REVIEWS

LUDO at Starkart gallery – La Belle Vie

We arrived in Zurich to find that the centre of town, near where we are staying is insanely upper class. Ferrari’s and Bentleys cruising the streets typically driven by what looked like teenage boys and the main streets lined with cafe’s filled with people wearing Gucci sunglasses laughing and sipping their cocktails.

It was not something that we were expecting and thought that it was extremely superficial, until we ventured of the beaten track in search of Starkart gallery that was hosting the LUDO solo show.

The neighbourhood that Starkart is located in is very culturally diverse and much more down to earth.

Starkart is one of the most understated spaces we have come across, set inside an old residence turned commercial space that gives no impression of what is happening behind the scenes.

The Ludo show is set over multiple rooms on two levels, it is a minimalistic show, with the works widely spread out to make use of the vast space provided.

The ground floor displays originals from his “nature’s revenge” series and the basement features two video installations of his work processes, from creation to installation on the street.

It really felt like urban exploration venturing into this show, moving from room to room, some brightly lit and others very dark with the sound of what seemed like a old French record echoing from the basement.

Check out the full set of Ludo pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingghosts/sets/72157626390493355/

GRAFFITI

Street fonts – graffiti alphabets from around the World by MadABC

German artist MadABC has opened her show at Pure Evil gallery tonight in London. This coincides with the launch of her book – “Street Fonts – graffiti alphabets from around the world”. You can buy this book here on Amazon.

The work on display will feature a series of different alphabets on canvas and wall, MadABC is mad about letters. In preparation of the show, she painted a huge alphabet wall of about 5m x 25m Wenlock Road in Hackney which you can see photos (by Marco Prosch) and video of below.

MadABC show runs until the 1st May 2011 at Pure Evil gallery | 108 Leonard street, EC2A 4S, London

MadABC

CONTEMPORARY ART, IN THE NEWS

Jaybo Monk – I need a dollar

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This is this kind of event which propels creativity to the next level, this is when a collaborative effort becomes Art.

American R&B artist Aloe Blacc, musician and music-maker Mihalj “Miki” Kekenj and artist Jaybo got together and put on a what have been an amazing night at Berlin’s creative space MADE.

Aloe Blacc´s original music was interpreted by Miki and his string-quintet which transformed the soul and funk style of Aloe into classical music compositions. Jaybo got involved and took his inspiration from the lyrics of Aloe’s song “I Need a Dollar”and converted it into his own visual interpreation – one of the best piece of art I have seen so far this year!

Jaybo’s painting was put on dispolay for the first time during the event at MADE where Aloe and Miki’s quintet performed a bunch of aloe’s repertoire. The film below shows this performance and tell us about the project.

Hats off to MADE for pulling such a great show where great talents from different art disciplines get together for everybody’s delight.

I need a dollar by Jaybo Monk
Aloe blacc Jaybo Monk miki at MADE
Aloe Blacc - Jaybo Monk - Miki

GRAFFITI

Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain) – street art in a forest

In the centre of Grunwald Forest in the former West Berlin is an artificial mountain, Teufelsberg, made by man using the rubble from approximately 400,000 buildings that were destroyed in WWII. The structure that sits on top is ‘The Listening Station’ built by the US National Security Agency to spy on the Soviet’s. .

The listening station was decommissioned at the end of the cold war. There were many plans for it’s use in the future, all of which fell through. With that, over the years it has attracted the likes of vandals, youths, graffers and urban explorers. Amongst the broken glass from all the smashed windows and beer bottles, the collapsing stairwells, the gaping holes from the dilapidated flooring and the pitch black hallways, a diverse collection of pieces, dubs, tags, paste ups and stencils can be found.

See the full set of photo’s here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingghosts/sets/72157626450243676/

GRAFFITI GALLERIES, STREET ART

Ludo, a street artist by nature

LUDO is a French Street Artist who is enjoying enjoyed a very successful first solo show in Zurich at the Starkat Gallery.

LUDO’s style is very particular and his pieces always depict ominous and imaginary plants which always seem to want to grab you as you walk past them. His street art series is actually called Nature’s Revenge which he has been focusing on for the past two years or so. A way perhaps to warn you all about the irreversible force of Dame Nature.

The show is on until the 7/05/2011

LUDO took the opportunity while in Zurich to splash a few of his mighty plants. Photo © Roman @ Starkat Gallery

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS