Retna has a sick looking installation opening for one night only on July 29th in LA. Rivera & Rivera are saying goodbye to their current location in South Park by letting Retna paint the entire thing. This is definite something to see. Such a shame that the show is only on for one night. The gallery will be open on Thursday from 8-11pm. Remember to rsvp at by emailing rsvp@riveraandrivera.com.
Here are a few teaser shots:
Last week, C215 opened his latest solo show at Signal Gallery in London. Midnght Dreams is his second solo show at the gallery, and possibly third in London (Nolionsinengland seems to recall a solo show at Pure Evil Gallery). I’ve been a fan of C215 since seeing his art at Cans Festival, only months after I first got interested in street art, and an interview with C215 was one of the first things that I posted on Vandalog. In my house, we have a few pieces by C215. That said, Midnight Dreams isn’t at all what I was hoping for.
C215 has two primary styles that he cuts his stencils. The first, the one that I prefer, is what he does for 1-layer stencils. To oversimplify things, I guess you could say that the definition in those images comes from C215 cutting lines that look like cracks running throughout the piece. This style is the one that’s so heavily influenced by Artiste Ouvrier.
And then there are C215’s multi-layered and often more colorful images. These stencils look like the above and below images from Midnight Dreams. I just don’t like looking at these pieces nearly as much as the 1-layer stencils and the subject matter is less interesting to me as well.
My favorite pieces by C215 have always been those 1-layer pieces, maybe with a bit of color thrown into the background. C215’s street pieces tend to use those 1-layer stencils. That’s why, I’m loving these two pieces that C215 has put up in London recently:
You may also notice that the people C215 is making portraits of is different indoors and outdoors. To me, somebody who first found C215 from his street art, he will always be intimately connected with the streets. I tend to prefer C215’s paintings when the subject matter reflects his relationship to the streets. With Midnight Dreams, C215 has tried to distance his gallery art from his street art. It’s a move that a lot of street artists attempt and I think C215 has good reasons to separate the two worlds, but that just results in me becoming uninterested in his gallery art. I’m sorry to say that Midnight Dreams has disappointed me so much, but at least he’s still active outdoors and has been refreshing London with his artwork, since a lot of his work has been buffed since he last painted there.
So now that I’ve gone on dissing C215 for a few hundred words, I’d like to remind readers that there are other opinions out there. Nolionsinengland, one of the art bloggers and photographers that I most respect, enjoyed Midnight Dreams and has reviewed it on Graffoto (and he’s actually seen the show in person instead of just through jpegs).
Midnight Dreams runs through August 7th at London’s Signal Gallery.
Photos by Nolionsinengland and C215
This Friday, Barcelona’s Montana Gallery will be opening Escif‘s second solo show. In April, Escif was at Pictures on Walls for Around The Wall. Continuing on that theme, this new show is titled Against The Wall. His show at POW was a big hit, and I think we can expect more awesomeness from Escif this week in Barcelona.
Here’s a teaser of some of the work at Against The Wall:
One thing that surprised me at Around The Wall was Escif’s conceptual video art. Looks like there will be more of those videos in Barcelona, as he’s posted this video on YouTube as a teaser for Against The Wall:
Yesterday’s post about Brush Strokes, Lydia Fong (aka Barry McGee) and Todd James’ current show at V1 Gallery, was woefully incomplete. The originals at V1 aren’t all that these artists have gotten up to in Copenhagen. They also worked on a total of 6 lithographs at Edition Copenhagen. James has made three prints, McGee has made two and both artists have collaborated (along with McGee’s assistant Amaze) on one print. LaMJC has all the info on edition sizes as well as paper type and size (and it’s where we got these images). No official word on pricing, but it looks like those interested in purchasing one or more of these prints should contact Edition Copenhagen.
Via Slamxhype
PRISM, that crazy-awesome gallery in LA, has what might be their best show yet opening on Thursday. Come As You Are features work from artists like Clare Rojas, Os Gêmeos, Ed Templeton and Dennis Hopper. The New Image Art blog has some photos of two new Os Gêmeos artworks that will be in the show.
Il Baro tipped me off about Illegal Atelièr, an ongoing project at an abandoned factory in Italy. So far, the pictures coming out of this thing just look amazing. Some of my favorite artwork has been painted in abandoned spots just like this one. I’m not sure exactly how many artists are involved in Illegal Atelièr or what the timeline is for the project to be completed, but I’ll definitely be continuing to keep an eye out for more photos. Here’s a wall that Il Baro painted with a number of other artists:
It’s been quite a week for Eine, what with the prime minister giving President Obama one of Eine’s paintings as a gift, but Eine has taken that experience and put it right out on the street in this new collaboration with RYCA. Eine painted the words “The Strangest Week” and RYCA painted the phrase “Power Up.”
Besides looking great, this piece actually asks an interesting question of the art world. Eine and RYCA have literally used the same stencils, the same ideas, the same paint and the same spot to paint this piece. Ben Eine’s work gets publicized by major newspapers, and RYCA isn’t nearly as well known outside of the street art world. In fact, Eine’s involvement in this wall is probably why I’m writing about it. So yeah, the art world is kind of silly. But this also speaks to the beauty of street art when it’s outdoors. The thousands of people who will walk by this wall every day have no idea if those words were painted by me, Hackney Council, Eine and RYCA or maybe even Banksy; they just enjoy the message.
Photos by Unusualimage
Among the street and low-brow art communities, the Shred show on now at Perry Rubenstein Gallery is probably the most-talked-about exhibition currently on in New York. Shred is a show of collaged-based artwork which has been curated by Carlo McCormick. While Shred is by no means intended as a show about “street artists,” there are works by a number of street artists hanging alongside classic collage artists like Gee Vaucher. Perry Rubenstein Gallery is a major New York City gallery, and to my knowledge, this is the first time they have exhibited work in their gallery by the current generation of street artists (although there is a Faile solo show at the gallery later this year).
After speaking with a few people about this show, but not yet having seen it in the flesh myself, I was disappointed. Most of the people that I spoke with were of the general opinion that although the show might have one or two solid pieces, it wasn’t really worth stopping by and it was generally not as good as anyone had expected. Luckily, I didn’t listen to those friends and stopped by the gallery anyway while I was recently in New York. I can’t figure out what people were complaining about. The show has plenty of solid pieces along with some of the best work I have seen from Judith Supine and Shepard Fairey.
This piece by Judith Supine is one of my favorites that he has ever done (I always seem to say that when I see his work in the flesh, but he just keeps getting better). Unfortunately, this photo just doesn’t do the work justice. The varnish that Supine often coats his paintings with has been lapped on extra thick and reflective here and the green specks throughout the piece are actually fake nails embedded into the varnish. I’ve heard complaints that the work is too reflective, but I have to disagree. Besides, most any frame that the work’s owner might put on the piece would be reflective as well unless they decided to spend extra money on non-reflective glass. New Yorkers really need to go see this one in person. It’s a real beauty.
And Shepard Fairey’s piece is a retired stencil; in fact, it’s one of the best retired stencils I’ve seen from Fairey.
Shred marks the start of something new for Brian Adam Douglas (did you know that Vandalog recently interviewed Brian?), with his collages moving from portraits to a new narrative subject matter:
Finally, there is Swoon’s contribution to Shred. While I’m not really liking this new image that she’s been using recently (the man’s head looks like more of a caricature than her typical portraits which bring out the inner beauty of her subjects), the collaged details are what makes this piece so interesting. It’s definitely not a typical Swoon. For this work, Swoon has taken to doing Fairey-like collages of newspaper artists and tiny screenprints in the background of the work. Unfortunately, I don’t have an image that really shows these off well, but the small screenprinted designs towards the bottom of the work are stunning.
Shred runs at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York City through August 27th, and I urge you to go have a look in person.
Photos courtesy of the artists and Perry Rubenstein Gallery
A few weeks ago, Lydia Fong (aka Barry McGee) and Todd James opened their Brush Strokes show V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. Finally, I’ve gotten around to checking out images of the show and I feel like an idiot for waiting this long. Phluids has a great set of images from Brush Strokes on his flickr which McGee/James fans should check out, but here are a few of my favorite pieces:
Photos by Phluids
EuroTrash featuring Conor Harrington, Vhils, JR and Antony Micallef from ST Press on Vimeo.
For those of you that have been following our coverage of Lazarides latest show EuroTrash here on Vandalog, this newly released video (which is rather sweet might I add) captures all the action building up to the shows opening night and lets you see the stellar line up of artists inlcuding Vhils, JR, Antony Micallef and Conor Harrington at work. Worth a watch if like me you are unable to attend to show itself. Check it out!
You can also read our exclusive interview with one of EuroTrash’s featured artists Conor Harrington here
