We saw some pretty cool stuff, Friday night. The Roa exhibit at Factory Fresh in Brooklyn was amazing (above). We went a bit early, so that we could make it to the P-Pit show before the doors opened to the public. As a result, we were able to see Roa finishing up his installation and meet the guy. It was really cool.

Afterward, we rolled back to the meat packing district for the Passion Pit show. It was a promo show that they only let a few people into. Reagan and I had a blast.

Saturday morning, we ran a 10k, before heading to Westchester to visit Piper. She was in a great mood the whole time. She was even a bit on the rowdy side, which I like to see (makes me think that she takes after me, a bit).

One of the amazing things about the interwebz, and more particularly the blog-o-sphere (oh how I hate that term), is the way that it shrinks down geography. For example, I have never been to Oslo, or Berlin. But, I am eating up photos and day to day narratives of some pretty amazing people who live there. I’m going to highlight a few of them on Jakesnewblog.

I have chosen just.ekosystem.org to kick off my “Internacionale” tangent. I discovered this blog, not too long ago, when I was checking out some images of some cool street art from Berlin.

This dude’s (or woman’s, I suppose)  images are insane. He or she apparently has a close relationship with Krink, and several international street artists. I feel like this site is what graffiti research labs wishes it was. Anyway, feel free to check it out. I’m going to sharing a few more of the images from their site in the future, for a street art post. Dig it.

I shot a couple of galleries, recently. One of them was on Broadway, just off of the NYU Campus. It’s kind of pathetic, but, sometimes I like the space more than the stuff hung there. Anyway, when I first entered the building, the elevator lobby was decorated in Keith Haring-eque patterns. I thought “hmm, someone who lives here is a Keith Haring fan.” When I got in the elevator, I accidentally took it to the wrong floor. It turns out that K. Haring operates out of that building. Kind of a cool random coincidence.

I also hit Deitch, again. I wanted to get it semi-empty, so that I could have some cleaner images for some stuff that I’m working on. I really liked the one below.

As I was walking down Wooster, I grabbed the shot below. I wonder which sticker was there first. Hahahaha. MBW propaganda over the OBEY sticker, nice. It reminds me of the election last year, seeing Charlie Rangel’s campaign posters, with Rangel’s name above Obama’s.

Thursday afternoon, I decided to stop by the Mural the Shepard Fairey is working on, in the East Village. I had originally wanted to go by on Wednesday, but it ended up raining like crazy. Today worked out well, though. I was on my way through the neighborhood, anyway, for the Earth Day party at Kiehl’s. Fairey was out working on the wall. After shooting a few frames I said what’s up and told him that I had met him at the TS collab with Levis. He said that he remembered me (pretty cool for him say, whether true or not), then wiped the gold spray paint off of his hand before shaking mine and asking me to remind him of my name. We then chatted for about 10 minutes about random stuff including the impending gallery exhibit, before he hooked me up with a handful of stickers, and invited me over for beers. Ok, ok, the invitation for beers was a joke.

The reason that I’m telling this story, is because I think it is so cool that despite being such an icon, Fairey has not let it go to his head. It is true that I was a fan of his art before I knew much about the guy. But the fact that has the personality and attitude to back it up makes me like his stuff even more.

Fairey was even mellow with this little kid (below) who was passing by with is parents. Can’t wait to check out the exhibit next week.

A few more shots over here.

Photo by: Reagan

Apparently Reagan was so jealous of my new summer haircut, that she ran out and got one too! Hahahah. I have to admit, her’s came out much better than mine.

Other unrelated items going on this week:

1. Tonight, we are finally going to see Banky’s “Exit through the Giftshop.” I just purchased tickets.
2. Fairey has already started his mural on Houston and Bowery (the same wall where Os Gemios mural is [they built an artificial facade over it for Fairey's wheatpaste]), in anticipation of the May Day exhibit at Deitch. I’m pretty stoked about it, and hope to get a few shots of it today/tonight.
3. Tomorrow night, my homey Zach hooked me up with press creds to shoot a party at Kiehl’s. The party is for the launch of a new product, for which Jeff Koons and Pharrell Williams contributed some of the packaging artwork. No word, yet, whether those gentlemen will actually be in attendance, but I’m keeping my finger crossed.
4. Saturday, first climbing outing of 2010!

It is nice to have things to look forward to, especially since I have to put running on hold for a few days. I picked up some new sneaks yesterday. I decided to start breaking them in last night. I thought that I would be ok to 10 miles, as long as I was wearing the double layered socks. I’m retarded, and now have large painful blisters on the bottoms of both feet. Hopefully I will be back in saddle by Friday.

Not your garden variety of street art, this week. But, it is similar in concept to the Rub Kandy piece from last October. I will never get tired of them. The artist who created the work, above, goes by the name of Felice Varini. I came across his work via The World’s Best Ever. Now, have a look at it from a different angle…

Other perspectives (as well as other installations) can be seen on Varini’s site, if the red background doesn’t burn your eyeballs out.

Check out some of the sickest stop motion I have seen in a while.

Thx Animal.

Thursday night, I had the pleasure of shooting Justin Bua’s gallery opening at Pop International in SoHo. I was pretty stoked about it, being that I’m a huge fan of Bua’s. I actually did a piece on Bua and his work, in SoJones earlier this week. Be sure to check it, if you haven’t already.

More photos can be found on my photography blog. FYI, the gallery was packed, even during the VIP reception. I was able to get in before the event actually started, to snap these pics.

The Deitch gallery has a pretty strong legacy, in the street art community. If you are a fan, then you have probably already heard that Deitch is closing its doors.  As a final hoorah, the Deitch Gallery will be featuring an exhibit by Shepherd Fairey. I’m not going to lie. I’m pretty excited about it. Reagan and I have been following his work for a while now. We saw his exhibit at the ICA in Boston (before he was banned from the city, hehehe), and I actually had a chance to meet him last fall at a collaboration event that he did with his Obey brand and Levis.

Anyway, here is a blurb from the Deitch Gallery website, regarding the upcoming event, which opens Saturday, May 1st:

Deitch Projects is pleased to present May Day, an exhibition of new work by Shepard Fairey, as its final project. Titled not only in reference to the day of the exhibition’s opening, the multiple meanings of May Day resonate throughout the artist’s new body of work. Originally a celebration of spring and the rebirth it represents, May Day is also observed in many countries as International Worker’s Day or Labor Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations coordinated by unions and socialist groups. “Mayday” is also the distress signal used by pilots, police and firefighters in times of emergency.

The rest of the exhibit description can be found on the Deitch event page. You can also download the official press release, here.

In a slight twist from the street art stuff that I usually post, these are actually photo-realist oil paintings by artist Kevin Peterson. They are from Peterson’s series “Graffiti Girls.” Peterson is based in Houston TX. You can check out a couple more pieces from the Graffiti Girls series on Format.