Monday 27 May 2013

Street Artist 'Pahnl' Solo Show @ West Bank Gallery 6th-12th June



Do Look Down is street artist Pahnl’s debut solo show at London West Bank Gallery  and is open from Thursday 6th June to 12th June. Immerse yourself in the tiny, detailed world of Pahnl. Comic narrative and street signage aesthetics brought together through stencil art, encapsulating the world we live in with endearing pessimism and cheeky wit.

The Artist…

Living at a lower level of existence, Pahnl's miniature people, dogs, cats, birds and graffiti buffers can often be found outside, playfully interacting with spaces in the city. However, at never more than 10cm tall, you’d be forgiven for missing them! Pahnl has been stenciling on and off the street for over a decade, and also makes use of stickers, posters, film, and photography to bring his cheeky world to life. He has even learned to manufacture his own vinyl toy from scratch.

Taking the term ‘street art’ literally, Pahnl always strives to make his work interact with its environment rather than simply sticking a pretty picture up in the middle of a wall without reason. Pahnl states that “street art should show I was here, not I was here”. Pahnl might say he sees surfaces and spots in the street as ‘comic panels’ (hence his alias) to drop his characters into but feels that might be romanticizing the process a little too much. At the end of day, all he wants to do is bring an unexpected smile to your lovely face.

         

The Show…

The ground floor will play host to a sprawling 40-metre stenciled city across the gallery walls along with an authentic twelve page newspaper featuring stories and articles about the painted city‘s happenings. On the first floor, a new body of work on road signs will be on display, along with an exclusive new screen print and some of Pahnl‘s classic work laid bare. This is the full experience.
Before the show opens, Pahnl will spend four days locked inside London West Bank Gallery with a suitcase full of stencils and plenty of spray paint to bring a sprawling stenciled city to life across 40 metres of wall on the ground floor. The painted city, known as ‘Lowdown’, will be packed with detailed life that will keep you discovering new scenes even on your third lap of the show

Although Pahnl believes there’s no such thing as ‘street art’ inside a gallery, he has set out to capture the essence of unexpectedly discovering something out in the street by painting a vast and detailed city across the very walls of inside the gallery. Not contained by the boundaries of a canvas or print, visitors will have to explore the gallery for themselves.



Every visitor will also be given a free copy of ‘The Lowdown Times’, a twelve-page newspaper created by Pahnl. Full of stories and articles about the city, it will help the visitor discover and understand the hidden lives of the inhabitants living in ‘Lowdown‘. The first 50 visitors to the private view will receive a limited edition stenciled and signed copy of the newspaper.



 Visitors will be given a unique way to buy their favourite scene from the city. They are invited to hunt out and buy their favourite part of the city by using one of the frames provided by the gallery to mark off an area of the wall. Pahnl will paint the chosen scene on canvas after the show has finished. However, once a scene has been bought, it's gone, so be quick! And after seven days, the entire city of Lowdown will be painted over and disappear forever.


Eager to show the time and craft that goes into his work, Pahnl will also have all the stencils used to create the painted city, and many of the works upstairs, on display. An art in themselves, the plastic stencils will give visitors a rare glimpse into the way an expert stencil artist goes about painting what you see.



                                      PAHNL WEBSITE

                            London West Bank WEBSITE

LSD MAGAZINE - ISSUE TEN - INCEPTION - FREE



Monday 6 May 2013

D*FACE - New World Disorder - London (June)



D*FACE | New World Disorder | StolenSpace Gallery
The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL
Date: 7th – 23rd June 2013

'Not a lot of people can reach the Bourgeoisie and rock the boulevard" with their art, but D*Face does it with style and humanity'- Shepard Fairey

D*Face, a.k.a the world-renowned urban artist Dean Stockton, presents New World Disorder at the iconic StolenSpace Gallery from 7th-23rd June. This exhibition, showing work from the last seven years, marks the end of an era before the gallery relocates and the adjoining artist studios are demolished.

The exhibition also includes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the unique nerve centre of D*Face’s working environment by visiting his studio space, situated above the StolenSpace Gallery, within the maze of The Old Truman Brewery.

Stockton has been at the forefront of popular culture not only as an acclaimed urban artist, but also as a respected, internationally-recognised gallerist at StolenSpace. Since its humble beginnings in 2006, he has transformed the local area of Brick Lane in to a thriving hub for street art.

With galleries representing his work in London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Melbourne, D*Face re-works imagery appropriated from decades of materialistic consumption, including currency, advertising, and comic books, to comment on our conspicuous society.

The exhibition includes his latest body of work, which reflects upon times of chaos, disorder and loss, as informed by shifting circumstances in the social climate. Exploring topical and longstanding dystopian sentiments, New World Disorder confronts the effects of love and loss from a physical, mental and cultural standpoint, drawing upon the artist’s direct experiences.

Elements of the show are inspired by The Tillman Story, the 2010 documentary film about the 2004 death of U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman in the war in Afghanistan, the cover-up of the true circumstances of his death, and his family's struggle to unearth the truth.

In the gallery space adapted WW2 helmets, some with original bullet holes, reference our conspicuous consumption, where we desire more, but get less. Other work includes enlarged baseball bats, skateboards created from graffiti-covered school desks, and cabinets of curiosities displaying relics from a place in time where there is no distinguishable line between religion and consumerism.

In the studio and upstairs area older works will be shown for the very first time, including street stencils, old prints and sketch books. Video monitors will display recent public, often illegal installations created by D*Face from around the world, such as in London, Los Angeles and Melbourne, along with a series of new paintings and sculptures.

D*Face explains the ideas behind his work; “My work reflects our popular culture encompassing the American dream and the ideal of good triumphing over evil, no longer relevant in today's society where the 'invade now and ask questions later' philosophy isn't tolerated or indeed wanted.  Colliding cultures are no longer receptive to the American way, the Superhero's triumph of good over evil as portrayed through the political circus is now decoded through the eyes of different cultures, weary and wary of the sub-plot played in today’s political climate where war equals brand invasion”.

Once the largest private gallery in London, StolenSpace Gallery has showcased many important exhibitions over the last seven years including US graffiti artist Shepherd Fairey (2007, 2012), acclaimed light artist Chris Levine (2008) and Pop artist Gerald Laing (2007). It has also provided an important platform for young, emerging artists, including Word To Mother, Joram Roukes and Japanese artist Usugrow amongst others.

To date all of D*Face’s solo shows have sold out, with collectors even camping overnight in order to purchase a newly-released print. Noted collectors of his work include Christina Aguilera, Sir Peter Blake, Robbie Williams, fashion designer John Richmond, jewellery designer Stephen Webster, and museums including the Victoria and Albert, which has acquired his work in their collection.

In September D*Face will be releasing his inaugural retrospective book, One Man and His Dog, through Lawrence King Publishing.

D*Face is one of Britain's leading "newbrow" artists, and damn if he isn't as sharp and clever - if not quite as surreptitious - as Banksy (and sharper and cleverer by half than Damien Hirst.) - Peter Frank.


LSD MAGAZINE - ISSUE TEN - INCEPTION

Wednesday 1 May 2013

The Art of Protest - Occupy London Art Montage

This is a series of photographs taken during the Occupy LSX protests in St. Paul's, London over the course of one year. The focus of this series is the artwork and banners created and posted around the Occupy site.


 





A Lick of Colour - C215 - 2013

C215 has been traveling the world painting these beautiful images. LSD Magazine interviewed some time ago and recently decided to make this short montage on his works which also includes quotes from the LSD Mag interview. Features on our new channel...Please Subscribe, Like, Share...Thanks