Especially after my post last month about graffiti moving onto the web, I’m loving Dead Drops, an effort to bring peer-to-peer file sharing offline and onto our city streets. Check out this video explaining the concept:
Dead Drops ‘How to’ – NYC from aram bartholl on Vimeo.
Via Animal NY
Graffiti Gone Global and Primary Flight have teamed up for Fresh Produce, a group show in Miami next month. I missed GGG’s exhibit last year, but I hear it was a highlight of Miami Basel week for those who saw it. Some of the artists I’m most looking forward to seeing at Fresh Produce include Skewville, Depoe, Escif, Stormie Mills and Revok, but with the long list of artists in this show, I doubt those 5 will be the only highlights. The SushiSamba sponsorship seems kind of random, but whatever. I’ll definitely be checking this show out.
Ronzo‘s second solo show at London’s StolenSpace Gallery, Crackney’s Finest, opens on Thursday evening, and Ronzo sent over a couple of photos of the show coming together…
The show is going to include paintings, collages, prints and sculptures. While my favorite artworks from Ronzo are his diorama paintings, I think most people’s favorites are probably the giant sculptures like these…
Crackney’s Finest opens at StolenSpace on Thursday and runs through November 28th, so get there quick.
Photos by Ronzo
WK Interact is in Mexico City right now working on a massive mural. The image above is just one cropped section of the 200 meter long design that WK will be installing on the General National Archives of Mexico City. The mural will be completed later this week and stay up through January 20th. Drago has more info.
Image courtesy of WK Interact
Overall, Street/Studio 2.0 at the Irvine Contemporary was a tremendous success with a lively turnout to both the panel discussion at the Phillips Collection and the subsequent gallery opening. Opening night was split between two locations, the main gallery space featuring Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Jose Parla, Rostarr, and Judith Supine and the Montserrat House a few blocks away on 9th and U with Chris Mendoza, Dalek, David Ellis and Gaia. It was incredible to spend time with artists who I have always looked up to and quietly watched from a distance. Photo Credit: Kenneth Pennington
Continue reading “Street/Studio 2.0 Opening Photos”
Inspired by Gaia’s recent series of posts, I thought I’d point out some more traditional contemporary artists are using the ideas of street art today. You Are Here is a collaborative group of artists who recently put this installation in the windows of an empty store in New York City. Although the work might be stronger without any signage, I imagine it’s still an interesting sight for anyone who walks by. According to the artists, “During the day, the windows just look like mirrors, but at night the fluorescent lights and 2 way mirrors create the illusion of deep light-filled hallways.” If you want to check it out in person, go to West Broadway and Grand Street in NYC.
Photos courtesy of the You Are Here Project
Art In the Streets is an upcoming book by Jeffrey Deitch, Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose. The book, available April 12th, coincides with Deitch’s street art exhibition coming to MOCA next spring (Rose and Gastman are involved in putting the show together). While this will probably be just another nice exhibition catalog once it’s published, the official does provide further insight into what the MOCA show will be about (emphasis added):
The first large-scale American museum exhibition to survey the colorful history of graffiti and street art movements internationally. Graffiti has been a form of public communication and identification since ancient times. In its contemporary manifestation, it has redefined the urban landscape and influenced generations of artists. This landmark exhibition traces the birth and dissemination of styles through “writers” and street artists around the world—including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Blu, Martha Cooper, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Futura, Phil Frost, Os Gêmeos, Keith Haring, Todd James (REAS), Margaret Kilgallen, Lady Pink, Barry McGee (Twist), Steve Powers (ESPO), Lee Quinones, Retna, Kenny Scharf, Swoon, and Ed Templeton, among many others—focusing on New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as international locations. Highlighting the connection between graffiti and street art and other vibrant subcultures, such as those that developed around Hip Hop in the Bronx and skateboarding in Southern California, Art in the Streets explores parallel movements in dance and music. A selection of new works created for the show is presented alongside the historical survey of approximately 30 of the most important artists seminal to the genre. The exhibition is curated by MoCA Director Jeffrey Deitch, working with a curatorial advisory committee that includes Charlie Ahearn, Roger Gastman, Carlo McCormick, and Aaron Rose.
It’s interesting to see the direction this exhibition is taking with the choice of artists, but a bit predictable as well:
People are going to give MOCA shit for this, but you know what… It’s probably gonna be a good exhibition. Obviously it’s not exactly the show that myself or anyone else would have put together, but Deitch and his curatorial committee have good taste. Of course there’s going to have been some financial ties to the artists they select. If that weren’t the case, the show would have been woefully incomplete. Deitch Projects and Alleged Gallery both worked with some of the best artists associated with street art and graffiti. I can hardly imagine a stronger team putting together Art In The Streets, and I hope that, when this opens, people can look past potential conflicts of interests and just appreciate the show on its own merits.
Photo courtesy of Rizzoli
The NYTimes recently had another article updating people on the aftermath of The Underbelly Project. Apparently, the NYC government doesn’t intend to paint over the work:
While the police are taking a hard line on keeping people away — “This is not an art gallery; this is completely illegal,” one officer said — the paintings in what the artists called the Underbelly Project are likely to live on. Subway officials said they had no plans to paint over the artwork, even if they sincerely hoped nobody ever got to see it again.
“We have no intention of disturbing the works,” said Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for New York City Transit.
Ms. Parker noted that the fiscally challenged transit agency would not want to devote resources to restoring a space almost entirely unseen by the riding public. “It’s in complete darkness and not really at all visible to anyone,” she said.
Of course, graffiti writers have already tagged over a good deal of the station…
Photo by RJ Rushmore
This show is opening and closing in just a few hours at NYC’s Showpaper 42nd St Gallery. For The Community Serviced, 24 artists and writers have decorated 12 newspaper boxes for Showpaper. Faro, Darkclouds, Coolcat, Cahbasm, Infinity and others have collaborated on these boxes, which, after the opening, will be places on the streets of New York to distribute issues of Showpaper. Probably the highlight of the evening will be that the legendary Cost has decorated a box. Wonder how long before these got stolen off the street…
Also, Charlie Ahearn from Wild Style will be there to provide music.
But The Community Serviced is only open at Showpaper 42nd St Gallery tonight from 7-10pm, so that may be your only chance to catch all these boxes in person.
Looks like Hargo will be doing two Cash For Your Warhol installations in Miami this year. He’ll also be putting up some new signs around Miami.
