Category: Photos

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So many tags… Twist in NYC

UPDATE: TheArtCollectors was there when the wall was being painted, so they’ve got the full story of all the crazy things that went down.

Twist aka Barry Mcgee has just completed this crazy wall of tags at the Bowery and Houston spot in NY previously painted by Shepard Fairey, Os Gêmeos and Keith Haring. It’s looking pretty awesome right now, but McGee tried this back in San Diego and the wall had to be buffed after residents complained! This is a legal spot, but still, expect complaints.

If you look closely, you’ll see a huge variety of tags including classics like Twister, Iz the Wiz, Amaze (McGee’s longtime assistant) and Revok as well as shout outs to McGee’s friends (Todd) and other McGee pseudonyms (R. Fong, DFW).

Photos by sabeth718

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Da Mental Vaporz at London’s Meeting of Styles

Photo by unusualimage

Meeting of Styles London (organized once again by End of The Line and Probs) 2010 just took place. While there were plenty of amazing walls painted, the most impressive is definitely this one by Da Mental Vaporz (Bom.k, Jaw, Sowat, Brusk, Blo, Dran and Kan). Not much to say here besides “Damn that’s good!”

Photo by RomanyWG
Photo by RomanyWG
Photo by RomanyWG

To see more from Meeting of Styles, check out the official flickr group, unusualimage’s set, and RomanyWG’s set.

Photos by unusualimage and RomanyWG

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Toronto Street Advertising Takeover Project

Jordan Seiler, organizer of the infamous NYSAT and bane to the advertising world, has just released the site to TOSAT, the Toronto Street Advertising Takeover Project. Attacking both street level back lit sites and elevated billboards, the project included more than 60 international artists whose work replaced over 90 ads. As always, these projects that Jordan has conducted are an important marriage between formal aspects of street art and activism. To learn more check out the website: http://www.publicadcampaign.com/tosat/

The Project description is as follows “With over half the worlds population now living in cities, our public spaces are playing an ever important role in the construction of our collective social identity. Outdoor advertising, with an interest in widely disseminating commercial ideals is finding its way deeper and deeper into these environments. While it is understood that commercial messages do not share our collective interests, we still do not question its use of our shared environments. In an effort to invigorate debate about how commercial interests are using public space and raise questions about how our communities desire to use those same spaces, non-violent civil disobedience projects like TOSAT engage the public in a dialogue of participation.”
“The TOSAT project is the most recent street advertising takeover project executed by PublicAdCampaign in Toronto. With over 60 artists and an international roster of contributors, this project provides a model for continued takeovers around the world. With each new city, a new set of on the ground collaborators will be necessary and many thanks must go out to PosterChild, Sean Martindale, and the DuSpa collective in Toronto for their unwavering support. As well these projects could not take place without the continued support of all the artists involved and we extend our deepest gratitude to all of those participants.”

Photos courtesy of TOSAT

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Dotmasters at Nuart

I love this wall Dotmasters recently painted at Nuart. It’s not easy to be cute without getting lame and cutesy.

– Elisa

PS If you haven’t seen the tower Blu and Ericailcane painted for the festival, check out the photos on Unurth. Then keep an eye out for updates on the Nuart twitter and blog – there are a lot of great artists still to come. I also did an interview with Martyn (the festival’s curator) for the next issue of The Art Street Journal. It was great to listen to his thoughts on the festival and its swift growth. The media has a tendency to throw the spotlight on the artists, but I believe it’s also very important to recognize the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make things happen. Martyn is one of those people and if you’re a reader of the journal, I hope you find our conversation as interesting as I did.

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Banksy in Hastings not considered “graffiti” by city officials

I wasn’t planning to make much mention of Banksy‘s latest work (the above stencil which can be found at a beach in Hastings). As usual though, it seems the story surrounding the art is more interesting than the piece itself: The Hastings graffiti removal squad will be leaving Banksy’s work alone. Not something entirely new from town councils. What I really love about Hastings though is what councilor Jay Kramer has said about the situation:

I think this is great.

I know that we have a zero tolerance policy on graffiti, and that is absolutely right. However, we have to be flexible so on this occasion I have agreed that Banksy can be an exception to our rule and can stay.

So, the town has a zero-tolerance policy on graffiti (and presumably street art too) except in cases where the work is an instant tourist attraction. In those cases, the policy is not so zero-tolerance. That’s a “Banksy-tolerance” policy, and that’s a pretty short-sighted way of doing things.

Via Banksy Prints

Photo by world of emma

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Brad Downey’s latest: The prank of an evil genius and/or brilliant art

What is there to say about this latest piece from Brad Downey? I figure this is either something devised by an evil genius or a brilliant urban interventionist, or a bit of both. This might make me a bad person, but I’m definitely laughing. What do you think? The first image is a “before” and below is the “after.”

This was done in Essen, Germany and was paid for by Hacking the City.

Photos courtesy of Brad Downey

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New images from Ludo

Ludo has a made couple of new images for his ongoing Nature’s Revenge project. Luckily, Jake pointed these out over on Streetsy, because I’ve been traveling all day and I needed to find something interesting but quick to post. I think the above beetle is one of Ludo’s technically strongest images yet.

If you have any suggestions of places I should check out while I’m in NYC for a few days, let me know in the comments. Tomorrow, I’m planning to stop by Joshua Liner Gallery, Jonathan LeVine Gallery and MoMA.

Photos by Ludo

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The continuing story of Ron English and Electric Windows

Ron English was pretty active recently at the Electric Windows event a few weeks ago, not only painting a panel but also putting up a few posters.

Turns out, not all the locals in Beacon were happy with English’s work.

Here’s something from Ron English:

The Electric Windows Project in Beacon was a great success this year, getting out some great art and bringing together Brooklyn hipsters and longtime Beacon residents…

But by Tuesday, dozens of outraged townies assembled at the Beacon city planning board meeting to protest a couple of pieces I did. After a quick briefing in closed session with the city attorney, who went over the first amendment with planning board members, the board announced that although it had no legal right to order the work taken down, it would allow the public to express their outrage over the fact that I used Jesus as a corporate spokesmodel and “Crack” as a criticism of fast food in a couple of “subvertisements.”

The board let me speak first, and I expressed surprise that my work created such a furor. I’m always surprised when this kind of thing happens… which is often and usually propagated by people who don’t understand or fully take in the work but instead attach their own agenda to it.

After I spoke, a wave of angry Christians took their turns at the mike. One woman wanted to know why she couldn’t paste up the photos of dead fetuses that she routinely held up at the health clinic. Others wanted to know what gave me the right to comment on the most powerful religion on the planet. And one board member expressed outraged that I was promoting crack… to the children. Afterwards, a teacher got up to helpfully explain that children don’t understand metaphor.

Then a self-professed stateside noncombat post traumatic stress-afflicted veteran informed me that he had notified Miller High Life about my offensive parody of their brand..

So English returned to Beacon and modified the posters. Check out the new posters on his Juxtapoz blog.

Photos by LoisInWonderland

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Living Walls Wrap Up

Living Walls Wrapup from Gaia Uroboros on Vimeo.

So Now that everything has settled down and I am back in New York, it’s time to sit down and adequately give an overview of the street, gallery and legal works produced for the Living Walls Conference. The focus of these works was a hybridization of the Cherokee and Suburbia, both entities that occupy the American imagination but are seemingly different. The photo references employed within these portraits are women of the Cherokee nation, which was one of the first Native American tribes to embrace the encroaching Western frontier. These photographs capture a people in transition who retain their traditional values while simultaneously assimilating to a new, oppressive lifestyle. In the largest of the four street pieces, the Cherokee weaving pattern transitions into the homogeneity of suburban sprawl, an issue that has defined Atlanta’s contemporary development. The romance of establishing autonomy closer to nature, away from the turmoil of the city, is joined with the domesticity of the Cherokee portraits, the romantically free people tamed by invasion. A more comprehensive overview of the other projects will be coming soon! More photos and details after the jump

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