Ron English (and part of a TrustoCorp on the far right)
Letters From America opened last night at Black Rat Projects in London. The show, organized by Corey Helford Gallery, includes work by Ron English, TrustoCorp, Risk and Saber. I wasn’t sure how work from all of these artists would look when put together in one room, but it looks good. As usual, it looks like Ron and TrustoCorp brought some solid work, but the real treat is that the show is a rare opportunity for Londoners to see pieces by LA’s Risk and Saber. Risk and Saber’s work can certainly be a bit over the top, but so is graffiti. In particular, I am really enjoying Saber’s tribute to the UK’s National Health Service.
Ron English is a father, a husband, a full time artist, a part time vandal and 24/7 American. When he says that he’s been busy in London, he means it. In addition to his work at the London Pleasure Gardens, Ron is in town for a show. Letters From America opens in London today, July 4th (America’s Independence Day), at Corey Helford Gallery in conjunction with Black Rat Projects, and features Ron’s work with the work of other American artists: TrustoCorp, Risk and Saber. With a numerous ongoing projects in London, a family to take care of, and a street reputation to maintain, Ron has no time to waste and of course, neither do you. So here is Ron getting straight to the point of questions that I thought about for a long time.
Caroline: Letters From America includes four talented American artists, two with backgrounds in street art and two with backgrounds in graffiti. Do you feel that the distinction between street art and graffiti is an important one once the art is put in a gallery setting?
Ron: Once it’s in the gallery it is no longer street art or graffiti, it’s just plain old art.
Caroline: You seem to have made an effort to include your children in numerous aspects of your art career; from being the subjects of some of your paintings, to being given stickers to put up around Detroit, to your son Mars having a painting included in the South Park-themed art show you curated. How do you believe they feel about your work and growing up in the fine art/street art world?
Ron: They are mostly bored by it and a little puzzled by people who have tattoos of them on their bodies.
Caroline: Besides the fact of the London Pleasure Gardens being just a short distance from the 2012 Olympic events, do you have any plans for more work relating to the Olympics this year?
Ron: No.
Caroline: When you were a kid, did you find Frosty Flakes and McDonald’s delicious?
Ron: Yes, I also like the toys.
Caroline: Did you enjoy Disney cartoons?
Ron: Still do.
Caroline: To what extent were the subjects you use in your art now apart of your childhood and when did you become aware of those icons on a critical level?
Ron: When I was six I made a painting of Charlie Brown and another kid said I was in big trouble for stealing a copyrighted character.
Ron’s piece for London Pleasure Gardens. Photo by S. Butterfly.
Caroline: What was it like painting the nose cone of a jumbo jet for the London Pleasure Gardens? Did that present any challenges?
Ron: It was pretty easy. The only challenge was the alleged Bansky on the other side, I was asked to paint it over but I was uncomfortable doing that. The problem was solved by some midnight whitewasher.
Caroline: Why continue to illegally put up work and risk arrest when you don’t need to, from a career standpoint and particularly since you have a family?
Ron: Getting permission is such a hassle.
Caroline: Do you find a difference in how your work is received in England compared with the U.S.?
Ron: They actually have street art tours here.
Caroline: Have you run into any legal issues with copyright infringement?
Ron: No, my work is parody, not infringement.
Wall in Queens, NY. Courtesy of Ron English.
Caroline: Have you ever been on the other end of an infringement situation, where people were stealing or appropriating your work?
Ron: Probably.
Caroline: Living in Beacon, New York seems an unexpected choice for a street artist. Why do you choose to live there rather than a city?
Ron: My kids like it there, plus fewer billboards means less temptation.
Caroline: Any plans in the works for future projects that you can talk about?
Ron: I just released a new record with The Electric Illuminati called Songs in English. It’s on iTunes.
Ron English, Shepard Fairey, TrustoCorp and Risk painted last week at the London Pleasure Gardens, a brand new cultural center of sorts from the folks behind MuTate Britain. Fairey has had some involvement with MuTate Britain organization before, but I’m not sure about the other artists. Whatever the case, there’s some nice work that went up at the gardens, including Fairey’s tallest mural to date and some great work on airplane nosecones by Risk and English (shown above).
Swap Fairey for Saber and you have the line-up at Letters from America, the show Corey Helford Gallery is putting on at Black Rat Projects starting July 4th, so if you like this work, definitely check out that show too.
Here’s some of the work at the London Pleasure Gardens, and we’ll probably do a part-2 of with more work in a few days:
LA’s Corey Helford Gallery (who do advertise on Vandalog) have teamed up with London’s Black Rat Projects to put on a show, called Letters From America, in London on the 4th of July. Because the 4th is Independence Day in America, Corey Helford Gallery are bringing over a team of four American street artists to show at Black Rat Projects: Risk, Saber, TrustoCorp and Ron English. There aren’t many more details available for now, but I’ve been a lot of very exciting whispers about this show…
The team at Arrested Motion have curated their second show, and it is set to open in LA next month. City of Fire opens June 5th at Stephen Webster. The show includes work by Ron English, Kid Zoom, Pedro Matos, Nick Walker, Rostarr, Jeff Soto, Judith Supine, TrustoCorp and others. For more info about the show, email exhibitions [at] arrestedmotion (dot) com.
A note from the editor: Yes, the Daniel Lahoda in this post is the same Daniel Lahoda who was investigated by the LAPD and complained about online on numerous occasions. While, to my knowledge, Lahoda has never been arrested and none of the past complaints have resulted in civil litigation, there were a lot of complaints about Lahoda being brought up consistently for a number of years. It’s impossible for me to say for sure what happened in Lahoda’s past. What I can say is that he does seem to be making an honest go of things with his current projects. I’ve had personal issues with Lahoda myself, but as far as I am concerned, this new gallery of his is a time for second chances. Since the last of the complaints against him surfaced, Lahoda has gone above and beyond with his noncommercial ventures like the LA Freewalls Project and involvement in changing LA’s mural regulations. If you asked me today, “Would you do business with Daniel Lahoda?”, my answer would be a cautious yes. If Lahoda did make mistakes in the past, I do not think he will make those mistakes again. Consider this aside as my way of publicly putting rumors and allegations from Lahoda’s past in the past and instead deciding to focus on the here and now. – RJ Rushmore
Daniel Lahoda’s L.A. Freewalls project has changed the face of the Arts District in Los Angeles. That much is inarguable. In fact, it’s getting harder and harder to imagine what the old warehouse district looked like without the rotating gallery at 7th & Mateo, ROA’s outdoor exhibition spanning Jesse and Imperial, HOW & NOSM, DABS & MYLA, Shepherd Fairey, and perhaps most indelibly, JR’s L.A. Wrinkles. Trust me, this is a good thing.
So what happens when these muralists that have transformed a neighborhood bring their work inside to the brand new LALA gallery? Can it maintain the same level of energy? The verdict will have to wait for the opening, but at first glance, you simply cannot argue with that lineup.
Up-and-coming artists like Anthony Lister, ASKEW, and ZES, all of whom have recently had some of the hottest shows anywhere, are in it. ZES’s mural partners in Little Tokyo and in L.A. Freewalls (alongside the incomparable PUSH, who is also in the show) UGLAR, are represented in the forms of Evan Skrederstu and Christopher D. Brand and possibly some special guests. On top of that, there’s HOW & NOSM. There’s Dan Witz. That alone is a killer group.
But throw in someone like, oh, I don’t know, Ron English–not to mention MOCA “Art in the Streets” vets like Shepherd Fairey, SABER, RISK, and SWOON? Well, let’s say that things just got serious. And they might get crazy too. In a good way. Here’s hoping, anyway.
Quite honestly, I haven’t seen this kind of excitement around in a while. Ever since Art Walk wrecked Gallery Row with its costly series of missteps, Downtown Los Angeles has been bleeding galleries. Upper Playground is gone. Mr. Cartoon’s shop is gone. Worst of all, Bert Green Fine Art, the originator himself, is gone too. The truth is, Downtown L.A. needs an innovative gallery–one willing to take risks, one unafraid to offend or prompt dialogue–more than people think.
Can LALA Gallery be one of those? Come April 21, we’ll find out. But on the evidence of the incredible show roster, it’s off to a very promising start.
I love the idea behind The New Blood, a show that Morgan Spurlock (of Supersize Me) has curated at Thinkspace Gallery: He asked established artists to each select one up-and-coming artist whose work they want highlight, with both artists having work in the show. Here’s what Spurlock has to say about the show:
I’m a massive art collector who, by way of my habit formed a relationship with Thinkspace’s Andrew Hosner, and when he offered me the opportunity to curate a show I jumped at the chance. The concept of the show is how the torch is passed from one artist to the next. One opens the door so another can follow. And this show is all about artists who I think have and are continuing to impact and change the art world, and each one of these artists is bringing along an ‘apprentice’ or ‘protege’ who they think we all need to know about, the artists they believe are the ‘New Blood’ of the art world.
The line-up looks really exciting…
Camille Rose Garcia / Travis Lampe
The Date Farmers / Albert Reyes
Dzine / Jesus Bubu Negron
Elizabeth McGrath / Morgan Slade
Gary Baseman / Jesse Dickenson
Gary Taxali / Adrian Forrow
Jonathan Yeo / Charlie Gouldsborough
Mark Jenkins / Sandra Fernandez
Nicola Verlato / Marco Mazzoni
Ron English / Kid Zoom
Saber / ZES
Shepard Fairey / Nicholas Bowers
Tim Biskup / Patrick Hruby
The New Blood opens at Thinkspace Gallery on April 28th and runs through May 19th.
Rizzoli recently published the official book documenting The Underbelly Project, We Own the Night: The Art of The Underbelly Project. If you haven’t heard of The Underbelly Project, check out my firsthand account. Basically, over 100 artists were taken down to an abandoned subway station beneath New York City to put up artwork and explore hidden depths of the city. Artists involved in the project include Revok, Roa, Anthony Lister, Faile, Ron English, Dan Witz, Gaia, Know Hope, Haze and many others.
In December, a collector’s edition of the book was sold at The Underbelly Project’s show in Miami. Until now, that show was the only place to pick up a copy of this special edition of We Own the Night. The collector’s edition version includes a hardcover copy of the book, nine photographic prints from the project, and comes in a handcrafted and laser-engraved oak box. This package is an edition of 100, plus 10 APs, and a handful were held back in Miami to be sold later. Now, the remaining collector’s editions are available online for the first time exclusively at The Vandalog Shop.
The Underbelly Project is one of the most fascinating projects to ever happen in the street art or graffiti worlds. While there are photos all over the web showing what the project looked liked, reading We Own the Night is just about the only way to get a sense of what it was actually like to participate in The Underbelly Project. I saw The Underbelly Project in the flesh, but hearing other people’s stories shed new light on it even for me. I’m extremely pleased that The Vandalog Shop will be selling the collector’s edition of We Own the Night, giving people who couldn’t make it to Basel Miami a chance to pick up a copy. My copy of We Own the Night was the best thing I’ve received under a Christmas tree in years, and I hope other people will enjoy the book and the photographs as much as I do.
Here are a just a couple of the photographs included in the set:
Photo by Emile SourisKid Zoom. Photo by Ian Cox
Other images include work by Roa, Anthony Lister, Skullphone, Kid Zoom, Revok, Ceaze and Jeff Soto.
Only a few of these collector’s editions are remain, and The Vandalog Shop is the only place you’ll find them online. They are available for $250.
Last night The Simpsons aired the highly anticipated episode “Exit Through The Kwik-E Mart”, which guest starred a few of street art’s all-stars: Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Kenny Scharf, and Robbie Conal. The episode has Bart covering Springfield in wheat-pastes of Obey-esque posters of Homer, which eventually leads him to the likes of the street artist guest stars. If you want a full recap of the episode go here.
What struck me was actually something we all already knew- street art is on the market and has seen some fast and steep increases in its value. It’s just weird to see it satirized on The Simpsons: Bart’s street work leads him to show work in a gallery. Bart jumps on Homer’s car and tags the hood, and as Homer starts to yell at him for doing this, Bart points out that he just increased the car’s value by 50x.
Being on the Simpsons is definitely noteworthy for street art history. But this isn’t the first time art vandals have rocked the cartoon world: Obey Giant was on Family Guy. Invader was referenced on Futurama. Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster was featured on South Park. Banksy directed this cool Simpsons’ intro.
If you’ve seen the episode what did you think? If you haven’t, but still feel the need to insert your opinion, what’s your take on street art getting Simpsonized?
Fun side note from my week: William Parry, author of Against The Wall, spoke at my college today. He’s currently on a speaking tour around the USA, so if you happen to hear that he is in a town near you, I highly recommend going to see him. And here’s the link-o-rama:
Interesting interview with Shepard Fairey. Shepard and I definitely don’t agree on everything, but it’s cool to hear what he has to say and exactly how he defends his work.
Speaking of Shepard Fairey, he will be guest-starring on The Simpsons soon alongside Ron English, Kenny Scharf and Robbie Conal. If The Simpsons had not officially jumped the shark before, this is it. Still, I’ll be watching.
