Located in the Vila Madalena district of São Paulo, Beco do Batman is a narrow alleyway that’s evolved into an open-air gallery. I discovered it last summer on my first visit to Sao Paulo. When I returned earlier this month, I revisited some of my favorite pieces, but many new ones had surfaced. Here’s a sampling:
Photos by Sara Mozeson; artwork by various artists to be identified
Even if Snyder‘s character is called Doodle and looks and sort of acts like Dran’s character Scribble, a fun stencil is a fun stencil. This piece by Snyder is at Melrose and Fairfax in LA. Apparently Doodle is meant to have kicked a hole in the wall, although it looks to me like he’s stared a hole into the wall, if that makes any sense… Maybe Doodle has superpowers.
Photo by Snyder
This weekend, the 23rd and 24th of July, Whitecross Street in London is host to this year’s Whitecross Street Party. Last year featured artists like Dr. D, Filthy Luker and the Burning Candy crew. Expect more street artists at this year’s event including Milo Tchais, Shepard Fairey (probably not the man himself, but something from him) and Ronzo. There’s also an indoor art exhibition. Here’s the flyer, and there’s more info on the party’s website:
Photo by Keri.flickr
Troy Lovegates aka Other is trying to get to New York City this fall for his first solo show there. In order to make it, he needs to raise some money, so he’s put a couple of really great pieces for sale on his flickr page. The only painting in the sale has already sold, but there are still some prints available.
This 2-color lino-block print, edition of 18 and a size of 23 x 32 cm, is available for $120 Canadian dollars:
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, these beautiful drawings, which were just $20 Canadian dollars, have already sold out (click the image to view it large)…
If you want to help Troy get to NYC (and hopefully paint plenty of walls while he’s there), you can buy an Orgins print by emailing him at troy.lovegates@gmail.com.
Photos by Troy Lovegates
Here’s a guest post from Caroline, who will hopefully be taking some more photos for Vandalog – RJ
I had the pleasure of visiting the studio of Brooklyn based artist Gabriel Specter recently. Getting to see how these notoriously massive pieces come together exposed the incredible amount of detail in each of his pieces. What’s more is that these intricate, hand-painted giants take a beating from whatever the weather can bring, and last not nearly as long as us viewers might like. But at the rate Specter’s been getting up (internationally at that), with gallery shows, and an increasingly large following on the web, ephemerality has nothing on him.
Speaking with Specter, it’s clear that the detail is very obviously not just in the aesthetics of the finish product. Every piece he showed me came with a captivating explanation.
Specter has been really busy these pasts few months, from his Things Change solo show in Paris, his Repeat Offender show at Pawnworks in Chicago, and he’s hoping to do more city commissioned mural work in the near future, which is essentially doing the same thing he’s been doing, but maybe a little bigger since he’ll have the city’s written permission.
While he’s not planning any solo shows for the near future, we’re gonna be seeing a lot of fresh stuff from Specter indoors and on the streets soon. Catch him in the up coming group shows Crown Heights Gold opening July 28th (6pm – 8pm) @ Skylight Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, as well as Street Art Saved My Life @ C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice(LA),California on August 12. This September, Specter will be traveling to Tajikistan to put up new work.
Photos by Caroline Caldwell
The Rebu!ld Project is an incredible installation located in the increasingly vacated Middle East Baltimore. This neighborhood has especially struggled in a city that has yet to recover from white flight, deindustrialization and racial ruin. Having been the site to numerous revitalization efforts through the Pilot Program and Urban Renewal, Middle East has for the past decade been slowly rebuilt literally from the grassy ground up, in the largest redevelopment projects in the history of the United States. (for more information please visit http://www.ebdi.org/)
Rebu!ld is a project by Ryan LeCluyse that has taken many different turns of documentation but whose final installation is on Madeira Street and is quite frankly incredible considering its breadth and scope. Fore more information do visit http://rebuild.comforteconomyluxury.org/
Aiko‘s solo show at Andenken Gallery in Amsterdam opened last week. Here are a few photos of Aiko out on the streets of Amsterdam and in the gallery. You can check out more on Aiko’s blog. Also, Aiko released a print at Andenken called Save Our Souls, which comes in 3 colorways and goes for 150 euros each. Check those out here.
Photos courtesy of Andenken Gallery
Well, it’s been quite a week for me at least. Here’s what I wasn’t posting about while I was busy breaking up fights…
Photo by Delete08
Onethirty3‘s most recent exhibition – Herakut – opened it’s doors for one night only on Thursday. Both Hera and Akut had spent the week painting the space in Newcastle’s Hoults Yard which is fast becoming a hub for street art in the North East. The German duo’s work paid off, the walls looked incredible and a great night was had by all. The highlight for me was Akut’s photo realistic paintings which used the colours from the previous Paul Insect/Sickboy exhibition to enhance the work.
Photos by Ben
São Paulo’s Choque Cultural represents some of my favorite artists — whose work I don’t get to see often enough. Among them are Titi Freak and Daniel Melim. Here are some Titi Freak pieces I discovered on my recent visit to their space in Pinheiros:
Although I had to return to NYC before the opening of Daniel Melim’s solo exhibit, I did get to see some of his earlier pieces:
An exhibit of Daniel Melim’s newest body of work opens this afternoon and continues through August 26 :
