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Category Archives: Street & Urban Art

Previews: “Roll Call” @ L.A. Louver

Tonight in Los Angeles at L.A. Louver, Gajin Fujita has put together a heavy lineup for a group show entitled Roll Call. With many of the original graffiti crews as well as some of the succeeding generations of artists represented, fans will be in for a treat. Participants include Chaz Bojorquez, David Cavazos (Big Sleeps), Fabian Debora, Ricardo Estrada, Alex Kizu (Defer), Patrick Martinez, Retna, Jose Reza (Prime), Jesse Simon, Slick. Fujita further explains – “Graffiti gave us a voice and a sense of identity. It was […]

Introducing: The Liberia Project // Apartial

Apartial is an Dublin-based platform with a mission to bring creativity to everyone and encourage people to join the creative community by hosting projects. With this in mind they recently organized The Liberia Project together with a team of local surfers in West Africa. After enduring an 11-year civil war and the recent Ebola crisis, the Liberian people needed a new start, a chance to begin a new chapter. The Apartial team thought of a project with a premise that art could be the catalyst to help […]

Kickstarter: Konbit Shelter Project

The Konbit Shelter Project has launched a Kickstarter campaign to support their ongoing work with a community in Haiti. Created by a group of engineers, architects and artists, including Swoon (interviewed), who wanted to make an ongoing commitment to work with the local community to help with reconstruction efforts following the devastation wrought by the earthquake which struck the country in 2010, the project takes its name from the Creole term for the traditional form of cooperative labor which is common throughout Haitian agriculture and society. […]

ComplexCon ’16: Dabs Myla

After a first look at the inaugural ComplexCon, held at the Long Beach Convention Center, we now will focus in on a few things that caught our eye. Like their recent high profile projects at Times Square in New York, with Modernica in Los Angeles, and for the MTV Movie Awards, the Dabs Myla created an immersive installation for the attendees to enjoy. Featuring sculptural as well as painted elements featuring their signature retro cartoonish characters, the area from the two featured a steady stream of people wandering […]

Overtime: Nov 7 – Nov 13

More stories from the week that ended Nov 13 (click on bolded words for more information): Images for Aaron Garber-Maikovska’s Jizzle exhibition and performance up on High Art’s website. RIP: Giles Waterfield, who passed away at the age of 67. RIP: Ann Tower, who passed away at the age of 65 after suffering an aneurysm. RIP: Arnold Mesches, who passed away at the age of 93. Sharbat Gula (green-eyed girl in Steve McCurry photo) convicted and deported from Pakistan to Afghanistan. The art world reacts to Donald Trump’s […]

Openings: 1010 – “Eversion” @ Hashimoto Contemporary

Last weekend, Hashimoto Contemporary welcomed in the Hamburg-based 1010 for a solo showing at their San Francisco space entitled Eversion. Mirroring his aesthetic on the streets, the German artist created a series of colorful portals, formed with graduated layers of paint on acrylic glass and mounted on aluminum dibond. When seen in public, 1010’s work has a powerful illusory effect, making the viewer see a large crevice or hole on the side of a building. This same effect, to a lesser extent, can be experienced from his gallery pieces […]

Streets: D*Face // The Unexpected 2016 (Fort Smith) – Part I

Following up on a mural he painted last year for the The Unexpected event in Fort Smith, Arkansas, D*Face (interviewed) returned for a companion piece. For this year’s edition (curated again by Just Kids), the British artist painted a Indian warrior pulling back on her bow which pairs nicely with 2015’s cowboy themed piece. Entitled Warpaint, this wall will soon be supplemented by an impressive installation (more on that later in Part 2). Photo credit: Just Kids, The Unexpected, D*Face, and @eltipoese. Discuss D*Face here.

KAWS x Nike: New York Made // Stanton Street Courts

Nike recently unveiled their collaboration with KAWS that kicks off their New York Made campaign. The Brooklyn-based artist designed the graphics for the playing surface for Stanton Street Courts (In Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Manhattan’s Lower East Side), two side by side full basketball courts. He explains – “I always think about when I was young and the things I had interaction with, whether it was skateboard graphics or magazines, and how art reached me. I’ve been conscious of how my work disseminates and reaches people. It […]

Showing: Revok – “SYSTEMS” @ Library Street Collective (Los Angeles)

Only showing through the end of the week is SYSTEMS from Revok at Library Street Collective’s new permanent location in Los Angeles. The collection of 17 new works see the infamous graffiti writer move in a more abstract direction while still maintaining an intriguing conceptual connection with his time on the streets. The exhibition marks a turn away from the increasingly complex wood assemblages he has become known for while heading towards a new freedom of working on canvas. Refreshing old concepts from his artistic roots, he has created […]

ComplexCon ’16: First Look

This past weekend, our friends at Complex held their first ever “pop culture world fair” in Los Angeles and it was pretty spectacular. Entitled ComplexCon, the inaugural convention gathered some of the top creative minds in the respective fields of fashion, music, culinary fare and of course art to create a unique two day event to satisfy even the most adventurous individual. The staff at AM had the run of the Long Beach Convention Center and there were more events & exhibits than we could […]