Love Flows Both Ways: sneak peek

With one week to go until the opening of 'Love Flows Both Ways', we are well into the process of getting everything ready for the pop up gallery opening next thursday, October 7th.  We will hit you with installation shots soon, but first, we promised you a peek.  Here is a little taster of what is to be expected in the show...  Hungry for more? Keep an eye on the blog and our flickr for additional behind the scenes pics coming soon.

the best alley in Wicker Park vol. VI

Once again it's the end of the month, and time to look back at what has transpired in the best alley in Wicker Park over the past few weeks.  This month started with some drama in the alley, but this was overshadowed by some spectacular walls from Amuse and Momentumarttech.  In addition, Snaki brought some faces, Herts and Omens brought 'dubster', and someone painted dead cats.  Way too much great stuff to list (like this and this and this), so come take a stroll with us down the best alley in Wicker Park in our flickr set here.

modern design in the streets...

Ever wonder what happens once an artist finishes a street piece?  There are a myriad of possibilities. Sometimes it sits unnoticed and is allowed to weather gracefully with time.  Sometimes it is modified by others who seek to improve it or destroy it.  Sometimes it is buffed by Mayor Daley's graffiti blasters before anyone has been able to notice it.  To this list of possible scenarios we can now add that sometimes it is used as a photographic background to sell high end modern design pieces at auction.

Chicago's Wright auction house has evidently been sneaking some of the design pieces out of their gallery and into the alleys to get ready for their upcoming auction: Modern Design 12 October 2010.  The auction catalog features a handful of photos that break free from that perfectly-lit-void in which most auction objects seem to be photographed.  Instead of nothingness we get to see some classic furniture and decorative arts posed (or perhaps juxtaposed) in front of street art pieces by the likes of Cro and Don't Fret.

When asked about the placements we discovered that Cro felt it was strange to have one of his 'Blago' stencils being used as a backdrop for a chair by French designer Jean Prouve (above left).  Don't Fret, on the other hand, thought it was pretty funny that the Sol Bloom settee was posed in front of one of his characters (above right) and added the narrative: "I guess the young fellow grew up to be a furniture seller".

View the entire auction on Wright's website wright20.com and be sure to let us know if you recognize any of the other Chicago street art backgrounds.

maxwellcolette x CUAS pop up gallery

  We've been threatening to do a pop up gallery here in Chicago for quite some time now, so we were delighted when our friends at The Chicago Urban Art Society offered us the opportunity to curate a show of the street art and contemporary art multiples that we love.  Housed in the raw space of a former bank, 'Love Flows Both Ways'  features work culled from a number of private collections, and seeks to explore the relationship between street culture and contemporary art.

  "Contemporary art's love affair with street culture is long and well documented, but street culture's return embrace for fine art is a more recent phenomena.  Designs from blue chip artists are now found at street level in the form of luxury objects like purses, in underground collectables like sneakers and toys, and in urban lifestyle accessories like skateboard decks.  Art is the new bling, and in a fit of populism people on both ends of the spectrum are buying."

We will be posting more details and some sneak peeks over the next week, so make sure you check the blog and the flickr.  And Chicago peeps, we'll see you next thursday at State and Adams!

a painterly approach to street art...

The railroad underpasses off of Hubbard Street have seen it all.  Long a staple of the local street art and graff scenes, they have been regularly bombed for years. But something very interesting has been occurring under the train tracks lately.  It's painting.  I'm not referring to aerosol artistry, I'm talking about good old fashioned brush-and-paint-can painting.  And it's on a monumental scale.

There are seven paintings in total that we found. Some are huge- nearly 20 feet in length. They appear to be in various states of completion.  It seems the artist starts with a basic form (see below) and then elaborates with increasingly drippy broad strokes until the original form is obscured.  The process appears to require a fair amount of time as there are clearly layers that were dry before the next color was applied.  The resulting murals have elements that are reminiscent of Willem de Kooning and the abstract expressionists; a visual reference seldom witnessed in todays street art scene.

All of the paintings incorporate some text as well.  They bear slogans (titles?) like "Love No Fear | Fear No Love" "the magic you don't c." and "Griots & Bacchanalia".  Sometimes the text is next to the painting, and sometimes it is incorporated in the painting itself.  The artist states on one work "my name is a four letter word" but signs all the pieces with a black spade (or many spades as the case may be).  Since we don't know what to call you, wer're going to call you "Spade".  So, hello Spade. If you've got a problem with us calling you that, let us know and we'll correct it.

We first noticed the hand painted stylings of "Spade" last month, and posted pics of the work here, here,  and here.  Chicago Art Magazine noticed as well and wrote about a piece in their Top Street Art Picks for the month of August.

View pics of all the Hubbard Street pieces by "Spade" on our Flickr set "Hubbard Street Viaduct".

it's time once again...

This coming weekend the international graffiti festival Meeting Of Styles comes to Chicago.  There is a great lineup of acitvities and talent for the three days (and nights) and it looks to be very cool this year.  Check out the event flyer with all the listings and keep an eye on the Meeting of Styles website for info and pics from its stops around the globe.

why we love Damien Hirst

It's a universal problem.  You're chilling late at night, wondering what kind of flare you could hit your new, white Range Rover with that would convey the sophistication of contemporary art connoisseurship while at the same time letting everyone know you are a baller with mad stacks back at the crib.  And if only there was some way to acquire this magical car bling on your iphone, while sitting on the couch watching tv at 1 o'clock in the morning.  Well fret no longer, because Damien Hirst has got you covered.

Nobody makes a more luxurious and decadent designer art object than Damien Hirst.  Recent favorites of ours have included his "New Religion" cashmere throw blanket and his silver "Pill Cufflinks".  With the unveiling of the new "4x4 Stainless Steel Wheel Cover", Hirst is moving into new territory, declaring that these ultimate consumption / art items are no longer to be relegated to the confines of one's home.  They are meant to be utilized and flaunted in public.  Art is the new bling.

Paving the way into uncharted marketing opportunities is nothing new for Damien Hirst.  With his 2008 exhibition Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, Hirst redefined the artist's relationship with the art gallery, the art dealer, and the auction market.  Bypassing the tradition of exhibiting new work in a gallery, Hirst realized that he could instead partner with an auction house and stage the exhibition there as a run up to his auctioning off of the work.  Cynics said that by cutting the gallery and the dealer out of the equation, Hirst exercised control over the entire process from creation to sale, and maximized his profitability.  This is true, but the real benefit of this action for Hirst was that it broke his art free of the exclusive, secretive, private confines of the established gallery system.  You no longer need an "in" with a powerful art world mover-and-shaker to buy the first tier of Hirst's output; you simply need tons of cash and a phone.

Hirst has been seeking out well-heeled collectors through the internet as well.  Other Criteria, the gallery that Hirst created to sell his (and some other artist's) work, and their website othercriteria.com has long been the place to go for non-editioned Hirst multiples, books, tshirts, and tchotchkes.  Over the past two years it has been offering more (not to mention pricier) editioned works of art and occasional unique pieces as well.  Current fare on the site ranges in price from £1 for a postcard of to £140,000 (which is roughly $215,000 usd) for a complete set of recent foil block prints.  Aiming for consumers at the top and the bottom of the art market simultaneously requires cunning, skill, and a little bit of madness, and this is why we love Damien Hirst.

performance art from Banksy?

Banksy has been at it again.  He has updated his website and posted pictures of some recent outdoor stencil pieces near the British seaside, and his guerilla installation at Brighton Pier of the reconditioned dolphin ride he originally showed at The Village Pet Shop and Charcoal Grill in New York, which has now been updated to include a ruptured BP oil drum and a wave of crude oil.

Then there was posted a video, "Royal Visit Glastonbury 2010", in which Banksy presents us with a hilarious encounter between a costumed hippy hemp enthusiast and the heir to the British throne. We were dumbfounded that the interaction was permitted to take place, as here in the US you wouldn't even get that sign up before security would be all over you. And throwing a sample bag of weed at "Charlie, Charlie" would be out of the question.  The episode displays the cunning of Borat, the brazen recklessness of Jackass and the irreverence towards celebrity of Punk'd.

And it raises numerous questions. Who is the hippy? Is it the same person who posed for the portrait in Times Square wearing a black ski mask back on May 19, 2010?  Is Banksy creating another "superstar" (in the Warholian sense) the way he created Mr Brainwash?  Are these "pranksy" pieces part of the next big Banksy project or just a diversion? Is it Banksy himself doing these actions? Is it a friend of Banksy's? Is it Robin Gunningham?

For those who don't follow the British tabloids, The Daily Mail ran an article in July 2008 claiming that it had tracked down the identity of Banksy, and that he is Robin Gunnigham (pictured above right). Comparing these two pictures, we cannot rule out that it s the same person in both.  Is this Banksy? And if so, what's he up to?

Check Banksy's website banksy.co.uk for future updates.