Elusive artist Banksy unveiled a new mural in Finsbury Park, North London on Saint Patrick’s day. Located in Hornsey Road, a social housing area, the council recently pruned a massive mature cherry tree, as part of their regular maintenance, and left it looking miserable.
Before Banksy mural – image courtesy of the artist
Using a pressure hose or fire extinguisher, Banksy painted a cascade of green colour on the façade of the nearby building, creating a trompe l’oeil effect. At the bottom the mural Banksy used a stencil to paint a lifesized person holding a pressure hose next to it. When stepping back, it looks like the tree is bursting to life.
Banksy’s attention to detail is noticeable with the green colour palette matching the one used by Islington Council for signs in the local area. This also helped him act unnoticed despite the bright green colour.
This fire extinguisher technique is a favourite amongst graffiti artists as it enables to cover large surfaces high and wide quickly without the need of a ladder or scaffholding.
Local residents expressed joy and pride to the addition of this major cultural element to their streets.
Listen to the podcast on BBC with James Peak and Patrick Nguyen here
Placement and timing are key. A celebration of the green colour (perfect timing with Saint Patrick’s day), combined with a celebration of nature and the springtime season in full bloom.
Update 20.03.2024
Street art is ephemeral by nature.
The mural did not last long in its original state. Three days after unveiling the piece, the wall has received some white splash paint, as well as a little addition with a brick signature character by Ronzo. Can you spot it?
The French artist Invader is taking over an entire building in central Paris and transforming it into a space station: the INVADER SPACE STATION. It’s a strategic location, 11 rue Béranger (75003) in the former offices of the newspaper ‘Libération’. Back in 2011 Invader created a giant mural on its rooftop, visible from satellite.
Curated by Fabrice Bousteau, editorial director of Beaux Arts Magazine, this massive exhibition of 3500 m² spans accross the last four floors of the nine storey building.
Upon entering the INVADER SPACE STATION, we are immersed with a SPACE BATTLE, a large scale installation made of road dividers you might see on construction sites. The artist invites the viewer to look again at our surroundings during our everyday ‘s life. Invader mentions : ‘Somewhere between ready-made, arte povera and installation, I’ve used them here to recreate the army of pixelated aliens as seen on the opening screen of the game Space Invaders’. Full with lighting effects and sound !
INVASION OF PARIS
Since 1998 the artist has been leveraging the city of Paris as his playground. A gigantic map displays all 1500 mosaics installed in the streets of Paris with their exact location, as well as close up pictures of each individual ones in chrononological order, showcasing the artist’s prolific nature across 25 years.
We have the opportunity to view from a telescope the latest mosaic in Paris, named PA1500 which has just been revealed at the Centre Pompidou, Museum of Contemporary Art.
FLASHINVADERS APP
A screen displays a real-time stream of all the successful flashes on the FLASH INVADER app. Long before the app Pokemon Go, INVADER set up the FlashInvaders app in 2014. To participate, players just need to ‘flash’ (photograph) the mosaics in the streets throughout the world. Based on the photo and the player’s position, when the information is validated, the app adds the piece to their collection and the player gains some points and progress through the global ranking of players. Gathering 350,000 players and almost 23 million validated flashes, there is indeniably a strong community.
INVADING THE WORLD
The illegal mosaic invasion has taken on a planetary dimension from the start and INVADER travelled extensively to surprising locations to spread its mosaics around the world. Featured in a chronological order, a selection of pictures offers the viewer a glimpse of the international scope and insane risk taking and energy deployed during 25 years, to place mosaics in various cities internationally as well as reaching deep sea levels and outer space in the ISS station.
VIDEOS AND PROJECTION ROOM
Through his through his various missions, INVADER has also captured hundreds of thousands of photographs, as well as many hours of footage INVADER SPACE STATION shares some gems from the artist’s own archive on video loops as well as a large projection room with different screening programmes through the weeks.
ARTWORKS
In parallel to INVADER’s street illegal practice, the artist has also been producing artworks .
A section is dedicated to a retrospective of all INVADER’s works on paper, from screenprints, etchings to lithographs.
Since 2005, the artists has been incorporating Rubik’s cubes to create figurative sculptures and paintings called ‘Rubikcubism’, transforming a playful object into an artistic medium.
For the first time we discover that INVADER is also a big collector of Kinder Surprise figures, and is looking to use them in his practice as artistic material.
PARTICIPATE
Stickers are a big part of the INVADER community. From automated sticker machines, where visitors can buy and swap their collector items, to a massive participative wall where anyone can stick it. So bring your stickers and be part of the INVADER SPACE STATION !
The Venice Biennale has announced the 332 artists and collectives participating in the 60th Edition, running from April 20 to November 24.
Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, the artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, the exhibition’ title “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere,” is inspired by a series of neon works by the Palermo-based French artist collective Claire Fontaine.
Foreigners Everywhere (English), 2005 Courtesy of Claire Fontaine and Galerie Neu, Berlin
Pedrosa explained that the theme “Foreigners Everywhere” reflects the global crises related to people’s movement and existence across borders, and the complexities of language, translation, nationality, and disparities conditioned by race, identity, nationality, gender, sexuality, freedom, and wealth.
The list of participating artists includes emerging, mid-career, and established living artists including Beatriz Cortez, Yinka Shonibareas well as well-known historical and recently deceased artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Carmen Herrera.
The Biennale will be divided into two parts: “Nucleo Contemporaneo” for contemporary work and “Nucleo Storico” for historical work.
The “Nucleo Contemporaneo” will explore an expansive definition of “foreigner,” including queer artists, outsider artists, self-taught artists, folk artists, popular artists, and Indigenous artists. First-time participants include the MAHKU—Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin collective from Brazil, the Mataaho Collective from Aotearoa (New Zealand), and three historical outsider female artists, Madge Gill, Anna Zemánková, among others.
Mataaho Collective – Takapau (2022)
Photographs by Maarten Holl / Courtesy Te Papa
The “Nucleo Storico” will feature 112 artists focussing on “global modernisms and modernisms of the Global South,” with three sections dedicated to portraiture and representation, abstraction, and the Italian diaspora in the Global South.
The full list of 2024 invited artists can be downloaded here
The Exhibition will also include 90 National Participations in the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the city centre of Venice while the City of Venice will feature with its own pavilion, the Venice Pavilion, at the Giardini of Sant’Elena.
In parallel, a series of collateral events and special projects will take place in several locations around the city of Venice.
Celebrating his 1500th piece in Paris at the top of Contemporary Art Museum Centre Pompidou, the French artist Invader is taking over an entire building in central Paris and transforming it into a space station: the INVADER SPACE STATION.
Located 11 rue Béranger (75003) in the former offices of the newspaper ‘Libération’ ( which were invaded by the artist back in 2011), the exhibition is curated by Fabrice Bousteau, editorial director of Beaux Arts Magazine.
This massive exhibition of 3500 m² accross nine floors will feature pictures, videos, sculptures and installations. So get ready to be invaded.
A major new exhibition exploring the irresistible force of cuteness in contemporary culture will be opening at the Somerset House in London from 25 January to 14 April 2024 .
Starting of with the celebration of the cat, to the influence of the japanese culture of cuteness ‘Kawaii’, CUTE brings together contemporary artworks, including new artist commissions, and cultural phenomena such as music, fashion, toys, video games and social media.
From emojis to internet memes, video games to plushie toys, food to loveable robotic design, cuteness has taken over our world. But how has something so charming and seemingly harmless – adorable, doe-eyed animals, chubby-cheeked babies, flowers, hearts, stars, sweets and other such romantic motifs – gained such traction?
Examining the world’s embrace of cute culture and how it has become such an influential measure of our times, the exhibition will seek to unravel cuteness’ emotive charge, revealing its extraordinary and complex power and potential.
Contributing artists include Mark Leckey, Sean-Kierre Lyons, Aya Takano, Mike Kelley, Karen Kilimnik, Nayland Blake, Cosima von Bonin, Hannah Diamond, Ed Fornieles, Juliana Huxtable, Rachel Maclean, Julien Ceccaldi, Paige K. B., Isaac Lythgoe, Alake Shilling, Wong Ping, Liv Preston, CFGNY, Ram Han, Maggie Lee, Bunny Rogers, Flannery Silva, Andy Holden, plus Somerset House Studios artists Chris Zhongtian Yuan, Sin Wai Kin and Sian Fan.
The exhibition will also feature a games arcade for all ages and will spotlight and celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of cute’s most iconic and ubiquitous figures, Hello Kitty, in partnership with Sanrio.
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