Tag: roa

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Printmaking Today and Roa at Black Rat Projects

This Thursday, Black Rat Projects has their first show of 2011. Pritmaking Today is their annual group print show. There’s a long list of some talented artists with work in the show, including Swoon, Know Hope and Matt Small. There will be new prints from Swoon, Candice Tripp and Matt Small. There’s also something from Hirst, but that should be easy enough to ignore. We’ve got a couple photos of Swoon working on her print:

In addition to the prints, there’s also an installation from Roa. His installation is part of a new project space/artist residency project at Black Rat Projects.

Roa at Factory Fresh last year. Photo by C-Monster

And all this opens on this Thursday night at Black Rat Projects in London.

Photos by C-Monster and courtesy of Black Rat Projects

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Roa, ROBOTS and Phlegm

Phlegm. Photo by SheffTim

This should be a fun event. ROBOTS, makers of large wooden street art sculptures, have put together a show with Roa and Phlegm for later this month in South London. Black/Light will include new murals and installations from the artists, plus live music and films. The show runs from the evening of February 24th through March 6th in the Bussey Building in Peckham Rye.

Roa. Photo by Vandalog

Photos by SheffTim and Vandalog

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Roa in NYC

Roa just sent over some photos of work he did last year in New York. I’m loving the below piece over a Cash4 (not because it’s over Cash4, but because it’s two great writers next to each other in a cool spot).

Unurth has some more photos from this trip.

Photos by Roa

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Street artists for the magazine Diplomat

Sometimes street art end up in odd places. The cover of Diplomat, a magazine targeting the community of diplomats in London, probably qualifies as one of those most unlikely places. And yet, their creative director Jeannine Saba has been working to bring street artists to the diplomatic community. In October 2009, before hardly anyone knew about him, Roa was the first street artist to make a cover for Diplomat. And this October, Invader was on the cover.

I asked Jeannine about Roa’s cover and she said that Roa was asked “to depict the pharmaceutical industry in the East and the West.” Here’s what he came up with:

I don’t quite see it, but I’ll trust Roa on this one. I just love the idea of having that magazine sitting on some MP’s desk.

Diplomat has more street art and graffiti planned for covers in 2011 too, including possibly Isaac Cordal, which would be awesome.

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Miami Madness

In a lot of ways, Hargo sums up Miami's art fair week

With so much of the art world migrating to Miami this week in a frenzy, there seem to be too many events and parties (and I promise not to blog about the parties in detail. This isn’t a gossip site) and exhibits and festivals and everything else to keep track of. Here’s a roundup of some of the things that I’m most interested in seeing (or not seeing).

Things that have already been mentioned on Vandalog:

And things that I haven’t already blogged about:

  • Elisa Carmichael has her list of Miami must-sees, which includes a Dan Witz book signing and a Trespass book signing with Marc and Sara from Wooster Collective and Carlo McCormick.
  • Sorry to bring this up, but Sanrio’s exhibition of Hello Kitty art is just annoying. They got some great artists like Jim Houser to paint Hello Kitty characters. I’ll be avoiding this show like the plague.
  • I mostly go for Ryan McGinness’ really abstract work and this isn’t that, but McGinness fans will probably want to check out his solo show.
  • Barry McGee will be showing work and signing books at Ratio 3’s book in Basel Miami.
  • Jonathan LeVine Gallery has a pop-up show as part of Wynwood Walls. Some of the artists include AJ Fosik, Judith Supine, Doze Green, Dan Witz and WK Interact.
  • FriendsWithYou are filling a park with giant blow-up sculptures.
  • Last year, OHWOW Gallery’s It Ain’t Fair show was one of the most interesting shows in Miami. Once again, they have a killer line up for the show including José Parlá, Rey Parlá (José’s brother who is, I believe, a filmmaker), KAWS, Phil Frost, Barry McGee and Neckface.
  • OHWOW Gallery are also opening a bookstore at The Standard Hotel in Miami.
  • New Image Art’s pop-up show includes Neckface, Judith Supine and Os Gêmeos. Probably going to be a must-see.
  • Tristan Eaton and his partners are launching Contra Projects with a wide-array of events this week including a tent/lounge space, a mural (by Mr. Jago, Tristan Eaton, Ron English and others) and a TrustoCorp carnival aka TrustoLand. More info on the Thunderdog blog.
  • Carmichael Gallery, Joshua Liner Gallery and others will have booths at SCOPE, and I think Maya Hayuk is painting a mural there, which should be awesome if I’m remembering that correctly.
  • And of course there’s all the fairs I haven’t mentioned, because there are just so many. So many. Too many. It’s gonna be art overload. But if I’ve missed anything that you think is particularly special, please leave a comment.

Photo by Hargo

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Wild Hackney – changing graffiti policy in London

Wild Hackney is a new project by some of the same people who helped to save Roa’s rabbit, which Hackney council in London recently almost painted over. I’m not quite sure what to think of Wild Hackney. Here’s some of how the project is described on its website:

The Wild Hackney project was created our of concern for the sanitisation of our neighbourhoods.

…

Our first campaign is to lobby Hackney Council about a new approach to graffiti that goes beyond paint it black by providing them with a policy written by local residents.

While I certainly like the idea of more lenient graffiti removal policies, I’m worried that Wild Hackney could turn into judges of what constitutes good street art; what should be preserved and what should be buffed. Without knowing the people making those decisions, it’s a tough idea to get behind. And of course, no street art fan wants their city walls covered in perspex frames. Street art is ephemeral, and that’s part of its nature. With any luck though, Wild Hackney could give property owners more rights in regard to commissioning murals and keeping up street art that was placed on their property, whether it was painted legally or not.

Wild Hackney has a meeting on December 2nd to hash out some ideas for the campaign further. It will be at the Fellows Court Community Centre from 6:30pm.

Photo by noii’s