After buying a new Banksy piece, Tim Biskup found time to make nice with the ladies…

The art “Extravaganza” event that was originally scheduled to take place at the now infamous LAZARIDES GALLERY in London last week during the throes of the FRIEZE ART FAIR was instead turned into the “Shut Down Show” after the local authorities canned STEVE LAZARIDES‘ original setup over gambling concerns. Turns out Laz’s grand plan to sell 250 tickets at £5,000 GBP each for the event—which guaranteed every participant a 1-in-10 chance of winning an original piece of art from the gallerist’s stable of artists including Miranda Donovan and Faile and included a raffle of an original BANKSY oil painting valued at more than £300,000 GBP—looked more like a mini casino operation to the gambling commission than a proper art show. Instead, Lazarides stepped to the plate and converted the original fete into an equally impressive group show of art by ANTHONY MICALLEF, INVADER, PAUL INSECT, and JONATHAN YEO, to name a few, that also included several vintage works by Banksy, including the “corrupted” oil painting that was to serve as the centerpiece of the raffle. While everyone who bought tickets for the original party was given a full refund and a piece of free artwork for their trouble, the new show did include a “Gnome Bowling” game whereby anyone knocking down a set of gnome bowling pins received a piece of free art, a less-than-subtle F.U. to the gambling commission if there ever was one. Of course, our man TIM BISKUP was on the scene to take in the spread, pick up on the ladies, and even DJ’d the afterparty side-by-side with Supertouch homie ACYDE at SoHo HOUSE where show attendees like DENNIS HOPPER tore it up late into the foggy eve. HAVE A LOOK:

THE SPREAD: 

The big-money Banksy…

The “Bowl-a-Gnome” game…

…”Every strike’s a winner!”

Banksy funny money…

Your Banksy retirement fund…

The crowd queues up…

…for a strip show…

…where the lady of the evening even laid an egg at one point. Only in London.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 am and is filed under Art Crimes, Art Stunts, Banksy, London, News, Tim Biskup, art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.