What comes to mind, when thinking about Vienna is its impressive cultural history. Classic opera houses, balls, Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and many other artists that influenced art history at large, cast a big shadow. A shadow in which a flourishing urban art scene had the chance to develop, invisible to the untrained eye.

The international urban art exhibition ESCAPE 2010 - Escape the Golden Cage will open its doors for the first time, in October 2010, to create a spotlight for Austrian, as well as international artists. The selected artists were invited to display and communicate the current positions of urban art, focusing on the intrinsic references to space and urban settings as well as comic, pop and street art. It can be seen as a silent critique on Vienna's artistic history. Then again, it can also be seen as a chance for upcoming artists like Nomad, Faith47, and Stephen Tompkins (above) to have a whole lot of fun.

continue reading

by NOMAD

This is the permanence of Spontaneity.

Last year Nomad and I were in LA for the Modart 20th issue group show. It was a week of chance and struggle. The night after the opening, Nomad woke up a flea invested couch that had more dog fur than the garbage cans outside a Korean restaurant. My phone rang. It was for him. An hour later and he was on his way to a private jet and off to Vegas for a night of celebrity style partying.

A couple of days later, we were visiting the Carmichael gallery where our buddies The London Police were prepping a show. The gallery was next to LA ink and Nomad scribbled out a beautiful tattoo... a dog biting its own tail as it wrapped around his armed and barked: No Way Back.

No Way Back... within a week it was inked into Nomad's history and future.

continue reading

this is the wall i painted for the mural project in china...

china is so complex and so very foriegn...
im pretty astounded at the enormity of the world..
the whole trip was a whirlwind.... a crazy electrical storm
my heart pierced and swimming in the blood red power that that country holds
and all i could think when leaving and driving through hong kong was
that i want to see more.. i want to understand more...

that side of the world is booming...
there is something there happening that make europe and america seem faded on paper.

the project was grand.. great artists, great people, great art, stifling heat, music, censorship, ballroom dancing, chicken pox[not me luckily], lots of food. fancy hotels, petitions, lots of rice, lots of fun...


from faith47s blog

A little over one week ago Toronto's street level advertising was all but obliterated by the same great people behind the now infamous New York Street Advertising Takeover (NYSAT). On August 22nd over 90 street levels ads in Toronto, as well as nearly 20 billboards, were removed and replaced with artwork from 60 artists from all over the globe, including OX, Jordan Seiler (of course), Michael de Feo, Skullphone, Remed, Ripo, Sakristan, Neko and many more. In the past these non-violent protests have had major impacts on how the illegal advertising companies are able to function in their respective cities, having actually shut down one of the biggest offenders in NYC. Not enough can be said about how valuable these interventions are in helping take back control of the aesthetics and use of our supposedly public space. Make time to learn more about the TOSAT and the NYSAT.

Kid Acne has put years into his Stabby Women poster campaign. These heroines have been slashing and stomping out their own place at the bottoms of doorways and other nooks and crannies across the world, inhabiting cities such as New York, Paris, Barcelona, Munich, London, and Sao Paulo. He's now released his own fanzine documenting the project that includes a series of 8 full color glossy postcards. Numerous artists have written their take on Kid Acne's project, you can read an exclusive text by Ripo on the Stabby Women's invasion of Barcelona over at No New Enemies. For more information about the zine read on.

continue reading

After Laserkatz's first exhibition in Innsbruck they're back with "Ar(t)zler Alm - Die Katz im Wald"! The one day show, September 4th, will require you to take a hike through the forest trail at Hungerburg in Innsbruck to get to the Ar(t)zler Alm. At the end of the path you'll find the show, bbq, and music. Summer's not over yet people, let's spend some time outside.

continue reading

Exhibition by Andreas Klammt

Andreas Klammt will open his exhibition on saturday at 7.30p.m. in Hamburg, St.Pauli at Galerie auf Halb Acht. Right now he is finishing all artworks and even has to repair some broken frames to get everything ready for tomorrow. You can see a lot more of his Illustrations, Collages and canvas on his website Breitengrad 53,5. We will show you more pictures from the exhibition after the weekend - see you there!

Running until 11.09.2010
Opening hours: Tue. - Sat. 4p.m - 7.30p.m.
Sat. 1 - 6p.m.

Galerie auf Halb Acht
Hein-Hoyer-Str.16
20359 St. Pauli

By Robert Matzke

Skeletor in Ostberlin

The exhibition "Querfeldein" shows the latest artworks by Rober Matzke.
In the heart of Muenster at the House of the Netherlands.
We went to the opening last tuesday and i was stoked by the variety and the humor of his illustrations, canvas and sculptures - check the link below to see some more views of this exhibition.

Exhibition: 25.8. - 26.9.2010
Open until midnight on the "Museum's Night" on the 4.9.2010

continue reading

New works by Scott Albrecht

The Curiosity Shoppe of San Francisco presents SOMETHINGMISTAKENFORNOTHING, a solo exhibition of new works by Scott Albrecht. The show features a series of three-dimensional pictographic wooden pieces, hand-cut and stained as well as typographic studies on vintage pieces of paper and wood-created using paint, pen & ink, and screen printing.

You can read much more below and check their brandnew website about this exhibition and their network: thisisprocess.com

"Have a great day-a phrase we have all heard, and probably said ourselves, at one time or another. This, along with so many other expressions have become as clichee as our daily interactions, their intended message so diluted from over-use, that we end up retaining very little of the actual meaning of what is most often said and heard....

continue reading

We received these pics from C100 a little while back of a street project he had put up around Munich. We enjoyed it but now with these words from him it works perfectly: "Normally diamonds are only available/affordable for a small group of (rich) people - our aim is to change this by giving everyone out there the possibility to enjoy our diamonds! Diamonds for everyone!"

you can see more from C100 at www.c100purplehaze.com

continue reading

Heliumcowboy will be hosting its 2010 season opening group show, 'Mountain to Surf,' on September 3rd with painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, and wood cuts from Nina Braun, Jon Burgerman, Victor Castillo, Alex Diamond, Boris Hoppek, Jeremy Fish & Casey McKee. Mountain to Surf is inspired by the name of an annual race in Australia that begins in the mountains above the coast and ends practically in the surf on the beach. So run over to the gallery and check out their own visual version of this race, sort of.

continue reading

Photo by Cake Industries

A new report from Melbourne and about the Arts Fair 2010 from our guest author Lea Borgmann from Hamburg/Germany. She will stay there for another month and check out the local fine art scene and the city in general.
We are really happy to have on board for that time - hope we here more from her soon.

Just click below to see the whole article.

continue reading