Mr. Brainwash

This week was a goldmine for street art. New murals invaded our streets. Our print of the week was released by Mr. Brainwash, who got the ball rolling with his piece,  “Art is not a crime,” which is available as a print.  This theme is very popular in the domain of street art and it can get repetitive at times, but you have to appreciate Mr. Brainwash for its clarity and its aesthetics.

Vinz

Vinz is currently painting some original “adverts” in the streets London. One of them includes the use of the apple slogan, “Think Different,” portraying a mutant fish with a human body in a straight jacket.

Nychos

Nychos‘ work had gone missing since April when he dropped a mural in Italy. He is now in Denmark where he produced this  billboard piece as a part of the billboard festival at Kunsthal Brænderigården.

Alexis Diaz

Alexis Diaz is currently in France where he spent the last two weeks working on this amazing piece for the Rio Loco Festival. 

Ludo

Ludo dropped this sweet  new piece of a beastly robot entitled “Psorophora Encaustum”. His work seems to portray a fight between species, a possible comment on extinction.

Phlegm

Phlegm has been exploring new shapes. Deviating from his long, tribal, signature character, Phlegm went back to his hometown of Sheffield, where he spent weeks working on this large piece. One aim remains consistent in his work: to paint the relationship between imaginary worlds of entertainment and creativity.

Icy and Sot

Discover the work of Icy and Sot. The Iran-based stencil artist dropped by Williamsburg, New York. The artist works with the politically charged themes of poverity, peace, youth and war in order to “remind [ourselves] that art has always been a mode of resistance, and graffiti has always been a political gesture.” If you stop by Brooklyn, you’ll be able to find this one on South 6 by the bridge.

ROA

ROA painted this piece in Linz, Austria. His gigantic mural features various images of tortured animals. The artist’s work is like a hymn for animals, shocking viewers into caring more for animals who are suffering.

Pixel Pancho

Pixel Pancho is back in the streets of Montreal, Canada

Aryz

Aryz painted this large peacock in Spain

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Thierry Guetta aka Mr Brainwash has been spending time in Palm Spring working on a large mural for Coachella. The french street artist, used large scale stencils representing Hitchock with his signature message “x is beautiful.” The artist’s drive is admirable and contributes to what sets him apart from other stencil artist such as Nick Walker or Banksy.

“I want to have fun, to have an adventure. My heart is as big as this whole space. I want to give.The most important thing is to be passionate about what you do, to love what you do, to do it with your heart. If it’s not heart, it’s not good.”

Starring in “Exit Through The Gift Shop,” a documentary of questionable validity about street art in LA, propelled him and his career forward. In the movie, his hobby for filming street artists leads him to his big break as an artist himself. Mr. Brainwash works from impulse.

“I don’t think about what I do. The most important is trying to do good. It’s about letting go. Art is freedom, that’s why it’s art. Freedom…there’s no rules, it doesn’t come with a manual.”

Read more on Mr. Brainwash and his philosophies: here

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As if he wasn’t already a media favorite, Banksy has been making some pretty colossal waves in the press this past week. First it was the street artist’s airing of The Antics Roadshow, then we were delivered King Robbo’s eye-opening Graffiti Wars (a must-see that has unfortunately been taken off Vimeo), and now all eyes are on Banksy once again as his 2010 documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop was featured on the August 16th episode of  50 Documentaries to See Before You Die.

50 Documentaries to See Before You Die (50 Docs) is a summer special series, airing on CurrentTV throughout the month of August, and ranks the top 50 documentary films from the past 25 years. Exit Through the Gift Shop (ETTGS) was rated as no.21 this past Tuesday, joining the ranks alongside Biggie and Tupac (no.39) and skateboarding film Dogtown and Z Boys (no.32). On the show’s most recent episode, 50 Docs host Morgan Spurlock ventures through California to meet with controversial French street artist Mr.Brainwash (Thierry Guetta): Banksy’s protege and the focal point of much of ETTGS. In the clip, Spurlock questions Guetta on his relationship with Banksy, as well as the authenticity of both ETTGS and Guetta’s own works.

The 50 Docs feature of ETTGS has kept the art world abuzz about Banksy, and the controversy behind the documentary that features Guetta’s supposed original footage of  famed street artists (including Banksy himself) at work. After viewing Guetta’s footage, Bansky managed to convince Guetta to hand over the reins on his graffiti doc project, ETTGS being the result. The film’s 2010 debut sparked debate and initiated skepticism  among street art aficionados, leaving many to wonder if Guetta really existed and whether or not the entire film was a hoax.  After viewing the documentary, many began to consider Banksy as a sellout, and, after Graffiti Wars, I think I’m starting to as well.

Somehow Banksy’s privileged status as a street artist rather than a graffiti artist (explained in Graffiti Wars by street artist Ben Eine), and his obsession with commercializing his works  just don’t sit well with me. Why should anti-graffiti task forces in the UK and around the world be allowed to preserve Banksy works, while ridding the streets of all other illegal art? Why is one more legitimate than the other? I do, however, agree with 50 Docs that ETTGS is a must-see for graffiti nuts. The episode may have just lent the film a bit more legitimacy by speaking with Guetta himself, even if his splattering of red paint is unbearably annoying.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is not the first of Banksy’s sketchy moves though…Team Robbo anyone?

photo via Mr. Brainwash

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Mr. Brainwash’s latest release, “Never Give Up,” is in support of Revok. Arrested in April, Revok faces 180 days in jail. All proceeds from the print sale (which begins tomorrow, June 22, 2011) go to Revok’s defense fund. Edition of 100, signed and numbered.

via Curated

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