Tag: ben eine

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The Lush interview…

A Warning From the Editor: This interview is intended for mature audiences only. If you are not at least 18 years old, you shouldn’t read this. Or if you are at your office. Or you are my parents. This interview is definitely definitely definitely Not Safe For Work. There’s nudity, strong language and insults. Some people will find the visuals and/or text of this article offensive, vulgar and insulting. Others will find it hilarious. Personally, I think this might be my favorite interview we’ve ever had on Vandalog, but we take no responsibility for what Lush says. The views expressed are his own, and may or may not be the opinions of the Vandalog staff. So yeah, that’s your warning label. Consider yourself warned and proceed with caution. If you do choose to read the rest of this post, be prepared to laugh your ass off.

What can I say about Lush? If you think the South Park writers are too tame, Lush might be just the artist you’ve been looking for. If you think street artists are a bunch of pussies, Lush is definitely your man. I’d say that this graffiti writer out of Melbourne is taking the art world hostage, except that he’s not the type to take prisoners. He’d probably collect the ransom money and then shoot everyone in the head just for kicks. Lush seems to think that graffiti is too cutesy these days, so he’s pushing the limits of taste. In fact, it looks like he intentionally goes beyond those limits for the sake of being distasteful. Like graffiti is supposed to be. And, often times, his pieces are funny as hell too. Nobody is safe from Lush’s attacks: he goes after street artists, graffiti writers and even celebrities with unparalleled balls and cleverness (and I wouldn’t be surprised if blogs, including this one, end up a target as well). His first gallery show opened last year in Melbourne, and I loved what I saw. Now Lush is in California preparing for solo shows in LA and SF. The LA show opens this Friday. I sent a few questions over to Lush via email. Check out his unedited responses, plus some of his NSFW pieces and photographs, after the jump… Continue reading “The Lush interview…”

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Moniker presents “Gossip Well Told”

On July 21, Moniker will be opening a show at Blackhall Studios in Shoreditch entitled Gossip Well Told. Featuring the likes of artists Swoon, Eine, Dabs and Myla, Case and Herakut. There will also be some great street art photos from Cheryl Dunn that I am really looking forward to seeing as well. Below is one of her photos from the Twist/Barry McGee mural on Houston Street in New York City.

Photo by Cheryl Dunn and courtesy of Moniker

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Next week: Stolenspace’s summer group show

D*face

Stolenspace Gallery‘s summer group show opens next week, on July 7th. All the work in this show, prints and originals, will be new. The artist lineup includes D*face, Dan Witz, Eine, Miss Van, Ripo, San, Shepard Fairey, Word To Mother and a number of others. Check out the full artist list on Stolenspace’s website. Here’s a great little piece from Dan Witz that will be there:

Dan Witz

The show runs from the 7th of July (opening from 6-9pm) through July 31st.

Photos courtesy of Stolenspace Gallery

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Tox gets convicted in London, Revok is free in LA

Is this Tox09 tag by Daniel Halpin or an imitator?

While Revok has left prison in LA this week a free man (but with thousands of dollars in legal debts, which you can help out with by buying a t-shirt), two English graffiti writers have been convicted for committing criminal damage. Daniel Halpin claims that he gave up writing graffiti years ago and imitators have since picked up his Tox tag, but the jury felt otherwise. Even Ben Eine came to Halpin’s defense as an expert on graffiti, claiming that the  Tox tag is extremely easy to imitate. Halpin has already spent 150 days in custody for this latest arrest, and it sounds like he’ll be sentenced to even more time when the sentencing portion of the trial occurs. Daniel Fenlon was also convicted in the same set of trials for writing CK1. The Guardian has more on Halpin and Fenlon.

I’ll just say this: I don’t think that graffiti writers or street artists should get prison sentences for their non-violent actions. I’m a fan of restorative justice. Get these guys painting murals or buffing graffiti or doing community service of some sort. It would mean less money is spent on graffiti removal and less people would be in expensive-to-run prisons.

Photo by meophamman

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Weekend link-o-rama

Neckface and Reader stickers in NYC. Photos by Sabeth718

If you looked at Vandalog this week, you’d think it was a slow week in street art. That’s not so, but I’ve been locked down working on Up Close and Personal (opening pics here). So here’s some of what I missed covering this week:

Photo by Sabeth718

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Big things at White Walls and 941 Geary

Roa in Mexico City

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.

Photo by Roa

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Eine in San Fransisco – “Greatest”

Ben Eine’s first major solo show since David Cameron gave President Obama an Eine artwork as a gift opened last week at White Walls Gallery in San Fransisco. While normally I would say that while I like an Eine canvases here or there and definitely love his murals, a solo show of 40-some pieces which get repetitive pretty quickly is not something I would enjoy, but with the tongue-in-cheek title of Greatest, I’ve come around to really liking this one. Is Eine the greatest artist or street artist or graffiti writer or screen printer or greatest anything of all time? Nah. He’s good. Few murals have had a stronger impact on me than his SCARY mural in Shoreditch. I’ve got a couple of prints from him. But I wouldn’t call him the greatest. And I don’t think he would call himself the greatest either. But David Cameron sure made him look like the greatest something. Especially when that gift to Obama was actually a trade for an Ed Ruscha print. Damn. Hype has been surrounding Eine for a year and people have been calling him the greatest, but he knows the hype won’t last forever and has even mentioned it in an interview or two, so why not play up the hype with a knowing smile? Well, that’s just what he’s done at White Walls. Check it out:

Hey, maybe, by being so clever, Eine is the greatest… Nah, just great.

Photos courtesy of White Walls Gallery

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Some assorted street art

Eine in SF. Photo courtesy of Eine

Found a few walls worth mentioning today, from a variety of artists, so I’m throwing them all together here. Above is one of Eine‘s murals in San Fransisco, painted as part of his show at White Walls Gallery.

Skewville are getting busy on the streets of London. Here’s one of the shop roll gates they’ve painted:

Skewville. Photo by High Roller Society

This is the first thing I’ve seen from Canvaz, but I’m liking it:

Canvaz. Photo by Canvaz

And finally this is by Weah on a vacant building in Houston, Texas (see more from Weah here):

Weah. Photo by Candace Garcia

Photos courtesy of Eine and by High Roller Society, Canvaz and Candace Garcia

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When street art and advertisment collide

Yesterday RJ and I got sent this video of a a mural being put up in Sydney sponsored by Lipton Iced Tea. Despite tagging over some work already put there, the mural isn’t half bad. Apparently this is part of an ongoing series sponsored by the brand to create urban art projects in Australia while showcasing their partnered artists talents.

It’s no secret that art and advertising have been hand in hand ever since graffiti style became popular in the early 1980’s. But where is the line drawn between advertising art and art for advertising? And as such, can the work stand on its own as an entity to be appreciated or is it less appealing because it has brand association?

The video led us to further question other examples of this practice in the past and how audiences reacted to the works. I can think of several just near my flat alone- Tron Legacy painted ad on Great Eastern Street and the large scale Converse painted ad that went over the Eine piece on the Village Underground. Last week Vandalog posted about the annual Supreme paste ups depicting a celebrity photographed by everyone’s favorite “alleged” model molester, Terry Richardson. This year it was Lady Gaga who graced the streets of cities and my Tumblr dashboard as the photograph went viral. An annual event though, these flyers usually get bombed on their own by artists. In their own right, these photographs are artworks and can stand next to any Rankin or Chapelle portrait. But does the added connotation of being associated with Supreme lessen its artistic value? And what about artists like Faile and Poster Boy and Aakash Nihalani who amended the Lou Reed Supreme ads? Are those also further removed from the brand because the artist chose to alter the ads of their own volition?

I just wanted to put this idea out there and would love to hear what you guys think.

Photo by Steven P. Harrington for Brooklyn Street Art

Photo by Steven P. Harrington for Brooklyn Street Art

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Ben Eine paints SF before show at White Walls

Eine in San Fransisco

Ben Eine is in California preparing for his show at White Walls in San Fransisco. (The, I think, ironically titled) Greatest opens on March 12th and runs through April 2nd.

The show consists of two parts. First, the indoor side at White Walls: There will be 10 new works on canvas from Eine. I’ve always preferred Eine outdoors to indoors and thought of the indoor work similarly to how I see Invader’s gallery art: as reminders of what we’ve seen and loved outdoors, so we’ll see how that part of Greatest goes. The other half of the show is that Eine painting a full alphabet with permission on roll-gates in San Fransisco and will continue to do so for a couple of weeks, so that’s great. Eine holds a special place in my love of street art because he was the first artist besides Banksy whose work truly grabbed on on the street, so I’m pleased to hear that San Fransisco will be getting a little taste of Eine. The roll-gate letters don’t quite grab the viewer like SCARY did for me, but they do brighten up the streets. I’m looking forward to seeing how San Fransisco reacts a new Eine alphabet.

Also, I think this is his first solo show since Obama was given one of Eine’s paintings as a gift.

Photo by Steve Rhodes