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ESPO aka Steve Powers in Philly

Steve Powers is going big in Philadelphia with a project called Love Letter. The website explains it this way:

Love Letter is a project by Stephen Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and is sponsored by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.  Generous support provided by the Brownstein Group and Septa.

But what that means for you and me is Steve Powers is painting a bunch of huge spots legally! Here are a few examples:

Love You

Nice Dream

I hope these are around for a while, because I’ll be going to school outside of Philadelphia next year and it would be nice to have some ESPO around town to look at.

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Shepard Fairey cleans up

Last Monday, The Eastsider LA posted about how Shepard Fairey has buffed some tags off the outside of his studio and put an anti-graffiti coating on it. Here’s a bit of what they said:

After pleading guilty to vandalism charges in Boston over his guerrilla art tactics, artist Shepard Fairey had to deal with acts of vandalism closer to home. A few days ago workers sandblasted the brick exterior of his Echo Park studio, gallery and ad agency – called Studio Number One – and applied a shiny layer of anti-graffiti coating to the walls.

And Fairey responded to their emails by explaining his reasoning:

“When graff seeped into the raw brick it was very difficult to clean,” said Fairey, creator of the Obama “Hope” poster, in an email forwarded by one of his employees. “The building is historic and I love and want to protect the brick. The city was never any help with removal. Graffiti is par for the course.”

“Obviously I have experience with graff,” said Fairey, “and there is not much point hitting a spot that will be cleaned immediately.”

Interesting story, makes you think, but that’s not the end of it. Fairey then responded to that post with a longer email which you can read in full on The Eastsider LA.

Besides attempting to blast the blog for not being objective (Surely not even the “best” blogs are objective. That’s what makes them so interesting and it comes with the territory), Fairey ends up making a number of good points. As he says:

I’m not mad at the graff artists who have hit our building, I just like the brick unadorned. I’ve always been a champion of street art and graffiti in the same way I’m a champion of free speech. I think it is important for people to be able to speak freely, but if I’m watching a channel whose content is not my cup of tea I may choose to change the channel. It does not make me an opponent of free speech. Preferring my brick unadorned does not make me anti-graffiti. Every time I put a piece of art on the street I know it may be cleaned. That is the nature of the art form.

While I’ve occasionally been critical of Fairey on Vandalog, I think this time he is making some valid points. For one thing, I’ve never met a graffiti writer or a street artist who expects their work to be there forever, and as much of a fan of street art as I am, I’d rather commission some artist to paint the walls of my house than leave it free for anybody to bomb (PS, my address is *****) and I’m sure most people would say the same thing.

If writers still want to paint on Fairey’s building they might as well, they just need to be aware that what they paint is going to get cleared away instantly. And Fairey’s got every right to do that. At least, that’s my take, but I’d love to see some comments from other people.

Via LA Daily

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New print from The Krah

The Krah

Right now, if I were in the market for a screen print, I would not be spending very much money. I’d be buying a quality image and looking for a deal on price. Well if you’re like me with screen prints and you like The Krah, today is your lucky day. The above 5 color screen print is an edition of 75 and the price is £75. They are for sale on www.littleartbook.com.

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Invader strikes London

Here are two of a few pieces that Invader has put up recently in London to coincide his with solo show at Lazarides Gallery. Invader’s started to use large bathroom tiles for these now. Although I sort of like the surprise of finding a small one hidden somewhere, the way the yellow piece below looks like it’s loving is quite nice. I think this is proof though that Invader works best on the street. Equivalent work can be found right now at Lazarides Gallery, but it just doesn’t have the same impact.

Invader Yellow
Photo by unusualimage
Photo by mermaid99
Photo by mermaid99

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Artival

If you’re in London next Saturday, head on down to the Queen of Hoxton for Artival, an art festival to support SHP, a homelessness charity.

flyer_download

Here’s what the Artival people are saying:

Artival is a one-day arts festival to promote social inclusion and prevent homelessness in London.

The event is hosted by homelessness charity SHP to celebrate use of the arts’ to develop confidence and enable expression. It is the climax of an urban arts project involving Matt Small, Carrie Reichardt and other leading urban artists who have been using their skills to include clients who are usually excluded from opportunities to create and be heard.

Artival brings together leading musicians, painters, mosaicists, performance poets, comics, dancers and a host of other artists, all of whom recognise that art is a vital tool for empowering and including marginalised people in our communities.

The festival will be buzzing from 12-6pm, so arrive early to make sure you get in. There are four floors of art and performance to explore, as well as a BBQ and the extensive Queen of Hoxton bars.

  • Basement: Urban art cave
  • Floor 1: London’s leading musicans and comedy stars
  • Floor 2: Launch of a youth led social enterprise supported with very special surprise DJ guests.
  • Roof top terrace: live painting and mosaic sessions, Jerk chicken BBQ, chill out

The Line Up:

Musicians: Speech Debelle, Rubicks, Betty Steeles, Floetic Lara

Artists: Matt Small, Carrie Reichardt, Mark Wydler

DJs: Gael la Gosse, DJ Slasher

Animation and film: Unballanced, Jemal mahamed

Comedians: Barnaby Thompson, Anthony Miller, Daniel James, Kenny Campbell, Danny Hurst, Jonny Melamet, Boyce Bailey, Max Turner, Jenny Lockyer, Gwilum Argos, Brad Zimmerman, Pete Hall, Aaron Shakespeare

Story Teller: Craig Jenkins

About SHP

SHP was set up 30 years ago to support vulnerable homeless people in London. Today we work with more than 2,000 people each year, providing a wide range of accommodation and support services to help those facing homelessness and chronic social exclusion.

Our clients’ needs are diverse and our work reflects that.

Working across 13 London boroughs, we provide support services to some of the capital’s most vulnerable people including substance misusers, offenders, those with mental ill health, care leavers and other young people at risk.

For more about SHP visit http://www.shp.org.uk

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Street art and advertising

There is often a very fine line between street art and public advertisements. They are both on the street, and often times they are both illegal. When that line gets very blurred though is when street artists start putting up advertisements as artwork or vice versa.

There are numerous examples of artists who put up wheatpastes or flyposted advertisements when they have a show about to open, but they also aren’t what I want to address today. I want to focus on a few more recent and blatant examples of street at as advertising and advertising as street art.

First, there is Kaws. He did some work for Kanye West’s new album, including this piece in Times Square:

Photo by JOE M500
Photo by JOE M500

For a guy who started as a graffiti writer and transitioned to a street artist who subverted (or at least changed) advertisements, he sure has come a long way. I’m not going to say it’s good or bad that Kaws is doing advertisements. I’d probably rather he didn’t, but I can’t blame him for wanting to make some money and get up in Times Square. People change, and I don’t think he’s shy about how he has changed. There isn’t a false front there. Kind of like Kanye himself.

Rappers don’t usually start out their careers by saying “I really want to rap and get a connection with fans and spread a message.” The stereotypical rapper justs comes right out and says “I wanna get really extremely rich.” By comparison, your average rock start has to worry about “selling out” and staying true to their originals and all that. Inside, that rock star is probably thinking “I really want to buy a mansion some day,” but they’d never be allowed to say that out loud.

Kaws doesn’t claim to be this anti advertising subversion king at all, so more power to him I guess.

And the important thing to keep in mind here is that Kanye’s record label paid for that ad. It’s not like that billboard is a wall which would have otherwise been taken and used by street artists or graffiti writers.

More after the jump… Continue reading “Street art and advertising”