It’s that time again…
Photos by TheHarshTruthOfTheCameraEye and TheSaltr
Wild Style Wednesday!
Portland pigs attempt to shut down an art gallery
Thanks to Endless Canvas for turning us on to this story.
It seems that police pressure in Portland has resulted in The Railyard gallery being evicted from their location. The Railyard opened earlier this summer with an installation-based show where dozens of artists (including Swampy, Feral Child and Gats) painted on the walls of the space. Portland police claim that the gallery is responsible, through that show, for bringing artists to Portland who then painted street art and graffiti illegally while they were in town. On the one hand, this whole thing is ridiculous: The Railyard is not responsible for what artists do in their spare time, and the work that The Railyard is responsible for was painted legally (and looks pretty good too). On the other hand, I’m surprised that more police around the world don’t try this tactic. Probably because a. it’s a difficult case to prove and b. it makes the police look like uncultured jerks. Shutting down art galleries isn’t exactly a popular move. Although in this case, it sounds like the police just used intimidation rather than actually pressing charges, so there’s really nothing that would have to be proven in court.
Get the full details on this series of events here and here.
Best of luck to The Railyard. Hopefully they can move to a new space where the police will leave them alone.
Photo by Nuclear Winter
Via Endless Canvas
Opening Friday: Urban Osmosis from Spoke Art
Spoke Art‘s next show opens this Friday with a New Years Eve Party at the Lopo and Space galleries in SF. For me, the highlight of this show undoubtedly looks to be the room curated by Endless Canvas. As I wrote just a few days ago, I think GATS is awesome, and if Endless Canvas’ blog is anything to go by, those guys have a great eye and will put together a unique room that is definitely worth checking out. It’s not on the flier, but Feral Child will also have work in Endless Canvas’ room, which is awesome. And even though I think his May solo show was very very very heavily influenced by Faile, I want to see what Shark Toof does this time around.
Not sure about the rest of the artists, but if you’re on the fence about checking it out, I’d give Spoke Art the benefit of the doubt. They haven’t been around long, but they’ve put together a few great shows.
The great GATS
I’ve been admiring the street art/graffiti that GATS has been painting in California for a while now, but somehow his work has managed to more or less escape mention on Vandalog. From stickers to roller and everything in between, GATS seems to be killing it on the street. He’s also got a cool screenprint available online for cheap. Here are some of my favorites from GATS…
Thanks to Endless Canvas for introducing me to GATS’ work.
Photos by Keoki Seu and funkandjazz
The Bridge Is Over – a group show from Spoke Art
This should be good. Spoke Art‘s next show open’s this week at Lopo Gallery in San Fransisco and it has a few of my favorite underrated West Coast artists. Foremost among those is, of course, Emory Douglas, one of Shepard Fairey’s biggest inspirations and a great artist in his own right. I’m reading two different books right now about black liberation theology which pretty much say that I can’t appreciate Emory Douglas’ art because I’m white, but I can’t help myself.
Additionally, The Bridge Is Over includes Justin Lovato, Daryll Peirce and GATS (who I don’t think I’ve blogged about before, but whose work I’ve been admiring online for a while as similar to what people like Faro, Swampy and the Burning Candy and Everfresh crews are doing meshing street art and graffiti). Admittedly, the number of artists is this show is large enough to guarantee some bad art will find it’s way in, but that’s just the nature of large group shows.
The Bridge Is Over opens on Saturday, November 27th at Lopo Gallery.
Via Endless Canvas