Banksy Takes On The Girl With The Pearl Earring

More Banksy work to share today, it would seem that the famous graffiti artist has been pretty active as of late with no less than four new pieces making their street debut in the last month. Perhaps it's in lieu of the upcoming documentary on HBO?

There was also a false arrest report floating around the web this morning with a mug shot of some cat who not only didn't look anything like Banksy but wasn’t even the right age, it would seem the public’s thirst to learn the true identity of the artist never wanes.

Moving on to the news at hand Banksy takes on Johannes Vermeer’s legendary "Girl with a Pearl Earring," The artist goes for what he does best and utilizes the existing environment, check out some before and after shots from the site.

On a side note if you haven't watched the documentary "Tim’s Vermeer" make sure you do so, it’s one of my top films from 2013 and anyone I have recommended it to thus far has been equally impressed.

New Banksy Work Goes Up Only To Be Promptly Removed

Authorities in southern England were embarrassed but defensive Thursday after telling workers to destroy a mural they later realized was created by Banksy.

The latest piece, which featured pigeons carrying anti-immigration banners, appeared at Clacton-on-Sea, the site of a special election next week featuring the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party. Tendring Council spokesman Nigel Brown said that the mural was chemically removed from the wall after complaints that it was racist.

Banksy Hits Up Folkestone

Banksy hit the streets of Folkestone, a town in southeast England that is currently hosting the Folkestone Triennial. The new stencil depicts an old woman with a museum audio guide device, looking down at a plinth with nothing on it but the remnants of a buffed wall. Banksy introduced the idea of museum audio guides during his New York City "Better Out Than In" residency, including phone numbers and humorous audio recordings to go along with many of the installations and street art, it would seem he is sticking to the idea.

Video: Shepard Fairey – “Obey This Film”

Shot and directed by Brett Novak and commissioned by The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art  in South Carolina on the ocassion of "The Insistent Image: Recurrent Motifs in the Art of Shepard Fairey and Jasper Johns."

In the twelve minute video Shepard discusses his influences and inspirations which are pretty much spot on with anyone involved in this type of graphic art. Skateboarding, punk rock, pop culture, re-appropriation, graffiti etc…

Shepard most certainly bears his influences for all to see but sometimes I get kinda bummed out that it’s all so deeply rooted in the 80’s and 90’s. There are plenty of groundbreaking things going on nowadays, maybe we should all let the proven but very, very, very tired and overused imagery of  Black Flag, The Clash, Public Enemy, Johnny  Cash and more be set to rest already and begin championing the next generation of audio visual inspirations.  I love the work, I have since the 90’s and will continue to,  but there is nothing more depressing to me than the “guy” who still listens to and loves all the same things he did as when he was in highschool making claims that art and music aren't as good now as they were back in the day.

New Banksy Work

Banksy has shared some new work; the first piece REALLY speaks to me as I absolutely detest everyone’s current love affair with their mobile device.  Try living in the moment and enjoying the company of those that you are actually surrounded by. I know we are all very busy in 2014 and need to be on call just like a doctor, you know because if someone can't reach you to ask where to file that report they might actually have to figure it out for themselves; and of course there is the constant checking of stock reports, fantasy league teams, Candy Crush and Instagram accounts that need your undivided attention but YEAH, NO, FUCK OFF ALREADY! 

The second piece popped up in Gloucestershire, in close proximity to the U.K.'s equivalent of the NSA. and features three characters that look like old school spies listening in on a phone booth, not unlike big brother does in real life.

Banksy Hits NYC Part 31

Well today is the final day of Banksy’s month long street art show taking place in New York and with it the final piece of Better Out Than In popped up in Queens. The balloon lettered throw up appeared around 6:30 a.m. and of course is already drawing massive crowds. The famed Bristol artist also gifted a design that’s intended to be printed on a shirt to commemorate the show, as is always the case with the provided graphic it’s free and up to you to do the printing. Funnily enough it resembles my own graphic I threw up for an earlier story on the exhibition.

For my money I’ve most certainly enjoyed the circus, some of the pieces are up there with the artists best works to date, rumor has it the LA is is up next for the month of December but only time will tell for sure.

Banksy had this to say about his experience of the thirty plus days spent in the Big Apple…

"Well, this is the last day of the show, and I'd like to say we're going out on a high note. And, I guess in a way, we are. [Cue "New York, New York"] This is a sideways take on the ubiquitous spray-painted bubble lettering that actually floats. It's an homage of sorts to the most prevalent form of graffiti in the city that invented it for the modern era. Or, it's another Banksy piece that's full of hot air.

So, what does the artist hope to have achieved with this so-called residency? "If just one child has been inspired to pick up a can of paint and make some art--well that would be statistically disappointing considering how much work I put in."

Banksy asserts that outside is where art should live, amongst us. And rather than street art being a "fad," maybe it's the last thousand years of art history that are the blip. When art came inside in service of the church and institutions. But art's rightful place is on the cave walls of our communities. Where it can act as a public service, provoke debate, voice concerns, forge identities.

The world we live in today is run, visually at least, by traffic signs, billboards, and planning committees. Is that it? Don't we want to live in a world made of art, not just decorated by it?

Thanks for coming.

[Fireworks]"

Banksy Hits NYC Part 30

Tomorrow should be the final day of Banksy’s month long Better Out than In street art exhibition in New York but we still have today’s to share, it came late in the evening and is a high profile Yankee’s stadium stencil piece.

In other news yesterday "re-appropriated" canvas has reached a current bid of $310,200.00 which when all said and done will go to the Housing Works organization.

Banksy Hits NYC Part 29

Only a couple days left of Banksy’s month long Better Out than In street art exhibition in New York. Today’s piece is called “The Banality of the Banality of Evil“ and is a high jacked/repurposed oil on canvas that’s located at the Housing Works thrift store on 157 East 23^rd street. The painting will eventually go on auction with the money raised going back into the organization who's mission is "to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain our efforts."

Banksy Hits NYC Part 28

It’s Monday and with it Banksy is running the final lap of his Better Out than In street art exhibition in New York. The latest piece popped up in Coney Island and features a robot character we haven’t seen before, what’s in store for tomorrow?

Banksy Hits NYC Part's 25, 26, 27

Weekend fun and more from Banksy who on Friday launched his latest animatronic creation as his month long street art residency here in New York rapidly approaches the finish line. Check the video below to see the grim reaper enjoying himself in a bumper car, the piece was set up for public display behind a cage in the Bowery where is lived for two days. A suitable soundtrack was provided on site by both an accordion player and a recording of Blue Oyster Cult’s classic “Don't Fear the Reaper” which traded on and off throughout the day. Those who made it over to see the piece in person might have noticed the man hiding inside the door structure controlling the bumper car via remote control.

Saturday saw a simple tagged message on the back of a truck in Sunset Park that Banksy cheekily proclaimed to be an alternative New York bumper slogan, many would agree.

Sunday ended up being an impromptu piece in Greenpoint Brooklyn after the planned op-ed column in the New York Times was declined for publishing by the institution. Of course Banksy provided the unpublished article to the public regardless which was a comment on ground zero’s everlasting eyesore of a construction site that you can read below.

On a side note the free morning commute newspaper here in NY, AM NY, had an extremely poorly and under researched opinion piece today that is worth the read if you don't want to learn anything new or perhaps care for an opinion that might possibly be akin to someone as well versed in the subject matter as let’s say your local bodega owner.

Show Opening: WK Interact – “WK 360 A 25 Year Survey” @ Jonathan Levine Gallery Pop-up NYC, March 8 2013

Show card

“In a fine art universe where the sum of pictures all comes down to a kind of nature morte, WK is about the life still unfolding rather than the still life. Considered in relation to his studio work, where violence, sexuality, fetish, terror and the devolutionary descent of dehumanization lurk in passages of brutal irony that edge towards sarcasm, the benevolence so evident in WK’s public art must be viewed as coming from a position where creativity constitutes a kind of critique. WK’s romance with the city is not the abiding comfort of an old lover but the frisson of new flirtation constructed of a constantly rejuvenating sense of discovery.” — Carlo McCormick

Show card inside

Last Friday New York‘s long time French representative, artist WK Interact, opened his latest show in conjunction with Jonathan Levine Gallery at a pop-up location on 557 West 23rd street. Simply titled WK 360 the show acts as a mid-career survey of WK's work, celebrating the last 25 years of the artist's dynamic career.  Included in the show are a series of works on cardboard, paper and panels, canvases, large multi-paneled collages, wheat pasted doors, skate boards, classic WK espionage gear and even pillows that are all rendered in WK's signature stark palette. Memorabilia and photographs are also on display and serve to document his early years and evolution as a street artist.

WK Installation outside the pop-up location

Often with artists who are associated with the street art movement gallery shows can lose something in the move to a clean and crisp gallery environment, I’m happy to say that while WK’s work is so successful because of the way it is presented on the streets and interacts with the urban environment, it is equally captivating and full of motion in this setting. This is in part because  the collection is quite impressive when housed in one large location and has been put together with much love and attention to detail.  As a long-time fan of WK’s work the show satisfied my senses beyond any expectations, and expectations were indeed high. 

NY fans wait in line, in the snow,  to be able to get a limited edition signed print.

Always the first-class person that he is WK gifted the first 100 attendees with one of three limited and signed edition screen prints and was more than happy to discuss his work with anyone who approached him or asked to take a photo.

Make sure to make it over to get a look at the work first-hand if you are in NY anytime from now till March 30th when the show closes. WK himself is often at the location snapping photos of  people enjoying the show just as enthusiastically as those shooting his work, who knows maybe you might get lucky and be immortalized in one of the artist’s wheat pastes in the future!

WK Interact - WK 360 A 25 year Survey @ Jonathan Levine Gallery NYC March 8, 2013 - slideshows

Video: WK Interact Speaks Sbout Project Brave

Back in September of 2011 we shared some photos of a WKInteract project which focused on a large series of wheatpastes in New York City that paid tribute to the first responders of 9/11. He called this Project Brave. Last week, a video popped up online with WK and others explaining the project plus some shots of it coming together. Directed by Luigi Comandatore.

WK Interact: Project Brave Instillation

Earlier in the week we told you of Street Artist WK Interact’s 9-11 tribute titled “Project Brave” to be officially unveiled this Sunday September 11^th on the corner of Kent avenue and North 4^th in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Now thanks to the man himself I can share some photos of the instillation process. The piece runs 400 feet wide by 14 feet high and is pretty spectacular.

WK Project Brave Sept 8 2011 - photo slideshow

Hanksy on Rivington Channels “Cast Away"

Hanksy is back with an all-new wheat paste creation, this one is even funnier. It portrays a crazy Hanks just as he’s about to toss Wilson. The piece was discovered on the always-targeted Mikco Building Material warehouse a few short blocks to the west at 12 Rivington.