OBEY Rips Off Restitution Press

UPDATE: I was misinformed, the Bandit image below is by Restitution Press, and the skull image is by Euthanasia.

Photo by Lord Jim
Photo by Lord Jim

Looks like it’s time to add Restitution Press to the list of artists that Shepard Fairey may have stolen imagery from without giving credit. Restitution Press has been wheatpasting in LA and other cities for years, and now it looks like two of their images have one of their images has been stolen and combined with an image by Euthanasia for use in a tshirt by OBEY Clothing.

Essentially, here’s what happened:

Equation

Those first two images are by Restitution Press. The first image is by Restitution Press, the second is by Euthanasia, and the last one is a close up of a tshirt by OBEY Clothing. They sure look pretty similar.

Here’s the full image of the shirt:

Shirt

This looks to be one of OBEY’s classic “re-appropriations” where they have taken some images that they like, changed them slightly, and the stuck some OBEY logos around.

And it would be pretty hard for Shepard Fairey to play dumb about these images. He knows they exist. Last year he wrote to the head of Restitution Press complimenting him on their work.

I wonder what Shepard Fairey from last April would have to say about this…

American Realities @ New Image Art

A very exciting show opens at New Image Art in LA next week. “American Realities” opens March 28th and is a group show with Clare Rojas, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, and Lydia Fong.

From New Image Art’s blog:

Opening reception Saturday, March 28,
7 to 10pm
Musical performance by Peggy Honeywell and comedic act by Andrew Jeffrey Wright

Clare Rojas, Barn with ghost

Clare Rojas:
San Francisco painter, singer, and filmmaker Clare E.Rojas is not a folk artist. In Clare Rojas’ works, women, men, nature and animals are strong and weak caring and connected to one another in their struggle to find harmony and balance. She celebrates women for their traditional and most basic differences and strengths. While the characters are often imbued with feelings of loss and nostalgia, one gets the sense that they will not back down. They will ultimately beat their predators at their own game.

Rojas’s appropriation of folk imagery addresses contemporary female social concerns “The feeling of loss in my work, is my feeling of loss of hope. The struggle to find the good and the beautiful and represent it is my challenge. Understanding the ugliness that finds its way into our culture is crucial.” Rojas’s beautiful uses of allegory and of an imagined cultural landscape in her paintings act to subvert our current accepted perceptions of women. It allows the spectator an engagement with an alternate evocative world that is both funny and sad and that points to the complexities of being a resilient female in the twenty-first century. Rojas often depicts women alone, standing amid a flattened forest landscape, but this is not to suggest that they are lonely. No, Rojas’s women exist in their own reality, feeling peaceful, protected, and quiet.

Selected exhibitions include a group exhibition with the Luggage Store, San Francisco in 2003 for which she won a Louis Comfort Tiffany award. In 2004 Rojas had a solo show at the San Francisco Art Institute and at the Belkin Satellite Gallery in Vancouver. Her work was included in the travelling exhibition, Beautiful Losers. She has exhibited at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, and was most recently a featured artist at the Prospect.1 New Orleans Biennial.

*Partial Text Credit to : Dietch Projects, and Katie Geha Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

AJW, triangles

Andrew Jeffrey Wright:
Andrew Jeffrey Wright is a current and founding member of Philadelphia’s Space 1026 art commune. He has a BFA in Animation. The collaborative animation “the manipulators”, which he made with Clare E. Rojas, has won the top prize for animation at the New York Underground Film Festival and the New York Comedy Film Festival. Wright’s highly limited edition handmade books have gained an international following. His works include painting, animation, drawing, collage, photography, sculpture, video, installation, screen printing and performance. He has shown at Lizabeth Oliveria(LA), New Image Art(LA), Spector(Philadelphia), The Luggage Store(San Francisco), Lump(Raliegh), The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts(Philadelphia), ICA(Philadelphia), Giant Robot NY(NYC) The Corcoran(DC) and Foundation Cartier(Paris). He has shown with Barry McGee, Paper Rad, Leif Goldberg, Clare E. Rojas, Marcel Dzama and Michael Dumontier.

Lydia Fong
Lydia Fong is a multi-disciplinary artist
from Shanghai.

Recession-Inspired Street Art

How I haven’t done this post yet I don’t know.

Street art is a chance for the average Joe to voice their opinions and concerns and to connect with the rest of the public. Often, that means artists put out work that is subversive or anti-corporate. For these reasons, it is only natural that the recession makes it way into street art. So here’s some of the best recession-themed street art I’ve found. Add your favorites in the comment section.

K-Guy's "Bank of Sonia and Mike"
K-Guy's "Bank of Sonia and Mike"
Icon Propaganda's "Where's My Bailout?"
Icon Propaganda's "Where's My Bailout?" photo by shoehorn99
Above's "What Goes Up Must Come Down"
Above's "What Goes Up Must Come Down"

More recession themed street art after the jump… Continue reading “Recession-Inspired Street Art”

Anthony Lister Time-Lapse Video

Anthony Lister recently had a solo show at KGallery in Milan called “The Pain of Feeling.” For that show, he painted on a wall in the gallery. That painting was videotaped, and now you can see the process in a time-lapse video. Enjoy:

Myartspace.com Interviews D*Face

The Myartspace.com blog has done over interviews with contemporary artists including PosterBoy, Anthony Lister, and Mark Jenkins. Their latest in this series is London local D*Face.

Here’s a little preview of the interview, you can read the rest on their blog:

Brian Sherwin: Tell us more about your thoughts on consumerism and popular culture– and how your work offers, or at least explores, an alternative. For example, would you say that most people live in contradiction– in the sense that they strive to be individuals while embracing every message that flashes on the TV screen?

D*Face: The thing is life is full of contradictions, it keeps things interesting, certain people try to live out their lives through products and brands, it’s excepted in our society that shopping is a ‘hobby’ and wearing brands depicts your of a certain ‘stature’ or ‘class’. What I noticed recently with the down turn in the economy is that people are still going to the shops, it’s as if their lives have become programmed to do that, no matter whether they have money or not.
I was at a shopping center recently and it was strange, people were walking round the shops but like zombies or vultures circling a giant rotting corpse looking for a ‘bargain’. It was surreal, but at the same time really interesting, the backdrop of most shops ‘Sale’ or ‘Closing down’ signs covering the windows, made it feel like a film set or art installation.
I really don’t want to come across like I’m preaching, because I wear Nike, I drink Coke, but if there’s an alternative it should be considered.
My work has always been about a subversive intermission from the media saturated environment that surrounds us, I always saw the characters I was putting up as a break to to the advertising bombardment, it was also my escape from this world, I was surrounded by it, not just in the public domain, but at the time the marketing mumbo jumbo speak that I’d hear at work… it made me really cynical, I guess seeing and hearing it with my own eyes and ears made me want to spread the rot from the inside out.

You know, I’ve never said ‘don’t buy this brand or wear that label’ what I’ve wanted to do is get people to consider an alternative or look at the brands that surround us with different eyes. The billboard liberation’s I’ve created are my most direct way of instigating this.

Matt Small @ Black Rat Preview Pics

Matt Small’s solo show, “Youngstarrs,” opens at Black Rat Press next Thursday. I’ve just been sent some preview pics of the show from Matt’s studio. This show is really shaping up to be something special. Personally, I think Matt’s portraits are some of the most powerful being made today.

I’ve seen a couple of the pieces from “Youngstarrs” and they have impressed me to no end. I would show you a blury photo I took with my iPhone, but twitpic.com seems to have lost the image. Oh well, these preview images are better quality anyway.

Matt Small Studio

Matt Small

Matt Painting

Matt Small

Matt Small

The cool thing about the above painting is that it is done (I believe) on concrete. The end result is probably my favorite style of work that Matt has ever done.

So remember, “Youngstarrs” opens next Thursday at Black Rat Press.

Photos by Ian Cox

Introducing… Ripo

I found Ripo through Roa, as the two have done some pieces together. Ripo is just one of those artists who can make me smile with slogans like “Steal This Space?” painted over a billboard or “Misunderstood” next to some graffiti. His use of simple designs and classic “storefront sign” fonts reminds me of ESPO and Above (whom he has collaborated with in the past). Anyways, I’m not so great at explaining exactly what makes work great, so just have a look.

Roa (left) and Ripo (right)
Roa (left) and Ripo (right)

Ripo Stairs

Ripo’s very first solo show, “is what I meant to say…”, is opening in Brussels on March 27th at the Mr. Ego space. Check out the flyer:

Is What I Meant To Say

Check out more of Ripo’s work after the jump… Continue reading “Introducing… Ripo”