I have been going around London many times to try to snap up some street art and came across ROA’s stuff on several occasions. I knew little about the guy from Ghent (Belgium) and was therefore very keen on finding out more about him and his obsession with picturing large scale urban wildlife through his spray paint cans.
This is amazing what you can produce with very little money, this video below only costs $80.
All the word to “Magnolia” (188) was handmade using cardboard (discarded from grocery stores), hot glue guns, and paint pens. Random people at over 65+ locations and a handful of friends were used as rappers throughout the video. The video was done completely practical (no CGI) and wound up costing a little under $80.
CREATED BY: Nik Harper and Jesse Lamar High
DIRECTED BY: LAMAR+NIK
We strolled through the London Art Fair for the fourth consecutive year and as always stumbled upon remarkable artworks from ever so talented artists.
In this series, we will tell you why we liked a particular piece from these artists as well as posting more works. We hope you will also enjoy it as we did.
Feel free to comment too at the end of this article. Let’s get started….
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Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson
We stumbled upon the piece called “Sumo Ergo Sum(I shop therefore I am)” – cast bronze, edition of 9, H 42.5 x W 45 x D 56cm.
Click to enlarge
The skeleton sculpture, like any other ones to be honest, tickled our eyes right away.
Looking at the skull face expression, it was clear to us that it conveys a strong social message which was confirmed after reading up about the artists – keep on reading below.
About the artists
Our work deals with political and social thought. The forms we use to articulate our ideas often come from popular culture or are second hand, borrowed from another source. The way we put things together is witty, cheeky and aggressive; it mirrors the way we talk to each other. Context within our work is deliberately inconsistent. That inconsistency is our attempt to accommodate the messiness of the real world and allows different audiences different readings.
The lived-in, shabby aesthetic employed reflects the environments that excite us – the underfunded regional museum, the car boot sale, the dump; places where value systems are fluid, more confused or don’t exist at all. In these situations, forms and ideas have the potential to acquire alternate meanings and take on a new life. Through re-imagining objects and their identities we explore the processes of cultural transformation that take place after an object or idea has served its initial purpose. This re-cycling is a means of distilling useful agents; elements approaching redundancy are stripped down, re-formed and re-packaged. The results challenge the cleaner more commercial concerns of some other art forms and celebrate the possibilities of extreme behaviour and belief.
I am lucky to live in London where it must be said, you can find striking looking bars. And let’s face it, it is much better if you sit in some settings which wow you or which makes you happy to be there. After all, I (usually) go to bars to enjoy the moment, to relax or spend time with friends.
Have a look at this. We are now in Melbourne looking at this amazing piece of architecture – the Prahran Hotel, where massive concrete water pipes are used to make the bar stand out of anything nearby we hear (I have never been in Melbourne)
One might say that there are some sort of pigeon holes for humans but I would simply look at the inviting leather seated booths that the 17 tubed offer and grab my pencil and add this place to my “must-go” list.
This is not your traditional contemporary art fair, Moniker Art fair, now in (only) its second year has already become a respected platform featuring work of a generation of artists, often coming from often overlooked in British mainstream fairs but proven successful and recognized throughout the art world – , museums and established art institutions.
Some of the featured artists: Steve Powers | Polly Morgan | Swoon | Ben Eine | Herakut | Banksy
Some of the represented galleries: Black Rat Press (London) | Circleculture, (Berlin) | Carmichael Gallery (Los Angeles) | Anonymous Gallery (New York City)
We made our way down to one of our favorite art galleries to check out the new set of works from Dale Grimshaw that makes up his new show entitled “Moreish”. Having seen a few previous shows from the same artist, we knew that we were up for another display of strong emotions from the artist and we were right.
This time, the artist looks at the notion of “excess” that is spreading in modern societies and which seems to affect an increasing number of people. Here is what the artist had to say about it “It is a case of enough is never enough. The ‘haves’ want more and the ‘haves not’ can pay for it. Once we get that acquisitive taste, we just want more and more”
As the title of this show suggests – Moreish, the food element is everywhere in Dale Grimshaw’s pieces and they are piling on top of each other and dripping down faces of the characters the artist using in his paintings. This certainly gives a sense of a “too much” but also of a “waste” which “moreish” behaviour might lead to. The color palette used here – black/dark background in most cases combined with fiery colours, clearly translate the negative artist’s view on that notion of excess spreading in our societies according to him. A a result, the atmospere of the show is rather thick and heavy and you can almost feel its weight on your shoulders.
It is also worth pointing out the variety of characters that are depicting in Dale Grimshaw’s work, from the sweet and soft women’s faces to the rather alien looking “thing” which, apart from perhaps warning us what will happen if we embrace “excess, will add even more tension to the show.
From a more technical point of view, Dale Grimshaw’s techniques are just amazing. Oil and acrylics are the main mediums for this set of new works while canvases and wooden boards are the main supports used here. If we had to pick a piece out of the lot and on a pure aesthetic point of view, ” The Platter” (oil on board) would be the one. The color palette is striking. See pictures below
The Platter
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The show runs until the 23rd November 2012 Signal gallery | 32 Paul Street London EC2A 4LB | 020 7613 1550
Les Baker V’s INEBRI-NATION project is one of a kind. One may look at it as another purely photographic work while others a bold take on drug use and in some cases, abuse.
Meet Les Baker, a New Mexico-based photographer who has embarked on the most ludicrous, yet interesting in many aspects, projects taking portraits of people at the moment when the subjects reach the ‘high’ state on different drugs.
The idea behind it is to showcase just how diverse the effects can be, with many various transformations of individuals’ faces. And this is why we like the concept, because we believe the last thing a drug user wants is to face their face in such a state.
Another point worth highlighting is the array of people who took part in this project. You may have thought participants are all drug addicts or heavy users and perhaps from a disadvantaged background, but you could not be more wrong.
“The individuals featured in this series showcase the diversity of those who use mind altering substances. They include students, servers, doctors, soldiers, lawyers, politicians, mothers, fathers, artists, teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and judges,” .
The Creators Project spoke to him about his influences, his visions, and why he started the project in the first place, so head over to find out more about it.
In the meantime, we included some of these portraits below, notice the caption for them which tells you what drug these (brave) souls are on.
Would you be up for having your face which you may not feel but you probably like it <– some may have worked out the reference to this tune “Can’t feel my face” by The Weekend… fitting nicely uh? 🙂
We made our way down to one of our favorite art galleries to check out the new set of works from Dale Grimshaw that makes up his new show entitled “Moreish”. Having seen a few previous shows from the same artist, we knew that we were up for another display of strong emotions from the artist and we were right.
