Sweet Toof of Burning Candy just rolled the city for a little trip and hit some spectacular spots. Apparently it still is up to the out of towners to hold New York down right now! Photo credit to Rebecca Fuller and Luna Park of the Street Spot… Duh!
More from Welling Court
A few days ago, Gaia wrote about Ad Hoc Art’s Welling Court Mural Project. Here’s a quick update with more of the finished artwork. Becki Fuller and Luna Park have a bunch more photos of the event over at their blog, The Street Spot.
Photos by John Fekner, Becki Fuller and Luna Park
Burning Candy updates
There are a few little bits to mention today about my friends in Burning Candy. The crew have been keeping pretty busy lately.
- The above wall (thanks to Tek33 for putting me up) is the latest in at least 3 large walls painted in London by members of BC in the last month or so. Nolionsinengland has photographed the other two.
- Important note: I worked at High Roller Society for one day last week, but it’s not a regular job or something I expect to repeat since I’m moving soon. The crew’s Candy Shop show at High Roller Society kicks ass. It’s a small space, but Burning Candy have really made full use of the gallery. The installation is really fun to explore. There are so many little bits that it’s unlikely anybody noticed every minor detail that the crew had put into the assemblage of paintings, stickers, sculptures, drawings and found objects. There are photos on High Roller Society’s flickr, but I think that this weekend was the show’s last and it is now closed. But double check with HRS I guess, because I could be wrong.
- The crew is traveling. Sweet Toof is painting in New York City and a standard Mighty Mo/Sweet Toof has appeared in Amsterdam.
- Sweet Toof’s got an interview in this week’s le cool.
Dots: A Burning Candy film and print release
Recently, I’ve been working with Burning Candy (Cept, Cyclops, Dscreet, Gold Peg, LL Brainwashed, Mighty Mo, Rowdy, Sweet Toof and Tek33) on a project that’s really got me excited. For me, Burning Candy are some of the most interesting and talented street artists living in the UK right now. In the UK, there isn’t a street artist who gets up harder, a graffiti writer who hits better spots or a crew that pushes the boundaries of their art further than the members of BC. So about this project…
A man called The Barron is directing a film about the rest of Burning Candy called Dots. This isn’t your ordinary graff film though. Since The Barron is a friend of the crew, he’s got more access than the standard documentary filmmaker would ever get. So far, he’s filmed and edited the first 20 minutes or so of the film. The next 70 minutes? It’s on its way, but Burning Candy needs the help of their fans to make it happen. To fund the making of the Dots, BC have made a box set of prints. All nine members of the crew have contributed an image to this print release. Since I’m working with BC on this print release, I’m obviously biased, but I don’t think there’s a bad image in the bunch.
So here’s the press release with all that vital info:
To help raise funds and make Dots a reality, Burning Candy has put together a limited edition set of 9 screenprints, one print from each member of the crew. The set will come in a hand-screenprinted bespoke box. The prints are 2-colors and A5 sized and the edition size is just 150. These prints aren’t only artwork; anyone who buys a set of prints will also own the rights to 0.05% of the films revenues for the next 10 years. 100% of the profits from these prints will go to funding the making of Dots.
The prints will be released online imminently for just £500. In the mean time, you can email sales(at)dotsfilm.com for more information.
And for those curious about my personal involvement in the film and print release, I’m helping out friends and artists that I believe in, but I’m also getting paid for my work.
Dreweatts Urban Contemporary auction
This Wednesday, Dreweatts hosts their latest urban art auction in London. This time around it’s called “Urban Contemporary.” Honestly, I’ve avoided posting about this auction until now because while there are some highlights, the lowlights are awkward and disappointing to write about.
Lets start with the positives. Some of works that I’m really liking (in no particular order):
Lot 89: Point Blank by Martin Lea Brown. 67cm x 167cm. Estimated £3,000-5,000. This painting looks okay online, but is just so nice in person.
Lot 72: Musas by Sam3. 91.5cm x 61cm. Estimated £700-900. An interesting painting for the price. It amazes me how cheap a Sam3 original can be. Though I suppose his work is best experienced outside.
Lot 64: African Fence by Rowdy. 91.5cm x 61cm. Estimated £900-1,100.
Lot 47: Studio Critics by Sweet Toof. 91.5cm x 61cm. Estimated £2,000-4,000. Sweet Toof is a painter. He’s a graffiti writer. He’s a street artist. He’s a print-maker. What is he? He’s talented.
Lot 49: Cruncy – Pity of London by Ronzo. 40cm x 40cm Plinth. 106cm x 40cm. Estimated £1,000-1,5000. Apparently this is the only Pity of London sculpture that didn’t go on the streets. So it’s something kind of special.
And now the things about this auction that epically disappoint me. The things that made me not want to write about this auction at all. In no particular order. And there are others lots in this sale that were very disappointing to see at auction, but I’m not going to list them all. Hopefully this gives you a taste.
Lot 13: Self Portrait by Adam Neate. 167cm x 123cm. Estimated £15,000-20,000. Almost everyone I know believes that Adam Neate’s pieces like these should be kept out of auction at all costs. Even if this reaches the high estimate for the piece, it will only serve to further damage the market for his paintings. And in my opinion, Adam is one of the most talented British painters working today, so I’d like to see the market for his paintings recover.
Lot 9: Morons by Banksy. 76.5cm x 56cm. Estimated £3,000-5,000. Every “urban art” auction seems to have at least one Morons print.
Lot 17: Untitled by Seen. 60cm x 70cm. Estimated £600-800. I don’t take issue with this painting. I definitely take issue with how Dreweatts has handled the artwork in their sale. In the catalog, this painting is upside down. Luckily, that’s been fixed online. But when I went to see this piece in the flesh at the auction house last Thursday, it was hung sideways. That, or it’s now sideways online (but given that the central icon of the piece is a Seen tag, I’m guessing that the tag is meant to be read left to right, so the online image is correct and it was hung sideways). Either way, that’s more than a little bit upsetting.
Lot 63: Number 5 by Herakut. 80cm x 100cm. Estimated £2,000-3,000. Another great painting that Dreweatts has just handled poorly. Again, it’s online and in the catalog sideways (and possibly hung that way in the auction-house as well, I can’t remember)! Now, given the content of the painting, I can see how somebody might not be sure which way is up. In fact, you’d have to look at the painting for more than half a second to realize that it might be sideways. How did I figure out that the piece is sideways? There’s an image of the piece online. And it was originally part of a tetraptych, so you know that the image I found online has the painting hanging the right way. Could Dreweatts have missed this? Sure. Except that lot 62 is a painting from the same tetraptych. It amazes me that nobody at Dreweatts took the 30 seconds of research that it took me to figure out which way this painting is meant to hang. Epic fail.
So that’s the Dreweatts “Urban Contemporary” auction. It takes place on Wednesday April 21st in London, and you can bid online.
Sickboy and Sweet Toof at POW
Here are some new prints at Pictures on Walls from Sickboy and Sweet Toof.
Cheech Toof by Sweet Toof
79.5 x 57cm
Edition of 100
£95
Loveland by Sickboy
57 x 56 cm
Edition of 100
£120
Burning Candy paint The Thousands
As previously mentioned, the Burning Candy crew painted an amazing mural at The Thousands last month. I spoke with Sweet Toof about that mural, so here’s that conversation and a time lapse of the mural going up:
Great print deals
I’ve found two deals on screen prints that have popped up recently.
Over at FUSShop.co.uk, they are giving away a free print by A.CE with orders over £50. My suggestion would be to get the Shepard Fairey issue of Arkitip Magazine for £59.99 because you get a print by Fairey and one by A.CE for not much at all when you think of how much a print might usually cost. More info here.
Or just just £60 you can take your pick of prints from artists like Sweet Toof, Kid Acne and Dscreet from the Seven Styles for Seven Brothers show at The Archipelago Works.
Burning Candy
Great piece by Cyclops and Sweet Toof of the Burning Candy crew photographed by Nolionsinengland. Keep an eye on The Thousands’ blog for a BC related announcement soon.
From letters to logos
I touched on this issue the other day, but I thought there was more to be said and some examples to be given.
There are a few graffiti writers who are blurring the line between graffiti and street art by painting trademark characters or symbols instead of, or in addition to, their names. Of course, painting characters has been around since the earliest days of graffiti, but in recent years, certain crews and writers have taken that a step further.
Here are a few examples of writers who I think are really pioneering a new form of character based graffiti. I think it could, and should, be one important direction for graffiti and street art in the coming years.
More after the jump… Continue reading “From letters to logos”