LA Freewalls is an ongoing project of legal walls for street artists in Los Angeles that began about a year ago. This is the second time that the LA-based street art collective known as Nomadé participates in LA Freewalls with one of their Roman odes.
Produced by Jetset Graffiti and Lahoda Fine Arts on 50,000 sf of the downtown walls, Nomadé joins other artists who have participated this year including Shepard Fairey, Saber, D*Face, Dabs and Myla, Atlas, Asylm and Andy Rios.
With installations that are at once swaggering, metaphorical, and self-deprecatory, the collective is precision minded in their attention to each detail of their dense productions. This installation honors the oft-admonished directive of seasoned street artists to have good placement – just check out the crumbling facade incorporated into the piece, and the echoing of the cornice detail. This soldier is sitting astride a deteriorating Rome, defending it even as it falls.
Says one the the Nomadé of the Freewalls experience,”It is a great project! We feel privileged to be among so many talented artists. We love seeing our fans, meeting people, passing out posters and stickers. Great fun.”
There is an idea worth spreading! JR, Street Artist, is the 2011 recipient of the TED prize:
“JR creates what might be called “pervasive art.” Working with a team of volunteers in various urban environments, he mounts enormous black-and-white photo canvases that spread on the buildings of the slums around Paris, on the walls in the Middle East, on broken bridges in Africa, and across the favelas of Brazil. These images become part of the local landscape and capture people’s attention and imagination around the world.”
Read more on the TED site and watch this gorgeous and moving video testifying to gutsy proactive engagement with the world and the power of the creative spirit that transcends silly art school armchair criticism.
Chris Stain for No Longer Empty
Chris Stain (with help from his buddy Burt Reynolds) transforms an 84 foot wall in Brooklyn with a tribute to the working class that built this city, specifically those who worked in Dumbo and the Navy Yard.
“30 Days in Brooklyn”
Rusty Ralston wants to bring his photo essay out to the streets of New York in December. He needs your help too!
Brooklyn Artist Tara McPherson Prepares for Show at Jonathan Levine
To know her is to love her. Hell, we don’t even know her but still love her from afar… as her reputation as an artist and a fine person percolates around here in Brooklyn. Also, what a great role model for girls and young women who want to make their life their art and their art their life. Check out preview pics over at Arrested Motion.
Beautiful Losers
Recently released in it’s entirety, this influential and beautiful film is now available to you here for free. It’s the story of a group of artist kids on Manhattan’s Lower East Side who encouraged each other to continue to experiment and grow – in only the germinating way that NYC can do it. We know how important community is for artists, and thankfully New York is still a fertile soil for discovery and innovation.
Brooklyn Street Artist Chris Stain just returned from Albuquerque, New Mexico where he participated in a program called STREET ARTS: A Celebration of Hip Hop Culture & Free Expression and he put up a huge version of his “Conductor” piece on this big brick wall.
Chris Stain “Conductor”
Stain was participating in a new arts collaboration event organized by Fran at 516 Arts and a number of other organizations dedicated to social justice and equal rights. He attended the event as a participating artist but he also took numerous photographs of the art on the street and in the gallery.
Guest artists performers and speakers from across the country and the world included Chaz Bojórquez, Henry Chalfant, Chris Stain, SWOON, Shepard Fairey, Slinkachu, Gaia, Gajin Fujita, Amiri Baraka, Cecil Taylor, Kevin Coval, Amalia Ortiz, Dafnis Prieto, Dave Hickey, Molodi, Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala and more.
“Long Mayi Walk 2”, by Chris Stain at 516 Arts.
Mr. Stain reports, “I was very fortunate to spend five days in New Mexico compliments of 516 Arts and their supporters. It was certainly amazing to meet some of the people whose work I have admired for a very long time, namely Chaz Bojorquez and Henry Chalfant.”
Chris Stain. “Long Mayi Walk”
Chris Stain worked side by side on this wall with Jaque Fragua
“It seems like Jaque and I have known each other for many lifetimes. There was a feeling of mutual respect for the work and the meanings behind it. Jaque brings his Native American culture off the res(ervation) and out of his heart and onto the street,” observes Chris.
Dude, I am so beat I’m just going to take a little cat nap if you don’t mind. A piece by Mark Jenkins shot by Chris Stain
Chaz Bojórquez
Says Chris, “It was quite a shock to be there watching a master letterer working his craft. I had just got his new book, The Art and Life of Chaz Bojorquez, in the mail a few days before leaving for my trip. I knew he was in the show but I didn’t know he would be installing as well.”
Chip Thomas took some of the photos that he uses for his street art on the Navajo Reservation where he lives and works. According to Chris, “he mixes his wheatpaste from the same Blue Bird flour that most residents use in baking.”
Steven Gutierrez poses with his assistant in front of his piece.
Special thanks to Chris Stain for sharing this with BSA readers. Learn more about Chris and read his blog on http://www.chrisstain.com/
“516 ARTS offers adventurous programs that address current issues in world culture, presenting innovative and interdisciplinary exhibitions, events and educational activities in a variety of art forms, including visual and literary arts, film, video and music.
STREET ARTS: A Celebration of Hip Hop Culture & Free Expression, a new arts collaboration in October and November, organized in partnership with the ACLU-NM and involving 25 local organizations. It centers around a two-part exhibition at 516 ARTS titled Street Text: Art From the Coasts & The Populist Phenomenon, which examines Street Art and its evolution into an international cultural movement. The project celebrates art in the urban environment and explores issues of freedom of expression. It includes an exciting line-up of related exhibitions, new Downtown murals, spoken word, music, dance, talks, Street Art tours, a Hip Hop Film Festival and a Spoken Word Festival titled SHOUT-OUT: A Festival of Rhythm & Rhyme at multiple venues (November 4-7).
DB Burkeman, Monica LoCascio,
Anonymous Gallery & Rizzoli
invite you to a reception celebrating the release of the book
STICKERS: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art
The authors and several featured artists will be in attendance.
Books will be available for purchase and signing
with DJ Jasmine Solano, DJ Mondee,
DJ Teddy King, DJ DB (Old Skool Set), Ron Morelli (L.I.E.S.),
Marcos Cabral (Runaway & On the Prowl),
& DJ Brennan Green (China Town)
Hosted by Boundless NY
Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Chris Stain, Imminent Disaster, Labrona, Lister, Oculo, Shepard Fairey, Shin Shin, Trice, White Cocoa, and a big piece of freshly baked CAKE.
The guys of Primary Flight, Books and Typoe are hosting street artist Cake while in Miami at The Fountainhead Residency in conjunction with Primary Flight.
Street Art Launch… Join us for the UK launchof our new exhibition – Street Art, Contemporary Prints from the V&Afeaturing works by Banksy, Ben Eine and D*Face on Thursday 7 October, 7:00pm – 10:00pm. Be the first to see this exhibition alongside new works from amazing regional artists. DJing, live animation projection, licensed bar and a live art battle will also be taking place. To reserve your place send an E-mail tojamie.perry@theherbert.orgor just turn up on the night at 7pm!
Contemporary Prints from the V&A
The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is the first venue to host a brand new touring exhibition from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London – Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A. Street art is a diverse, constantly evolving art form, one that moves across the derelict buildings, bus shelters and hoardings of cities around the world. Its roots lie in history, echoing cave paintings and stencilled slogans and images in political campaigning.
The exhibition showcases the work of some of the biggest artists in the street art community such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Sickboy, Pure Evil and D*Face.
The Herbert has also commissioned six emerging artists on the UK street scene to decorate its white walls. Fresh Paint will contain brand new work from Pahnl, SPQR, Lucy McLauchlan, Ben Slow, AsOne and Newso.
To explore another aspect of the street art scene, the Herbert will be showcasing new aerosol art from Birmingham based graffiti artist Mohammed Ali. Ali calls his art, AerosolArabic, a unique fusion of urban graffiti art with traditional Arabic Islamic calligraphy.
Touring exhibition from the V&A.
December 2
Whole Train
See the film and question the director. Part of the Street Art season
Whole Train’s edgy editing, pulsating soundtrack and exploration of the secret universe of the graffiti scene make it a film experience not to be missed. The four protagonists observe the hierarchies, values, rules and codes of this rarely documented scene. But as another crew appears on the scene, the four feel challenged and a creative battle ensues. The director will be available after the performance in person or via Skype to answer questions about how he made the film and its content!
Spaces are limited, booking is advised. Please call 024 7683 2386 to book your place.
A visit with Street Art collective Faile in their Brooklyn studio finds the industrious duo at the center of a small cluster of assistants working on many projects simultaneously.
The air of collaboration is evident in this maze of activity – as well as an appreciation for process. The multi-level ex-industrial building has been reconfigured internally over the last decade to contain and accommodate the adventurous appetites of the childhood buddies who took their Street Art from Brooklyn to the Tate, with many stops along the way.
This doesn’t happen for everybody, so in this first visit of two before their upcoming debut solo show at Perry Rubenstein Gallery on November 4, we looked for clues about the creative and working DNA of Faile. In the ten quick long rotten beautiful years of this century they’ve plowed through many experiments methodically from simple one color small stencils on light posts to now museum quality raft-sized wooden block collages that take months to screenprint, saw, sand, and assemble.
In a pretty remarkable run through the neighborhood and the globe the two Patricks have used aerosoled stencils, screen prints, wheat pastes, roller tags, animated video games, carved wood, vinyl sculptures, spinning prayer poles, even alabaster and tile reliefs in their ever growing collection of work. Cumulatively, the forays have given depth and resilience to their nearly iconic pop imagery.
Since returning from their Lisbon temple installation mid summer, where their piece (two years in the making) became a focal point for that city’s first biennial, the Faile dudes are now making a multitude of these “wood paintings” here in their Brooklyn studio. Among the many silkscreens stacked against walls, rolled canvasses in tubes, and pieces by Banksy and Shepard Fairey adorning the walls, there are open wooden boxes, maybe 20 or 30, full of small wooden printed blocks laying open on tables and shelves.
Brooklyn Street Art: When the blocks get that small they are almost just a texture.
Patrick McNeil: Exactly, or just color palette. It’s so modular you don’t get stuck with anything, you get to explore a lot and if it doesn’t work you just put it back the way that it was or pull it apart.
Brooklyn Street Art:That’s right, you can reverse yourself pretty easily
Patrick McNeil: Yeah you just kind of build a piece and then realize it works better in something bigger – so they are very loose in a sense. It seems very precision-y and thought out but it’s much more looser than it looks.
The selective sampling of images that create the Lingua Faile has steadily grown into a library of totems, symbols, pulp art snippets, typefaces and signifiers set free from their context and recombined with a lucid dexterity, a splash of irony, and an inner voice that says, ‘go for it’. It’s an old-skool visual sampling that doesn’t need autotune for anything, just a hyped sense for combining clips and dropping it on the beat. Talking to them, one sees that it’s a loose intuitive sense that is guiding the process.
Patrick McNeil: And I like what is happening in this one, it’s still coming along. That one, the bottom needs to be worked out. It’s really top heavy. And we’ll kind of pull some colors down. That one is just kind of getting started. This one’s kind of in the middle right now; Just slowly working on blacks and switching things up.
Brooklyn Street Art:So you’ve used a lot of powdered pastels…
Patrick McNeil: Yeah…
Brooklyn Street Art: let’s see, blasting fluorescents…
Patrick McNeil: Well a little bit, yeah. There are not too many fluorescents, well, that pink is probably the only fluorescent. Well, there’s yellow on that one. But none of these have any fluorescent.
Brooklyn Street Art:I’m thinking of the DeLuxx Flux thing you did with Bast.
Patrick McNeil: Yeah Perry made the rule, “no fluorescents”.
Brooklyn Street Art:Oh okay. Well it’s good to have that guidance.
Patrick McNeil: Yeah, we might sneak one in there.
Patrick McNeil: Then we were looking more at abstractions, breaking color groups up, pushing it really far.
Brooklyn Street Art:Yes that’s an unusual combination of the violet and the grey. It looks fresh.
Patrick McNeil: Yeah, it’s kinda switchin’ it up. We kind of like tweak things and leave them up for a while and then switch it out. It’s kind of interesting.
Even though the new book, their first, is coming out to mark the first 10 years that took them from Brooklyn streets to group shows, street art exhibitions, galleries, and museums around the globe, the creative partners are focusing right now on the work at hand. A decade of work, play, and planning together has created a shorthand of cues and patterns and symbols that makes their work move quickly without much strife or discussion. In the studio it’s equal parts industry and creativity – where real world dedication to process and structure adds a loose tension to the spirit of play.
Brooklyn Street Art:Are you both the leader? Or do you take turns being the leader? Is there one who just says “THIS is where we have to go!”
Patrick McNeil: It goes back and forth really.
Patrick Miller: It’s pretty rare when it is “This is the way it has to be and there is no room for discussion”
Brooklyn Street Art:So you don’t come to loggerheads?
Patrick McNeil: No, we’ve known each other since we were 14 so we’ve got a pretty good friendship.
The new block collages, or “wood paintings” started about a year ago and the artists introduced them at Cour Carrée du Louvre for the FIAC in Paris. With a loyal fanbase that hangs on their every print release and microsite revelation, the new pieces were an instant hit and complete success. The scale of pieces at that time seemed manageable and something you might carry as part of your luggage; however some of these new wood paintings for the Rubenstein show might well be snagged by Swoon for walls in one of her Konbit shelters.
Brooklyn Street Art:How do you achieve a sense of balance? You have the professional, personal,… family is growing.. How do you guys achieve a sense of balance regularly?
Patrick Miller: For one, we treat this like a pretty regular thing in the sense of working Monday through Friday, pretty much 9:30 to 6:00.
Brooklyn Street Art:So you have a schedule and a structure.
Patrick Miller: Yeah, so we have structure in that sense. It’s a business after all on some level, and it has to be thought of in that way too. I mean it’s tough some times when we have big shows going on and we’re traveling and trying to not be away from the kids for too long. But you know, I guess I never stopped to think about it. It was nice last year because Patrick and his wife had their second child and we had our first within a few weeks of each other, and so that worked out really well, in the sense of timing-wise. We were able to slow down a bit.
Brooklyn Street Art:You know I was just thinking about the blocks and interactivity. I wonder if you could make a piece where some of the blocks were free and the person who buys it could play with the blocks.
Patrick Miller: Hey, you’re really onto something!
Patrick McNeil: Let’s go upstairs.
Brooklyn Street Art:You’ve already thought of this!
We shuffle eagerly behind our hosts like hypnotized penguins out to the darkened hallway and up some stairs to a high security print room that is pristine and plum full of stuff that might make you cry – things they’ve collected, been gifted, or just like to entertain visitors with. They could drop names but the brothers Faile are more interested to show one of their newest inventions, a wooden tray of blocks that form a puzzle – well, six actually. The lo-tech games perfectly marry our current digital longing for interactivity and the latent one to become a Luddite.
Patrick Miller: (The puzzle boxes) kind of came up in Paris, so we just developed these pieces on the side totally on their own. Then we started thinking there are some situations and combinations that we really liked. Each one is printed on all six sides and you can manipulate it and play with it.
Brooklyn Street Art:Hours of endless pleasure! How do you prevent them from getting damaged?
Patrick McNeil: That’s just part of it.
Patrick Miller: I don’t think they’re going to get too damaged. They are already sanded and their meant to be touched. We’re actually making a site, because it’s really hard to show them.
Brooklyn Street Art:Have you thought of customization on the site so people can select options and order it?
Patrick: Yes we’ve thought of that but effectively you’d have tons of combinations.
Faile wood blocks at the studio (Photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art:Have you thought of doing an app for these so people can play with them?
Patrick: Yeah and that is something that may come out of it. The people that we work with… That would be a fun thing, as a little game. And it’s actually pretty simple because the navigation is just like ‘click’ and it turns it. It should be a fun little site. It’s been fun to do these little micro sites.
Brooklyn Street Art: Right, with a phone’s motion sensor you could roll the blocks around. Wow, you guys are on top of it.
This visit draws to an end with a promise to rejoin shortly before the show to see the progression. But before we go, the new book is placed with slight aplomb on the counter. The one and only copy they’ve received from the printer, we stare at it like cats at an aquarium. The splashy pink raging dog cover says the thing about Faile you might not notice on a casual tour; these guys are ferocious in their desire to succeed and have built a body of work to prove it.
Tentatively peeling back the pages of the book, we see that the first image is the simple stencil of a figure carrying a canvas with his back to you and the words “A Life”, their first name, across the top. Anyone stumbling home drunk through industrial Williamsburg in the late 90’s would remember what curiosity was sparked with this humblest of images scattered everywhere. Later they anagrammed it to form their current name.
Brooklyn Street Art:So “A Life” got converted to Faile, which is just the opposite of what you’ve done!
Patrick Miller: Yeah it was always kind of about growing from it and making the most of all your failures.
Brooklyn Street Art:Did you both design the book?
Patrick Miller: We worked on it with a friend of ours. It was such an undertaking. But it’s good. It’s definitely a pretty personal book in the way that it’s written, very friendly, an enjoyable read. It’s nice just to have the works on print.
Patrick McNeil: It’s nice to see the earlier work, and it’s nice to see how the process goes because it’s chronological as well.
Brooklyn Street Art:Who is going to have seen all of this stuff besides you two? Nobody.
Patrick Miller: It’s a nice way to put it together for yourself too, after 10 years of working on Faile it’s nice to have this.
RE:FORM SCHOOL is a group art exhibition and event series, bringing together hundreds of artists in New York City to send a loud message that the time has come to fix our ailing Public Education System.
Participating artists include: Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Chris Johanson, Jo Jackson, Maya Hayuk, Gary Baseman, Friends With You, HunterGatherer, iO Tillett Wright, Andrew Bannecker and over a hundred more.
The RE:FORM SCHOOL Gallery issues a visual call-to-action, with artists motivating public energy toward true education reform on a local, state and national level. Artists, grass roots activists, performers, celebrity guests, art collectors, musicians, public officials and the general public will display their works or show support at the RE:FORM SCHOOL Gallery in New York City. RE:FORM SCHOOL will be taking over the entirety of the recently closed St. Patrick’s School in SoHo, which is one of the oldest schools in Manhattan.
RE:FORM SCHOOL will be open to the public, Saturday, October 9th, 2010 through Monday, October 11th, 2010 between the hours of 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM and is located at 233 Mott Street, New York City, NY 10012
As part of a string of strikingly personalized spot-jocking intended to send shivers through the New York Street Art scene, artist Specter is brazenly re-crafting other artists pieces, including high profile names like Swoon, Faile, Skewville, and Shepard Fairey.
This discovery side-busted our heads when we saw the radically altered Shepard Fairey piece – a myriad of nested ironies that takes “homage” to a new level. Or is that a “diss”?
The Fairy piece he’s messing with is a 2010 version of his Nubian Signs that appeared on walls during the run-up to his May Day gallery show this spring at the now closed Deitch Projects in Soho. Since that time, the wheat-pasted piece has weathered and faded. As part of Specters reworking of the piece, the portrait of Ice-T, itself criticized for incorporating the iconic image of Che, is now backed up by his fictional TV partner Detective John Munch from Law and Order: SVU. Ice-T has a new posse. Aside from that quizzical pairing that has left Street Art watchers dumbfounded, it’s even more confusing that Fairey’s original was restored before Specter smacked his own piece on top.
“It was totally defaced, you could not make out what was going on anymore,” said Specter this week when reached for comment.
Dissing doesn’t usually include restoration.
Explaining the choice of adding Ice-T’s fictional police partner to the existing Fairey piece, Specter talks about the duality of a celebrity’s image that can produce a cognitive asymmetry.
“Ice-T plays a detective on a very popular crime show that everyone likes so much. (My piece) is kind of poking at these popular figures – who maybe were seen as a visionary. This was a rebellious figure, who is now on prime time television playing a police detective, who he previously was talking about shooting.” According to the show’s website, the rapper-turned-actor “formed the thrash metal band Body Count”, whose “1991 self-titled debut contained the controversial single ‘Cop Killer.’”
In an additional homage to Fairey, Specter appears to have used a copyrighted promotional photo off the internet to interpret Detective Munch – calling to mind the current lawsuit Fairey is defending himself against that accuses him of incorporating copyrighted material to create his famed Obama poster of two years ago.
In each of the cases where Specter is hitting the street art of somebody else, the style and technique closely mimics that of the original artist, creating a counterfeit that so closely resembles their own body of work that it could be confused theirs. This alone opens up a discussion about high-jacking a message, misleading a passerby, or even damaging a reputation.
This new crop of “side-busts” may get him in hot water, but Specter is giddily unapologetic to the other street artists whose work he’s jocking. In an extensive interview he talked about the nature of impermanence implicit in the Street Art scene, his own weariness with attempts at codification of rules that some have endeavored to create for the street, and the fact that many of these pieces already have run for a long time – so they’re fair game according to his rules. For Specter, it is evident that this project is a social experiment as much as an expression of creativity and an attempt to shake open a can of conversation.
Is Specter sort of poking the monkey to see what will happen? Surely he knows that someone is going to see it as a sign of disrespect.
The cheerful Specter replies, “Yes, of course. I also thought it was also kind of good to push the button. It might piss them off, or they might love it or they might hate it. The point is I can do it regardless because of the nature of the work.”
In the Street Art world, as in the graffiti world before it, the unwritten “rule book” (existing mainly in the heads of the participants) pretty clearly marks ones territory. Putting up your piece too close to someone else’s, let alone over part or all of it, can occasion vendettas, retaliation, or at least some trash talk. Never mind that this claim to real estate sometimes refers to a building actually owned by somebody else entirely – a bothersome contradiction that falls to the wayside when street rules are in effect.
“I was talking to another Street Artist who was saying that people were angry with him for spot-jocking and I said that’s what these pieces are about: the ridiculousness of these kinds of ideas. It all harkens back to these ‘rules’ of this anarchistic form of art. Street Art can be this unauthorized kind of art form and people are like, ‘Oh you shouldn’t come within 12 feet of me’. This project talks about that too and it’s supposed to bring up this dialogue. I really think that these issues need to be discussed because people take it very seriously”
Brooklynite Gallery, deep in Bedstuy, creates a certain lively tension with two Street Art tricksters in this duo Euro show.
Parisian C215 continues to exceed expectations, which isn’t easy because he has already set them pretty high as a world class urban stencillist with portraits that glow from within uncannily, summoning more empathy than a Jerry Lewis telethon. The vastly more light-hearted Eelus guards the class impudent role – combining youthful humor, technologic fantasy, and a bit of antsy-lad sexual tension in his starkly popish compositions. A rewarding and rich show, “Paradise Lost” is another solid and smashing Street Art /gallery show that doesn’t compromise either one.
Kid Acne “Stabby Women” New Zine and Video
Word the heck up.The Stabby invasion is here…
STABBY WOMEN – 52 Page Fanzine & Postcard Set, edition of 250
“Stabby Women” – a project of serendipity that started in São Paulo includes the female battalion of over five hundred Stabby Women now patrolling our streets amongst the hustle and bustle of New York, Paris, Barcelona, Munich and London – peering from the bottom of doorways, subtly patrolling their domain.
Learn more about this Kid Acne project directly from the artist here
Countdown to FAME
FAME Festival Begins This Month in Italy
A stunning array of street artists from around the world have been gathering over the summer to do large-scale and high quality installations leading up to the FAME Festival, starting September 25. Included in the lineup are JR , ERICA IL CANE , SAM3 , NUNCA , BLU , OS GEMEOS , BORIS HOPPEK , ESCIF , 108 , DALEK , NICOLA TOFFOLINI , LUCY MCLAUCHLAN , SWOON , SLINKACHU , CYOP E KAF ,DAVID ELLIS ,VHILS , BEN WOLF , WORD TO MOTHER , MOMO , and BASTARDILLA.
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum will host the UK public premiere of
Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A a new touring exhibition
including works by celebrated street artist Banksy…
The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry will be taking inspiration from the street this autumn as it showcases work from some of the best, freshest and most controversial street artists around. The UK premiere of the new temporary exhibition Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A opens on 9 October, 2010 and is completely FREE to see.
This brand new touring exhibition explores the ways street art has moved away from the painted wall into the medium of printmaking, creating distinctive, exciting visuals along the way. Drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s internationally renowned collection of prints, Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A showcases established and emerging street artists, both British and international, including names such as Banksy, D*Face, Eine, Miss Tic, Swoon and Shepard Fairey. A piece of Eine’s work was recently gifted to Barack Obama from David Cameron.
The Herbert has commissioned six emerging artists on the UK street scene to create new works of art that will be displayed in a second complementary exhibition Fresh Paint. Pahnl, SPQR, Lucy McLauchlan, Ben Slow, AsOne and Newso have all created pieces that have not been seen before, and will not be seen together again.
Contextual images showing street art in its original settings have been provided by Very Nearly Almost magazine.
Dominic Bubb, Exhibitions Officer at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum said “Being the first venue to show the V&A’s exhibition is amazing for us especially with the Banksy pieces. We wanted to add an extra element to make this exhibition unique to Coventry so we’ve commissioned six works from up and coming Fresh Paint artists. Add to this the street images supplied from the VNA Magazine and you’ll see that this is a wholly exclusive exhibition that will never be seen anywhere else again.”
Street artists produce work in a variety of media, including the works on paper seen in this exhibition. Street art prints offer the opportunity to collect and preserve this otherwise ephemeral art form, which now moves between the street and the gallery. Street art prints are an interesting development, both within the medium of printmaking and within urban art. Although street artists produce work for exhibitions and galleries, most still continue to work outside the gallery system, or in some cases, creating galleries of their own. This exhibition explores the recurring themes within the genre, such as historic and current subjects, traditional methods of image-making and styles familiar from art history.
The art will also be heading out of the gallery and spilling over onto the street through a range of special events, activities and unique artworks hidden around Coventry. Shoppers in the city centre and the bus station should keep their eyes open and look out for miniature scenes and artworks which can then be photographed and shared on the Herbert’s Flickr site.
Between 11:00am and 4:00pm, on Saturday 11 September visitors can meet some of the artists taking part in the exhibition and see demonstrations of live spraying, painting, pasting and stencilling at Street Art Saturday, they will then have the opportunity to walk away with a FREE new and unique artwork in Take it, it’s yours.
Street art is a growing world-wide phenomenon where artists have taken their art outside of the traditional galleries and exhibitions and created a new platform with which to showcase their work. Walls, doors, derelict buildings, pavements, rivers and railings have all been used creatively to display an artist’s work.
Whilst most street art is produced illegally and without permission, it is a movement which has developed into recognised art form with street artists becoming well-known and respected among their peers and within the art world.
Meet some of the artists taking part in our Street Art exhibition. For one day only we will have live spraying, painting, pasting and stencilling taking place in the University Square, just outside the Herbert
It’s Yours, Take It – FREE
Saturday 11 September
12.30pm
The Herbert is giving visitors the chance to take part in a worldwide phenomenon. It’s Yours, Take It is a great way for people who wouldn’t generally think about owning art to get a piece for FREE, from the artists taking part in Street Art!
Street Art Launch – FREE
Thursday 7 October
7.00pm – 10.00pm
Be the first to see this exhibition from the V&A alongside new works from amazing regional artists , DJing, live animation projection and a serious live art battle, where locals will take on outsiders, and the audience help decide the winner.
10 Minute Tour – FREE
Every Tuesday from 12 October – 11 January
12.30pm
An informal, drop-in tour with a member of our exhibitions team bringing history, context and a little insider information to the exhibition.
Exit Through The Gift Shop – £5
Thursday 21 October
7.00pm – 8.30pm
Exit Through The Gift Shop is the groundbreaking film from Banksy – the world’s most famous graffiti artist; a global phenomenon with a fiercely guarded anonymity. An eccentric Frenchman tries to film and befriend Banksy, only for the artist to turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results.
Our Street – FREE
Monday 25 October – Friday 29 October
10.30am – 12.30pm and 1.30pm – 3.30pm
Hands on drop-in workshops inspired by the area that we live and some of the fantastic techniques used in the Street Art Exhibition.
Suitable for all ages but particularly 5+ and their adults.
Contemporary Arts Conversation – FREE
Thursday 28 October
6.30pm – 7.30pm
Love it or loathe it most people have an opinion on Street Art, and it often comes down to the contentious issue of graffiti. Councils spend thousands of pounds a year removing graffiti, stickers and paste-ups but they are fast becoming one of the greatest forms of modern art. Join us to tackle the thorny issue of art v vandalism.
Arrive at 6.00pm for tea and coffee.
Against the Wall – FREE
Wednesday 3 November
12.30pm – 1.30pm
A talk by acclaimed journalist and photographer William Parry about his stunning book of photos which captures the graffiti and art that has transformed Israel’s wall into a living canvas of resistance and solidarity.
Featuring the work of other artists including Banksy, Ron English, Blu and others, as well as Palestinian artists and activists, the photos express outrage, compassion touching humour, and illustrate the wall’s toll on lives and livelihoods.
Our Street Workshop and Mural Day – FREE
Saturday 6 November
12.00pm – 4.00pm
Using the creations made at today’s and Friday 29 October’s Our Street workshops, families can contribute to a fabulous 3D street scene in a workshop led by local artist Ben Sanderson.
Herbert Illuminations: Street Art – FREE
Tuesday 16 November
12.30pm – 1.30pm
British street artists Eelus and Lucy McLauchlan offer an insight into a project they are involved in to transform a rural village in The Gambia through art workshops and street painting. They aim to bring art to a community the survives through farming, and ultimately encourage tourism and development.
Whole Train – FREE
Thursday 9 December
7.00pm – 9.30pm
Whole train’s edgy editing, pulsating soundtrack and exploration of the secret universe of the graffiti scene make it a film experience not to be missed. The four protagonists observe the hierarchies, values, rules and codes of this rarely documented scene. But as another crew appears on the scene, and the four feel challenged and a creative battle ensues. The Director will be available after the performance in person or via Skype to answer questions about how he made the film and its content!
If you want any further information, images or interviews please contact Sally Johnson on 024 7629 4735 or email sally.johnson@theherbert.org
NOTES TO EDITORS
V&A collects new forms of printmaking, and the museum’s Print Collection continues to add to its existing collection of contemporary street art on paper.
This touring exhibition has been organised by the V&A and all the works are drawn from the museum’s collection.
The exhibition tours various venues in the UK from autumn 2010 until the end of 2012.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book, Street Art: Contemporary Prints (V&A Publishing, 2010).
The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum redevelopment project has been jointly funded by Coventry City Council, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), Renaissance West Midlands, the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) Wolfson Foundation Fund, Advantage West Midlands and English Heritage.
The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum is managed by The Coventry Heritage & Arts Trust. The trust also manages the Lunt Roman Fort and Priory Visitor Centre
The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum has been nominated for the Guardian Family Friendly Award.
The gallery has welcomed over 300,000 visitors through its door in the past year.
The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum’s mission is to bring history and the arts to life for the people of Coventry; this is done through the many projects and initiatives run by the Learning, Social Inclusion and Media departments. For more information please visit www.theherbert.org.
MEDIA RELEASE
WANTED: ART
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum seeks artist donations for
Coventry’s First It’s Yours, Take It event
Donations of art works are being sort by the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum for a one-off event taking place on Saturday 11 September at 12:30pm. It’s Yours, Take It gives visitors to the museum the opportunity to leave with a piece of artwork for FREE.
The Herbert is asking for artists to take part in the worldwide phenomenon of It’s Yours, Take It by donating a piece of their work to the event. Works can be produced on any material including canvas, reclaimed wood and cardboard, they can be of any style, shape or inspiration but need to be of a quality standard.
Work has already been donated by up and coming street artists Pahnl, Newso and AsOne, and has been sent in from as far as St Louis, Missouri and Tehran in Iran.
Donated items will be included either during this one-off day, or, it may be hidden somewhere in Coventry during the Street Art exhibition for passers by to pick up and take home. By submitting pieces of work, artists will be given the opportunity to have their work and name seen by everyone visiting the Herbert on that day.
Work needs to be sent to Dominic Bubb, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Jordan Well, Coventry, CV1 5QP by Friday 10 September.
It’s Yours, Take It is a great way for people who wouldn’t generally think about owning art to get a piece for FREE.
Jamie Perry Head of Marketing and Communications at the Herbert commented ‘This is a great opportunity for local people to get involved with the Herbert, see some ground breaking art and have the chance of walking away with a piece to hang on their walls. The kind and generous donations of artists worldwide ensures that everyone has the chance to become a collector, appreciator and owner of truly inspirational art. I would urge everyone to take advantage of this unique opportunity’.
It’s Yours, Take It has been organised to complement the Herbert’s new exhibition Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A which opens on 9 October. Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A explores the ways street art has moved away from the painted wall into the medium of printmaking, creating distinctive, exciting visuals along the way. Drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s internationally renowned collection of prints, this exhibitionshowcases established and emerging street artists, both British and international, including names such as Banksy, D*Face, Eine, Miss Tic, Shepard Fairey and Swoon.
As an addition to the V&A exhibition, the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum has commissioned six emerging artists on the UK street scene to create new works of art that will be displayed in Fresh Paint. Pahnl, SPQR, Lucy McLauchlan, Ben Slow, AsOne and Newso have all created pieces that have not been seen before, and will not be seen together again.
Contextual images showing street art in its original settings have been provided by Very Nearly Almost magazine.
Spanish artist Gonzalo Borondo, from Valladolid, arrives at LuzMadrid Festival with Redentora, a site-specific installation that continues his steady movement …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
