Street artists love skulls almost as much as Dick Cheney enjoys shooting people in the face (God, that’s a really dated pop culture reference, isn’t it). Here are five pieces by artists who use some form of a skull as their logo:

1. Kaws

Maybe an ad disruption would be a ‘better’ piece by Kaws, I love the way somebody spray painted around this sticker. Very few stickers get that much respect.

Photo by Jake Dobkin

2. Cyclops

You can’t mention London street art or graffiti right now without a nod to Burning Candy, and Cyclop’s skulls are in many of their best collaborative pieces.

Photo by bixentro

3. Booker

Booker/Reader/Readmorebooks/Boans… This writer gets up under too many names to keep track of, but one of his many trademarks are these skulls:

Photo by funkandjazz

4. Katsu

No discussion of skulls on the street would be complete without Katsu.

Photo by dreamsjung

5. Skullphone

Don’t really know what Skullphone is trying to say with this image, but he’s said it all over the world.

Photo by Laughing Squid

So that’s five street artists and graffiti writers who use skulls as logos. Now the reason I started thinking about this post. This is a new piece by Elbowtoe that I’m really liking:

Great piece by Cyclops and Sweet Toof of the Burning Candy crew photographed by Nolionsinengland. Keep an eye on The Thousands’ blog for a BC related announcement soon.

Two gallery shows to mention today.

First, a show that surpised me. Last time Jaybo had a solo show in London, it wasn’t for me. Naturally, I didn’t rush to see Jaybo’s new paintings at Signal Gallery. Earlier this week, I made it over and I have to say I liked this new work much more.

Still not something I’m super pumped about, but at least I enjoyed stopping by, and there were one or two portraits of girls (like the one above) that I could see on my walls at home.

And the second gallery I need to mention is one that I’m very curious and excited about. As Black Rat Press closes up shop for the summer and the Matt Small paintings come down from the walls, you will still be able to find work from Matt and fellow BRP artist Luc Price over in New York City at Glowlab. July 30th is the opening of X: The Multiples Exhibition at Glowlab. Here’s the PR on that show:

Glowlab is pleased to present the group show X: The Multiples Exhibition, bringing together thirteen artists producing works linked via their mode of production. The artists included have published, screen-printed, photographed, performed and sculpted pieces that are identical either in manufacture or concept. The show’s title refers not only to the mathematical function of multiplication, but also to the crossing of aesthetic, commercial and conceptual boundaries when art is made in multiples.

So basically, Matt and Luc are showing screenprints. Matt’s prints are always as lovely as his paintings, which is exciting, and I have no idea what Luc is going to do, as his recent gallery work has been so different from his street work as Cyclops, and he has never done a print (to my knowledge) under his real name before. Looking forward to the pictures.

The Krah was recently in Thailand, so if you’re in the area, be on the lookout for some new street art there. Also there was Cyclops, and they collaborated on the piece in the photo below. Check out more of the trip at behance.net

The Krah and Cyclops

Also, this Thursday is the opening of BAZAART, a group show in London with artists like The Krah, Pure Evil, Snub, and many others. More info at Snub’s website.

I probably won’t be able to make it to this, but if you live it Bristol it sounds fantastic.

Crimes Of Passion: Street Art in Bristol

This Spring Bristol’s oldest and grandest gallery, the Royal West Of England Academy is throwing open all 5 of it’s galleries to host a major show by 50 of the city’s best known and most successful graffiti and street artists. This is the first major show of its kind in the city since the Arnolfini’s groundbreaking 1985 show, Graffiti Art and is a full-blown celebration of the city’s rich and diverse contemporary scene.

Bristol has nurtured many of the UK’s most successful graffiti and street artists, including 3D, Inkie, Banksy, Nick Walker, Sickboy, Cyclops and TCF Crew, to name but a few. The city continues to be a breeding ground for a wealth of exceptional creative talent and continues to have one of the UK’s most diverse and thriving scenes.

Crimes Of Passion takes the love of (and heartfelt dedication to) the art form as its starting point, but is far from a typical gallery retrospective, all the artists will be showing completely new work, as well as installation pieces and working both directly onto (and into) the walls of the gallery.

Crimes of Passion will also include a city-wide programme of large-scale painting, a photographic exhibition,a film season at local arts cinema The Cube  (www.cubecinema.com) and a series of workshops and talks.

Exhibition venue:
Royal West of England Academy, Queen’s Rd, Bristol

Exhibition dates:
21st March – 2nd May

Artists involved in the show include Cyclops, Inkie, Mudwig, Nick Walker, Sickboy, Xenz and many many many more.

If anybody goes, please let me know how it is.

So last night was the opening of Black Rat Press’ White Noise show. Most of the work was from Lucas Price/Cyclops, Asha Zero and Brian Adam Douglas/Elbowtoe, but there was work from Blek le Rat, Nick Walker, Matt Small, and D*face as well.

Cake by Brian Adam Douglas. Photo by RJ

Self Portrait by Brian Adam Douglas. Photo by RJ

For Brian Adam Douglas, the show was a chance to introduce a whole new direction in his work: collage. These collage pieces are amazingly detailed and I can’t wait to see how the work progresses. For now though, there is at least one collage which had a crowd of people around it all night. Douglas’ self-portrait, pictured on the left, may be the perfection of collage. His other collages were good, though I prefer his older work to most of them, but his self portrait is probably the best piece I’ve ever seen by Douglas. The video below from JetSet Graffiti features Douglas/Elbowtoe and talks a bit about his collage work at the end.

Detailed. Photo by RJ

More after the jump…

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