Posts

Posted on

JR’s InsideOut Project in Tunisia

Here are some pictures sent to us by JR for his latest project in Tunisia. In his true fashion, the photographer/street artist took pictures of residents around the country. Calling the project “Artocracy,” the outdoor works consist of one of the first organized street art exhibits in an Arab country. Posting the works in symbolic areas correlated with the revolution, JR received a lot of backlash from people in the area, but has managed to capture some beautiful portraits with six Tunisian photographers- Sophia Barakat, Rania Dourai, Wissal Dargueche, Aziz Tnani, Hichem Driss amd Hela Ammar.

Photos courtesy of InsideOut Project

Posted on

Kid Acne solo at Stolenspace next week

Rhythm is a Dancer is Kid Acne‘s latest solo show, opening next week at Stolenspace Gallery in London. The show will focus on Kid Acne’s art fag characters. While Neckface utilized the pun in a similar way earlier, Kid Acne has done some cool stuff with this series. Also, I think Neckface just did cartoons of “fags,” not “art fags.” Anyway, Kid Acne’s art fags are fun. It should be interesting to see them come indoors (especially since that’s what so-called “art fags” do, right? Bring their street art indoors and sell out?). Kid Acne definitely knows how to have a little laugh at himself, and I like that.

The show opens on the evening of March 31st and runs through April 24th. Check it out.

Photo courtesy of Stolenspace Gallery

Posted on

Faust, Fairey, Katsu and Skullphone at Mallick Williams

New York is (slowly) recovering from what one could call its monochromatic season. So as much as I’m ready for all the black and white and grey to be over with, I still ended up catching Mallick Williams‘ grayscale show Hueless a couple days ago before it closes on April 13th. Turns out, in some cases, lack of color isn’t so bad.

Opening just over a month ago, Hueless is a “monochromatic exhibition” with some paradoxical diversity. It’s got black and white and grey, but also silver, cream, brown-black and pretty much every non-pigmented hue in between. With work from Shephard Fairey, Faust, Katsu, Skullphone, and others, the work under color-constraints was (thankfully) more unified than most group shows, and showed off medium/form (there was sculpture, a neon sign, screenprint, paper cut and painting) and content in color’s absence.

There was a requisite Andre the Giant (not for sale, just for show), but the other two pieces from Fairey were among my favorites.

Fairey's "Glass Houses" and "Rise Above Control."
Katsu's "Self Portrait."

Also enjoyed Skullphone’s “Here’s Your Nightmare.” It’s enamel on aluminum, but in person looked sort of like a micro, non-electronic version of his billboards.

Skullphone's piece, photo via Arrested Motion.
"I Want to Go Home" by Distort.
"Tree" paper cut by Nathan Pickett.

Hueless runs through  April 13th, and the gallery opens the color-themed group show Spectrum on April 21st, with pieces from Word to Mother, Erik Otto, and others.

Skullphone photo by Arrested Motion, other photos by Frances Corry.

Posted on

Kid Acne’s art fag: giant street art + a new white wall

Kid Acne recently painted the above giant “art fag” in Sheffield, UK. Check out the tiny Kid Acne standing above it. Sven at Arrested Motion says that the mural can be seen for miles around. What I’m wondering is how long the mural will last. After all, most of the mural is a giant white wall, perfect for some fresh graffiti. I don’t want to encourage that to happen. I like the mural. I just think the site looks too tempting for certain writers to ignore. I just hope that Kid Acne is well respected in Sheffield.

Photos by Sven/A Million Pieces for Arrested Motion

Posted on

Katsu’s next-level ad disruptions

Photo by Luna Park

Katsu seems to be continuing and innovating on the project that he started last year with AVONE to promote a show: He is taking over phone booth advertisements with graffiti which is very obviously an advertisement. It’s not a new insight that graffiti is advertising, and this certainly isn’t the first advertising takeover by graffiti writer (Kaws, Barry McGee/Twist, Retna, Augor, and so others…), but I think there is something cool about these advertisements that I haven’t seen very often before: most of these advertising takeovers make it look like Katsu and the brand are working together. Now, of course, Kaws was famous for doing just this same thing. The difference with Katsu is that Kaws took actually advertisements and modified them while Katsu is concocting the entire ads in his studio. He’s associating his identity with cultural icons like Kurt Cobain and brands like Nike, but those brands and icons weren’t even advertising in these places to start with (at least not with these particular ads). It’s a great technique for getting noticed. I’ve similar things before, but I don’t think they were by as high-profile writers at Katsu, and, for better or worse, his name adds some legitimacy to the idea, which is kind of ironic given the idea. Plus these are better executed than any similar things I can remember, and that definitely counts too. Also, a bit of a surprise to me, Jordan Seiler likes these things. Anyway, enough of my rambling, here are more examples of these ads:

Photo by Luna Park
Photo by Luna Park
Photo by Sabeth718

Check out more at The Street Spot.

Photos by Luna Park and Sabeth718

Posted on

Today’s Special – Skewville Flavor

Skewville’s first solo show in London, entitled Slow Your Roll, opened at High Roller Society on Friday 18th March. Setting out to reclaim the gallery in much the same way as the streets, the show is not only an exhibition of Skewville’s unique style, but is a fantastic experience and example of what can be achieved when street art meets a gallery setting. This is certainly my favourite show High Roller have hosted and is one that should certainly not be missed.  Here are some pictures of the opening night…

YO YO. Photo by S.Butterfly
No Sponsor. Photo by SeveredFrequencies
Slow your roll. Photo by SeveredFrequencies
Hype. Photo by ClutterGeoff
Today's Special, Brooklyn Flavor. Photo by ClutterGeoff
Hopes and Dreams. Photo by S.Butterfly
Love or Envy. Photo by S.Butterfly
Slow that beat. Photo by SeveredFrequencies

And before Ad left London he wrote a little message for RJ, who states that Skewville are “his second favourite street art twin duo” with Os Gemeos taking the cake in that category…

Yo Yo Yo... Suck it RJ! Photo by Shower

However after this show, Skewville take the biscuit for me… Suck it RJ!

For all those that could not make the opening night, Slow Your Roll runs until 24th April at High Roller Society.

Photos by Butterfly, ClutterGeoff, SeveredFrequencies and Shower

Posted on

Remix: Martha Cooper and friends at Carmichael Gallery

Martha Cooper is one of graffiti’s most influential photographers, particularly for being half of the duo (the other half being Henry Chalfant) who photographed and wrote Subway Art back in the 1980’s. For many street artists and graffiti writers, Martha is a large part of how they got started not just painting outside, but with art in general. Martha Cooper: Remix is the next show at Carmichael Gallery, and I just love the idea – Some of street art and graffiti’s greats from the 1980’s through today have reinterpreted Martha’s photographs in their own style and Remix will show the original photos alongside these reinterpretations. Remix opens April 9th and runs through May 7th, so it is timed to coincide with MOCA’s Art in the Streets show, which Martha Cooper is also included in.

Artists in Remix include Aeon, John Ahearn, Aiko, Bio, Nicer & B-Gee, Blade, Blanco, Mark Bode, Burning Candy, Victor Castillo, Cey, Cekis, Claw, Cosbe, Crash, Dabs & Myla, Anton van Dalen, Daze, Dearraindrop, Jane Dickson, Dr. Revolt, Shepard Fairey, Faust, Flying Fortress, Freedom, Fumakaka, Futura, Gaia, Grotesk, Logan Hicks, How & Nosm, LA II, Lady Pink, Anthony Lister, The London Police, Mare 139, Barry McGee, Nazza Stencil, Nunca, José Parlá, Quik, Lee Quinones, Kenny Scharf, Sharp, Skewville, Chris Stain, Subway Art History, Swoon, T-Kid, and Terror161. So yeah, this should be interesting.

With most other photographers, I might quickly right this idea off as gimmicky and I think artists might half-ass it, but there is so much respect for Martha Cooper, the line up is so strong (and varied) and the photos are so interesting that I think this has to be a success.

All the LA galleries are really pulling out all the stops for this April and Carmichael Gallery is no exception.

Photo courtesy of Carmichael Gallery

Posted on

The Reader – read it

A couple of months ago, I posted about The Reader, a book by Reader. Reader is one of my favorite writers, and also one of the most reclusive writers. Not that I would know exactly how reclusive, I’ve never met the guy. But that’s the rumor, and before this, I’d never heard of him doing a book or a zine or print or original artwork for indoors or anything like that. So when The Reader came out, I immediately picked up a copy. While I could tell from some photos online that this would not be your typical graffiti book, I had no idea how far removed it would be from Subway Art and the like. The Reader has just one photo of Reader’s graffiti. Instead, it is full of collages and stickers.

A mix of (I think) his own words and appropriated texts, The Reader sets out a unique worldview. If Reader is a modern hermit, The Reader is his manifesto. While I can’t say I agree with everything in The Reader, I loved reading the book and found it hard to put down. This isn’t an art book, although it is definitely a work of art. The Reader is a crash-course in a certain philosophy.

The Reader is available online for $18. Also, since the book came out, Reader has also released what I think is his first screenprint.

Photos by Operation Madman

Posted on

Some New Sol25

Shot by Jaime Rojo

After a little hibernation, the streets of New York are thawing with the welcoming rays of Sol25. These peculiar figures bring a sense of humor and excitement to a scene that has truly waned over the past couple of years. So thank you mr Sol for keeping the dream alive, albeit while staying within the comfort of Williamsburg. More photos from BSA after the jump.

Shot by Jaime Rojo

Continue reading “Some New Sol25”