Barack Obama does, in fact, have a posse, it seems…

We never thought it would come to this, but it seems BARACK OBAMA’s street team has confronted UK street art phenom BANKSY head-on in a battle for the streets of NEW ORLEANS where the Bristol Bad Boy recently made a well-publicized art run. You’re up, Banks…

Banksy’s post-Katrina, pre-Obama original…

Just in time for Christmas shopping, London’s PICTURES ON WALLS has announced a new BANKSY print commemorating his Tesco mural in Shoreditch (now covered in protective plastic) is set to go on sale on December 6th. The signed and numbered silkscreen will be available—alongside a number of other prints we could care less about—via a lottery system whereby would-be buyers can purchase a lottery ticket for £1 GBP (up to 20 per person), with all proceeds going to Sight Savers, an international anti-blindness charity, that will ensure them a CHANCE to snag the actual print when it’s released. Unfortunately for international Banksy fans, tickets can only be purchased in person at POW. Winning consumers will be chosen randomly, and the first four names drawn get the print for free. Not a bad deal considering this thing might end up putting your kid through college someday (when people start buying art again)…

Banksy’s “Nola” girl prays for pennies from heaven…

Speaking of “Street Art,” the ever-elusive phantom that is the underground art world’s “Damien Hirst,” namely BANKSY, has just released a silk-screened print of an image from his recent swing through New Orleans. Produced by UK print house PICTURES ON WALLS, the signed and numbered edition cashes out at a very hefty £450 GBP (approx. $670 USD), making us hope that in these economically dire times, the proceeds from this very politically-motivated image are being donated to a local New Orleans charity, although no information to confirm this has been released.

Nola locals contemplate removing the original and buying a city block with the proceeds…

The Banksy effect in the East Village… 

This post comes as a point of clarification. Banksy’s recent (and legal) huge-scale assault on NYC’s downtown wall space has attracted a lot of attention lately, and the new piece shown here by fellow Bristol stencil artist NICK WALKER has been incorrectly identified by many locals as belonging to the aforementioned Englishman. Situated at the corner of 6th & Cooper, the massive and yes, legal, piece (like the older one in Brooklyn also pictured below) that popped up last week does indeed resemble the work of Bristol’s most famous stencil god in both form and function, but certainly not content. As street art continues to dominate the visual landscape of the underground art world, it’s surprising to watch the massive and rather disingenuous game of follow-the-leader that has emerged as its defining trait. As for how much longer this whole thing can continue, please refer to the previous post. Meanwhile, HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

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: Read the rest of this entry »

A cosmetically-inclined caged bunny self-tests. Outside, Banksy sits and awaits his first customer of the day…

Street art aficionados and cynical phenomenologists (we don’t know any of those) have been long awaiting SIR BANKSY’s official New York debut but surely even the most imaginative punter couldn’t have guessed that the Bristol Bad Boy’s first show in the Apple would come in the form of a mock pet store with nothing inside for sale. That’s exactly what the “street art” king’s adoring public got, however, when the doors to “The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill” opened at 89 7th Avenue (between Bleeker and West 4th) last Thursday, October 9th, revealing what seemed from the outside to be a small West Village pet shop stocked not with purring kittens and wiggly puppies, but a more sinister menagerie. Inside, animatronic chicken nuggets, porno watching monkeys, coexisted alongside ageing tweety birds, swimming fish sticks, and suggestively writing caged hot dogs, in what can only be described as an entirely unique visual critique of the state of animal husbandry in the modern world. In the words of Banksy himself, “New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art.” The show is open for viewing from 10am—12am daily and remains on view until Halloween. Click HERE to read the NY Times review of the show. Meanwhile, HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

The rats in NYC keep getting bigger…

As we mentioned last week, BANKSY is indeed in Manhattan, this time for the opening of his self-funded mock pet store installation, titled “Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill,” and he’s spending big to post huge—and, yes, LEGAL—wall-sized murals around downtown to prove it. These two new installments—located at Houston & MacDougal and Canal Street near the Holland Tunnel—were again paid for by the deepening pockets of Sir Banksy himself, and executed by expert sign painters, COLOSSAL MEDIA, who just days prior installed the reigning street art king’s first two mega-rats. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »