Cheshire Life Article, June 2011

Spotted this recently in a journal from the UK.
Often when paintings go out into the world, I have no idea where they end up or who bought them. For me this is a really important part of the process and I never have any fear or regret about letting pieces go; it is a part of their life-cycle. It is good to see one of the pieces I regard as personal favourite end up in a good home.
Also got a few good lines on the following page. Check them out below:


Purple Pond, 5ftx5ft. Oil on canvas


I believe this collector also picked up these pieces.


Super Duper Star, 2ftx2ft. Oil and mixed media on canvas

Busiest Rhymes, 8ftx3.5ft. oil and mixed on canvas

Ashwan

VIZIE van graffiti

Artist Driven - Vizie Night from LRG on Vimeo.

legal piece made to look more dramatic to sell LRG t shirts and Ironlak shtuff...nice piece though.
ashwan

RECORD (vinyl) ART

It was sad news recently when I learned of the passing of a great artist...No, not Lucian Freud (who was a decent painter)or Amy Winehouse (who was a very young, decent singer)but the less recognised Alex Steinweiss who was art director for Colombia records from 1938.
The reason that the old LP record was called an album is that they literally used to be produced like a traditional photo album, with a leather effect cover, gold inlays and pages and pages of information. Alex went into Colombia with the idea that if you made records more visually appealing and dynamic, then you would attract more people and therefore sell more. His first album cover, and effectively the first illustrated record cover in history, is a stunner and way before it's time visually:




The influence of Walker Evans 'Broadway' photograph (below)is evident, but to apply it to the context of product packaging at this time was visionary. It is not surprising that this early Rodgers and Hart cover should prove to be so inspirational.

RIP Alex Steinweiss (March 24, 1917 – July 18, 2011)


Walker Evans 'Broadway', 1930

LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR - A Fly Whip

Pete Rock/Smiff n Wessun

Delta in Switzerland.

It's essential for graffiti and writers to evolve if the roots of the culture are going to continue to carry meaning in society today. Most writers have been inspired to do what they do by a dynamic that they saw in the work of artists in NYC in the 80's and early 90's. When I look at Dutch artist DELTA's (aka Boris Tellegen) work it takes me back to scouring the pages of Henry Chalfants 'Subway Art'. I see a kid staring at a piece by Kase 2, trying to understand the intricacy, the computer rock craziness that Kase brought to the world. I can see how the scale of images that Henry brought us in their intimacy would cause a then young and aspiring writer to desire to turn them into macro versions of themselves.
Graffiti art holds a difficult place in art history, even now with major shows cropping up internationally. It is still hard for historians to see, and many writers to articulate, exactly where the relevance is, how it all fits in.
One of the things graffiti did (because it was not 'hi' painting) is take the sculpture off the floor and put it on to the wall. Anthony Caro took it off the plinth and that was considered revolutionary. Graff writers made it two dimensional so you didn't need to fall over that shit while you were looking at the paintings.
Graffiti took graphic languages and experimented with 3 dimensions on a 2d plane on a scale that had never really been toyed with. Of course Trompe L'oil existed already for hundreds of years and even artists such as Richard Haas were dealing with it on an architectural scale, but much of early graffiti was 'sculpture'.
Look at the work of Zaha Hadid and that of Daim and see in a slightly different way, what I am talking about.

When I look at Delta's work in these images, I see things that I saw when I stared at that 'Subway Art' for hours on end in the mid 80's. The dynamic was incredible. COMPUTER ROCK!
Graffiti has done MANY things for the future art history books, this is just one of them.

The show is at the Kunstraum until September 10th, 2011.
for more info visit http://kunstraum.ch/
images stolen from ARRESTED MOTION

PEACE,
ASHWAN

DOZE GREEN

old skool writer/b boy doing his thang...DOZE!

ashwan