Mercury Soapbox

artbattles:

On the streets of NY SPECIAL !!!

     Today we caught up with Retna and Martha Cooper while Retna was working on the now imfamous wall on the corner of Houston and Bowery. Martha Cooper was photographing as Retna went up and down the white washed wall (Previously a Faile piece) writing his own brand of language which he is now known for world over. When asked what he had planned for this piece today he told us simply, ” I’m freestylin it! ” Dopeness.

On February 10th, Retna opened his first solo show in New York, “The Hallelujah World Tour”, presented by Andy Valmorbida and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, in conjunction with New York City’s Fashion Week. The tour will continue with exhibitions in London and Venice. 

Check out more about Retna here

We like this. We will have images of the finished piece manana.

(Source: artbattles)

artbattles:

Some Artwork by Danielle Mastrion 

She is our most recent Art Battles winner and we are sending her to Warsaw in may to paint against the best Poland has to offer!

Check out her Profile on ArtBattles.com

(Source: artbattles)

artbattles:

Art Battles Pop Up Gallery NYC Jan 12-14th! For more info go to artbattles.com!

artbattles:

AWESOME MURAL DONE IN MIAMI this past week by two of our ART BATTLES CHAMPS @angotti81 Ben Angotti and @yatikafields Yatika Fields as well as @jaquefragua Jaque who will hopefully be Battling in the future!

They will have the video of the making of this piece soon so stay tuned

Great job guys!

artbattles:

FRIDAY NIGHT AT LPR WAS A SUCCESS!

Kevin Powell’s 11th Annual Holiday Fundraiser was amazing with DJ Pete Rock and over 1,000 people donating hats scarves and coats for Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project, a non profit that provides a safe harbor for women and children leaving abusive relationships.

We were proud to be a part of this and grateful to be center stage and provide artistic entertainment for all the attendees!

Artists Marthalicia Mattarita, Lexi Bella, Giannina Gutierezz, ANdre Trenier and Sean Bono were dynamic painting to the amazing sounds of the classic Pete Rock. Sean and Dre collabed on a portrait of Pete Rock and presented him with it at the end of the night. Great times had by all!

Also Thank you to THE SOLO FOUNDATION for making this possible!

Photography by Michael Santiago

artbattles:

UNDERBELLY IN PARIS

The legendary Martha Cooper and Ian Cox ventured four stories under the streets of Paris with a team of ten artists: C215, Tristan Eaton, Futura, Conor Harrington, How and Nosm, Alice Pasquini, Saber, SheOne, and Will Barras, and three organizers including Workhorse, the driving force behind this art happening.

 The last time Underbelly appeared, it was in Brooklyn with 100 artists mounting an unsanctioned show in abandoned tunnels during a one-year period. 

This time its in a sealed off tunnel in the bowels of Paris. The subjetmatter ranges from Tristan Eaton’s FerryMan from Michelangelo’s Last Judgement, to Alice Pasquini’s shrouded girl, to How and Nosm’sabstract lines and patterns.

The journey wasn’t easy, and dangerous to say the least, between being careful to evade the French Police (explaining 15 people breaking into a sealed tunnel under the city carring their weight in spraypaint as well as cameras would not be easy) and trying not to pass out from the noxious wall of spraypaint fumes (the artists said it was the worst they ever encountered) this was quite a feat.

Read more about it here with accounts from the artists on Brooklyn Street Art

artbattles:

Behind the scenes Art Battles Madrid….next up Barcelona!

artbattles:

      We have a SNEAK PEAK from our friends at Vanity Fair today! The cover of next months VF and The SPECIAL “ART IN THE STREETS”  PORTFOLIO that will be featured inside the November 2011 issue of Vanity Fair. This portfolio will tell the story behind the creation of these murals. It will give a behind-the-scene’s insider’s look at this epic and ultra cool collaboration between the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Cadillacas well as feature portraits of the artists and their work by one of the most lush contemporary photographers: David LaChapelle

Go HERE for more info on this incredible project!

Full disclosure: we are being compensated by Vanity Fair and Cadillac for this post