Monday, November 24, 2008

Street Art is Dead! Long Live Street Art!

Is Street Art dead? Is it too early to mourn? Too late to cry? Peep the commentary from High Snobiety below.

The good folks at SuperTouch weren’t too far off when they mentioned the lack of dynamism over at ArtNews. It is, for lack of better phrasing, the old guard of contemporary art. However, and perhaps for the best (worst?), they’ve come around to the Street Art Movement. “Street Art Gets Hot!” reads November’s cover. Yes, we already knew that. Yes, the proclimation from this publication is like a nail in the coffin of hip and cool.

Negativity aside, the keynote article by Caroline Miranda, A Two Way Street, properly and succenctly presents the core issues surrounding Street Art and its progression within the mainstream art world. For those interested in the constant debates over definition and the arguments over mass market presentation of artists like Swoon, Miranda’s essay is a worthy read. And, surely, like us you’ll see some merit in a piece that is not without fault. (And, there are no excuses to miss it, it’s free online).

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Now Showing | Aakash Nihalani


Interview from the Times with street artist Aakash Nihalani whose work you may have seen in Downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn. Nihalani works with brightly colored tape and creates 3-Dimensional pieces. There is also a video excerpt on the Times' website.

There’s a renegade romance to street art — sprinting from cops, working in the shadows, using an alias, all in the name of art. But Aakash Nihalani, who creates trompe l’oeil 3-D boxes using tape on sidewalks and public surfaces, isn’t so cloak and dagger about things. He takes his time creating installations in broad daylight, makes videos of the process and even uses his real name. (Maybe his nonchalance relates to the fact that his artwork is easily peeled off, unlike spray paint.) His work is currently on view throughout the city and, for the next two Saturdays, at the 17 Frost gallery space in Williamsburg. For those interested in further demystification of his street art, this Saturday Nihalani will be presenting a slide show and answering questions at the gallery.

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/now-showing-aakash-nihalani/

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Graffiti Activists Target São Paulo Biennial

From ArtInfo

SÃO PAULO—Officials at the São Paulo Biennial have stepped up security measures and added metal detectors after a group of graffiti activists vandalized an exhibition, reports Artforum via O Globo. The activists targeted the walls of the empty first floor of the Ciccillo Matarazzo pavilion in Ibirapuera Park, where no artworks were on display, and wrote slogans such as "the empty biennial," "under dictatorship," and "this is art."

The responsible group, known as the “Pichadores,” are renowned in São Paulo for attacking cultural institutions including the academy of fine arts and for leaving their tags across the city. The 40 vandals involved struggled with the guards on duty, but most of them escaped, some by breaking a window in the pavilion. Only two were arrested.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Faile: Lost in Glimmering Shadows Exhibit

The Brooklyn based Street Art collective Faile is having their Lost In Glimmering Shadows Exhibition at Lazarides Gallery through November 16th.

Lazarides Gallery
Lilian Baylis Old School
Lollard Street
London SE11 6PY

Friday, November 7, 2008

Rivington Arms to Close


From ARTINFO

NEW YORK—Lower East Side fixture and contemporary art gallery Rivington Arms is shutting down in January, reports Artforum. Co-owners Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent have announced their decision to part ways after returning from the Frieze Art Fair in London this past month. The partners insisted that the closing is unrelated to the current state of the economy. “It had to do with where each of us wanted to take the gallery,” Bent said. “We are not ending because we are getting crushed out.”

The gallery, started in 2001 by the two Sarah Lawrence College alums, has helped launch the careers of young artists like New York–based art collective Lansing-Dreiden and the enfant terrible duo Dan Colen and Dash Snow. Works have gone on to be placed in prestigious shows, such as the Whitney Biennial, and with notable private collectors, like advertising mogul Charles Saatchi.

Although the business relationship between Marden and Bent has fizzled, the two have said they will “remain close friends.”