The London Police are getting ready for their first solo show in Newcastle at Unit 44. A Night with The London Police opens on May 11th (6-9pm) and runs through the 18th. So it’s not actually just one night with TLP, but if their past openings are anything to go by, that will be the night to go and check out the show. In addition to prints and paintings at the show, The London Police will be painting a “huge” new mural while they are in Newcastle.
Photo courtesy of Unit 44
The Nuart festival of Stavanger, Norway is one of a handful of trailblazing street art festivals that have been popping up over the last decade or so. Actually the predate most, if not all, of the significant festivals. Last year, the organizers of the festival put together a book documenting Nuart’s history, Eloquent Vandals: A History of Nuart Norway.
Extensive photographic documentation of Nuart is already available, but Eloquent Vandals also has texts that you won’t find anywhere else. Essays by Logan Hicks, Carlo McCormick and Brooklyn Street Art’s Steven Harrington and Jaime Rojo provide some context for the festival and the festivities that happen there.
Hicks gives the inside scoop on what it is like to be a participant at Nuart. He acknowledges what so many artists and festival organizers really love about places like Nuart: The best festivals are made up of the best people, and the best parts of the festivals are the unexpected fun bits, not the murals. The artwork mostly just facilitates the good times and helps to justify to the rest of the world why a bunch of people getting together in a small city in Norway.
McCormick’s essay begins with one of my new favorite quotes about public art “Public art, when it is commissioned and produced according to some vague idea of the public good, is by and large really lousy art – and as such arguably the very last thing people need.” He goes on to show how festivals like Nuart can breath new life into the realm of public art.
Harrington and Rojo’s essay is not only the most important in the book, but one of the most important essays written about street art in this decade. They lay out what so many of us have thought about, but few have written about so eloquently and with such serious consideration: THE INTERNET IS REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF CONTEMPORARY STREET ART. Sounds simple and obvious right? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than what I just wrote and the complicated aspects of this obvious fact deserve serious consideration, a conversation that Harrington and Rojo have now begun.
If you are interested in street art festivals like Nuart, and especially if you are one of the many people out there thinking of starting a street art festival, I highly suggest that you pick up a copy of Eloquent Vandals: A History of Nuart Norway.
Photo by RJ Rushmore
Roa’s 2-part solo show Hypnagogia is on now in London. Half of the show is at Stolenspace, and half is down the street at The Stone Masons. Here are some photos from the portion of the show at Stolenspace. Check back soon for photos of the work at The Stone Masons. And check Arrested Motion for more photos.
More after the jump… Continue reading “Roa – Hypnagogia – part 1”
Jeff Soto recently worked with Chevy on an ad for the Chevy Sonic. I’ve got some problems with advertising, advertisers working with artists and advertising that co-opts street art and graffiti to sell dumb crap. But I’m pleasantly surprised that this advertisement actually kind of works. At the end of the day, the world is left with a new mural by Jeff Soto, and that mural doesn’t have a massive Chevy logo on it, just an engine block. Is the concept a bit cheesy? Perhaps. Is calling the piece “street art” irritating? Sure, but expected. Even I oversimplify at times by calling murals (or in this case, pseudo-murals) street art. And the ad still way better than 90% of the street-art-related advertisements out there. So, an awkward kudos to Chevy for not screwing this up, I guess…
Also, Eine later modified the mural.
Via Arrested Motion
In the aftermath of another fantastic gallery show, this time at White Walls in San Francisco, Sickboy took some time out from painting massive walls with Eine to answer a few questions.
Shower: How did the concept of the Wonder Club arise? Can you give some examples of the daydreams that have inspired this body of work?
Sickboy: I used to have an illustrated picture of the Mad Hatters Tea Party in my bedroom as a kid, and it’s still in my family home. To this day I pondered on the thought of its inspiration on my life and that opened up a chasm of ideas. I have also been known to have some crazy dreams, I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s possible to transcribe some of them from the Wonder Club body of work.
You delved into the world of ‘mixed media ephemera’ as part of the show. Can you explain how and why?
Yeah sure, I spent the month prior to the show working and living above a studio in San Francisco, courtesy of the gallery. In that time I collected many story books from local shops and found some great surfaces to paint on including some metal drawers. All of these were included in the show. Many of the books were used in the temple assemblage. I’d remove the covers and paint on the backs of them. It’s satisfying to know that those pieces would never have been created without spending time in San Francisco.
As part of the Wonder Club you aimed to revisit your inner child for inspiration. When I was a kid it was all about Lego and Thunderbirds. Was there a certain toy, film, comic or fairytale that inspired you?
I guess I refer more to what art has represented to me in my youth. I copied Sweeny, the toddler comic strips, and gave them as Christmas presents once, and later down the line my first graffiti pieces mean a lot to me in their naivety. I lost a big bag of photos that had my first pieces in it but I can remember their metallic holts duplicolour essence, that to me is my inner child. Continue reading “The Caravan King – An interview with Sickboy”
Great work from Nychos and Shue at Inoperable Gallery‘s Shutterland project in Vienna.
Via 12ozProphet
Photo courtesy of Inoperable Gallery
Retna‘s latest solo show opens on April 24th at Art Careyes Gallery at the Costa Careyes resort in Careyes, Mexico. And yes, I just repeated “Careyes” 3 times, but it’s not my fault that everything relating to this show seems to have that in the name. Anyway, the show is called Time Traveler. Here’s a beautiful video trailer for the show:
A huge fan of Veng’s larger-than-life signature character that surfaces frequently throughout NYC and beyond, I was delighted to discover another side of his talents in his small, delicately-rendered birds — largely fashioned with watercolor and ink on paper — at Mighty Tanaka. Here are a few more images:
The exhibit, The Birds and the Bees, also featuring work by Gigi Chen, continues through May 4th at 111 Front Street in Brooklyn’s DUMBO district.
Photos by Tara Murray & Lois Stavsky
Our coverage of all the murals for Art Whino‘s G40 Art Summit finishes with work by Pixel Pancho, Angry Woebots, 2501, Jaz and Lelo. Check out part 1 here and part 2 here. My goal over these posts was to get completed photos of every mural. Unfortunately we didn’t accomplish that goal, but I got close and at least posted all of the major ones. Such is the curse of trying to only use photos with the photographer’s permission… Anyway, most of the last of the G40 Art Summit murals can be found after the jump. Continue reading “Completed G40 murals in Richmond, Virginia – Part 3”
Today sees the opening of Herakut‘s latest gallery opening at 941 Geary in San Francisco. Entitled Loving the Exiled, the show features new paintings by the German duo that examine the mythical relationship between humans and nature. The show runs until 29 May.
Here are some of my favorite works in the show. The full show preview is available on the gallery’s site.
All images courtesy of 941 Geary
