Cool Hunting

I first became an ESPO (aka Steve Powers) fan a few years back when he roller-brushed over graffiti with his own tag during an undercover stint with LA's graffitti removal team. His next-level street art and candyland aesthetic (check out the bakery he staged at Deitch's Armory booth earlier this year) came together perfectly with his Dreamland Artist Club 2004.

This year's version of Powers' project, the Dreamland Artist Club 2005, opens next week and picks up where the last one left off, continuing to spruce up Coney Island with artist-painted signs and murals and adding a few new features. Brazilian twin artists Os Gemeos spent three weeks in May painting a mural (pictured), winners playing select games will take home artist-created prizes, and Powers, sign writer Matt Wright, and a rotating cast of sign-painters will paint commissioned signs at the Dreamland Artist Clubhouse Thursday through Sunday, 1pm-7pm, from opening day until Labor Day. Powers conceived the space as a "nexus for the artists and the community...a combination social club, salon, and functioning sign shop...to de-myth the process of making art." The front room will act as a meeting space and showroom hung with floor-to-ceiling signs, while the rear will be the actual workshop. It all kicks off June 18th with an opening co-hosted by Tokion.