Posts

Posted on

Hellbent and BSA bring you GEOMETRICKS and inexpensive art for students

Feral Child

Brooklyn Street Art are going to be organizing a series of shows at Brooklyn’s new gallery, Gallery Brooklyn. Vandal or Visionary Series has kind of a cool concept, where BSA will pick a different artist to curate each show in the series. The first show in the series is GEOMETRICKS, curated by Hellbent. The artists in the show are Augustine Kofie, Chor Boogie, Drew Tyndell, Feral Child, Hellbent, Jaye Moon, Maya Hayuk, MOMO, OLEK, Overunder and See One, so between that line up and the name of the show, it’s probably pretty clear that GEOMETRICKS is about work by people in the street art community who are leaving lettering and pop art behind and including somewhat abstract shapes and patterns in their work, kind of like a street-art friendly version of graffuturism.

Augustine Kofie

In addition to a great line up of artists, the thing I’m most excited about with this show is that their will be one wall of the show devoted to inexpensive and discounted works for students only. The Young Collectors Wall will only have work by the GEOMETRICKS artists priced under $200, and you’ll have to show a valid student ID to purchase any of the pieces. I have to applaud BSA for this idea. It’s rare that a gallery will have quality artwork or art products available at prices that are reasonable for students. So students, get to the show early, because I’m betting that these works will be gone quickly. You might get a real steal and suddenly have the best-decorated room in your dorm.

Here’s a little invite from BSA:

You are cordially invited to have a blast in Red Hook Brooklyn with BSA Saturday Sept 22nd, where we’ll present amazing new gallery works from 11 of the best Street Artists doing abstract GEOMETRICKS on the street right now, musical jams from John Breiner, and a special Young Collectors Wall where a limited number of works by the artists in the show will be on sale under $200 for students with a current valid school ID. After GEOMETRICKS walk a few blocks to party with us at Brooklyn Crab and take the free shuttle bus back to the subway when it’s all over. It’s a cool September night in Red Hook that you don’t want to miss!

The show opens September 22nd from 6-9pm and runs through October 28th at Gallery Brooklyn (351 Van Brunt St, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY).

Check out BSA for more info.

Photos courtesy of Brooklyn Street Art

Posted on

The Street Museum of Art’s guerrilla curating in NYC

The Street Museum of Art (SMoA) has announced the debut of it’s first exhibit In Plain Sight. What that means is that some street art fan or fans have put up the outdoor equivalent to gallery wall labels in order to help identify, draw attention to and explain a few selected pieces of street art. ForIn Plain Sight, the curator(s) have included work by Sweet Toof, Faile, Gaia, JR and others.

This could really easily come across as ridiculous and cheesy, but I think the SMoA have pulled off one of the best actions demonstrating both the necessity and impossibility of displaying street art in a museum setting. On some level, wall labels for street art are absurd, but on another level they are quite useful. And rather than trying to create some sort of fake and inevitably lesser copy of the street indoors (like the installations by Neckface or Todd James, Barry McGee and Stephen Powers at Art in the Streets) or organizing murals that again emulate some of the look of street art but not the energy behind it (like the murals organized for Os Gemeos recently in Boston), the SMoA have just brought the museum to the street, as if to say “Here is the real thing. It cannot be imitated in a museum environment. But it is as valuable to our culture as what you might see in MoMA.” Maybe the SMoA will help people to see things that they haven’t before, and then maybe they’ll start noticing street art everywhere without the help of wall labels.In Plain Sight elevates street art both to make a strong statement about the art and benefit viewers. It’s like a mini version of the street art tours that Stephanie and I have offered in London, but free and self-guided. Great stuff.

The one disappointing thing I have found about In Plain Sight is that it takes place in Williamsburg. Of course there is a lot of great street art there, but I think a lot higher proportion of Williamsburg residents are probably aware of street art already. But hey, even a jaded hipster might be willing to learn something new about Sweet Toof if the text is right in front of her.

I’m curious to see what the SMoA does next.

Also, I’d like to compare what the SMoA is doing to what some street artists in Australia did last weekend.

The artist CDH organized a “Trojan petition” where a group of street artists petitioned the city of Melbourne and the government of Victoria because of unfair graffiti laws in Victoria. The petition was delivered as part of an installation to which 20 street artists had contributed artwork which surrounded the text of the petition. Essentially, these artists say that the laws regarding being found with spraypaint or markers on your person are unfair as they reverse the burden of proof to a presumption of guilt instead of innocence (this seems true), and that property owners who do not take care of their property effectively give permission for artists to paint it (an interesting argument). But they delivered this petition in a really weird way by dropping it outside of a major museum and, for some reason I don’t quite understand, seem to pit museums against street artists even though museums in Australia have been some of the strongest allies of street artists over the last few years (the petition states “Melbourne’s street art is consistently ranked among the top in the world [1-6], unlike any of Australia’s fine art institutions.”). The National Gallery of Victoria, where the petition was delivered, has actually decided to display the work until Friday. So, the gallery where the petition was delivered seems to support the street artists…

There’s more info and a more positive view of the petition over at Invurt, and I think Luke may be writing something about it as well in the coming days for Vandalog. But I just thought I’d bring up that comparison of two groups almost simultaneously trying to make a point about the legitimacy of street art as art that should be appreciated by people and supported by the state or institutions, and making that point in two very different ways. The Trojan petition seems to take a very negative approach and the SMoA takes a very positive approach. Which one do you like better? Although I can enjoy anger from time to time, I think SMoA made similar points a hell of a lot better by staying positive and improving the streets.

Photos courtesy of the Street Museum of Art

Posted on

Overunder and Labrona up in Chicago

Overunder and Labrona. Photo courtesy of Pawn Works. Click to view large.

Overunder and Labrona were recently in Chicago for a mural project with Pawn Works (more info on that side of their trip soon), but they also had some fun installing less sanctioned work while in town. Here are a few of the pieces they put up:

Overunder. Photo by Overunder.
Overunder and Labrona. Photo courtesy of Pawn Works. Click to view large.
Labrona. Photo courtesy of Pawn Works.
Overunder. Photo courtesy of Pawn Works. Click to view large.
Overunder. Photo courtesy of Pawn Works.

Photos courtesy of Pawn Works and by Overunder

Posted on

Dover.D: from Tel Aviv to NYC

Back in 2007, Dover.D‘s stencils of gas-masked characters in a range of poses began to surface in Tel Aviv. While most of the street art back then was confined to South Tel Aviv’s industrial district, Dover.D’s’s work often landed in the center of town.

Within the next two years, he became identified with a range of urban interventions, and his street art images became increasingly diverse.

Here in New York City, he recently completed a window installation for the Center for Jewish History on W. 16th Street.

Walls are next!

Photos courtesy Dover.D

Posted on

Book review – Banksy: The Man Behind the Wall

Back in May, a new book came out about Banksy that I anticipated would be a bit cheesy but perhaps good for someone who had only heard about Banksy through the occasional newspaper article. But I read the book anyway because A. I was a bit curious how to fill a 300-page book just about Banksy, and B. I had spoken a bit with the author while he was writing the book and wanted to see if Vandalog got any mentions in the final product. But I was surprised that the book was actually a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. Not to say that I am an expert on the topic, but it’s not common that I learn something new about Banksy, and I learned a lot reading this book. So what book and I writing about? It’s Banksy: The Man Behind the Wall by Will Ellsworth-Jones.

Ellsworth-Jones is not a street art fanatic, but he’s clearly a good researcher and journalist, because he’s pieced together the most in-depth biography of Banksy to-date. If anything, his initial lack of knowledge about street art and graffiti helped him. He doesn’t have allegiances to anything but getting the story straight. Nonetheless, he does not outright reveal Banksy’s identity, so he certainly tells Banksy’s story as respectfully as one can do when attempting to write a biography of an anonymous person. People with little knowledge of street art have been responsible for some pretty bad books on the subject for the last few years, but Ellsworth-Jones took his topic seriously rather than just attempting to churn out something as quick as he could based on reading a few blog posts and newspaper articles.

Because Ellsworth-Jones has written this book for an audience with little or no knowledge of Banksy, there are of course a lot of bits that anyone reading Vandalog would do just fine to skip over and you’ll find some sections a bit cheesy, but he does a good job of introducing readers to the world Banksy and street art by explaining some of the ways in which he was introduced to it.

But what new information does Ellsworth-Jones have to offer those of us who already know the basic Banksy story and are already active participants in the fan culture surrounding street art? Ellsworth-Jones had compiled little-known stories of Banksy’s life and career from his childhood in Bristol all the way through Art in the Streets, as well as stories about some of the people who would have influenced him early on. And of course there are tantalizing facts and figures like information about the finances of Pictures on Walls and Lazarides that, although public information, are things that few of us besides Ellsworth-Jones might think to look into. Ellsworth-Jones also gives his thoughts on the street art fan community that has sprung up over the last decade, a community that few truly objective outsiders have taken as much time to understand. And of course there’s some of the most detailed investigations I’ve seen in a while into the market that has sprung up around Banksy. In between a lot of basic info about street art, there were some real gems of knowledge.

I highly recommend picking up this book if you’re curious about Banksy beyond what he’s ever going to say in an interview. Although it’s written for people who don’t know much about him, anyone who reads this book is probably going to know more about Banksy than someone obsessed with him who skips the book because it wasn’t mean for the obsessed fan. Banksy: The Man Behind the Wall is not the definitive biography of Banksy, but it’s the best thing we have to date or can hope to have for a while.

Photo by bhikku

Posted on

Rone goes big in San Francisco 

Photo by Luke McManus

Rone is in San Francisco for his latest show at White Walls Gallery, Darkest Before the Dawn.

I was lucky enough to be in San Francisco while Rone is and I got to experience the epic piece he painted on a wall in the Tenderloin district. This is one of the biggest walls I’ve see him paint (with the exception of Pow Wow Hawaii) and while this piece was based on the one he painted in Hawaii it has evolved to reflect his new style.

Photo by Luke McManus
Photo by Luke McManus
Photo by Luke McManus
Photo by Luke McManus. Click to view large.

Also here are some preview shots of his work from his exhibition which opens tonight.

Photo courtesy of White Walls Gallery
Photo courtesy of White Walls Gallery

 

Photos by Luke McManus and courtesy of White Walls Gallery

Posted on

Shepard Fairey gets off easy for falsifying documents and lying in court

On Friday, Shepard Fairey was sentenced to 300 hours of community service, two years of probation and a $25,000 after pleading guilty earlier this year to one count of criminal contempt. Fairey actually got off pretty lightly. Government lawyers believed that Fairey could have been fined up to $3.2 million and also argued that he should spend time in prison (he could have been incarcerated for a maximum of 6 months).

Here’s how we came to this point: In 2009, Fairey sued the Associated Press to show in court that his portraits of Obama were fair use of an AP photograph and avoid being sued by the AP himself for copyright infringement. Fairey and the AP disagreed over which photograph Fairey had used as his source image for the HOPE poster, but they both agreed that Fairey used an AP photo from the same event. Then Fairey realized that he was wrong and that he had indeed based his work on the photograph that the AP said he had used, so Fairey panicked and tried to cover his tracks by submitting falsified evidence and attempting to delete the actual evidence from his computer. He then went ahead for months in this case claiming something that he knew was false. Eventually, Fairey was confronted with evidence of his deceit and came clean. The lawsuit with the AP was settled, with Fairey paying the AP $1.6 million (although some of that is believed to have been covered by an insurance policy). But the federal government was still unhappy about Fairey’s lies, so he was charged with criminal contempt and plead guilty to that earlier this year.

I don’t generally believe in prison time for nonviolent offenders, but Fair Use is an issue close to my heart and damn that still seems like he got off easy, but not for the reason the federal prosecutors think he did. In a statement on Friday, Fairey said, “The damage to my own reputation is dwarfed by the regret I feel for clouding the issues of the Fair Use case. I let down artists and advocates for artist’s rights by distracting from the core Fair Use discussion with my misdeeds.” He’s exactly right: Fairey blew what could have been the biggest Fair Use case of the century. If this case had gone to trial, as Fairey seems to have originally intended it to, and he certainly has to be given some credit for not just settling from the outset, Fairey would have had one of the best legal teams in the country supporting him and hopefully striking quite a blow against overly-restrictive copyright law enforcement.

For more on the case and Fairey’s sentencing, you can check out these other articles:

Photo by cliff1066™

Posted on

Weekend link-o-rama

Aryz in Næstved, Denmark. Click to view large.

Just a question: Anyone wish an air-conditioned home want to trade places with me until things cool down? Anyway, here’s some linkage to what’s been going on with art this week:

Photo by Henrik Haven

Posted on

“In the Midst of Living” at Weldon Arts

For his first solo show, NohJColey has fabricated an installation that is nothing short of fantastic. Whenever a street artist moves to the gallery there is the fear that the installation will wash out the grimey aesthetics that made viewers love the work in the first place. Without giving too much away, I will say that In the Midst of Living has stylishly recreated this atmosphere.

Piled with cardboard boxes, wood, and drips, Weldon Arts has brought the breathless feeling of discovering a one-of-a-kind wheatpaste into their space. Piece after piece has been framed to a perfection that only further underscores the detail oriented nature of NohJ’s portraiture. This show will knock the wind out of you and make you never want to leave. To be blunt, if you are in the New York City area and miss this show you are a fool.

Opening Friday, September 7th from 6pm-9pm.

Photos by Rhiannon Platt