As mentioned the other day, Ema and Kid Acne were recently in France to work on a gallery installation. While there, both of them also had the chance to put up some work outdoors. These are a few of my favorite pieces, but the full set of images and spots can be found here.
Photos courtesy of Kid Acne
Escif has been painting in France recently. This wall in in Besançon, the hometown of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who was the first person to call himself an anarchist. Escif also painted at The 4th Wall festival in Niort, France.
Photos by Escif
K-Guy put out the above “carpet bomb” last week at Occupy London, which is taking near the London Stock Exchange. While Nolionsinengland has some nice things to say about K-Guy and the piece over on Graffoto, I’ve got a major problem with it. Is the “carpet bombing” idea a bit funny upon first hearing it? Yeah, I guess. Is K-Guy’s pun worthy of being on a protest sign? Sure. I like it. But there’s a funny story about how I hear about this piece… The above image was emailed to me by the woman doing PR for K-Guy’s upcoming solo show at London West Bank Gallery in the hopes that I would post about this piece and, in the process, also mention that K-Guy just happens to have a show coming up next month where he will be trying to sell a lot of artwork in a short amount of time.
In the past, I’ve defended the practice of street artists getting up in order to build hype for a show, so long as the work isn’t overtly advertising a show (such as putting the gallery name and date of the opening on a poster). Particularly when an artist isn’t from the city where the show is being held, it’s a way to get their artwork out on the street when it otherwise wouldn’t be there, regardless of any advertising angle. That’s not what happened here.
It seems like K-Guy has gone too far here. He has made what is (likely) a very temporary piece, put it right next to a legitimate protest about putting people over profits, and then used photographs of the protest and his artwork in order to immediately turn around and try to sell something. He is blatantly trying to make a buck off of these protestors, which seems to me to be quite disrespectful the Occupy movement, even if the spread of K-Guy’s image may potentially raise some awareness for Occupy London. For me, his PR campaign delegitimizes this piece by K-Guy, and it will likely make me think twice about any of his politically-charged work in the future. The whole incident reminds me a bit of this Levi’s ad.
Oh crud, I guess the PR machine worked anyway. Didn’t Warhol say something about not reading your press, but weighing it?
Photo courtesy of K-Guy
Don’t Fret just opened up for Maxwell Colette’s new space the Ukrainian Village neighborhood of Chitown. Opening night shots to be updated
Usually I have something to say here about my week, but it’s all kind of a blur and I’ve been struggling to find any words to describe what’s been going on or excuses for not blogging about everything interesting I’ve seen this week. So let’s skip the pointless pleasantries and here’s the stuff I missed:
Photo by Dimitris Taxis
When I was in Lima in 2009, I was captivated by Faber’s lyrical portraits on the walls of his city. Since, his work has been featured in both MUEVO MUNDO: Latin American Street Art and GRAFFITI 365. Continuing to paint in public spaces, Faber is now preparing for his first solo exhibit in Lima. Below are examples of his work on the streets:
And the following one, Old Man, is on canvas:
Photos courtesy of Faber
I have got to admit that this piece is one of my favourite walls of the year, if not my number one favourite…
Native Australian duo, Dabs and Myla have crashed head on with Remi/Rough and this explosion of colour is the result. Old Street has never looked so good!
Photo by Remi/Rough
Always delighted to come upon Paul Richard’s elegant portraits of gentlemen on NYC sidewalks, we couldn’t resist checking out his portraits framed on the walls of the Rivington Design House Gallery. Here’s a glimpse of both:
Photos by Lois Stavsky
