Because Gaia’s works are so elegantly powerful on the streets — especially in semi-desolate, often bleak settings — I was somewhat leery of seeing his work in a gallery setting. But his current exhibit Succession, his first solo exhibit at Jonathan LeVine’s gallery, works, as Gaia has succeeded in transforming the gallery’s project room into an authentic urban environment. The installation continues through June 25 @ 529 West 20th Street. 9th floor.
Escif painted that mural outside of Graffiti Gone Global’s Fresh Produce show in Miami last week. While Basel Miami and the associated events aren’t all about money, it’s certainly on everyone’s minds. That doesn’t mean that the shows were bad though. There was actually a lot of great art on display for those who took the time to look. Here are some of the indoor highlights (unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera with me besides my cameraphone, so I have to link to other peoples’ coverage of everything):
Lastly, I want to mention New Image Art‘s pop-up show. There was some new artwork by Judith Supine, Os Gêmeos, Bast and others, as well as a bunch of photos by Neckface and his friends, which are 100x more interesting than I had expected them to be. Here are a few photos from that show:
This is probably most, if not all, if the coverage I’ll be giving to indoor things at Basel Miami, but I’ll be posting a lot more about the murals and other outdoor events in the coming days.
Photos by Escif and courtesy of New Image Art
With so much of the art world migrating to Miami this week in a frenzy, there seem to be too many events and parties (and I promise not to blog about the parties in detail. This isn’t a gossip site) and exhibits and festivals and everything else to keep track of. Here’s a roundup of some of the things that I’m most interested in seeing (or not seeing).
Things that have already been mentioned on Vandalog:
And things that I haven’t already blogged about:
Photo by Hargo
Jonathan LeVine Gallery‘s annual summer group exhibition is on right now, and there are a few noteworthy pieces that I just had to share.
EVOL is one of the artists really pushing forward the use of multi-layered stencils, and he doesn’t get enough credit for it. His cityscapes on cardboard are something special. And, unlike a few other artists who depict the urban environment and attempt to achieve something nearing photo-realism with stencils, EVOL’s style doesn’t look like a ripoff of Logan Hicks.
And then there are the new paintings by Judith Supine. Like his painting at Shred, these two paintings seem to have that glossier-than-a-sheet-of-glass look. Personally, I think it’s great. Other people don’t like it. But I’m pretty confident that the super-glossy look makes theses paintings look even better. As usual, Supine has made something beautiful, mesmerizing and disturbing.
Jonathan LeVine Gallery’s summer group show runs through August 21st.
Update: The original headline on this post, and the one that you probably saw if you are found this on your RSS feed, mentioned a new toy. Then I decided not to mention Jeff Soto’s new toy because I went on a rant about art versus advertising. If you’re curious though, Hi-Fructose has some info on the new toy that Jeff is working on.
Looks like Jeff Soto just painted this piece outside of Eyebeam in NYC. Which reminds me, if you’re in NYC, tonight would be a good night to stop by Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Jeff Soto and Dave Cooper both have solo shows opening there tonight (those shows run through July 24th). Arrested Motion recently posted a studio visit with Jeff, which includes some of the artwork that will be at his show tonight.
Now, I don’t mean to direct any potential negative attention towards Jeff Soto, but this piece reminds me of an interesting argument that I had last night with a friend of mine, who I’ll call James because I’m sure he doesn’t want me to publish his name. I said that I’d rather not be subjected to advertising while I’m in a public space, especially illegal advertising. Naturally, James brings up that I’m more than okay with artists putting up street art illegally. He thinks that I’m hypocritical for hating illegal ads but loving illegal art, especially since the definition of what is art is subjective. I say there’s a big difference, since street art, public art and architecture aren’t trying to sell you anything. Naturally, James makes the point that when a street artist puts up a piece, that’s advertising for their own work. In the case of Jeff Soto, Jeff rarely paints outside anymore, and this particular wall is clearly a form of promotion for his show with Jonathan LeVine Gallery. So it’s an ad, right? Not in my opinion. Yes, it’s an ad, if you know who Jeff Soto is and you know that he has a show opening tonight, which is probably less than 1% of the people who walk by Eyebeam today. For the vast majority of New Yorkers, that’s just a piece of art. Even if Jeff had signed his name, it’s not like he’s put a sign next to it saying “You can buy this image as a print for $70 at potatostamp.com!” (although, actually, you can). Maybe murals like Jeff’s and 99% of street art is a form of guerilla marketing, but it’s only seen as marketing by a tiny minority of the population. For the rest of the world, it’s art in the place of a grey wall, and there’s nothing better than that. So that’s my rant about the different between street art and advertising. Hopefully you agree with me, otherwise I may have just turned a few people off of Jeff Soto, which would suck.
Photo by amc_
There have been two very interesting interviews with gallery owners to go online in the last week.
First, Juxtapoz post a three-part profile/interview with Jonathan LeVine (of Jonathan LeVine Gallery). Here’s part one, and links to parts two and three are at the bottom of each post in the series. Before reading these, I knew that LeVine had been in the art game for a while and had to taste, but the Juxtapoz profile explains exactly how that all came together, which is pretty interesting.
And on Wednesday, The Shooting Gallery blog posted a Q&A with gallery owner Justin Giarla. Okay, yeah, that’s going to be a bit of a puff piece, but so is just about every art or music-related interview ever. With three galleries now, Justin has his own little empire in San Fransisco, but somehow he still manages to sell great art and be cool guy.
Last week was the opening of Jonathan LeVine‘s 5th anniversary group show. The full list of artists in the show is pretty staggering, but here are a few of my favorite pieces. These photos are from Arrested Motion, where you can find plenty more about the show.
Photos by Joe Russo for Arrested Motion
Jonathan LeVine Gallery‘s next show is going to be a very special one. It’s their 5th anniversary group show, and it opens on Saturday the 27th. The line up of artists is staggering. Highlights for me include WK-Interact, Dan Witz, Date Farmers, AJ Fosik, Calma, Shepard Fairey and Jim Houser.
Via Slam x Hype
A couple of ago, I posted some pictures of Doze Green’s latest solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC. I hate to be too repetitive, but today I found this nice video tour of the show which offers some insights in the work.
As previously mentioned, Doze Green’s show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery opened last week. Here are a few pictures of his new artwork:
I’m not usually a fan of Doze’s work in color, but this piece is sweet…
Photos from Arrested Motion, where you can find plenty more pictures from this show
