Archetypes catalogue

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ARCHETYPES Archetypes: the first mould, the original, from what things are based.

View Art Gallery in association with Upfest and Campbarbossa present an international group show featuring some of the most progressive and diverse artists in the Urban Art world ARCHETYPES June 4 - July 5, 2011

View Art Gallery 159-161 Hotwells Road Bristol BS8 4RY United Kingdom for enquiries: +44 (0)5603 116753 sarah@viewartgallery.co.uk

CASE BEN EINE FAITH47 PHIL FROST FUTURA PAM GLEW HERAKUT JAGO KAWS LABRONA DENNIS JOHN NEFF HOLLY THOBURN REMI/ROUGH

CASE (Germany) The effect of politics on street art is perhaps no better exemplified than by the influence the fall of the Berlin Wall had on Andreas von Chrzanowski, aka Case, as a child growing up in East Germany.

“I was 11 when the wall came down. So it was not until quite late that I began to realise what a colourful world childhood could be. Maybe that’s affected in my works, because the things I do right now I think are in some ways like I am experiencing a late childhood.”

left: There is No Holding Him Back mixed media on canvas 90 x 120 cm £2,750 right: Not Caught Yet acrylic on canvas 90 x 120 cm £2,750

BEN EINE (UK) Ben Eine is a renowned London based ‘writer’ who specialises in the central element of all graffiti the letter. From single letters to complex and wry combinations, his alphabet can be found throughout London - huge individual letters on shop shutters, in a style he has made his own.

A distinctive style and a clear profile that sets his and her letters apart from all others is a key goal for any ‘writer’. Ben’s letters transgress the usual stylised image devised to depict form and emotion and through a combination of colour, placement and size become fully formed and unique personalities in their own right.

Astonish mixed paints on floor board 108 x 15 cm £1,750

Conjour Cluster mixed media on concrete coated canvas and floor board 72 x 68 cm ÂŁ4,250

FAITH47 (South Africa) Faith47 searches for a tone of ink that goes directly to the heart. Her work is a fixation, merging the intimately fragile and most subtle gestures with a raw and violent darkness.

Faiths images live on broken down cars and old factories, down dusty side roads in lost towns, inner-city alleyways and highways, large buildings and small shacks. Flowing over from the streets into galleries with a sense of purpose.

She travels extensively through her art but lives in South Africa where the soil is red and her blood feels uncomfortably yet peacefully on edge.

right: Commerce, Civilisation & Christianity oil, graphite, gold leaf on wood with engraved border 56 x 65 cm ÂŁ1,750

The People Shall Share photographic print on di 100 x 4 ÂŁ1,2

in the Countries Wealth iasec mount, edition of 9 40 cm 250

Eve oil, graphite, gold leaf on wood ÂŁTBA

You Hunt Her oil, graphite, gold leaf on wood 67 x 29 cm £900

The Sword Praying for Peace but Waging War mixed media with wood engraving 35 x 43 cm £700

PHIL FROST (USA) Phil Frost’s paintings vacillate between abstraction and representation; they clearly reveal recognisable features while there is also an attempt at concealing them. Totemic figures overlaid with modernist, repetitive patterns, give the work a hypnotic effect that uses a primitive dialect.

The work is tribal in its imagery and urban in its treatment. His continual application of organic shapes and stylized forms become a kind of codex, a contemporary language telling a primordial story.

Bats (x4) mixed media on vintage baseball bat H 87 cm ÂŁ2,750 (each)

FUTURA (USA) Futura began to paint Graffiti at the age of 15, “I had identity problems. I thought, if I do that Graffiti thing I could build my own identity.”

After four years in the US Navy, Futura returned to his native New York to create, with graffiti writer friend Ali, the crew “Soul Artists of Zoo York”. He started painting on New York’s subway and walls and collaborated with Zephyr on a project that enables writers to turn to the canvas and to consider themselves as artists.

Speed and movement are implicitly integrated in painting Graffiti, and Futura is now able to control the energy he projects in his internationally exhibited works.

right: Pointman Subway Map marker on NYC subway map 90 x 74 cm £6,900

above: Pointman marker and spray paint on card 52 x 42 cm ÂŁ1,950

right: Olive No. 1 mixed media on light reflective pointman material 122 x 122 cm ÂŁ7,000

PAM GLEW (UK) Pam is best known for her unique bleaching technique on national flags. She uses dye, stitch and traditional skills to paint, embellish and distress vintage materials in her own breed of painting.

Heavily inspired by film, her strong cinematic paintings often use screen stills of women in horror films and film noir as their starting point. She obsessively watches contemporary and classic movies to capture a pivotal moment; when a character is being chased, startled or discovered by the enemy. The result is often compellingly beautiful and yet has some element of vulnerability.

Haunt bleaching technique and dye on hand-made flag 128 x 90 cm ÂŁ4,250

Everlyn and the Sun bleaching technique and dye on hand-made Aborigine flag 98 x 69 cm ÂŁ2,500

Cheorkee bleaching technique and dye on hand-made Cherokee peace flag 98 x 69 cm ÂŁ2,500

HERAKUT (Germany) Herakut is a symbiosis of the aliases Hera and Akut, two graffiti artists from Frankfurt and Erfurt, Germany. The differences in their ways of approaching art and the painting itself are vast.

Akut’s spray-painted photorealism is self-taught and needs meticulous preparation and process.

Hera in contrast thinks that preparing a piece is to handcuff yourself. She demands as much freedom as possible for intuition and spontaneity in a painting.

front cover: Let Me Be Your Number Known mixed media on canvas 100 x 100 cm £4,250 right: You Built The Bomb Yourself mixed media on canvas 100 x 100 cm £4,250

Feed Trash To The Youth And That’s What They’ll Produce mixed media on canvas 120 x 120 cm £5,000

My Arms Were No Better Than Theirs mixed media on canvas 120 x 140 cm ÂŁ5,750

I Don’t Need Brighter Days mixed media on canvas 91 x 122 cm £4,500

At Times Like This I Would Have Killed My Imaginary Friend mixed media on canvas 91 x 122 cm ÂŁ4,500

Hurt People Hurt People mixed media on canvas 80 x 100 cm ÂŁ3,900

“Archetypes is a signature urban and contemporary exhibition staged in the the UK’s most accepting city of everything colourful. It will give an overwhelming glimpse into each of the artists’ lines of sight and an understanding of what it means to be creating the mould in this dynamic art form” Stephen Hayles, founder of Upfest

JAGO (UK) Bristol graduate Duncan Jago’s work has undergone a prolonged and continuous process of abstraction.

From his early doodle-derived mark making to the droid-like figures of his formative, commercial illustration slowly enveloped in ever-deepening layers of colour and shade. These figures have now become almost entirely hidden, remaining as shadowy, compositional elements, specters lurking in the gloom behind the kaleidoscopic vapours The narrative remains obscured, teasingly just out-of-view.

Plastic Arrows spray paint, acrylic on canvas 214 x 122 cm ÂŁ4,800

It’s Cold spray paint, ac 210 x 70 cm (3 p £2,4

d Below crylic on canvas panels of 70x70) 400

KAWS (USA) Brian Donnelly, aka “KAWS”, manifested himself for the first time in the early 1990s by painting walls and writing graffiti in and around Jersey City and New York. He began appropriating advertisements from bus shelters and phone booths in New York City and painting a graphic, cartoon-like skull-andcrossbones image into them.

His recent work has been influenced by iconic characters from modern pop culture. KAWS’ work treads the fine line between art, commerce, cartoons, and commercials. It is a disruption of, as well as a tribute to, all objects produced, bought, sold, exchanged, desired, and cherished.

Top left: Dissected Companion - colour screen print, edition of 100 51 x 51 cm (frame size) £1,950 Top right: Chum vinyl toy H 35 cm £400 Bottom left: Pinocchio Set vinyl toys 26 x 5 cm £450 Bottom right: Dissected Companion - mono screen print, edition of 100 51 x 51 cm (frame size) £1,950

Studio Baby 1 Acrylic on photographic paper 39 x 45 cm (frame size) ÂŁ4,500

Studio Baby 2 Acrylic on photographic paper 43 x 36 cm (frame size) ÂŁ4,500

LABRONA (Canada) Canadian artist Labrona is best known for his extraordinary paintings on freight trains that roll all over the US and Canada. “I send my thoughts and emotions on to the railways for people to see,” he says. “A train yard is like a forever-changing outdoor art gallery.”

Drawing inspiration from 80s skate culture, rundown industrial areas, and German Expressionism, Labrona’s enthralling visual narratives stem from his fascination with and desire to convey raw human feeling.

right: Trinity acrylic on canvas 40 x 40 cm £950

King, Cook, Thief acrylic on board 61 x 76 cm ÂŁ1,950

Rumours of War acrylic on canvas 101 x 51 cm ÂŁ1,750

DENNIS JOHN NEFF (USA) Dennis John Neff is a graffiti artist and designer from Miami, Florida. While he enjoys creating all types of art with different media, his passions lie with the spray paint medium, and discovering all the possibilities that this amazing tool has to offer.

“I feel like the can itself gives a graffiti artist so much, then is thrown away. What I discovered is that, even after it’s discarded, there is so much left to create with. I’d like to think what we do is set its soul free, so that it might be in peace... or pieces literally. That, to me, is a true way to pay it back for everything it has given me.”

right: Spray Bouquet recycled spray cans H 60 cm (edition of 10) £1,500

HOLLY THOBURN (UK) Born and raised in London, Holly draws great inspiration from urban city life. From a young age she showed an active interest in street culture, including ‘breaking’, skateboarding, and hip hop. These influences are evident in her abstract paintings, reflecting in her edgy style and effusive use of texture and colour.

Holly has travelled extensively photographing street art, graffiti, decaying walls, doorways and structures, which she often replicates in her work that can be seen in exhibitions all over the world.

Stokes Croft mixed media on canvas 3 panels of 60 x 60 cm ÂŁ3,250

REMI/ROUGH (UK) To make the innocent and beautiful dark, to find soul in stark, geometric swashes – somewhere beneath the acrylic, emulsion and spray paint grins Remi/Rough.

Transcending the traditional and somewhat idealised vision of a graffiti writer, the celebrated artist is passionate and unforgiving in his creative progression. As part of the abstract Ikonoklast Movement of the 90s or his role in supporting the evolution of the UK graffiti art scene throughout the decade prior. Or as a visual consultant for Red Bull and Nike. He is a proud graffiti writer, artist, illustrator, designer, art director, curator, musician and loving partner and father.

right: Strictly Kings and Better bitumen/spray paint on canvas, 100 x 100 cm ÂŁ3,200

The International Avant-Garde bitumin/spray paint on canvas 100 x 100 cm ÂŁ3,000

Almost Perfect spray paint on canvas 30 x 30 cm £650

Yellow Square spray paint on canvas 30 x 30 cm £650

“Urban Art returns to its Bristol roots with some extraordinary international artists who have pushed the boundaries of their genre and brought colour, narrative and technique from the street into galleries and homes.�

Nick Waugh, View Art Gallery

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VIEW ART GALLERY IN ASSOCIATION WITH

UPFEST