Feeling inspired by "Exit Through The Gift Shop" and taking notice of all the little things around me, I decided that I would take some pictures of the street art aroundme. While I was on the prowl and feeling overwhelmingly inspired by all these amazing things, I noticed that there was a Shepard Fairey mural being painted on a large wall on Houston Street. I saw there was a group of people working on the mural and when I got closer I noticed the man himself was one of the people working on the mural! Shepard was very gracious and let me take some pictures of the mural and a picture of him.
Hackula a guy who does some interesting stuff
Shepard Fairey's mural on Houston Street this morning a far away view
A work on the outside a SoHo restaurant wall by Mister Brainwash
Another piece of art by Mister Brainwash on that same SoHo restaurant wall
Rich Girls...not sure who the artist is on this one. If anyone knows please let me know!
an early example of Shepard Fairey's work the Andre The Giant "Obey" stickers.
a close up of Shepard Fairey's mural on Houston Street
Another...
The man himself!
A cute little bear on the same SoHo restaurant wall as the Mister Brainwash works. Artist unknown.
I just came from seeing an amazing doc called "Exit Through The Gift Shop". The film is about a French born ecentric L.A. shop owner and amateur filmmaker by the name of Thierry Guetta and his rise through the world of street art. Guetta, filmed just about everything in his life and he became interested in the world of street art after being introduced to it by his cousin a well known street artist who goes by the name of Space Invader.
To give you all some background street art is basically what it sounds like art that is made on the sides of buildings and sidewalks etc. In recent years it has become quite elaborate and controversial thanks to legendary street artists such as Space Invader, Bansky (who directed "Exit Through The Gift Shop") and Shepard Fairey, who most notably did the Obama Hope Poster in 2008. Street art is also highly illegal many of these artists must do their work in the cover of darkness so not to be detected by the cops. And with street art being highly illegal many of these artists adopt alias and disguise themselves i.e. Bansky.
Thanks to people such as Bansky and Shepard Fairey, street art has moved from the outdoors to the indoors to the galleries in recent years. Two years back (and it's shown in the film) Bansky had a L.A. gallery show which was attended by many celebs including Brangelina.
Back to the "Exit Through The Gift Shop", the film shows Thierry Guetta filming artists such as Bansky, Space Invader, Shepard Fairey and many other street artists as they put up their work at various locations in cities such as L.A., New York, London and Paris.
Bansky not impressed with the street art movie Guetta puts together with all the footage he filmed, tells Guetta to create his own street art and put on a show. Inspired by the advice he gets from Bansky, Thierry Guetta adopts the name Mr. Brain Wash and decides to make street art and throws an art show the likes L.A. has never seen!
"Exit Through The Gift Shop" is very well done, interesting and very funny. Guetta is quite the character! "Exit Through The Gift Shop" is playing in select cities across the US, click on the title link and see if it's playing in a theater near you. If it is I highly recommend you check it out!
FYI Mr. Brain Wash aka Thierry Guetta did the artwork for cover of Madonna's greatest hits cd that was released last year.
This song is from a time where there were more then two non Bowery Presents venues in the L.E.S./East Village area. It's also from a time when Manhattan was the center of the universe in terms of all of the arts..music included!
"Two Kind of Love" by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is an oldie but a goodie!
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