Street Art on The Simpsons...Again.

The Simpsons turns its poignant satirical eye towards the world of Street Art in an episode that is scheduled to air March 4th, 2010.  In  Episode 15 – “Exit Though The Kwik-E-Mart”, Bart and Milhouse get caught by a posse of celebrated street artists (Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Kenny Scharf and Robbie Conal; who all do their own voices for the episode) while putting up images of Homer.  Instead of discouraging the illegal activities, according to Fairey's blog: "to Bart’s surprise, they invite him to exhibit his satirical artwork in his very own gallery show."  Given the title of the episode, and the history of past work with that other high profile street artist, we're going to keep our eyes peeled for Banksy references.

Let the whining over the death of street art commence... now.

opening on January 20th: STUCK UP!

Maxwell Colette Gallery and DB Burkeman are excited to present STUCK UP: A Selected History of Alternative and Popular Culture Told Though Stickers. This traveling exhibition, curated by Burkeman from his extensive personal collection, provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore the expanding role that stickers have played in popular culture over the past four decades. The collection focuses on Music (including Punk Rock, Hip Hop, and Rave Culture), Skateboard Culture, Political Campaigns, Branding, and Culture Jamming. STUCK UP... features stickers from Street Art legends (Banksy, Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, KAWS), and internationally lauded contemporary artists not necessarily known for stickers (Andy Warhol, Jenny Holzer, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Tom Sachs) shown side by side with anonymous stickers peeled from the streets of NYC.

STUCK UP... will kick off its run in Chicago with two days of special events. On Friday, January 20th Maxwell Colette Gallery and DB Burkeman will host the exhibition’s opening reception from 6pm - 10pm. Beverages will be provided courtesy of Modelo.  Then on Saturday, January 21st the gallery will host a book signing from 1pm - 3pm featuring DB Burkeman and the celebrated photographer, author, and self- described sticker thief Martha Cooper.  Coffee and baked goods at the signing will come courtesy of Sweet Cakes Bakery and Metropolis Coffee Company.  Burkeman and Cooper will be signing copies of Burkeman's book Stickers: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art  which is available in Chicago at Quimby's.

Concurrent with these happenings, the gallery will present a selection of sticker-based collage work from the ever-talented Chris Mendoza, and will showcase an incarnation of Slap Happy , the charity sticker invitational that made its debut as a part of SCOPE 2011 in Miami.  Slap Happy features stickers created by an international group of 75 visual communicators. This will be the only place outside of SCOPE where the limited edition stickers and signed black books from the project will be available to view and purchase in person.

Mark your calendars now and be sure to join us for this incredible weekend of sticker-related festivities!

Shepard Fairey at the preview event for Art Chicago

Shepard Fairey in Chicago

A new mural from Shepard Fairey went up last night under the el tracks, near 11th and Wabash.  Peep the pics on our flickr.

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.

NYC right now...

The current state of the Shepard Fairey "May Day" mural on the corner of Houston and Bowery as of 5/20/10. Thanks to Kurt for the pic.

the last thing that Jeffrey Deitch needs...

Last saturday someone accidentally fell and hit Jeffrey Deitch in the face with a blunt object at his gallery's big opening party for Shepard Fairey's new show "May Day" . The blow was hard enough to draw both blood and ire from the gallery owner. Luckily an astute fan was there to capture the response on a cell phone.

on the walk to work...

The walk to work takes me down Chicago Avenue from 1600 west to 900 west. This is a great route for viewing street art in Chicago. There is frequently new work being thrown up along this stretch ranging from handmade slaps to massive bombing assaults. As fresh and interesting stuff catches my eye it will be posted under this title.

Today we have a little street art history from the walk to work. I walk past this water tower every day. It's on the roof of a building on Chicago Avenue next to the expressway. Shepard Fairey hit this tower with large paste ups on two different occasions. In 1999 he put up an old school Andre face (inset, above) and in 2001 an Andre icon (inset, below). Fairey dedicates a page in his book "OBEY: Supply And Demand" to recounting the events surrounding the 2001 hit. After being caught in the act, arrested and spending the night in jail, he was able to persuade the building's owner to drop the charges against him. It turned out that the owner's kids were fans of Fairey's work.

Currently the water tower sits unadorned.

inset photos from OBEY: Supply and Demand , The Art of Shepard Fairey, 20th Anniversary Edition available directly from the Obey Giant website here.

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