Last week, Aaron posted about VSP, a street art festival in Portugal. After seeing all the work that Best Ever did there, I just had to give it another mention. These might be some of the best pieces that this duo have painted so far. I remember when I first heard about Best Ever and thought, “Okay, that’s cool, but they’re going to need to do something so that they don’t seem like they’re playing 2nd fiddle to Herakut.” Now I’m more than convinced that they have differentiated themselves and are doing something completely their own. And they’re doing it damn well.
It’s highly unlikely that many of you have ever heard of the Portuguese collective known as VSP (Visual Street Performance). But some of our avid readers may recognize the name of one of their members known as Vhils. For those of you who aren’t already in the know VSP have been holding a yearly exhibition for the past 5 years in the capital of Portugal, Lisboa. This year however the crew decided to take things up a notch by showcasing their skills to the city of Porto for the very first time. Whilst the display only took place over the course of 4 days, street artists from across the nation flocked to the event to catch a glimpse at the some of the best street artists Portugal has on offer. Check out some photos from the event below!
ukadapta have organized a group show in Tokyo that opens this week. Should be good. The line up is a varied of British urban art with Best Ever, D*face, Word to Mother, Luc Price/Cyclops, Matt Small and more.
Sickboy
More info from ukadapta:
Adapta Gallery’s third curated project will be held on November 12th – November 29th 2009, with a show in Tokyo called Close Encounters.The show consists of 8 British-based artists, including Best Ever, Cyclops, D*Face, David Bray, Matt Small, Sickboy, Word To Mother and Vesna Parchet.
The variety of work on show is eclectic, and that is precisely the reason why we chose them in the first place. From D*Face’s two-dimensional graphic art to the rich textures of emerging artist Vesna Parchet’s styled character-based paintings, a plethora of mediums, emotions and messages are employed for the viewer to digest.
This particular show is very close to our hearts as we are finally able to put together an amazing line up of artists to produce works for our Tokyo readers and Japanese collectors to see in person. We have been interviewing and working on projects with so many talented British creatives over the years and to finally curate our own show in Tokyo for our main audience is a true honour.
On the opening night, we will also have special guests: Usugrow, Jeff Soto, Shohei Takasaki, Yoshiki & Nagayama also showing their works.
Close Encounters
Exhibition venue : Time Out Gallery, Liquidroom 2/F, 3-16-6, Higashi, Shibuya-ku,Tokyo
Put simply: MuTate has sculptures shooting fire into the air. ‘Nuf said.
In all seriousness though, the sculptures and paintings are very cool. Best Ever, Busk, Mode2, Sickboy and many many many others have contributed to make something special and unique.
Sickboy
I could say that I liked this painting or that painting, but half the time I didn’t know who painted my favorite pieces, they were just good, regardless of the name behind them.
Bleach, Busk and Zadok
But is it the absolute best art in the world? Not always. It’s just fun to see. Even a poorly painted stencil contributes to the atmosphere and makes MuTate a nice place to grab a beer or two.
Best Ever
This is the art show you can bring your friends to who would rather just go to the pub (see: my comment about fire).
Part2ism
MuTate Britain is located underneath Westway in London near Ladbroke Grove station. Who knows how long this party is going to continue (even the artists I spoke with said anywhere from a few weeks to indefinitely), so go check it out now.
If I weren’t at Fame Festival this weekend, I would have been in Brighton enjoying Prescription Art‘s latest show which is a 3 person show with duo Best Ever and Belgian Roa. Best Ever have only been around as a street art duo for about a year and have already made a strong impression on the London scene, and without Roa I can’t imagine that Ghent, Belgium would even have a street art scene (no offense to other painters in Ghent, but Roa just seem to paint something new every day).
Here are some pics:
Best EverRoaRoaBest Ever
All photos by Prescription Art, and you can see more on their flickr
Been waiting for this video to be released for a while now. Matt Small, Part2ism and Best Ever painting at Cordy House in London. Loving the in-progress shots of Matt painting.
Yesterday I had the chance to see Urban Angel’s latest group show, The Show Must Go On.
There are a bunch of artists involved in the show, but I’ve just picked a few high (and low) lights to cover here.
As usual, Best Ever is coming out with even better work. These guys have continued to develop their style into something distinctive and just plain cool to look at.
Best Ever
Also some cool work from Remi. Just when I think I’m going to get tired of his stuff, he paints something to get me interested again. The sketch in particular caught my eye.
RemiRemi
Ok and now for that lowlight (is that a word?) I mentioned. Mantis. Mantis has done some work that I like. His work at HackneyWick is not to be missed and I’m sure that if this stencil had been by Banksy, it would be worth a couple hundred grand. But his latest piece by Old Street just doesn’t cut it for me. I get the message, but it’s about 10 months too late and not that great to begin with. And why does he have to turn that image into a print release and an original work after being on the street for less than a month?
Surely, the message is now completely gone. The way I saw this piece on the street, it is about how people paid absurd amounts of money for Banksy’s work, which is often meant to make a poltical statement about poverty, when instead they could spend that money actually helping some starving African kids. And now I’m expected to buy that image from Mantis. No thank you.
So as to not end on such a sour note, let me say that there is also new work from Mikael Alacoque in the show, and though I could never have one of those dogs in my house all the time, they sure are fun to go and have a look at.
Circleculture Gallery’s next show is “Self-Portraits.”15 artists including D*face, Best Ever, JR, Jaybo, Charlie Isoe, Judith Supine, and Word To Mother will be exhibiting their self-portraits from June 5th.
Here’s the PR:
SELF-PORTRAITS
by contemporary urban artists from five continents
The idea of this exhibition is to approach the historical theme of self-portraits and to bring it into a contemporary art context. A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist. Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 1400s that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as important characters in their work. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, many painters, sculptors and printmakers tried some form of self-portraiture… In this respect it will be an interesting and new experience to show the vision of the “self-portrait” by contemporary urban artists from all over the world.
Opening reception: friday june 5th, 7-10 pm
until july 4th 2009 / tue-sat 2-6 pm
Circleculture Gallery
Gipsstrasse 11
Berlin Mitte / Germany
Circleculture Gallery has a history of doing shows with the best street artists before they are known as the great street artists. Examples? JR, Shepard Fairey, and Steve Powers to name a few. Okay, Shep and Powers were probably already known as great, but they are definitely much more popular today.
That’s what I was presently suprised to see Best Ever on this lineup for this show. Apparently, some people over on the Banksyforum have been dissing Best Ever for looking too much like Herakut. I think this is some evidence that Best Ever isn’t just some Herakut rip off. A German gallery is asking them, a UK duo, to exhibit alongside artists like Shepard Fairey and JR (Herakut is from Germany).
Yesterday I met up with Best Ever while they were painting at The Art Lounge. Their work on the walls of MuTATE was impressive, but this was the first time I’ve seen them working outside. I think it turned out well. I wonder how 10 foot will react when it sees this…
