artastes

Gallery - Savant art: A window into exceptional minds - Image 1 - New Scientist

2009-06-06T06:41:00.001-07:00

Gallery - Savant art: A window into exceptional minds - Image 1 - New Scientist

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Vintage Banksy at Swiss Embassy

2009-02-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Mark Brown from The Guardian takes a look at some vintage Banksy in this Video.

The Sprinkle Brigade

2008-01-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

Law and Order by the Sprinkle Brigade
Hellraiser by The Sprinkle Brigade

Well, cmon...don't tell me you have never thought about it. Art made from Dog Turds and then documented (of course). A recent article in the Village Voice has a nice selection of this work with an interview with The Sprinkle Brigade as well.

Hand Helmet

2007-12-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

"Bye Hand Helmet image", part of an advertising campaign for Bye Helmets. I would love to see this thing cast as a real helmet. It does show the possibilities in terms of making clothing etc. from casts.

The Misfit and the Maiden

2007-12-30T08:35:00.001-08:00

"The Misfit" Digital Print 36x60 inches 2007 Paul Richard James

"The Misfit and the Maiden" Digital Print 36x60 inches 2007 Paul Richard James

"The Misfit Laughed" Digital Print 36x60 inches 2007 Paul Richard James

Bruce County Hazmat Project

2006-09-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

These "Cutouts" take painting to a new level. Using the traditional medium of oil paint, these cutouts are painted on plywood and installed in site specific environments. Part of a roadside cutout series created by Paul Richard James they turn the folk art garden variety cutout into a subversive medium. These cutouts, figures in Hazmat suits, are installed along the shores of Bruce County Ontario, a stones throw from the Bruce Nuclear Reactor and the scene of the fatal water contamination of the town of Walkerton.

But what is inside those packages?

2006-04-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Package" by Christo, 59x71 cm., for sale at for $50.000 U.S.

'RECKLESS' PARCEL BOMB ARTIST MAY FACE JAIL
Cops blast 'parcel bomb' artist and warn: She may face jail
By Jeff Edwards Chief Crime Correspondent

AN ARTIST could face jail for bringing panic to thousands of London commuters yesterday by leaving five suspicious parcels in the street.
The unnamed 36-year-old was arrested after the multiple bomb scare delayed up to 100,000 commuters.
Several hundred officers raced to the scene amid fears of a terrorist attack.
Large areas around the BBC TV centre in Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush were cordoned off while bomb-disposal officers checked the boxes. The woman was arrested nearby and claimed they were an art installation. Scotland Yard said the woman's actions were "reckless, selfish, and stupid" and are calling for her to be jailed.
An anti-terrorist source said: "This prank spread fear and anxiety among thousands. To do such a thing after last July's outrages defies belief."
Police say it cost them £100,000. The woman was charged with causing a public nuisance and released on bail. (from the Daily Mirror)

Shop & Guilt

2006-04-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

These images are stuck to the glass doors of a shop in Paris. What is the message here? How could you spend your money better? Do you really need that sweater? At the very least there is a "shock factor" here. Is it art? Why not?

Pee-ism

2006-01-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

New York-born photographer Ellen Jong's photo-essay illustrates her obsession with public urination. Of course, the net is full of these kind of images, most of them are not intended as art. I assume that Ellen has been baptised into the world of art, whereas many of the "urinators" have not. Order her book here.

Schizophrenic Art

2006-01-17T05:10:00.000-08:00

I have been collecting "Schizophrenic Art" for a few years now. The work is usually packed with words and layers and layers of meaning. This example was taken from a telephone pole, (there were many) and is full of paranoia, although who knows, perhaps this is a vital message from a Seer. The full page was filled with text and then there were the small drawings.

I have retyped some of the message below:

Who did pay monkeys from 14the century to kill slavics against the law (all together against Slavics 10,000-countrys with car-air industry only) Only 10 Blond countrys with car- Air industry only ID Blondes Europeans do make everything won Germ-Russ-Fr-Jap-USA-Italy-Neutral Yugoslavia (size 8 foot payed size 8 foot to kill Europe size 11 Foot and destroy Capitalist World produce Good quality -ART-Music and push Human kind 60 years back to oceans- all planet doesn't have $ to build space maschine, poor metals-95% stupid and number growing because human brain getting smaller without space machine this is beginning of I.W.W. and you are going back to oceans-and 95% Black Eyes do kill 5% Blondes (next year 3% it means end to humans- you didnt build space machine.
We must stop T.N. war-or you are going to finish like Atlantis-for sure you are on the coors. like dolphins, you didnt build space machine-we can teach you, but you must to change tops- Artists on the tops-produce good quality brain on the first place not money.

Invisibilia

2006-01-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

This is a really cool idea. Cutout figures from photos and render tham as a drawing and then replace them back into the photo. I could see this being used alot in advertising. The website called Invisibilia, also has a tutorial that teaches you how to do this yourself. High art/Low art? Whatever it is, it works.

Fallen Rapper Pez

2006-01-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Packard Jenning's Fallen Rapper Pez dispensers, part of the illegal art exhibition, here.

Gonzo Figures

2006-01-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

There is fine line between High Art and Low Art, and for that matter, Art and...all that other stuff. Crossing this line often has to do with legitimization. How is the work legitimate? Is the artist intending the work to be High Art? I came across this guys work, it is rather odd. Imagine this stuff full size, in an installation setting. The artist's name is Gonzo and he makes the figures by transforming existing body parts and painting them. His gallery is here.

Wall Art

2006-01-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

Some of my students blanketed the walls of Toronto with the "Orphan" tag a few years ago. You really would find the tag everywhere and then, slowly they were covered up or cleaned up. I found this remnant here.

Grotesque Art

2006-01-04T06:11:00.000-08:00

This frog-faced character could be Rabelais's mock-epic hero Panurge, or else Pope Jules II. There is a great image gallery of grotesque images from the past here.

Advertising Art

2005-12-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

Some novel approaches to an old problem. How do you get people to notice something as banal as the side of the van. Brilliant optical illusions. I'm not sure where these images come from, my father sent them to me.

Visionary Art

2005-12-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

An example of visionary art by Kai Wolfram, a Toronto based artist. Kai currenly lives in a particularly suburban part of Toronto, where the need to escape into a personal vision is necessary for existence.

Winner of Candian Painting Competition

2005-09-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

The winner of the RBC Canadian Painting Competition for this year. The Vancouver painter Etienne Zack will take home the hefty $25,000 first prize for his escape from shapes. What makes this painting worthy of the prize? It would be fascinating to see the criteria used to award such a prize. How do you defend the use of any criteria without sounding academic?

Bush the Disaster

2005-09-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

At least they got this one right!

JG Ballard on Art

2005-09-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

J.G. Ballard's (author of "Crash" and "High Rise") makes this comment on the ability of the avant-garde to shock. Consider the fact that a simple abstract painting 100 years ago could cause a riot in the streets!

"I've often thought that the whole notion of the 'avant-garde' has vanished. The nearest you get to that is a sort of 'designer' avant-garde offering a stylized rebelliousness ... a kind of Perrier avant-garde that's homogenized and made palatable for the weekend consumer.""Today if you want to be the equivalent of the pioneering artist of the 1880's -- if you want to be a Gauguin of the present day, you might actually go and buy a gun and shoot Margaret Thatcher and Princess Di! Its no longer enough to think in terms of changing the world through arts anymore. The arts are a form of purient entertainment." (from interviews with Mark Pauline. 1980's)

RBC Painting Competition Finalists

2005-08-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

Chris Kline's painting Lost Number, Is this one of the best 15 paintings in Canada?

It is always interesting to see the kind of work that makes it through to the finals of a juried show. Given that what constitutes "good" painting is highly debated, these juried shows tend to take a democratic approach to the selection, and quite frankly, how often has the majority been "right". Although there is some interesting painting in this annual Royal Bank of Canada Painting Competition, the painting above has been selected as one of the 15 finalists from across Canada. I can't imagine the kind of paintings that were not selected, given the inclusion of this piece. A "majority" of these painters create paintings dependent upon the reworking of post-painterly abstractionism and depend upon photos for source material. http://www.rbc.com/paintingcompetition/pc-the-shortlist.html

Toronto Graffiti

2005-08-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have always considered the finest art gallery in the City to be the laneway just south of Queen between Spadina and running west to Bathurst and beyond. Here you will find a great range of work which is constantly updated, is often site specific, subject to enropy, and there is no admission charge. If you want on of the works for yourself, you simply photograph it and have it blown up, copyright free of course!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontograffiti/pool/

If Everything is Art, Then Nothing is Art

2005-08-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

Marcel Duchamp's "Urinal" or "Fountain"
Mark McGowan pulling a television set 6 miles, with his ear.

The concept that ‘anything can be art’ was first introduced to the art world through the actions of Marcel Duchamp in 1917. His decision to include a common Urinal as part of an exhibition turned the definition of art on its ear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
Duchamp had recognized that through Modernism, much of what gave value to art in the past (time spent, skill, etc.) had been challenged by abstraction; leaving a vacuum in terms of value. By including a urinal (on a sculptural base, and with a signature- although a pseudonym), he had reduced the characteristics of art to its bare minimum. To be Art, an object simply had to be signed and exhibited in a legitimate art institution. This later became defined as "The Institutional Theory of Art" and these objects defined as "ready-mades". The fact that this revolutionary act signaled the end of Art was not lost on Duchamp- he spent the latter part of his life playing chess rather than creating endless ready-mades. Much of what is now defined as Post-Modernism, or Post-Post Modernism (Po Po Mo) is simply the regurgitation of the this first act of insurrection and nothing more. In the end the only value in such a system is in the originality of the concept, hence the term "Conceptual Art".
Galleries today, (dependent upon Capitalism for their very survival), rely upon a vague sense of Value, despite Duchamp’s near 100 year old comment on value. They depend upon certain Artists being valued over others and this is represented by the price of the artwork. When Duchamp gave up painting to create Ready-Mades, he essentially moved from the medium of paint to the medium of life, the medium of ideas, making Galleries irrelevant except to a false sense of value and a false sense of currency.
http://arthist.binghamton.edu/duchamp/map.html

Wasting Water for Artsake

2005-08-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

In an extra ordinary art performance environmentally conscious artist Mark McGowan is intending to turn on a cold water tap in the House Gallery in Camberwell, London and leave it running for one year wasting 15 million litres of water. http://clublet.com/c/c/house?page=MarkMcGowan

My toilet is running, perhaps I should be documenting the process.

Watertowers Eclipsed

2005-07-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

The town watertower was recently pulled down. I love industrial remnants. The town of Chesley was full of them until a recent "cleanup" resulted in their removal for the most part. Of course many towns have replaced these ancient monoliths with more modern variants. Save the watertowers.

Blue Poles

2005-07-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

"Into the Blue" 2005 by Shayne Dark, outside MOCCA on Queen; made of ironwood painted blue.
"Blue Poles" by Jackson Pollock; painted in 1952.
"Colour Barrier" 2005 by Paul Richard James; Oil on Canvas.
Blue Poles, part of a playground complex in Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto.

Haystacks

2005-07-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

Haystacks or UEA

2005-07-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

Early summer always brings out the best in the UEA, or Unintentional Environmental Art category. A little Andy Goldworthy http://cgee.hamline.edu/see/goldsworthy/see_an_andy.html, a little Richard Long. I especially like the new white plastic shrinkwrap that covers the haystacks on the funkier farms. These look like giant marshmallows dropped from the sky. I'm waiting for the hot pink wrap a la Christo. http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/si.html

Temporary Parthenon

2005-07-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Cardboard model of the Parthenon made while at OCA in 1984. I would love to make hundreds of these things and place them all over the place. My son and I used angel molds in the late 1990's in Toronto to make gold angels that were then placed in tiny niches in Toronto, or left on the street. Last time I looked, some of these angels still sit, protected. The gold spray paint we used on the plaster angels have a nice green patina.

Athena Nashville

2005-07-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

The Athena Nashville sits within the Nashville Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. This full size replica of the Athena Parthenon and the Parthenon itself was built for the 1897 as part of a Centennial celebration. Originally the structure was built using temporary materials and these materials were replaced by concrete and cement in 1920. It seems that Nashville was considered the Athens of the west during the 19th century. What happened? The pediment reliefs were created using molds from the originals in London.
It is pretty cool to see how the original was interpreted in this version. Our modern banks and government buildings often mimick the classical style to construct some sort of continuity.
The original Parthenon had painted columns, and was in fact fully decorated with paint. It seems that even the figures themselves on the pediment were painted in realistic flesh colours.
http://www.northernfern.com/parthenon/

Britpop Art

2005-07-06T10:40:00.001-07:00

Painting by Will Ayres
I really enjoy looking through the Britart website http://www.britart.com. For people looking for affordable art on the internet you can't beat this stuff. In comparison to what you end up looking at on e bay, this work is of an extremely high quality. e bay seems to be flooded with cheap knockoffs and factory produced paintings. It is difficult to understand why it is so hard to find good work anywhere on e bay.

Creepy Window Display #1

2005-07-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

This was a display using old Barbie and Ken dolls to represent a square dance as part of the Chesley Homecoming celebrations. Some interesting hair styles here & isn't that Donny Osmond on the right?

The Doctor's Office

2005-07-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

The Doctor's Office series by Laura Loucks
Some interesting details here. Laura Loucks is a grade 7 student and spends quite a bit of time creating these fascinating panels. Note the graveyard, what looks like a morgue, the dog throwing up, and the number of needles that are depicted. As well, there seems to be a section devoted to coal mining that includes an elephant. There is some resemblance to Richard Scary in these works, but perhaps overlapped with a Twilight Zone Episode.

Olmec Heads

2005-06-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

Breaking down in Villahermosa in Eastern Mexico near Veracruz, may seem like a drag, but it also has a silver lining. Villahermosa is home to a really large collection of Olmec heads as well as a massive collection of lesser known Olmec sculptures. These sculptures are massive and heavy and are the oldest monuments in pre-hispanic Mexico dating from between 1200B.C.E. and 600CE. http://www.crystalinks.com/olmec.html . Figures range from representations of monkeys to dolphins and holy men living in caves. Surprisingly, many of the figures reflect modernist principles of simplicity and abstraction.

Many of the heads are 8 feet tall or more and were buried beneath the jungle until found.

Fat Cat

2005-06-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

One day when I was teaching my son how to read, I had written the word Fat and Cat on the blackboard in my office at SEED in Toronto. I surmise that some of the students at the school had seen these words written on the board. The next morning the words FAT and CAT were spray painted on the wall at the end of our street. Our son instantly read the graffiti, and the rest of the tags placed at regular intervals along our usual walk to work.

ArtStar

2005-06-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what to think of the new reality tv series ArtStar. http://www.artstar.tv
In this reality TV competition, 8 artists are chosen from a group of over 30 possible ArtStars. The winning ArtStar will receive a solo show with Deitch Projects in New York.
It will be interesting to see how the judges justify their choices. Contemporary Artists work in such a huge range of media, that a balanced view of what constitutes good art, or a good artist will be a rare commodity. The Idol franchises limit their judgement to a small collection of musical genres and judgement on talent often depends upon the ability to hit and sustain a range of notes. Such ojbective criteria ceased to exist in the visual arts about one hundred years ago . ArtStar may finally illustrate how subjective the act of judgement has become. Of course the TV series will finally be judged by its ability to attract viewers and market share. One can only wonder if this kind of show would be better defined as Art itself, a kind of culture jamming. http://www.sniggle.net/index.php

Poetic Terrorism

2005-06-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Gunhead by Paul Richard James

Perhaps old news for some, but the Critical Art Ensemble http://www.critical-art.net/
has bee prosecuted for "art crimes" for using biological material in their art. These biot-tech projects draw attention to the growing use of genetics for art and of course- in our lives.
As well, the ATSA http://www.atsa.qc.ca/document.asp?v=a
has been working under this growing umbrella genre of "terrorist art" by taking the term coined by Hakim Bey,- "Poetic Terrorism" -to the streets of Toronto.

Guns and Art

2005-06-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

Chris Burden "747" from 1973

One can only wonder how Chris Burden would be viewed in today's "counter-terrorist obsessed" world, if he performed such a "piece" today. Of course he was one of the first artists to see self-mutilation as art. His Shoot from 1971, in which he had an assistant shoot him in the arm from five metres away has been taken up by body modification fans today. What do you think? Terrorism as art!
http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/burden/burden.html

2005-06-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

A beautiful image of an angel that visionary Artist Kai Wolfram drew in charcoal on his wall in Chelem, Mexico in the Yucatan. Kai was hallucinating at the time and suffering from heat stroke and left this gift for his landlady Saint Petra.

Rockin Rodney will be missed

2005-06-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

Another great talent, Rodney Dunn has died.
http://www.sketchbooksessions.com/thedrawingboard/viewtopic.php?p=390333
I met Rod at the Ontario College of Art, probably around 1988. He was a bundle of energy then and already a sensational artist and obsessed with music and comic books. His work seemed to have a tongue in cheek fan boy quality to it. You will be missed Rod.

2005-06-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Slingshots

Art + Tax on the Cover of Anarchist Studies Journal

2005-06-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Slingshots by Art + Tax is on the cover of the recent issue of Anarchist Studies, Volume 13, No.1, 2005, published by Lawrence & Wishart. Unfortunately, the painting itself has been removed/stolen from the wall where it was originally installed at Queen & Niagara in Toronto. The painting had been there for the past two years, following the theft of the previous image by Art + Tax. You can order a copy for 20 pounds from the website. http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/anarchiststudies/current.html

2005-06-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

Former Krug Factory Site (Winter)

2005-06-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Former Krug Factory Site

Chesley Walk

2005-06-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

A meandering asphalt path runs through the Chesley riverside park, past the red brick building, past the thick brush with the twisted tree, and up a hill towards the trails. On the rivers edge near the brush, our Great Dane, Tyrus, tail wagging, walked out with a live beaver in his mouth. As the asphalt gives way to the more natural trail, lined with rotten leaves and the wonderful aroma of decay, there are the sounds of woodpeckers and an old barn, aged dark brown and housing a family of skunks. Before the small bridge lies the ruins of the furniture factory, a tell tale remnant of industry and entropy. A reminder that everything decays, be it leaves or iron. There is enough there to weave a wonderful story of lives now completed.
Across the bridge lies a decision. Up to the left below the old railroad bridge or to the right, a longer trail leading up and over the hill to the cemetery. The path to the cemetery, we all must take at one time or another. Cement structures line both sides of the path, hundreds of them peeking out from the forest floor, extending in fairly straight lines as if part of a neolithic monument. Someone has placed large heavy boulders on top of many of these structures emphasizing this thought. In Britain, such stone markers signify ley lines or energy lines beneath the earth. http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/leylines.htm
Sometimes these lines extend for hundreds of miles. These structures however, mark the foundation of the old factory with many of the old timbers and planks now overgrown. If one looks well enough, old shovels, bottles, mattress springs, and tools start to come to life from beneath the earth.
Further down the trail the sound of the river becomes louder only to quiet as you climb the steep hill to the cemetery. The rows of gravestones above the hill speak of the history of this small village, names like Krug, Johnson and Emke repeat for eternity. Past the tall trees lining the small cemetery road there lies a grave dedicated to a young boy who died at thirteen years of age, not that long ago, a hockey fan. A reminder of how fragile and cruel life can be. Clasped hands reach from above to those below, carved from limestone and aged green and brown. Through a further line of trees and beyond the cemetery is the narrow railroad bridge with its dizzying height and spectacular view of the river as it winds its way towards McClure’s Mill built by William Elliot in 1886. From this height the submerged lumber and long forgotten trees can be seen nestled in the sediment below.
The path to the left leads below this bridge, past more foundation stones and until recently, past the remains of an old work truck perhaps sixty or seventy years old, rusted and in pieces. A storehouse of forgotten memories, a playground for children, but I trust the fear of liability has removed it for eternity, the victim of modern paranoia and progress. This path dotted with purple periwinkle winds its way up and onto a road which leads over a small narrow bridge and one of the most beautiful spots on earth. The Mill sits, leaning precariously on a beam of wood, as the river calms just before a small damn. Two swans and their constant companion, a Canada Goose, swim gracefully in this calm water. Around the front of the mill, basking in the sun, lie the mill cats, sometimes up to ten or twenty of them unamused by the old Amish man unloading his buggy. A little further past the mill, past the cows and the more independent cats, you will find me standing, wondering!