Category: Photos

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Where have all the Banksy’s gone?

UPDATE: Please also read this new post about how the below artwork was removed by Ace Gallery.

Two things by Banksy, separated by thousands of miles, have disappeared in the last 24 hours.

First, Los Angeles is abuzz with the news that Banksy’s stencil of a guard and Jeff Koons-style dog has been removed from its location on an empty building:

When this stencil first appeared, it wasn’t clear if the dog was meant to be an actual balloon animal or a reference to the Jeff Koons artwork (or both). Given a comment Tim McCool made on Hyperallergic though, it is clear that this piece is referencing Koons. According to McCool, “There’s a Koons quote: ‘Abstraction and luxury are the guard dogs of the upper class.’ So Banksy is accusing Koons’ work of being in the same category of unintelligible, abstract, and ludicrously expensive art.” Given that, I’ve totally changed my opinion of this piece. At first I found it kind of boring, but this 2nd meaning, I’d say this piece was much more interesting. It’s great when Banksy comes up with pieces that have 2 or even three completely meanings depending on how you look at the piece. In this case, he’s combined an okay joke for the masses with witty commentary for the art-world elite (to be clear, I certainly am not including myself in the art-world elite. I never would have caught that 2nd meaning).

Shame that this piece had been removed. Hopefully it was taken down for the piece’s own protection and we’ll see it in a museum next week, but I’ve got a feeling that this was more about a property owner’s potential profits.

Photo by Jordan Seiler

And all the way back in New York City, Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign has gone out and covered up those fly-posted adverts for Exit Through The Gift Shop with some of his artwork. I suppose that’s the scary power of the internet that one person can state an opinion and somebody else can take political action as a result. I’m not usually a big fan of abstract pieces, but I’d much rather see something like what Jordan has done here rather than some flyposted advertisements any day of the week (could that be part of what Jordan is trying to say with this series that he’s been putting up on billboards lately? I’m not sure).

An interesting day for Banksy artworks all around.

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Kurator at PS1

This project from Kurator might still be on view at P.S.1 in New York. Here’s what he has to say about it:

I just finished installing an unsolicited show at PS1 and wanted to get the word out before it gets taken down. I have created and installed a series of “gallery plaques” for various details in the PS1 building which are not official works of art but can easily be interpreted as such.

Here’s what the plaque says about this one: Untitled by Not Jackson Pollock. Paint on concrete. Although this piece could easily be mistaken for the work of the great American painter Jackson Pollock it is clearly not by him, because if it were it would be hanging on the wall of a major museum or the house of someone with far more money than you. However do not let this stop you from admiring its beautiful composition and masterful execution.

Photos by Kurator

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Every time…

Banksy once said “‘Every time one of my friends borrows my ideas, mounts a huge art show and becomes a millionaire celebrity,’ a little bit of me wants him dead.” I’ll amend that to “Every time a street artist turns their back on their values, mounts a huge flyposting campaign and becomes what is essentially an advertising executive, a little bit of me wants to write over their work.”

But I suppose that’s the natural order of things.

Photo by Jake Dobkin

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Another new Banksy in LA

As predicted yesterday, Banksy wasn’t going to stop at painting one spot in LA. Here’s what appears to be LA Banksy #2. I wasn’t blown away by yesterday’s stencil, but I love this. It’s another one of Banksy’s artworks about kids playing despite interference from the adult world, a series he’s been working on for years (perhaps most notably with his recent No Ball Games print and street piece in London).

Photos by Sonja Teri (posterchildprints.com)

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New Banksy artwork in LA

Photo by Ben Phen

Twitterer Ben Phen was the first to photograph this potential new Banksy in Los Angeles. It’s located at La Brea & 4th. So far, I haven’t seen anything saying that the artwork has been either covered in perspex or tagged over.

It might not be his funniest stencil to date, but the piece looks like a Banksy, and with Exit Through The Gift Shop premiering in LA this week, it’s a safe bet that Banksy is trying to promote the film with some outdoor activities. Hopefully this is the first of a few new pieces we’ll see from him in LA or across the states as his film is shown around the country.

What I’m most curious about though is not if Banksy is in LA, but if Mr. Brainwash is. And will Mr. Brainwash attend any screenings of Exit Through The Gift Shop? Thoughts?

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New light works from Armsrock

Armsrock has been working on projected street art for some time now, but I think these are his best light works yet. They’re ghostly, but naturally they’re more like forgotten ghosts wandering the city than horror-film ghouls.

Armsrock says: “I have just spend the last couple of days in Lueneburg in Germany doing experiments with two light technicians there, trying out different ways of combining drawing with time based media. Here is some of the things that came out of it. Analogue projections on site in Lueneburg. The original drawings for the dia-slides are about the size of the surface of a hand.”

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Banksy news update

I am definitely behind on writing about Banksy news. So here’s a bit of what’s been going on in the Banksy world:

  • The distribution strategy for the US release of Exit Through The Gift Shop is pretty unique. The Wrap has more details, but basically, Banksy’s got a distribution company devoted entirely to his film, and they’ll be releasing the film city-by-city (leaving open the possibility of Banksy doing some street work across the USA? Maybe…).
  • There’s a new 5-minute teaser of the film available on YouTube. It includes a slight spoiler by giving away the plot, but if you’re reading Vandalog, you probably know the plot already anyway. Either way, you have to watch the bit at 0:59 where the guy is getting chased by cops. Those parkour guys ain’t got nothing on graff writers. Check it out:

  • And finally there’s the updates on the Banksy versus Robbo feud. Somebody, maybe Banksy, has struck back at Robbo on Regents Canal. This is really getting pretty boring for me, and I’m pretty sure these latest modifications are just by some random activist and not Banksy (which, admittedly might make things a bit more interesting, but they still look lame). Graffoto has photos and their take on the story.