night with a friend of mine, who I’ll call James because I’m sure he doesn’t want me to publish his name. I said that I’d rather not be subjected to advertising while I’m in a public space, especially illegal advertising. Naturally, James brings up that I’m more than okay with artists putting up street art illegally. He thinks that I’m hypocritical for hating illegal ads but loving illegal art, especially since the definition of what is art is subjective. I say there’s a big difference, since street art, public art and architecture aren’t trying to sell you anything. Naturally, James makes the point that when a street artist puts up a piece, that’s advertising for their own work. In the case of Jeff Soto, Jeff rarely paints outside anymore, and this particular wall is clearly a form of promotion for his show with Jonathan LeVine Gallery. So it’s an ad, right? Not in my opinion. Yes, it’s an ad, if you know who Jeff Soto is and you know that he has a show opening tonight, which is probably less than 1% of the people who walk by Eyebeam today. For the vast majority of New Yorkers, that’s just a piece of art. Even if Jeff had signed his name, it’s not like he’s put a sign next to it saying “You can buy this image as a print for $70 at potatostamp.com!” (although, actually, you can).  Maybe murals like Jeff’s and 99% of street art is a form of guerilla marketing, but it’s only seen as marketing by a tiny minority of the population. For the rest of the world, it’s art in the place of a grey wall, and there’s nothing better than that. So that’s my rant about the different between street art and advertising. Hopefully you agree with me, otherwise I may have just turned a few people off of Jeff Soto, which would suck.

Photo by amc_

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Lucy McLauchlan’s “Together”

As a typical 19-year-old guy, I tend to enjoy art which is “edgy” (aka: full of girls, guns and rebellion – I couldn’t think of a ‘g’ word for that). That’s certainly not always true, but I did prefer Chloe Early’s tank paintings to pretty much anything else she’s done, so I think it’s fair to say that it’s at least one aspect of what I find interesting in art. That said, sometimes I want to look at something calming, beautiful and, if you will, zen. Now, my favorite artist is Swoon, so if course, she fits into that beautiful category, but she’s not the only one. Lucy McLauchlan, when she gets it right, is one of the most underrated young painters in London.

Luckily, Lazarides Gallery agrees with me, because they have a solo show from Lucy starting next week at their Rathbone Place location in London. In fact, Together is her second solo show with Lazarides.

As usual, Lucy is painting on a huge variety of material for this show. Just read this section of the press release:

Paint cans, ex-Police riot shields, doorways, camper vans, plastic containers, driftwood, and brick walls have all been transformed by Lucy McLauchlan’s graphic, fluid monochromatic style. In our technologically dominate age forget digital manipulation, McLauchlan prefers to stick with Indian ink or permanent marker often allowing the mistakes to take centre stage in her fantastical murals.

Here’s the hoping that Lucy will be doing some paintings on the gallery walls as well. Her mural currently gracing the Rathbone Place stairwell is one of my favorite things about that space (along with David Choe’s mural in the same stairwell).

Together runs from July 1st through August 12th.

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StolenSpace Summer Show

Since graduating college a few months ago, I have been forced to find other ways to pregame on the weekends other than a recurring bad romance with Natural Light and terrible displays of beirut.  Now that I am an official adult, going to art openings to see some fantastic art and gulping down the free beer is a pretty appealing alternative.  I always look forward to the shows in the Summer time because so many people go to galleries on opening night (for the booze) that the shows seem to be featuring their highest caliber artists.  Or maybe I just think so because I am five feet tall and feeling woozy after a beer.

On July 1st, Stolenspace in London will be opening their Summer group show featuring some of the biggest names in the game.  When I hear “group show,” my mind jumps to art school end of the year culminations that exhibit an eclectic array of amateur art.  This show, however, is too cool for school.  Shepard Fairey, Wordtomother, D*Face, Kid Acne, Mr. Jago, Cyclops will have works hanging alongside artists (Miss Van, The London Police, and Chloe Early) who had solo shows at the gallery this past year.

Sadly, I still will not be in London until mid-August and will miss the entire show.  I swear some higher power does not want me to see Miss Van’s art in person. Sigh

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SHRED at Perry Rubenstein Gallery

Bears by Brian Adam Douglas

Perry Rubenstein Gallery in NYC has was looks like an awesome show opening on July 1st. SHRED is a show of collage-based artworks curated by Carlo McCormick, an editor at Paper magazine. Traditionally not a gallery focused on street art, Perry Rubenstein Gallery seems to have gotten interested in the genre after starting to work with Faile last year (and I think Faile have a show there in the fall). For SHRED, McCormick has brought together classic works from well-known masters of collage like Rauschenberg, Gee Vaucher and Dash Snow, as well as brand new work from the likes of Brian Adam Douglas (aka Elbowtoe), Faile (including brand new imagery), Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Judith Supine and others.

This should be great show, not just for the impressive artwork, but also because this will expose a whole new group of people to artists like Judith Supine and Brian Adam Douglas.

SHRED is runs from July 1st through August 27th, with an opening reception on July 1st from 6-8pm.

Via my love for you is a stampede of horses

Photo courtesy of Brian Adam Douglas

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Death Warmed Over

Chris RWK

Five staples of New York street art (Veng RWK, Chris RWK, Cake, Luna Park and Becki Fuller) have gotten together for their show Death Warmed Over, which opens Friday evening at Fresthetic in Brooklyn. Veng, Chris and Cake will be showing their paintings, while Luna Park and Becki Fuller will have prints of their photos. Naturally, the show’s theme is death. If you’re thinking of checking out this show, best to go down on Friday (7-10pm). Although Death Warmed Over will be on until July 20th, the opening events will include live painting and a DJ set by Royce Bannon. Check out The Street Spot for more info.

Photo by Chris RWK

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Barry McGee and Clare Rojas museum show

Barry McGee

Husband and wife artist duo Barry McGee and Clare Rojas opened a show together last week at the Bolinas Museum in California. McGee and Rojas installed the shows together, but they have separated them into two segments: McGee’s Leave it Alone and Rojas’ Together At Last. The show/shows are open until August 1st. The Art Collectors have a good review of the show, much more articulate and intelligent than whatever I would have said. Here are some pictures anyway:

Barry McGee
Clare Rojas
Barry McGee
Clare Rojas
Barry McGee

And it looks like McGee has already moved on to his next project. He is painting some murals in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, but not everyone in town to happy about that, graffiti as art and all…

Photos by fresh888

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Agents of Change 0.3 and Remi in Santander

Remi/Rough and Jaybo have put together a two-man show in Santander called No Beginning No End. Here’s some of Remi’s work from that show. You can check out the rest of the show on Remi’s flickr.

But that’s not all Remi has been up to. Recently, he and the rest of the group Agents of Change painted a massive wall in Manchester. They made this video, but you can probably skip to 4 minutes in and just see the end result of their work:

I’ve heard people say that Agents of Change’s hands are similar to this piece that Zeus and Eine painted last year (and which Remi coincidentally painted over with the property owner’s permission as part of The Beautiful and The Canned), but Agents of Change have really crushed it in Manchester and I’m not sure if you can claim that any one person’s trademark is painting giant hands (here’s another piece with a series of hands by Run).

Photos by Remi/Rough