WOW NOW Exhibition

Shoreditch Underground is delighted to announce the former station come gallery’s first ever Group Show ‘Wow Now’. In the dark depths of a former London Underground station, emerging International Artists collaborate to create an alternate debut exhibition.

Referencing roots of the subway graffiti culture of old, against the Back drop of East London’s’ former Shoreditch Tube Station; these young makers challenge themselves and the space with a pop explosion that pulsates with punk tendencies. Regardless of Environment, location or personal circumstance this group share a desire to document contemporary living and society in all its twisted glory.

Inspired by Art history painting, Fashion, Comic books, Graffiti to Cartoons, Drugs & Music; these displaced Artists are constantly rewriting their own history with often Machiavellian results. Amalgamations of sculpted paint, glue, collage, photography and everyday ephemera are fused to form a momentary attempt to survey modern society.

Featuring: ALEX DAW (UK), ZTY 82 (Germany) BEN WELLER (UK), STEPHEN TOMKINS (USA, PERFEKT WORLD (Austria), SID ONE (UK), PAUL BUSK (Austria), NOMAD (Germany), TED RIEDERER (USA), JAMES JESSOP (UK)

Post Wow Now London, the exhibition will travel to other European Capitals throughout the year. This show promises to be a truly special, one off experience, one definitely not to be missed. To receive an invitation to the exclusive Private View on June 1st 2011 please contact info@nowtspecial.co.uk

Exhibition Open June 2nd-9th

KIDULT ITW "ILLEGALIZE GRAFFITI"

ilLegalize graffiti
filmed in paris by steve project

This second clip sees Kidult in LA tagging over some of JR's work for MOCA "art in the street" exhibition.

Faile — Puzzle Box Series

Brooklyn-based multimedia artists FAILE present the Puzzle Box series, a new body of work that is the culmination of three years of experimentation, and a pioneering mobile app. The modular wooden cubes and boxes reveal a new process of deconstructing and reconfiguring imagery and narratives. And taken together these projects explore new forms of abstraction and connections between artist and audience through digital media.

“The idea to build modularity into our practice was inspired by kids wooden block puzzle games from the turn of the last century. They were so full of potential, and a natural continuation of work we were already doing with our ‘apple boxes’ — FAILE

Each functional puzzle box features 88 six-sided hand-painted cubes and comes in a custom case. Each and every piece is unique, and the works can be configured in almost limitless scenarios.

This aspect of interactivity and play is synonymous with FAILE, stemming from their enduring commitment to create work that can be enjoyed by everyone. Always encouraging the viewer to experience and understand their creative process, the Puzzle Box series, with its physical interactivity, challenges the line between artist and the viewer, and suggests new avenues of artistic expression through mobile technology.

The “Puzzle Box” story continues digitally at www.failepuzzleboxes.com or grab the App at the iTunes Store, where viewers can interact with the concept, giving further life to the public aspect of their work.

Images ©Faile 2011

DAYS by Steve Powers

Days is a short film celebrating Steve Power’s aka ESPO's awesome 100th Daily Metaltation.

Streetfest 2011 — Shoreditch

Following three successful years, and with a rep to contend with, STREETFEST is back this weekend with a one-day urban powered extravaganza! Purveyors and supporters of urban culture in the UK, Streetfest uniquely combines a kaleidoscope of interactive entertainment through music, live performance art, film, fashion and sports all under one roof.

The event will see a whole host of artists in attendance with a collection of over 20 taking part in live demos, battles and screenings throughout the day, presenting their creative vision and style. Blam, probably best known for his Oscar the Grouch character in Shoreditch (council have cleaned up efficiently!), has contributed to projects with The Royal Albert Hall. Also sharing walls, canvases and digital space will be Andy Council, Candy Flo, Elfin, Jess Douglas, Richt, Sainty and 45RPM.

On the main stage Secret Wars, the worlds premier live art battle will be stating the rules and setting the clock; two teams, 90mins, black paint on white walls, no sketching, an invisible middle line with artists either side - overseen by judges and the audience and using a decibel reader!

Alsong the live art they will be featuring some of the UK’s top collectives including; music, film, Dance plus, in-line skate, BMX, Fixed Gear and skateboard demonstrations plus their very own street market. As always this is not an event to be missed.

The full lineup of artists and all the other planned events can be seen over on the Streetfest website and tickets are £10 from Ticketweb and are on sale now.

Pam Glew — Beautiful and Damned

This evening sees the opening of post-urban pop artist, Pam Glew’s thrid London solo entitled 'Beautiful and Damned at Blackall Studios. The shows title, taken from F. Scott Fitzgeralds 1922 novel, explores the listless lives of moneyed society during the Jazz Age. This captivating era, drenched in glamour yet tinged with tragedy is the decadent setting for this extraordinary series of work. The exquisitely beautiful movie starlets, society icons and characters on display capture the spirit of the age, who are caught in the unforgiving glare of the limelight and some sadly burn out before their time. As Pam states "the tragedy amongst the beauty is what has inspired this show, the sharp contrast between a blessed life and one that ends in scandal, hedonism or destitution".

For this latest series, Pam Glew uses found materials from the same period. This is the first time she has incorporated antiques into her work. Each piece is deconstructed, dyed, and repeatedly bleached until a portrait emerges from the cloth. Rather than add pigment, Glew takes away the pigments in layers, creating ghostly figures, which appear almost woven into the cloth. The iconic portraits, include such characters as Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis and Louise Brooks, who define the true spirit of the age.

The exhibition houses a new body of large-scale work on vintage and antique fabrics and two new small editions on aluminium. Downstairs in the gallery space, there will be rare and limited edition prints not previously seen.

PRIVATE VIEW Tuesday 24th May RSVP only. 6pm - 10pm. RSVP for this event is essential
Please email richard@maugermodern.com to be placed on the guest list.
Exhibition Wed 25th - Sun 29th May 10am - 6pm

Blackall Studios | 73 Leonard Street | London | EC2A 4QS

M-City — Out of Something Video

New mural painted by artist M-City in Wrocław Poland. May 2011.

VIDEO: shot, edited, graded- OTECKI
MUSIC: Insightful-Question All Things

Mr. Penfold — Jolly Blokes Print

Cambridge artist Mr. Penfold has just dropped a new screen print. The 'Jolly Blokes' edition is a 4 colour silkscreen print on somerset 300gsm Velvet in a small edition of just 20 and 62 x 50.5cm in size.

The new print as well as some other tasty printed goods are available from the artists online shop here. It also looks like Mr. Penfold has been getting up recently in London hitting up a number of shutters and trucks with Malarky, Sweet Toof and Billy. The guys over at Hooked Blog have the pictures and the story here.

Inkfetish - Dep - Belin - Tizer Mural

Check out this time-lapse video featuring Inkfetish - Dep - Belin - Tizer painting the outside of East London's Village Underground for the Cypher Project which took place at the venue earlier this month.

Hush "Twin" Opening at New Image Art

"TWIN" featuring the artwork of HUSH.
Opening Reception: Saturday May 21, 2011 (7-10pm)
Exhibition Runs: May 21 - June 18, 2011

Hush returns to Los Angeles with a new collection of work reflecting his unique blend of street and cross-cultural aesthetics. Playing primarily with the idea of duality, the exhibition is a carefully calibrated experience of Twin paintings—15 mixed-media woks on canvas. Using the symbolic subject matter of the female form, Hush has produced a large-scale installation in which the gallery walls capture the essence of “action painting” and “pure expressionism” along with traditional elements of fine art.

New Image Art Gallery | 7908 Santa Monica Blvd. | West Hollywood, CA 90046

Artists on Artists - Group Show

What happens if you ask an artist 'which artists do you most admire and influence you?' The response you'll get can be quite revealing. Some will take us safely back to long-dead masters; others may find some obscure contemporary name to send us straight to Google: yet more could emphatically state that they stay away from others art altogether, lest it infects their own; a few may name some close colleagues and friends who have inspired and encouraged them. Whatever the reaction, it invariably speaks volumes about the delicate nature of individual creativity.

Signal Gallery have asked this very question of a group of very distinctive artists and the answer will come in the form of portraits of their artistic 'heroes'. The artists involved are Guy Denning (whose idea the show was), Shepard Fairey, Byrogplyphics, Ray Richardson, Dale Grimshaw, Case, Jef Aerosol, Caroline Burraway, Fran Williams, Robert Sample, James Mylne and Joram Roukes.

Each artist, in their different styles, has made a strong contribution to portraiture and figurative painting and the combination of their work, alongside the passive presence of their 'victims' will make a fascinating show. Some of the artists will be painting each other, but other names that have been mentioned are a very motley crew - Bruegel, Peter Howson, Jasper Johns, Antony Micallef and Samuel Beckett.

Preview evening: 2nd June 2011
Open to the public: 3rd June - 18th June

Signal Gallery | 32 Paul Street | London | EC2A 4LB

Neon Sneaker Street Art

Cool little video we got sent over on email.

Hush - Solo Show in LA

"Twins" is the title of the upcoming solo show in LA for the UK street artist Hush which will be opening next week May 21st at New Image Art Gallery.

Having originally trained as a graphic designer and illustrator at Newcastle School of Art and Design, Hush’s art practice has taken him throughout Asia, Europe and the USA, while simultaneously developing his prominence as a contemporary artist. His immersion in a diversity of cultures has informed his work largely recognized for its portrayal of the amaranthine of the female form while infusing cross-cultural influences and variant genres within contemporary art. A distinguishing facet of Hush’s work is the complexity of his technique that combines various street approaches with traditional art practices. Through the use of opposing themes and aesthetics, the artist presents contemporary depictions of traditional portrait and figurative imagery.

The opening reception for the show is on Saturday 21 May 2011, 7 — 10pm and the exhibition will run at the gallery until the 18 June.

NEW IMAGE ART | 7908 Santa Monica Blvd. | West Hollywood CA 90046

Mobstr Goes On and On and On!

Loving this new street work pictured above from Mobstr located on Hanbury Street, just off Brick Lane in London. The artist has also dropped this new video On and On and On!

Sub ink Video — 'Philth'

The guys over at Subism have just sent us this video featuring one of their longest standing artists from the collective, Phill Blake or Philth as he’s also known. Philth is a Graphic designer, illustrator and graffiti artist from the Midlands. His work takes on various elements of the world around him with a running theme of exotic women mixed with graffiti styles. He was one of the first artists in the collective to work closely on creating a signature Sub Ink colour that would be different to existing brands and would feature heavily in his own work.

Video production: Studio JK:AK

Music:: Soul Evidence. Atjazz Record Company

Stik at Lava Collective

Upcoming at the Lava Gallery is another solo show from London based artist Stik. Opening on the 26th May the exhibition will feature fresh new Stik paintings.

Stik’s intimate new works push the limits of both the artist’s style and the canvas itself with a series of extreme close-up portraits. Best known for his minimal, yet expressive graffiti characters seen across Central and East London, he often takes days to position the six lines and two dots that make up each of the vulnerable and diffident large scale figures he paints. In this latest show, despite reducing his work to the level of near abstraction, the intensity of the emotion remains. Such is the artist’s skill that as he zooms into the face of each character he paradoxically amplifies rather than obscures their subtleties, bringing the viewer into ever more personal connections with them.

The opening reception on 26th May 2011 is sponsored by Tiger Beer, 6 - 9.30pm and the show will run at the gallery space until the 4th June.

LAVA Gallery | 1.11 Kingly Court | Carnaby Street | London, W1B 5PW

ALEXÖNE - Free Revok T-shirt

Som-tee have teamed up with french artist Aleone for the release of this 'Free Revok' tshirt.

"Revok was arrested and sentenced to 180 days in jail.To help pay for legal fees we released this limited FREE REVOK tee shirt with ALEXÖNE. All proceeds will be donated to Revok's legal fund."

LIMITED EDITION — 3 colors screenprinted on 100% cotton T. Available from Som-Tee

Via VNA

Ben Eine - Oranges and Lemons

This doc follows street artist Ben Eine as he paints the side of The London Graphics Centre in Covent Garden, London with his trademark brightly coloured typography.

In an area dominated by "two Prets, a Gap and a Starbucks" on every high street, Ben set out with the aim of stirring up debate with Westminster Council, who currently have a zero tolerance policy on graffiti and street art.

Ben's a man on a mission this year, having painted all round the world in all sorts of places with all sorts of people, but this is his first piece in the UK in 2011. So far this year he's had a show in White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, painted in Los Angeles Museum of Contempary Art, designed the 50th anniversary poster for Amnesty International and painted in a street art exhibition in Germany (streetart-wuppertal.com/​).

The clip has been filmed by Abbie Brandon.