The backend of the Vandalog site is going really screwy. So this is all I can manage to post today. Hopefully this issue will be fixed soon. If anyone knows a lot about WordPress, your help would be appreciated. Just email me (rj -at- vandalog.com).
Roa at Gallerie Itinerrance in Paris
Thursday evening was the opening of Roa‘s very first solo show. It took place at Gallerie Itinerrance in Paris and was, by all accounts, a massive success. In fact, after seeing these photos, I emailed the gallery for a price list only to find out that everything except Roa’s sketches and photographs had already sold! Pretty good for his first show. I’m a big fan of Roa’s artwork indoors and outdoors, so it’s great to finally see him getting the attention he deserves. Not only did Roa produce some great pieces on found wood and metal for this show, but he sprayed a number of his trademark animals onto the gallery’s walls. The man just does not stop painting, no doubt he’s out making something beautiful for Paris right now.
It might not be the most innovative thing in the world to paint on found metal and whatnot, but I still love it. And the painting below is pretty much what everybody who likes Roa wants in their house: a life sized Roa figure exactly like you might find on the street. Hopefully it actually ends up on somebody’s wall instead of their storage facility.
Continuing in the same vein as his piece in The Thousands, most of Roa’s work in Paris transforms somehow.
With this particular painting, you can flip the whole thing around, or just sections of it. It really adds a layer of interactivity to the piece, something not often seen in a painting.
And this last piece might just be my favorite in the whole show:
The element of death that you can find in a lot of Roa’s work might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but this piece looks to me more like a living bird going through an MRI or something than a dead one getting cut up, and like his sketches, shows that Roa doesn’t need a spray-can to paint something that looks nice.
So yeah, Roa is awesome, and I can’t wait for his next visit to London. What do you think?
Photos by Vitostreet (more on his blog) and Guillotine
12-year-old arrested in NYC for doodles on desk
Animal New York reports “A 12-year-old girl from Queens was led out of her school in handcuffs after she was caught doodling on her desk with an erasable marker on Monday. Alexa Gonzalez wrote, “I love my friends Abby and Faith,” and even had the gall to add a menacing smiley face.” For a time, she was even suspended from school and sentenced to community service in family court, even though a spokesperson for the city’s school admitted that the situation was handled badly. By Friday, the school had decided to end her suspension which had begun earlier that week. It seems as though she will still have to do her community service though as well as write an essay about what she learned from being arrested. You know what I learned? Her assistant principal isn’t the sharpest crayon in the box.
Via Animal New York and New York Daily News
Blade, Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant video
Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper took the photos for the legendary graffiti book Subway Art, and Blade is one of the writers featured in the book. I think these interviews with them were filmed at a show that the three of them were involved with earlier this year in Paris. It’s a cool video if you love classic graffiti (and Wu-Tang Clan’s music).
Via Senses Lost
Ludo’s insects
It’s been a long time since I’ve mentioned what Ludo has been up to. It seems like the latest pieces in his “Nature’s Revenge” project are some of his best yet.
Check out more on Ludo’s flickr
Prefab77 APs available at The BLDG
Fans of Prefab77 are in luck as The BLDG has just released 7 hand-finished AP screenprints by Prefab77 on their website. The BLDG is one of my favorite screen print studios, releasing affordable quality screen prints from a variety of artists. Prefab77’s APs are available here.
Xenz to show in Sydney
UK graffiti legend Xenz has a solo show coming up in Sydney next month:
For the first time in the Sydney CBD, the Bicker Gallery will be presenting Wonderlust, a ‘pop up’ art show by prominent UK artist Xenz, from 11-27 March, 2010.
Wonderlust, the first of such ‘pop up’ exhibitions to be featured in Sydney, is the work of British artist, Xenz aka Graeme Brusby, who began painting graffiti in the 80s in the derelict warehouses of Hull in Yorkshire England. His career spans two decades, one of which was spent in Bristol working with TCF crew amongst many of the street art scenes finest creative minds.
His latest studio works include a series of paintings that explore an enchanted forest in search of mythical birds. Inspired by the watercolours of John Gould, who did some of the first illustrations of the birds of New Guinea and Australia, which later became known as the ‘Birds of Paradise’.
Xenz explains, ‘I’m fascinated by birds and as a child I’d look at encyclopedias and bird books and imagine myself in the pictures, this was a time before we had the internet. wonderlust is a perfect way to describe these works that try to capture the ethereal, via birds and their mating habits’.
Xenz demonstrates an almost eidetic ability, so extraordinary is the cohesion between his mind, memory and spray can. His innovations in the study of spray can art allow this influential artist to walk up to a wall or canvas and paint an epic landscape from his imagination tagging a wall with a simple line with parrots on it has become his trade mark. Since 2007 he has been living and working in his art studio in east London and his impressionist bohemian style has earned him the reputation of the ‘Monet of graffiti’ amongst his peers. He has held two successful solo shows and been involved in many auctions for charity attracting a worldwide audience for his work.
Over the past 3 years, Dominic Rowswell, the organiser behind the UK’s Bicker Gallery has organised shows in temporary venues in London and Bristol, commonly called “pop up shows”. This allows the artists work not to be limited to the normal conventional gallery space. The ‘pop up’ shows also enable the gallery to adapt accordingly to the artists wishes, all the while keeping the audience interested by inviting them to visit spaces that they might not ordinarily visit.
Artists Above the Radar at Brooklynite Gallery
Here’s some info on the next show at the Brooklynite Gallery in New York City:
Brooklynite Gallery is proud to present our first exhibition of 2010 entitled,
“Stealth: Artists Above The Radar”, featuring the works of Collin Van Der Sluijs
and Derek Shumate. From February 13 to March 6th, we offer up our gallery walls
as a soapbox for these two under-exposed artists from different ends of the world,
both of who use their canvases much like mental filing cabinets to store information
full of free expression and socio-political views. Follow us, if you will, on these
two hypothetical journeys.Imagine a blender that can be filled with ripe pieces of paper containing creative
juices, leafy ideas and plump inspirations. Imagine that it can also be filled with
lush subconscious thoughts, including healthy, fresh social and political views. Add
in a sprinkling of vivid, circular planet-like shapes. Now, add in black smoke stacks,
toxic chemicals and dust-covered landscapes. Top it off with disproportionately sized
animal/human hybrids covered in oil-based liquids. Flip the “on” switch to this blender
and watch as it mixes and intermingles these colorful thoughts, robust ideals and tart
visions. Pop the top and pour directly on a canvas. …You’ve just recreated the work of
Dutch “Pop-Fantasy Life” painter, Collin Van Der Sluijs.Imagine if you will, a Houston-born, abstract artist by the name of Derek Shumate with
multi-colored, circuitry wires running out from the back of his head. These wires
immediately transfer a continuous flow of conscious thoughts from the portal to new
mediums and surfaces for fear of losing spontaneity. Bold colors, upon layers and
layers of torn bits of information, which often resemble a topographical map, are
collected from various sources, including but not limited to, personal tragedies,
today’s headlines and the artists’ imagination. These issues appear to be clouding, as
they often do in life, the human existence as it relates to the environment. This
obsessive-compulsive process produces work that is free from traditional morals or
social constraints and like a young adolescent, expresses opinions full of honesty.
That is —to those that can decode the artist’s messages.
So frankly, Dererk Shumate’s art just isn’t the sort of thing that I like, but I know a lot of people like that sort of thing. Moving on. I’ve seen some of Collin’s work at The Pure Evil Gallery though and while some of it is a Jeff Soto/MyMo mash-up, lots of it looks really great. New Yorkers should definitely make it down to see Collin’s work in person. I think Brooklynite has definitely done a nice job with this show by finding two artists from outside of New York/London/Paris/California and giving that a the sort of show that they deserve and probably would have been given long ago if they lived in the “right” city.
Original Cultures at StolenSpace
As I mentioned last week, Dem, Ericailcane and Will Barras have a show coming up next week at StolenSpace Gallery in London as part of the Original Cultures art and music festival. Since then, a bit more information as started to emerge…
‘Original Cultures – The Show’
Ericailcane, DEM & Will Barras12.02.10 – 07.03.10In collaboration with Original Cultures, a new international non-profit cultural and arts initiative, StolenSpace presents an exclusive exhibition of new works from famed European artists Ericailcane (Italy), DEM (Italy) and Will Barras (UK).
This exhibition will form part of the Original Cultures London 2010 event and run from February 12th until March 7th. This will be the trio’s second collaborative project following their work during Original Cultures’ first event in Bologna, Italy, in June 2009 which saw them create an exclusive animation and shadow-based installation. As visiting guests, Ericailcane and DEM will take the lead bringing to StolenSpace a collection of brand new paintings and other media. Will Barras meanwhile will be exhibiting a new animation and associated designs he is producing exclusively for the show. Together these three artists have received worldwide acclaim in recent years, exhibiting from Los Angeles to Sweden via Hong Kong and Eastern Europe.
Exclusive to the exhibition will be the release of a limited edition collaborative screen print by the three artists and printed by StolenSpace, as well as a series of 6 picture discs produced by Original Cultures and featuring art from Will Barras, Ericailcane and DEM and music from Om Unit (UK), Tatsuki (JP) and Tayone (IT), the three musicians involved in the OriginalCultures project. These picture discs, six 10”s, will be framed and sold with a separate 7” featuring two exclusive tracks from each musician. These discs,combining visual arts and music in a rather unique package, are exclusive to the exhibition.
An opening party will be held on February 11th with Will Barras in attendance. Ericailcane, DEM and Will Barras will be present at the gallery on March 4th for a closing party which will feature live painting from the trio in and around the gallery.
Original Cultures London 2010 will take place from February 27th until March 5th, 2010. This is a week-long event that brings together 7 artists from the UK, Italy and Japan and the fields of music and visual arts for a series of activities (workshops, exhibition) in venues across East London. The artists are Ericailcane (IT), DEM (IT), Will Barras (UK) and Hiraki Sawa (JP) for the visual arts and Om Unit (UK), Tatsuki (JP) and Tayone (IT) for music. During this time new and original collaborative works will be created, culminating on Friday March 5th in a one-of-a-kind audio and visual showcase featuring all the art created during the week and performed live. This is Original Cultures’ second such event, following the project’s debut in June 2009 in Bologna, Italy. The London event has support from Hackney Council.
A non-profit project based in the UK, Italy and Japan, Original Cultures connects cultures through modern performing arts, focusing on the fields of music and visual arts. More information, video, audio and a full schedule is available at www.originalcultures.org.
I for one am really looking forward to this show and the live painting event in March.
The latest from SpY
This huge roller is by SpY. “Leé” means “read it” or “reading.”
And this video of him painting the piece is pretty nice: