Tag: freddy sam

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Best of Woodstock, as photographed by Jared Aufrichtig

DALeast
DALeast

A note from the editor: Today we have a guest post from Jared Aufrichtig, an artist who has been taking some really interesting photos of street art Woodstock, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. His book about South African youth culture launches this week at Kalashnikovv Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa. I love Jared’s willingness to make these photographs his own, rather than just documenting the art straight-up. There’s a place for that traditional documentation, but these photos are great examples of how people can use the gifts that street artists give to the public and make their own art out of them. Jared’s photos here feature work by DALeast, Cern, Faith47, Gaia, Jace, Jaz, Know Hope, Louis Masai Michel, Freddy Sam, Paul Senyol, Mak1one, Pastel Heart, Jared Aufrichtig, Kasi, ?All and Makatron. – RJ Rushmore

These images were taken over the past 6 months while I got to know the Woodstock Community and explored the explosion of new work by local and international artists. During my many visits I was welcomed by the kind majority-Muslim community, they commissioned me to do work for them and I shared many fond experiences (except for when my original custom made RETNA Art iPhone grew legs while painting a mural). I was able to freely document their lives and unique area; I even shot portraits of a small child that ended up being used for a piece I had done by my friend from Durban Pastel.

Over the past few years the level of work and roster of international artist has risen dramatically. Woodstock will soon become Cape Towns ONLY area filled with creative public expression. I believe in and support the beautification of urban areas like this and others around the world.

Know Hope
Know Hope
Cern
Cern
Faith47
Faith47
Gaia
Gaia

Continue reading “Best of Woodstock, as photographed by Jared Aufrichtig”

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Wall\Therapy, the finished products

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Smith

This year’s Wall\Therapy festival is winding down in Rochester, NY, so let’s have a look at the finished work (although a few were already covered by Daniel’s posts). There are a few really killer pieces, including this piece by Ever that I haven’t seen professional photos of yet, and some legal work along abandoned train tracks which is really interesting, but I’m not sure about this spot that looks like a little hall-of-fame setup. Those are valuable to have, but I personally wouldn’t put one in a mural festival these days. Still, plenty of good work all around, and I love that there are way more old-school writers at Wall\Therapy than just about any other mural festival I’ve ever seen besides perhaps a Meeting of Styles event. Conor Harrington knocked it out of the park, and Jessie and Katey did a simple but really effective piece.

Conor Harrington
Conor Harrington
Wise2
Wise2
Jessie & Katie
Jessie & Katey

Continue reading “Wall\Therapy, the finished products”

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Sunday link-o-rama

Jaz, drawing entirely with charcoal.
Jaz, drawing entirely with charcoal in Buenos Aires.

Had a quick holiday in New York City combined with a nasty cold to delay posting this link-o-rama, but I’m back so here we go…

  • Dave aka nolionsinengland has been a friend and also one of my favorite street art/graffiti photographers for many years now. I’m very excited to see that he’s now offering street art tours of London in addition to his street art photography workshops. There aren’t too many people who can take me on a graffiti or street art tour of London, but Dave has shown me around before and he still schools me every time we meet up. This guy knows his stuff, and regular reads of this site have seen his photos on here for years. I haven’t taken this tour of course, but from every experience I’ve had with Dave over the past 5 or so years, I cannot recommend him highly enough.
  • Another longtime friend whose work I’ve admired is Know Hope, so I’m overjoyed to see him getting some serious recognition in the UK with a solo show coming up at Lazarides Gallery’s Rathbone Place location. Like Os Gemeos, Know Hope make work that grabs me and sucks me in to his world, and that’s a rare and beautiful experience. The show opens August 2nd.
  • Banksy’s No Ball Games street piece in London has been removed from the wall and is due to be sold next year. The profits from the sale will be going to charity, but I’m curious if that means the profits for person who owns the wall, or if the group organizing the removal and sale are also forgoing any profits. The company that removed this wall is the same one that managed the sale of Banksy’s Slave Labour street piece earlier this year.
  • Very nice NSA-theme ad takeover.
  • Gold Peg and Malarky are showing together in Stoke on Trent in the UK on August 3rd. It’s not often that Gold Peg shows her work indoors, so this is a really special treat.
  • Faile are on the cover of the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost, so there will be launch events in both NYC and London. The NYC launch is July 31st at Reed Projects and the London launch will be 8th August at Lazarides.
  • This year’s Living Walls conference/festival line up has been announced. The festival (my personal favorite in the USA) will be August 14th-18th in Atlanta. Caroline and I will be there, as well Steve and Jaime of Brooklyn Street Art. I highly encourage you to make the trip out if at all possible. Artist painting this year include Jaz, Inti, Know Hope, Freddy Sam, Trek Matthews and many more. More info about the conference (including all the things planned besides the murals) here. Also, you can donate to the conference here.
  • Remi/Rough recently put together a book of sketches that you can read online. Most artists who have met me know that I’m always carrying around a blackbook, and that I love to collect sketches, so this project of Remi’s was a real joy for me. It’s really fascinating to see what’s going on behind the scenes with this work.
  • Caroline and I went to this show in Brooklyn on Saturday night. I was really impressed with EKG’s drawings. A few of them definitely reminded me of Rammellzee. Col’s screenprints on wood were also interesting as a change of pace for someone who I’ve always known as a master with spray can.
  • Have I missed something? These new Titifreak works for his upcoming show at Black Book Gallery look very different from the Titifreak I remember. Still great though. I hope I get a chance to see this show while I’m in Denver next month.
  • Surreal awesomeness from Dome.

Photo by Jaz

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Wall Therapy firsthand – Part 1

Conor Harrington in progress
Conor Harrington in progress

It seems like all of my friends are up in Rochester at the moment for Wall\Therapy, the mural festival organized by the fantastic Dr. Ian Wilson. I was hoping to go up myself, but instead Caroline and I will be going to Living Walls in Atlanta next month. Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub is at Wall\Therapy, and he’s been kind enough to share some photos and thoughts with us. For more up the the minute updates, you can keep an eye on Daniel’s instagram. – RJ Rushmore

I arrived in Rochester Monday afternoon and it did not take too long for me to find murals from last year’s Wall\Therapy by renowned artists Roa, Herakut, and Faith47. I checked in as quickly as possible and decided to hit the streets. I popped in the homies LNY and Cern’s coordinates and realized that it was going to a lot easier for me to walk to Cern’s wall, and being a man of constant efficiency I decided that was to be my first stop of the week.

Cern
Cern in progress

Cern, aka Cernesto, aka CernYMI, aka CernTWD, was just getting started on his mural and my presence did not help the early progress. With some artists I just like to sit and watch but when Cern is painting the undiagnosed ADD just comes out in both of us. We chilled for a bit but I figured I needed to let the man get to work so I hitched a ride from a nice volunteer over the LNY’s mural across town.

It was at this point when I realized I have a car, and I should be driving my own self around! It is just my instincts to put my car away and forget it when I get to an urban environment; just a heads up, there seems to be ample parking in the ROC as they like to call it here.

LNY
LNY in progress

LNY, or Lunar New Year, was stationed in a very residential urban community, and his mural reflects that. In the early stages of his mural you can see Corinthian columns “holding up” the windows of the house, along with images of Trayvon Martin, and Frederick Douglass. LNY has a knack for connecting and communicating with his surroundings, with this mural being no exception. I am very excited to see the progress of this wall, especially since the community has shown such an embrace for the work in the short time it has been up. I can’t tell you the number of honks, thumbs up, and shouts I heard yesterday in the hour and a half that I was there. Community improvement though art is what Wall\Therapy is all about and it is really nice to see it in action.

Following LNY’s completion for the night we hitched a ride to dinner where the entire team of “Wall Therapists” convened for a night of food, drinks, and dancing. The project is off to a great start! Hats off to Ian and his team, you’ve already succeeded in my book!

Ricky Lee Gordon aka Freddy Sam
Ricky Lee Gordon aka Freddy Sam in progress
Mr. Prvrt
Mr. Prvrt
Adam Francey in progress
Adam Francey in progress

Photos by Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub

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Gaia Erases Revisionism in Woodstock

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A few weeks ago, Acrylic Walls shared photos of their mural residency in South Africa, which includes artists Gaia, Freddy Sam, Jaz, and Know Hope. Local Freddy Sam has brought together international artists for, what I termed, a love letter to South Africa. However, sometimes love bites back.

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One local took to Gaia‘s wall to voice his disapproval of the piece with not enough buff paint. Being an advocate for community and public space, Gaia used what some would view as heartbreaking into an opportunity to engage with the surrounding neighborhood. A hand erasing his Edwardian-animal hybrid has been accompanied by the phrase “revisionisme, uit te vee,” or “to erase revisionism” in Afrikaans. By commenting on the methodologies behind his piece, Gaia acknowledges the temporality of his work as well as its effects on those who, by their proximity to the piece, become forced viewers.

Photos Courtesy of Gaia

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Acrylic Walls: A Love Letter to South Africa

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Beginning in late December of 2012 and stretching into the new year, Freddy Sam brought together a group of artists known for creating art that engages their surroundings. The project, titled Acrylic Walls, is associated with his organization A Word of Art, which has been fostering contemporary art in the area through community outreach since 2009. While this project has the familiar ring of other blockbuster mural programs, such as Open Walls Baltimore, Freddy Sam has added a component that hopes to reach a larger audience than those who will immediately come into contact with their murals: a diary-like Tumblr for all on which all of the artists can contribute.

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The Tumblr for Acrylic Walls allows all of the participating artists to post photos from their adventures as they travel from city to city painting and engage themselves with their surroundings. Whether they are recounting adventures in stick and poke tattoos, museums, or sharing stories of people they encounter, each artist brings a dimensionality to not only themselves, but this program through their photography. By sharing funny moments alongside those of poverty and historicism, Acrylic Walls gives an intimate and insightful view of personalities of the artists as well as the cities where they find themselves.

More photos after the jump. Continue reading “Acrylic Walls: A Love Letter to South Africa”

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Weekend link-o-rama

Rothko from beyond the grave by Freddy Sam

Not much to say this week except of course that I’m pumped for The Art of Comedy. Not too much news either, but some important stories…

Photo by Faith47 and via Wooster Collective

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Visual Intervention in Rochester

Over the summer, Rochester, NY was treated to a few new murals by street artists from South Africa. Ian Wilson, founder of The Synthesis Collaborative, brought those artists to Rochester and organized a series of walls with Dal, Faith47, Freddy Sam and Mak1One and as well as Rochester-based artists. The project, Visual Intervention, tried to bring the simple message of “believe” to Rochester in an effort to improve the community. This video tells that story:

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Even more from Living Walls

Ever and Freddy Sam. Photo by nickmickolas

In what is likely the second-t0-last post of murals from Living Walls in Atlanta, here’s work by Ever, Freddy Sam, Never, Gawd, Labrona, OverUnder, LNY, Sharktoof, Feral Child, Entes and Pesimo.

Feral Child. Photo by Feral Child
Labrona, Overunder and Gawd. Photo by nickmickolas
Entes and Pesimo. Photo by nickmickolas
Never. Photo by nickmickolas
LNY. Photo by nickmickolas
Sharktoof. Photo by Greg Mike

Photos by Greg Mike, Feral Child and nickmickolas

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Living Walls 2011 – The city speaks

Doodles, Swampy and Greg Mike at Living Walls 2010

Later this month, Atlanta is going to be taken over by street artists from around the world for this year’s edition of the Living Walls conference, Living Walls: the City Speaks. From the 12th-14th of August, there will be film screenings, lectures and artists painting murals around the city. Living Walls have brought together an impressive artist roster from around the world including (but not limited to) Doodles, Swampy, Gaia, Roa, Labrona, OverUnder, Sam3, Freddy Sam, White Cocoa, Nanook, Greg Mike, Paper Twins, Clownsoldier and Gawd. And I can’t complain about the keynote speakers either: Tristan Manco, Gaia, Ricky Lee Gordon and me.

So if you’re in Atlanta, come out check out the opening party at The Sound Table on Friday the 12th, lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia on the 13th during the day, a party at The Goat Farm the night of the 13th and a tour of all the new murals on the 14th. I’ll post more details about exact times later. And of course, I’ll be posting plenty of photos from the conference as well.

In September, another Living Walls event will take place in Albany, NY. More on that later.

Photo by Greg Foster Photography