Rad Life, Shitty Camera: Jason Pickleman

We sent out a couple cases of shitty disposable cameras to group of super-talented artists. We didn't give them any guidelines, and only one rule: no dick pics. We had no idea what to expect but we've gotten some gems out of the project. And the pics that aren't gems, well, they're special too... 

We gave a camera to Chicagoan Jason Pickleman. Pickleman is an artist and eye about town who enjoys experimental music and good kerning. In addition he is evidently a master of the disposable camera. We have not altered his photographs in ANY way. This is exactly as they were captured. 

We give you the rad life of Jason Pickleman, through a shitty disposable camera:

Stuck-Up Spotlight: The Work of Chris Mendoza

On The Air (2011) by Chris Mendoza.  Ink, Collage, Stickers on Paper.

" ... By drawing, visualizing, and composing abstract concepts in my mind, and on paper I am reminded of my daily habits, a common thread of the human condition."

New York-based artist Chris Mendoza's is fascinated with architecture and physical structures. If you are an art history guru you'll notice strong influences by artists such as Kandinsky, Miro and Frank Lloyd Wright. Mendoza's sticker collages are on display at Maxwell Colette Gallery and are part of the current exhibition entitled, STUCK UP: A Selected History of Alternative and Popular Culture Told Though Stickers. Curated by DB Burkeman.

Hot Pink (detail) (2012) by Chris Mendoza.  Ink, Collage, Stickers on Paper.

Mendoza's collage-work repurposes stickers that are cut up, fragmented and placed into layers. They layer work looks almost mosaic-like and each panel is arranged slightly different with subtle references to landscape and unknown figuration. Rich color and texture is incorporated into his work through the use of materials including everything from mixed media, acrylic paint, sumi inks, enamel, watercolor paints and other various inks.

He incorporates such a graceful progression of movement with each layer of fragmented sticker and this alone allows your imagination to run wild – you could spend hours pondering the abstraction. But the biggest take away from Chris Mendoza's collage-work is that there is an underlying history being preserved. Between the vintage-like quality of the paper and the reverence that Mendoza gives to his own cultural influences, these works have a seemingly righteous nature about them.

Time Changes (2012)  by Chris Mendoza.  Ink, Collage, Stickers on Paper.

View more of Mendoza's art on his website: chrismendoza.carbonmade.com 

Go to maxwellcolette.com to view these and other sticker collage works by Chris Mendoza, or to inquire about pricing and availability.

New Work From Banksy + FAQ's

There has been much speculation about whether or not new work from Banksy has been popping up in Britain over the last few weeks.  Starting back in November there were the monopoly themed 'Occupy' installation and the 'shop till you drop' wall piece, among others.  Over the last week we have seen pictures of two very similar miniature crop duster planes spraying hearts (or doing crazy loops?) painted in London and Liverpool.  Over the weekend the signage above was spotted in London as well.

Now we have confirmation of the authenticity of at least some of these works in the form of pictures posted in the newly updated 'outside' section on Banksy's website.  Also posted on the site are the following FAQ's with Mr. B's informative responses.  Who knew that he liked Käthe Kollwitz and copied 3D from Massive Attack?!!


Frequently asked questions


Is it cheating to use stencils?
Stencils are good for two reasons;
One - they’re quick ; two - they annoy idiots.


Why are you such a sell out?
I wish I had a pound for every time someone asked me that. 


Is Banksy just a big brand these days? Do you even paint your own pictures?
It’s not supposed to be a brand, which is why people in advertising think it’s such a good one. I paint it all myself unless its illegal, in which case I’ve never seen any of it before, your honour. 


Is Exit Through the Gift Shop real?
Yes. 


Are you still friends with Mr. Brainwash?
I like to think so. When I asked him what he thought about the film he said “This is a cult movie, this is a classic movie, this movie stands alone – like The Godfather.” 


Did you paint over Robbo’s piece and have him beaten up?
His piece in Camden had been dogged for more than five years by the time I painted that spot. It’s a real shame about his accident and I hope he fully recovers. I would never deliberately cuss Robbo – he’s a graffiti legend.
And he’s bigger than me. Click Here


Did you rip off Blek le Rat?
No, I copied 3D from Massive Attack. He can actually draw. 


Do you need an intern?
No thanks. 


Why are you so annoying?
It’s not all my fault, sometimes they make it up - I’ve never vandalized a war memorial, painted Kate Moss’s kitchen or visited the Playboy club with Ashley Cole wearing a skull mask. 


What artists do you rate?
Käthe Kollwitz is my favourite. Partly because her drawing style is so beautiful, and partly because she thought being an artist was self-indulgent crap and became a doctor in an orphanage instead. 


Can you donate a picture for my charity auction?
What are you? Blind? In which case maybe. I mostly support projects working to restore sight and prevent eye disease. Or as I like to call it ‘expanding the market’. 

Keep an eye on Banksy's site and The Lonely Villein's Flickr for further developments.

Welcome to Miami

Don't Fret sent us some visual postcards from his recent trip down to Miami...

While in The Sunshine State, he collaborated on a wall with another of our favorites, Hebru Brantley, who is part of our current 'Text and Drugs and Rock & Roll' show and who faced some unexpected drama of his own (as captured by local news) .  Absolutely crazy!

You can read more about Don't Fret's recent solo show on Fatcap and on Flavorpill, and view available work on maxwellcolette.com.

SLAP HAPPY: a sticker invitational

Set to debut November 29th in Miami at the Wynwood Walls is Slap Happy, a charity sticker invitational curated by Paul Weston and DB Burkeman.  The project includes designs from 75 visual communicators from around the globe who have each created an intimate, same size, black and white sticker.  The stickers include original designs from well known artists and are printed in a small, limited edition.

As part of the project, a video, sticker packs, a book and 25 signed black books will be produced and sold through the Slap Happy store.  "Proceeds from the benefit will go to Acceptance House, a drug rehab facility in Miami.  This is our way of giving back to the locals who are ignored or exploited by the  decadence brought to Miami during Art Basel and the surrounding fairs."

The only way to see the artist lineup and all 75 designs before the exhibition in Miami is to check the Slap Happy Blog where sticker designs from three artists are posted each day.

left to right: Zevs, Kenny Scharf, Nice-One, The London Police, Shane Swank, Stickman

The New Painting

Painting has been dead for years, but every now and then somebody trips over the rotting corpse and discovers that some sort of exquisite putrefaction has been taking place inside the lifeless carcass.  Case in point: check out the video above of the Graffiti Kings painting murals of Johnny Knoxville and Dave Grohl at London's infamous graffiti hot spot, the Leake Street Tunnel.  The 10 ft x 20 ft pieces were created using two paintball guns, 1000 paintballs and 30 gas canisters.  Brushes and spray cans are so passe...

Space Program 2.0: MARS

In 2007 it was the moon landing and "encounters with the terrible sublime".  Now. for 2012 Tom Sachs promises us MARS.  To call this epic will no doubt prove to be an understatement.  We can hardly wait...

Check out Tom Sachs' you tube channel and peep his site for info and consumable arty goodness.

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.

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.

Crime And Punishment?

By Rachel Schwerin
Last week, Revok was arrested by LAPD in LAX, on his way to Ireland.  The charge was failure to pay court ordered restitution to past victims of his street activities. His bail was set at an astronomical $320,000. According to blogger Logan Hicks, comparing Revok's bail to that of other detainees in Los Angeles right now, he could have "molested three young girls ($300,000 bail)" and then "threatened a man while wielding a machete ($20,000 bail)" for the same price. (Man charged with assaulting partially paralyzed grandmother in front of her two granddaughters Bail set at $100,00; Baby left in 115-degree car; father may face charges Bail set at $50,000)

“We take graffiti vandalism very seriously, said Lieutenant Vince Carter, Sheriff’s Metro Transit Services Bureau. “Criminal graffiti vandals who insist on damaging other people’s property are going to jail and need to pay to fix the damage they caused.” Revok has since been sentenced to 180 days in jail for violating his parole on a misdemeanor vandalism charge after he failed to repay restitution for damages. His work is currently on display at MoCA's "Art in the Streets," which is really pissing off the LAPD.

The Seventh Letter is selling "Free Revok" t-shirts with all of the proceeds going to Revok's legal defense fund.  Check them out on their site.

Don't Fret get's up in Brazil

Recenly we heard from Don't Fret, who has been wintering south of the equator in Sao Paulo.  He says its been amazing, and he has been busy doing pasters in the streets and paintings at an abandoned cement factory complex whose sole full-time occupant is a ferrel horse.  

Check out more work from Don't Fret on his Flickr.  You can see the horse there too...

JR: the Inside Out Project

by Rachel Schwerin
Recently, JR announced his plan for a large-scale participatory, global art project that could turn the entire world into a socially conscious graffiti collective. He has invited anyone and everyone, worldwide, to upload a photo portrait for free to his project site. His team will turn these digitally uploaded images into posters and send them back to the participants, to exhibit in their own communities. JR encourages participants to place posters anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. “It is about making invisible people visible,” JR said.

His street art since 2004 has staged dramatic interventions of social justice across the globe. The TED foundation, which awarded JR $100,000 to execute the Inside Out project, described JR as a “true humanitarian,” whose art inspires people to look at the world differently.

JR says, “It is about taking the virtual world back to the streets.” To prospective participants he advises: “If you are going to paste it in the streets, then choose a good wall…If you choose the wrong one, get ready to run.”

To submit a portrait and get a poster, go to www.insideoutproject.net.

the best alley in Wicker Park vol. VIII

It's time once again to witness the carnage wrought by repeated bombing runs down the best alley in Wicker Park.  Scope out our flickr set to view for yourself what has changed since we last posted pics of the alley back in October.

new print from Banksy

It's official: a new Banksy print is going to drop in December.  A test print (or unique variant) of the image is hanging on the wall at the Pictures On Walls pop up show 'Marks and Stencils' in London, and the print appears in the new POW Winter Catalog and on their website.  There is no confirmation yet as to whether the release will be handled by a lottery (like the release for 'donuts') or some combination of in-store and online mayhem (like 'No Ball Games').  Time to practice masking your disappointment as your chances of actually nabbing this print are nearly non existant.

Keep an eye on the POW website for details of all the new print releases that are happening in conjunction with 'Marks and Stencils'.

FAILE & BAST together again in the street

(photo via  plaztikmag)

Last weekend BAST and FAILE got together to do an outdoor piece for the Factory Fresh All City Street Art Block Party in Brooklyn.  Reminiscent of the FAILE wall that used to exist across the street from the FAILE studio, the work immediately caught the attention of street art fans and practitioners alike.  Jaime Rojo from Brooklyn Street Art caught the amazing scene below: that's Futura sitting on the top of his car to get a shot of the finished gate.

photo © Jaime Rojo (via Brooklyn Street Art)

PLAZTIKMAG and BROOKLYN STREET ART were both present for the evening's activities and each has posted amazing behind the scenes pics of the the entire happening on their blog.  Thanks for sharing!

Barry McGee retrospective

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has recently awarded a $100,000 grant for a Barry McGee retrospective exhibition.  The yet unnamed retrospective will take place in 2012 through The University of California's Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.  

Art In The Streets

Jeffrey Deitch's massive street art extravaganza at the Los Angeles Museum of Art is getting closer, and details are starting to come out.  We recently found out that there is going to be a companion book 'Art In The Streets' that will be published by Rizzoli in conjunction with the show.  We're loving the Twist mural on the book's cover.


This landmark exhibition traces the birth and dissemination of styles through "writers" and street artists around the world—including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Blu, Martha Cooper, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Futura, Phil Frost, Os Gemeos, Keith Haring, Todd James (REAS), Margaret Kilgallen, Lady Pink, Barry McGee (Twist), Steve Powers (ESPO), Lee Quinones, Retna, Kenny Scharf, Swoon, and Ed Templeton, among many others—focusing on New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as international locations. Highlighting the connection between graffiti and street art and other vibrant subcultures, such as those that developed around Hip Hop in the Bronx and skateboarding in Southern California, Art in the Streets explores parallel movements in dance and music. A selection of new works created for the show is presented alongside the historical survey of approximately 30 of the most important artists seminal to the genre.   (via Rizzoli)


The book will be published on April 12, 2011 and is available for pre-order through Rizzoli.

FAILE's Bedtime Stories

The new FAILE show officially debuts tomorrow night at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York.  The Faile boys have set up a sneak peek of the work (which includes the sublime fashion chimps pictured above). In addition new FAILE stencil pieces have popped up on the street in Brooklyn (thanks to Sabeth for photographing the pieces).

'Bedtime Stories' opens tomorrow night at Perry Rubenstein Gallery and runs until December 23, 2010.

Die Antwoord video included in exhibit at the Guggenheim

Evidently the Guggenheim Museum rocks far harder than we ever suspected.  Die Antwoord's video 'Zef Side' was chosen to be included in the museum's show 'You Tube Play'.  Part interview, part performance and completely off the chain, the two and a half minute long viral video was last year's introduction to the strange and compelling world of the South African rap group Die Antwoord.  The video is one of 25 that were chosen by a jury whose members included Animal Collective and were presented at the Guggenheim Museums in New York, Bilbao, Venice and Berlin from October 22-24.

The show has come and gone, but you can still see the all the finalist's videos on the Guggenheim's website.