12ozProphet

Lance Armstrong and Nike have been sharing their passion for life and sports together through a combined effort STAGES, a global art exhibit aimed at raising worldwide awareness and funds for the LIVESTRONG® Global Cancer Campaign.  Capturing the spirit that survives in Lance, more than 20 artists donated their time and creativity to put across a message on behalf of LIVESTRONG, Armstrong’s foundation committed to inspiring and empowering people affected by cancer. 

With a strong debut in Paris, STAGES launched at Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery with a team of the world’s most accomplished and promising international artists, including Ed Ruscha, Cai-Guo Qiang, Richard Prince, Catherine Opie, KAWS, Eric White, José Parlá, Christopher Wool, Tom Sachs, Dzine, and Rosson Crow. The second part of their journey took place in New York City hosted by Deitch Projects where the team picked up four extra members with new works: the Os Gemeos twins, Futura and Dustin Yellin. 

The finale will take place at one of the art world’s biggest global events: Art Basel Miami Beach. To create an even louder voice for the LIVESTRONG message, STAGES calls in Los Angeles based Christian and Rob Clayton, aka the Clayton Brothers, the furious paintings from Erik Parker and the black and white portraiture genius of artist Tomoo Gokita for a high energy show full of talent and spirit.  All artwork on display as part of STAGES will be available for purchase with proceeds directly benefiting LIVESTRONG.

STAGES Miami will be open to the public at O.H.W.O.W. Gallery,
from 4th to the 6th of December 2009. For more information regarding STAGES, please visit http://www.stages09.com or follow the twitter @stages_09.

O.H.W.O.W.
888 Biscayne Blvd,
Miami, FL 331132
Gallery hours: Fri-Sat, 12-8pm, Sun 12-6pm

Image Credit

Ed Ruscha
“Vital To The Core”
@Ed Ruscha
Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Clayton Brothers
Rob and Christian
“Always Alive”
@The Clayton Brothers Rob and Christian

Tomoo Gokita
“A Couple”
@Tomoo Gokita

Erik Parker
“Fake Out”
@Erik Parker

Contributing Artists
Cai Guo-Qiang, Clayton Brothers, Rosson Crow, Jules De Balincourt, Dzine, Shepard Fairey, Futura, Tomoo Gokita, Andreas Gursky, KAWS, Geoff McFetridge, Yoshitomo Nara, Catherine Opie, Os Gemeos, Erik Parker, José Parlá, Raymond Pettibon, Lari Pittman, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Tom Sachs, Kenny Scharf, Eric White, Christopher Wool, Dustin Yellin, Aaron Young

About LIVESTRONG
At LIVESTRONG, we fight for the 28 million people around the world living with cancer today. There can be – and should be – life after cancer for more people. That’s why we kick in at the moment of diagnosis, giving people the resources and support they need to fight cancer head-on. We find innovative ways to raise awareness, fund research and end the stigma about cancer that many survivors face. We connect people and communities to drive social change, and we call for state, national and world leaders to help fight this disease. Anyone anywhere can join our fight against cancer. Join us at http://www.LIVESTRONG.org.

About NIKE, Inc.
NIKE, Inc. based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly-owned Nike subsidiaries include Cole Haan, which designs, markets and distributes luxury shoes, handbags, accessories and coats; Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories; and Umbro Ltd., a leading United Kingdom-based global football (soccer) brand. For more information, visit www.nikebiz.com.

My right hand man, Julio recently brought an interesting new phenomenon to my attention… The home team up in Channel Zero, generally well known for being the true keepers of the faith here on 12ozProphet.com, have been spreading the message via a site called Drawball, which is this odd sort of collaborative graffiti space. It’s really nothing new for 12ozers to coordinate on our boards for the purpose of infiltrating other websites, but this last effort definitely take those efforts to a new level. Anyhow, my respects go out to the 12oz loyalists out there keeping the struggle alive.

More here…
- 12ozProphet / Channel Zero Drawball Thread
- Drawball website

Complex Magazine just put together a list of the 50 Best Nike Dunks of all time, and the AKA Wet Look Dunks came in at number 10 on their list. No doubt, most sneaker heads would argue a list like this to death, but all of us at AKANYC are honored to take Complex Magazines number 10 spot. Speaking of lists, the AKA Wet Look Dunks made THE list a while back when Nike put together their official list of the top Dunks of all time. I got a cool little feature on the Nike website as part of their Chronicles.

Allen Benedikt, purveyor of AKA (also known as) and curator of 12oz. (Complex Cartel what up!) put together this set of patent low tops inspired by iconic spray can colors. There were only a few sets of these sneakers, never released at retail. Instead, Benedikt worked with Nike to raffle the shoes off to benefit Free Arts NYC—a non-profit organization that helps at-risk and neglected children. The set of seven dunks raised nearly $15,000. Win/win.

Read More…

Original AKA Wet Look Dunk Post
Nike Dunk Chronicles

My email inbox was just blessed with this little diddy from Brazilian bad boy, Finok. Some of you guys might remember his name and work from an earlier post, but to bring the rest of you up to speed, Finok is steadily pounding the streets of São Paulo, Brazil with his (mostly) green brand of graffiti. Finok is a younger member of the VLOK Team, along with Os Gemeos, Ise, Coyok, Nunca and others, but definitely putting in lots of work.

Todd James’ last post is disturbing… 8 years in prison for graffiti?! And on top of it you have a member of the church step in to say they forgive him, but he should still pay for what he’s done? The cherry on top is the comment about how they really hope he’ll evaluate his life and chose a different path, despite the fact that they’ve just condemned him to a failed life by way of institutionalizing him in prison for nearly a decade long sentence. You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me?!

And the USA has the balls to question Iran and North Korea’s way of doing things…

Fuck Texas! Can we just split it off into its own country or hand it back to Mexico already? From what I hear from right wingers, its what they want anyhow. Any of you people reading this from Texas should really be thinking long and hard about moving out before you get caught up in the ignorance that seems to govern that state. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering George Dubya had been governing that state before a lot of other morons gave him the chance to screw up the rest of the country as president.

I’m ashamed at the idea that if aliens ever land on Earth, that I’ll somehow be categorized in the same group as the morons involved in that kids prosecution.

Unbelievable!

Happier times… Bobby Maduro Stadium rooftop. Miami, Florida - circa 1999.

It’s with a heavy heart that I report that Crude Oil, also known to his friends as Bernie Perez, passed away yesterday. For those that don’t know, Oiler was one of my best friends and is the man responsible for all the handstyles that have decorated all the various 12ozProphet and Also Known As projects incorporating tags over the years. Though misunderstood by many, he was dearly loved by those few he called friends. Oil wasn’t a very big kid physically, but his big heart and big character towered over most, and it was typical for him to be the center of attention in every room he entered or situation he was a part of. Those that we’re in his company (and weren’t on the receiving end of his beef), often had the pleasure of the one man comedy act that made up his true personality. Anyhow, I got this tragic news while on the road, but will try and honor his memory over the coming weeks by posting pictures I know he was fond of. I also have two posts he wanted me to put on his blog for him, that’ll I’ll handle as soon as I can. In the mean time, I’ll leave you with the picture below, which he’d emailed me the day before he passed away.

It’s my hope that Bernie has finally found the tranquility that always seemed to elude him in life. Rest in peace brother…

I’m writing this entry from a hotel room in Cleveland after an action-packed couple of days hosted by Nike. In case you haven’t kept up with the flurry of tweets and posts across the cool-guy blogosphere or caught news from the established sports media outlets, a select group of people were brought out to Akron, Ohio this past weekend at Nike’s invitation to personally partake in the unveiling of the Nike Air Max LeBron James VII sneaker. I’ll leave it to the sports-centric websites to better explain why else LeBron James is monopolizing news headlines, as well as leave most of the hype and fashion fetish surrounding the sneaker to other blogs, and instead focus on the human component to what I witnessed…

For a company as obsessed with performance and function as Nike is, it always amazes me to see how brilliant a form they always follow through with on just about everything they do. Between all the fanboys, hype, and haters, a person can sometimes lose sight of what Nike is truly about: A passion for sport with an existence founded upon an obsession for helping athletes perform better. The fact that along the way, Nike has also managed to create iconic footwear and apparel, influence popular culture or build a multi-billion dollar global empire, are all byproducts of an ethos founded on making products that help great athletes perform even better. As evidenced again this weekend with the unveiling of the Nike Air Max LeBron James VII sneaker, Nike’s passion for sport and attention to detail regularly culminate in footwear technologies that help revolutionize the game, as well as experiences that reset standards.

The weekend began with a forty-five minute bus ride out to LeBron’s home town of Akron to visit the Ed Davis Community Center. This particular community center is significant because it played a major role in LeBron’s early basketball years and was therefore chosen by him personally as the official setting for a retrospective of his professional career thus far. To help visualize this, Nike assembled an impressive series of museum-like displays linked together through a network of rooms that each highlighted a particular milestone in Lebron’s basketball career. Showcased at the center of each room were shoe samples representing the evolution of the Nike Air Max LeBron James sneaker, which also served to emphasize or underscore each of the milestones on display. Once through all the rooms, we were escorted as a group over to the gym to participate in a global webcast for the unveiling of the latest incarnation of the Nike Air Max LeBron James sneaker - the VII - hosted by Kenan Thompson of Saturday Night Live and featuring LeBron James and Nike Footwear Designer Jason Petrie. Kenan steadily maintained himself in top form, continuously added impromptu comedic relief to Jason’s technical breakdown of the new shoe. Meanwhile, LeBron James was answering all manner of questions, from personal to professional, from the crowd in attendance and via those emailing in off the webcast. In and of itself, between the retrospect and the Q&A with Lebron James, this would have been a pretty incredible event, but this being put on by Nike, it only served to lay the foundation for what they had planned next.

The next segment of our tour led us a few miles up the road to LeBron James’ High School, Saint Vincent-Saint Mary. Immediately upon arrival the tour group was divided up by gender with the two halves each escorted to the appropriate school locker room. Once through the door, everybody was then presented with a gym locker bearing their name that in turn contained a Saint Vincent-Saint Mary basketball uniform and pair of Nike Air Max LeBron James VII sneakers, both already conveniently sized to fit, as well as a gym bag stuffed with a pair of socks, a towel and some toiletries. With most everyone standing around gawking and caught in a state somewhere between confusion and rapture, Saint Vincent-Saint Mary Basketball Coach Dru Joyce quickly got everyone’s attention by barking out orders to suit up and then continuing on with some pre-game pep talk. (For those of you uninformed reading this, Coach Dru Joyce II personally coached Lebron James from 8 years old or so, all the way up through High School, subsequently earning Saint Vincent-Saint Mary three additional State Championships together with Lebron James. Coach Dru continues as Head Basketball Coach for SVSM and brought home his fourth State Championship this last year for the 2009 Basketball Season.) Whoever’s minds weren’t blown by this point, most surely detonated once Coach Dru escorted a newly suited up group of wannabe, if not quite ready, ball players down the hall and onto the school basketball court to be greeted by Lebron James and a handful of his closest high school ball playing crew for a bit of hoops.

I’m not going to go into detail about what transpired on the court because honestly, my memory of this segment of the Akron experience is mostly a big exciting blur of a good time. I recall Coach Dru drilling us far beyond what even the most fit among us was prepared for, and then after, watching Lebron James dribble circles around everyone until he’d finally decide to end the embarrassment with one of his trademark slam dunks (extra emphasis on the ‘slam’ part). No doubt, very few people get such an up close and personal opportunity to see what it takes to be a world class athlete like Lebron James, and even less get the opportunity to go up against a professional athlete like him first hand. Thanks to an epic weekend by Nike, I’m proud to say I’ve had my chance, and though I won’t lie and say I even led to Lebron breaking a sweat, I will say it was an experience I’ll remember (and discuss) with fondness for many years to come.

It would be easy at this point to discuss what an incredible sneaker the Nike Air Max LeBron James VII is, but the stellar reviews are already in so I won’t repeat most of what’s already been said about them. Suffice to say that the Air Max LeBron James VII is an incredible shoe. It was designed from scratch for one of the best players to ever play the sport, using the latest footwear technologies by the company that paves the way in sport performance. As I found out personally, wearing a pair isn’t going to allow you to suddenly start dunking on King James, but I have no doubt that it’ll step your game up in more ways than one.

A special thanks to Nike and LeBron for the amazing experience.

As anyone not living under a rock should know, Os Gemeos were recently in New York City painting a new mural over on Houston and Bowery. Besides having the privilege to document the Os Gemeos mural along with Martha Cooper, as well as get shots of a truck Os Gemeos and the Brazil Crew painted, we also got to hang out quite bit. True to form, even when not painting, Os Gemeos and the Brazil Crew usually fill the gaps between conversation with something creative. Here’s some shots of our chalk board after one of the times they stopped by the AKANYC studio to hang out.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen shots of the Os Gemeos mural that just got painted over in New York City’s Bowery neighborhood. Besides painting walls and blogging, Os Gemeos and most of the VLOK Crew also got in on some truck action. Here’s some shots I took of Os Gemeos, Coyo, Finok, and Ise giving a local delivery truck a new paint job. Hopefully, its something most of you haven’t already seen.