Phlegm, visiting from the UK, has just completed his first three murals in the USA. They are all located in Manhattan. One of the walls is a semi-collaboration with Know Hope, where Phlegm has added a mural that Know Hope painted earlier this year. That wall is part of an ongoing project with MaNY and FABnyc.
Earlier today — on this Memorial Day weekend — some of our favorite artists were busy over on East 4th Street off the Bowery. Tara Murray, a former student — who has become as addicted to street art as I am — caught up with them as they were finishing. Here are a few images from this latest MaNY Project with FABnyc under the direction of the indefatigable Keith Schweitzer:
Keith Schweitzer and Joyce Manalo organized getting these shipping containers painted for MaNY and Fourth Arts Block. Forth Arts Block got permission for the site, the like-up was solidified over a weekend and painting began almost immediately. It’s amazing how easily things come together sometimes. They brought in Infinity, Royce Bannon, El Celso and Quel Beast from New York, plus Reka from Australia while he was in New York for a bit. Since Skullphone already had a poster on the container, Infinity kept it and blended it into his own piece a bit (with Skullphone’s okay). Here’s a video of the process (Quel Beast’s piece was later changed after this video was filmed):
Here’s the latest spot organized by Murals around New York/MaNY. As you can see, it’s in NoHo in NYC, right by the entrance to Bleecker Street Station. The gate on the left was painted by Radical, and the gate on the right was painted by Veng.
In two weeks, Vandalog and Murals Around New York (MANY) will be putting on a pop-up show in a New York City apartment. Up Close and Personal mostly came out of two ideas: 1. Street artists tend to work large outdoors and we wanted to challenge people to make art on a small scale and 2. We’ve all seen artwork in galleries that either would only look good in a gallery but not in a home, or is just too big to fit into a typical apartment and we wanted to see something different from that. With Up Close and Personal, the show itself is taking place in an apartment on the Upper West Side, and we have capped the size of the artwork at 30 x 30 inches, with an emphasis on going as small as possible.
I’ve worked with Keith Schweitzer and Mike Glatzer of M.A.N.Y. to curate this show, and we’re really excited with the line up that we’ve managed to put together: Aiko, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Don Leicht, Edible Genius, Elbowtoe, Gaia, How & Nosm, Jessica Angel, John Fekner, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mike Ballard, OverUnder, R. Robot, Radical, Retna, Skewville, Tristan Eaton, Troy Lovegates aka Other and White Cocoa.
Up Close and Personal opens May 12th from 7-9pm. We’ll also be open from 7-9pm on the 13th. Then noon-9pm and noon-7pm on the 14th and 15th respectively. Particularly on the 12th, it is possible that we’ll be shifting people in every half hour or so, since the space is a small apartment. The show is taking place at 217 West 106th Street, Apartment 1A, New York, NY 10025 – Between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues.