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Trains of Thought

Graffiti on trains has always been a controversial medium. It’s certainly one of the reasons why the movement became so popular with the train quickly becoming the medium of choice for the Graffiti Writer. It is something that has always been a vital part of the New York transit history and often spoken about by many of those who have had the experience to witness the works displayed on the subway system itself. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that Dirty Pilot’s current show, Trains of Thought, pays homage to those classic train cars NYC graffiti writers love.

It’s widely known that the vibrant New York City graffiti scene would not be what it is without the metropolis’ miles of train and subway tracks. The maze of pathways provided a moving billboard for writers to make themselves and their crews known. Trains of Thought has re- captured the true attitude of graffiti once again, by placing original art form on trains.

The project started when Dirty Pilot distributed an archival pigment print of a railcar out to some of their favorite and most infamous writers. Each artist then created an original artistic rendition of wherever their thoughts took them.

These train cars are beautifully adorned with mixed mediums and have been creatively hand embellished by the most talented New York Graffiti masters of yesterday and today.

See more at Dirty Pilot.com

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Roa does it again: the Factory Fresh show

Photo by C-Monster

It looks like Roa’s first solo show in America, at Factory Fresh in NYC, is going to be as successful has his recent shows in London and Paris. The show opened on Friday night, and the people I’ve spoken to have loved it. This is definitely an event to check out if you haven’t seen Roa’s artwork in person before.

Photo by Jacob Heftmann
Photo by C-Monster

In addition to works similar to what Roa has been producing for his other shows this year, he made one piece in a crazy new style: A lenticular. Roa first made a lenticular painting on Curtain Road in London last year, and it’s probably been one of his most popular pieces to date, but this is (to my knowledge) the first time he’s made a similar painting indoors.

Photo by C-Monster
Photo by Jacob Heftmann

Photos by Jacob Heftman (via Unurth) and C-Monster

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The “Free Poster Boy” group on Facebook

Poster Boy, more accurately Henry Matyjewicz who is one of the artists involved with the Poster Boy movement, was recently sentenced to 11-months in prison for a just few hundred dollars worth of “damages” (depending on your point of view) to ads on the New York subway system. Mark Batty Publisher, the publisher of Poster Boy’s upcoming book (can’t wait to get this in my hands), has started a Facebook group in support of Poster Boy. There are just a few hundred members of the group so far, but I’ve joined and I hope you will too.

This whole thing is absurd. Henry should not be in prison for making the world a less ad-filled cesspool, and even if he did damage a few ads and the advertisers think he needs to pay for that, 11-months is a vindictive and cruel sentence.

What really upsets me is that Poster Boy has clearly been targeted and is being made an example of solely because he modifies advertising. Poster Boy has done a great job of trying to stay anonymous, but the police crashed an art opening last year just to find him. And yet, much more public street artists like Mr. Brainwash and Swoon seem to avoid arrest without much difficulty. I’m not saying that they should be arrested, just that it’s clear that police specifically targeted Poster Boy. Maybe this is a stupid argument to be making. I dunno. At the very least, I think it’s fair to say that disbanding NYPD’s Vandal Squad and reassigning those police to investigating drug dealers would be a better use of taxpayer dollars. Anyway, that’s my rant about a crappy justice system.

Here’s a good quote from Poster Boy’s flickr:

“I don’t care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.”
-Che Guevara

Free Henry!
-Poster Boy

Once again, please join this Facebook group in support of Poster Boy and Henry.

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Os Gêmeos in Lisbon

Os Gêmeos (who by the way recently launched a website) have an exhibition at Museu Colecção Berardo in Lisbon opening on Monday May 17th. I’m sure it will be mindblowingly fantastic. Target posted this short video teaser for the show on his blog:

Target really has been the one with all the info about this show, so I’m sure he’ll also be the first with photos on Tuesday. Keep an eye on his blog for those updates.

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One day, we will yield to peace…

Check out this set of signs from Trustocorp:

On a related note, Trustocorp had a show at Brooklyn Brothers Gallery in NYC last month. It could have been disastrous. To be honest, I kind of expected it to be. Turns out, I was wrong. Looks like it wasn’t bad at all and Trustocorp didn’t just hang their street signs on a gallery’s white walls (though they did do some of that). Here’s one photo from the show:

(note the map of the locations where TrustoCorp signs appeared in NYC)

Photos by Trustocorp

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New Martha Cooper book: Name Tagging

Name Tagging, Martha Cooper’s latest book, launches on Saturday at the OBEY pop-up store in New York. This book is the result of nearly a decade of Cooper photographing tags on stickers around the world. I’ll definitely be getting a copy of Name Tagging. And the OBEY store closes for good on Sunday, so that’s another reason to stop by.