After turning down every media outlet so he can go on the Howard Stern show, artist David Choe talks jerking off in a Japanese prison, naturally. Then, about the time Facebook paid him for murals in stock that’s now worth more $200 million and how much of it is left. Listen. Read more »
After pressure from local artis, the Los Angeles City Council has agreed to revise its 2002 law banning murals that has been used to indiscriminately buff 300+ works, whether they’ve been done with the wall owners’ permission or not. Read more »
SABER, a California-based graffiti artist, dispatched skywriting planes over Downtown Los Angeles earlier today to challenge the city’s controversial moratorium on murals. New laws that were meant to curb the proliferation of advertisements and signage, have instead been used by officials to basically make it illegal for artists to paint large scale works, specifically if they involve spray paint and regardless if they have the owner’s permission. Read more »
According to a Barcelona city spokesperson, “The law regards graffiti as something that soils the public space, devalues our heritage and visually degrades the urban fabric.” So why are officials fining businesses that hire artists to paint murals over tag-covered gates? Evidently, they can’t tell the difference and for them, any image created with spray paint constitutes graffiti. Even these! (Photo: enrotllat)
This weekend, I stopped by Houston Street and briefly spoke to Kenny Scharf while he took a quick break from painting his mural, which wasn’t sketched out beforehand. “I started with the red nose, and then just started filling in the spaces,” he said. The whole piece should be finished by no later than Tuesday and when asked if he thought graffiti writers would vandalize it, Scharf didn’t sound too worried. Read more »
RCN cable in the East Village doesn’t care about your public art nostalgia, it’s their building and if they want to paint over a mural of President Obama by Chico they can. And so they did. Although, their spokesman characterized the art a little bit differently, telling DNAinfo: “The bottom line is the building had illegal graffiti on it and we cleaned it up — period.” Read more »
There’s always been a thin line between sanctioned “graffiti” and relevancy, but there’s something kinda interesting about the “Subway Art Project.” A spray painting art collective has been putting up murals around NYC, with permission, that pay homage to the train writers of yesteryear reports the New York Times. The above “Joan of Arc” piece is a recreation of SEEN’s famous “Hand of Doom” masterpiece (see below). Read more »
TWIST and company finished the mural that is likely to breed outrage, anarchy and cliché news narratives questioning whether graffiti is art. (Photo: Marina Galperina/ANIMALNewYork)
Will Russians dive onto the rails or bludgeon fellow passengers over literary murals? Russian psychologists are fearful of Moscow metro’s illustrations based on classic Dostoevsky passages, such as: “Can it be, that I shall really take an ax, that I shall strike her on the head, split her skull open… that I shall tread in the sticky warm blood, break the lock, steal and tremble; hide, all spattered in the blood… with the ax… Good God, can it be?” Read more »
Artist Jay Shells swung by Chelsea last night and forwarded over some photos highlighting more of Futura’s contribution to the massive Os Gêmeos mural at P.S. 11. Stay tuned.
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