Katowice Street Art Festival – part 1

Escif. Photo by Foto Sigma DP1S

Poland is playing host to some of the world’s most talented street artists and muralists for the Katowice Street Art Festival. From April 20th to the 29th, the festival will feature artists such as Escif, Hyuro, Mark Jenkins, Ludo, M-City, Olek, Roa, Moneyless, and many more. Here are a few of the pieces already in progress or completed. There are many more photos on the festival’s facebook page.

Fantastic piece by Olek. Courtesy of Arrested Motion.

Ludo’s piece is a massive wheatpaste that incorporates paint. It looks great, but the one worry I have for this piece is that someone will probably have to paint over the eyesore that’s left when the paper weathers and inevitably comes down.

Ludo. Photo by Wojciech Nowak
Mark Jenkins. Photo by Foto Sigma DP1S
Hyuro in progress. Photo by Paweł Mrowiec
Tellas and Moneyless. Photo by Tellas

Photos by Foto – Sigma DP1S, Wojciech Nowak, Tellas and Paweł Mrowiec, also courtesy of Arrested Motion

Via Arrested Motion and Street Art News

While I was under a rock link-o-rama

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

Weekend link-o-rama

Sorry in Philadelphia

Just a heads up in case you don’t like murals, unless I get really into procrastination through blogging (which isn’t unlikely), the blog will probably continue to be pretty Miami-centric for the next week or so as I’m bogged down in finals. Now that you’ve got fair warning for that, here’s what I’ve missed covering over the last two weeks in art:

Photo by Caroline Caldwell

Where to look at SCOPE Miami

Maya Hayuk, who will show at New Image Art Gallery's booth

The SCOPE art fair’s Miami iteration should, as always, have a few booths of interest to Vandalog readers to year. SCOPE opens on the 29th and runs through December 4th. Make sure to stop by these booths: Mallick Williams for Skullphone and Love Me/Curtis Kulig; Jonathan LeVine Gallery for Olek, WK Interact and Aakash Nihilani; Dorian Grey Gallery for Richard Hambleton (and maybe LAII); and New Image Art Gallery for Maya Hayuk and Retna. Of course, all those galleries will be exhibiting other artists as well, those are just some highlights. And there should be plenty of else of interesting. For the last two years, SCOPE has been where I’ve seen some of the most interesting indoor art in Miami.

Maya Hayuk, who will show at New Image Art Gallery's booth

Photos courtesy of New Image Art Gallery

Swoon and Olek for PBS

Olek

Swoon and Olek were interviewed by PBS for the video found below. It’s quick, but good and covers the most recent major projects from each artist. Olek’s interview definitely gave me a lot more faith in her work. There have been jokes made about how perhaps Olek’s success relies on her good looks (yes, I realize that’s not the most politically correct joke to make, but it’s a joke that gets made), but I agree wholeheartedly with Olek’s thoughts about how good art is both conceptual and graphically interesting. This isn’t to say that I’m suddenly a fan of that show where she redid a bunch of famous street art in crochet form, but my opinion of Olek has definitely improved after this video.

As for PBS, their tips are the end are a bit flawed:

  • You can definitely get arrested for tiling like Invader.
  • In some cities, you can definitely get arrested for stickering.
  • Morley‘s name is Morley, not Marley.

Photo by See-ming Lee

Town & Country group show in NYC

Leon Reid IV public art proposal

Town & Country is a group show opening next week at 320 Studios in NYC. It’s curated by my friend Keith Schweitzer at M.A.N.Y, Samson Contompasis from The Marketplace Gallery and others. Almost 2 dozen artists are in this show, including Leon Reid IV, Veng, White Cocoa, Olek and Chris Stain. Town & Country will only be open for 3 days (June 28th-30th), but it should be a pretty great three days. The opening is on the 28th from 6pm-midnight.

Photo courtesy of Keith Schweitzer