Pure Evil has a solo show opening this Thursday night at XOYO, which is just around the corner from his galley in East London. The Last Good Time is a series of very pop art portraits of artists’ muses. It runs through September 8th.
Photo by Pure Evil
Last night hosted a packed opening at Black Rat Projects entitled Printmaking Today. Normally print shows tend to be a bit tedious, since they are usually reproduced images of originals or have been so before upon their initial releases. But Black Rat hosted a refreshingly eclectic display of prints by artists ranging from Damien Hirst, Banksy, Matt Small, D*Face, Shepard Fairey and more. As much shit as I got for a previous post of mine about street artists becoming accepted into the art canon, this show only adds further evidence to my point. While many high end fine art establishments look down on street art and find it a passing trend in galleries, this show saw Hirst’s work next to D*Face and Bridget Riley (whose work is in the Tate) close to a Shepard Fairey, without any work looking out of place. My friends and I were discussing how not only does street art borrow from fine art, but fine artists are definitely borrowing from the work of street and outsider artists. The lines are quickly blurring between low brow and fine art, so it is finally nice to see the two in such a show, and not just in an auction.
The show also boasted an incredible pop-up project space by ROA. Each angle showed a new image, and I swear you could walk around it ten time and would still see something different. The works may not be new, quite similar to the LA and NY shows, but the concept is so much more complex and is worth checking out just for that reason.
My favorite of the night had to be Pure Evil‘s “Dripping Liza” work that culminated with a puddle of teal paint down on the floor near the canvas. Andy Warhol may be done to death, but Pure Evil still manages to put a new spin on an over-saturated piece of art that needs to be seen in person to attain the full effect.
Pictures by butterfly. View the whole set here
I always get excited when Pure Evil decides to display new work his Shoreditch Gallery. One of my favorite street artists, Pure Evil takes a new direction with his latest series of works entitled “Strange Girls.” Reflecting a fascination with the female facial structure, the artist painted several emulsions of interesting ladies of the past and present including Daisy Lowe, Bridget Bardot, and Sylvette David (a muse for Picasso).
Sylvette David
Daisy Lowe
The opening reception is July 1 from 6-9pm at The Pure Evil Gallery in London.
The entire show catalogue can be seen on the Pure Evil site.
All photos courtesy of Pure Evil
The very last film (for now) that I’ve helped to make for Babelgum is this chat with Pure Evil at his gallery and studio space in London…
Most of the time, despite all the politics and whatnot, people in the street art world seem to get along. But there have been two incidences in London recently that have shocked me a bit.
Photo by unusualimage
First is what is currently happened to Jon Hammer (aka Elate). Jon believes that for a past few months he has been stalked and intimidated by people who presumably don’t like him and his artwork for whatever reason. This has even gone so far as somebody putting a virus on Jon’s computer and attempting to break into his home. The full story can be found on his blog.
And at the Pure Evil Gallery, two artworks were bought using stolen credit cards. One was by Herakut and the other by Pure Evil. Images of the artwork and more information can be found at Crack For Your Eyes.
Those 3-minute wonder videos that were made off of City Road in London can now be watched online. Which is great for me as I missed their original broadcast on Channel 4. Here are the videos for Burning Candy, Pure Evil and Blek le Rat. And if you want to see these pieces in person, check out my video of how to sneak into the space.
Burning Candy
Pure Evil
Blek le Rat
The latest in my series of videos for Babelgum Metropolis is online. Essentially, I’ve figured out how to best enjoy the latest large mural from Burning Candy as well as new pieces by Blek le Rat and Pure Evil which have popped up in East London.
Also, yesterday I meant to post a video of me at MuTate Britain, but accidentally posted another video of the show. Well here is the video I meant to post:
The first (along with the time lapse video of Roa painting) in a series of videos I’ve started to make for Babelgum.com is this tour of The Brick Lane Zoo, a show that just closed at The Brick Lane Gallery. Every week there will be two new videos going online: one will be a sort of different video like a time lapse or an extended interview, and the other will be me checking out the latest street art gallery openings.
In this video, make sure to listen to what Pure Evil says toward the end about street art and graffiti. And hey, there’s an interview with Roa so that’s awesome.
I’ve got a few shows opening this week to highlight, most of them in London, one in Brazil.
Let’s start in Brazil. Sixeart has his first solo show in Brazil opening on Tuesday the 11th.
Sixeart “Sueñan las gallinas con ser humanas”
In 2008 the Spanish artist Sixeart achieved international fame by participating in “STREET ART AT THE TATE MODERN” in London, along with brazilian Os Gemeos, and Nunca, french JR, united states Faile and italian Blu. Today his works are shown in Spain alongside those of Miró, Chillida and Tapies.
“Sueñan las gallinas con ser humanas” is series of 13 new pieces on paper made exclusively to be exhibited in ROJO®artspace Sao Paulo from 11.08.2009 to 05.09.2009.
ROJO®artspace Sao Paulo
POP. Rua Virgilio de Carvalho Pinto 297,
Pinheiros. 05415-030 Sao Paulo. Brazil
talk: +55 11 3487 1677 online: http://www.rojo-saopaulo.com
And now back to London.
My Thursday evening starts off with a stop over at Lazarides‘ Rathbone Place gallery for Invader show ‘Low Fidelity’. There should be everything we’ve come to expect from the Parisian globe trotter: mosiac video game characters, rubix cubes, QR codes and even sculpture. Personally, I’ve always preferred the thrill of discovering an Invader on the street to seeing it in my home, but that hasn’t stopped me from buying one in the past. I’m curious, though not enthusiastic, about what this show will bring. Plus, everybody knows that Lazarides throws great opening parties.
Then it’s off to Pure Evil’s gallery for his solo show which mixes art and music.
And then maybe a stop over at Urban Angel for “The Sentiment of Love,” a show of erotic photography.
Friday night I hope to be back in Shoreditch for the launch of London Handstyles at Rarekind Gallery. Another London graffiti book.
Two really enjoyable street art videos hit the blogosphere today.
The first is from Pure Evil. He’s been in Brazil for a show, and it looks like he’s having a great time checking out the street art there. Some really cool work by extremely talented artists, most of whom I’ve never heard of.
C00l Pure Evil story. The other day, my friend asked me about buying some art for her room. She’s into stuff like Rothko, but I thought I’d try to get her into street art. I sent her an email with links to about 15 street artists to try to get a feel for her taste. I figured she’d end up loving stuff by Remi/Rough or Anthony Lister for their more traditional styles. I threw Pure Evil onto the list because I have a piece by him that I really like, but I didn’t expect her to like it at all. It’s a stencil and it just didn’t seem like her taste. Turns out, Pure Evil was her favorite artist that I linked to. Now, she and I are going to stop by Pure Evil’s gallery to check out his work in person. So that’s my tangent for the day.
The other video is of Shepard Fairey on CBS. It’s a pretty good interview, though I think I caught an error or two when they talk about his original Andre the Giant campaign. Fairey mentions his problems with the AP and claims that his work falls under free speech, so he is not guilty. Can’t wait to hear how that argument plays out in court. I’d love it if he gets off not guilty with that defense.
Via The Art Collectors Blog and Hooked
