Bristol born artist Banksy has been at it big time in America and have left his mark in various towns and cities across America – Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles and Toronto. Continue reading Banksy: all over America but written over too
A quick walk down Camden high street … art
We happened to be in the Camden area today for shopping related reason but stumbled upon some great street art pieces and no long past before we were snapping these away.
We were very pleased to see one of Dan Kitchener‘s (aka DANK) piece flanked on a wall just by the Stables Market entrance in Camden. Its size is pretty impressive and the subject, a banal street scene, becomes a fireworks of colors under Dan’s spray cans.
A few more yards down and we walked the mighty Bar Fly and its giant see monsters – Pics after the fold
Dan Kitchener – DANK
Bar Fly
The Super Flemish Pop Icons by Sacha Goldberger
Sacha Goldberger is a French photographer born in 1968. He has worked as artistic director in several well-known agencies. Otherwise, he has written and worked on many books and is now known all around the world.
He became famous especially for his photo series “Mamika”, a grandmother superhero performing tasks of daily life. Mamika, the real grandmother of Sasha, is quite a funny person.
The artist latest exhibition, which was recently held an exhibition at the School Gallery Paris was entitled “Super Flemish” and transform Pop Culture icons into the style of 16th Century Flemish aristocrats.
You will recognise Hulk or Spiderman but also Star Wars characters.
Animated 3D gifs by Nick Thomm
Last Thursday night, Nick Thomm’s latests solo exhibition, Tropic Glows, opened.
Thomm took over the entire two-story space, transforming the basement into a fully immersive screening room, in which he housed his intricate 3D video works, while upstairs played host to both the crowds and a combination of Thomm’s mixed media works on fluro Plexiglass, holographic skate decks and neon pieces.
We included below 3 animated GIF works by the artist. We like them very much. Do you?
Exhibition runs until November 18th @ Castle Fitzjohns Gallery. 98 Orchard St, Lower East Side, New York (Open 7 Days, 12PM-7PM).
Shepard Fairey’s NSA themed Obama posters
Shepard Fairey’s face must have dropped when he saw these “Yes we scan” posters which are a “remix” of his now iconic “Hope” pieece for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Yesterday he was the one using a photograph without permission, which got him into a legal battle and a $25,000 fine, but today it looks like someone is doing just the same.
We hear that Shepard Fairey likes the posters a lot and that he will not start any legal proceedings. We agree too, e thing they are great posters with a straight to the point slogan. What do you think?
The posters features the slogan “Yes We Scan,” a parody of Obama’s “Yes We Can” rallying cry, and an image of the president wearing headphones, presumably to listen in on average Americans’ phone calls.
“Subversion of well known symbols and images for social commentary has long been a technique in my repertoire, so I’m glad to see it in the work of others,” Fairey said
First seen on Artinfo
Jaybo Monk at Stolen Space: stormy time
I was as excited to find out about Stolen Space as I was to find out about Jabo Monk’s new works. Both did not dissapoint. I like the sobriety of the venue with that quirky artwork of roads signs outside the gallery – nice touch. This out of the way let’s now focus on Jaybo and his unique manner of using spray paint, acrylics and tar sands (also known as oil sands). Continue reading Jaybo Monk at Stolen Space: stormy time
Spray cans sculptures
We instantly fell in love when we first saw these little wonders of sculpture. Kresimir Buden 2Fast is the sculptor behind these creations which obviously are graffiti inspired.
The artist is based in Zagreb (Croatia) and use various brands of spray cans from Montana to Ironlak. You will have noticed the Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans version amongst others.
I do not know for you but we particularly like the green one. What about you?
Click on the images below to launch the slideshow
Exit through the gift shop: a Banksy movie
This is the movie everybody is talking about right now and whoever is behind the promotion of it is just very clever.
We are at the Sundance Film Festival last month in the United States. No mention at all about the movie in the official programme but rather a very late announcement a few days before the start of the festival and there you had it: speculation and expectation leading to the sort of buzz that makes people queuing up hours before the screening.
I expect the same level of interest when Exit through the gift shop comes out here in Europe on the 5th March. Let’s not forget that Banksy’s show last year at the Bristol Museum attracted more than 300,000 visitors.
Should anyone have thought that at last Banksy’s identity would be revealed, ditch that idea, this is not what that movie is about at all. Banksy can only been seen from behind and in shadow and his voice is digitally altered. Who would give up his identity when it precisely what is making some of his artworks fetch the £200,000 + mark, come on.
“I guess my ambition was to make a film that would do for graffiti art what ‘The Karate Kid’ did for martial arts — a film that would get every schoolkid in the world picking up a spray can and having a go,” Banksy said of his first film earlier this month at Berlin Film Festival.
Beyond being some sort of graffiti ambassador, I believe Exit through The Gift Shop deals with a much more interesting issue: How do we assess or evaluate Art and eventually like it? Why Street Artwork is now selling as much in terms of value than more classical type of Art?
With actor Rhys Ifans as narrator, he allowed Thierry Guetta to film him while ‘at work’. To make it short (a post about Thierry Guetta is coming up soon) he is the cousin of the artist Invader, a French guerrilla artist who sticks mosaics upon walls and buildings inspired by the video game Space Invaders. Guetta filmed his cousin’s artwork as well as other artists and was thus sucked into the street art world which led him to meet Banksy.
The London premiere of ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ is happening right now as I am writing this post around Leak Street tunnel so if like me you did not get an invite, you might as well watch the trailer below
ART-PIE
Motion exposure or light painting combined to sport movements
You may have heard about light painting, if not, here are a few words about it – Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera. Light painting can also describe works where the camera itself is moved during exposure.
Painting with a point of light on a long exposure dates back to 1889, and was used in Frank Gilbreth’s work with his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth in 1914, when the pair used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. Man Ray, in his 1935 series “Space Writing,” was the first known art photographer to use the technique. Photographer Barbara Morgan began making light paintings in 1940.
Loads of artists or people from the general public have since tried to master the technique, and keep innovating with genius ideas. People like Stephen Orlando and his projects Motion Exposure are one of these enthusiasts. The concept is to give the viewer a materialisation of human movements and gestures in sports, such as movements of tennis, kayaking or even karate.
The result is beautiful, gracious, and intoxicating. We included the 10 best light painting outputs we felt deserved sharing.
A few words from the artists –
I’m fascinated with capturing motion through time and space into a single photograph. Using LED lights with custom color patterns and long exposure photography, I’m able to tell the story of movement.
This technique reveals beautiful light trails created by paths of familiar objects. These light trails have not been artificially created with Photoshop, and they represent the actual paths of the objects.
My photos focus on motions in nature and in urban landscapes, as well as human movement. I am inspired by the works of Étienne-Jules Marey, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Gjon Mili, and Frank Gilbreth and their pioneering techniques.
Warhol icons at Halcyon gallery
Halcyon Gallery presents its very first exhibition devoted entirely to the works of Andy Warhol. With over one hundred pieces on display, including graphics, portfolios and original works on paper and canvas, WARHOL ICONS is an exploration of the legendary Pop Art icon’s artistic ingenuity and importance.
Most Warhol iconic works are in the show
The exhibition spans Warhol’s iconic career from his early illustrative works of the 1950s, through Pop Art’s 1960s heyday, until his untimely death in 1987 – addressing the artist’s exploration of every facet of modern life, from consumerism and commissions to Communist politics.
Amongst portraits of iconic figures and celebrity friends such as screen siren Ingrid Bergmanand champion heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, WARHOL ICONS includes an original self-portrait – Self Portrait in Fright Wig, a striking collage work on paper which celebrates the artist’s enduring legacy and mastery of his brand.
Displayed according to Warhol’s original 1962 brief as to simulate cans stacked along supermarket shelves, the instantly-recognisable packaging present in the Campbell’s Soup I portfolio exemplifies Warhol’s fascination with commercial culture, the mainstream and mass production. In the same room, an original Campbell’s Soup Box: Chicken Soup is an interesting development – commissioned following the success of the former portfolio, the soup boxes further demonstrate a revolutionary period in art and culture where the status of everyday consumer items was elevated.
Along with Campbell’s Soup I, the exhibition features five of Warhol’s most celebrated portfolios of 10, including Cowboys and Indians and Endangered Species – the former deriving from the treasure trove of archival photographs, postcards and images of Native American artefacts that the artist collected throughout his life whilst the latter is a nod to Warhol’s ongoing interest in conservation and the environment.
Rarely seen works
WARHOL ICONS also features the rarely-seen Anatom (Rado Watches) – produced just a few months before his death and one of his last works ever created. The work is one of only three canvases created by Warhol depicting the iconic Rado DiaStar ‘Anatom’ watch. Rado Switzerland – a watch brand renowned for its sleek, luxury timepieces – commissioned the artist to produce the series of paintings in conjunction with their seventieth anniversary in 1987.
WARHOL ICONS offers an engaging insight into the life and works of a cultural icon. Through Warhol’s discerning eye, the exhibition reveals a layered social and cultural commentary underpinned by the visual art movement, Pop Art.