We absolutely love this project. Toronotist reports that local artists Sean Martindale and Eric Cheung are turning torn advertising posters on the street into street planters.
You can learn more on their blog here.
Be sure to read the full article on Torontoist here.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.
The piece above was completed yesterday in Toronto by Patrick Evoke and Jenifer Rudski BonnetPlumem along with 15 young artists from the ages of 10 – 17.
Here’s some info from Torontoist:
“A de-commissioned TTC bus gets re-wrapped by youth from Belka Enrichment Center.
Sponsored by Arts Etobicoke and Lakeshore Arts, the three-year initiative launched yesterday morning with the first three vehicles. The project was only an idea just a few short months ago, so, as opposed to the high-profile, grand-scale projects that often take years to realize, it’s encouraging to see something of such profound effect get off the ground so quickly. The art for each vehicle was created by a different non-profit organization, in a collaborative fashion led by a professional mural artist.
The Belka Enrichment Center, located in the Jane-Finch area, got a decommissioned TTC bus to work with. The Center provides mentoring services, media and computer literacy, sports clinics, and is home to a homework club. A group of some nearly fifty kids, led by artists Patrick Thompson and Jenifer Rudski, put together a collage of photos and paintings, which were then manipulated in Photoshop. Fittingly, the Belka bus will eventually be outfitted as a mobile computer lab for youth.”
Photos by H.C. Tinglin/Torontoist.
Congrats guys!
Artists: jaxpac (jacksonville public art coalition).
The latest art studio belongs to the Vietnamese painter Do Hoang Tuong based in Saigon, Vietnam. More work by the artist can be seen at Galerie Quynh.
He does wonderful little paintings like these below..
See more artist studios online.
Ouch, apologies for the headline but it got your attention, right?!
‘Across the Tracks And Through The Looking Glass’
Jon Hammer (aka Elate) has extended his website to incorporate a great new blog. I’m rating it because it includes some pretty unique content from back in the day along with recent work and a nice conversational writing style to keep you wanting more. I featured Jon’s tribute to London’s Graffiti Pioneers on here earlier in the year and its story is finally explained in full here. There’s also a whole raft of Elate pieces mixed up with oil on canvas work throughout the blog along with some great photos of the Covent Garden Writers Bench 25 years reunion where rain only temporarily stopped mayhem.
Elate in Brick Lane, 2009
And thank you for your support for yesterday’s blog post!
One problem thats come out of the rise in the popularity of street art is that work that used to be left to survive on its own (either ending up being removed by the property owner or gone over with other graffiti – both of which are fine by me) is now having to die a slow, undignified death above someones fireplace. Street art is meant to be on the streets (the clues in the title). ‘Street art’ removed from the streets becomes, well, just ‘art’. I’m not talking about copies of street pieces that are meant to be sold and displayed. I’m talking about the peel off carefully, chisel out of the wall brigade. Case in point this was the scene in Brick Lane this afternoon. Walking around a corner I stumbled on this not too stereotypical street art ‘liberator’ carefully peeling off a fresh paste up. She then proceeded to roll it up, stuff it in a bag and then made her (slightly shaky) getaway in the direction of the 24 hour bagel shop (the best place in London for all your Bagel needs). It’s not exactly a crime but it would be much better if it was left there for others to enjoy.
A bit later on in the afternoon and against my better judgement I had a look at the totally unofficial show of ‘reclaimed’ Banksy work in Covent Garden. Walking up to it and even walking around it you’d be hard pressed to determine that Banksy would have had nothing to do with this show (his verification agency ‘Pest Control’ famously always refuses to authenticate street pieces). Most of the work on display has been lifted off the streets over recent years. Large sections of walls, doors and plaster are amongst the pieces that make up the exhibition. It’s a very soulless look at some of his work with a totally different vibe to the Bristol exhibition. In fact it has no vibe at all. Simple labels next to pieces tell you nothing, not even the city the works have been taken from. Banksy’s street pieces are all about the context of where they are placed and in this empty whitewashed hall they lose an important part of their reasons for existence. I actually thought that Andipa Modern’s recent Banksy show was better than this – it was an unofficial show too but at least the work they had on display at the last one was pretty much exclusively never placed on the street. That’s not meant as an endorsement of Andipa in case you were wondering.
This sign summed up the whole seedy enterprise for me…my advice is don’t buy anything here – it’ll only encourage them to do it again. Don’t bother with this sorry show and get yourself down to Bristol if you can….
