Filed under: Art | Tags: Dan Graham, Dennis Tyfus, John Olson, Patti Smith, Richard Kern, Richard Prince, Sensational fix, Sonic Youth
Dennis Tyfus has made a a string of Sonic Youth posters and t-shirts and also did a bunch of stuff for Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label (logo, t-shirts, skateboard,…). So it was no big surprise that some of his art also features in the Sensational Fix exhibition.
Sensational Fix is a travelling expo wich focuses on the multidisciplinary activities of Sonic Youth since its formation in 1981. It features the band’s collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians, as well as a choice of other works selected by the band. The exhibition is in Malmö until September 20. It will move to Madrid in 2010 and other places around the globe after that.
The works of Tyfus are displayed in a section of so-called ‘noise artists’ with the likes of Richard Prince, John Olson, Richard Kern, Patti Smith and Dan Graham (Belgians might remember his big glass artwork on the Sint-Jansplein in Antwerp which kept on being vandalised until they decided to move it to the Middelheim museum).
Tyfus is showing a number of drawing that show a new direction in his work: more hectic drawing, the use of photos in them, the blobs of colour and ink smudges,… Noise art indeed!
Below are some shots with an overview of the noise art section and close-ups of the the Tyfus works on that wall.
All photos by Sensational Fix.
PS Dennis Tyfus was also featured in the first issue of the Sensational Fix zine.
Filed under: Art | Tags: banksy, chocolate, Donuts, lottery, Pictures On Wall, POW, strawberry
A few days after the Pictures On Walls lottery for the new Banksy ‘Donuts’ print came to an end, the print is already being offered on eBay in large numbers. A total of 600 prints were made: 299 in strawberry, 299 in chocolate. A dozen of these are currently on sale, many have already sold under the ‘Buy Now’ option.
The lottery system was set up because Banksy wanted to sell the prints under their ‘open market value’, thus making them available for a larger audience. Who then quickly sell it on eBay to make a wad of cash. Quickly is the right word here, as I doubt that any of these sellers already received their print.
The POW price was 465 UK Pounds. The prints are currently selling on eBay around the 2000 Pounds mark.
Dutch artist Helmut Smits came up with a great idea to make our cities a bit nicer: plant a tree in front of a billboard. It’s such a simple yet perfect idea to get rid of this urban pest. It’s easy and cheap to do and billboard companies won’t remove the trees as they will think it’s council property. Perfect!
Filed under: Art | Tags: Aakash Nihalani, brooklyn, fluorescent tape, manhatten, Street Art
I really love the street art of Aakash Nihalani who sticks fluorescent tapes in all sorts of geometric shapes to walls, pavements, et cetera around Brooklyn and Manhattan. This way he livens up dull and grey streets and sidewalks with bright colours and makes people wonder what the hell these figures are doing there.
There’s a truck load of pictures and a video of Aakash at work below. Woohoo! (now make a little dance [NSFW - unless you wanna be laughed at by your colleagues])
Proof: the police have no sense of aesthetics whatsoever.
I recently bumped into the work of UK artist Laura Keeble (www.laurakeeble.com). She mainly does interventions around London where she adds things to a specific location to mock the location or what it stands for. Her modus operandi of bringing social commentary with the toungue firmy planted in cheek is very reminescent of Banksy’s work. Even her subjets are an exact Banksy copy: consumerism, religian, the royal family, the art industry, … So she doesn’t get much points for originality, but I really do like the work where she takes on Damien Hirst. A couple of years ago she made a replica of his famous diamond studded ‘For the love of God’-skull and at the end of the actual exhibition she put it- along with some trash – outside the Mason’s Yard premises of White Cube Gallery which had the real skull on display.
Filed under: Art | Tags: Kati Heck, Saatchi Gallery, Stella Lohaus Gallery, Vier Leute Passen In Ein Taxi
On Thursday Kati Heck opens a not to be missed exhibition of new work at the Stella Lohaus Gallery in Antwerp. This is her first exhibition at Stella Lohaus since she left Annie Gentils Gallery last year. A move which was much talked about in the art scene. After all, Kati Heck is one of the leading Antwerp artists and one of the few Belgians (ok ok, she was born in Germany) of whom the Saatchi Gallery bought several works.
The exhibition is called ‘Vier Leute Passen In Ein Taxi’ and the invitation has Heck with a green painted face lying on a mattress on a big heap of horseshit along with a enormous gherkin. Lovely!
Here’s one of Heck’s recently finished paintings:
Pablo’s Damon Auf Harz IV (2009)
The exhibition runs until May 2nd from Wednesday to Saturday between 14.00 and 18.00 at Stella Lohaus Gallery, Vlaamse Kaai 47, 2000 Antwerp.
Filed under: Art, Music | Tags: debut album, Future Words, HUMO's Rock Rally, Naïve records, The Hickey Underworld, VRMNSMR
The Hickey Underworld won HUMO’s Rock Rally in 2006 but failed to reach a large audience afterwards. Few people were able to see the brilliance of their songs and it wasn’t until a few months ago – when THU released the more accessible ‘Future Words’ as a second single – that they got some decent airplay and a larger audience. Meanwhile I had the chance to see them live 19 times over the past 3 years and to me they are nothing short of the best live band in the country.
Anyways, a promo of the soon to be released, self-titled debut album found it’s way into my paws and my god it IS good. I’m especially glad that for the most part they were able to capture the raw power that is THU live onto this album. Hats off to the Das Pop guys who produced the album.
My only disappointment is that ‘VRMNSMR’, the last song on the album and usually also the live set closer, has been cropped from a 10 minute behemoth to a 4 minute track. One can only hope they also release the full version as a b-side as it is one of the best songs ever written in this small country.
And do check out the excellent cover artwork (see top of this post) by Gerard Leysen, who if I’m not mistaken was also responsible for the great image that used to be the first THU website index page (see below).
The album is out March 8th on Naïve. Buy this puppy, you won’t regret it.
Track list:
1. Zero Hour
2. Sick Of Boys
3. Blonde Fire
4. Zorayda
5. Future Words
6. Mystery Bruise
7. Of Asteroids And Men
8. Plus added Wizardry
9. Blue World Order
10. Flamencorpse
11. VRMNSMR
Filed under: Art, Design | Tags: Centre Pompidou, Park, Pencil eraser skull, Pointdextr, Printemps Design boutique, Skulls, Skullz, Toykyo, Vienna, Wien
Skullz galore! My favourite ones at the moment:
Pencil eraser skull.
For sale at the Printemps Design boutique @ Centre Pompidou.
Skull candle (black or white, different sizes)
For sale at Park, Vienna.
‘Keep The Flame Alive’ skull candle by Pointdextr.
For sale in different colours at Toykyo, Ghent .
Too much shopping?
The financial crisis?
Out of honey supplies?
Seen at Neubaugasse, Vienna.
Photo by miss k.
Filed under: Art, Design, Webstuff | Tags: Bue, Fixit, Kaiser, Parra, Pest, Pointdextr, Remed, Toykyo, ZetKa
TOYKYO is a great shop in Ghent that sells art prints, art books, spray cans, t-shirts, etcetera. TOYKYO grew out of the ZetKa street art crew (Pointdextr, Kaiser, Bue, Fixit and Pest) who are responsible for the Kalashnikov carpet on top of this page.
TOYKYO also doubles as a creative studio and production company that pretty much designs everything you want to get designed. For this work they use some of the best street and graffiti artists/designers/illustrators in the country (the ZetKa guys, Hell’O Monsters,…). They’ve done stuff for Mercedes, Hugo Boss, Nike, Culture Club, Disko Drunkards (the new cd artwork) and many many more. One of my favourites is the graphics they did for a Jean-Paul Gaultier perfume launch. The cassette tape wallpaper is just super. See pictures below.
Photos from a great deal of their productions are now available on their brand new website toykyo.be. It’s a real treasure trove full of stuff you could blog about for weeks. Don’t worry, I won’t. Check out this great site for yourself.
(Pity the web-shop is gone though.)
