At the end of November, the Philadelphia Art World will bid a final farewell to the late, great T&P Fine Art Gallery which has played an instrumental role in bringing some of the best artists and shows to the Philadelphia area in recent memory. During the gallery’s short time here in Philadelphia, the people at T&P have arranged 13 fantastic art exhibitions featuring such artists as Adam Wallacavage, Aaron Kraten, Papermonster, Shepard Fairey, Scott Musgrove, Matt Skiba, Wes Borland, El Toro, Ricky Powell, AJ Fosik, Blek Le Rat, David Choe, Jeff Soto, Retna, Ron English, Saber, Bob Dob, Bandit and many others. During this time, the best gallery openings were always on the corner of South 9th in the heart of the Italian Market. Currently the entire collection of artwork at T&P is available for purchase at 40% off of the original listed price. To view their collection and make a purchase, visit their website.

To the folks who ran T&P, thanks for reinvigorating the Philadelphia Art Scene and inspiring countless artists from this region. You will be missed and your abscense will be felt.

I am not a lawyer and this should not be construed as legal advice, however, when it comes to defending yourself in a high profile Copyright Infringement case, willfully destroying evidence is probably NOT the way to go with it.

Shepard Fairey, creator of the formerly ubiquitous “Hope” posters of Obama (now ubiquitously re-appropriated for ironic use), has been sued by the Associated Press for using a photo they own the rights to to create his image. One of the questions of fact was the exact image he used.

Well apparently Fairey figured out the AP was right on this issue “early on in the case” and subsequently “submitted false images and deleted other images” to avoid copping to this fact.

Again, I’m no lawyer, but in legal parlance I believe this is called, “Stupid.” Whatever the merits of his original defense, Fairey has now admitted to what sounds like evidence tampering or worse. I don’t know if charges are being brought against him for such things, but subjecting yourself to potential further jail time and/or fines in addition to the trouble you’re already in is rarely a good idea.

Especially since, in my considerable ignorance regarding this case, I don’t see how this specific dispute over which photo was used matters to the overarching point. If, as he’s claiming, he is protecting the higher principle of fair use here, why act illegally in an attempt to weasel out of the true fight on a technicality?

Now he’s made himself look slimy and destroyed his credibility. While I’m not exactly on the side of the AP no-fun machine on this fight, it’s clear that Fairey is a pretty weak champion for the cause.

I wish Jeff Koons would swoop in and save the day…

-JD

Banksy etc at London’s Cans Festival 08, originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

Just uploaded loads of new pictures from this event a few summers back… urban artists out in full force. Banksy, Eelus, D Face, Blek Le Rat etc etc

The definitive Graffiti Art Documentary, BOMB IT, is now availalbe on Babblegum where you can stream the entire movie. Bomb It features Aki 183, Cornbread, Stay High 149, T-Kid, Cope 2, Zephyr, Revs, Os Gemeos, KET, Chino, Shepard Fairey, Revok, Ron English, Mear One and many more and takes you through the deep world of Street Art. You can watch it at BabbleGum for free…right here.

So ladies (and gentlemen…because yes, in rare cases MEN GET BREAST CANCER TOO), please take care of yourselves. Check your boobies. You’ll be glad that you did. All over the country this month, there are different events going on in your major cities to raise awareness about Breast Cancer, to find a cure for it, to prevent it. This is something we can stop. Get informed. A good place to start is American Cancer Society or an organization that we’ve always been proud to support, KEEP A BREAST. They’re doing a tremendous amount of work in educating the public about Breast Cancer. You may have seen them at the Vans Warped Tour, Concerts, Art Shows….they do tons of events. One way that Keep A Breast raises money is by creating casts of women’s chests which are then painted by such amazing artists as Shephard Fairey, Aaron Kraten, Billy Barnett and others. These casts are often displayed in galleries or taken on tours with KAB and their events and auctioned off.

Obey 'Monkey Pod' Bench Auctioned Off For Sea Shepherd **Photo By VanillaGorilla

Here is a look at some furniture that was auctioned off yesterday at the Sea Shephard fund raiser in Riverside, CA. The above piece is ‘Monkey Pod’ Bench and the final price was in the $3,0oo range. The below piece is ‘Propaganda’ Table they were auctioned off for approx $1,500 each. Cool idea, I hope Shep keeps going in this direction. Thanks To Vanilla Gorilla For The Pix. Shep could be the next IKEA!

Obey 'Propaganda' Table Auctioned Off For Sea Shepherd **Photo By VanillaGorilla

Faces, originally uploaded by visualartassassination.

Art Under Occupation, our new set on Flickr is now available for viewing. This is a collection of photography by Hellfire which shows the various forms of street art found in the West Bank. All photos were taken last month. Some notable works seen in the photos include several pieces by UK’s premiere Street Artist, BANKSY.

Shepard Fairey is either without an ironic bone in his body or is the most subversive person on Earth.  Consider his reaction to the Obama Joker Poster.

Previously:  Is This Poster Dangerous?

Apparently, there’s some big hoo-ha going on about the cover of the new Rolling Stone magazine that features a new Shepard Fairey illustration of the President.  At issue, apparently, is whether or not Fairey’s portrait bestows the Commander in Chief with angelic powers via a halo.

The New York Daily News thinks so, but the artist says “Halo no!”

I say, first, who really cares?  When you consider the kinds of Obama images that conservatives are spank-banking these days, a halo seems pretty normal.

The first time I saw the cover, before I heard the “halo” angle, the picture didn’t remind me of an angel, or Jesus.  The first thing I thought of was this:

The cover art for George Clinton’s “R&B Skeletons in the Closet” album.  Maybe Fairey was trying to subliminally get us all to tear the roof off the sucker.

An artistic feat, indeed.

Renown artist Shepard Fairey (famous for his Obama election “HOPE” posters and “Obey Giant”) released a poster of Burmese prime minister-elect and democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Nobel peace prize winner Suu Kyi remains under house arrest by the military junta; however, she is receiving wide international support of her freedom, human rights, and democracy in Burma.

Copies are available for distribution via download: http://obeygiant.com/ (not intended for sales merchandise or for-profit materials)

Although today’s news glory should belong to Sonia Sotomayor, the first confirmed Hispanic, Supreme Court Justice of America; it is the topless leaked pictures of a tween actress with a new film to promote; a betrayed bachelorette and the unstoppable rising young stars of Twilight Saga’s Eclipse who round out the top 10 most sought after entertainment news topics on Horiwood.Com today.

If there is one thing that maintaining a blog from Hollywood has taught me, blog numbers don’t lie. They show another side to democracy as the people and the masses vote each day with their mouse clicks and news choices.

From Hollywood tonight, enjoy your news choices you all made worldwide. Thank you all for being a part  of Horiwood.Com for 7 months now. Let’s keep this show going always with a spirit of fun and a sense of play!

Congratulations Sonia Sotomayor!!! How cool and inspiring is she?! Well done. Wow!!!

1. NAKED PICS OF VANESSA HUDGENS ARE EVERYWHERE

2. POOR JILLIAN HARRIS: BETRAYAL ALWAYS SUCKS

3. NIKKI REED & TAYLOR LAUTNER PIC

4. TWILIGHT ECLIPSE’S SHOCKING CASTING NEWS: Q’ORIANKER KILCHER & JULIA JONES BATTLE IT OUT FOR TWILIGHT SAGA’S LEAH CLEARWATER CASTING IN ECLIPSE

5. DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART: ROBERT PATTINSON & KRISTEN STEWART REUNITE TO FILM ECLIPSE

6. SUSAN BOYLE HAS RECORDED HER FIRST TRACK

7. JESSICA SIMPSON IS NOT STILL IN LOVE WITH NICK  LACHEY

8. FARRAH FAWCETT COVERS PEOPLE MAGAZINE

9. EAT. PRAY. LOVE SAY JAMES FRANCO & JULIA ROBERTS

10. WHAT A GUY! RICHARD CHANDLER IS A BILLIONAIRE PHILANTHROPIST

BONUS POSTS: 11. SONIA SOTOMAYOR MAKES HISTORY AS THE FIRST HISPANIC SUPREME COURT JUSTICE OF AMERICA

12. HE’S AN OVERCOMER: RICH RETURNS TO WALKING AND SURFING – ONE MAN’S REHABILITATION FROM CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

13. SHEPARD FAIREY’S “HALO” OBAMA ART FOR ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE FURTHER’S OBAMA’S HOPE THEME OF POLITICS

 horiwood’slatest tweet on twitter is: “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things yet unseen.” less than 5 seconds ago from web

Like Sonia Sotomayor’s inspiring achievements show us in #11 and Rich’s story shows us in #12 tonight; let hope and persistence arise in us all. What doesn’t kill  us makes us stronger and it will get better!

Hope and faith are powerful. They are the fuel to sustain us through tough times.

Thanks Sonia and Rich for fueling all of our dreams today.

Artist Shepard Fairey, the due who painted Barack Obama’s HOPE campaign image has created a new work of the president for Rolling Stone Magazine’s cover.

The portrait shows Barack Obama with his brow knit in determination. Like the Beyonce song attributed to the president in the singer’s I Am Tour concert, Obama is surrounded by a halo of stars.

“Will he take bold action or compromise too easily?” screams the headline above the new President’s head.

Says Fairey: ”It’s one thing to be running for president and it’s another to be President and I think this new illustration that I did hopefully captures the complexity and the weight of his new role… Not only will we see how he performs, but also whether we as Americans will now help him and continue to push for the changes we asked for.”

Word. It takes all of us to be The President’s hands and feet, before any visionary policies can become flesh in Body America’s community. Nice words from Fairey, so true!

original source: the AP.

Shepard Fairey: A Call to Action Against Hierarchies and Abuses of Power

Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston (S.C.) in 1970 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Fairey is the founder of Studios Number One and Number Two, graphic arts design companies. His powerful and varied body of work has drawn from all aspects of our visual culture, from political posters to museum installations. Fairey’s integration of design, popular culture, and politics places him in the current of artistic and cultural forces that shape our world today. The content of Fairey’s work is a call to action against hierarchies and the abuses of power, politics and the monetizing of culture. He’s committed to creating work that has meaning for his audience by using familiar cultural iconography that people can relate to and by constantly bringing his work into the public sphere.

Shepard Fairey: Painting at Studio No. 2 in Los Angeles

Slide Show: A Call to Action Against Hierarchies and Abuses of Power

(Please Click Image to View)

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See you there.

Our good friend Chad has recommended Neal Stephenson’s work to me on more than one occasion, most recently with this excerpt from Cryptonomicon(1999):

“… hired an artist in San Francisco to come up with a poster. He
started with a black-and-white halftone photo of a haggard World War
Two infantryman with a cigarette dangling from his lower lip. He
worked this image over with a photocopier, blowing the halftone dots
up into rough lumps … The poster won some kind of award almost the
moment it came out. This led to a press release, which in turn led to
the poster’s being enshrined by the news media as an Official Object
of Controversy. An enterprising journalist managed to track down the
soldier depicted in the original photograph … The artist who had
designed the poster then confessed that he had simply copied it from a
book and had made no effort whatsoever to obtain permission — the
entire concept of getting permission to use other people’s work was
faulty, since all art was derivative of other art. High-powered trial
lawyers converged, like dive bombers, on the small town … The
organizing committee pulled the poster from circulation, which caused
thousands of bootleg copies to go up on the World Wide Web and, in
general, brought it to the attention of millions who would never have
seen it otherwise. They also filed suit against the artist, whose net
worth could be tallied up on the back of a ticket stub …”

Remind you of anything?

This was done by Ron English during the presidential election to raise support for Obama’s election. It was well documented in a dvd called Abraham Obama, which you can find at Upper Playground and features interviews by English as well as David Choe, Sam Flores, Shephard Fairey and The Date Farmers.

P.S. See if you can spot Angela Davis….

video credit

I can’t lie. The first time I heard about Jenny Holzer was in a recent piece in the New York Times about Shephard Fairey, referencing Holzer as an influence in Fairey’s own [formerly] subversive/pseudo-guerilla artwork. The article stuck with me A) because it all but blasted Fairey for his recent commercial work for Bloomingdales and Saks, which seems to wholly contradict the message in his art (I agree, c’mon homie) and B) because I had seen Holzer’s name all over subway ads for her current Whitney exhibition that caught my eye.

Upon further research, I learned that Holzer has become well-known for her use of words and phrases in public spaces as a means to present a message or evoke response. She has become perhaps best known for her ongoing work Truisms. Her latest exhibition at the Whitney, PROTECT PROTECT, encompasses much of her work from the 90s, and according to the Whitney is her most comprehensive exhibition in fifteen years. I think it looks pretty rad and definitely look forward to checking it out. It’s up until May 31.

Just saw these today at Angus and Robertson – another great chunk of art from the Fairey man (I’m sure his favourite moniker). $22.95 was steep, but I do love me some anti-communist/anti-dictorial/grumpy old man rants.

This led to a whole new world of amazing Penguin-cover-finding for me, including the My Penguin blank book cover project. I want in!!

This is Beck’s design for the The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) by Alain-Fournier, who I have never heard of. But now I want to.

Then there’s the amazingly sexy Penguin Classics Deluxe Series with covers by Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, Joe Sacco…

I think I owe Shephard Fairey an apology.  After attending his show at the ICA I was mildly impressed.  Still not impressed by his artistic creativity, because his work seems to be very copycatish, but by his intellectual creativity and the prolific nature of his work.  He has made a ton of pieces and his work is displayed, by nature, all over urban jungles.  I’m impressed by that strategy in general.  Unfortunately, the police who cite him are not so impressed.  Today Shephard Fairey must bow to the system.  As first reported by the AP and mentioned in the Globe,

The street artist who created the famous red, white, and blue “Hope” poster of President Obama is due in court for two pretrial hearings in Boston this week. Facing various vandalism charges, Shepard Fairey is scheduled to appear in Brighton District Court tomorrow and in Roxbury District Court on Wednesday. Last month, the 38-year-old Los Angeles resident was arrested in Boston on charges of vandalizing property with his art. He was preparing to attend the opening night of his exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

I do feel bad for Mr. Fairey, but his art infringes on the public sphere and some people are not pleased.  I’m guessing Mr. Fairey identifies as a libertarian.  I wonder if Banksy in the UK has ever had similar legal issues.  Also, coincidence that it was on opening night?

It’s beginning to be like skating on really thin ice when it comes to the domain of visual communication. It comes down to the choice of originality and self-efficiency. Milton Glaser speaks with Shepard Fairey on his well-known poster Obama-Change.