mode2 – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

June 5, 2014June 4, 2014

Unplugged link-o-rama

It’s been a while since I did a link-o-rama, but I’m really behind right now and it seems the only way to catch up. I’ve been living in my wifi-less apartment, and I’m headed to London, so these few minutes I’m spending in a cafe may be my only chance for a while to write about a few things…

Caroline and I recently watched Sign Painters, a film about the art of sign painting. It’s available now on iTunes, and well worth checking out. I’m a sucker for films about art and documentaries about people who are obsessed with perfecting their craft, whatever that may be, and Sign Painters delivers on both counts.
The second edition of Open Walls Baltimore just wrapped up. Check out coverage at Complex and Brooklyn Street Art. Escif’s piece is my personal favorite. As like much of Escif’s best work, it’s simultaneously a great mural and a screw-you to the idea of murals decorating cities.
A great new sculpture by Delta was just installed in Belgium.
Pixel Pancho and Case recently collaborated on a mural in Brooklyn. It’s a collaboration that I wouldn’t’ have thought would work, but the result is really strong. Great job guys.
Adam Void solo show coming up this week in Asheville, North Carolina.
Later this month, Unruly Gallery will host a 3-man show with Shoe, Bando and Mode2, three great writers with decades of history and importance. This should be special.
I trust Martyn Reed’s taste, so although I’m not yet in love with DOT DOT DOT‘s work, I’m looking forward to seeing photos from his upcoming show at Reed Projects.
Jonathan Levine Gallery has two shows coming up this month that I’m really excited about: solos from Crash and Anthony Lister.
Both the New York Times and Elle Magazine have recently had articles about women in street art and graffiti. Usually, these articles frustrate me. The Elle Magazine article is typical. The NYTimes article is one of the best I have read on this subject. I actually really enjoyed it. Maybe it’s just that it was well written, but I think there is more. Caroline put it really well to me. She describes the Elle Magazine article as describing these artists as women first and artists second, and the NYTimes article as describing them as artists who happen to be women. Elle Magazine focuses on the fact that they are women. The NYTimes actually talks about the amazing street art and murals being made by women.
Steve Powers is in the midst of painting a series of Love Letter murals for Baltimore.

Photo by mermaid99

April 19, 2012

Very Nearly Almost 18

Screw Conor Harrington. Screw Ronzo. Screw Remi/Rough. Not because all of those people aren’t great. Not because I dislike their work. Not because their interviews in Very Nearly Almost issue 18 are uninteresting. I don’t know Ronzo personally, but Conor and Remi have been nothing but nice to me. All three of them have made cool art. Their interviews in VNA are worth reading. But screw them because all of Very Nearly Almost issue 18 pales in comparison to their spectacular interview with the legendary Mode2. I’ll certainly admit that I don’t like everything Mode2 has ever done, but he has been an innovator in Europe for decades and when he gets it right, he gets it very very right. He is also very clearly a smart man. VNA’s interview with Mode2 is detailed, insightful and worth every moment you’ll spend reading it.

If you still haven’t picked up a copy of VNA18, I highly encourage you to do so now. You won’t regret it. Plus, after you’re done reading the Mode2 interview, Ronzo, Conor, Remi and the rest of the artists in this issue honestly do have some interesting bits to say as well, and there are some rare pics of How&Nosm’s work in Brazil.

Very Nearly Almost is available online.

Photos courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

February 9, 2012November 21, 2012

So many shows about to open

bomk-sowat — Bom.k and Sowat of Da Mental Vaporz

There are so many interesting shows opening in the next week or two that I thought I’d just throw them all together into one post. Here’s what I think looks worth checking out:

Yesterday, the Museum of Sex in New York opened a show that sounds absolutely awesome called F*ck Art. It’s on through June 10th and features artwork by Aiko, El Celso, Lush, Mode2, Cassius Fouler, Miss Van and many more.
Love & Hate is a group show opening at StolenSpace this week and runs through March 4th. D*face, Dan Witz, Ronzo, Word to Mother, Jeff Soto, Eine, Charles Krafft and others are included.
Chris Stain, Veng and Taka Sudo will be showing together at C.A.V.E. Gallery, beginning February 11th. Brooklyn Street Art has a preview of Chris’ work.
Zes and Retna are together at Known Gallery in LA. LA TACO has the info.
Nick Mann aka Doodles, Brett Flanigan, Craig Rodgers and Dan Bortz are collaborating with one another in Oakland, CA.
Another collaborative group show will be in Da Mental Vaporz‘ (Bom.k, Blo, Brusk, Dran, Gris1, ISO, Jaw, Kan, and Sowat) show at Melbourne. That show, Le Venin, will be at RTIST Gallery from February 16th through March 4th.
All Talk at Pandemic Gallery will include Aakash Nihalani, Cassius Fouler, Gabriel Specter, Jesus Saves, NohJColey and others and runs from February 17th through March 11th.

Photo courtesy of Da Mental Vaporz

December 20, 2011December 20, 2011

While I was under a rock link-o-rama

6508774041_3978d1b673_z — Unknown artist

Well, while I had myself more or less locked in a library underground for the better part of last week, the art world did not stand still. And so we have this special Tuesday edition of the typically friday event – the link-o-rama:

Olek is facing charges in London (not related to her street art), and needs your help. Hyperallergic has more info.
Banksy has loaned a sculpture to a museum in Liverpool. Meh. Another artwork that just as easily could have been seen at any urban art group show, but it’s by Banksy so the BBC and the rest of us should apparently care. What is this? It’s not just with Banksy. Bloggers in particular, we seem to have this urge to always be the first to say “Yeah, I saw that girl’s work first and said she was cool” and a fear of being caught in a situation where everyone except us thinks that some artist or artwork is great. And now I’m rambling…
Blu just painted two walls in Buenos Aires. Here’s the first and here’s the second.
I’m loving this new sculpture from Leon Reid IV about the financial crisis.
Todd James also has a new sculpture in both bronze and porcelain. It’s for sale at Toykyo.
Mode2’s new work (NSFW) might be the best I’ve ever seen from him. Amazing stuff.
KAWS has a show on now at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Knock Knock is a new online magazine with a lot about street art and graffiti in Australia.
Kunle Martins aka Earsnot aka the founder of the infamous IRAK crew participated in Wynwood Walls this year alongside Jesse Geller aka Nemel. Martha Cooper has shots of what they got up to and then the Wynwood Walls video series has a great episode on them. For some people, it may be hard to avoid comparisons to this wall by Barry McGee. 12ozProphet says “The building painted by IRAK for Wynwood Walls is inspired by Barry McGee’s tag-filled murals… Earsnot and Nemel build on Barry McGee’s tag wall concept by filling the wall with a variety of monochromatic shades of overlapping tags creating the illusion of depth.”

Photo by Damonabnormal

May 24, 2010

Huge new Mode2 in London

UK graffiti legend Mode2 recently painted this huge wall in London. Previously, the same wall has been painted by the likes of Pure Evil, David Choe and Burning Candy. Definitely make sure to view this photo large on flickr.

January 8, 2010January 8, 2010

Uncommon – cool artist designed iPhone cases

I’m not big on blogging about products here. Mostly because a lot of graffiti/street art related products are kind of silly (see: the graffiti mug). But Uncommon makes what seem like very cool cases for your iPhone. I’ve never seen one of these in person, but I might buy one. The artist line up is pretty solid.

Uncommon lets you design your own case using your own artwork or artwork from their catalog. The concept is interesting enough, and the lineup of artists is just perfect: Ron English, San, Mode2, David Ellis, Tinho, Anthony Lister, Herbert Baglione, Date Farmers, Usugrow, Dennis McNett and Monica Canilao just to name a few (and these are just the artists they are starting with, who knows how many more will be added in the future). One of the great things about these cases is that the artists haven’t contributed just one image each, some have contributed a dozen. And while those in a hurry can buy a “premade” case (like those pictured above), creative risk takers can customize their case by placing the graphic themselves: you can blow up the imagine so that the all you see is Ronald Mcdonald’s giant head painted by Ron English or shift the design so that a Date Farmers drawing appears at the top, center or bottom of the case.

Here are two cases I designed from the same image by David Ellis:

The cases aren’t cheap ($39.95), but that seems like a small price to pay when you spend hundreds of dollars on a phone and most other cases make it look so ugly.

Here are two more premade cases:

In short, these are pretty cool.

Buy them at getuncommon.com