An interview with Ron English has revealed a number of new twists in the stories of Banksy/Shepard Fairey/Mr. Brainwash/Exit Through the Gift Shop, as well as confirmed some major long-time rumors. Read Ron’s words in full over here, but here’s a summary:
Thierry Guetta/Mr. Brainwash is a real guy and he’s really like how Exit portrays him. He’s not some actor hired by Banksy or whatever else people have claimed.
Even before becoming Mr. Brainwash, Thierry was pretty wealthy and he owned a bunch of property in LA. That was his big “in” to connect with street artists: He could offer them the best walls to paint legally.
Exit Through the Gift Shop came out of Banksy’s intervention in a lawsuit between Shepard and Thierry over Thierry essentially holding hostage all these tapes that Shepard and Banksy wanted access to.
For our second interview in the lead-up to Young & Free at 941 Geary (opening September 10th), I spoke with Anthony Lister. Outside of Australia, Lister is without a doubt the best-known Australian street artist, and he also helped curate Young & Free. On the surface, his work is pretty simple to describe (mostly loosely painted superheroes), but words can’t convey the energy and passion with which Lister makes art, and there’s a lot more to each image than what first meets the eye. He strikes a difficult balance between high and low brow. Speaking with him, it’s clear that Lister is an intelligent guy who knows his art, but his work is equally accessible to those in the know and teenagers who just want to see cool pictures of tits and superheroes. A few years ago, a friend explained Lister to me something like this, “Anthony can paint with the best of them. His hand is up there with Bacon and all the greats. He just happened to take to using spray cans more than paint brushes.” Lister has blazed a trail in the Australian street art community both with is work and his approach to spreading it. For many, he has been the ambassador of Australian street art. For Young and Free, he continues that role by opening up the floodgates and bringing his friends with him to America.
RJ: Where are you right now?
Lister: I’m in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m in a cab to the airport, to go to Sydney.
RJ: It seems like you’re always traveling. You’ve traveled all around the world and you even lived in New York at one point. What keeps you coming back to Australia?
Lister: Gosh, I don’t know. I go to places that I enjoy where I can be around people that I know, and I enjoy meeting new people, but I guess I just go where I’m invited.
Photo by Lord Jim
RJ: You’re an extremely energetic guy, and it seems like a lot of that energy goes going creating an immense amount of work. How do you stay so prolific and at that energy level?
Lister: I’m an adventure painter, so I’m trying to break through to the other side. I’m into experiment and development, and I wanna paint for me, so I just have that much inside and I constantly have to be making changes, editing. I feel like I’m only as smart as my last decision; I’m only as good as my last production, so I’m trying to make better paintings than I did yesterday, today.
Photo by Birdman Photos
RJ: What’s an adventure painter?
Lister: There’ve been a lot of adventure painters. Francis Bacon was an adventure painter. Robert Rauchenburg was an adventure painter. Australian adventure painters… Brett Whiley was an adventure painter. This is just a thing, it’s a term to describe the energy involved with the journey which is being a visual practitioner: Conceptually, objectually, subjectually.
Photo by brandon shigeta
RJ: How would you describe Australian street art and graffiti?
Lister: It’s out in the wild over here, okay? It’s the same story, different city. When you travel and you’re involved in say skateboarding or graffiti or fine dining for that matter, these restaurants are in every city. The flavors change because of the style beef that’s there and then it becomes an atmosphere thing. It’s just that: The product of one’s efforts over here has been developed over a different atmosphere, so I’m not sure there’s a definitive difference, but I’m sure there’s definitely talent going into it. It’s a really amazing and wonderful thing that’s going on.
RJ: As you say, there’s a lot of talent in Australia, but I don’t think any Australians were included in Art in the Streets at MOCA? Am I wrong about that?
Lister: Yeah. There were no Australian artists in it. Martha Cooper shot of a photo of me, and I think that was in there, but no artists, no artwork. I feel pretty lucky to be at the forefront of all that, and also that book Beyond The Street, to be the only Australian artist in that 100-artist lineup, so I feel really fortunate.
RJ: You can look at Very Nearly Almost, and those guys are looking at Australian street art, but otherwise it seems to be something that a lot of bloggers, including myself, don’t follow closely enough, and it’s a bit of a shame. There’s a lot of talent out there.
Lister: And as an artist, you have to make an effort too. I’ve been traveling the world for nearly 10 years, and going back to places. It’s not like you just go to Rome once. I go to places and develop relationships. Everyone’s into what everyone else is doing.
Lister and Haculla. Photo by RJ Rushmore
RJ: How would you describe the importance, for you, of Young and Free?
Lister: It’s a nice thing to be able to put a package together. This is the Australia package, and I had some involvement in the choice of artists who are going, and I’m really happy to be involved in it. It’s not like anyone’s gone and done it. It’s not like this show would be easy just for a group of artists to put on. It’s a tricky thing, even for a gallery. You’ve got to focus all your energy. It’s reaching a new level. It kinda feels like the way that Futura described to me one day how Jeffrey Deitch flying him and a bunch of dudes over to Japan in the 80’s and doing art and shit and it just being crazy. It’s awesome.
RJ: What’s your relationship with the other artists in Young and Free?
Lister: Yeah, I do know all of them except for maybe one guy, although I don’t know how or why. Ben Frost, Kid Zoom, Sofles, Dabs and Myla, Rone… It’s these guys I’ve been developing relationships with. It’s not like I’ve even just met them once. These are people I’ve been hanging out with for the seven years. Some not so much; some are younger or came from different areas and they’ve just gotten up by the quality of their work. This is a really great, rounded, quality group of artists who are from graffiti, you know, trainpainters to fine artists like myself, and everything in between.
RJ: Definitely. When I first saw the lineup, I was excited because it was pretty much everybody I would have included, plus some guys that I didn’t know, which was great to see. But are their any Australian artists in particular that Vandalog readers should check out who aren’t in the show?
Lister: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of people who aren’t in the show. Real, quality artists. But it’s just one of those things. And what I’m interested in isn’t necessarily what is gonna be better for a particular audience. You know, as a curator you have to consider your audience, an American audience. There’s not a lot of things out there that really turn me on. I see things I like, but when I’m making work, I’m trying to make work that really turns me on. An artist who does that, to drop a name, would be Magnus McTavish. He’s an abstract fellow adventure painter, and there’s so many names here, there’s so many great artists over here. It’s really fun. It’s exciting and fun.
Photo by brandon shigeta
RJ: What have you made for this show?
Lister: I made a painting, and I plan on making a few more paintings and some mask pieces.
RJ: Great. I love the mask pieces. Are there going to be any walls or murals painted for the show?
Lister: Yeah, I believe there are. There’s definitely gonna be installation and site-specific, in-situ pieces being made. It’s getting pretty exciting getting all these people together. A lot of people made work for the show, but a lot of people haven’t, so that’s a part of this whole traveling, in-situ art game right now. It’s a beautiful thing because you really get work that vibrates strongest when you’re making work in-situ. Artists support each other, it’s great. Everyone’s been training for so long. This is really the product of what is great and going on over here right now, and everywhere in the world for that matter. I just came through Berlin. I just came through LA. I just came through London. It’s all really great. Everyone’s really positive and making quality work.
Photo by unusualimage
RJ: Speaking of London, you just had a print a Pictures on Walls. Can you describe what the process was like, making work for that show?
Lister: Well for that one, I worked pretty closely with the print team, and I wanted to make sure they were unique. The boss over there was into me taking my time, and we made something beautiful. And the show itself was an extension and a growth of what I’ve been working on. I was really excited. It was really great.
Feral Child. Photo by Feral ChildLabrona, Overunder and Gawd. Photo by nickmickolasEntes and Pesimo. Photo by nickmickolasNever. Photo by nickmickolasLNY. Photo by nickmickolasSharktoof. Photo by Greg Mike
I’ve just had an incredible week volunteering at ‘See No Evil’ in Bristol where over 40 artists have spent the last week painting the dull concrete of Nelson Street. The week finished with an amazing block party (the street was packed!) and it certainly no longer looks dull!
There are too many to mention but for me some of the highlights came from Mau Mau, Xenz, Nick Walker, Mr Jago, China Mike, Tats Crew, El Mac, What Collective, Mysterious Al, Cosmo, Paris, SPQR and Stickee.
The photos below are just a fraction of what is there:
One thing that has come up a number of times on Vandalog and in my personal conversations is the seeming isolation of Australia’s street art scene. Although Melbourne in particular as a street art community to rival many major American cities, it seems that most fans of street art are unfamiliar with Australian-based artists besides Anthony Lister and perhaps Meggs. Now, two of Australia’s most committed street art collectors have teamed up with 941 Geary in San Fransisco to put on the biggest show of Australian street artists the US has ever seen, Young & Free. The show has been curated by Sandra Powell and Andrew King, the couple with what is probably both the best collection of work by Australian street artists, and the best collection of work by street artists in Australia.
13 artists are involved in Young & Free: Anthony Lister, Kid Zoom, Dabs & Myla, Dmote, New2, Ben Frost, Meggs, Ha-Ha, Reka, Rone, Sofles and Vexta. That’s a pretty solid line up, representing most of the best Australian-born street artists (but, as far as I know, Ben Frost is not a street artist). If you haven’t heard of all of those names, you can go to the Young & Free website to get a taste for each artist. Basically, without making the trip to Australia yourself, this show will be the best way to see what’s going on with their street art scene. Hopefully, it will also be a massive step towards putting Australian street art on equal footing internationally with American and European street art.
But of course, a gallery may be a place to experience art, but it’s not the place to experience street art. Street art is on the street. Luckily, all 13 of the artists in Young & Free will be in San Fransisco at the start of September, so here’s to hoping that some walls get painted.
Young & Free is still a few weeks away from opening, with a run from September 10th through October 22nd, but we’ve got a quick preview…
So the other night I finally got around to watching Channel 4’s Graffiti Wars, otherwise known as “The documentary about ROBBO.” I have some mixed feelings about it, and obviously want to tread lightly talking about it with ROBBO’s condition (He is currently in a coma), but feel that RJ and I should at least attempt to address the pseudo-documentary.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, and you can over here on 4od online in the UK, the hour long special focuses on UK graffiti writer ROBBO and his ongoing turf war with Banksy. Vandalog has covered the “graffiti war” since the beginning, but pretty much Banksy covered a ROBBO piece along the Camden canal that had been there since the 1980’s and in retaliation ROBBO began writing graff again and he and his team would vandalize Banksy works.
My main issue with the documentary is not the extreme sympathy and bias that Channel 4 shows towards ROBBO throughout or the lack of interviews from street artists (not just all the graff writers that spoke on camera), but actually this alleged success story for ROBBO of him on the brink of becoming a fine artist.
I went back to Pure Evil yesterday (who is featured in the film for hosting ROBBO’s first solo show) to look at some of the unsold works. He has put them on display in the basement, so if you have a chance do go check them out. In all honesty, however, the work is not that great. Now we all know there is a lot of shit out there that people praise, but from a strictly artistic perspective, in my opinion the work is sub-par that was shown in the gallery. He is a graff writer and does amazing graff works,but his gallery work doesn’t reflect that wild style. The film focuses on ROBBO’s dreams of becoming a fine artist in his own right and that is is the crux of my issues. He is not a fine artist and he just used the feud between him and Banksy to make some money. He hadn’t been working for years, but all of a sudden, he used the notoriety of Banksy to get noticed and maneuver his way into the gallery system. Plenty of artists take advantage of publicity to sell art (Eine…), but eventually the work has to stand on its own. ROBBO’s does not. ROBBO might be a “king”, but he is not a great artist.
I am sure people have other views on this, but the documentary could have been more well-rounded and unbiased. It is a tragedy what happened to ROBBO, and my thoughts are prayers go out to his family and friends. If you want to help support ROBBO, there is a fundraiser/art auction taking place next month at Cargo.
Over the last week or so, there have been a lot fewer posts on Vandalog than usual. Two reasons for that: This week I’ve been spending time with my family and relaxing, but last week it was because I was in Atlanta for the second annual Living Walls Conference. It was a crazy few days, resulting in some beautiful new murals for Atlanta (like these from Gaia, Nanook and Escif). I’ll be posting more of those murals over the next few days.
For now, I’d like to focus on a massive thank you to all of the volunteers, organizers, artists, speakers and sponsors at Living Walls. In particular, all the volunteers who spent their own money on gas to practically act as personal drivers to all of us without a means of transportation. And while there’s a long list of sponsors, here’s a little shout out to those that I had the pleasure of connecting with: Sam Flax South, Eyedrum, Dodekapus, Atlanta Beltline, Streetela, The Goat Farm, MOCAGA and The Sound Table. The artists and speakers at Living Walls are some of the most talented around, but they are also some of the most fun. So thank you to everyone involved in Living Walls on any level for all the hard work. It was an honor to be invited to speak, and I hope to return again next year.
As Gaia mentioned, a bunch of artists were painting murals last week in Atlanta for the Atlanta leg of the Living Walls Conference. My personal favorite of the walls I’ve seen so far (I was there, but a few walls were still unfinished when I left town) is this one by Escif.
Faile have been painting this week in Oslo in preparation for the T&J Art Walk taking place this month for the benefit of Human Rights Watch. Faile are the first artists to get to Olso and start painting for the event, but Shepard Fairey, Logan Hicks, D*face, The London Police, Seen, Fenx, Galo and others will be taking part as well. In addition to 10 murals in central Oslo celebrating the work of Human Rights Watch and memorializing the victims of last month’s terror attack, there will be an exhibition from August 18th through September 4th at the Norwegian auction house Blomqvist for the benefit of Human Rights Watch.
Doodles, Swampy and Greg Mike at Living Walls 2010
Later this month, Atlanta is going to be taken over by street artists from around the world for this year’s edition of the Living Walls conference, Living Walls: the City Speaks. From the 12th-14th of August, there will be film screenings, lectures and artists painting murals around the city. Living Walls have brought together an impressive artist roster from around the world including (but not limited to) Doodles, Swampy, Gaia, Roa, Labrona, OverUnder, Sam3, Freddy Sam, White Cocoa, Nanook, Greg Mike, Paper Twins, Clownsoldier and Gawd. And I can’t complain about the keynote speakers either: Tristan Manco, Gaia, Ricky Lee Gordon and me.
So if you’re in Atlanta, come out check out the opening party at The Sound Table on Friday the 12th, lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia on the 13th during the day, a party at The Goat Farm the night of the 13th and a tour of all the new murals on the 14th. I’ll post more details about exact times later. And of course, I’ll be posting plenty of photos from the conference as well.
In September, another Living Walls event will take place in Albany, NY. More on that later.
