Linking it up

Street art news seems to come in cycles, right now there is a lot of news coming in. Here’s a few highlights:

  • Sam3 has a new book out with Studiocromie and it looks great. More info at Feed Your Wall.
  • Shepard Fairey’s opening at the Warhol Museum looks amazing, but as Richard Lacayo points out, the AP case might have run into another snag for Fairey since the AP has countersued again on the basis that either Fairey only spent about 5 minutes “transforming” the photo into his poster or he is lying again and didn’t forget which image he based HOPE on. One thing Lacayo and the AP seem to have forgotten is that Fairey has a bunch of assistants. I don’t know how his studio functions, but it seems a fair assumption that Fairey sent his assistants a photo and they developed poster from there, or they gave him an already cropped photo based on his specifications and he went from there. It’s definitely not as simple as Lacayo is making it seem.
  • Elbow-toe still has a few prints left for sale on Etsy.com for only $30!
  • Anthony Lister has put up a beautiful new piece in Brooklyn.
  • Damon Ginandes has also been painting murals in New York.
  • This new video interview with Swoon is a must-see.
  • I missed this piece by Vhils inside the monastery at FAME Festival. It’s just too awesomely well-hidden.

Cityscape exhibition in London

cityspace

This seems like a cool line up for a group show. Especially looking forward to Skullphone, Neck Face and Taki 183 since I have never seen their work in the UK and I’m a big fan of Neck Face in particular.

Here’s the press release:

Lava Collective presents: Cityscape

Previews November 5th, 6pm – 9:30pm. Then open daily, 11am – 7pm.

The LAVA Collective has put together a group show of predominantly North American origin, focusing on street art and urban culture. Big names like Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Dalek and Skullphone vie for attention with an exciting selection of emerging artists.

The stars of the show are Brooklyn duo Peru Ana Ana Peru, who have been invited over especially to install a site-specific montage of their work. This couple have made a name for themselves in NYC with their vibrant and distinctive street pieces but they also produce video, sculpture, and fine art. They have got a big solo show coming up at the Brooklynite Gallery NYC before heading over here to oversee their first appearance in a London show.

Cityscape will also showcase the photography of Ricky Powell. The man they call the ‘Fourth Beastie Boy’ was on hand to witness the birth of hip hop culture in NYC. For this show he has submitted a selection of his classic portraits, including Run DMC, KRS One, Easy E, Eric B and Rakim. These extraordinary photos depict iconic musicians in intimate surroundings; Easy E is tuning a radio, Jam master Jay is all smiles at the airport. This is a rare opportunity to see Powell’s work in London.

For the full artist line up, go to www.lavacollective.com

Represent: a portraiture show

represent

A really solid line up for Represent which opens November 5th at Blackall Studios in London. The show highlights portraiture and includes some of my favorite artists like Matt Small and Swoon. Should be good.

Nuart: The reason to visit Stavanger

I don’t want to hype this up too much, but last weekend I had a really enjoyable time at Nuart in Stavanger and I can’t believe there aren’t more tourists flying out to see this festival. Here are a few pics.

This first pic is by me, the rest are by Ian Cox.

Skewville
Skewville
David Choe and DVS
David Choe and DVS

main gallery

Skewville and Chris Stain
Skewville and Chris Stain
David Choe
David Choe
Swoon
Swoon

And Logan Hicks made this cool time lapse animation of David Choe and DVS painting:

Last Weekend in London – Black Rat Press and Laz Rathbone

Let me be the first to acknowledge that, seeing as I spent the weekend in Los Angeles, I am the last person who should be writing this post. That said, RJ himself would have done a fantastic job covering the London shows that just opened so I feel there needs to be at least some mention of them on his blog.

Below are a handful of images from Ways of Seeing (Swoon, Matt Small, Brian Adam Douglas) at Black Rat Press and Scratching The Surface (Vhils) at Lazarides Rathbone. All photos come courtesy of Ian from Wallkandy.

I was very excited about the show at Black Rat, and, as expected, the three artists delivered a strong body of work. Matt Small’s multi-paneled piece is amazing (sorry, no picture! Go to Ian’s flickr!) and I’ve heard particularly good things about Brian’s pieces from those who saw them in person. My only disappointment was that, although the space was beautifully lit, the show lacked the installation component I had been hoping for.

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Matt Small
Matt Small
Swoon
Swoon
Brian Adam Douglas
Brian Adam Douglas

Now to Laz, where Vhils’ London solo debut simply looks incredible. As if it weren’t already obvious, Alexandre has now made it clear that he is going to be a very important artist for our generation.

vhils alexandre farto

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vhils alexandre farto

Elisa

Ways of Seeing at Black Rat Press

Let’s say you own Black Rat Press. You want to do a group show with three of your artists who challenge people’s preconceptions about painting and street art. Who do you choose?

That’s right. You bring together Swoon, Matt Small, and Brian Adam Douglas (aka Elbowtoe).

Swoon is a female wheatpaster who spawned an entire school of street art in New York City, and she spends her time building rafts and crashing art festivals.

And any art critic who says urban artists don’t know how to paint doesn’t know Matt Small. A few years ago, Matt was a runner up for one of the top prizes in the British art world.

Elbowtoe has had a presence on the street art New York City for years as part of the school of lino-block cutters that Swoon influenced, and now as Brian Adam Douglas he is making intricate collage works that look more like impressionist paintings than thrown together magazine clippings. For me, the collages can be hit or miss, but when they work, they really work.

Well that’s exactly what “Ways of Seeing Is,” BRP’s next show which opens on July 2nd.

The official word from Black Rat Press and some photos after the jump… Continue reading “Ways of Seeing at Black Rat Press”

Venice and The Swimming Cities

I recently had a chance to visit the Venice Biennale, and guess what my favorite work there was: The Swimming Cities of Serenissima. This incarnation of The Swimming Cities is Swoon’s third rafting project. In 2006 and 2007, the Miss Rockaway Armada floated down the Mississippi River. Last summer, The Swimming Cities of The Switchback Sea floated the Hudson River. And now the three rafts taking part in The Swimming Cities of Serenissima are docked in Venice.

My dad and I arrived in Venice on Saturday the 6th of June. After eating some lunch (amazingly good pizza), we went to the Arsenale, one of the two main exhibition areas for the Biennale. We got about half way through it that day, and not too much caught my eye. I mean, who really cares about a room full of walking canes?

Swimming Cities Docked

That evening, we took at water bus to the island of Certosa. That’s where Swoon’s rafts are docked. The rafts and a crew of about 30 artists and performers made it all the way from Slovenia over the course of about 2 weeks.

There was no mistaking these rafts. As soon as we saw the dock, my dad and I could tell that we were in the right place. They look like beautiful floating shanty towns. We took some photos while it was still light, then headed onto the island where Dark Dark Dark (official band of trip) were preparing to play a short set before the main performance.

Dark Dark Dark is the perfect band for this project. I’d only heard their songs on myspace and was pretty intrigued, but the set they played was shockingly good and set the mood perfectly for what we were about to see on the boats, which we headed back to when Dark Dark Dark had finished playing.

While the rest of the crew was eating their dinner. Nona, a member of Dark Dark Dark, let us on board one of the boats and have a look around. Ol’ Hickory, the boat that Swoon and her team built in Slovenia from scraps they found there, was full of weird little things that they crew had found over the last few weeks of building and floating. The attention to detail isn’t immediately evident. There are little designs and papercuts that can’t be seen except if you are standing at one or two specific points on the raft. There’s even one of Swoon’s original linoleum blocks. We were booted off the boat after a few minutes when the crew started to prepare for that night’s performance and we found spots on the dock to watch from.

Swimming Cities Ol' Hickory

Swoon Lino-Block

Swoon’s boat projects have always had a performance aspect, and Venice was no different. Instead of a stage, the show would be performed from the boats, with every single crew member having a role, and instead of seats for the audience, we stood on the dock. The three rafts were all docked right next to each other, and a crowd packed the dock in front of them.

The performance isn’t easy to explain, and there will hopefully be a video of the entire thing at some point so here’s a few photos and a short clip. I will say that Dark Dark Dark (plus crew member Harrison) provide a soundtrack to the show and it takes places across all three rafts. And it is absolutely amazingly beautiful, interesting, and at times funny.

Swimming Cities Performance

Swimming Cities Performance

Swimming Cities Performance

Swimming Cities Performance

After the show, we stood around for a while talking to the crew and even got the chance to meet Swoon. The we took Stinky, their fishing boat, back to Venice because the water buses weren’t running that late. On the way back, we met a few of the other audience members who had come to Venice to see the show. They were friends of Swoon’s from New York (including the model for this piece), and that seemed pretty typical of the crowd there. That realization about the audience and the fact that they arrived for the Biennale made me think the entire thing was a bit contrived and less organic than the last few boat trips, but nonetheless, it was an amazing journey that the crew were on.

On Sunday, my dad and I once again explored some of the main exhibits at the Biennale, but none compared the last night’s performance (except maybe the sculptures by Miranda July)

Then around 5:30 I checked twitter and saw that the Swimming Cities rafts were at the Arsenale. We got over there as quickly as possible, but it was too late. The exhibit space was closed and they wouldn’t let us to the dock. We wouldn’t have been able to see the rafts anyway because, as Mike and Sarah from Black Rat Press soon told us (they had ridden over to the Arsenale on the rafts), somebody had started shouting at them and cut the ropes tying the rafts to the dock, so they had headed back for Certosa.

Later that night, a large group of us went to Certosa for another performance by the Swimming Cities crew. It was another mesmerizing show, followed by chats with the crew.

Probably most interesting to this blog, I spoke with Imminent Disaster about her upcoming shows at Irvine Contemporary with Swoon, Gaia, Dalek and others (Martin Irvine was there with us enjoying the performance as well) and Ad Hoc Art with Gaia. I’ve had a number of people mention to me how much they loved her work at The Carmichael Gallery recently and I think she’s definitely an artist to keep an eye on.

Then, Mike, Sarah and I all took a midnight ride back to Venice on Ol’ Hickory. It was a completely mind-blowing experience. This raft SHOULD NOT FLOAT, but it does. Before we left the dock, our captain, Greg, said, “Now, this is the most people we’ve ever had on this raft at once, but don’t worry. We have enough life vests for everybody, and we should be fine so long as everybody does what I say.” So thanks to Captain Greg for getting us all back to Venice safely.

Here’s a video I took while we were on the raft of Spy, a crew member on Ol’ Hickory, talking about the trip:

And if this story doesn’t give you an idea of what Swoon is like in person, I don’t know what will: There’s a charity project that she and I might be working on together later in the year, but before Venice we’d only discussed it through intermediaries. I’d heard that she was excited about the project, but we hadn’t even discussed exactly what the project would entail. Then, as I’m getting off of Ol’ Hickory I shout “Hey! We need to talk about *****.” Within two minutes, the project is pretty much planned out. It was that easy, because she is just up for helping people.

So yeah. Amazing experience overall. Weekend of my life.

For more on Swoon and The Swimming Cities of Serenissima, check out these great videos and articles:

Swimming Cities Updates

Some updates from from Swoon’s Swimming Cities of Serenissima project.

The team posted this facebook update earlier today: “We’re En Route! Never seen such a clear blue like the blue of the adriatic and the phosphorescent algae that sparkles in the dark black of the night”

Just found these photos yesterday:

Swimming Cities

Swimming Cities

Swimming Cities

And finally, the team has posted an update today of their journey so far, which can be read on their blog.

Photos by Tod Seelie and via Sucka Pants

Street/Studio at Irvine Contemporary

Street Studio

What do you get when you put Swoon, Gaia, Dalek, Shepard Fairey, Imminent Disaster, Oliver Vernon, PISA73 and EVOL all in one show? I’m not sure, but it sounds like a recipe for awesome. And that’s just what Irvine Contemporary are doing in DC next month. And remember, Swoon is involved, so it’s not going to be your plain old group show. The show, called Street/Studio, is going to have a gallery component and an outdoor bit as well where the artists cover the alleyways near Irvine Contemporary. Can’t wait to see photos from this show. The only artists I’m doubtful about are Oliver Vernon and PISA73, but hopefully they make it work.

And don’t miss the panel discussion at American University on June 19th with the artists and the curator of Shepard Fairey’s show at the Boston ICA. Hopefully there will be video for those of us who can’t be there.

The press stuff after the jump: Continue reading “Street/Studio at Irvine Contemporary”