The upcoming film by Banksy, Exit Through The Gift Shop, is going to be showing in London from March 5th at Curzon Cinemas Soho. I’ve already got my ticket to the first midnight showing. You can get your tickets here.
UPDATE: Haha I’m not the brightest guy. There is no midnight showing. I just always mix up 12am and 12pm. More people should use the 24-hour clock.
On February 11th-13th, Sotheby’s Christie’s and Phillips de Pury will all have auctions in London which include a fair amount of street art. Here’s a selection of most of that work.
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction. February 11th, from 2pm.
Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction. February 12th.
Phillips de Pury Evening Sale: Contemporary Art. February 13th.
Phillips de Pury Day Sale: Contemporary Art. February 13th.
RJ’s final thoughts – Overall, wow. Maybe not all of these pieces are amazing, but the artists are all top-tier. There are no unproven street artists in these sales.
Banksy and Shepard Fairey, probably the world’s two best-known active street artists, have been in the news a lot the last few days. Arrested Motion has a nice roundup of all the latest Banksy news, and Culture Monster reports that Shepard Fairey is facing a criminal investigation over his legal case with the AP.
Banksy’s film Exit Through the Gift Shop premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday. The LA Times has a review…
The movie doesn’t appear anywhere in the Sundance Film Festival’s catalogue. Outside a small circle of ultra-secretive confidantes, nobody knows its director’s identity and whereabouts. And the film’s place in the Sundance schedule wasn’t even announced until last week.That hasn’t stopped acclaimed British street artist Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop” from becoming Park City’s hottest ticket.
Outside Park City’s 446-seat Library Center Theater, Banksy fans started queuing up hours before “Gift Shop’s” 8:30 p.m. screening in 15-degree weather, even if their chances of getting in were slim. The screening, which was also a sales event for the film’s representatives, Cinetic Media, felt more like a feverish night club, with Jared Leto, Adrian Grenier and uber hipster Danny Masterson (of “That ’70s Show”) in the packed house.
A film-within-a-film that begins as a chronicle of guerrilla art and its most prominent creators but morphs into a sly satire of celebrity, consumerism, the art world and filmmaking itself, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a nearly impossible work to categorize. That doesn’t begin to describe the contradictions that surround the new movie that’s both about — and made by — the controversial and hugely popular artist.
“Trying to make a movie which truly conveys the raw thrill and expressive power of art is very difficult. So I haven’t bothered,” Banksy said in a statement to The Times e-mailed from his publicist, Jo Brooks. “Instead this is a simple everyday tale of life, longing and mindless vandalism.”
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Read the rest on The LA Times‘ website…
I’m sure this is just the first of many posts updating the information on Banksy’s film Exit Through The Gift Shop.
The BBC reports that yes, as speculated everywhere online but here, the film will premiere on Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival as a sort of secret surprise entry and will open in UK cinemas on March 5th.
According to the BCC, “It is described as the story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on him.” This can only mean one thing, Mr. Brainwash. Also, MBW is shown in the trailer. For a while, rumors have been circulating that MBW is Banksy, either as a massive prank on the art world that shows how good PR can make any crappy artist popular, or as an experiment to see if Banksy would be popular without the Banksy “brand name” to back him up. Well that’s just not the case. Unfortunately, MBW is a real person who thinks he is an artist, and it’s well known that he started his art career while making a documentary film about Banksy and other street artists. Apparently, this is that film. I can’t wait to see it, I only hope it makes people realize what a terrible artist MBW is, instead of adding to his allure.
Also, although it hasn’t been reported if Banksy will reveal his identity or not (let’s hope not), Banksy will appear on camera in the film in some form.
Years of rumors have finally proven true, Banksy has made a movie and it’s being released this Spring. The film is called Exit Through The Gift Shop. Here’s the official trailer:
And the official website is banksyfilm.com.
Check out the latest Banksy piece which has recently appeared in Park City, Utah, where the Sundance Film Festival starts on Thursday. Apparently there are a few other pieces by him in Park City as well, but this is the only one with a nice photo online so far. I’d love to see somebody take some pictures of all the documentary filmmakers who will undoubtedly be filming this piece over the next few days.
Photo by Brendan Bybee for whitelotuscooks.com
As previously discussed here, Banksy and Robbo have been having a bit of a fight lately. Now, Robbo has gone over a 2nd new Banksy piece and promises to hit even more. Here’s Robbo’s latest dis:
I could get into the details of this whole thing, but whatever I write about this story will be 2nd to what nolionsinengland has already posted over at Graffoto. It’s a must read post for Banksy fans or anyone interested in the the battle between graffiti and street art.
Original post on Juxtapoz here
It seems as though Banksy has truly done it again. When it seems like he has exhausted his long list of issues to take shots at, there is always one more trick up his wry sleeve. There is not a single member of the street art community that I can think of that has so brazenly challenged its aggressive and cantankerous older brother, graffiti. And for good reason, considering the retribution for going over any writer is not worth the effort or the pain. Instead, artists who do not define themselves as writers, or frankly take on the kind of risk and responsibility of writers, are relegated to primarily street art or virgin spots. It seems that wheatpaste has only grazed (or maybe graced) a throwup or old school piece out of ignorance, not as a provocation; most notably Shepherd Fairey’s encounter with Marty, and the whole DYM incident revolving around Jace and 11 spring (of course there are even some personal anecdotes that I won’t go into.) In all of the countless cases in which street art has stepped on writers’ toes, the transgressions have warranted outcries, apologies, and even formal letters of justification.
But here we have Street Art’s most celebrated figure actually instrumentalizing an old school piece and incorporating it into the work UNapologetically. This is not a situation of callous poster application and graff forum howling, which is undoubtedly followed by a lauded takeback. Instead, Banksy scoped the spot, made the effort to cross the canal, and then turned a 24 year old piece into wallpaper, which despite being the ultimate offense, poses some interesting considerations. Firstly, instead of succumbing to graffiti’s belligerence, Banksy confronted and subverted its methods. In a satirical statement, we see the old school converted into figurative wall paper (while of course it is still paint). Robbo actually becomes controversial wheatpaste, the very medium that is so loathsome to aerosol, and in doing so essentially the piece is reinvigorated back into the spotlight of attention.
And this is precisely the most fascinating point, this revisiting of a piece that stood in a position of relative inertia (disregarding the countless tags that tarnished its former glory). This is the conflict of the contemporaneity of street art and the rigidity of graffiti. Banksy, by daring to perpetrate the ultimate taboo, basically capping a piece of history, has problematized the structure of how work on the street functions. He has epitomized this dichotomy between of the amorphous, forgiving nature of Street Art, and the unbending, intensely hierarchical and historically obsessed operations of graffiti. He has taken the prohibited, under the looming risk of serious punishment, and made it his own. Ultimately, Banksy has disputed the static hierarchy of graffiti that is founded upon an insecurity of the ephemeral with a brave, new gesture that is unafraid of ramification or change. While I am saddened by the loss of such a remarkably old artifact, I am simultaneously encouraged by the confrontation that has awoken this sleeping relic from its slumber.
But then again, I am a street artist, so what is my opinion really worth.
-yours truly, Gaia
Has Banksy finally been unmasked?
