Like the artist and designer who inspired the new collection, Louis Vuitton is heading downtown for its new Stephen Sprouse collection.

This week, the company’s boutique on SoHo’s Greene Street will be transformed into a Sprouse destination in time for the collection’s arrival.

“SoHo is a special place for the entire launch of the Sprouse collection,” said Daniel Lalonde, Louis Vuitton North America president and chief executive officer. “It’s in the proximity of where Stephen Sprouse hung out, so we are going to give the entire store a Stephen Sprouse feel. It will have a lot of reminders of Stephen Sprouse. We will be giving it a new identity.”

For instance, the company is wrapping the store in vinyl and spray painting neon graffiti all over the facade. The window display will feature a 6-foot neon light installation in Sprouse’s Rose motif. The store’s interior, enhanced with black brick wall facing, will also be sprayed with the neon graffiti. Read more »

Showcasing his third solo show, popular artist Neck Face brings his insane art style to New Image Art in Los Angeles. The emphasis on the exhibition will be good things gone bad featured in a watercolor medium. Along with the installations will be a caged off mini-ramp with pro skaters Sammy Baca and Lizard King skating in with objects including beer, spray paint, and knives. Definitely something satanic according to Neck Face. The exhibition will run from August 6th to September 20th but unfortunately the skate session will only be for friends and family.

New Image Art
7908 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046

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Artists James Powderly and Evan Roth recently went on a daring graffiti mission. The goal? Tagging New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. They waited for rush hour to die down and tried to be as incognito as people milling around bridges can be in this post-Sept. 11 world. Then, the duo fixed their crosshairs firmly on the bridge’s underside, and started etching out dozens — maybe hundreds — of tags on one of its massive supports. They held still as a police boat floated under the bridge. Later, they allowed passersby to pick up the equipment and try it for themselves. Yet, the next morning, there was nary a sign that Powderly or Roth — nor their towering graffiti art — had ever been there

While most graffiti crews use spray paint to mark buildings and urban infrastructure, Roth and Powderly, the artists behind the Graffiti Research Lab, have perfected a unique form of temporary high-tech graffiti they call laser tagging that utilizes a laser pointer in lieu of paint, a projector in place of a spray. Instead of hitting dark subway tunnels and back alleys, they turn their attention to public places such as skyscrapers and monuments. A growing legion of fans turn out regularly to witness live demonstrations of their light shows (see video of their latest graffiti missions), but most log on en masse to watch videos of the events on such sites as YouTube and GraffitiResearchLab.com. A few hundred have even downloaded the needed computer code and instructions — something the “open-source” artists encourage people to do — to replicate Powderly and Roth’s art in cities around the world. As a result of their soaring online popularity, the two artists have been sought out by a number of prominent curators in the art world — most recently by those at the Museum of Modern Art in New York — who see in their digital etchings a convergence of street art, graffiti art and urban cinema. Read more »