Jeff Soto recently worked with Chevy on an ad for the Chevy Sonic. I’ve got some problems with advertising, advertisers working with artists and advertising that co-opts street art and graffiti to sell dumb crap. But I’m pleasantly surprised that this advertisement actually kind of works. At the end of the day, the world is left with a new mural by Jeff Soto, and that mural doesn’t have a massive Chevy logo on it, just an engine block. Is the concept a bit cheesy? Perhaps. Is calling the piece “street art” irritating? Sure, but expected. Even I oversimplify at times by calling murals (or in this case, pseudo-murals) street art. And the ad still way better than 90% of the street-art-related advertisements out there. So, an awkward kudos to Chevy for not screwing this up, I guess…
In the aftermath of another fantastic gallery show, this time at White Walls in San Francisco, Sickboy took some time out from painting massive walls with Eine to answer a few questions.
Shower: How did the concept of the Wonder Club arise? Can you give some examples of the daydreams that have inspired this body of work?
Sickboy: I used to have an illustrated picture of the Mad Hatters Tea Party in my bedroom as a kid, and it’s still in my family home. To this day I pondered on the thought of its inspiration on my life and that opened up a chasm of ideas. I have also been known to have some crazy dreams, I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s possible to transcribe some of them from the Wonder Club body of work.
You delved into the world of ‘mixed media ephemera’ as part of the show. Can you explain how and why?
Yeah sure, I spent the month prior to the show working and living above a studio in San Francisco, courtesy of the gallery. In that time I collected many story books from local shops and found some great surfaces to paint on including some metal drawers. All of these were included in the show. Many of the books were used in the temple assemblage. I’d remove the covers and paint on the backs of them. It’s satisfying to know that those pieces would never have been created without spending time in San Francisco.
As part of the Wonder Club you aimed to revisit your inner child for inspiration. When I was a kid it was all about Lego and Thunderbirds. Was there a certain toy, film, comic or fairytale that inspired you?
I guess I refer more to what art has represented to me in my youth. I copied Sweeny, the toddler comic strips, and gave them as Christmas presents once, and later down the line my first graffiti pieces mean a lot to me in their naivety. I lost a big bag of photos that had my first pieces in it but I can remember their metallic holts duplicolour essence, that to me is my inner child. Continue reading “The Caravan King – An interview with Sickboy”
Retna‘s latest solo show opens on April 24th at Art Careyes Gallery at the Costa Careyes resort in Careyes, Mexico. And yes, I just repeated “Careyes” 3 times, but it’s not my fault that everything relating to this show seems to have that in the name. Anyway, the show is called Time Traveler. Here’s a beautiful video trailer for the show:
A huge fan of Veng’s larger-than-life signature character that surfaces frequently throughout NYC and beyond, I was delighted to discover another side of his talents in his small, delicately-rendered birds — largely fashioned with watercolor and ink on paper — at Mighty Tanaka. Here are a few more images:
The exhibit, The Birds and the Bees, also featuring work by Gigi Chen, continues through May 4th at 111 Front Street in Brooklyn’s DUMBO district.
If You Hate Me Live This Way, Don't Make Me Live This Way
Today sees the opening of Herakut‘s latest gallery opening at 941 Geary in San Francisco. Entitled Loving the Exiled, the show features new paintings by the German duo that examine the mythical relationship between humans and nature. The show runs until 29 May.
Here are some of my favorite works in the show. The full show preview is available on the gallery’s site.
This week I’ve got a rather major correction to make. A few days ago, I wrote about a piece by Jeice2 where it looked like he went over a bunch of tags with with a poster. Turns out, the poster was just taped on for the purpose of a photograph, and so the graffiti was not covered.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been looking at this week:
Apparently Jack Whitehall doesn't like free publicity, because there are no photos on his website without substantial watermarks. So instead of a photo of Jack, here's a photo that we could get the rights to publish without watermarks: A horse's behind.
Last night on British comedian Jack Whitehall‘s new variety show Hit the Road Jack, the rising star took on the biggest street artist of them all – Banksy. Taking place in Bristol, the show made fun of the west country, but of course could not ignore the masked street artist’s legacy in Bristol. Pretending to be Banksy, Whitehall (or another artist thanks to the wonders of editing) spray painted an erect penis on the side of a house and the words “this pub is bullshit” on the side of a Bristol pub. Claiming that the angry home owner and pub manager respectively should be happy with the addition of Banksy works on their buildings, he also added that it’s ok “I’m Banksy, I can do what I want.” Even though the skit was taking the piss, the phrase still rings true. Banksy does really do what he wants.
Unfortunately, only the British can see the clip featured on Youtube here.
Last Friday, Isaac Cordal‘s latest show opened up in Barcelona at RAS Gallery. Presented by SUBEN and curated by Maximiliano Ruiz, the show is a further look at the artist’s adaption of works into the gallery. Although still working outside, the artist (like most nowadays) are figuring out ways to adapt their works to translate indoors and on display. Using the environment around him, Cordal has successfully found his niche within a gallery, presenting his sculptures as commentary on the natural versus manmade in the form of interesting sculptural installations.
The show runs until 13 May at RAS. See SUBEN for more information.
