Back to Bushwick, we discovered new work by OverUnder, Aiko and Bast. We revisited, too, one of our favorite Roa walls.
Photos by Tara Murray and Lois Stavsky
Back to Bushwick with OverUnder, Aiko, Bast and Roa
Weekend link-o-rama
This week it seems like I’ve been appearing elsewhere on the web as much as here on the blog. I’ve been more active than usual on Vandalog’s tumblr, which I’ve finally getting a feel for; I was interviewed by Brian Sherwin over at FineArtViews; and I wrote a post for my friend at Hyperallergic about advertisers utilizing the style of Liu Bolin to sell stuff. Here’s what didn’t make it to Vandalog:
- Revok called out Fab 5 Freddy for appropriating (or in Revok’s words “stealing”) letters from other artists including Sever and using them in his own work. You can read Revok’s post here, and hopefully I’ll have some thoughts about it in a post on Vandalog over the weekend. A commenter on Vandalog actually noted that Fred was doing this about two months ago.
- New York Magazine published an article, and not a particularly brief one, all about a painting that is supposedly by Jean-Michel Basquiat but was denied by his estate’s authentication committee. Well, while the writer of the article tries to get readers to sympathize with going through a potentially daunting and certainly not transparent authentication process, there was really no point for the whole thing: The painting is clearly by Phil Frost, something that the article doesn’t mention at all. So, umm… good work. Thanks to Known Gallery for pointing this all out.
- Nunca, Titifreak, Invader and more at this show in Paris.
- Retna painted a mural in Miami.
- Here’s some images of Bast’s show in Newcastle.
- The New York Times went with graffiti writer Freedom back to The Freedom Tunnel where he used to paint and took some photos.
- A street art / mystery investigation documentary film thing. Looks kinda cool except that they are trying to “out” an artist, so I’m not sure I’m 100% cool with that.
Photo by Sam3
Weekend link-o-rama
This week has been a lot of trying to get ahead on my work, because on Saturday evening I’m headed to New York City for the night. I’ll be checking out Flash at the Wooster Street Social Club. Here’s some stuff I missed covering over the last few days:
- Bast has a show opening this weekend at Lazarides’ Newcastle location. Most of the work is in a completely (almost unrecognizably) new style.
- Swoon’s installation at the ICA Boston is now on view.
- Some big walls are being painted at the CityLeaks festival in Germany.
- But none of those murals are quite as cool as Liqen’s latest.
- 555 Gallery in Detroit has finally settled their lawsuit and can display the Banksy that they stole off the streets, completely ruining the meaning of the piece.
- Escif was at Fame Festival.
- Kaws has a solo show open now in LA.
- Fab5Freddy, Lee and Futura are together in a show at Subliminal Projects this weekend.
- Ludo’s show in London is open now.
- Twist aka Barry McGee and his partner Amaze get up big in Sydney.
Photo by RJ Rushmore
Photos from Factory Fresh’s Bushwick Art Park
Last weekend, Factory Fresh hosted another 1-day iteration of their Bushwick Art Park with new murals by Veng, Bast and Skewville and sculptures by Leon Reid IV, Specter, Skewville, Infinity and others. Above is a photo of Skewville’s mural. Right next to is Bast’s mural. The Street Spot has photos of Veng’s mural and the sculptures.
Photo by astrodub
Weekend link-o-rama
Steph is here in Philly now and tomorrow Jordan Seiler, Gaia, and Marc and Sara Schiller will be here too. Pretty good week. Plus, Art in the Streets is almost here and I’ll be in LA for that. Hopefully see some of you there. Here’s some (Philadelphia-centric) news to enjoy over the weekend:
- Some very clever yarnbombing on the Rocky statue outside of the Philadlephia Museum of Art. It’s a world-class museum, but so many people just go to see that sculpture and then leave.
- Robots Will Kill have a show up at Vincent Michael Gallery in Philadelphia right now. While there’s definitely some filler in there, each artist has 1-2 standout pieces, making this worth a visit. The opening was pretty great, as it was full of teenage sticker artists writing in each other’s black books. Classic.
- Agnès B now has a space for art in NYC. The opening looks like an overly-swanky affair, but there’s definitely some good art on the walls (and t-shirts from Bast. What could be better?).
- This wall by Cranio is pretty cool. Yes, there’s some Os Gêmeos influence, but the shadows are all Cranio and who in Sao Paulo isn’t influenced by them?
- The LA Weekly has done a long feature on Art in the Streets.
Photo by Becki Fuller
New Faile and Bast
It’s not about the money (well, actually…)
Escif painted that mural outside of Graffiti Gone Global’s Fresh Produce show in Miami last week. While Basel Miami and the associated events aren’t all about money, it’s certainly on everyone’s minds. That doesn’t mean that the shows were bad though. There was actually a lot of great art on display for those who took the time to look. Here are some of the indoor highlights (unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera with me besides my cameraphone, so I have to link to other peoples’ coverage of everything):
- Amazingly, Sanrio’s Hello Kitty show was, by all accounts, actually pretty good. I stuck to my vow of not checking out the show myself (okay, actually, once I changed my mind and wanted to see it, the show was close both times I tried to stop by). Of course it looks like there was some crap and boring pandering to the brand, but there seem to be a few decent paintings in there too. Also, it was super crowded every time I walked by, so hopefully those visitors who were there for Sanrio’s show also saw some of the other great shows nearby.
- Hi-Fructose and Arrested Motion have some good photo-summaries of the main fair, Basel Miami.
- Retna‘s solo show, Silver Lining, at Primary Projects was his first show since being on the cover of Juxtapoz. After landing in Miami last Thursday evening, I went to straight from the airport to Primary Projects to catch the end of this opening. There was a little bit of something for everyone: installations, canvas, monotype prints, work on old doors and more. Oddly enough, it was the more refined work that didn’t appeal to me. For me, the canvases seemed to be lacking that spark that makes Retna’s work so amazing. Everything else was a real treat though. The watercolors and monotypes in particular were beautiful. This show is still running, so any Miami residents who haven’t seen it yet really should stop by. For the rest of the world Arrested Motion took photos.
- Jonathan LeVine Gallery put on a solid group show. The standout piece was a new artwork by Judith Supine. Unfortunately, Hi-Fructose’s picture of the standout piece is blurry (the super-glossy varnish must have confused the camera) and the gallery’s photo doesn’t show the glossiness of the piece. HF have photos of the rest of the show though.
- While it was technically mostly a mural project, I’m throwing Wynwood Walls into this post because the vibe was like a gallery show. Hrag and I are pretty much in agreement on this one. Although I’d give Logan Hicks’ mural more credit than Hrag.
Lastly, I want to mention New Image Art‘s pop-up show. There was some new artwork by Judith Supine, Os Gêmeos, Bast and others, as well as a bunch of photos by Neckface and his friends, which are 100x more interesting than I had expected them to be. Here are a few photos from that show:
This is probably most, if not all, if the coverage I’ll be giving to indoor things at Basel Miami, but I’ll be posting a lot more about the murals and other outdoor events in the coming days.
Photos by Escif and courtesy of New Image Art
Hell’s Half Acre: Laz’ turn in the tunnels
After a series of shows in LA over the summer, Lazarides Gallery‘s next pop-up show is taking place back home in London. Next month, they’ll be at The Old Vic Tunnels (aka, the Leake Street tunnels) for a group show: Hell’s Half Acre. The is only running from October 12-17th, but the list of artists is top notch: Polly Morgan, Vhils, Mark Jenkins, Bast, Todd James and more.
The entire show will be inspired by Dante’s Inferno and all the artists will making work based on their interpretations of hell.
For more info, go here (sorry, it’s a PDF).
Photo by Jack Two
Things to look at this weekend…
I’m guessing that with college only getting busier (although, as Stickboy pointed out on Twitter, freshman year isn’t exactly the busiest), I think I’ll finally have to resort to a semi-weekly link post. So Things to look at this weekend… will probably become a weekly feature on Vandalog (but maybe with more exciting name). So here’s what I’ve been reading recently:
- Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A is pretty much what the surprising title says. Turns out, the V&A museum has a pretty solid collection of urban art prints by artists like Swoon, D*Face and Blek le Rat. This show opens at a museum in Coventry, England on October 9th and UK Street Art has more info.
- Tristan Manco‘s latest book, Street Sketchbook: Journeys, will be released at the end of September. Tristan is one of the people that I most respect in the street art community. Besides curating Cans Festival, he has been writing quality street art books for about a decade. He probably knows more about the artists he is writing about than just about anyone else, but he keeps everything accessible to a mass audience. Originally, I was skeptical of the concept of this book, but I’ve since been convinced that it will be at least worth checking out, and will probably be the best street art book of the year in terms of mass appeal (although other books will likely top it for street art fanatics). For me, the most exciting part of this book is going to be the exhibition that Tristan is curating at Pictures on Walls for next month. You’ll probably hear more about it on Vandalog in the coming weeks, but basically all the artists from his new book will be in the show. WallKandy has more info.
- Bast has a solo show at Lazarides’ Rathbone Place. Most day’s I’m pretty indifferent to Bast indoors (credit to him for always getting up though), but I’m liking some of this work, and the Bast fans I’ve spoken with think this is some of his best work yet. Arrested Motion has photos.
- Eelus has a solo show at Brooklynite Gallery in NY. The show runs through October 2nd. Hi-Fructose has some great photos.
- It’s not a new idea and this video has been appearing all across the web, but if you haven’t checked out this “birds as CCTVs” project yet, it’s about time you do. I ignored it at first because I thought the idea was tired, but this version brings the idea to new levels and the video is very well-made.
- One of my favorite art blogs is Street Art is Dead. If you haven’t read it before, it’s basically a no-holds-barred street art blog. Basically, I guess the writer of the blog is anonymous or just really doesn’t care what people think, so he/she really says it like it is and reveals juicy tidbits of gossip before anybody else. Today I want to link to two recent posts from Street Art is Dead. This one , on a topic that will not be discussed on Vandalog because I don’t want to play into the hype-machine, and this 100%-spot-on post about the latest Dolk prints and SPQR’s upcoming show at Signal Gallery. SAiD took the words right out of my mouth about SPQR and Dolk before I could post that here.
- Old-school street artist Richard Hambleton has a solo show which just opened this week in Moscow. It looks pretty damn good. Of course, Arrested Motion has photos and all the info you need.
Unauthorized collaborations: Specter invades NY street art
Dammit. Once again, Specter is messing with people’s heads in an awesome way. For his latest pieces, which he’s calling “sidebusts,” Specter has “collaborated” with various street artists in New York by adding on to work that they had already put up. In the case of the above sidebust of a Swoon poster, the top half of the piece was falling apart and had been partially written over, but Specter brought it back to a state that looks almost like new (in fact, I know at least one other blogger who thought that the work was entirely by Swoon). So far, Specter has done similar work on street art by Skewville, Bast and Faile. Here’s his sidebust of a Bast poster (Specter added the flag and matched it perfectly to a portion of the wheatpaste which had already been torn off):
Check out more examples of these sidebusts at The Street Spot.
Photos by Luna Park