Information + Contact

Caleb Neelon

Getting in touch:
Project ideas for murals, art, writing, press interviews, etc go to: calebneelon@gmail.com
Buying Art: I can send images of available artworks to you or point you to a gallery I work with if you are interested. Your patronage is greatly appreciated.
Student projects: I can’t usually do full interviews, but if you email me one or two specific questions I can try to answer. If you don’t plan on writing a thank-you email afterwards for my help in a school project, don’t bother.
Anything else: Feel free to reach out.

calebneelon@gmail.com
http://www.calebneelon.com

Facebook: Caleb Neelon
Twitter: calebneelon

A FEW INTERVIEWS, ARTICLES, AND VIDEOS ABOUT ME:
12 Oz Prophet Part One
12 Oz Prophet Part One and a Half
12 Oz Prophet Part Two
Converse
Boston Phoenix
Another Boston Phoenix
My TEDxBoston talk

BIO AND CV:

As a thirteen-year-old in February of 1990, Caleb Neelon visited family friends in small-town Germany with his mother and took a side trip to Berlin. For Neelon, the sight of the newly opened Berlin Wall, covered in graffiti and murals was a revelation. By the mid 1990s, Neelon was immersed in the global graffiti scene under the name SONIK. He traveled constantly and developed a vivid, homespun, and raw style of mixed media painting. He freely crossed boundaries between graffiti, murals, and what would soon be referred to as street art. At the same time, he wrote in-depth articles for graffiti fanzines. As years passed, these publications evolved into art and popular culture magazines, trade books, and feature films.

Today Neelon works primarily as a studio artist. His bright, folksy works, which frequently incorporate nautical and quilting motifs can be seen in gallery and museum exhibitions as well as installation in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to visiting artist talks and programs at every level – from Harvard University to preschools – Neelon’s work ranges from cultural diplomacy projects through the U.S. State Department; curatorial advisory work at museums, projects bringing artwork to hospitals, and public artwork projects in over thirty countries around the globe. Neelon regularly writes for national magazines and is the author of several books, among them the landmark 2011 HarperCollins release The History of American Graffiti, which he co-authored with Roger Gastman. He lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2012
Victory Garden, Heftler Gallery & Center for the Arts, Endicott College, Beverly, MA. (Solo)

2011
Wall Works, deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA.
Nothing to Say, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

2010
Plain Air, Cinders Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
International Mural Invitational Exhibition, Dafen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
Signs and Symbols, lead artist, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Imagination Wall, Fourth Wall Projects, Boston, MA. (Solo)
Kids of All Ages, THIS Los Angeles

2009
Waiting for Ararat, White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Two-man show with Mike Shine.

2008
In the Land of Retinal Delights, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
Drawn Together, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Caleb Neelon is Working On It, Carmichael Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (Solo)

2007
Behind the Seen, Ad Hoc Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Drawn Together, Artboks, Aarhus, Denmark
Neelon/Suss/Williams/Lukas, Limited Addiction Gallery, Denver, CO
Child’s Prey, White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, CA.  Two-man show with Ben Woodward.
Hang M’ High, Sundance Film Festival, Chester’s Blacksmith, Park City, UT

2006
Caleb Neelon’s Unrelenting Optimism, LES Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (Solo)
Collections, Scion Installation Space, Los Angeles, CA (catalog)
Motivational Baggage, Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA..  Two-man show with Andrew Schoultz.
Spothunters, New Art Center, Newton, MA, (curator & catalog)Caleb Neelon’s Unrealistic Expectations, Space 1026, Philadelphia, PA (Solo)

2005
Not Especially Helpful, Installations @ EMF, Cambridge, MA (Solo)
Reclaiming Space, Space 538, Portland, ME
Move 13, Clementine Gallery, New York City, NY
Flaneur, Punch Gallery, San Francisco, CA

SPECIAL PROJECTS, COMMISSIONS, FILMS, GRANTS, and RESIDENCIES:

Forthcoming:
A pair of documentary films: one on early graffiti writers from New York and Philadelphia, the other an urban history of Washington, DC.  Producer on both.

2011
Pforzheimer House, Harvard University. Artist residency.
Awesome Foundation grant
Wedding Walls mural invitational project, Wedding neighborhood of Berlin, Germany.

2010
Arte Para Todos mural invitational project, Poligono San Pablo, Seville, Spain.  (Catalog)
Ed Emberley and Friends, Scion Los Angeles.  Conceived and curated gallery project pairing six artists with Ed Emberley, author of legendary drawing books, with resulting artworks and proceeds donated to children’s hospitals.  (Catalog)

2009
Maurice J. Tobin School, public elementary school in Mission Hill, Boston, pair of outdoor murals.
Imagination Wall, pair of murals created on-site at Children’s Hospital Boston, main lobby, now permanently installed in cardiac ICU.
The Commonwealth Award Art Object, created a set of painted wooded bowls as awards given by the Massachusetts Cultural Council to honorees.

2007
The Pigeon Mumbler, short documentary film about rooftop pigeon keepers, Scion Easy 10 productions.  Associate Producer.
Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship, sculpture and installation.
Somerville Arts Council Artist Fellowship

2005
Making a Difference / Mass General Hospital MICU project.  Lead artist and curator for a project to paint the 2′x2′ ceiling tiles above patient beds in the Medical ICU ward at Mass. General Hospital.

2004
Art for All, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  Special commission of the First Lady of Honduras, the United Nations Development Project, and the United States Embassy.  (Catalog)

SELECTED PRESS

American Magazines and Newspapers:
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Reason, HuffingtonPost, Paper, PBS NewsHour, Juxtapoz, Print, Art New England, Apenest, The Boston Globe, Harvard Magazine, Ed. Magazine, Tokion, Boston Magazine, Boston Home and Garden, Arkitip, Alarm, The Boston Phoenix, All Things Considered (NPR)

International Magazines and Newspapers:
Berliner Zeitung (Berlin), Wonderland (London), Nusign (Paris), Trendsetters (Istanbul), Contemporary (London), Clark (Paris), The Guardian (London), Bant (Istanbul), Radikal (Istanbul), O Tempo (Brazil), Folha de Sao Paulo (Brazil), Vogue Girl (Seoul), Underground Productions (Stockholm), Brain Damage (Warsaw), WorldSign (Paris), and some in China that I couldn’t read.

Selected Books:
Caleb Neelon’s Book of Awesome, Gingko Press 2009
Iosifides, Kiriakos.  Mural Art, Publikat 2008
Ganz, Nicholas.  Graffiti World, Abrams / Thames and Hudson 2004
Gastman, Roger. Supreme Quality, R77 Press 2004
Manco, Tristan.  Street Logos, Thames and Hudson. 2004
di Suvero, Mark, and Publicime.  La Vie des Formes:  Fifteen Years of Artistic Adventures at the International Yard for Experimental Creation, L’Exemplaire. 2003

SELECTED PUBLISHED WORKS

Delusional: The Story of the Jonathan LeVine Gallery.  Gingko Press, 2012.
The History of American Graffiti, with Roger Gastman.  HarperCollins, 2011.
Art in the Streets, (various contributions).  Rizzoli, 2011.
Caleb Neelon’s Book of Awesome, artist monograph, Gingko Press, 2009.
The Whimsical Works of David Weidman (and also some serious ones) (essay) Gingko Press, 2008.
Street World, Thames and Hudson (UK), Abrams (USA), Oceano (Spain), Pyramyd (France) and National Geographic (Germany).  Editor and Author, with Roger Gastman and Anthony Smyrski. 2007.
Mad Society: Saber (editor and the ‘as told to’) Gingko Press, 2007 & updated edition, 2010.
Ulysses:  Departures, Journeys, and Returns:  The Art of Andrew Schoultz. (essay) Paper Museum Press, 2007.
I Was Just Leaving:  The Art of Richard Colman (essay) Gingko Press, 2007.
Million Dollar Vandal, editor, AKA Projects, 2006.
Graffiti Brasil, Co-author, with Tristan Manco and Lost Art. Thames and Hudson, 2005.
Also Known As, Twelve Ounce Prophet, 2005.
Swindle Magazine, Editor-at-Large 2004-2008.
Lilman Makes a Name for Himself, Author and illustrator. Cantab Publishing, 2004.
Twelve Ounce Prophet (the Vapors; AKANYC) along with Allen Benedikt and Cody Hudson. 1996-2006.

PUBLIC ARTWORKS

1996 – Present
Istanbul, Turkey; São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Santa Elena, Costa Rica; Bermuda; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Managua, Nicaragua; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, and Perth, Australia; Reykjavik, Iceland; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen and Roskilde, Denmark; Helsinki, Finland; Munich, Berlin, Mannheim, and Wiesbaden, Germany; Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Eindhoven, Holland; Chalon, France; Seville, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Innsbruck and Vienna, Austria; Warsaw, Poland; Rome and Florence, Italy; Cork, Ireland; Kathmandu, Nepal; Delhi and Calcutta, India; Shenzhen, China; Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Austin, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, San Francisco, &c, United States.

SELECTED LECTURES

2012
Endicott College

2011
TEDxBoston
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Mass College of Art and Design

2010
Boston Museum of Fine Arts

2009
Boston ICA 
Massachusetts College of Art and Design 
MassPoetry Festival

2008
Puerto Rico Museum of Art, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2007
Streetlab Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2006
Otis College of Art and Design
Popular Culture Journalism Workshop, Istanbul, Turkey

2005
Cork Caucus, Cork, Ireland 
Harvard Law School 
Harvard Graduate School of Education 
Northeastern University

2004
Bates College

EDUCATION

2004
Ed.M., Harvard Graduate School of Education

1999
A.B., Brown University