Great In ’08: Mike Marcus Says…

As part of Vandalog’s “Great in ’08” series, which will be running every day for the rest of the month. Check out previous posts here. Street artists from across the world have been given one post to give away to one artist who they feel has been doing great work recently. Today it’s Mike Marcus‘ turn.

Who is one artist doing really great work right now?

Mike Marcus: Oh shit! Thats a tough question. I don’t think that I would be able to answer with just one name.

In Israel when I was asked that by journalists, I invariably mentioned Know Hope. I still think that he is doing beautiful, touching work. It really comes unfiltered right from his heart. It expresses his vulnerabilities, fears and passions although I do think that he has become a little less diverse as his commercial success increases. He’s a totally lovely person too.

When I was in NYC I was unexpectedly blown away by Revs. He is an artist that I never bothered really thinking about (probably because of his graffiti roots) but when you see his stuff in the context of the city you realise that he is making the rules that others follow. His work is monolithic yet personal, really exciting to stumble upon.

In London I really like what Paul le Chien is doing. I think that its early days for him and his work already shows fantastic promise. He doesn’t give a fuck (go on, publish the word fuck – you know you want to 🙂 ) about the stylistic conventions that street art seems to be developing. He mixes blatantly homoerotic subjects with well crafted tattoo-art inspired backgrounds. I think that over the next year or so he will start adapting his work to fit better with the street medium and spread out away from Soreditch into other parts of London. I would like to see him go big too.

Can I mention Hera too because she’s cute? 🙂

Revs. Photo by mercurialn
Revs. Photo by mercurialn

See more after the jump…

Know Hope. Photo by Know Hope/this is limbo
Know Hope. Photo by Know Hope/this is limbo
Paul le Chien. Photo by p.le chien
Paul le Chien. Photo by p.le chien
Hera. Photo by kalevkevad
Hera. Photo by kalevkevad

Photos from mercurialn, p.le chien, this is limbo, kalevkevad