Another weekend, another Rewind feature here on AM. Leading off our summary of videos this week is the inspiring story (from The Guardian) of Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat, who founded Syria’s first satirical weekly, Ad Domani. In August 2011, he was attacked by Bashar al-Assad’s militia who broke his hands to stop him from drawing Assad. Farzat was later awarded the European parliament Sakharov prize for freedom of thought. Olek sells cellphones to pay her legal bills (via Hyperallergic). Abstract five years old child painter, Aelta Andre […]
This week’s Art Focus is on Belgian photographer Frieke Janssen. Among her many projects, one in particular is titled simply Smoking Kids, which was inspired after seeing a YouTube video of a chainsmoking Indonesian toddler. She states “The video highlighted the cultural differences between the east and west, and questioned notions of smoking being a mainly adult activity. Adult smokers are the societal norm, so I wanted to isolate the viewer’s focus upon the issue of smoking itself. I felt that children smoking would have a surreal […]
Expanding on our recent studio visit to give you a look on how Nick Walker crafted his The Morning After Paris canvas, we move even closer into creative process as the anticipated release of the print this Saturday at 2pm draws near (available only at Opera Gallery in Paris). So, if you’re in France get in cue early to get your shot at this super limited edition. If you’re outside of Paris, you still have a shot by emailing info (at) theartofnickwalker (dot) com with ‘TMA Paris […]
It looks like Phlegm, like many street artists, is taking advantage of the good weather to get up on as many walls as he can. Not long after a series of Waterways, he now has a couple more to add, this time in Bantry, West Cork (Ireland). Included was this sweet submersible, structured after a fish, piloted by his characters. Discuss Phlegm here.
After seeding his home city of Lisbon with multiple murals (here, here, here & here) and opening a show (covered) there at Vera Cortês Art Agency, Vhils (filmed) is now in Paris preparing for his solo at Magda Danysz opening June 23rd. Not only will fans be able to check out some of the Portuguese street artist’s new styrofoam works, he has also worked on multiple walls while in town. Here are some photos of two of the more interesting ones – one with mimicking some […]
It’s time for another Rewind feature where we collect videos from the week that might be of some interest to our readers. Leading things off is some footage of the time Conor Harrington (interviewed) spent in Grottaglie, working on murals (part 1 & part 2) for this year’s FAME Festival. Looks like Conor also found time to catch up on eating some good Italian food as well… Other videos: Kalup Linzy performance during the 2012 Whitney Museum Art Party. Are you a Hipster? Aaron Young – […]
We start this weeks roundup of street activity with this new fun piece from Dabs Myla. As you can see, their choice of subject matter was quite interesting and can be summed up by their description – “Poop Shooting, Vampire Dicking, and Crack Smoking.” The piece was painted for Roger Gastman for his backyard (thus the Orioles reference). Other pieces of note last week include work from Hyuro (Spain), Sam3 (Spain), Kenor (Spain), Free Humanity (Hollywood), Gaia (New York), Phlegm (UK), Liqen (Japan), Jaz (Norway), […]
Stories of the week: Leopold Museum agrees to settle with claimants to keep Schiele painting that was stolen by the Nazis. A Picasso lithograph is one of the items missing after raging CA mansion party ends. Update: Recovered. RIP Wayne Roberts, aka Stay High 149. Federal officials investigating the 1990 Gardner Museum heist plan public awareness campaign. Jerry Saltz’s thoughts on Documenta 13. David Shirgley’s gallery decides not to show his bin Laden piece at Art Basel. Dubai discovers that there are more components than […]
For this week’s Art Focus, we take a look at the work of German painter Eckart Hahn. The self-taught and ever-evolving artist works in acrylics with his most recent series featuring portraiture of animals paired with synthetic materials. For those interested, today is the last day of his showing at Pablo’s Birthday Gallery in New York entitled Ancient Light. Via Beautiful / Decay.
Even though they typically combine their artistic powers (like for their their solo in Los Angeles at the end of 2011) to produce their colorful and surreal works, Ukrainian duro Interesni Kazki split up for some recent street murals at different sides of the Atlantic. While Waone (above) was in Lublin, Poland for the Europejska Fundacja Kultury Miejskiej Festival, Aec (below) was in Mexico for some individual work as well as collaborations with Saner and Sego. Discuss Interesni Kazki here.
While in town for our City of Fire exhibition, Nick Walker (interviewed) also found time to paint a mural for the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica. Commissioned by Branded Arts, the project brought a little flavor from across the pond to the West Side as Walker painted and stenciled one of his vandal characters unleashing a butterfly. Photo credit: JaiPhoto. Discuss Nick Walker here.
In memorial of the sad passing of Adam Yauch (MCA) of the Beastie Boys, we have already shown you murals from AROE, The Entree Lifestyle Crew, and Shepard Fairey. Now comes word of another piece (from the same series as the one Shep did) by Eric Haze to honor the late musician. In his words – “I was recently asked to create a memorial piece to honor MCA as part of the billboard project currently going on in LA. The piece just went up yesterday at […]
