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”

Blu and Escif in Basque Country

Escif at night. Photo from Escif.

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.”

Escif’s mural by day. Photo from Escif.

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

Blu. Photo from Blu.

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

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.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Unplugged link-o-rama

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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…

Photo by mermaid99

Brandalism returns to the UK

Anthony Lister and John Fekner
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):

Escif in London
Escif in London
Cleon Peterson in Leeds
Cleon Peterson in Leeds

Continue reading “Brandalism returns to the UK”

Escif questions the role of murals

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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

Escif and the pizza place

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Before

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:

After
After

Photos by Henrik Haven

Weekend link-o-rama

Kuma
Kuma

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

Pøbel and Escif in Horsens

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Pøbel

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.

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Pøbel
Escif
Escif
Escif
Escif
Escif
Escif

Photos by Henrik Haven