Category: Site News

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Sorry for the silence

Silence Is Golden by worldwarwon

Sorry for the silence over the last few days (yes, I realize the irony of saying that and picking the above image for this post). I was celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with some friends in NYC and was barely online. Now I’m trying to get as much schoolwork done as possible before heading to Miami on Thursday and then it’s time for final exams… Until at least the end of the week, I’ll probably only be posting about Miami Basel and events surrounding that. Luckily, Stephanie has been picking up the slack and will continue to do so while I’m locking myself in the library.

That said, I couldn’t help writing briefly about worldwarwon. I’ve just been introduced to his street art, and he’s been doing some interesting things on the streets of London recently. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like street art is getting a bit more conceptual. Maybe as a reaction to crappy stencils? Anyway, worldwarwon is a nice example of an artist possibly inspired by Banksy but going a bit more conceptual and using the streets. Okay, as I’m rereading those last three sentences, I get the feeling that I’m almost definitely overthinking and overexplaining things. Simply put, check out worldwarone’s website for some clever street art and maybe a laugh.

Photo by worldwarwon

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While I was cut off from the world…

BETTEN in NYC. Photo by a friend of the artist.

Since the end of May until a few days ago, I’d been more or less cut off from the street art world. I was driving around Europe with my friends. That’s not particularly important, though I would like to thank Logan Hicks, Ripo, Paulo, C215, Nunca and (especially) Angelo for spending time with us.

Here’s some of the things that I missed while I was away…

  • Penny’s latest piece kicks ass
  • Os Gêmeos have been crazy busy, so here’s one of the things they did: A few paintings at FAME Festival.
  • And Blu has been to FAME recently too.
  • I’m loving a lot of the pieces Skewville’s show Shift Work Disorder at Factory Fresh.
  • Some local residents completely misinterpreted the meaning behind some Shepard Fairey murals and painted them over. Actually a really interesting story. I suppose that when it is a reality of everyday life, people don’t like to be reminded that the police will “kick your ass and get away with it.”
  • Lazarides’ latest show in LA is Eurotrash with Vhils, Micallef and JR. Hi-Fructose has pictures.
  • Alison Young’s book Street Studio had a launch party in Melbourne.
  • High Roller Society has a massive group print show on right now. I stopped by on Saturday. If you like affordable prints and drawings, check this one out.
  • Daily Mail reports that Banksy has painted some pub in Primrose Hill. Reality: It’s a PR stunt by the pub’s owner, but at least now they have some artwork on their walls.
  • The New Grand Tour, a group show including Jose Parla, Rey Parla and Rostarr, is open now at Bryce Wolkowitz in New York City.
  • Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman, former gallery directors at Deitch Projects, have started up their own gallery in NYC called Hole. I’m not exactly sure how much street art or graffiti you’ll be able to find at the Hole when it opens later this month, but they sent me a press release, so presumably they haven’t ditched street art entirely. The Wall Street Journal has more.
  • Hrag Vartanian has started an interesting discussion on Hyperallergic about a new piece by Mark Jenkins which could easily be mistaken for trash. And by the way, if you don’t already read Hyperallergic, you should start. It’s perhaps my favorite art blog at the moment.
  • Armsrock has a solo show on right now at Signal Gallery. I’m going to check it out tomorrow, but based on the photos on Arrested Motion, I couldn’t be more excited. Armsrock is massively talented and just keeps getting better.

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A short break…

Art and photo by Other

Tonight, I’m doing two things: lots of blogging and even more packing. Tomorrow morning, I’m headed to Barcelona. My friends and I are going to a music festival and then taking a road trip through Spain, France and Italy. It’s a holiday, so I won’t be on the internet very much. Until I get back in to London around June 13th, there may only be posts on Vandalog about every other day.

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Virus removed

Yesterday, Vandalog was infected with some sort of malicious code. If you visited this site on a PC and were redirected to a “virus scanner,” that’s what the code did. From what I understand, if you didn’t actually install the fake virus scanner, your computer won’t have been infected. Nonetheless, I’m very sorry if anybody was effected by this attack. Anybody else who runs a WordPress blog should read this article to make sure their their site is not attacked as well. Sounds like this malicious code has been inserted into WordPress blogs on a massive scale this past week. Luckily, removing the code from Vandalog was a relatively quick solution, so now the site should be free of viruses and malicious code. Again, I’m sorry if this caused anybody any problems, and if it did, please let me know.

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I’m off to Zambia

I’m leaving for Zambia today. I’ll be visiting Shitima School in Kabwe. For Vandalog, this means two things: 1. I probably won’t have any internet access until I return (on March 25th) so I won’t be able to post anything new or respond to emails and 2. I’m visiting Shitima as part of an art project with two of my favorite artists, so there will be plenty of videos and photos to post once I’m back in London.

For most of the days I’m in Zambia, I’ve scheduled something to appear on Vandalog, but if Banksy reveals himself or Shepard Fairey gets sued (again) while I’m away, don’t expect to read about it here for a few days (unless Elisa or Gaia post about it).

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Re-Creation II, the Carmichaels go to NYC

If you follow Elisa Carmichael on twitter, you may have noticed that she’s been dropping some hints recently about a big secret show that they’ve been planning. Well here it is: Re-Creation II features artwork from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. I know Seth and Elisa have been working like crazy to pull this all together, and it sounds like it’s going to be amazing. They’ve flown some of their favorite artists to New York to work on installations in the space, and with the show running for so many months, plenty of people will have a chance to see what’s created.

In collaboration with Carmichael Gallery, Ogilvy & Mather New York will host Re-Creation II, a global exploration of emerging art, from March 5th through July 2010.

The exhibit will be held at the new Ogilvy & Mather headquarters on New York City’s West Side at 636 11th Avenue. Re-Creation II will showcase some of the most important emerging contemporary artists from around the world.

Large-scale murals, installations and original canvas, sculpture and mixed media works will be on display from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. Many of these artists, who are based in the UK, Hong Kong, Germany, Brazil, the US and Canada, have never shown in New York before, and have never shown together.

Ogilvy & Mather will transform five floors and the lobby space of its new headquarters in The Chocolate Factory into a museum-quality exhibition space. As viewers ascend each floor, they can experience the upward momentum of the artwork. Re-Creation II is the second exhibit to be hosted by Ogilvy & Mather in its new space.  It follows the inaugural Re-Creation exhibit, which featured the work of 12 emerging artists who use recycled materials to create unique forms of art. That exhibit will also be viewable through the end of March.

The opening reception of the exhibit will be held on Friday, March 5 with several of the artists in attendance at Ogilvy & Mather. The exhibition will run through July 31, 2010. Opening on March 5th in the middle of the Armory Art Fair week, the exhibition will run through the end of July 2010.

Doors are open to the viewing public, by appointment only, Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm by contacting Jun Lee at jun.lee@ogilvy.com.

On a side note, this is the 1000th post on Vandalog. Almost a year and a half in, we’ve averaged over 2 posts per day, posting almost every single day.

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Technical Difficulties

The backend of the Vandalog site is going really screwy. So this is all I can manage to post today. Hopefully this issue will be fixed soon. If anyone knows a lot about WordPress, your help would be appreciated. Just email me (rj -at- vandalog.com).

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VNA #10 limited edition D*face cover giveaway

Anybody looking for a free D*Face print? Look no further. Vandalog has one special edition of Very Nearly Almost issue #10 to give away. But more on that in a second.

Frankly, VNA is my favorite art magazine (yes, I like Juxtapoz, but it rarely beats VNA), in part because they get better with every issue. Issue 10 is a real milestone issue for VNA. There are the usual photos of street art in London and around the world, interviews with Shok1, D*face, Dalek and more, and other bits like product reviews. Basically, it’s the usual great mag for a price of just £4.

And about that D*face print…

VNA did a special promotion with D*Face for this issue. He designed the cover, and at the launch party they had a special edition of 150 screenprinted covers available. They also made just a few of those covers in a blue colorway (as seen above). That’s what I’ve got sitting on my desk right now, and it’s available for one lucky Vandalog reader who can answer this question: In what American state did D*face recently paint the “Ridiculous Pool”? Just email your answer to rj(a-t)vandalog(dot)com before Tuesday the 26th at 4pm London time. I’ll randomly select a winner from the people who answer correctly. This is a pretty unique opportunity, because only a few of these blue covers were printed, and they aren’t available for sale anywhere.

Oh, and if you don’t know about the Ridiculous Pool, here it is:

You can buy Very Nearly Almost in store or online.

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Check out this month’s Vogue Italia

Don’t ask me how it happened, I’m still not entirely sure, but if you happen to pick up a copy of Vogue Italia this month, you’ll find an article about me and street art on page 96. I don’t speak Italian, but based on Google’s very rough translation, the article seems to be about The Thousands and me proselytizing street art as “museum quality.” So that’s pretty cool. And, because a. I’m no fashion icon, and b. it was an article about the virtues of street art, instead of photos of me taken by a famous photographer, the article features some pictures from The Thousands book of work by Burning Candy, Skewville, Elbow-toe and Chris Stain, so be on the look out for next year’s line of Skewville inspired tshirts at H&M.

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The Faith of Graffiti giveaway

This month on Vandalog, I’ve organized a few giveaways.

The first of those giveaways starts today with two copies of Jon Naar and Norman Mailer’s seminal graffiti book The Faith of Graffiti. When it was first published in 1974, The Faith of Graffiti was the first book to take a serious look at graffiti. In 1974, Jon Naar’s photos and Norman Mailer’s essay gave the graffiti movement some mainstream legitimacy, as Mailer was one of the first to call writers artists. Looking back now, the book acts as an important historical document, preserving the very first generations of New York graffiti. Mailer’s understanding of graffiti was unparalleled at the time, and his writing is still an important starting point when looking at graffiti in the context of art history and art criticism, while Naar’s photos, taken at a time when few other photographers were paying much attention to graffiti, are invaluable evidence of how widespread and powerful graffiti culture was in the 1970’s

For years, it hasn’t been easy to get a copy of The Faith of Graffiti, as it was out of print, but last month it was reprinted in an expanded edition. This book is an absolute must-have for fans of graffiti and street art; my 1st edition is one of my prized possessions.

So how can you get a free copy of The Faith of Graffiti? Easy. HarperCollins has given me two copies of the paperback edition to give away. To enter the contest, you can either comment on this post (make sure to include your real email address, otherwise you can’t win because I won’t be able to contact you), or go on twitter and tweet a link to this post along with the hashtag “#vandalog”. But you have to enter before 6pm (GMT) on Wednesday, January 13th. After that, I’ll randomly pick two winners. Good luck.

Of course, not everybody can win, so if you’d like to buy a copy of the book, just go to Amazon.com.

Photos by Jon Naar