Stik at Subway gallery

We have all seen the stick men across East London, well the man behind all this, STIK, is having a solo exhibition at the Subway gallery, venue as quirky as STIK men.

Stik’s show at the Subway Gallery will feature an exciting Live Graffiti event, an installation comprised of four large light-boxes and hosts the long awaited launch of the new high quality print edition “Single Mum” produced by Squarity. As always there will be smaller, affordable pieces on sale too at this show which is set to be a vibrant and fascinating event for all.

STIK

When
Preview is on Wednesday 2 March 6—9pm
The show will then run until the 26 march 2011.

Where
SUBWAY GALLERY | Kiosk 1 Joe Strummer Subway | Edgware Rd / Harrow Rd | London W2 1DX

Boy Soldiers Exhibition at Graffik London

boy_soldiers_e-flyer

A group of specially selected artists that have come together to produce their unique interpretations of the legendary Howard Marks (known as an elite British drug smuggler)

Artists taking part include Goldie, Charles Lutz and Terry Cryer, and these exclusive portraits will culminate in an exhibition at RedHouse Originals (Harrogate) in October to coincide with the UK cinema release of the ‘Mr Nice’ film. Continue reading Boy Soldiers Exhibition at Graffik London

Jean-Paul Bourdier’s stunning body painted photographs

Jean Paul Bourdier | Art-Pie

When I first saw these pictures by photographer Jean-Paul Bourdier, I was completely amazed by the clever compositions and juxtapositions and even more by the colours which shine in front of your eyes.

My immediate second thought was that these must be digitally manipulated but I was glad to find out that they do not appear to be, the models used here would get body painted.

What a superb piece of body art mixed with photography these are.

All the pics below were taken in the deserts of West America with an analog camera. You can find more of these body paintings photography in his book entitled Bodyscapes 

About the author

Jean Paul Bourdier is the author of Leap Into The Blue, Bodyscapes (introduction and dvd by Trinh T. Minh-ha), co-author with Trinh Minh-ha of Vernacular Architecture of West Africa, Habiter un monde, African Spaces and Drawn from African Dwellings. Production designer of seven films and co-director of two films directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha.

Awards include Guggenheim, American Council of Learned Societies, NEA, Graham, UC President’s Humanities, and Getty. Professor of design, drawing and photography in the department of architecture at UC Berkeley.

Jean Paul Bourdier | Art-Pie

Jean Paul Bourdier | Art-Pie

Jean Paul Bourdier | Art-Pie

Jean Paul Bourdier | Art-Pie

Summer party at Black Rat Press

Black Rat Projects would like to invite you to our Summer Party. On Saturday July 16th during the day we are teaming up with Cargo club next door whose expert chefs will cook up a bbq for BRP’s guests. This is a day for all the family: Matt Small will be doing one of his legendary workshops for the younger audience (if there’s space grown-ups can join in too…). To book for your kids email becca@blackrat.com with an optional £10 donation to ZAMCOG charity.

The day will mark the release of Lucas Price’s new print “Telepathic Heights”. The new edition (each one is uniquely hand coloured) will be hung among works by BRP friends, new and old, including: Swoon, Matt Small, Giles Walker, Candice Tripp, ROA and Brian Dettmer. Best Ever and Barcelona based artist Ruben Sanchez will be painting live on walls nearby.

The show will be a review of this year’s projects, and an ode to the artists who have made the space what it is, as well as a look forward to future projects as we welcome ROA, Candice Tripp and Brian Dettmer into the fold.

Join BRP as we celebrate summer on Saturday July 16th from 2-5pm! Invites will be sent out this week

Words by Black Rat Press

Find below the link of ROA show review at BRP earlier this year plus a couple of pictures that go with it – can’t wait for the next one!

ROA at BRP

ROA at BRPROA at BRP

Gabriel Dubois at Stolen Space

Gabriel Dubois is back to Stolen Space gallery after having taking part earlier this year to a group show – read about it here and his new works for his debut solo show – Kykkeliky are bold, this is the least you can tell about them.

German-Canadian artist, Gabriel Dubois grew up in the streets of Vancouver and started to drop graffiti on urban spaces of the Chinatown area. However what I was seeing all around me were far away from it: large wooden panels with bright coloured lines that seem to run at each other or from each other while meeting a multitude of geometric shapes on the way. Such works can quickly turn into a big mess but Gabriel Dubois succeeds in keeping some harmony of this buzzing gathering of elements.

Gabriel Dubois’ visual language is rich like the colours palette used. His pieces are vibrant and complex it seems but looking at it a bit longer and you may see some logical juxtaposition of those lines next to that series of circles.

Gabriel Dubois is a big fan of turning discard objects of modern culture into art and here into something alive. This is why you will find stuck into one of his pieces a cut-out of an old magazine representing a car. His abstract approach inspired from his numerous travels to places like Sri Lanka, India or Japan is the expression of his keen interest of hand painted signs he picked up at a very early age.

You will also notice that wooden (his surface of choice) structure standing at the entrance of the gallery (see pic below) which is another angle to Gabriel Dubois’ art practices.

Related link
> Sculpture and paintings by Gabriel Dubois on Boom

ART-PIE

Pop up at l’Escargot in Soho London, edition 1

Pop up at l' Escargot London | Art-PieLast week first edition of our pop up at l’Escargot was a success.

Although we ended up in the Salon Vert instead of The Library, we managed to play with the existing layout (we cannot make new holes or adjustment in this venue – fair enough when you see how sumptuous the venue is) and displayed a very nice set of paintings.

Now, we have informed that we will not have the room or any other one until Next year as November and December are busy months for l’Escargot with loads of corporate events happening. We will meet again with the venue by the end of the year to discuss  options for 2017.

We would like to thank you for your interest and we will keep you in the loop for this one and about any other pop up events or show we get involved with

Happy Halloween!

PS: we included a few pictures of the night!

Pop up at l' Escargot London | Art-Pie Pop up at l' Escargot London | Art-Pie Pop up at l' Escargot London | Art-PiePop up at l' Escargot London | Art-Pie Pop up at l' Escargot London | Art-Pie Pop up at l' Escargot London | Art-Pie

London Art fair – in its 23rd year but still going strong, part1

3 hours solid is the time I spent yesterday at the Business Design centre where the London Art fair is being held until Sunday 23rd January and still I ran out of time to get to see or do what I had intended too. This is to show how much there is to see at this amazing event. Continue reading London Art fair – in its 23rd year but still going strong, part1

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

Central St Giles – urbanism at its best

I did not expect to walk through what, actually, turned out to be a truly enjoyable experience. I am talking here about the new urban development named Central Saint Giles, comfortably wedged between Bloomsbury and Soho in London.

I suspect the sunny weather that day helped here, but I was truly amazed by the imposing and colorful buildings that make up this very modern workplace, which includes office space, shops, restaurants, cafes, apartments and an outdoor public piazza. Bright green, yellow and orange are the colours used for the huge facades, which clearly make them stand out amidst the surrounding urban buildings.

While enjoying a walk on the spacious and bright piazza, I was happily surprised to encounter a couple of sculptures, one of which is by the artist Steven Gontarski; a five-meter-tall piece, adding another layer of colour to the landscape.

Urbanism like this can be beautiful, by either inspiring the architect (Renzo Piano) or being integrated into it.

http://www.centralsaintgiles.com/

Central Saint Giles

Ob 08 by Steven Gontarski
Central Saint GilesOb 08 by Steven G0ntarski

Central Saint Giles

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS