So i got back from Art Basel last night. I was in bed by 9:30pm and slept to 9:30 am. This was sharp contrast to the past weekend, where I only got about 12 hours of sleep the whole weekend. I was down in Miami for Art Basel for three events. The first was the Scion sponsored Installation show of self portraits. The second was a print release party sponsored by Theme Magazine. The third was for the Primary Flight event which I helped organize. Primary Flight is becoming one of the worlds largest outdoor street art events. This event started last year by Books III. Books is one half of BlackbookStencils.com. Last year we had about 20 artists. this year we had about 30 artists at the beginning, but this exploded to about 80 artists by the end of the event. it was a good week.
I had originally visited Miami about 15 years ago with an ex-girlfriend. Although the weather was great, I didn't like Miami. It sort of reminded me of Los Angeles. The difference is that in Los Angeles people look beautiful because they aspire to be famous, or in the movies, or both. In Miami they look beautiful, but they don't seem to have the aspirations. They just have the beauty and it stops at that. Last year I gave miami a chance again. This time, to my surprise, i was fucking amazing. one of the best times i have had my entire life. The difference is that this time i was there for Art Basel. Basel is the yearly art event where every person that I have admired, aspired too, looked up too, read about, or enjoyed comes to show their stuff. it is the super show of art. it's the superbowl of art. The Tour De France of visuals. it's the pinnacle of the my artworld. You can find everything from Picasso to Rembrandt to Graffiti.
Before I get to Basel though, I should back track. I have been on the road for 3 weeks now. It started off in NY. November 20th. the show that I curated at Invisible NYC opened. The lovely Jesse Lee asked me to curate the show, so that started the ball rolling. For this event, I included three of my favorite artists. C215 from Paris (http://www.c215.com). Ephameron from Antwerp http://www.ephameron.com), and Joad from Athens (now living in Amsterdam). This show was a great beginning to things. Friends that I hadnt seen in a while stopped by. Martyn Reed from the NuArt festival (http://www.nuart.no) was in town, so he dropped by to say hello. It was great to see Martyn. His festival was another amazing event that I was a part of in 07. He told me about a few changes for Nuart next year, and I am excited to see what happens with that. Another friendly face was Miya Ando (http://www.miyaando.com). I have known Miya for years, but haven't seen her in person for months. She told me about potentially doing a memorial for 911 on the WTC grounds. I have always admired her, and couldn't be happier to see her doing well. Marc and Sarah from Wooster (http://www.woostercollective.com) stopped by as well as John and Jiae from Theme Magazine (http://www.thememagazine.com). Having friends support what you do is always one of the best feelings in the world.
My kid loves leaves. go figure.
The day after the Invisible NYC me, my girlfriend, my son, and two dogs hopped in the car to drive down to Baltimore to visit family. One night there, then back in the car to drive another 12 hours down to Atlanta to visit the other side of the family. We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner and the next day I hopped a plane to head out to Los Angeles.
Coming in
Landing shortly
In LA I visited two great friends - Jeremiah and Arvay. Jeremiah is a friend that I met when I lived out in Silverlake. i had been living in this building, and some guy moved into the apartment above me. After talking to other neighbors who met this guy, I heard he was a stencil artist also. Finally i met this elusive stencil guy and realized that I had talked with him through the website from Stencil Revolution (http://www.stencilrevolution.com). Gotta love the wonders of the internet. Here i was talking from a guy from Phoenix, who was living in Los Angeles, through an Australian website. And here he was living 10 feet above my head. weird.
View from the top.
The other friend was Arvay (http://atticajailhouseballcaps.blogspot.com/)who met when I lived next to him. One day I was spraying out stencils and his girlfriend said 'my boyfriend would like that, but he;s in baltimore right now'. Being from baltimore myself, i said 'what do you know about baltimore?'. Then in one swift action, she said - with her hand on her hip - 'well, I'm from there' in a tone that could only have come from a true baltimore native. That was the beginning. After Arvay returned from Baltimore, we became inseparable. That was 5 or 6 years ago, and we have forged a friendship that has seen our personal lives crumble and rebuild themselves. They say if someone doesn't stick with you during the bad times, they shouldn't be with you for the good times. Arvay and I have seen some rough times together and it has only made our friendship stronger. Lately it's been nothing but rainbows and unicorns in both of our lives.
LA Subway Tunnel
LA Subway Tunnel.
LA Subway Tunnel.
In LA, i managed to get down into the subway and take pictures of the tunnels for my HDR photography work. I don't know what it is, but I love subways. Too bad that LA's subway is never really used. Bad for the city, but for me it makes taking pictures without being detected easy. Still need to goof around with them to see how they turn out, but i am certain that they are going to be great.
After LA, i caught up with my manager for a few meetings. First up was Daniel from Jet Set Graffiti (http://www.jetsetgraffiti.com/). It's always great to meet people in your field and Daniel is doing some interesting stuff. Looks like we may do a few things together next year if all goes well. After that it was off to a meeting that I can't elaborate on at this point. We are trying to organize a traveling tour for artists next year. If we succeed in what we are trying to accomplish, we will have a tour that hits most of the US with over a dozen artists. More on this later..
Then hopped the train down to San Diego.
Train to San Diego.
Down in San Diego, i managed to visit an old friend, Surge. Surge is an anomaly. He is one of the few guys that can do everything, and he does everything well. He competes as a mixed martial artist and is good. he is an amazing tattoo artist, an amazing graffiti artist, and can produce art for galleries that consistently sells. on top of that he is a hip hop artist that puts out something that is unique. none of the bitch ho gun drug rap that seems to plague the genre these days. After catching up with Surge for lunch, i told him about Basel. He sounded interested and somehow we went from meeting for lunch to him buying a ticket for Miami. Less than 12 hours later we were both in Miami for Art Basel. My flight took off at 6am, which meant I had to get up at 4am to make it to the airport. although I don't recall having to get up at 4am in the past, i was pretty sure that I wouldn't like this. I was right. getting up at 4am sucks. i mean it really sucks. but i did it, and my flight took off on time. I slept most of the way out to miami which was great for me cause i got a few extra hours of sleep. it sucked for the person next to me because when i sleep sitting upright, i make a sound that is somewhere between a fart and a half broken chain-saw.
Just outside my hotel room in San Diego.
Next to hotel in San Diego..
So finally I arrived in Miami! sunny Miami. Compared the 32 degree weather of NY, this was like heaven. I tolerate cold weather, but I don't like it. not one bit. Got into Miami and caught up with Jeremiah, the same friend I had met in LA a few days prior. Jeremiah was flown out to document the Primary Flight event. In addition to his stencil work, Jeremiah is a great photographer (http://n10z.com/). He has photographed a few things for me along the way, so we decided to fly him out to handle the primary flight event. Rendezvoused with Jeremiah then we dipped to Ft Lauderdale to pick up Surge. we had a few hours to kill, so we visited the boys over at Blackbook Stencils (http://blackbookstencils.com/). After chatting a bit, we headed to the airport to scoop up Surge. Now we had half of crew.
Unfortunately our budget prohibited us getting some nice convertible, or some other swanky whip, so we got the only thing we could afford - the PT Cruiser. or as the lovely Erin would later describe it, the PT Loser. Nothing like 3 manly guys cruising around in a PT Cruiser to strike fear in the hearts of all that see us.
From FT Lauderdale we headed back to Miami again. This time to catch up with the other two that would make up our week long posse - Daryll Peirce (http://www.artderailed.com/) and Matt. Matt is better known as Ice Cream Man (http://icecreamman.com/). He is known as the Ice Cream man because as long as I have known him, he has criss-crossed the country giving away free ice cream. Sounds a bit odd, but that is what he does for a living. gives away ice cream. i don't really understand it either, but through a patchwork of sponsors, and patrons, he manages to get enough money to buy the ice cream, then drive to events, festivals, fairs, and other highly populated things to give away ice cream as quickly as people can grab it. I encourage you to visit his website - www.icecreamman.com to get a better idea of what he does. if you can concisely describe what he does, let me know.
Daryll. yup, it was that kinda weekend.
The third and final addition was Daryll Perice. I have known Daryll for about 5 years also. Daryll never ceases to make me laugh and is one of the most humble, nice guys you will ever meet. He runs Indivsual (http://indivisualclothing.com/) clothing, and is an excellent artist in his own right. Daryll joined us last year for Primary Flight at the last minute, so we wanted to get him onboard this year with more time to prepare.
Part of the fun of Basel is the seeing tons of people, and getting the chance to catch up with tons of people in a short time. So for our crew we all kicked in and shared a hotel room. The first night, we didn't get settled in until about 11pm. We had a few beers and called it a night. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
Thursday came early. We got up and got over to the Primary Flight locations to start working on our pieces. As soon as we arrived, it became clear that things were going to grow quickly. We had about 30 artists, but more than 30 had already shown up asking for space, and the pace of artists showing up was not slowing down. We worked through out the day on our murals under the intense hot sun. Maybe the Miami locals were use to it, but coming from NY and frozen temps, it was like lava for my bald dome. We wrapped up things after about 8 hours of painting, and headed back to get ready for the nights events.
First up on the schedule was the Theme Magazine 8 X 08. This was sponsored by Scion and Theme magazine (http://www.thememagazine.com). The art consisted of a series of prints done by Deanne Cheuk, Maya Hayuk, Logan Hicks, Kenji Hirata, Che Jen, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Brent Rollins, and Davide Zuccoartists.
Erin, Jeremiah and io.
John from Theme threatens to drop his kid if no one buys the prints.
the event was fun, the people were chill, and the beer was free. I ran into io from Overspray Magazine too. I have known io for years, but never really got to hang out with her that much. At basel I was able to chill with her and get to know her better. Along with her was her good friend Erin. Both Io and Erin would become an addition to the posse. After all, no posse is complete with at least two girls. Otherwise the posse becomes a sausage fest.
It was a good event all around. We drank and partied there for a few hours, then around 10 we headed back towards south beach for another part. This time it was Ricky Powells party. Ricky Powell is known as the 4th Beastie Boy, and has made a career out of photographic some of the most iconographic figures of our time. The event was small, and sorta too chill, but then here is when things really kicked off. As we were standing around trying to figure out what to do, this stream of half naked models started to pour out of this gate. apparently there was a swimsuit bikini show going on. I had no idea so the bouncing line of beautiful model girls really added to the night! for all of you out there trying to figure out the right formula for a successful party, let me fill you in on a secret that Io told me - adding beautiful bikini clad models never hurts a party. never.
hurray bobbies
boobs with legs.
ahhhh, girls.
After the parade of perky nipples ended, we were headed back to the hotel when we ran into Freddi C and Evan Cerasoli. They were headed to the Beautiful Decay party. in true Art Basel spirit, we changed our plans in a half a second and joined the parade of people walking down the street. The BD party was cool, but a little packed. so we slugged down a few beers, chatted, stood outside where there was too much smoke, then decided to head to the Pharell party.
io and Me. God bless low cut shirts
io and Will Barras.
Pablo and Blek
Blek Le Rat, Pablo, Roadsworth, Daryll Peirce, Miya Ando, io
Miya Ando and io striking up their best mannequin pose
The Pharell party was great. Because w were with the Scion organizer, we managed to get into the VIP section. Normally I despise the VIP section, but this time it was different. it was different because i was on the other side of the velvet rope and I didn't need to pay for my drinks. it didn't have any half naked bikini swimsuit models, but it was still pretty cool. we stayed here until or 4 in the morning. throughout the night I saw a parade of friends both old and new. Blek Le Rat showed up. Tofer, who I hadn't seen in years was there, and as the night wore on, the faces became a blur and memories were difficult to form. the important thing is that I had a good time. We headed back to the hotel and caught up with the other half of our crew who had split and went to the Deitch party in the other part of town. We managed to toss back a few red stripes at the hotel, then retired around 4 or 5 in the morning. long, happy night.
Next day we got up, headed back to Wynwood where the murals were, and finished up the pieces. We drove around to document the other pieces and then headed to the hotel to get ready for the Scion event. The scion event is the other reason I was down in Miami. Scion has sponsored an art show for the past 5 years. With close to 30 artists involved this was a massive show. Each artist had one piece, and each artist was in attendance.
Amir (beautiful decay), and me
Me, Daryll, and a very photogenic Erin
Lynn Yohanna Howard, David Choe, and the munchkin
blurry Niagra and Ron English
Will Barras, and Jeremiah Garcia seeing who can grab their right ear first.
Me, Kofie, Chris Stain and io
The opening was in the penthouse of the Raleigh Hotel. it was a great location. not too big, but not too small. plus there was access to the outside, so you could toss back your whiskey on the rocks, enjoy the warm miami breeze, smell the ocean, and see south beach all in one place.We partied courtesy of the open bar until 10, then headed to Shepard Fairey/Supertouch opening. Shepards party was at Red Room a few blocks away. I have known Shepard for years, and it's been amazing watching his successes climb. Shep was spinning and pumping out Wu Tang, Clash, Israelites and a ton of other great music. It was nice going to a club where they didn't have typical techno audio jackhammer music. Shep had gift bags with a free poster which was cool, so we grabbed our free swag and had a few drinks then dipped. From there we headed back to wynwood and the Gen Art Vanguard party. Had a drink there, then moved to the Nike/anp party where we ended our night. Ice Cream Man was giving ice cream away there, so we chatted w him before heading inside.
ICE CREAM MAN!
The Nike party was cool, but the music (panda bear) was ear bleedingly loud. We managed to find the outdoor cabanas and we spent the rest of the night sipping drinks under the tropical cabanas.
First cabana we drank in
Drinking in the 2nd Cabana
After we were done, Ice Cream man was kind enough to drive us back to the hotel. Since he had a surplus of ice cream we snacked on ice creams all the way back. so not only did we have head aches in the morning, we had belly aches too. it was a good night though.
The morning came and it felt like all the stress in the world had disappeared. The art had been finished on the murals, so all there was to do from here was document what had been done, and socialize w people.
ASYLUM
BEST
MR BRAINWASH
WK INTERACT, MICHAEL DE FEO, MR BRAINWASH
RETNA and EL MAC (unfinished)
Surge
The Local party favors. Beer and a Syringe
WILL BARRAS
DEPOE
ASYLUM
Courtyard on 21st and N Miami Ave
REVOK and REYES
DARE from Switzerland
we drove around for a while, took pics, then eventually headed back to the hotel. We spent the night in the pool drinking more red stripe that was left over from the Theme Magazine party on Thursday. We also walked on the beach, and did a whole lot of nothing, and it felt great.
Sunday came and he crew was ready to head home. First up was Jeremiah. Jeremiah's plane headed out at 9am. Much to his surprise, he showed up at the airport at 8am and realized that he copied down his info wrong. it actually left at 6pm. two hours before he arrived. Jeremiah spent the day trying to get one flight or another. finally, 12 hours after his flight originally took off, he was on a plane. Second up was Surge. Surge flew out of Ft Lauderdale, so I drove him up to catch his 10:45 plane. I dropped him off at the airport and headed back to Miami. 5 minutes out, i got a call. apparently when Surge and I bought his ticket we bought it for Tuesday, not Sunday. So Surge managed to get on a flight, but not until the next day. Third up was me. Luckily i didn't have any troubles and i flew back to Atlanta where I now sit writing this blog. Tomorrow i get to drive 12 hours back to Baltimore, then on Wednesday I get to drive back to New York in another 5 hours. I am ready to lay my head on my own pillow and bath in my own bathroom.
Only 360 days til next years Art Basel, and I can't wait. It's going to be a hell of a time!!
