Black Rat Projects (formally Black Rat Press) finally has their first show of 2010 opening in a few weeks. It’s called Now’s The Time. It’s a group show and it brings together artwork by some of the top names in street art’s history: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Banksy, Barry McGee, Faile and Os Gêmeos. I’ve heard about this show coming together over the last few months, and I like to joke that the idea behind it is strikingly similar to The Thousands, but two artists really separate this show from The Thousands and other similar exhibition that have been put on in the past: Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It’s not often that a gallery has put on an exhibition of what is claimed to be the world’s top street art and been able to include those two essential artists in the line up alongside newer artists artists like Faile. This is going to be a very interesting show. Now’s The Time opens April 22nd at Black Rat Projects in London.
There seems to be so much going on right now with street art being sold or auctioned off for charity and other good causes, so I thought I’d throw a few things all together in one post. Also, how great is it that Shepard Fairey is involved in so many of these things? See it all after the jump… Continue reading “Art for charity”
It’s so nice to read things like this story and realize that I shouldn’t be so worried about being starved for culture when I move to Philadelphia this fall. Philagrafika 2010 is an art exhibition about printmaking and the first incarnation of what may become a tri-annual event in Philadelpiha. Artnet has a great article about the whole event which is well worth reading. In short, if you like printmaking, Philagrafika seems to be the place to be.
One of my favorite artists (street or otherwise) is Swoon, and of course, she is all about printmaking, so it’s great to see that she has gotten involved in Philagrafika with some new work on the streets of Philadelphia. Becki Fuller was in Philadelphia to take some photos of Swoon’s pieces. Here’s a few of those:
This piece has something a bit new in it, the architectural component is something reminiscent of her raft projects:
And I’ve never seen this print before, so it’s either really new or really old:
According to The World’s Best Ever, The Barnstormers, David Ellis’ art collective, has a show at Joshua Liner opening March 18th. Should be really great.
Here are just some of the artists in the show:
Alex Lebedev, Alice Mazorra, Bluster One, Che Jen, Chris Mendoza, Chuck Webster, David Ellis, Dennis McNett, Doze Green, GION, Guillermo Carrion, James Lynch, Joey Garfield, Jose Parla, Kenji Hirata, Kiku Yamaguchi, KR, MADSAKI, Manny Pangilinan (WELLO), Martin Mazorra, Maya Hayuk, Mikal Hameed, Mike Houston, Mike Ming, Miyuki Pai Hirai, Naomi Kazama, Pema Brush, Romon Kimin Yang (Rostarr), Shie Moreno, Swoon, West One, Yuri Shimojo and more.
Babelgum has yet another street art/graffiti documentary streaming online now. Inside Outside is streaming in full on their site and features artists like Swoon, Zevs and KR. I’m not a Zevs fan myself, so I think they focus a bit too much on him, but overall it’s a great film and well worth a watch (especially since it’s free).
This year the art fairs in Miami are going to be complimented with two massive mural projects.
First, the classic: Primary Flight came out with their promo video yesterday. PF have been doing a mural project in Miami for a few years, and their line up is a grab bag of awesomeness with artists like Ron English, The London Police, Logan Hicks and Revok. Here’s the video:
And then there is a the guy in town: The Wynwood Walls is a project by Jeffrey Deitch. The line up isn’t as expansive, but the names are all international superstars like Swoon, Barry McGee, Futura, and Os Gemeos.
There’s even a lot of overlap between the projects with artists like Shepard Fairey and Aiko painting for both groups.
Naturally, I’ll be there filming for Babelgum and taking photos for Vandalog.
This piece, The Fool by Dale Grimshaw, appeared recently in Shoreditch. First of all, it’s a cool piece. But it is part of a larger point I’d like to make/question I’d like to ask. It seems like woodblock and lino-blocks are pretty popular in the USA, particularly NYC, but almost unheard of here in the UK. On the other hand, stencils seem much more popular in London than elsewhere. Why is this?
I think it has to do with Banksy and Swoon. Swoon is an American artist and she’s probably more popular in New York than London. She’s been wheatpasting for a long time now, and a lot of artists have been influenced by her. And in the UK, Banksy is a household name, and a lot of street artists picked up stencils after seeing Banksy’s work. But that’s just my take.
The last time I mentioned the Represent show was towards the start of October, so if you happened to forget about Thursday’s opening, I’ll forgive you. But if you’re in London and you don’t make it to Represent before the show closes November 11thupdate: the show has been extended and now closes November 20th, well I’m just not so sure.
Represent has been curated by Matt Small and it’s a show of portraiture. Matt is one of the artists and people that I most respect, so I was curious to see what this show would bring. You figure that a talented painter should be able to identify other talented artists. Well Matt definitely can.
The line up includes some names that I’m familiar with like Swoon, Best Ever, Elbow-toe and Case, but there were plenty of people I was either less familiar with or whose names I had never heard before like Peter Michael and Yuko Nasu.
While I can’t say that every painting was a winner, it the most refreshing show I’ve seen in London all year and maybe the best group show.
Matt Small
Of course, there were two original paintings from Matt Small in the show, including this one which is the first time I’ve seen him paint glasses.
David Walker
I like this piece by David Walker just enough to not call him on for using paint drips to look “street.” Sometimes drips make a painting look better. I would be curious though to see what this painting would be like without the drips, the girl could have more of that really cool metallic look which is sort of hinted at in this piece but overshadowe by drips.
Swoon
This is one my all time favorite pieces by Swoon. It’s certainly in the top 5 pieces on wood that I’ve seen. I don’t have the cash or wall space for this, but I hope it finds a good home.
Best Ever
Okay so the name might be a bit presumptuous, but the duo Best Ever get better with every painting.
Case
Sometimes it feels like I’m the only person in the world who realizes how amazing Case can be. This painting, Rosemary, is even better in the flesh. So many photo-realistic graffiti writers just end up making portraits of dead hip hop stars or doing commissions for Nike, but Case actually has an artistic mind behind his talents.
Represent is at Blackall Studios on Leonard Street, London and closes on November 11thupdate: the show has been extended and now closes November 20th. Get there while it’s still open! I may even go back for a second look.
