Banksy + 5: October 2nd

Banksy on 25th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue. Photo by Luna Park. Click to view large.
Banksy on 25th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue. Photo by Luna Park. Click to view large.

So I know that late last night I said that I didn’t expect we would be covering all of Banksy’s new NYC work on this blog (also, did you somehow miss that he’s doing a bunch of work in NYC in October for his Better Out Than In project?). I said that we’d probably just be sending out links on Facebook or that I’d be tweeting about it. But then Jonathan Lynn from Anewspace in Dublin tweeted an idea at me: “you should do a column called ‘this is the new banksy & here is 5 more artists who painted today'”.

Banksy + 5 is a slight twist on Jonathan’s idea. Every time a new Banksy work for Better Out Than In is discovered, I’m going to post a photo of that work, as well as 5 photos of street art by other artists. The photos will be photos are sent to me or were uploaded to Flickr the day before the latest Banksy piece. So, for example, today’s Banksy + 5 includes the latest Banksy (the “New York Accent” stencil shown above) and 5 photos that were uploaded to Flickr on October 1st.

For today’s +5 we have NiceOne, Kid Acne, El Mac, Loretto and a collaborative piece by Shuby, Rowdy and Sweet Toof next to a piece by Eine:

NiceOne. Photo by Christmas Junkie.
NiceOne. Photo by Christmas Junkie.
Kid Acne. Photo by Kyla Borg.
Kid Acne. Photo by Kyla Borg.
El Mac. Photo by bernardoh.
El Mac. Photo by bernardoh.
Loretto. Photo by Sarflondondunc.
Loretto. Photo by Sarflondondunc.
Shuby, Rowdy and Sweet Toof next to Eine. Photo by Delete.
Shuby, Rowdy and Sweet Toof next to Eine. Photo by Delete.

Want to digitally side-bust Banksy and get some attention by being featured in a Banksy + 5 post? Get up, take some photos, and send them my way (rj a-t vandalog dot com).

Photos by Luna Park, Christmas Junkie, Kyla Borg, bernardoh, Sarflondondunc and Delete

Weekend link-o-rama

Buff Monster and Hoacs
Buff Monster and Hoacs

Enjoy the weekend:

Photo by Lois Stavsky

Sunday link-o-rama

L'Atlas, Mecro and more in Paris
L’Atlas, Mecro and more in Paris

Wait! The weekend isn’t over yet. Enjoy a bit of light reading and cool photos before the work week returns:

Photo by Laser Burners

Weekend link-o-rama

Smells, Cash4, Don Pablo Pedro and Keely
Smells, Cash4, Don Pablo Pedro and Keely

Last class of the school year yesterday. Now for finals. Can’t wait… Here are some distractions in case you’re in a similar boat:

  • NoseGo has some new prints available today with Unit44. These are not giclee prints, but rather archival pigment prints, a significant step up in quality as I understand it.
  • The fantastic ceramic street artist Carrie Reichardt is organizing this show in London.
  • Great sculptural installation and indoor mural by Pixel Pancho in Mexico City.
  • Loving this collaboration between Kofie and El Mac.
  • S.butterfly has photos of the Bom.K show in Paris. Wish I could see this one in person.
  • And Kaws has a solo show in Tokyo at the moment. It’s Kaws, so feel free to check out the photos, but you pretty much knows what’s coming.
  • JR and José Parlá collaborated on a mural on the outside of Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, where they have a two-man show opening next week. Glad to see Parlá working outdoors, but it always strikes me as a bit odd since he tries to distance his work from graffiti. I guess when there’s a show to promote… Although to be fair, the show is about a series of collaborative murals that JR and Parlá made together in Cuba.
  • JR’s Inside Out project booth in Times Square is a huge hit. He’s been covering the street with photos of people who stop by his little photobooth, and it looks awesome. The billboards in Times Square were even (briefly) given over to JR for the project. The whole thing is a fight against outdoor ads and for public spaces for the public, but JR manages to make his point without beating people over the head with politics. Instead, JR just shows people a better world and makes them smile. I’m not a JR fanatic, but I absolutely love this project.

Photo by Hrag Vartanian

Finals are approaching link-o-rama

OX in Paris
OX in Paris

This weekend I’ve been without solid internet access, and Caroline and I have both been knee-deep in exams and final essays for the last week, so here’s a belated link-o-rama…

Photo by OX

 

El Mac in Cuba with Primary Flight

The guys from Primary Flight recently traveled to Havana, Cuba with El Mac, where he painted this mural. The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Europe and Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba also helped to arrange the project. El Mac’s piece is titled El corazón de un sueño palpita entre mis manos (The Heart of a Dream Beats Within My Hands).

Click image to view large

Photos courtesy of Primary Flight

All City Canvas – Mexico City’s Urban Art Festival

Herakut. Photo courtesy of All City Canvas.

From April 29th to May 6th, Mexico’s capital city was hit with some paint, color and talent. The good news is that Mexico’s All City Canvas had a fantastic line up, who appear to have done fantastic work. Artists participating included Roa, Escif, Herakut, Sego, Interesni Kazki, Vhils, Saner and El Mac. The bad news is that unless you were one of the lucky few who were able to see it in person, the rest of us had to bare with the insta-nostalgia, lo-fi photo processing of Instagram since this was primarily how images of the murals were being released online. Interestingly enough, Gonzalo Alvarez, one of the project’s creators, acknowledged that “many artists in Mexico have no money to travel to other countries, and many of their influences come from the pictures they see on the Internet.” All City Canvas’ PR people could be commended for adhering to Alvarez’s philosophy and releasing the images where the masses seem to be (namely Instagram). But to broadcast art to its global audience through heavy photo filters is kind of like putting ketchup on a steak. Perhaps this argument is irrelevant if the intended audience was the Mexican youth who were able to witness street art in person instead of online. That was the philosophy, right? Quality photos had eventually been released. I suppose I am a bit apprehensive to see Instagram used as a marketing device for art or as my only means of seeing a piece. But that is a total digression from what this post should be focused on.

All City Canvas was awesome. Take a look at these almost completely unedited photos. Or go to Mexico City.

Herakut. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Street Art.
Roa. Photo courtesy of All City Canvas.
Vhils. Photo courtesy of All City Canvas.

In conjunction with the festical, gallery Fifty24MX in Mexico City is exhibiting a number of the artists participating in All City Canvas in a show entitled “Piezas“. The show opened on May 10th and will be running until May 27th, featuring work by Aryz, El  Mac, Interesni Kazki, Roa, Saner and Sego. Check out photos of the exhibition here.

Interesni Kazki. Photo courtesy of All City Canvas.
Interesni Kazki. Photo courtesy of All City Canvas.
Saner. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Street Art.
El Mac. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Street Art.
Escif. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Street Art.
Sego. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Street Art.
Sego. Photo courtesy of All City Canvas.

Photos courtesy of All City Canvas and Brooklyn Street Art

El Mac, Pablo Delgado, Interesni Kazki and more in VNA 17

I was finally been able to set aside some time this past weekend to ready Very Nearly Almost‘s issue #17. As usual, VNA have confirmed why they are my favorite magazine covering street art. For their latest issue, which is admittedly not that new so sorry for the delay, VNA interview some of the most interesting figures in street art, including El Mac and Interesni Kazki. Juxtapoz also recently had an interview with IK, but I get bored with Juxtapoz’s interview and found VNA’s interview interesting, so that’s saying something. As long as you ignore the interview with Goldie, VNA has once again shown their commitment to producing a magazine which is equally timely and timeless. They speak with some of the best-known names in street art today, but the magazine will be almost just as readable in a year or more.

The interviews with El Mac and Pablo Delgado were particular highlights for me. El Mac is well-spoken and just seems like a smart guy, which is always nice to learn. And Delgado is a figure who seemed to pop up out of nowhere in London and get bloggers and photographers all wondering “Who the hell is this guy putting up awesome tiny pieces all over Shoreditch?” practically overnight.

There’s also an interview with Malarky which should act as good documentation of his work on Brick Lane given that a lot of it won’t be around for much longer.

For the most part, I read other art magazines because I have to if I want Vandalog to be any good, but I read Very Nearly Almost because I enjoy it.

You can pick up a copy of VNA #17 online.

Photos courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

Avant-Garde Urbano festival

Blu

The Urban Space at Tudela de Navarra, Spain hosted the Avant-Garde Urbano mural festival on September 26th-30th. The project aimed to revive the architecture of the city with some fresh paint by Blu, Bs. As. Stencil, El Mac, Filippo Minelli, Run Don’t Walk, Sam3, Suso33 and more. The festival was produced by Castel Ruiz and curated by Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada. Here are some photos.

Suso33
Buenos Aires Stencil & Run Don't Walk
Buenos Aires Stencil & Run Don't Walk
FIlippo Minelli
El Mac

Haha, as I was writing this post, I notice this series of posts on Unurth that just went online.

Photos by Ana Alvarez-Errecalde