An artsy April Fool

April Fools, the Exhibition 1 - 30 April 2009

April Fools' Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on fool's errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

Urban street art has fast become a cultural phenomenon sweeping the UK and Europe with its audacious challenging of authority and cultural norms. Public but anonymous, these artifacts of clandestine performance by artists operating outside the established channels of exhibiting and selling their art, has contributed greatly to the dialogue of the enduring question,

“What is art"?

Taking the ethos of the hoax into consideration, an eclectic collection of contemporary urban art will be exhibited in London during April, and sold off the walls, which be constantly changing throughout the duration of the exhibition to create a curiosity with the viewer. April's Fool exhibition showcases a collection of international artists who examine the genre's explorations into art in mediums that range from painting, wheat-pasting, and collage to drawing and sculpture.

One of Sirdab's favourite artists, Pure Evil will be partaking in this exhibit.

Flyer by Beatrice Brown

TAG of Love

TAG AT THE GRAND PALAIS - THE GALLIZIA COLLECTION

27 MARCH - 26 APRIL 2009

As part of a project unique in the history of art, 300 tagged pieces are being presented at the Paris Grand Palais in a world première. Each of the 300 works in this exhibition comes from an encounter between the leading T.A.G. (Tag And Graff) artists and Alain-Dominique Gallizia, who has spent the past three years in a constant quest for the last art form of the 20th century.

This is the first time so-called "Art Sauvage" has been exhibited in a cultural institution in Paris! By commissioning works from the greatest worldwide graffiti artists, architect Alain-Dominique Gallizia has assembled and continues to collect key examples of painting from this so-called "ephemeral art form."

All the works follow a unifying and threefold principle: the same format (a horizontal canvas in two parts measuring 60x180cm), the same theme (on the left the artist's signature, and on the right an open interpretation of the theme "Love") and if possible produced in Alain-Dominique Gallizia's studio in Boulogne-Billancourt, which he opened to the artists. The (some would say crazy) objective is to create a comparative record, both artistic and historical, instantaneous and eternal, of this movement.

The Gallizia collection speaks volumes about the energy on the street, where every nationality can express itself from the American pioneers and European stars to the up-and-coming generations in Korea (Reach), Iran (Isba) and Brazil (Nunca).

Bubble letters, cloud letters, block letters, chromed signatures, restyled and freestyle cartoon characters… the works at the Grand Palais form a unique and multiple panorama of styles and colours.

Le T.A.G. au Grand Palais is a unique event forming the most important testimony to street art for over three generations.

This exhibition will also be an opportunity to view the 700m2 restored area of the museum’s south-east gallery.

More photos here

Three questions for... Alain-Dominique Gallizia, architect and the man behind the T.A.G. project for the Grand Palais

What gave you the idea for the project?

I first discovered the world of tags in 1992. At the time I was doing volunteer work for a foundation distributing sleeping bags to the homeless at the Gare du Nord station. This is where I first came across the tags that covered the trains and platform walls. As for the project itself, the inspiration was twofold....

Read more here

Street Shots

Martha Cooper has been photographing creative kids in action on city streets since the mid-1970s.
In 'Street Shots,' opening January 16th at Subliminal Projects --a gallery located in LA and owned by Shepard Fairey-- her photos reveal the imaginative children of pre-renewal New York City as they mined the abandoned lots of the city to create toys from trash.
Cooper, renowned for her graffiti and hip-hop pictures, brings those classic images together with ones depicting inner-city kids building forts from scrap, catching flies in cola bottles and racing homemade go-karts—all without adult supervision.

The opening of 'Street Shots' also marks several debuts: Cooper’s new book, 'Going Postal,' a collection of photos of postal labels bearing street art; her image collaboration with Shepard Fairey, available as a screen-print poster; and her own Obey line, with photos printed on clothing, bags, and skateboards.

Martha Cooper is a documentary photographer who has specialised in documenting urban vernacular art and architecture for over thirty years.
In 1977, Martha moved to New York City and worked as a staff photographer on the NY Post for three years. During that time, she began to shoot graffiti and break dancing, subjects which led to her extensive coverage of early Hip Hop as it emerged from the Bronx.

Martha’s first book 'Subway Art' (with Henry Chalfant), has been in print since 1984 and is affectionately called the “Bible” by graffiti artists worldwide. The 25th anniversary of Subway Art will see the release of a new edition to be published April 2009.

Her next book, 'R.I.P.: Memorial Wall Art' looks at memorial murals in NYC and 'Hip Hop Files 1980-1984' contains hundreds of rare, early Hip Hop photos.
'We B*Girlzis' an intensive look at girls who breakdance worldwide, and 'Street Play' and 'New York State of Mind' are her collections of NYC photos from the late 70’s. 'Tag Town' shows the evolution of graffiti style from early tags to complicated pieces.
Her latest book, 'Going Postal' contains hundreds of images of graffiti and street art on postal stickers.

Martha’s work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries and published in numerous magazines from National Geographic to Vibe.
She lives in Manhattan where she is the Director of Photography at City Lore, the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture.

Uniting Artists Through Crime

Uniting Artists through Crime (UAC) exhibit features the collaborative work of a handful of artists’ from around the world.
The mission of UAC was bring to Texas a large body of work from innovators worldwide of the current new street art movement; hence, allowing the public to experience the many movements of art as presented by these innovative artists.
Work on display includes the often hard to acquire work of established artists, and new work from emerging talents. Exhibited work comes from locals in SA, Austin, Houston and from major metropolitan centers around the world including New York, DC, California, Spain, Russia, Malaysia, Australia, and Canada.
Check out more pix here or here

The Tate Innovates...

Design by Edel Rodriguez

THE TATE MODERN'S STREET ART EXHIBITION

The label Street Art has been used since the late Seventies, and the work, by its very nature, is in constant flux and hard to categorise. Broadly speaking the term has come to define the more visual and engaging urban art as opposed to text-based graffiti and tagging.
Today & for the first time ever, the Tate Modern --The Tate Modern in London is Britain's national museum of international modern art-- has commissioned artists to paint the facade of its building along the Thames, signaling the project as the first major public museum display of Street Art in London.

Street Art at Tate Modern brings to the fore an important aspect of current art practice and one that has influenced acclaimed artists, including Basquiat and Picasso.
So finally, street art gets a major recognition by an institution that could hardly be topped, in terms of established art: The Tate Modern of London. The works of six internationally acclaimed artists will be presented to tag the museum's façade.
The artists are: Blu from Bologna, Italy; the artist collective Faile from New York, USA; JR from Paris, France; Nunca and Os Gemeos, both from Sao Paulo, Brazil and Sixeart from Barcelona, Spain. All six artists are represented in major collections around the world and regularly shown in gallery exhibitions and biennales; but their work began in public urban spaces and remains indebted to Street Art and graffiti traditions.

Street Art at Tate Modern opened at the same time as Tate Modern’s four day festival of art and performance, where 'The Street Art Walking Tour,' an urban tour of specific art sites around the city is scheduled and presented by a group of five Madrid-based artists: 3TTMan, Spok, Nano 4814, El Tono and Nuria.
In addition to that unexpected yet eclectic & formidable happening at Tate, an interactive evening with experimental New York artists, Graffiti Research Lab, is set to reface the Tate Modern with graffiti light projections. Street Art at Tate Modern running through 23 May-August 25th 2008 at Tate Modern, Bankside London SE1 9TG.

Exclusive photos by Sirdab correspondent: Gina Mansour

Pure Evil new SHOW

In 1990, PURE EVIL left the Poll Tax Riots of London behind and went to live in California where he spent 10 years ingesting weapons grade psychedelics, thinking about stuff, making electronic music and printing t-shirts. Inspired by skateboard culture and the west coast character graffiti of Twist, he returned to London and inexplicably picked up a spraycan and started painting weird fanged vampire bunnies everywhere. After having spent the past year working on new canvasses and prints inspired by 'the wreckage of utopian dreams and an apocalyptic vision of the end of time' , PE is now launching his vision of darkness on an unsuspecting world, trying to look at the BIG PICTURE... asking some tricky questions like :

*'what does evil look like?'
*'why do humans seem to like conflict and explosions so much?'

"To understand a bit about the artist PURE EVIL it is illuminating to know that he is a descendant of Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor who wrote the controversial work Utopia and who was later beheaded by King Henry VIII. With this busy background (Sir Thomas was later canonised) it is only natural that Pure Evil should explore the darker side of the wreckage of Utopian dreams and the myth of the Apocalypse, a belief in the life-changing event that brings history with all its conflicts to an end. Using dark humour and twisting symbolism to create new forms, Pure Evil new show looks at what lurks around the corner on the secret streets of London and sheds light on the things under our noses that we never take the time to notice - as we hurtle forwards into the future... Take a look at this extraordinary new street artist's new originals prints on display this July at Ink_d gallery in London, and prepare to be challenged, amused and delighted." Read more here....or here.

Wear It with Pride

Wear It With Pride [WIWP] Presents "Now Showing"
Exploring the Lost "Art" of the Film Poster
@ COSH Gallery - Soho, London
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40+ Creatives were given the task of creating their own interpretation of a Cult, Classic or Obscure film poster from the past, whether it be a literal or abstract solution.
The result is Now Showing, an Art exhibition paying homage to more than 70 years of film, through the form of Prints, One Off Screen Prints and Sculptures.

P.S: If interested in buying original print of these posters or any other from the 40+ on show, click on image for price info and credit card submission to own one of the limited edition of these film posters.

Pop Denim

A hot new pop up shop and a Levi's Collectors Book

A fashion collaboration, to create the new Levi's jeans clothing line, incorporated two infamous sixties artists, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol, was held last month at Los Angeles.
The silver brick walls, in playfully 'Warhol-esque' colours set the spirit of the launch of the new Levi's shop in Santa Monica - California, introduced in pop art mood and feel.

Indeed, and for the first time, the legendary denim brand dropped traditional media channels to feature its new collection.
Sensational English pop artist Damien Hirst had two new original art pieces exhibited, as the 'Warhol-ian factor' was highlighted in the use of a trademark style of colours applied not only to the installations, but to the denim as well.

Also, a collector's book was released, demonstrating the creation process and the people involved in this groundbreaking collaboration for the opening of Levi's Pop-Up shop. Death is the pivotal theme of the book, which happens to be a perfect fit for both pop artists, who have featured dark pictures of knives and skulls.
Aside from an interview with Hirst, the book features Hirst's signature spot paintings and his famous diamond-studded skull, 'For the Love of God.'
All the fashion photography is done by Beau Roulette featuring Vincent Gallo. It comes hard bound in black denim, with an optional plexiglass and metal display box. Available through DHW Books for US$300 (or US$200 without box).