Indi Goes Back to Cape Town

I’m in Cape Town.  Been here for about a week.  I’ve taken a position as Managing Director for /A WORD OF ART, running the international artist in residence program and the project space.  More on that later. Big plans ahead and underway.

Apologies for not blogging at all for the past few months, life has been crazy.  Many big changes, many things to post about and very little free time.  I’ll do a bunch of updates soon.  For now, here are some pics from my first couple days back in South Africa.

AWOA residency studios

Balcony cactus garden. Mr Shillinglaw, you are missed.

the view from my new home

treasures

AWOA art house

favorite.

beach days forever

cactopods

signal hill

We are throwing a big party tonight. We Are Beautiful Losers #2: Puppets and Pirates. If you are in town you should most definitely be here. Starts at 8, goes til late. I’ll be managing the gallery, come say hi and buy some superawesome art!

OPEN LOCATION: November 10th

My next curatorial project opens at Kingsway Arts Collective at Rize Mount Pleasant November 10th from 7-10pm.  I am really excited about this show, and hope that you can attend!

OPEN LOCATION investigates those moments, people and places that exist on the periphery of our individual and collective consciousness. An exploration of liminal spaces, interstitial realities and transient states, this exhibit is a reclamation of the unnoticed and the forgotten, as seen from the diverse perspectives of some of Vancouver’s most talented emerging photographers.

November 10-22, 2011
Opening reception November 10, 7-10pm – FB event listing here

Photographs by Arseni Khamzin, Eric Cairns, Fabien Belcourt, Jonathan Taggart, Julia Kozlov, Miles de Courcy, Shallom Johnson, Tyler Simpson, Victoria Potter

Many thanks to Color Services for their generous support of this exhibit.

Happy Thanksgiving…

From Indigo, Elicser and Jalani Morgan

Manifesto Festival 2011: Toronto

I’ve spent the last week in Toronto for Manifesto Festival 2011 and have been having such a great time. It’s been a crazy whirlwind of festival events, catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and a bit of painting, with more to come. Last Saturday evening All. Art. Everything. opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Sunday I was live painting all day at Dundas Square, and soon Elicser and I will start painting a nice big wall at 37 Bulwer St, downtown, the new home of Manifesto Festival and Pound Magazine.

Here are some pictures from my first week in Toronto….more coming soon.

All. Art. Everything. opening night at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Photo by Pierre D

playing with new ideas...my lil sis and her son.

INQ Mobile / VICE Mag Party at Cutty CAG

Tonight I will be showing this piece and a few other works at the INQ Mobile/VICE Mag Party at Cutty Contemporary Art, along with Alison Lilly, Ronan Boyle and Office Supplies Incorporated.  Curated by the lovely Rachel Zottenberg.  Photobooth, free drinks, tunes by DJs Trevor Risk & Babe Rainbow….gonna be a good time, people.  You should be there.

Cutty Contemporary
564 Beatty St (next to Chambar, 2nd floor)
Vancouver, BC
9pm-1am
be there or be rectangular

Solace @ Street Art Saved My Life

This is a self portrait that started out as a photograph and ended up as a painting.  The painting was shown at Street Art Saved My Life: 39 New York Stories, co-curated by  Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of Brooklynstreetart.com and Thinkspace Gallery.  The exhibit opened at C.A.V.E. Gallery in LA on August 12th.

Solace, 2011
Acrylic, spray paint and acrylic ink on canvas
42×33″

Show opening pics on Brooklyn Street Art.

“Back Talk” interview on Juxtapoz and Brooklyn Street Art.

Show coverage on Arrested Motion, LA Weekly and Hi-Fructose.

View all the work for the show on the Thinkspace website, with artwork info, prices and availability.

Lululemon Lab installation July 2011

Better late than never…some photos of the installation I did at Lululemon Lab in Vancouver earlier this summer.  This project was a part of the Lab’s Artist Series, curated by Zoe Pawlak.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here is a short writeup about my inspirations for this work, posted on the Lab website along with some pictures they took during the installation process.

On Arts Funding in BC: A Twitter Debate

Last night I spent a few hours on Twitter talking to @chrisonhismac and @kaler about arts funding in BC, whether it’s necessary and our various perspectives on why or why not.  @djFlipout added his thoughts to the conversation this morning as well.  I have to say that I was extremely surprised and disappointed to hear such a negative and closed-minded point of view coming from two young people who seem to be otherwise intelligent human beings.  For me, this conversation is a good example of the mindset that has been so detrimental to the rapidly dwindling funding available for artists and arts organizations in BC and across the country.  If our contributions to society are devalued and the realities we face are discredited, there is little hope of rejuvenating an effective municipal, provincial and national support network, let alone maintaining what little we have left.

Here’s the tweet thread, compiled as much as I could into chronological order (apologies for the crappy collage job, I hate using photoshop).  If you’re interested in joining the discussion, please come and find me on twitter, or leave a comment here.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Please click on each image to enlarge.

Live Painting at HiVE ALiVE Opening Gala Tonight!

I’ve been AWOL from blogging for the better part of the month but wanted to put up a quick post because I’m live painting tonight for the grand opening of HiVE, a new shared workspace at 128 West Hastings St.  The event runs from 6-9pm and I will be there working on a brand new piece for the duration of the evening.  Come out and say hi!

Indigo x Percy Bartley House

I’m back in Canada but I’ve got quite a few things still to write about!  In late April I had the pleasure of painting this wall at Percy Bartley House.  This home for boys operates out of an old house in Woodstock, giving kids from disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity to live in a safe environment while attending school or skills training programs, learning life skills before being reunited with their families.  This rejuvenation project was a continuation of an ongoing collaboration between Write on Africa and Ogilvy Cape Town, working with local and international artists to turn a house that has over the years run down into a place full of life and color.  Both David Shillinglaw and myself spent about a week at the house and really enjoyed ourselves.

For more process photos and video of this ongoing rejuvenation project, please click through to my residency blog here.

Above photos by Rowan Pybus of Makhulu Productions.