Last friday we had the opening of our show in Showroom MAMA at the Witte de Withstraat. In coorporation with SKVR and MAMA we came up with a concept where we would sketch a line drawing on one of the walls. The idea was that 9 classes of highschool kids would do the fillin so we chose 9 colors that we like and gave them numbers, just like mr. Ravensburger did already for a thousand times.

We did the fillin mentally en then put the corresponding numbers in the different – to be filled – shapes. All the kids really enjoyed painting with us and we can't deny they did a pretty neat job! After they were done we did our outlines ones more and added some more colors on some spots so that the final result looks pretty damn fresh. For the second part of the workshop we made a crazy overwhelming 3D-sculpture made out of inspiration objects, goodies and also the 3D work that was available. We basically dumped everything onto the platform and rearranged it a bit, then we started tagging over the whole platform and suddenly it looked quite nice. When the workshops started the kids would sit in front of it to collectively draw a sketch which they would have to draw for real on one of the selected pannels. We made sure we would look critically to all the pieces in order to be able to present the seven best ones on the opening and throughout the whole christmas holiday. For the rest off course, we made sure to hang a few of our own works as well, and we also managed to claim the MAMA space as a temporary atelier so the whole exhibition will constantly be 'in aanbouw' (under construction). 

The show will be open from 13.00 – 18.00 on: sun 28 december and wed 31 december.

If these dates don't match with your christmas schedual you can pretty much see all the work through the windows, and off course we didn't forget to paint the windows as well so you basically can't miss it! Come and check it out, we hope to see you!

And off course a big thanks to everybody who participated in this project!

 

Next weeks, we will be working in Showroom MAMA as part of the cultuurtraject. We will be working on group paintings and together with high-school kids we will paint a mural that’s on view for everybody. Friday the 19th of December the mural will be baptised during a special opening party! More info: HERE

Finally both Lastplakkers are back from the worlds oldest city, Damascus. They spent a total of three weeks there teaching the basics of graffiti and history, culture and techniques we're quickly adopted by the almost 25 students. Finding the right paint was the only obstacle. Since there's no graffiti scene in Syria, the only available paint was either WIN from Thailand, or Bosny, a brand that qualified itself as 'English Industry'. To make things worse, the cap system was 'male' instead of the common 'female', but we managed.

The whole project was organised by the Greek Orthodox Church of Syria and was guided by the UNDP, AllArtNow and the Dutch Embassy. Students received training in sexuall education and we're tought to use art as a communicative form, of wich graffiti was one. After one day of trying techniques and sketching we divided the group in pairs of two and gave each a board to produce their final work on. The results we're surprisingly good, both technical and conceptual and most important; all students had a lot of fun.

Both Sterf and Oles have developed a big heart for Syria and can be found walking the streets listening to the sounds of George Wassouf, eating falafel and drinking pomme granate juice per liter. Shokran Syria!

Last week OX-Alien, Boortorrie, the girls and CES 53 went to Los Angeles for the Lastplak show in the Found Gallery. Curator Jonny was so kind to pick us up, let us crash in his gallery and show us around town. We had some great Mexican dinners and adopted Tecate beers for that week. Due to a minor jetlag, the first day we were out allready at 06.00 am with our bermuda's on waiting for the sun to come out. Nearby on Sunset Ave. there was the great 24hrs. Tang's donut shop serving us steady recipe breakfast everyday. We checked out Hollywood Boulevard where everybody was getting their costumes for Halloween or debating on the elections and proposition 8. Later that week there was a huge Halloween block party where out of 300.000 people of course OX-Alien and CES 53 had to get arrested. Thanks to our diplomatic passports we could save 'em from holiday in Guantanamo Bay. We visited Venice Beach and the Big Geezers preparing for their show they were having a week later. At Melrose we bothered all the shops and Scientology Church to paint their walls. In the end we got to paint the gallery's opposite neighbour's house and the 14-forty designers fence. In the meantime we put up our show at the gallery. A lot of works got stuck in the mail and got in, just in time for the opening. Customs had brutally cut up our " Arnold Swartenigger: "I'll be black"  painting, but we were able to resize it on another frame. The opening was nice. Everybody was pretty hung over from Halloween the day before, but still took the effort to check out the show. Afterwards we went to a crazy, almost over, artists exhibition / party in a former brewery with a lot of mushroomheads and hippies hitting the chilum and watching deep sea documentaries. The view from the balcony on downtown L.A. was just as nice. The last days we spend doing some touristic stuff like climbing up the Hollywood hills for the famous view on L.A. and shopping for clothes and shoes offcourse. Then it was time to say goodbye and hit back to rainy holland. You can still check out the show till the end of november.

Boortorrie and Ox-Alien just got back from Los Angeles (Ces53 is still there, painting walls), later this week a report. Here already a few pictures of the some paintings that are now showing in the Found Gallery.

Sunday the 26th of October we did a workhop in Centraal Museum Utrecht. Here some pics.

1st of November we will have our first U.S. show! This will be in the Found Gallery in Los Angeles. We will unveil a new serie of group paintings that reflect our vision of L.A., Hollywood, California, U.S.A. and all the typical stereotypes and misunderstandings the media feeds us about it. Boortorrie, Ox-Alien and Ces53 will be present at the opening. More info HERE

Last weekend we painted a long fence in the Oldenbarneveltstraat in Rotterdam city centre. Participating artists were: Grrt, Boortorrie, Ox-Alien, Yen, Sterf, Pinwin, Biriol, Surch, Volt, Wes, Thor & Z.