Highlights

0:44- Bens flip to start the battle.

3:35-Lil Rock clowning their routine.

4:00-This routine is new to me…I’ve never seen this one until this battle. Dope!

5:03-Lil Rocks set. Nice.

8:00-Another routine…ending with Crumbs doing his  signiture front hand spring thingy off of the shoulders.

RETNA ONE starting out….

About a month ago I had a chance to check out the Street Legal show featuring Mear One, Retna, El Mac and Kofie, at the Riviera and Rivera gallery. At the same time that show took place, each of these prolific artists were contributing to a live painting of immense proportions at the LA Art show. Here is a fresh video and picture recap of the show..

Kofie in deep mediation and work. Zoning it all out.

Few sit and stand, but all are in quiet awe of Kofie who paints an abstract playground for the eyes. Rarely does he acknowledge these spectators of the Los Angeles Art Show. Inches away from the 12 x 12 foot canvas, he lives and works, spiritually tethered to a geometric pool of tides and axes.

Kofie’s approach and aim, is oblique like his style of “vintage futurism.” The artist avows, “Bottom line: I always like to fuck with people’s heads. There’s no real grand scheme with what I’m trying to do here. I’m really just doing what I do.”

Kofie and Mear grinding out…

Retna putting final touches to the pieces him and Mac worked on.

Unfortunately, Mac was unable to put on a show for the fans because spray paint was not allowed into the building, so the portion of his middle-aged woman was completed beforehand, as that is his tool of trade.

What is interesting are Retna and Mac’s mediation and process on creating a spirit of a woman rather than an ethnicity.

“You can’t quite place the culture of the woman. She could be slightly Asian. She could be slightly African American. She could just be an older Caucasian. We can’t place her. I think [the letters] are incredibly beautiful forms and they go with the way [El Mac] has constructed her face, a sort of etching quality that describes dimension. And if you look at the forms, they have a symbolic quality, so you don’t know what that’s saying, but you can go with it — make a little story about her.” -El Mac.

“We’re paintings murals of people that don’t necessarily have a voice, so we like to glorify them,” Retna explains.

MEAR ONE- Completed work.

The dicussion of fine art, street art, graffiti is one that is interminable, multifaceted and knows no bounds.  Forever, will we have out debate on how to categorize and interpret art. There is a rich tradition and history that few understand and critique. However, I feel that one should soak it all enjoy rather than critique. What fun is it to be a dilettante and overly criticize?  Apparently, as long as you know what you are talking about, you’re fine.

Marta Avellaneda, 56, represents Galeria del Paseo in Montevideo, Uruguay, and opines that VOX HUMANA is neither graffiti nor fine art: “The way I see it, more than graffiti, is that it’s mural work. They’re muralists, but muralists on canvas. To me, maybe because I grew up in the 60s and 70s, the fact that someone is a street performer and becomes part of an art collection — it loses its feeling.”

Avellaneda concedes that the title is apt: “You have a feeling of each [artist]. They have many voices. You have a geometric voice, a figurative voice, an abstract voice. It’s a human voice.”

Partial credit to Juxtapoz and Tommy Tung for the interview.

So the “Epic Bear Man” video has gotten huge…Check this one out… 

The Barbarados group of visual artists in Yogyakarta are called “Artcoholic”, as most of them admit to liking alcohol. Artcholoic visual artists from the city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia are identified by their style of art and their intoxication. 36 artists are currently holding a second exhibition at Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, featuring mostly street art, in which artists express their ideas spontaneously, adding phrases in their paintings, similar to the graffiti found in public spaces.

The Strumica Carnival is one of the most notable customs and traditions of its kind in Macedonia, held every year during the so-called Trimeri Days, marking the start of the Lenten Fast, which always begins on Sunday Eve of Forgiveness and lasts until Wednesday. Tuesday is the traditional carnival night, when masked groups stroll through town to the homes of engaged girls until early in the morning. Yet, the carnival’s association with the Trimeri Days is merely in terms of its timing, but not the meaning, since Trimeri is a Christian tradition, while the carnival a remnant from a pagan cult.

This week, KAWS hits two galleries in Spain, one being at Galeria Javier Lopez and the other taking place at ARCO. Kaws has always been one of those artists that were interesting, because you either love or hate him.

Some feel that his simple lines, and child-like paintings exhibit too much hype for what they are worth. Graffiti purists feel he sold out, and wishes he would go back to the days where he was a pure writer, or was destroying ads. Well, evidently life goes on, and artists need to make moves for themselves regardless of hype, but the have mouths to feed.

The amount of hype and value of KAWS’ work forecast him as the next Warhol, particularly of this generation, with pieces selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and small collectibles going for a small fortune as well.

I own this CHUM, but not the life-sized one.

Renditions of popular icons are classic amongst KAWS works.

Mickey Mouse, as the rendition of the Companion. The Simpsons.

The more OG stuff….