Will the real “BONSKY” please stand up?…

In an effort to thwart bootlegging and the resale of his illegally placed street installations, national living art treasure, knight of the Queen’s court, and minister of tourism BANKSY (Sir Banksy, to the common man), has just established an official certification board to authenticate his artworks prior to resale. Yes, you read that right. Appropriately named “Pest Control,” the Banksy-appointed committee has declared that all major resellers of his work must consult them first before any secondary market work can be considered truly authentic. A member of Banksy’s camp reports, “The works are made for specific sites, and taking them is tantamount to theft. That is why Banksy has approved this authentication system. He certainly doesn’t want the people who’ve removed them making money out of it.” This move comes after three inauthentic works attributed to Banksy went on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in London without prior certification. And so turns yet another incredible page in the grand work of performance art that is Banksy’s career…

“My aim is to create beautiful objects of desire in order to explore the relationship between sex, commodity and art. I want to show how our longing for products, material objects and even artworks themselves can be sexual, almost fetishistic.”

So went the telling manifesto of Supertouch buddy INSA’s exceptionally decadent and aptly-named “Dirty Cash” exhibition that opened on July 3rd at the FLAWLESS GALLERY in London. Presented by luxury cellphone purveyors—and makers of the world’s first million dollar cell—GOLDVISH (think new money Russian gangster wives) in conjunction with London’s ultra high-end diamond & platinum encrusted bling dealers, FLAWLESS & Co, Mr Insa—tongue planted firmly in cheek—took a giant step into the world of the ridiculous as the ultimate extension of his creative M.O. and the wildly escalating street art market with an exhibition of his typically glorious, well-oiled, & Bode-esque naked lady paintings. Known for his steady street work and regular shows at counterculture galleries worldwide, the artist is more the type to be turned away from these diamond retailers than embraced by them, making the show an even better get. Needless to say, the monied & curious turned out in droves, wallets in hands, disturbed, no doubt, to find that none of the artist’s paintings incorporated any real diamonds affixed to the canvases. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Even this Basquiat masterpiece couldn’t stand U2’s music anymore…

It’s an accepted truism that the best pieces by the deceased street art/Pop master JEAN–MICHEL BASQUIAT are all in the hands of knowing private collectors at this point where they’re likely to stay for some time to come. That fact alone would normally be enough to make the early ’80s masterpiece painting “Untitled (Pecho/Oreja), 1983” auctioned yesterday at Sotheby’s for a healthy £5,000,000 ($9,962,699 USD) especially noteworthy—if it weren’t coming from the private collection of U2, that is. Originally purchased by the Irish band at a posthumous Basquiat show at Robert Miller Gallery in New York in 1989 (Samo OD’d in 1988) for a mere fraction of its current value, the huge painting hung as a backdrop in their Dublin studio and was present at the recording of their albums beginning with “Achtung Baby” until the band mysteriously decided to part ways with it this month. Believed to be a self-portrait created by the then-22-year-old art star in his basement studio beneath Anina Nosei’s gallery, the piece is a truly incredible painting by the late artist and a find of even rarer quality on the open market these days. Of course, it was picked up by an unnamed private European collector who obviously lives somewhere where money is still worth something. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Banksy’s buffer will be working overtime tonite… 

Walking through the abandoned Eurostar terminal-turned impromptu stencil art museum that is BANKSY’s infamous “Cans Festival,” it seems that the Bristol bad boy has his share of detractors after all. Just two months after the show’s debut (it’s scheduled to remain on public display until Fall) it seems the local graffiti droogs have made their feelings regarding England’s prince of street art known in the form of ubiquitous tagging throughout the tunnel. Do we smell an old school graffiti war brewing? No chance, that would be way too “street.” The Queen will probably have her royal art conservators on the job restoring the place by week’s end. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

London’s Street Art scene exploded in May with BANKSY’s official “Cans Festival,” a sort of global gathering of stencil art heads unprecedented in scale. Now the organization has released an official time-lapse recap of the event from bare beginning to the inevitable endless queue…

Katie shills for Jimmie…

In the street art riddled streets of London Lichtenstein-ian AgitPop artist JAMES CAUTY knows to get a little attention you have to pull out the big guns. In other words, Kate Moss. Such was the case when the young artist liberated a few East End billboards in the name of art, er, self-promotion (there is a website listed on there after all). Nicely done. Now that Kate’s advert campaigns are on the wane and retirement is looming large on the horizon these bombs may be the only daily doses of her we have in the near future. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Conor Harrington’s general stands tall at attention…

As the epicenter of the exploding street art scene and, in turn, the central focus of the trend-obsessed art world, London is a virtual outdoor gallery of some of the best—and biggest—street art and graffiti pieces in the world. With the massive “Street Art” show currently on display at the TATE MODERN MUSEUM driving the scene to a fever pitch, now was certainly the perfect time for Supertouch buddy and fellow Irishman CONOR HARRINGTON to take over a three-story vertical wall on Hanbury Street in Shoreditch with one of his inimitable vintage military images. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve already mentioned the “STREET ART” show currently on display at London’s TATE MUSEUM featuring incredible new paste-ups by French photographer & street artist JR, and now we’ve got a right bit of video detailing his exploits wrapping buildings around town with his signature gigantic black & white imagery…