The wonderful Steve Harrington from Brooklyn Street Art just released this beautiful video of Chris Stain and Armsrock working on a rooftop spot collaboration. These two fantastic individuals are currently working on an installation at Ad Hoc that will be opening August 7th. More info on the show as that date gets closer.
photo credit Jaime Rojo
– Gaia
Last week I had the chance to spend 2 days in New York City. New York is where modern graffiti and street art originated (yes I am aware that Cornbread was from Philadelphia), so it was a trip I had been looking forward to for a while. I crammed as much art into my visit as a possibly could.
First, before getting to New York, I was in Baltimore for a day. While there, I had lunch with Gaia. One of the topics we spoke about, the perception of street art as a democratic process, turned into a post on his blog, and soon (probably after finals are over) I think I’ll be doing a similar post.
My first day in New York, I made sure to see a number of galleries. I’m sure I’ll forget to mention somewhere I visited, but here’s a summary.
First I went to the Jonathan LeVine Gallery for their Phil Frost show. I’m not the biggest fan of Phil Frost. I own one small piece by him, and I really like it, but for the most part, I just don’t get his work. I had never seen more than 2 or 3 pieces together at a time though, so I thought that maybe seeing an entire show would convert me to a fan. It did not. I’m still pretty indifferent to his work.
Next, I made a quick stop at the Doma Café and Gallery for a show by Erik Otto. I’d never heard of Otto, but it was recommended by Hooked. I was in a rush, so I only browsed the show quickly, but it was pretty impressive for artwork in a café, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for Otto in the future.
Naturally, Deitch Projects was a place I had to stop, and though I originally had little interest in Ryan McGinness’ show there, a few pieces definitely caught my eye.
After popping in at Glowlab and then seeing the amazing wall where the above video took place, I was headed to Williamsburg, the heart of NYC’s street art scene… Continue reading “Vandalog Visits New York”
I’m sort of squishing three posts into one here, but they’re all related.
1. From The Streets of Brooklyn opened this weekend at thinkspace gallery in LA. The show, curated by Ad Hoc Art’s Andrew Michael Ford, has taken a bunch of Brooklyn’s best and most prolific artists and put them all together to pretty much transport Bushwick/Williamsburg to LA. Looks like an absolutely fascinating show. Maybe something like it will come to London in the future (are you reading this Andrew?) Read a review here, check out more photos here, and go here to see thinkspace’s wrap up of the show.
2. One of the artists at From The Street of Brooklyn is Veng from Robots Will Kill. He’s being doing a few pieces lately which are a bit different, so I thought I’d post one of those. Woodcuts I think. There’s also a very nice little post on him at the Curbs & Stoops blog, a blog/gallery that I’ve just found but I really like (see item #3).
3. So basically I went to the Curbs & Stoops blog to read that post on Veng (hopefully you all have too). Then I clicked around the site a bit. Turns out, they are some pretty awesome folks. They’re all about getting art to people who normally wouldn’t have access to art. They have beautiful prints for sale at low prices, a blog that highlights some great artists, and 3 projects they are working on that sound great. The first project is Mission District Portraits. This summer, they went on the street and offered to take anybody’s picture for free. Good fun for all involved I’m sure. Then there is A Dollar For Your Story where you get paid $1 to tell a story on video to show the transformation that happens when people tell stories. Eventually, the stories will be shown online. Finally, their coolest project has to be the Mobile Art Gallery. This isn’t functioning yet, but it sounds like the best idea to come out of New York since probably ever. The Mobile Art Gallery is going to literally park wherever and sell art on a sliding scale so that anybody can afford it. Yes! Art for the people!
So that’s why today is a great day in art.
Photos from veng_rwk and Stephen_W
When art fans in New York are looking for cutting edge art, they need look no further than Ad Hoc Art in Brooklyn. Ad Hoc Art shows some of the best new street art and “low brow” art for not too much money. Their upcoming show, The Brooklyn Block Party, has work from 11 lino-block cutting artists including Swoon, Imminent Disaster, Elbowtoe, Judith Supine, and Gaia, and their new project room has upcoming shows from some of my favorite artists, C215 and Know Hope.
Ad Hoc Art is also the home of Peripheral Media Projects, probably two the most anti-authoritarian street artists working today.
Andrew Michael Ford is the director at Ad Hoc Art, and he’s been kind enough to answer a few questions about the gallery. Continue reading “Andrew From Ad Hoc”
