Bonhams' Urban art auction – beyond expectation

The art auction market has been around for years, certainly a lot more than street art has been but yet, this emerging form of art seems to be on everybody’s lips and wallet indeed.

Bonhams’ auction, which just happened, has definitely showed us that. The bidding was fierce, the desire to own pieces from street artists, a must. The total sale from this Urban Art Sale at Bonham’s New Bond Street reached 455,760 GBP, with almost half of the works selling above their high estimates.

Here are some of the best sales

Banksy
‘Save or Delete Jungle Book’, 2001. This piece was originally made for Greenpeace
Sold for £78,000

Banksy - Jungle book

Ben Eine
Circus A-Z’, 2010
stencil spray paint and glitter on canvas
Sold for £6,600

Ben Eine - Circus

Futura 2000
Untitled, a performance piece created live on the Clash’s ‘Combat Rock’ tour, circa 1983
Sold for £38,400

Futura 2000 - Untitled

via Hang-Up

Pam Glew at Blackall studios

‘Beautiful and Damned’, the shows title, is of course taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1922 novel, which explores the listless lives of moneyed society during the Jazz Age.

This captivating era, drenched in glamour yet tinged with tragedy is the decadent setting for this extraordinary series of work. The exquisitely beautiful movie starlets, society icons and characters on display capture the spirit of the age all who are caught in the unforgiving glare of the limelight and some sadly burn out before their time.

As Pam states, “the tragedy amongst the beauty is what has inspired this show, the sharp contrast between a blessed life and one that ends in scandal, hedonism or destitution”.

Words from Mauger Modern Art

When – 25th till 29th May 2011 (late opening on the 26th)

WhereBlackall Studios

Team Robbo’s wonders on Holloway Road

Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge

I cannot believe I had forgotten about this huge wall on Holloway Road. I went past it a few weeks ago but could not stop to take pictures. I have done so today. Enjoy the pictures below.

At the time where I am writing this, I hear some people on Twitter expressing their surprise about Robbo doing stencils ( I myself spotted a few weeks ago a stencil signed Robbo). Some people seem to find inconceivable that idea?

Woo, woo, woo, let’s all calm down here. Robbo will still be king should he starts stenciling our streets and if he stencils as good as he drops graffiti, I cannot wait to see more of it around London. Stenciling is not Evil, stenciling is not cheating, stenciling is just a different form of street art.

Related links
> See more graffiti spotted around London

ART-PIE

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Gimme gimme abstract art at the London Art Fair

On our way to the Business Centre, where the London Art fair takes place, we could not help but speculating about what we would see and remembered all the wonders we saw in the past years.

A quick ushering through by the fair staff and we were in. Thursday evening is a good day to go at the fair as you are sure to find on your path some waiting staff eagerly willing to hand you over free bottles of beers.

We thought we’ll go around the ground floor as well as the first floor today where you normally find the “mammoths”. By this I mean the heavy-weight art galleries which mainly deal “fine art”. As we were hopping from one booth to the other, it was becoming obvious to our eyes: abstract art we were seeing was awesome and stood out from almost anything else.

We have included below the best pieces we thought we saw.

Wilhelmina Barn Graham | Art-Pie

Alan Davie | Art-Pie

Andy Stewart | Art-PieMartyn Brewster | Art-Pie

Alan Davie | Art-Pie

Pamela Clarkson x Atta Kwam | Art-Pie

Onkurodano Unjaku | Art-Piewilliam-crozier

Alex Meade’s 3D made into 2D street art

Alex Meade and his live paintings | Art-PieMeet Alexa Meade. He creates amazing series of living graffiti art but the twist is that he masters the ability of using actual people made to look like they belong in their 2D graffiti background.

No need to say that the level of careful painting and attention to detail is huge here but it works pretty awesomely to turns three dimensional figures into two dimensional figures. All participants are painted in black and white and cleverly get tangled  in the explosive and coloured backgrounds and the illusion of they are part of the static art is achieved.

You will see a few examples of Alexa Meade below.

Alex Meade and his live paintings | Art-Pie

Alex Meade and his live paintings | Art-Pie Alex Meade and his live paintings | Art-Pie

The Fiesta Resistance: mixed medias at its best

I may have never heard about this exhibition if Twitter did not exist so let me thank you Twitter first, some do not get you little Twitter tool, ART-PIE heart you little Twitter tool.

A swift click on that link from that tweet I got and am now onto the Picture On Walls website or POW. ‘I Like the left menu navigation items’ I instantly thought. ‘I like the sketchy look of them’ my second thought was. A quick scroll down to the bottom of the website and I got it right away: loads and loads of creativity, imagination, art wonders on here and ART-PIE was right, The Fiesta resistance exhibition did not disappoint.

Unique, fresh, rich, interesting, exciting, different, colorful, busy … the list could go on and on and be made of thousands of words here as what I was seeing was actually made of thousands of things on top of each other but all smiling at me as I was stepping into POW. As always, ART-PIE did not know where to start and unless more ‘classic’ galleries (like the Whitechapel Gallery which ART-PIE had just been to earlier that day) that room I had just stepped into did not help to lead you that way or the other so I went straight ahead, I went for what looked like a shed with tall stools in front. Yes, that place looks like a theater or a movie set! Continue reading The Fiesta Resistance: mixed medias at its best

System Collapse by Zosen at Stolen Space

Barcelona based street artist Zosen brings his premier UK solo show to StolenSpace.Featuring a collection of new paintings on canvas and the release of a limited edition screen print.

Born in Buenos Aires, Zosen developed his art practice on the streets since he was 11 and in 2001 became a long time member of Barcelona’s infamous ONG crew. Zosen continues to expand his creative practice with performance, illustration, video and collaborations with artists across the globe and he is co-founder of the street wear label, “Animal Bandido” with designer Clàudia Font.

Here is the latest video of Zosen and his crew

System Collapse is a colourful vision of the world around us and an incisive commentary on the current state of the world’s economy. The distinctive lettering styles, loosely influenced by the artwork of the punk and the ‘do-it-yourself’ movements of the 70’s-80’s, the illusory characters and bright, pure colours reflect a hopeful optimism while the meanings of the words, real and conceived, provide a complex context for a creative discharge of
conscience.

The simplicity of the imagery in psychedelic colours references a plethora of social and political issues, juxtaposing the heavily distorted photo imagery of today’s consumer society with naive, two dimensional characters and imaginary of primitive African art and Latin-American Folklore. In System Collapse, symbols saturated in colour represent the inequalities and injustices that separate the First and Third Worlds.

Zosen’s street art and ubiquitous interventions are essential to his practice, informing his gallery works and providing the impetus for his irrepressible creativity. His multidisciplinary work has been exhibited internationally between the street and the gallery.

The strong appeal of Zosen’s work lies in it’s child-like charm and it’s distinctly political edge. Building on the popular anarchy and contemporary art movements associated with his adopted home town and internationally recognised amongst the underground and mainstream arts and graffiti movements, Zosen’s unique style remains synonymous with Barcelona.

The show runs from 13th August till 29th August 2010.

NB: Words taken from the Stolen Space website.

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Related link
> Animalbandido

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