ROA in Chicago

New fauna have been spotted in Chicago courtesy of one of our favorite street artists, Roa.  Check out these ferrets in more detail on our Flickr.

CARTRAIN x VAGABOND release Bin Laden image

by Rachel Schwerin
CARTRAIN just can't keep himself from fucking with the Tate.  The teenage British street artist is best known for having been prosecuted for stealing and ransoming pencils from Damien Hirst's Pharmacy installation at the museum a few years ago.  This time he has pulled a museum hack where he and VAGABOND collaborated to sneak a piece of theirs into the Tate Modern. Of course someone was there to document the entire episode on video.

The image, a spoof on Dali's Persistence of Memory, superimposes accessories obviously associated with Osama bin Laden -  a bloody turban, a chalk dead-body outline - where the melting clocks would go. Critics seem unimpressed.

Check out the video of the guerilla installation on vagabondart's You Tube.

Urban Knits

We spend a fair amount of time taking and posting photos of street art, so it is always nice to find out that someone has noticed our efforts.  Recently, Simone Werle chose some of our pics of guerilla knitting installations here in Chicago for her book Urban Knits which will be released by Prestel Publishing this July.

One of our photos is of a knit piece in front of the Art Institute's world famous lion sculptures.  The work is from Microfiber Militia and has occupied that pole on Michigan Avenue since May 2008.  The Militia contacted us and wanted us to "make sure to note that the white piece with a heart on it that's at the very top of the piece... that's not us. Somebody added that after it was up for awhile."

You can order your copy of Urban Knits here, or pick one up in person at Maxwell Colette Gallery once the book is released in July.

See more of our street art photographs on Flickr.

Don't Fret's crumbling giant

A new giant sized paste up piece from Don't Fret has appeared downtown at Wabash and Balbo.

GAIA: one last look at 'Resplendent Semblance'

As we wind down our Gaia show, we wanted to take a look back and share some of the more interesting pieces that were published about Gaia, his art, and the show at Maxwell Colette:

Fat Cap ran a two part in-depth interview with Gaia (pt.1 / pt.2) and hosts the time lapse video we made with Brock Brake of the installation process at State Street and Adams.  

Juxtapoz ran an interview with Gaia about his massive paste up on Cabrini Green.

Arrested Motion ran street shots and fantastic pics from the openings.

Wooster Collective hyped us as one not to miss.

Brooklyn Street Art, Curbs and Stoops, Sour Harvest, Fotoflow, Time Out Chicago, Flavor Pill, Gapers Block, Crackade, All City Street Art, and Aerosol Planet all showed support, and we thank them for their bon mots.

GAIA: Resplendent Semblance closes Saturday May 7th.  Your last chance to peep it in person is Friday and Saturday from 12 noon  - 5pm.  

GAIA: video round-up

The time lapse above documents the installation process for the windows we did in conjunction with the Chicago Loop Alliance's Pop Up Art Loop Initiative.  The video below speaks for itself...

And finally, this awesome video was shot by Justin Nethercut right before Gaia came to Chicago, and highlights the theories and methods behind the madness. It also has great glimpses of the paintings we are exhibiting here at the gallery, while they were in his studio in process.