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Pixnit: ICA: Design as Social Agent

Please join PIXNIT Productions for a full day of events at the ICA!

(BOSTON) The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and Boston Chapter of the AIGA, the professional association for design, present “Design as Social Agent,” a daylong event on Saturday, April 4 from 10 am to 5 pm. Bringing together speakers from the fields of design, street art, music and politics, the event frames Shepard Fairey’s work within the context of grassroots civic action, punk rock and 80’s graffiti and skate culture. A series of presentations, conversations and gallery talks will explore how concepts of appropriation, plagiarism, legality and process have been exploded.

Tickets for each of the five main stage talks are $25 or $15 for ICA and AIGA members as well as students and seniors. Ticket holders will have free access to additional programs, including gallery talks, and presentations in the Bank of American Art Lab on a first-come first-served basis. In addition, anyone who purchases tickets to all five main stage talks will receive free admission to an upcoming ICA public talk or AIGA program, subject to availability. Tickets can be purchased at www.icaboston.org or by calling (617) 478-3103.

Main stage Talks in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater

10 am Culture and Resistance
With Kevin Grady, Caleb Neelon, Vanessa Platacis (Project Director for PIXNIT Productions) and Elizabeth Resnick

Shepard Fairey's work distills many elements, drawing from the seemingly distinct worlds of music, skate culture, street art, graphic design, and fine art. Designer Kevin Grady, and Boston- based street artists Caleb Neelon and Vanessa Platacis (Project Director for PIXNIT Productions) provide a cultural orientation to frame Fairey's work, while designer, design curator and author Elizabeth Resnick explores how his work fits into a diverse and powerful history of dissent in design.

11:30 am Elegant Dissent and Anarchy
With Elliot Earls

Designer Elliott Earls presents his perspective on establishment and anarchy. How does one visualize dissent? It can take the form of a sophisticated challenge to dominant ideologies- political, religious, or cultural-or the opposite: an anti-establishment counterculture with no message. How are people responding to or acting on these images? Are designers defined by a "design canon" which determines the way they operate? Should they look beyond traditional sources of inspiration or court contradiction and chaos to produce relevant, resonant, and prescient design?

12:45 pm The Obama Effect: What Art Did for Advertising
With Pete Favat and Nicholas Blechman

“OBEY GIANT" and the subsequent "Obama HOPE" poster catapulted Fairey's work into the worlds of politics, corporations, and the mainstream media. These images were consumed and disseminated by people across the globe with startling voracity, and the establishment changed their thinking and their strategies for communicating with people previously "unreachable." Pete Favat, Arnold Advertising's Chief Creative Officer, and Nicholas Blechman, Nozone designer and New York Times Book Review art director, discuss how guerrilla marketing has taken hold and what it means for the way artists, designers, and the media operate.

Mini Graff: What the Duck?!! in Sydney

Mini Graff solo exhibition 'WHAT THE DUCK?!!' at the Oh Really Gallery
http://www.ohreallymagazine.com
OPENING: 6.00pm, 9th April
DATES: 9th - 15th April, 2009
ADDRESS: 55 Enmore Road, Newtwon, Sydney.

The exhibition is in response to recent artist copyright issues and includes all original artworks, silkscreen and edition prints.

The show also features Wild West tee's for the ladies in a range of colours. Hand-printed in my studio, each tee is a unique colourway. More on the show soon!

Stencilada Unveiling Today at CELLspace

Much thanks to the Metal Shop at CELLspace for hardware install, spigot move, and an amazing Metal Mural to accent!

Thanks to Chris Benfield for helping out, Flora Bora for encouragement, and all the artists for their time and talent! Mando, Victor, Tiago, Dave X, and other CELL peeps pitched in in various ways as well. Oh, muralist Mona Caron gave great advice on coating the panels, and Lily and Dia have expressed interest to be the next artists lined up to paint murals on the CELL walls.

The grill gets set up around 1pm today and we'll hand out food while it lasts. If you come later, bring your own and we'll throw it on the fire!

stencilada_sectioni.jpg Now What by James S. Cell panel art by Hugh D'Andrade, stencils by Russell Howze For the Win by Crystal Townsend

SF Chron: Has it come to jail time to wipe out graffiti?

Has it come to jail time to wipe out graffiti?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Like the city of San Francisco, North Beach resident Micki Jones is fighting a losing battle against graffiti.

"I paint it over and it is usually tagged again in 48 hours," said Jones, who covers up graffiti on her home and other buildings on her block. "It used to be weeks, but now those guys are out there every night."

Shepard Fairey Expects New Charges in Boston - AP

Obama Poster Artist Shepard Fairey Expects New Charges In Boston

RUSSELL CONTRERAS | March 10, 2009 06:03 PM EST | AP

BOSTON — The street artist who created the famous "Hope" poster of President Barack Obama expects to face new vandalism charges relating to the red, white and blue image, but his lawyer said Tuesday that the accusations would cover a period of time when the artist wasn't even in Boston.

The artist, Shepard Fairey, and prosecutors went before a clerk magistrate in Brighton District Court on Tuesday. The hearing was closed to the public, but Fairey's attorney, Jeffrey Wiesner, said police asked the clerk magistrate for permission to charge Fairey with illegally posting his Obama images in Boston's Allston neighborhood between Nov. 25 and Dec. 25.

Tom Robinson Band: 1978 LP Stencil Insert

The TRB fist logo was designed in early 1977 by Roger Huddle from Rock Against Racism. The concept of the name placed around a fist was "borrowed" from the Gay Liberation Front, while the colour scheme and typeface were suggested by Tom. Roger adapted his fist drawing from a Black Panthers publication, and also used it as a logo for the Socialist Workers Party.

The original LP version of "Power In The Darkness" (1978) in the UK contained a cardboard stencil of the TRB logo with the words: "THIS STENCIL IS NOT MEANT FOR SPRAYING ON PUBLIC PROPERTY".

Click here to view (or right-click to download) a black-on-white PDF file of the logo to print, cut out and spray as required.

Fits on a single sheet of A4 paper or card, slightly smaller than the original album stencil. For the full size version, adjust "page setup" on your computer to print at 150%.