North Sixth Street, Brooklyn

Mostly Memory Exhibit at Thinkspace Gallery

Thinkspace Gallery is presenting, "Mostly Memory," a two person show featuring new works by Armsrock from Denmark, and Elbow Toe, from New York. The show will opens December 12th at 7pm and runs through January 2nd.

Thinkspace Art Gallery
4210 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 913-3375

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).

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/

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.

Prince Street

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