Here is an overview of one of the most interesting exhibits at SCOPE Basel in Switzerland. Presented by the Joshua Liner Gallery, Kris Kuksi displayed some of his best work to date. With an incredibly meticulous attention to detail, Kuksi’s lifelike miniature sculpture scenes are realistic portrayals of grandeur odes to history. No matter how long one views this masterpieces, one will still miss out on minute details of the skilled craftsmanship. Below are some of the photos of the pieces, but click here to see magnified views of the works.
Colonel Wilhelm Von HowitzerheadPluto and PersephoneEros at Play
I always get excited when Pure Evil decides to display new work his Shoreditch Gallery. One of my favorite street artists, Pure Evil takes a new direction with his latest series of works entitled “Strange Girls.” Reflecting a fascination with the female facial structure, the artist painted several emulsions of interesting ladies of the past and present including Daisy Lowe, Bridget Bardot, and Sylvette David (a muse for Picasso).
MOMO has just spent 12 days painting at FAME Festival. During that time, he painted five walls. Here are a few of them.
As FAME’s organizer, Angelo, points out on his blog, MOMO’s abstract designs are very different from the figurative pieces that FAME is known for, but MOMO seemed to work just fine in Grottaglie, even with a slightly different aesthetic.
In the vein of Sebastian Peiter’s highly recommended street art bookGuerilla Art, Babelgum posted his 60 minute documentary (included with the book) encompassing the beginnings of street to the current trend of commercialism in the asset market. Featuring countless high profile names in the game, Guerilla Art takes a look at the current place street artists have in the elite world of art today and where the genre is headed in the near future.
The description on Babelgum is a more adroit one than I will write, so I am going to post theirs instead:
A new generation of street artists are the latest hot property of art collectors and advertising brands. Featuring Futura 2000, Rammellzee, Banksy, Os Gemeos, Space Invader, Barnstormers, Espo, WK Interact, Zevs, Blek Le Rat, André, Noki, Miss Van and Eine. Filmed in New York, London, Paris, Sao Paulo and Tokyo the documentary introduces the graffiti-inspired street art pioneers Futura, Rammellzee and Blek Le Rat. Art patron Agnés B and art curator Jerome Sans comment on the early days of Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat, when graffiti changed the streets of New York and the urban landscapes of the rest of the world. The film portrays a new generation of street artists led by UK stencil artist Banksy, whose artworks achieve record prices at auction houses like Sotheby’s and who is collected by Damien Hirst and celebrities Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt. Other new street art styles featured are the mosaic tile wall images of Invader, the lyrical folklore inspired murals by Brazilian twins Os Gemeos and the “Visual Kidnappings” of advertising billboards by Parisian artist Zevs. GUERILLA ART reveals how street artists have developed a unique system of economic survival. Their works are bought by young peers and new collectors. Street artist collective “Pictures on Wall” sells limited-edition prints online and organises the Santa’s Ghetto art sale, filmed right in the centre of London’s shopping district. Once street artists have made a name for themselves, they run their own clothing labels or design special lines for streetwear companies. Futura creates record covers and logos for youth brands. Parisian artist André is a typical cultural entrepreneur running an art store, working on designer toy lines as well as opening clubs in Paris and other cities. Noki creates one-off anti-couture fashion pieces using street art techniques. Rammellzee performs a mythology of his own Gods in clubs and gallery spaces. “Over the last few years street art has established itself as an art form. But where can this street-based movement go from here, after works by Banksy have been boarded up, chiselled off the walls, to be sold on eBay for money far exceeding the gallery prices?” Tim Marlow – White Cube Gallery Curator.
Click here to watch the film and feel free to post your reviews in the comments
Rovina (Italian for ‘ruin’), an installation from Ericailcane, has just opened at the POP UP! Festival in Ancona, Italy. Rovina takes place in an abandoned building, certainly reminiscent of Ericailcane’s work inside FAME Festival‘s abandoned monastery. In addition to painting the walls, this show also includes sculpture. For years, Ericailcane has been making beautiful stop-motion animations with sculptures and there were some simple ceramic pieces at FAME Festival last year, but I think this may be the first time that Ericailcane has put such complex sculptures into a show (but I’m not expert on Ericailcane, so I could be mistaken on this). As nice as the wallpaintings are, the sculptures are definitely my favorite part of this show. Just wish I could see it in person and walk around, it’s hard to get a real feel for the space from a few photos. Nonetheless, here are a few more photos:
This show is part of the 3rd edition of the POP UP! Festival. The festival has just opened with Rovina and will run through September 5th with a number of other events. There are three highlights: On July 30th, Blu will be previewing his latest animation; throughout August, a number of streets artists will be painting fishing boat hulls; on September 5th, the painted fishing boats will head back into the water. And it sounds like at least Blu will also be painting some a wall or two in Ancona.
These signs have been put up in Lisboa by a collective called CC. The signs parody the Securitas logo. Apparently, these ladies are quite a common sight in Lisboa. Target says “I remember I used to play soccer on the street, and this lady always called the police whenever we were there. Of course by the third day she did that again, police didn’t bother anymore.”
I love things like these, they cause you to make a double take and re-examine your surroundings.
This piece by NohJColey, titled Kleptomaniac, is the first in his upcoming Just Dieserts series. One of the many things I hope to come across when I’m in New York City next week.
Graffiti Analysis is an extensive ongoing study into the motion of graffiti. Custom software designed for graffiti writers creates visualizations of the often unseen motion involved in the creation of a tag. Motion data is recorded, analyzed and archived in a free and open database, 000000book.com, where writers can share analytical representations of their hand styles. Influential graffiti artist such as SEEN, TWIST, AMAZE, KETONE, JONONE, and KATSU have had their tags motion captured using the Graffiti Analysis software. All tags created in Graffiti Analysis are saved as Graffiti Markup Language (GML) files, a new digital standard used by other popular graffiti applications such as Laser Tagand EyeWriter. Graffiti Analysis 2.0 is an open source project that is available online for free in OSX, Windows and Linux. Graffiti writers are invited to capture and share their own tags, and computer programmers are invited to create new applications and visualizations of the resulting data. The project aims to build the worlds largest archive of graffiti motion, and bring together two seemingly disparate communities that share an interest hacking systems, whether found in code or in the city.
Surely one of the most talked about exhibits going on currently is KAWS at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut. As a fellow New Jerseyian, I feel it is my duty, nay my privilege, to hail from the same state as such an incredible street turned gallery artist. Made famous for his defacement of bus shelter advertisements back in the day (thanks to Barry McGee who gave him the key to the locks), KAWS continually reinvents his art taking it one step further with each new endeavor. What truly amazes me is that his aesthetic hardly changes, and KAWS’ logo/monster/creature-like-thing is still his work’s trademark embedded into nearly every piece.
Even though one might deem that KAWS’ work is out of place in a white walls museum stiff setting, the pieces are so loud and speak individually, that the white walls are a nonfactor in this instance. I especially enjoy the fusion of his colorful character and celebrity or model portraiture. The pieces are comical, yet strangely sadistic, in the sense that KAWS’ creatures own the subject and are not just a form of vandalism; rather, they belong in the picture. In some odd welding of pop, street, urban, and collage art, KAWS’ new works seem right at home on these walls, and I would be hardly surprised if they do not begin to appear in galleries or modern art museum collections more often.
The exhibit also boasts many of his more affordable collaborations like shoes, skateboards, etc. KAWS’s style just goes to show everyone that his work truly is relatable to and for the public, even in museum space. So if anybody wants to buy me one of the skate decks, I definitely would not decline such a gift.
Oh, and the music is a bit cheesy. You might want to turn it on mute. Or play a little Bruce in Kaws’ honor.
I came across this fantastic video that features an overview of Herakut’s work at the current “Happy Doubt Day” exhibit in Dusseldorf, Germany at Springmann Varol. The video features great animation of the paintings as well as pictures from what i presume to be opening night. Enjoy.
