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Dark Pop 2.0 at Last Rites Gallery

In fall of 2008, Andrew Michael Ford curated Dark Pop, a show at Last Rites Gallery which challenged artists to create a piece of “dark” art. It was a big hit. Since then, Andrew has begun working at Last Rites, and now Dark Pop 2.0 is almost here. Looks like a very interesting show.

Last Rites Gallery has again decided to find out what several of today’s brightest art stars are capable of when asked to create ONE piece of what could be considered truly ‘dark art’. Many artists find themselves in a nice groove of creating a certain mood or emotion through their work and have, understandably, become quite comfortable following this path in their art-making. We were curious, however, what would happen if things were to get a little uncomfortable, as the artist challenged themselves to search through new or buried feelings and emotions, the kind which might find their place on the ‘darker’ side of the artistic spectrum. With that in mind, Last Rites Gallery proudly presents “Dark Pop 2.0”: A collection of truly ‘dark art’ from an incredibly talented and diverse group of artists who would normally never get anywhere near this stuff! If the first Dark Pop was any indication, Dark Pop 2.0 is guaranteed to astound.

Participating Artists Include: AIKO (Aiko Nakagawa), Lisa Alisa, Esao Andrews, John Cebollero, Benjamin Clarke, Joshua Clay, Molly Crabapple, Amy Crehore, Yoko d’Holbachie, Leslie Ditto, Mickey Edtinger, Mark Elliott, Eric Fortune, GAIA, Stella Im Hultberg, Sarah Joncas, Aya Kakeda, Ben Kehoe, Dan-ah Kim, Daniel Hyun Lim (Fawn Fruits), Danni Shinya Luo, David MacDowell, Mike Maxwell, Simone Maynard, Dennis McNett, Tara McPherson, Michael Page, Nathan Lee Pickett, Leslie Reppeteaux, Mijn Schatje, Tin, Dan Witz, Jaeran Won and more.

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Holiday gift guide: books

There was a very positive response from my first holiday gift guide post about affordable prints, so I thought it might be worth putting together a similar list for art books.

1. The Faith of Graffiti by Norman Mailer and Jon Naar
Okay, this book isn’t actually released until December 29th, but it absolutely needs to be included in this list. A full decade before Subway Art was published, Mailer wrote a brilliant essay to accompany Naar’s photographs of the very earliest New York City graffiti, most of which would be considered tags today. This book is an essential piece of graffiti history, but it has been largely ignored by history in favor of the next book on this list.

2. Subway Art: 25th Anniversary Edition by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant
While Naar did a great job documenting the very earliest stages of graffiti, Subway Art is what turned graffiti into an international phenomena and forced people to look at graffiti as more than petty vandalism. This new edition of the book includes new photographs and is in a much larger format, so many of the photos that are in your old copy of Subway Art are now printed much larger and nicer. While The Faith of Graffiti documents the earliest moments in graffiti history, there is no more important book about graffiti or street art than Subway Art.

3. Keith Haring by Jeffrey Deitch and many others
If you like Keith Haring, this is the definitive book of his artwork. It’s pretty huge, weighing in at almost 9 pounds. It’s not cheap either (almost $40 at the time of this post), so it’s really for those who absolutely love Haring, but you’re not going to find a better book of his artwork.

4. Brooklyn Street Art by Jaime Rojo and Steven P. Harrington
Probably the best of Prestel’s series of street art books, this is a solid overview of Brooklyn’s street art. A great stocking stuffer.

5. Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution by Cedar Lewisohn
In my opinion, maybe the best street art book for the street art lover. Not just a book of photos, this book covers a great deal of street art history in a very serious way.

6. Wall and Piece by Banksy
Honestly, I kind of hope that nobody buys Wall and Piece because it’s on this list. Pretty much anybody who reads Vandalog should have at least one copy of Wall and Piece. Banksy is a genius. ‘Nuff said.

7. Young, Sleek, And Full Of Hell by Aaron Rose
I just read this book a week or two ago, and if you liked the film Beautiful Losers, this book is a great companion. It tells the story of New York’s Alleged Gallery, mostly through pictures and interviews with many of the people who were associated with the gallery over it’s lifetime.

8. Pictures of Walls
A funny little stocking stuffer. One of those things that makes me smile.

9. Untitled II: The Beautiful Renaissance by Gary Shove
This book doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s full of pretty pictures. It’s good overview of recent street art, and includes some new artists that I wasn’t familiar with as well as many of that greats that I know and love.

10. The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In by RJ Rushmore
Can of had to include my own book, didn’t I? What I love about this book isn’t what I wrote, but what other people wrote. Know Hope’s biography of Chris Stain taught me as much about Chris as it did Know Hope’s personality. An excerpt from Mike Snelle’s forward to the book was recently posted on Drago’s website.

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Sickboy’s Logopop show

This week, Sickboy’s latest solo show, Logopop, was open for all of three hours. Looks like a solid show.

Photo by Smart Hype
Photo by Smart Hype

Sickboy’s large original works have a crazy amount of detail. I really want to see one of these in person:

Sickboy

Superman_Lover

ThisCity

And then there are his Logopops. They are small screen prints with hand finishing. You can buy 1-2, or 10 and put them all in the same frame.

Comp3

Comp2

Comp1

Some artwork still available on Sickboy’s website.

Many more pictures from the opening on Smart Hype’s flickr

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PosterBoy sentenced to 210 hours community service

The New York Post reports that PosterBoy (or, if you like to believe the confusing history of this whole arrest story, one follower of the PosterBoy movement because there is not single PosterBoy) has been sentenced to 210 hours of community service after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal mischief. Seems like a bit much for messing up some advertisements. I’ve got to agree with Animal New York when they say, “Hopefully the city puts Poster Boy to work doing something productive, like cutting down the illegal NPA advertising clogging the city.”

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Daryll Peirce: a talented guy I met in Miami

Peirce

At Primary Flight, I happened to see Daryll Peirce painting the above mural with The London Police and others. Later that evening, I had the chance to chat with him and see some more of his artwork. Very talented artist IMHO, but have a look and decide for yourself.

Peirce

I love pieces like these on wood without any background except the wood itself.

Peirce

Here’s some info from Daryll’s bio:

Focused on exploring the connectivity within humanity and its claims of control over social systems, habitat, nature, and
future, Peirce’s artwork pendulates between the satiric and esoteric, optimistic and pessimistic, scientific and spiritual,
bold and poetic. Grotesquely exaggerated human forms, arterial-botanic city organisms, and flowering interconnected
building clusters currently inhabit his work. On a more intimate level, his influences instinctively stem from his past and
current environments, travel, exploration, skateboarding, surfing, dreaming, philosophy, and interacting with all forms of
the human animal with a focused lens on the social outcast.

Peirce

This piece was painted for Primary Flight last year, but unfortunately it isn’t there anymore:

Peirce

All outdoor photos by Jeremiah Garcia

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Zhang Dali’s “Dialogue”

Within my post-colonial theory readings I chanced upon the street work series entitled “Dialogue” of Zhang Dali, which utilizes the classic graffiti trope as a conversation with the city but also engages the now familiar practice of deconstructing portions of ruins to establish new frames. Most of these interventions were executed a decade ago, but it is always interesting to visit the street work of artists who do not necessarily classify themselves as Street Artist. Please forgive the poor quality of the images, but the are all derived from Google Images.

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Holiday gift guide: affordable prints

So maybe this is the first of a few posts with street art related gift ideas, maybe not. Here are some prints that are available online for a very low price (but they aren’t cheap. Right Zeus?).

sickboy

1. Logopops by Sickboy. Last night was Sickboy’s one night only show, Logopops. Lots of hand finished prints are available online for as little as £35 (though you are meant to get a few of them to create a custom cluster of prints).

2. Storm Clouds by Jeff Soto. I must admit that I am becoming more and more of a Jeff Soto fan, especially the watercolor pieces. At just £75, it costs a lot less than I expected.

Keyes

3. Sprout by Josh Keyes. I am very very wary of recommending this. Josh Keyes is an amazingly talented painter and I do like his work, but I’m not sure if you get the same feel for it through a giclee print. You kind of need to see the originals in person to see what sets him apart from all the other guys painting post-environmental-apocalypse art. Could be awesome though, and it’s a book and (very large editioned) print for $85 so that’s nice.

4. Tempo Boxer by Ace. A staple of the London scene (Blackall Street in particular), Ace does some nice work and a nice print from him goes for between £50-55.

5. Dalek Blue by Dalek/James Marshall. Dalek has two “Space Monkey” prints available on his site, both very nice, but I prefer the blue one.

Above

6. Homeless, Not Hopeless by Above. I mentioned this print the other day, but it’s worth showing again because all the profits go to a good cause.

7. Better Than Nothing by Kid Acne. I suppose you either like his warrior women or you don’t. I do.

makeroomfortheemptiness

8. Make Room For The Emptiness by Jim Houser. This is the print that I want to buy with my grandma’s Christmas money. Love it. And at just $75, I can’t believe it hasn’t sold out yet.

9. Mama Quilla by Fefe Talavera. Another beautiful and affordable print from The BLDG.

The Answer print

10. The Answer by Hera. This lithograph by Hera looks great and comes with my book The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In. It’s £100 for the set, and since the book retails for about £25, that’s an affordable print if I ever saw one. The print is of a sketch by Hera, and she really knows how to sketch.