This is the latest in Elfo‘s contextual faces series. I really enjoy these because they are simple, but they provide so much joy. People who see this work, whether they are aged 2 or 92, can appreciate a simple face in an unexpected place. And of course, the location of this face is perfect.
Photo by Elfo
Yesterday, Vandalog was infected with some sort of malicious code. If you visited this site on a PC and were redirected to a “virus scanner,” that’s what the code did. From what I understand, if you didn’t actually install the fake virus scanner, your computer won’t have been infected. Nonetheless, I’m very sorry if anybody was effected by this attack. Anybody else who runs a WordPress blog should read this article to make sure their their site is not attacked as well. Sounds like this malicious code has been inserted into WordPress blogs on a massive scale this past week. Luckily, removing the code from Vandalog was a relatively quick solution, so now the site should be free of viruses and malicious code. Again, I’m sorry if this caused anybody any problems, and if it did, please let me know.
…was installed by Eilidh Short.
The piece, titled Blue Plaque is a project organized by Dirty Square Gallery, the group that organizes artists to put work in that wooden frame on the left-hand side of the photo.
The plaque is a parody of the plaques installed throughout London by English Heritage.
Photo courtesy of Dirty Square Gallery
Gallery Heist is pleased to present The Reinvention of Nature, the San Francisco debut exhibition for Brooklyn/Baltimore based street artist GAIA. The Reinvention of Nature – Opening reception: Saturday, May 15, 2010, 7-11pm MAY 15 – MAY 31, 2010 Gaia is a Brooklyn and Baltimore based street artist with a background in Printmaking and Sculpture. He is currently enrolled in his final year at MICA (Maryland Institute of Art) with a major in interdisciplinary sculpture. At the age of 21 Gaia has built an impressive resume having exhibited in art fairs and galleries through out Brooklyn, London, D.C, Miami and Los Angeles. His work has appeared along side street art contemporary geniuses such as Blek Le Rat, Shepard Farey, Swoon, Matt Small, D*face, Sweettoof, Brian Adam Douglas, Lucas Price, Nick Walker, Slinkachu, Imminent Disaster, EVOL, Pisa 73, Oliver Vernon, and Dalek just to name a few.
Marrying the animal and the human form, Gaia conjures mysterious figures that carry a heavy sense of mythology and recall a past when man and nature were once united. These romantic creatures stand in relief to the urban environment as they lurk and beckon in the city’s forgotten and neglected spaces. The conveyance of their story relies on the chance coincidence with a passerby, and even in that intimate moment, their narrative is precarious and delicate. Gaia works with linocut prints and painted images applied to paper and then mounted as paste ups on the street or on panels for finished works.
ABOUT THE GALLERY Art is an extension of our culture and our communities and in many ways art defines our times. Art is not a luxury it is a necessity. My mission is to foster innovative artistic expression and provide sanctuary for the creative process while stressing the importance of it. The walls of Heist will house work that is representational to this generation offering a contemporary program of artists who challenge and analyze our social and cultural responsibility, traditions, and behaviors; artists who are on the forefront of a conscious art movement. To encourage and support this conscious art movement, I have opened Heist and hope that you will choose to be a part of it. Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12:00-8:00pm Mondays by appointment. Gallery Heist is located at 679 Geary Street near the corner of Leavenworth, southeast of the intersection.
This should be an interesting show. Mighty Tanaka presents Babel Code: Osmotic Transmissions, a two-man show with AVOID pi and infinity. Babel Code opens May 21st.
As Brooklyn Street Art notes, AVOID and infinity are two smart guys. For me, a lot of the art AVOID pi and infinity make for galleries seems like it could, at first glance, be something drawn in a bored high school student’s notebooks during class, but the end result is much more considered and meaningful. It’s always seemed to me that there is much more going on in their artwork than what I can figure out, and that is part of while I enjoy it so much (kind of like this guy, but he’s even more out there).
The press release:
Thought provoking Street Artists AVOID pi & infinity team up for their first duo show together entitled Babel Code. Peering through a semiotic Petri dish intermixed with sub-conscious communication, Babel Code uses primitive and mystical sources as well as runic references, which charges the works of art with a power and energy beyond the objects themselves.
Babel Code challenges the viewer to reconsider the basic notions of communication and cultural mutation, while providing a closer look into the artist’s own techniques of non-verbal interactions. Building upon a symbolic language shared by both artists, their influences range from a resonance of mixed signals and errant transmissions.
Their symbolism ranges from introverted Platonic deliberation and chemical structures to numerology and DNA; anything and everything from hobo marks and astronomy to grammar diagrams and physics equations.
Here’s some of the artwork for the show:
And here’s a collaborative piece with both infinity and AVOID pi:
And lastly, AVOID pi has made this video teaser:
Last week I mentioned that Swoon’s first monograph has been published in the states. On Saturday May 8th, she’ll be signing copies of her new book at Urban Art Projects in New York. She’ll be there from 6-9pm.
Via Arrested Motion
Last month, Roa spent some time in London for his solo show at Pure Evil Gallery in London where he put on a killer show and painted outdoors almost every day. Now he’s in New York City for a solo show at Factory Fresh and it looks like he’s going to try and do it all again for a new audience. Definitely not one to miss.
Brooklyn Street Art have already been out to photograph Roa as he paints, so they’ve got photos of that as well as a two–part interview with him on their blog.
The press release for the show:
ROA: A Solo Exhibition
Opening Reception May 14th, 7-10pm
This May, Factory Fresh goes wild as it opens its doors to the zoetic art of Belgium-born artist ROA. The artist’s organic animal forms, huge in both their reputation and impact, will grace the walls of the gallery, reminding spectators of the forgotten natural world beneath the city’s streets.
Through his large-scale installations of very wild wild-life on the industrial canvas of the city, ROA produces a juxtaposition of the overtly natural against the mechanic that is both feral and nostalgic, a reminiscence of what the world used to be before cement and concrete. ROA is famous for his large black and white works that depict both the outer and inner appearance of rodents, bulls, roaches et al, who slumber on garage doors and cement blocks, copulate in abandoned alleyways and decay on brick walls. His work is sprawling and uncontainable, and will be filling Factory Fresh as such, barely pinned down to found materials, clustering in our corners and escaping out into our surrounding streets.
ROA began pulling animals out of the depths of the industrial world in his hometown of Ghent, Belgium, where he explored the area around his home and was inspired by the life that lurked in its lonely smokestacks. His resulting work snarls at you from wherever it prowls, awaking a visceral reaction that comes from seeing something familiar yet unknown, an uncanny portrayal of the animals within and around ourselves that our contemporary lifestyles have made null.
Since his Belgium beginnings, ROA’s work has hit the ground running like the animals he depicts, scattering on four legs all over major cities, showing up on the walls of galleries and abandoned factories alike. His work has been shown in London, Berlin, Warsaw, and sold out in two days in Paris. He now returns to New York, arriving at a very different kind of factory than the industrial wastelands his animals are known to inhabit, ROA’s show at Factory Fresh promises to be untamed and animated as his pieces.
On view till May 30th.
Gallery hours Wednesday thru Sunday 1-7pm
Tonight was the last screening (for now) of Dots, Burning Candy’s film-in-progress. It’s a project I’ve quite enjoyed being involved with, so I’m happy to say that some of the paintings we had on display at those screenings will move right over to High Roller Society for their upcoming show Candy Shop (which Gold Peg has designed the flyer for). And the Dots box set of prints will be at HRS too.
The press release:
Ignoring the limitations and expectations of the graffiti art scene, London based Burning Candy have made a name for themselves as being amongst the most prolific and creative street artists in the UK. As individuals they are some of the biggest names both on the street and in the galleries that exhibit their work. However it is their collaborative work producing epic genre-defying murals that has cemented them as an unstoppable powerhouse. To coincide with DOTS, a Burning-Candy-film-in-the-making, High Roller Society proudly presents CANDY SHOP, an exhibition of selected works by each of the crew’s 9 core members: CEPT, CYCLOPS, DSCREET, GOLD PEG, LL BRAINWASHED, MIGHTY MO, ROWDY, SWEET TOOF, and TEK 33. The exhibition, which runs from 8 May – 22 May, showcases the chaotic harmony of Burning Candy’s street-inspired individual works in a kaleidoscope of crazy colours, mediums, and styles.
Over the past four years, the prolific Burning Candy crew came together naturally through shared ideals of what they each wanted to achieve as artists, both in the studio and on the street. They all believe in big colourful graffiti that challenges passers-by in a positive way, and that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Think one-eyed King Kong-sized monkeys with gnashing gums and clothes pegs for teeth, clenching a half-crocodile, half-owl in one hand, and a slimy pink super-brain being speared by a pitch-fork in the other, looming over trendy Londonistas as they skip to their day jobs and prowl the pubs. With a passion and obsession for graffiti at their core, Burning Candy’s ingeniously collaborative street creatures have both fueled and furthered their individual studio work, where the usage of endless mediums has caused an oddly desirable thirst for more in their extensive following.
As a very loose synopsis, Dots will prompt the crew members to exceed even their own expectations and produce a work that is bigger and more inspired than anything they have done before. To achieve this, the film will follow each of the artists as they visit a place that offers inspiration to their artistic style, taking both Burning Candy and the viewer on a journey around-the-world as they learn more about where their art has originated, explore it’s importance in their lives and discover how they can take their ideas further.
To help raise funds and make Dots a reality, Burning Candy has put together a limited edition set of 9 screenprints, one print from each member of the crew. The prints, which are 2-colors, A5 sized, and an edition of just 150, are each beautifully presented in a bespoke hand-screenprinted box. But, these prints aren’t only artwork; anyone who buys a box set will also own the rights to 0.05% of the film’s revenues for the next 10 years. High Roller Society will have a limited amount of Burning Candy Box Sets available to purchase. A percentage of the proceeds from both the box sets and the crew’s art works will go toward the film, as well as to a member of Burning Candy who has recently fell upon difficult times. CANDY SHOP opens on 7 May to anyone and everyone willing to sink their teeth into Burning Candy’s deliciously twisted treats.
Sometimes the art world is full of good news and smart people. Not today.
The OBEY team has been quite busy in New York City over the last few weeks. And it doesn’t look like they’ve kept to legal murals.
Photo by Jake Dobkin
