Augustine Kofie and Remi Rough just killed this wall in London

This Friday, July 8th is the opening of ‘Letters’ a gallery exhibit featuring 7 artists rooted in graffiti as an ongoing practice and as inspired painters.

Opening Reception is July 8th, 6:30pm to 9pm.
Participating artists (street names) include; Asesr, Demos, Difer, Easer, Ensoe, Sueme & Ways
Each artist will have original and new work as part of the exhibition.
ARTIST TALK: Saturday, July 16th at 1:00 pm.
There is no fee to attend the talk and all are welcome.
AFTER PARTY WITH DJ Relly Rels: at the gallery from 9:00 pm onwards on Friday, July 8th.
Music, cash bar & the unexpected. Elliott Louis Gallery is Located at: #1 – 258 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V5T 1A6

I am showing five new paintings, and a two not-so-new pieces from my archives also.

I recently caught up with Dezio from Shanghai (originally from Paris) on his trip to Vancouver. It was great experience to meet and get to paint a few walls together. We had never met before, but just knew of each others work, and exchanged a few words over the internet. I kinda knew we would get along simply from noticing the way he likes to think about and discuss his work on Flickr. Sure enough we were quick to get busy. this is the first wall we did together:

The next day we decided to do more elaborate pieces. I suggested we do a name swap, where we would paint each others names and letters. We didnt have any prepared sketches so we were freestyling.

After sketching out the letters, I started to fill the piece with the green tones and was trying to decide on a colour to outline the piece. Lately I’ve been painting more on the traditional side interms of fill, outline, background, etc.. so I was a bit turned off of doing a traditional scheme. Plus we had a bit of a mixed selection of paint, mostly half cans and not enough of one colour to do a full outline anyway. I started just outlining the letters in different colours and hoped for the best. I tried to make each letter slightly different, and avoid having them contrast each other too much, I still wanted the piece to look like one cohesive work. The idea then started to build on itself a bit more, and I was able to spread the same colours I used for outlining into background elements, and different details also. This is interesting to me because most commonly I would try to use different colours for every element of a piece, but this way It can be an good challange to try and make your colour pallet still have good contrast throughout the piece, and where those same colours are representing different design elements at the same time. Anyway, it was a fun piece to paint, and I want to develop the concepts in the near future.

Sueme by Dezio

Definitely a great experience doing these walls, and a great kick start to the summer!

Its been 17 years since we’ve made it this far in the playoffs. The hockey gods are watching, so show some love!!

Painted by MOCK and SUEME.

Introducing OG Vancouver writer, and newest crew member: DEKOR..

For the month of May I am exhibiting some of my artwork at The Network Hub, A social and community based office space. The Network Hub is located on the top floor of a heritage building on the corner of Hastings and Richards right downtown. If your in the area stop by and check out the space. For more pics of the artwork check out this LINK

A couple weeks ago I took a trip to LA to see the Art In The Streets exhibit at the MOCA in LA. A few friends of mine were heading up to the Coachella music festival so I decided to hitch a ride with them having the exhibit fall on the same weekend. I’ve done the road trip to LA before, so this would be the third time making the trip. Its always a crazy adventure and theirs always new experiences each time. I ended up painting one wall in Oakland and three walls in LA throughout the trip. Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip.

The First wall I painted was in Oakland with Bam and Poesia. I ended up painting a name swap for Oakland local JURNE. I sketched out 4 different Sueme outlines but wasn’t feeling the direction of any of them. Sometimes having blocks like that I have to make drastic changes with my process in order to feel out what I’m going for. In this case deciding on painting a different word really forced out that exciting feeling you get from the unexpected.

^Click to enlarge Photo by Scott Rockwell

Bam x Poesia Photo by Scott Rockwell

Camped at the amazing Refugeo beach between SF and LA.

Got a chance to Hang with Dabs, Myla, Rime, How and Nosm while they painted this wall on Hollywood.

Rime Lined up this huge wall for a lot of the out of towners that were in LA for the exhibit over the weekend.
From the left: Tako, Shiver, Daks, Huge, Myth, 2Tones, Arek, Kems, Rime, Sueme, Shoe, and Haze. Steel, Enue, Meme and a few others painted the other side as well.

^Click to enlarge

This is a wall I did with Kema (Transend Crew) we jumped into this wall with the intention to somewhat blend our names together. Allowing parts to overlap, connect and even compete for space. It turned out pretty interesting, definently a fun collaborative experiment.

^Click to enlarge

The last wall I did before leaving LA

^Click to enlarge

Keith Haring Car!

Saber

Shepard Fairy

I was probably most impressed with the work of Barry Mcgee, Espo and Reas. Being able to walk through the installation like a city block was really interesting. The details and sheer amount of interesting objects and assemblages was amazing.

Eric Haze

Henry Chalfant

Os Gemeos

Mode2

Banksy

Risk x Rime x Revok

Blade Tribute by Rime

Risk

This Exhibit says a lot about whats happening today in graffiti. I think for a lot of on lookers and participants in the culture, will have a better understanding of the level of commitment and dedication that is put in by the artists. I feel inspired to work even harder as I feel like my work is shit after leaving LA! just kidding, thanks for the motivation! see you next time LA!

I just wanted to make a post to wrap up this amazing project. Unintended Calculations exhibited throughout march 2011. I started working on pieces here and there since November, but really got into my body of work in January and February. I primarily worked with spray paint for all my pieces. I wanted to showcase the opposite, and juxtaposition of my exterior graffiti based work in a clear, simplistic way through these paintings. the nuances and transparent nature of a raw, ‘naked’ stroke, became the focal point of the work. For me this is the difference between Renaissance style painting, and a impressionistic painting style. More specifically, graffiti art vs. abstraction, and pushing that boundary to new limits.

Scott Sueme Detail

Augustine Kofie

Remi/Rough

Jerry Inscoe

Scott Sueme

Kofie

‘Yellow Light’ Spraypaint on 36x36 wood panel.

Kofie

These pieces are my most recent. (Top) ‘Relish’ Spray paint on  36x36 wood panel (bottom) ‘Collected’ Spray paint on 36x36 wood panel.

Jerry Inscoe

Augustine Kofie

‘Pewter’ Spray paint on 36x36 wood panel

Remi/Rough

In addition to the gallery exhibit was the Mural we painted at Moda Hotel. This was a huge learning curve for me and a great experience working with the other artists. We got every possible weather warning in the book for the 3 days we were allocated to get the job done, from windstorms to hail, snow and rain. We lucked out and managed to avoid all of the warnings except for some short shower and hail periods. We ended up finishing both walls in 3 and a half days.

I have to say thanks to the amazing people at Montana Colors for their support on this project. They are a huge part of supporting artists develop their skills and supporting the culture. A big thank you also goes out to Moda Hotel for providing us the space and supporting the arts in Vancouver and abroad. Thanks to Leanne and Brittney at Moda you both were so helpful throughout the whole process, and made sure we were comfortable and kept thing running smoothly. Much appreciated.

Last but not least, The great folks over at Grounded TV put together a short documentary on the whole project. check out the video below.

Thanks to everyone else that was involved in this project one way or another, Scion Canada, Opus hotel, Friends and Family and all our supporters. And Most importantly Indigo for starting this project up and fitting all of the artists together. Her roll curating was crucial and much appriciated!!

Lets keep the ball rolling in 2011.

Artists:
Augustine Kofie
Jerry Inscoe
Remi/Rough
Scott Sueme
Indigo (Curator)

Support:
Becker Galleries
Montana Colors
Moda Hotel
Redcard
Opus Framing and Art Supplies
Grounded TV
Scion Canada

Photographers/Media/Coverage:
Aaron Smedley
Julia Koslov
Mike Bam
Jonathan Taggart
Granville Online
The Westender

A sketch I did for SORIE from Isreal.
SORIE flickr
The Graffiti Exchange

The Great People at Montana Colors have just put out a short video documentary on the brand heritage and what it means to supply and support artists.

video posted by The WearHaus

As word about a writer-designed paint spread from Barcelona to San Francisco, the graffiti world witnessed an explosion of unique styles. Innovative sketches could finally make the jump from the page to the wall. Burners from coast to coast flaunted a renewed sense of self-expression.

– Montana Colors

Here’s the wrap up video they put together for the Unintended Calculations exhibit and mural installation. Everyone at MTN were great supporters of the project and are amazing people!! I feel greatful to have worked with them, and I think I can say that for Kofie Joker and Remi too.