Image via Complex Original
Portfolio Review: Mint & Serf
For over a decade, the duo Mint & Serf has left its mark on New York. The two got their start in the streets, and while they never stopped using the big city as a canvas, there seem to be more and more days that the team is getting paid for gallery shows, collaborations with brands, and design projects for hotels, restaurants, and corporate interiors. Which is a good thing, because it helps make the fucking around in the streets that much more fun.
Mint & Serf is currently showing Special Graffiti Unit at Lyons Wier Gallery in Soho; it's a body of work that looks at the interaction between the law and street art. We got a chance to catch up with the tag team for a look at some of their favorite pieces so that they could break down the story behind each one. Hit the jump to hear what Mint & Serf have to say about their work...
Ace Hotel
"Ace Hotel was interested in having us bring a team of artists to help curate the design of some of the rooms. We were able to work with a lot of our friends and they basically let us do whatever we wanted. Overall there was a great response from the owners. I think we curated about 35 rooms and we did about 14 of them ourselves. We tried to make each as different as possible.
Bape
Dusk-Mint
"DUSK is an artist from where we
Enjoy Banking
"This was a take on all the other stuff we usually do with graffiti, a sticker project that was a direct commentary of what was going on during this whole financial meltdown. It was a campaign that got a lot of burn from the media, we had about 15 slogans."
Graffiti-Giuliani
"This is from our newest body of work, our recent show at Lyons Wier in Chelsea. The show contains pieces that are an homage to old graffiti artists, and this one is called 'Public Enemy #1.' It
Haiku-Beijing
"Haiku is a high-end restaurant in Beijing. We were commissioned to do this wall; at the time, we were working with really bright color palettes, and we wanted it to reflect hip-hop fashion and hip-hop culture. We wanted to bring that into our aesthetic aand bring in a whole different conversation with the piece."
Hazey Morning
"This was from 2005, when we did a show at Victoria Keene in Soho. We
Mirf 22nd
"[MIRF is our tag and] this is some new stuff we
Mirf Action
"This was from 2003. A bunch of us took a crazy trip to San Francisco—five or six of us from Brooklyn and Staten Island—and there was a lot of energy and intensity. We ended up crashing Upper Playground and getting thrown out. This is actually up the block from there, around 8:30 or 9:00. [Laughs.] I think four of us ended up getting arrested on that trip. It
Mirf x Boost
"We pitched an idea to
Mirf x Marc Jacobs
"It is what it is, this is the Marc Jacobs store. We wanted to do something that didn
Mirf x OBEY
"MIRF x OBEY references 'Erased' by Robert Rauschenberg. Rauschenberg approached William de Kooning, the reigning king of modernism, and asked him if he would consider giving him one of his works for Rauschenberg to erase. It became a conceptual masterpiece, almost as strong as 'The Black Square' by Kazimir Malevich. The idea of erasure and destruction is relevant when we look at street art and graffiti. When Shepard came to do his installation on Houston and Bowery, it got 'vandalized' before it was even finished. Over the next couple of months, it took a real beating after his exhibit opened at Dietch. It was looking too pretty, too gallery, too glossy. The community didn't like it and reacted. That's what graffiti is about. Street art is a lot nicer. There is no beef, no wars, no criticism. We have been inspired by Shepard and in our eyes this piece is not about disrespect, but about the conversation between street art and graffiti, the honesty of the streets and collaboration between artists."
Nike-Beijing
"We were approached by Nike to do this project in Beijing, around the time of the Olympics. There
Red Bull
"A lot of the people at Red Bull are good friends. When they moved into their building in Soho they asked if we wanted to do a wall, around the same time we were out in China. Red Bull is on the hustle 24-7; everyone who works there works 20-hour days. It
