“The Ugly American” by Saber at The Outsiders

“The Ugly America” show opening today at The Outsiders is the work of legendary graffiti artist Saber’. The artist spent 8 weeks immersed in the Outsiders Newcastle branch last autumn and created all the works on display in the gallery this time in London.

We stepped in and were hardly wowed by what we were seeing: a series of pale wooden pallets works. We quickly realised that they were all depicting “The Star-Spangled Banner”, understand the American flag.

But then we remembered that “The Ugly American” refers to a multi-million-copy best selling book and 1963 movie, in which Marlon Brando starred, and is all about telling about the dark side of the American foreign policy. I looked again at the pale stuff and could relate now. Off downstairs…

The Ugly American by Saber | Art-Pie

The Ugly American by Saber | Art-Pie

The mood was slightly happier down here and colours from Saber’s pieces smiling at me. The artist’s technique that consists of mixing aerosol art with oil and even charcoal pleased my little eyes.

The Ugly American by Saber | Art-Pie

The Ugly American by Saber | Art-Pie

The Ugly American by Saber | Art-Pie

What – “The Ugly American” by Saber
Where – The Outsiders London | 8 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4DG | Monday – Saturday, 11:00AM – 7:00PM
When – Friday 10th of January 2014 to Saturday 15th of February 2014

Jota Leal’s Star Wars themed artworks

Jota Leal was born in a humble little town in eastern Venezuela, in the mid-eighties. He began drawing and painting at a very young age, and never studied fine art. He attempted to sit in class as a child of six, but ran away after being forced to paint plastic fruit and empty bottles.

Jota’s style results in a synergy of remarkable painting skill and a probing sense of the subject’s soul, and often tweaked with a remarkable sense of humor. Leal works with pencil on paper, acrylic on board, and acrylic on canvas to achieve his amazing images.

Jota Leal from Venezuela probes the subconscious, showing that depth can be shown with humor and whimsy. — Juxtapoz Magazine

Jota Leal | Art-Pie
BOBA FETT
Jota captures Star Wars villian, Boba Fett in a classic pose, with exceptional coloring.
This dramatic acrylic on canvas painting measures 20″ x 28″.
Jota Leal | Art-Pie
MARRIED WITH CHILDREN
Imagine Mathew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer having taking a familiy portrait from Star Wars. Jota creates a wonderfully bizarre and funny grouping of iconic Star Wars characters, all posed in some classic 19th Century scene. Expertly painted. 24′ x 30″ Acrylic on stretched canvas. Ready to hang.
Jota Leal
CHEWIE
Chewbacca with some robotic enhancement. What could be the story here? Maybe in the next, next episode in a galaxy far, far away. Beautiful landscape coloration by Jota. 36″ x 24″ Acrylic on canvas.
Jota Leal | Art-Pie
THE VANISHING OF OBI-WAN
Wonderfully surreal painting from the Star Wars universe by Jota, in a beautifully illuminated, Dali-esque style. Fine art comes to a galaxy far, far away. 36″ x 24″ acrylic painting on canvas.

Ross M Brown’s solo exhibition CONCRETE MYTHS

Ross M Brown has a new solo exhibition at Lacey Contemporary Gallery called – Concrete Myths.

This new body of work was created following a research trip to the derelict Haludovo Palace Hotel on Kirk Island, a 1970s luxury resort designed by Modernist architect Boris Magas.

Brown depicts the dilapidated location in a series of large scale paintings that often reference formal tropes more commonly associated with Modernist abstraction.

 

CONCRETE MYTHS – Ross M Brown  | Art-PieRoss M Brown’s work channels the experience of architectural space through the medium and history of painting.  Exploring subject matter found within abandoned Modernist architecture, the artist layers disparate approaches from the history of painting producing a palimpsest of diverging and converging painterly approaches.

Relating to the urban ruin as a hybrid space where divisions between past and present, architecture and nature, order and disorder have become blurred and indistinct, Brown employs a painting process which pits rigidly constructed perspective against the fluid materiality of poured, smeared and dripped paint.

WHAT – Concrete Myths by Ross M Brown
WHERE – Lacey Contemporary gallery, 8 Clarendon Cross, London W11 4AP
WHEN – 17th June (preview) till 4th July 2015

Miss Van – Twinkles at Magda Danysz Gallery

One of the first stops on our European tour is Paris, France.

We spent the first day just walking the streets taking as many shots as we could of the amazing amount of street art. On the second day we made way to the Magda danysz Gallery to check out the latest show from Miss Van entitled ”Twinkles”.

The gallery is a huge space, set over two floors with a series of stretching white wall.We are familiar with Miss Van’s colourful street work featuring her trademark female figures. This show was a step in sightly different direction with the ground floor focusing on a series of works with a distinct Victorian feel, dark tones set in very heavy wooden frames.

The first floor has a carnival theme, still darker imagery yet a little more colour than the works you see on other floors. Some other reviews have pointed out that the difference in themes is due to the fact that the body of work is combination of paintings from earlier shows mixed with some later works.
This didn’t bother us, as this was the first show from Miss Van that were able to see, we enjoyed seeing the progression of themes over a few years work.

This show is very enjoyable, if not slightly dwarfed by the sheer size of the gallery, yet well worth checking out.

The show runs until the 30/4/2011

When: 19/3 till 30/4/11

Where: Magda Danysz gallery (Paris)

View all the pics on our Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingghosts/sets/72157626300739007/

Invaders goes deep and high

Invader‘s trademark, the so recognisable  pixelated alien character from the even more famous arcade game from the 80’s has been seen by a large amount of people on street corners across the world. The monster has now taken a dip in the ocean and can be seen deep down in the water.

Invader teamed up with sculptor Jason Taylor deCaires, known for his underwater sculptures, and stuck his characters of Jason’s works. The result is pretty surreal and I would like to get my scuba diving gear on and have a look at it.

Invaders goes under water | Art-Pie

Invader also went high, very high in the space. The artist engineered a device that propelled the alliens to back to where they belong, space. Luckily for us, Invaders thought of equipped the device with a camera so we can enjoy the astonishing pictures below.

Invaders goes high | Art-PieInvaders goes high | Art-Pie

Invaders goes high | Art-PieInvaders goes high | Art-Pie

Last but not least, we have included a video “Green Invaders” is a light installation by the French artist Yves Caizergues, based on the classic video game Space Invaders. It formed part of the 2012 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, where the streets of Toronto, Canada are given over to a festival of street art. This installation was outside the Sun Life Financial Tower at 150 King Street West.

STREET ART