Urban Knits, a small book of colorful photographs, explores a relatively new kind of graffiti called “urban knitting,” self-proclaimed to be the most “inoffensive” type of urban graffiti. Like most books of its kind, a collection compiled by theme, Urban Knits unintentionally shows the wide discrepancies in quality that exist in all forms of art, but that are especially prevalent in graffiti and street art. When the impetus for making art is not exclusively about the quality of the work itself but rather about the act of leaving a mark, the results are often less than imaginative. This seems to hold true for tagging as well as knitting.
August 17, 2011
Posted inOpinion
Painter Chris Martin Goes Really Big in DC
I’m as big of a Chris Martin fan as vlogger and writer James Kalm (aka painter Loren Munk), so the video he just uploaded on YouTube of Martin’s new solo person museum show — his first — at the Corcoran Gallery of Artin Washington, DC, is a treat.
Posted inArt
Tonight’s Event Is Sold Out!
Tonight’s event at Hyperallergic HQ is sold out, but don’t fret if you don’t have tickets as the artist has agreed to let us turn tonight’s performance into a podcast. This also means that there will be no livestreaming this evening.
Posted inArt
Artist Residencies in the Developing World
ZURICH — Is being an artist-in-residence in a third world country akin to being a participant on the Survivor television series? If visiting artists are left to fend for themselves in unknown territory, this may well be the case, however at what point does a residency in such an area need to step in and moderate a visit?
Posted inArt
Dread Scott Is Bringing the Wars Home
I encountered Dread Scott’s curious flag project, “Flags Are Very Popular These Days” (2011), on Facebook and was fascinated by its simplicity. Last month, the artist placed the flags of four nations (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan) on overpasses in upstate New York. These symbols of pride for four Muslim-majority countries— two of which America is currently (and officially) at war with — must have felt jarring to passersby who may not have been able to recognize their meaning or discerned their origins.
Posted inArt
A Touch of Bushwick In Chelsea
If Friday night is the night for gallery openings in Bushwick, then last Thursday in Chelsea was a type of artistic foreplay. You could tell that something was in the air by the density of Bushwick regulars in front of Chelsea’s Standpipe Gallery on West 25th Street. And indeed, a group show Fresh Paint From Bushwick, which features seven emerging Bushwick talents (Gina Beavers, Holly Coulis, Halsey Hathaway, Rachel LaBine, Kerry Law, Adam Simon and Josette Urso), was just opening that night.
