Sebastian Buck of Unurth, which is arguably the premiere street art photo blog, has a lot of visual goodies from LA MOCA’s Art in the Streets show. He also has some very interesting thoughts on the show, which officially opens tomorrow:
street art
Posted inArt
Graffiti’s US History & Art in the Streets: Interview with Roger Gastman
On April 17, MOCA LA’s Art in the Streets exhibition opens. The show, which was organized in roughly a year or since Deitch became director of the institution, promises to be a major exploration of street art, graffiti and skateboard culture at one of the country’s most important contemporary art institutions. Today, I spoke to one of the exhibition’s curators, Roger Gastman about his important new book, The History of American Graffiti, which he co-authored with Caleb Neelon, and the MOCA show.
Posted inArt
Peruvian Adventures in Brooklyn, a Graphic Review
Many of you will know that I’ve been critical of the conventional art review and how it doesn’t appear well suited to a lot of art that is produced today. So, in the interest of trying new art review forms, I’ve given a shot at using the graphic novel format for my review of Celso’s ¡No Habla Español! at Pandemic Gallery in Williamsburg.
His graphic sensibility seemed a perfect fit for this style. I couldn’t resist producing a short review of the show in this pop culture-friendly form.
Posted inOpinion
Selling Out for Street Artists Redux
Streetsy’s Jake Dobkin took up the infographic gauntlet we threw at your feet yesterday with a smart chart about the degrees of selling out for street artists … well, we have some annotations.
Posted inOpinion
Street Art via Infographic? [UPDATED]
Infographics never tell the whole story in that they omit details and attempt to make clear narratives where none exist. But Daniel Feral’s GRAFFITI & STREET ART graphic, which is labeled “a 75th Anniversary celebration of Alfred H. Barr, Jr’s CUBISM & ABSTRACT ART diagram,” attempts to create reason out of the more chaotic narratives of Graffiti and Street Art movements.
Posted inBooks
Artist’s Hearts for Sale
In addition to a thriving street art practice that includes putting hearts and cute doodle faces on everything from farm silos to city walls, artist Chris Uphues also makes little printed goods. This week, we’re checking out two of Uphues’ zines as well as a selection of day-glo colored hearts printed on stiff cardboard stock. Kind of like a warped version of a kindergarten bulletin board, these little mementos are sweet but not without their creepy side. A zine made up on Uphues’ doodles on paint chip cards, ranging from pink to yellow to green, blue and purple, has more than a few scenes of freaky psychedelia, a softer version of Kenny Scharf’s zaniness.
Posted inOpinion
Hitting Graffiti & Street Artists Where it Hurt$ [UPDATE: Smear Arrested]
In what may be the most original tactic by a city to deter street artists and graffiti writers from using public space as free advertising, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is seeking a court injunction to bar street artist Cristian Gheorghiu from profiting from art bearing his telltale “tag.”
Posted inArt
Kinetic Street Art Poetry by NohJColey
I encountered a street work by artist NohJColey in Williamsburg last week. Like all strong street art pieces, it forced me to stop and look closely. The attention to detail, its use of diverse textures and materials and its complex method of storytelling, which is more impressionistic than narrative, made me immediately respond to it, similar to poetry. I stopped to visually measure every inch of the object, a figure with puppet-like arms placed low to the ground in a neglected corner of the city frequented by street artists.
Posted inNews
The Banksy Elephant in the Room
Remember one of Banksy’s recent pieces in Southern California titled “This Looks A Bit Like An Elephant,” which was removed and is now for sale. Well, according to Vandalog, Tachowa Covington (aka Rollerball) has lived inside the tank for about seven years. He says that he saw Banksy paint the tank and he is now homeless. [via Vandalog]
Posted inOpinion
Bringing Pop Art to Life
Artist Pantonio has transformed the scene of a car crash in Lisbon into a Pop Art-style explosion reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein. The street “tribute” seems appropriate considering Lichtenstein freely transformed the imagery he found in comic books into fine art.
Posted inArt
My Very Personal Beat Nite in Photos, Part 1
While most people’s Beat Nite started last Friday night, mine began the night before at Norte Maar, where artist Austin Thomas had bitch slapped surprised me with the bombshell that she took the liberty of designing the Hippie Potluck tshirts without me (“I understand, Austin, really, let me just find that voodoo doll I made of you…”) and Norte Maar and Storefront co-founder Jason Andrew decided that he wanted to try and drink me under the table. Thankfully for me, the second helped blunt the pain of the first. Needless to say, things ended up blurry that night. Ok, I think I blacked out, but those are details.
Posted inOpinion
Titian Gets Make-over from PR Team?
A Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) billboard for the upcoming Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting exhibition got a little wardrobe change earlier this week. The question is, who did it? A street artist or the MIA’s PR team? Wait … what?
