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Armsrock in Egypt

Armsrock was in Cairo, Egypt recently for a Streets of Cairo festival. Naturally, he did some work outside, mostly more events in his continuing series of projecting drawings onto city walls.

Armsrock also put up at least one wheatpaste in Cairo. With permission, he pasted one image of an Egyptian man outside of Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery:

But by the next day, Egyptian police had seen the artwork and decided that they didn’t like it. The police painted the figure white:

Armsrock’s reaction? Not what you might have expected:

When I interact with the streets I want something to happen, some sort of situation should occur, and it always does. I have only never experienced such a direct form of censorship before, and expressed in such an interesting manner, and that was what I thought was a good thing.

You can read more about what Armsrock thought of the censorship at The Daily News Egypt and his blog.

Photos by Armsrock

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New Work in New York

A couple new things have been popping up as of late. Overunder is back in town, along with a couple new lovely pieces from Swoon alongside some fresh Imminent Disaster up in the mix. Mint and Serf have been engaged in a campaign to reset some street spots in an effort to challenge people to “just put better work out there.” Whatever that means, I was not spared from the apparent critique.

Via LunaPark and Rebecca Fuller

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Street/Studio book comes to UK

Looks like Everfresh aren’t the only Australians getting their street art into print. Street/Studio is a new book from some of Australia’s top street artists and street art experts. Alison Young works at the University of Melbourne and occasionally posts here on Vandalog, Miso and Ghostpatrol are Australian street artists and Timba publishes Wooden Toy Quarterly. Street/Studio has its UK launch next Thursday (July 8th) at Black Rat Projects.

Their flyer has all the rest of the info you should need:

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Anthony Lister – The Beauty of Failure

Toronto’s Show & Tell Gallery has something big planned for next week: Anthony Lister’s latest solo show, The Beauty of Failure. A lot of artists paint superheroes. Most of the time, I don’t care for those artists. Lister is one of my exceptions. He doesn’t just paint, he actually knows how to paint, something which is surprisingly rare.

The gallery says:

The Beauty of Failure is a unique look at the reward and punishment systems, and more specifically when the two overlap.The paintings and sculptures in this show demonstrate a tounge in cheek look at contemporary pop culture through Anthony‘s signature artistic style.

Lister has been doing sculptures for a couple of years now. I think the first one was made for his 2008 show at Elms Lesters in London. These new sculptures are completely different though, and you probably won’t immediately recognize them as being made by Lister. Here’s one:

The Beauty of Failure opens July 9th at the Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto, and the show runs through August 8th.

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Kidrobot Customised Munny Contest

I love vinyl toys just as much as the next guy.  No, I do not care about collecting these figures, but rather, I love the detailed work that some of my favorite artists display on these mass produced creatures.  What really fascinates me is the fact that each figurine takes on a life of its own, even though they all embody the shame structure and shape.  Amazing.

This month, kidrobot, one of the leading vinyl toy manufacturers, launched a contest for people around the globe to submit their own customised  Munny.  The winner’s toy will be created and sold in stores.  The best part is that we get to view all of the entries and vote for our favorite.  Personally, I enjoy the Munny’s that still retain the original shape.  When they are altered too much, they do not not even look like the same toy.  Is that not the point in the first place?

I know Vandalog does not usually cover toys, but I had to share with everyone some of my favorites.  Go here to see all of the entries and vote for your own.

Oliy Spill
Kinder Surprise
Swiss Miss

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Banksy hits Glastonbury

No official confirmation yet on Banksy’s website, but this sure does look like his work. It appeared at Glastonbury, where Banksy has worked a few times before.

I know there are a lot of people out there who are fed up with all the Banksy-hype and craziness out there. I am too. But after spending just a few weeks not thinking about Banksy at all (besides this post), I’ve gone back and looked at this website. He’s actually kind of clever. With Banksy being so active outdoors lately to promote Exit Through The Gift Shop, some people, myself included, were just sick of him. For me at least, I’ve discovered that I wasn’t so much sick of his work, just the hype. The work on it’s own, that’s as strong as ever. Don’t believe me? Have a look.

Photo by al_green

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Brush Strokes – Lydia Fong and Todd James at V1 Gallery

Next Friday in Copenhagen, V1 Gallery will be opening a two-person show with Lydia Fong (aka Twist/Barry Mcgee) and Todd James (aka Reas). Brush Strokes – An Artistic Exchange Between Todd James and Lydia Fong will be the first collaboration between Lydia Fong and Todd James since the Beautiful Losers show (although McGee and James are currently both in a group show right now at The Hole in NYC). These two artists are probably two of the best-respected and most-successful artists to come out of the graffiti movement since Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, so I can’t wait to see what they are going to do for this show. This is definitely going to be something special. Additionally, Brusk Strokes takes place at V1 Gallery, which has a history of amazing shows, which just makes me even more interested in the possibilities.

Brush Strokes opens July 9th (from 5-10pm, come hungry because there will be a grill outside) and runs through August 4th.

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The Everfresh book

Everfresh (the Melbourne graffiti/street art crew with Sync, Phibs, Reka, Rone, Wonderlust, Prizm, Meggs, Makatron and The Tooth) have put together a book. EVERFRESH: BLACKBOOK is meant to give readers a look inside the Everfresh studio.

To be honest, I don’t know much about that artists in Everfresh. I’ve seen work from Meggs from time to time, but that’s about it (except of course, the work I’ve now seen while researching this post). But that’s not because they aren’t a talented group of artists. It’s because, even with the internet, Australian street art still feels, at least to me, cut off from the rest of the world. Anthony Lister found success when he moved to New York. Charlie Isoe had to move to Berlin. It’s weird. You would think that Flickr and ekosystem and everything else would change things, but the internet hasn’t done as much as you would expect for street art in Australia. That said, the people I know who know Australian street art say that the artists in Everfresh are a big part of what makes Melbourne one of the world capitals of street art. The chance to discover of a whole new group of talented artists is a big part of why I’m excited about this book.

EVERFRESH: BLACKBOOK isn’t going to be in stores until September, but you can pre-order the special edition hardcover book starting today. The hardcover edition is limited to 500 copies and available for $80.00 on Everfresh’s website. That edition also comes with a hand-finished cover, a print and a photographic print.

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Gallery 1988 Presents “Crazy 4 Cult: The Case of the Redundant Number”

For the fourth year in a row, Los Angeles based Gallery 1988 will host “Crazy 4 Cult,” an exhibition of 100 artists displaying their interpretations of notorious films and their characters.  A favorite show in the film capital of the world, some of the artists include Allison Sommers, Rich Pellegrino, and Glen Brogan putting their own creative aesthetic onto Hollywood movie magic.  Film art is steadily showing to be a popular asset made evident by the sale of Ron English’s Large Marilyn Red Peach at Phillips de Pury’s artful film auction, which sold for double the estimate at over $30,000.

“Crazy 4 Cult” runs from July 9-30.  The opening reception takes place July 9 from 7-10pm featuring hosts Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, New Jersey’s own cult filmmakers who directed some of my favorite indie comedies including Clerks, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob.  Fun Fact: I actually live a few minutes from The Quick Stop. Shout out to Leonardo.

Glen Brogan
Allsion Sommers
Rich Pellegrino

Photos courtesy of Gallery 1988