A few weeks ago, KPBS, a San Diego public radio station, conducted a very insightful and intelligent interview with Shepard Fairey, JR and Pedro Alonzo (curator of Viva la Revolución at MCASD). At nearly 40 minutes long, it’s an interview that you really need to set some time aside for, but it’s still worth listening to or reading. Especially if you enjoyed Vandalog’s coverage of Viva la Revolución. Check out the interview on the KPBS website.
Via Juxtapoz
Photo by Hargo
And so it is, the only piece that has been buffed in DC since my recent visit in July has in fact been a permission wall. Due to complaints from local neighbors, the manager of Whole Foods circumvented the building owner and had the piece painted over. The result of which is a perfect reflection of the former Rooster figure and two hands in negative space. For the full description on the whole ordeal visit Worn Magazine http://www.wornmagazine.com/2010/08/gaia-painted-over/
One thing I’ve noticed through my lack of productivity as of late is that there are a ton of graffiti orientated films and documentaries out there. For the most part many of them are really great to watch and INFAMY is one such bi product of documenting the graffiti scene that really caught my attention. Whilst it may not be all that new to some of you, I was so impressed by the documentary I felt compelled to post something about it here.
INFAMY is an intense journey into the dangerous lives and obsessed minds of six of America’s most prolific graffiti artists. The movie takes you deep into the world of street legends SABER, TOOMER, JASE, CLAW, EARSNOT, and ENEM. With brutal honesty, humor and charisma, these artists reveal why they are so willing to risk everything to spray paint their cities with “tags,” “throwups,” and full-color murals. From the streets of the South Bronx to the solitude of a San Francisco tunnel, from high atop a Hollywood billboard to North Philadelphia for a lesson in “Philly-style tags,” from the Mexican border to a Cleveland train yard, INFAMY doesn’t analyze or glorify graffiti – it takes you there and brings it to life.
Check out the 10 minute clip above (The rest can be found on Youtube if you look hard enough!).
For more info visit Infamythemovie.com
I just stumbled across this piece by Cahbasmn and Swampy, two writers who I don’t mention enough of on Vandalog. Swampy is based on the West coast, while Cahbasmn is a new york graffiti staple. When I was in New York last month, I saw a bunch of brand new work from Swampy, who had just been in town. Probably my favorite photo ended up being this sticker that I saw with Luna Park.
Photo by Cahbasmn
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating just a little bit, but I’ve been following Moniker’s progress for a while now and it looks like they are going to put on quite a show.
The Moniker International Art Fair is, I suppose, the first UK art fair for street/low-brow/urban art (and probably the first major fair of its kind in the world, though that could be debated). The fair is going to take place in London during Frieze week this October, so it will be a competitor/satellite fair in the same vein as SCOPE or (in previous years) Zoo. In fact, Moniker will be taking place at Village Underground, just blocks from last year’s Zoo Fair and the location of the show I put together last November.
The galleries involved in Moniker are practically a best-of of international “urban art galleries:” Patricia Armocida (Ericailcane, Jim Houser, Os Gêmeos…), New Image Art (Date Farmers, Shepard Fairey, Judith Supine…), Circle Culture (Pho, Dtango, Stefan Strumbel…), Carmichael Gallery (Dan Witz, Aakash Nihalani, Mark Jenkins…), Campbarbossa (Herakut, Case, Faith47…) and Black Rat Projects (Swoon, Matt Small, D*Face…). In addition to gallery booths, Moniker will also feature artist project spaces from Herakut and Steve Powers aka ESPO. Another little side note, Babelgum will be hosting a pop-up cinema at the fair, so expect to see a few videos from RJ’s Street Art London.
I’m sure that I’ll be writing a lot more about Moniker in the coming months, but put it on your calendars now: Moniker runs October 14th-17th.
Via VNA
It’s a bit short notice, but here’s my recommendation for where Londoners should be this Thursday evening: The opening of Specter‘s first London solo show, which will be at Pure Evil Gallery. The gallery’s newsletter was pretty vague about what people should expect to see (there was no text, just some photos of Specter’s street art), but Specter is one of New York City’s more interesting and unique active street artists.
Pure Evil Gallery is the place in London for emerging street artists to try crazy things, and few street artists are as well-equipped or brave as Specter to experiment. Specter always seems to have a new series up his sleeve.
The only hint of what Specter might be up to are a couple of paintings by him on Pure Evil’s website that I haven’t seen before. They are portraits of Specter’s artistic influences, but they are abstract portraits of fabrics that remind Specter of those people. Here’s one titled ‘Derek Mehaffey’:
Photos courtesy of Pure Evil Gallery
This is sort of a different show for Signal Gallery. Beyond Punk will consist of artwork by punk musicians (plus Jamie Reid, Shepard Fairey and Dale Grimshaw). Personally, I’m most looking forward to Jamie Reid, Gee Vaucher and Shepard Fairey. Oh and I’m curious to see what Steve Ignorant comes up with. Crass were some of the early UK stencil artists, and they used their albums to help promote the making of political stencils, but (if I’m not mistaken) Gee and Steve weren’t as involved in making stencils as some of their other band mates.
Beyond Punk opens August 12th at Signal Gallery in London (yes the flier says it opens on the 13th, but the private view is on the 12th).
Photographer and street artist JR will be in Shanghai in October during the Shanghai Biennial for a project called Wrinkles of the City. I think this marks the first large-scale series of street pieces in this series. The photographs for Wrinkles of the City (some of which it seems have been used elsewhere indoors and outdoors for other projects) are all portraits of elderly people from cities around the world. In trademark JR style, those portraits are then blown up and wheatpasted in the cities where the photos were taken. JR says that in this series, the older generation represent the memory of a changing urban environment. Wrinkles of the City will take place in Shanghai from October 23rd through December 11th, with a gallery exhibition with Galerie Magda Danysz opening on October 26th.
Photo by F4BZ3F4B
Via Slamxhype
Seacreative, Pixelpancho and Eleuro just painted these three neighboring buildings in the Italian countryside. Seacreative’s piece in particular looks great. I’d seen a wall or two from Pixelpancho before, but I think this is the first time heard of Seacreative and Eleuro. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more walls from all three of them in the future.
Photos courtesy of Seacreative
Once again, Swoon has been using her art to help those in need. Swoon and the rest of the team with The Konbit Shelter Project (including Ben Wolf and Tod Seelie) are busy working in Haiti right now. They are building super-adobe structures in the village of Barrier Jeudi in an effort to help rebuild after January’s devastating earthquake. These super-adobe buildings are extremely cost-effective, stronger than the standard homes in Haiti and are built with locally sourced materials. Their website will certainly explain the details better than my paraphrasing, so check that out.
Photographer Tod Seelie is there documenting the project and the crew’s time in Haiti. Here are some of his photos:
The best way to keep up to date with The Konbit Shelter Project is their blog, where Tod has been posting updates as the building process progresses.
And one way to support the project is to purchase this print by Swoon:
The print is a 2-color screenprint on fabric measuring 19×26 inches. It’s an edition of 60 and is available for $350. What does PBS give you for a $350 donation? A tote bag and an umbrella? I’d take this print any day of the week.
Photos by Tod Seelie, from his blog and his flickr
