Carefully cultivating his highly personal and multifaceted career outside the mainstream gallery world to this point, Supertouch buddy KAWS is about to dive headfirst into the shark-infested waters of the “real” art world with upcoming solo shows in NYC, Miami, and LA. Taking note of his career arc is NY TIMES writer ROB WALKER who penned the following profile of Mr. Donnelley for the paper’s August 3rd edition:

CONSUMED
New Looks: KAWS
By Rob Walker (Published: August 3, 2008, NY Times)At 33, Brian Donnelly is enjoying a successful art career. Working out of a studio in Brooklyn, he has sold paintings to Pharrell Williams, the rapper and producer; Nigo, the designer-entrepreneur; and Takashi Murakami, the international art star, among others. He has also created a variety of products including toys, apparel and even pillows — and indeed he has his own store, Original Fake, in Tokyo. He has also been widely known in the “street art” world for years; one of his early altered-phone-booth-ad posters recently traded hands on eBay for $22,000. One thing Donnelly had not done until lately, however, is forge a relationship with a dealer or art gallery. This wasn’t because he shunned or had a problem with the traditional gallery system. He says it’s just that “nobody asked.” READ ON: Read the rest of this entry »

<
Hyper-prolific portrait artist KEHINDE WILEY’s latest installment in his “World Stage” series “Africa: Lagos ~ Dakar” is now on view at Harlem’s progressive STUDIO MUSEUM and the array of new large-scale paintings is staggering. It’s a homecoming of sorts for the artist who, after graduating from the SF Art Institute, began his professional art career there in 2000 where he pioneered his now trademark baroque urban portrait style. Traveling to Africa where he set up residence in a satellite studio to seek out his models for the series, Wiley posed his “actors” to mimic historical public sculptures from Dakar, Senegal, and Lagos, Nigeria, which he then immortalized on the huge canvases comprising this installation. And while all the subjects in this series were unknowns he found in the streets, Wiley has some much bigger subjects in mind for an upcoming dream leg of his art tour: “I would love to do a series of paintings of African dictators. To have their company, do the photo shoot and make a whole series of paintings, that’s something I’ll try to work on. Because their egos are already out of this world, they would probably take the commission just because of that, to hang the portraits in their royal palaces.” HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Mr Supine’s free art floatie steers away from New Jersey…

NYC’s (well, Brooklyn, actually) chartreuse-loving street anonymous art phantom JUDITH SUPINE has reprised his last summer’s attack on the vaguely toxic East River by sending yet another color-screaming art floatie out to sea this weekend. No word yet as to whose hands the diving beauties ultimately ended up in, but one thing’s for sure, it’ll probably turn up in some high-end street art auction sooner than later. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Espo takes to the streets to enlist some willing waterboard soldiers…

Since Guantanamo Bay isn’t technically accepting any new prisoners, our man ESPO aka: STEVE POWERS is ready to set up a little WATERBOARDING torture experiment—in conjunction with NYC-based arts organization CREATIVE TIME—of his own and he needs you or your lawyer to sign up now. READ ON: Read the rest of this entry »

Mama Emily, Gavin, & baby Whitethunder bring the LES to the maternity ward…

Our sincerest congrats go out to Supertouch buddy & VICE MAGAZINE founder/Dos & Don’ts author turned STREET CARNAGE impresario GAVIN McINNESS who has managed to replicate once again, this time producing the intimidatingly-named DUNCAN WHITETHUNDER McINNES. Weighing in at a hearty 9 pound 9 ounces, the scion of Canadian royalty carries a heavy mantle of LES hipsterdom and ironic facial hair that we’re sure he will someday cultivate with the same aplomb of his old man.

Like its Chinese homeland, this sleeping giant will no doubt awake to crush us all someday…

The undeniable presence of China in the NYC art scene is an influence that will only continue to grow over the next decade as America’s almighty loanholder continues to export its finest imagists at a breakneck rate. Luckily—unlike the forthcoming Chinese cars—the mostly figurative artists are also some of the world’s most visionary. One such notable example is the performance artist turned painter/sculptor ZHANG HUAN whose new sculpture, “Giant 3” is a colossal 15-foot-tall figure made from cowhides, steel, wood, and polystyrene foam that centers Chelsea’s must-see show of the moment at the venerable PACE WILDENSTEIN GALLERY. Filling out the show which spans the gallery’s two large exhibition spaces are a wide array of equally inspired smaller sculptures and paintings by the artist, the most notable of which are a series of vintage red propaganda-inspired “paintings” made up entirely of grains of ash from burned temple incense. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Shepard Fairey’s “OBAMA HOPE (1 of 3”), original?mixed media stencil collage on cotton rag paper, 4’ x 6’, 2008. 

With OBAMA mania running at full capacity, Hip-Hop culture mogul RUSSELL SIMMONS is offering one of official Barack Obama campaign artist SHEPARD FAIREY’s three original handmade fine art “Hope” editions in his annual ART FOR LIFE charity auction. Donated by the artist, Shepard’s mixed media stencil collage on cotton rag paper measures a whopping 4′ x 6′ and its sale benefits Simmons’ non-profit organization, Rush Philanthropic, that benefits the youth community of greater Manhattan through various arts-based charity outreach programs including the Rush Community Grants Program, Rush Arts Gallery and Resource Center, and Rush Kids among others (read more about it HERE). The bidding ends on July 16, 2008 12:16:00 PM (EDT), and as of Monday afternoon the going price was $40,000 USD. Give till it hurts…

(detail)

Supertouch blogger ERIC WHITE is digging NY MAGAZINE’s new video interview with one of Manhattan’s most innovative “street artists,” JOSHUA ALLEN HARRIS, who creates his incredibly temporary sidewalk installations using found materials and the power of the city’s ever-present subway air ventilation grates. SEE MORE: Read the rest of this entry »