Everybody know Banksy has started something big.
Take his mate the alphabet fiend Eine, or old timer Blek Le Rat who was up long before Banksy but has been made a buyers dream through this surge in interest. They are all associated with Street Art, no longer a cool graffiti style but a Serious Artistic Genre.
What perhaps has particularly sparked this trend here in London, or the ‘gentrification’ of it at least is the fact that it has proved so popular with London’s rich art buyers most of all in the financial world. What more could a loaded Investment Banker want than a bit of trendy graffiti art hung in the loo. Cynical people might say; if he can’t be in a decent sub culture he can at least buy into it. Thats the word on the street anyway and I have my sources.
Look what’s been happening in these past few weeks. The Cans Festival last weekend. Which was bloody marvelous. The exhibition on at the Leonard Street Gallery, which showcases artists, all who have migrated from the underground art scene to the canvas. The opening of Blek Le Rat’s solo exhibition. London has become the platform to exhibit art that bridges the gap between what is on the street and in the gallery.
Steve Lazarides, who represents Banksy is hot on the trail for edgy art. Art that is defined by this gray area.
At the moment he is hosting the work of Miranda Donovan at the Lazarides Gallery, who on face value is right in the middle of this graffiti genre. Some of her pieces are quite poignant. highlighting social issues in the way Bansky does. Several of her larger works tackle gun and knife crime on the streets of London. Using ripped up newspaper articles on boys who have died as the basis for papier-mache collages. Below graffiti walls or pastoral scenes are painted in oil - making the obvious contrast between the picturesque English way of life and the reality of London’s streets.
Beyond this you really have to see Miranda Donovan’s work as a pastiche. Because in a way she has taken this current trend and turned it in on itself. In her other works she recreated mini versions of London street scenes, mini brick walls made out of plaster on to board, with pop out features like bollards, street signs, phone boxes and bus stops. With great swathes of mini graffiti on top. It is as if a hoard of leprechauns broke into a model village and graffed it up.
In others she uses Constable-esc country landscape scenes, daubed in graffiti. They scream Banksy! Three years ago! But apart from that it is an intersting exhibiton worth seeing.
1 Comment
May 23, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Great read, this scene is crazy at the moment, onwards and upwards is they only way it can go, when will this bubble burst.
Went to see the show after reading this, small gallery, concept of art great but dont think you would get me hanging Miranda’s art on my wall.
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