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
Brazilian artist Alexandre “Sesper” Cruz spent his adolescence absorbed in music and skateboarding – building ramps, making fanzines that documented the Sao Paulo art scene, and recording k-7 compilations. These interests influenced the sticker and paste up poster campaigns he launched around the city in 1999.
Sesper is best known for his unique mixed media artwork. He uses recycled material such as paper, cardboard and wood as his surface and paints over these with oil pastel and latex, incorporating layer upon layer of texture and color. A member of the renowned Brazilian art collective, the Famiglia Baglione, Sesper has participated in and filmed many of their live painting and gallery installations around Brazil.
He produces music and is a full time vocalist for Garage Fuzz band since 1991, as well having sung and recorded in the following bands: OVEC, PSYCHIC POSSESSOR, SAFARI HAMBURGUERS, PAURA, and the projects: NOTWORK, INTROSPECTIVE, LOFI EXPERIMENTS, VALLEJO X SUNSET, 5 GAS QUESTION, FLIPTOP, and others.
Words from the Pure Evil website
If you love spotting street art, but you’re never quite sure where you should look for it, then worry not. There are plenty of ways in which you can make sure you encounter great street art on a regular basis.
Where as street art was once considered to be little more than vandalism, these days it is a hugely popular art form. This means that there are plenty of books, magazines and websites dedicated purely to the subject of street art and where you van find it. Many works of street art are now protected, so you you may find that you have much more time to visit them. Spend time researching an area before you visit, and you are more than likely to be clued up on where to find local street art before you arrive.
However, some street art is far more temporary, and you’ll need to be on the ball if you want to be in with a chance of spotting it. Sites like Twitter can be a great way to keep up to date with the latest street art discoveries. If you’re keen to keep an eye on where new works of street arts have cropped up, whilst playing online games like Partypoker and checking your email from the comfort of your own home, then using sites like this can be the best way to do so. They’re also perfect if you’re on the go, and don’t mind making a detour to see some great street art before it’s gone.
Lastly, it is important to simply keep your eyes peeled. Even street art which may not have a big name attached to it can still be well worth seeing. Certain locations are fairly well known for attracting street artists, so it can be well worth keeping a look out should you happen to be passing through.
‘The Space Between The Stars‘ opens this Friday at Scream. Expect London and international artists and the recurrent yet infinite “light” as a medium in art. Many artists in the past experimented with it, such as Robert Irwin for example, and as the artists in this show, gave an immersive experience for the viewer.
This show promises a variety of approaches in trying to break down light.
Korean-born US based artist Bohyun Yoon gives us an installation of silicon rubber figures suspended like puppets from a steel bar with a spotlight. Caroline Jane Harris works with paper and will present us with an epic landscape titled Sylvan Landscape over two metres in width. Chris Bracey, a veteran in working with neon and lights and who has worked for big names or productions such as Vivienne Westwood or the Batman films will impress. James Hopkins’ will use sculptures to create illusions. Regine Schumann also works with sculptures but made of acrylic glass and a special phosphorescent pigment that allow the works to glow from within.
The collaboration between Hsiao-chi Tsai (Taiwan) & Kimiya Yoshikawa (Japan), masters in Mixed-media textiles and Sculpture respectively, their light sculptures and installations might steal the show. Shane McAdams ‘ landscape made with a ball-point pen, oil and resin has also to be something to look for. Last but not least Sylvia Hommert experiments with a range of mediums including pigment, beeswax, holographic paper and glitter on birch panels to capture this ephemeral and iridescent quality.
Artists featured; Bohyun Yoon (Korea), Caroline Jane Harris (UK), Chris Bracey (UK), James Hopkins (UK), Regine Schumann (Germany), Tsai & Yoshikawa (Japan & Taiwan), Shane McAdams (USA) and Sylvia Hommert (USA)
Exhibition opens on 11th January to 16th Febuary.
RSVP for Scream group show preview to info@leesharrock.co.uk
Facebook page related to the show – http://www.facebook.com/events/458881274161027/
We came across these mind-blowing sculptures and could not resist sharing them with you. Defying gravity or just beautiful, you can decide for yourself. We hope you’ll enjoy them.
Why not telling us about them in the comments below?
Name: “The Immigrant Sculpture” by Bruno Catalano
Location: Portugal
Meaning: Symbolizing luggage full of dreams but an empty heart, because you are leaving everything behind.
Name: “Popped Up” by Ervin Loránth Hervé
Location: Budapest (Hungary)
Meaning: Promotional piece for Art market Budapest (2014). The temporary sculpture combines art with nature, surprising visitors while welcoming them to the Eastern capital.
Name: Jeju Loveland
Location: Jeju island in South Korea
Meaning: Jeju Loveland is an outdoor sculpture park which opened in 2004 on Jeju Island in South Korea. The park is focused on a theme of sex, featuring 140 sculptures representing humans in various sexual positions.
Name: “Hippo Squares”
Location: Taipei Zoo (Taiwan)
Meaning: The square is the brainchild of former zoo Director Chen Pao-chung, who came up with the concept while looking for ways to complement the African Animal Area. After consulting with employees and designers, Chen greenlighted the square and it went on to become one of the facility’s signature nonliving attractions.
Name: Not known
Location: Tuen Mun Park (Hong Kong)
Meaning: Not known
Name: “The Rundle Mall pigs”
Location: Rundle Mall, Adelaide (Australia)
Meaning: The four pigs won Adelaide City Council’s Rundle Mall National Sculpture Competition for the upgraded Rundle Mall in 1997. South African-born and Sydney-based sculptor Marguerite Derricourt was the winner. Her four bronze pigs were unveiled on July 3, 1999.
Name: “River God Tyne” statue by sculptor David Wynne (1968)
Location: Newcastle Town hall (UK)
Meaning: It portrays the river God in human form, a fountain within his outstretched hand coursing a constant stream of water along the tortured and twisted torso of the aquatic diety.
Name: “Octopus plays Chess” by Leigh Dyer
Location: Hasting Old Town (UK)
Meaning: These fantastic pieces that live in the Chess Square, George Street, Hastings Old Town.
Name: Yorkshire sculpture park (UK)
Location: Yorkshire sculpture park (UK)
Meaning: The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is an open-air gallery in West Bretton near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, showing work by British and international artists
Name: Rock sculpture by Smaban Abbas
Location: Terminal 3, Cairo airport (Egypt)
Meaning: ?
On February 16, 1990, at age 31, Keith Haring’s life was cut short due to an AIDS-related illness. He would have been 54 today and as a homage, here are a few words and a tribute to his most iconic pieces of art.
I wonder what Keith Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) would make of the global phenomenon that street art is now, art form very much confined to the street of New York City at the time when he decided to move there in 1978, aged 19.
Having studied commercial art and then Fine Arts, he took a keen interest in graffiti art, Haring would go out there and paste collages of fake New York Post headlines on lamposts or news stands. He explored the likes of SAMO (Jean-Michel Basquiat) or Fab Five Fred (Fred Brathwaite) graffiti art to quickly put in practice his own interpretation of this form of art and would develop his future vocabulary of primitive cartoon-like forms. The Haring’s chalk-drawn “radiant babies” and “barking dogs” were born (see pictures) and woud become familiar sights on the matt black surfaces used to cover the old advertisements in the subways.
These chalk drawings in the subways of New York got Haring in the public eye and he would go on from there to have his first exclusive exhibition in the Tony Shafrazi Gallery which put together a retrospective a few years ago about it – see picture. Willing to reach a larger public, he immersed himself in popular American culture and befriended individials such as Andy Warhol, Madonna or Grace Jones (whom he would body-paint).
Haring was also a keen social activist and as a result of his ever increasing political involvement; he designed a Free South Africa poster in 1985 (see picture) and painting a section of the Berlin Wall in 1986 (see picture). Other works include design for Swatch watches or the Absolut Vodka advertisement (see picture)
Keith Harring’s work are just simply one of the best examples of how consumerism, popular culture and fine art merged in the 1980s.
Recommended readings
Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography by John Gruen (1991) includes interviews with the artist and those closest to him and is an invaluable source for understanding the art and life of Haring.
The early work is illustrated in Art in Transit: The Subway Drawings (1984) and Keith Haring (Shafrazi Gallery, 1982). An enlightening interview by David Sheff appeared in Rolling Stone (August 10, 1989).
Elizabeth Aubert directed an insightful video entitled Drawing the Line: A Portrait of Keith Haring (Biografilm, 1989).
Later an attempt was made to place Haring within a broader art historical context in Keith Haring, edited by Germano Celant (1992). □
Cork native artist Fin DAC has not been around the street art scene as long as some other artists such as Inkie for example but he has been nevertheless left his mark out there and his works are appreciated by an ever growing amount of people across the world.
UK, France and USA is where you are the most likely to encounter his ‘Urban Aesthetics’ as he likes to define his art and style which combines paint and stencil techniques. Fin DAC did not go to some Art Schools but rather grab spray, cardboards or brushes and had a go.
We thank him for doing this.
His influences range from dark graphic novels through to the works of Francis Bacon and Aubrey Beardsley.
Girls seems to be the main subject in Fin DAC’s works. Here is what the artist says about this:
“I use 2 different models or muses: Nicole Wu for the very pretty/flowery pieces and Meghna Lall for the more edgy/rockier stuff. They are both people I found through Flickr. The shift towards more asian influenced themes in my artwork coincided with a seismic shift in my output and interest from the outside world… but I don’t ever think about the significance of that ”
Although street art is inviting itself in auction rooms and household lounges these days, it is still regarded by a large majority of us as vandalism. It is hard to understand anything when you do not try to understand where it comes from but only look at the surface and leave your ignorance driven your judgement which is bound to be false.
New York Kings at Pure Evil and curator Christophe Demoulin would definitely like to put this point across to any visitor and underline the importance of the US graffiti movement that started along with the hip hop one in the 70’s and 80’s. The purpose of this writing is not to tell about the social or politic importance aspect of the movement but about looking at the creativity that came out of it which is on display in this show.
All the graffiti and street art pieces have been drawn on actual New York subway maps which is the new medium the “old kings” have found to pursue the tradition of “subway art”. This was a necessity more than anything since the authorities have actually banned any artistic intervention in the subway. The most prolific and subversive won the right among peers to use a crown symbol next to their work, meaning graffiti king.
The show spreads onto the two floors at Pure Evil and has got pieces from all the big names that made the graffiti genres used widely by other artists all over the world from BLADE for the 3D lettering to COPE2 for the bubble lettering. Other names includes FUZZ ONE, BOM5, SEN2, INDIE 184, STAY HIGH 149, POEM, RD 357, DECK, EASY & JOZ.
The show runs until the 18th november 2012.
Here is the second set of selected works from this year’s London Art fair which for the sixth year includes Art Projects, now a major part of London Art Fair.. 31 Galleries feature emerging artists and new work.
Established as one of the most exciting sections of the Fair, it features solo shows, curated group displays and large-scale installations with galleries from across the world. Pryle Behrman has worked on Art Projects as curator since its inauguration in 2005. Continue reading London Art fair – in its 23rd year but still going strong, part2
Tthe New Orleans Museum of Art currently has the chance to host the large scale installation from the artist Swoon and that is called “Thalassa”.
The artwork reigns in the museum’s great hall and feels very powerful. Swoon here wants to voice her reaction to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and she only used found objects.
The display runs until the 25/09/2011.
