And the Street Art Awards go to…
JR (for his work in Sao Paulo) in Street Art
and
Matt Small (for his for painting “Paul”) in Urban Art
Congratulations to the winners, every artist involved, and Rough Trade East and Auction Saboteur. It was a great night.
The Street Art Awards are tonight at Rough Trade East, and today they’ve been featured in The Independent. Below is an except, but check the full article, along with profiles of Guy Denning, Case, Matt Small, SPQR and others, here.
Street artists paint on the street, graffiti writers tag on walls and urban artists paint on canvass – right? Think again. The boundaries between these genres are blurring to create a new movement that echoes the punk ethos of anything goes. Artists grouped together under this “street” umbrella are not just spraying Bansky style stencils on walls. Some, like German duo Herakut, are highly skilled painters who create “photorealistic” graffiti with spray paint, others, like Tel Aviv artist Know Hope, are more craft-based.
It seems fitting then that street art, in all its guises, is to be recognised at the first ever Street Art Awards ceremony. The public have been encouraged to vote for their favourite piece of street art from 2008 both online and at the awards night which takes place at Rough Trade East record store, London, tonight. The evening promises top-name DJs including Andrew Weatherall, magicians, live painting and a charity raffle.
“Street art has always been a democratic art form,” says Mark Bracegirdle who runs urban art business Auction Saboteur and founded the awards out of a desire to let ordinary people decide what constitutes good art. “We wanted to take that idea further and encourage everybody to become an art critic rather than just the elitist few.”
In addition, over 50 international artists have each donated a work on vinyl to be raffled at the event and in month-long eBay auctions – a pick of the best on offer can be found on these pages. Raffle tickets will be £10 each on the night – a bargain if you walk away with an original by Matt Small or Guy Denning that would usually sell for thousands of pounds. All monies raised will go to the charity Single Homeless Project.
The manager of Rough Trade East and keen art collector, Spencer Hickman, said: “Music and art go hand in hand so it seemed fitting to get the artists to produce work on a record. Every medium including stencils, cut and paste and fine art is on offer and people will be amazed at the range of work. The artists have really made these second-hand objects beautiful again, just like painting on a dirty wall outside.” Who said vinyl was dead?
For tickets to the awards and to cast your vote, go to www.streetartawards.com.
The Street Art Awards (organized by Auction Saboteur) are this Thursday at Rough Trade East. The event sounds like it will be a fun time, and there’s a bunch of great looking work in the charity raffle. The awards are sure to be packed, as they’ve gotten coverage in The Observer today. It’s a great article well worth a read:
‘Twenty-five years ago I was doing one-man shows and street art was outcast; people thought it was outrageous. It was pretty hairy in those days, when graffiti artists would go out and paint trains. Then, it was all about getting your train seen from one side of the city to the other,’ recalls Goldie, one of the contenders for the first Street Art awards on Thursday.
Read the rest here.
Via UK Street Art
The Street Art Awards is coming up next week, and although the deadline for submissions has passed, you can still register to vote for your favorite street art of 2008. And of course, there is the actual awards ceremony on December 4th at Rough Trade East where you can win original art in a charity raffle.
From the website:
Street Art Awards Party and Charity Auction 2008
The first ever Street Art Awards party and charity auction, featuring over 50 international contemporary artists, will be held at Rough Trade East on 4th December.
Urban art business, Auction Saboteur, has organised the awards that will celebrate the best urban and street art offerings from 2008. All money raised will go to the Single Homeless Charity.
The Awards Ceremony
The night will see Rough Trade East turned into an urban art bazaar with attractions including: charity art tombola, pin the devil tail on the banker, hook-a-duck-outa-an-oil-slick, a magician, DJ’s and lots of art related prizes.
Each attendee will be given a ballot paper on entry and asked to vote for their favourite artist from the shortlist. The winners will receive a specially designed sculpture that will also be up for grabs on the night.
The charity art tombola will give people the chance to win anything from a special, one off, custom piece of art, on either a reclaimed record cover or vinyl record, to a jar of jam or bar of soap.
Tombola tickets will be £5 each – a bargain if you win a Matt Small original (his work usually sells in the region of £5K – £6K). If you win the soap at least you’ve contributed to a good cause – your conscience will be clean.
