DC-based contemporary “new brow” art gallery Art Whino proved a base of street art activity during Art Basel weekend. Gallery event organizers secured wall space covering areas between NW 2nd and 5th Avenues for international artists to freestyle paint to their heart’s content- celebrated by a Quick & Painful tattoo parlor, custom vinyl toys, and group art show at their Miami pop-up space. Street art by Lamour Supreme, Buff Monster, and Kano, to name a few, was coupled with the exhibit which included new work by Jim Mahfood, Julie West, Beast Brothers, “Spanky” Stokes, Josh Taylor, and more.
One wall in particular by Army of Snipers, led by artist Angry Woebots, stood above others as the crew’s official debut including Luke Chueh, Ritzy Periwinkle, Sket One, Lou Pimentel, Mat Curran, Leza, Boosher, and J*ryu. Their next move will be humanitarian work with The Little Lotus Project for young refugees at the Thai-Burma border, filmed by Vinyl Frontier director Daniel Zana. Then, Angry Woebots says, “We’re going to make a traveling art show and everything we make, we’re giving back to those kids.” (To follow this project, visit http://littlelotusproject.org.) While the Art Whino exhibition is now over, most of the wall art, including Army of Snipers, will remain in Wynwood until late 2012. “Art Whino” exhibited in Wynwood Miami, from December 1-4th, 2011. – Caro
