ludvig – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

October 31, 2013November 1, 2013

Banksy + 5: October 31st

Banksy finished Better Out Than In today with the above piece in Queens. The balloons didn’t last long when people tried to steal them and then the NYPD came to take the balloons and arrest the would-be thieves (more on that on Hyperallergic). And Jerry Saltz be damned, this is one of my favorite pieces of the show. Jerry Saltz may say he has no problem with graffiti, but I’m not sure he quite understands it either.

The location of this piece is perfect, with a NEKST tag (and remember what Banksy did on his website when NEKST died), an ADEK tag, two ADEK throwups and two LEWY throwups all visible in the above photo, which is the lead image for the piece on the Better Out Than In website. And of course, Banksy went higher up on the wall than all of those writers, but in a cheeky manner. I’m not saying that Banksy is still a hardcore train bomber, although he did pull of quite a few stunts this month, but he certainly has respect for traditional graffiti. Banksy could have installed those balloons anywhere, but he chose that particular spot and was able to highlight serious graffiti by some of the best writers in the city.

The audio description for this piece includes a serious note:

Banksy asserts that outside is where art should live, amongst us. And rather than street art being a fad, maybe it’s the last thousand years of art history is a blip, when art came inside in service of the church and institutions. But art’s rightful place is on the cave walls of our communities where it can act as a public service, provoke debate, voice concerns, forge identities. The world we live in today is run – visually at least – by traffic signs, billboards and planning committees. Is that it? Don’t we want to live in a world made of art, not just decorated by it?

I can’t think of a better way to close out the show.

But I’m not done. We still have our final + 5 featuring Poster Boy, COST, ENX, Invader (who has reportedly been arrested in NYC!), Ludvig, Swoon, GANE and TEXAS…

COST, ENX and Invader. Photo by Luna Park. — COST, ENX and Invader in NYC. Photo by Luna Park.

GANE and TEXAS in Philadelphia. Photo by RJ Rushmore.

Photos from banksyny.com and by Poster Boy, Luna Park, Ludvig and RJ Rushmore

March 2, 2013March 1, 2013

Weekend link-o-rama

As I’ve been gearing up for midterms, I’ve missed posting some great outdoor work (and other things) this week.

Does the buffman have a sense of humor or did mobstr do this himself?
Barry McGee, Chris Johanson, & Laurie Reid showing together in SF.
You may have seen the video of Margaret Kilgallen on Art21 before, but here’s some previously unseen footage of her and Barry McGee from that shoot.
I love this piece by Disk.
And also this one by the highly underrated Ludvig.
There’s a fundraiser to benefit Essam, the artist who was beyond those brilliant drone strike posters and then subsequently arrested, taking place later this month.
Graffiti geeks will love this tattoo flash.
Jack Murray aka Panik ATG has written a must-read post about some historic London graffiti on The Foundry being covered by a street-art-emulating ad for Microsoft’s Surface. Hopefully somebody once again uses that surface for something creative very soon.
Ron English has a new colorway of his Temper Tot art toy for sale exclusively on his website.
I’m not quite sure what has happened here. First, an artist who goes by the name Edwin painted this piece in Hackney Wick. Now, it looks like this. It seems to me that Sweet Toof went up and added his teeth to the piece as a subtle diss to Edwin for ripping off Lenny The High Roller, the character that Sweet Toof and Cyclops used to paint back when their Burning Candy crew really dominated Hackney Wick. Yes, lots of street artists paint skulls and graffiti writers paint skulls, but the similarities here, particularly the eyes and given the location, are too much to ignore as mere coincidence. Also, this might be a stretch, but the hands in Edwin’s piece kinda look like Gold Peg’s hands (who also painted with Burning Candy in Hackney Wick and elsewhere).
This film about M. Chat is screening in Philadelphia next week at the Slought Foundation. Strange thing though. The description of the film actually never gives the name of the artist, but M. Chat has a Wikipedia article and a Twitter account and shows work in galleries. Additionally, the Slought Foundation has posted downloadable templates of M. Chat’s work for people to customize and put up on their own. I called up the Slought Foundation and was told that Thoma Vuille, the man who it seems was behind M. Chat, is not involved in the show, although the man I spoke with suggested that the M. Chat logo may have been painted by a collective rather than just one man (like The Toasters collective with one logo and multiple members). So, is this appropriation of an unexplained urban mystery or theft an artist’s creation? I’m not one for strict copyright laws, but it does seem to me like the moral thing to do here would be to at least give some credit to Vuille aka M. Chat rather than pretend that the cat is still a complete mystery.

Photo by Carnagenyc

June 14, 2010

Ludvig at Leake Street

With Ludvig, you probably either love it or you hate it. For me, his style is a unique twist on old-school graffiti. That’s why we met up recently to make this time-lapse of Ludvig painting at Leake Street in London. Good stuff.

February 18, 2010

Writers’ Block videos

Fans of London graffiti have got to check out the Writers’ Block series of videos. Basically, writers put a few tags in a black book. Here are two of my favorites…

Ludvig:

Panik ATG:

Some of the other writers who have worked with Writers’ Block include Gold Peg, Insa, Mighty Mo and Elate.