overunder

Artists Unite Show

2009-07-02T12:11:00.004-04:00

'My Piece is Still Running' was recently selected for the Artists Unite show in Washington Heights/Inwood. The show was projected on a large building at the intersection of Nagle Avenue, and Thayer and Dyckman Streets and was visible from the nearby 1 line. The exhibition featured still and video works by local and international artists and was curated by Anthony Archibald and Peter Ferko.

Take that New York Art Culture

2009-06-23T13:36:00.005-04:00

Joe Delappe just forwarded me this article in the NY Times about the Dada Hotel project. It's a dense story with a slideshow to boot. So what are you doing? Check it out!

A bit of background //
The Dada Hotel was the brain child of neon-anarchist Jeff Johnson and artist gone tweety Chad Sorg. Together they've been cultivating Reno's crop through alternative venues such as hotels (read, derelict drug dens).

The El Cortez became the official batcave 3 years ago and they've been having the annual Dada Hotel there ever since. However the list of collaborative artists is growing and the overflow is crossing Arlington to nearby hotels and motels.

So what's next for Johnson and Sorg? At this rate we may see the making of 'Mr. Tumbleweeds Takes Washington'.

photo by (left) Dean Burton and (right)Reno Passport

Blasting Off To Outer Space

2009-06-17T13:59:00.009-04:00

Lynn Maharas and my game Ran Some Ransom won Best Use of Space at the 2009 Come Out & Play Festival. If you didn't get a chance to play this weekend you can learn more about our game on the site Ran Some Ransom. Expect more location-based projects from us in the future.

Ran Some Ransom

2009-06-11T23:53:00.009-04:00

Stop by the Come Out And Play FESTIVAL this Fri, Sat, and Sun. at Times Square to play some awesome FREE games out in the streets! Lynn Maharas and I created Ran Some Ransom which will be happening throughout the weekend. And if you aren't into physical games than come for the mind games created by the city of NY through it's banishment of cars in Times Square. Truly a crazy scene in itself! Hope to see you there.

It's all about technique

2009-06-10T21:49:00.002-04:00

This lends way too many ideas on how to paint my next mural.

Old News is still Good News

2009-05-30T10:11:00.010-04:00

Before coming back to a full house of relatives and friends I was in Minneapolis for an event called the Art a Whirl. Every year Minneapolis does a huge art event throughout the city and for this year I painted a mural for Shuga Records with Mike Fitzsimmons and John Grider of Broken Crow. Between scarfing down burgers, throwing back brewskis, and assembling scaffolding we painted the mural in 4 days. Paul Schmelzer of Eyeteeth made a video of the process that is below and also wrote about the mural on his blog. (photos by Paul Schmelzer via his photostream)
Aside from the mural for Shuga Records we were also part of an event called the 24-hr art making marathon hosted by the Walker Art Center. We got in and painted a quick 3-hour shift at the conclusion just when the all-night art'ers were painting like zombies.

The event was amazing and a big shout out to Whit who organized the event!!! Check out the time lapse video of the process below to see the chaos that ensues when you put a handful of teenagers in a room with art supplies and a little anarchy.

street decorations

2009-05-28T15:35:00.003-04:00

Went and scrounged some material on a curb alert and lo and behold, the beginning of party graffiti! I had previously worked with party streamers, using them akin to a 2 inch roller via wheat paste. But when I got my hands on this garland it became a whole new ball game.

It's odd to think that the medium has such control over assumptions when the content remains the same. It's like the old tale of the wolf in sheep's clothing except no one had to eat ol' gramma.

blu // one to tell the grandkids about

2009-05-27T16:09:00.007-04:00

Heard of blu? Of course you have. But while we were all watching the muto video some of his other videos may have flown under the radar. Came across this video of him creating a gigantore piece in Berlin in 2008. Check the timelapse video which clocks in just under 3 days.

all imgs from blublu.org

John Cerney

2009-05-19T22:22:00.004-04:00

Check it, real men wear denim. Came across artist John Cerney working hard painting large scale cut-outs in the fields. I love how John took it past the wall. "I don't need a wall'" he says.

Mural w/ Cahil Muraghu

2009-05-09T17:38:00.009-04:00

Fun day painting with Cahil Maraghu at the Robots Will Kill wall in Bushwick. Got to work on an amazingly aged wall that would break off huge chunks with a hard pass of the roller. I know Phase 2 called subway painting "impact expressionism" but I think that today Cahil and I were on to some literal impact expressionism. Check the video for tips and tricks on can control.

Minneapolis in the House

2009-05-07T00:14:00.007-04:00

Painted with my favorite visiting homies Broken Crow today at the Espeis Gallery in Williamsburg. More to come in the following days. Just someone tell this rain to stop.
//////////UPDATE ///////////
Maria Juranic's timelapse video of our mural was recently featured on Juxtapoz, Animal New York, Upper Playground, and Eyeteeth.

More to come this weekend after my trip to Minneapolis for Don't Sleep On It: 24hr Art Making Marathon for the Walker Art Center.

Broken Crow and Overunder Street Art in NY from Maria Juranic on Vimeo.

You can't diss without dissent

2009-04-28T02:30:00.008-04:00

There was something strangely perfect happening on Saturday when Jordan Seiler of thePublic Ad Campaign organized an event to buff out over 120 illegal NPA operated advertisements in Manhattan and several in Brooklyn. He then extended the project even further by inviting a slew of street artists to keep it under wraps for a week before hitting the freshly buffed walls.

I hit the streets with the minister of Propaganda/Sleepy Time snuggle buddy Clairvoyance. Nick Riggle was rolling deep along with Cahbasm and NohJColey. For the most part everything was smooth sailing until we got rolled on by undercover chinatown cops during our last poster. It was one of those moments when you are all done but something compels you to add one more doodad. Well next time that happens, don't do the doodad because it's just trouble. As far as I'm concerned, it's a don'tdad!

In our scenario, I was using a bike as a stepping stool in order to wheat paste the last ray over the top of the billboards frame when they rolled on us with shiny badges and polished sunglasses. Our punishment: to rip it off piece by piece, which took just as long, if not longer than putting it up in the first place. This salvaged billboard now had small fragments of paper scattered across it like a detonation of color had just gone off. In a way the cop-curated piece had a cool look. It was minimalist, subtractive, and bona fide avante garde ish. I couldn't help but appreciate the hurried element of struggle to it. Along with the fact that I didnt' get a ticket.

pics by order of appearance 1 & 2 Will Sherman of AnimalNY, 3 & 4 by N. Riggle, 5 by overunder, and 6 by cahil muraghu

In Situ Art // Ernest Pignon-Ernest

2009-04-19T17:05:00.005-04:00

Looking back through my del.icio.us page I was amazed at what I found and subsequently forgot. I'm resurfacing it now because it's just too good to pass up on. Ernest Pignon-Ernest is not only incredibly good at what he does, he is by far one of the pioneers in the field of street art. Beginning sometime around 1966, his highly detailed wheatpastes could be found throughout the streets of Paris. I hadn't thought about it before but France has a rather deep roster of historical street artist. Moving down the line from my new found friend Ernest came Blek le Rat sometime around 1981 (maybe earlier). Blek's work sparked the Parisian street art scene initiating the Figuration Libre movement. These were basically a group of stencil artists. Of the street artist emerging at the time were Jef Aerosal, Mis Tic, Speedy Graphito, Nemo, and Mesnager. Now some share the same vision and tradition of early stencil artist like the prolific and globe-trotting C215. At the same time, a whole new breed of French street artists are experimenting with materials like Space Invader's use of tiles, JR's use of large scale photocopies, and Zevs use of well, anything. While vising Paris this past October I got a chance to see work by some of the old school dudes like Nemo and Mesnager but I was also impressed by some new faces like Bonom, FKDL, Monsieur Chat, and the graff-master Horfe. So here's to over 40 years of street art in France!

Bon Appétit!

Words of Wisdom from Jia

2009-04-14T19:53:00.002-04:00

This is Jia, my new favorite person to see at school. She has some pretty amazing things to say. Especially after a little whiskey or red wine.

"I always need white people next to me so i can do crazy shit."
-Jia

(5 min. later)

"But the secret of cheerleading is you just get really stoned and jump around."

-Jia

New Prints

2009-03-30T14:49:00.003-04:00

Been screen printing a bit lately and wanted to share a few. Something about pulling ink across stretched silk is so addicting.
(writers bench poster with bHaminator Yale Wolf)

Taelor Made

2009-03-19T13:51:00.005-04:00

My girlfriend Taelor just started an Etsy account selling her handmade books and letter-pressed cards. She does custom work and is damn good at it too! Check it out here

The Shittiest Painter Ever

2009-03-07T23:27:00.005-05:00

Spotted this video put up by Stan O’Connor as he points out the remnants of two anonymous vandals. The first being those pesky crapping pups and their ambivalent owners. The second being the vigilante who then spray paints the dog crap that is left behind. It's unknown if the anonymous Inwood sprayer marks the dog poop with fluorescent construction spray as a way to warn others when walking in the area or as a way to preserve the poops like chalk body outlines.

Only the poop-sprayer knows!

2009-03-04T15:51:00.001-05:00

Look at reflective piece by gems at deitch again

Directional Footsteps 3

2009-02-21T11:26:00.006-05:00

Been looking at Simon Elvins work today and wanted to share it. AM Radio made from everyday materials that requires no power supply. The radio is powered
from the energy in the radio waves themselves and utilises public spaces by latching onto the
nearest pole, tree or lamppost, in order to give it structure and a place to be listened to.

Date Update

2009-02-05T10:26:00.006-05:00

Just had a great visit by John Grider who was on vacation from being Brokencrow. After cutting millions of focused stencils his hand is on the verge of tendinitis and his doctor put him on Xacto hiatus. So what a surprise to have his Minneapolis-ness wit-nessed. Eventually we all escaped the city and made a winter pilgrimmage to Coney Island. Hit it right at sunset, hand in hand, with girlfriend (<---big up Tae Tae), friends, and adorable dogs (that's right, I'm talking bout you B00!) One of those friends was our new buddy Luna Park, who has got a shutter fire like John Wayne's got a trigger finger. John made his way back earlier this week and we're still missin him.
But soon enough John and I will be releasing a big project in the works poppin' off this summer and more than likely coming to a city near you!

(clockwise top left: Espo signage, Russian fisherman at Coney Island, Luna Park catching fresh Imminent Disaster piece, me catching Luna Park catching a fresh Imminent Disaster piece.)

Derivative Derive

2009-02-02T12:51:00.003-05:00

It's been so cold lately I haven't been biking. The one day that I did my tire cracked and the tube came bursting out of a quarter-sized slot. It hissed like a cobra tongue with green slime from past patch-proofing. By this time my fingers were numb and gloves futile to the pulverizing wind. So in the meantime I've been walking a lot. It's enjoyable under a heavy coat and pocketed hands. I blow around from here to there, maintaining a general end but let the buildings do what they must to me. Sometimes an alley breaks left when I want to go right or a fire escape appears when I want to keep on track. I take them naturally not knowing if it is randomizing my day or making it more the same. Growing up around casino's taught me about odds. It's only odd that I think it's odd. And the outside remains predictable until I can derive out of my head.

Directional Footsteps 2

2009-02-02T12:35:00.004-05:00

I've been following Katharina Grosse loosely for a few years now. Her paint sprayer-driven scribbles take over buildings attempting to override their architectural nuances. What you get is a colorful bread crumb trail of Katharina making her way up, over, and through spaces.

She was born in Freiburg/Breisgau in 1961 and lives and works between Dusseldorf and Berlin. Since October of 2000 she has been a Professor at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee.

(images top to bottom: Installation at Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX, 1999; detail of interior at Chinati, exterior painting on Berlinishe Gallerie, 2003.)

Directional Footsteps, 1

2009-01-24T20:46:00.009-05:00

I should have done this a long time ago but been stuck on me, me, me. I guess the life of a "street artist" is more vain than Martina Navratilova's forearm. Ok, punny-ass jokes aside, I thought it was time to stop being so myopic so i'm going to step back and try to rejuvinate my little digi-loft here at Overunder. I'm not going to call it a New Year's Resolution but I am going to do my best to bring you a weekly Saturday post showing you my favorite artists of the week. I'm usually amazed by a bunch of people and usually come across half a dozen new people a week that utterly blow my mind. Not to mention, the countless people who have made an indelible mark on me in person, video, or folklore. So this week I wanted to share them with you.

The first is this new piece by El Tono. The works were pasted up in layers in a loose enough way that those in passing could get enough of a grip to rip the work. These are then then taken down by El Tono and are up now in his current show Pubblico in Milano. El Tono has been thoughtfully ridging the gap between gallery space and people space, having the work fluxuate back and forth and inviting the public to truly participate in some form; Whether it be transforming the piece through delivering it to a specified address (as in the piece with Nuria) or vandalizing it in order to create something of chance and authenticity.

The second person is Aram Bartholl who created the below video telephony project. He does tons of crazy street/cyber mashups and he's fluent on internety (is that even an adjective) cultural affairs. I like the "here's looking at you kid" project because it tries to tackle the ironic social unconnectivity created by the internet although it borders on sci-fi virtual reality eyewear. You should definitely check out Aram's site for more of his work.

Lastly, I found the work of Daniel Buren which is bare to the bone. This fool keeps it ba-sic. But his work ethic is top notch where he's all about stripping the work itself to a minimal and highlighting the experience. He calls it "scene of production" which is devoid of representation and solely devoted to highlighting the work itself. He works with striped awning canvas, common in France and wheat pastes it in situ. He was active in the 60's and you can learn more about him through the wiki or this spanish write-up.

Hope you few stragglers reading this enjoy and excited to bring it to you next week.

Si se puede.

New Drawings

2009-01-15T16:12:00.005-05:00

gurdon, arkansas
fernley, nevada
huntington, s. virginia
fernley, nevada

faceless chances in the desert. giving bodies to the surplus of floating heads and flapping lips.

2009 is Fresh to Death

2009-01-15T15:20:00.008-05:00

Another long stretch with no overunder love. Back from a 3800+ mile road trip from Reno to Brooklyn with pit-stops throughout the south. Taetae taught me how to read a map as we veered to the Juarez border and I showed her how to live off of gas station coffee. Visits with her sister Crow in Santa Fe, Donald Judd's Chinati Museum in the beautiful Marfa, Texas, ghost hunting in Gurdon, Arkansas with Emmy and buZ blurr, followed with a tour of Hatch Show Prints by Nieves in Nashville, Tennessee. After that it just became a blur of inescapable towns.

Now I'm back in NYC and the mood is as cold as the weather. The color of choice is black with black over black and a scarf, probably black. Everything is not on sale anymore nor are the treats homemade from a family recipe. Everything just kinda is. And that's fine. But word to the wise is don't drive through the south if you plan on coming out east. That southern hospitality will just melt your heart and the city freezes it over.

More photos from the trip here