Blek Le Rat

Blek Le Rat @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery

I've been mentioning Banksy here a bunch lately, so let me introduce you to the man who influenced him the most: Blek Le Rat. (aka: Xavier Prou) He's a French graffiti artist who was using stencils to create street art 20 years before Banksy. He basically invented the life size stencil that you see everywhere today. He became well known for stenciling rats all over around Paris...hence his rodent inspired title.

Although I find his historical references and tongue-in-cheek social commentary interesting, I found the gallery too sterile an environment for his work. It belongs outside. I was far more interested in the video showing his graffiti work out on the streets, because that's what completes it. Transplanting his stencils into the a simply didn't translate for me.


Jonathan LeVine Gallery: 529 W 20th Street, 9th Floor...Up through November 15th

Swoon @ Deitch Projects

This weekend my friend Bishop took me to an AMAZING exhibit by Swoon at Deitch Projects in LIC. I find it truly unique how her work appeases both the gritty urban crowd (since she earned her stripes as a street artist and uses found objects) and the high-brow crowd (since her work is technically stunning and is rooted in influences such as German Expressionist woodcuts). Her work is so intricate that simply thinking about the number of man hours put into the creation of these grand pieces made me feel like a lazy sloth of an artist! (I had to remind myself that she had 75 collaborators) I was impressed and inspired.

As though this installation wasn't enough, outside the open doors of the gallery right there on the East River were her seven handmade boats. They were like little floating cities, that were sailed them down the Hudson!

Bishop and I adored this piece in particular...

A close up of her elaborately cut paper designs that covered the walls...

This fan behind the figure is made of pieces of painted doors...how cool is that!

Banksy Strikes Again

The same Banksy who put on the pet store installation I wrote about last week also left behind a few other artworks (rat themed murals) while he was in New York. I passed by this one a couple days ago (Canal & West Broadway I believe) and found it so delightful I had to share! From far away I really did think, "Who is painting over that Banksy mural?!!" Then closer up I saw it was a joke. He had me...

YOUNITY: Urban Women Artists

This weekend I got to check out a show by YOUNITY, which is an art collective for urban women artists. There was a regular exhibition inside featuring 60 international artists (celebrating the release of a book), but the more interesting part was the courtyard...


My friend Diva was one of the 12 women to cover the courtyard with beautifully painted murals, graffiti, and stenciled pieces. (She always covers her face...) Such a great group of ladies!

It's up at Alphabeta in Greenpoint (70 Greenpoint Avenue) through November 17th!

Banksy Pet Store

Earlier this week I came across this bizarre pet store (and charcoal grill) down in the West Village with my friend Laura. An aged tweety bird swinging in a cage? A rabbit filing her nails at a vanity?! We were both highly entertained and highly baffled. The next day I heard that famous British street-artist Banksy set up an installation of a pet shop...ah-ha! I returned to check it out in more detail...

As a carnivore, I never wanted to acknowledge where my processed foods came from...and as a vegetarian, I finds ethics in meat production lacking and factory farming icky. So needless to say, this installation struck a chord for me. And struck my funny bone at the same time. (Isn't that the best way to convey a message?) There are animatronic chicken nuggets...

And hotdogs and sausages squirming around in their cages...

Fish sticks swimming eerily in a giant fish bowl...

Monkey watching monkey porn...

...and a bunch of other amusing creatures! (There are even actors hired to play the clerks.) It's only up through the end of the month, so check it out while you can: 89 7th avenue just north of Bleeker Street. Oh, how I love that Banksy...

Musical Robots @ LEMUR

Earlier this week I checked out a cool show at LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots) over in Brooklyn. They're a group of artists who develop robotic musical instruments. (They make robots that are instruments, not robots that play existing instruments.) There were electronic string instruments, cymbals and drums with different mallets attached to them, this xylophone looking bell instrument, etc.





This guy was beat-boxing out a pattern which the computer translated and then had the robots play. How wild is that! Music and art and technology all welded together...

Andres Serrano @ Yvon Lambert Gallery

Andres Serrano is a controversial Latino photographer best known for this image:

If you're not familiar with it, it's called Piss Christ. (You can see why he stirs things up) He's interested in the universal themes found in bodily fluids, death, and sex...

His latest interest is in shit (it's at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in Chelsea). Yes, it's a show of 8 foot tall close-up photos of different types of SHIT. The backgrounds are cheerfully colorful, the excrement becomes abstracted, and the titles are highly amusing. He sees images in the shit like when I look at clouds. There's Bull Shit, Freudian Shit, Hieronymus Bosch shit, holy shit, etc. Once you get past over the gross factor, it becomes rather interesting and borderline beautiful.

I looked everywhere online for pictures I could copy and post here, but had no luck. (I knew I should have taken my camera!) So if you'd like to see a slideshow of all the beautiful shit that the Village Voice put together, CLICK HERE.