escif – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

January 6, 2018

We The People, Six Murals for Philadelphia

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and Dennis McNett outside of The University of the Arts, for *We The People*. Photo by Steve Weinik.

In 2017, I curated the We The People series for Mural Arts Philadelphia, a series of six murals by some of my favorite artists. I probably should have been writing about We The People on here regularly since July, but here’s a very belated update from Philly.

Before we get into We the People, a bit of context. The last year has seen the floodgates open in the USA, with national conversations on crises that have been festering under-reported for years, like sexual harassment and racism. The arts community has added their voices to the mix through projects like the Amplifier Foundation, Not Surprised, and the Whitney’s An Incomplete History of Protest.

This moment demands urgent public art. And muralists have responded. In at least one case, an artist was censored after-the-fact and had to make things work outside of an institutional context. But some mural festivals have embraced a spirit of activism, most notably WALL\THERAPY in Rochester, NY and Living Walls, The City Speaks in Atlanta, GA.

*Questioning Whiteness* by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, for *We The People*. Photo by Steve Weinik.

It’s in a similar spirit to all of those projects that we tried a little experiment in Philadelphia with We The People. When Mural Arts invited me to curate a series of walls for them, I figured it had to be of the moment, and with artists that they weren’t already doing a lot of work with. So we invited Molly Crabapple, Chris “Daze” Ellis, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Dennis McNett, NTEL, and Jess X. Snow to create work celebrating the best of the American spirit right now, while also reflecting current national concerns. Plus, it was a continuation of Mural Arts’ years-long effort to work with more street artists. There was little community engagement beyond what I and the project manager did while hunting for walls, but I think that by being careful about sites, artists, and content, we brought to life some strong, timely, and site-responsive work.

Continue reading “We The People, Six Murals for Philadelphia”

September 2, 2017

Blu and Escif in Basque Country

Escif and Blu just wrapped up two murals each at Errekaleor, a self-managed neighborhood in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain that’s been around since 2013. The Errekaleor community is currently fighting against eviction, and has transitioned to renewable energy via solar panels after the city cut them off from the grid.

I’m not usually one for glow-in-the-dark murals, but I love this one from Escif. On his blog, Escif wrote (translated here by Google and me), “The city cut the light without thinking that night belongs to the residents, and they were given, unknowingly, the possibility of making the darkness a little clearer. They say cats can see at night. So we painted the eyes of this great black cat with fluorescent paint so that he too can be self-sufficient.”

And this Blu mural is an instant classic, and hopefully an inspiration to the residents of Errekaleor who are resisting eviction and development.

You can see Blu’s 2nd Errekaleor mural here, and Escif’s here.

Best of luck to the residents of Errekaleor as they continue their fight.

Photos from Escif and Blu

October 9, 2016

Weekend link-o-rama

Lady Liberty at Pedro Reyes' Doomocracy — Lady Liberty at Pedro Reyes’ *Doomocracy*

Between two projects launching at Creative Time and preparations underway for two major personal projects (more on one of those in just a moment), Vandalog has been pretty quiet lately. Taking a step back has allowed me to get excited about all the good things happening in street art, graffiti, and public art over the last month or two, and there’s lots more goodness still to come in through the fall. So here’s a bit of a round up of what I’ve been working on, the great things some friends of Vandalog are doing, and all the interesting stuff that people who I were were my friends are doing.

Over at my office job at Creative Time, we just launched Doomocracy, an immersive artwork by Pedro Reyes. Basically, it’s a haunted house in Brooklyn, themed around the state of American politics. I’llet the folks at artnet News explain. I’ll just add that I am consistently amazed by the epic projects that the production team at Creative Time is able to pull off. Tickets to Doomocracy are free, but right now they’ve all booked up. You can sign up here to get an email if we release more tickets.
Simultaneously, we’ve also got the Creative Time Summit coming up in DC next week. Dozens of amazing speakers coming together to talk about art, social justice, and the state of democracy. And tickets to that are still available. See you there?
In January, I’ll be returning to Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia to curate ALL BIG LETTERS, an exhibition about the tools, strategies, motivations, and innovations of graffiti writers. It’s an honor to be curating a show at Haverford’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, where I worked for almost four years while I was in school there. More info on ALL BIG LETTERS as that approaches.
Swoon has two shows up in Detroit at the moment. Her installation at the Detroit Institute of Arts appears to be classic Swoon, seamlessly merging her aesthetic with an already brilliant space. And her show at Library Street Collective, The Light After, sounds like one of her most ambitious and personal gallery installations to date. The Light After is inspired by a powerful dream that Swoon had the night that her mother passed away. I dare you to read Swoon’s explanation of the experience and the show without tearing up.
Oh man… gallerist Steve Lazarides is the butt of a mural-sized joke in Melbourne. Props to Adnate for this one. For a more in-depth analysis of the Banksy exhibition Lazarides has curated in Melbourne, Alison Young has this take. A note to Steve: A gift shop? Seriously? The rest of this exhibition I can accept, but the gift shop is messed up.
Lately, I’ve really been enjoying the work of Flix. Ekosystem has a nice selection of photos to flip through.
This story (and the accompanying artwork) is great. I think the headline says it all: Brussels Plagued by NSFW Street Art
Okay, painting guns and tanks on decorative household objects isn’t exactly new, but I love Escif’s particularly poignant take on the idea.
Fantastic and simple intervention from Elfo. I swear, he’s the MacGyver of street art.
Usually, I’m at best indifferent to Supreme, but they just released some new t-shirts and hoodies designed by BLADE, so they’ve found a way to tempt even me.
Martha Cooper is on the cover of the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost. Pick up your copy here.
One of the great thing about Nuart is that it is a place for debate. This year was no different. As for the murals and street art, Arrested Motion has you covered over two posts. Brooklyn Street Art considers this year’s Nuart theme of “post street art.” All interesting stuff. However, Living Walls’ Monica Campana did make one important critique of this year’s line up and language.
Wooster Collective is releasing a book to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their historic 11 Spring Street exhibition. Although I missed the original 11 Spring Street, I’m looking forward to celebrating the project with this book.
Luna Park, one of the most important photographers of contemporary street art and graffiti, is releasing her first book. (Un)Sanctioned: The Art on New York Streets will launch next month as part of the 10 Years of Ad Hoc Art show at Brooklyn’s 17 Frost Gallery, and you can pre-order the book on Amazon. This is LONG overdue. We all know that there’s a glut of generic street art and graffiti photography books already on the market, but (Un)Sanctioned seems likely to be an essential purchase on par with Trespass, Subway Art, and Stuck Up Piece of Crap.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

December 23, 2014

Help fund Escif’s new book on Indiegogo

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Conceptual street artist Escif is in the midst of an already very successful crowdfunding campaign to produce his first book, titled ELSEWHERE. Escif is one of the more interesting and groundbreaking street artists to have emerged in recent years, and it’s great to see his book already seeing so much success. You can support the project and pick up a copy on Indiegogo.

Photo courtesy of Escif

June 5, 2014June 4, 2014

Unplugged link-o-rama

It’s been a while since I did a link-o-rama, but I’m really behind right now and it seems the only way to catch up. I’ve been living in my wifi-less apartment, and I’m headed to London, so these few minutes I’m spending in a cafe may be my only chance for a while to write about a few things…

Caroline and I recently watched Sign Painters, a film about the art of sign painting. It’s available now on iTunes, and well worth checking out. I’m a sucker for films about art and documentaries about people who are obsessed with perfecting their craft, whatever that may be, and Sign Painters delivers on both counts.
The second edition of Open Walls Baltimore just wrapped up. Check out coverage at Complex and Brooklyn Street Art. Escif’s piece is my personal favorite. As like much of Escif’s best work, it’s simultaneously a great mural and a screw-you to the idea of murals decorating cities.
A great new sculpture by Delta was just installed in Belgium.
Pixel Pancho and Case recently collaborated on a mural in Brooklyn. It’s a collaboration that I wouldn’t’ have thought would work, but the result is really strong. Great job guys.
Adam Void solo show coming up this week in Asheville, North Carolina.
Later this month, Unruly Gallery will host a 3-man show with Shoe, Bando and Mode2, three great writers with decades of history and importance. This should be special.
I trust Martyn Reed’s taste, so although I’m not yet in love with DOT DOT DOT‘s work, I’m looking forward to seeing photos from his upcoming show at Reed Projects.
Jonathan Levine Gallery has two shows coming up this month that I’m really excited about: solos from Crash and Anthony Lister.
Both the New York Times and Elle Magazine have recently had articles about women in street art and graffiti. Usually, these articles frustrate me. The Elle Magazine article is typical. The NYTimes article is one of the best I have read on this subject. I actually really enjoyed it. Maybe it’s just that it was well written, but I think there is more. Caroline put it really well to me. She describes the Elle Magazine article as describing these artists as women first and artists second, and the NYTimes article as describing them as artists who happen to be women. Elle Magazine focuses on the fact that they are women. The NYTimes actually talks about the amazing street art and murals being made by women.
Steve Powers is in the midst of painting a series of Love Letter murals for Baltimore.

Photo by mermaid99

June 4, 2014

Brandalism returns to the UK

Anthony Lister and John Fekner in London

About two years ago, a group got together to take over about 50 billboards throughout the UK in the course of a few days. It was the Brandalism project. And they are back. Last month, Brandalism brought together the work of 40 artists, including a few very big names, to replace 365 bus-shelter ads in 10 UK cities. The results are beautiful and impressive. Here are a few of my favorites (okay, it’s a lot, because there’s a lot of great work in this project):

Continue reading “Brandalism returns to the UK”

November 26, 2013November 25, 2013

Escif questions the role of murals

I love this new mural by Escif, which is in the same vein as some of his work from this past summer. Those two murals, along with this new piece, titled Vertical Garden, all pick up on the question of what the hell contemporary murals are supposed to be. Are they just a new version of plop art, decoration for the wealthy? How can artists coming out of street art and graffiti reconcile their roots in rebellion, complete artistic freedom, anti-authoritarianism and direct community engagement with creating urban decor at the request of hotel owners and city councils?

Photo by Escif

July 13, 2013July 13, 2013

Escif and the pizza place

I think this piece by Escif close our our coverage of Public Art Horsens, a recent mural project in Horsens, Denmark. I really love what Escif did here. He has done a great job in Horsens and elsewhere of subverting expectations and keeping rebellion in mural festivals in programs that all-too-often just result in wall decoration. Photographer Henrik Haven, who helped organize the murals, sent over a story explaining this mural…

-The organizers: “Hello, we are working on a public art project here in Horsens, so we are looking for some walls to intervene. A selected group of international artists will arrive in town to create public works on various locations in the end of June.”

-The owner of the building: “Sounds really interesting. The Turkish pizzeria that just opened in the adjacent premises is not the most beautiful image for my building… you know! So I´m sure that some nice renowned artists can equilibrate this.”

-The organizers: “Sounds good, sir!”

And here is what Escif painted next to the pizzeria:

Photos by Henrik Haven

July 5, 2013

Weekend link-o-rama

Okay I’m gonna write this quickly and get outside, because it’s basically been cloudy and rainy for two straight weeks in Philadelphia and now there’s finally some sun. But just in case the weather where you are isn’t so nice, here are some links:

I haven’t had a chance to listen to this yet, but Jowy of Subway Art Blog has started a new podcast, Jowy’s Blackbook, and gilf! is the guest on episode 1.
Rowdy has a new print out. I really like that the print is laid out on the page so that the whole thing looks like a blown-up polaroid photo. The print is pretty massive though, which could make it difficult to hang.
And Escif has a new print as well.
Check out this post over at Melrose&Fairfax for some hilarious shit-talking about Anthony Lister. Apparently, Greg is not a fan…
MOMO has a solo show with StudioCromie/FAME Festival next week in Grottaglie, the little Italian town that is home to FAME Festival. This show is the culmination of a months-long project that MOMO has been working on with FAME Festival which included traveling to Cuba and Jamaica.
Ron English has a new resin version of his MC Supersized toy available on his website (technically this is the MC Lover variation of the character). Not that there aren’t already about a million variations of this character out there, but it’s great to see such an iconic image by English available for just $40.
I love this new mural in Poland from Blaqk.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have selected Revok and Pose to paint the Bowery/Houston wall if I were the curator. Especially not right after How&Nosm and Crash. And as the mural was coming together, I kept thinking that it looked like it wasn’t really coming together. But then I saw the finished piece. Revok, Pose and the other members of MSK who joined in absolutely nailed it. The result is a mural that fans of graffiti and random New Yorkers can all love. This is one time where I’m very glad I didn’t speak out sooner, because my initial thoughts were completely wrong. I just with the wall itself weren’t a hoarding that pops a few feet off the building, inevitably making anything painted there look a bit like a billboard, but I guess that can’t be helped (after all, there’s an Os Gêmeos mural behind that hoarding).

Photo by carnagenyc

July 4, 2013July 3, 2013

Pøbel and Escif in Horsens

Here’s more from Public Art Horsens in Horsens, Denmark, organized by Henrik Haven and ArtRebels’ Simon Caspersen. Today we have some work from Escif and Pøbel. Pøbel is funny as usual, but Escif really knocked it out of the park with this one. Personally, I look at his piece as a commentary on the way that murals have become a new form of plop art.

Photos by Henrik Haven