SWEDES ARE THIEVES I TELL YOU!

Totally not related to street-art, graffiti, Abztract....heck, not even related to paper and markers.

But I had to get some opinions from our readers. You see, my wife is from Sweden. She showed me a video lastnight of a Swedish singer and talked about how he is famous for this song.

Here it is:

Pay close attention to the chourse line, right around 1:03 to 1:30 area. You got it?

Ok...now to make the point of this post:

I am just saying.

TYLER STOUT WARRIORS PRINT

We are big fans of Tyler Stout and every print the guy puts out is breath taking.

This is no exception. An 18X24 Warriors Trimmed set of two posters (OR a Warriors Untrimmed Variant) are available here.

GAIA IN NYC

Gaia has been bringing some fresh work to the streets lately and this video captures one of those moments. Fresh.

JMR TAKES IT TO THE STREETS

Featured artist JMR, who we currently have a limited edition exclusive print release with, has hit the streets last week in Big-D.

Check out some shots taken by his pal during an urban beautification project (as they called it).

STOKED AWARDS RECAP

FUEL TV did a recap of the STOKED AWARDS that took place in NYC a few weeks ago.

Abztract joined forces with the folks at Stoked and created customized surfboards to be given as the awards to the recipients that evening.  Check it out and make sure to hit up stoked.org directly after to see how you can help at risk teens get inspired by action sports.  

STAY WARM THIS WEEKEND

Our NYC Abztract family will be buried in a snow storm this weekend. The LA family of Abztract will be enjoying 70 degrees weather. To those in LA: Skate/surf your asses off on our behalf. To those here in NYC with us, put on some Snuggies and drink lots of rum to keep warm.

Peace out and have a good weekend everyone.

P.S. Make sure to grab one of the very limited JMR prints we released this morning. They will make a great holiday gift to someone else or even for yourself (what else would you spend that $50 bill you got in the mail from grandma?)

Stay cool. Stay warm. Stay Abztract.

Abztract Team

JMR X ABZTRACT LIMITED EDITION PRINT ANNOUNCEMENT

Abztract is proud to announce the release of Floating Carnival, an exclusive limited edition print in a collaboration with featured artist JMR.

A Brooklyn native, JMR has been inspired by his upbringing in the urban city and expressed with paintings of tangled, swooping, and jutting lines, which combine into unexpected shapes of vivid colors.

This 18" X 24" signed and numbered edition of 40 comes screenprinted by hand (yep, no machine. Each individually pulled by hand) in four colors on 90 lb (250 gsm) Stonehenge paper and was printed by our friends at Something.Ill.

The JMR "Floating Carnival" limited edition print can be purchased exclusively online at the ABZTRACT SHOP for the price of $50 (plus shipping and handling) by clicking here.

Orders are not guaranteed to arrive prior to December 24th.

Images below by our pals at Something.Ill

JOY IN THE CITY SHOW TONIGHT

Something to check out tonight.

DECKYOURSELF.COM HOLIDAY SPECIAL

Abztract co-founder and custom skateboard artist Shai Dahan is running a special for the holidays on his private site www.deckyourself.com where he sells customized, hand painted skateboards. Between now and Christmas, you can get a custom skateboard for only $199 (normally his custom decks go for over $350).

If interested, email at order@abztract.com to inquire.

ARKIV X ADFUNTURE PRINT DROP

Our good pal and featured artist, ARKIV has teamed up with the folks at ADFUNTURE to drop this very limited edition print. These will go quickly so make sure to get yours here.

Info:

ARKIV X ADFUNTURE PRINT

measures: 12" X 12"

Edition of 50. Hand signed and numbered.

US $55 (Shipping included)

Buy by clicking here: LINK

FAKE : CANBIRD CANVAS LAYERED

This video from FAKE showing off his stencil skill is very impressive. Check it out.

via FakeStencils.com

WHY WE LOVE NY

Our friend Billi Kid has been taking things by storm. It is no surprise he was getting some much deserved attention from New York Magazine during a piece titled "Reasons To Love New York".

Reason # 31: Because Our Street Art Is Collaborative.

And don't forget that we still have limited edition original art and limited edition prints from Billi Kid exclusively on Abztract.com

Good work Billi Kid.

ABZTRACT X ARTSPROJEKT X ZAZZLE

Abztract is happy to announce that we have joined Artsprojekt (part of the Zazzle family) to bring you screenprinted skateboard designs from our ABZTRACT brand. We join the small group of featured brands such as OBEY, Crooks & Castles and Jackass.

We currently have a few boards live and ready to be purchased just in time for the holidays. We will let these be up for sale only for a limited time before we swap them for new designs every so often.

Check out below the current designs and then head over to our ARTSPROJEKT page (http://www.zazzle.com/abztract) to make purchases, leave comments and check out other products by some other great brands.

STOKED SPIRIT OF THE HOLIDAYS RECAP

"Successful" would be an understatement as to how the event that our friends at STOKED MENTORING went last weekend. The event was to celebrate how the non-profit has helped change 500 lives for teens across the nation. Stoked is just an amazing group of people who work 24/7 at making sure underprivileged teens get every possible benefit and chance that most of us have had go unappreciated when we were teens.

The event honored pro-skater Rob Dyrdek. Abztract gave their talent and skill of artist Shai Dahan to create a customized skateboard that featured Rob and all his accomplishments.

In addition to the skateboard, Abztract also designed a shirt that was sold at the event to help raise money for the organization.

The event was a BIG success as Monster drink and DC shoes sponsored the event and Rob, along with his friend Sal Masekela and founder of Stoked Steve Larosiliere helped rais over $10,000 (which is just amazing).

Go check out Stoked.org and become a mentor or just give a little to help them make the holidays a bit more special for so many teens in your community.

Stay Stoked!

(images via bnqt and RadCollector)

Sal Masekela, Rob Dyrdek and Stoked founder Steve Larosiliere

Rob Dyrdek getting his Abztract deck

The design Abztract created for the STOKED shirts were made live at the event

Friend of Stoked and friend of Abztract, Jesse Billauer of Life Rolls On, another amazing charity

Lucas X New Era = Absolute Ridiculousness

Yes, we know this post has nothing to do with street-art, but there is one thing we love as much as street-art, and that is being big fans of Star Wars.  

We participate in Star Wars art shows, we even collect Star Wars art and to be honest, we seen the movies over a hundred times (atleast part 4, 5 and 6).  Heck, We even have some other collectibles including a rare hologram watch from the late 80's and a film strip from the original trailer.  But that's just how we space roll.

But, LucasFilms has been slipping lately.  They have let their Star Wars image/brand and everything in between get used (and sometimes abused) like no other.  They have done stuff with Marc Echo, Adidas and even some luggage.  But now, they teamed up with New Era caps to create what to us, looks like something you would buy at Six Flags Magic Mountain after riding on a Clone Wars ride (which they obviously don't have because nobody would ride it).

We are big fans of Star Wars and even fans of New Era, but these designs are just bad beyond belief.  Sad too since Star Wars is (in our opinion) one of the greatest franchises of all times (up there with Disney).  Just sad that while Disney can put out "Goofy Ears" hats and get away with it because lets face it, people buy those TO LOOK GOOFY, making Star Wars hats that make you look like a moron is a slap in the face to people who really are fans.  But hey, I guess Lucas has to make that cheddar.  Can't ride that Clone Wars gravey train forever.  

Via High Snobiety

WK Interact X Kobe 2006 collab

We know this is old but still, watching WK do his thing on those walls is just pure joy.

Burger King Rips It In Empty Pool

Billi Kid is On Fire

We just got a snap shot of this. Our friend (and featured artist) Billi Kid was down in Miami for Art Basel as part of the Graffiti Gone Global show. While there, he took part of an event put on by street-art pal El-Celso who asked artists to donate artwork to be torched. Click on the image to view a larger image and see the text accompanying the image.

ROB DYRDEK SKATEBOARD FOR STOKED MENTORING

Abztract has been supporting what the folks at STOKED MENTORING have been doing for the community for a couple of years now. Abztract co-founder and custom skateboard artist, Shai Dahan recently donated his skills and talents to create awards for their NYC event where he painted hand-made miniature surfboards for the award recipients including Sal Masekela and Bob McKnight (CEO of Quiksilver).

On December 5th, Stoked is holding its SPIRIT AWARDS in Los Angeles and the recipient is none other than ROB DYRDEK.

We are big fans of Rob and his community support and have been good friends of the Rogue Status family (which Rob co-owns) so it came as no surprise that Shai took the opportunity to donate a customized skateboard featuring Rob and some of his life accomplishments to be given as the award during the STOKED SPIRIT AWARD event.

So check out the close-up images of the custom award below and make sure to grab tickets to the event to see both Rob and the deck in person on December 5th in LA. Abztract teamed up with STOKED to give a FRIENDS & FAMILY hook up to receive a discount on tickets for the event. So enter code SHAIDC under the "enter discount code" section when you go to Cop your tix here. Some of the Abztract fam will be in attendance along with STOKED, Rob and many others.

And if you want your very own custom skateboard by Shai, hit us up at order@abztract.com or visit www.deckyourself.com

VADER/STORMTROOPER X FLORES for our stu-stu-studio

While we were at the Art Asylum Boston STAR WARS art show which featured art by artists like FAKE, KAWS, RYCA and even Abztract featured artists Arkiv and Shai Dahan we found out that Art Asylum Boston had these signed/numbered limited edition prints made by talented artist David Flores. We have been digging the work from Flores for a while now, so we had to make sure we got a couple of his prints for our studio.

Image via Something.Ill (we couldn't get a photo of ours yet since it is getting framed at the moment).

Worth1000 - Graffiti meets classical art

Worth1000.com, the site that has gained fame for putting photoshop contests together had a new contest recently close. Designers and artists alike were encouraged to manipulate classical artwork into a graffiti driven neighborhoods.

The outcomes are somewhat visually stunning. Fresh.

Check out some below and see the rest here.

Escalators Vs. Stairs = Making Stairs Fun Again

This is just brilliant.  Seriously. We need this in Union Square.

SHAI DAHAN X YRB MAGAZINE

Shai Dahan was invited back to YRB Magazine to be featured in their art section.

This time, they asked for his interpretation of the word RAW and the relation of it to Rock & Roll.

Shai took Sid & Nancy and gave them a nice and controversial twist. We dig it.

Get Yo' Shoe Shined

On November 21st Brooklynite Gallery will open "Go Get Your Shinebox". This group show will feature over 100 works from artists all looking to answer the question of how to survive in these economic times by creating their own interpretation of a "Survival Box." Brooklynite Gallery has commissioned some of their favorite established and emerging artist to take on this challenge and the responses are breathtaking.

Artists such as Dain, Miss Bugs, PaperMonster, Anthony Lister, Ben Eine, Jace, Thundercut, Skewville, Ben Frost, Jon Burgerman, Specter, Skewville, Know Hope, Kosbe, Gaia, Ben Frost, Hush, Billi Kid, Cake and many more have all created a one of a kind box, each taking the concept of the show one step further. You can view the entire lists of artists participating and more information by visiting Brooklynite Gallery's Site: http://www.brooklynitegallery.com/

"GO GET YOUR SHINEBOX"

Featuring Over 100 Artists
Trying to Survive in This Economy

November 21 - December 19
OPENING RECEPTION: NOV. 21, 7-10 PM (NY)

334 MALCOLM X BLVD.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11233
A or C Subway to UTICA AVE.

PaperMonster

Lister

KNOW HOPE

Billi Kid

CAKE

Abztract supports STOKED AWARDS 2009

On Thursday, STOKED MENTORING held their annual Stoked Awards to celebrate the success, inspiration and achievement for Stoked.

Stoked is a youth development program that utilizes the power of non-traditional sports and mentoring to create successful teens.

This year, Abztract had the pleasure to donate the skills and talents of our in-house artist Shai Dahan. Along with his father, Jacob (who is an excellent wood craftsman), shaped and hand painted custom awards for the Stoked Award evening gala (seen above).

The awards were given to Bob McKnight, CEO of Quiksilver. Jonathan Drubner and Erick Tobar (Mentor and Mentee pair) and Dan Bealey. An additional surprise award was given to Sal Masekela.

We are proud of the awards we have been able to provide for the event as well as being able to support and take part of this amazing charity.

You may visit STOKED on their site at: Stoked.org and read more about the awards and the recipients at stokedawards.com

images below via Flickr: by Indegrow

Jonathan Drubner and Erick Tobar

Sal Masekela

Artist Abe Lincoln Jr. freehanding a design on the amazing Nooka toys

Bob McKnight of Quiksilver