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General Howe in NYC

General Howe emailed me recently about his work, and I think it’s something well worth checking out. My friend and I glued some toy soldiers to the street last year, but we just did it for fun. I like the fact that General Howe actually has a point to his work. Here’s what he said:

For just about two years now I have been spreading the streets of Brooklyn with British colonial toy soldiers in locations where Americans and British fought in the Battle of Brooklyn.  The Commanding General of the British was General Howe, which I have taken as my street art identity.

The research and experiences of doing this work has led me to my most recent project, Remains of Wallabout Bay.  I have been making linoleum cut images of bones and remains of dead American soldiers from the Revolutionary war.  The British captured thousands of American soldiers and would keep them on prison ships docked in Wallabout Bay a.k.a. Brooklyn Navy Yard.  When these unfortunate soldiers would die, their bodies were discarded over the side of the ship, I imagine in similar fashion to trash and waste that is discarded in this same area today.

This work stemmed from having so many different emotions about the U.S. being in Afghanistan and Iraq.  My thoughts kept bringing me back to past wars we’ve been involved in and thinking of the question, what would we do if foreign armies invaded and occupied our own country?

This work has been fun and meaningful and I look foreword to making work on the street for years to come.

And here’s some of his work…

General Howe

Remains of Wallabout Bay
Remains of Wallabout Bay
General Howe and UFO
General Howe and UFO
Remains of Wallabout Bay
Remains of Wallabout Bay

Check out more at General Howe’s flickr

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Remi/Rough book

An exciting announcement came to my inbox late last night from Remi/Rough. His book, Lost Colours and Alibis, is being released soon and is now available for preorder. Most Vandalog readers are probably familiar with Remi’s recent work, but I’m most looking forward to seeing his older graffiti.

Remi/Rough
Lost colours and alibis book
The new Remi/Rough book is available for pre order from: http://www.agents-of-change.co.uk/
hundreds of artworks by myself and other very talented artists, plus a foreword by New York legend; Mare 139.
The book also contains a full catalogue of the Lost colours and alibis paintings exhibition

Here’s a few pictures:

Rem book cover

Remi Book

Rough

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Chris Stain and Armsrock preview

Just got a few preview shots for you of the Chris Stain and Armsrock show that opens this Friday at Ad Hoc Art. I’ve got a few friends who are currently on holiday in New York, and I’ve been urging them to all go to the opening of “I Know There is Love.” Last year’s show here in London with Chris Stain, Armsrock and Poncho was absolutely fantastic (got myself a Chris Stain from that show hanging right next to me as I type), and so I expect their work at Ad Hoc to be just as good. And look out for another post here on Vandalog after the show opens.

I Know There is Love

I Know There is Love

I Know There is Love

Photos via Ad Hoc Art

More photos at Arrested Motion

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Dalek + Delta at Elms Lesters

I’ve got a book about Dalek sitting on my desk and just a few weeks ago saw some very cool work from Delta in Paris, so I’m glad to finally announce that these two artists will be doing 2 person show at Elms Lesters later this month. Dalek’s progression from graffiti to Murakami like precession and his ability to create new worlds is rivalled in street art only by perhaps KAWS, and Delta’s work just needs to be seen in person to be appreciated. The detail is too great for any jpeg to ever explain. This show should be a real treat.

Here are all the details from Elms Lesters:

28 August – 26 September 2009
Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 6pm, Thursdays ’til 8pm

This exhibition brings together two International painters of magnitude.

James Marshall, aka DALEK, who currently lives in Carolina, and Amsterdam based Boris Tellegen, aka DELTA, are both masters of their handling of colour and texture.

Marshall, who spent a year as an assistant to Takashi Murakami, has developed and honed a technique of meticulously applying flat blocks of colour, whilst playing with shapes and exaggerated optical perspectives.

“Two changes in technique have recently allowed DALEK to ratchet the spatial complexity up a notch. In linear terms, there’s an increased overlapping between forms whilst, in colour terms, subverting the light-to-dark or conversely dark-to-light build-up of tonal depth by interjecting chop-change colour values at will across the picture plane to break up conventional recession “ Ben Jones – art historian

Conversely, Tellegen is constantly experimenting with his his complex ‘architectural’ paintings, collages and 3D sculptural wall pieces, discovering, through his use of colour and references to urban decay, how to play with perspectives through the build up of textures and shadows.

“There’s an openness in DELTA’s practice to organic breakdown which might at first seem antithetical to the precision of his work’s apparently precise graphic underpinning. Thinking back to one of his street pieces, with the moss proliferating and gradually covering the relief, helps point up in a rare natural example a key conceptual theme for DELTA throughout: the organic system and its threat to subsume the man-made.” Ben Jones – art historian

Private View: Thursday 27th August between 6 – 9pm

More at Elms Lesters

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Very different street art

Here are two very original pieces of street art (if you can even call it that, I guess street intervention is more appropriate).

First up are Sean Martindale and Eric Cheung who have been making Toronto just a bit greener in their spare time.

posterplants

Plants

Plants

Sure is a lot nicer than a wall of advertisements. More on their blog. (Via CitySPK)

And then there is this sign in New York:

Photo by Jordan Seiler
Photo by Jordan Seiler

Jordan over at Public Ad Campaign says this about the flyer:

I took one of the phone numbers and promptly called. An answering machine immediately picked up and said the following before the familiar beep telling me it had begun recording. How Bizarre.

“Free yourself from your burdens.
Record your confession or secret after the tone.
There is not limit on the number or the length of the messages,
And its completely anonymous.”

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Very Nearly Almost issue 9

A few weeks ago I picked up the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost, and about two weeks ago I promised its editor, George, that I would mention it on Vandalog. So, here’s that long overdue mention.

VNA Cover

For those who don’t know, Very Nearly Almost is a London-based street art magazine. I’ve been reading VNA for I guess nearly a year now, and each issue is better than the last.

Issue 9 features all the usual VNA goodness (photos of every good piece of street art and some good graffiti to have popped up in London since the last issue went to print), plus some interviews and artist profiles, photos of other cities, and product reviews.

Sickboy

The interview with Ludo was probably the highlight for me, because I’v never known anything about the guy behind the “Nature’s Revenge” series. There are also interviews with Meggs and Jeff Soto and features on a few other great artists.

Very Nearly Almost

VNA has the love and devotion of a ‘zine behind it, without the low Kinko’s production values.

You can by VNA at some stores (such as Concrete Hermit in London) and online. If you live in London, this is a great documentation of street art from this spring, and if you live elsewhere, well London street art is awesome, and VNA proves it.

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Opening soon at Carmichael Gallery

This month’s offerings at Carmichael Gallery are a bit different from their usual fare. In the front gallery, Guy Denning has a solo show, and in the rear gallery, an all female group show called A Mirror Distorted. I say these are a bit different because only one artist of the whole bunch works on the street. The rest are considered part of the enigma that is urban art. Both shows open on August 6th.

Guy Denning

From Slamxhype:

Celebrity Will Eat Itself explores the notion of the eternally solipsistic über-celebrity in all its splendor, hedonism, and pain. With intense brushstrokes and a dynamic use of texture, Denning unravels the darkness inherent in the socially dysfunctional idols of our time and the potentially damaging effects of Hollywood idolatry on both the idols and the idol-worshippers.

Says Denning, “I think this obsession is damaging not only to cultural growth but also to general social well-being and development.”

Denning has long entranced fans with the striking style and ethereal beauty of his androgynous portraiture. Sexual and temporal politics, objectification and isolation are illuminated through a carefully honed juxtaposition of shape and shade. His paintings blend an elegant classical form with an unflinching reflection upon issues that dog contemporary Western society.

Carmichael

From Carmichael Gallery:

Carmichael Gallery invites you to attend A Mirror Distorted, an all-female international group show featuring new works on canvas, paper and mixed media fabric by artists Andrea Michaelsson, Candice Tripp, Cherri Wood and Pam Glew.