Last week, Now’s The Time opened at Black Rat Projects. It’s a group show with some of street art’s biggest names (Banksy, Swoon, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey…). Here’s a video from the opening:
Now’s The Time @ Black Rat Press from Hotoneten on Vimeo.
OBEY Giant has posted this video of Shepard Fairey walking around his studio as he and his team work on preparing his upcoming May Day show at Deitch Projects. May Day opens May 1st and is pretty much guaranteed to New York City’s street art event of the year so far.
Keeping the urban art scene alive in Europe, Spanish street artist El Tono recently put his latest ingenious and experimental idea in to fruition by installing a number of white washed glass panels across the city of Coruña. El Tono’s idea was simple – To bring the essence of the street into the gallery. To do so El Tono would merely instigate the opportunity for the art work to be created, leaving the entire experiments out come completely in the hands of those who should past by. But of course the plan worked and El Tono would later find creative scratches and scribbles left behind on and around his panels, enabling him to create in this way a new and unique form of street artwork. Once El Tono was satisfied with the art work that he had captured, the panels were removed and displayed in at the Fundación Caixa Galicia during the MUAU in A Coruña. I sure hope those people got some credit!
Watch El Tono at work in the video below!
“Branco de España” – Eltono, MUAU, A Coruña from EltonoVideo on Vimeo.
Photos courtesy of El Tono.com
Expect the next week or so to be filled with Shepard Fairey related news. He’s in New York for his upcoming May Day solo show at Deitch Projects. Here’s some of what’s happened already:
And I’d just like to note how much I love Shepard’s new flag image which appears to be one of the core images in May Day.
The Creative Lives‘ latest video profile is of New Image Art Gallery‘s Marsea Goldberg. Marsea is a low-brow and street art legend for the work she’s done at New Image. She’s worked with countless amazing artists and brought them into the limelight. Good stuff.
New Image Art Gallery Feature from The Creative Lives on Vimeo.
Could you image a world where regular vending machines stood along side those stoked full of your favorite brand of spray paint? This idea is something that has probably already been the product of many street artists wildest dreams. But perhaps we have spoken too soon! Believe it or not it looks as though someone has come up with a crazy enough idea to make all those dreams come true. Although were not entirely sure as to whether this is the real deal or not, the latest street art commodity – The Graffomat is said to supply you with all of your favorite graffiti supplies such as markers, caps, gloves, and everything else that the graffiti writer need – Including ski masks! As much as I want to believe that The Graffomat is not just a hoax or a viral ad campaign, I really can’t see this being allowed to be put into production! I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of buzz surrounding The Graffomat within the next few days and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date on the latest developments. In the mean time check out this really impressive viral advert they’ve made for it!
Head over to Graffomat.com for more info!
David Choe’s upcoming Nothing To Declare show takes place in LA but comes to you via London with Lazarides Gallery behind the affair. The show runs from April 23rd until May 23rd and is taking place at 320 North Beverly Drive. Choe is one artist whose I just can’t figure out. Is he a genius or a madman or both? One thing is for sure: man pours his heart and soul in his artwork. These teaser images from Lazarides show some of my favorite paintings that Choe has ever done. Can’t wait to see what else he has in store for this event.
Those images all capture David’s more refined side, but that’s not all that Choe is about. I recently came across this short documentary about David called Whales and Orgies. It’s described as the precursor to the documentary Dirty Hands: The Art and Crimes of David Choe (a film that I desperately want to see). Here’s Whales and Orgies:
At at recent group show in Italy, street artist Elfo decided to try something a bit different. Plenty of artists (particularly anonymous street artists) avoid their own gallery openings. And the ones who don’t will probably tell you that the openings aren’t that fun. They are stressful and tiring. All that talking to everybody who thinks about buying a painting, chatting with people you met once 3 years ago and can’t remember anything about, making sure all your friends get in and get free beer… It’s a lot of work. Well Elfo showed up to this opening, but he didn’t have to worry about any of those things. Here’s what he did:
Seems to me he stayed that way for most of the evening. And yes, that’s really Elfo. What do you think? Certainly it’s something different for a street artist. Here’s a video of the whole piece in action:
Packed Food for Vulture$ from francesco carlo on Vimeo.
Photo courtesy of Elfo streetart
As mentioned the other day(s), Escif‘s solo show (now called Around The Wall) at Pictures on Walls opens on Friday. POW have uploaded a second teaser video for the show, and it looks like Vandalog was correct in reporting that this show is going to get very conceptual (but for fans of Escif’s drawings, don’t worry. Those seem to be included too). Also, Arrested Motion has a picture of some more outdoor pieces from Escif. These ones are on the outside of Pictures on Walls and they look very fun.
Here’s the new teaser video:
Minutes after pressing “Publish” on my last post, I came across more information about the Banksy piece that was removed in LA.
JetSet Graffiti has this video of the artwork being removed:
JetSet Graffiti have also been able to determine that the artwork was removed by Ace Gallery. I don’t know much about Ace Gallery, but what I have heard hasn’t been positive. As JetSet notes, “Famous for treating his bills as if they didn’t exist; Since 1976, [Ace Gallery owner Doug Christmas] has been sued 55 times by artists, other dealers and art collectors, according to a profile in 2009 in the LA Weekly.” Another interesting tidbit is that if you call the phone number listed on the side of the building for those interested in renting or buying the space, it connects you to Ace Gallery. So I wonder what’s up with that?
JetSet Graffiti has more details on their website.
My take? Don’t be that guy who buys a street piece. If you’re one of the collectors considering buying this artwork, just consider what you’re supporting. And besides, the artwork was never confirmed as a Banksy. It’s not like Banksy’s style can’t be replicated. It would’ve been easy enough for Ace Gallery to fake the whole thing (except that the art world is a small place). And the third (and kind of disappointing) possibility: Banksy’s no idiot. In fact I’d say he’s pretty damn smart, and his people are too. If he did paint that spot, did everyone in his employ really miss that the building Banksy was painting on is connected with Ace Gallery? I hope so.
I think this is one of those art mysteries that we’ll never fully know the answer to.
