This post is a bit of a continuation from my previous one… Whilst up north last weekend, Mr Penfold, Mr Gauky, Low Bros and DXTR made the short trip across to Manchester to paint. Inspired by Ray Harryhausen and the 1981 film – Clash of the Titans, they collaborated on another rather nice piece.
First three photos by the Common Bar. Final photo by Matt Saunders.
Last weekend Mr Penfold, Mr Gauky, Low Bros and DXTR headed up north to Sheffield to paint the wall of The Harley bar, just round the corner from the university. Enjoy.
This latest piece by The Wa was done in Stockholm, but references The Situationists in France. It’s called Sous les pavés la plage (or, Under the pavement, the beach) after this piece of Sittuationist graffiti.
One thing that has come up a number of times on Vandalog and in my personal conversations is the seeming isolation of Australia’s street art scene. Although Melbourne in particular as a street art community to rival many major American cities, it seems that most fans of street art are unfamiliar with Australian-based artists besides Anthony Lister and perhaps Meggs. Now, two of Australia’s most committed street art collectors have teamed up with 941 Geary in San Fransisco to put on the biggest show of Australian street artists the US has ever seen, Young & Free. The show has been curated by Sandra Powell and Andrew King, the couple with what is probably both the best collection of work by Australian street artists, and the best collection of work by street artists in Australia.
13 artists are involved in Young & Free: Anthony Lister, Kid Zoom, Dabs & Myla, Dmote, New2, Ben Frost, Meggs, Ha-Ha, Reka, Rone, Sofles and Vexta. That’s a pretty solid line up, representing most of the best Australian-born street artists (but, as far as I know, Ben Frost is not a street artist). If you haven’t heard of all of those names, you can go to the Young & Free website to get a taste for each artist. Basically, without making the trip to Australia yourself, this show will be the best way to see what’s going on with their street art scene. Hopefully, it will also be a massive step towards putting Australian street art on equal footing internationally with American and European street art.
But of course, a gallery may be a place to experience art, but it’s not the place to experience street art. Street art is on the street. Luckily, all 13 of the artists in Young & Free will be in San Fransisco at the start of September, so here’s to hoping that some walls get painted.
Young & Free is still a few weeks away from opening, with a run from September 10th through October 22nd, but we’ve got a quick preview…
The gritty walls of Tel Aviv are among my favorite anywhere. I’m so glad that some of Tel Aviv’s most talented artists will be featured in an exhibit opening this Friday, August 26, at the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Participating artists include: AME72, Adi Sened, Broken Fingaz, Foma, Klone, Know Hope, Yochai Matos and Zero Cents. Among the images curator Tal Lanir shared with me of these artists’ works on the street are the following:
Primary Projects, the gallery that came out of Primary Flight, has a group show opening next month called His Wife and Her Lover. The show centers on the themes of “destruction, secrecy, violence, social class, pride and desire.” Two artists of note for Vandalog readers will be Mark Jenkins and Cleon Peterson. Also included in the show are Valerie Hegarty, George Sanchez Calderon, Dead Dads Club Corporation, Manny Prieres, Emmett Moore, Franky Cruz, Andrew Nigon, Nick Klein, Johnny Robles, Jessy Nite and Edouard Nardon. His Wife and Her Lover opens on September 10th and runs through October 1st.
Logan Hicks in progress. Photo courtesy of Logan HIcks
Here’s the latest from the T&J Art Walk in Oslo. Previously, we’ve posted about Faile and Shepard Fairey‘s murals for the event, and Brooklyn Street Art has some photos of what The London Police are working on. Most recently, D*face, Galo and Logan Hicks have finished their walls. Art Walk’s indoor exhibition to benefit Human Rights Watch also opened at Blomqvist opened on the 19th. But here are the new walls…
D*face. Photo by Ole Walter JacobsenGalo. Photo by Ole Walter JacobsenLogan Hicks. Photo by Ole Walter JacobsenLogan Hicks. Photo by Ole Walter Jacobsen
Photos by Ole Walter Jacobsen and courtesy of Logan Hicks
It was a great surprise to come upon this Gaia piece on a semi-desolate block up in East Harlem. It looks wonderful! I wish more “street artists” would venture up there!
Here’s the mural that Ola Bad (who has no website but can be reached at olabad.art@gmail.com) and Howdy Nater collaborated on for Living Walls.
Ola Bad tells this story of how the mural came about…
This is my first wall which was done in collaboration with Howdy Nater. The wall is out in the West End of Atlanta on the border of two run down neighborhoods, Adair Park and Oakland City. It lies directly along the Northbound Marta Line which is what everyone coming into the city has to take from Hartsfield Airport. Living walls had started a few days before we started painting and we were just tripping out at how much all the out of town artists were talking about all the love they were recieving and how this felt truly like a home away from home. We had decided that because of the location we wanted to welcome every traveller into the city with the hope that they would experience the same feeling as the artists.
Howdy Nater came up with the saying Your Southern Home Away from Home. I wanted to do portraits but didnt know who. As HN was laying out some letters I walked across the street to goto the gas station to buy us some 40s of Colt 45. The gas station had two lines , mine which was barely moving and the other which was flying by. I decided to move over to the other line when I was greeted by a man named Fred. He had two gold fronts a towel over his shoulder and was completely thugged out. He congratulated me on my patience and offered to let me cut in line. We started a converstion when a homeless man i was talking to earlier came in and asked me to buy him a hotdog. Before I could even reply Fred interjected that anyone who was humble enough to ask for food deserved to eat and purchased the hotdog. Fred told me that he had lived in Oakland City his entire life. I was completely blown away by his kindness and the way he treated anyone in his neighborhood like family. I knew immediately that he was the perfect ambassador for the mural and got to work.
The second portrait is of a wonderful woman who is heavily involved in the atlanta graff/street art scene, whos name is Sharon. She and Fred both share the same love for Atlanta and its inhabitants no matter who they are or what they look like. Its rad to think that two completly different people with completely different backgrounds share the same love and the only hope I have is that there are people like this in everycity to welcome and love people.