While Brad Downey, one of my favorite street artists, was at BLK River recently, he tried an experiment in graffiti removal for an artwork called Searching for Something Concrete. While at first look it’s not my favorite piece from Brad, he always keeps things interesting and his art always seems to grow on me over a period of weeks. Here’s a video of the artwork:
Sten & Lex • Gaia at Brooklynite from Charles le Brigand on Vimeo.
So the preparation for the Saturday’s show with Sten and Lex has thus so far gone swimmingly with the outside murals almost completely finished and the inside show basically hung. Here is a sneak peak of the work that will be featured in the exhibition. For more information visit Brooklynite’s site.
Last week I posted some photos of what David Choe and DVS had painted in London for the Hell’s Half Acre show. Here’s some more from that recent London visit, one wall on Leake Street and another in the Old Vic Tunnels off of Leake Street:
David is interviewed in this next video, so of course it’s NSFW:
Hell’s Half Acre opened on Monday night and Graffoto has a review.
This week, Eelus and other street artists are off to Gambia to for Wide Open Walls, a street art project that Eelus has curated there. I can’t wait to see what they paint. The lineup is very exciting: Eelus, Logan Hicks, Broken Crow, Lucy McLachlan, Ben Eine, Xenz and Mysterious Al. The aims behind the project art pretty clever. Eelus and the rest of the Wide Open Walls artists are trying to increase tourism to Gambia with their artwork. Like how FAME Festival and Nuart have brought tourists to places they wouldn’t have otherwise visited, this project has the potential to bring money to an area that could really use it. You can learn more about Wide Open Walls here.
Originally, I had planned to interview Eelus about the project, but then Juxtapoz and Zeitgeist each interviewed him, so I figured I probably didn’t have much to ask that hadn’t already been asked.
Village Underground is where it’s at this week. The Shoreditch warehouse off of Great Eastern Street is host to Moniker Art Fair. Hookedblog has a much better description of the fair than what I could throw together right now, but the fair opens Thursday night and it’s going to be a highlight of the street art calendar in London this year. Big names from around the world have are taking part in this fair and there’s lots of great art to see and fun events planned (including some tours led by me on Friday afternoon at 11:30 and 1:30). I’m on my way out the door to go see how the set up is going today, but here are some photos that I took yesterday as things were getting set up:
Expect more photos tonight or tomorrow and hope to see people there on Thursday…
With the run-up to Frieze in London and everyone and their mother in town for events, there has been a bit of an explosion of art this week. So, I thought I would do a little round-up of pieces I have come across online since for the next few days all you will hear is “Oh my God! Hell’s Half Acre is Amazing!!” and “Moniker looks so cool!” Sometimes we need a break from that. Ok, well at least I do.
Oh come on, I had to post this one! It is one of my favorites of the new Banksy pieces. Plus, whoever made the Haring sculpture in response is awesome. It is a great addition unlike the graffiti next to it.
Aakash Nihalani has a solo show coming up at Bose Pacia Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Entitled Overlap, the show will feature new works by one of my favorite geometric artists. Including photography, paintings, sculpture and digital design, the November show brings Nihalani’s to another level inside a gallery space. Always coming up with new ways to evolve his art, this show will definitely be one to watch.
PS- Does anyone know what artist’s obsession with balloon animals are these days? Not that I’m complaining, but first Banksy, then this guy La Bouller and now Aakash. Anyone want to make me a life sized one?
Photo courtesy of Jim Kiernan for Aakash Nihalani
Ever since I lived in London two years ago during study abroad, I fell in love with countless street pieces that are sadly R.I.P. Yet, one of my favorite pieces still stands above the Village Underground in Shoreditch untouched and unscathed by vandals and the elements. Ronzo’s Crunchy the Credit Monster stands as a symbol of the recession overlooking the now gentrified Great Eastern Street, although to me, he still looks like a baby Reptar from the Rugrats (which is actually what I thought it was before I researched the piece). Recently, Ronzo and company released a video finally explaining the making of the adorable sculpture.
CRUNCHY – The Credit Crunch Monster from Ronzo on Vimeo.
On Friday, I was graciously given an early preview of Lazarides highly anticipated new show, Hell’s Half Acre. Taking place at the Old Vic Tunnels by Leake Street, the off-site display hosts new works from heavy hitters Conor Harrington, Vhils, George Osodi, Antony Micallef, Doug Foster, Todd James, Paul Insect, Mark Jenkins, Boogie, Ian Francis, Polly Morgan and Jonathan Yeo.
The team at Laz still had a lot of work to do before the private opening tomorrow, but from what I could tell, this is sure to be one of the most talked about shows for months to come. Loosely basing the concept off Dante’s The Inferno, the works themselves reek of death, destruction, fantasy, and myth. The dark and wet tunnels create an ambiance that not only makes viewers uncomfortable, but forces them to react to the art. I don’t want to give too much away, but all of the work is brand new and most of it was made specifically for the show, especially the large scale installation spaces. At every turn in the tunnel’s maze, there is something new to be discovered, attempting to shock and intrigue viewers.
Here are just some of the pictures I have as well as the Babelgum preview video that is circling the Internet like crazy this weekend.
Photos by Stephanie Keller
Recently I’ve been loving Isaac Cordal‘s Cement Eclipses series. These tiny little sculptures are just the sort of thing that embody what street art is about. Cordal’s sculptures are like little magical gifts to the public that some people will see and love but so many more will ignore. I’m in London right now, which is where he’s been putting these sculptures up, so I’ll be on the look out for some.
Photos by unusualimage and Isaac Cordal
