A few days ago, Gaia wrote about Ad Hoc Art’s Welling Court Mural Project. Here’s a quick update with more of the finished artwork. Becki Fuller and Luna Park have a bunch more photos of the event over at their blog, The Street Spot.
Photos by John Fekner, Becki Fuller and Luna Park
Last week I mentioned that Swoon’s first monograph has been published in the states. On Saturday May 8th, she’ll be signing copies of her new book at Urban Art Projects in New York. She’ll be there from 6-9pm.
Via Arrested Motion
The Great Outdoors is a kick-ass-sounding group show that opens at Woodward Gallery in New York City this weekend. Some of my favorite artists like Swoon and Neckface are involved, as well as some other talented people like Darkcloud, Michael de Feo, Royce Bannon and LA II. It’s kind of an odd mix of artists, but not really that odd at all. Stylistically different, but all cool in their own ways I guess. Should be good. The show opens on May 8th.
Photos from Woodward Gallery
Some fantastic news from the world of Swoon this week.
Today is the release date of Swoon’s first monograph. The book is almost 200 pages long and features photos of Swoon’s work as well as essays by people like Jeffrey Deitch. The book will be published by Abrams and is available on their website for $35.
And the second bit of news from Swoon is her latest undertaking: The Konbit Shelter Project. Swoon has been studying architecture, and in an effort to aid the relief efforts in Haiti, she plans to work with a team of people (including artistic collaborator Ben Wolf) to build superadobe structures in Haiti this summer. These structures are amazing because they are relatively easy and cheap to build but also very strong. To raise awareness for Konbit Shelter, Swoon and her team will be building a prototype of the structures in New York City this weekend. The structure will be unveiled on May 2nd at East River Park in Brooklyn. For more information on the project read this post on Hyperallergic and check out The Konbit Shelter Project’s website.
Last week, Now’s The Time opened at Black Rat Projects. It’s a group show with some of street art’s biggest names (Banksy, Swoon, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey…). Here’s a video from the opening:
Now’s The Time @ Black Rat Press from Hotoneten on Vimeo.
Drago (the wonderful Italians who published my book last year), Wooster Collective and Meet At The Apartment have a very cool sounding event going on next week in New York City. The 41st Parallel is a special Q&A event with some of street art’s biggest names. Some artists from The Thousands (Chris Stain, WK Interact, Elbow-toe and Swoon), other Drago-affiliated artists like Logan Hicks, Drago’s founder Paulo von Vacano and Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective will all be there. I spoke with Paulo today, and it sounds like the artists might be signing books as well. Unfortunately, I’ll be here in London, but I’m sure this is going to be the place to be in NYC next Wednesday evening. Check it out if you want to meet some artists, ask them questions and maybe pick up my book if you’re so inclined…
And yes I realize that I’ve been criticizing people recently for advertising stuff without really saying that they are advertising things. So, I guess this is an advert in the hopes that more people will buy my book, but if you’re flat broke or just don’t want to buy a book, this should still be a nice Q&A with some of the most influential people in street art.
It’s no secret that RJ and I are big fans of FAME (it’s also where we met, incidentally) and had an awesome time in Grottaglie last September. A few weeks ago, our friend Angelo announced this year’s tentative line up and when I spoke to him the other day, he mentioned that Swoon and Ben Wolf had just been to visit. Unfortunately, there are no photos of Ben Wolf’s work as it was destroyed before it could be documented, but there are some great images of Swoon’s gorgeous pieces, both in the monastery and around town. I really hope they survive over the next five months!
Let me know if you’ll be coming this year – Seth and I will be there for sure.
– Elisa
(Thanks for the images, Angelo.)
Black Rat Press have just sent me a few images as a preview to their upcoming group show Now’s The Time. The line-up is pretty sick. Black Rat have really found some fantastic paintings from some of the world’s top street artists (past and present) including Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Keith Haring, Swoon, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Os Gêmeos. The show opens Thursday April 22nd, and I expect the gallery is going to be packed. Here’s what I can reveal so far:
That’s got to be the best Angela Davis (edit: okay apparently this isn’t of Angela Davis, but it still looks amazing) I’ve seen from Shepard Fairey.
Swoon keeps getting better and better and better. Definitely my favorite living artist.
While it’s only a drawing, how often do you get a see a Basquiat in person? This is something special for sure.
Subliminal Projects‘ upcoming group show, SUBject/subJECT, is an all-female artist show and will benefit LA Downtown Women’s Shelter. Out of the 13 artists involved in this show, Swoon is definitely the best-known, but I’m also very much looking forward to seeing what Monica Canilao will be showing.
Press release:
Subliminal Projects is pleased to present SUBject/subJECT, a group exhibition opening April 10, featuring works from over a dozen female artists handpicked by the gallery and co-curator Deedee Cheriel.
SUBject/subJECT examines women’s use of public platforms in mass media, inviting both artists and viewers into a dialogue about role models, self-image and the messages women project in both the mainstream and alternative media. Says Cheriel, “Now that women have ‘equal rights,’ what are we trying to say? What’s our subject? Since female artists remain underrepresented in galleries and museums, we created this show as a platform for emerging women artists to represent!”
Among the show’s artists are Swoon, whose gritty yet delicate paper cutout portraits and large-scale flotillas of otherworldly art boats have landed her on the cover of this month’s ARTnews; Elizabeth McGrath, who breathes beauty and life into the macabre through her creature sculptures and theater-of-the-mind dioramas; and Jen Stark, whose colorful paper sculptures, drawings and animations have been described by Wired as “coldly mathematical yet exuberantly organic.” Other artists include Cheriel, Monica Canilao, Kime Buzzelli, Mona Superhero, Meryl Smith, Mel Kadel, Jessica Hess, Marissa Textor, Jesse Spears and Nikki McClure.
Ten percent of proceeds from all SUBject/subJECT art sales will go to the Los Angeles Downtown Women’s Center, dedicated to providing permanent, supportive housing and a safe and healthy community for homeless women.
And speaking of Swoon on the cover of ARTnews, that article can be read online. It’s a very complimentary article, and it’s nice to see Swoon being compared to serious n0n-street artists. At once point in the article, Swoon is called a “young artist.” Sometimes I forget that Callie is still so early in her career. No doubt she’ll continue to innovate and mature artistically for many more years.
I’ve started putting pictures online of my recent trip to Zambia with Mike Snelle, Swoon and Matt Small. There are a few on Drago’s website, along with a description of what exactly we were doing there (mostly, helping this school). You can read that post on Drago’s blog.
Also, that image is of some papercuts that Swoon put up in the school’s dining hall right before we left.
