My highlight of Art Basel was almost definitely Primary Flight, the huge mural project in the Wynwood district. They had over 100 artists painting murals, from big names like Shepard Fairey and Nick Walker to local graffiti writers. Here’s some of what they did.
Joe and I made a video about the project:
Many many more photos on Jeremiah Garcia’s flickr
This past week has been pretty crazy. I’ve been running around NYC seeing friends and art, and now I’m in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the art world does not hit pause just because I’m taking a holiday. Here are some of the things I would have loved to cover on Vandalog if I’d had the time. And keep an eye on Vandalog tomorrow because I’ll be doing a big wrap up of Primary Flight.
Looks like I’m not the only one who liked the sound sculpture by David Ellis at Anonymous Gallery‘s SCOPE Miami booth. After collectors saw his piece at SCOPE (a video of which was previously posted on Vandalog), 3 sound sculptures were commissioned. And one of those pieces was commissioned by Charles Saatchi! Congrats to David for his success and to Mr. Saatchi on such a great purchase.
The London Police and Galo have a show opening Thursday the 10th at Factory Fresh in New York. I will definitely be there.
Fresh Geezers
This December, Factory Fresh pulls out all the stops as we welcome The London Police and Galo as they return to New York to celebrate more than a decade in the game. Known for their iconic characters collectively these artist work have respectively graced streets and galleries in 35 countries and have been feature in numerous publications throughout the globe. The artists will be showcasing new canvas, featured films of the artist and installation works created site specifically
for Factory Fresh.This year has seen the return of Bob Gibson to The London Police after five years of touring with the band ‘MOSS’ and flipping burgers in a filthy Dutch snackbar. And so the original founding members are re-embarking on their quest to combine making artwork and travelling the globe to better themselves and spread artistic love through the world. The blueprint for this year was to produce solid back-to-basics black and white artworks collaborating the iconic LADS characters drawn by Chaz with the tight architectural and illustrative landscapes of Bob Gibson. To celebrate 10 years in the field TLP had shows in London (Stolen Space, April 2009), Amsterdam (Go Gallery, May 2009), and Los Angeles (Carmichael Gallery, Sept 2009) with their final show at New York’s Factory Fresh.
Italian stallion, Galo, packs a punch when it comes to covering things in paint – he has painted almost every surface imaginable to man or beast. His work has appeared on three continents, in galleries, museums, cafes and nightclubs, on walls and off. Life for Galo is just one big moving canvas. Welcome to the Galoverse…
In addition to the newly painted works created specifically for this show by each artist , The London Police and Galo will create a collaborative site specific installation for Factory Fresh. Despite the possible cold weather, plans are set for painting a large scale mural in the courtyard of Factory Fresh.
Roa has just sent me a bunch of photos from his recent trip to Warsaw, Poland. More can be seen on his fotolog, but here are two of my favorites.
And maybe his biggest piece ever?…
£250
ships dec 14, 2009
53.5 x 79 cm
hand burnished linocut
on mulberry paper
edition of 75 numbered and signed by Gaia
http://www.nellyduff.com/index.php/art/artists/gaia/3/black_rabbit
Sickboy has a new solo show coming up in London in a few days. Here’s the hype:
Acclaimed UK street artist, Sickboy presents ‘Logopop’, a special ‘one night only’ solo exhibition of new limited edition work and site-specific installations in east London this December 16.
Following the success of his major solo exhibition, ‘Stay Free’ last year, which saw Sickboy transform a Victorian building into a themed playground, the artist returns with this one-off extravaganza, inviting art fans to dive once again into the extraordinary depths of his imagination.
With ‘Logopop,’ Sickboy recreates the lysergic symbolism that underpins much of his work, and delivers it in his characteristically unexpected way. Launching an eye-watering visual assault on audiences using installations and digital technology, Sickboy introduces a series of dynamic and surprising show features which have become a hallmark of this artist.
The new collection of work for ‘Logopop’ has been developed throughout 2009 and aims to unravel the relationship between the artist’s complex and imaginatively-detailed artworks and his signature simple, bold and raw urban interventions. In addition to original artworks, the artist introduces his innovative concept of Logopops – artworks sold in various sizes which can be connected together, giving fans the opportunity to create their own bespoke compositions and own a truly original piece of Sickboy art. The artist says: “Logopops are my visual bullet to the mind. They sidestep the layered meanings within my art and simplify the message into something tangible and understandable at the glance of an eye.”
‘Logopop’ is the pinnacle of 2009, which has been the artist’s most successful year to date, and the perfect interlude before his second major solo show in spring 2010.
While this does sound interesting, my very first though about these ‘logopops’ was that they sound a lot like Barry McGee clusters. Still, Sickboy can do some cool things, and McGee wasn’t the first artist to do clusters, it’s just a bit irritating that Sickboy (or his PR people) want to make these things sound so epically unique when really they aren’t (Know Hope sold pieces like this at Carmichael Gallery over the summer, but he didn’t claim that it was an ‘innovative’ practice).
But enough dissing Sickboy. He knows how to paint and he tends to paint cool things, so what more can you ask for?
Logopop takes place at The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London on December 16th. Register for an invite at thesickboy.com.
This show looks to be pretty good. The Grifters show at Lazarides’ Rathbone Place gallery opened on Friday, but I’ve been stateside and not had a chance to check it out yet in person. I’m particularly excited to see what Mark Jenkins and JR have done. Mark’s piece was a highlight of the Scope art fair in Miami, and JR never fails to impress me.
PosterBoy allegedly put up this banner this week in Maimi for Art Basel week. As Brooklyn Street Art notes, the poster is one of the first major anti-Obama pieces of street art.
As previously mentioned, the Burning Candy crew painted an amazing mural at The Thousands last month. I spoke with Sweet Toof about that mural, so here’s that conversation and a time lapse of the mural going up:
