The work of legendary street artist Banksy is now iconic, even throughout the larger art world. Photographer Nick Stern uses these easily recognizable images as a starting point. Stern literally brings Banksy’s pieces to life. He restages the wall art using real people and objects in place of the spray paint and posters. Using living subjects adds emphasis to the often powerful and startling art of Banksy.
I’m happy to present second installment of photographs from our amazing European trip with our friends over at Royal Talens And Canson. If you remember we started our trip in Paris and made our way over to Amsterdam, stopping along the way to check out all the museums, galleries, and sights that each city offered.
We started our first day in Amsterdam with a boat tour of the canals to get acquainted with the many tiny streets and canals that zig zag throughout the city. Along the way we saw many amazing examples of dutch architecture, design, street art and of course Houseboats!
It seems that anytime someone finds a strange piece of art out in public the first thing they think is that Banksy was the culprit. This seemed to be the case when three strange and mystical wood carvings popped up in the woods of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, UK. Carved into tree stumps these weren’t amateur carvings by stoned teenagers partying in the woods. With ornate details and precise craftsmanship any wood smith would be proud to call these their own. The Daily Mail caused an uproar stating that the pieces were carved by everyone’s favorite street art mystery man Banksy. However after some investigation by the BBC it was revealed that that the work was done by Tommy Craggs, who was commissioned by the person who owns the land that the sculptures were found on. Not sure why the Daily Mail didn’t start with checking who owned the land before going Bansky crazy but who’s got time to fact check when you could be selling some papers with phony headlines.
Since my last post about Street Art Utopia’s “Best List” took off and caused a decent amount of response, I think it is important to involve the Cult’s own selection. Here you will find a carefully curated and crafted list of every imaginable kind of public form of expression and their respected historical contexts. More after the jump.
We received an email today with the subject line: “anonymity is knowing everybody that knows of you” and the mysterious URL in the body: banksysucks.com. Followed the link to find the not-so-subtle .gif splash page above with a cheery midi rendition of the Cheers tune. (Presumably for its hook, “where everyone knows your name.”) Someone doesn’t like Bansky, I take it. Whether you love him or loathe him, Banksy has been the closest thing to this decade’s controversial Warholian art star. The site above clearly takes a jab at the fact that the identity of the internationally-famous British street artist is still “unknown.” Is Banksy still anonymous and “street” when the likes of Jude law and Brangelina shell out cool millions on his work? What do you think?
Last night I was invited to attend a preview of Exit Through The Gift Shop, the much hyped documentary by the street artist Banksy. By now, you all know that I’m an avid documentary junkie. I’ll watch a documentary about paint drying on a wall if it’s well made. I’ll admit, I went into the screening room expecting to hate it- so was Banksy able to win me over?
