Sweet Toof and Shan Hur - Having a Dig

Arch 402 launched their first large show in sometime tonight featuring Sweet Toof and Shan Hur with Having a Dig.  Sweet Toof is fairly well known in London for his work around Shoreditch and  with the Burning Candy Crew.  I hadn't heard of Shan Hur before the show but that probably says more about me than it does him.

Roll On 5/5

Sweet Toof's work around me is pretty comical.  It's amusing, but I had never been overly impressed with it walking by.  I wanted to check out the show as he's a local guy and you gotta support that.  I definitely left with a greater appreciation for his work.  I'm a sucker for work done with, or on, unusual materials (or at least not as common as screen printing).

I thought the woodcut prints with the sepia wash were really nice, a different way of printing that a lot of other contemporaries aren't doing much of.  The difference that each one produced was really significant in terms of both the image and the colour.  There were two of these and they were both an edition of 5 with an AP.

I thought the other smaller pieces were great as well.  It was a shame the Dame sold, they were two painting on wood, both APs and both sold before I got there.

Taxi 'toof' grill

The work outside was also brilliant.  The grill on the taxi sitting outside the gallery was a nice touch and the massive mural behind the gallery was impressive.

The bigger pieces lost me a bit, but I always picture art as how it would look hanging on a wall at home, and they were a bit too guady for my taste.  I think the gums work better on a smaller scale.

Roll On Two 1 of 5

Dame - two APs on wood

This was the one screenprint, it was an edition of 10

A horse(?) on the ground filled with sweet toof teeth

The mural behind Arch 402

Hur's colum in the middle of the room, really creative.

One of the smaller canvasses

Roll On 5/5

New Paste-Ups and Stencils

Saw these walking back from the pharmacy last night (it's been a long month already).  Love the stencil of the guy with a mohawk.

This is what i mean in my last post about NYC...this was all new stuff up I'd guess in the last few weeks.  Love it.

New York Street Art - Where are you?

Having lived in London for the past 3.5 years I perhaps have been spoiled by the riches of street art that present themselves around every corner from me.

Want to see a Roa?  That's down the street on Hanbury.  How about a few Invaders?  That's a bit longer, about a 4 minute stroll up brick lane.  Ronzo, D-Face, David Walker, Banksy, they're all in the area.

So it was with much excitment that in my week home for the holidays I spent half a day walking around New York, preparing to be impressed with what was happening in the scene.  I was sure I was going to stumble upon a few Swoons, the odd Shep mural, or at least some great paste-ups from artists I had previously not heard of.

Not really knowing where to go in the city, I consulted a few blogs, did some googling and asked some friends.  I knew most galleries were going to be closed...but this being street art, was not too fussed.

All signs pointed towards the lower east side (my geography of the city not being that great, I was mainly around Spring Street, Bowery, Bleeker and Houston...not sure if that's really the lower east side) so that's where I headed.

So I strolled around the streets for a bit and the first thought was that street art just isn't as prevelant as it is in London.  I kept looking towards the blank walls at the top of building wondering why there wasn't something akin to a burning candy crew image up there.  The walls on street level were painfully bare.  There seemed to be an avalanche of stickers on light posts and traffic signs, but that seemed to be the extent of it.  I got a kick out of seeing a Curtis Kulig tag as well.

I was told Spring St was a place to find great work and what I found left me disappointed.  A few interesting paste-ups, but mostly tags (while they have their place they weren't what I was looking for).

The one piece I really enjoyed was the Kenny Scharf piece at the corner of Houston and Bowery.  According to Vandalog: 

A little over a month ago, Kenny Scharf painted a mural at the Houston and Bowery mural space in NYC. I’m usually pretty indifferent to Scharf’s work, but in this instance, painting that spot was a homecoming. Kenny, LAII, Keith Haring and a few others painted a mural in the same spot back in the early 1980′s. About a week ago, the mural was dissed, as shown in the above photo. I’d say that’s pretty much the reality of painting outdoors. 

When I saw the mural it has been restored and looked really nice.

However, my question is this,where the hell is all the good street art in NYC?  I had a brief time in Brooklyn, not perhaps enough to properly look around, and didn't find anything there.

Curtis Kulig on Spring St

Inside a building off of Spring

A few nice tags here but they were hidden behind a fence. 

Really liked this paste-up.  Looked a bit like Gaia.

The abundance of stickers.  Punk Jews especially caught my attention.

Kenny Scharf Mural

Alex Daw - Private members for public art

Last night, after 8 emails between myself, the gallery and the private members club Eight, I finally got the chance to see Alex Daw's show Proper Gander.

I was curious to see how hosting a somewhat street art leaning artist in a private member's club would work, and to varying degrees it may have. 

Of course, going to a member's club carries an air of exclusivity and importance, and Eight was no different.  Hidden down an alley in the heart of the banker's city, it was a subterranian club which enhanced it's feel of importance.

After signing in at the reception, I had to wait for one manager, then another to lead me to the exhibition (which was a further flight down...about 5 floors below ground level).  He showed me the pieces then left me to enjoy the art by myself.

It was quite unusal to find myself alone, in the bottom floor of a member's club, looking at art that seemed to be fighting with its surroundings.  The bright colours Daw uses contrasted heavily against the mahagony wooden panneling that coated the various rooms.

Long hall where the majority of pieces were located

According to HangUp Pictures, who is managing the show:

Entitled 'Proper-Gander' the exhibition explores ways of seeing, looking at and receiving 'culture', visually, audibly or otherwise. Playing with satire, art history and contemporary culture, the exhibition aims to question existing ideas and art forms, as well as commenting on the current trend of daily mega brand, brainwashing propaganda via television, films, advertisements and the internet. 

Sick of the generic and often banal gallery experience, Daw is attempting to shift into more site specific venues transforming the luxurious confines of the Eight Club into a subterranean nerve centre housed deep within the city walls. This clandestine den will be home to a plethora of Daw’s artwork from traditional 2-d works on paper and oil paintings, to carved magazines, moving image and performance installation. 

Daw himself describes his work as:

“I am attempting a minor revolt, an artistic revolution of sorts. At once creating an unsettling rendition of my own personal fears and dreams as well as attempting to understand art and the role of an artist in contemporary society.”

I found the work to be very engaging.  I'm a sucker for mixed media and really enjoy texture in art and Daw uses both techniques to create his images.  While I think the light installations left a bit to be desired, the rest of the show was impressive.  

The real question is, how many people will see it?  If you want to see the show email ben@hanguppictures.com to get your name on the guestlist.

Method Man - Oil, acrylic, paint marker and aerosol on canvas

This was my favorite piece - Tract - Mixed media collage with aerosol spray on glass panel.

Close up of Tract.  Really interesting use of images.

Iterim - Mixed media collage on lightbox

Wonderland - Intricate hand carved magazine in beautiful presentation frame.  This piece was fantastic.  Totally carved from a magazine.

Wonderland close up

Animism - Mixed media collage with aerosol spray on glass panel.

View of the upstairs room in the member's club.  Quite stuffy, but had a nice enough dinner

Forgot the name of this piece, but this was the print, edition of 19.  3 colour hand pulled screen print.  Really nice for £70.

Reminder - Mixed media collage with aerosol spray on glass panel. Another of my favorites.

Reminder close up.

Depot - Spray paint, acrylic and collage on Daler Rowney heavyweight acid free paper.

Movie room at the club

Dran (or rather, we're all completely mad)

An apparently innocuous day in wintery London turned into another good story as I once again underestimated the lure/hype/value of street art.

Dran, the Toulouse based artist whose work dominated the Mark and Stencils show (though the papers and fans called in the 'Banksy' show as he had 4 pieces there) was releasing a print today and was going to be in store to sign one of the few books he released at this year's show.

There was a run of 50 of the color version of the print (done on newspaper and plastered on cardboard) and an alternative run of 100 of the black and white version (hand pulled screen print unsigned) being released at 11am this morning.

Not realizing the appeal of anything Pictures on Walls, I woke up, ran some errands, took in some of the snow and leisurely made my way over to POW, arriving around 11:30.  For the next 90 minutes I shared stories with the same fools like me who were standing in a blizzard (for England anyway) waiting to meet the artist who had captured imaginations with a well thought out gallery show and two stunning print releases that sold extremely well despite a very high price point (500 quid).

Idiots.  All of us.

Queue at Marks and Stencils during a blizzard

 

All i do these days is stand in line in Soho

So again, some great people in line and the snow storm was a footnote as we all got along and talked art and our idiocy for standing in the snow.  Most had been there since 9ish to get the coloured version which was only sold online in London.  This was going for 200 pounds at the store.

Once I eventually got in the shot I was given the option to buy the cheaper b&w unsigned print and a book.  I was told Dran would under no circumstance sign the print so I bought a book as well and got in the next queue for the signing.

Plenty to stuff to look at while in line as POW has changed all the artwork in the show to take advantage of Dran's relatively new found popularity.  It's amazing what hype can do and being sponsored by the gallery that prints Banksy's prints certainly helps a budding artist.

What was fascinating about being in the store waiting to get a book signed was that his friends/team brough down a homemade screen press and started printing hand pulled one colour bookmarks.  It was fascinating to watch the process and an awesome insight to how it's done.  The bookmarks were 10 quid but all that money was going to charity.

The homemade screen print

A few of the images which were NOT for sale...down on various mediums

The screen print which was printing the bookmarks

Dran signing books

Great guy Dran.  From Toulouse, young fella who seemed as surprised and happy with the success of his show as anyone.  This was his incsription in my book.

This is the bookmark they were printing.  Awesome image showing a book shining light on a child's face

The black and white print.  Edition of 100.

After perversly enjoying my time in the queue I decided to take advantage of being in Soho and checked out both Lazarides galleries.  The one on Greek St has a Modern Toss show on (which are always entertaining) but the star was the show on Rathbone place.

It was a group show featuring Jonathan Yeo, JR, Vhils, David Choe and a few other artists.  I thought Yeo stole the show.  According to his biography:

Jonathan Yeo (b 1970) is a British artist specialising in portraiture and collage. He is represented by Eleven in London and Lazarides worldwide. He didn’t go to art school but took up painting while recovering from Hodgkins Disease in his early 20s. He became known as a contemporary portraitist in the late 1990s, exhibiting frequently at the the National Portrait Gallery . His best known work includes a world weary Tony Blair painted at the very end of his premiership, an iconic painting of Erin O’Connor which was used widely to advertise the NPG and now familiar images of Prince Philip, Dennis Hopper and Grayson Perry.

After a presidential commission was cancelled, Yeo instead made a collage of George W Bush which was unveiled at Lazarides Gallery, London, in 2007. Made entirely from pornographic magazines, it marked a new direction in his work, and subsequent subjects to receive the collage treatment include Hugh Heffner, Mary Whitehouse , Wyndham Lewis, Lucian Freud and Paris Hilton . The exhibition "Blue Period" in 2008 included nudes as well as portraits made the same way, and there have been subsequent shows in London, New York, Bethlehem and Walsall.

Tiger Woods by Yeo

Woods closeup

Woman by Yeo.  My favorite piece at the gallery.

Vhils.  Interesting seeing his gallery work as, like Invader, he's very much associated with large scale outdoor installations

JR

JR

Vhils

All in all, another fascinating day of London art.

Banksy - Choose your Weapon post script

here's where all the money went...pretty cool

Click here to read the bbc article