From beginnings in Stuttgard, Frerk and Marc C. Woehr have developed a style bringing street art into a realm of off-balance darkness. The atmosphere of their collaborative work looks like the product of the Brothers Quay reshaping an urban environment and all the characters emerging from it. While their work has appeared in publications and galleries all over Europe, their first show in the US will kick off at LA’s Carmichael Gallery on July 9th. Also, check out some of the Woehr’s work alongside Shepard Fairey’s at Art Basel Miami.

Site favorite and JS friend Jonathan Harris just launched his latest project entitled The Sputnik Observatory. It’s the result of a two-year collaboration with NYC based Sputnik, Inc, an organization that documents contemporary culture through intimate video interviews with hundreds of leading thinkers in the arts, sciences, and technology worlds. There are about 200 videos on the site today, and there will be thousands more added over the coming weeks, months, and years.

In Jonathan’s words:

The central premise of the Sputnik project is that everything is connected to everything else, and that topics and ideas that may seem fringe and even heretical to the mainstream world are in fact being investigated by leading thinkers working in fields as diverse as quantum physics, mathematics, neuroscience, biology, economics, architecture, digital art, video games, computer science and music. Sputnik is dedicated to bringing these crucial ideas from the fringes of thought out into the limelight, so that the world can begin to understand them.

Digging Rafa Jenn’s print “You Are Here” map image which is available in a limited edition of 24. Archival ink on archival paper, 20″ x 11.5″ for $39. Great and beautiful work!

Related: Rafa Jenn Triangles and Rectangles, Pin Ups

If you’re passing a newsstand in the next few days, look for the long-awaited Brazil issue of Juxtapoz. Guest curated by William Baglione—whose artists we always breathlessly talk about here—the hot special edition stars a slew of familiar names: Bruno 9li, Tinho, Calma, Choque Cultural, Os Gemeos and others. Baglione said he chose the artists based on a variety of styles, potential and experience. The cover artist is Herbert Baglione, William’s bro who counts Juxtapoz editor M. Revelli as a fan. The story goes that the issue originally was meant to be a spotlight on South American artists, but when they saw that most of the artists were Brazilian, Juxtapoz changed strategy and dedicated an entire issue to the well-deserving cast of lucky artists. Jump on this quick.

When word starting hitting the hypebeast sites that Nike was getting into skateboarding, there were plenty of doubters. Afterall, what does a company built on the waffle racer and Air Jordan’s know about the (pseudo) underground sport of skateboarding? The naysayers were silenced and now Nike is respected in the skate world having both a roster of talent and great kicks. One reason I think Nike has always been able to maintain it’s corporate dominance while garnering respect of their customers is they know how to gather the best talent and market themselves to their audience, in a way that shows they understand. That’s exactly what they have done with their new and revolutionary project Debacle. For Nike’s latest skate video, they teamed up with Adobe’s Experience Design (XD) team and Hega TV. Together, along with director Jason Hernandez’s leadership, they have produced a film that is inspiring and breathtaking, in full HD. Luckily for you, the viewer, they flipped the traditional distribution method on it’s head. Nike SB: Debacle is available first online for viewing and download, then a Blu-Ray version will be released later. By now I hope I have convinced you to go watch 30 minutes of the most progressive skateboarding today. Congrats to everyone involved.

JoshSpear.com pal MWM Graphics (Matt W. Moore) is finishing up a month-long stint of work and play in Sao Paulo, putting the final touches on spray painted pieces for tomorrow’s kickoff of his first-ever solo show in South America, Parallel Universe, at Rojo Magazine’s Artspace. The graphic design wunderkind arrived with no materials and created everything in the show from scratch in a studio in boho Pinheiros. The results are canvas versions of his famous vector illustrations, and they interestingly blur the line between digital and literal handiwork. Check out an in-depth interview with him on TotalSPGuide.com in which a writer takes him out for forro dancing and drinks, and in the midst of it all that mental lubrication, Moore reveals some great (and inspirational) insights into his work process.  Looks fantastic.

When Stanford Business School grad Efe Cakarel got fed up with sub-par film options for video on demand while traveling, he decided to do something about it. “The offerings were as exciting as a train time table,” Cakarel said. “They reminded me of the bad video stores I used to visit in Instanbul in the ‘80s.” Thankfully for us, his reaction was to create The Auteurs, a film showcase and lovingly created community hub for movie aficionados and creative visionaries behind film projects (the site’s namesake). Cakarel and his team of filmmakers and programmers have cataloged and host 3,000+ films to date—everything from In the Mood for Love to the ‘70s Soviet flick Dersu Uzala–and are working with academics and critics to select their next offerings.

In working to create a place for intelligent film discussion and sharing, Auteurs writer Daniel Kasman said the team is looking to create a place where people can share their opinions but that isn’t elitist. “Popular doesn’t always mean good,” according to one portion of the site, and the anecdote to blockbuster film has been presenting hard-to-find greats as part of the IFC-sponsored Criterion Collection.

I’m looking forward to the Surreal Minds exhibit with new works by dust next week here in NYC at myplasticheartnyc in the Lower East Side. Dust is a Swiss/German artist and designer who does murals, canvases, toys, illustrations, and more.

myplasticheartnyc
210 Forsyth St.
Lower East Side
New York
646.290.6866

Loving some of the new Alternative Motivational Posters above by my Frederic Terral of Right Brain Terrain. Freedom, Believe Yourself, and a handful of others now available. Check them out. Also, if you want to wear the positivity peak at some of his PositiviTees.

Connecticut artist Valerie Leonard created an American flag out of more than six thousand toy soldiers. She also does hilarious classic pet portraits. Like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Very talented and funny.

Detailed pictures of the American flag after the jump.

READ MORE…

Loving Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama’s shots of ink and water. Check it out. Via Form Fifty Five

Art on the Internet is permanent in many ways, yet ephemeral in others. Things sell out, pictures are removed, sites fade away, links get broken. There’s also a lot of art out there that’s not meant to last forever. Maybe it gets lost or worn out or removed or eaten up. Doodlesplatter was born out of a desire to present a complete, centralized “artkive” of the work of Jon Burgerman. With just a few clicks, you’ll see Jon illustrate that any surface can be a canvas. Whether you’re sick on a plane (airplane vomit bag) or stuck in the rain (umbrella collab with SIZE?), Jon’s doodles are there to captivate and bring cheer. Doodlesplatter catalogs over 300 items from Jon’s expansive portfolio, with options to search by medium, use and year. The frequently updated blogography features doodles by Jon exclusive to the project, the infamous lost Doodle Beat interview, brilliant web design by The Neon Hive and a complete case of OCD by me.

One of my favorite artists (I’ve been following him since 2004), Ogi just had a show in Tokyo– here are some pictures. The new work looks really fantastic. Congrats Ogi!

Mexico plus robots plus stop-motion mastery equals a piece of work that we are really proud of. By Stefano Dembro (a fake name of a fake designer, or something). Gorgeous stop motion work, check out the stills and video from Papalote here FormFiftyFive

Photographers Steven Brahms, Emiliano Granado and Stephen K. Schuster went on a search for the American institution called “Spring Break,” in which tender youths put down their books temporarily in order to wrestle in vats of Jello, put pictures of their breasts on the internet, and wake in hospital beds, half-dead with alcohol poisoning.

Really– the pictures are pretty awesome (and not just because of the scantily clad women). You can check them out here. Can we go to the beach now?