If you’re the type who let’s the media decide how you feel about the world, you might be inclined to feel pretty negative about the state of things. Wars are raging, stocks are falling, and the environment has gone to shit. But those of us who turn the volume down on network news stations, while keeping our ears tuned to less impersonal sources, see something different happening. Something Good. People are waking up, bridges are… being built, challenges are being met and transcended. We are learning to speak to one another in manners that transcend the language barrier. And one of the most profound, universal dialects that we can speak is the language of art.

Not only has the technological boom of the late 20th century changed the way we communicate globally, it has had a profound effect on the manner in which art is displayed and promoted. 20 years ago art students were warned that having their art online would not only cheapen it, but open it to the threat of plagiarism and misinterpretation. The past few years has seen the art world, and the young artists who are constantly redefining it, embracing the digital world. This has allowed an interchange of ideas and styles so monumental that even the most stridently old school of critiques will have to admit: The game has changed.

Collaboration has become common place. Mixed media has taken on new meanings. And the notion that a group show requires a coherent visual theme is an idea on the endangered species list. This August 14th, preeminent contemporary art publication Curbs & Stoops will open their inaugural group show including pieces in a variety of media from a wide range of the world’s brightest rising talents including: Aaron Nagel, Ashley Zelinskie, Carlos Donjuan, Chor Boogie, Hector Hernandez, Jeffrey Pena, Korakrit, Lapiztola, Pep Williams, and UR New York. The show will serve as a visual manifestation of the publication’s written goal to provide exposure to stellar talents who have one common theme to their work: It’s good. It’s really fucking good.

If you are in the New York area RSVP on the facebook event here.

Lapiztola is a Oaxaca based art collective that mixes brightly colored screen printed patterns with masterful monocromatic stencils. Their name, a play on words combining the spanish word for pencil (lapiz) with the word for pistol (pistola), demonstrates their guerilla approach to spreading their art work. The collective’s logo is an armophus pencil- handgun, an icon that they often use to sign their large scale urban insertions.

The collective produces politically engaged works that respond to local conditions. Lapiztola wants their work to relate to real human conditions, for this reason they often paint life size. For example, a large police car is stenciled across 15′ of a wall with a series of vandals jumping on top of the car. Thankfully, their work does leave the walls of Oaxaca. They have exhibited in some exciting art spaces through out the world, including Million Fishes in San Francisco, Concreto 2 in Mexico City, and a one of a kind show at University of Michigan.

Curbs and Stoops payed a visit to Lapiztola’s Oaxaca based silk screen and art studio where we had peeks at new pieces and the unique process Lapiztola uses for making images. The group doesn’t generally use source images. Instead, they take turns photographing each other in elaborate costumes which then become street pieces. Stay tuned for two exclusive limited edition prints coming out through Curbs and Stoops this spring.

You can follow Lapiztola on their blog here.
Studio visit photo credit: Philippe “As A Photographer” Dwyer