Next week in London, Mike Ballard aka Cept is opening his latest solo show: Ultra Nomadic Def Smith Cycle at Edel Assanti Project Space. It opens Wednesday, March 23rd from 6-9pm, but I’m not sure how long it runs. I’m looking forward to Graffoto‘s review.
EVOL will be at the WILDE Gallery booth at Volta
With two midterms exams tomorrow, I’m rushing this post, but here’s a simple list for some of what to check out at the art fairs in New York this week.
I won’t be in NYC for the fairs myself, but I’ll hopefully have some photos to post. Otherwise, the places I will be getting my art fair news will be Hyperallergic and Arrested Motion.
Photo courtesy of Volta Art Fair
Mike Ballard, aka Cept, has a show opening this week in Cork, Ireland. Yep. Cork. Sounds like a kind of random place for a show an artist like Mike Ballard, but then again, Mike is not the type to do things the usual way (like the substantial differences between his art as Mike Ballard and his art as Cept). Over the last couple of years, Mike’s work has continued to grow on me. At first, I just trusted nolionsinengland when he said how great it was, but I’m not sure I could quite see it. Now though, I get that awesome sense of wonder when I see something by Mike Ballard. I’m excited to see that Mike is bringing his work to new audiences in Ireland.
The show, Community Thunder, will take place at Triskel Arts Centre, opens this Saturday from 6-9pm and runs through March 23rd.
PS, I don’t mean to say that Cork or Ireland in general sucks, I’m just saying it’s not known for a thriving street art or graffiti scene besides a few exceptions.
Photo courtesy of Mike Ballard
D*face sticker
Happy new year! Between snow in NYC and the general slowness around this time of year, not much going on this week. Here’s a bit of what I’ve been enjoying though:
Photo by Delete08
Tek33, Gold Peg and Sweet Toof. Photo by Tek33
There are a few little bits to mention today about my friends in Burning Candy. The crew have been keeping pretty busy lately.
Recently, I’ve been working with Burning Candy (Cept, Cyclops, Dscreet, Gold Peg, LL Brainwashed, Mighty Mo, Rowdy, Sweet Toof and Tek33) on a project that’s really got me excited. For me, Burning Candy are some of the most interesting and talented street artists living in the UK right now. In the UK, there isn’t a street artist who gets up harder, a graffiti writer who hits better spots or a crew that pushes the boundaries of their art further than the members of BC. So about this project…
A man called The Barron is directing a film about the rest of Burning Candy called Dots. This isn’t your ordinary graff film though. Since The Barron is a friend of the crew, he’s got more access than the standard documentary filmmaker would ever get. So far, he’s filmed and edited the first 20 minutes or so of the film. The next 70 minutes? It’s on its way, but Burning Candy needs the help of their fans to make it happen. To fund the making of the Dots, BC have made a box set of prints. All nine members of the crew have contributed an image to this print release. Since I’m working with BC on this print release, I’m obviously biased, but I don’t think there’s a bad image in the bunch.
So here’s the press release with all that vital info:
To help raise funds and make Dots a reality, Burning Candy has put together a limited edition set of 9 screenprints, one print from each member of the crew. The set will come in a hand-screenprinted bespoke box. The prints are 2-colors and A5 sized and the edition size is just 150. These prints aren’t only artwork; anyone who buys a set of prints will also own the rights to 0.05% of the films revenues for the next 10 years. 100% of the profits from these prints will go to funding the making of Dots.
The prints will be released online imminently for just £500. In the mean time, you can email sales(at)dotsfilm.com for more information.
And for those curious about my personal involvement in the film and print release, I’m helping out friends and artists that I believe in, but I’m also getting paid for my work.
Cept has put this piece up recently. It looks great, but that’s not really the whole story. It was painted on top of a classic Cept. Why paint over the old piece? Turns out that the council demanded that the owners of the wall remove the graffiti because there had been complaints about it. Instead of paying the £5000 to clean the wall, they just had Cept paint something new there. Graffoto has the whole story, along with other examples of Hackney council’s inconsistent and often absurd graffiti removal policy.
Got this kind of confusing press release in my inbox today. For what I’ve been able to gather, there is a new London art gallery opening next month in Kings Cross. The Writers Bench is a gallery for graffiti. Their first show will be a solo show with Cept called “A Frozen Explosion.” That show opens on September 3rd and runs for most of the month. For me, Cept’s gallery work can be hit or miss (my preference being his superhero work, not so much the purely text-based paintings or the Zodiac series), but I do like it when I think it works, so I’m curious to see what he’s got in store. And with a show title like “A Frozen Explosion,” I think it’s safe to say we can see cool pieces like this:
Here’s a few things that I could/should have done full posts about, but I’d just like to quickly cover before they become too old and get lost in my inbox.
Spent some time today checking out the catolog for the February 24th urban art auction at Bonhams in London. A few people have noted the extremely high number of Banksy lots (22 of 78) and dismissed this auction, but I’ve found a few potential deals to be had. If you’ve got the money to spend and you can weed through the crap, people are looking to sell some really nice work. Here’s what I’ve found:
1. Banksy – Kate Moss (series of 6)
Estimate: £100,000 – 150,000
There was a time when just one of these 6 could go for £100,000. Perhaps Banksy’s most sought after print. The winner of this auction will be a very lucky man/woman in a decade. Read the rest of this entry »
