Midnight In A Perfect World

Dash Snow aka Sacer RIP.
Photos courtesy of 12oz Prophet

Vintage Irak

In such a drab world, a person with character goes a long way. It's something you see less and less of these days unfortunately. But back when New York was somewhat affordable, not so long ago I might add, there lived a crew that ruled the streets and these dudes we're definitely filled with character! That crew was Irak and they set the pace for what was and what will be without even knowing it. See below why things are so different now than they were before.

RIP Sacer.

Twelve Ounce Prophet x Futura

Tomorrow, Twelve Ounce Prophet will drop their long awaited collaboration with legendary street artist Futura 2000. They filmed this awesome video in the process with great attention to detail, plus music from one of my favorites, Blue Sky Black Death is featured. Check it out below, grab your tees here.

KATSU

Sace Lives!

The famous wall on Bowery & Houston which once graced the art work of Keith Haring and Shepard Fairey has recently been given a proper make over by none other than NYC street bomber "Adek". In broad daylight, he painted an enormous "Sace" throwy in honor of the late artist, which was also known as Dash Snow. Amazing to say the least, and risky is an understatement. Peep the step by step action, beautifully captured by legendary graffiti art photographer Martha Cooper below.

Tributes

As most of you know, Art Basel was this weekend and as I was out and about, I couldn't help but notice a few tribute pieces for my man, the late Bernie Perez aka Oil. Check em' out below.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Here's a movie I recommend watching, especially if you're attending Art Basel this weekend here in Miami. 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' is a documentary type film released this year that was supposed to be about street art legend Banksy, but in turn the film is really about frenchman Thierry Guetta and his obsession with street art and how he became a legend in the art world. It opens with Thierry commenting on how he became addicted to documenting every bit of his life on film. He filmed everything at every moment of his life, accumulating hundreds of thousands of hours of tape which he soon lost track of. One day, he goes back home to France and meets his cousin, famous street artist Invader, and Thierry becomes obsessed with filming him on the street, in action, doing his thing. Shortly after, his cousin introduces him to other street artists to document such as Shepard Fairey, Swoon and eventually the ever so evasive, Banksy. Soon, Thierry wants more from the art world he is obsessed with and begins his own bombing campaigns, labeling himself as "Mr. Brainwash" and leading to enormous, successful exhibitions all over the world. It's quite a funny story actually. It also features Neckface, Kaws, Borf and a few other notables.

What makes this film so interesting is the way everything is presented to you by british narrator Rhys Ifans, it almost seems like it's all a hoax. There actually has been much speculation that the film and story of Mr. Brainwash are a hoax concocted by Banksy himself. Among the most questionable aspects of his character in the film is the absence of any footage of Thierry actually creating his uncannily Banksy-like images. When he is shown "working," he is only seen splattering paint using aerosol cans to haphazardly color images and clumsily attempting to paste up a poster, which was hilarious! Other aspects of the Mr. Brainwash character seem deliberately comical, such as him being pushed in a wheelbarrow after supposedly breaking his foot, but I'll leave it up to you to be the judge. View the extended trailer below. A must see!

The return of Art Basel...and me!

Taking a break from the usual is always good, especially if it's a holiday. Being that Thanksgiving was last week, there was lots of food and beverage to consume, family and friends to host, and most of all some much needed time away from the 'puter. Not only does this blog-post sanction my return, but it also marks the arrival of the annual art orgy that is Art Basel. Dudes like Shepard Fairey and Dickchicken have already started their pre-Basel bombing campaigns throughout Miami's neighborhoods, flyers are beginning to appear any and everywhere and galleries like OH-WOW are working overtime and into overdrive to make sure everything is perfect! Yep it's that time again, and since there's such a heavy saturation of exhibits and events all going on at the same time, I'm here to trim the fat and present to you a few of the better art gatherings going on such as Primary Flight's 'Street Art Cycles' or the Friends With You exhibit 'Rainbow City'. Check out the flyers below, click for hi-res.

Downtown 81

Jean-Michel Basquiat's productive career spanned just one short decade, yet he is considered one of the best-known artists of his generation. Graduating from subway walls to canvas and from the streets of New York to the galleries of SoHo, the artist and his work will forever remain a mystery to those who seek explanation. Sadly, he lost his life to heroin at the young age of 27.

The film 'Downtown 81' is a real-life snapshot of the hip, drug fueled clubland that was downtown Manhattan during the post-punk era of the 1980's and tries to explain the identity of Jean-Michel Basquiat at the same time. It's basically a day in the life of Basquiat as he wanders around NYC trying to sell a painting he made in order to pay his rent. He was recently evicted and would wander different downtown clubs trying to pick-up women so they could take him home and give him a place to sleep, which in real life was going on with the artist as during the actual making of the film, Basquiat was homeless and would sleep in the production offices. Throughout the movie, several real-life downtown superstars make appearances, such as Blondie, James Chance, Fab-5 Freddy, Lee Quinones and a few others you might recognize. It was originally titled 'New York Beat', but the film was later abandoned due to various financial issues. Then in 2000 after original writer Glenn O'Brien purchased the rights to the film, it was resurrected as 'Downtown 81'. Just over an hour and ten minutes, I'm totally in love with the music and footage they display throughout and the way it's captured on film. A must see!

You can view the entire film below. Unfortunately, the audio is of slightly poor quality due to the original dialogue audio being lost, therefore actor Saul Williams stepped in and dubbed the late Basquiat's voice. However, the musical soundtrack, mostly live club performances recorded on location using a RCA 24 track mobile unit, survived. Be sure to also check out the 1996 biopic/drama feature film titled 'Basquiat' as well, which is based on his life and death. For more on Jean-Michel Basquiat, click here.

The Underbelly Project

Interesting write up in this Sunday's New York Times about a hidden art show which took place illegally in one of the many abandoned subway station's in NYC's vast network of underground tunnels. So hidden that the only attendees were the artists themselves and access to and from was destroyed shortly after it's opening. Titled 'The Underbelly Project' and put together by artists "Pac" and "Workhorse", the purpose of this gritty project is defying the norm. No clean white gallery walls or servings of wine & cheese, the public can't buy or view the art and danger is ever present in the dark, risky tunnels. The exhibit features work of over 100 well established street artists such as Revok, Swoon and Ron English and took over 18 months to complete and organize. According to curator Workhorse, "There is a certain type of person that the urban art movement has bred that enjoys the adventure as much as the art. Where else do you see a creative person risking themselves legally, financially, physically and creatively?"

I totally agree and I wish I could have seen this in person. Down in those tunnels there is no bullshit, just real art displayed the way it should be. Read the entire article here, view the short video here, and peep some photos below.





Photos courtesy of Pac and Workhorse.

Daydreaming with James Lavelle

I know this is a bit dated, but I was just emailed this today. This past August, London's Haunch Of Venison gallery hosted recording artist UNKLE aka James Lavelle's exhibition titled "Daydreaming with James Lavelle" which ran through the last days of summer. Legendary Mo'Wax artists Futura, Robert del Naja, Ben Drury, Simon Birch and a handful of others joined forces to inspire the desire to marry music and visual art. The brief exhibition showcase featuring both new and retrospective work ran from August 27th through August 30th. Check out some great photos of the exhibit below, read more here.










Photos courtesy of Hypebeast

Supreme x Cost

Legendary NYC vandal "Cost" has collaborated with Supreme to bring forth a series of tee's for their latest drop. Cost, along with his partner "Revs", started a guerilla-style bombing campaign that lasted over 7 years with the intention to "tear the city to pieces and rebuild it". They wheat pasted huge signs like 'Cost Fucked Madonna' and 'Who Killed Revs?' in all the five boroughs, nothing was safe. When asked by a NY Times reporter what it all meant, Cost said "If you could give us the meaning of life, I’d give you the meaning of us."

Being that Supreme is all things NY, it was only a matter of time that they started collaborating with the movers and shakers of NY's graff world, like their last graff project with "JA". The tee's are real nice, I prefer the first one with the handstyles but what about the 212-760-4740 tee on the very bottom, which was a huge campaign Cost did. He wheat pasted that phone number all across Manhattan and actually set up a hotline with an answering machine and claimed to get over 80 calls per day! When people would call, the recorded voice of a woman would come out and say: "My intuition tells me that you're asking yourselves who are Revs and Cost and what are they doing? What is it? What does it mean? What does it mean? What does it mean?"

Grab your tee's here before they're gone.

Cinelli Mash Histogram

Two months back during the Tour Of California, Mash held an exhibition at Project Space in L.A. The installations were photo's of last years Tour Of California which the Mash crew participated in. To commemorate this, Cinelli, along with the Mash boys, produced the Cinelli Mash Histogram frame-set to go along with the installations. There are only three of these beauties in existence, which are exactly the same in colorway, just different sizes. According to Mash, "the finished product is produced with a 2010 Columbus/Cinelli/MASH frame-set, with powder coat, matte clear coat, fine die-cuts." It's truly a beautiful piece, I wouldn't even want to ride it! Check out some photos and recap of the exhibit here.



Just the other day this highly coveted, limited frame-set popped up on eBay, fully built up and complete with a starting bid of $2,500 and a 'Buy it now' price of $4,000. It's a size 55cm and comes strapped with some pretty decent parts, though I would definitely modify a few. There are no bids yet, shit I wish I had money to just throw around, but it can be yours by clicking here! Go ahead, live dangerously! Below are some photos of the Cinelli Mash Histogram that is up for auction.