Another video for today. This one is a documentary on Keith Haring which, along a whole hour in length, is worth watching every minute of. I came away from it an even bigger fan of his work.
Keith Haring Documentary from ovic one on Vimeo.
KAWS on CBS
A Good Cop
Check out this video of a police officer who seems to have a surprisingly reasonable opinion of graffiti/street art.
Via I Love Graffiti
Swoon Sails Adriatic in May
Looks about time for a weekend trip to Venice.
From The Art Collectors Blog:
Swoon is in the planning and fundraising stages for her next ambitious aquatic art project. Building upon Miss Rockaway Armad and Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, the next installment of the artist’s floating armada is taking shape and is set to launch in May of 2009. Comprised of a fleet of three new handmade vessels, The Swimming Cities of Serenissima will hit European waters and navigate the Adriatic Sea, Beginning in the Karst region of Slovenia, the ships will make their way to the final destination of Venice, Italy, stopping along the way to entertain audiences. Once again, Swoon will be joined by a crew of collaborators, including playwright Lisa D’Amour, puppeteer Robin Frohart and the band Dark Dark Dark.
If you’re not familiar with Swoon’s boat projects, this video, teaser footage from a film shot during her last trip, may help you understand the project, or it may confuse you even more. Either way, FLOOD looks like it is going to be a pretty cool film.
For more information on the trip and the upcoming fundraisers in New York and New Orleans, check out the project website.
Finally: The Q&A with Veng
Since Vandalog started 100-some days ago, I’ve mentioned Veng four times. Why is that? It’s not just because I have nothing to talk about. It’s because one, I wanted to feature him and his crew, Robots Will Kill; two, Andrew Michael Ford from Ad Hoc Art mentioned them as well when he spoke about great street artists in NYC; three, Veng knows New York graffiti and street art, so he was part of my Great in ’08 series; and four, he was recently had some work in the From The Streets of Brooklyn exhibition at Thinkspace Art Gallery. But mostly, it’s because he’d good at what he does.
Veng is one of those artists blurring the line between street art and graffiti. I’ve been looking forward to this interview for a while. I think Veng is one of the most important artists to be watching in 2009, and I had to make sure Vandalog readers get to know him. Sorry if I sound like a bit over-enthusiastic, but it’s rare to find an artist of such talent who is not very well known outside of his home town.
I would try to describe Veng’s work, but he does a much better job, so I’ll just get to the Q&A.
RJ: How long have you been painting, graffiti/street art or otherwise?
Veng: I have been painting and drawing since I was little kid, and got into graffiti around the age of 12.
RJ: Why do you paint on the street?
Veng: For me painting on the street is in the excitement that each time you go out it’s different from the last time. The people you can meet while out painting or pasting can give you opportunities for stories I normally never would have had if all my time was just spent traditionally in a studio. Also the architecture of a city and how it gives you countless surfaces to place your work within is also a draw. Continue reading “Finally: The Q&A with Veng”
URB.com Video Interview with Futura
While I was surfing around YouTube today, I found this 2-part interview with URB.com and Futura from back in October. Looks like not too many people have seen it though. If you like Futura, you should definitely check these out:
Boing Boing Interviews Shepard Fairey
This is probably the best interview I’ve seen with Shepard Fairey about his Obama poster. Boing Boing does a great job. Well worth watching because they discuss the concern I originally had with the image, which I think many people shared: THIS IS SHEPARD FAIREY AKA OBEY DOING A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN IMAGE!
Via Boing Boing and hustler of culture
Posterboy Video Interviews
A few new videos with Posterboy have popped up recently. I’ve featured Posterboy on Vandalog before, but for those who don’t know, Posterboy is a New York artist who goes through the subway system ripping up advertising and creating mashups of the ads to change around the message. Recently, he’s also branched out into just ripping billboards down and collaborations with aakash nihalani.
via Wooster Collective and Beautiful Crime
Also, check out Public Ad Campaign for similar shenanigans.
Random Street Art News
So I’ve got a couple things to catch up posting on, so here’s my street art news post about all the cool stuff going on in street art and some of the awesome postings in the street art blogosphere.
1. Shepard Fairey was on The Colbert Report! Watch the video over at Hustler of Culture
2. Beautiful Crime and FarkFK are dropping canvases today througout London
3. Luna Park has written a nice piece on the recent “From The Streets of Brooklyn” show for Shift
4. StolenSpace Gallery has a show opening January 29th with the king of dissruptive realism: Brad Downey
5. Wooster Collective has suggestions for 6 people for art lover to follow on twitter (but don’t forget to follow Vandalog too)
Aakash Nihalani is a Square
It is long overdue that I cover Aakash Nilhalani on Vandalog. He’s been doing some really intersting work in New York for a while now.
Similar to Ellis G, Nilhalani doesn’t do anything destructive or particularly technically challenging (then again, I’m quite bad at geometry, so maybe I’m wrong), but he does create something simple that makes you look at it and challenges your expectations of what you’ll see walking while walking down the street.
Nilhalani makes boxes out of tape. He just puts neon tape on the street and makes the shape of a box with it. Simple, but effective. Continue reading “Aakash Nihalani is a Square”