After a fabulous summer in Atlanta, Living Walls is migrating up north to Albany, NY and has finally been kicking off. Brooklyn Street Art has been providing some great coverage of the work going up around the city prior to the event from Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Nanook, Overunder, White Cocoa and myself. Here are a couple glimpses of the progress being made.
Doodles, Swampy and Greg Mike at Living Walls 2010
Later this month, Atlanta is going to be taken over by street artists from around the world for this year’s edition of the Living Walls conference, Living Walls: the City Speaks. From the 12th-14th of August, there will be film screenings, lectures and artists painting murals around the city. Living Walls have brought together an impressive artist roster from around the world including (but not limited to) Doodles, Swampy, Gaia, Roa, Labrona, OverUnder, Sam3, Freddy Sam, White Cocoa, Nanook, Greg Mike, Paper Twins, Clownsoldier and Gawd. And I can’t complain about the keynote speakers either: Tristan Manco, Gaia, Ricky Lee Gordon and me.
So if you’re in Atlanta, come out check out the opening party at The Sound Table on Friday the 12th, lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia on the 13th during the day, a party at The Goat Farm the night of the 13th and a tour of all the new murals on the 14th. I’ll post more details about exact times later. And of course, I’ll be posting plenty of photos from the conference as well.
In September, another Living Walls event will take place in Albany, NY. More on that later.
Town & Country is a group show opening next week at 320 Studios in NYC. It’s curated by my friend Keith Schweitzer at M.A.N.Y, Samson Contompasis from The Marketplace Gallery and others. Almost 2 dozen artists are in this show, including Leon Reid IV, Veng, White Cocoa, Olek and Chris Stain. Town & Country will only be open for 3 days (June 28th-30th), but it should be a pretty great three days. The opening is on the 28th from 6pm-midnight.
Thursday night was the opening of Up Close and Personal, and it was a pretty great (although my opinion is biased since I helped curate it). We’re open through Sunday evening, so if you’re in New York, please stop by and check it out and let me know what you think. Up Close and Personal is taking place at an apartment on the Upper West Side; it’s not the traditional setting for art, but trust me, buzz and somebody will let you in. We’re at 217 West 106th Street, Apartment 1A, New York, between Broadway and Amsterdam.
Here’s some photos from last night:
Troy Lovegates aka Other. Photo by Michael PearceWhite Cocoa. Photo by Michael PearceSkewville. Photo by Michael PearceR. Robot. Photo by Michael PearceAiko. Photo by RJ RushmoreKnow Hope. Photo by RJ RushmoreRadical. Photo by RJ Rushmore
In two weeks, Vandalog and Murals Around New York (MANY) will be putting on a pop-up show in a New York City apartment. Up Close and Personal mostly came out of two ideas: 1. Street artists tend to work large outdoors and we wanted to challenge people to make art on a small scale and 2. We’ve all seen artwork in galleries that either would only look good in a gallery but not in a home, or is just too big to fit into a typical apartment and we wanted to see something different from that. With Up Close and Personal, the show itself is taking place in an apartment on the Upper West Side, and we have capped the size of the artwork at 30 x 30 inches, with an emphasis on going as small as possible.
I’ve worked with Keith Schweitzer and Mike Glatzer of M.A.N.Y. to curate this show, and we’re really excited with the line up that we’ve managed to put together: Aiko, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Don Leicht, Edible Genius, Elbowtoe, Gaia, How & Nosm, Jessica Angel, John Fekner, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mike Ballard, OverUnder, R. Robot, Radical, Retna, Skewville, Tristan Eaton, Troy Lovegates aka Other and White Cocoa.
Up Close and Personal opens May 12th from 7-9pm. We’ll also be open from 7-9pm on the 13th. Then noon-9pm and noon-7pm on the 14th and 15th respectively. Particularly on the 12th, it is possible that we’ll be shifting people in every half hour or so, since the space is a small apartment. The show is taking place at 217 West 106th Street, Apartment 1A, New York, NY 10025 – Between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues.
One of my new favorite ones lately has been White Cocoa. Her wheatpastes are beautifully detailed and all hand drawn in color pencils. The work, time and effort put on each drawing is really mind blowing.
“Giving the work over to the street, and letting go of ownership, has given the portraits a new life and purpose that they could never have achieved in the precious spaces of the studio and gallery”
