In this newest installment of our Art Focus, we introduce the work of British artist Mitch Griffiths. His style is inspired by Old Master paintings, but he cleverly subverts what he has learned to depict issues that affect modern society. The composition, light, and poses that draw their influence from his studies have now been intermingled with powerful imagery that relates to concerns of the 21st century. For those interested in seeing his work in person, he is represented by the Halcyon Gallery in London where […]
More stories from the week ended Aug 4: Jerry Vile makes statement in Detroit using giant Crisco can next to Joe Louis fist sculpture. The city removes the street piece quickly, unfortunately. Ashes found in stove in owned by mother of suspected Rotterdam art thief contained fragments of paintings. NYPD attempts to censor anticipated Park Avenue art project about free speech. James Franco criticizes LA for losing Jeffrey Deitch, who resigned himself from his position at MOCA. Los Angeles Downtown News wants Jeffrey Deitch out […]
The prolific Aryz is at it again – this time in Norway for the Oslo Triennial of Mural Art. Featuring the young Spanish street muralist’s signature faded palette, the surreal piece was painted on the side of a multi-story building and featured a skeletal man and a young girl. Take a closer look at the wall below… Photo credit: Front image – burt_barkrakk, Full image – the artist. Discuss Aryz here.
Chinese artist DALeast (interviewed), was back in Rochester, NY, last week. Almost exactly one year since last time he visited the city (covered), he once again left a recognizable mural for the Wall Therapy festival. This time, he worked on a big 6 meters high wall by 30 meters long approximately, and created an image that fits beautifully with his dynamic 3D style. This image of an eagle taking off and picking up the wave, while the boat that is almost capsized by it looks like it’s […]
Polish artists Sainer and Bezt, better known as Etam Cru, recently painted another fantastic mural on the streets of Richmond, for the local Richmond Mural Project. After gracing the grey, dull walls of many Eastern European cities with their bright, colorful images, they confirmed their reputation with another beautiful untitled mural for their fans in the US. Known for their surrealistic images, Sainer and Bezt made a piece showing a naked girl, sitting in a jar filled with unripe strawberry jam, accompanied with their familiar […]
Baltimore based artist and muralist, Gaia, is very busy this summer traveling and painting murals. After finishing a couple of walls in Montreal, he recently visited Rochester for the Wall Therapy project, Richmond for the Richmond Mural project, and Baltimore for the Wall Hunters project. Always focused on the social problems of the places he’s working at, especially housing issues, he created some pieces that are already triggering controversy online and within the local population. Here is what the artist himself has to say about his latest […]
It’s time to take a look at some worthy art-related videos in another one of our Rewind features. First up is an interview with Jeffrey Deitch as he speaks about art and his time in LA, created before word came out that he is stepping down as MOCA’s director. Other videos to watch include: A video about Matt Small and his show at Nelly Duff. Kickstarter video for Art Story. Trailer for Jay Z’s Picasso Baby on HBO (via Hyde or Die). Amanda Ross-Ho discusses […]
More stories from the week ended July 28: Shepard Fairey full-wrapped buses courtesy of L.A. Fund unveiled in Los Angeles. RIP: Walter De Maria, who died of a stroke at age 77. RIP: Ronnie Cutrone, who died at the age of 65. What happened during MOCA’s board meeting in which Jeffrey Deitch resigned. Christopher Knight guests on Air Talk, discussing the Deitch resignation. William Poundstone provides the local perspective on why Deitch did not work out in LA. A look at what Deitch may be […]
Ludo (interviewed) recently finished this huge mural in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, also known as arrondissement des Gobelins, titled Mutant With Eagle Head. As usual, the French artist has created another one of his signature mutant characters. These are strongly influenced by the flyers and skate deck imagery from the late 80’s early 90’s that the artist grew up with. Instead of going towards nano levels, the artist reversed the process a bit, and the result is this giant butterfly mutant, with scorpio like tail, humanoid rib cage […]
Muralist Phlegm recently travelled to Ibiza for this year’s Bloop Festival which has just gotten started. Like his effort last year for the event held on the popular island in the Mediterranean Sea, the Sheffield-based street artist was given lots of space to work with. He didn’t waste much of it as he painted a huge robot appearing to examine bits of his own brain, but a closer look reveals some of his signature characters in CONTROL – the theme of this year’s festival. Other […]
It’s been a while since we had a streets round up here on AM so we have some catching up to do. Leading off things for recent street activity around the world is this new mural (photo via SAN) from Conor Harrington (interviewed) in Rochester, New York. The wall was painted for the ongoing WALL\THERAPY festival and features the UK-based painters signature mix of colonialism, abstraction, and photorealism. Other notable murals include work from: Proembrion – Poland (source), Ericailcane x Bastardilla – Italy (source), Herbert Baglione x SAN […]
Portland based artist Zach Johnsen is busy preparing for his upcoming exhibition entitled The House of Uncommons. The body of work created for the show explores an alternate parliamentary governing system comprised of spirit figures existing outside the periphery of mankind. Each painting depicts a figure within this fantasy system of rules with its own unique title, identity and powers of legislation. Johnsen’s dynamic paintings have pretty much always been executed on paper, but his new work for the exhibition is comprised entirely of paintings on wooden panels. […]
