Admittedly, I’m at least a few days late on this one, but nonetheless it’s worth posting about the most recent shows at the Carmichael Gallery. In their main space is Hush, Flip is in the rear gallery, and Veng has a few pieces in the “showcase space.” Here’s a couple of photos:
More photos from Hush’s show the jump… Continue reading “Carmichael Gallery Exhibits”
I wouldn’t normally have my only post for a day be about a gallery that I’ve never even had the privilage of seeing in person, but I found some exciting news about Carmichael Gallery in LA.
Right now, they have a solo show with Chris Stain on called “Up on The Roof Countin’ Pigeons”, which is cool in its own right.
The shows after that are what I’m particularly excited about though. March 5th sees the opening of solo shows are Carmichael Gallery by Hush, Flip, and Veng. Can’t wait for these.
Photos from Carmichael Galley and Veng
Since Vandalog started 100-some days ago, I’ve mentioned Veng four times. Why is that? It’s not just because I have nothing to talk about. It’s because one, I wanted to feature him and his crew, Robots Will Kill; two, Andrew Michael Ford from Ad Hoc Art mentioned them as well when he spoke about great street artists in NYC; three, Veng knows New York graffiti and street art, so he was part of my Great in ’08 series; and four, he was recently had some work in the From The Streets of Brooklyn exhibition at Thinkspace Art Gallery. But mostly, it’s because he’d good at what he does.
Veng is one of those artists blurring the line between street art and graffiti. I’ve been looking forward to this interview for a while. I think Veng is one of the most important artists to be watching in 2009, and I had to make sure Vandalog readers get to know him. Sorry if I sound like a bit over-enthusiastic, but it’s rare to find an artist of such talent who is not very well known outside of his home town.
I would try to describe Veng’s work, but he does a much better job, so I’ll just get to the Q&A.
RJ: How long have you been painting, graffiti/street art or otherwise?
Veng: I have been painting and drawing since I was little kid, and got into graffiti around the age of 12.
RJ: Why do you paint on the street?
Veng: For me painting on the street is in the excitement that each time you go out it’s different from the last time. The people you can meet while out painting or pasting can give you opportunities for stories I normally never would have had if all my time was just spent traditionally in a studio. Also the architecture of a city and how it gives you countless surfaces to place your work within is also a draw. Continue reading “Finally: The Q&A with Veng”
I’m sort of squishing three posts into one here, but they’re all related.
1. From The Streets of Brooklyn opened this weekend at thinkspace gallery in LA. The show, curated by Ad Hoc Art’s Andrew Michael Ford, has taken a bunch of Brooklyn’s best and most prolific artists and put them all together to pretty much transport Bushwick/Williamsburg to LA. Looks like an absolutely fascinating show. Maybe something like it will come to London in the future (are you reading this Andrew?) Read a review here, check out more photos here, and go here to see thinkspace’s wrap up of the show.
2. One of the artists at From The Street of Brooklyn is Veng from Robots Will Kill. He’s being doing a few pieces lately which are a bit different, so I thought I’d post one of those. Woodcuts I think. There’s also a very nice little post on him at the Curbs & Stoops blog, a blog/gallery that I’ve just found but I really like (see item #3).
3. So basically I went to the Curbs & Stoops blog to read that post on Veng (hopefully you all have too). Then I clicked around the site a bit. Turns out, they are some pretty awesome folks. They’re all about getting art to people who normally wouldn’t have access to art. They have beautiful prints for sale at low prices, a blog that highlights some great artists, and 3 projects they are working on that sound great. The first project is Mission District Portraits. This summer, they went on the street and offered to take anybody’s picture for free. Good fun for all involved I’m sure. Then there is A Dollar For Your Story where you get paid $1 to tell a story on video to show the transformation that happens when people tell stories. Eventually, the stories will be shown online. Finally, their coolest project has to be the Mobile Art Gallery. This isn’t functioning yet, but it sounds like the best idea to come out of New York since probably ever. The Mobile Art Gallery is going to literally park wherever and sell art on a sliding scale so that anybody can afford it. Yes! Art for the people!
So that’s why today is a great day in art.
Photos from veng_rwk and Stephen_W
Here’s the first post in Vandalog’s “Great in ’08” series, which will be running every day for (nearly) the rest of the month. You can check out the other parts of the series here (once they are posted). Street artists from across the world have been given one post to give away to one artist who they feel has been doing great work recently. Today it’s Veng‘s turn.
Who is one artist doing really great work right now?
Veng: The artist that is doing some really good work now, I feel is Elbowtoe. Looking at his work, you can see the level of detail he puts into each brush stroke or each cut into a piece of linoleum, however beyond the details on the surface it’s the level of attention that goes into each piece’s story that makes them great works.
See photos of Elbowtoe’s work after the jump… Continue reading “Great in ’08: Veng of RWK Says…”
