Hasta La Ideas

A massive new book on the world’s most notoriously underground artform

Not all graffiti books are created equally, but a behemoth like the forthcoming “History of American Graffiti” shows how meaningful collections of photos and information on the subject can be when edited with a careful eye. Co-authors Roger Gastman (co-curator of the eMoCA “Art in the Streets” show and co-publisher of the late Swindle Magazine) and Book of Awesome author Caleb Neelon had not just the eye but the expertise to pull off the 400-page tome too.

Inherently ephemeral—whether buffed out, painted over or otherwise disappearing over time before its full impact can be understood—documenting significant works is a challenge that makes a book of this scale so rare.

An obvious amount of effort went into researching and writing the book. When asked where they found all of the photos, Neelon described the process as “searching through the shoe boxes and albums of more than 200 contributors from around the country.”

The ambitious book starts with the statement that, “Humans write graffiti,” and follows with what amounts to a vast archive of the visual expressions that have surfaced around the world, how each country has contributed to the overall aesthetic and similarities or differences among regional styles. One example, the popular U.S. WWII slogan “Kilroy Was Here,” is seen around the globe, but in Britain it’s called Mr. Chad, and in Australia the same cartoon of a bald man peeping over a fence accompanies the phrase “Foo was here.”

Profiles on key writers like San Francisco’s Twist (aka Barry McGee) and others like Washington D.C.’s Cool “Disco” Dan—who wrote in the ’80s and ’90s—offer further insight on graffiti as a universal culture. Gastman and Neelon remark, “what we’re really pleased about with the book is its breadth of coverage. Not just the obvious media centers of NYC/LA/SF but lots of amazing and untold local stories from the origins of scenes in all the other big cities around the United States. Miami, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque and on.” Hawaii and Pittsburgh are even represented as hotbeds of creative activity.

The “History of American Graffiti” is available for pre-order from Amazon.

Things are not as they appear in this Pakistani artist’s pixelated works

Working across mediums—sculpture, video installation and large-scale photography among them—Pakistani artist Rashid Rana explores the singular issue of South Asia’s struggle between tradition and modernity. Typically he uses a pixelated aesthetic to express how globalization and the media impact the region’s identity.

This approach separates out and reassigns associations between the part and whole as a way of challenging stereotypes. His work—on view at London’s Lisson Gallery—teeters between 2D and 3D perspectives, creating tension and forcing his audience to question reality while underlining his position that “we live in a state of duality.”

Rana’s series of sculptures, aptly called “Books,” are really aluminum cubes printed with pixelated photographs, putting the perceptions of three-dimensional space and form into play by toying with our sense of concrete information.

Described by Rana as “unpacked abstraction,” his large-scale photographic work looks like a chaotic field of geometric shapes from afar. As you focus closer, the pixels reveal themselves as smaller, context-specific images disrupting the serenity of the work as a whole with their sheer volume.

Rashid Rana’s show will be at Lisson Gallery from 30 March 2011 through 30 April 2011, and is accompanied by a new monograph on the artist.

Photographer Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre has sent us his photos of the Centro Niemeyer by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, which opens tomorrow in Avilés, Spain.

An auditorium for 1000 spectators spills onto a public plaza, which also contains a viewing tower and three-storey dome-shaped museum.

A spiral staircase inside the museum leads to a mezzanine where light and sound installations will be on show for the inaugural exhibition, featuring work by film director Carlo Saura.

A separate building houses a cinema, rehearsal rooms, meeting areas and conference halls.

Photographs are by Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre/View.

The information below is from the Centro Cultural Internacional:

In 1989, the now one hundred year old Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, was awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts Award. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Awards in 2006, the Prince of Asturias Foundation (FPA) invited all the award winners to participate in the celebrations.

“I am an architect and, as such, what I do is design buildings and that is just what I am going to do; design a building.” And so, on a blank piece of paper, Oscar Niemeyer began sketching curves, a skill in which he excels. With this, Niemeyer offered one of the best possible gifts ever.

Those first sketches, drawn with a thick black marker, formed the foundations of an ambitious cultural project which will be housed in what Niemeyer himself has called his most important project in Europe and his only project in Spain.

Programme

The Niemeyer Center is an open door to culture in all its shapes, forms, traditions and styles. Music, theatre, cinema, expositions, conferences and outdoor and educational news will be the main focus of a multidisciplinary cultural programme of which the only common denominator is excellence.

The Niemeyer Center was created to attract talent, knowledge and creativity. From this point of view, not only will it be a gateway to the best of the world’s culture, but also a producer of contents. Since the celebration of the First World Forum of Cultural Centres in Avilés the Niemeyer Center has worked in connection with some of the most prestigious cultural centres throughout the world, such as the Carnegie Hall, the Old Vic Theatre and Cannes Film Festival, among others.

Facilities and Spaces The Niemeyer Center is the only piece of work created by Oscar Niemeyer to be built in Spain and, in his own words, it will be the most important of all his European designs.

Driven by the same healthy ambition, the Niemeyer Center aims to become an international reference point in the production of cultural content; a space associated with excellence dedicated to education and culture. In order to accomplish this, the cultural complex will consist of five areas which are both separate yet complementary to each other:

• An auditorium with capacity for 1,000 spectators.
• An almost 4,000 square meter open-plan exhibition site.
• Viewing point over the estuary and the city.
• Multi-use building that will house a cinema, rehearsal areas and meeting and conference halls.
• An open square, where entertainment and cultural activities will be programmed on a continuous basis, which will form a point of union between the Center and the city.

See also:

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International Fair of Tripoli by Oscar Niemeyer	More photographs by Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre	More about Spain

New absurdly allegorical paintings by Edward del Rosario

Set against monochrome backgrounds, painter Edward del Rosario‘s fairytale-like scenes depict people counterposed with nature in charmingly unsettling ways. The Brooklyn-based artist has been exploring the subject for the past eight years, each piece adding to a larger meta-narrative that explores the “aftermath of a post-colonial world.” His latest installment of curious paintings will show at L.A.’s Richard Heller gallery in the upcoming exhibition simply titled “Fable.”

An active performance artist while earning his MFA at RISD, del Rosario’s theatrical roots are evidenced by the comedically tense or absurd situations in which he carefully depicts his characters. The melodramatic situations often depict his characters’ misunderstandings of each other and their conflicts over the balance of power. As explained in a 2009 interview with Lowdown Magazine, del Rosario’s performances, influenced by absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco, still inform his painterly study of social interaction and group mentality.

“Fable” is on view at the Richard Heller Gallery from 26 March 2011 through 30 April 2011.

Flying liquid paint splashes captured by Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama

Splashes of tempura paint come to an arresting standstill in “Gardens,” the latest project by Japanese artist Shinichi Maruyama on exhibition at Manhattan’s Bruce Silverstein Gallery. With high-speed photography and the spontaneous gestures of action painting, Maruyama produces sculptural images at once frozen and fleeting in midair.

“I have tried to represent this feeling I get from Zen gardens in my artwork,” he explains. “It is its own universe, empowering the visitor to resist temptation, eliminate negative thought and sever the continuous stream of inessential information emanating from the outside world.”

Born in Nagano, Japan, Maruyama made a name for himself in advertising with his innovative use of digital photography and the visual properties of water. Taking a contemplative turn, he published two books documenting Tibetan life in 2001. Maruyama relocated to New York two years later and began to explore the artistic possibilities of photographic strobe technology and liquids. In the well-received series “Kusho,” he examined the elusive nature of calligraphy with hurls of sumi ink and water.

“Gardens” runs through 2 April 2011. All images © Shinichi Maruyama, courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NY