above – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

August 5, 2013

Placement is everything, but timing is important too

A piece of street art that’s only executed with modest skill, but is site specific or is placed somewhere special, can be better than a piece that’s absolutely technically flawless but unoriginal in placement or at home on any other wall in any other city. With this piece, ABOVE has practiced absolutely perfect placement and really got me smiling, even the work could probably be replicated with equal impressiveness on walls around the world. Although, ABOVE does say it took him 7 months of searching to find the perfect spot. Check out why he had to be so particular by watching the video…

TIMING IS EVERYTHING from ABOVE on Vimeo.

July 13, 2013July 14, 2013

Weekend link-o-rama

Enjoy the weekend:

Very nice set of matching abstract pieces by CDB, Wood and Graphic Surgery.
I love this GR170 mural. Looks like what a massive THR crew mural might look like if graffiti crews like THR were invited to mural festivals.
1xRun is doing a series of prints with members of The Weird crew. These two by Vidam and Dxtr are probably my favorites.
I find Above’s work to be very hit or miss, and this hits the spot for me.
Eine brought back some old imagery about children and CCTV cameras for his recent show at CHG Circa.
Miss Van and someone called Ciroschu are painting walls in London. So that’s cool I guess…
Definitely check out this video of Anthony Lister at the Oi You Street Art Festival.
These paintings on and of trains by Jens Besser are awesome.
This tweet by Marina Galperina is perfect.
On a similar note, earlier this week on Arrested Motion there were three posts out of five in a row that were basically about advertisements that involved artists: How&Nosm’s massive DKNY billboard in Times Square, KAWS’ put his logo on the MTV VMA Moonman sculpture because blah and El Mac painted street-level billboard for some FX tv show. Good for these guys getting paychecks I guess. I mean, KAWS never has to innovate for the rest of his life if he doesn’t feel like it, but I still don’t like billboards and I think it’s a bit ridiculous for people to be getting all excited about KAWS’ version of the Moonman.

Photo by Lois Stavsky

April 4, 2013April 4, 2013

Simple but powerful work by Above

Last year while Above was in Cape Town, South Africa, he completed a project that he has titled Ubuntu, after the South African philosophy that says that to be human is to be part of a community. With this project, Above reminds us that even relatively simple interventions in public space can be extremely powerful if done right. Okay, this one did require that Above get up on a lift for the installation, but the piece was made by local children out of old car tires. The tires went from trash to community artwork. Now, every child who helped Above has a stake in that sculpture, which serves as a physical reminder of the stake they each have in their community. Plus, it got a lot of kids painting, which is always good.

Here’s a video of the project:

You may notice that the video does not include a shot of the finished piece, but it kind of doesn’t matter what the piece looks like. What matters is that it was built by a community.

Photo courtesy of Above

September 22, 2012May 10, 2013

Weekend link-o-rama

I’m headed to Nuart next week, so expect updates to be sporadic any maybe Nuart-focused. Should be a great festival. Here’s what I missed this week:

Labrona, Roadsworth and some other top Canadians will be showing together in Toronto this weekend.
This beautiful mural is by Theis Wendt, Simon Hjermind Jensen, Anders Schmidt and Silas Inoue.
Roid goes black and white.
Like Andy Warhol Foundation and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s estate, the Keith Haring Foundation is going to stop authenticating Haring’s work.
Invader goes underwater with Jason deCaires Taylor.
This still life has to be one of Aryz’ best walls yet.
BSA has some great Occupy-related signs and street art.
Speaking of protest art, some revolutionary graffiti and street art was recently painted over in Egypt and that’s been causing quite a stir, with Egypt’s prime minister backing the artists and even calling for more revolutionary graffiti.
And back to NYC for more protest art. This time it’s some fantastic fake advertising for the fine services of the NYPD, which of course the NYPD is not happy about… Luckily I hear that at least one of these posters was saved by a fan.
What do people think about this work from ABOVE pointing out the 24% unemployment in Spain? A mural that simply points out such a depressing fact without any obvious rage or anything behind it seems to me like it’s doing practically the opposite of what murals should do, but maybe it’s a good way of making that fact more known. Thoughts?

Photo by Stinkfish

September 5, 2012September 5, 2012

ABOVE on social networking

ABOVE recently released this time lapse video regarding the extreme popularity of social media. It’s a bit like having a mirror put between yourself and your computer screen. I don’t know though, I’m pretty sure he’s trying to say that you should tweet this or post this on Facebook so all your “friends” can ‘like’ it.

April 12, 2012April 11, 2012

Above at Jewel City

Above sent over some info about his latest mural, a huge wall of text in Johannesburg at the diamond-trading hub Jewel City. Here’s how Above explains the piece:

Africa has had a devastating history of blood diamond wars. Blood diamond refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and then sold to finance an invading army’s war efforts, usually in Africa where more than two-thirds of the worlds diamonds are extracted. This site specific social / political word play was painted on the exterior wall of Johannesburg’s largest diamond trader Jewel City. Jewel City is a six-block mega-precinct that serves as a base for some 300 diamond traders as well as South Africa’s Diamond Board and State Traders Association. Jewel City is the largest diamond exporter in the southern hemisphere with over R7-Billion worth of Diamonds being exported every year.

I was able to get away with this diamond wall heist because I told the owners I would paint in big letters “Diamonds are a woman’s best friend” on the exterior of their building. The owners loved the idea and all quickly agreed. The next day I had started painting but what the owners didn’t know is that I lied to them and was hijacking their wall. Like any premeditated robbery, situations are not what they seem and shit can flip from best friends to worst enemies in a few moments.

I assume the owners were too busy trading diamonds inside the mega centre they never took the time to come out and see I was painting a controversial word play about the diamond trade and how it’s fueled so much bloodshed in wars making it one of man’s worst enemies.

See the rest of the piece, as well as some of my thoughts as to why it might be problematic, after the jump… Continue reading “Above at Jewel City”

February 29, 2012

Above: What goes up…

It’s great to see Above doing text work. Definitely what I prefer over his stenciling. What Goes Up was painted at Origin Wines in Cape Town, South Africa.

Speaking of Above, Fecal Face have just posted a preview of the special edition of his book Passport. I’ve also got one of these giant books leaning on my wall. Hopefully that will be a good enough reminder that I need to bring my passport to the airport on Friday even though I’m not flying internationally. Hopefully.

Anyway, here’s a video of What Goes Up getting painted…

WHAT GOES UP from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Photo by Above

January 20, 2012January 20, 2012

Weekend link-o-rama

Well, the internet went a bit crazy this week, but it looks like we’re winning. Thank you to anyone who noticed that Vandalog was offline on Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA and took the time to contact their representatives to voice objections to the bills. But enough about politics. This is an art blog.

This Mark Jenkins exhibition in Berlin looks awesome. The show has new sculptures, but it is also the launch of his monograph with Gestalten.
In a subway station a bit like the site of The Underbelly Project, a number of Russian street artists painted this installation.
Here’s a beautiful new piece from Phlegm.
Above has a bunch of new photos on his website.
The Toasters’ film launches in London on Tuesday.
Barry McGee will have a show this year at UC Berkeley’s art museum. The show is made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Leon Reid IV‘s latest project is pretty different from what we’ve come to expect from Reid. It’s a series of posters depicting recent world events. Hrag Vartanian spoke with Reid about the series.
Looking for something great to do on Saturday night in LA? Try this – New Image Art and The Hole have teamed up for a party with some DJs and musicians plus installations by Retna, Anthony Lister and Drugs Crew.

Photo by Dal

November 28, 2011December 3, 2011

Miami mural madness 2011 begins…

Peter Vahan sent over these images of what’s been going on over the last few days in Wynwood, Miami. Primary Flight and Wynwood Walls each have a number of murals being painted by a range of artists. Here’s just a small selection of the progress so far from Neuzz, How & Nosm, Above, Shepard Fairey and Retna…

Above@Wynwood by Peter Vahan WEB (1) — Above and Shepard Fairey

HownNosm — How & Nosm, click image to view large

HownNosm@29thST by Peter Vahan WEB (2) — How & Nosm

Photos by Peter Vahan

November 5, 2011

Weekend link-o-rama

laguna jaz — Jaz and Laguna in Madrid (click to view large)

This week just keeps getting better. Looks like we’ve got a bit of NYC coming to Philadelphia with a show curated by Matt Siren. Here’s what I meant to blog about this week:

Faith47 and DAL collaborated on this wall.
If you’re a big fan of ABOVE, you need to see the special edition of his new book.
Here’s a number of photos from Os Gêmeos’ latest museum show.
Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s billboard takeovers from the 1970’s and 1980’s are great.
Boe is doing something a bit different with his graffiti.
Barry McGee has found new gallery representation in NYC.
Blek le Rat, Aiko, Sickboy, Faile and Swoon give props to their favorite living street artists.
Graffuturism are curating some walls in Miami next month and the line up is solid as can be.

Photo by Jaz