Art That Iterates - Macy Art Gallery

Im happy to announce that I will be a part of a group show curated by Sean Justice at the Macy Art Gallery, at the Teachers College at Columbia University. The Show will open on Friday September 7th so come by and join us for a conversation on art that iterates.

New Work for NuART

I just finished the gallery portion of my contribution to NuART this year. They will be installed with a small video installation and room repainting. Used Books, Pencil, Spray, Charcoal and Electronics in "special frame". Onto the rest!

NUART FESTIVAL 2012 . STAVANGER NORWAY

This year I am honored to participate in the 2012 NuART festival in Stavanger Norway. Over the past 11 years, NuArt has brought an international hit list of Urban Artists to a relatively small Norwegian town on the western coast. After some initial issues with the artists very public murals, the city has embraced the festival which has left the town with countless public murals and artworks. This year I will join a roster of artists in Stavanger where I will do a small street project, create a small site specific artwork, and teach classes with the local art college for a week. What I am most excited about is the opportunity to speak to an audience for a full 45 minutes at the beginning of the festival program. In this talk, loosely title "Interrogating Utopia: Conscientious Curation of our Shared Public Spaces", I will try to illuminate the reasons for a public to consciously curate its own public spaces and in doing so highlight some of the problematic barriers that outdoor advertising puts up against this effort. As more information becomes available I will post it here but take a look at the NuART website for a full list of participating artists and schedule. [HERE] Now in its 12th ground-breaking year, Nuart 2012 - the annual contemporary street and urban art festival based in Stavanger, Norway –is set to be the biggest yet. An invited international team of street artists will take to the streets of Stavanger from September 20 – with an indoor show running at Tou Scene from 29 September to 19 November. The likes of Ron English and Ben Eine will leave their mark on the city's walls, both indoor and out, creating one of Europe's most dynamic and constantly evolving public art events. Known as ‘the Cannes’ festival of street art, Nuart’s works are exposed to over 100 000 people each week – including some of the most talented, insightful and connected individuals in the urban art world. 2012 sees the event set to attract record numbers as the festival begins to go global, with the additional Nuart Plus summit – running from 27-29 September – bringing global professionals and experts in the field together to discuss and explore this un-stoppable movement in contemporary art.

From the billboard hijacking activism of Ron English (US) and Jordan Seiler (US) to The Wa’s (FR) playful urban interventions, from Saber’s (US) uncompromising stance on the positive power of Graffiti to Aakash Nihalani’s (US) more concise and conceptual use of coloured tape, Nuart 2012 has brought together an unlikely group of “festival” artists, whose diverse work and methods offer an authentic reflection on the real practice of Street Art. The UK’s globetrotting, ‘Obama gift-giving’, Eine and LA’s HowNosm are sure to set the standard for large breathtaking murals, whilst Dolk – Norway’s finest exponent of the genre popularised by Banksy – will produce some of his iconic stencil-work. Alongside the character driven graffiti of Sickboy (UK), the calligraphiti of Amsterdam’s Niels Shoe Meulman and the text driven Mobstr (UK), Nuart is set to create an explosion of - ‘mostly legal’ - works, both inside, and out. Nuart 2012 sees a conscious shift away from the “acceptable” face of Street Art that has become favoured by councils and municipalities around the world. Recognising that there is a danger of this vibrant culture becoming sanitised by a surfeit of oversized legal murals Nuart 2012 will continue to take to the streets in new and more illicit ways. Alongside it’s exhibition at Tou Scene – which will host over half a kilometre of works along its 19th century tunnels – outdoor landmarks and un-missable billboards will be re-envisioned as subversive pieces of striking art. And if this isn’t enough to excite you, sister festival Numusic will be providing the weekend’s entertainment, with the likes of Mad Professor, The Orb, Lindstrøm, and many more performing. Nuart is set to break more than just boundaries in 2012 – will you be there?

More at the NuART website [HERE]

Neko Keeps the City Lights Bright in Madrid

Neko just sent me this recent takeover from Madrid. Believe in the power of light!

"Is Counterculture Getting Mainstream?" Curating the Venice Architecture Biennale's Guerilla U.S. Pavilion

Below is an interview with Cathy Ho who curated the American Pavilion's exhibition at this years Architecture Bienalle in Venice. The NYSAT projects inclusion in this years exhibit is a testament to the dedication of everyone who took to the streets on that april 25th 2009, and the impact they have had on the collective imagination and our right to stake claim to our cities.

VIA ArtInfo

In 2005, San Francisco-based art and design studio Rebar took it upon themselves to seize a parking space, roll sod out over the pavement, and install a bench and a tree. In the two hours the installation stayed there (the length of time they could legally keep the meter fed), they had launched the first ever Park(ing) Day, a milestone in DIY urbanism that has since evolved and spread to more than 150 cities worldwide. More [HERE]

Street Level Billboards are Getting Out of Hand

Street level signage like this has always upset me but this recent encounter just made me laugh.

Have MetroCards Entered the Public Forum?

I was recently asked to comment on the MTA's new advertising initiative which will bring advertising to the front of Metrocards in the near future, and whether this new form of advertising differs in any way from the traditional posters we see strewn about the transit system. While I see almost no difference at all, I was able to interject my thoughts on the futility of advertising revenue to in any way support our massive transit authority; an idea which is often touted by advertisers themselves when justifying the massive amount of commercial messages we are forced to consume on a daily basis. Quoted as saying that ad revenue makes up less than 1% of the MTA's operating budget, I would like to readjust that figure with the articles numbers. With a 12,500,000,000.00 dollar operating budget and approximately 120,000,000.00 dollars in ad revenue, the percent of the operating budget that ad revenue takes care of is .96%. Meaning if we increased a transit rides by less than 2.5 cents we could eliminate every single advertisement from the entire transit system. No more ads in the subway cars, on the platforms, in buses, on buses, at bus shelters, wrapped trains, station domination campaigns, digital screens at subway entrances, advertisements on Metrocards, spectacular campaigns, station naming rights, etc. Said plainly, I wonder if the public would opt for an ad free transit system given the choice. 

VIA Metrofocus

In July the MTA announced that it will make the front of its iconic MetroCard available to advertisers, who can replace virtually all but the black, magnetic strip with their own messaging. The MTA has sold advertising space on the back of the card since the mid-1990s, and this announcement comes with a reduction of the purchase minimum. The MetroCard’s advertisement space will be managed in-house by the MTA, while most MTA ad spaces are managed through CBS Outdoor. More [HERE]

Property Tax Evasion in City Is Widespread, Report Suggests

In a NY Times article which shouldn't surprise PublicAdCampaign readers, property owners often fail to pay taxes on billboard revenue.

VIA The New York Times

At the peak of the real estate boom, the owners of a four-story building with a couple of huge billboards in Times Square failed to report money that they received from renting the signs, evading tens of thousands of dollars a year in property taxes. More [HERE]

OX Blasts Off

OX just sent over one of his newest pieces. Check this recent post on OX's work [HERE]