3 Sep – 8 Sep 2008
Cycled over to Brick Lane to see the HipArt show at Brick Lane Gallery, stopping to photograph loads of paste ups by The Krah. None of them were repetitions so big props for that but one stupid consequence was arriving in Brick Lane with a camera battery wheezing asthmatically, those batteries just can’t keep up.
You can get all conspiratorial if you wish about the number of times Pam Glew has been mentioned here recently but the simple truth is her scary chicks on flags rocks and she’s been busy in galleries here there and every where (and we don’t have any, so as always no self interested bigging-up here). All her stuff tonight looked a bit brighter and livelier that the originals seen recently. One worth mentioning is the print edition “Crime Scene” downstairs, she’s used some really fussy posh printer bloke apparently and the surface texture, visible even under glass is quite impressive. Don’t be fooled by the price tag, after a bit of probing Pam yielded that this included the frame and was quite a bit cheaper without the frame, good if you hang your prints with blu tack.
Breaking off only to demonstrate the rudiments of opening free bottles of beer (the bottle opener you shall be using, Master Grafter), the eye was caught by K-Guy stuff downstairs. K-Guy always has some thought out well developed idea in his pieces for which huge respect. The execution of this “Shop Till It Drops” with its handle with care, absolutely no refunds message is quite superb, the un-usual matted chipboard kind of material giving a great texture.
K-Guy: Shop Till You Drop
The idea is sufficiently different that the use of a shopping trolley doesn’t really feel like a steal. Unlike the adjacent “Bird Of Prey” with its wings and guns which does feel like a recycling of a significant portion of the street art cliché library.
K-Guy: Birds Of Prey
Lots of irony in the place, sorry, I mean Irony, including the frequently seen on street walls choker girl in a lush edition of 4. Favourite Irony piece on show was the Mind The Gap.
Irony – Mind The Gap
It was nice to see Maya’s work in real life for the first time though it didn’t really have the attention grabbing ability of her street work, seen in many flicks online. Perhaps comparatively simple stencils need a bit more than a cosmic background when transferring to walls indoors.
Maya – Super 8 Simon
Speaking of clichés, there’s not much further down the barrel to go when DogByte’s disco balls hanging off helicopters makes Static look like a pioneering conceptual guru.
Kendra Binney, new to these eyes has doe-eyed females on a glossy rinsed out herbal green background.Gorgeous colours, worth checking out.
The cool thing about this show was its affordability. If you have a tight budget and fancy something streety and a bit classier than number XYZ from an edition of 700 bought off ebay for an arm and a leg, it is quite possible from this selection of artists to find something like an original canvas or very low edition artist-finished piece in the couple of hundred price range. Not true in every case though.
It has become apparent that hardly any of you read these words, you all just skim over the pictures and as at this point the batteries rolled over, so here endeth the wordy bit. Which is just as well, how many more hirst spots rip-offs and gun details can we possibly hack. A demain and allons y au Titifreak! (actually, if it wasn’t for a major over-riding domestic engagement, I’d have a huge dilemma with Titifreak in Soho vs Stencil History down in Brighton, and don’t tell me do one Thursday and one Friday cos Friday is already booked for Zezou at Pure Evil’s – more Brazilians around here at the moment than a yummy mummy’s bring-and-buy bikini sale.
K-Guy – Love Hate
Some of us do actually read the whole article!! ha ha
ReplyDelete"Favourite Irony piece on show was the Mind The Gap. Irony doesn’t use laser printers of photoshop in his stencilling, which funnily enough was the same thing Logan Hicks said for a while."
ReplyDeleteI have never in my life said that I do not use photoshop. or laser printers. I have used photoshop from the first stencil I did, to the current pieces I make. As far as laser printers, I use laser printers to print out each layer, and have never said anything to hte contrary.
I have no problem being quoted, but please do make sure you get the quote right before posting.
-Logan Hicks
Humble apologies. I was aware you had said you used photoshop and laser printers, I mistakenly thought you had previously described your process differently. Happy to correct this error. Stay cool and keep up the good work, one original Hicks hangs with pride and pleasure chez NoLions. My point would have been better understood in context of an Irony piece in the show, a hoodie tagger on an underground train which looked like a homage to some of your stuff. But I didn't have a picture.
ReplyDelete