Mint – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

February 20, 2013February 19, 2013

Moustache Man goes indoors at Krause Gallery

In 2011 and 2012, Patrick Waldo aka Moustache Man tagged thousands of subway advertisements. His tag was simple and fun. He wrote the word “Moustache” on the ads where someone else might scribble a crude moustache. The intervention was simple but extremely popular and fun. Unfortunately, NYPD disagreed. They arrested Waldo and charged him with criminal mischief. Not surprising, but certainly disappointing and a waste of their time.

This week, Waldo is taking the Moustache Man identity indoors for his first solo show. The show will be held at Krause Gallery in NYC, opening on the 21st (7-9pm) and running through February 24th.

Although Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace Gallery has implicitly suggested that I am shaking my head over this show because of Nico Glaude’s piece last week, I’m actually curious about this show. Outdoors, as a little prank, I think Moustache Man is pretty funny. And I love that he turned his experiences tagging and then being arrested for the most ridiculous of offenses into a one-man-show for the UCB Theater. But indoors, what is he supposed to do? What is Moustache Man without vandalism and a lack of consent, and how do you bring that indoors? This is bound to fail, right?

Well, now I’m not so sure. Part of Waldo’s show includes “Forced Collaborations” between himself and various other artists. In the case of Mr. Brainwash, Waldo has taken an actual Mr. Brainwash print and added his tag to it. Additionally, since Mr. Brainwash puts his thumbprint in ink on his prints, Waldo decided to dip his testicles in ink and the print has a print of Waldo’s left testicle next to Mr. Brainwash’s thumbprint. Mint and Serf tried something similar a few years ago, but I believe that was with the permission of the involved artists. I’m not sure if this is going to work, but it might, and I’m very curious to see how it goes.

I won’t be able to see the show in person though, so if you do go and see it, please leave a comment and let me know how it goes.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Waldo

April 26, 2011April 26, 2011

Tristan Eaton’s 3D Art Book launch in NYC

Tristan Eaton‘s new book, The 3D Art Book, is being launched this week with a show at Opera Gallery‘s NYC location. Andrew Bell, Stephen Bliss, Kevin Bourgeois, Ron English, Mat Eaton, Tristan Eaton, Filth, Haze, Travis Louie, Tara McPherson, Kenzo Minami, Mint, Serf, Dr. Revolt & Tom Thewes will be in the show, and the book includes over 100 artists. I haven’t seen this book in person yet, but I’m looking forward to checking it out.

December 19, 2010

Weekend link-o-rama

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Galo and Pixelpancho in Miami (click to view large)

Well, I was expecting to see my family today, but snow in London have half of them stuck there. Luckily, snow where I am in Colorado is keeping me busy. Too busy to post very much unfortunately. Here’s what I’ve been missing:

Roadsworth is Lisbon. Definitely check this out.
Todd Seelie took some great photos of Monica Canilao and Saelee Oh making a beautiful installation in Detroit.
M-City killed it in Miami even though his stencils arrived days after he did.
While I didn’t care for Banksy’s latest print release at all, he did give the proceeds (almost £100,000 in total) to a great cause.
Yellow Pants‘ first show, at Montana’s gallery in Lisbon, looks fabulous. With art from Remed, Zosen, Maya Hayuk and others, how could it go wrong?
I’m way late on this, but Ron English made some shirts with Hurley earlier this year.
Sometimes Mint and Serf (who work together as Mirf) do some interesting things. Other times that say crazy things. In an interview with Brooklyn Street Art, Mint said this “So back in April I designed the original Mirf poster and put a bunch of them in Russia. It was one of the first times I’ve seen graffiti being put up on the street but with wheat paste.” While he’s not taking credit for inventing wheatpasting for graffiti, he’s definitely taking too much credit for something that isn’t particularly innovative in 2010.
DabsMyla and Greg Simpkins teamed up for this great mural in LA.
World War Won’s new logo for Hackney would be a perfect way to spice up their image a bit.
Postermat, the latest show at The Hole in NYC, sounds like it will either be awesome or really really terrible. If you go, let me know what you think.

July 29, 2010July 29, 2010

Mint & Serf – Special Graffiti Unit

This is definitely one to check out. Here’s the press release:

Mint&Serf SGU (Special Graffiti Unit) is an exhibition at Lyons Wier Gallery, curated by Derrick B. Harden, featuring new work by New York visual artists Mint&Serf. By adapting the visual styling of “Law & Order” as a point of departure, the exhibition pays homage to the longest running television program filmed entirely in New York City. Mint&Serf SGU is a multi-disciplinary exhibition incorporating painting, photography and video that is an interpretation of theartists’ personal encounters with the law in New York City and within their community.

Mint&Serf SGU (Special Graffiti Unit) cleverly captures Mint&Serf and company in their habitat by placing them in their own adapted version of Law & Order. By appropriating this iconic television drama, Mint&Serf: SGU turns photographed moments of vandalism, street-art and nightlife into a series of silk-screened vignettes captured on canvas. In Mint&Serf: SGU, the two artists portray themselves as part of the “Special Graffiti Unit,” an elite graffiti squad.

Most recently, Mint&Serf created and curated original artwork for the Ace Hotel in New York City. However, for the past ten years, Mint&Serf have been collaboratively producing artwork generating a vast range of large-scale murals, paintings, photographs, sculpture and street art throughout New York City and around the world.