After traveling all over the West Coast Os Gemeos teamed up with Futura to hit the streets of NYC last week with this bad boy in Chelsea! With two cherry-pickers and a team of helpers the collaborators rolled it on and spayed it up in just under 5 days. Also Known As helped to coordinate the sponsorship and necessary machinery and PS 11 donated the enormous wall that faces the playground. Talk about one cool school! Could this be a sign that the NYC public school system is finally being given the resources to bring the arts back into the education program? Let's hope so! And with such an awesome start!

These pics are from Wednesday which was about the half way point. Check in next week for pics of the finished piece!

• Check out more @ os gemeos gallery »

Mondo Bizzarro Gallery reopening after summer with two exhibition that you can’t miss!

JENNYBIRD ALCANTARA Suspicious Activity And CIOU Rebirth 

Curated by Luisa Montalto

From 9^th September to 17^th October 2010

Mondo Bizzarro Gallery is proud to launch its 2010/2011 season with the first European solo exhibit of Jenny Bird Alcantara. The exhibit, entitled SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY, as one of her last work, will display works made exclusively for this occasion. A true talent, visionary and sensitive, to which it’s impossible to remain indifferent.

Main Room - Jenny Bird Alcantara

Looking at an artwork by Jenny Bird Alcantara is like seeing a magical anthropomorphic world from a fish tank. It leaves you breathless. A proud and detailed display of deformity, a lovely way to recount a dream through a sequence of images, to explain the magic of love and its unfathomable mystery. The imagines displayed on her oil paintings are intense, melancholic and cruel, almost unaware of their existence, proud of their diversity; a very personal blend of myths, fairy tales and fantasy, wrapped in a glueyness that recall the depths of the ocean and the density of blood. She lives in San Francisco, a city imbued with the most authentic and revolutionary ideals, constantly flooded with a sunshine that brightens every color of the landscape, and it seems that the brightness and the freedom of this city went deep into her skin. Since 2002 she begins to exhibit her thorough works on oil, acrylic, wood, paper or fabric (dolls), and her resume does not lack any of the top art galleries, from the Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery and Thinkspace in Los Angeles to the MF Gallery in New York and The Strychnin Gallery in Berlin,and also in the Varnish Fine Art Gallery in San Francisco.

Project Room - Ciou

Ciou, born in Toulouse in 1981, succeeded to gain a relevant place in the world of contemporary pop art at a very young age. Due to a style characterized by a line of great expressive force and a language where the power of color and deformation of shapes combine to make her stroke unmistakable. The exhibit that gave her international visibility was in 2004 at the Flux Factory in New York City where her works were shown among those of Miss Van, Camille Rose Garcia, Junko Mizuno and Sunny Buick. From there she went on to show in Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Brussels and, regarding Italy, Napoli, where she had an exhibit at MADRE, the famous museum of contemporary art. Suspended between dream and nightmare, her paintings consist of a base made of a collage of old papers where she uses acrylic and ink, expressing a technique that brings to mind the one typical of traditional tattoo. The result pertains to an imagery overlooked by quotations from the sacred texts of any time and country, Japanese culture, radical Primitivism and Art Nouveau.
Charming, passionate and sometimes angry, Ciou is one of the most original and representative artist of the last years. A painter who, like few others, managed to impress on her canvas, the meaning of our time.

• Check out more @ Mondo Bizzarro Gallery »

Nuart is an annual international contemporary art festival established in 2001. The Festival is based in Stavanger on the West Coast of Norway.

Since September 2005 Nuart's focus has been on the emerging Street Art and Post Graffiti scenes.

From the first week of September an invited international team of street artists start to leave their mark on the city's walls, creating one of Europe's most dynamic and constantly evolving outdoor public art events.

Artists involved in the 2010 edition:

BLU (IT), VHILS (P), ROA (BE), DOLK (NO), ERICAILCANE (IT), EVOL (DE), ALEXANDROS VASMOULAKIS (GR), STEN & LEX (IT), M-CITY (PL), DOTMASTERS (UK)

Check out some fab pics of the artworks of Blu & Ericailcane and Dotmasters…

And more on www.nuart09.blogspot.com

• Here you can buy Sten & Lex limited edition! »

Rotofugi Gallery - 2780 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago

August 27 - September 12, 2010

Playboy Enterprises in collaboration with The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh) invited over 20 contemporary and street artists to reinterpret the iconic Playboy Bunny in celebration of the opening of the first Playboy Club in Chicago 50 years ago in 1960. Known at that time for her satin bunny suit, cotton tail and rabbit ears, the Playboy Bunny served cocktails and glamour in equal doses. Many luminaries once worked as Bunnies, including Deborah Harry, Gloria Steinem and Lauren Hutton. For Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny, artists were asked to create a new look for the Bunny, a veritable makeover to create the Bunny of the future. The selected artists have presented a number of new takes on this iconic image, and works ranges range in medium including photography, painting, sculpture, drawing and video.

Playboy Redux was originally shown at The Warhol Museum in March-June, 2010. Rotofugi Gallery is proud to now exhibit and sell these works along with some new additions.

This project is part of Playboy's year-long 50th Anniversary celebration of the Playboy Club and Playboy Bunny. The exhibit is curated by Aaron Baker, Ned West and Rotofugi Gallery.

Participating Artists

Josh ‘Shag’ Agle, Jennybird Alcantara, Scott Anderson, Glenn Barr, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, R. Black, Ain Cocke, Brian Ewing, Brendan Fernandes, Rod Filbrandt, Jeremy Fish, Mike Giant, Ludovica Gioscia, Ken Keirns, Jeremiah Ketner, Jeremy Kost, Frank Kozik, Travis Lampe, Bob Masse, Tara McPherson, Hiroki Otsuka, Lisa Petrucci, Mark ‘Atomos’ Pilon, Bonni Reid, Isabel Samaras, Seth Scriver, Andrew Schoultz, Steve Seeley, Jeremy Tinder, Michelle Valigura, Saya Woolfalk and O Zhang.

www.rotofugi.com/gallery

• buy Pop Surrealism book »

After the success of the previous editions Infart strikes back among the most important European Urban Art festivals. On September 3rd, 4th and 5th, sixty international artists will assault Bassano del Grappa,an invasion consisting of paintbrushes, spray cans, pictures, collages, stencils, sculptures and installations…

During the opening day on September 3rd, together with the exhibition show taking place in the Castello degli Ezzelini, a video installation about the European and international Writing scene will be held through the use of rare archive images. This video installation is curated by Andrea Caputo, creator of All City Writers, a publishing project that recalls 30 years of this movement, starting from its origins in the Bronx of the 70’s NY until the explosion of the culture in Europe in the last two decades. On Saturday, September 4th, will be held Smash Illegality conference, which will aim to be able to educate young people on the mafia and illegal precisely in an atypical, alternating music in words.

Infart 2010 – Hello Nasty! is an expressive kaleidoscope that will be accompanied by a music festival, held on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th at the Cimberle-Ferrari Arena. Among the many international guests Dj Spiller, worldwide famous DJ hailing from Venice; Pink Is Punk, electro duo from Milan, coming back from their successful Japanese tour and Ackeejuice, Infart’s own musical project, accompanied by other great DJs.

Artists:

108 - 2501 - Alice Pasquini - Bros - Bue - C215 – Centina – Cera – Cristian Sonda – Dast - Diego Knore – Elena Rapa – Eleuro – El Rana – Flavia di Nardo - Fontface – Fraintesa – Giovanni Pasini – Gola – H 101 – James Kalinda – Joseph Rossi -Joys – Kenny Random - Kenor – Koes – Lucamaleonte – Made514 – Manuel Pablo Pace – Marvin Tiberious Crushler – Mattia Trotta – Mauro Chiarotto – Miss Eu – Mixer - Morkone – Mr. Wany – Neo Mod - Nolac – Orticanoodles – Rankore - Refreshink – Resto – Roa – Sabotajealmontaje – Seacreative – Seta - Sika – Sparki – Sqon – Stefano Zattera – Sten & Lex – Steve Locatelli – Thoms – Tofu – Tommaso Garavini – Tommaso Guerra – Truly Design – Ufo5 - Useless Idea - Yomodellaroya – Zibe

• www.infartcollective.com »

1 //  What was the first piece that you created, when and where?

 I believe that the first works I did with regard to calligraphy and lettering were individual letters. I like to remember them as my first works because without writing I probably never would have picked up this line of work.

2 //  What was the most recent piece you made, when and where?

 It was a sentence painted along a large wall at EX3, the contemporary art hall, in Florence with Dem. It was the most amazing thing, I had this sentence that practically “found” me in a library in Florence and for our collaboration it occurred to Dem to illustrate the same exact sentence. It was an incredible coincidence that we both immediately recognized. There is a short video of the installation, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIPVxz4CW6k .

3 //  What is the work of which you are the most proud/you feel the most attached to or that has particular significance for you?

Last year, for about 3 months, I was involved with the calligraphic reproduction of an enormous world map from the 1500s, I had to write millions of names directly on the globe with a quill and ink pen with letters only 2-3 millimeters in height.

This project involved about 14 people, including artisans, restorers, calligraphers, and illuminators.

This project was truly a test of endurance as well as an extremely rare opportunity, considering that most of the work that I do is commercial.

4 //  Which artist or artists do you believe contributed the most to stimulating your imagination?

For calligraphy, I would say all of the teachers that I had, either directly or indirectly, in particular Giovanni De Faccio and Hermann Zapf.

Among my biggest influences are certainly Saul Bass and Herb Lubalin, also Rick Griffin, and the great illustrators and calligraphers of the psychedelic poster art era.

As for writers, I would have to mention Smash and Twist.

www.lucabarcellona.it

• see the urban contest book! »

This is the first stencil poster Sten & Lex did directly on the street in via Reggio Emilia, in Rome, for the occasion of the Exhibition STEN+LEX - Matrix at Mondo Bizzarro Gallery. Read the press release:

Sten+ Lex: Everyone has seen their work on the scraped fronts of many Roman buildings, on the roller shutters of closed stores, on the pillars of the overpasses. From the small, ironic stencils that suddenly show up to the big works that strike the imagination and the heart at least as much and even more then the architectural elements that host them.

Their works show an apparent simplicity and an undeniable freshness that made them extremely popular among the "Civil population" , as well as among fans of street and urban art, the young kids in the suburbs, and the art dealers looking for emergent artists.

Stand out in their careers the institutional commissions, the last one (April 2010), a work on a house in the Roman district Garbatella, also their bigger work (26 meters). In 2008 they attended the Can's Festival in London, invited by the renowned British artist Bansky. During the early months of 2010 they had a solo exhibition in Paris, at the Galerie Itinerrance and another one in Rome, at the gallery Co2. Also in 2010 the publishing house Drago issued a monograph on their work. They participated in many group exhibitions all over the world: Milano, Brighton, Strasbourg, Palermo, Napoli, Berlin, London, New York, Paris, Siena, Vienna and Dallas.

The exhibition at the Mondo Bizzarro Gallery will display works purposefully made for the exhibit with the technique they invented and named Stencil Poster: portraits of anonymous people from the Sixties to the Eighties will decorate different surfaces, all of ordinary use (detergent boxes, banknotes,newsprint, stamps, plastic).

Sten+Lex are a couple of incurable total artists, such is their commitment to their work and their art. The streets of Rome will welcome them, the city walls are waiting for them. It may happen to hear some conversations at the bar regarding their new work, freely given to everyone to see. It may happen to end up in an evening of music that celebrates the international poster-art and find them among the promoters. It may happen you leave your house one morning and discover that your building is become more fascinating during the night thanks to Sten + Lex.

Here the stop motion video:

• buy the book Sten& Lex »

On Saturday July 31st 2010, Open Space Gallery and Burlock Home inaugurated its second Electric Windows event (the first was in 2008). The name of the project comes from the town's former electric blanket factory, which acts as the backdrop for the event. Electric Windows 2010 brought together 30 artists in Beacon, NY to create live artwork and have their work installed on the exterior of the 19th century factory building. Some of the artists involved in the project include Buxtonia, Cern, Chor Boogie, Chris Stain, Elbow Toe, Ellis G, Faust, Gaia, Logan Hicks, Michael De Feo, Peru Ana Ana Peru, Paper Monster, Peat Wollaeger, Rick Price, Ron English, and Skewville.

• view DRAGO catalogue »

1 // What was the first piece that you created, when and where?

Hmmm, that is a complicated question. As the first work ever I cannot remember because I would consider it to be the first drawing I did in my life, and who knows where or where that was. My first “graffiti” piece I did on a wall under the freeway in Alessandria, I have a photo but I don’t know if it was in ’91 or ’92, it was horrible. As 108 the first work was a series of yellow forms on plastic adhesive that I put up in various spots throughout Milan and Alessandria and then gradually in other cities around the world. It was absolutely an experiment, at the time there was no one making adhesive stickers or posters like that, the advertisements like the Enel cassettes or things like that were all free, it was a natural thing, but I never thought that the “108 Project” would ever become something important.

2 //  What was the most recent piece you made, when and where?

 The last piece that I created in the public vein was a black form painting under a quasi-abandoned freeway bridge in Alessandria. I am also working on 5 to 6 new canvases in my studio… In this period I am working with black circular forms and colorful inserted angular shapes.

3 //  What is the work of which you are the most proud/you feel the most attached to or that has particular significance for you?

 Difficult also here: usually I work exclusively to satisfy myself. This always brings me to experiment and to create things that are often incomprehensible to the viewer. Many times these works come out of wonderful experiments, which are important for my personal career path, but do not fully satisfy me. I believe the work to which I feel most attached is a black triangle (like a hanger), which took about 10 minutes, that I made in Saragozza in 2007. That piece came out of nowhere, without thinking, and I continued to make it for years. In that instance, everything was perfect, the destroyed white wall, the sagging, the demolished neighborhood, and the black cats that appeared on top of the wall as soon as I had finished! It was truly something magical. However, the work of which I am the most proud is probably that which I made in Arsenale during the Venice Biennial in 2007 for a number of reasons less magical and more practical.

4 //  Which artist or artists do you believe contributed the most to stimulating your imagination?

I could never list the large quantity of artists, animals, trees, and visions contributed to the creation of my imagery. Like I always say, if I had never seen the work of Stak in the mid 90s I never would have started what I do. I owe a lot to him. Then primitive art, rock carvings, and non-monotheistic sacred art in general. Insofar as purely visual artists, I can say talents like Malevich, Schiele, Fontana, Richard Long, and then even if lesser known, the work of visionaries like Redon, Kubin, and Segantini for example. It is difficult for me to get excited about contemporary artists, but sometimes it happens. The larger part of my ideas come from cinema, by the way here I would have to site David Cronenberg, Lynch, and above all Fellini. The same thing goes for literature: W.S, Burroughs and Antonin Artaus… I would say that I need to stop here, otherwise I will go on forever.

• see the urban contest book! »

Earlier this summer Nick Walker hit the streets of NYC with stencils and spray cans in hand. Due to the sweltering heat and torrential rain that punished the city toward the end of his trip, Nick decided to hold back on one or two pieces in anticipation for a return trip after the summer. So check out Nick's Mariachi Mona Lisa, The Snake Handler, Amerikarma, and Nutterfly and stay tuned for more news about his next trip to the Big Apple!

• have a look at Drago books »

1 // What was the first piece that you created, when and where?

My first work that I made was on the altar of an abandoned and burned down Church in 1997 at Fonte Nuova.

2 // What was the most recent piece you made, when and where?

My last commission in Gallarate was during an event on Notte Bianca. We decorated the façade of a building in the city’s historic center.

3 // What is the work of which you are the most proud/you feel the most attached to or that has particular significance for you?

That one is still to come!

4 // Which artist or artists do you believe contributed the most to stimulating your imagination?

I love surrealism, comic’s masters as Paz,Moebius or Jacovitti, the movies of Terry Gilliam, Emir Kusturica and tim Burton

• buy the Urban Contest catalogue »

Here you can see the work in progress video of a big poster stencil 8x6 meters Sten& Lex realized for Carandente Museum in Spoleto - Italy.

check it out - waiting for their36Chambers book in October?

// STEN & LEX

curatedby MARIA LETIZIA BIXIO and DAVIDE GIANNELLA

STREETART is a hybrid component that is closely related to the structure of the cityand to its aerial dimension. In recent years, graffiti have been more and moreinstitutionalized, and they appeared in galleries and museums; a way toestablish and enshrine what is perhaps the artistic expression with the easiestand most immediate fruition. The halls of Collicola Satellite welcome the workof a firm binomial of our national street scene: -sten- & Lex. Somestrategic interventions will arrive in Spoleto, that are intended to reproduceworks with a mutant biology, entrusted to external agents and to time for theircompletion, instead of the authors usual arbitrariness.

-sten-& Lex are working on the technique of stencil-poster: a reworking ofstencil, of which -sten-, the creator of hole school, is one of the mostimportant Italian representatives, that has been skillfully implanted on thetechnique of poster, which is preferred by Lex, all synthesized in the practiceof décollage. The process starts from the research of subjects, that arerecovered from Italy's historical photographic archives of the Sixties andSeventies, and flows into a contemporary language, even if it is obtainedthrough traditional proceedings as cutting stencils, sticking, drying andcoloring them. The poster technique is the fil rouge that bound them and madethem a phenomenon of international relevance.

Amongthe recent successes in Italy and abroad, it is important to remember the soloshow at CO2 contemporary art (Rome), the exhibition at Galerie Itinerrance(Paris) and the Can's Festival (London), and international street art event,directed by Banksy, besides the gigantic stencil of twenty-six meters on afaçade of Garbatella, a district of Rome.

Sten& Lex are the pioneers of "Stencil Graffiti" in Italy. They started theiractivity in Rome in 2001. The first stencils represent b-movies icons, likemuch of the tradition of Stencil Art, but the research will soon lead them toportray anonymous faces of students taken from the college yearbooks of theSixties and Seventies, leaving the classic Pop imagery aside. A parallel trendis that of prints and engravings: Sten & Lex incorporate details of stamps,banknotes and illustrations of the past, such as those of Gustave Doré, makethem monumental by painting them on large posters (from 4 to 6 meters high) andsticking them illegally on the streets. The stencil technique belongs to thefamily of engraving techniques, for this reason the study of the printing artof the past was, and still is, very important for their work. Often, among theimages they select, some sacred and ecclesiastical elements recur: the tone isnot irreverent, but it is part of the recovery of classical art presented in asubjective manner by the two artists. Their importance on the internationalscene is due to the introduction of half-tone into stencil technique; theirstencils are made up of points, and/or lines that give life to images of sense.Points and lines that have different readings according to the distance fromwhich you look at the image: when observing from a close distance it seemsabstract, but from afar the image is configured in its entirety and it looksmore realistic. They defined this technique HOLE SCHOOL.

The images they present today are personal portraitsfrom pictures that were taken by themselves; the use of half-tone makes theirworks similar to prints and engravings from the past. Most of their recentproduction is made of hand painted posters on tissue-paper. The production ofthe last period, on the streets as well as in the gallery, is the outcome oftheir ten-year path. Currently they cut the stencil from a sheet of paper andthey glue it, as a printing plate, on the wall. This poster/stencil isinevitably a unique piece, as it is the stencil that is exhibited and used onlyonce. Their merit, as far as stencil technique is concerned, was recognized byBanksy, who invited them to the Can's Festival of London. On that occasion, the"Saint" of Sten & Lex was painted next to the "Buddha" of Banksy. Theirworks were shown in some important museums: in 2009 at Madre Museum of Naples(Urban Superstar Show) and in 2008 at the Auditorium of Rome (Scala Mercalli),still in 2008, together with Blek Le Rat, DFace, Dolk, Chris Stain and Herakut,they took part in the most important festival of European street art: the NuartFestival. Their stencils, posters and wall paintings can be seen all aroundRome and in the main Italian and European cities.

• buy the book Sten& Lex »

Next happening will be in South-Eastern Europe at Bucharest, from 12^th to 14^th of  August.
It’s possible: one arena, five disciplines, internationally acclaimed artists and icons, three days of urban culture jam and putting it out there in the street. tineretului skatepark @ bucharest, Romania is hosting the international urban culture festival “street heroes” – first edition. skateboarding and BMX contest, graffiti, street art, street dance and a promising line-up. august will reveal THE event.

One of the biggest and coolest skateparks in South-Eastern Europe, three days of outdoor competitions, urban disciplines in one arena, connecting hundreds of thousands of people just like you. pros and amateurs in skateboarding team contests, BMX one to one pro bowl contest, murals, freestyle throw ups, handstyle tags and sketching in crew and individual competitions. street art brings together artists questioning the surroundings and the environment with their own language, who will gather in front of a wall and write history. talented dancers freestyling on the dance floor. warm-up for the evening’s concerts and mixes. sick tricks, big shots, crazy beats. no previous event gathered the culture and the urban, challenging you to three days of your favourite sports, your idols, your artists, your lifestyle.

Chase and Status & MC Rage, Grems, Soyzone, Flying Fortess and The London Police, are the artists involved.

Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. the term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. typically, the term street art or the more specific post-graffiti is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism, and corporate art.

Artists have challenged art by situating it in non-art contexts. ‘street’ artists do not aspire to change the definition of an artwork, but rather to question the existing environment with its own language. they attempt to have their work communicate with everyday people about socially relevant themes in ways that are informed by esthetic values without being imprisoned by them. John Fekner defines street art as “all art on the street that’s not graffiti".

the motivations and objectives that drive street artists are as varied as the artists themselves. there is a strong current of activism and subversion in urban art. street art can be a powerful platform for reaching the public, and frequent themes include adbusting, subvertising and other culture jamming, the abolishment of private property and reclaiming the streets. other street artists simply see urban space as an untapped format for personal artwork, while others may appreciate the challenges and risks that are associated with installing illicit artwork in public places. however the universal theme in most, if not all street art, is that adapting visual artwork into a format which utilizes public space, allows artists who may otherwise feel disenfranchised, to reach a much broader audience than traditional artwork and galleries normally allow.

• Check out more @ streetheroes »

Last month, I had the pleasure and the privilege to meet up with some of my favorite New York artists at their studios. I’ve finally gotten those photos off of my camera and can share them here.

First, I visited TrustoCorp. TrustoCorp are best known for making custom street signs with clever jokes or political statements and installing them around the USA. The signs first appeared last in Miami last December and since then have appeared in cities like New York, Austin and Detroit.

Since first seeing the signs last December, I’ve been a fan of TrustoCorp. They rarely produce uninteresting work, and everything they make is well designed. But the one thing I’d never quite understood was why TrustoCorp had done a solo show at Brooklyn Brothers’ Gallery back in April. After all, TrustoCorp makes street signs. There aren’t any streets inside a gallery. Then, once I was at the TrustoCorp studio, I finally understood. The gallery show was an event. Yes, there were street signs, but the real highlights of the evening were the giant map showing how TrustoCorp had placed all their signs in a pattern creating a giant middle finger across Manhattan and the shooting gallery, a carnival-esque game that had players shooting at TrustoCorp art.

On the roof of TrustoCorp’s studio, they set up a makeshift version of that shooting gallery for me. As rain began to fall, I quickly shot up some TrustoCorp targets: the D-List Socialite, an Arrogant Rapper and, of course, a Greedy Banker.

So it seems I was way off about TrustoCorp becoming boring once inside a gallery. If anything, they’re even more fun.

Check back soon for photos from my visit to see street art legends John Fekner and Don Leicht.

get photos of TrustoCorp's work here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/trustocorp/.

• Buy RJ's The Thousands »

The Wu Tang Clan reunites! Friday 23th July began their 2010 European Tour with their first concert in, yeah, you guessed it: ROME!!! We obviously weren’t going to miss this monumental musical event. The opening act was performed by Noyz Narcos, one of Europe’s most famous performers from the underground movement in Italy. We managed to intercept the Roman based rapper between one departure and another for his Guilty Tour, on which he is making over twenty sold out stops all over the Italian peninsula.

But I wanted to be prepared, so before our meeting I typed Noyz Narcos into YouTube and kick off the first video on the list, M3. The introductory segment plays with chatter from a recording studio filled with his homies, then the base sounds and I begin to bounce in my seat and BAM! Like mucho old skool. In front of a huge murals Jon (one of the first writer in Rome, well known for his works on the Subway) does a trick on his skateboard and like a professional stuntman falls into a somersault in the middle of the street; a gigantic stencil of the rapper’s face (realized by JBRock) is pasted on the wall behind him and dominates the scene as Noyz rhymes with a beer in his hand and hidden by a bandana, a hat, sunglasses, and a shit ton of tattoos. The urban backdrop is always a protagonist, with its romantic deterioration and tender hostility, a bit NTM, a bit Tiger Style, but there is also something new.  There is a subtle ironic undertone in his expression… the swear words and slang are not lacking, the philosophy and imagery are clearly and fully gansta lived and inspired – street and flow intrigue me as I watch videos of this genre from morning until night. He closes the video by destroying a CD by an Italian rapper who was born on the streets but sold himself to the Majors. With more than 75,000 views, and I understand why but… by the canons of rap however, I (fondly) think, he needs more bitches and more drugs. I immediately change my mind by clicking on the next video, Mosche Nere…. Ok, the ingredients are all here, now just a taste is not enough. If Wu Tang wanted to open its European tour with the highest representatives from the local rap scene, well, then they have made the right choice. But let’s hear what he has to say about it:

1)                   Tell us a bit about the current state of the Italian rap scene from your point of view.

Look, from one point of view we can say in Italy today as it is today that the rap situation has almost arrived at the right moment, that is we have a mainstream and an underground that travels more or less well, let’s say that somewhere in between there is low-quality material, but compared to the end of the 90s where the groups could be counted on two hands, by the mid 2000s a more comprehensive selection of things began to come out. Today the rap scene has taken hold across Italy, and has become perhaps the most listened to genre by young Italians, and performed by a ton of people… The is always a grotesque veil that blankets it with respect to the rest of Europe or the United States, however just like everywhere else when a culture arrives from abroad it takes time to characterize it within the new context and with its own modes and customs… anyway, I believe that we are on our way at least with regards to my career and my noteworthy “colleagues”.   

2)                  Who has influenced your style? What kind of rap did you grow up listening to?

My style is influenced by several genres; rap has always been the music that I remember having in my walkman or when CDs took precedence over tapes, however I still have my old cassettes of Public Enemy… The fact that I grew up with kids that skated or played Grind core or Punk hard core, like Techno or hip-hop, that surely influenced my style of rap differently from other Italian MCs. In so far as rap I have always been oriented toward dark and angry stuff, stuff out of New York more at the beginning, however also the early stuff from 2 Pac, Dre, Snoop, that period inspired me enough already, surely more gangster than rap like De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, aka Volemose Bene (trad. peace and love)….

3)                  What kind of music do you listen to when you are alone?

I can go from listening to only one group for a week, or I can listen to old Italian music, or old skool rock ‘n’ roll, it depends on how I’m feeling and what the weather is like, music for me is very much like a soundtrack to life, so every situation has its own pefect piece…

Like a list of rappers that I adore listening to – I like CamRon and the old Dip Set, like Mobb Deep, Jedu Mind Tricks, Psycho Logical Record, La Coka Nostra, The Game, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dog, Psycho Realm, R A the Rugged Man, a lot of stuff… a new rapper that I would put at the top would be Vado UN.

4)                   Are rap and street art still following the same path or are they growing apart? In your opinion what is it that ties them together in this double outlet and why?

Being a writer as well for me is fundamental. It is the STREET that ties them together. Rap lives on the street like street art and graffiti, they are one and the same, one sound track of the city.

5)                  Is it true that you are also a tattoo artist? Tell us about it

Yes, it’s true. By now it has been five yes that I have been a tattoo artist, it was my first job before music and the thing that let me eat once I decided to make money in an honest manner. It is a beautiful occupation for how much it is serial and complex, in fact in this period of the tour I decided to put it on pause because to be fully behind it one needs a lot of time and dedication, anyway it is the work that I believe I will do that day that I struggle with music.

6)                  What are your aspirations for the future?

To put it bluntly, I dream of a boat full of money that alleviates all of my fears, I would like to open my studio, I don’t know where, but I don’t think in Rome, or at least I hope, I dream of a beautiful life far from this country, which as I see it verges on being totally disgusting, maybe a nice little house, outside L.A. with a black Impala parked on the lawn…

Read the post in Italian:

Venerdì il Wu Tang Clan riunito (!) apre le danze dell’European Tour 2010 con il primo concerto: a Roma. Non potevamo perdere questo appuntamento. A introdurre la loro performance sarà uno dei rapper più famosi del momento nell’underground movement in Italia, Noyz Narcos.  Siamo riusciti a intercettarlo, fra una partenza e l’altra del Guilty Tour che lo vede impegnato in più di trenta date, tutte sold out, su e giù per la penisola. Ma voglio essere preparata: allora digito Noyz Narcos su Youtube e faccio partire il primo video della lista, M3. Un intro molto “Homies”, uno studio di registrazione con gli amici, dopo il quale attacca una base che subito mi fa ballare sulla e Bam! Molto old school.. Un mega graffito e Jon che fa un trick sullo skateboard e come uno dei migliori stuntman cade in capriola in mezzo alla strada; uno stencil gigante (realizzato da JB Rock) con il volto del rapper troneggia sul muro mentre lui canta con la birra in mano nascosto da bandana, cappello, occhiali da sole e molti tatuaggi. La periferia è sempre protagonista, con il suo romantico degrado e la sua tenera ostilità, un po’ NTM un po’ Tiger Style, ma c’è qualcosa di nuovo, sarà quella sottile sfumatura ironica nella sua espressione… Le parolacce non mancano, la filosofia e l’immaginario sono pienamente gangsta - street e il flow intriga anche me che guardo video di questo genere dalla mattina alla sera. Chiude il video distruggendo il cd di un rapper nato in strada e vendutosi alle major. Più di 750mila visualizzazioni, e capisco perché ma... Per i canoni rap, però, poche bitches & poca droga - penso (ingenuamente). Mi ricredo subito cliccando sul video che segue, Mosche Nere… Ok, gli ingredienti ci sono tutti, ora ci non resta che assaggiare.  Se il Wu Tang fa aprire le date europee dai massimi rappresentanti della scena rap del luogo beh, la scelta si sta dimostrando giusta. Ma sentiamo cosa ci dice lui

1)      Raccontaci un po’ lo stato della scena rap italiana dal tuo punto di vista

Guarda oggi come oggi in italia la situazione del rap possiamo dire che da un punto di vista è quasi arrivata al omento giusto, ovvero abbiamo  un mainstream e  un underground che viaggiano più o meno bene, diciamo che in entrambe le parti c'è della roba scadente, ma confronto alla fine dei 90 dove i gruppi si contavano ancora sulle dita di due mani, o a meta' del 2000 dove sono cominciate a uscire un po di cose competenti, oggi il rap ha preso pianta larga in tutta italia, è diventato forse il genere più ascoltato dai giovanissimi, e praticato da un sacco di gente….

C'è sempre un velo grottesco che lo ricopre rispetto a quello del resto d'europa, o degli USA , ma cmq come ovunque quando una cultura arriva da lontano ci vuole del tempo per caratterizzarla nel proprio paese in base ai propri usi e costumi..… cmq siamo sulla buona strada credo almeno per quanto riguarda me e i miei "colleghi" degni di nota.

2)      Chi ha influenzato il tuo stile, con che tipo di rap sei cresciuto ? 

Mah, il mio stile è influenzato da più generi in realtà , il rap è sempre stata la mia musica da che mi ricordo di avere un walkman o da quando il cd ha sostituito il tape, per quanto ancora ho vecchie cassete dei public enemy quindi anche da prima…

Il fatto di essere cresciuto con ragazzi che skateavano o suonavano Grind core, o punkhardcore, come tekno o hip hop, sicuramente ha influenzato il mio tipo di rap diversamente dal resto degli emcee italiani,

per quanto riguarda il rap sono sempre stato orientato verso roba cupa e ignorante , roba NY per lo più agli inizi, per quanto anche la prima roba di 2pac , Dre , Snoop mi galvanizzava abbastanza già da quel periodo, sicuramente sempre orientato più verso la roba gangster che verso il rap tipo De La Soul o A Tribe Called Quest aka volemose bene ……

3)      Cosa ascolti tu quando sei da solo? 

Posso passare dal sentirmi le discografie di un solo gruppo per una settimana sento solo quello magari , o posso ascoltare vecchia musica italiana , come vecchio rock n roll , dipende da come mi sveglio e che tempo fa fuori, la musica per me è molto soundtrack di quello che vivi quindi ogni situazione ha il suo pezzo perfetto ….. Come lista di rapper che adoro ascoltare. - mi piace molto Cam Ron e il vecchio Dip set, come

Mobb  Deep , Jedi Mind Tricks, Psycho Logical Record, la Coka Nostra , The Game, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dog , Psycho Realm , R A the rugged man , parecchia roba …come rapper nuovi ci metto al top Vado UN .

4)      l rap e la street art sono ancora sulla stessa linea d’onda o si sono allontanati? Secondo te cos’è che li lega così a doppia mandata, e perché? 

Essendo stato un writer anche io per me è fondamentale,, é la STRADA che li lega, il rap si vive per strada come la street art e i graffiti, sono uno lo scenario , e uno la colonna sonora delle città

5)      È vero che sei anche tatuatore? raccontaci 

Si vero, oramai tatuo da cinque anni , è il mio lavoro prima della musica e la cosa che mi ha dato da mangiare da quando ho deciso di guadagnarmi i soldi onestamente, è una pratica bellissima quanto seriale e complessa , infatti in questo periodo del tour ho deciso di sospendere proprio perché per stargli dietro serve un sacco di tempo e di dedizione, cmq è il lavoro che credo faro nella vita una volta che accanno con la musica 

6)      Quali sono i tuoi desideri per il futuro?  

Senza mezzi termini sogno una barca di soldi per levarmi tutte le preoccupazioni, vorrei aprirmi un mio studio non so dove ma non credo a roma, o almeno lo spero, sogno una bella vita  lontano da questo paese che ormai rasenta quasi lo schifo totale per come la vedo io , magari una bella casetta col pratino fuori  a L.A. con  un Impala nero parcheggiato sopra.

• 36Chambers Box »

While not exactly a lead up piece to his involvement in the tenth installment of Nuart (a now yearly street art festival in Stavenger, Norwary), Blu's recent mural in Warsaw, Poland is indicative of the scope of recent work. The narrative is strong, as is the concept. It is the type of “go big” stuff I most appreciate in the genre.

Following coverage of Italian artist Blu’s recent work in Poland, let’s take a look at his “Global Warming” Mural in Berlin.

• Buy From Style Writing to Art »

Read the Press Release and Check Out the Making Of:

The artist will exhibit a single 37-foot continuous wall mural painting - a vibrantly hued work of synergistic geometric shapes dubbed "Chaos on the Edge of Reason" - that will be offered for  sale by the square foot and cut out and framed on demand during the show's Aug. 4 opening  night party (7-10pm at 1945 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa, CA).

It's not the first time that Dalek has worked with Hurley. Earlier this year, he collaborated  with the brand on a pair of custom board shorts, which featured another one of his kaleidoscopic, multicolored prints. Dalek was also commissioned to create a painting for Hurley's 225 Forest concept store in Laguna Beach, which stocks Nike 6.0, Converse and Hurley.

The new mural uses 75 colors, and will be priced at $200 per square foot, available in three  sizes: 2-by-2, 3-by-3 and 4-by-4. A smaller companion painting and four limited-edition  36-by-48 works on paper will also be available.  And yes, you can decide which part of the painting you want to cut out. Just know that buying
a slice means becoming a part of a larger project; everyone who walks away with a mini-mural  will be photographed with their cut and interviewed on video. The resulting still photos and video will be used in a book and video on the project.

One thousand, one hundred and seventy-six man-hours was how long it took James Marshall and crew to finish the new mural located at the Hurley Space Gallery. How much paint you ask? Anywhere from a quart to a gallon of seventy-three different colors were put to use for the creation. Sections of the mural will be for sale, allowing you to buy your favorite portion from the two full walls of art. Come down to Hurley HQ to check out the masterpiece. 

• Buy the Book »

Press Release:

C215 has made a name for himself internationally as a street artist, second to none. For the past 5 years, he has been taking himself across the world, to major cities and small towns and ‘decorating’ their street walls with his own special brand of beautiful and intricate stencil artwork. His approach has always been to get involved with the street and get the inhabitants to enjoy and appreciate his contribution to their environment. Sometimes he achieves this by producing portraits of local people or even local cats. His reputation is such that he frequently gets invited back to work in places he has visited, at times funded to work there by local councils or businesses.

Most recently, he has formed a tremendous relationship in his hometown of Vitry, in Paris, where he has been encouraged to work on the street and to invite international street artists of his choice, to do so also. The resulting riot of street art in a humble suburb has been a major achievement for him.

Over the past three years, C215 has been developing his work inside galleries. Mostly this artwork has reflected his work on the street - imaginatively transferring to wood and canvas his portraits that have become so loved outside. The response from buyers has been excellent and he has shown all over Europe and the US. Recently there has been a major retrospective of his work in Milan, which was marvelously received, showing the range, power and variety of images he has produced over the past five years.

‘Midnight Dreams’ will be C215’s second solo show with us at Signal. In the show, the artist is moving away from reproducing works whose origins are on the street. He is developing a style that has more fantasy and independent imaginative force. Inspired by colourful memories from his childhood in Orleans, the work that will be shown will retain the fabulous use of intricate stencil work, with a freshness, lightness of touch and brilliant use of colour, that has not been appropriate in his street work to date. The artist has produced a dazzling new body of work that is sure to impress his fans and is bound to gain him new admirers.

• Check out more @ Signal Gallery »

Twenty First Century City by Ben Eine was among the official gifts to Barack Obama from David Cameron on his first trip to Washington as prime minister, and has catapulted the artist into the media spotlight.

The work, Twenty First Century City was hanging in our London gallery until the Ben Eine came to pick it up last week. Even Ben did not know exactly who the recipient would be but was asked if he would be interested in David Cameron having one of his paintings to give to a powerful American man as a gift.  It was a recent collaboration with Anya Hindmarch on a designer bag that first bough his work to the attention of Samantha Cameron.

As a result of the gift Ben Eine has received a huge amount of media attention and increased interest in his work

Ben Eine last came to the media's attention when he persuaded the shopkeepers of Middlesex Street in Spitalfields to allow him to paint the entire alphabet, in his trademark vibrant, cheerful colours, on their closed security shutters. His work can also be seen in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and Paris, as well as Brighton and Hastings, where he now lives.

Ben Eine is not just a master graffiti artist though he is also the man behind the printing of some of the most iconic works to come out of the Pictures on Walls studio over the last five years. Eine’s screen printing skills have helped produce some of street arts most sort after prints from arguably the greatest street artist on the planet including Banksy, Faile and his own work.

In exchange President Obama gave David Cameron a signed lithograph by Ed Ruscha, a major American Pop Artist who recently had a retrospective exhibition and the Hayward gallery.

• Check out more @ Eine website »

Ed Templeton "Cemetery of Reason", his first exhibition in Sardinia, Italy.

More than fifteen years of his works exposed by paintings, photos, drawings, sculptures, videos and more...

Here you can read the italian press release:

"L’esposizione “Cemetery of Reason”, che aprirà il 29 luglio e chiuderà il 3 ottobre, ha al centro l’opera dell’artista americano Ed Templeton.

È uno tsunami di immagini quello destinato a invadere il museo: una folla di centinaia e centinaia di immagini e figure di Ed Templeton, l’Andy Warhol o forse meglio il Basquiat dell’America di oggi. Nel «Cimitero della Ragione», questo il titolo della mostra, foto, disegni, acrilici, sculture, video, clips, interventi sonori raccontano le storie, le emozioni e le frequentazioni degli ultimi quindici anni del vitale e dinamico Templeton. Quindici anni in cui l’artista, oggi trentottenne, è stato interprete direttamente coinvolto, e non solo spettatore, dell’America delle periferie, violenta e insieme tenera, luoghi non luogo, senza misure o mezze misure. Sono spaccati su adolescenti in cerca di identità, band che vivono la noia ruotando su una pista da skateboard, il sangue delle loro cadute, le tribù della notte, le droghe e gli incontri intimi bruciati nelle piccole stanze di hotel. L’artista entra in profondità, vive i mondi, non si limita a registrarli con lo sguardo di un entomologo. La leggerezza è semmai nell’espressione, quasi riproposizioni di fanzines illustrate o meglio di adolescenziali e caotici diari di vita.

Ed Templeton nasce come skateboarder, sport che continua a praticare. Ed è proprio la pratica sportiva che gli consente di avvicinare alla pari i più giovani, registrandone crisi e ricerche, sogni, desideri, paure. Quello che travasa nelle sue immagini è un universo che ben conosce per averlo vissuto sulla propria pelle. Racconta di ricerche di sesso e di sessi, di angosce, aggressività, gioie e problemi in esistenze di passaggio. Senza giudicare, offrendo semmai opportunità e chiavi di comprensione a chi abbia voglia di capire senza preventivamente escludere. Per lui si è richiamata l’etichetta della “street art”, un’arte di strada, fatta di un insieme disordinato e straordinariamente vivo e attuale di linguaggi. Templeton esprime una continua contaminazione di foto e immagini dipinte, di interventi grafici e di scrittura: murales, tags, graffiti, pubblicità, ma anche musica, in un affastellamento di codici visivi e comportamentali.

La mostra racconta la storia di un skateur professionista, di un fotografo, di un designer, di un pittore, di un ragazzo di strada uscito dal tunnel, di un rigoroso vegano, di un pubblicitario di successo, di un creatore di moda (negli States, le sue scarpe sono simbolo di libertà creativa). Una storia che, se anche conduce alle sue vicende, supera però la dimensione autobiografica per mettere a nudo, con coraggio, i fenomeni sociali.

Difficile classificare l’opera di Ed Templeton (1972), cresciuto in una periferia di Los Angeles, adolescente diviso tra skateboarding e punk, entrambe vie di fuga e strumento di salvezza. Lo sport gli dà il successo e a 21 anni fonda la “Toy Machine Bloodsucking Skateboard Company”, società leader di un territorio di confine, di una cultura urbana fuori norma. La passione per la pittura esplode alla scoperta di Schiele, Balthus e David Hockey. E di pari passo, la passione per la fotografia. All’inizio è una fotocamera analogica, che gli permette di creare personalmente le immagini. Così come continua ad essere allo stesso tempo sportivo e artista, mito e eterno ragazzo di strada, Templeton non vuole scegliere, non vuole limitarsi ad sola disciplina nelle sue espressioni artistiche. Fotografia, pittura, scultura ai suoi occhi sono eguali e complementari. Sulle sue opere egli usa annotare impressioni, aneddoti, stati d’animo, ad unire anche la scrittura ed il racconto. Le immagini in mostra dipanano, tutte insieme, vicende personali e storie complesse di gruppi, un «Cimitero della Ragione» vissuto e raccontato con crudezza ma senza insistenza.

La mostra è un progetto in collaborazione con il museo belga Smak di Ghent, a cura di Thomas Caron".

• Buy the Book! »

We have discovered an amazing reportage of Faile's work for Portugal Arte '10 in Lisbon  on STICK2TARGET.com, a street art blog from Portugal. Here's a quick look, but be sure to check out more pics on their website!

• stick2target! »

Straight from The London Police website a short bio of the group and its history:

“The London Police started in 1998 when big English geezers headed to Amsterdam to rejuvenate the visually disappointing streets of the drug capital of the world. The motive was to combine travelling and making art to create an amazing way of life not seen since the days of King Solomon. From 2002 onward TLP started sending missionaries into all corners of the globe. Known for their iconic LADS characters and precision marking TLP have recently celebrated 10 strong years in the art world and their work has graced streets and galleries in 35 countries during this time. London policemen have come and gone but founding members are still known to walk the streets of every city in the world spreading love with pens and stickers. The current duo have managed to form a partnership more cohesive than Han Solo and Chewbacca in Star Wars and are continuing to produce slick artwork that is tighter than a butlers cuff. Never be scared, don't be a hero and let the good times roll”.

If you love their works you can see them at Helmet gallery (Munich) until the 24.7.2010 so.. let’s go!

• Check out more @ Helmet Gallery »

"About 10 days ago I was walking home in Pigneto when I spotted it on the wall —  the Roman "invasion" has begun.  After years of crossing the globe, Space Invader finally brought his mosaic street installations to Rome.  I've been fascinated by his stuff since I first saw it in Paris and made it my mission to track down and photograph as much as I could of the Roman works.  Some bastard foiled my plans to shoot one in Piazza Vittorio, as less than a week after it went up, it was ripped down.  Fortunately most of the others have had better luck and are spread out all over the city, from Trastevere to Pigneto.  Invader will be back in October for a show at MACRO, part of the Living Layers series organized by Associazione Wunderkammern.  Until then, you'll find me out in the city, camera in hand, looking out for the next Invader that I see....."

Jessica Stewart

• Check out more @ Rome Photo blog »

On June 27th KAWS opened his show at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. We had some technical difficulties getting up there that fated Sunday after finding out that the car rental place had over booked and didn't have a car for us, so we scrambled to get down to Grand Central and hop on a train. Although it was a hike to get up there in the summer heat, we managed to catch a train to New Canaan and from there take a taxi to Ridgefield. We realized that the stress and confusion were well worth our efforts once we had arrived in the super well air conditioned museum where they were serving ice-cold (and extremely frothy) beers and cheese and fruit platters galore. 

Be sure to get out to Connecticut and check out KAWS!!! The show is awesome. Full stop.

• Kawsone »

Lifecycle, the third solo show from Jeff Soto, opened at Jonathan LeVine Gallery on June 26th. Another post somewhat over due, but definitely worth posting, we'll settle for the better late than never excuse....  Beautiful, surreal, and semi-autobiographical, Lifecycle shows us a more personal look at the artist as he deals with the timeless journey from dawn to demise. 

It's always a good time to see our buddy Jonathan, who said that despite the slowing pace in summer heat, he still had good vibes about the show. Don't know why he wouldn't. It was kick ass. Check it out: Lifecycle at Jonathan LeVine 529 West 20th until July 24th.

• Check out more on Jonathan LeVine Gallery »

Drago went to England last weekend and had a beautiful sunny Sunday in Brick Lane… Check out something characteristically london!

Brick Lane is world famous for its graffiti, which feature artists as Banksy, D*Face, Roa, Space Invaders and others. Brick Lane market is also a chaotic, bustling artistic hub which attracts a lot of people in search of second hand furniture, unusual and fashion clothes, junk food and.. whatever.

Last but not least.. thanks to Marco from Brixton who led us all around the city : )

• Buy the Thousands book ! »

Although the opening was over a week ago. We're running a bit behind schedule due to the heat and thanks to the holiday weekend. But nevertheless we want to give a shout out to The Hole and their opening show "Not Quite Open for Business" dedicated to the unfinished works of over 20 artists.

They may not have been "quite open for business" but the show was packed all the same!!!

Make sure to check out the new gallery, 104 Greene Street - NYC.

• TheHoleNYC.com »

Before I move back to the states this week, Nolionsinengland (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nolionsinengland/) took me on a little tour of West London’s historic graffiti spots. Nolions is one of London’s most dedicated photographers of street art and graffiti.

We saw historic graffiti from the early 90’s by writers like Sub1 and Zomby, as well as new pieces by legends of today like Roids MSK and up-and-coming writers like Temp32.

Unfortunately, my camera’s battery was low, so I had to shoot sparingly, but I managed to make it last until finally dying right after taking the last photo I was looking to get.

- RJ Rushmore

• Vandalog.com »

ROVINA, an installation by Ericailcane
from 26th June to 5th September2010 from Tuesday to Sunday, 19.00-23.00

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A unique event of its kind; a monographic exhibition dedicated to the artist Ericailcane, invited to put up site-specific installations and paintings inside the abandoned rooms of Porta Pia. This imposing structure, a monumental entrance to the city, built between 1787 and 1789, preserved by the Superintendence of the Architectural Heritage and Landscape Conservation of the Marche, rises totem-like in front of the Mole of Vanvitelli, hub of the city’s culture. A unique occasion which blends well with the artistic production by Ericailcane, whose works (refined, fantastic engravings and large painted murals) enliven art galleries and streets all over the world, and which gives the artist a one-off opportunity to work on masonry, making an ad hoc creation of great quality (a set of frescoes) especially designed for this site. Entering Porta Pia will be like walking into a book of fairy tales, but with Lewis Carrol’s logic turned upside down, and thus it’s the story that grows bigger and bigger! A story, a fantasy tale which winds through stairs and adjoining rooms (700 m2 of surface over three storeys) an evocative route, stimulated by a poetical quality permeated by visions, fascinations and suggestions of real and fantasy animals.

ROVINA is an event organized by MAC – Manifestazioni Artistiche Contemporanee Sponsored by: MIBAC – Ministry of Cultural Activities and Heritage with contributions from: City of Ancona, Province of Ancona, Mole Vanvitelli Fund in collaboration with: Superintendence of the Architectural Heritage and Landscape Conservation of the Marche.

Photo courtesy of Giulio Garavaglia

• Ericailcane.org »

STEN+LEX - Matrix
Mondo Bizzarro Gallery
Via Reggio Emilia, 32 - Rome
from 10th July to 14th August 2010

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Sten+ Lex: Everyone has seen their work on the scraped  fronts of many Roman buildings, on the roller shutters of closed stores, on the pillars of the overpasses. From the small, ironic stencils that suddenly show up to the big works that strike the imagination and the heart at least as much and even more then the architectural elements that host them.

Their works show an apparent simplicity and an undeniable freshness that made them extremely popular among the "Civil population" , as well as among fans of street and urban art, the young kids in the suburbs, and the art dealers looking for emergent artists.

Stand out in their careers the institutional commissions, the last one (April 2010), a work on a house in the Roman district Garbatella, also their bigger work (26 meters). In 2008 they attended the Can's Festival in London, invited by the renowned British artist Bansky. During the early months of 2010 they had a solo exhibition in Paris, at the Galerie Itinerrance and another one in Rome, at the gallery Co2. Also in 2010 the publishing house Drago issued a monograph on their work. They participated  in many group exhibitions all over the world: Milano, Brighton, Strasbourg, Palermo, Napoli, Berlin, London, New York, Paris, Siena, Vienna and Dallas.

The exhibition at the Mondo Bizzarro Gallery will display works purposefully made for the exhibit with the technique they invented and named Stencil Poster: portraits of anonymous people from the Sixties to the Eighties will decorate different surfaces, all of ordinary use (detergent boxes, banknotes,newsprint, stamps, plastic).

Sten+Lex are a couple of incurable total artists, such is their commitment to their work and their art. The streets of Rome will welcome them, the city walls are waiting for them. It may happen to hear some conversations at the bar regarding their new work, freely given to everyone to see. It may happen to end up in an evening of music that celebrates the international poster-art and find them among the promoters. It may happen  you leave your house one morning and discover that your building is become more fascinating during the night thanks to Sten + Lex.

• MondoBizzarro.net »

Check out his “unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could probably end.”

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Direction and Animation by BLU
Production and Distribution by ARTSH.it
Sountrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI

• www.blublu.org »

As I walked down N 5th toward Berry Street in Brooklyn, I saw from around the corner a man with a cap, a can, and a blue shirt standing back from what was at least a 10-foot ladder propped up against the shadows of what was to become an over 20-foot squirrel.

It was ROA, widely known as a London based street artist, mistaken once to be a female Scandinavian artist, is clearly not female, and clarifies now, that he is in fact Belgian.

He explained that he was always interested in animals as a kid. He was always drawing and collecting skulls and things, but soon got into skateboarding and graffiti and lost that part of his childhood.

From the on set there was something that attracted him to painting on walls. It was the idea of open spaces, large-scale pieces, much larger than any indoor space could allow, and the search for available walls and the permission to use them.

Permission? Often times when people think of street art, they think of vandalism. ROA pointed out that he actually asks for permission to paint. Literally, knocks on doors, shows the person a picture, and asks, “can I paint this on your building.” It seems to work.

He did note however that it’s not always as simple as that. “Sometimes it’s really hard to find walls. Some days I try to find one without getting one, so it isn’t always that easy.”

ROA: An image this size, painted free hand, takes at least 10 hours. Squirrels are more time consuming than birds, but really it is impossible to paint illegally on this scale. It just takes too much time. It is an investment to find the space and the time to do this.

I travel to find walls. And I spend time, more time than the average person or tourist in a neighborhood looking at the buildings and the space. At the end, I end up knowing more about that particular wall/street/corner than the people who actually live there. People are interested in what I am doing because with a painting I am changing their environment. I like to see their reactions.

DRAGO: So why animals?

R: Animals have different meanings in different cultures. I like to play with those meanings - intentionally and unintentionally. It is surreal to see animals in a city, especially like this. I am fascinated with their roles in society and it is fun to have them there – watching.

Its not like I woke up one morning and said, “I am going to paint animals for the rest of my life.” I still don’t know what I am going to paint for the rest of my life, but sometimes I look at my work and wonder why it didn’t come to me earlier. It’s just natural and makes sense for me now. 

And then he climbed back up his ladder and continued to paint. I took some pictures and had a seat on the ground in the parking lot. As people walked by they took pictures and stopped to inquire and admire, “Hey, is the shop letting him do that?” “Yup.”

“Hey! Are you going to do a tail?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok. We’re just checking it out cuz, well, we live in there!”

“Well, now you have a new friend.”

And everyone seemed pleased with that answer.

Last Thursday was possibly one of the hottest days in New York so far this summer (and its only June). Despite the heat Dead Letter Playground opened at Leo Kesting Gallery, which featured close to 30 artists including, Chris Stain, Dick Chicken, Doze Green, Elbow Toe, Ellis G, Faro, Gaia, Know Hope, Love Me, and Sweet Toof - and the gallery was packed. So much so, that I had a hard time getting in all the shots.

With ice cold Miller High Life's abound, it didn't seem to be enough to keep the crowd from sweating bullets, however the sweaty masses didn't seem to be bothered and stuck it out, sipping casually, with the occasional frosty beer can to the forehead with the initiative to hang out and see what was going on around them and on the walls. 

The show is up until July 18th. Make sure to head over to the Meat-Packing district and check it out!

• LeoKestingGallery.com »

Next week, I’ll be leaving London for the states. As much as I’m looking forward to starting college in August, right now I’m probably more interested in the first place I’ll be visiting once I get back home to the USA: New York City. There will be so much to check out in just few short days. Of course, I’ll have to spend time wandering aimlessly and discovering work outdoors, but there will also some amazing shows on at galleries.

July 8^th, the night I arrive, I’ll have to run over to Factory Fresh for their group-show inspired by Dante’sInferno. This isn’t why I usually go to galleries, but I have to be honest and say that I’ll be at Factory Fresh as much for the art as for the amazing crowd of New York street art personalities that the gallery attracts.

Of course, that’s not all the art in Brooklyn. I’m also going to check out Chris RWK, Veng, Cake, Luna Park and Becki Fuller’s show about death at the Fresthetic store and the new 99% Gallery, which has a solo show on with Vahge, a very cool collage artist that I’ve just found out about.

Conveniently, the next three galleries I want to check out are all just a few minutes away from each other. Leo Kesting Gallery’s Dead Letter Playground group show sounds like a must-see with artists including Gaia, Sweet Toof, Elbow-toe and Chris Stain. Then Jonathan LeVine Gallery has two solo shows on right now with two talented artists: street artist Jeff Soto and comic book artist Dave Cooper (and yes, I’m aware that both of those artists have far outgrown those labels). Finally, it will be off to Perry Rubenstein Gallery for Shred, a group-show of collage-based works from artists like Dash Snow, Faile, Elbow-toe and Shepard Fairey. Sounds like Shred is pretty much guaranteed to be interesting, if not fantastic.

For the show I’m most interested in though, it’s a bit of a trek from the city, but it should be, by all accounts, entirely worth it: Kaws’ solo show at The Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT. I’ve heard Kaws be desribed as “The next great pop artist” (though I’m but entirely convinced) and this is probably his biggest and most comprehensive event yet. The show brings together old and new paintings and drawings, as well as a variety of toys, clothing and other design projects.

There’s a lot going on in New York right now, I’m not sure I’ll be able to fit it all in, but hopefully somebody will be able to see all of that. If you have any other suggestions, let me know.

Michael "RJ" Rushmore

• Vandalog.com »

Check out more photos from the exhibitions at Museo Carandente - Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto.

• Buy the exhibition catalogue »

• Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive »

Check out some photos from the exhibitions Pop Surrealism and Sten & Lex at Museo Carandente - Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto.

• Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive »

“Al mio segnale scatenate l’inferno”
Il Gladiatore

Per comprendere il sistema dell’anemone bisogna capire, in primis, come sono fatti questi animali. Consultando Wikipedia si legge che il loro sistema nervoso è “un sistema nevoso primitivo, senza centralizzazione, che coordina il processo omeostatico e risponde ai vari stimoli fisici e biochimici. Non c’è sistema digestivo. E’ però presente una cavità gastrovascolare (uno stomaco) con un’apertura verso l’esterno che ricopre, allo stesso tempo, funzione di bocca e di ano; ciò che le risulta indigesto o inutile viene secreto dalla cavità in questione, che può essere descritta come un budello incompleto”. Nomen est omen. Il nome già contiene un presagio. Anemone come Sistema.
Vivi-amo nella terza (SF)era della cultura pop della prima re-evoluzione della globalizzazione. L’ascesa frizzante della classe creativa nella società dello Spettacolo è convulsa-mente catatonica nella sua discesa. Gli spasmi dei sistemi del potere, araldi di un consumismo frivolo e di una cultura narcisistica, agonizzano e si prepar-ano a sviluppare conflitti esterni per mascherare la loro incapacità ad affrontare, con un minimo di coraggio e di orgoglio, il loro prolasso. La storia insegna: i secoli iniziano sempre con una guerra – Et voilà! Evoluzione attraverso violenza.

Il brutto collasso di un’Europa in vitro è frutto della sua cupola politica acefala incapace di tutelare lo sfrutto dei suoi cittadini sociopatici e in lutto per tutto il salasso dell’Euro. Da tanti anni si sta verificando una cronaca di una morte annunciata di questa chimera, un’Europa vampirizzata da un progetto diabolico che è stato concepito come Frankenstein partendo da un’unione economica del corpo e non frutto di un percorso emo-tivù democratico–culturale-sociale che rappresenterebbe il core.
La lenta agonia dell’impero americano porta allo sfasamento del tessuto a partire dalla periferia, con la guerra tra poveri che cominciano a sbranarsi nelle metropoli. In Europa si stanno spegnendo le luci. Il canto del cigno diventa il canto della sirena. L’Europa della mitologia fu montata da un Toro – brutta partenza per una lovestory.

Qui timet paupertatem, tam timendus est. (Quanto deve essere temuto, chi teme la povertà – Publilio Sirio)
L’Hidra della spe-culazione alza le sue teste e si scatena contro i sistemi indeboliti dell’ibris della finanza internazionale, prendendo di mira l’Europa dilaniata da faide interne di capi politici deboli e incapaci che si sono trasformati in meri comitati d’affari. Prima la Grecia, poi il Portogallo e, se questo veramente non funziona, tutti i paesi dell’Est e l’America Latina. Alla faccia dei terroristi – questo e il vero tiro al bersaglio. Economia Kamikaze: hai soltanto l’embara du choix.
La finanza faustiana sta chiedendo indietro il frutto avvelenato del consumismo casinistico. L’iperrealismo di Macash ha trasformato Eurolandia in Euristan. Il Bailout di Obama e il Salva Europa: ricorrere, attraverso la Realpolitik, a quattro strumenti.

1. To big to fail: più hai rubato, più hai inculato le persone o benevol-mente sei stato incapace a gestire la situazione più verrai ricompensato.
2. La differenza tra crimine organizzato (tipo Mafia) e crimine istituzionale (tipo governo) diventa sempre più una sfumatura.
3. Dal caos nasce ordine; in momenti di insicurezza la gente si appoggia storica-mente a delle persone forti e facoltose – vuol dire agli stessi stronzi che hanno creato questo patatrac. Vecchia strategia delle mafie è creare un problema per essere chiamati a risolverlo. Il Be(r)luga come Torquemada: moralizzatore e Terminator del suo sistema al-Letta-nte ma impossibile. Da Bocchino! (versione destra escort minorenne, non sinistra trans)
4. Cannibalismo Culturale: in mancanza di un progetto socio–culturale che rafforza identità, morale, in un mondo senza dogma il vacuum lasciato dalle decostruzione delle religioni, delle ideologie e dell’educazione si fa assordante. Ecco il cunnilingus intellettuale. Far capire che la cultura non è energia nucleare né il ponte dello stretto e altre grande opere.

Segnali inquietanti e ingombranti dalla cul-tura Italiana, dove il suo massimo paladino, er poeta di Vanity Mr. James Bond(i) e il suo adlatus Mc Resca creano una visione perfetta di quanta importanza dia il partito dell’Amore (quello del pluridivorziato Mr. B e non quello originale di Cicciolina) a questo settore del paese. Dal no di Cannes alla nomina di Sgarbi al Padiglione Italiano; dalla nomina del “Parruchiere” agli Uffizi alla disattenzione dei 150 anni; dalla svendita del Maxxi come sagra di eventi, all’implosione del Colosseo per mancanza di fondi. Tutto questo lascia intravedere una non strategia: la cultura non è una priorità.
Ma la cultura è il train d’union di tutto. Il collante di una trasformazione pacifica di una società civile più forte che mai perchè tutte le sue visioni negative si sono avverate e tutte le soluzioni si sono dimostrate inevitabili.

Bin Von

• NextExit.it »

Drago is proud to announce "What a WonderFool World”, the catalogue of the exhibition: “Pop Surrealism”
From 26th June to 15th October 2010 Museum Carandente - Palazzo Collicola - Piazza Collicola - Spoleto (PG)

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF DOROTHY CIRCUS GALLERY (ROME) AND JONATHAN LEVINE GALLERY (NEW YORK)

TheThe exhibition "Pop Surrealism", curated by Alexandra Mazzanti and Gianluca Marziani, is the first event exclusively devoted to American and international Pop Surrealism. At the Carandente Museum of Spoleto, from June 26 to October 15, you could see, for the first time in Italy, the masterpieces of historical artists of this revolutionary power, born in California in the late 70s. Through the more than eighty works on display, we forward in the surreal flows of a narrative and figurative paiting. The artists exhibited are forty and they are the major international exponents of Pop Surrealism, like its founder Mark Ryden, along with Joe Sorren, Todd Schorr, Shepard Fairey, Marion Peck, Camille Rose Garcia, Alex Gross, Ron English, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Sas Christian, Kris Lewis, Ray Caesar, Jeff Soto, Travis Louie, David Stoupakis, James Jean, Adam Wallacavage, Tara McPherson, Missvan, Lola, Esao Andrews, Scott Musgrove, Jonathan Viner, Naoto Hattori Natalie Kukula Abramovich, Kathie Olivas, Natalie Shau, Mijn Schatje, Ana Bagayan, Michael Page, Tim McCormick, Nathan Spoor, Paul Chatem, Ken Keirns, Aren Hertel, Leila Ataya, Aaron Jasinski, and the only Italian leaders Nicoletta Ceccoli and Niba.

In perfect harmony with the Surrealist roots of the thirties, the prophecies of figurative pop regenerate in a constant movement between the registration of real and immediate reworking dream. Landscapes, bodies, animals, history, nature, objects: this is the world reinterpreted by Pop Surrealism. A no-space where everything looks like the real thing, but where we perceive suspended atmospheres, a sense of agonizing waiting and silent, doubt and danger, where abnormal silences or strange noises are coming. A world similar to ours, where certain domestic and individual landscapes’ meaning are inverted and expressed by classical painting technique.

The favourite subjects are pop icons, broadcasted by leisure media that live in our collective imagination from the world of fairy tales on. The topics vary from the vitality of childhood and adolescence to moral aspirations and chronicles of everyday life. At the same time it exceeds the unexpected and involves the incredible metropolitan, recreating a possible contemporary surrealism, son of a transverse, versatile and electronic era.

• DorothyCircusGallery.com »

One could argue that, "Surface Tension", the new exhibition from Guy Denning and David Walker, two British artists, who through the human form, explore two different concepts, using two entirely different techniques, should be aptly billed as "Guy Denning vs. David Walker". "Surface Tension" aims to explore the stress that festers behind the processes of creation and the battles won and lost between an artist and his medium.  The show also revisits that old cliché about how painting is all about the external expression of the inner processes of art and the artist.

Wielding brushes and knives, Guy Denning battles a myriad of ideas that stir around in ones head in the hope that the visual translation might become the remedy. These disparate thoughts that don't connect to anyone or anything in particular, yet continue to reoccur, are expressed through precarious self-portraits and female figures who at times are featured in crude, semi-abandoned locations. Behind layers of oil paint and turpentine, it would appear upon near completion, Denning's work was then forcefully blasted in one direction with a fire-hose. His work has all the makings of a piece by a classically trained painter, yet the added angst of a back street fist-fight. According to a past journal entry, Denning states, "Any narrative is at best buried beneath the layers of fragmented visual metaphor and allegory".  One can then only assume that Denning's subjects, such as soldiers pointing Browning heavy machine-guns in a sub-basement, women struggling with sexuality and self-portraits that appear to be anything but, are in part speaking possibly about... "unattainable goals"? In the end, as Denning puts it... "It all seems to go round in circles".

For David Walker, much of this "Surface Tension" is self-inflicted. The gestural approach Walker uses when creating his alluring female portraits can only be achieved using a self-imposed rule of "no brushes, only spray-paint" techniques.  Up until this exhibition, Walker also abstained from using a color palette other than black, white and pink.  For now he's trashed that rule and instead explores a diverse and at times clashing range of hues and metallics, giving a nod to the days of 'acquiring' spray paint from wherever you could and using what you had on hand, which results in refreshing and off-key color combinations. There is also further exploration into abstract tagging and photo-realism, all executed in layer upon layer of spray paint.  For Walker, the subject of his work inherently lies in the facial expression-- just the right one that is.  Using found imagery pillaged from peoples photo albums, snapshots and old magazines, Walker is in constant search of a precise emotion or tilt of the head that evokes a visceral response and can expand the distance between his work and that of an intelligible portrait artist.

For those of you who missed the opening party, make sure to check out the show! On view until July 10th!!!

• BrooklyniteGallery.com »

Earlier this month Ivory Serra hosted a soft launch for his newest book, Full Bleed at Gallery Bar. The book will be formally released in August and based on what was happening down on Orchard Street last week it is going to be a huge success! I got there 1/2 an hour after the party started and the book was already sold out!

The book is over 300 pages, with over 250 FULL BLEED color photographs of New York City's skateboarding culture. The images document 30 years of skate with contributions from 44 photographers, including the work of Giovanni Reda, Jessica Bard, Ivory Serra, Tobin Yelland, Miki Vuckovich, Thomas Campbell, Larry Clark, Ed Templeton, Jerry Hsu, Atiba Jefferson, Bryce Kanights, Angela Boatwright, Athena Currey, Kenneth Cappello, and Charlie Samuels.

Be sure to check it out this summer!

• GalleryBarNYC.com »

Welcome to Rome, the Eternal City founded by Romulus after deadly dispute with his twin brother Remus. This particular story of foundation can be considered a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it…

Welcome to Rome, the City of the Vatican where two of the best architects in the world, Bernini and Borromini, lived and hated each other in perpetual personal and professional conflict; however, it was because of this conflict that they created what was to become know as Baroque sculpture and architecture.

Welcome to Rome, a city of heart, soul, competition, and rivalry. A city where people can discuss for days the results of a soccer match to finish a bet or put to an end a childhood friendship.

Anyway, as we learned in our interviews with the artists C215, Atalas, Sten, Lex, and JB Rock, size does matter.

So let’s talk about Out-Door, the event organized by the NuFactory where we have seen the works of the French artists C215 and l’Atlas as well as, of course, the Italians Jb Rock and stencil couple Sten & Lex.

We want to say, first and foremost, that we love these artists, as you can probably see by reading our website.

But we also love the kind of challenges that represent the core of Street culture…

Let’s start with a story:

Chapter one, over one month ago:

The story begins on May 5, 2010. In an old Roman neighborhood known as Garbatella, artists Sten & Lex covered an entire wall, 26 meters high (over 85 feet, that’s about nine-stories), of a building with the face of Francesco Totti, the most famous of the Roman soccer players (perhaps most famous of the Italian players in general). The 85 foot image of Totti grabbed media attention and filled the web with photos and comments about what was going what used to be a less than newsworthy neighborhood in Rome.

JB Rock produced a beautiful image of Italian Neorealism icon, film star Anna Magnani aka Nannarella. Not as large as the Romans’ beloved Captain, 7 x 6,5 meters (23 x 21 feet), people loved all the same. At the end of the day there was probably less media coverage, but don’t worry JB, you’re Roman, you should know that soccer trumps art and film any day in this town. It was probably more about the subject matter than the size anyway…

Chapter two, Today:

On Via dei Magazzini Generali, JB Rock is realizing a wall of 3,5 x 60 meters (11.5 x 197 feet) - all alone! And this time Sten & Lex are doing it smaller…

So maybe it is about size, because this time around the press has turned its attention and its cameras toward JB. His image uses the alphabet to guide the depictions of faces of famous people and of his family, for a total of 21 larger than life size portraits. It is a work about communication and representation in the public and private realms, and most certainly has caught our attention.

Both JB and Sten & Lex are working all night long (I know well because I pass by them every evening on my way home from work). Sten & Lex are painting a very sleek and sexy panther and a lady typical of their lovely anonymous portraits, which refer to both the allure and the danger of advertising in shared spaces.

This story between Sten & Lex and JB Rock, is one, I think, that we can call a friendly rivalry. No brotherly bloodshed here. Just a love of art and of the street. And maybe like Bernini and Boromini their tête-à-tête will bring to life some of the world’s best street art.

So if you are in Rome, make sure to come by via dei Magazzini Generali this evening for the closing party of Out-Door. 

Recommended by Drago

For those of you who missed Swoon's build at the East River State Park in Brooklyn this month, here is your chance to check out some pictures of the project.

Absolut strikes again in Rome & Milan with two live paintings by Ron English!

• Check out more @ AbsolutWallpaper.com »

Greg Simkins, Inside the Outside at the Joshua Liner Gallery, until July 1st, 2010

A fantasist at heart, Simkins alternates between the unsettling and the sentimental—in his finely rendered work, the grotesque can turn sweet and vice versa. Fanged caterpillars become sad-eyed clowns, grow machine parts, or inflate into bulbous balloons that sprout other bizarre creatures and beings. Simkins’ vision weaves together influences as diverse as contemporary pop culture, twentieth- entury fantasy novels, old master paintings, carnival kitsch, and cyborgian amalgams of technology and nature. With Inside the Outside, inspired by his recent travels in Hawaii, Simkins approaches a new dimension of fantasy—a desire to break down boundaries found in the natural world.

In these 10 acrylic paintings and 20 ink and graphite on paper works, the artist harnesses his appetite for fantasy to challenge the rigid, seemingly arbitrary rules of nature. Whereas taxonomy categorizes the biological world into evolutionary branches, and physics dictates who swims, crawls, and flies, Simkins’ art allows the artist to transcend these limitations to propose a new dimension. He conceives this body of work as reaching “outside” a conventional understanding of the world into a pictorial space of imaginative inquiry—in other words, the native realm of the fantasist.

The almost fantastical beauty and variety of Hawaii’s natural environment is concentrated into works like A Branch in the Water, an acrylic-on-canvas painting where jellyfish possess the anatomy of roses and hibiscus and perch in coexistence with iridescent-feathered birds and hybrid insects of the imagination. Other works evoke the meandering, fluid quality of undersea environments where forms and textures interpenetrate with greater ease—here, Simkins is inspired by tropical fish and coral reefs, though never literally. In another painting, The Welcoming Party, for example, the artist introduces deer, geese, and even upholstered furniture into this environmental mash-up. There is something tantalizing and seductive in these extra-natural introductions between wildly diverse species, an “eco-fantasy” that clearly brings great pleasure to the artist even if existing only on canvas.

• Check out more @ JoshuaLinerGallery.com »

Skewville is known for their creative and aggressive artistic campaigns that question popular street artists’ style and choices. And they’re at it again, this time however, they question the motives of and decisions made by you, your friends, your enemies, and your neighbors.

The work in the show examines our daily routines and the familiar theme of supply and demand on a more intense level. At least it appears to be more intense because now it no longer pertains to the other, but rather looks the viewer (or consumer) square in the face and says, “yeah. I’m talkin’ to you.”

The show occupies the gallery in a similar capacity to that which Skewville’s previous work reclaimed the streets and other outdoor urban spaces. The work comments on the absorption of counter-culture into the mainstream and the rise of consumerism perhaps specifically, but most certainly not exclusively, with regard to what is going on the in the contemporary art world.

The title of the show is inspired by the newest trend in psychology and mental disorder cult culture known as “Work Shift Disorder.” The show is a look at the elements that disrupt our lives and internal balances and result in drowsiness, irritability, and general discontent with the world around us. The theme of the show is one to which everyone these days can relate. It is a universal testimony that comments on the state of the world as all members of society struggle in today’s unforgiving economic environment.

On Saturday afternoon, in the sweltering heat of summer in the city, the mural in the backyard of the gallery had yet to be finished. Symptom of “Work Shift Disorder”? Let’s hope that it was merely the result of a late Friday night, some Saturday day drinking, and the 80% humidity. But be sure to head over to Bushwick and check it out!

• Check out more @ FactoryFresh.net »

Opening June 5th, 1-7pm
Special Musical Performance by Anxieteam June 5th at 5:30pm  (see below for more info)
Beverages & Snacks will be served.

We will also be open Sunday June 6th, 1-7pm during weekend.

On June 5th and 6th, the brothers of Skewville present their newest show, Shift Work Disorder. Inspired by the newest mental disorder hype labeled "Shift Work Disorder," an exhausting insomnia brought on by working irregular shifts at night, Skewville examines this disruption of the body's natural rhythm in their own lives-- making art while surviving in the real world often results in drowsiness, disrupted finances, and irritation with the general public.

Shift Work Disorder will not only include some of Skewville's work from previous years, beef and hype included, but will also show work that goes beyond Skewville's pop-art-reminiscent, farcical pieces, moving into a slightly darker realm. Their new, bold, urban-cubist works, both 2D and in other media, investigate supply and demand on a more personal, figurative scale. Skewville's figures literalize the exhausting dual lifestyle that makes Shift Work Disorder so contagious. With appendages that also function as skyscrapers and parking lots, the bodies speak to the fragmentation of the everyman, and especially the every artist, as they attempt to pursue their interests in an unforgiving economic and industrial landscape. The faces and threats hidden in the blocky, geometric buildings remind us of the darker side to an average lifestyle, and the route to the anxiety behind Shift Work Disorder.

Skewville is as well known for their creative, aggressive questioning of popular street artists' style and choices as they are for their wooden sneaker mission, and their new show will continue that provocative examination, adding the everyman and our routines to their interrogative hit-list. Just as street art began as a way of reclaiming space from the advertising that had overrun it, Skewville reclaims the gallery space to communicate its thoughts on the loss of a counter culture and the rise of consumerism. Shift Work Disorder has nothing to do with what's on the street but rather what's done in our homes, routines, and jobs, the banalities of a very average existence and how to cope--while avoiding excessive side effects.
Are you affected by Shift Work Disorder? Come down to Factory Fresh to find out. Symptoms may include heightened annoyance with your daily routine and difficulty concentrating. Be wary if you're on other medications and/or looking to sell out, and head to Factory Fresh on June 5th for a second opinion.
 
Further Studies Will Be Done at Factory Fresh, till June 20th.

Live Musical Performance at Factory Fresh by Anxieteam
Jon Burgerman & Jim Avignon
Saturday, June 5th at 5:30pm

Through the magic of electronic sounds and fumbled strumming on the ukulele Anxieteam will transport you to a dreamy electronic, yo-fi, blip-blopy pop world of anxiety, heartbreak and salads.

• Check out more @ FactoryFresh.net »

Booked
A Group Exhibition Featuring

Aiko, Banksy, Beejoir, Blek le Rat, Boxi, Bumblebee, C215, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, D*Face, Brad Downey, Eine, Ericailcane, Escif, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Gaia, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Dave Kinsey, Know Hope, Labrona, Anthony Lister, Lucy McLauchlan, Aakash Nihalani, Walter Nomura (a.k.a. Tinho), Other, Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), Lucas Price (a.k.a. Cyclops), Retna, Saber, Sam3, Sixeart, Slinkachu, SpY, Judith Supine, Titi Freak, Nick Walker, Dan Witz and WK Interact

With a large selection of books and magazines from:
Drago, Gingko Press, Murphy Design, Prestel, Rojo, SCB Distributors, Studiocromie, Very Nearly Almost, Zupi and more.

Carmichael Gallery
5795 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
June 5 – July 3, 2010

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 5, 2010, 6-8pm
(Exhibition will open for view from 12pm on Saturday to coincide with Culver City Art Walk)

From 26th June to 15th October 2010
Museum Carandente - Palazzo Collicola
Piazza Collicola - Spoleto (PG)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF DOROTHY CIRCUS GALLERY (ROME) AND JONATHAN LEVINE GALLERY (NEW YORK)

The exhibition "Pop Surrealism", curated by Alexandra Mazzanti and Gianluca Marziani, is the ?rst event exclusively devoted to American and international Pop Surrealism. At the Carandente Museum of Spoleto, from June 26 to October 15, you could see, for the ?rst time in Italy, the masterpieces of historical artists of this revolutionary power, born in California in the late 70s.

Through the more than eighty works on display, we forward in the surreal ?ows of a narrative and ?gurative paiting.

The artists exhibited are forty and they are the major international exponents of Pop Surrealism, like its founder Mark Ryden, along with Joe Sorren, Todd Schorr, Shepard Fairey, Marion Peck, Camille Rose Garcia, Alex Gross, Ron English, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Sas Christian, Kris Lewis, Ray Caesar, Jeff Soto, Travis Louie, David Stoupakis, James Jean, Adam Wallacavage, Tara McPherson, Missvan, Lola, Esao Andrews, Scott Musgrove, Jonathan Viner, Naoto Hattori Natalie Kukula Abramovich, Kathie Olivas, Natalie Shau, Mijn Schatje, Ana Bagayan, Michael Page, Tim McCormick, Nathan Spoor, Paul Chatem, Ken Keirns, Aren Hertel, Leila Ataya, Aaron Jasinski, and the only Italian leaders Nicoletta Ceccoli and Niba.

In perfect harmony with the Surrealist roots of the thirties, the prophecies of ?gurative pop regenerate in a constant movement between the registration of real and immediate reworking dream. Landscapes, bodies, animals, history, nature, objects: this is the world reinterpreted by Pop Surrealism. A no-space where everything looks like the real thing, but where we perceive suspended atmospheres, a sense of agonizing waiting and silent, doubt and danger, where abnormal silences or strange noises are coming. A world similar to ours, where certain domestic and individual landscapes’ meaning are inverted and expressed by classical painting technique.

The favourite subjects are pop icons, broadcasted by leisure media that live in our collective imagination from the world of fairy tales on. The topics vary from the vitality of childhood and adolescence to moral aspirations and chronicles of everyday life. At the same time it exceeds the unexpected and involves the incredible metropolitan, recreating a possible contemporary surrealism, son of a transverse, versatile and electronic era.

For those of you who missed the opening or haven't been out to Brooklyn this month, this is your last chance to check out ROA at Factory Fresh! On view until May 29th. Make sure to get out there!

• Check out more @ Factory Fresh website »

“Forever Young”

PAX PALOSCIA

May 29th - July 24th 2010

Opening on Saturday May, 29th 2010, from 18:00 to 21:00
Exhibition from May 29th to July 24th 2010
Tuesday - Saturday  11:00 - 19:00

« … but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars […] » Jack Kerouac, On the Road.

Press Release:

With Forever young, her second personal exhibition at the ADDICT Galerie, PAX Paloscia delivers us the fertile universe of a nostalgic rêverie.
Influenced by street art, PAX runs endlessly across the world accompanied by a camera and a suitcase full of memories. Her passion for photography and her infatuation for the 7th art are the engines of her inspiration and place the image in the center of her work. They dictate her choices but also guide her imagination.

Here, everything begins with a photograph, being it an old family snapshot, a simple cliché that she took or a shot out of a Cassavetes’ film. As soon as she gets in contact with it she lets her feelings emerge, without filtering the emotions that only her painting can restore. The photograph, sublimated by a new texture, becomes a work transfigured. Painting is not the model; it is the look on the model. The creation is here, beneath the fascinated gaze of the artist, speaking to us in her own way about a photograph that touched her. Very close to graffiti, her paintings look like a familiar wall, where pictural signs and feelings are superposed.

PAX gets inspired by  famous personalities of the 7th art, her close friends and Women. Thus, Charlotte Gainsboug or Anna Karina are immortalized in suave iconic portraits. What is most important to her is retranslating what she feels - anonymity and frailty concerning her as much as does celebrity. Showing the woman beneath the star, the shadow beneath the glow, this is what captures her attention.

Family reminiscences, childhood memories, contribute to an abundance of pictures, situations or significant details, composing a sort  of a personal diary which is feeding her creation. Forever young explores the passage between childhood and adulthood. The time is frozen, the space limited to the world of the past but every mark, the artist knows it, remains elusive.

PAX paints as a poet. Her sensibility, deeply feminine, is translated by a large stylistic freedom. She will not forbid herself anything. On the contrary, she strives hard to blur tracks, dipping in her treasure box, and its precious -and useless at the same time- content. She plays with shapes and colours and can bewilder by using many annotations, more or less decipherable.
PAX Paloscia proves once again that the originality of art is in the specificity of its language, the boldness of its writing, the individual vision that each one of us has of the world.  It is this mysterious procedure which leads to getting in touch with the Universal by talking about the Self : “I marvel when images become moments of love, of nostalgia, of loneliness, of self-confidence, of sex, of youth, of beauty. We are 16 years old again, we are heart-broken again, drunk again, sick again, in love again.”

By exhibiting Forever young, ADDICT galerie is fortunate to remain faithful to this idea of creation.

• Check out more @ Addict Gallery »

As a pioneer of the "Street Art" movement, an emblematic figure of the graffiti movement, SEEN becomes famous in the 70s on the New York artistic scene ; he actively participates in the emergence of the movement. From a very young age, he is already seen as a prodigy. At the age of 11, he tags his first trains. Later, he decides to revisit letters and hit the "Hollywood" sign in Los Angeles. In 1981, he takes part in the exhibition "New York/New Wave" at PS1 with Keith Haring and Andy Warhol among others. Considered as an icon of the graffiti movement, SEEN marks a whole generation by the strength of his creations and what he brought to this scene in terms of style. Still today, SEEN surprises by the virtuosity of his style and his creativity. His art is between the inheritance of the street which he claims in each of his works and a very graphic technical virtuosity. Apart from its works full of coloured lettering, in which he's become a real master, SEEN developed over the years a series of works on canvas, creative and personal. In this show, SEEN presents the three series of very meaningful works. For one, he inserts steel and theMetro Transit Authority logo as to remind us his golden relationship with the streets of NY as he puts it himself, "Graffiti is my life, always has been and will always be". On another level of the show one can discover the influence of the tattoo culture in Seen's life. Eventually, on the third level of the gallery SEEN offers a research work where he investigates abstraction. Beyond graffiti, beyond this school which continues to feed his work, SEEN proses above all a complete artist. Today, he is considered as one of the most talented artists of his generation by numerous fans.

Opening 29 May, 2010 from 6pm to 9pm
show on going from 29 May, 2010 to 26 June, 2010

Galerie Magda Danysz 78, rue Amelot Paris 11 - France

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Banksy has been in New York City this week and putting up work all over the 5 boroughs. Check out what he has been up to, but be quick about it because some one is on his trail and spraying over his stuff!

Yesterday DRAGO team discovered a curious event just behind Fontana di Trevi, in the centre of Rome: Artcock installation at Palazzo Poli, for the inauguration of the exhibition "Rendering".

The three cool guys have recreated the Vocazione di San Matteo, 1599, from Caravaggio. 

Check out some beautiful pics from our precious photographer.

Here you can read the Artcock Manifesto (ITA)

ARTCOCK Adesso, Perché e Come.

Artcock nasce dallo spirito di completa libertà nel confrontarsi con tutte le materie e utilizzando qualsiasi mezzo: fotografia, grafica, pittura, mosaico, scultura, carta, legno, ferro e colla, per esprimere quello che secondo noi è il bello, brutto, triste, divertente, raffinato e grottesco nella nostra vita con la stessa forza. Questa forza è la spontaneità, l’estemporaneità e il pieno coinvolgimento in prima persona in tutto quello che facciamo, dall’ideazione al compimento delle nostre operazioni. Con questo presupposto nel corso dei tre anni della nostra esistenza abbiamo creato immagini fotografiche e video riversandoli sulle strade e sulla rete. A un certo punto del nostro percorso abbiamo rivolto l’attenzione verso la pittura dei grandissimi autori del passato. Abbiamo deciso di confrontarci con queste immagini sublimi partendo da 6 punti:

1) Non riprodurre il quadro come copia ma suggerire l’impressione dello stesso.

2) La completa immersione nelle forme, luci e colori del dipinto come partenza, per creare una nuova immagine in cui i personaggi e tutta la composizione sono compromessi dalla nostra presenza.

3) Essere registi e attori protagonisti, quindi sentire su di noi il peso della posa data e del teatro che si crea sul set e intorno a esso.

4) Immedesimazione nel quadro con la coscienza di essere nel nostro tempo e con la necessità di doverlo esprimere tramite elementi del nostro immaginario, quindi fuori contesto, grotteschi e ironici.

5) Ricerca durante il set del “Punto di Tensione Massima” di noi stessi e degli altri protagonisti dell’immagine, ovvero quella frazione di secondo dello scatto/i in cui si crea una sospensione di pensiero e rumore in mezzo a luci, pose, imbarazzi, opinioni, corpi e oggetti che dominano lo spazio prima e dopo questa/e frazione di secondo.

6) Creare una discrepanza tra la verosimiglianza apparente e la profonda distorsione che c’è tra il quadro di partenza e l’immagine da noi realizzata

Da questi presupposti sono nati vari scatti di quadri rielaborati dal team, che hanno dato vita alla prima parte del nostro lavoro sulla pittura. La seconda parte si sta concretizzando nel presente in cui scrivo, il 2010.

Grazie a stimoli interni ed esterni continuiamo questa ricerca, elaborando nuove immagini partendo dagli stessi punti, spingendo ancora di più nel richiamare l’impressione della tela scelta e nel creare uno scontro forte tra la verosimiglianza del primo sguardo e lo stravolgimento di una visione più accurata dell’immagine.

Questa scelta è data dal profondo rapporto che esiste tra le nostre creazioni e il pubblico verso cui ci rivolgiamo, ovvero i cittadini che si muovono per le strade della città. L’impressione del quadro deve richiamare qualcosa che è nel loro background, stimolando la loro curiosità con la forza scenografica, cosicché nel momento in cui volessero osservare più a fondo questa bizzarra immagine, immersa tra cartelloni politici e pubblicità, potranno fare le veci di piccoli critici. Noteranno le discrepanze con gli originali o si divertiranno nello scoprire la finzione, ridendo della divergenza tra serietà e ironia dell’opera o faranno tutte queste cose insieme.

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Fini Mondi dei Segni ovvero Azione e Re-Azione

Merovingio: Sapete? Esiste un solo principio costante, un solo principio universale ed è l'unica autentica verità. La causalità. Azione. Re azione. Causa... ed effetto.
Morpheus: Tutto comincia però con una scelta.
Merovingio: No. Errore. La scelta è solo un'illusione creata e posta tra chi ha potere... e chi non ne ha.

Matrix (1999)

Dei miei viaggi nel Magreb mi sono rimaste due cose. Una creatività ribollente che trasforma la zona in un laboratorio economico, sociale e culturale in espansione e milioni di giovani educati, senza lavoro e pieni di amore, di sogni e di odio che si preparano a sbarcare in Eurolandia sfondando il limes. 

E nel frattempo cosa accade in Europa?

Il backlash storico conservativo continua a espandersi in tutte le direzioni, con l’ascesa del mainstream delle minoranze dove la lama dialettica del confronto si inasprisce di giorno in giorno. In un mondo ormai disorientato dalla modernizzazione, sradicato dalla globalizzazione, svuotato dalla de-ideologizzazione nonché sfiancato dalla crisi finanziaria, l’uomo vive nella trasgressione della regressione e cerca la stabilità, interessato alle origini, il tribale e il conosciuto.

Nel bene e nel male viviamo nell’era Cro Magnon, sotto il segno dell’involuzione della civilizzazione. La cultura remixata pop (REP), collante politico, economico e sociale determinante della società dello spettacolo e del consumo dell’era postbellica ha portato sempre avanti l’Outsider, il ribelle, il cattivo, lo stronzo, e innalzato lo stendardo della malattia come imperativo della sua storia.

Rebel yell – Rebel sell!

La nuova frontiera mediatica, pubblicitaria e politica del potere rafforza il potere di distorsione dei segni e dei codici di un’Italia ano-mala che genial-mente cozza con l’immaginario collettivo. Darth Vader è il eroe. Luke Skywalker è una checca, non avrà mai successo, troppo buono, troppo educato, ancorato a quei suoi stupidi valori come la lealtà, il rispetto, l’armonia. Noi, come recita la canzone neomelodica napoletana, “lo vogliamo macho”.

Il ciclon B-erlusconi, padre – padrone – padrino della storia della democrazia universale, trasforma nient’altro che il subconscio sporco di tutti noi in un sogno bagnato non pensando che lo smegma è effimero e non glorioso. Uomini di Parola, uomini d’Onore. Saviano, servo della Mondadori e del suo padrone, dovrebbe ormai saperlo. I clan casalesi si intravedono soltanto come imprenditori e, come diceva il Padrino, “Ricorda, è solo business”. Il governo diventerà soltanto un comitato d’affari. Tutto è comunicazione, e niente più. Parole parole parole, come cantava una bellissima Mina.

Due delle più grandi operazioni di branding, la Chiesa e il Berluga (seconde solo al boom di Obama e Osama), giocano su una parola chiave: amore (con o senza viagra). Mentre il Papa viene da una certa tradizione (la religione, non pedofilia o omosessualità..) è stupefacente che il signor Berlusconi definisca il suo “il partito dell’amore”. Dopo aver pescato nel calcio (Forza Italia), nella rivoluzione francese (Libertà) è adesso il turno dell’Amore di essere sventrato e piegato alle esigenze del momento.

Ma torniamo al lato oscuro e l’antieroe. Vladimir Propp sarà il prossimo a venire radiato dai libri di storia, dopo l’Avanti Cristo e i Partigiani. Non aveva capito nulla! L’antieroe non verrà punito. Il pubblico lo acclama, non può uscire di scena, calerebbero gli ascolti, gli spettatori cambierebbero canale. È tutto sbagliato, tutto da rifare. L’antieroe compra tutto, macchia la reputazione dei suoi antagonisti, diffama la legge e i suoi rappresentanti, deride l’eroe, seduce la donna, vince il premio e regna sovrano, sotto un orda di consenso generale.

Si chiude il sipario, la festa è finita, tutti a casa. Lunga vita all’antieroe (con le palle), abbasso il pivello che rispetta la legge. La legge, i veri uomini, se la fanno da soli. Loro possiedono il carisma per essere dei validi condottieri di un popolo di pecore verso la… Crisi?

Allo stato attuale delle cose, oltre a un bel Bocchino, abbiamo tortellini fini, fini speranze, fini opportunità, abbiamo fini, insomma, per un ultimo e tanto agognato risveglio repubblicano, per unire le forze di un paese ormai lobotomizzato e uscire da questa insurrezione di populismo mediatico, con lo stendardo del biscione in una mano e il telecomando nell’altra.

Forza Little Bunny Foo Foo! Muoviti o diventi un Goon!

Thaksin insegna – perfino i thailandesi ce la possono fare.

Nel ruolo del cattivo si annoverano anche personaggi come Bruto, o Giuda, i barbari della storia ai quali è toccato il compito di eliminare il capo. Come accadde a Cesare, tir-ano per eccellenza o Gesù, l’ultimo a sventolare la bandiera dell’amore. E questo significa, in un modo o nell’altro, che nessun individuo può scamparla di fronte alla democrazia, ai diritti umani e alla libertà del popolo. Nessuno può minare le basi di questi principi. È arrivato il momento di re-agire… sic!

Bin Von

• NextExit.it »

Saturday 5th June 2010 MONDO BIZZARRO GALLERY (contemporary art) presents Camilla d'Errico (painting) in Main Gallery and Karine Rougier (drowing) in Project Room

Mondo Bizzarro Press Release:

Italo-Canadian by birth, and lover of Japanese culture by vocation, Camilla d'Errico is one of the most talented artists representing Pop Surrealism today.

Since her first exhibitions in the most important art galleries of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York she has found huge appreciation from the public and collectors alike.

Nurtured by a passion for comics and anime, her poetical approach is carried out in a romantic and futuristic representation of reality.

True to the typical characterization of Japanese pop art, her raw and disorientated characters are set in a natural environment that tenderly holds them.

Amazing bio-mechanic constructions rest atop the heads of her young heroines whose hair, at times, resemble electric cables and the most varied of fauna act as a counterbalance.

Butterflies, snakes, birds and fawns materialize in her canvases and in her drawings like they were icons of deep and intimate feelings, otherwise hidden from the surprised and mysterious eyes of the protagonists.

Magical, surreal, and a dreamer, and only apparently naïve and affected, the artist takes the visitor's sight hostage, which is imprisoned during the time of contemplation in a marvelous fairytale world.

For the solo show at Mondo Bizzarro, the artist will present a new series of "HelmetGirls"; characters the artist has long been fond of, and has been portraying since her first days of painting. 

Beautiful, romantic and mysterious heroines wear gargantuan, pseudo-steampunk and bio-mechanic headgear, which itself is enriched with every kind of expression thanks to the wild creativity of the artist.

Twelve pieces created in the artist’s trademark style of fine lines, also known as "line - work", with acrylics and oil, are meticulously enriched with the most bizarre details.

There is no doubt that her drawings and paintings are worlds open on our cultural universe.

For this exhibition her renowned HelmetGirls allude to the mechanical projects of Leonardo Da Vinci, which gave the artist the inspiration for the ironic title "Il Codice d'Errico".

• Check out more @ NEW Mondo Bizzarro website! »

KUKULA SOLO SHOW

17th June - 25th July 2010

Dorothy Circus Gallery

The sweetness of sugar, mixed with the sour taste and pungent of blood is the guiding concept of the upcoming exhibition at Dorothy Circus Gallery, from June 17 to July 25, dedicated to Nataly Abramovich, aka Kukula.

The young Israeli artist was born in a small town near Tel Aviv, inhabited mostly by former military and their families. She grew up among the ghosts of the Holocaust and the political tensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where she’s been reworking an interior landscape of dreams and childhood that we can find in her art.

Kukula herself seemed destined to military life, so far from her colors, fantasies, obsessions and her passion for illustrated stories.

Reality’s blood melts with sugar’s childhood fantasy to create a world where the characters are girls and dolls, elements that characterize all her works. Children with scratched knees, dolls with naive and dark sensuality remind the viewer to a world of loneliness that the artist suggests even with the titles of works.

Kukula’s Pop Surrealism is expressed in the alienating atmosphere in which these doll-girls with woman’s body are immerged, always with animals or objects with a metaphorical value, mysterious and disturbing. Kukula’s environments are non-places where she stratifies her life experiences.

With 12 oils on wood and some drawings, the artist takes us by hand in this "valley of dreams” full of rides, horses, swans and chimes, bubbles and childish games.

Kukula, having specialized in illustration at the Vital-Shenkar College in Tel Aviv, moved to San Francisco where she still lives. She has exhibited in the major pop surrealism galleries like Roq La Rue, Corey Helford Gallery, Copronason Gallery. She’s in Italy for the first time at Dorothy Circus Gallery and she’ll be here at the gallery for the opening.

17th June - 25th July • cocktail party 17th June • 7:30 p.m.

Dorothy Circus Gallery

Via Nuoro, 17 - 00182 Roma - Piazza Lodi,Villa Fiorelli, Pigneto

tel. 06 70 21 179 • cell. 338 94 99 432

• Dorothy Circus Gallery »

BROOKLYNITE PRESS RELEASE:

Two titans of the street art world collide when DOLK and M-CITY invade  Brooklynite Gallery for what is sure to be a show for the ages.

Reclusive, Norwegian stencil artist DOLK, emerges from the shadows to showcase a new collection of cutting imagery. Often monochromatic with  one precisely placed color, DOLK crafts strangely beautiful story-lines  into his work, infusing a wry sense of humor into such wide ranging  topics as celebrity, religion and societal pressures. As a whole, DOLK's  new body of work conveys a bit more cynicism than the past, with  most figures displaying enigmatic expressions as well as the inclusion  of one key prop that at times will leave you scratching your head.  However, what does remain consistent within the history of DOLK's work  is the intrigue he manages to garner with simple, clean black lines and  spot-on subjects.

Look closely at a satellite picture of the earth and you just might see an M-CITY mural. Listen to the echoing sounds of metal forging, pistons firing, and air compression as M-CITY, Poland's most prolific artist  working in the public space, erects yet another large scale mural on any  number of continents. Using his graphic brand of stencil artillery that  includes images of smoke-stack factories, cogs and gears, steam ships,  and repetitive city blocks, M-CITY redefines the Industrial Revolution. 
That same crushing imagery is transferred seamlessly to his deliberate, grey-scale canvases which could easily be passed off as Cold War  propaganda.

Thank heavens half the space at Brooklynite Gallery is outdoors ---quite  conducive for these two addicts of outdoor activity who also plan on leaving  many gifts to the people of NYC.

Brooklynite Gallery is located at 334 Malcolm X Blvd., Brooklyn, New York 11233. 
We are open Thursday thru Saturday from 1pm – 7pm or by appointment. We are  located 2 blocks from the A or C subway to Utica Ave. stop.

• Brooklynite »

London has really been spoiled lately for the shows that galleries are putting on. Roa at Pure Evil Gallery, Escif at Pictures on Walls, Black Rat Projects’ group show Now’s The Time and now Burning Candy are at High Roller Society. Candy Shop is a group show with work from every member of Burning Candy. Crazy stuff. For me, Burning Candy ARE street art in London.

Burning Candy is a crew of nine street artists and graffiti writers of varied ages, genders, styles and histories. Kid Acne probably describes them best:

“Burning Candy are probably the only male/female graffiti crew around where some members are old enough to be other members’ parents, have strange misspelled names, wear homemade disguises and enjoy playing Picture Consequences together. In many ways, they’re more like a sex cult than a spray gang.”

Candy Shop is only the third time that all nine members of Burning Candy have shown their artwork together (the first being at The Thousands). It’s a solid show, but most of all, it’s fun. The assemblage installation in particular is just full of interesting bits and pieces. In fact, the entire show is sort of an extension of that installation. It’s a hodge-podge of the crew’s best work, from Tek33’s massive oil painting to some Polaroid photos by Luc Price. Even the artworks clearly made by only one member of the crew who may not have even visited the gallery space feel like they’re part of one big considered collaboration.

This is definitely a show to check out. High Roller Society is a relatively new gallery, but this is their best show yet. Is the show perfect, definitely not, but there’s a spark there and a hint of greatness. I think that both Burning Candy and High Roller Society have a sort of Beautiful Loser feel to them. In 10 years time, people may look back at this show and say, “Damn. I wish I’d seen that one in person. That was THE SHOW that set things off.”

• Vandalog.com »

The Great Outdoors has long been a place of escape. The raw connection with nature and its elements has a certain allure. For street artists the great outdoors provides another dimension. These artists carry on the enlightened tradition of adapting their artwork to weather, people, space and situation. Some are early pioneers, decades before working in this setting was socially acknowledged as art. They have managed to risk the elements of extinction, theft, decay and urban renewal.

Woodward Gallery features the following celebrated, outdoor artists to respond to their personal environment: Royce Bannon, Darkcloud, Michael De Feo, El Celso, LA II, Kenji Nakayama, Neckface, Lady Pink, Matt Siren, Stikman, and Swoon.

These artists have proven the art of survival and have thrived in the urban environment. Their individual works have become indelible, iconic images for the public.

Since street art is exposed and unprotected from all the elements of the outdoors, this exhibition is a study of the inspirational effect and cultural exchange when extracted for further contemplation in an indoor-gallery setting. 

133 Eldridge St NYC 10002 

For those of you who didn't make it over for the opening reception, make sure to check it out soon! Great show! Great space!

• Check out more @ Woodward Gallery »

Re Su Erezione Pop: la Honey Trap della società dello SpettaCOLO

Zigzagando nei miei trips fra Oriente e Occidente il mio dasein è stato colpito da due tsunami emotivi: un’Asia in calore, ottimista e arrapata e un Occidente frigido, che puzza di decomposizione e  in un’inarrestabile decostruzione.

Lo specchio/scudo di Perseo  si è rotto: ha rotto. MedUSA vive e si è coperta con il velo di Maya.

L’air de Paris: tre mostre importanti che riflettono il darwinismo disneyano. “Vanitas – From Caravaggio to Damien Hirst” concetto interessante, mostra curata alla italiana (Claudio Strinati, direttore generale del Mibac, al Musée Maillot fino al 28 giugno); “Delitto e Castigo” al Museo d’Orsay e, per concludere, l’immaginario della morte nella cultura Mocha. Un mood dark sta invadendo la cooltura occidentale, tutti parlano dell’Apocalisse e tutti san(n)o che le risposte malate dei governi alla crisi finanziaria non sono sufficienti in quanto elargite dai mostri che la hanno creata. Vecchi pezzi di merda che si agrappano alla sopravivenza, morti viventi che strisciano come delle lumache e si comportano come dei vermi. Non è matematicamente fattibile che le finanze occidentali si riprendano soltanto attraverso l’auspicio di consumare di più e di fare le tre scimmie(non vedo/non sento/ non parlo).

La cooltura Pop diventa sempre più una trappola psicologica dove la superficialità esula da qualsiasi profondità. Nessuna lealtà, nessuna legalità viene concepita come tendenza dove la banalità procrea la diversità  dell’assurdità finendo con l’aborto emotivo della felicità e visionarietà. La cosiddetta autenticità non è altro che la ricerca del Tempo Perduto di una notorietà consumata di nefandi-acefali senza pietà, che scambiano lucidità creativa e luci-ferità intellettuale con morbosità voyeuristica.

Questo mondo kafkiano affetto dal morbo di Mathusalem combatte verso la autodistruzione che i sette peccati capitali portano con se in maniera peter-paninesca (con la porchetta di Ariccia). Come il quadro di Dorian Gray di Oscar Wilde la società dello SpettaCOLO si sente Alice pur essendo il vampiro Lestat.  Se si  analizza cosa sta succedendo si assiste a un consolidamento dei superricchi, un prolasso della classe media e un emorragia della classe povera. Il lazzaretto dei superrichi  è costituita da supervecchi fattoni che vivono  nella loro “Controcorrente” Huysmaniana. Questi vecchi sono quelli che gestiscono tutti i gangli dell’industria, della politica, della cultura e della religione. Ma il cervello dei vecchi è totalmente soprafatto dal millenium bug, mostro che loro stessi hanno creato. L’hypervelocità gli incute paura e la loro paura infetta il tran tran della vita quotidiana attraverso il loro tam tam. Dato che sono loro che comandano, gli garba di castrare giovani che non hanno nessuna speranza. Lobotomizzati nell loro cinismo kinetico.  La prossima grande guerra sera quella delle età.  In questo senso Al Quaeda non è un che una ribellione giovanile e non una guerra di religione e civilizzazione.  La guerra dell’oppio è iniziata da tempo.  Abbiamo plasmato, con l’educazione e la nostra visione di“Anything goes”, un mondo che non si accontenta di vivere ma che esige un Lifestyle. Vedere in Chang Mei, Fukett, Saigon, BangMYcock o Ancora Watt delle Fate MORGANe di Paris Hilton e Beckham fa SGARB(I)atamente impressione. Pop come ars vivendi, ribellione come savoir faire, Bang Bang come Unz Unz  all’insegno dell’assolutismo etnico.  Kamicazzi come opera d’arte di un tremonti del modello bianco-cato-ebreo-demo-occidentale.  Così, quelli che non possono avere la Barbie, si prendono il Kalashnikov.  Nel mondo aziendale si dice che hanno fatto benchmarketing, la gente sa che per fare la differenza deve vincere la diffidenza e concentrarsi sull’apparenza.  Differenti Targetgroup. La religione della merce versus la mercificazione della religione. 

La crescita del primato della cultura in altri settori rende la ricerca campo fecondo e interessantissimo per multinazionali e hedge funds ciniche, il tutto amalgamato con una visione del carpe diem portata all’estremo e un memento mori di individui assatanati e aizzati dalla Società dello SpettaCOLO  a essere outsider, differenti , solo per fare audience. Corpus Christi versus La caduta degli Dei (Lucky Visconti 1969), dalla Goetterdaemmerung (Rich Wagner) di una mandria di autodefinitesi opinion leader si finisce nella realtà delle intercettazioni e nel fango di una Italia che continua  a perdere terreno di competitività non soltanto con dei competitors come la Cina, il Brasile, l’India, l’America - cosa che sembra scontata, diremmo - ma anche con i diretti contendenti come la Germania, l’Inghilterra la Francia e lo Zimbabwe.

All inizio era pop. Alla fine c’e la Honey Trap. Il REP(Remix del Pop) e la chance della re-su erezione della Tromba di Jericho per tagliare il nodo di Gordon societario sospeso nell’eterno Kairos di questo infinito paradigma culturale. (sic!)

Bin Von

• NextExit.it »

London plays host to two majorly underrated artists from the Continent for their first London solo shows. First, on Thursday the 8^th, Roa (http://www.flickr.com/photos/roagraffiti/) from Belgium brought his trademark spraypaint animals to Pure Evil Gallery. And from Friday the 16^th, Escif (http://www.flickr.com/photos/escif) from Spain will have his art hanging at Pictures on Walls. For me, Escif and Roa are two of the most exciting European graffiti artists. Soon enough, these guy may be up there with Ericailcane and Blu as kings of continental European street art and graffiti.

Roa’s show has already been received with massive excitement from the London art community. The opening was packed and almost everybody I trust is raving about the artwork. The work included small sketches, installations painted directly on the gallery walls, photos, spraypainted works on found materials and even a short video animation. Londoners need to head over to Pure Evil and see this in person, and New Yorkers should be looking forward to seeing Roa’s solo show at Factory Fresh next month. For those who live in the rest of the world though, I’ve made a short video walking through some of the show:

If you read the Vandalog or Unurth blogs, you’re probably at least vaguely familiar with Escif’s murals. Otherwise, it seems that Escif hasn’t been given his fair share of attention just yet. Luckily, Pictures on Walls doesn’t do too many proper shows, and they are definitely not the type of people to do things in a traditional way, so expect something special, different and attention grabbing. With any luck, POW’s involvement will help propel Escif towards greater popularity outside of Spain. If you’ve seen Banksy’s film Exit Through The Gift Shop, you may have already seen Escif in action and just not realized it. This clip from the film was actually set up by Escif in an effort to get arrested on camera. I guess he was successful, but I’m not exactly sure why that’s a good thing.

To have these shows open just a week apart, especially in art-market driven London of all places, is a real treat. Hopefully you can check them out in person.

Updates from RJ Rushmore
12 May, 2010

• Vandalog.com »

Saturday, May 15 – Sunday, August 22, 2010
Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery, Queen’s Road, Bristol BS8 1RL

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ART FROM THE NEW WORLD

Mother Nature and British Aviation law will not stop the arrival of a shipment of America’s most exciting Urban and Contemporary Art, which is UK-bound to form ART FROM THE NEW WORLD, the ground-breaking exhibition from Los Angeles’ noted Corey Helford Gallery. The world-class, and as yet unseen collection of work from a formidable group of 49 of the fi nest emerging and noted American artists will now open to the public on SATURDAY 15 MAY. Originally scheduled to be air freighted from the USA, this priceless collection will now arrive from the New World by sea, thanks to the intervention of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökulle volcano.

Hotter than any lava eruption, ART FROM THE NEW WORLD will be the must-see contemporary art exhibit for 2010. It is a transatlantic collaboration between the Corey Helford Gallery and Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery; a space that is emerging as the leading UK venue for urban art after hitting headlines in March for topping the Art Newspaper’s annual worldwide survey of museum attendance for 2008/9. ART FROM THE NEW WORLD will build on the massive success of last summer’s Banksy vs Bristol Museum, the exhibition that catapulted Bristol to the top of that survey, drawing almost 4,000 visitors per day.

ART FROM THE NEW WORLD presents a diverse range of artists, spanning the spectrum from pop surreal and neo-fi gurative to street art in the exhibition. Virtually all of the works have been specifi cally created for the show and will infi ltrate not only the exhibition gallery, but most of the ground fl oor of the museum. There will be a full programme of events accompanying the exhibition and visitors will have the opportunity to buy a limited edition set of prints signed by the artists. Highlights include:

• A fi fteen-foot tall “ice cream cone” balloon sculpture created by, and topped with the characters of well-known street artist Buff Monster (who is featured in Banksy’s new fi lm, Exit Through the Gift Shop). The artist will also be on-site creating a “live painting” of murals on select museum walls during the days immediately leading up to the exhibition.

• On opening day, paintings by world-renowned artist Gary Baseman will come to life as a special collection of his costumed characters makes a rare appearance to interact with museum guests.

• The Todd Schorr painting “An Ape Allegory”, featured in San Jose Museum’s Todd Schorr retrospective and on loan from the Corey Helford private collection will be on display in the main rotunda.

• Artist Mike Stilkey will transform a wall of 2,000 books* into a ten-foot “canvas” for his work. The unique sculptural installation will greet visitors as they enter the museum.

ART FROM THE NEW WORLD will open to the public in Bristol, England on Saturday, May 15, 2010 and will be on view through August 22nd.

Participating artists include: JOSH AGLE (SHAG), JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER, CHRIS ANTHONY, VAN ARNO, GARY BASEMAN, RAY CAESAR, COLIN CHRISTIAN, SAS CHRISTIAN, LUKE CHUEH, COOP, DAVE COOPER, RON ENGLISH, NATALIA FABIA, KORIN FAUGHT, SARAH FOLKMAN, MELISSA FORMAN, AJ FOSIK, CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA, MERCEDES HELNWEIN, DAVID HOCHBAUM, SYLVIA JI, ERIC JOYNER, DAVE KINSEY, KUKULA, JOE LEDBETTER, HENRY LEWIS, LOLA, TRAVIS LOUIE, MICHAEL MARARIAN, ELIZABETH MCGRATH, MIA, BRANDI MILNE, BUFF MONSTER, MICHAEL PAGE, MARION PECK, JOSHUA PETKER, CARLOS RAMOS, JOHNNY RODRIGUEZ (KMNDZ), GRETCHEN RYAN, MARK RYDEN, TODD SCHORR, KATHY STAICO SCHORR, MIKE STILKEY, GREG SIMKINS (CRAOLA), JOE SORREN, DAVID STOUPAKIS, ADAM WALLACAVAGE, MARTIN WITTFOOTH, KENT WILLIAMS

for more informations contact or visit Corey Helford Gallery www.coreyhelfordgallery.com / Belinda Chun, manager of Ray Caesar, www.belindachun.com belinda@belindachun.com

• Check out more @ Bristol Museum Website »

Wednesday, April 28th 2010 begins a magical week on the New York art scene.

Wooster Collective and Drago will be kicking it off at Marc and Sara Schiller’s Meet at the Apartment in SoHo with seven of New York’s hottest street artists and many members of the urban art world’s circle of creative hands, minds, conversationalists, philanthropists, journalists, lyricists, and supporters. On Thursday Mark Ryden will open his show Old Tyme Art Show with the Paul Kasmin Gallery at 293 Tenth Avenue and on Saturday, May 1st Deitch Projects will inaugurate their last show with Shepard Fairey, appropriately titled May Day.

We were definitely in the house!

Shepard Fairey's May Day opening at Deitch Projects was a scene last Saturday evening. For sure one to see and one at which to be seen. The streets were flooded with art lovers from all walks of life to the point where my fashionably late arrival forced me to get out of my taxi 4 blocks away and then teeter down the streets of SoHo, through the matting crowds, in my five inch heels, but luckily Drago's VIP standing allowed me to jump the line and head right on in. 

The gallery was packed with the likes of Russell Simmons, Tyson Beckford, Glen Friedman, Adrian Brody, Tony Goldman, the Serra brothers, KAWS, Elbow Toe, Ron English, Camille Rose Garcia, Merry Karnowsky, Erik Foss, Phil Frost, Dante Ross, Gary Baseman, Aiko, Jonathan LeVine, and WK Interact, and that's just to name a few of the people on the scene...

Despite the dry-campus style evening, not even water for the parched party-goers, people came, waited on line, and stayed until the bitter end. At one point they kicked everyone out to allow a second round of people to enter the show. 

There were groups of teenage groupies shouting at Shepard from outside for photo ops and requests for him to stay longer in New York and one girl on the phone, "But Mom-uh, I just want one picture. Yes, I know I still have to finish my math homework! But its SATURDAY!" Down the block there were street performers, skateboarders, models posing for spontaneous fashion shoots, and motorcycle riders revving their engines. 

Later that night the crowds dissolved on Wooster Street and moved to the next soirée on East Broadway in Chinatown. From the outside it would have been hard to guess what was going on upstairs, but this dim sum palace turned discotheque was the perfect fit with its mirror lined walls and dark red interior. 

Somewhat over-served, I managed to get my ass out of there around 3am, but rumor has it that there was sun-light when some other (nameless) attendees made it home on Sunday.

• Check out more @ Deitch »

Here you are more pics from the Outdoor event.

Now we can just say .. see you tomorrow, at the Palladium theatre, for the final International Poster Art exhibition, curated by Christian Omodeo from a NUfactory amazing project.

www.out-door.it

• Check out more @ NUfactory »

The Garbatella neighborhood (Rome) is on fire. Older men take chairs from home to  enjoy the show more confortably, guys smoke cigarettes, arms folded, curious of what’s happening.

A madam come to me asking, both suspiciosuly and worried: “But.. What are they doing?”. “Art!” i say, whitout thinking to much. “Ah”she answers, then calls the dog and walk away.

Four davit uplift the artists so they can attach posters at more than 25 meters high. Four entire building’s facade will be covered by huge posters by Sten 6 Lex and Jb Rock from Italy and c215 and l’Atlas from France

We start to catch a glimpse of an eye, we foresee something similar to a mouth. People start to bet. The typical bar dude, with the sleeves rolled up and many sailor tattoos, has a flicker in his eyes as exclaiming: “It’s the Capitain!”. Then stat a standing ovation. The face of Francesco Totti (capitain of Roma football team) dominates the square, 27 meters high and 10 large. Everyone who’s passing here look astonished.

Behind Francesco Totti appears Anna Managnani, the muse of Neorealism, also known as Nannarella, the protagonist of Pasolini movie Mamma Roma.

This is the result of the two italian artists, Sten & Lex and Jb Rock.

See you tomorrow here on Dragolab for the final photos and more news about the works of c215 and L’Atlas, the two amazing french artists!

all the photos are by Agnese Emiliozzi. Thank you dear!!!

• Check out more @ NUfactory »

Back from Black.

From bright Pop to dark Underground. And back.

Collective exhibition curated by David Vecchiato 

From May, the 1st to June, the 14th, 2010

MADRE

Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples

MADRE and Napoli COMICON present Urban Superstar Show Festival, first edition of the first Festival that a Contemporary Art Museum dedicates in Europe to Underground Art, Pop Surrealism, Lowbrow Art and Urban Art, which are to say the new artistic currents which better represent the contemporaneity. 

Italian artist David Vecchiato has mustered lots and lots of fellows from all over the world into Naples MADRE for 4 collective exhibitions for the year 2010  and will keep on gathering, in his capacity as curator, leading figures of an art movement which is destined to become the new Contemporary Art avant-garde. 

Vecchiato’s aim is to propose a critical order among different artistic trends.

The exhibition opening the Festival, on May, the 1st, 2010, is Back from Black. From bright Pop to dark Underground. And back.

Seven other exhibitions will be following through 2010 and 2011 editions:

Characters & Patterns

Pop Surrealism & Lowbrow Art

Gothic, Expressionism, Folk and Steam Punk

Masters of the Underground Art

and Street & Urban Art Adventures

which will take up the whole area of the MADRE Museum dedicated to the Festival till the end of 2011.  

Such kind of signs were in vogue from the ’60‘s till the ’80‘s but after that, as soon as the wannabe   Pop and Street Art heirs, evoked through the works of the new artists generations, were getting closer and closer to the world of  cartoons, comics, tattoos and those ways of expression which are mostly considered subcultures, the official world of  Art blamed them for trivialization and in fact censored them by not showing their works any longer. 

Thus those artists, sons and daughters of pop culture and diy logics, have grown inside underground circuits and have made best use of both web and street in order to build outstanding commercial success, finding parallel ways to the institutional Art market system and to those galleries which used to shrug them off.

That is how a subversive visual culture was born and has spread itself as a virus.

Not a vain rebellion towards the world of Art, but a parallel vision of art making, based on guerrilla promotion and marketing tactics, which pass through conceiving ideas for illustrations, cartoons, t-shirts, art toys, different kinds of objects, clothes and fashion accessories. 

Often on the initiative of these artists, specialized magazines and galleries have grown up. But also firms producing gadgets of this Art that both young and old people love, and that seems to have no needs of critics to be perceived.   

The initial lack of a constructive dialog with critics and official market let artists grow expressing in complete freedom. Lots of them gained visibility by painting walls and using street as gallery.

In these last few years this underground movement has started to revenge its role in Contemporary Art, and such Art system that used to shrugg it off, from galleries to museums, from Biennials to great fairs, has started to court such names, so popular nowadays, opening its salons doors to them. 

In Italy, after some specialized galleries experiences, the collective exhibition Urban Superstar Show 2009, curated by David Vecchiato, presented last year in the Southern Italy most important Museum, was the first proper signal towards this changement, letting this new Contemporary Art exhibit itself in a museum. Other similar exhibitions presented in other museums and other Italian institutional places soon followed that event. 

Urban Superstar Festival 2010, by having the same name, wants to carry on with the work of cultural  diffusion started with the collective Urban Superstar Show 2009, offering a much richer panoramical view over this contemporary artists wave and sorting out the different artistic currents which by the way profusely draw from the same inspirational well, Pop Art above all, by introducing everyday elements which want to be universally recognizable and understandable.   

In the artists and works selection, David Vecchiato highlights how many of the last decades comics authors have stylistically influenced Pop Surrealist and Lowbrow artists by gathering them together into the Back to Black exhibition. 

The ascendancy of underground comic fathers such as Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton over Lowbrow and Pop Surrealist painters is clearly underlined throughout the exhibition, as far as that of their inspirers Basil Wolverton, Harvey Kurtzman and the authors of the American satire magazine MAD.

Earlier in timeline we then have Fleischer’s Studios cartoon style (Betty Boop, Popeye), which suggested an aesthetics among pop iconography, scary themes and surreal scenarios that we find in several works of these artists.

But actually the exhibition doesn’t neglet neither the influence of more recent comic artists such as Jamie Hewlett, Tank Girl’s and Gorillaz’ dad, Daniel Clowes, Italians like Andrea Pazienza and Bad Trip, nor authors like Dave Cooper and Jim Woodring, who then ended up in painting as well.  

The aim of the whole Festival is also that of setting these artistic currents free from aesthetic generalization.

Urban Superstar Show Festival wants to clarify the origins and the stylistic divisions, thus the currents of this Underground or Lowbrow Art, or this “low profile” Art that, as it’s analysed in Vecchiato’s writing, is actually the only one able to tell with extreme clearness about the juxtapposition between fiction and reality in which Western Countries are lately living.

A series of references that goes from stylization ability of ancient eastern art to transalpine Renaissance of Bosch and Bruegel, from Warhol’s and Niki De Saint Phalle’s Pop Art to Haring’s necessary synthesis, up to Writing, lead us to a pathway among the artworks which shows where those different styles and trends of this new international Contemporary Art come from. 

First exhibition concept is to give a panoramical view over these artistic currents. The following exhibitions then bring into focus each single direction, in order to let people widely understand and have a critical idea of this new Contemporary Art.

Considering that this artists wave owe much to the web, and that is through the web that it has been contaminated and could grow fast without territorial boundaries, it’ll be by means of the blog-in-progress of the Urban Superstar Show Festival artists, www.urbansuperstar.com, that insiders and followers can be updated in real time with works, videos and images.  
 
 
 
 

ARTISTS

Amy Sol, Anthony Ausgang, Alberto Corradi, AlePOP, Alessandro Rak, Prof. Bad Trip, (Gianluca Lerici), Basil Wolverton, Bigfoot, Blu, Boris Hoppek, Brendan Danielsson, Buff Monster, Camilla D’Errico, Camilla Falsini, Catalina Estrada, Cesko, Charles Burns, Ciou, Daniel Clowes, Dave Cooper, Dave McKean, DEM, Diavù (David Vecchiato), Fidia, Francesca Ghermandi, Gary Baseman, Gary Taxali, Gianluca Costantini, Gilbert Shelton, Gio Pistone, Glenn Barr, Hitnes, Ian Stevenson, Jamie Hewlett, Jeremy Fish, Jim Avignon, Joe Ledbetter, Jon Burgerman, Laurina Paperina, Licia Viero, Lina Hoven, Lisa Petrucci, Marco About, Massimo Giacon, Matti Hagelberg, Michael Sieben, Mike Davis, Mr. Wany, Paper Resistance, Paul Chatem, Ray Caesar, Robert Crumb, Scarful, Sergio Mora, Shag, Squaz, Tara McPherson, Tokidoki (Simone Legno), Victor Castillo, Zelda Bomba, Zoe Lacchei. 

• Check out more @ urbansuperstar.com »

7 May-15 June 2010

OUTDOOR

International Poster Art exhibition:

Sten&Lex; JB Rock; L’ATLAS; C215

Curated by Christian Omodeo for NUfactory

OUTDOOR  is an open air urban art exhibition. While street art is being displayed more frequently in the “closed” atmosphere of galleries and museums, OUTDOORS stems from the desire to get it back into the streets within the framework of a public institution. 

OUTDOOR is the first Italian exhibition of street art on currently occupied public housing with an aim to show how street art can enhance urban spaces. The Garbatella neighborhood of Rome will play host to the artists’ works, displayed on the famous housing units (lotti) strung between via Caffaro, via Girolamo Adorno, and via Ignazio Persico.  The lotti, despite their deteriorated state, are characteristic examples of an Italian “garden city” and represent the perfect platform for the urban requalification OUTDOOR seeks to achieve.  Surely the already high quality of life that residents enjoy can only add an easily tangible artistic inspiration. 

The artists selected will install monumental posters (up to 12x26 meters) on the facades of buildings owned by ATER. Four photographers and a filmmaker will follow the artists on the four days preceding the opening to document the installation. A video and photo gallery inside the Teatro Palladium will allow spectators to view the creation of the installation, as well as the story of each individual artist.

OUTDOOR, as opposed to other projects in Italy thus far, has had a strong collaboration from the beginning with public institutions, and contributes to the wider debate of using street art to enhance to urban décor on public buildings. From the monumental scale of the works to the site chosen for installation to the very selection of artists all correlate to the desire to offer will correspond to states to offer street art in a sanctioned area as never seen before.  OUTDOOR aims to show a wide audience the stark contrast between street art and "vandalism". OUTDOOR allows Rome to finally compete with other European capitals that have already experimented with this sort of installation, coming up with an installation that will put the Italian capital at the forefront of these cities.

"Treat the walls of your city like the walls of your home”, this invitation / challenge will result in a unique exhibition of original poster art, and will create debate between both street art enthusiasts, as well as local residents.

So.. We can just say.. follow us in the discovering of this terrific adventure!

See you soon with more mews, interviews, photos and so on!

• Check out more @ Outdoor website »

Things were somewhat hectic on Wednesday with last minute runs to the supermarket, missing limes, and an absence of general order, however without any real stress or strain  Wooster Collective, Drago, and Meet came together as the new dream team of cocktail parties and social events everywhere, or at least on Manhattan's Lower East Side. 

The event proved that there is a lot to be said for low budget gatherings as long as you have a good group of people in attendance and a handful who are willing to help you out. In the early minutes of the evening the bowls of Tostitos and salsa, slices of cheddar cheese, pretzels, and an array of different types of Haribo gummy candies were looking somewhat grim, but as the room filled up and the beers and bottles of Belvedere were opened, chips and dip and gummy worms were all the rage.

If you don't already know, Meet is this super sexy event venue that is primarily used for corporate shenanigans, with black wall paper, which when you look carefully is not simply floral patterned, but rather covered with naked women straddling serpentine-esq floral arrangements. Very distracting.

Anyway, back to the point...

There was blond decked in black leather and spandex greeting everyone at the door and a pretty red-headed thing mixing mystery behind the bar, so from the on-set the evening's guests were feeling quite at home...well, maybe someone else's home.

So after about an hour of casual milling, chatting, and sipping, the guests of honor took their seats at the front of the room and things began to quiet down. Marc and Sara introduced the discussion and the artists and mediated the Q&A which was streaming live over the internet. WK Interact, Logan Hicks, Chris Stain, Ivory Serra, Elbow-Toe, and Pax Paloscia all took turns answering questions about what is going on in art today, both on the street and in the gallery. Swoon, unfortunately, didn't make it as she was stuck on the other side of town finishing up a build...but hey, the evening was awesome and now that Drago is in New York there will be more events like this, more often.

The invitation said 7-10pm, but with a room full of artists, art lovers, collectors, gallerists, real estate barons, movers, shakers, pushers, general curiosity, and the mid-night arrival of Mr. Brainwash, it goes without saying that the discussion went on well into the wee hours of the morning, with "hangover" written in the fine print.

Well, hello big apple. If you like us, we will be happy to stay.

And just one last time, a BIG thanks to Wooster Collective for rolling out the red carpets. You guys go above and beyond.

• Check out more @ Wooster Collective »

Wooster Collective and DRAGO present:
The 41st Parallel – From the Eternal City to the City that Never Sleeps: Back talk with Chris Stain, Elbow-Toe, Ivory Serra, Logan Hicks, Pax Paloscia, Swoon, and WK Interact

NEW YORK CITY
Wednesday April 28th, 2010
Meet at the Apartment
101 Crosby Street
7-10pm
Q&A session begins promptly at 8pm

Wednesday, April 28th 2010 begins a magical week on the New York art scene. Wooster Collective and Drago will be kicking it off at Marc and Sara Schiller’s Meet at the Apartment in SoHo with seven of New York’s hottest street artists and many members of the urban art world’s circle of creative hands, minds, conversationalists, philanthropists, journalists, lyricists, and supporters. On Thursday Mark Ryden will open his show The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show with the Paul Kasmin Gallery at 293 Tenth Avenue and on Saturday, May 1st Deitch Projects will inaugurate their last show with Shepard Fairey, appropriately titled May Day.
Please join us for casual page?turning, lively banter, and beverages to celebrate the beginning of NYC’s summer season and initiate the arrival of Drago’s New York office.
On Wednesday April 28th from 7-10pm, Wooster Collective and Drago will present a hot and heavy round table discussion and Q&A session to explore the current happenings in today’s art movement with nine of the top names from the streets of New York: Chris Stain, Elbow-Toe, Ivory Serra, Logan Hicks, Pax Paloscia, Swoon, WK Interact, as well as Drago Publisher Paulo von Vacano and Wooster Collective’s Marc and Sara Schiller at their super chic venue Meet at the Apartment in SoHo.
The contemporary art publishing house known as Drago acts as a rhizome into the international mindset that is fueled by the ideas and values of the current generation. As a cultural symposium, Drago creates and presents forums for exchange through various pathways by remixing pop culture and undiscovered trends; those pathways include, not only the publication of art books, but hosting events, sponsoring art projects and collaborations, curating exhibitions, executing press and communication strategies, trend scouting, and promotion via the Drago blog (www.dragolab.com). It is from these creative platforms that Drago contributes to the growth and expansion of the alternative re?evolution that began on the street and over the Internet. Drago represents the mainstream of minorities, where under is over and over is under.
From their home base in Rome, Italy, Drago found a parallel group in New York who maintain the same groin?yearning ardor for art, culture, and the urban experience. Due to the two groups’ equally energetic and eternal lust for participation in and promotion of the arts, Drago sought to collaborate with Wooster Collective and bring some of the great names off the street and in for some page turning, but more for the drinking and debating.
Marc and Sara Schiller founded the Wooster Collective in 2001. Their mission is to discover and document authentic art experiences via salons, publishing, gallery shows, and their website (www.woostercollective.com). Their site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world.

41st PARALLEL - DRAGO HITS NYC 2010 from Kittesencula on Vimeo.

• Check out more @ Wooster Colletive »

The Exhibition currently at the Collège des Bernardin started on 22th April 2010 until 12th September 2010 will be presented at the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici from October, 12 2010 to January, 6 2011, it brings together work by five international artists revolving around the theme of abstraction.

All five have chosen abstraction as a non-representational modus operandi: their works are not predetermined, but emerge from the handling of raw materials. They are the ultimate outcome of a situation in which the artist, setting his skills aside, leaves the decisive role to the materials themselves.

The work of these artists are the embodiment – the traces, the imprints – of a specific experience, and those who look at them will become sensorially imbued with that experience and undergo it in their own way. The artists offer and share their ways of seeing through the works on show, works left open to an unfettered interpretation directed only by what is present to the visitor’s eyes and body.

The exhibition Gravity and Grace, Abstraction and Spirituality is accompained by a catalogue published by DRAGO, with texts by Eric de Chassey and a montage of images prepared by each of the artists.

• Check out more @ College des Bernardins »

Dorothy Circus Gallery proudly presents Mijn Schatje’s solo show

From 16th April to 30th May 2010, Via Nuoro, 17 (Rome) Dorothy Circus Gallery re-interpretates the concept of “Lolita” through the sophisticated works of the French digital artist Marie Blanco Hendrickx, aka Mijn Schatje, in her solo show “Mystic Lolitas”.

The traditional idea of lolita, sexy and teasing, is re-designed according to an aesthetic and philosophical ideal. Mijn Schatje turns lolita into an angelical nymphe, with diaphanus skin and big, sweet and hypnotic eyes, whose beauty lives on elegance and innocence.

Her maidens are immersed in an ethereal and surreal light and they seem to be made of the same substance of dreams are made of. It’s easy to cotemplate the fascinating world of Mijn Schatje and get lost in it. Spirituality, elegance and beauty melt together in a surreal way. Her nymphes are charming and their beauty becomes the link between the real world and a fantastic one in which a heavenly perfection rules. Following her mystic lolitas we can go back over the magic emotions of a lost season .

Dorothy Circus Gallery proudly presents to the Italian public sixteen brand new works by the gorgeous digital artist Mijn Schatje. Born in France to a Spanish father and Dutch mother, lives in Paris where he graduated in Fine Art and Graphic Design.

She got to be an active participant in the music and fashion scene, brand like Reebok and Fornarina used her illustrations for their collections. She also works as artistic consultant at Playstation/Sony Entertainment. Her works have been published by Taschen, Die Gestalten, Dazed & Confused and Pig Magazine. Rizzoli published the Isabella Santacroce book, “Lulù Delacroix”, with Mijn Schatje cover.

• Check out more @ Dorothy Circus Gallery »

NOW’S THE TIME
an exhibition of street art featuring
Jean-Michel Basquiat | Keith Haring | Shepard Fairey | Swoon | Banksy | Barry McGee | Faile | Os Gemeos

BLACK RAT PROJECTS
SHOREDITCH, EC2A
22ND APRIL – 20TH MAY 2010

East London’s Black Rat Projects will be hosting an exhibition featuring works by artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Banksy, Barry McGee, Faile and Os Gemeos. 'Now’s the Time' - named after a Basquiat painting of the same title -  will run from 22nd April – 20th May and brings together the most important and influential street artists of the past four decades.

The last five years or so has seen an explosion of artists working outdoors, often in an urban environment utilising stencils, woodcuts, sculptures, stickers, freehand paintings, pasted posters, ceramic tiles and photographs. Media interest has been fuelled by the public’s increasing appetite for street art.

Street art is not a new phenomenon - for at least four decades artists have chosen the streets as a primary place to exhibit works. Most of these artists were initially shunned by the establishment but a select few gradually gained acceptance from a slow moving and conservative art world. Artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring were amongst the early practitioners of what has become known as ‘street art’ and it is the descendants of their work and ethos who are among the best known artists working on the streets today.  

Amongst the wide group of people who have chosen to express themselves in the street are some of the most creative and interesting artists working today. What unites these artists is a refusal to play by the rules, to conform to the establishment, to follow the traditional paths set out by the art world.

This refusal to be constrained or dictated to has led to some of the most exciting artworks and projects to be seen in any area of the arts. The freedom to communicate directly with the viewer outside of a traditional gallery environment has not only allowed art to be seen much more as an integrated part of everyday life, but has also introduced the dialogue between artist and audience to a far greater extent than ever before.

• Check out more @ Black Rat Press »

April 8 - May 23, 2010.

Opening : April 8 from 6 pm

Galerie Itinerrance - 7bis, rue René Goscinny 75013 Paris

Sten & Lex are known for their unusual and so tedious practice of stencil art which provides an offset look. Their approach of the street in a monumental way and the iconic poetry of their subjects built their current reputation.

This exhibition marks a step toward the affirmation of their career, with a new concept : the «Stencil Poster». They are now completely challenging the repeatable nature of stencil art ; each stencil is unique. Each stencil is used only once, the stencil itself is destroyed and is incorporated into the artwork itself. The ephemeral of the street reflects the continuity of the work in the gallery.

Sten & Lex spend dozens of hours to make a very tedious cutting of their chosen image, by hand, with the eye, producing a pattern of multiple small holes that looks like offset. They call this technique «hole technique».

As part of the Artcock collective alongside Rome based artist Lucamaleonte, Sten & Lex are found of classic Italian culture ranging from the religious iconography from the Renaissance to Dante’s universe. Lex, both model, actress and muse of her own image, is playing the role of a Madonna in the constitution of their work.

Over time, Sten & Lex develop an iconography concerned with figures from anonymous photo albums from the 60’s and 70’s, from here or there. The almost commonplace aspect of these portraits in black and white, however, brings us back to a certain universality that is reminiscent of the work of Christian Boltanski in the iconic status of the work.

Galerie Itinerrance opened in the 13th arrondissement in 2004. Close to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) and the Frigos, it fits in an economic and cultural growing area.

Referential with srteet art exhibitions such as Berlin based Evol & Pisa73 in 2008, YZ Open Your Eyes, Marko 93, Seize Happy Wallmaker and recently the Franco-Austrian duo Jana & Js - and an outstanding space - 130 sqm, 7 feet high ceilings, rough and concrete walls - Galerie Itinerrance has everything to succeed and become an art essential to Paris.

Galerie Itinerrance is now positioned in the field of street art and stencil art. Btoy opened the 2009-2010 International season, followed by the Belgian Roa which met a great success. Are still upcoming NYC based Logan Hicks, Polish M-City, or the French C215, which has toured the world, both in the streets and in galleries.

• Check out more @ Galerie Itinerrance »

At 18:00 on March 29, 2010 DRAGO invaded the Villa Medici...

Drago has recently been awarded the honor of acting as the publisher for the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici and for our first project we were assigned the task of producing the catalogue for I Mutanti (The Mutants).
The exhibition opened on Monday with an exclusive invitation-only inauguration and a musical performance by Rachid Taha. The Villa was packed with Rome’s elite VIP crowd who sipped casually on specialty mutant cocktails (which was really more like fraternity style Jungle Juice, but hey we are all about drinking the punch) and shifted from one room to the next admiring the work of Adel Abdeesemed, Djamel Tatah, Adrian Paci, Ellen Gallegher, and Stephen Dean. Later in the evening Villa Medici’s distinguished guests moved upstairs and in from the gardens to enjoy more cocktails and rock out with Rachid.  The night ended with his totally awesome rendition of Rock the Casbah and lots of late night heavy petting in Gallagher’s special projection room.

Leave it to DRAGO to turn just another manic Monday into an evening out of the ordinary.

Oh and of course, many many thanks to the Villa’s new Director Èric de Chassey. Welcome to Rome. We hope you stay awhile.

Stay tuned for more from the mutants…photos, film clips, and interviews to come!

Time for you to start dreaming more often. Time to start picturing a different city in your head. A different universe. Where YOU are the one who  turns it into the landscape you fancy. Who transforms it In An Absolut World. To help you get off your ass we asked a few great visionaries to lend us their colors and mix them into an “urban wallpaper”, an upholstery which we could all use to try and recover the gray wall facing our bedroom window.

What we want is that a “vision” stops being just a dream and turns instead into a gaze: your real, everyday’s gaze. And when in the world’s top galleries you can find those writers and street artists the most short-sighted used to label as “criminals”, well… what’s wrong with believing you too can take at least one single wall of your own city back?
We gathered a group of visionaries (the last of whom is Ozmo) and we borrowed their eyes, colors and ideas. People who see a blank canvas where we only perceive a wall or a gate. And we asked them to create Absolut Wallpaper, a proper “urban wallpaper”. The easy and ready to use solution you always wished you had at reach every single time your city slammed the worse of itself right in your face.

The artistic background of Gionata Gesi, born 1975 in Pontedera, is enclosed within the path which led him to be fully identified with his streetname: Ozmo. While Ozmo takes off from the world of comics and quickly gets to trains and walls all over Italy, Gionata goes through all the stages of the "official" education, at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts first, and an MA in Visual Arts in Como right after.

The two "souls" rejoin in 2001 when Gionata settles in Milan and becomes one of the pioneers of the Italian street-art movement. While his provocative iconoclasm gathers awareness at art galleries, the city walls (and most of all the one right outside the Leonkavallo squat) get covered with his works, in which the traditional spray can meets new media such as stickers or posters. Nevertheless: «I've always liked to wink both at "high" and underground culture», admits the artist today.

Ozmo operates like a hip-hop producer would: he observes the reality of today's cities and its contradictions, then "stealing" small meaningful portions of it - exactly like you do when sampling music - and eventually connecting them together like letters of an imaginary urban alphabet. Yet how will his In An Absolut World be? «I wanna create an atypical wallpaper, remixing almost in a random way the images users will send us via the website. My Absolut Wallpaper won't work with the repetition of elements, but it will have its own stylistic homogeneity. And it will be circular!». What does it mean? Ozmo doesn't answer. You, as well as we, only need to wait. And engage...

For his Absolut Wallpaper project he thought of a composition of elements obtained with the contribution of participants to the web contest You Wall 2.0. The sharing and the remixing of sources and the site specific performance are part of his way of making art. Through these instruments he takes fun on acting on the language of symbols and images in order to arise in viewers mind the following question: "What am I actually looking at?”

He recontextualizes the “world” of proposals, weaved, mixed up or opposed between them, he moulds and conceives his personal In An Absolut World and brings greek mithological figure Atlas to sustain it!

In addition, DRAGO brings you an exclusive preview of images from LE TEARE that will be popping up soon in London and New York: ABSOLUT BULLET PROOF.

In an ABSOLUT WORLD everything would be bullet proof...

• Ozmo.it »

Recently, Matt Small, Mike Snelle, Callie Curry (Swoon) and I took at trip to Kabwe, Zambia. We were there thanks to Zamcog (www.zamcog.org.uk) to work with students at Robert Shitima School. The school is a nondenominational facility run by The Brothers of The Sacred Heart where street kids and orphans and children living in the shantytown of Makululu can get a free k-9 education.

I cannot think of a better team to bring to Zambia than Matt, Mike and Callie. Callie was so up for coming that I knew she would be helpful and I could tell she would be good with kids, Matt already had experience working on art with “at-risk youth” and Mike was exactly whom we needed to make sure that everything came together smoothly.

For three days, Matt and Callie led workshops for all 200+ students at the school while Mike and I helped out as best we could. Activities ranged from printmaking with lino-blocks to portrait painting to making collages with colored paper. Many, if not all, of the students at Shitima School had never been given the chance to take art classes before our visit, but the kids took to the workshops with great enthusiasm and talent. At one point, I was nearly knocked over by a mob of students anxiously awaiting the sheets of drawing paper that I was passing around.

Over the weekend, we took time off from the workshops to learn more about Kabwe and spend some free time with the students. The two most moving places we visited were Makululu and a building run by Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s order of nuns.

Makululu is one of the largest slums in the world and is where many students at Shitima School call home. We visited the homes of some of the students and met their families. The buildings were made of the simplest materials and were often barely standing. Many of the houses had roofs that were collapsed. Often, a family of 6-8 might have 3 generations living under one roof not much larger than the average American’s bedroom. The school is in such great condition that it was shocking to see what the real Zambia is like. The students that don’t like in Makululu typically live in dormitories at the school, which are much nicer than the houses in Makululu (and certainly better than living on the street, the alternative for many of the students).

As we visited houses and the markets in Makululu, a crowd of children began watching us. These kids were, at the oldest, maybe 6 years old, and many were younger. They wandered the streets of Makululu, some carrying younger siblings on their backs, and followed us wherever we went. Eventually there were probably 50 kids playing with us and watching us. One thing that I think we all saw throughout our stay in Zambia, but in particular while we were playing with the toddlers in Makululu, is that even when faced with extreme poverty, Zambians didn’t lose hope and were still very happy people.

Missionaries of Charity have a team of eight nuns running a facility just outside of Kabwe. It is an orphanage, nursery, hospice and hospital. The day before we visited, the nuns had been given a child for their nursery. The baby girl had been found in a dumpster and it was estimated that she had been there through three days of rain before being found. Luckily, she will be well taken care of at the nursery. That’s a visit I’ll never forget.

I brought a video camera with me, so there will be films of the trip appearing on Babelgum.com/rj in the coming weeks and those will shed some more light on the experiences we had.

Updates from RJ Rushmore
1 April, 2010

• Vandalog.com »

From March 30 to Sunday, June 6, 2010 the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici will be presenting, under the group title The Mutants, five solo exhibitions curated by Éric de Chassey, director of the French Academy in Rome.

The exhibition will be opened by an exceptional musical performance by the French-Algerian composer and singer Rachid Taha.
Exchanges, movement, circulation of people, ideas, cultures and sounds, are the basis of Taha’s work since the 80s, mixing raï, rock music, electro and chanson. Taha’s project in the past have involved collaborations with people such as Brian Eno, Mick Jones, Steve Hillage and Rodolphe Burger.

The five artists being brought together at the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici are mutants: their works embody a world of which we still know very little, except that identities can no longer be stable there.
The work of Adel Abdessemed, Stephen Dean, Ellen Gallagher, Adrian Paci and Djamel Tatah raises the issue of today's multiple identities, not only from a sociological point of view, but also in terms of the hybrid techniques they employ.

These artists are very much of an era in which, in the West, individual identity is shaped by migrations and colonial and postcolonial situations. They are plurinational, pluriethnic or multicultural – and sometimes all of these at once – but with these pluralisms neither obliterating each other in the name of some idealized community nor effacing distinct histories and pasts.

Yet above all it is their creations which are the concrete outcome of this hybridization process. The works employ different media, sometimes moving from one to another according to needs and possibilities, sometimes limiting themselves to just one but filtering it through another; and whether resorting to a an explicit image repertoire or not, all the works have to do with identity.

The five exhibitions making up The Mutants at the Villa Medici are being offered a venue looking firmly on the future while conserving its links with tradition; a venue in the heart of a city bearing the stamp of the successive hybridizations that forged several civilizations.

The exhibition The Mutants will be accompanied by five trilingual catalogs - in French, Italian and English - published by Drago, with texts by Éric de Chassey and a montage of images prepared by each of the artists.

Il buio è spesso come una coltre. A causa del buio, l’elefante in tuba e bastone da passeggio legge tranquillamente il giornale, senza vedere la casa in fiamme dietro di lui. L’orso bianco si barda con poche piume e si arrampica su una scaletta. Il piccolo corvo lo guarda con occhio incredulo, mentre l’orso lo apostrofa dicendo: “Scommettiamo che ce la faccio?” Al buio si scoperchiano le bare, e dentro ci sono roditori con orecchie a punta e una ghianda fra le mani, come se Skrat dell’Era Glaciale si fosse convertito al vampirismo. Non serve mettersi cappucci bianchi e dare fuoco ad una croce, per illuminare il buio. Il buio porta i pesci a credersi pescatori. Al buio i gufi aspettano che i topi escano dalle loro tane. I pipistrelli si rifugiano a perdere i loro denti appuntiti sotto le sedie, e si proteggono con il loro mantello da un sole che non c’è.
Il Buioè un libro d’artista a tiratura di cento copie, firmato dal collettivo Ericailcane. Matite bianche su fondo nero, spettrali e cesellate. Lo stesso buio degli incubi di Goya, dell’illuminotecnica dei quadri del Seicento, della foresta proibita. Un buio psichico, quello della cecità per scelta, delle abbaglianti illusioni, delle finzioni identitarie mal riuscite.
 
Ericailcane mette in scena un mondo pieno di grazia e crudeltà, in cui gli esseri umani si nascondono dietro la maschera degli animali. La funzione della maschera è sempre la medesima: spostare dei significati scomodi in un altro orizzonte, per poterli rivelare compiutamente.
Come nelle favole moraleggianti di Esopo, ogni animale si occupa di rappresentare una diversa sfumatura antropologica. Gli insetti, per la loro natura insinuante e gli esoscheletri rigidi come l’abbigliamento dei nobili spagnoli del Cinquecento, diventano i baciapile. Come nell’installazione al Festival Ingràfica, alla chiesa di Sant’Andrea di  Cuenca, con scarafaggi oranti e mantidi genuflesse.
 
Nella performance in Arte Fiera del 2007, due scimmie hanno dipinto una banana di Andy Warhol sulle pareti dello stand. Warhol, il re dei campionamenti. Campionamento = imitazione. Imitazione = scimmiottatura. Uomo _ scimmia _ artista
 
Gli animali di Ericailcane sono viziosi come gli uomini dietro alle loro maschere. Spicca l’ossessione pecuniaria. Nell’installazione alla D406, due conigli in doppiopetto si arrampicano su per una scala, per riuscire ad afferrare un bigliettone verde attaccato al soffitto. In un’incisione, un topolino ancora più malizioso manomette una trappola per topi, sostituendo al pezzo di formaggio una banconota da un dollaro.
 
Altre volte tocca all’edonismo, soprattutto quello con esitifallimentari. Nella serie Unhappy Birthday vengono ritratti i protagonisti di feste meste e compleanni tristi, conclusi a suon di traumi e ordalie.  Acquolina, una teoria di animali con gli occhi sbarrati la schiuma alla bocca, rappresenta la brama che rende folli. Un desiderio divorante, come dimostra la gru  con le sue marionette piangenti a forma di rana. La pratica dei divoramenti, l’ebbrezza consumistica della bulimia viene ribadita nel cicloMuffins, dove orsi ed elefanti con lo sguardo drogato e depresso si rimpinzano di dolcetti. Lungo la ferrovia di Rovereto ci sono due enormi castori che divorano un uomo albero, esattamente come la TAVsi è divorata il bosco.
 
L’aggressività è il tratto che accomuna gli animali agli uomini. Qui Ericailcane mischia le carte, confonde i ruoli, mostrando erbivori in armi e carnivori sconfitti. La vittima e il carnefice, un grosso lupo ed un agnello nero che giocano a pinco panco. Poi vittima e carnefice si dimenticano dei loro ruoli: due tassi si baciano con passione, e nel frattempo si crivellano la schiena di coltellate.

L’aggressività umana si sistematizza nel conflitto. Nella serie Guerra Civile, presentata alla Galleria Patricia Armocida, un asino dall’aria stupida ammucchia una montagna di bombe a mano, un gallo dalla grossa cresta rizza il suo fucile, un piccolo martin pescatore si mette a cavalcioni di una Beretta. Ognuno fa quel che può: l’ariete brandisce un ariete, il castoro un ramo a punta, il rinoceronte corazzato un detonatore. E ognuno reagisce a suo modo: la volpe fa il saluto romano all’uva, gli insetti più piccoli si armano di razzi anticarro. Molti finiscono in manette, molti altri schiacciati da grossi macigni. Il lupo impugna una marionetta a forma di agnello, ma, come spesso accade durante la guerriglia, David colpisce Golia negli occhi con una minuscola freccia. Durante la  performance realizzata in occasione della mostra, tre figuranti hanno suonato un pezzo noise, indossando maschere di lupo, lepre e coniglio, pantaloni da carabiniere e mantelle nere. Il video in stop motion presentato, Ammazzarne uno per educarne 100, ribadisce la sintassi della guerra. Spesso accolta in pompa magna (la scimmia che suona la grancassa), l’unica educazione che la guerra può offrire è quella alla morte e alla devastazione (la volpe che agonizza, la casa che brucia, tutti che muoiono).    
 
A metà strada fra teatro della crudeltà e tavolo settorio, nel segno della massima violenza dell’essere umano nei confronti delle altre specie (e talvolta anche della propria), abbiamo la serie Demmotu. Animali scuoiati e sezionati, collegati a circuiti elettrici.
Le stesse tematiche, riproposte in modo meno cruento, più spirituale e astratto, ritornano nel ciclo delle spogliazioni corporee: cavalli, scimmie, conigli che perdono grandi lacerti epiteliali, mostrando gli scheletri, esibendo i componenti del corpo macchina.
 
A volte Ericailcane si accontenta di togliere solo il pelo, mostrando animali tristi e imbarazzati, mezzi nudi, con tutta probabilità affetti da qualche malattia, come indicano i loro collari elisabettiani.
 
Capita che gli animali/uomini di Ericailcane  facciano anche cose belle, come leggere, in occasione del compleanno della Biblioteca Salaborsa, o andare a teatro, per Emilia Romagna Teatri. La serie degli spettatori evidenzia le varie sfumature della fruizione dell’arte: dalla meraviglia delle galline, che si lasciano dietro due ovetti e qualche piuma, alla supponenza dei cervi, che perdono le corna, al ronfamento trionfale degli orsi, che si dimenticano il cuscino e le pantofole, fino ad arrivare alla pesantezza solitaria dell’elefante, che sfonda la propria poltrona.
 
Ericailcane cambia supporti, tecniche, formati, con la stessa nonchalance di un camaleonte. Può fare matite da miniaturista, realizzando texture di segni fini come un ordito di seta, o dipingere pareti alte quindici metri. E le sue creature cambiano la loro funzione a seconda della taglia e del contesto. Il catalogo degli stereotipi umani lavora in modo ottimale nei piccoli formati, mentre en plein air le funzioni degli animali diventano due. Totemica, di rappresentanza del genius loci,  e politica, di espressione delle istanze della città. A Capodanno 2009 inPiazza Maggiore a Bologna si è dato fuoco al Vecchione, un grosso lupo in abito talare, che rappresentava le scorie del passato da eliminare per il nuovo inizio. A Pisa, sede di Camp Darby, un gruppo di topini fugge dai bombardamenti ai lati di via Quarantola. Lungo la muraglia di otto metri che divide Israele dai Territori Occupati della Palestina, si vede una riproduzione del muro stesso: i suoi pannelli cadono a terra sotto la spinta di una formica, mentre le ombre cinesi di uomini e donne vanno su per una scala che li porta dall’altra parte. Animalifuori taglia, grossi come palazzi, si sono mostrati nelle cittàper mettere ordine. Perché adottare la misura delle targhe alterne, quando ci sono scoiattoli con addosso eleganti polacchine nere che possono sgranocchiare le automobili di troppo?

Questi animali giganteschi spesso trovano posto anche in interno, sui muri delle gallerie. Provenendo dalla Street Art, Ericailcane è oltre la paura della cancellazione del proprio lavoro. Nelle installazioni, il collettivo  customizza ogni galleria in cui espone, trasformando lo spazio in un fondale psichico per mettere in scena le proprie opere. Ecco quindi il pipistrello a fauci spalancate, i corvi, e i cervi neri per l’assortimento gotico della mostra Epistassi. Oppure il maldestro sorcio con la torta a grattacieli e l’orso con la palla da rugby per il debutto a Chicago.  

Ericailcane è come Wu Ming, nessun nome. Il nessuno dalla faccia cancellata dal fotoritocco, nelle panoramiche dei murales. I tanti del collettivo. La persona in particolare che viene additata durante le mostre. Ha un nome da donna, ma è un ragazzo. Ericailcane, donna e animale, tutto ciò che è altro. Perché l’alterità è la sede dei segreti, di quello che non si deve sapere. Ericailcane ci dimostra che la cultura spesso si ammanta di falsi ideologici per storpiare la natura,  che i vivi e i morti interagiscono sullo stesso piano di realtà, e che gli animali sono la figura di ciò che vorremmo dimenticare. 

Luiza Samanda Turrini
[Lobodilattice - 15/03/2010]

• LoboDiLattice.com »

Il vecchio mondo decadente  aspetta Godot. Il rebus  mondiale sta deflagrando in un patema cronico.  La cremè della cremè del mondo politico, economico, finanziario e culturale implode miseramente. L’esempio Italia e un esempio per tutti: anche se viviamo nella periferia del neoimpero cinese & del postimpero americano rappresentiamo l’emblema universale del mito del suicidio collettivo.

Dopo la crisi finanziaria, dopo l’implosione di ogni visione, di ogni ideologia, di ogni sogno, l’Idra della criminalità organizzata ufficiale ha cercato di coprire le proprie vergogne riempiendo temporaneamente di magma finanzario i propri fluffers. Lentamente, lentamente la merda viene a galla (ricordiamo la fine di Eliogabalo), perche la storia non perdona – la storia è giusta – la storia non impara. Deja Vu dei cicli storici. La novità e la pazienza del popolo che non si ribella ma aspetta, narcotizzato come degli agnelli al mattatoio, che decisione prendano i macellai del sistema.

Quanti sciacalli devono ancora comparire? Girolamo, Anemone, Bertolaso sono  delle metastasi un savoir faire societario creato da e per gente vecchia.

La cultura fa la differenza.  Lo stile è l’essenza della coscienza umana. L’assenza  di  identità, la carenza di visioni  di una casta castrata, acefala e sull’orlo del prolasso TRASHina una società civile huxeliana in una società obloviana basata sulla diffidenza cinica e non sulla veggenza illuminata . Il backlash conservativo neotribale capitalista si esprime in una bieca autodifesa del clan dove, dopo decenni di educazione di finanza magica, capitalismo parassitario e cultura cromagnon, l’unica morale è l’amor-ale.

La staticità degli statisti sfasciati stronca il nuovo anelando a consolidare l’ancien regime. Che ha i giorni contatti.

Invece di fare i froci con i culi degli altri (parole dell’odontologo di Zagarolo) serve una cultura coerente che capisca la necessità dell’agire e non del reagire.

Milano non ha un museo della moda e viene trattata dalla Wintour peggio dei Balubas, a Roma  si apre un spazio museale dopo l’altro che fanno si che Roma abbia riservi alla cultura una quantità di spazio nettamente superiore alla media europea. So what? Gran parte  delle mostre sono acquistate da fuori, non esistono soldi per progetti visionari .

La cultura non può essere imposta dall’alto, deve crescere organicamente, dal basso. È come l’humus, come l’aria che respiriamo.

Ogni anno l’Italia perde terreno nel confronto con le altre capitali culturali. Per due ovvi motivi. Uno: non c’e movida culturale che fa si che queste città vengano percepite come vive;  due: in relazione  alla prima, le persone che governano non hanno capito come creare magia culturale per attirare la classe creativa e la società borghese.

Il che è una conseguenza logica, basti guardare come la casta degli eletti gestisce il tutto. Giustamente hanno imparato dal Boss a lanciare messaggi trionfali e pieni di grandi parole che, purtroppo però, arrivano a un pubblico apatico come un rutto senza conseguenza. Bla Bla Bla!

Usa il potere contro di te, per te. Dal caos nasce ordine. Sempre permettendo che ci sia un minimo di autocritica.

Lobotomizzato e liquefatto. Essere cool prevale  a essere uncool.  È la benedizione della maledizione. È la diffidenza che dilaga, ufficialmente e visceralmente; è l’inno alla diffidenza, l’incentivo a sparare per primo, a dubitare e temere, del diverso prima di tutto ma anche del tuo amico, che potrebbe non essere così tuo, e non essere così amico.

I bambini, come gli animali, non hanno ancora ammutolito quel meraviglioso istinto di avvertire le sensazioni attraverso gli odori: questione di produzione di ormoni. È la puzza di paura, è la puzza di menzogna, è l’apparenza che disperatamente tenta di celare qualcosa, tirando la propria pelle, modificando il proprio corpo, imbozzolandosi in dei vestiti con un’identità propria, nascondendo lo sguardo dietro una marca di occhiali, i propri pensieri sotto una coltre di frasi fatte, e così via. La superficie prevale sulla profondità. L’apparenza sulla sostanza. La forma sulla materia. E non è solo una questione estetica.

Di nuovo, la cultura fa la differenza. Di nuovo sono i cervelli liberi, gli scampati alla lobotomia, che ancora possiedono gli occhi per guardare e un cuore per sentire.

Il capitalismo americano postmuro non aveva  nemici e l’unica morale rimasta era la corruzione morale. Il cinismo ragionato fa dibattere quale è la differenza tra mani pulite e la  situazione attuale e la risposta comune e che una volta si rubava per i politici e adesso si ruba per se stesso, tanto la fanno tutti. Ma è molto molto peggio.  Gli sciacalli della cricca sono diventati l’emblema dell’Italia dell sogno berlusconiano.  Un mondo dove l’opposizione PèDè è visto come non esistente e allo sbando(perche non ha delle idee) e dove il Signor B. individua nella magistratura e nel Gruppo L’Espresso l’ultimo baluardo della democrazia(sic!)

La cultura farà la differenza, a questo triste punto.

Bin Von

• NextExit.it »

The UK is going crazy right now with the excitement surrounding Banksy's film Exit Through The Gift Shop. Everybody who likes street art wants to see the film. I know a few people who have watched it 2 or 3 times already. Of course, this is a Banksy film, so he spared no expense making the premiere amazing. Instead of renting out a screening room in Soho or going to Leicester Square, Banksy went underground. The film premiered at a custom-made pop-up cinema off of Leake Street, the tunnel where Cans Festival was held. And it wasn't just a cinema, the lobby was full of Banksy artwork, new and old. I had the opportunity to take a video camera into the cinema.

Here's what was inside: http://www.babelgum.com/4025894/banksys-new-popup-exhibition.html

Updates from RJ Rushmore
15 March, 2010

• Vandalog.com »

In honor of the first solo show of Sten & Lex at CO2 Gallery, Drago is proud to announce the release of the exhibition catalogue: Sten & Lex.
The catalogue presents 40 pages of works created specifically for the exhibition as well as photographs of their best street work and critical texts by Maria Luisa Bixio, Davide Giannella and Gianluca Marziani, with introduction by gallery owner Giorgio Galotti.

For the occasion Sten & Lex have designed 100 ultra limited edition stenciled boxes, which contains a copy of the book and a signed and numerated print from the most famous stencil couple on the old continent.
Starting Friday, March 12th you can buy books and boxes at the CO2 Gallery or on www.dragolab.com

In occasione della mostra di Sten & Lex alla Galleria CO2 Drago è lieta di annunciare la pubblicazione dell’omonimo catalogo.
40 pagine a colori, nuove tavole realizzate per l’occasione e i migliori scatti delle loro opere in strada, oltre a testi critici di Maria Luisa Bixio, Davide Giannella, Gianluca Marziani e l’introduzione del curatore Giorgio Galotti.

Per l’evento sono state realizzate anche 100 box stencilate in edizione limitata, contenenti una copia del libro e un’opera numerata.
Da venerdì 12 marzo potrete acquistare i libri e l’edizione limitata alla Galleria CO2 o su www.dragolab.com

• CO2 Gallery.com »

La casa editrice Drago è lieta di annunciare la sua partecipazione alla Serata di Gran Gala  organizzata da La Fondazione Italiana Verso il Futuro ONLUS.

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Alla serata interverranno più di 400 ospiti tra cui personaggi del mondo dello spettacolo, della musica, della televisione del cinema e dello sport. Oltre alla cena, verranno organizzate un’asta di beneficienza e una lotteria, con ricchi premi offerti dagli sponsor.

Dopo la  Cena di Gala si potrà ballare fino a tarda notte con musica dal vivo e animazioni nella splendida cornice del “Salone dei cavalieri”, all’interno dell’hotel Rome Cavalieri, The Waldorf Astoria Collection.

Partecipa anche tu! Basta inviare una mail con la tua adesione all’indirizzo di posta elettronica info@dragolab.com

Prezzo a persona € 130.00.

È gradito l’abito scuro.

Ti aspettiamo, venerdì 12 marzo 2010 alle ore 20:30 in via Alberto Cadlolo, 101 – 00136 Roma

• Fondazione Italiana Verso il Futuro ONLUS »

Nunca, street artist brasiliano noto a livello mondiale, sarà ospite martedi 9 marzo presso lo store Special (C.so di Porta Ticinese, 80) a Milano per regalare una performance nel suo stile inconfondibile, in occasione del lancio della Collezione True Colors Nike Sportswear.

Il progetto True Colors Nike Sportswear nasce dalla collaborazione con altri 5 artisti (oltre Nunca) provenienti da altrettante nazioni per celebare in modo originale e innovativo il gioco del calcio come momento di incontro tra sport, arte e cultura. I sei artisti coinvolti Nunca (BR), James Jarvis (UK), Delta (NL), So Me (FR), Mr Cartoon (USA), Kronk (South Africa) hanno realizzato – ispirandosi alle divise delle nazionali di calcio -  6 supporter kit attraverso dimostrare orgoglio e passione per la propria squdra.

Nunca – da buon brasiliano - ha il calcio nel sangue e il suo coinvolgimento nel progetto è nato in modo spontaneo e naturale: una tributo che ha dedicato alla sua nazione. La collezione si ispira al simbolismo Inca e allo stile primitivo dei graffiti brasiliani "Pixação”; nasce così una collezione che mette in connessione il popolo delle favelas con lo sport a cui tengono di più - il calcio.
Il logo, che celebra “i cinque volte” campioni del mondo, lo stile di scrittura geroglifico e la fantasia utilizzata nella personalizzazione dei capi, sembrano creare un legame magico con il passato in modo moderno.

Come sostiene Jarrett Reynolds,  Design Director della linea abbigliamento NIKE SPORTSWEAR "i capi sono stati realizzati negli stessi colori della divisa ufficiale di ogni nazionale di calcio, reinterpretati secondo il tocco originale degli artisti coinvolti".

Gli artisti sono stati chiamati a realizzare per ciascuna squadra un kit comprendente un badge, una mascotte, un motivo grafico e un lettering grafico.


NUNCA
Il noto street artist brasiliano Nunca sottolinea gli effetti della globalizzazione sulla nostra società, intrappolata tra l’esportazione della propria cultura e l’importazione di prodotti stranieri.
Le sue incisive riflessioni vengono così iscritte sui muri del Brasile, colorate e contrassegnate dal logo Naique (Nike). I suoi personaggi sembrano pietrificati nello sforzo di preservare l’autenticità della cultura brasiliana, nonostante la necessità di adattarsi al flusso di prodotti in arrivo dal mercato globale. Nunca è stato parte essenziale del libro “Graffiti Brazil”, pubblicato nel 2005, ed è stato invitato recentemente al Museo di Arte Moderna di San Paulo. Quest’anno inoltre gli è stato affidato il compito di decorare completamente gli esterni di un castello scozzese, insieme agli artisti, e amici, Os Gemeos e Nina Z.

Facebook is a blessing and a curse for many... It allows you to stay in touch with friends, family, and acquaintances, share pictures, poke, throw a sheep at, create events, invite people to those events, request and suggest friendships, and become a “fan” of pretty much anything. On the other hand it is the black-hole time-suck that tells you that your “friend” John (with whom you haven’t spoken since 1998) got married to Sarah (who you have never met) and allows you to look at their beautiful wedding pictures from Key Largo. Great. And maybe a little bit creepy.
My most recent experience is somewhat different, but basically stems from the same concept: before Facebook we wouldn’t have a clue as to what was going on in other people’s lives unless we picked up the phone and called them. Originally a native New Yorker, I left for Rome about four years ago, now only to learn bits and pieces about the life I left behind through what I refer to as the “Stalker Feed.” So what’s my point?
News about Re-Creation II at Ogilvy and Mather came to me via Facebook. “Your Friend was tagged in a photo. Re-Creation II - Carmichael Gallery comes to NYC!. And of course I click…I was instantly transported to my internship from my senior year in high school, wandering the halls of Ogilvy and Mather desperately in search of the restroom. The maze of cubicles and hallways and red color everywhere was somewhat baffling and extremely overwhelming for the 17 year-old me. Now I just find it funny that Facebook connected a person from my present to an experience that for me seems like a lifetime ago. And of course my Father (who works at Ogilvy) forwarded me the press release later that afternoon, saying, “you might find this interesting…for a number of reasons.”

And I did.

Press Release
In collaboration with Carmichael Gallery, Ogilvy & Mather New York is hosting Re-Creation II, a global exploration of emerging art, from March 5th through July 2010. The exhibit will be held at the Ogilvy & Mather headquarters on New York City’s West Side at 636 11th Avenue. Re-Creation II will showcase some of the most important emerging contemporary artists from around the world.
Large-scale murals, installations and original canvas, sculpture and mixed media works will be on display from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. Many of these artists, who are based in the UK, Hong Kong, Germany, Brazil, the US and Canada, have never shown in New York before, and have never shown together.
Ogilvy & Mather will transform five floors and the lobby space of its new headquarters in The Chocolate Factory into a museum-quality exhibition space. As viewers ascend each floor, they can experience the upward momentum of the artwork. Re-Creation II is the second exhibit to be hosted by Ogilvy & Mather in its new space. It follows the inaugural Re-Creation exhibit, which featured the work of 12 emerging artists who use recycled materials to create unique forms of art. That exhibit will also be viewable through the end of March.
The opening reception of the exhibit will be held on Friday, March 5 with several of the artists in attendance at Ogilvy & Mather. The exhibition will run through July 31, 2010.

Re-Creation II on Ogilvy.com

• CarmichaelGallery.com »

Since leaving New York City a few months ago to spend some time in Thailand, Judith Supine has moved in a new direction with his artwork.
So far, he's posted photos on his flickr of three new outdoor pieces. None have his trademark Supine-green tint, and all three are more like 2d sculptures than wheatpastes. Like Supine's famous girl atop the Williamsburgh Bridge, these new works are being placed in unexpected places (such as trees).

I imagine these would be some of the strangest things to see in person, especially if you aren't looking for them. But don't worry, the work still has other classic Supine characteristics, like being made of randomly sourced photos that have been collaged together and looking subtly disturbing. Of course, art that looks good outdoors doesn't always work well inside a gallery.

I'm curious to see what sort of studio work Supine is making, and if it has any relation to these new pieces.

Updates from RJ Rushmore
4 March, 2010

• Vandalog.com »

CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA: DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
March 6 – 27, 2010
Opening Reception/Book Release Party:
Saturday, March 6, 8 – 11pm
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 6pm
Merry Karnowsky Gallery
170 S. La Brea Avenue
(in the ART 170 Building)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 933-4408

Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present "Down The Rabbit Hole," an exhibition of new work by Camille Rose Garcia. The opening reception on March 6th will celebrate the release of Harper Collins’ new edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia, as well as new paintings inspired by the book.
In the original illustrations that will be on display, Garcia brings one of literature’s most beloved characters to life in her trademark dark yet whimsical style. Pairing watercolors with her usual bold acrylics, Garcia captures Lewis Carroll’s dream-like fantasy world in a fresh and exciting visual reinterpretation of the classic story.
The Disney-gone-wrong style that has earned Garcia international acclaim is a natural fit for Carroll’s fantastical story. The vibrancy of her illustrations draws the viewer in and breathes new life into the familiar narrative. For “Down The Rabbit Hole,” Garcia continues to explore Wonderland in a distinctive exhibition of new artwork that picks up where the book leaves off.
Garcia grew up in the shadow of Disneyland in Orange County, and she received a Master of Fine Arts degree from The University of California, Davis. A mid-career survey of her work was shown at the San Jose Museum of Art in 2007. Three other books of her work have been published, The Saddest Place on Earth, 2005, The Magic Bottle, 2006, and Tragic Kingdom, 2007.
Garcia's work has been featured in Flaunt Magazine, Nylon, Paper Magazine, Modern Painters, Art Prostitute, Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, LA Weekly and The Los Angeles Times. Her art has been exhibited in Spain, Germany, France, and Italy, as well as numerous cities in the United States. She currently lives with her husband in Northern California.
Garcia will be signing books at the party on March 6th, which will feature special musical guests, cupcakes, and beverages provided by Bear Flag Wines and Honest Tea. Books and new limited edition giclées will be available for purchase.

• Merry Karnowsky official webpage »

For his second engagement with Italian street art, Giorgio Galotti is pleased to present the first official private show of the two Roman street artists, Sten&Lex. The title of the show refers to the acronyms of their tags, which combined indicate the revolution of their decision to engage in work together, no longer individually, but side by side.

Known primarily for their public interventions, they have been stimulating interest with press and critics for some time, attracting all kinds of fans, not only those of graffiti and street art, but also those involved in more institutional aspects of contemporary art. This exhibition is the official debut of the artists in a gallery setting. For this reason, the progression of the display was studied diligently from conception to development in order to maintain synchronization between the poetic language and narrative in their works.

The work of Sten&Lex continues after their study of recovered from historic photographic archives in Italy from the 1960s and 1970s, establishing a new style, albeit realized with old methods. The poster technique is a point of commonality between them, and has made them a phenomenon of international acclaim. The unpublished works shown in this exhibition were realized more meticulously than previous undertakings, and this is to become a distinct characteristic of their works to come as they explore the use of stencil on paper.

This new technique develops in three fundamental stages: in part as a reintroduction of stencil, a method of which --sten-, creator of the hole school, was one of the Italian innovators; applied technically as on poster, the preferred medium of Lex; all synthesized with the practice of décollage in the style of Jacques Villeglé or Mimmo Rotella, which, once the glue dries, gives life to the final work, leaving a sign as primitive as worn.

Sten&Lex live in symbiosis during process of each creation, envisioning each subject, developing it, and, once determined, focusing on implementing it as if they were ancient scribes slowly executing an intricate and elaborate art. What emerges is a technically complex work that culminates into a popular icon. Their approach to the creation of the artwork is extremely introspective. In the photographic documentaries of their public works one always finds a hooded figure present, as if the artists intended to narrate the story of our era from the perspective of a mysterious loner with a poetically hidden identity.

In the panorama of international street art they are known and esteemed for an unusual peculiarity in the art world: the privacy with which they shroud their undertakings.

Recently Banksy, sent Sten&Lex, as unique artists of their genre, to London for the latest Can's Festival.

For this occasion, a catalogue and a limited edition box will be published by DRAGO with critic texts by Maria Letizia Bixio, Davide Giannella e Gianluca Marziani.

Press Preview Friday, March 12 at 12.30

Opening Friday, March 12 at 18.30

Co2 Gallery

contact at: info@co2gallery.com - Borgo Vittorio, 9b - 00193, Roma - Tel. + 39.06.45.47.12.09, Fax +39.06.45.47.34.15

• Check out more @ CO2 Gallery »

VICTOR CASTILLO: STRANGE FRUIT & MISS VAN: SHE-WOLVES

Until March 6, 2010

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 6pm

Merry Karnowsky Gallery

170 S. La Brea Avenue

(in the ART 170 Building)

Los Angeles, CA 90036

Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present Victor Castillo: Strange Fruit and Miss Van: She-Wolves. The two Barcelonabased artists unfold their unique personal perspectives on subjects like seduction, temptation, innocence, desire, and cruelty.

A moral allegorist, Chilean artist Victor Castillo pairs classical painting with cartoon-like characters. He paints children in

dark secret gardens, where they innocently reenact violent media images with brutality and indifference. Most of the characters in Castillo’s paintings have phallic, hot-dog shaped noses, humorously suggesting Pinocchio. He also makes reference to contemporary culture, human error and vices, politics, and the loss of values in the increasing consumption of modern life, which he sees as an insatiable desire that blinds us. Castillo’s work has shown in Spain, Chile, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Germany, the United States, Canada, Belgium and Taiwan, and has been featured in Juxtapoz and Hi- Fructose magazines.

French artist Miss Van has become one of the best-known female painters from the graffiti scene, gaining worldwide acclaim for her work. In She-Wolves, the ultra-feminine “poupées” (dolls) wear animal heads as they reflect on their dark, predatory natures. Always seductive and mysterious, Miss Van’s characters reside in a mystical world of quiet introspection, as they get in touch with their feminine power and the dangerous animal within.

While Castillo’s work challenges the viewer with the consequences of allowing our weak human nature take control, Miss Van’s work asks a different question: What happens if we surrender to our animal nature?

Miss Van’s work has shown in the United States, France, England, Austria, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Australia, and has been featured in Juxtapoz and Swindle magazines.

For more information, please contact Merry Karnowsky at mkgallery@att.net

• Merry Karnowsky Gallery »

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
Five Year Anniversary Group Exhibition
Featuring work by 40 Artists

February 27th—March 27th, 2010

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Jonathan LeVine Gallery will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a commemorative group exhibition featuring exceptional and exemplary new works by forty artists who are either currently represented by the gallery or who have exhibited at the gallery in the past five years. The exhibition will be on view from February 27—March 27, 2010, and there will be an opening reception on Saturday, February 27, from 7—9pm.

Since 2005, Jonathan LeVine Gallery has been an important venue for Street Art (ephemeral work placed in public urban environments) and Pop Surrealism (work influenced by illustration, comic book art, and pop culture imagery). As such, the pieces in this exhibition—comprised of paintings, drawings, and sculptures—will be primarily figurative with a strong sense of narration.

Artists in this exhibition have developed prominent creative voices for themselves as individuals, while also playing valuable roles within the historical context of the larger Street Art and/or Pop Surrealism movements. All of them have been influential in shaping the gallery’s program, creating work with a unique counter-culture point of view.

In LeVine’s words: “I believe that my program represents a generational shift, and that the artists who I work with will continue to define the evolution of this genre.”

Artists in the exhibition include: Adam Wallacavage, AJ Fosik, Andrew Brandou, Andy Kehoe, Blek le Rat, Chris Mars, Dan Witz, Date Farmers, Dave Cooper, Doze Green, Eric White, Erik Mark Sandberg, Esao Andrews, Gary Baseman, Gary Taxali, Invader, Isabel Samaras, James Jean, Jeff Soto,?Jim Houser, Josh Agle (Shag), Kathy Staico Schorr, Mark Dean Veca, MARS-1, Miss Van, Natalia Fabia, Nouar, Plankton, Ray Caesar, Ron English, Scott Musgrove, Shepard Fairey, Souther Salazar, Stephan Doitschinoff (Calma), Tara McPherson, Titi Freak, WK, and Xiaoqing Ding.

 
For the complete Press Release visit the Gallery’s website.

• check out more at the gallery's website »

Drago is proud to announce the preview of “Welcome to Frisco”, the upcoming exhibition of Mike Giant’s latest work, at the Spectrum Store, in Milan.

Thursday February24^th, at the newly inaugurated concept store, you will enjoy very good music, some new artworks by the artist, full of skulls, beautiful tattoed ladies and bicycles as always..  of course!

REBEL8 will also be there, with the new line of t-shirt, as new DRAGO books and the inevitable, ever green and irresistible Muerte and Coup D’Etat.

See you there!

Spectrum Store, via Felice Casati 29, 20124 Milan

• SpectrumStore.com »

This week London is in for a special treat: one of the world's most talented photorealistic graffiti writers is in town.

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Case is a founding member of Germany's Maclaim crew, and along with Tasso, Rusk and Akut, he has spent the last decade or so perfecting the art of photorealism with a spray can. With his show "Ever Odd or Even" opening this week at Signal Gallery, Case has been in town to set up the show as well as leave his mark on East London. I've been photographing and filming Case's work outdoors, so I thought I would share a few photos taken by myself and Unusualimage.

Also, I'm from chicago, so I can't help sharing this series of photos of Case painting a piece there back in 2007:

Ma'Claim Crew - Case - Montana Cans from Mazot Hiphop & Graffiti Shop on Vimeo.

Updates from RJ Rushmore
19 February, 2010

• Vandalog.com »

On Wednesday February 17, 2010 Spain’s first solo exhibition for American artist KAWS will open at the Galeria Javier Lopez in Madrid.

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His work is a mixture of the images and information that bombards our senses on a daily basis. By reinterpreting and repurposing these visual products of culture KAWS has developed his own artistic language by which he can address contemporary culture. KAWS undermines familiar sentiments of popular culture and offers a disconcerting vision of quotidian idols and advertisements. His work simultaneously navigates through and deconstructs socially accepted definitions of design, consumerism, urban culture, and the fine arts.

His signature X-ed out eyes illuminates the transitory nature of pop culture by combining imagery with concepts of mortality and ultimately suggests the collapse of popular culture as we know it.

The Works shown are representative of the artist and may not be available.
Please contact the gallery for available pieces

• GaleríaJavierLópez.com »

For those of us in the art world Jonathan LeVine is practically a household name.  For those who just like art, if you’re not familiar with Mr. LeVine himself you surely know the artists he represents.

LeVine started out as an independent curator in New York before opening a small gallery just outside Philadelphia. From there he moved into Philly proper for two years before making his way back to New York just five years ago.

In the late eighties and early nineties LeVine was putting together shows in bars that focused on illustration, underground comics, rock & roll covers, poster art, and the like. He was motivated primarily by the fact that the art he liked wasn’t considered legitimate art and what was didn’t interest him.

Today we consider LeVine’s old school art interests a formal art genre, however the movement that 20 odd years ago barely existed, has now morphed into something completely different. But LeVine has just continued to develop the niche of artists that he believes in without much regard to trends and labels.

Many people are quick to label LeVine’s gallery as an “urban art gallery”, but two-thirds of the work he represents is what people used to call “low-brow” or “pop-surrealism.” The term “urban art” is widely (mis)used in a synonymous fashion with “street art” and in fact works that should be considered “street” are fairly new to the gallery.

Today’s “street art” is something very different from it origins. In the beginning street art was associated strictly with graffiti and hip-hop culture and less so with narrative and figurative style painting. But LeVine says, “It’s not up to me to decide what’s what. I just show what I like, and I show the work that I think is important.”

For LeVine what’s important is work that transcends labels and stereotypes and ultimately work that transcends the imagery that is being depicted. “It’s work that represents a generational shift in the fine art world, in terms of work that is accessible and that uses a language that is understood by this generation. That being a visual language as we grew up in the age of television.”

One thing that LeVine searches for in the work of artists that he represents is the level of visual communication that is established between the viewer and the image. “Visual art is made because the message can’t be said. You are not going to be able to talk about an exceptional piece of work in a way that illuminates what it does any more than its existence and the experience of seeing it.” 

However, not all work is able to communicate on such a transcendental level. “Everyone is not supposed to be able to do it. When it all falls apart the only artists, gallerists, and dealers who will be left standing are the ones with merit, who are doing it for the right reasons, not to manipulate the market or take advantage of it in some way. Art isn’t a priority in people’s lives. It’s a luxury item and it shouldn’t be easy. Only the best should rise to the top.”

Cheers to that.

• JonathanLeVineGallery.com »

For the 9th edition of “Back in the Days” in Paris, after many Jamel Shabazz, Martha Cooper, Ricky Powell, and many other icons of hiphop culture, organiser Nadim Makhlouf had invited Estevan Oriol to exhibit his pics. West Coast attitude, gangsta shit everywhere, hand signs, biatches, tattoos, low riding, Estevan Oriol is the ambassador for pictures of Latino culture, an ultra codified subculture where nothing is done by chance.

Now, I’ll admit that for a long time I used to envy gays and their Sunday afternoon “tea dance” –hey- don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing sexual to it, just that I thought it was awesome to have fun on such a god-awful boring day. At last I can enjoy Sundays thanks to Nadim’s “Back in the Day” afternoons, an event that brings back to life the best of hip-hop culture through dancing, old discs, rare trainers and awesome photos.

Estevan Oriol in Paris! Lucky for me, as for the last month or so, I have been glued to his photos in the 10 years of Upper Playground book, from the gallery in San Francisco with which he collaborated on a regular basis, through his most famous prints emblazoned on tee-shirts. When I shook his hand on the Saturday preceding the event, I got the impression he was at least two metres tall; my mates then called me a liar when they saw him the next day. So ok, he isn’t two metres tall, but to give you an idea of his size, he began as a bouncer for a club in L.A.; job he gave up pretty quickly, because couldn’t stand being called an asshole by drunken assholes.

To define his style in photography, always in black and white and always in silver film (about 10000 shots since he began his career), I suggest “gangsta pictures”: nah. “Ghetto pictures”? Nah. “Street life photography? Yeah, that’s right! It all began with backstage pictures when he was touring manager for House of Pain and Cypress Hill. He would shoot all the time, but would never develop them. It was his mates who would convince him to reveal his first rolls of film... The rest is history.

So, why so much black, and so much white, under California’s forever blue skies? Because, even in clothing, West Coast Gangsta style is mainly about black and white. He tells me that black and white is classical, the best in elegance. Look at George Clooney all in black, he’s cool, or Puff Daddy all in white, he’s cool. Few people look good dressed in yellow! Colour is good for women and pimps. Yeah, I answer, but check out Don Magic Juan, the king of Pimps and his colour code of green and yellow, green for the money, gold for the honey; he finishes the saying with me, and laughs to hear a little frenchie reciting the old classics. He tells me that nowadays, too many guys create their brands out of a packet of Skittles. For his own brand, Joker, created with his homie tattooist Mister Cartoon, there’s a little exception with a little navy blue and some grey.

I start on his tattoos and ask him if they were all done by Cartoon. They aren’t, as he started getting inked before Cartoon came along. He tells me he was his guinea pig for all of his first letterings and shows me the name of his grandmother he has on his ankle. If we are talking about the Estevan family, tell me if you are married, and if you have kids. Yes on both counts, and suddenly he grabs my new bible, the 10 years of Upper Ground book that I had brought along for him to comment on a few pics. He dives into it. And then stops on one of his most famous pictures; a nice big ass with “west” tattooed on the left butt-cheek, and “Coast” on the right. He points to it and laughs: “my daughter”. Oh fuck! A killing joke. Even at my wildest I wouldn’t have dared, and he’s just done it. A little more seriously, he carries on searching until he stops on what I consider to be the most gangsta of his female portraits, to announce that this is his wife. Angel is her name. Holy gangsta shit, it’s Mrs Oriol there, with a fucking gun in her hands. So Estevan, are you really what they call a G. or not? His answer; guilty by association, as they say. When you’re part of a gang it’s for life, and even if you’re not active, if one of your homies is in trouble, it’s your duty to be there for him.

Whatever, the guy is an absolute visual criminal as said by Nadim’s blog, a killer photographer. Beyond the pics of gang members and of low riding, he has taken photos of loads of movie stars, from Dennis Hopper to Danny Trejo (From Dusk till Dawn), many rap stars (with a preference for his mates from Boo-Yaa T.r.i.b.e) and hundreds of girls, hence his book “L.A Women” that he is promoting in Europe for the next 2 weeks, so thanks girls.

I ask him what “Back in the Days” means to him. He tells me that he’s disappointed that kids who are really into rap don’t know Bambaataa and don’t care. I tell him that it’s not the case here in France, that he will enjoy the Sunday event, that here everyone remembers the 4th commandment of the prophet, the famous “having fun”.

Which was the case when over 1200 hip-hop lovers came to check his hand the next day. It was pure Gangsta, gangsta love.

Olivier Schmitt
From "Cream Magazine"

• Cream Magazine website »

Drago is proud to announce the upcoming Mike Giant’s exhibition Welcome to Frisco, the first solo show in Milan, at the Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea Gallery - via Solferino 44.

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Giant for the occasion has realized new works with original themes and many that tell the story of the femme fatale, girls who roam the city on bicycles, proposing religious iconography and urban views of San Francisco, in addition to some surviving skulls.

Here you can see some artworks. What else?

Oooh yes, opening  February 25th. See you there!!

• MikeGiant.com »

The Milan Tattoo Convention is one of the most important events in the European tattoo art circuit.  2010 marks its fifteenth anniversary for which two hundred artists will come from all over the world to present their mastery of the pen and variety of style.

The convention is offering its annual chance for the world’s best tattoo artists to demonstrate what it means to be good at what you do. Some of the artists in attendance have shown us that they can breath life into the ink they use and figures they create, but that is no reason to miss out on what they are up to in Milan this weekend.

Beyond the stands, demonstrations, and performances centered on the art of the tattoo, the convention will also host 2010’s Miss Pin-up competition with burlesque shows performed by Voodoo Deluxe and different shows between Californian Carlos Torres and Italian Antonio Proietti.

Drago is proud to announce the participation of Estevan Oriol, author of the newly released LA Woman, together with long time friends and renowned tattoo artists Carlos Torres and Jose Lopez, member of Lowrider Tattoo.

• Milano Tattoo Convention - website »

The first 6 months of 2010 are shaping up to be some of the craziest that street art has ever seen. The two big events (so far) are Jeffrey Deitch’s appointment as the next director of Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in LA and the premiere of Banksy’s film Exit Through The Gift Shop at the Sundance Film Festival. Still to come, of what has been announced, are Shepard Fairey’s solo show at Deitch Projects, the Faile/Bast show and Faile retrospective at Lazarides Gallery in London, Mr. Brainwash’s show in NYC, the Barnstormers show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, The Carmichael Gallery’s show in NYC, the Turmkunst project in Berlin, talk of another animation from Blu and so much more. While all those events to come are interesting, they are practically minor footnotes compared to January’s two bombshells.

Jeffrey Deitch is the owner of Deitch Projects, a gallery that has played host to the artwork of street artists from Keith Haring and Basquiat to Barry McGee and Swoon. On the one hand, because his new job forces him to close Deitch Projects, a huge hole is left in the New York City art scene, and no one gallery will be able to fill it. On the other, in the coming years, Deitch could bring street art to MOCA. I’d hate to be one of Jeffrey’s artists today, but if they can make it through a potentially rough patch and find new galleries, they are going to be in a great position down the line.

These days you can’t mention Deitch and Deitch projects without mentioning how the gallery is going to close. Shepard Fairey’s solo show, opening May 1^st, will be the last show at Deitch Projects. Already, rumors are circulating about astronomical prices for the canvases compared to his market just a year ago. The show will focus on portraits of cultural and political icons, like his Obama painting. Of course, Obama wasn’t Shepard’s first portrait, just his most successful, but I can’t help but think the show’s theme thing feels a bit more contrived that it should be. On the other hand, the glimpses that Super Touch Art (http://supertouchart.com/2010/02/02/featurein-the-studio-with-shepard-fairey-as-he-prepares-for-deitch-gallerys-closing-show/) has put up are pretty interesting.

But Exit Through The Gift Shop has overshadowed all that news. The plot hasn’t been entirely revealed yet, but what we do know is that Mr. Brainwash (before he was Mr. Brainwash) was making a documentary about street art, but it kind of sucked. After seeing how bad it was, Banksy bought the footage to make his own film, at the same time, Banksy helped set Mr. Brainwash on the path to superstardom. But for me, the best part is that Banksy seems to acknowledge Mr. Brianwash’s lack of talent by billing the film as “the world’s first street art disaster movie.” The film premiered at Sundance, and will get a general release in the UK on March 5^th. If the movie makes it to the states and get a big release there, this could propel Banksy, Mr. Brainwash, Shepard Fairey and all the other artists in this film to new heights of fame, and get even more people thinking about street art. So many people who have never cared about art are going to be thinking about street art in a few months thanks to Exit Through The Gift Shop. This could be the next Spellbound.

And that’s really just what we’ve heard about in January, who knows what’s around the corner…

Updates from RJ Rushmore
5 February, 2010

• Vandalog.com »

Drago is proud to announce the upcoming Nouar and Laura Wachter duo show

 “What a Wonder Food World”, at Dorothy Circus Gallery

From today 5th February to  2nd April 2010

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Here you can read the press release:

Food, with its protean colors, with its changeable and engaging shapes, is the starting point for outlining a marvellous universe, a “WonderFood World”, worthy of having a great role in Art too. “What a WonderFood World” is, in fact, the title of Nouar and Laura Wätcher’s duo show set up by Dorothy Circus Gallery since 5th February 2010.

Nouar is a young Iranian artist, graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 2004. Her work draws largely from American mid-nineteenth century illustration and advertisement art: protean colors, humor and bodies so suitable that you’d like to eat them. Laura Wätcher is another Dorothy Circus Gallery’s discovery, she is only 22 years old and comes from Malaga, Spain. She is a talented, very sharp illustrator, and describes the contemporary world in a striking, critical way.

“Man ist was Mann isst”

Playing on words, the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, stated an idea destinated to be  rubbed in the history of culture for a long time: “man is what he eats”.

Born in opposition to idealist theories, the saying “We are what we eat” became very popular because it is easily useable in many fields of human existence, thanks to the frequent presence of food or of recalls to food in every aspect of material and spiritual men’s life.

From the “Panem et circenses” for calming the ancient Roman people, to the “Make love with flavor” of a famous commercial ad on Italian TV, through the big blowouts in the movies, food is a metaphor of love, passion, covetousness, overindulgence towards life.

All these aspects, together with the presence of food in every public or private social occasion, and with the close connection to Eros, make food a good mean of interpretation of many phenomenons of life.

Recently I've been spending a lot of time admiring optical illusions in street art and as well as street art that blends so well into everyday surroundings that you might not even notice it (aka, reality hacks). I've picked out a few of my favorite examples here.

1. Aakash Nihalani. Aakash's tape sculptures are simple but effective. This piece has got to be one of my favorites by him. In an otherwise dull cityscape, Aakash really makes people take a second look at their surroundings.

2. Brad Downey. Brad has done so many great pieces over the years, but it's the ones like this that I love the most. It's like a real-life version of one of those "name 4 things wrong with this picture" games. Geeks, such as myself, like to call these reality hacks. While I'm sure there were a few mothers with small children who did not appreciate the humor, this must have made so many people's day on the tube, if they noticed it at all. Just knowing that there are artists like Brad Downey out there is motivation to keep your eyes peeled at all time and never just like the world float by unappreciated.

3. Sam3. Definitely an unusual piece for Sam3, I love this billboard because it's one of the few things I've ever seen on a billboard that has made me want to keep looking at the billboard. Like Brad's work, at first glance, you might not see it, or realize that it's art. Almost the opposite of Aakash's neon tape sculptures, this is an optical illusion that could fade into the background.

4. Banksy. With all the controversy that has surrounded this piece, the actual meaning seems to have gone unnoticed in favor of examining the ethics of painting over graffiti history. Ignoring Robbo for a second, I think this is one of Banksy's best outdoor artworks. Every time I look at it, I still have that split second reaction where I am fooled into thinking that the wall was grey and Banksy painted the graff himself, but really it's more like a piece from Specter's "ready-made" series. Once again, Banksy proves himself king of the street artists.

5. Mark Jenkins. If Banksy is king of all street artists, Mark Jenkins is the king of street art sculpture. His piece at the Carmichael Gallery's booth in SCOPE Miami fooled me every time I saw it out of the corner of my eye. This recent piece was in London. I wonder how long it lasted before being taken by a fan.

6. Dan Witz. The man has been surprising New Yorkers with his outdoor photorealistic paintings for decades, and it only gets better with time. Intellectually, I know that's a painting, but my subconscious mind just keeps thinking that it's real, or at least a photograph glued to the door. I wouldn't want to discover one of these stumbling through Williamsburgh in the middle of the night. Just too creepy.

7. Geoff Hargadon. Geoff's Cash for Your Warhol and Cash for your Banksy signs are so believable that people actually call that phone number trying to sell their artwork. Does Christies not want to sell any more Warhols in this market or something?

Okay. I admit, optical illusions and reality hacks aren't the same thing, but I hopefully after seeing these pieces together, you don't think I'm too odd for thinking of them in the same general grouping of work. But hey, if you do think that's weird, I'd love to hear from you, so just shoot me an email. Oh, and for more reality hacks, check out these two posts on Vandalog (http://blog.vandalog.com/2009/06/look-closely/) and (http://blog.vandalog.com/2010/01/trustocorp-signs/).

Updates from RJ Rushmore
3 February, 2010

• Vandalog.com »

Estevan Oriol in Rome with two dates:

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30 January 2010

Exhibition and book signing

Mondo Bizzarro Gallery
Via Reggio Emilia, 32
from 18:30 to 21:00

Artists from different continents are found in the name of Eros for the group exhibition “Ultra Erotica”. Excessive, surreal, dark to the limit, the works of Michael Hussar, Zoe Lacchei, Estevan Oriol, Ken-ichi Murata, Roberto Baldazzini, Dorian X, John Santerineross, Atsushi Tani and Makiko Sugawa reveal the positive power of sexuality from outside the ordinary. Each artist use different techniques and languages: in the exhibition you will see oil and acrylic paintings, drawings, mixed media or ink, vintage and hand-colored photography. On the afternoon of 30 January, will be present in the gallery Estevan Oriol, one of the most requested photographers of the Urban and Hip Hop, for the occasion he will sign copies of his newest book, “LA Woman”.

31 January 2010

Cocktail party and book signing

Fashion On Paper /// AltaRoma
Temple of Hadrian
Piazza di Pietra
Sunday 31 January
from 19:00 to 23:00

A meeting place and a fusion of different languages, a yearly exhibition featuring new independent realities in paper and web publishing. Calendar events will include fashion talks, debates and round tables on the most current topics of fashion and fashion events together with installations, artistic and musical performances organized by the magazines. An event of international scope with Rome acting as a centre stage for the most important fashion editors on the international scene.

• Check the tour page »

Here some photos from Milan...

Barcelona mon amour..

Drago in Milan at Wag Shop - via De Amicis, 28

for a book signing and a marvellous cocktail.. then afterparty..

tomorrow photos photos photos...

On SATURDAY 23 January 2010 Drago will be in Barcelona with Estevan Oriol to present his book LA Woman at the Montana Shop and Gallery, a favorite among graffiti writers that doubles as a gallery and store and specializes in street culture. In addition Oriol will attend a conference hosted by FNAC where fans will have the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session with the artist.

LA Woman brings a whole new meaning to what it means to be sexy. Oriol’s work has captured the essence of this fresh aesthetic and presents it in a way that has never before been seen in such a strong and articulate creative voice. His distinctive style and clear command of the camera has produced a collection of photographs that has allowed his work to enter the realm of the fine arts.

Be sure to check it out!!!

SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 2010
 
12.30: CONFERENCE at FNAC/ Plaça Catalunya
FNAC Triangle
Plaça Catalunya 4, 08002
Barcelona

19.00: PRESENTATION LA WOMAN BOOK at MONTANA GALLERY
Montana Gallery
c/ Comerç 6, 08003
Barcelona

In the last 2 days there were some technical difficulties.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

 Tomorrow, Thursday 21 January, 2010, Drago will be presenting LA Woman alongside Estevan Oriol and Joker Brand Clothing as an example of pure West Coast style in Berlin at Bread & Butter, the most important trade fair in Europe for the coolest lines of urban and street wear fashions. The fair opens at 10:00 and runs all day until 19:00, but make sure to get there early, like in the past its gonna be packed full of trend setters, fashionistas, models, cool hunters, designers, press pushers, the cool kids, the wannabes, and of course the sickest brands from exhibitors from all over the world. 

Estevan Oriol will be there to sign copies of LA Woman from 13:00 - 15:00. Don't miss it!!!

Airport Berlin-Tempelhof
Platz der Luftbrücke 5
12101 Berlin, Germany

• see more at Joker Brand »

Nicolas Mazet, Ginevra Boralevi, and DRAGO are proud to present:

sic! street independent culture
THE S-STYLE
(a concept from the Drago Trendbureau)

NM Galerie
34 rue de Penthièvre
75008 Paris
Tuesday 19 January, 2010
h. 20:00

Debate and Champagne reception with

Paulo von Vacano - Publisher, DRAGO
Magda Danysz - Gallerist, Galerie Magda Danysz
Anne-Sophie Berbille - Editorial Director, Prestigium
Mauro Grimaldi - European Director, Salvatore Ferragamo
Stefano Oldrati - Pernod-Ricard Europe
Tatyana Frank Rossignol - Editor in Chief, ArtyParade.com
Emmanuel de Brantes - Director, Studio 55 Urban Arts Gallery
Francios d' Humiere - Tagueur
Guillaume Le Goff - Editor in Chief, CLARK Magazine

Photos from the event Back in the Days @ Les Bain Douches - Paris

Estevan Oriol signed many copy of LA Woman, nice people, good music, beautiful performances...

The Estevan Oriol Tour De Fuerza must to go on:

Step 2 - let's fly to Berlin, ready for Bread&Butter.

See you there or, if you can't, see you here, on Dragolab.com

On Tuesday January 19th, 2010 at 17:30, Magda Danysz of the esteemed Galerie Magda Danysz will be living a talk in honor of her new book From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art Anthology at the Drouot Montaigne. She will be addressing the history of street art as well as the styles and careers of some of the biggest names and contributors in the movement.

Also present at the event will be famed graffiti artist JonOne who will be available to sign copies of the book. JonOne grew up in Washington Heights, New York and is today a central artistic figure on the streets of Paris and around the world.

SELECTED BY DRAGO !!!!!!!!!!

Please join us in celebrating the release of the first ever street art anthology while listening to art expert Magda Danysz share her thoughts and experiences on her involvement in the movement and her motivations for publishing From Style Writing to Art.

RSVP is mandatory for entrance. RSVP by email to magda@magda-gallery.com

• Are you looking for a copy? »

Drago is proud to present Estevan Oriol and his newest book LA Woman in a European Tour de Fuerza, which will fly the artist in frenetic rhythms from one capital to the next, from interviews to parties, from art fairs and trade shows to gallery exhibitions and fashion events. Estevan Oriol is ready to hit Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Milan, Bologna, and Rome and demonstrate the West Coast aesthetic, one for which his work has been so influential: the sensuality of the women of Los Angeles.

LA Woman brings a whole new meaning to what it means to be sexy. Oriol’s work has captured the essence of this fresh aesthetic and presents it in a way that has never before been seen in such a strong and articulate creative voice. His distinctive style and clear command of the camera has produced a collection of photographs that has allowed his work to enter the realm of the fine arts.

The Drago Crew will begin in Paris where Oriol will be participating in Back In the Days.

The hippest thing since hip-hop, this event of freestyle performances and live graffiti productions represents what it really means to be “old school.”

After Paris the tour will continue on to Berlin for Bread & Butter, the most important trade fair in Europe for those responsible for the coolest lines of urban and street wear fashions. Drago will be presenting LA Woman alongside Oriol and Joker Brand Clothing as an example of pure West Coast style.

From there the group will fly to Barcelona to present Oriol’s book at the Montana Shop and Gallery, a favorite among graffiti writers that doubles as a gallery and store and specializes in street culture. In addition Oriol will attend a conference hosted by FNAC where fans will have the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session with the artist.

Again the team will pack its bags and fly over to Milan for a book signing at WAG, Italy’s first street culture concept store and mecca of all things hip-hop.

The tour will then hit Bologna for Arte Fiera, the international contemporary art fair and exhibition before heading for its grand finale in Rome.

Once in the Eternal City, he will be participating in a group show at Mondo Bizzarro titled Ultra Erotica to present his selection of the best photographs from LA Woman. The last night of the tour will be an event called Fashion on Paper, the first independent publishing festival organized by AltaRoma at the Temple of Hadrian. For the occasion of AltaRomaAltaModa Oriol will be available to sign copies of the newly release book amongst other performances, dj sets, video presentations, and fashion talks that are to take place throughout the evening.

• check out more from Estevan Oriol!!! »

Now that the holidays are over and 2010 is well under way, RJ continues to reflect on the experience of putting together the Thousands exibition and book. This time more so on the bumps in the road that outsiders didn't get to see. Check it out and "break in" to a bit of what happened behind the scenes.

There are only so many ways that I can say The Thousands was an amazing experience. I could write about how cool it was to be interviewed by journalists or be followed around randomly by video cameras, the launch party that Drago threw at LoungeLover, the artists who stopped by, watching Burning Candy paint their mural and all the other awesome things that happened, but after a while I would just sound like that annoying guy on facebook who constantly updates his status with the latest crazy event in his life that makes him look more important than he his. And I don’t want to be that guy. So I thought it would be fun to run through some of the mistakes I made, in no particular order:
 
•      I added three artists to the book just a few days before sending the final draft to Drago.
•      I opted to do all the interior design for the book myself and only had a demo version of InDesign.
•      The paintings arrived early on the first day of set up, and I arrived late.
•      We didn’t have a credit card machine set up to sell books on opening night and there wasn’t a nearby cash machine.
•      As two of the heaviest paintings were being hung, a wire snapped and they fell, breaking their frames.
•      I organized almost all the PR for the show with no experience and few industry contacts.
•      On Thursday evening, I took a nap in the middle of the gallery, while it was open.
•      After numerous drafts, the final flyers still had a grammatical error.
•      We opened the show while Burning Candy and I were still taking down scaffolding for their mural and bringing it inside, probably almost hitting a few people.
•      I had originally asked for 1/3rd less beer than we needed, luckily BrewDog insisted on sending us what ended up being the perfect amount.
•      About 2 weeks before the opening, I got in touch with The Culture Show, a BBC program that usually films things months in advance.
•      On the one night when there were about 50 people in the gallery who wanted to buy one of the 15 or so available paintings, I was the only person working on sales.
•      My dad and I left his fancy-ass camera at the after-party.
•      We let graffiti writers into the bathrooms without first taking away their markers.
•      We built the two pillars for hanging photos on out of MDF and inside my house without first thinking about how we would a. fit them through the front door, or b. lift them.
•      Mighty Mo’s painting got dented, something we only realized 3 hours before the opening.
 
The Thousands may have been the best week of my life, but it sure as hell wasn’t the smoothest.

THE THOUSANDS
Updates from RJ Rushmore
11 January, 2010

• Check out more from RJ on Vandalog »

While in New York for the holidays I scored some time with WK Interact. He was mad at me because not only did I not make it to Ancona for his HUGE mural there, I also didn’t make it over to Paris for his installation at the Fondation Cartier. Although I tried to explain that while it seemed that I was living la dolce vita over here in Italy that was far from the same thing as traveling all over the place in trains and planes to go and look at art, even if it was a part of the job description.  He wasn’t having it, so I had to beg and plead for pictures from his Parisian excursions because, according to him, I really should have taken some myself. And he was probably right. Feeling somewhat like an ass about the whole thing, I still managed to convince him to give me a few images. In addition to what he gave me from the Fondation Cartier installation he was also willing to share with us a couple of his “sexy sluts” from along the streets of Paris, as well as a shot of the large mural he put up on the Rue Oberkampf.

In his work WK Interact creates figures in motion, which serve as a synonym to the haste and frenzied pace of the New Yorker lifestyle. His images are as forceful and energetic as a tornado and just like a force majeure these figures leave a lasting impression on anyone who happens across their paths. The subjects are vigorous and unyielding in their action, yet despite their powerful motion and strength of presence there remains something eerie, an ephemeral quality that is almost ghost-like. WK demonstrates the ability to capture the most pertinent moment of the figures’ gesture and it is that specific aptitude which translates for the viewer what logically is a transient moment into an interminable memory.

The “canvas” for each image is carefully chosen with the intention to optimize the synergy between the location, the artwork, and the passersby. Each figure is life size or larger, not only to interact with its viewers, but to engage the given location, generate a response, and make an impact. These flash moments in time are from the perspective of someone who sees life from 360 degrees at all times and now WK has given his viewers the opportunity to see more, from more angles, even if they can’t slow down.

So what’s next from WK? You will have to stay tuned, but I can say that for all the fans out there you just may have another WK Interact book to look forward to this year. So here’s to 2010! Get ready!

-CC

All photos courtesy of WK Interact

• Check out more about the exhibition »

An exclusive interview with Fame photographer Estevan Oriol Promoting his first Book published by DRAGO, " La Woman " on CNN ' Panorama Mundial en Espanol.

On the occasion of the publication of the book, From Style Writing to Art, a Street Art Anthology by Magda Danysz, the 18 Gallery organizes a Graffiti and Street art exhibition which get together the masters of the 70s as well as their most important successors and the renovators of street art.

The works of legendary artists as Seen (called the Godfather of Graffiti), Crash or Quik show the historic sources of the street art. From the 70s they sprayed their names on the subways or walls of New York. Today, they are considered as the pioneers of this movement, the “Kings” as they were named back then.

The 80s and 90s generation, embodied by Jonone, West, Miss Van, Space Invader shows diversity in street art. These different ways of expression are the testimony of a real transition from the Style Writing to an artistic manifestation. Among them, Jonone was one of the first ones to choose to express himself on canvas from 1991. Concerning Space Invader, he distances himself with use of the mosaic for instance.

As this exhibition is an illustration to the anthology of graffiti and street art written by Magda Danysz, the gallery features a special room with wall painting done by the artists on the occasion.

A very special project to celebrate a very special art movement.

FROM STYLE WRITING TO ART - STREET ART GROUP SHOW

DEC 24th, 2009 – JAN 21st, 2010

18Gallery - Bund 18 - 18 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu - Shanghai

• Read more @ 18 Gallery »

Check out Snoop behind the scenes talking about the marvellous book by Estevan Oriol published by DRAGO.

• Read more on Estevan website »

Bin Von talks about... NEWE e NUBAS: il mondo dei Satiri

Quando combatti troppo a lungo i draghi, diventi un drago.  Quando guardi a lungo nell'abisso, l'abisso ti guarda dentro(Nietzche).

Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis. “I tempi cambiano, e noi con loro” o, più precisamente, “ I tempi cambiano e anche noi stiamo cambiando all’interno dello stesso processo”.

Quest’Italia faustiana è diventata il lassativo osmotico di un mondo shakespeariano che riflette lo sguardo di Medusa ormai perso nel labirinto kafkiano della geopolitica, in cui si svelano scenari danteschi attraverso leader pirandelliani.

Trasudiamo un nostalgico déjà vu di “fin du siècle/fin du globe” di un Zeitgeist che cerca di azzannare il nodo di Gordon alla proustiana Ricerca del Tempo Perduto. Un bizzarro feeling di “fin du regime” cozza con visioni apocalittiche (sopravissuti a Nostradamus ci imbattiamo nelle nefaste profezie Maya e nella fine datata 2012 (gran bel blockbuster! Consiglio prima fila in dolby surround) e nella guerra civile prevista dal Presidente del Consiglio (sic!);  senza contare il prolasso di ideologie , valori e certezze euro/catto/centriste che vedono la cultura occidentale navigare senza bussola e senza idee. In assenza di un nemico reale si creano mostri immaginari, dimenticando che il virus della metamorfosi ha già cominciato a  espandersi e a contaminare il nostro trantran quotidiano.

Il Limes vacilla. Si crepa il muro delle nostre menti e il terrore dell’ignoto fa sì che ci aggrappiamo a delle realtà conosciute. Il backlash conservatore ha il sapore di un profondo dispiacere per la modernità rimpiange i “good old times”. I pasdaran della politica, i trogloditi della tradizione usano questo vacuum storico per spolpare le costituzioni democratiche e per rivendicare un’inquisizione che punta  alla mera difesa del loro potere , superato e autodistruttivo, festeggiando i loro auto dafés mediatici.

La quiete prima della tempesta. A quando il prossimo attentato? Quale animale scatenerà la prossima influenza? Dove la prossima crisi finanziaria? Che mi metto sta sera? A quando la prossima grande guerra, necessaria poiché, fin dal passato, in caso di problemi interni si cercava sempre una scusa esterna per rimanere uniti? La litania della casta del potere politico, economico, culturale e mediatico, dopo aver fallito miseramente nel costruire libertà, democrazia, speranza… ci rutta che “tutto va bene, bisogna  vedere il bicchiere mezzo pieno, se no si è disturbati… è finita la recessione,  il peggio e passato,  iniziate a comprare, viviamo nel paradiso, la mafia non esiste,  no hay problemas”...

Il muro trema:  dopo la supremazia della razza bianca e degli imperi catto/occidentali i barbari hanno imparato la lezione pop, in cui la copia diventa meglio dell’originale. Il BRIC(Brasile/ Russia/India/China) cresce silenziosamente e gode come una troia di fronte all’impotenza della cultura occidentale; l’Africa  esplode (o implode) davanti alla sua crescita demografica, il Messico, parte del Nafta, è con un piede nella guerra civile.

La storia si ripete. Viviamo nella NEWE(NEUE WELT aka Nuovo Mondo) dove i NUBAS (NU BARBARIANS) detengono il potere.

Una civilizzazione non può guardare nel vacuum senza essere presa da pensieri di morte. Memento mori.

In Italia il premio per la marchetta geniale dell’an(n)o l’ha vinta Rolling Stone, nominando rockstar  dell’an(n)o Silvio Berlusconi, prima del Premio Nobel Obama e del rappresentante di Dio in Terra. Tutto questo include il colpo geniale di commissionare al buon pastore(Shepard Fairey), jedi  della strada e uno fra i massimi rappresentanti dell’unica  avanguardia artistica, il compito di omaggiarlo. Quest’operazione, tanto situazionistica quanto sgarbiana, sancisce la morte del Rock e del Pop. Welcome in the Whatever Era. Papi Satiro Rock?

Roma vittoriosa è sopravissuta per secoli ai barbari, in uno splendore apparente ma la distruzione di Cartagine ha segnato l’inizio della sua fine. Fine in cui, ironia della sorte, il impero romano veniva difeso proprio da barbari.

1989: il muro di Berlino crolla e segna l’inizio della fine dell’impero americano. L’Unione Sovietica, la “Massadoppia “ di Elia Canetti, scompare.

La globalizzazione è alla disperata ricerca di un nuovo nemico: al quaeda, arabi, dittatori,virus, narcos, alieni;  basta che si distolga l’attenzione dal fatto che i governi occidentali sono diventati dei biechi comitati d’affari. La loro realpolitik, all’insegna del dollaro facile e della speculazione, divora Gaia come le iene le carogne.

Obama primo presidente barbaro. La sua vittoria ha rappresentato la speranza della società civile ma  anche la fine della civiltà occidentale.

Bellum omnium contra omnes. Hobbes, nel Leviatano, mostra “ in primo luogo che,  la condizione degli uomini senza la società civile (lo stato di natura) non è altro che una guerra di tutti contro tutti e che, in quella guerra, tutti hanno il diritto su tutto”.

Acta est fabula, plaudite! (letteralmente: la commedia è terminata, applaudite)

“The use of an alias is a process known as “artistic self-designation”. Tags, allowing for a name to be “made” before even proving technical and artistic qualities, bear true originality in that regard. Most writers start with a tag to make a name for themselves, a name they’ve chosen and usually stick to. Whereas artists from other disciplines thrive to acquire technical proficiency and public recognition for their art, writers have other priorities. The artwork is therefore reduced to what makes it most singular: the signature, a representation which then reproduced endlessly, so as to be seen by the highest number of people who become, in turn, the audience.

The choice and the construction of this name follow a specific logic. The name can bear a territorial claim, i.e. the case of TAKI 183, 183 standing for his street (183th street in New York City). It can be a nickname or a title that give the writer a sense of power and entitlement, like SEEN of FUTURA. Names often have, explicitly or not, a sense of irony and insolence. An alias can also use a word out of its initial context or meaning, or be chosen based on its letters, simply for phonetic or esthetic reasons, some letters being more inspiring or more challenging to play with, as in SKKI, TWIST or WEST.

Some play with words as MISS.TIC whose name as a double meaning: the feminine proposition and the phonetic for “mystic”. Whatever the case may be, each name has its true story, unlike birth names. And unlike birth names, no two people may bear the same street name. The rule can eventually (though it rarely is) be bent if a distintive sign is added (usually, a number, like royalty as in JONONE). This singular logic has to do with a name’s strong distinctive value: claiming their name is a writer’s only actual right. Women in the movement have also made their feminity part of the distinction as for LADY PINK or MISS VAN for instance.

Last but not least, this signature symbolically reflects a writer’s identity. Choosing a new name pretty much allows for a new projected persona, and writers virtually start fresh, shedding their civil status and their former identity as for BLADE and QUIK. The actual stake is to keep that name alive daily, in a permanent and recognized way.

In the end, it’s about giving a borrowed name some true artistic recognition. And to do that, there’s a more or less intensive learning curve, a process leading technical and esthetic qualities that will give birth, or not, to a writer’s achievement.”

From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art Anthology a book by Magda Danysz published by Drago

• Buy the Book! »

Primary Flight in Miami

One of the coolest things about the art happenings in Miami this month was the amount of public projects going on in the Wynwood district. Street art made a serious splash this year and no one can deny that what used to be seen as public menace is now accepted as a serious art form. Primary Flight made its return to the streets and is considered to be the largest multisite street-level mural installation in the world. It was a street art exhibition on an institutional scale with some serious talent. Over 100 artists contributed to exhibition including names like Shepard Fairey, Logan Hicks, D*Face, Ron English, C215, and Jeff Soto.

• Check out more on World's Best Ever »

“Graffiti has found great inspiration in comics, movies, video and television, as well as photography, or album covers even. But beyond any influence, its relationship to Hip Hop is quintessential.

Hip Hop1 is a cultural movement, both artistic and protest-based, born in the early 70s, in the Bronx, New York, at the heart of the ghettos, before spreading at the speed of light around the country, first, and everywhere else, in the early 1980s. Hip Hop’s international expansion is mainly due to the founder of the Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa, and his European tour.

Though Graffiti started before Hip Hop, it is considered one of its four costitutive elements, along with emceeing, djaying, and b-boying. Emceeing represents speech, DJing, music, B-boying performing arts, in this case dance, and Graffiti visual arts. As an ideal concept, all four elements of Hip Hop come together on stage or during an event, which was the case in the movement’s early period. Those are the four means of creative expression that sweep from The Bronx and Brooklyn to the rest of the world.”

From From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art Anthology a Magda Danysz book published by Drago

• From Style Writing to Art - An Abstract »

Forward by Mike Snelle, Black Rat Projects (formally, Black Rat Press)

The last five years or so has seen an explosion of artists working in the outdooors, often in an urban environment, and the interest from newspapers, television news, magazines, books and radio has been matched by the public's appetite for this growing phenomenon. Stencils, woodcuts, sculptures stickers, freehand paintings, pasted posters, ceramic tiles and photographs have been put up in cities accross the world. In order that these outdoor, usually unsactioned, artworks could be discussed people have come up with various terms, none of which is entirely satisfactory.Some people favour 'outsider' or 'urban art,' which allows for artists who don't work in the street but whose aesthetic and attitude somehow makes them fit alongside artists who do, but the most widely used term is 'street art.'

Under this definition anyone who creates an artwork and places it on a wall in the street is 'doing' street art. Indeed, this is one of the great things about it, there is no traditional art world esstablishment deciding whether or not an individual's work is worthy of being shown. Anyone who feels they have something to say or share, and who can avoid getting caught, is free to do so. It is truely a democratic form of creative expression.

However there is a flip side to the term 'street art' being so broad. It has led to a somewhat dismissive attitude from museums and curators, traditional galleries, the public, critics and parts of the art media. People talk of liking street art or not liking street art, or of street art not being 'proper art'. But this is a mistake. It makes no more sense to make value judgements about 'street art' than it does about 'museum art'or 'gallery art'. The definitionis so wide it renders such value judgements meaningless. Street art is not a movement or genre like expressionism, minimalist, or pop art. Its only unifying feature is that all of the works included within it are to be found in the streets of towns and cities around the world. Much of the work people put up in the streets is not meant to be significant works of art or important or visionary, and perhaps, like within any creative endeavour, some tries to be and misses the mark. But amongst the wide grouup of people who have chosen to express themselves in the street are some of the most interesting artists working today. What unites these important artists is a refusal to play by the rules, to conform to the establishment, to follow the traditional paths set out by the art world. This refusal to be constrained or dictated to has led to some of the most exciting artworks and projects to be seen in any area of the arts. The freedom to communicate directly with the viewer outside of a traditional curated white cube environment ha not only allowed art to be seen much more as an integrated part of everyday life, but it has also introduced the dialogue between artist and viwer to a far broader audience that ever before.

-Mike Snelle

The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In by RJ Rushmore
Published by Drago

• Check out The Thousands »

The opening of London’s most unusual bookshop took place on 2nd December 2009 at East End gallery Black Rat Projects (formerly The Black Rat Press).
The pop-up antiquarian bookshop is also rumoured to be haunted and is built inside their railway arch gallery.
The bookshop will be filled with an unusual selection of books from major and independent book publishers. A large selection of second hand books and artist made fanzines, films and artwork by Swoon, Burning Candy, Giles Walker, Brian Adam Douglas and Lucas Price will also be on display. Reports have already been received of eerie incidents and strange happenings, with books magically flying off shelves, and lights switching themselves on and off. Halloween may have been and gone but the real ghosts and ghouls work all year round.
The idea of creating the bookshop came when the Black Rat owners slept in the gallery one evening and were woken by the toilet flushing and books falling from the office bookshelves. Thinking they were being burgled, they turned the lights on only to find the gallery empty. Asking around, a local landlord mentioned that the gallery had been used to store the stock of legendary Victorian book dealer F. J. Williams who disappeared in 1903 and is rumoured to haunt various pubs and houses around the East End.
Black Dog Books promises to be one of the year’s most interesting art and book events. Working with support from publishers including the Tate, Thames and Hudson and Drago, the project promises to not only provide a unique experience, but also a great place to do a little alternative Christmas shopping.

• Check out more at Black Rat Press »

URBANPAINTING XMAS SHOW

Pure italian street art with a special taste !!

Two years ago the exhibition Street Art, Sweet Art took place in Milan at PAC. Now this city is  preparing for Urbanpainting Xmas Show.  

A show with great perspectives, presenting 35 artists, old confirmations and new  surprises. Each artist is preparing an original artwork for the exhibition, working in complete freedom of expression, without any constraints of style or theme.

2501, Heron, Asker, BR1, Dem, dildos Society, El Gato Chimney, Black Cat, Ivan, JB Rock,  Knor, Koes, LUCAMALEONTE, Mambo, Mr. Wany, Snow, Orticanoodles, Ozmo, Pao, Peet,  Pho, Ryan Spring Dooley, Sea Sense, Sonda, Sten & Lex, Tawa, Termine, TVBoy, Weik, Zibe, Dome (Germany), M-City (Poland), C215 (France), Conor Harrington (Ireland).

Thirty-one entries from the Italian scene, emerging youngsters and historical names of street art and writing, along with four foreign artists, to bring a little of Europe in Milan. Some of the most active artists in the Italian underground scene, many still working outdoor and confronting themselves in this special occasion with the world of contemporary art. A rich mapping operation, from stencil, to spray and brushes, through experimental materials such as pvc and paper. Curators' choice to let artists produce 'works as great as a wall'. Italian urban  style, selected and brought into play on a defined and some way more controllable surface. Side by side, with respect, everyone to bring his contribution.

Streets are not just a stage, but a dense network of ties and affiliations, a place where you can breathe dirty and true air.

UPXS - UrbanPainting Xmas Show – from 17 to 28 December, 2009

Spazio Concept - Via Forcella, 7 - Milan (MM2 - Porta Genova)

Opening: Thursday, December 17, 2009 – 7 pm

Info and invitations: urbanpainting@ymail.com

Curators: Luigi Mauri and Tatiana Belluzzo

• Check out more @ Urbanpainting »

Post Show thoughts from our valiant curator RJ Rushmore

By now, most of the hype and stress surrounding The Thousands has died down and I’ve had a chance to look back at the experience. Over 1000 people visited The Thousands in just 5 days, and with no print or television coverage, that’s way more than I expected. The book and exhibition got an overwhelmingly positive response, and my personal highlight was when there were people at the opening who I didn’t know. This wasn’t just some affair for friends and family, it really did reach the wider art community. Would I do it again? Yes, but it would probably be an entirely different show with a different purpose, and there aren’t any plans in place just yet.
Right now I’m taking a 1-month holiday of sorts in the states.
To start the trip off, I went to Miami for Art Basel and the satellite events there. The experience has made me realize how mainstream some street art and graffiti has become. Primary Flight and Deitch’s Wynwood Walls projects introduced the city of Miami and the art tourists to over 100 talented artists and writers who pretty much took over the Wynwood district with their murals. Inside Basel, there were a surprising number of galleries showing artwork by street artists, and the Deitch Projects booth was probably 50% street artists. The Artwhino, SCOPE, Aqua and Fountain fairs were full of low-brow, street and urban art and there were projects like BKMIA and Graffiti Gone Global that showcased street art and graffiti (or perhaps my favorite new catchall term for the street/urban/graffiti art genres: urban folk art).
When Shepard Fairey appearances generate amateur paparazzi and 50-something suburban moms are admiring a wall-of-fame or gushing about the brilliance of a certain pair of Brazilian twin artists that they have just discovered, it might be a sign that street art has reached the mainstream. This year’s Basel Miami Week has propelled some street art even further into the mainstream contemporary art stratosphere.
Then again, Keith Haring and Basquiat have been art fair staples for years, Futura has been mainstream ever since The Clash have been mainstream and it’s been years since Barry, Todd James and ESPO managed to spice up the Venice Biennale.
And back at The Thousands, I put Jenny Holzer’s art in the same room with Gaia’s, and had paintings by artists like Tek33 and Adam Neate nearby. Most visitors didn’t even realize that Jenny started out as a street artist, but it was pretty apparent that Tek33 is a writer.
One thing that became very apparent while putting on The Thousands, and which was confirmed in Miami, is that street art will always have one foot in the mainstream and one foot in the underground. There will always be artists like Shepard Fairey to make covers for Rolling Stone, but artists like Know Hope and Mighty Mo will be around too, working outdoors in relative obscurity and on the cutting edge of art. That’s what’s so amazing about street art: there is a constant renewal of talent who are trying to test society’s boundaries and connect with the public. Every time an artist like Kaws “graduates” from working on the street, there are a dozen artists like PosterBoy just starting out, young and wanted by the police for vandalism.

THE THOUSANDS
Updates from RJ Rushmore
15 December, 2009

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"Tagging, the most primitive form of graffiti, consists of a writer’s signature, usually done in permanent marker or spray paint. Artistically, tagging is the root of graffiti, and a skill a writer must become proficient at before becoming an accomplished graffiti artist.

Street art ranges from simple monochrome “tags” (the artist’s “name tag” often represented in an exaggerated cursive style) to elaborate, multi-colored works called “pieces” (derived from the word “masterpiece”) which are considered in some circles to be of museum quality. As graffiti has begun to find its way from its original urban locations to the walls of galleries and museums, the question of vandalism and graffiti as an art form has provoked endless controversy, raising such questions as whether vandalism can be considered art or whether graffiti can be considered graffiti when done legally.

When talking about Street Art, doesn’t the mere use of the word “art” imply a creative part in the process, which has become a discipline?

Street Art has been polished over time. Simple tags and graffiti have imposed themselves with the use and the juxtaposition of various techniques and are more committed than ever.

Creativity expresses itself in a more obvious way through graffiti, largely exceeding tags in terms of the required and necessary competences and artistic qualities. However, let’s keep in mind that tags are hardly dissociated from Graffiti and Street Art. That creativity part of the movement expresses itself through the perfect complexity and curves of the signature.

At the beginning of the Movement in the 60s and the 70s most writers came straight from the ghetto, and dragged the image of unschooled, unruly youngsters, with too much energy, no training, no talent and not much of a future. It’s an interesting cliché. Studying the Hip Hop movement a little more closely than a few prejudiced sociologists did then, you can’t help but acknowledge the huge amount of work that graffiti, dance, music or painting, all part of Hip Hop culture, required. And still do. All those disciplines demand improved technical abilities, constant training, an alert mind, and creative imagination. To say the least.

Writers and Graffiti artists make their own (yes, disputable by some) contribution to the city they are a part of. Self-affirmation, in a society that tends to erase individuality, shows a strong sense of preservation. It’s a peaceful uprising against authority figures that would rather keep everyone anonymous and under control, despite difficult social contexts and basic rights.

Street artists do not simply satisfy themselves with the delivery of their work in the eye of the public, the way a painter, presenting his latest masterpiece, expects amateurs and patrons to acknowledge its value. Out on the street, they impose, or generously offer their art, without necessarily expecting public judgment or recognition. It is an unforeseen and unforeseeable form of art, since it doesn’t emerge from the usual art places. Yet the constant pursuit of improvement in such shapes and messages as they are presented, as well as the respect of visual codes established over the years, whether they be followed or distanced in a creative leap, give Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art their undisputable legitimacy."

from "From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art Anthology" a book by Magda Danysz published by Drago.

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Il Centro Espositivo Museale San Michele degli Scalzi, Pisa, è sede oggi venerdi 11 dicembre di “OLTRE IL MURO. Come le pratiche artistiche attraversano le strade”.

Il progetto coinvolge curatori, artisti, studiosi e operatori in una discussione sullo spazio della strada come luogo di ibridazione tra culture differenti. Street Art, Urban Culture e arte contemporanea sono i linguaggi migliori per esprimere il concetto di strada e globalizzazione.

Fra i partecipanti il Direttore artistico e Editore della casa editrice e trend bureau Drago Paulo Lucas von Vacano, che interverrà al dibattito esponendo il nuovo concetto di StRaDe (Sistema Re-Evoluzionario Democratico) come primo luogo di trasformazione urbana, culturale e artistica. La StRaDa come luogo di concepimento, di epifania e di espressione.

“Dopo la crisi finanziaria del 2008 - e la relativa implosione (o morte) del Vecchio Sistema – sono iniziate le prime avvisaglie della nascita di un nuovo Mondo. Una Re-Evoluzione Democratica possibile, in cui la Strada e la Periferia si pongono come primi e massimi catalizzatori dei fenomeni e delle tendenze.

Il futuro è scritto nella strada. La strada scrive il futuro.

Il concetto di StRaDe si sviluppa attraverso una visione “dal basso”, che interpreta il potere come strumento per una trasformazione pacifica sia sul piano culturale che su quello artistico.

Dalle StRaDe nasce la Re-Evoluzione di una società civile in agonia che, però, non ha smesso di sognare, né di creare”.

Inoltre l’evento vedrà l’artista egiziano Basim Magdyalle prese con la realizzazione di un progetto specifico per la città di Pisa: egli esporrà un verso poetico negli spazi pubblici, per interrogare il passante sulla natura del credo affettivo e religioso, sulla distanza fra realtà e finzione e sul peso dei messaggi multimediali.

Pure Evil tells us a little bit about the who, what, when, where, and why about the man, the artist, and the gallerist.

DRAGO: Who are you? How do you define yourself and is it different from how you project your public image?

PURE EVIL: I am Pure Evil prince of fricken darkness.. I am also called Charley. I define myself by a key ‘Deus Ex Machina’ moment in my evolotion when I admitted being an artist for the first time and was banned from entering the USA. I told the Customs officer I had been painting with my friends in California which = work when you are an artist, and since I had no work VISA I had to come back to dirty old London. The dirt in London helps things to grow which makes it an amazing place to be creative. I landed, my wheels started spinning and I haven’t stopped.

D: Why street art?

PE: There is no committee there is no curator there is NO ONE telling you what to do, and the canvas is infinite. There are no boundaries, it is all about the freedom to paint, and there is also an amazing euphoric adrenal rush that you get from doing it, that it is a subculture that attracts so many druggy lowlife scumbags.

D: Do you see a difference between your work on the street and the work you do for the traditional art world, aka galleries?

PE: Completely different, like the difference between a moon rock on the moon and a moon rock on a shelf in a museum. The street provides the context for the art, the gallery makes I an artefact, a memory of an event. Its still a lot of fun though, hanging out in a big indoor space making it look amazing, and not having to worry about THE MAN. Instead you have to worry about THE CURATOR. The curator is the enemy.

D: How do your roles as artist and gallerist play off of each other? Do they ever come into conflict? Being an artist seems to be only a part of your involvement in the art world…as a gallerist you promote the work of other artists instead of your own, seems rather altruistic in such a dog eat dog world…

PE: There is a conflict, and its fun to try and fight the battle. The danger is that I only promote myself through my gallery and just use everyone else to make myself look earnest. It is important that I can find the time to do both things justice, and not let the other artists in the gallery down. Obviously I am going to promote myself, but I have met so many artists through painting walls that I know a lot about the culture and I have a good eye for it, and I know how many artists have been burned by galleries and so I am very careful to be fair and help them to grow . If I wasn’t pure evil the artist though I would have been FUCKED in the last year with the recession. I don’t always pick super commercial art to show in the gallery because I can always make rent money through my own work . If I do a show with an artist I really love and in one month only sell one piece because its weird and wonderful art THAT’S COOL BABY. I can just sell a couple of big paintings of my own and rent is covered.

D: Can you elaborate on your responsibility as supporter of the arts? For example you are serving on a panel of judges for a street art competition, how did you get involved in that?

PE: I said yes to that because I was quite flattered that anyone would think my opinion was worth anything, and also because it was a way of raising money for charity. If I can do some art and make 5K for homeless people then I think that’s brilliant. Its something really pure and good, which isn’t something I get to do that often.

D:  Any special project you would like to tell us about? Personal, gallery related, legal, illegal...

PE: I have a music studio in the gallery and I have been collection an arsenal of all of my dream synthesizers, like the Korg MS20 and the Solina Strings keyboard, and I have been recording music every week that goes online the same week as we finish it all. I am going to release a double vinyl box set of some of this soon, and make a print portfolio of a number of 12” x 12” artworks to accompany the music. Here is the link to some of the music : http://pureevil.podbean.com/

D: Do you consider “Street” to be a movement? Drago believes that the “street movement” is the only avant-garde of the moment that the combination of street and the Internet creates a global attitude of civil society. Do you agree or disagree?

PE: I think it is a massively important movement, the mainstream is trying to consume it but I think it will go undergound again to camouflage itself from mainstream culture. The mass will move onto something newer and easier to control . This happened with skateboarding where it ended up on TV channels playing in Sports bars in airports everywhere.

I was reading about the Darknet which is a huge portion of the internet that is almost invisible. Maybe we need to take it to the Dark side for a while.

Heres a question to ponder : Where did all the other subcultures go ?

D: Are the streets united or divided?

PE: Divided into likes and dislikes of people. Some think street art is massive and amazing and some people think it is just poop. That’s fine with me.

D: Who is your Mona Lisa?

PE: Ava Gardner or Monica Bellucci

D: “I had a dream.” Tell us about it.

PE: I was traveling through Egypt on a camel and I found a small papyrus boat, I brought it back to the east end to a science lab I have in my dreamland, and an orange juice that was in the lab began to mysteriously drain itself.. The papyrus boat began to grow and oscillate and I realized that it was a trojan boat device that was activated by orange juice that had been sent from space … everybodys bones started to turn to jelly all over the world and we all turned into blobs. END OF DAYS !!! GAME OVER.

Please pick five of the following topics and write a list of your 5-favorite/top picks so we can learn a little more about the man/artist/gallerist.

1. musicians/bands Amon Duul , Black Moth Super Rainbow, Neu , Can, Television

2. books/authors John Gray , Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

4. people you would like to meet 5 of my kids. I have 12 kids in California because I was a sperm donor, so I’d like to meet 5 of them and see how they are doing.

6. things you would like to see change global warming (less) , genocide (less) , peace (more) love (more) understanding (bit more)

8. things you would like to try kill Mugabe , then do some time travel , kill young Hitler , do some more time travel , give Jesus a high five

9. things you would never do again I have no regrets about anything I have ever done

Heres a mix for you: http://www.theworldsbestever.com/2009/08/21/sound-advice-14-pure-evil/

On Saturday December 12, 2009 Jonathan LeVine Gallery will open And There Was War In Heaven, a solo exhibition of recent works by James Marshall, the artist more commonly known as Dalek. In the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, Marshall continues to build upon the creative departure marked in his 2007 show Desperate, Rejected, and Angry—when he dropped the Dalek moniker to reveal his true name and debuted a new series of paintings rich in color and complex layers, reducing his popular Space Monkey character to its basic underlying geometric components for the first time. On the experience, the artist said: “The show was really cathartic, and I think it helped open up a lot of things for me visually. By not having that iconic centerpiece to build a painting around, all the other elements started happening more naturally… things grew in a different way, which was liberating.”

By fragmenting, abstracting and obscuring the figural component within busy environments that echo the mechanical repetition of industrial mass-production, Marshall’s direction has evolved yet his aesthetic remains cohesive. His canvases consistently feature brightly hued flat colors painted in crisply defined planes of space, forming shapes and optical perspectives clearly separated by impeccably clean, sharp, and precise geometric line-work.

James Marshall (aka Dalek)
And There Was War In Heaven
Solo Exhibition

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th Fl.
New York, NY 10011

December 12th—January 9th, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 12th, 7pm—9pm

• Check out more @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery »

“In most of today’s societies, you will be the target of thousands of successful advertisements on any given day. In most of today’s societies, you will seek your 15 minutes of fame. We grow up and in between daily massive propaganda. The desire to make your mark on this world leads to great innovations in many fields, and particularly in Art. Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art have, like many innovations, been fed and nurtured with those visual codes, appearing as the direct result of post-war advertising.

As children and later as teenagers, citizens (i.e. the people living in cities) from all over the world have been exposed to marketing and advertising. It’s not hard to imagine how a young mind can try to emulate what it sees on television or billboards, particularly in New York from the 50s to the 80s where popular culture and advertising are at their best. Since before the epitome of Pop Art, New York has been considered the most media-saturated city in the world. Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art and advertising operate at a Phenomenological level or dimension, with only one thing in mind: to awaken the viewer’s curiosity. As Shepard Fairey aka OBEY underlines in his Manifesto, “Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation. The FIRST AIM OF PHENOMENOLOGY is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one’s environment. The OBEY sticker attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the sticker and their relationship with their surroundings. Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer’s perception and attention to detail.”

And since the beginning of the Movement in the late 60s, people from all over New York can see what someone has done in Queens, including people who probably are not interested in this form of art or have never stepped in Queens. The fact that graffiti was practiced on the subway system of New York shouldn’t come as a surprise, indicating that mobility is an element that graffiti writers gravitated towards early in the game.

Your tag, your alter ego, the name by which most people will know you, your very own brand, rather than your birth-given name, takes a life of its own. It becomes something separate, something that, as it grows in the public eye, also gets observed, scrutinized and admired. The ‘fame game’ brings popularity, a sense of self-esteem, friends and recognition from people you don’t even know. As a graffiti writer, you’re driven by the desire to be known and to be respected. In Style Writing someone like SEEN, since the 70s, picked his tag according to his motive: to be seen. Later, in the 90s, someone like OBEY (aka Shepard Fairey) did pursue a specific goal (“visual disobedience” as he calls it himself), and raise awareness with the choice of his street name.

While most admit that these motivations were of the unconscious sort during their early years, the desire to be subversive, to cause an impact, to represent graphically what everyone thinks but doesn’t say out loud, is at the origin of this movement, with the street being the broadest and most powerful platform to gain visibility.

Advertising has played a decisive factor in the formation of Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art in two major ways. Ideologically, it manifests itself in the quest for fame. Competition among a wide variety of writers and artists contending for respect is harsh. Another influence is the visual factor. The letter-based palette of words and tags, with the subsequent advent of postering and stickering, represents the ‘brand’ that is repeated on and on. These are precisely the premises upon which advertising works; products need fame in order to stand out, something we see in the omnipresence of ads. There’s humor to be found in the fact that, today, the tendency has reversed to what we now know of advertising: brands get their inspiration, in large amounts, from the street.

Essentially, one could argue that Style Writing, Graffiti, Street Art and advertising evolve in the same ball game, the only difference being the league they are in. Commercial consumer advertising is propelled by immediate financial profit and mediated by boardrooms and stockholders. It aims at exposing that product in an appealing way, and at doing it in order for the widest possible number of people to become aware of that product. Graffiti is a tool used by individuals with their own agenda, one however that doesn’t include profit as its foremost target. The main agenda of a Graffiti artist is exposure by means of guerrilla tactics.

Today, there is a tendency to differentiate classic hip-hop type (“modern”) graffiti, where people have tags and want to get their tags in as many places as possible, from the later Street Art, where people may have tags, but deploy techniques such as stencils to pass a message somewhat more profound than a simple tag. The process of reawakening one’s awe in their environment has been with us for a long time, but in the context of Street Art, it’s been a practice used slowly but steadily over the years.”

From “From Style Writing to art: a Street Art Anthology” pp. 23-25

• Buy this book !! »

Estevan Oriol and Mr Cartoon of the SA Studios team worked with Snoop Dogg to create the album coverart for the fabulous rapper’s upcoming 10^th album, Malice ‘N Wonderland..

Everyone knows that Snoop enjoys LA Women, but he enjoy LA Woman also, as you can see from the photo...

… and if you’re in California on Friday December 11^th , go to the amazing Suru  shop, check out the homie Estevan Oriol and pick up your Signed copy of LA Woman, Drago publishing of course…

• More at Estevan Oriol website »

"The Street Art phenomenon expansion can be linked to the city’s recent mutations, be it on architectural, or organizational levels. But because the new model has not replaced its predecessor per se, they now coexist: peripheries become interconnected, crossed in their center by complex transit systems, subways, buses, roads, etc. Such architectural illustrations exist all around the world in the 70s, with the intensive construction of massive social housing ensembles. Sure, these new territories represent, initially, new housing possibilities. But soon, they’re seen for what they are: marginalized places with environments that worsen by the day. This networked territory brings people together, goods, services and information in a giant exchange system. Public transportation and the amazing amount of information exchanged on these territories have totally changed the city role and its organization. The omnipresence of advertisement, billboards, street signs, flyers, clothing, etc. leads to a tacit, yet perpetual communication between individuals. Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art are the embodiment of a new urban organization that revolves around a generalized sign exchange system. Writing, from its beginning is a way of exchanging information from one part of the city to another. Come to think of it, the street is defined and ruled as a common physical public space, as opposed to a private space in which one is free to behave as wished. Since the street is a collective space, anyone should act within mutual respect. But because there are rules concocted to protect said spaces, Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art violate a principle. When a street activist applies a tag or paints a fresco, it is perceived as an aggression by some, a simple degradation of common property. That said, many perceive advertising as a similar type of violation, and anti-advertising groups are considered illegitimate activists. Sure, when you come right down to it, Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art could be perceived as inappropriate privatization of public space. Behind any graffiti lies an individual reaffirming their personality with one of the most personal signs ever: a signature.

True to a society of exponential exchanges, Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art travel indeed beyond time and space. Not only do they take over public spaces, they also invade it. From the suburbs and less favored part of the cities, to downtown and historical centers, to monuments, Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art are everywhere.

Limited only by the sizes of walls, Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art’s propagation seems unstoppable. The “no limit” motto1 is often used, and Street artists see a challenge in places with little or no access but with great public visibility (subway stations, trains, high-top buildings, bridges are key locations). In the network city model, the street artist knows how to use the public transportation grid better than anyone. Is there any greater, faster way to be seen? To write your name on a train guarantees you a wider audience than you could dream of. People all over the city, whatever their backgrounds, origins and neighborhoods, will see you. People will know about you. As a Street artist, your audience is potentially infinite. Yet, the general public’s support for Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art is clearly secondary in the artist’s mind. First and foremost, it clearly is about the number of people who will be able to lay eyes on it, or about finding that perfect location for a piece, within its environment. It has to be seen and it should resonate with its surroundings. If Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art seem to be mainly done historically on subways and then on walls, they are also found on billboards, subways, bus stations, doors, store curtains, post boxes, etc. whether private or public, neat or already damaged. It is  a gratuitous act seen by some as a generous way of enhancing spaces we don’t even look at anymore. Artists such as JR even use hills and roofs in African villages, facades of Brazilian favelas. Some Street artists perceive this environment as a spacious and virginal piece, an inspiring blank canvas. Others are quite simply stimulated by the potential risks taken when they indulge in their illegal practice in public spaces. SPACE INVADER for example has even turned his art in to a life-size game. He invades cities with is characters in mosaic tiles, counting points as a video game would.

The street is both a familiar and yet totally open space, filled with unspoiled discoveries. Style Writing, Graffiti and Street Art break down distances and turn the city into a possible continuous territory up for conquest. What’s interesting in this conquest is the game itself, as well as whatever illegal aspects it offers. Infringing a sacred principle (respect of the public common space) makes Street artists a target for law enforcement. Being a target raises adrenaline levels in any regular individual, motivating them to pursue their territorial conquest beyond space and law. Street artists frequently mention adrenaline rush or its equivalent as their first motive. Scores of them admit that without it, they probably would have not started, or pursued an action that, eventually, became a form of art."

From "From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art Anthology" by Magda Danysz in collaboration with Marie Noelle Dana

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Mondo Bizzarro Gallery will host, for the second time, the work of Ray Caesar in Rome from Saturday, December 5^th 2009 – Monday, January 28, 2010.

Mondo Bizzarro is proud to present one of the most comprehensive views on the artist’s work. The show, curated by Gloria Bazzocchi and Alessandro Papa, is a selection of the most influential pieces of Ray Caesar’s work and creates a complete overview on the evolution of his style and his technique.

Ray Caesar chose Sogni di Cristallo (Crystal Dreams) as the title for his solo show: an Italian title for an Italian exhibition.The show consists of eighteen paintings, some of which are considerably large (nearly two meters high) and hislong-awaited “Ecstasy” was finished just a few days ago and will bepresented to the public for the first time at Mondo Bizzarro this weekend.

“The production of these pictures foresees such complexity in its 3-dimensional construction that potentially they could be animated (in motion). What we see,”continues Luisa, the Director of the gallery,“is a small part of the whole image that was created by the artist to be seen, potentially, from all points of view, by a particular refinement and a multitude of detail that has never been seen before.”

But technique is not enough. In Ray Caesar’s work there is more to see. The viewer is able to enter into the world that Ray Caesar has created and is inevitably left enchanted. A heart skip and a jump into another dimension where appearances are deceiving and if you look a little harder, what you see is in fact quite the opposite of what it is.

A romantic country scene suddenly becomes full of insects; a smile turns from innocent to malicious; jam turns to blood and then becomes jam again…

Don’t try to satisfy yourself with the images on your LCD screen because the effect doesn’t come close.

For real, Drago swears, this is something deeply different.

Join us in Ray Caesar’s Crystal Dreams, Saturday, 5^th December at Mondo Bizzarro Gallery, via Reggio Emilia 32, Rome, 6:00pm.

You will not regret it.

• More @ Mondo Bizzarro »

How Do You Get Started?

"As the key website Art Crimes states: “The first thing you need to do is choose a tag, or a name which you will be known by in the graffiti community. DO NOT TAKE THIS LIGHTLY; if you choose something stupid it will come back to haunt you.” Stupid” things include choosing initials, nicknames, names already in use, famous people, corny or trite words, and words that are just plain dumb. A tag is usually 3 to 7 characters but can be shorter or longer if really deemed necessary. Those with a tag greater than 4 letters will often find it necessary to develop a “shortened” version of the tag for time and space-sensitive places.”

 The book Subway Art book adds that “style is a very concrete idea among writers. It is form, the shapes of the letters, and how they connect. There are various categories of style, ranging from the old, simple Bubble Letters… to highly evolved and complex Wild Style, an energetic interlocking construction of letters with arrows and other forms that signify movement and direction.” As you choose a tag you then have to develop a style that sticks out. Yet style does not come easy. One has to relentlessly train and be committed to the pursuit of something special, different from the others and perfectly achieved.

 “Each tag without style can be thought of as a writer without true devotion and commitment for the art. It represents a writer who wants the fame, glory, and recognition without sacrificing the many hours necessary to obtain the skills required for style. Becoming adept in translating emotions into rapid and smooth lines is a never-ending process that in essence is the key to all graffiti” adds Art Crimes.

And as Subway Art explains, “Graffiti is a public performance” seen by everybody, all day long, in the street. Every passer-by will judge the piece. Hence the writing on the wall has to be perfect. If not, another writer can come and catch up on the good ideas to improve and master them. How do you improve your style? Before even going outside one has to learn from the elder. Learning is done in private, as any training should be, by drawing in your sketchbook, redoing your piece again and again on paper. ‘Art Crimes’ advice is to “start learning in private with someone you admire. Try going down to derelict train lots with someone who has been writing for a few years, and hit the place up. Have the writer point out what he or she does or does not like about your style, and have the writer suggest ways to improve it. (...) Remember, everyone in the graffiti community was a toy (inexperienced writer) once, and anyone who says they weren’t lies through their teeth. The writing community, like most communities, is one that places elders (those with many years of experience) first.”

Style is acquired through constant training. At first, letters do not come out as hoped. You have to start with simple letters, train until the outline is mastered. Patience is key. The train and the wall are not going anywhere. It is no use wasting paint and energy doing pieces outside right away. Only when the letters are smooth and the outlines not shaky can you play with fill-ins and cap sizes. Per Art Crimes, “If you can, try to acquire some caps (nozzles) which either spray a really fat line (reducing the amount of paint that can drip) or release the paint at a slower rate.”

When spray paint is mastered and the basics acquired, you can start. As the hand is now more certain, lines are frank and executed in a decided stable way, you can experiment more complex shapes, forms and ornaments. Experimentation is key, yet to much style can kill the style. One thing writers are aware off is the need for transmission: in the streets a writer learns from a writer. Yet, Art Crimes warns “It is important to keep in mind that while learning others’ style is a great learning tool, stealing their letter style (biting), is perhaps one of the worst offenses a writer can be charged with.” and concludes “above all, don’t be afraid to be criticized. So, for all you real writers out there who will be around to pass the torch on to the next generation, keep practicing, and don’t get caught.”"

From "From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art Anthology" by Magda Danysz in collaboration with Marie Noelle Dana

• »

Carmichael Gallery invites you to attend Dark Doings, a solo exhibition of new works by Dan Witz. This is the Brooklyn based artist’s first US west coast solo exhibition. And you only have 1 more day to see it.
The hauntingly beautiful show will be closing on Thursday, December 3rd. Dark Doings, has been a showcase of pieces from his expansive summer street project of the same name. Created both for the street and gallery, the subtle, lingering images of human and animal faces trapped behind dirty glass windows are inspired by a recent visit earlier in the year to the red light district of Amsterdam.

“It was Dan Witz who first showed us how powerful street art could be. Each summer, Dan's projects take street art to new levels by adding elements of "surprise and delight" into the city landscape. For us, Dan Witz is the consummate street artist. He's provocative. He's dedicated. And most of all – He has absolutely wicked skills.”
- Marc and Sara Schiller (Wooster Collective)

 “Dan Witz is a true pioneer of the street art movement. What makes Dan so special is his true passion and love for street art. As many artists on the streets have come and gone over the years, Dan has remained true to the craft and has kept his work alive on the streets since he began over 3 decades ago. I don’t know any other street artists that have been at it that long.”
- FAILE

• Check out more @ Carmichael Gallery »

December is upon us again and for all us art lovers, what does that mean? Bienvenidos a Miami…

From December 2nd to the 6th, 2009 there will be eighteen (yes, 18)  art fairs hitting Miami and among them are our ol’ favorites, Miami Art Basel, Scope, Aqua, Pulse, Nada, Art Miami, Sculpt, and Red Dot.

A couple of thing we would advise our readers not to miss would be the outdoor mural project produced by Deitch Projects and Goldman Properties which has commissioned 15 influential artists from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States to create murals on the warehouse walls of Miami’s Wynwood Art District (between 2nd and 5th Avenues and NW 22nd and 28th Streets). Some of the artists working on the murals will be Aiko (Japan), Os Gemeos, Nunca (Brasil) , Stelios Faitakis (Greece), Jim Drain, Shepard Fairey, Futura, Barry McGee, and Swoon(The United States). In addition, there are indoor projects that can be seen at 2550 NW 2nd Avenue, which will include the works of photographer Martha Cooper.

Thursday December 3rd from 4 – 4:30 Shepard Fairey will be giving an artist talk with independent curator Pedro H. Alonzo in the Central Area of the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Also, on December 3rd,  Lance Armstrong and Nike's STAGES will launch in Miami at O.H.W.O.W. (888 Biscayne Blvd.) after its tremendous success in New York with Deitch Projects and in Paris at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin. Although the opening party is invitation only, it opens to the public for the 4, 5, and 6th.  Artists in the exhibition include Shepard Fairey, Futura, KAWS, The Clayton Brothers, Os Gemeos, José Parlà, and Erik Parker.

The group show, ‘Blueprint For Space’ - Primary Flight is taking place at the Art Center South Florida Gallery (800 Lincoln Road at Meridian Ave in Miami Beach) featuring works from C215, Bask, Jim Darling, D*Face, Meggs, Michael De Feo, Shepard Fairey, Ron English, El Mac, Logan Hicks, Santiago Rubino, Jeff Soto, Retna, Reyes, Revok, Tes One, Zevs, and many more.

Hop on over to scope to check out the Carmichael Gallery with works from Boxi, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Nunca, Simon Birch, and Sixeart.
Likewise at Scope, New York galleries Jonathan Levine will be presenting Camille Rose Garcia and Scott Musgrove and Joshua Liner with works from Kris Kuksi, Evan Hecox, Shawn Barber, and Travis Louie, and from Berlin, the Wilde Gallery will be there with EVOL and PISA73.

Although not totally involved in the art fair phenomenon, Francesco LoCastro’s exhibition 305//Neon Life will be in its last days at the Kidrobot Miami Art Gallery on 638 Collins Avenue and should not be ignored just because its not in a booth. However, if you do want to hit up some of LoCastro’s work, but can’t make it out of the maze of art fairs, you can find more of his work with Bold Hype Gallery at the Aqua Art Miami Fair (42 NE 25th Street, booth #18) along with other pop-surrealists like LOLA, Nathan Spoor, Chinamike and Andy Council, Adam Alaniz, and DOLLA.

While you’re over at Aqua, make sure to check out White Walls and Shooting Gallery who have some cool stuff from Aaron Nagel, Greg Gossel, Jesse Hazelip, and Kevin Cyr. Also don’t forget the Harold Golen Gallery with work from Mark Ryden, Pooch, Chris Dean, and Skot Olsen.

And once you are all art-ed out…grab a towel, order a mojito, and join us on the beach.

Street Art and Urban Art are the most commonly used labels for the contemporary movement originated from writing, also often called Graffiti. Yet the term “Street Art” tends to actually incorporate more forms, techniques and forms of expression than the original words used to.

Vague enough to be understood by the outsiders, Street Art is a term that gives credit to the artistic flow that emerged from the streets. Some artists agree now that this term is the one used by the outside and the art worlds, as a means to acknowledge and learn about the movement. Yet, for the artists at least, it’s often seen as too wide to encompass the reality of what the Movement is. For a whole generation, growing up in the city meant owning the place. Yet it owns you as much as you own it.

The term “Street Art” covers, today, numerous forms of art carried out in the street or in public spaces, and includes various methods such as graffiti, stencils, stickers, posters, lighting installations, mosaics, etc.

Forms and techniques have grown beyond writing and spray paint. And the environment is the key factor to everything we’ve just mentioned: it’s all about the street.

The street as a territory: a territory where you live, advertise, express yourself.

The street as a challenge: a challenge that generates inspiration, adrenaline and fame.

The street as a medium: the street and its details become an infinite canvas.

The street as a spectator: from your own crowd to the anonymous spectator, everyone can see you.

The street as a constant evolution: a never-ending flow where art evolves, disappears and reappears.

Graffiti and Street Art are a specific reality, in time and in space. As far as I’m concerned, I admit that I avoid referring to Graffiti or to Street Art. I simply refer to ART, and so do many of the artists.

“Our works have always hung alongside Warhol; Basquiat; Holzer; Kruger; DiRosa; Combas etc. around the world, in the USA, and throughout Europe especially in Germany and Holland. Now with this media trendy-frenzy our work is lumped with all the newbies, and just wrongly labeled as the same thing for the sake of auctioneers and such ilk.” QUIK

And as French stencil artist MISS.TIC sums it up in a very poetic and subtle way.

“ j’enfile

l’art mur

pour bombarder

des mots coeurs” MISS.TIC

“I slip on [litteraly to do a lot]

wall art [phonetic for “armor” in French]

to bomb

heart words” [phonetic for “those who mock” in French]

 “I slip on

the armor

to bomb

those who mock”

• Magda Danysz - From Style Writing to Art »

Jeremy Fish brings the world more amazing art with his new installation Weathering the Storm. The exhibit opened to the public Sunday November 8th till the 17th of January at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California. Weathering the Storm is a timely exhibition curated by Grace Kook-Anderson.

Fish's iconography consists of a fairy tale world inhabited by beavers, skulls, and birds which he has developed in part as a response to the influence that popular culture, cartooning, and literature like the Brothers Grimm, has had on him.

Laguna art Museum will feature a new installation by San Francisco-based artist and Element Advocate Jeremy Fish from the 8th of November till the 17th of January. This will be the first museum exhibition for Jeremy Fish. He will use Laguna Art Museum’s upstairs galleries to create an installation with symbols and characters that he has been developing over the last ten years.

Weathering the Storm is a timely exhibition that is largely about transformation and rebirth through struggle. Deliberately drawing from our own current economic and political events and its impact on us socially and emotionally, Fish’s characters will reveal a narrative of evolution through struggle to obtain a more magnificent and resilient place. In this exhibition, Fish will create paintings with hand carved wood frames, three-dimensional figures for the gallery wall installation and sculptures.

• Read More on Fecal Face !! »

What happened at the Village Underground?!

Last week the venue known as the Village Underground was taken over by The Thousands.

The Thousands was born from the idea that there are thousands of anonymous and semi-anonymous people working outside the confines of the institutional art world to create the only avant-garde movement of our time.

It is based in the strength of the youth demographic and demonstrates a generation that not only thinks outside the box, but also colors outside the lines while still maintaining a mastery of design and drawing.

The exhibition, curated by RJ Rushmore, age 18, shone a bright light on a selection of artists that were hand picked to represent the best of the aforementioned “thousands.”

It was RJ’s intention to bring the work of these artists off the street and onto the walls, ironically to give the movement a little more “street cred” with respect to earning a place in museums like The Tate Modern or the Moma.

The big brick walls and lofty ceilings served as the perfect space to make the transition from street to show. Steering clear of the sterility of a traditional white-walls gallery atmosphere allowed the works to maintain their unpolished edges feeling while the exceptional lighting illuminated each work as an individual masterpiece.

80% of the works in the show came from private collections and this five-day exhibition was a one-off, one-time chance to see works that normally remain under lock and key in the homes of elite urban art lovers.

RJ pulled it off. The opening was packed, apart from the photos here’s another measure of perspective: 600 bottles of Brew Dog demolished in under three hours. The evening was frequented by friends, art lovers, collectors, journalists, gallerists, and of course artists. We got to meet Know Hope, Pure Evil, Elbowtoe, Herakut, and members of the Burning Candy Crew like Tek33, Sweet Toof, GLDPEG, and Rowdy.

For those of you who missed this five-day phenomenon, you will be happy to know that we took plenty of pictures and video footage so that you can live vicariously through us…Or…you can pick up a copy of the accompanying book and check it out yourself…and then kick yourself for missing it. Twice.

• Read more @ Vandalog »

Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present Beast Anthology, an exhibition of new mixed-media works by the Kansas artist Kris Kuksi.This is Kuksi’s second solo show with the gallery.

A scavenger of pop-cultural castoffs, Kuksi combines mass-produced“junk”—toy soldiers, plastic skulls, knick-knack figurines, and mechanical bits—into rococo tableaux. His intricate assemblages of small parts and large figures resolve into highly aestheticized totems with an air of neoclassicism. But unlike the idealistic fantasies depicted in art of the Belle Époque, Kuksi exposes the dark, crass, even mercenary underbelly of civilization.

The sculptural assemblages of Beast Anthology play broad riffs on a variety of morality themes. In The Temptation of St.Anthony, for example, the patron saint of lost and stolen articles is shown in a state of existential angst. Arrayed around this central figure are lost causes of every sort, from war-weary soldiers, to lost dogs and cows destined for the slaughterhouse, to detritus of obsolete technology. St. Anthony forms the towering pinnacle of this triangular composition; unable to intercede, he casts his doubt over the entire votive like the burnished pall of the work’s bronze-colored patina.

Drago is proud to announce this amazing event.

• Read more @ Joshua Liner Gallery »

The Tim Burton retrospective opens Sunday, November 22 and continues through April 26, 2010.

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street. New York, NY. (212) 708-9400.

This major career retrospective on Tim Burton (American, b. 1958), consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton's career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. The opposing themes of adolescence and adulthood, and the elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor inform his work in a variety of mediums—drawings, paintings, storyboards, digital and moving-image formats, puppets and maquettes, props, costumes, ephemera, sketchbooks, and cartoons. Taking inspiration from sources in pop culture, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as a spiritual experience, influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics.

Tim Burton MoMa Spot:

• Check out more @ MoMa »

Another brick in the Wall at Mondo Pop.

Roma festeggia ancora i vent’anni della caduta del muro di Berlino alla galleria Mondo Pop, in via dei Greci 30, venerdi 20 novembre alle 19, a cura di David Vecchiato e Serena Melandri.

16 artisti sono stati invitati a partecipare. 16 idee e 16 stili creeranno un muro fittizio, costituito da mattoni virtuali, parallelepipedi di legno trattati e quindi dipinti nelle tecniche scelte dagli artisti. Sten e Lex, JB Rock e Diamond, Hogre e Bol23 sono solo alcuni dei nomi della collettiva.

Provocatori o nostalgici, decorativi o di denuncia, irriverenti o riflessivi?

Cosa faranno mai questi artisti con il loro mattoncino? Cosa verrà fuori? Drago non vede l’ora di scoprirlo. Ci si vede al vernissage..

• Check out more @ Mondo Pop »

from Oct 24 to Nov 21 2009

With Seen, Crash, Quik, Futura, Jonone, Blek Le Rat, Obey, Miss Van, West, Space invader, Zevs..

On the occasion of the publication of the book, From Style Writing to Art, a Street Art anthology, the gallery organizes a Graffiti and Street art exhibition which get together the masters of the 70s as well as their most important successors and the renovators of street art. An event which is in line with the commitment taken by Magda Danysz, for already more than 10 years in support of Graffiti and Street Art.

Proud to fight for the recognition of Graffiti and Street Art as a major artistic movement, Magda Danysz publishes for Drago this fall an anthology about the History of this key artistic movement.

The works of Seen, Crash, Quik show the historic sources of the street art. From the 70s they sprayed their names on the subways or walls of New York. Today, they are considered as the pioneers of this movement, the “Kings” as they were named back then. The 80s and 90s generation, embodied by Jonone, West, Miss Van, Space Invader shows diversity in street art. These different ways of expression are the testimony of a real transition from the Style Writing to an artistic manifestation. Among them, Jonone was one of the first ones to choose to express himself on canvas from 1991. Concerning Space Invader, he distances himself with use of the mosaic for instance.

A very special project to celebrate a very special art movement : Publication of the first critical book about Street Art. About 400 pages explain and go into details the artistic aspect of this movement. "In the beginning, there was a the tag and the inscriptions on walls. It gave birth to the wild writing and to the graffiti. What was transformed into what we know now under the name of Urban Art or Street Art. A complex and interesting movement which deserves much more than of simple shortcuts.

From Style Writing to Art, a Street Art anthology, aims at explaining how Street Art became an major artistic movement at the turn of the 21th century. This book is interested in the pioneers of the graffiti who became famous from the 60s, the it explores the success of the artists of the 80s, and finally it looks into the new questions and practices of the 90s.

• Read more on the Drago's Events »

1960 - CORNBREAD RULES !!

CORNBREAD is the first 'bomber', the earlier example of a person going out on the streets with no other purpose than to write his name on everything.

We acknowledge that graffiti, defined as public and unsolicited marking, has been around forever. Art in the form of graffiti, on the other hand, originated in the 50s and the 60s when CORNBREAD (aka Darryl A. McCray), from Philadelphia took the scene over with his buddies KOOL EARL and TOP CAT. The three of them contributed to make Graffiti what it is today and helped define the role of the modern day Graffiti writer. One major part of that role was achieving fame.

For CORNBREAD, it all began as a way to get attention from that one special girl he wanted to impress. His first few tags soon turned into a full time mission, 'getting up' (painting his tag) in so many places that he gave himself a crown. The press chronicled CORNBREAD's exploit with pride and each party soon fed off the other, to the point where some journalists started exchanging, in their columns, their ideas of potential challenges for CORNBREAD, hoping to strike his imagination. One of them, for example, wrote about how amazing coud be to tag the Jackson Five jet as it landed in Philly. CORNBREAD was to happy to oblige, and the press covered it extensively. By the late 60s, a sub-culture had ignited in Philadelphia, with his own distinct style: long letters with platform at the bottom. For some strange reasons, when it comes to New York years later, it became the "Broadway Elegant" style. That said, tho one thing missing from the Philadelphia movement was the subway.

McCray accomplished fame by spray his tag - CORNBREAD, with a swoosh at the end and a crown over the B - along every bus and trolley in the city. In one of his most memorable attempts, he managed to spry it on the flank of an elephant at the zoo.

From "From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art Anthology" by Magda Danysz in collaboratgion with Marie Noelle Dana

• Read more on the Drago's Street Art Bible !! »

Andrea Caputo, supported by CARHARTT, is proud to announce the forthcoming release of

ALL CITY WRITERS, a book published by KITCHEN93. The presentation will be on 7th November 2009, at LAMBRETTO ART PROJECT, via Cletto Arrighi, 19 - Milan, Italy

The books describes a vast research on the Writing movement, focusing particularly on the process of its exportation from New York to all of Europe during the 80s.

1.230 pictures, 620 articles and more than 250 writers involved who contributed their own stories to the project All City Writers is a heavy-weight of graffiti literature – and that not just in terms of the actual size and weight of the book.

Through historic and detailed documentation deriving from a singular urban episode, the New York City Subway, All City Writers wants to investigate the evolution and the consequences of a countercultural phenomenon, which in the last decades has provoked a change in the rules of aesthetics and communication in modern day society.

APOCALYPSE WOW!

APOCALITTICI, POP SURREALISTI, CREATORI DI MONDI SENZA FRONTIERE

A new Street Style collective of Pop Surrealism, Neo Pop and Urban Art.

Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Camille Rose Garcia, Jeremy Fish, Microbo & Bo will populate the Macro Future with more than 20 other artists from the 7th November 2009 to 31th January 2010.

Apocalypse Wow, the sententiment is in the title. We at Drago are sure that when you see the exhibition you won't be able to hold back.. WOW!

80 fabulous pieces that explain to the public that time are changing, that art always comes first, and it's able to explain that globalization is not only an economic matter.

Come and see !!

• Check out more @ Macro Future »

WK Interact’s new show “How To Blow Yourself Up” addresses the unspoken fear that lurks in New Yorker's daily lives; Homeland's terror alert levels for NYC Mass Transit, the smell of acrid smoke in the subway, the installation of thousands of cameras all over Manhattan, and “entertainment” like “2012″, a disaster film based on end-of-time prophecies of ancient religions in which the world suffers cataclysmically.

In character with his oeuvre, WK captures the nonstop motion - both physical and psychic - of urbanism. In the past, he has used that kinetic graphic style to convey explosiveness, but in How to Blow Yourself Up he creates installations that burst with dimension and color. The glowing shades in his palette, however, are clearly not intended to brighten or beautify but to alert and alarm, grabbing attention the way a safety hazard sign would.

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7th / 8-11PM
November 7th - December 5th

Subliminal Projects
1331 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Mondo Bizzarro Gallery è lieta di presentare Sogni di Cristallo, la seconda Personale di Ray Ceasar.

Artista canadese di fama internazionale, Ray Ceasar è conosciuto per le sue dame algide, misteriose, per le sue atmosfere perturbanti e piene di mistero. Le sue opere raccontano di un mondo segreto, senza tempo, imperscrutabile, popolato da personaggi ambigui e irraggiungibili.

Definito il maestro del “manierismo tecnologico”, Ray Ceasar realizza veri e propri “quadri digitali”, stampati su carte fotografiche o su altre carte di pregio, e caratterizzati da una composizione complessa e da un particolare uso della luce, volto a sottolineare espressioni, pose e movimenti, il tutto orientao a creare un’atmosfera onirica e surreale.

Dal 5 dicembre 2009 al 28 gennaio 2010 potrete ammirare una vasta rassegna delle opere di Ray Ceasari a Roma, in via Reggio Emilia 32, alla Mondo Bizzarro Gallery. Opere recenti, alcune ancora inedite e in grande formato, insieme a una selezione di rarissimi pezzi realizzati fra il 2003 e il 2008.

Drago non mancherà per nulla al mondo. Voi? Ci vediamo lì…

• Check out more @ Mondo Bizzarro »

With November 18th fast upon us, we have another update from RJ for the Thousands.

Only about two weeks now until The Thousands opens on November 18th and The Thousands: Breaking Outside, Painting In is officially on sale. Right now I’m working 15-hour days to get the word out and make sure everything is ready in time. I love it. For one thing, it means I have plenty of time to listen to music.

A few weeks ago I was worried because my only potential beer sponsor decided not to sponsor The Thousands. I was going to have to buy cheap beer and put up a donation cup or something at the opening to help recoup my beer costs. Nobody wants that. So, with no expectations whatsoever, I emailed one more brewery: BrewDog. They are awesome, because on Sunday night I heard back from them, a few emails later, we had a deal. The Thousands has a beer sponsor. So that’s pretty much been the highlight of my week.

Somebody asked me the other day how things were going. They thought that things had probably slowed down for me. As I said though, that’s definitely not been the case. While the big picture items have been sorted, now it’s down to negotiating transport costs, bugging artists until they mail their artwork, finding a place to rent tables and a display case… the boring stuff. But it’s still been crazy fun, because I know that all these small things are essential to putting on a fantastic exhibition.

One thing I’ve been working on is press. While I’ve been struggling finding print journalists to talk to, the online media has been all over The Thousands. Next week there will be a series of posts and interviews on the405.com with me as well as some artists from The Thousands like Nick Walker.

I’ve been realizing more and more and more and even more these past few weeks is the importance of a fantastic support team. Of course, friends in the art world and everybody at Drago has been helpful and their support has been invaluable, but in the last few days, even my mother has gotten really into The Thousands. She doesn’t even like street art. Even though I’m the public face of The Thousands and I’m doing a lot of work on it, I’ve also got friends and family to help me and make sure I don’t mess up everything.

Even this close to the opening, artwork is changing a bit here and there. Sweet Toof just confirmed his piece this week and Roa is still finishing his painting. One potential late edition is a series of photographs by two of London’s best street art photographers. If everything comes together in time, they will be hanging 40 or 50 photos on wooden columns in the middle of the exhibition space. But as I mentioned in my first update, I made a little model of Village Underground and have tried to hang everything in the model so that I know what I’m doing when I arrive at the space on the 16th. Everything just fits, so Roa better not be painting anything too huge (unless I love it, which I’m sure will be the case)!

Well, I’m writing this at 2am and so it’s time for me to get a bit of sleep. Can’t wait to see everybody at The Thousands on the 18th, and if you haven’t preordered The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In yet, why not? You should buy it. It’s good. Then again, I wrote it, I’d better think it’s frigging amazing.

THE THOUSANDS
Updates from RJ Rushmore
03 November, 2009

• Check out more on Vandalog »

Once upon a time, in 1942..

"As a major art form born in the 20^th century somewhere, we do know one thing: modern graffiti began around 1942 during WWII, when both a name and its graffiti version were first linked to each other. That name is KILROY. A worker in a bomb manufacture in Detroit, Michigan, Kilroy got the habit of writing “kilroy was here” on each item that came through his factory line for inspection. The bombs were then sent to Europe, where Kilroy became famous. Soldier started writing “Kilroy was here” on any wall that still stood after a bombing. And later, Kilroy actually became a symbol during peace protests"

From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art anthology... The real Street Art Bible !!

Oscuro Scrutare - A Scanner Darkly

The Patricia Armocida Gallery is proud to present Oscuro Scrutare, a Italian premiere collective show from Scarful, Luca Barcellona, Dem, 108, Marco Klefisch, an more.

Taking the name from the novel of Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly, the exhibition's goal is to explore the fascination with the macabre and the seductive power of the undefined.

The artists are confined to the use of only black, white and a single colour of their choice, yet this limited palette also serves as tool of creative liberation..

36 Chambers style !! See you there !!

Untill 22 December, Galleria Patricia Armocida, via Bazzini 17, Milano

• Check out more @ Galleria Patricia Armocida »

Dorothy Circus Gallery will inaugurate their new exhibition on Halloween night with Rubedo, an exhibition of David Stoupakis and Silvia Idili.

Rubedo is the last step of alchemical opus, where blood permitted the perfect union between spirit and substance... Red will be the exhibition's theme, an atmosphere similar to a noir carnival.

Drago will be there. Do you?

Inauguration on 31 October, 8:00 pm - via Nuoro 17, Rome

• Check out more @ Dorothy Circus Gallery »

Drago is proud to announce the release of From Style Writing to Street Art: a Street Art anthology by Magda Danysz in collaboration with Mary Noelle Dana. This 400-page book is the first street art anthology ever published and it has been said that it is one of very few books that warrant attention, but it warrants attention without question. From Style Writing to Art: a Street Art anthology, aims at explaining how street art became a major artistic movement at the turn of the 21st century. From graffiti pioneers in the 60s, to the street art diaspora during the 80s, to whatever new issues and practices have emerged since the 90s, to which artists are making a difference, this book covers it all.

There is major talent in the history of graffiti. And this talent is, in the end, the only answer to the infamous “But… is it really art?” question. Out of this both compact and diffuse form of expression, real art practices have emerged, absolutely unquestionable in terms of quality and longevity. This book is about why this is Art.

Magda Danysz is always in search of art that is new, different, and moreover dynamic. Drago is an international art publishing house and local trend bureau which focuses on new expressive forms and underground culture. The unique union between Drago and Ms. Danysz provides us with a book and an exhibition that defines the story of street art. Between fifty artists and forty years of graffiti, this book has already been defined as the bible of street art.

Drago will be present to launch their newest publication at the Magda Danysz Gallery on Saturday October 24, 2009 for the inauguration of the exhibition, From Style Writing to Street Art. However, that is only the beginning. The Drago team will be back in Paris and at the gallery in December with more books, parties, and events. This exhibition is not to be missed; however if you miss us this time never fear. We’ll be back.

The Magda Danysz Gallery
From Style Writing to Street Art: a Street Art anthology
78 Rue Amelot - Paris
Saturday October 24, 2009
18.00 – 21.00

• Read more on the Drago's Events »

The Don Gallery presents JONONE, the first artist's solo show in Italy. Milan is waiting for him, and for his large canvas and colorful paintings.
JonOne's work is an allegory of the Urban Jungle in wich most of us live, seen always from the optimistic and innocent side of life.
Let's have a look, from the 22 October to 21 November, see with your own eyes the marvelous style of JonOne.

• Check out more @ The Don Gallery »

Alla Galleria Mondo Bizzarro torna il Pop Surrealism.
"Natural Beauty - American Pop Surrealism Group Show": una collettiva di artisti approda, direttamente dall'America, in una delle più suggestive gallerie romane.
Curata da Alessandro Papa e Gloria Bazzocchi, la collettiva vedrà uno a fianco all'altro artisti del calibro di Shang, con l'ormai inconfondibile richiamo agli anni Cinquanta; Elisabeth McGrath e le sue sculture grottesche, la pittura mortifers di Chris Mars, la grafica retrò di Gary Taxali e poi Scott Musgrove, Jessica Joslin, Bob Dob, Nathan Ota e molti, molti altri..

• Check out more @ Mondo Bizzarro Gallery »

If You missed the 20 Retrospective at the Boston ICA, you can catch it at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand is organized by The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and features over 20 year of the artist's work, including illustrations, screen prints, collages, works of wood, metal and canvas.

In the 1989 the first Andre the Giant has a posse sticker was created and the OBEY GIANT project was born. Twenty years later, Shepard Fairey has a solo retrospective exhibition at the Warhol. Within that time, Fairey has gone from artsy prankster and skateboarders' underground hero to worldwide cultural phenomenon for his murals, fine art prints, and street art poster campaigns.

• Check out more @ WARHOL.org »

'Jesus Help Me Find My Proper Place' is a solo exhibition of works by Lucas Price, previews on Thursday 15 October at The Black Rat Press, London, UK.

Painting under the name Cyclops Lucas is one of London's most prolific street artists and a founding member of the Burning Candy Collective. Lucas' gallery works have a raw urgent feel to to them, both angry and intimate, as if he has purged his mind in the process of applying paint to canvas. Often heavily layered and incorporating overlapping text and images they have a striking honesty and freshness to them. FOr this show Lucas has created an installation which promises to confuse the senses and give a unique insight into his view of the world.

• Check out more @ The Black Rat Press »

HOt HOt HOt HOt HOt..

On one fateful day in 1992, Estevan Oriol, who at the time was the bouncer at what was probably the most notorious club in Los Angeles, became the manager of the rap ground House of Pain. During their first tour, thank to an old camera given to him by his father, Estevan discovered his passion: photography. It was only a short time before his was to become one of the most highly demanded photographers in the Urban and Hip-Hop community.

His style is direct and unforgivin, grainy images done in black and white or color that leave no space for fantasy or discretion. His images present the viewer with a world that is slightly out of focus and a bit confusing, almost as though the air within that photograph was heavy and hard to breath. His vision has been throughout the nineties and still is today the official eye through which the world will see the Streets of Los Angeles.

• Check out more on Estevan webpage »

On November 18th, The Thousands, an exhibition of some of the world’s best street art, will open in London for just 5 days at the Village Underground. The Thousands will feature original work by some of the top names in street art: Faile, Banksy, KAWS, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Herakut, Barry McGee and many more. Most of the work will come from private collections, but there will be a few brand new pieces direct from the artists.

Well, I finished editing "The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In" and sent it to the fine folks at Drago. Last Wednesday the 30th, I spoke with Nicola, Drago’s designer, and he said I should have my book to them by Friday, Monday at the latest. Possible, but not easy. For most of September, I’d been at an internship during the day and worked on The Thousands at night. Last week was my first week without a day job. I knew the book was due soon, but didn’t realize how soon! I mean, the deadline was less than a week away. That was soon!

What had I done for the book so far? Well I knew which artists would be included in the book. The cover was finished. I’d written about half of the artist bios I was responsible for and the other contributors (Elbowtoe, Elisa Carmichael, Panik ATG…) had sent in their pieces (for the most part). I had some pictures, and I’d started laying out a few pages. I think Armsrock’s was the only one you could say was 100% finished. I had a crapload of work ahead of me. Not only was I finding photos and writing the book, but I was also doing all the design work. So for 5 days I worked 12-hour to send Drago a completed book by deadline.

Normally I’m the type to respond to any email within 24 (or at worst 48) hours. I probably sent less than 10 non-book-related emails while I was working. I probably sent 20 emails every day bugging artists and photographers about sending in the promised high res images.

And then on Friday I realized something that was not good at all: I had extra pages. Three of them. Some artists had dropped out at the last minute and didn’t want to be involved with the book, and the forward that I thought would take up 2 pages only took up 1! After squeezing what were formally 2 pages into 1, I had 4 extra pages and room for 2 more artists. And only 3 days to find those artists, write their bios, get photos, and lay out those pages.

Luckily, there were plenty of artists I wanted to include in the book but didn’t have space for, so I sent out a few emails and made some phone calls. Two more artists were confirmed within 24 hours. Minor emergency averted.

So Sunday night comes around and guess what. I finished everything. A few edits on Monday and I FedEx’d all the files to Drago so that they can start on getting the book printed.

Oh the relief. Somehow, given in almost no time at all, I have completed a damn good book in time for its release in November.

THE THOUSANDS
Updates from RJ Rushmore
07 October, 2009

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Prendi tre artisti e tre box 36 Chambers. Lasciali soli qualche minuto con gli attrezzi del mestiere.. Et voilà! Les jeux sont faits!

Drago, con l'occasione del FREeSHOUT?! Festival, ha dato il via a un progetto di customizzazione che vedrà alcuni fra i migliori artisti della scena street italiana e internazionale alle prese con la personalizzazione del primo dei 3 box che costituiscono la collana 36 Chambers.

Akab, Andreco e Moneyless. Una scatola bianca che non aspetta altro di essere personalizzata. Tre artisti, tre box, tre stili, tre ore.

Questo è il risultato. E non finisce qui!

• Lorenzo Giordano website »

Exhibitions, concerts, workshops, urban interventions. FREeSHOUT!? 2009, 1st to the 4th of October, features new contents on the background of a mosaic of imaginary countries and micro-nations, real or mental states created out of nothing and described through diversified creative pieces.

Iperuranio, the Devised World is the title of the call for proposals for the 2009 edition of the FREeSHOUT!? Festival: a selection of works created around the idea of inexistent worlds. The proposals of expositive and/or performative nature that best fulfilled the brief of reflection on the actual global equilibriums and in particular on the concept of confrontation, conflict, utopia and crisis have been selected to be part of the 2009 events listing. A jury will then choose, among the selected artists, the most deserving project that will be awarded a funding of one thousand Euros for the realization of a cultural project.

The artists and the projects tell the real world through contrasts and hyperboles, critically documenting phenomena of the contemporary world, wondering on the possible alternatives generated by plausible historical variables, reflecting on the interchanges between the social order and the inner nature of the human being. They find in the creation of political, geographical and social forms the expressive keys for their own art.

It is therefore a collection of places that obey to the logic of their creators in relation or in contrast to the logics of the real world. An alternative world called Iperuranio, the land in which, according to Plato, ideas leave. Ideas that FREeSHOUT!? intends as developed and applied in a creative gesture, that is why “A Devised World”.

Some of the projects have been selected through a call for proposals and one of them will be named the winner and awarded with the funding for the realization of a cultural project.

 The many installations exhibited at the Cantieri Culturali of Officina Giovani in Prato are the core of a wider intervention that acts on the urban fabric of the city with permanent artistic interventions of different nature. They are also the background for workshops and live sets.

One of the workshops will be held with members of the Drago team on Friday October 2, 2009 at 14,00. They will be presenting three 36 Chambers Series box collections which have been custom designed by artists Akab, Money.less, and Andreco who will be present to sign prints for the fans.

For Drago's exclusive photos of the event and interviews with the artists check out our site next week to see what happened in Prato.

• Check out more @ FREeSHOUT!? »

On November 18th, The Thousands, an exhibition of some of the world’s best street art, will open in London for just 5 days at the Village Underground. The Thousands will feature original work by some of the top names in street art: Faile, Banksy, KAWS, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Herakut, Barry McGee and many more. Most of the work will come from private collections, but there will be a few brand new pieces direct from the artists.

Right now I should be at university studying something like post-Cold-War American politics. And that would be fine. Instead I’m taking the year off to curate The Thousands, a street art exhibition, and write The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In, a companion book to the exhibition.

The Thousands is opening on November 18th at Village Underground in London, and there will be artwork there from almost all the top names in street art as well as my favorite up and coming street artists. Painting Outside, Breaking In will be released the same day.

I only started thinking about curating an art exhibition about six months ago, and while my friends and family were happy to entertain the idea of The Thousands, it was a pipe dream. In fact, with only a high school diploma and no art history education, traditional standards would say that I am MASSIVELY under-qualified to curate an art exhibition.

It wasn’t until I was in Rome this summer and I met with Paulo of Drago Lab that anybody (including myself) really believed that The Thousands was going to happen. Paulo and I were talking about how I knew the exhibition would lose money, and Paulo said something along the lines of “You should make a film about putting on your exhibition. That way you can sell the film to a television station, and if things don’t work out, you could sell that documentary too.” I think he was half joking. Paulo was the first guy to say to me: “You know this might be a spectacular failure right?” And that’s when I knew I really was going to be curating an art exhibition. It was a bit scary, but why should I be expected to follow society’s convention that I be able to grow a proper beard before being allowed to curate an art exhibition? So what if I have no idea what I’m doing?

Most of my work so far has been about finding artwork to display. Luckily, my dad and I both have street art collections, so I was able to start at home. Worst case, The Thousands could have been just my dad’s collection and least one person would enjoy the show. With that strong starting position and after some mentions in blogs like Artnet and Arrested Motion, I was able talk to other art collectors and things just started to snowball from there. People were offering to loan me some amazing paintings.

Some days I feel overwhelmed with all the artwork, other days I get nervous that all these great collectors will pull out of the exhibition because I am inexperienced. But most days I’m confident that it will all work out and The Thousands will be one of the best street art exhibitions of 2009.

My next step is laying out The Thousands with a scale model of all the artworks hanging in a cardboard version of Village Underground. This is something I’m a bit worried about. What happens when I discover I don’t have as much space as I thought, or half the gallery is empty? I probably should have planned this all a bit more carefully…

THE THOUSANDS
Updates from RJ Rushmore
24 September, 2009

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He posts up hands on the city's wall, at night; She takes photos, while another takes video footage. He paints huge, skeletal, laquered, wrinkled hands. Those hands remind us of Picasso's Guernica and Munch's The Scream...

...

Lui affigge mani per la città, di notte; lei lo fotografa; l'altro li riprende con la telecamera.

Lui realizza mani enormi, scheletriche, smaltate, vecchie; mani che ammiccano a Guernica come a L'Urlo di Munch.

Viene allora da chiedersi: cosa accomuna le mani dipinte da un Picasso arrabbiato che descrive la Guerra Civile Spagnola e quelle accennate da un freddo norvegese con il tipico gusto nordico per l'angoscia esistenziale?

Troviamo il dolore, forse. Troviamo sicuramente un atteggiamento, in entrambe le opere, di sorda e sofferta 'impotenza', una pesante consapevolezza del fatto che, per quanti sforzi umani si possano impiegare, la causa di questo male di vivere non proviene da noi, è esterna, è altrove ma ci contiene. E' l'Altro, forse.

Lui , infatti, alla mostra non c'era. E' però arrivato, tardi, alla mostra di un altro.

Ma torniamo al nostro triangolo.

Lui affigge mani in giro per la città, furtivo, di notte. Lei lo segue e lo fotografa. Ma non fotografa tanto lui, quanto ciò che lui crea. Scatti analitici, dettagli, macro.

Lei guarda dentro, attraverso la sua lente, mira, non si cura dell'architettura d'insieme o dell'armonia della cornice. Lei documenta passo passo l'evento, segue tutte le fasi della gestazione, dal concepimento fino al parto. Poi, queste prove della sua presenza, le appende a un filo con le mollette, creando così una buffa sequenza di fotogrammi che riecheggia agli esperimenti dei fratelli Lumiere, o all'asciugatura nella camera oscura. Poi le espone.

L'altro riprende tutto. C'è sempre bisogno di un altro perchè la storia interessi a qualcuno. I romanzi ce lo insegnano da secoli - millenni. Se fossero due - scusate - sarebbero solo fatti loro. Ma, fortunatamente, c'è qualcuno che impersona lo sguardo. Lui li spia e noi - a questo punto - siamo autorizzati a identificarci con lui, invitati a guardare, legittimati a spiare.

L'altro è lo sguardo che ci qualifica come spettatori.

Dal Basso, prodotta da NU Factory, una mostra evento che racconta una storia romana nella cornice del Brancaleone. Questi Jules e Jim del Terzo Millennio ci hanno teso una mano.

Anzi tre. Molto grandi e, nella loro forza destabilizzante, anche molto attraenti.

Avete fatto voi questo orrore, maestro?

No, è opera vostra.

(Risposta di Picasso a un ufficiale tedesco, in visita al suo studio, alla visione di Guernica)

DAL BASSO è un collettivo intermediale che, attraverso Street Art, fotografia, video e musica racconta una storia: la storia di una Città Eterna che vive dentro e fuori gli spazi predisposti all'arte, che è in sintonia con l'ambiente circostante, modificandolo e modificandosi in base a esso. Come le mani realizzate da Jb che, quasi fossero qualcosa di organico, appena vengono rinchiuse in uno spazio chiuso si rinsecchiscono e perdono vitalità, quasi fosse venuta loro a mancare la luce e l'aria che gli permette di vivere...

Nono vi resta che andare a vedere. Brancaleone, fino all11 ottobre. E aspettare per l'intervista inedita che Drago ha realizzato per voi.

• Check out more @ NUfactory »

Our very own Bin Von gives Clark Magazine an exclusive interview on the philosophy of Drago and some of our up coming projects.
"Une forte relation, faite d'estime et de respect, s'installe parfois immédiatement, instinctivement, entre des individus."

CLARK: Who created Drago, who is the team, could you tell us more on that first please ?

DRAGO: Drago’s Imperial Headquarters was created the 1.1.2000 by seven global nomads who were brought together by the power of their shared vision. These enlightened wanderers found themselves in Roma, the Kaputt Mundi, for a cultural gangbang. It turned out to be just the right place at just the right time.  It is here that they created the Zentralkomitat which is a philosophy based on the meritocracy in which we can only be limited by our own civilized self-destruction. The members currently in office of Drago’s Counsil of Cultural Ninjas are Bin Von (Germany), Uzi(Roma), Min Kia(USA), Lumumba (Congo), Babalao (France), Lama (Italia), and Pusher (UK). Outside of the Core of Dragons there are the different NODOS (Knots – in Italian Nucleo Operativo Drago) that work in different cities like San Paulo, Rotterdam, Hong Kong and Lagos and for special projects. Our personal names make no difference as we want to serve the street and civil society believing that the artistic movement that we call “SIC!”(Systema of Independent Culture) and that other people name Urban Art, Street Art, Graffiti, Popsurrealism, Ronin etc, is the only global avant-garde movement of our time and that the streets breed the answer to the question of what it means to have a just, civil society. A society where dreams still exist.

C: What were the one or several reasons you guys created an independent publishing house?

D: Roma is eternity. Roma is spiritual. Books are done for eternity. Books are spiritual. For many years each Dragon worked in different worlds of the cultural industry. Our train d’union was our love for printed press, books, fanzines, magazines, and the web.  We believe that publishing is the only environment that has retained its “outsider” status from the official, incestuous, and elitist art circuit and its existence fortifies civil society in order to fight the matrix of globalized power that is destroying the world. The artists of this movement have something to say and for that there will be a bright future. As independent publishing house nobody can tell us how things “should be” so based on the theory of “Mille Plataux” we are free to fortify the “systema” from the inside and help people to fight and to dream.

C: As I know, you have a pretty punk and no concession approach of picking writers/contributors and publishing book... How would you describe best Drago state of mind ?

D: Memento mori. Kittesencula Mood – Bushido Way! Our style is a remix of Edith Piaf (J’ai ne regretted rien) and Frank Sinatra (I did it my way).
We are living in the times of NEWE (NEUE WELT) in the third pop re-evolution of the first era of globalization.  In the remix of pop culture (REP) Drago represents the NUBAS (NU BARBARIANS) of the S – Generation (S like Systema, Street, Style, Speed, Sound, Sex, Social…). In the Society of the Spectacle the creative class exists as SUC (Systema Ufficiale of Culture) versus SIC! (Systema of Independent Culture). Street rules – not the palace. The world is changing. The old world is dying. The time of mercy is over.

C: What are the main books Drago is famous for and th