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Welling Court Mural Project 2013

Darkclouds, COST, Flying Fortress and xxKeely (2012)
Darkclouds, COST, Flying Fortress and xxKeely (2012)

After three successful years and over a hundred murals curated, Ad Hoc Art is kicking off this summer’s Welling Court Mural Project with a block party! The event’s food, music, dancing and live painting will open to the public on June 15th from 2pm til 8pm at 11-98 Welling Court (@ 30th Ave & 12th Street) in Astoria, Queens. In order to make such a cool thing happen (and free for the public, at that) there is a need for volunteers, so if you’d like to lend a hand contact info@adhocart.org.

The line up is amazing, bringing back some favorites and honing in some new and foreign talent. This year artists include (I tried to limit this to just a few…) Aiko, Beau Stanton, Billy Mode, Celso, Chris RWK, Clown Soldier, Dan Witz, Dennis McNett, Don Leicht, Ellis Gallagher, Feral, Fumero, Gaia, Gilf!, Hellbent, Ian Kuali’I, Icy & Sot, Joe Iurato, John Fekner, Kenny Scharf, Lady Pink, M-City, Mare139, Maya Hayuk, Never, ND’A, Roa, Royce Bannon, SeeOne, Sheryo, The Yok, Skewville, Veng RWK and many, many more.

Details and directions are on the event’s Facebook page. Hope to see you there!

Veng RWK (2012)
Veng RWK (2012)
Sheryo, Never (satisfied) and The Yok (2012)
Sheryo, Never (satisfied), and The Yok (2012)

Photos by Lois Stavsky

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Senkoe in Mexico City

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Here are some eye-catching works by Senkoe in Mexico City. What I appreciate about Senkoe’s art is that while some of his pieces are just colorful and nice things to look at, a lot of them have these interesting little narratives hidden in the details. Very cool.

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Photos by Senkoe

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Melbourne Monthly Madness – April 2013

Another massive month in Melbourne in April with some great events, shows and work on the streets. This month I’ve also decided to include a bit more on graff and also some work off the streets in some of Melbourne’s awesome abandos.

Melbourne Train Graff - Photo by lukey006 on instagram
Melbourne Train Graff. Photo by Luke McManus.

There’s been an explosion of panels running in Melbourne recently, including a couple of whole cars. Whilst some of the pieces are not the best in quality it’s still rad to see so much graff on trains again lately. Are the authorities asleep? Or is it our lack of trains to meet demand to blame so they HAVE to run them? The best of Melbourne graffiti Facebook page is a good place to keep up with what’s running, they cover anything running each day on the Melbourne rail network (good and bad). Here’s my favourite flick from the page for April. Continue reading “Melbourne Monthly Madness – April 2013”

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Tim Hans shoots… 2501

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2501’s first solo show in the states, at Soze Gallery in Los Angeles, opened last week. While he was in LA, 2501 met up with Tim Hans for the latest in our continuing series of photo-portraits of artists by Tim Hans, and I asked 2501 a few question about his work.

RJ: How do your indoor and outdoor works relate to one another?

2501: My whole body of work is connected. That’s also one of the subjects of my first solo in USA “see you on the other side”. I see my work as a full circle where I’m trying to bring what I learn from muralism into the video or into the sculptures and vice versa. The connection from the inside and the outside is the way I approach problems. Art is definitely also problem solving. I think that art is all a matter of experimenting with new ways of saying things, new languages, research.

RJ: Why do you paint outside?

2501: I don’t know why I paint outside, it just happens and now it is too late. I can’t stop anymore. I come from scientific school and then film school so I learned to paint by doing graffiti outside. My mother use always to say that graffiti is a kind of sport and painting together… plus adventures I will say.. so the perfect mix body and mind.

RJ: How important is documentation for you? Would you be happy to just paint something and leave it, or is documentation part of your artistic process?

2501: Documentation is important. As a collector (I collect zines, comics, old strange stuff, etc) I was always involved in collecting pictures of what we did from film to digital. A lot of my friends ask me for picture from 10 years ago because they know I have them.

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RJ: Can you talk about your thinking behind your Dynamic Influence wall from last fall?

2501: Dynamic Influence is a wall that change with the light. The all concept is about transformation. All the things that we look at are not the same twice. I’m preparing other work with the same or similar concept of changing.

RJ: Where does the number 2501 come from?

2501: 2501 is the number of my rebirth as an artist and also the date of founding of Sao Paulo in Brasil, my second hometown.

Photos by Tim Hans

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Mike Giant with a hand style history lesson

As a precursor to the release of a book on hand styles, entitled Flip the Script, LA graffiti writer Mike Giant gives us a brief history lesson on his introduction to Cholo graffiti. He cites the importance of understanding this history, not just in the graffiti world, but now in the graphic design world and art world, and says, “To me, it’s getting too derivative of things that were already derivative of other derivatives. It continues to just pile on.” Mike comments on the fact that graffiti writers today are picking up hand styles from the internet, as opposed to getting alphabets from their mentors.

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Flashback to ’95: PMER, REVS and FUEL in Alaska

Click to view large
Click to view large

If there weren’t pictures to go along with this story, I’m not sure I’d believe it. But there are pictures, and here’s the story of what was probably the first graffiti production in Alaska. I hope you enjoy this anecdote from PMER/CATELLOVISION as much as I have… – RJ

Back in 1995 Myself, REVS & FUEL drove up to Alaska just for the mission of going. When we got to Fairbanks, the place was corrupt, full of drugs, boarded businesses, hookers, depression… it was great. It was July so we had 24 hours of daylight.

We saw this wall in the center of the city and asked the owner for permission. He told us we had to ask the Chief of police because he was in charge of beautifying the community. So we meet Chief Woolley and he gives us a thumbs up and tells us how to paint, what he wants to see: Alaskan pioneers, animals, mountains, all that good stuff. We agreed and got to work…

By the time we were done it was 4am… We had the sun on one side, the moon on the other. We looked at the wall, looked at eachother and said… Let’s get the fuck out of here!!!

We painted a pipeline that started with a shiesty character holding a fist full of money, the pipeline going down the wall, finally opening up with oil spelling our names. We threw in a bloody cross that said “Valdez” and gave him a mountain.

Two days later we found that we were wanted and on the cover of the newspaper for being a “Fast talking band of NYC graffiti artists that duped the Chief….”

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Photos by and scans courtesy of PMER/CATELLOVISION

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Toofly and Meres at 5Pointz

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Recently, Toofly and Meres collaborated on this piece at the Queens graffiti mecca 5Pointz. These New York City natives were introduced to graffiti at young ages from growing up around it, and both gained experience transitioning their graffiti work to gallery pieces after attending two of New York’s prestigious art schools (Toofly attended SVA and Meres attended FIT). Both have since gone on to have successful art careers which incorporate their love of graffiti; Meres is the curator of all the murals at 5Pointz and Toofly has been involved in projects such as starting her own fashion collection.

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Toofly X Meres 5Pointz 2013

Photos courtesy of Toofly