Invader and WK Interact this summer at Jonathan Levine Gallery, NY

Invader is back in the States, so if you're in NYC, keep looking up.

TOP 10
by extermitent

JLG shows some interesting art ... the upcoming Houser and Dalek shows for example.

Jonathan LeVine Gallery | 529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor | New York, NY 10011 | Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm | 212-243-3822

Pixelator subvertising

Elegant, low-tech, visually pleasing solution to unwanted video advertising in public.

Mambo's Urban Furniture

Madrid, Spain - Check out Mambo's many other interesting street interventions under "urban furniture" on his site.

Banksy in New Orleans

via BoingBoing

Catalog from the Street Art show at Tate Modern

For sale, the book.

Chicago: Arrest Made in Murder of Artist SOLVE

www.solvesolvesolve.com

CHICAGO (WBBM/STNG) - Kirk Tobolski, 24, has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing of Brendan Scanlon, a well-known local graffiti artist in the Logan Square neighborhood early Saturday. Tobolski, of the 2600 block of West Iowa Street, was charged with one count of first-degree murder Sunday, according to police News Affairs.

Scanlon was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest at 3032 W. Palmer Blvd. about 2:40 a.m., police News Affair Officer Laura Kubiak said.

Scanlon was leaving a party when he got into a "verbal altercation" and was subsequently stabbed, police said.

Scanlon, of 2846 W. Palmer Blvd., died of a stab wound to the chest, an autopsy determined Saturday. His death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County Medical Examiner.

Scanlon graduated from the Illinois Institute of Art in 2007, and worked as a freelance artist and graphic designer, according to his Web site.

Scanlon is reportedly SOLVE, a local graffiti artist. Many people discussed his death on a Chicago Street Art online discussion forum Saturday.

"The Chicago street art and graffiti community has suffered another devastating blow to our family," one of the forum members posted Saturday. A memorial of Scanlon's work is reportedly in the works.

Scanlon wanted "to be a respected member of the international design community," and thought "art is one of the things that makes life worth it," according to his Myspace profile, where friends posted mournful comments Saturday.

SOLVE VIDEO
SOLVE LOGO
Kirk Tobolski

The word on the street is that the guy who stabbed him was known for carrying a knife and cutting himself ... clearly a nutcase!! Solve's work was always a treat to see - he always hit up smart spots and created a lot of thought provoking work. He will be missed.

[Info thanks to Risk]

Blu: Muto - Buenos Aires - graffiti animation

Blu has released parts of this before, but this is a much more involved version than I've seen previously. Mind boggling technique.

Invader in Kathmandu

Cristopher Cichocki

Tasty. Cristopher's work must be seen because words can't do it any justice.
Tip: the small pictures are clickable.

Scullphone billboards LA

Not sure I believe he paid for these, but I guess that would be the easy way to get up.

Banksy wall sells for more than $400,000

[Australia] "... as one of Melbourne's few remaining pieces of stencil art by the elusive British graffiti artist Banksy, the little diver gained further cachet yesterday when another Banksy work on a London wall fetched £208,000 ($A453,700) on an eBay auction."

Sweet. The auction winner has to remove and replace the wall on top of that. I see portability problems continuing ;^)

Witness really smart idiots grousing about it being vandalism anyway: Banksy e-bay auction . Anyone care to bet these folks would paint it out instead of cashing in, if it were on their house? I bet they'll all be leaving spraypaint in the milkbox overnight and praying the stencil angel comes calling now.

Of course, Banksy probably makes no money on his works' newfound life as wall(s) at large, but buzz like this is what you want as an artist, clearly. Can't hurt the gallery price to have people excising masonry for it. Maybe this will eventually be the downfall of the Palestine wall? We can only watch and hope.

the Junky projects

Lovely and unexpected street art

Thanks to Chachi for the tip.

Street art: Orion and Blu

Ossario : Alexandre Orion


Blu

A1one interview on PingMag - Graffiti in Iran

A hardcore scene in a whole different way. PingMag did a great job with the interview too. Best of luck to A1one!

The New york graffiti war (wtf?)

"...as the works of popular public artists rise in value, so do the neighbourhoods around them. The work of popular street artists, inadvertently or not, spurs processes of gentrification and urban renewal. In New York, the majority of chosen works have been in the Lower East Side, a neighbourhood akin to Montreal?s Plateau, where trendy bars, vintage clothing shops, and small boutiques reign. The street art is used as a selling point, helping to reconstruct the image of the neighbourhood into one of bohemian charm, art, and culture."

Who would have thought that people would drop the broken windows litany and start kvetching that unauthorized painting causes property values to rise? Or maybe it's only stickers and stencils that are good? So ... a balance of graffiti with the street art would maintain equilibrium? I'm having trouble following the logic, if any. Except, of course, someone with little going for them but no-style splashing and a manifesto has somehow gotten fame (again). Now that I do get.

It makes you wonder, though, whether graffiti and property value are actually related at all.

If so, I guess the vigilante has the situation well in hand. Buy the local art and your neighborhood value goes up. Destroy the local art and your neighborhood remains ugly but cheap for the art-destroyers.

Maybe we should just aim for one nice, even coating of outdoor art in all our neighborhoods and stop this game now.

Traffic Go Round

Hilarious guerilla sculpture by Mark Jenkins.