Molly Crabapple is my new hero. When I emailed her to set up some time for me to meet her and watch her in action, she replied, “I’m pretty much ALWAYS working.” It’s true. You’d need to hire an assistant just to keep up with this girl. With this much success at age 27, its hard not to wonder how she got to this point.
The MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles) not only legitimized decades of street art with their current exhibit Art in the Streets, but they initiated a campaign for the public to truly participate in the approval or criticism of that art.
ChinaShop sent one of our finest photographers to show us his perspective on what’s what. Its not to late for you to get out there and think for yourself. Art is truly in the eye of the beholder. Get out there and behold already!
Yao Xiao is a familiar site everywhere from pillowfight flashmobs to the ultra-posh Ace Hotel. A rising young illustrator, Yao captures New York life (whether street life or night life) with a lightening fast pen. In our interview below, we talk about the Chinese art scene, style, and hiding in the corners at parties.
Danish electro-pop singer and songwriter Nanna Øland Fabricius, AKA Oh Land, was the topic of much buzzing conversation at this years SXSW. She played a handful of shows during the festival and then turned around and played a four night residency at NYC’s Charles Bank Gallery in Soho in tandem with an art installation by artist Eske Kath.
Backed by a string quartet, keyboardist and drummer, Oh Land performed a thirty minute set to a packed gallery on a stage surrounded by art similar to what appears on her album cover. The set was obviously a collaboration between the two Danes– Oh Land’s characteristic white balloons made an appearance (they are the backdrop for her video ‘Wolf & I’) but were modified with projections of faces, planets, ballet dancers (Oh Land used to dance before an injury ended her career) and other peculiar images.
Just before Christmas in 1989, Arturo di Modica, a Sicilian artist living in New York City, recruited a few friends, loaded his sculpture, “Charging Bull,” a 7,000-pound, 16-foot-long bronze bull, onto a flatbed truck. They transported it from his studio to Wall Street and deposited it, without permission, in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The sculpture was swiftly removed by the city the next day, but due to public outcry it was reinstalled at a location nearby, where it has since become a neighborhood landmark (and judging by its prominence on Flickr, a popular tourist attraction).
2010 was a tremendous year for art. Take a look at the Top 10 Artists of 2010 (in no particular order) according to painter, pencil pusher, photographer, and Coilhouse Magazine co-founder Zoetica Ebb.
“I wanna be relatable to the average person instead of trying to be the superhero rapper with a cape,” says up-and-coming rhymer Moe Green from his home in Vallejo, California.
Green (a.k.a. Gregory Carter) admits that his raps used to be all about the get-money lifestyle, but his perspective now as a twenty-something has noticeably broadened. On his recently released debut, Rocky Mavia: Non Title Match, this MC raps precisely about the random facets of his life not so much as a storyteller but as a line-for-line lyrical technician.
Anna Castillo is a celebrity makeup artist/stylist, an Active Duty Air Force member, and the founder of Ink Cosmetics, which carries a full line of cosmetics and skin/body care products, including tools for men’s skin care. Anna developed the cosmetic line “as a more affordable means for artists to experiment, express, and cultivate their creativity with high pigment cosmetics.” From prepping models for New York Fashion Week to beautifying high-profile celebrities, Anna has a lot of experience under her belt. She is, however, most proud of her upcoming plans for Ink Cosmetics, which she shares with China Shop in her interview below:
Dorks on one side of the line. Cool kids on the other. This high school dichotomy holds fast for much of New York nightlife, and it’s something that Seen Magazine is trying to change. Starting with their launch party.
On July 4th, Seen Magazine, the street wear brand Mishka, and the Comic Books Legal Defense Fund threw an epic party at Water Taxi Beach, artificial patch of sand and neon palm trees on the East River. Music by Beach Fossils and the Death Set blasted as the sun set over Manhattan.
