With two midterms exams tomorrow, I’m rushing this post, but here’s a simple list for some of what to check out at the art fairs in New York this week.
Fountain:
– 140-foot long street art installation, although it sounds like this might be the same installation as was recently at Fountain in Miami, or at least partially the same.
Pulse:
– Joshua Liner Gallery (David Ellis)
– Ben Wolf’s installation (He has collaborated with Swoon and Maya Hayuk)
I won’t be in NYC for the fairs myself, but I’ll hopefully have some photos to post. Otherwise, the places I will be getting my art fair news will be Hyperallergic and Arrested Motion.
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:
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.
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.
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.
This summer, I sat in a massive pitch-black room and muttered “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit…” over and over again. I couldn’t stop repeating “Holy shit” for maybe for five minutes. I’d been anticipating this moment for nearly a year. I was somewhere underneath New York City. I was waiting to be shown The Underbelly Project. Technically, I was there to take photos, but really I didn’t care at all if images came out or not. Really, I just wanted to see firsthand what was going on 4-stories below the streets of New York City.
Revok and Ceaze. That light comes from the lights that were set up temporarily for an artist who was painting that night.
Imagine Cans Festival, FAME Festival or Primary Flight: Some of street art and graffiti’s best artists all painting one spot. That’s kind of like The Underbelly Project. Except that The Underbelly Project took place in complete secrecy, in a mysterious location and without any authorization. Over the past year, The Underbelly Project has brought more than 100 artists to an abandoned and half-finished New York City subway station. Each artist was given one night to paint something.
Know Hope had this entire room to himself. What was this room meant to be? An elevator shaft? An office? I have no idea.
Workhorse and PAC, the project’s organizers, have put countless hours into their ghost subway station, and now they’re finally ready to unveil it to the world, sort of (more on that later). So I guess that’s why I was in that dark room, sitting in silence, waiting for them to give me a flashlight. I’m still not sure why I’d been extended the invitation to see the station firsthand, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity. The Underbelly Project is going to be part of street art history.
Surge, Stormie Mills, Remi/Rough and Gaia
Eventually, Workhorse and PAC came over to where I was sitting and lent me a flashlight. I stood up, already coated in dust and probably dirtier than I’ve ever been, and got a full tour of the station. I’m not somebody who is good at estimating the size of a space, but The Underbelly Project took place in a space that was meant to be a subway station, so I guess it was the size of a subway station with a few tracks. The station is like a concrete cavern: random holes who-knows how deep into the ground, dust thick like a layer of dirt, leaky ceilings and hidden rooms. Except the whole station is covered in art. Think of FAME Festival’s abandoned monastery transplanted to beneath New York City. I’m not an urban explorer, so I had no idea that there are abandoned subway stations throughout New York, but The Underbelly Project seems like just about the best possible use of one.
Of course, having been down there myself, I’m going to be prone to hyperbole. Even at it’s simplest, even if The Underbelly Project is “just another mural project,” it’s a story that the artists can tell for years, and it may even be evidence that street art isn’t so far gone and corporate as some people have suggested.
Swoon and Imminent Disaster. Disaster's piece is stunning beyond belief and fits the space so perfectly.
The list of artists who painted for The Underbelly Project goes on and on, but here are just a few:
Swoon
Gaia
Know Hope
Revok
Roa
Dan Witz
Jeff Soto
Faile
Mark Jenkins
Elbow-toe
TrustoCorp
Mark Jenkins and Con. This is at the end of a long and dark tunnel that, at the time, was not otherwise painted.
On my visit, The Underbelly Project wasn’t finished. In fact, somebody was painting there that night. Nonetheless, the space was already substantially painted and postered. I spent that night wandering around the tunnels, taking photos and getting lost (and also scared – Damn you Mark Jenkins! You can’t put a sculpture like that at the end of a darkened hall. I thought it was a person!).
TrustoCorp
And what now? The walls have all been painted and the artists have moved on to new projects. When the last artist finished painting the last wall, Workhorse and PAC made access to The Underbelly Project nearly impossible by removing the entrance. Even if any of us wanted to go back (and I do), even if we could remember how to get there (and I don’t), we can’t. Nobody can. For now, The Underbelly Project has become a time capsule of street art, somewhere in the depths of New York City.
Meggs
Brad Downey once explained to me why he thought Damien Hirst’s diamond skull is interesting. It had something to do with what people would think of the skull in 1000 years, when its original meaning has been lost to time. That’s when the skull is going to become a true icon and object with immense power. In some ways, The Underbelly Project is like Hirst’s skull, without the price tag. One day, decades from now hopefully, somebody may rediscover that old subway station and have no idea what they’re looking at. Hopefully, they’ll just feel that it’s something incredibly special.
Dan Witz. This was the first time I'd seen his street art in person. It's the perfect setting for Dan's Dark Doings series.
Here are some more images from The Underbelly Project, and expect more over the coming days on Vandalog and around the blogosphere… Or you can pay £1 to read an in-depth article about it in today’s Sunday Times.
Stash (well, part of his piece). This is another room like Know Hope's area.Swoon and ListerL'Atlas, Mr Di Maggio, 1010, Paper Twins, Bigfoot, Control/Jice. Photo by WorkhorseFaile. Photo by PACSkewville, PAC, SheOne, Revok/Ceaze. Photo by PAC
I’m racing through my computer science homework right now and also throwing this post together before it gets to be too late. I have to be up early tomorrow to get to Washington D.C. for The Daily Show’s Rally To Restore Sanity. I probably shouldn’t been spending my entire day on my way to and from that rally, but it’s going to be an insane day. So between planning getting 50 students to the rally and teaching a course on street art at my university (not an official course, there’s no homework or exams and I don’t get paid), things had to slip through my fingers this week:
There’s a film about Steve Powers’ A Love Letter For You Project, and it just premiered in Philadelphia. Also, Steve has a new website with some work available to purchase and plenty of photos.
TrustoCorp are going to be in LA in a few days for a show at Gallery 1988. New Americana will be TrustoCorp’s second solo show, and unlike the first one, I’m looking forward to this. This looks to be only a 2-day show on Saturday and Sunday, so don’t blink or you might miss it.
In addition to new paintings (which don’t always work indoors), there will be some sculptures and, most exciting of all, more TrustoCorp-styled carnival games. TrustoCorp are known for their fake products and street signs, but after spending some time at their studio over the summer, I’ve come to really enjoy the carnival game side of things and it’s a nice way to bring the work indoors. Also, there is going to be some sort of collaboration with Klipsch speakers and DJ Fred Wreck of Tha Dogg Pound.
With the run-up to Frieze in London and everyone and their mother in town for events, there has been a bit of an explosion of art this week. So, I thought I would do a little round-up of pieces I have come across online since for the next few days all you will hear is “Oh my God! Hell’s Half Acre is Amazing!!” and “Moniker looks so cool!” Sometimes we need a break from that. Ok, well at least I do.
Motor in Leake Street by Steph KellerBanksy Door at Old Vic Tunnels by ButterflyTrustocorp for Reform School in NYCEine "Calculate" by VNASando by Walls of MilanoStik on Great Eastern Street by Spen HBanksy "haring dog" by Romany W G
Oh come on, I had to post this one! It is one of my favorites of the new Banksy pieces. Plus, whoever made the Haring sculpture in response is awesome. It is a great addition unlike the graffiti next to it.
Last month, I met up with TrustoCorp at their headquarters. While there, I got to see some of their customized Trusto products and of course some signs. The highlight of the visit was something unexpected though. Just as it started pouring rain, we went to the roof of TrustoCorp’s building and played a game of TrustoShootout. We didn’t have the fancy setup from their solo show, but we did have a pellet gun and some posters.
In the past, I’ve been critical of TrustoCorp working indoors. Their signs work so well because they show up unexpectedly and in the perfect environment and a show full of signs would be kind of boring, but I think this game might be exactly the sort of thing that TrustoCorp can do to liven up gallery shows and consequently make their signs more interesting indoors. Like their signs, it’s fun. Unlike the signs, they environment isn’t so essential. If anything, the perfect environment for shooting illustrations of “arrogant rappers” is at a gallery opening after a couple of beers!
Now if only they could design a “pretentious blogger” target…
I really do not advocate artists tagging over others’ work usually (unless it is absolute shit/Waterloo Tunnel/or the artist does it himself), but in this case I applaud TrustoCorp for doing what other artists have wanted to for awhile: vandalize MBW’s street art. Granted the guy is a joke, and his portrayal in Exit Through the Gift Shop did not exactly help to improve his credibility in the art world. TrustoCorps’s work is a physical manifestation of the discussion around Mr.Brainwash and his so called “art” so I smiled when I woke up this morning and saw these pictures. I especially liked the use of the phrase “Locals Only” which harkens back to summer memories of New Yorkers invading my beach on the Jersey Coast. Go away MBW and stop putting up street art. I would rather see a 14-year-old bombing for the first time paint on a wall then see your post modern Warhol wannabe stencils on the streets. And while I’m ranting, Dear Bennies, please stay off the Jersey beaches. Love Stephanie.
Here are some of the pictures from TrustocCorp’s Flickr. You can see the rest from his destructive spree here
On a related note, Trustocorp had a show at Brooklyn Brothers Gallery in NYC last month. It could have been disastrous. To be honest, I kind of expected it to be. Turns out, I was wrong. Looks like it wasn’t bad at all and Trustocorp didn’t just hang their street signs on a gallery’s white walls (though they did do some of that). Here’s one photo from the show:
(note the map of the locations where TrustoCorp signs appeared in NYC)
