Reka continues his tour of Europe, this time some shots of his work in France. As usual his work is amazing.
Loving these new skulls, a lot!! Looking forward to more updates. Continue reading “Reka in France”
Reka in France
Reka in the UK
It makes me proud to see Melbourne-based artists traveling the world showing off the awesomeness of Melbourne street art and graffiti. Reka is doing a bit of a world tour at the moment, he’s currently in London and he is KILLING it! Check out these fresh pieces:
Continue reading “Reka in the UK”
Weekend link-o-rama
It’s a mega link-o-rama this week because I’ve been traveling from last Saturday until Thursday morning.
- Here’s a video of Morley’s show at Lazarides Newcastle. When I first saw Morley’s work about a year and a half ago, I thought it was hilarious and touching. Now though, while I appreciate that he has tried to literally make his gallery work 3D and therefore a bit different from what he does on the street, I’m kinda bored of it. Anybody else feeling this way?
- Zeus (the British one) has a pop-up show in London next month.
- Pez has some great commentary on the transition from the street to the gallery.
- Emol, Stinkfish, Zio Ziegler will be showing together at Carmichael Gallery starting August 11th.
- Okay, here’s one of the very occasional Olek pieces that I really like, but she got to start with a great shape so I’m not sure how much the yarn helped.
- Evol hit up some electrical boxes in Warsaw.
- A unicorn expelling rainbows from its mouth and ass.
- Some very odd but also oddly beautiful graffiti from Homer.
- Even Russia has a mural festival. Of course, the work is pretty tame. Nothing like this piece of Russian street art.
- There’s some great work to be spotted along the High Line.
- Pixote recently had a show in NYC. Nothing amazing, but it’s interesting to see what Pixote does besides rollers.
- This mural in Denver by Shepard Fairey is pretty nice. He’s in town for his part in a show at The Black Book Gallery.
- Reka’s in London.
- Ripo has a solo show opening next Thursday at White Walls Gallery in San Fransisco.
Photo by Awer
Klughaus Gallery Readies for Kingbrown Magazine / Launch and Opening Exhibition
One of the coolest spots in Manhattan’s Lower East Side/Chinatown neighborhood is the Klughaus Gallery, as it features some of the best graffiti and street art to be found anywhere. I haven’t been getting down there often enough, but when in the neighborhood earlier today, I dropped by. And it couldn’t have been a more perfect time, as the gallery was getting ready for Thursday evening’s Australia’s “Kingbrown Magazine” / Launch and Opening Exhibition. Curated by Fountain’s John Leo and Melissa McCaig-Welles in collaboration with Kingbrown and Morning Breath, the exhibit features a range of wondrous works. Here are some favorites:
More about the wonderful Kingbrown Magazine — that I’ve only recently discovered — in a future post.
Photos by Sara Mozeson & Lois Stavsky
Weekend link-o-rama
Let’s see what has been happening off of Vandalog this week.
- I recently wrote a list of Complex.com giving my thoughts on the 50 greatest street artists right now. Let me know what you think. So far, the main criticism (besides the usual “screw you” flame war stuff) seems to be that I did not include enough women.
- The London Vandal broke a story about British former graffiti writers being arrested and being released on bail until November under some absurdly restrictive conditions. For example, they can’t enter a train station or use trains in London until November unless they can prove that they are going to court, to visit a lawyer or to make a journey relating to business or education. The New Statesman corrected some of The London Vandal’s claims and so the story is perhaps not as wild as initially reported, but it’s still a pretty messed up situation where bail conditions are being used solely for the purpose of maybe making The Olympics run more smoothly. Hyperallergic has more.
- Some great anti-Romney stickers are appearing in Philadelphia.
- This is a great piece by Remio.
- Meggs’ show at White Walls Gallery in SF is open and Graffuturism has photos.
- King Brown Magazine’s latest issue is launching in NYC on July 26th with a show including Mike Giant, Reka, Greg LaMarche, Anthony Lister, Sheryo, The Yok and others.
- DALeast’s latest mural is a beauty in a place that could use some art.
- Satterugly is doing some crazy stuff in Mexico.
Photo courtesy of M-City
Reka – Open Studio at Backwoods Gallery
Got an email the other day with some sad new for Melbourne and some awesome news for our friends in Europe and the USA. Reka’s moving overseas and having a final show at Backwoods to celebrate. I love his work on found objects so I’m really looking forward to this show.
From the Backwoods press release:
After a ten year career defacing the streets and gallery walls of Melbourne, Reka is packing up, moving overseas and having one last hurrah. He will be holding an open studio for one night only, displaying a new body of work exclusively painted on found objects.
Using spray cans and rusted metal found from walking the train lines and abandoned factories, Reka has organically used each aspect of his natural element to create a process- driven concept, turning everything from the cans’ paper labels to the folds of oxidised sheet metal into self-contained artworks.
On June 20th, Reka is opening up his studio for a behind the scenes look at his new paintings and mixed media works, plus throwing in some paintings from the past decade for good measure. It’ll be an exhibition and leaving party all rolled into one, so come down and join Reka for a one final beer.
More preview photos after the jump… Continue reading “Reka – Open Studio at Backwoods Gallery”
New wall by Reka in Fitzroy, Melbourne
Primary Suspects by Reka at Backwoods Gallery
Last night I went to the launch of Reka‘s latest show “Primary Suspects” at Backwoods gallery in Collingwood. As usual Reka did not disappoint.
Reka’s blog gives a good run down of what the show is all about… “When a suit goes to work, they take their briefcase. When I go to work, I take my cans. Primary Suspects is a reflective exploration into the lifestyle of street vandals and the effect that it takes on us, both mentally and physically. From brushes with the law, confrontations with other graffiti writers, climbing onto rooftops and exploring the underground, the streets have become our desks” (Read the rest here).
The show also explores Reka’s fascination with old found spray cans, which he has painted and named after some of Melbourne’s graffiti and street art legends.
Apart from the paintings and old cans, Reka put together a short looping film of himself wearing a suit and getting sprayed by hydrants full of paint in the 4 primary colours. This played on the back wall and got a lot of attention.
Check out the promo clip as well, very funny! (from RJ’s post a few days ago) Continue reading “Primary Suspects by Reka at Backwoods Gallery”
Reka at Backwoods Gallery
Reka, of Everfresh Studio, has a solo show opening next week at Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne. Primary Suspects opens on Friday and runs through March 18th. Reka says that Primary Suspects is an exploration of what choosing graffiti and street art as a career choice means for those artists.
Here’s a video trailer for the show. I’m not sure it says much about what sort of artwork we can expect at Primary Suspects (although Reka describes the video as a metaphor for his job as a vandal/artist), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching…
Check out more previews from Primary Suspects after the jump… Continue reading “Reka at Backwoods Gallery”
Belated link-o-rama
Thanks to spending the weekend in NYC for Skewville’s show at Factory Fresh (on now and great), I am late with this week’s link-o-rama. Nonetheless, here it is:
- When David Choe painted Facebook’s offices back in 2005, he was given two options: He could either take a couple thousand dollars as payment, or stock in the company. He chose the stock. Assuming that Choe has held onto that stock, the New York Times estimates that Choe may be worth $200 millions pretty soon. So of course, Choe ended up on the front page of the NYTimes and is being written about all over the web, but he is also a talented artist. Here’s some of what he painted in Facebook’s offices (he just painted their new offices as well) and here’s what Choe and a few friends got up to in Denver recently.
- Eloquent Vandals, a film about the Nuart festival, is now streaming online.
- Ron English has two great new sculptures that are well-worth checking out: Fat Tony (the tiger) which will be for sale as a toy and Hulk Obama, which looks like a customization by Ron that may or may not ever be for sale.
- Another great wall by Phlegm in Sheffield.
- Dabs and Myla have a touching Christmas tradition (now let’s get a fun discussion going in the comments about the ethics/humility of making a video about that tradition).
- This collaboration between Reka, Ghostpatrol and TwoOne turned out really nicely.
Photo by El Decertor