“Barry O’Bomber,” got game in a fresh pair of Blazers before MJ took over #23…

As BARACK “BARRY” OBAMA prepares to accept his party’s nomination as the official presidential candidate at the thrill ride of political theater that is the DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION tonite, we felt compelled to honor the occasion by presenting this photo of the candidate in his glory days. After all, had “Barry O’Bomber”—as he was known in 1979 as a so-called “rat baller” on the Punahou High School basketball team in Hawaii—continued down his original path, we might be celebrating a rich ass, above-average three point shooter instead of the seemingly trustworthy presidential contender that stands before us. Most notable about this image is the photographic proof it provides that Barry was bringing new life to the number 23 long before Jordan took the court, while his fresh pair of Blazers attest to his early street smarts. Now, fast forward 29 years to the future present and let’s just hope he can still sink an outside long shot…

On the eve of the opening of “Blood & Treasure,” TODD JAMES‘ solo exhibition of new war-themed paintings at the starmaking LAZARIDESGALLERY in London this Friday, August 29th, we sat down with the New York-based artist, animator, and new dad for an in-depth discussion on the state of the nation. And a bunch of art stuff too. READ ON: Read the rest of this entry »

Eric White (top center) and Jesse Leyva believe the children are our future…

The BEAUTIFUL LOSERS x NIKE SPORTSWEAR official “Make Something!” creative workshop series designed to provide cutting-edge art instruction to disadvantaged urban youth in conjunction with the “Beautiful Losers” international film debut wrapped up its month long run in NYC last weekend with two blowout four-hour seminars: Painting with ERIC WHITE, and sneaker design with JESSE LEYVA. Schooling a diverse array of young urban students on the finer points of putting brush to canvas, Mr White distilled his years of fine art experience into a powerful tutorial that sent the students home with a greatly enhanced skill set and newfound desire to create art with a tool other than a spray paint can. Meanwhile, Nike’s own resident footwear magician Jesse Leyva guided a full house of dedicated young sneakerheads through the finer points of staying fresh-to-death on the blank canvas of a pair of all-white AF1s. Currently, the West Coast “Make Something!” workshop series has just gotten underway in San Francisco and Los Angeles with classes running through early September led by a diverse array of artists including ED TEMPLETON, MISTER CARTOON, GEOFF McFETRIDGE, CLARE ROJAS, ANDREW JEFFREY WRIGHT, and THOMAS CAMPBELL, among others. PEEP THE NYC RECAP: Read the rest of this entry »

Just in case anyone’s not been paying attention, graffiti’s officially a wrap, folks. RIP…

Before…

After, with tagging fill from Little Angel…

In an admitted last chance fame grab, former KEITH HARING buddy & sometime collaborator ANGEL ORTIZ, aka: “Little Angel,” & “LA II” has taken a spray can to Haring’s reconstructed memorial mural on Houston Street this month, filling in all the negative space with squiggly patterning and repeating LA II tags. Having met in 1980 when Haring was 22, and Ortiz was 13 after Haring expressed admiration for “Angel’s” graffiti chops, the pair collaborated on many of Haring’s early pieces with Ortiz’ style proving to be a solid inspiration for the rising art star. Said Haring of Ortiz, “We just immediately hit it off. It’s as if we’d known each other all our lives. He’s like my little brother.” When Haring originally painted the now-reconstructed mural in 1982, he even left an existing LA II tag in place in his finished piece. When the mural was repainted at the behest of the Keith Haring Foundation and Deitch Projects to the tune of $30,000, this summer, LA II’s original tag was recreated for the occasion. Still a struggling artist 18 years after Haring’s death, when asked about his mural tagging, Ortiz told the NEW YORK TIMES, “What keeps me going is my art. I wanted to show the foundation: This is LA II, this is how it all started.” The fate of the altered mural is still undecided and may have to be cleaned or removed. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Professor KAWS gets out of detention early to teach his character design class…

Celebrating the global release of the new “Beautiful Losers” documentary movie, head loser AARON ROSE, in conjunction with NIKE SPORTSWEAR has organized a series of over 30 artist-led “Make Something!” workshops in Tokyo, NYC, San Francisco, and LA. Designed to bring street-level art instruction to disadvantaged urban youth, the roster of instructors includes such youth culture art heroes as Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Eric Elms, Mister Cartoon, Todd James (REAS), Tommy Guerrero, and Geoff McFetridge, to name a few. To date, seven of these four-hour sessions have been wrapped up in NYC, including character design by KAWS, mural painting by Eric Elms, Animation by REAS, Tattooing with Scott Campbell, Photography with Cheryl Dunn, cinematography with Tobin Yelland, and zine making with Aaron Rose. Tomorrow, August 21st sees master imagist Eric White taking the reigns of a painting workshop, and on Friday, August 22nd, Nike design whiz Jesse Leyva teaches Sneaker design. Meanwhile, PEEP THE RECAP: Read the rest of this entry »

Nasty Neck as Zorro with his motley crew and (below) their clown counterparts…

Saturday nite in Hollywood was like Halloween in August when the street art goblin known as NECK FACE took over LA’s NEW IMAGE ART gallery with his new “Cannibal Carnival” art show. A short and bittersweet exhibition of 6 large new paintings (Neck’s best yet) all retailing for a healthy $6,500 a pop, augmented by garish black & red wall treatment, a super-tight, yet super skate-able miniature mini ramp, OG style Venice stoner graffiti, and enough dirty skaters and filthy hipsters to choke a rat, the show was one of LA’s summer highlights. Of course, the drunken afterparty stumble fest back at Canter’s rated pretty highly too, but we’re not gonna get into those messy details here. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Inimitable art provocateur and Cremaster Cycle mastermind MATTHEW BARNEY isn’t shy about his love for dirty black metal. A fact that guests at his house party and pig roast featuring live performances by such delicately named bands as Copremeis, Inquisition, Dagon, Krallice, and S.M.E.S., couldn’t have been happier about. Master chef Barney kept his metal militia satiated by roasting and carving up several suckling pigs, providing a suitably decadent buffet for the occasion. Of course, Supertouch’s own metal casualty/toothless wonder STUNTBOY (aka: Erik Foss) was on hand to divine some swine and pop some shots. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »