Thanks to @hookedblog for this tip.
As of very recently, Banksy’s “One Nation Under CCTV” image in Westminister has been painted over with a single coat of very grey paint.
Photo by delete08
Phillips de Pury Auction – My 3 Picks
UPDATE: The Swoon mentioned in this post may have been withdrawn from the auction.
Tomorrow afternoon is the Phillips de Pury Saturday Sale. Along with toys, watches, and contemporary art, this auction has a good deal of street art. I went to the opening of this show on Tuesday, and while it maybe be the best urban art auction I’ve seen ever seen in London and there are only a handful of pieces that should not be there, three items really stood out for me.
Lot 170
Herakut
You Sure?, 2009
Spraypaint, acrylic and charcoal on canvas. 100 x 100 cm. (39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in.)
Estimate: £3,000-4,000
My thoughts – There are three great Herakut paintings on display at Phillips (plus two “in progress” works). This is the only one that will be sold at the auction. It is being sold to raise money for War Child, a charity helping children in conflict areas. It’s a very powerful piece, and contains a good amount of work from but Hera and Akut.
Lot 392
Os Gêmeos
Two works: Untitled (Head Box), 2005
Mixed media on wooden construction. 123.2 x 124.5 x 124.5 cm. (48 1/2 x 49 x 49 in.)
Estimate: £4,000-6,000
My thoughts – Who doesn’t love Os Gêmeos? Like many of their sculptures, these have been decorated inside and out, and viewers can stick their own heads up a hole at the bottom of the pieces to see the insides. Almost like two works in one. These giant heads are in the no-reserve section with an unbelieveably low estimate. For comparison, this canvas from the Dreweatts Urban Art Auction in October 2008 sold for £24,000. Surely most people would rather have these heads than a canvas. Of course, displaying them could be a nightmare, and they will in all likelihood end up in storage until they are put in a museum (which is where they belong).
Swoon
Untitled, 2005
Hand-painted linoleum print on mylar. Installation dimensions variable.
£2,000-3,000
My thoughts – Another highly underestimated item in the auction’s no-reserve section. I can’t even imagine this going for £3,000. As usual, Swoon’s work is beautiful, but the 3D installation aspect of this piece makes it unique. It might be hard to see from this photograph, but many of the birds are on separate pieces of mylar and are meant to be floating varying depths away from the way. This could be the deal of the decade.
What do you think? See any other particularly special pieces up for sale tomorrow? Leave a comment or shoot me an email (rj (a-t) vandalog.com).
PosterBoy’s First Ever Solo Show
Just saw this announcement on Eastern District’s website. Details are starting to emerge about PosterBoy‘s first ever solo show. If you don’t know PosterBoy, check our archives or his flickr.
In short, the show is called “AdBooster” and opens April 3rd at Eastern District in New York City. Be there or be square (unless of course, like me, you’ll be in a different country for the opening night. That’s forgivable).
From Eastern District:
PosterBoy “AdBooster” presented by PublicAdCampaign
April 3rd – May 3rd. Opening Reception 7-10pm Friday April 3rd 2009
43 Bogart Street, Brooklyn, NY
PosterBoy
www.publicadcampaign.comStreet art and and vandalism have never been paired so eloquently as they are when PosterBoy gets out his razor. Through a simple act of civil disobedience, this work challenges our intense relationship with outdoor advertising in the city. It proposes new ways of interacting with your public environment and challenges notions of public and private space. Out of the work comes a dialogue which is sometimes political, sometimes humorous, and always a mind altering moment of communication between two people.
Over the past year PosterBoy has brought his intense critique of advertising and public space usage to the streets of New York City with prolific force. Eastern-District is proud to bring you his first solo exhibition, including a large scale installation by the artist as well as prints of his now famous subway installations.
Bortusk Leer’s Street Monsters
Those who were at Prescription Art’s Outside In show or MuTATE Britain last year probably saw Bortusk Leer’s animated film which features his classic street monsters running around live shots of London. It’s a pretty neat film and I’ve always thought it a shame that nobody else could watch it now that those shows are over. Well I’ve just found out that in January the video was finally put on YouTube. So here it is. Enjoy.
The Graffiti Box
Clever. The question is, did the owner do this, or is the box itself meant to be art as well. Oh who cares just check out this picture:
The text reads:
All are welcome to express themselves in the box below.
and
Painting within the above box is hereby expressly permitted and shall not be considered “graffiti” in accordance with article #23 of the San Francisco Municipal Code
Via Public Ad Campaign via Boing Boing
Lou Reed Gets All Torn Up
If you’re not familiar with Supreme, they are a clothing company who seem, at first glance, pretty hip or whatever. Unfortunately, they are also known for being big fans of flypasting. Their advertising campaigns always seem to consist of photos of celebrities wearing their clothing. These adverts get stuck up in locations which also happen to be perfect for street art or graffiti (often times even going over street art or graffiti).
This practice has caused artists like Gaia to speak out against them or go over them. Recently, other street artists have picked up on this idea rather creatively. This most recent campaign has been a photo of rock legend Lou Reed. Within days of the campaign starting up, Faile were out changing around the ads to their liking. Now, another artist/artists (probably PosterBoy and Aakash Nihilani) have gotten involved:
Photo by Steven P. Harrington
PosterBoy Show Next Month in NYC
Some pretty exciting news from New York. One of New York’s newest art galleries, Eastern District, is having a show with PosterBoy opening April 3rd. Information is limited at this point, with just a few lines on Eastern Districts website. The show is presented by Public Ad Campaign, a really cool blog. This show is going to be one of my first stops when I visit New York next month. I bet it is going to be amazing. Other than the piece photographed below, these should be PosterBoy’s first works in a gallery.
Photo from PosterBoy’s flickr
Skewville’s Bushwick Project
Trust Art has been described as “a stock market for art projects” but it’s also about cultural renewal. The basic idea is that investors can fund projects proposed by artists and after a year the resulting artwork is auctioned off an the investors split the proceeds 50/50 with the artist. In the mean time, the art project not only produces art, but helps to build up a local community.
Skewville, the New York artists best known for throwing wooden shoes onto power lines, have propsed one of Trust Art’s inugural projects: The Street Art Urban Revitalization Program. Their project proposes to find 10 rundown and ill-maintained buildings in Bushwick that can be covered in murals by local artists. The project is meant to promote the local artists and make the local buildings look nicer, since right now there are a good number of abandoned or poorly maintained buildings in Bushwick.
At the end of the project, there will be work sold at auction, which is where the investors have the potential to make their money back.
Definitely a cool project. Hopefully Skewville can raise the $65,000 they are looking for.
Roa: My Favorite Artist You’ve Never Heard Of
If I were to buy one big original work by a street artist tomorrow, it would probably be something by Roa. Roa’s from Belgium, and doesn’t do that much work outside of his home country (at least not that I’ve found), but he’s just done some amazing walls in New York.
Roa paints animals, usually in black and white, and sometimes includes their skeleton or internal organs. And he goes big.
More photos of Roa’s work after the jump… Continue reading “Roa: My Favorite Artist You’ve Never Heard Of”
My Plans for Thursday
This Thursday is going to be, as it always seems to be, a very busy night for me. I’ll be visiting up to 4 galleries with a traveling brigade of my artsy friends. Here’s the plan:
1. Start at White Cube Hoxton Square for the Marcus Harvey exhibit “White Riot” for the portrait of Thatcher made out of sex toys and the bust of Churchill with a mohawk. Get there around closing time so that we can be unceremoniously tossed out at 6pm.
2. Next it’s off to Stella Dore for the Pam Glew show “Noir”. I’m not yet sold on her work, but I’m definitely open to seeing what she’s doing and the painting pictured on the advert they gave me is pretty sweet.
3. Perhaps the most surprising show of the evening will be at the Pure Evil Gallery. Panik, a member of London’s ATG crew, will be trying his hand a gallery work. I give this a 75% chance of not working out but just being a fun experience. It seems like graffiti artists usually can’t make that jump to the gallery. Panik’s work is awesome on the street, but the gallery is a completely different world. If it works though, as I’m hoping it will, it should be great.
4. And to cap off the evening, Part2ism has his show at The Art Lounge.
