12ozProphet

So I have been in Paris for some time now doing freelance work including consulting for the Cartier Foundation on a new exhibition that opens this week. The exhibition is ambitious and covers a brief history of writing in New York City and Paris as well as highlighting some contemporary artists. There are great installations by Phase2, Seen, Part One, Jon One, Vitche, Barry McGee, Delta, Vasco Basco, Nug, and others. If you are in Paris catch it.
more info below including some behind the scene images.

July 7 › Nov. 29, 2009
Born in the Streets
GRAFFITI

Devoted to graffiti and street art, the exhibition Born in the Streets—Graffiti will bring to light the extraordinary expansion of an artistic movement that developed in the streets of New York in the early 1970s to rapidly become a world-wide phenomenon.
Today, graffiti has entered the cultural mainstream, crossing over to the realms of studio art, design and advertising. Yet despite its immense popularity, this essentially illegal activity continues to evolve at the periphery of the contemporary art world, its origins and evolution little-known to the general public.
The exhibition at the Fondation Cartier attempts to sketch the general contours of a subject that is vast and complex, encompassing many different ideas, media and movements across its boundaries.

Received this info from fellow COD crew member and West Coast homie Persue.
From the hood to Hollywood….

VOX ARTIST COOPERATIVE: THE SEVENTH LETTER PROJECT
VOX Footwear is proud to announce the releasing of seven special edition collaboration shoes
featuring original artwork from L.A.’s legendary street artist group The Seventh Letter Crew.
With such amazing artists like Krush, Ewok, Bert Krak, Push, Steel, Reyes, Keichi Ito and Eklips
contributing their own brand of urban style,  the one-of-a-kind colorways will be incorporated
onto team models such as the Shale, Mono, Upgrade, and the Trooper. The first four Seventh
Letter Series color-ways will be dropping in November 2009 and the following three colorways
will be released in early 2010.

Contact for people that want to inquire about this project is: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

For all you collectors and fans. Tonight is a large graffiti and street auction in Paris. You can also bid online or over the phone. The link to the auction is:
http://www.world-encheres.com/millon/vo20062009SA/asp/index.asp
There are works by Tracy168, Tack, IZ, T-Kid 170, Ghost, Ewok One, and many others worth checking out.
good luck and happy bidding…..
sample works below.

I just received a phone call from Metal Man Ed who was a close friend of Mike Martin aka Iz The Wiz with tragic news of IZ’s death. IZ died as a result of a heart attack in his home state of Florida.

For many of you that do not know, IZ TMB, was a subway god. From his beginnings in the early 70s he painted like there was no tomorrow and came up with one of the most iconic and recognized throw ups in subway writing history. It was by sheer will and determination that he became a true king of New York City. He was king of the lines and not only did throw ups but also whole cars and insides. While many people count IN TOP as the throw up king of all time, in actuality that title belongs to IZ who out painted and out lasted IN and mostly every other writer in the history on New York’s movement.

His style was always wild and psychedic seemingly inspired by some far out LSD trip which took him to another universe. His whole cars reflected this and his walls and drawings also captured his other dimensions of existence. In an era where style mastery was strict and copy cats were plentiful IZ’s style was avant-garde and loose, his blockbusters true works of beauty.

I was lucky enough to be friends with IZ. I meet him in the early 90s way after his subway reign but he was still into it. At the time he was one of us, the guys that were trying to keep graffiti on trains alive, and was painting with SAR, FUZZ, and CAV. They were hitting the lines out in Queens while the rest of us were putting in work elsewhere. Always a bomber, IZ also got into painting freight trains and wall productions in Queens. By the mid-90s he was responsible for making the Phun factory (now 5 pointz) a reality and a place where writers could paint legally with no stress from police. Because of him many writers came out of retirement and the old school get togethers started.

For the past 10 years IZ’s health had been in a steady decline. He left NYC and moved around in order to be able to live affordably and where there was more accessible health care. We all saw a king deteriorating before our eyes but we also saw a man with a great spirit surviving. His illness seemed to come from as a result from all those years in the tunnels breathing toxic spray paint and track dust. The price he paid to be known is immense. He will not however be forgotten.

Iz was a humble and creative spirit. He was a truly giving and cool man. He was always down to help out whenever needed. He will truly be missed.

Mike - IZ may you rest in peace.

I missed this piece when it came out but think its a great way to drive a point home to the local cops.

So at the moment I am in Europe doing my thing and have missed some of the New York activities that I have been hearing about. One is the Helenbeck gallery exhibition that featured some of my friends like Quik, Blade, Jon One, Lee Quinones, Daze, and Crash. The show looks amazing and I would advise you to check it out if you are in New York. I also recommend buying one of the paintings if you have the paper to do it. Shit, buy more than one.

The Sento book I wrote has finally been released and is available at fine book stores and on amazon.com. The book is the first book in the re-launch of the On The Run series that was well known in the nineties (seen, bates, jepsy books). The other books that have been released are one on the Spanish writer Logan and another on the Cubabrasil project done by Neon, Stone, Cemnoz, Os Gemeos, and others. The books are amazing and very comprehensive. I am very thankful and honored to have been able to work with Sento to get his book done. His contribution to the writing world is immense and much of his work unknown to many as the nature of it is illegal. The man deserves his props.

In 1987 I was a senior in high school and had to ride the 5 train into Flatbush daily. It was a cool ride in that I had many trains to take and got to see lots of what was being painted on the lines. I took the J from Marcy ave to Chambers st and switched to the 5. While waiting I would watch the 6 line as well. I found this video that took me back to those days on the 5. You can see a Joz tag which is nice. I remember names like Bones, Net, and Dondi on the insides as well as RD on the 6s inside.

I came across this video recently and was very pleased to see artists taking into their own hands to eliminate some of the shitty ads that clutter the streets. For too long we have been bombarded with wack messages to buy shit and consume more. Its up to us to change that. Maybe this will give people some ideas on how to take over space in their hood without getting locked up.

Friday in Brooklyn….

Thanks to Pure for putting me up on this video. He’s part of Steve’s crew these days and was out there putting in work. Big up to Steve for another well thought out and beautiful art project.

Ghost, one of my old writing partners and one of the graffiti world’s most recognizable throw up kings has just released a limited edition book with the clothing company Stussy along with some new shirts. The book showcases some of his bombing activity as well as the illustration style that he is now known for. Cop one online at: Stussy.com.
Here’s stuff I yanked from their site.

STUSSY: What were your earliest memories of graffiti?
GHOST: Just by riding the train, when I would go to Yankee games was when I first started to take notice. Didn’t know what it was or how they did it. I asked my mom and she replied with “don’t bother me with that bullshit.”

Since I grew up on the 7 line the first names that stood out were: Caine-1 Roger, Chino174, Vinny, Dean, Pro-1, Son-1, Fuzz-1 Quik, Killer56 Demo, Joey, Vade, Ex-1, Savage aka KB. Then when I moved back to the Bronx around 79/80, I saw: Blade, Comet, MG’s boys like Mark198, Fritos, Boots119, Russ, Kit17, Mitch77, Dr. Pepper, Ban2, Noc67, Part, Chain3, Skeme and Dez. The trains were bombed inside and out, stations were killed. It was a pretty dope time in the city.

STUSSY: How did you come out with Ghost?
GHOST: I was in a comic book shop looking at a rack and saw a “ghost rider” comic, thought it sounded cool. I went through numerous names trying to come up with something and finally just took that and it stuck.

STUSSY: Can you talk about the photo in the book with the upside down “Ghost” piece? Is there a story behind that?
GHOST: Not really, I just wanted to bug out and have a few laughs.

STUSSY: What is the story behind your favorite picture in the book?
GHOST: There’s a story behind every photo I guess, except the legal walls. There’s no story or fun to that. I would have to say when I did the 2nd story tower on the tracks on 103.

I told Bruz and Bri-1 what I wanted to do. Bruz then took me to Roosevelt hospital (to get my head examined you might think) where they had a 16ft. ladder lying around. So we took that shit and hopped on the train (which was crazy- everyone on the train was staring at us). We got off and I started to paint. I had bucket paint and since I’m not really a bucket paint kinda writer, I threw that shit away and did it with spray. Bruz and Bri-1 were doing a piece on the smaller house and I’m doing this piece on the ladder, trying to pay attention to the train so I wouldn’t get spotted. These kids were on the station running around copping tags and I knew that would be trouble if they got spotted because they would bring the heat on us. So I ran up to see who it was and it was my cousin and some of his friends. I believe Cro-1 and I forget who else was there. They bugged out to see me there, asking me what I was doing. Then I explained that I was doing a top 2 bottom and that you guys were gonna make it hot so you have to leave… Anyway, they left and I finished up my piece.

The next day I heard that when these kids left, they got raided at another station and I forgot who it was that got caught. They said that while thye were in the precinct that a call had come over the radio that there were three men walking the tracks with a huge ladder. At that point, we had finished up and took the ladder with us and went to the next station. We threw the ladder on someone’s roof and split the scene. The next day we rolled up to catch flics when the workers came out the tower to talk with me. They were cool. They were trying to figure out how I got up so high. I think I told them I was smoking angel dust and that’s how I had gotten up so high and laughed. You could see them in the photo hanging out. Yeah, we had a lot of fun back then, the shit we used to get away with.

STUSSY: What’s next for you? Projects? Shows?
GHOST: I have a few things in the works.