A SHOW CALLED KICKS.

LEGO BRIDGE IN GERMANY BY MEGX

(Source: hypebeast.com)

INVICTA WATCHES X NICK GENTRY AND ERNI VALES

Adding culture to their design and art to technology, Swiss watch brand Invicta Watches has teamed up with two contemporary artists to create a new line of watches, each limited to 777 pieces. While the specs may not be the best, highly appealing designs bear the work of New York-based graffiti writer Erni Vales, who now works out of Miami, and British consumerism-concerned artist Nick Gentry. Erni’s pieces are $400 a piece and available at the artist’s site, while Gentry’s are exclusively available through Miami-based Robert Fontaine gallery. Find more info by heading to the Watchalyzer article here. 

thinktankgallery:

BARRY MCGEE SOLO EXHIBITION AT PRISM GALLERY IN WEHO

PRISM has shown some amazing contemporary street artists who have made their name all over the world and gained their recognition at Art in the Streets in Los Angeles. Californian artist Barry McGee makes his second solo showing at PRISM gallery since “MindTheGap” in 2009. Signature characters and sharp geometry fill the work of McGee’s solo exhibit in a body of work that was largely created at the gallery space. Site-responsive installation work allows viewers to enter the vision of the artist as they transverse the vertical space of the gallery. The show runs until June 30th, and may prove to be a preview to the artist’s retrospective at the University of California Berkeley Art Museum in August. Details below.

Barry McGee
PRISM Gallery
8746 W. Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Show runs: May 11th-June 30th, 2012

MARC JACOBS VS. KIDULT

Last week marked the first notable response from a company being attacked by a graffiti artist in a clever way, and who better to do it than Marc Jacobs? After having tagged stores like Supreme in New York and YSL, KID set his sights on Marc Jacobs’ store in SoHo and smacked it with his signature, giant ‘ART’ tag. The purpose of these tags is to give the companies - each of whom have used graffiti in their marketing in one way or another - a taste of what graffiti culture feels like.

But Marc Jacobs didn’t sit back and take it like the other stores did; instead, he shot back by releasing a shirt documenting the ordeal with a photograph mocking that from Kidult’s site. The kicker - he is actually selling the shirt for $689 or signed by the artist for $680, with a tagline reading “ART BY ART JACOBS.”

Kidult’s response was a simple one, which has gotten him some flak for his lack of originality: he posted an almost identical shirt for 6euro and 89 cents on his site with the tagline “NOT ART BY KIDULT.” Who do you think is making their statement in a stronger way?

(Source: observer.com)

thinktankgallery:

INTERVIEW WITH BIRDMAN

We met up with street art photographer and building scaler BIRDMAN for his showing at L.A. is Paradise - which was great. Before meeting up with him, we got the chance to interview the photographer about his adventurous work. See the interview below. 

ThinkTank Gallery (TT): What was your response to Mr. Brainwash’s street art documentarian role in Banksy’s film Exit Thru? Did his experience and the subsequent  launchpad of his career inspire any movements in your own work?

BIRDMAN (BM): “What the fuck is this asshole doing?” Every time I drove through Hollywood I always asked myself if anyone else saw what I was seeing, but after I saw that movie I just got really pissed off that his image of street art is what people were viewing as the be all end all answer. So what ended up as me just posting pictures to Facebook evolved to where I am today.

TT: Where do street photography as a whole and street art photography in particular cross over? Where do they differ?

BM: Street photography, in my opinion, is capturing the vibe of the city you are photographing. The odd people you find, the dirty or beautiful streets as well as the skyline the buildings create. “Street art photography” can be just a picture of the art or surrounding atmosphere. I like to cross the two in making sure to capture the area the art is in rather then just the piece itself. Half of the art form is placement so I try to document it as best as I can.

TT: What has LA contributed to your work that no other city has provided? What is LA lacking?

BM: Where do I begin. Right now there so many murals going up in the Arts District thanks to “LA Freewalls” and Culver City with “Branded Arts” it’s hard for me stop snapping. I doubt I’ll be running out of material any time soon. Artists from around the world come to LA to paint our walls I couldn’t ask for a better time to be living here. LA is lacking informing the people and authorities how to deal with the art form. Luckily city planner Tanner Blackman is helping that happen in recent drafts on the new mural ordinances in LA. Art is subjective already but where some see vandalism some see art and I feel like its going to be a long time until people can grasp it which is which. 

TT: Any notable or crazy experiences that your career in street art photography has provided (that you can share)?

BM: Almost died a few times as well as some close calls with the authorities, but thats normal. One of the crazier things I had to do for a picture (above, Three Kings) was to shimmy up a pole about 10ft to get to a ladder that was suspending off the side of a 6 story building to get to the roof top…I like to climb, hence my nickname. You’ll be able to see that picture at the show. 

TT: How long do you see yourself climbing buildings and taking pictures of legal and illegal art?

BM: TILL I DIE! \m/

Find more of BIRDMAN’s work here.

An interview I did with BIRDMAN for my gallery’s blog.