Meet the little workers in Clerkenwell

Looking down as usual when I am on my way to the office, I must have heard them calling on me that day. I looked up that morning. One was proudly sat down on a wooden pillar while another little man and a woman had found refuge in small cavities of what looks like a  very depraved wall. But they were all very glad, I spotted them as so many by-passers never do, they told me.

DomusAt first I loved them but was also eager to know what the hell these little characters were all about. After a what seemed to me a long chat, I did not know more than before I talked to them. What I knew for sure is that they were over the moon that someone took them out of their boredom by spotting them.

Slightly puzzled by this encounter, I was trying very hard to remember whether I had seen these guys elsewhere when right there in front me, was another little worker but this time amongst the display of some kitchen and bathroom furniture shop on Clerkenwell road. I was stunned and started to believe they were either following me or spreading all around.

I decided to step in the shop and find out once for all…

These little workers are actually part of an advertising campaign to increase awareness about the imminent opening of a new DOMUS shop on Great Sutton street. DOMUS is speacialising in tiles. Representatives have been around shops in Clerkenwell and gave away these little figurines to scatter around willing shopkeepers’ shop windows as well as right on the street nearby the new store.

Whatever this is, street art used in advertising, this is a genius idea and if the guys at DOMUS had in mind to get people to find out and talk about these guys, well they got it right. Look above, I mentioned three times their brand in this blog post and are about to insert a link about their new shop which is about to open. Clap, clap, clap.

Read more about the new DOMUS shop (might be of interest to you, huh?). Find out what they look like with photographs below.

Domus

Domus

The creative bubble at Roxy

The Creative Bubble | Art-PieThere you have it – the first edition of The Creative Bubble, a new monthly event down in South London just a stone throw away from the Thames.What are we looking at here? Three nights, once a month, The Creative Bubble will try to painti a new picture of contemporary art via a host of different mediums. And more importsntly, there will be a 30 day rolling gallery with original art and limited edition prints, curated by Incandescent Artists, is a showcase of a who’s who in the UK art scene.

The exhibition is complemented by 3 nights of award winning short films, slam poetry and music.

The first set of visual artists is set to be a cracker – Inkie – Parlee ERZ – Dan ‘DANK’ Kitchener – Gnasher -Eska -Rowan Newton – Otto Schade -spZero76 – KeMeF Inc – Suzko -Zina – Cherie Strong – Artista – Jack Candy Kemp – SLM – Hush – Amara Por Dios – Martyna Pikula – Lee Hadwin – Rosie Emerson – ROO – Skyhigh and Sam Gare. WHAT – THE CREATIVE BUBBLE WHERE – Roxy Bar & Screen, 128 – 132 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB WHEN – Event dates: 15th -16th -17th April 2014 Exhibition Dates: 15th April – 14th May 2014

Creative Bubble | Art-Pie FREE ENTRY

JBAK – artists collaboration from Berlin

JBAKJames Bullough and Addison Karl are JBAK ans is a creative collaboration between two artists originally from Baltimore and Seattle respectively and hitting the walls of Berlin.

I could not describe better than Jennifer Weitman what JBAK is and is all about so here are her words. We particularly like the “Paintin Meryt’ piece which you can watch below

More about JBAK

“Each artist brings his unique vision and style to their combined body of work. Bullough’s main focus is photo-realism, with attention to ambient and deep space, layers, and geometric forms. He combines contemporary street art techniques and materials with those of realist oil painters, creating pieces of vivid color and masterful detail. Conversely, Addison’s work is produced using a hatch drawing style, which utilizes fine lines and details to create fantastic illustrations of both diminutive and immense images and proportions.”JBAK

“JBAK have blended their contrasting styles into a mashup of antonyms: realism vs. illustrative, expressive vs. precise, hard vs. soft, black vs. a spectrum. The pair seeks desirable locations paying close attention to the space and the people that live and work within it. Their intent is not to disrupt but rather, to integrate their art into the existing environment, creating harmony, balance, and adding life to an otherwise colorless wall. Together, JBAK create large-scale murals, which highlight their differing design aesthetics while at the same time, reaching a common goal—to give people a reason to look up, around, and beyond themselves.”

Moniker Projects does Batman: Arkham Knight

Something pretty cool and original is coming our way. Indeed Moniker Projects Frankie Shea & Lindsay Edmunds are curating The Batman: Arkham Knight Cape & Cowl Exhibition

What is all about?
WB Games UK has teamed up with Moniker Projects to bring you twenty contemporary artists and celebrities to celebrate the launch of Batman: Arkham Knight with a new exhibition reimagining the Caped Crusader’s iconic Cape and Cowl headpiece.

Batman: Arkham Knight by Moniker project | Art-PieUsing life-sized replicas of Batman’s famous costume as a blank canvas, each artist and celebrity will produce their own unique interpretation of the Dark Knight’s attire.

Those taking part include high profile artists such as Nancy Fouts, Lauren Baker, Hayden Kays, Inkie, Pam Glew, INSA, The Connor Brothers, Zeus, Matt Small, CASE, Jon Burgerman, CRASH, Cyclops, Kid Acne, Pure Evil and Logan Hicks along side 4 celebrity created Capes & Cowls from Jonathan Ross, Jodie Kidd, Eliza Doolittle and Noel Clarke.

What about the venue?
We are also looking forward to discover the venue consisting of two charming railway arches. The original double arched ticket hall of the now defunct Shoreditch station constructed by Victorian architects in 1860 unused for 25 years.

Batman: Arkham Knight  by Moniker project | Art-Pie

Batman: Arkham Knight  by Moniker project | Art-Pie

WHAT – The Batman: Arkham Knight Cape & Cowl Exhibition
WHERE – Kachette, 347 Old St., Shoreditch, London, EC1V 9LP (nearest stations Liverpool Street, Old Street & Shoreditch High Street)
WHEN – Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 June – 11am to 9pm and Sunday 28 June – 11am to 5pm
Curated and produced by M.

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

When do you take warning from your habits?

Parc_del_Laberint_d’Horta_-_Hermit’s_cabin_-_The_monkI’m a terrible creature of habit. I like my routines because they free up brain space for more important stuff – the stuff where I can be really creative and unpredictable. Mostly, I live in harmony with my habits, enjoying their usefulness and the comfort they bring, but there have been times when my habits have given me cause for alarm.

This is the topic of the latest RECURSIVE post: Where does it turn?

Discussion topic 3: WHEN DO YOU TAKE WARNING FROM A HABIT?

Pop over to RECURSIVE to find out about a fascinating study from MIT which finds that habits are formed in the prefrontal cortex of the brain and not in the subconscious. Then join in the discussion by leaving a comment.

‘Buenos Aires calling’ at Pure Evil: fantastico!

Pure Evil London show | Art-Pie
Click to enlarge

The year: 2001, the place: Buenos Aires, Argentina, the event: a terrible economic crash.

The outcome and most probably the best one: the explosion of the street art scene. Artists as a reaction to what was happening started to paint the streets and for some of them in a rather large scale.

Buenos Aires Calling is the show Graffitimundo presented at Pure Evil with the aim of bringing a feel of this scene to London.

I got very excited when I heard about this show as I know how much Argentina and the whole Central and South America street art scenes have been buzzing in the recent years.

I walked into Pure Evil and saw those stencils on the wall and thought ‘hmmm another set of stencils, I have seen it all before’ but looking at them closer and especially those from the artist rundontwalk and I was actually liking what I was seeing.

Pure Evil London show | Art-Pie
By Rundontwalk | Click to enlarge

Rundontwalk uses an intricate graphic in his stencils (strangely reminding me of the back on those chairs I have got at home) which apart from being a certainly noticeable technique skill, gives another dimension to the works. The tiling sort of effect reminded me of Paul Normansell’s way of painting.

On of the pieces using this intricate technique is ‘Influenza’ representing a pig wearing a mask which the artist painted in reaction of the panic that followed the swine flu outbreak. Great effect with great colours.

Pure Evil London show | Art-Pie
Click to enlarge

I did appreciate the other stencils from other artists but really liked these tiny pieces of art full of colours on oddily shaped pieces of wood representing even querky characters or abstracts. I found a ressemblance with BASHER’S world of characters.

 

Stencil technique has been embraced by a very large number of artists these days like in Argentina and if the technique is pretty much the same worldwide, I felt that this collective of artists and more generally South and Central american artist really want to put accross a message and do not just do stencils where esthetic is what only matters but their meanings too.

Nothing wrong with wanting to put out there a cool looking Goldie type stencils but it is nice to know that some artists really try to engage their audience by trying to deliver a message to them.

This show really managed to transpire how much the Argentinian street art scene is vibrant and not ready to die just now, oh no.

Colours, colours, there are loads of them, shapes, representations are everywhere like street artist right now in Buenos Aires and surroundings. Feels good.

Click any picture to start the slideshow

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The show at Pure Evil is now over

Ben Eine’s ‘Tenderloin’ A-Z showcase

Ben Eine | Art-PieWhen I first read about this event from my inbox, I must admit I got quite excited as Ben Eine and his work are exciting. If you love colours, letters and typography, you will appreciate this artist’s work.

“The venue will be announced just before the show and via Nelly Duff’s social medias”. This was enough to convince me that we were on something good.

I was wrong. What the show had to offer was a series of pieces with the whole alphabet broken down in a multitude of versions, different colours, not coloured at all, this sort of things. It did not take me long to go round the whole venue to have seen it all. I actually must more enjoyed the old graffiti and tags spread all around the venue from old jams or other shows.

I have not mentioned the launch of of ‘The World Atlas of Street Art & Graffiti by Dr Rafael Schacter that happened that night too just because, let’s be honest, the hype around Ben Eine did a good job by bringing people in and to get the copies of the book flying off the shelf…

We took a few pics anyway.

Ben Eine | Art-Pie

Ben Eine | Art-Pie

Ben Eine | Art-Pie

Ben Eine | Art-Pie

Ben Eine | Art-Pie

Ben Eine | Art-Pie

When Da Mental Vaporz crew hit Melbourne

I must admit when I heard that this crew, originally from France, were heading down under I completely geeked out.

We have been big fans of DMV, seeing pieces from them go up in Paris, Barcelona and their epic wall at London’s Meeting Of Styles.

Even though the show at Rtist gallery is a great way to see each artists individual style, the true abilities of this crew shine when they collaborate on big walls.

It seems that everything came together for them here in Melbourne, the weather was great and the wall they were given was in China Town a unique and oddly appropriate setting.

Find below a few pics of the wall they painted.
> I want to see more photographs
> I want to see Da Mental Vaporz at the Meeting Of Styles London photos

Photographs by chasinghosts

Da Mental Vaporz

Da Mental VaporzDa Mental Vaporz

Da Mental Vaporz

Da Mental VaporzDa Mental Vaporz

STREET ART