I think this might be the catalyst for a post sometime in the next week. A while back, I posted about recession-inspired street art, but there has been so much more recently that maybe another post is due.
At first glance I didn’t particularly care for this latest paste-up by Elbow-toe, but I can see how it fits into everything he’s been doing and I’ve begun to rather like it.
Photos by guy_on_the_streets
Campbarbossa says:
Metropolis: Peter Michael & Holly Thoburn
22 October – 19 November 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday 22 October 6-8pmCampbarbossa in association with the Sesame Gallery is pleased to announce Metropolis, an exhibition exploring London in the Facebook era – a time of virtual relationships and neglected physical environments – portrayed through the work of two artists: Peter Michael and Holly Thoburn.
Holly Thoburn’s paintings focus on the walls and surfaces that make up the spaces the virtual world has left behind. Focusing exclusively on the walls of N1 for this show, her works depict the worn and neglected physical environment left to rack and ruin, bearing silent witness to the million-and-one stories that have passed their way in the past. One of her paintings, “The Earl and the Duke”, focuses on one Islington street
where a fashionable organic gastro-pub, The Duke of Cambridge, exists cheek-by-jowl with an old-school Islington boozer, the Earl of Essex. The marks, scratches, grit and erosion of the surfaces exude the myriad of stories that have taken place in both places, and the tension between their different clientele. Holly’s paintings treat the city’s walls like a storybook into its past, and a poetic metaphor for its present.In contrast, Peter Michael paints portraits of online acquaintances – the anonymous people we walk past daily in the street, and yet only interact with over the internet. His portraits remove the characters from any trace of visual context, setting them in a vacuum that emphasizes only their own physical qualities in an almost sculptural way – isolated and cut off from any other reference points, his characters stand defiant, poignantly full of personality, and carnally human. His central subject, Mhya, has an almost piercingly crystalline gaze that shows both resilience and vulnerability that characterizes the experience of disconnected communities of 21st century London.
Bringing these two painters together, Metropolis tells the story of how our fascination with virtual life has an inevitable impact of our physical world and relationships, and of the strange, alienating, and yet somehow character-building effects this has on its people.
Metropolis opens on Thursday 22 October and runs until Thursday 19 November.
A really solid line up for Represent which opens November 5th at Blackall Studios in London. The show highlights portraiture and includes some of my favorite artists like Matt Small and Swoon. Should be good.
Last night Herakut painted live in Berlin, and unless I’m getting my Herakut news stories crossed, the work was painted to decorate a local hospital. Good stuff.
Photos from campbarbossa
Just wanted to share these shots of case’s newly finished window installation.
His show, “The L.A. case”, runs from October 8th-29th. More pics of him getting ready for it here.
This is the artwork of Liesbeth Bussche, and I’m just going to let the pictures explain it. Very cool though.
Via urbanartcore
I was hunting around a little while ago for pictures of Herakut’s new mural, painted for ARTotale in Luneburg, and, just when I stopped looking, my friend Sebastian put some up on Unurth!
We did a little preview of ARTotale back in August and were pretty impressed by the line up. Just, who took these photos of Herakut’s work, has documented the week long festival on Ekosystem. Check out his awesome photo stream.
Pedro Matos is an artist from Lisbon Portugal, and this is a piece he did recently in Santarem, Portugal. I’m really enjoying how he has brought together all these different styles into one piece without coming across as another artist pandering to the street art fad.
Well it’s official. You can now buy my book, The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In, on Drago’s website.
I am ecstatic. This is a street art book with all the artists I’ve always wanted to see in a book together. Plus, it’s not just me writing standard bios for the artists (though there is a bit of that), a lot of the book was written by other contributors. Mike Snelle from Black Rat Press wrote the forward (did you know he is an amazing writer?), Panik ATG wrote about Burning Candy, Know Hope wrote about Chris Stain, Gaia wrote about Know Hope… the list goes on. Also, instead of just having photos of art on the street, many of the photos are of artwork that is now in people’s homes. That’s something I’ve always felt was lacking in street art books. In short, I think it’s a good book.
Until November, the only place you buy The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In is on Drago’s website, but eventually it will be in stores and, of course, available for purchase at The Thousands the exhibition from November 18th to the 22nd.
For a little peak into how this book came to be and the panic of finishing it by deadline, check out this post I did for Drago’s blog.
Just a few weeks ago, Banksy painted this piece in Croydon. Well turns out he painted that on council owned property. Of course, if the council just went and buffed the piece, you’ve got to think that people wouldn’t be happy. So the council asked for community feedback about the piece. Here’s what happened (from The Guardian):
Since inviting people to email in last Thursday, the council has received more than 100 emails, with 85% ruling that the graffito should stay.
Colin Hall, executive member for environment on Sutton council, said the piece had “caught the imagination”, and that the decision to retain or remove it should be a public one.
“We don’t tolerate graffiti in Sutton, and have a pair of dedicated teams who go out daily to remove it,” Hall said.
“But we’re well aware that many people see a difference between mindless tagging and work such as this.”
Read the rest of the article on The Guardian’s website.
