There was a time not to long ago when Justin Giarla loomed large over the street art/graffiti/low-brow art scene in San Fransisco. He owned three galleries simultaneously: White Walls Gallery, Shooting Gallery, and 941 Geary. All three closed quietly earlier this year, with their final shows opening in February. The building was sold. Last month, Giarla and his girlfriend Helen Bayly packed up their things, apparently abandoned his truck on the side of the road, and skipped town for Portland. That’s when the truth finally became public: Giarla hadn’t been paying his artists.
In a Facebook post that went viral, Ken Harman (owner of Hashimoto Contemporary and Spoke Art) claimed, “For years, Justin Giarla stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from artists who consigned works to Giarla’s gallery, White Walls / Shooting Gallery… I don’t know if karma is a real thing (though I like to believe it is) but I do believe that [Giarla and Bayly] are sociopaths and criminals who prey on those who can’t defend themselves. If karma is real, you won’t hear me complaining.”
Shepard Fairey released some prints using diamond dust, which is quite interesting. As the press release says, “Perhaps most famously used by Andy Warhol, who understood perfectly how to convey a message, Diamond Dust was used to add glamour, transforming ordinary images into coveted objects. The material aligns with Shepard’s work and interest in the seduction of advertising and consumerism. Diamond Dust, literally and metaphorically is superficial, applied to the surface of the print, the luminous effect is both beautiful and alluring.” But it’s one of those things that just gets me thinking about how the art world, much like capitalism, seems so good at absorbing critique and spitting at back out as product. People love the meaningless OBEY icon, so Shepard sells it. Shepard needs to make more product to continue selling to this market he has created, so he takes an old design (or a slight variant, I’m not positive), and adds meaningless diamond dust to it and sells it as something new. The best critiques participate in the system which they critique, but that’s a risky game to play. Of course, I say all this with a print by Shepard hanging on my wall.
OldWalls is a project where the photographer took photos of graffiti in the early 1990’s and recently returned to those spots to take the exact same shots, and then each matching photo is displayed next to its counterpart.
So I’ve been working a lot lately on Re:Humanities, a symposium of undergraduate work in the digital humanities. It’s taking place next week at Swarthmore College, just outside of Philadelphia. I hope you’ll come check it out if you’re nearby. I’ll be speaking about how the internet has changed street art, and there are a bunch of other great topics up for discussion for anyone interested in the digital humanities. Okay, that’s my personal announcement for the week, now onto the news:
Okay so this video of a piece by Verbo isn’t the best quality, but the piece is pretty awesome and very different from a lot of what is out there. I wish I could have seen the animation in the flesh and I hope he continues to work with this combination of mural and digital projection.
2 Many Printers is a cool little clothing brand with t-shirts by Husk Mit Navn, Ian Stevenson and others.
This mural is probably my absolute favorite piece of public art that I’ve seen related to the Egyptian Revolution.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who thinks Anthony Lister’s “Planet of the Apes” mural was problematic and a disservice to the art community.
Hush created the pieces for his new installation in a mere two weeks. The work, which will be shown until March, is in San Francisco at 941 Geary (White Walls‘ sister gallery). This definitely looks worth checking out in person.
Young & Free, the first major group show of Australian street artists in America, opened last week at 941 Geary in San Fransisco. The show looks amazing. I wish I could see in the flesh myself. If you’re in San Fransisco, get down there before the Young & Free closes on October 22nd. Graffuturism has a full set of photos that you should check out, but here’s a small sampling.
For our second interview in the lead-up to Young & Free at 941 Geary (opening September 10th), I spoke with Anthony Lister. Outside of Australia, Lister is without a doubt the best-known Australian street artist, and he also helped curate Young & Free. On the surface, his work is pretty simple to describe (mostly loosely painted superheroes), but words can’t convey the energy and passion with which Lister makes art, and there’s a lot more to each image than what first meets the eye. He strikes a difficult balance between high and low brow. Speaking with him, it’s clear that Lister is an intelligent guy who knows his art, but his work is equally accessible to those in the know and teenagers who just want to see cool pictures of tits and superheroes. A few years ago, a friend explained Lister to me something like this, “Anthony can paint with the best of them. His hand is up there with Bacon and all the greats. He just happened to take to using spray cans more than paint brushes.” Lister has blazed a trail in the Australian street art community both with is work and his approach to spreading it. For many, he has been the ambassador of Australian street art. For Young and Free, he continues that role by opening up the floodgates and bringing his friends with him to America.
RJ: Where are you right now?
Lister: I’m in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m in a cab to the airport, to go to Sydney.
RJ: It seems like you’re always traveling. You’ve traveled all around the world and you even lived in New York at one point. What keeps you coming back to Australia?
Lister: Gosh, I don’t know. I go to places that I enjoy where I can be around people that I know, and I enjoy meeting new people, but I guess I just go where I’m invited.
Photo by Lord Jim
RJ: You’re an extremely energetic guy, and it seems like a lot of that energy goes going creating an immense amount of work. How do you stay so prolific and at that energy level?
Lister: I’m an adventure painter, so I’m trying to break through to the other side. I’m into experiment and development, and I wanna paint for me, so I just have that much inside and I constantly have to be making changes, editing. I feel like I’m only as smart as my last decision; I’m only as good as my last production, so I’m trying to make better paintings than I did yesterday, today.
Photo by Birdman Photos
RJ: What’s an adventure painter?
Lister: There’ve been a lot of adventure painters. Francis Bacon was an adventure painter. Robert Rauchenburg was an adventure painter. Australian adventure painters… Brett Whiley was an adventure painter. This is just a thing, it’s a term to describe the energy involved with the journey which is being a visual practitioner: Conceptually, objectually, subjectually.
Photo by brandon shigeta
RJ: How would you describe Australian street art and graffiti?
Lister: It’s out in the wild over here, okay? It’s the same story, different city. When you travel and you’re involved in say skateboarding or graffiti or fine dining for that matter, these restaurants are in every city. The flavors change because of the style beef that’s there and then it becomes an atmosphere thing. It’s just that: The product of one’s efforts over here has been developed over a different atmosphere, so I’m not sure there’s a definitive difference, but I’m sure there’s definitely talent going into it. It’s a really amazing and wonderful thing that’s going on.
RJ: As you say, there’s a lot of talent in Australia, but I don’t think any Australians were included in Art in the Streets at MOCA? Am I wrong about that?
Lister: Yeah. There were no Australian artists in it. Martha Cooper shot of a photo of me, and I think that was in there, but no artists, no artwork. I feel pretty lucky to be at the forefront of all that, and also that book Beyond The Street, to be the only Australian artist in that 100-artist lineup, so I feel really fortunate.
RJ: You can look at Very Nearly Almost, and those guys are looking at Australian street art, but otherwise it seems to be something that a lot of bloggers, including myself, don’t follow closely enough, and it’s a bit of a shame. There’s a lot of talent out there.
Lister: And as an artist, you have to make an effort too. I’ve been traveling the world for nearly 10 years, and going back to places. It’s not like you just go to Rome once. I go to places and develop relationships. Everyone’s into what everyone else is doing.
Lister and Haculla. Photo by RJ Rushmore
RJ: How would you describe the importance, for you, of Young and Free?
Lister: It’s a nice thing to be able to put a package together. This is the Australia package, and I had some involvement in the choice of artists who are going, and I’m really happy to be involved in it. It’s not like anyone’s gone and done it. It’s not like this show would be easy just for a group of artists to put on. It’s a tricky thing, even for a gallery. You’ve got to focus all your energy. It’s reaching a new level. It kinda feels like the way that Futura described to me one day how Jeffrey Deitch flying him and a bunch of dudes over to Japan in the 80’s and doing art and shit and it just being crazy. It’s awesome.
RJ: What’s your relationship with the other artists in Young and Free?
Lister: Yeah, I do know all of them except for maybe one guy, although I don’t know how or why. Ben Frost, Kid Zoom, Sofles, Dabs and Myla, Rone… It’s these guys I’ve been developing relationships with. It’s not like I’ve even just met them once. These are people I’ve been hanging out with for the seven years. Some not so much; some are younger or came from different areas and they’ve just gotten up by the quality of their work. This is a really great, rounded, quality group of artists who are from graffiti, you know, trainpainters to fine artists like myself, and everything in between.
RJ: Definitely. When I first saw the lineup, I was excited because it was pretty much everybody I would have included, plus some guys that I didn’t know, which was great to see. But are their any Australian artists in particular that Vandalog readers should check out who aren’t in the show?
Lister: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of people who aren’t in the show. Real, quality artists. But it’s just one of those things. And what I’m interested in isn’t necessarily what is gonna be better for a particular audience. You know, as a curator you have to consider your audience, an American audience. There’s not a lot of things out there that really turn me on. I see things I like, but when I’m making work, I’m trying to make work that really turns me on. An artist who does that, to drop a name, would be Magnus McTavish. He’s an abstract fellow adventure painter, and there’s so many names here, there’s so many great artists over here. It’s really fun. It’s exciting and fun.
Photo by brandon shigeta
RJ: What have you made for this show?
Lister: I made a painting, and I plan on making a few more paintings and some mask pieces.
RJ: Great. I love the mask pieces. Are there going to be any walls or murals painted for the show?
Lister: Yeah, I believe there are. There’s definitely gonna be installation and site-specific, in-situ pieces being made. It’s getting pretty exciting getting all these people together. A lot of people made work for the show, but a lot of people haven’t, so that’s a part of this whole traveling, in-situ art game right now. It’s a beautiful thing because you really get work that vibrates strongest when you’re making work in-situ. Artists support each other, it’s great. Everyone’s been training for so long. This is really the product of what is great and going on over here right now, and everywhere in the world for that matter. I just came through Berlin. I just came through LA. I just came through London. It’s all really great. Everyone’s really positive and making quality work.
Photo by unusualimage
RJ: Speaking of London, you just had a print a Pictures on Walls. Can you describe what the process was like, making work for that show?
Lister: Well for that one, I worked pretty closely with the print team, and I wanted to make sure they were unique. The boss over there was into me taking my time, and we made something beautiful. And the show itself was an extension and a growth of what I’ve been working on. I was really excited. It was really great.
White Walls Gallery and 941 Geary, sister galleries in San Fransisco, have two interesting shows opening in April.
Starting on Friday, 941 Geary will open an “indoor mural” installation, aka lots of artists painting the walls inside the gallery. Eine, Roa, Chor Boogie, APEX, Casey Gray, D Young V, Skinner, Hush and Blek le Rat have contributed or will contribute to the project as it continues to evolve over the course of a few weeks. So that could either be really cool or a complete mess. We’ll see. Here’s to hoping it works well.
Over at White Walls, Roa is installing a solo show. That show opens on April 9th. Roa’s recent installations in London got glowing reviews almost across the board, so this large solo installation will be one not to miss.
