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Category Archives: Street & Urban Art

Recap: Margaret Kilgallen – “That’s Where The Beauty Is” @ Bonnefanten Museum

Following showings at the Aspen Art Museum and MOCA Cleveland, a retrospective of Margaret Kilgallen’s work entitled That’s Where The Beauty Is concluded shortly before Christmas after a seven month run at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht. The exhibition presented a comprehensive survey of the work of the artist who has become closely associated with San Francisco’s Mission District.  Visitors to the museum are first met by Jeff Canham and Signpainters & Co’s re-creation of the Slaughter mural which Kilgallen painted with her husband Barry […]

Basel Week Miami ’21 / Recap: Art Basel

This week in South Beach, over 268 galleries from 35 countries showcasing works by more than 4,000 artists converged on the Miami Beach Convention Center for North America’s premiere international contemporary art fair. This year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach is the first in-person gathering since 2019 with the pent-up demand leading to robust sales. Take a look at some of the works the caught our eye in the photos below…

Showing: Sebas Velasco – “A New Error” (London)

This week, the Spanish artist Sebas Velasco opened his first solo exhibition in London entitled A New Error. The show presents 16 new works on canvas and wood which capture forgotten urban environments at night and into daybreak. Velasco’s style, with its aversion to idealism and the picturesque, contains references to the Realism of both Gustave Courbet, who was at the forefront of the movement in the 19th century, and his own compatriot Antonio López García. Both Courbet and García sought to capture the visible […]

Studio Visits: Sickboy – “Dreamworlds POV” @ Mirus Gallery (SF)

Returning to San Fransisco next Friday for his second exhibition with Mirus Gallery, Sickboy (interviewed) will be presenting a new series of paintings and sculpture entitled Dreamworlds POV. Arrested Motion paid a visit to the Bristol-based artist’s studio, which is housed in a former Victorian church, to see what he has in store. Sickboy’s installation at the Vanguard museum show (covered) takes viewers from a 2D painting, through a 3D sculpture and onwards to an ethereal 4D otherworld. This new body of work builds on that […]

Showing: “Vanguard” @ M-Shed

Currently midway through a four month run at Bristol’s M-Shed Museum, Vanguard explores the development of the city’s graffiti and street art scene and its global impact from the early 1980s until today. The exhibition opens with the story of the birth of graffiti in the city and how the spark lit by Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja and the Z-Boys was kindled into a flame at the Dugout youth club in Barton Hill. That story has been told many times before, both in print and […]

Showing: Mr Jago – ‘Imbolc’ @ Unit London

Returning for his third exhibition with Unit London, Mr Jago is currently presenting a new body of work entitled Imbolc. The name is derived from the traditional Gaelic festival which marks the beginning of spring and the large-scale canvases, which strike a deliberately hopeful tone, are a celebration of renewal and new beginnings. Imbolc falls at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and there is a sense that the show’s optimism for brighter days to come is grounded in the realistic […]

Showing: Miss Van – ‘Pale Moonlight Muses’ @ Dorothy Circus (London)

Currently on view at Dorothy Circus’ recently opened London space, Pale Moonlight Muses presents a series of sensuous portraits by leading street artist Miss Van. The paintings are smaller and more intimate than those which we have become accustomed to seeing from the Toulouse-native. The seductive finish to the paintings and the blue velveteen walls on which they are hung have the effect of physically drawing the viewer in closer to the works which, in turn, triggers a heightened emotional response and connection. The canvases range […]

Openings: “KAWS: WHAT PARTY” @ Brooklyn Museum

Tonight in New York, the Brooklyn Museum opened KAWS: WHAT PARTY to the public, featuring more than 100 works including drawings, paintings, sculptures, smaller collectibles, furniture, and larger-than-life COMPANION figures. The comprehensive exhibition is surprisingly the Brooklyn-based artist’s first major museum survey in New York, touching on the highlights of his 25 year career from his early rarely seen graffiti drawings and notebooks, to examples his now famous xx-eyed characters painted on fashion ads in phone booths and bus shelters, to the continuation of this figurative work into the fine […]

Streets: Banksy (Bristol)

Delivering an early Christmas present to the people of Bristol, Banksy has painted a new work depicting a sneezing pensioner in the neighborhood of Totterdown. The area acquired its name because the steepness of the hills make it appear that the terrace houses are tottering, or tumbling, down the precipitous slope towards the River Avon below. The piece itself is located on Vale Street which at 22° is the steepest residential street in the UK and the native West Country artist has played with these angles […]

Streets: Banksy (Nottingham)

Making good use of a prop, Banksy has struck again with some covert art-making in the city of Nottingham in the UK. Stenciled in behind a dilapidated bike with a missing wheel, a girl can be seen using the said tire sans spokes as a hula hoop. Painted on the wall of a salon on Rothesay Avenue, the whimsical piece has already attracted local vandals to spray over it despite being protected by perspex and being cleaned multiple times. Photo credit: @mikespencer58, @mary_christina90, @rossswift, and […]