by The Editors on February 4, 2009
by The Editors on February 4, 2009
Skate and Annoy’s Kilwag dug up this great “shell” house from Dezeen Magazine.
The house in Karuizawa, Japan is called Shell, and it was designed by a Japanese architecture firm called Artechnic. . . Approaching the house. Anybody remember the elliptical transition fad on vert ramps?
We’re kind of surprised that Pierre Andre doesn’t have something like this hiding in the hills above Sole Tech.
[Link: Skate and Annoy]
by The Editors on February 3, 2009
One of modern art’s most persistent supporters is controversy. And Shepard Fairy has drummed up his fare share during his rise to fame as the Hope poster boy.
LA Artist Mark Vallen’s has posted an essay titled Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey in which he breaks down much of the Obey art and shows exactly where Shepard is boosting his images.
Fairey has developed a successful career through expropriating and recontextualizing the artworks of others, which in and of itself does not make for bad art. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein based his paintings on the world of American comic strips and advertising imagery, but one was always aware that Lichtenstein was taking his images from comic books; that was after all the point, to examine the blasé and artificial in modern American commercial culture. When Lichtenstein painted Look Mickey, a 1961 oil on canvas portrait of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, everyone was cognizant of the artist’s source material – they were in on the joke. By contrast, Fairey simply filches artworks and hopes that no one notices – the joke is on you.
We don’t disagree with Vallen, but appropriation is kind of Shepard’s whole point. And to miss that is to miss out completely on the “pop genius” of his work. Shepard did it. It caught on to something in pop culture and now he’s getting collected, shown, and paid. Isn’t that the way art is supposed to work?
[Link: Mark Vallen via Boston.com]
by The Editors on February 2, 2009
Rick Fork, a.k.a. Rick Froberg was a quiet guy with a devious sense of humor when he worked in the back room at Transworld Media. But all that changed when he got on stage with his bands Drive Like Jehu, Pitchfork and Hot Snakes.
The contrast between the two was shocking and we never could figure out how all those heavy sounds could came out of such a thin, quiet, honestly nice guy.
Froberg’s art shares some of the same qualities as his music—it’s bold, skilled, sinister and primal, yet intelligent, referential and nuanced. He genre-hops with ease; from digital drawings to acrylic paint to heavy ink and back again, creating stark images of character collages, WWII-era comic figures and Dali-esque cartoon landscapes.
Filter magazine checks in with Froberg in an interview about art, music, and the realities of getting paid.
[Link: Filter Magazine]
by The Editors on February 2, 2009
by The Editors on January 26, 2009
Shepard Fairy has had a pretty good year. The Boston Globe recounts the year and tells the age-old story of a skateboarder who made stickers featuring pro wrestler Andre The Giant, went on to create a poster an Obama poster for hope, and has a new solo show at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art opening February 6, 2009 which runs until August.
Versions of his Obama portrait have graced the covers of Time and Esquire magazines, and this month, the Smithsonian hung his hand-finished version in the National Portrait Gallery. It is the same place, Fairey notes with an in credulous tone, that has hung “the George Washington that’s not finished on the bottom.”
Yes, it is a wonderful story, isn’t it?
[Link: Boston.com]
by The Editors on January 26, 2009
Live art went down at the New Image Art Gallery’s 15 Anniversary Opening party, according to the emerica blog:
I was hanging out at New Image Art Gallery when all of a sudden, Emerica pro Braydon Szafranski wheeled his Harley in through the front door and Neck Face started painting it.
Looks just like some Neckface art. . .
[Link: emerica]
by The Editors on January 23, 2009
When we’re gaming it’s always nice to see a friendly face. . . and a SkateDaily T-shirt. But where is the push cart full of cameras?
[Link: Bryce Kanights]
by The Editors on January 21, 2009
by The Editors on January 16, 2009
