When Ole Kirk Christiansen came up with the idea of that brick we call LEGO, I can say with confidence that he was most probably miles away from thinking that one day, people all aver the world would use his brick, and in some cases, ton of them to create pieces of art.
There is even today some sort of art movement that has sprung. How about that?
One very recent example of the frenzy that surrounds LEGO and art can be this life-sized Star Wars X-Wing fighter that was made from 5,335,200 individual bricks. Yes you heard it, over 5 millions of brick were used. It was 11 feet tall, 43 feet long 44 feet wide, and weighed almost 46,000 pounds. This is, as of today the largest model ever built.
But while some art purists may argue that the Brick X Wing is not really art but more a clever engineering poroject, and we would tend to agree, some other artists we feel, have really taken the brick and turn into an art medium.
Nathan Sawaya is certainly one if these artists (we already published something about him) and has gained a recognisable art LEGO style with his Dali-esque statues that are intricate and perception-bending. We have included some of Nathan Sawaya’s works at the bottom of this post.
Other interesting artists are Katie Walker who builds mosaics, we have included one example below.
The show opened on 19th September and is now in full swing for a three week duration. Within his broad repertoire are portrayals of gangsters, multi-nationals, evolution, politics, religion, the class system and general Mickey taking. This new body of work however is a closely guarded secret, very few images or sneak peeks will be available before the show is open.
What perhaps is most understated is that he does not require a production team. All his ideas are original and he cuts his own stencils. T.Wat is a modern master craftsman, elusive and one who shuns the limelight and instead lets his work do the talking.
Ms Penfold, follow her on Twitter, has kindly sent in the pictures below. We are bowing to her.
What – “Straight outta compton” a show by T.Wat When – Thursday 19th September, 6.30pm Where – Graffik Gallery. 284 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London W10 5TE
WIN a limited edition of Copyright’s Lady of the Lake (edition of 50 which is the show print). enter now, the competition closes on Friday 27/09 midnight so hurry up!
It has been about two years since Copyright has had a solo show. It has not been lazying around (…) we hear, but rather been busy with a bunch of commissions partly being a consequence of his appearance on Season 8 of ‘The Apprentice’. “Thirteen”, his new solo show at London Westbank Gallery, is upon us though and we are excited to see what the artist has to show us.
Two words seem to summarise what the show is all about – revisit and reimagine styles and influences. This new show consists of 40 pieces of “old-new” and “new-new’ work, Copyright will explore the idea of moving forward by looking back.The collection will also allow a rare glimpse behind the curtain, displaying framed stencils and surprise installations…
We talked to Copyright who kindly answered a few questions for us –
Art-Pie: Is Art something you have always wanted to be doing for a living? Copyright : Yes, but its never something I really believed was a job, so I didn’t chose to study art. Even when it looked like I could make a living at it, I was afraid that it would take all the fun out of it, took a lot of thinking to decide to make my passion into my job. But I have been a full time artist now for close to 5 years and I don’t really feel like I have a job, I just do what I love everyday.
A-P: Tell us a little bit about you and your style. Copyright : It’s a bittersweet mish-mash of stencil work and traditional painting techniques. The paintings are all portraits of usually ambiguous female protagonists, almost always unhappy, crying or aloof. Then within that is a bunch of other symbols or imagery, different flowers, creatures, tattoos etc, that build up a picture with a vague narrative. creating a pretty picture, but with a dark fairy tale.
A-P: Tell me something about your training and your influences. Copyright : Im a self taught artist, Ive never studied art, but I have spent time in art collages doing photography and stuff. So was allways into making pictures.
A-P: What is “Thirteen”, your new show is all about? Copyright : 13 is my lucky number, since I was born on Friday the 13th, and 2013 also happened to be 10 years since I started using the name copyright. For ‘Thirteen’, I wanted to put together a big show that had more to see than just a bunch of paintings, some behind the scenes stuff but in a gallery format. Also a group of paintings which revisit older works and themes. I’m calling it a way of “moving forward whilst looking back” .
Copyright : Let’s talk about street art. Street art has grown in the Art World and is inviting itself into art galleries more and more often. What are your views on this? Copyright : I don’t go round calling myself a “Street Artist”, I call myself an “Artist”, Street art is a word made up by other people who try to understand why they are seeing pictures that aren’t trying to sell them something. The truth is, I started putting stuff on the streets because I had nowhere else to put them. I wasn’t making some anarchist statement, I just wanted them to be seen.
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What – ‘Lucky 13’ A Solo Show by Artist Copyright Where – London Westbank Gallery 133-137 Notting Hill Gate W11 2RS When – 27th September – 3rd October 2013 (Preview night Thursday 26th 6pm-10pm open thereafter 11am-7pm Daily RSVP to guestlist@londonwestbank.com)
Jester Jacques – First of all, how did your interest in art making come about? Were there any specific events or influences in your childhood which swayed you to be more creative?
Novemto Komo – I have always been doodling since I was kid, on the wall of my parent’s room and my room; also sticking stickers I got on the doors all around the house.
Simon Sarin Photography Copyright
I remember when I was in kindergarten and elementary schools, almost every weekend my parents took me to “Ancol art market” to see paintings, sculptures and crafts by local artists. We got our family portrait from one of the artist there using paper cut, and when my sister and brother were born, we also get their portrait done by the same artist. I also participated a lot in kids drawing competition and some of them came out top 3.
I also remember saw a painting by Ford Madox Brown, titled “Take Your Son, Sir!” in a book and I was finally able to see it in real a year ago in Tate Britain.
JJ – You were born in Indonesia. Does any of the culture seep into your work, even though you live in the UK?
NK – It does influence me a lot. There is so many social issues going on in Indonesia that kind of influence my way of thinking when developing the idea.
Also, the diversity of animals in Indonesia can be seen on most of my artwork lately. A lot of animals in Indonesia are very rare now and a lot are in risk of extinct.
JJ – Where did you study Fine Art and do you think it helped in your career as a visual artist? In what ways?
NK – I never studied Fine Art, I was trained as multimedia designer which lead to my first job as a junior flash developer. Then as time went on, I got more jobs doing illustration which carried me into doing more hand drawing/illustration. I got more into painting when I took my master in graphic design in 2010 at Newcastle where I had a lot of spare time to practice and develop my skills.
JJ – What is your fascination with animals? And anthropomorphising them?
NK- I started using animal a lot in my artworks as they are part of our life. They are also very attractive subjects because they are beautiful. I believe every human has their wild side which I interpret through animals.
I also want to bring awareness to people about animal extinction, especially caused by poachers and hunter. I’ve followed and joined a hunter online forum and feel sad every time I see them posted photos of animal they killed proudly.
Simon Sarin Photography Copyright
JJ – How do you get inspired?
NK – I get inspired from many things; news, people around me and their relationship towards each other. A lot of time I got inspiration by talking with strangers or random people. I visit Stolen Space Gallery a lot and Signal Gallery. I guess I get a lot of inspiration from street art around the world and there are so much of it in London created by international artists. To name a few, Faith47, Remi Rough, and Anthony Lister.
JJ – In your painting ‘Worst thing of Screaming,’ there is a feeling of pop art in there; the Lichtenstein type of shapes. Tell us more about that particular painting, as it stands out to me in your most recent body of paintings.
NK – The starting point of that painting was based on an idea of relationships. There are many situations where no one listens to you even when you scream out loud and sometimes it make you scream even louder, which end up make you feel like a freak show.
JJ – You do commercial work as an illustrator. What do you enjoy doing more – that, or your personal work? Is there an overlap in ideas and style, or do you try and keep them separated?
NK – I always try to separate the idea and style between them, but I have to admit sometimes there’s a mix in some of them.
JJ – Your work has a collage feel to it. How do you begin a new piece? Do you actually cut and paste, or just play with objects and figures as you go along?
NK – I never thought my work has a collage feel but I heard some people said that they thought my work was a collage, especially “escape the game.” I guess I just play with objects, figures and imaginations to visualise my idea into a painting. Many times when I’m in the middle of painting, I come out with some graphic elements that I can incorporate with and I just play around with it.
JJ – Do you have any exhibitions or projects/events coming up which we should look out for?
NK – The exhibition that I confirm at the moment is in December but I am doing another live art on the Tuesday the 24th this month during Jam Sandwich at The Russet Cafe. It is a monthly music event which I paint live depending on that night performers.
JJ – Finally, what piece of advice would you give young artists who want to pursue visual/fine arts?
NK – If you’re happy doing it, keep doing it as you never know what might happen.
When I first saw Lorella Paleni’s work, I went “OoOOooOo”. And then, “umm”. I looked closer and then took a step back, paused for a short while and thought: what a cool mix of styles, you get some abstract in her landscapes and background often tangled into each other by a series of layers.
You get the surreal with the artist’s character and figures, never in a broad day light or clearly distinguishable but always in some intriguing scenarios or situations – a man seems to splash water on his face outside his house, in his garden perhaps? And is it actually water?
It is impossible to know for sure what happens in Lorella Paleni’s paintings and you quickly find yourself immmersed into them, trying to work out the snallest details in the hope of getting the bigger picture but we are looking here at breaking into the artist’s mind here, this is anyway how I feel looking at her work.
