Tag: jr

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Weekend link love

Billboard by Mobstr

This link post is definitely going to be a weekly thing. Hopefully it will allow me to link to things that I just haven’t had the time to cover here on the blog, my Twitter or Vandalog’s Facebook page. So here’s what you may have missed in street art this week:

  • My Love For You Is A Stampede of Horses and Arrested Motion have two sets of amazing photos from Fecal Face‘s 10 year anniversary show at The Luggage Store in SF. This show has a pretty sick line up including Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Jim Houser, Swoon and Maya Hayuk.
  • Nychos’ solo show at Pure Evil Gallery (in cooperation with End of The Line) opened on Thursday. Go here for the press release sort of info or go here for photos from the opening.
  • That I May See, Matt Small’s latest solo show, opened last week at Black Rat Projects and it looks absolutely stunning. My family and I can’t thank Matt enough for his support of the Robert Shitima School in Zambia, which is where Matt and Black Rat Press have decided to donate 40% of the proceeds from this show.
  • Eelus, Logan Hicks, Eine, Lucy McLachlan and others are headed to Gambia next month for the Wide Open Walls project.
  • OFFSET has once again put together an interesting conference of creatives who will be speaking next month (October 1st-3rd) in Dublin. OFFSET 2010 will have presentations from Gary Baseman, Steve Powers, Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective and many more. Early bird tickets are available online for 150 euros (with discounts for students thankfully).
  • A very touching work of street art in Brooklyn.
  • Just Seeds has put together Resourced, a set for political posters that you can download and print at home. There are designs by Gaia, Armsrock, Chris Stain, Josh MacPhee and many more artists.
  • When I first heard about JR’s new Unframed project, I didn’t really care for it. Basically, JR is wheatpasting other photographers (often famous) photographs around in cities. To me, this sort came out of left field. I don’t mind when Blek le Rat does similar things, but with JR, I always liked the stories behind the photos as much as the images themselves. I thought that with Unframed, that aspect of the art would go away. Luckily, Angelo at FAME Festival reassured me in an email and said once I learned more about the project, these would be just as interesting as the rest of JR’s art. Because I trust Angelo, I waited and didn’t write anything about Unframed or JR’s piece at FAME Festival. Earlier this week, Hi-Fructose’s blog posted a better explanation of the project as well as some photos of Unframed taking place in Switzerland. As usual, Angelo was right and after reading that post on Hi-Fructose, I’ve been convinced about Unframed.

Photo by Mobstr

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Shepard Fairey, JR and Pedro Alonzo on the radio

A few weeks ago, KPBS, a San Diego public radio station, conducted a very insightful and intelligent interview with Shepard Fairey, JR and Pedro Alonzo (curator of Viva la Revolución at MCASD). At nearly 40 minutes long, it’s an interview that you really need to set some time aside for, but it’s still worth listening to or reading. Especially if you enjoyed Vandalog’s coverage of Viva la Revolución. Check out the interview on the KPBS website.

Via Juxtapoz

Photo by Hargo

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JR headed to Shanghai for “Wrinkles of the City”

Photographer and street artist JR will be in Shanghai in October during the Shanghai Biennial for a project called Wrinkles of the City. I think this marks the first large-scale series of street pieces in this series. The photographs for Wrinkles of the City (some of which it seems have been used elsewhere indoors and outdoors for other projects) are all portraits of elderly people from cities around the world. In trademark JR style, those portraits are then blown up and wheatpasted in the cities where the photos were taken. JR says that in this series, the older generation represent the memory of a changing urban environment. Wrinkles of the City will take place in Shanghai from October 23rd through December 11th, with a gallery exhibition with Galerie Magda Danysz opening on October 26th.

Photo by F4BZ3F4B

Via Slamxhype

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EuroTrash Revisited

EuroTrash featuring Conor Harrington, Vhils, JR and Antony Micallef from ST Press on Vimeo.

For those of you that have been following our coverage of Lazarides latest show EuroTrash here on Vandalog, this newly released video (which is rather sweet might I add) captures all the action building up to the shows opening night and lets you see the stellar line up of artists inlcuding Vhils, JR, Antony Micallef and Conor Harrington at work. Worth a watch if like me you are unable to attend to show itself. Check it out!

You can also read our exclusive interview with one of EuroTrash’s featured artists Conor Harrington here

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Inside MCASD’s “Viva La Revolucion”

This Os Gêmeos work was made using unused parts of Swoon's installation

The urban art event of the summer took place over the weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD). Viva La Revolucion is a massive show. On Vandalog, we’ve been covering the outdoor parts of the show, but there’s a major indoor component as well.

Calma

Of course, our friends at Arrested Motion were at MCASD with cameras. Elisa Carmichael was in the space a bit early and caught some of the artists working, and AM’s San Diego correspondents made sure to take plenty of photos on the opening evening. From what I hear though, these photographs still don’t capture the entire indoor show. There’s an entire room full of Banksy prints, and probably some more things that I haven’t heard about yet.

Looks like JR has replicated his installation that was at Lazarides a while back. It’s a room covered in posters of his contact sheets, with a film about his flavela project playing:

Swoon’s installation is another iteration of her Konbit Shelter project, which will culminate in her building shelters in Haiti:

Photos by Arrested Motion, who have plenty more photos of this show on their website

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Viva La Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape

I know I mentioned this show in the Invasion of San Diego post, but I figured I would go into a little more depth with it, since it is opening July 18th to the public.

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) will be hosting one of the first street art museum exhibits in the middle of July.  Citing the cultural influence of art in cities, “Viva La Revolucion” brings together some of the most high profile street artists today that have made an impact on city spaces with their socio-political works.  Not only will the exhibit be one of the broadest street art museum displays ever curated, but the city of San Diego will also pay host to several public works created in currently unknown locations by some of the featured artists.  Invader’s pieces are just one of the public works, with more pieces surly to follow by the likes of Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos, and Blu and David Ellis, and possibly Banksy.  I cannot wait to see what comes of this.

Os Gemeos. Photo by apwbATTACK

Here is a complete list of the artists participating:

Akay
Banksy
Blu
Mark Bradford
William Cordova
Date Farmers
Stephan Doitschinoff
Dr. Lakra
Dzine
David Ellis
FAILE
Shepard Fairey
Invader
JR
Barry McGee
Ryan McGinness
Moris
Os Gemeos
Swoon
Vhils

For more information check out MCASD’s website

Photo by apwbATTACK

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While I was cut off from the world…

BETTEN in NYC. Photo by a friend of the artist.

Since the end of May until a few days ago, I’d been more or less cut off from the street art world. I was driving around Europe with my friends. That’s not particularly important, though I would like to thank Logan Hicks, Ripo, Paulo, C215, Nunca and (especially) Angelo for spending time with us.

Here’s some of the things that I missed while I was away…

  • Penny’s latest piece kicks ass
  • Os Gêmeos have been crazy busy, so here’s one of the things they did: A few paintings at FAME Festival.
  • And Blu has been to FAME recently too.
  • I’m loving a lot of the pieces Skewville’s show Shift Work Disorder at Factory Fresh.
  • Some local residents completely misinterpreted the meaning behind some Shepard Fairey murals and painted them over. Actually a really interesting story. I suppose that when it is a reality of everyday life, people don’t like to be reminded that the police will “kick your ass and get away with it.”
  • Lazarides’ latest show in LA is Eurotrash with Vhils, Micallef and JR. Hi-Fructose has pictures.
  • Alison Young’s book Street Studio had a launch party in Melbourne.
  • High Roller Society has a massive group print show on right now. I stopped by on Saturday. If you like affordable prints and drawings, check this one out.
  • Daily Mail reports that Banksy has painted some pub in Primrose Hill. Reality: It’s a PR stunt by the pub’s owner, but at least now they have some artwork on their walls.
  • The New Grand Tour, a group show including Jose Parla, Rey Parla and Rostarr, is open now at Bryce Wolkowitz in New York City.
  • Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman, former gallery directors at Deitch Projects, have started up their own gallery in NYC called Hole. I’m not exactly sure how much street art or graffiti you’ll be able to find at the Hole when it opens later this month, but they sent me a press release, so presumably they haven’t ditched street art entirely. The Wall Street Journal has more.
  • Hrag Vartanian has started an interesting discussion on Hyperallergic about a new piece by Mark Jenkins which could easily be mistaken for trash. And by the way, if you don’t already read Hyperallergic, you should start. It’s perhaps my favorite art blog at the moment.
  • Armsrock has a solo show on right now at Signal Gallery. I’m going to check it out tomorrow, but based on the photos on Arrested Motion, I couldn’t be more excited. Armsrock is massively talented and just keeps getting better.

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Lazarides Presents EUROTRASH

Lazarides LA newest show – EuroTrash sets up a stellar line up of some of the hottest European artists around right now. Using the overlooked, misunderstood and mundane elements of  everyday life,  EuroTrash aims to captures its audiences attention with the distinctive style and alternative approach that artists JR, Conor Harrington, Antony Micallef and Vhils bring with them. Sharing a vested interest in their individual and collective surroundings and society, they poetically express a desire for universal appreciation – despite the tacky connotation that is usually associated with the term “Euro Trash”.

Frances very own JR (seen above) is known for immersing himself within cultures where struggle and conflict are rife. He presents his monochromatic photographs, often over 20 feet high on unconventional exhibiting arena’s to highlight humanist matters that are often overlooked. Cork born painter Conor Harrington (seen at the top) on the other hand, goes against the grain of the fast pace of graffiti art preferring to opt for the slower process of oil painting. Interested in opposing elements, illusion of power and the emotional side of masculinity, soldiers and conquerors exist within Conor’s colorful and abstracted landscapes, yet never forget his street roots.

London based Antony Micallef’s (seen above) energetic work both celebrates and despises contemporary society. The world portrayed by Micallef is one of contradictions as Barbie becomes the Virgin Mary adorned with a Chanel necklace and cutesy paraphernalia, Angel’s wield guns and Soldiers wear flower power printed uniforms. Portuguese artist Vhils (seen below) works with manipulating surfaces, whether it is the brick façade of buildings with masonry equipment or layered fly posters that he peels away, he transforms these varying planes to reveal mystifying, striking portraits that explore a cities dimensions