As some of you know, there is a big installation currently at the Contemporary Museum of Art in Downtown by the name of "Viva la Revolucion." It is the first of it's kind here in San Diego. It is all street artists' work being shown. Everyone from Shepard Fairey[U.S.] to Space Invader[France] to Blu[Italy] to JR[France] to Os Gemeos[Brazil] and even Banksy[U.K.] are being shown here in our own backyard. I was amazed at the names that would be showing when the information was being released. Having watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (definitely a must watch) I was really looking forward to seeing these street artists' work in person.
As a part of opening weekend, some of the participating artists were given the go ahead to hit the city up; some through pre-arranged sites and others wherever they saw fit. I found out about Mr. Obey himself and a piece he was doing in Hillcrest on the side of the Urban Outfitters building and I could not pass up an opportunity to see his work in progress and of course the opportunity to snap some photos. It was a great experience seeing it go up piece by piece. This first one was all paste ups. When I left, I had thought he was finished. When I returned the next day I saw that he did the WHOLE wall. It is an epic piece. If you do get a chance make sure to stop by and see this work of art.
A few days later I heard that he was doing a monk piece, this time in South Park. Of course I had to go check it out. This time it was a stencil piece on the side of an office building on 30th St. I got there and watched as they finished painting the background. It starts off in black at the bottom of the wall, then dark red as it fades into a light red and then a pinkish color. The next day I showed up to watch them start stenciling the wall. They finished the overlapping gold stencil designs and started on the monk. It was not finished that day and it also started raining so I was not able to get shots of the finished product. I have since returned and seen the piece, it is beautiful. If you get a chance stop by and check it out, it's on 30th St. behind Whistle Stop and Velo Cult.
I have not had the chance yet to check out "Viva la Revolucion", but I will hopefully be stopping by this weekend to check it out, as I hope you too will swing by MCASD.
There too you should be able to see a map of the other pieces around town like; JR on the corner of 5th and C (an awesome piece, can't miss the giant eye), Os Gemeos on the back side of the Horton Plaza parking structure, Space Invader who had multiple pieces throughout San Diego. Unfortunately I haven't heard or seen any Banksy pieces around town and from what I heard he has a few prints at the MCASD.
And just for the hell of it, this is one of my favorite Shepard Fairey videos (it's in an earlier blog post).
