Inside and out...

With just two days until the show opens, the gallery is a hive of activity.  Things are coming together nicely, and we can't wait to open the door and invite you to explore the amazing environment that Don't Fret has created.

Evidently while we are sleeping, Don't Fret continues working outside the gallery as the recent street piece below illustrates.   We are constantly amazed at the broad appeal of his work.  People with little interest in street art (or art in general) all seem to respond with a smile to his engaging characters.  Something magical is going on there...

Art In The Streets In The Museum

By Rachel Schwerin
The opening of "Art in the Streets" at LA's Museum of Contemporary Art has spawned a rash of tagging in downtown Los Angeles. The museum says such 'anarchic' work was anticipated, and is being cleaned. Many critics argue that the museum's pledge to help with graffiti clean-up annihilates actual "art in the streets." A culture war between purist taggers and the aritsts supporting Jeffrey Deitch's museum show has led to an anti-Deitch, anti-authority campaign of pasters around L.A. depicting the Director of the museum in silly, embarrassing contexts.   (via Art News)

The LAPD is cracking down hard, hoping to not just fine but arrest any artist found attempting or associated with illegal work. According to a report in the L.A. Times, Space Invader was their first victim, detained in Los Angeles last Friday. The show has led to an all-out attack: the Los Angeles city attorney’s office has filed a lawsuit against Cristian "Smear" Gheorghiu and nine other artists associated with the MTA tagging crew, charging them with violating California’s unfair competition laws because they’re selling art works on the strength of their outlaw names and reputations. “They’ve obtained an unfair advantage because they gained fame and notoriety through criminal acts,” said Anne Tremblay, assistant city attorney. “This is unlawful competition."  (via Huffington Post)

the best alley in Wicker Park vol. IX: winter wonderland

We've been slacking on the flickr updates lately.  This is not to say that we haven't been shooting pics, we just haven't been posting as regularly as we should.  In an effort to catch up, we present a series of pics from the best alley in wicker park taken over the past several weeks.  There's nothing like the clean facade that snow provides to accent the ever changing work.  See what you've missed over the past couple of months in our flickr set "the best alley in Wicker Park".

Voina x eBay x Banksy's Identity

by Rachel Schwerin
The two leading members of the Russian performance art collective Voina have been imprisoned in St. Petersburg without a charges or a trial for four months now. For those who aren't familiar, Voina has been responsible for numerous confrontational and political actions including the painting of a giant penis on a drawbridge that faced the building that housed former KGB offices.  Banksy, a fan of the collective's antics, announced a while back that he was going to donate the proceeds from his latest print release to fund their bail. Voina's lawyer offered the court 2 million rubles ($66,000) bail for each, but the judge denied the request. He cited a "lack of information about the person providing the money" for the bail as his justification to keep the Voina members locked up.  No doubt Voina’s imprisoned idealogist Oleg Vorotnikov doesn't appreciate the irony that Banksy's anonymity had just been available for purchase through an auction on eBay.


The highly scrutinized auction on eBay was posted by someone who claimed to have used tax records in some capacity to secure proof of the mysterious artist's identity.  Evidently the auction seller felt that this was marketable information, and that people looking for bargain electronics and obscure collectables would be equally interested in purchasing the documentation.  The auction was pulled before it was completed, but not before bidding reached nearly a million dollars for the promised info.  Speculation was that Banksy himself may have been behind either the auction listing or it's removal.  Either way, Banky’s identity can now be valued somewhere between $1 million and freedom.


Learn more about Voina (which translates from Russian as 'war') and check out the Free Voina page for the latest developments in their case.

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.

MARKS & STENCILS Private View

For those who were unable to attend, Butterfly has posted a wonderful video of the opening of the Pictures On Walls pop up show 'Marks & Stencils' in London.  For those who were there, try to spot yourself in the queue...

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'.

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.

the best alley in Wicker Park vol. VII

Though our pop up show 'Love Flows Both Ways: street culture x contemporary art' has been keeping us down in the South Loop more than we are used to, we still make the time to check out our favorite Wicker Park alley at least a couple of times a month because it's always worth the effort.  As we look back at the last month's activity in the alley, we are struck by Snaki's  'Waste Away Your Starry Nights', with it's visual nod to Van Gogh.  It made our inner art school geek smile.

Check out our flickr set here to peep all the great work that appeared in the alley since our last update.

Da Mayor

Mayor Daley has had an interesting and challenging relationship with the street art community of Chicago, so it is no surprise that said community has taken notice of his announcement that he will not be seeking reelection. After all, Daley's reign has seen the outlawing of spray paint sales within Chicago city limits, the classification of markers as criminal tools, and the creation of "Mayor Daley's Graffiti Busters" whose sole raison d'etre involves the destruction of street art.  What is perhaps most amazing is that even after the installation of these draconian measures, Chicago's street art community continues to thrive.

Reaction to Daley's announcement has taken many forms, and has provided an opening for the launch of at least two mayoral campaigns by artists Swiv and Jagoff.  We will continue to monitor further developments and bring images of the best Daley inspired street work as we become aware of it.

it's starting to get political out there...finally.

stop motion graffiti

the best alley in Wicker Park vol. VI

Once again it's the end of the month, and time to look back at what has transpired in the best alley in Wicker Park over the past few weeks.  This month started with some drama in the alley, but this was overshadowed by some spectacular walls from Amuse and Momentumarttech.  In addition, Snaki brought some faces, Herts and Omens brought 'dubster', and someone painted dead cats.  Way too much great stuff to list (like this and this and this), so come take a stroll with us down the best alley in Wicker Park in our flickr set here.

a painterly approach to street art...

The railroad underpasses off of Hubbard Street have seen it all.  Long a staple of the local street art and graff scenes, they have been regularly bombed for years. But something very interesting has been occurring under the train tracks lately.  It's painting.  I'm not referring to aerosol artistry, I'm talking about good old fashioned brush-and-paint-can painting.  And it's on a monumental scale.

There are seven paintings in total that we found. Some are huge- nearly 20 feet in length. They appear to be in various states of completion.  It seems the artist starts with a basic form (see below) and then elaborates with increasingly drippy broad strokes until the original form is obscured.  The process appears to require a fair amount of time as there are clearly layers that were dry before the next color was applied.  The resulting murals have elements that are reminiscent of Willem de Kooning and the abstract expressionists; a visual reference seldom witnessed in todays street art scene.

All of the paintings incorporate some text as well.  They bear slogans (titles?) like "Love No Fear | Fear No Love" "the magic you don't c." and "Griots & Bacchanalia".  Sometimes the text is next to the painting, and sometimes it is incorporated in the painting itself.  The artist states on one work "my name is a four letter word" but signs all the pieces with a black spade (or many spades as the case may be).  Since we don't know what to call you, wer're going to call you "Spade".  So, hello Spade. If you've got a problem with us calling you that, let us know and we'll correct it.

We first noticed the hand painted stylings of "Spade" last month, and posted pics of the work here, here,  and here.  Chicago Art Magazine noticed as well and wrote about a piece in their Top Street Art Picks for the month of August.

View pics of all the Hubbard Street pieces by "Spade" on our Flickr set "Hubbard Street Viaduct".

it's time once again...

This coming weekend the international graffiti festival Meeting Of Styles comes to Chicago.  There is a great lineup of acitvities and talent for the three days (and nights) and it looks to be very cool this year.  Check out the event flyer with all the listings and keep an eye on the Meeting of Styles website for info and pics from its stops around the globe.

Shepard Fairey murals in Cincinnati

Recently we found ourselves in Cincinnati.  After taking in some of the local cusine (a Skyline Chili "3-way"; yes that is the actual name) we decided to see if we couldn't find some of those Shepard Fairey murals that went up in conjunction with his retrospective show "Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand" at the city's Contemporary Art Center.

We figured that since Cincinnati was a hotbed of right wing, anti-art types (remember the prosecution in 1990 of Dennis Barrie for showing Mapplethorpe?), most likely the murals would have been painted over (like this one in Kentucky was within days of it's completion) or vandalized (like the Dietch mural).  Many in Cincinnati, no doubt, believe that Shepard Fairey was the Joseph Goebbles of the 2008 presidential election.  Surely they wouldn't allow for gigantic propaganda installations from a progressive, communist, socialist, fascist, muslim-loving, supporter of the destruction of traditional marriage like Shepard Fairey to go unchallenged.

To our amazement, many of the murals we were able to locate were pristine.  The others were only slightly damaged, exhibiting varying degrees of minor peeling, and some super light toy tagging.  There was also one individual with a can of brown spray paint and a small stencil of Michael Jackson (ca. 1971 / Jackson 5 era) who had left his mark on a couple of the larger installations, but that was the pretty much the extent of it. There were no visible political attacks directed towards the murals, anywhere. Way to go Ohio!

Check out the murals on our Flicker set.
Stay on top of all things Shepard Fairey related at OBEYGIANT.