Category Archives: London

London: Stormzy portrait goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery

December 8, 2019 butterfly

The cover art for Stormzy’s upcoming album has been hung in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The photographic portrait by Mark Mattock is on display in the gallery from December 5 and displays the south London artist holding the Banksy stab-proof vest from his Glastonbury performance with the letters H.I.T.H serving as a crown.

H.I.T.H. stands for Heavy Is The Head, the title of his forthcoming album to be released on 13 December.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1202564073214414848

The stab vest was also visible recently at the Gross Domestic Product pop up shop (featured here) designed by Banksy in Croydon, birth city of Stormzy.

Gross Domestic Product TM Pop up Store

Stormzy at Glastonbury Festival 2019

The Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan commented “Stormzy has undoubtedly had a significant influence on British culture today, both through his music and work with minority groups and young people, and we hope our visitors will enjoy the juxtaposition of this new work with historic paintings of influential figures from the Victorian era, from politicians, royalty and radicals to artists, sporting heroes and singers.”

London, Uncategorized

Banksy’s online store: ‘Why does art matter?’

October 23, 2019 butterfly

GDP homepage

Two weeks ago Banksy opened a homewares store called Gross Domestic Product ^TMin Croydon, South London ( see our coverage here ). He made it clear that interested buyers weren’t in for a regular shopping experience and while the store attracted crowds, it physically did not open and it was not possible to purchase anything. Now that the pop up display shop has closed, the Gross Domestic Product ^TM official website reveals the homewares brand from Banksy^TM.

In true subversive and irreverent Banksy style, the English artist continues to offer an unconventional retail experience where fans can, not purchase, but apply to purchase some of the pieces that were displayed in the Croydon pop-up.

The Gross Domestic Product online store offers merchandise with prices starting at £10 ($13) for a Banksy branded aerosol of paint to £850 for the stab vest as worn by Stormzy at the Glastonbury Festival in June.

Welcome mat

A “Banksy Welcome Mat,” is “hand stitched using the fabric from life vests abandoned on the beaches of the Mediterranean,” the website says. The product is produced in collaboration with the organization Love Welcomes, which works with refugee women to produce mats from “life vests and blankets worn by frightened, exhausted Syrians as they wash up on European shores” and directs proceeds back to the refugee weavers.

The site also warns customers that they may have a “disappointing retail experience,” explaining, “Everything is produced by a handful of people using recycled material wherever possible in a workplace culture of daytime drinking. So there isn’t loads of it and it’s not all ready to ship straight away.”

Each Banksy’s creations will be sold to the most deserving bidder, as determined by his good will. There are some strict specific rules.

The website is clear from the outset that the store doesn’t work on a “first come, first serve” basis. Until October 28, shoppers can browse the items and sign up to a list. Each buyer can only sign up for one item—so choose wisely.

Those who want a Banksy original must answer the question ‘Why does art matter?’, with the ‘Why’ crossed out, in 50 words or less, and supply their contact information.

The reply to this question will be vital—if demand spikes, they will be used to help evaluate who gets to make the purchase. In fact, buyers are asked to make their answers “as amusing, informative or enlightening as possible.”

Applications will be randomly selected and then narrowed down. According to the website, answers will be assessed by an impartial and independent judge, namely a professional stand-up comedian. Winning registrants will receive word that they have won the option to purchase the selected item.

The original products, which will be awarded a certification of authenticity on the second anniversary of the purchase, are priced far below market value.

In fact, Gross Domestic Product isn’t aimed at the high-end collector. A disclaimer on the store’s website actually states that wealthy art collectors should “refrain from registering at this time,” in order to give lower-income art lovers a chance at this piece of history.

It will be interesting to see if Banksy’s safeguards keep these items out of the hands of people looking to flip the work and make a profit and, instead, into the homes of those who could never afford a $12 million painting.

So to enter the competition to purchase an item from Banksy’s online store, please provide your answer to the question “Why does art matter?” on www.GrossDomesticProduct.com by 28 October 2019

Photo credit: Gross Domestic Product website

London

London: Kaws – Black Out at Skarstedt

October 3, 2019 butterfly

KAWS just opened a new solo exhibition called ‘BLACK OUT’ at Skarstedt in London. Featuring a series of ten new abstract paintings and two new sculptures. BLACKOUT coincides with KAWS: COMPANIONSHIP IN THE AGE OF LONELINESS at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, which follows a further solo presentation, ALONE AGAIN, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. This exhibition continues to further explore the emotional content of the artist’s work.

While retaining his colourful acrylic palette, the abstract compositions within his paintings contain figurative elements that suggest traps, pathways, bridges and boundaries. This imagery alludes to the artist’s underlying concern about the divisions within and across societies. He reminds us that despite living in a time of connectivity and constant communication we are separated by the toxic nature of current political and public discourse that also permeates social media.

With the sculptures KAWS uses two of his characters to convey opposing human attitudes.

In SHARE, the Companion is secure and looks outward, holding but not attached to the toy in its hand. KAWS’ figures, as ever, poignantly reveal to us the human condition in the contemporary world and also offer an alternative way of being.

In the sculpture TAKE, the BFF holds a child Companion defensively, pulling it back in a gesture of mistrust as if to prevent someone else from touching it; the child cowed looks to the ground, the fear is transferred.

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KAWS – BLACK OUT
Skarstedt

Until 9 November 2019

London, Videos

London: Banksy – Gross Domestic Product Installation

October 1, 2019 butterfly 2 Comments

During the busy Frieze Art week 2019, elusive artist Banksy has opened a new pop up store overnight in Croydon, South London called Gross Domestic Product.
In a statement Banksy mentions it follows a legal dispute over Banksy’s trademark.
“[It is] possibly the least poetic reason to ever hold an art show,” Banksy says.

@Banksy

The homeware store – essentially a window display that will never actually open—is selling a range of items, from mugs, spray cans, prints, t-shirts to editions of the stab vest worn by the artist Stormzy at Glastonbury, welcome mats hand-stitched by women in detainment camps in Greece. The objects have all been installed in a series of window displays along with often-reproduced paintings such as Banksy’s Flower Thrower.

Prices start at £10, but the merchandise range will only be available to buy online after the shop shuts in two weeks. Until then, collectors will have to settle for window shopping. Proceeds from the merchandise will go to purchase a boat for the refugees to replace the one that was confiscated by Italian authorities.

Banksy says an unnamed greeting card company is contesting his trademark rights to his own name and imagery, “so they can legally use it to sell their fake Banksy merchandise”. He adds: “I think they’re banking on the idea I won’t show up in court to defend myself.”
Describing Banksy as “the most infringed artist alive”, DACS chairman and media lawyer Mark Stephens says: “What you have here is frankly ludicrous litigation, but the law clearly states that if the trademark holder is not using the mark then it should be handed to someone who will.” His solution? Create a merchandise range and open a shop.
Everything in the store “has been created specifically to fulfil a particular trademark category under EU law”, Banksy says. “I had the legal sheet pinned up in the studio like a muse.” He adds: “John Lennon said: ‘I’m an artist, give me a tuba and I’ll get something out of it.’ I feel the same way about a trademark dispute.”

“If Banksy wants to keep enforcing any of his trademarks in courts around the world, and avoid the risk of them being cancelled for lack of use, he will need to show judges stronger evidence of his brands being used in the market,” Enrico Bonadio, a senior lecturer in intellectual property law at City University of London, noted at the time. “This probably means he needs to start regularly producing and selling his own branded merchandise through a specialised commercial vehicle. The problem is that Banksy is a contradictory character. I wouldn’t be surprised if he started a proper business plan, while also continuing to send out his anti-consumerist message,” he says.

Banksy stresses that, despite trying to defend his rights in this particular case, he hasn’t changed his position on copyright. “I still encourage anyone to copy, borrow, steal and amend my art for amusement, academic research or activism. I just don’t want them to get sole custody of my name,” he says.

London, Shows

London: Banksy back to the Royal Academy

June 1, 2019 butterfly

Banksy created a new artwork for upcoming The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition that will open to the public on 10 June in London.

Following last year’s participation with ‘Vote to Love’ (covered here) , Banksy created another politically charged artwork about Europe and Brexit.

The artwork features a closed shutter with a ‘Customs’ sign for arrival from the EU.

Looking at the bottom of the shutter, a cheeky stencilled rat stole the T of the ‘KEEP OUT’ sign to use it as a hammer over the padlock that keeps the borders closed.