I’m told, although it’s certainly not the easiest thing to read, that this Retna mural (organized by Primary Flight) says “Brimstone MSK” and that Brimstone is a sort of alter-ego for Retna. Can you read it? Either way, there’s a great video showing the work in progress…
Retna x Brimstone from Colin M Day on Vimeo.
Photo by Mike Pearce
Well, the internet went a bit crazy this week, but it looks like we’re winning. Thank you to anyone who noticed that Vandalog was offline on Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA and took the time to contact their representatives to voice objections to the bills. But enough about politics. This is an art blog.
Photo by Dal
Remember this cryptic video from last year? Or these shots of Nunca painting a giant airplane? Well all of that is finally coming together and will be on view for the public… The Boneyard Project: Return Trip is the fully-formed vision that was hinted at by the Nose Job show last year at Eric Firestone Gallery. In addition to some of the Nose Cone pieces and some new work on airplane nose cones, this iteration of the Boneyard Project will feature disused planes that artists have painted all over.
According to Aviationpros.com, “More than 30 artists have participated in Round Trip including DC Super 3 planes painted by graffiti artists How & Nosm, Nunca, and Retna, a C97 cockpit by Saner, a C45 plane by Faile, and a Lockheed VC 140 Jetstar by Andrew Schoultz.”
Return Trip opens at the Pima Art and Space Museum in Tuscan, AZ on January 28th and runs through May 31st. Check out Aviationpros.com for more info.
Peter Vahan sent over these images of what’s been going on over the last few days in Wynwood, Miami. Primary Flight and Wynwood Walls each have a number of murals being painted by a range of artists. Here’s just a small selection of the progress so far from Neuzz, How & Nosm, Above, Shepard Fairey and Retna…
Photos by Peter Vahan
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.
Photos courtesy of New Image Art Gallery
The Wende Museum has been doing some very interesting things lately, including the creation of an outdoor gallery wall (complete with framed work) on Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles, but its current project on Wilshire looks to be the most intriguing yet.
Now standing directly across the street from LACMA are several weathered sections of the concrete Berlin Wall. “The Wall Along Wilshire” is part of “The Wall Project,” the museum’s ongoing cultural history program.
For the front of the wall, the artists paired with Thierry Noir (one of the first artists to paint the Wall in 1984) were Kent Twitchell, Farrah Karapetian, and Marie Astrid Gonzalez. Yet, the museum also saw fit to invite several street artists to paint the back of the sectionals, asking Herakut, RETNA, and D*face to do the honors. It is expected that the other street artists will start Thursday or Friday evening, but Herakut have already completed their work.
I arrived last night when they had just finishing painting. One half of Herakut, Jasmin Siddiqui (Hera) explained that the Wall holds a very special significance for Herakut, not just because they are from Germany, but because she grew up in the West, while her partner, Falk Lehmann (Akut), grew up in the East.
“It’s amazing how small it looks now,” Jasmin said as she surveyed their work, “and it’s hard to imagine it kept so many people apart.”
Their piece on the left-most sectional, “Good Can Come From Bad Comes From Good,” was informed by the transformative circularity of history, and features two pregnant women crouched together in a yin-yang position. Their piece on the right-most sectional, “We Are All Just Kids, Right?” depicts a thin schoolboy tapering into a teddy-bear-like black and green shadow. Both showcase the dark, illustrative quality of their work, and are all the more poignant given the history of the material they are painted on.
“The Wall Along Wilshire” will be in front of 5900 Wilshire until November 13, 2011, where a private reception will be held with the artists from 1 to 4 p.m. After that, the sectionals of the Wall will shift to The Wende Museum’s permanent collection at 5741 Buckingham Parkway, Suite E, Culver City, CA 90230.
Photos by Ryan Gattis
I’m baking alive here in Atlanta for Living Walls, but damn things are coming along nicely. Nanook and Gaia have finished a couple of walls, including this one. But Living Walls is a busy event, so I’ve been missing out on a lot this week, including some big news from Banksy. Check all that out here…
Photo by Elbowtoe
A group show with a unique and possibly interesting twist is opening today at Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton, New York. Curated by Carlo McCormick, Nose Job featured a variety of artists working on old airplane parts, primarily nose cones. The line up includes street artists like Swoon and Shepard Fairey, graffiti artists like Futura and Mare139 and more mainstream artists like Richard Price and Raymond Pettibon. Here’s the full line up… Aiko, Dan Colen, Peter Dayton, Viejas Del Mercado, Jane Dickson, Shepard Fairey, Futura, How & Nosm, Juan James, Ryan McGinness, Tara McPherson, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince, Lee Quinones, Carlos (MARE 139) Rodriguez, Retna, Saner, Kenny Scharf, Shelter Serra, Swoon, JJ Veronis and Aaron Young.
Nose Job opens today and runs through August 21st. Here’s a little preview of what to expect…
Photos courtesy of Eric Firestone Gallery
Last week, Retna’s Hallelujah World Tour stopped in London. The show is open June 27th at The Old Dairy, a warehouse space at 7 Wakefield St, London, WC1N 1PB. If you go to see this show, you may think you’re lost. It does not look like there’s an art show at 7 Wakefield Street, but trust me, there is. It just might take a bit of searching to find. Once you do though, you realize that Retna has taken over a huge space with some equally huge paintings. I’ve seen a lot of Retna’s work over the last seven months, so I’ve been a bit spoiled for choice and certainly have some favorites in this show (the work on metal and a few others) and some that I don’t think were notable at all. Nonetheless, if you are in the UK and have not seen Retna’s work in the flesh, this is a show that you definitely should not miss. I spent about half an hour wandering the show and intend to revisit the it at least once. I just hope that in the future Retna has more time to paint his shows. It looks like most of this one was painted on site in London, which I don’t think nearly as bad a thing as I’ve heard people tell me it is, but it does limit what he can do. Here’s a sampling of the show…
Check out more images here.
Photos by RJ Rushmore
From June 9th-27th, Retna‘s Hallelujah World Tour solo show will be in London. The tour began in NYC earlier this year with a bang. Except something just as mad for this show, Retna’s first solo in the UK. Do not miss this, especially if you’ve never seen Retna’s work in person before. The show is taking place at The Old Dairy, 7 Wakefield St, London, WC1N 1PB and will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am-6pm.
Photos courtesy of Valmorbida
