Last week, a new installation by Swoon appeared in the great hall of the New Orleans Museum of Art. NOMA has had a Banksy piece on display, but I think this is the first artwork that the museum has commissioned by a street artist. The installation is called Thalassa after the Greek goddess of the sea. Thalassa will be on display through September 25th. Check out more photos on Arrested Motion and flickr.
Photos by josh.brasted
We’re way late on this one, but Gabriel Specter had a show at Pawn Works Chicago last month. Here are a few of my favorite works from Repeat Offender. Check out the rest at the Pawn Works website.
Photos courtesy of Pawn Works Chicago
If you’ll notice that there were a good number of posts on Vandalog this week, you’ll notice the opposite thing next week. With family in town visiting and moving in with some friends and starting the couch-hopping segment of my summer in just a few days, things are rather busy. And so is the art world. Here’s what I have been reading this week:
Photo by Get.off.My.Spaceship!
Opening tonight from 6:30 – 9:30 at the new FB Gallery at 368 Broadway is Zéh Palito’s solo exhibit, Love Peace Unicorns. As the title suggests, the exhibit brims with whimsical fancy. We stopped by last night as Brazilian native Zéh Palito (Danilo Ricardo Silva) was completing an indoor mural of playful, colorful geometric figures and forms. We spoke to him briefly:
When did you first start getting up in the streets? About 11 years ago. I was 14 and hanging around with my cousin who was quite a tagger. He and the movie Beat Street were my inspirations. At first, I was just into getting my name up in the style of the pixadores. It seemed like the thing to do.
Have you had any formal art education? When I was 12 years old, my mother enrolled me in a special public school, where I studied oil painting for two years. I continued to study fine arts and then graphic design as an undergraduate.
Do you feel that your formal education helped you develop as an artist – an artist whose preferred canvas is the streets? I would say, “Yes.” Certainly the people I met while I was studying art did. One of my closest friends is a former art teacher.
Why have you chosen the streets as your primary canvas? I love sharing my art with others. I feel depressed when I can’t, and I feel happy when I see people responding with smiles to my work.
Where do you most like to paint? I love painting on the countryside. People are friendlier and more appreciative.
Besides Brazil, where else have you painted? I’ve painted in Chile, Bolivia and Peru. I spent six months as a volunteer in Zambia and painted there. I’ve also had a solo exhibit in Santiago, Chile.
How do you feel about bringing your art into a gallery setting? I’d rather paint in a public space, but showing in a gallery allows me to do that.
If you could paint with anyone, with whom would you choose to collaborate? Remed…he’s one of my favorite artists.
What is your most memorable experience as a street artist? I’d say painting in an orphanage in Zambia. The experience has motivated me to become more involved with international NGO’s in the years ahead.
How do you feel about NYC? I love it. I plan to be here for at least a few weeks. I’m looking forward to finding some outdoor spaces and collaborating with some of the local artists.
Photos by Lois Stavsky
Following in the footsteps of the fantastic VNA Magazine, comes Outside In, the product of an up and coming design graduate from Winchester University. Documenting street art, design and illustration, this non commercial art magazine is debuting today, Friday 17th, at 3pm British Summer Time!
Running as an edition of 155, with 55 special edition copies, the magazine boasts illustrative duo Static as its feature artist. Adding interviews and features with Miss Bugs, Lifestyles of the Poor & Unknown, Remi Rough, Dale ‘vn’ Marshall, Slinkachu and Ben Slow, I’m sure you will agree that for just £6* you can’t go wrong!
*Standard edition price… Or for all you big spenders, the two special box set deals offer you signed photos and hand finished prints by Static.
Check it out on the Oi website here. Personally I’m quite looking forward to seeing what Remi has to say and reading the feature on Slink.
Picture by Oi Magazine
Jeice2 is a student in Seville, and this piece was painted in Seville as a final project for the end of his 1st year at university. I love projects like Lollypop St because they add a bit of whimsy and wonder to the world and they just make people smile. Check out more photos here.
Photos courtesy of Jesús Cerezo
I’ve been waiting for awhile for a graffiti/street art anthology that features the work of two of my favorite artists: Native & ZenTwo. I’ve met up with them in Paris and have seen their work on city walls and on paper and on canvas in their working space in Belleville. I discovered ARABIC GRAFFITI (From Here to Fame Publishing, 2011) in MoMA’s bookshop yesterday, skimmed it, immediately read the section featuring Native and ZenTwo and just finished reading (not skimming!) the entire book. The astounding images generated by the fusion of Arabic calligraphy and Western graffiti first came to my attention via A1one’s tehranwalls.blogspot a number of years ago, and I’m disappointed that he, along with the other writers getting up in the streets of Tehran, are not included. I did, though, gain invaluable insights into the visuals and the rich social and political implications of the writings on the walls of such places as Bahrain, Beirut and Gaza.
All images courtesy From Here to Fame Publishing
Whilst this post is not necessarily street art based it does share the same premise, with regard to having the ability to change (and challenge) the urban environment outside of traditional top-down city planning policies. Plus I think it’s rather exciting and something that should be promoted in other cities, not just in New York…
Joining forces for New York City’s Urban Design Week 2011, The Institute for Urban Design and Project for Public Spaces have come together to propose By the City / For the City.
In essence the project is a traditional design competition, but with one significant difference – entrants are encouraged to define their own sites and the locations that they wish to change – which themselves have been outlined with over 500 suggestions from local New Yorkers.
Open to; architects, planners, artists, designers, and students from all around the world, no matter who you are, the aim is to create a dialogue between professional urban designers and the actual people who use the city spaces.
Entries will be measured by a panel of judges and will be evaluated on how they address Connectivity, Beauty, Enjoyment, Accessibility, and Equity in the city. Plus an extra incentive to get involved is that the 10 best entries will receive $500 prizes! And all entries will then being included in an “Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York” exhibited during the design week in September – bonus.
So all you creative people get involved and share an idea. But make sure your entries are in before July 14th 2011 as that’s when the applications process closes.
Check the By the City / For the City website for more information including maps, ideas, trends, and for instructions on how to enter.
Image information taken from urbandesignweek.org
Our friend Aric Kurzman just sent over these previously unpublished photos of work by graffiti legends Cost and Revs. The photos were taken in New York City around 1993. For me, few things can top these paste-ups, and I’m not sure what else there is to say.
PS, Cost still has some prints available at Papermonster. And so does Brooklynite Gallery.
Photos by Aric Kurzman / Primary Flight
El Tono has been traveling around a lot this year. Here’s some of what he has been up to in China, Poland and Vietnam…
For more photos and information about each of these trips, check out El Tono’s blog posts about China, Poland and Vietnam.
