Panik is a renowned graffiti artist in London and beyond. Member of the ATG (Ahead of The Game) crew, you probably came across his work across Camden or Kentish Town. his mark can been seen also in the streets of Barcelona or Prague.
However the sight of Panik running across rooftops with ladders and spray paints might belong to the past. Continue reading Panik at Pure Evil
If you are keen on graffiti, you must have seen #codefc stuff on some walls, one of his latest and probably most seen is the Olympic runner with the message “Fuck 2012 – I am ready now ”
The man behind #codefc has been active as a graffiti artist for a long time, for about 22 yrs actually but he has been using #codefc for the last 12 years. #codefc references to a hexadecimal color code use in web technologies which coincidentally can be broken down into the word “code” and “fc”, the initials of our artist in question.
#codefc started to do graffiti in Rome where he got arrested doing a train carriage. Keen on using stencils, most of his stuff are location related, some of his projects are coDe-DAY in Normandy , stuDIED in Cambodia or viet-code in South Vietnam where fictive characters are invented and stencil on a surface.
Some of you will have notice the use of what looks like a filming camera. Talking to #codefc, we found out that he is also a keen film maker and that the camera depicted in his works is S8 cinecam which is also used as a logo.
#codefc paint as much as in London than abroad and some of of his works can be seen below.
2012Sprinter from #codefc on Vimeo.
Magic 2.0. Wow.
I knew I would not be disappointed when I heard about the Lock Up exhibition and disappointed I wasn’t, oh no, I was overwhelmed.
By the way, that event happened last year (20th Nov till 10th Dec 2009), yes I know it is a bit late to report on it but I never got round to do it before today… But keep reading, those artists are just phenomenal. Continue reading The Lock Up exhibition: just what I like
When we got the email about this show –The Golden Age of Grotesque by SEPE (aka Michał Sepe Wręga), we immediately got very excited as we knew for sure that it would be a good one.
We have been following SEPE at Art-Pie for a while now and know he’s destined to great things and achievement in the art world.
> More pics at the bottom of this article
“Lawrence Alkin Gallery are thrilled to present ‘The Golden Age of Grotesque’, the provocative and alluring UK debut solo show from Polish street artist Sepe. The brand new body of work explores current socio-political issues, demonstrating Sepe’s unique ability to cross the boundary between subjective and abstract depiction. ” Sam Rhodes, Director at Lawrence Alkin Gallery.
This is the artist’s first solo show in the UK presenting 19 brand new works prepared especially for the exhibition, most of them done in 2015.
There you have it. We unfortunately missed the opening night but to be honest, it is sometimes difficult to fully enjoy the art on display when galleries are overcrowded with people. Instead we visited the next day, only encountering one or two souls wandering the premises. This actually worked out very well as we could thoroughly enjoyed Sepe’s artworks.
As soon as you enter the Lawrence Alkin gallery, you cannot miss a rather imposing piece – “Follow the leader”
Details below of the “Follow the leader” piece
You can’t help but notice the illustrative feel that Sepe’s art transpires.
The artists himself agrees on it “My paintings are strongly rooted in illustration. This way of perception works the best when supported by some kind of story behind it.”
He adds “We managed to gather all humans’ knowledge into one place. Made it available to everyone, everywhere by creating a worldwide network and we use it mainly to share sweet photos of puppies. What is it then if not The Golden Age Of Grotesque…?”
Like many artists featured on this site, Sepe’s background lies in graffiti. He has been an active member of the Warsaw (Poland) graffiti scene where he currently lives.
This exposure to the energy of the city and its streets has definitely opened the artist’s sensitivity and increased his social awareness. Indeed with this show, Sepe wanted to emphasise how the “world gets totally dominated by the vain celebrity culture, focused on creating fake images of itself just for the show and turning everything into pop mush for sale.”
SEPE’s work is centralised around you and me, around humans and perhaps it is about where we are heading to – Modern societies tend to alienate individuals;our only refuge is seemingly joining the crowd where acknowledgment matters most. We then share moments via social media, often with souls unknown to us, and yet somehow that makes us feel good, as though we somehow now belong.
Another remarkable aspect of SEPE’s work is how well he captures life moments on the canvas: bold, energetic and rhytmic. Indeed, his way of applying fat brush strokes gives the viewer a sense of movement and that takes away the static notion of a still scene.
As we were wandering around the gallery, this in particular became more and more obvious as well as remarkable.
The artist’s vision of our current society is not that reassuring and the somewhat recurrent use of circus related elements – circus music, belly dancers, clowns on stilts, monkeys riding small bicycles and firework displays adds to it, making the whole thing very chaotic and scary.
How often are sad clowns used in movies to scare the sh*t ouf of you uh?
The show runs until the 4th July 2015. Find out more about The Golden Age of Grotesque show at Lawrence Alkin Gallery
Born in Doncaster in the fifties David Lee flew the nest at a young age to set up residence in London, which heralded a new phase in his life, as he discovered London’s burgeoning hippy scene. However, during his early thirties, his love affair with France began with the marriage of his French wife.
Inspired by modern French painters, particularly Cézanne, his exploration of the forthright nude and his radical brush strokes were the first step toward Impressionism.
Lee’s paintings are inspired not only from the South of France and Paris but from the era between the 1920’s and 50’s, which is a common theme in all of his work.
Lee readily adopted the cafe culture of our continental cousins where Paris seized him. Spending so much time in the City of Lights, enjoying such impassioned vibrancy, the cafes were the creative enclaves where his artistry was honed.
His work embodies a delightful image of French café culture. The distinction from Lee’s work is how he captures this hustle and bustle of Parisian cafés giving us canvases splashed with vivid colour, radiating gaiety and the joy of life.
A second love interest later developed and this new ménage-a-trois between London, Paris and the South of France was a source of nouveau inspiration. With a palette full of colour from the warm South, Lee has brought back from the azure shore paintings that palpitate with hot sunlight and dazzle with their audacious colour.
Exclusively for Graffik Gallery David Lee has also painted a series of French inspired pop-art portraits.
To celebrate Lee’s Anglo-French love affair the preview will feature a themed party, which includes feasting on French delicacies, a wine tasting and a mime artist.
‘Vive La France’ 26 April – 9 May 2012 – Daily 11am to 6pm
To RSVP to the Private View (26/4) please email art@graffikgallery.co.uk
More information about Dave Lee’s show
ROA has once again hit the walls, this time is Chicago and as always the pieces are awesome
Location: Chicago (The large wall is on the Hedrich Blessing architectural photography studio)
Pictures by Brock Brake via unurth
A LATVIAN artist, who’s work can be found in a number of European locations, has been revealed as the person responsible for the two giant pirate murals that have recently appeared on an iconic landmark, on the North Wales Coastline.
The two pirate-like characters seemed to appear overnight, earlier this month, on the side of The Fun Ship, formally The Duke Of Lancaster, which has become a well-known landmark in Llanerch-y-Mor, near Mostyn. It has now been confirmed that they are the work of KIWIE, a street artist from Latvia.
The artwork appears to be orchestrated by a group calling themselves Dudug, who have set up a website reporting on the works. Shortly after the murals appeared on the 17th August, a You Tube video was posted on their site.
The video depicts the work being done illegally at night; however a new video has since been added to the website, revealing the original version to be a spoof. The intricate artworks did in fact take a number of days to complete, and was done under the watchful supervision of site security, which remains 24 x 7 at The Duke.
The painted characters, also known by the term KIWIES, are each 9 metres in height making them the biggest works ever created by the artist. They also include some key details about the Duke’s history in their design – with the year the ship was built (1956) on the blue pirate’s ear, and the year the ship was docked in Llanerch-y-Mor (10th Aug 1979) on its stomach.
Members of the Duke of Lancaster Appreciation Society (DOLAS) have been so far unable to shed any light on the appearance of the artwork but it appears none of them had any idea the cruise liner was going to be targeted by the street artist. It can also be confirmed that DOLAS and DUDUG operate completely separate from one another.
BLACK DUKE from KIWIE on Vimeo.
Animated GIFs have been around for ages, they really have. Who has not seen those crazy ones of animals or people where a short action is captured and play in loop… forever. This was before.
Today there are many artists that are taking animated GIFs to the next level. There are even contests and awards for it. One of those is the 2014 Saatchi Art’s Motion Photography Prize.
We included below those who caught our attention.
Gerardo Juarez
Jon Jacobsen
Marius Krivicius
Nikola Silic
