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Category Archives: Art

POW! WOW! ’15 / Streets: HotTea

Probably most original and unique artist of this year’s POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) was the Minneapolis-based HotTea. Known for his yarn installations on fences, he found a very original and harmless way of expressing himself on the streets. He created this technique after getting in trouble for doing graffiti but still wanting to be able to continue bombing, but not get in trouble. Thinking of his grandma’s knitting skills, he found a way to incorporate this unusual medium in creating public works. His unique style and […]

Openings: Robert Williams – “Slang Aesthetics!” @ LA Municipal Art Gallery

Saturday night marked the triumphant return of Robert Williams to the Los Angeles art scene with his first comprehensive showing in many years. Slang Aesthetics! at the LA Municipal Art Gallery featured paintings, drawings, and sculptural works from the influential painter and and one of the co-founders of Juxtapoz Magazine, and was a testament to the locally-based artist’s talent and the significance of his career. The prime selection of new and recent work must be viewed in person to be appreciated and we will certainly be back multiple time before it […]

Showing: Borondo – “Animal” @ Rex Romae

Gonzalo Borondo’s Animal recently opened on the 5th of February at London’s Newcastle Project Space in Shoreditch, and is now in its final week. Closing on the 26th of February, this elaborate show presented by Rex Romae is a worthy visit for all the street and urban art fans. For this well formulated and executed show, the Spanish artist created eight thematic spaces which work great individually, as well as a whole. These included a cluster of small pieces on glass, large paintings, a haystack installation, glass works with […]

Openings: Haroshi – “Still Pushing Despite The Odds” @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery

On February 19th, Jonathan LeVine Gallery opened Still Pushing Despite The Odds, a new solo by Haroshi (featured) at their location on West 23rd Street. Consisting of mostly large scale works, this is his third show with the showspace in Chelsea, and is a great demonstration of his unique skills and inventiveness. The Tokyo-based artist’s signature technique of creating incredible sculptural works using old skateboards has evolved so much from his initial concepts with this new body of work being great example of his current concepts. By compressing the boards in different […]

Overtime: Feb 16 – Feb 22

More stories from the week that ended Feb 21 (click on bolded words for more information): Landon Metz show opens at James Fuentes. Metz discusses the show with Interview Magazine. RIP: Sheila Caro, artist and wife of Anthony Caro. Michael Asher’s only permanent outdoor work destroyed by man welding a sledgehammer. UN Security Council bans all trade in artifacts from Syria, accusing IS militants of looting to raise funds. Dispute over Cornelius Gurlitt’s will delaying efforts to research works and process restitution cases. Prosecutor in […]

Previews: Phil Hale – “Life Wants to Live” @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Tonight in Chelsea at Jonathan LeVine Gallery (529 West 20th Street), accomplished illustrator and artist Phil Hale will be presenting his first solo stateside in the last four years. Life Wants to Live will feature the London-based artist’s oil on linen paintings as well as drawings in a cohesive body of work in both subject matter and atmospheric language. The new pieces are a testament to the disjointed and uncertain times society is currently faced with, strewn with scenes of disaster and debris fields. Rendered in his distorted aesthetic and with […]

Viewpoints / Openings: Dran — ‘Public Execution’ pop-up show in Soho, London

It’s been some time since Pictures On Walls has organised an art exhibition. The previous one was in December 2013 with the Shok-1 solo show, X-Rainbow. Last year, POW gave up its premises on Commercial Street in East London. With a permanent show space no longer retained, the number of print releases in 2014 restricted to a small handful (by Paul Insect, Maya Hayuk and Invader), and plenty of competitors arriving on the street art scene eager to fill the void, many wondered what the […]

POW! WOW! ’15 / Streets: Sever

One of that artists this year for POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) that painted in a location off the beaten path was the MSK-affiliated Sever. The graffiti writer who made his name in Atlanta and has been known in the past to use his skills in a satirical way (see Street Art Is Dead mural) once again came up with some clever imagery for this wall in Kaka’ako. Take a look some more detailed photos below… Discuss Sever here.

Upcoming: Mehdi Ghadyanloo – “Perception” @ Howard Griffin Gallery

On February 26th, Howard Griffin Gallery will be opening another worthy show in London featuring the art of Mehdi Ghadyanloo. Entitled Perception, the exhibition will explore the darker side of the Iranian artist’s work, when compared to the public murals he has been known for which are sponsored by Tehran’s Beautification Bureau. The new paintings will also feature the optical illusions and geometrical forms which are present in the 100 murals that he has been responsible for which have become part of the visual landscape of contemporary Tehran. Rounding out […]

Previews: Kehinde Wiley – “A New Republic” @ Brooklyn Museum

Today marks the public opening of Kehinde Wiley’s massive mid-career survey entitled A New Republic at the Brooklyn Museum. For this exhibition, the locally-based artist has a selection of Wiley’s World Stage paintings, which started in 2006, many of which feature his signature “street castings” – taking urban youths off the street and posing & dressing them like the upper crust of society in Renaissance and old master paintings. Rounding things out are a serious of bronzes, stained glass paintings, and smaller “altarpieces.” Photo credit: Byron Smith and Chad Batka […]