October 20, 2008

Monkey Bomb T-Shirt

The nursery rhyme, sing-song tempo of the copy ("You Bomb Me. I Bomb You. Monkey See. Monkey Do.") is subverted by its own meaning, and the graphic chaos that fills the four corners of the poster. There is seemingly nowhere to escape the sheer absurdity of world powers engaged in a game of bomb ping-pong. Which begs the question: are monkeys our genealogical past or future?

September 17, 2008

Beauty and The Beast

He might not even remember, but back in June of this year I received an email from Ludo saying that he was living in Paris and working on a project titled: Nature's Revenge. He went on to explain it in this very deep and poetic way, but the gist of it is he composites plants with everyday human aggressions and pollutions, like guns and CCTV cameras. The results are impactful visuals that he then wheatpastes through-out our environment.

August 27, 2008

Bull Shit

I just finished uploading the 600th photo to our pool of street art images from around the world. And it is fitting that this recent update comes with a funny intervention piece from the streets of Birmingham. I received the photo from one of our readers, who said:

"Yes it's in Birmingham and it lasted only 10 minutes, I passed a first time in front of Bullring, there was nothing, and when I came out, the bull had a new shape ;-D, and people were enjoying, looking in surprise, and trying to guess who around could have made it, until a little boy, kicked away the bull-shit and removed the stuff hysterically, which was quite symbolic by the way" -photo submitted by Iktômi

July 15, 2008

Branded Hell

It's about time. The first solo show by underground LA artist Branded is here come August 2nd. We interviewed him back in January of 2006 and have been closely following his work since. With carrot in hand, go see: It's Hell Not Having A Hero.

June 20, 2008

TRUTH Issue 5

King Adz killed it again this issue. My favorite of the series, 89 pages of content I've never seen before. Artist Pilpeled blew me away. As did the work of HUSH, but the chapter breaking tabs by No New Enemies carries the entire read. Download it now, for free of course.

June 16, 2008

Bye SOLVE

This past Saturday, the street art scene lost a friend, artist and inspiration as Chicago-great Brendan "SOLVE" Scanlon was found dead of a stab wound to the heart. Fellow artist saro, started a group on flickr as a memorial to him. Join to share photos of his work and memories of him.

photo credit: that's you!?

June 13, 2008

The Specter Bridge

Few artists know how to apply their work to the streets like Specter. He doesn't just glue something on a wall, many times he physically changes our landscape in a three-dimensional way and much of it all in fun. One of my favorite is the wooden bridge (below), but others include his brickwork project, cardboard and necklace. Pay respect.

April 13, 2008

All Walls Are Our Walls

Our first ever interview was with an artist named Hop Louie. He is a very productive cat who loves to put stuff on walls from Finland to Senegal. His site has recently been updated with a ton of new work. Visit hoplouie's website or read our exchange of words from 2006.

March 25, 2008

Over 500 Street Art Pictures

Our community section of street art from around the world has just gone over five-hundred photographs. Thanks to submissions from our readers, cities like Madrid, Dublin, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Istanbul, Sao Paolo and Miami get major updates. With a triumph upload from Bei of seven pics from Beijing, China. Enjoy and please do keep them coming.

March 18, 2008

Studio Gangster

This past December (during Art Basel) I had the opportunity to check out an exhibition by Steve Powers and friends at the Miami Design District. The show was presented by Deitch Projects and aptly titled "Sign-A-Rama." The space was filled from floor to ceiling with sign graphics and verbage from the hands of Barry McGee, Matt Wright, Chris Johanson and more. I was so into it that I left with a signed copy of Steve's latest book. It's been on my desk for more than two months now and I don't foresee it moving to the library anytime soon.

If you like Steve Powers AKA ESPO's work, than you would enjoy this recently released 24x30 limited edition print titled Handy Signs. Available at handysigns.net »

March 4, 2008

Four Days in the Glades

The Langerado Music Festival is upon us. In two days time, we'll be in a 10'x15' booth showcasing our work, listening to good tunes and simply taking a break from reality. For our third year at the show, we are introducing five new t-shirts and some more original artwork. Stop by and say hello.

While we are off in gatorland, you can read an interview on yours truly (okat) by visiting Alan Bernard's Fuckin' Mayhem site.
okat interview

February 23, 2008

You've Got to Get Mad

A clip from the movie Network (1976) that is more fitting today than ever before.
Click to watch »

(found via Can You Speak This)

February 22, 2008

In Our Mailbox, Pt. VII

A few weeks back Junkyard Sam asked to send over some stuff. I had no idea what to expect and to my surprise... I got an envelope of three amazing limited-edition prints of his fantastical illustrations. Check his site and etsy store for more.

February 14, 2008

King Adz, Post V

Back in the USA… There is only one street artist who is doing anything remotely original today and that is Brad Downey. I am giving him all the press he deserves with a feature in 100proofTRUTH Issue 4 and a double sized spread in my Modart Magazine column 'Word From King Adz'. Brad is not only a true original, he is also one of the nicest, most genuine blokes I've had the honour of getting down with. He's got a great book out 'The Adventures of Darius and Downey' published by Thames & Hudson. Here are some links to his work: link one, link two, link three

February 13, 2008

King Adz, Post IV

This is England! There is a massive amount of street fashion photography on the web these days and all of it is the result of the life's work of one man: Paul Hartnett. Who has been documenting/shooting street and club culture since 1976. He is the absolute Don and there would be no Face Hunter, Last Nights Party, Cobrasnake etc etc etc without Paul paving the way. His photography has not only influenced the street style photography, but also documented thoroughly the emerging sub-cultures, beginning with Punk and still going strong with Nu-Rave and Underage disco. He has a retrospective exhibition of his work this week at the Vibe Gallery in the Old Truman Brewery in East London, starting on the 14th Feb...

February 11, 2008

King Adz, Post III

There is some really killer/fresh fashion coming out of Manchester (England) at the moment. Nu-Rave and mash-up culture materializes in clothing form with the youthful fashion label Me & Yu - designed and managed by two people (Angie & Gordon) from their stall in Affleck's Palace a quirky indie indoor fashion market in the coolest part of Manchester (The Northern Quarter). My 14 year old daughter is really into their clothes and this is the best endorsement out there: word of mouth from the teenager! link: www.meandyu.com

February 7, 2008

King Adz, Post II

One of the people who I've been in contact with most in the last year is Iranian street art legend, A1one. We hooked up after he watched my Blek Le Rat film back inna day… He is a big fan of Blek and stencil art. But over the last year he has started to develop a mixture of street and Iranian folk art, into a fucking great look… Street art constantly need to reinvent itself, to reinvigorate itself otherwise it might stagnate or disappear up its own arse… visit: A1one's flickr and The Tehran Walls Blog

February 6, 2008

King Adz, Post I

King Adz signing in for a week of guest-blogging on this fucking amazing website. So from across the pond I say 'Howzit!'

For those who don't know me, I am a writer and ex-film-maker and my crew/creative collective is called 100proof.tv and has members in all continents… And today I'm gonna be giving a Big Shout! to all of Africa and all of my African Peeps and looking at talent that really means something from that continent. The best film-maker on the planet right now is a South African lady called Alex Mamacos who has been down with 100proof since the beginning. Her first film 'My Beloved Thandiwe' just blew me away, and it takes a lot to move me these days… Pure film-making, purely non-commercial, for the love of film and true love of humanity, which in this day and age of movie bullshit is a fucking rare thing... Anyway watch her film here: www.vimeo.com/666669

February 5, 2008

Free for All

Our friends from This is a Magazine have released free PDF downloads, complete and unabridged of their first and second printed Compendia -- published in 2002 and 2003, both books quickly sold out and until now have only been available to view in exhibitions and conferences.

"At over 200 pages each, these volumes contain custom artworks by Boogie (USA), Takeshi Hamada (JP), Antonio Riello (IT), Jon Burgerman (UK), Asizaka Koji (JP), Frederique Daubal (FR), Slavimir Stojanovic and Futro (SLO), Clay Weiner (USA), Anthony Burrill (UK), and many other artists..."
Download Love, the Universe & Everything
Download Fashion=Fiction

January 24, 2008

LINKoln Logs

I've collected a set of links over the last few weeks that run the gamut from Brazil to China. During Art Basel Miami, a site specific street level installation was put together by some ambitious art collectives and called Primary Flight Miami with works by: Bask, Blek Le Rat, David Choe, The London Police, She Kills He and many more. Flickr has got a good collection of photos from the walls. Leon writes to tell me about c6 a group known as "The Original Art Wankers." It's fun to watch the video where they sprayed the windows of a London Underground train in 9 minutes with 1,260 flies. Click for a set of mixtape stickers and also don't miss the work of 6EMEIA -- living to make our streetscapes happy, colorful characters. Unrelated to street, but deserving of a click are these eerie toy manufacturing photos from China.

December 28, 2007

In Our Mailbox, Pt. VI

Dr. Radio from Germany sends us an envelope of stickies to post around town.

November 23, 2007

100PROOF III

Not as street heavy as the previous two issues, but worth the download simply to view the work of LASER 3.14. Download 145-pages of goodness.

November 4, 2007

The Works

Ok, so for those of you that don't know me, I am the founder of areyougeneric.org and I go by the name of okat. Besides running this site and most of its contents -- I also like to doodle, illustrate and collaborate on any project that I can get my hands on.

I never had a website of my own to collect all the fun nonsense I work on (like the sneaker below), so I finally got around to posting one this weekend. Click to see my works (your feedback is welcomed).

October 16, 2007

Body Double

The next time you come upon a motionless body on a street corner... you better think twice before giving it money or better yet calling the police. If you are lucky enough, you've just discovered a mystifying street installation by Mark Jenkins. His work deserves a look and the videos warrant an eye as well.

October 15, 2007

From Start to Finish

There are no words to describe this link but to say click here and scroll to the right.

September 12, 2007

The Society of the Spectacle

Let us ignore the fact that General David Petraeus is just another puppet. What I find even more aggravating is that his long-awaited Iraq report was conveniently timed to coincide with September 11th. This is a disgusting little trick even an amateur magician wouldn't attempt. Here kiddie, kiddie... look at the wonder of my left hand while my right does all the punching below the belt.

August 8, 2007

In Our Mailbox, Pt. V

I received a package today from Nate Williams, of 4 magnificent silkscreened prints he calls: the "We don't need another Anti-Hero" set. These prints show-off Nate's talents to perfection. The work he did on our Monkey Bomb poster was only the beginning... visit his site for an infinite amount of art and passion from this amazing talent.

July 14, 2007

Street Art Film Festival

Albus Cavus, the art collective out of New Jersey is showcasing a collection of films about artists who transform streets into galleries and change established ideas about art in public space. The festival will feature some of the well-known, like Above, JR, Craig Noble, Chor Boogie and highlight a few up and commers as well. Click for more info.

July 13, 2007

Moore vs CNN

This was drawn while I was watching Michael Moore's beautiful tirade on CNN. It was well deserved. Kudos to mister Moore for giving prime time television the finger. If this continues, I might actually start watching mainstream news again. Click to watch the clip.

June 29, 2007

Over the Fence

Over the last three months street art pics have been consistently rolling in. Recently updated cities include: Plymouth, Phoenix, New York, San Jose, Jerusalem, Lille, Leicester, Lancaster, Manchester, Mexico, Minneapolis and Raleigh. Two photos stand out from the bunch under London and Asuncion. Take a peek and keep your eyes open and camera ready the next time you stroll the city block.

June 6, 2007

In Our Mailbox, Pt. IV

Today in our mail we received This Is (not) A Magazine's compendium number five "Who I think I Am". It is a book of over 225 pages of beautiful, sick, deliciously manic art. Besides the tons of illustrations and photos, the book has an infinite amount of print details like various paper stock, numerous die-cuts, an amazing fold-out and a handful of stickers.

We are especially excited because it features our sticker/jam Confessions of a Generic Magazine. Click here to learn more about our featured sticker or get your own copy of the book.

June 3, 2007

Streets 2k7

Peter K and friends reclaim an old bike path along the river in New Brunswick and collaborate with 150 artists to paint the wall that runs along it. The photos are a must see »

May 27, 2007

R.I.P. Hummer H2

I'd like to think it was our gas-station sticker campaign that brought this on, in any case, its for the good and the people have spoken. H2 sales down 27% this year and it seems as though GM is taking the hint and ending production. Cheers.

May 16, 2007

A Picture is Worth a Thousand

Chris Jordan is turning the uncomfortable and all too often ignored statistics of our culture into amazing and expressive large pieces of photographic artwork. His new series; An American Self-Portrait, is inspiring but the subject matter is our sad reality and begs the question: how do we slow this down?

May 2, 2007

In Our Mailbox, Pt. III

This morning I was delighted to find an envelope stuffed with stickers of the always fun, cheerful and colorful cartoon characters of DAVe Warnke. For years now DAVe's sticker art has been bringing fun and inspiration to the streets of San Francisco and he's recently started an after-school arts workshop for high school students called Street Styles. Click to learn more or see what DAVe has been up to lately.

If you'd like to participate in our fun installment of: What's in our mailbox... just ask for our address.

April 18, 2007

Quarterly

Bloodwars (the pdf magazine for graffiti writers and street lovers) is now available four times a year and this month issue 24 is released for your downloading pleasure. 64 pages of madness.

April 13, 2007

Parrived, Pt. II

A few weeks ago I mentioned the Parra show that was coming to Miami. Here are a few photos from the event. As expected, Parra's talents are exceptional in person. Click for the short set of images.

April 4, 2007

Get Busy

I don't get into too many online publications, but 100proofTRUTH is one I can't resist. King Adz releases issue two and this time it has almost doubled in size at 120 content filled pages of photography, interviews, art and other mad shit. Download it now and you'll avoid being bored the rest of the day.

March 30, 2007

It doesn't matter which way you look as long as you look at the streets of Philadelphia and Santiago

I finally got to updating the community section and its shaping up to be a great archive of street art from our favorite cities. New and updated Philadelphia and Santiago are a must see, plus pics from my recent trip to Tel Aviv. 407 photos and I'm not done updating... there are still about 20-30 photos in my inbox waiting to get posted. On your walk home, look around you, snap a photo and send it in.

March 21, 2007

Breathing Room

A collective of young artists known as Studio Smack were commissioned to put together a video reflecting the enormous amount of visuals that plague us every day. They stripped away everything in our path but commercial and graphical messages leaving us with a very dark and sad truth.

"The amount is so big that its commercial effectiveness has become utterly dubious." See Kapitaal (Capital) for yourself.

March 20, 2007

Google Crazy

We've heard that many of you are visiting us from Google but we have no idea where and why we are getting all this attention today. We'd love it if somebody would be kind enough to let us know? There might even be a little present in store for you. Click to e-mail.

UPDATE: Ok, mystery solved. CNN and Business 2.0 wrote a story on unknown artists and featured us among other sites/friends Wooster Collective and Stencil Revolution. Thanks for the heads up... Although we are not entirely comfortable with the story's topic of collecting profits from the up and coming, it is nice to see the medium get some exposure. Click to read the full article.

March 19, 2007

Domestic Espionage T-Shirt

Collected conversations. Recorded voices. Sound bytes. Transcribed, compartmentalized and given meaning without context.

Tools of the Trade T-Shirt

Graffiti/Street Art appropriates the canvas of urban brick and concrete, noise and dirt– and subverts it into something beautiful and intentionally-provoking. It is defiant and transformative.

March 17, 2007

Parrived!

This coming Thursday... illustrator, artist and one of our very own collaborators is coming to town. See the works of Parra at a two-hour showing in South Beach or (if patience permits) wait for his visit to LA next month.

March 13, 2007

Word of Mouth

I've just returned from Langerado 2007. I'm tired, exhausted and pretty sure I survived the last three days on pure adrenaline. I want to thank all of you that stopped by with so much positive energy and feedback. It always surprises me how many people "get it" and are willing to support us and our efforts.

In the next few days I'm going to gather up all the photos from the festival and post them here for you to enjoy. Until then, help us flourish as a grass roots operation -- spreading by word of mouth or online by bookmarking us on del.icio.us

If you were at the show and would like to email me, drop me a line at: rugeneric (AT) gmail (DOT) com

March 7, 2007

Two Days Away

Here we go again! We are only two days away from this year's Langerado Music Festival, where we've secured a 10'x20' booth to showcase our latest catalog of t-shirts and print art. If you plan on going to the show drop me an email or at least be sure to stop by and say hello.

We'll be launching two new t-shirts at the show that you'll be sure to love. Click for a preview... or view last year's fun.

January 31, 2007

Concrete Jungle

King Adz does it again with his latest release; 100proofTRUTH, a beautiful and well put together 72-page "urban culture" PDF with links to online audio and video content. Download your own copy today... the last piece by Alexis Manning on advertising agencies is a must-read.

December 18, 2006

11 Spring Street

One of the most impressive art shows to ever come together took place this weekend on 11 Spring Street in Lower Manhattan. Wooster Collective brought together hundreds of street and graffiti artists to deck the halls, walls, outside and inside of a building (soon to be demolished) and open it for the viewing pleasure of all. Read all about it at woostercollective.com or click here to see an amazing collection of photos from the event.

* photo by Jake Dobkin of streetsy.com

December 14, 2006

Commercial War

"The struggle for ad placement in public space in China is not unlike a battlefield strewn with casualties after a pitched battle for power. Today one brand wins. The next day, its competitor will replace it with better positioning on public spaces. Every day, new ads go up, and old ones fall down, scattered in pieces, and discarded on the ground under newly erected billboard advertisements."

A must-see, Wang Qingsong's Commercial War »

December 4, 2006

Art Basel Miami

During the month of December the city of Miami transforms into a Mecca of Art and Design. For the last 37 years, Art Basel (Switzerland) owns the title of the world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair and in December, Art Basel happens in Miami.

Most of us at areyougeneric.org are based in and around Miami, so we are in prime contact with everything from the art show to the crossover events in music, film, architecture and design. But the best part of Art Basel in Miami, is trying to catch the efforts of unknown artists that come from all over the world looking for a little awareness.

There are some well marketed events out there, but for those of you looking for a taste of some street, be sure to check out: “SKYWALKERS’ by Friends With You – a blimp parade featuring the works of David Choe, Ara Peterson, Misaki Kawai, PaperRad, Devil Robots and Mumble Boy, in conjunction attend the Final Art Show and Auction (Thursday, December 7, The Savoy Hotel) with works by Andre from Paris, Gary Baseman, Blaine Fontana, Mr. Cartoon, Crash, Daim, Dalek, Dr. Revolt, Joshua Mays, Keen One, Mad, Mike Giant, Misaki Kawai, Ron English, Rostarr, Sage Vaughn, Seak, Sever, and WeAreSupervision, there’s also Jose Parla’s Cityscapes show and an always entertaining event is the Art Loves Design street party at the Miami Design District (25,000 people on the street with 50 exhibitions -- expect plenty of anti-Art Basel fun too).

Are you coming to town, want to share a beer with us? Email for a meet-up.