Alias Arts

Anyone who went would more than likely testify that last years Mutate Britain show was one of the finest urban/street/leftfield/just plain weird art shows ever seen in London. It’s venue, Cordy House, seems to have since been condemned and so the return show has now moved to an as yet undisclosed location in West London (at a undefined time in September). All very vague – the only details publicly available at the time of writing are on this poster in Curtain Road  courtesy of unusual_image – but keep watching for more news as past experience shows that this will be one not to be missed.

Every so often I get a press release that makes me groan. The one below made me groan even louder than normal. People sneak things into museums all the time – the Louvre claim they get at least one person a week doing this. Banksy famously did it around 2005 with a great deal of style and when the idea seemed a bit fresher. Even I did it in Tate Modern back in 2003 with an Adam Neate painting when I took it on a tour of London landmarks. Sneaking things into a museum and putting them up is not difficult and has probably been going on for as long as there have been museums. As Banksy pointed out back in 2005 Museum’s are more concerned with people taking paintings out (as I found out when I tried to take my Adam Neate painting down after its short visit)!

Whatever, this is not really a criticism of what the artist has done – its more about the hyperbole of “For Immediate Release” PR nonsense such as the text below. And if you want to know what the’controversial’ ‘bold art movement’ of ‘fine art graffiti’ apparently looks like click here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Controversial Graffiti Artist Strikes the Guggenheim
 
Upper East Side, New York, NY. August 2, 2009 – In an odd twist to the museum heist story, the opposite scene took place at the Guggenheim this weekend.  Instead of priceless artwork being stolen, a piece of art was added to the museum’s permanent collection in the form of a gift by the artist known as Mat Benote. 
The incident occurred during the museum’s normal business hours. Without notice from security cameras, museum guards or the thousands of patrons in attendance, the controversial artist managed to install his artwork in one of the finest museums in the world.  This bold art movement is what the artist describes as Fine Art Graffiti. 
“I want to illustrate that graffiti can be a positive influence in a community when applied properly, and as an art form, has as much right to be displayed in a museum as any other form of art.” 
This is not a new occurrence for the artist.  His works have already appeared in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “But the question must be asked, is this artistic expression, or just a new form of vandalism?”

So, I didn’t get lucky in the Banksy Donuts print lottery….
The kids were a bit disappointed so we made our own version this afternoon. Unfortunately the donut appears to have since gone missing about the same time as my cup of tea….

Vandalog has fast become essential reading for anyone interested in street art so its good to hear that they’re planning a show later on in this year in London with the unusual feature that most of the work on display won’t be on sale. Head on over to Vandalog to find out more.

Ronald McDonald has made an appearance outside the Banksy Versus Bristol Museum show. Sitting precariously on a ledge next to a whisky bottle high up above the front entrance he looks far from the official line of ‘Chief Happiness Officer’ for the company.

And if you want a chance of getting the ‘Donuts’ print by Banksy then 12 noon today (London time) is the last time you can register your interest on picturesonwalls.com 

Ouch, apologies for the headline but it got your attention, right?!

‘Across the Tracks And Through The Looking Glass’

Jon Hammer (aka Elate) has extended his website to incorporate a great new blog. I’m rating it because it includes some pretty unique content from back in the day along with recent work and a nice conversational writing style to keep you wanting more. I featured Jon’s tribute to London’s Graffiti Pioneers on here earlier in the year and its story is finally explained in full here. There’s also a whole raft of Elate pieces mixed up with oil on canvas work throughout the blog along with some great photos of the Covent Garden Writers Bench 25 years reunion where rain only temporarily stopped mayhem. 

Elate in Brick Lane, 2009

And thank you for your support for yesterday’s blog post!

One problem thats come out of the rise in the popularity of street art is that work that used to be left to survive on its own (either ending up being removed by the property owner or gone over with other graffiti – both of which are fine by me) is now having to die a slow, undignified death above someones fireplace. Street art is meant to be on the streets (the clues in the title). ‘Street art’ removed from the streets becomes, well, just ‘art’. I’m not talking about copies of street pieces that are meant to be sold and displayed. I’m talking about the peel off carefully, chisel out of the wall brigade. Case in point this was the scene in Brick Lane this afternoon. Walking around a corner I stumbled on this not too stereotypical street art ‘liberator’ carefully peeling off a fresh paste up. She then proceeded to roll it up, stuff it in a bag and then made her (slightly shaky) getaway in the direction of the 24 hour bagel shop (the best place in London for all your Bagel needs). It’s not exactly a crime but it would be much better if it was left there for others to enjoy.

A bit later on in the afternoon and against my better judgement I had a look at the totally unofficial show of ‘reclaimed’ Banksy work in Covent Garden. Walking up to it and even walking around it you’d be hard pressed to determine that Banksy would have had nothing to do with this show (his verification agency ‘Pest Control’ famously always refuses to authenticate street pieces). Most of the work on display has been lifted off the streets over recent years. Large sections of walls, doors and plaster are amongst the pieces that make up the exhibition. It’s a very soulless look at some of his work with a totally different vibe to the Bristol exhibition. In fact it has no vibe at all. Simple labels next to pieces tell you nothing, not even the city the works have been taken from. Banksy’s street pieces are all about the context of where they are placed and in this empty whitewashed hall they lose an important part of their reasons for existence. I actually thought that Andipa Modern’s recent Banksy show was better than this – it was an unofficial show too but at least the work they had on display at the last one was pretty much exclusively never placed on the street. That’s not meant as an endorsement of Andipa in case you were wondering.

This sign summed up the whole seedy enterprise for me…my advice is don’t buy anything here – it’ll only encourage them to do it again. Don’t bother with this sorry show and get yourself down to Bristol if you can….   

Fresh in from Above is a cracking little video and some stunning work in text and pictures at the Berlin Wall. Twenty years on from when it came down Above has hit up the wall with probably his largest piece to date. See the video here.

Morning. Here’s a few pictures from a couple of shows running right now. First up is the Vhils show at Lazarides thats been on for over a week now. These pieces (which are cut out of a couple of the pillars in the back room on the ground floor) are just amazing. Love this style.

Secondly I went into the Andy Seize show last Friday. It’s in Scrutton Street and only last four days (see the previous post for details). If you turn up at where Scrutton Street meets Curtain Road you can’t miss it – mainly because of this:

Andy Seize – Size Matters

Andy Seize – Size Matters

Canvas by Andy Seize at ‘Size Matters’

Some new shows opening in London over the next few days – its shaping up to be quite a busy month. There’s also a special mention for Eine’s solo show at the Carmichael Gallery in West Hollywood.

First up is Bill London with his his brilliantly titled ‘They Seek Him Here’ show at the Rarekind gallery. From the teaser snaps on Rarekind and his past work it should be quite a show. 

Urban Angel have a new group show ‘The Show Must Go On’ featuring some old favourites along with some new (well, to me at least) faces.

Inkfetish, Bonzai and Rabodiga join forces to present ‘The Sky’s The Limit’ over in West London at Gallery 118. Opens 20th July and should feature some mad skills.

And anyone walking past Scrutton Street over in East London can’t have missed the massive super hero on the side of the Bash studios which heralds the arrival of Andy Seize’s ‘Size Matters’ show which is on for the next four days.

Last up is a special mention for Eine’s solo show at the Carmichael Gallery in West Hollywood. You may not be able to get there in person but to take a virtual visit keep an eye on the Carmichael Gallery Flickr stream where you can see new work by Eine both inside and outside the gallery.

Awesome new work from both Shok1 and Lovepusher side by side at Alexandra Palace, North London.

Shok1 ‘Be’

Lovepusher ‘Remember Jesus’

The Vhils show is now on at Lazarides (more of which later) and it’s good to see a fresh new piece on the streets. This one appears around Dray Walk in Brick Lane.