LOOK INTO MY OWL

The mysterious British Pop icon Banksy is opening a new museum show in his hometown of Bristol. This is not the first time that Banksy’s work has hung in a museum but it is his first exhibit with consent from the house.

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum, 2009.

The exhibition titled “Banksy Versus Bristol Museum” was installed in near complete secrecy. Museum staff and visitors were told that a movie was being filmed in the space while a stencil on the front door claimed, “CLOSED for essential maintenance work.”

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum, 2009.

This is the artist’s largest installation to date. It is a multimedia extravaganza with remnants of “The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill” covered here last year. Several of the animatronic works appear as they did for the New York show but many have been revisited alongside an impressive body of new work.

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum, 2009.

Most of the three story Edwardian Baroque building has been appropriated for the exhibition. It should be an ironic clash of art and space but the new pieces in particular do not seem out of place.

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum, 2009.

For more info see the trailer below. The video features a walktrough of many of the major elements and some clips from the process.

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum
13 June – 31 August 2009
Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery

Specter has just unveiled a four story installation at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

The piece is mixed media on cloth and was completed in only two months. The Trompe l’oeil technique used to create this impressive work provides a stunning contrast to the subject matter. An architecture of need is displayed in two dimensions that seems to add physical support to the structure in which it is housed.

We recently released an exclusive limited edition print with Specter through NOWhere Limited. The print is still available here.

This past weekend we opened an exciting new show at NOWhere Limited here in Nederland, Colorado. BLISS, the self described horde of art makers has filled the space with their special take on our plastic society.

Works will be made available to purchase online tomorrow Tuesday, April 28th. Just head over to NOWhere Limited to add something blissful to your collection. Until then, please enjoy this preview.

RINSE AND REPEAT

SPACE DOLLAR – the text reads, “Starbuck bucked a buck for a buck at starbucks.”

HISTROY (detail)

BLISS (in 3d and GID)

BLISS
IGNORANCE
25 April – 24 May 2009
NOWhere Limited
Nederland, Colorado

MANY more photos after the jump.
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Jon Lamb, Ian Millard and Michael Ortiz have gotten together for a group show at the Andenken Gallery in Denver. “No Anunciar” exhibits individual works from all three artists and features an indoor collaborative mural. Here is a time-lapse video chronicling the creation of the four day project.

No Anunciar
Jon Lamb, Ian Millard and Michael Ortiz
3 – 24 April 2009
Andenken Gallery
Denver

Ian Millard has also just released a new print through his website. “Caler” is composed of India ink and spray paint in two editions of five. The print is available in green and red (below). Hurry up and grab yours here.

If you are in the Jersey City area be sure to stop by Hudson County Art Supply and marvel at the mural they sponsored on the exterior of the building. The piece was an all day affair bringing together the talents of Ron English, Bigfoot and Jason Maloney.

The event was organized by Jersey City resident Dylan Evans. Evans is in discussion with the city to initiate a mural arts program. Much respect to the JC government for considering the cultural value of legal walls.

I found out about this project at Arrested Motion. Head over to their coverage and leave a comment for a chance to win a nice artifact from the creation of this mural.

Special thanks to Alanna Sarti for taking the photographs accompanying this post.

Ron English x Bigfoot x Jason Maloney
Collaborative Mural
Hudson County Art Supply
303 First St.
Jersey City, NJ

Elms Lesters continues to pound the art world with one great show after another. “Adaptation/Translation”, the latest exhibition from José Parlá is no exception.

Parlá is a student of wildstyle and focuses on how tags incorporate visually into urban decay. The paintings are on canvas but feel as though they were removed from a graffiti dream wall.

The gallery has produced a stunning book to commemorate the exhibition. In addition to covering “Adaptation/Translation” it documents José Parlá’s travels as well as previously unpublished works.

“As our society moves forward through time, ever faster and in ever more complex patterns of living, we forget our spirit – our inner growth. We believe ourselves to be on the cusp of evolution but perhaps we are only experiencing an involution. The marks on the walls of our cities are perhaps a testimonial, like scars of a wounded civilization.”
- José Parlá

José Parlá
Adaptation / Translation
10 October – 8 November 2008
Elms Lesters Painting Rooms
London

Just in from BLU. This is a piece for the FAME Festival in Italy. More on the festival soon. Enjoy this short time lapse video of the creation below.

Very pleased to find this video. Graffiti-Post Graffiti is an episode from “ART/new york” the long lived video series on contemporary art. The video has rare interviews with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Crash, Futura 2000 and Keith Haring. To order the episode head over to ART/new york, be sure to look through the program guide for other titles.