Beijing: Artist James Powderly, Detained - Aug. 19, 2008
Beijing: Artist James Powderly, Detained - Aug. 19, 2008
UPDATE AUGUST 20 1pm EASTERN: No new information at this point. Based upon our experience, it can take up to three days for formal notification of detention by the Chinese government. We will continue to post the latest information here, including ways you can help.
International Artist Detained in Beijing for Planning Pro-Tibet Free Speech Exhibit
Students for a Free Tibet Notified of Detention by Twitter Message
Beijing – Internationally known artist, technologist and co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab, James Powderly, was detained in Beijing early this morning while preparing to debut a new work and technology of protest, the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil. According to a “twitter” message received today by Students for a Free Tibet at approximately 5 pm Beijing Standard Time, Powderly had been detained by Chinese authorities at 3 am. His current whereabouts remain unknown.
from Wikipedia:James_Powderly
“James is a unique voice in the world, who lives and breathes art and technology for the purpose of promoting and enabling freedom of expression for all,” said Nathan Dorjee, Director of Technology for Students for a Free Tibet. “His trip to Beijing, in support of the Tibetan people and all people around the world whose voices have been silenced by their governments, is a small piece of his portfolio as an artist who won’t back down in the face of authority.”
The work, “The Green Chinese Lantern,” uses a 400 milliwatt handheld green laser with micro-stencils to beam simple messages and images up to three stories high on surfaces such as billboards, buildings, and bridges. The Laser Stencil technology was developed in conjunction with Students for a Free Tibet.
Images from the US Debut of the Green Lantern Technology
The images below were shot in New York City in July, shortly before James departed for Asia. For more information and high-resolution photos of the work, please visit http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?p=161
Posted on August 20, 2008 at 09:04 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Only I wear red and black,and red.
Posted on August 18, 2008 at 08:48 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
At 33, Brian Donnelly is enjoying a successful art career. Working out of a studio in Brooklyn, he has sold paintings to Pharrell Williams, the rapper and producer; Nigo, the designer-entrepreneur; and Takashi Murakami, the international art star, among others. He has also created a variety of products including toys, apparel and even pillows — and indeed he has his own store, Original Fake, in Tokyo. He has also been widely known in the “street art” world for years; one of his early altered-phone-booth-ad posters recently traded hands on eBay for $22,000. One thing Donnelly had not done until lately, however, is forge a relationship with a dealer or art gallery. This wasn’t because he shunned or had a problem with the traditional gallery system. He says it’s just that “nobody asked.”
But that has changed. Donnelly, who works under the name KAWS, has been taken on by the Gering & López Gallery in New York, where he’ll have a show this November. He will also exhibit a batch of paintings at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami in September and will have another solo exhibition early next year at Honor Fraser in Los Angeles. Sandra Gering, of Gering & López Gallery, had not heard of Donnelly before another artist she works with included him in a group show last summer, but she is clearly smitten with Donnelly’s bright, clean, slightly off-kilter canvases that often riff on pop-culture figures like the Smurfs or the Simpsons. And she figures there’s another market for his work. “I think it needs to get out there in the art world,” she says.
It seems odd that someone already making a good living as an artist is only now being introduced to “the art world,” but Donnelly’s story may say something about the different ways creative work can acquire value these days. He studied painting and majored in illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and during the 1990s he gained a certain underground notoriety for removing ads from Manhattan bus shelters and altering them — often adding a slightly disturbing skull-like image, with X’s for eyes — and then putting them back. Visits to Japan brought him into contact with a subculture of hustling young creators blurring the lines between design, art and business, and in 1999 he began producing plastic, toylike versions of his characters in addition to collaborating on products with companies like the skateboard brand DC Shoes and the fashion line Comme des Garçons. He gradually built a clientele for his paintings on his own, and images of his work traveled widely online.
John Jay, executive creative director at the ad agency Wieden & Kennedy, remembers meeting Donnelly in Japan and thinking that he had somehow skipped a career step. “But people don’t always understand,” Jay adds, “you don’t have to have a gallery to sell to international stars anymore.” Edward Winkleman, owner of the Winkleman Gallery in New York, offers a slightly different take. At edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com, he offers thoughtful observations and practical advice about overprotective gallerists, studio-visit strategies and the like. While the Internet is helping a growing number of artists get noticed, he says, most upstart artists still prefer to rely on a gallerist to connect with appropriate consumers (collectors). And Donnelly’s reputation-building and connection-making is pretty much what Winkleman advises many of his readers to do; he just did it in a different context — one in which selling your creativity is part of the job.
So why bother with galleries at all? Winkleman notes that it remains much harder for artists who operate outside the art-world structure to end up in museum collections, which is still seen as “the quintessential validation” by many. And surely a new market is part of the equation. Gering has been introducing Donnelly’s work to her clients since last summer, and “we’ve sold every painting we’ve brought into the gallery,” she says. The November show will consist of new sculptures (including 33 bronzed, painted renditions of his own head) and paintings; the works will be priced at $25,000 and up.
Donnelly, who is surprisingly low-key and humble in person, adds a different point about wanting his work in a gallery: hardly anyone has seen his privately sold paintings up close. Even the work that shows up on the Internet, he says, ends up looking as if it could have been executed on a computer. “People really have no idea what they’re looking at,” he says. “I want them to be able to stand in front of the work.”
Posted on August 02, 2008 at 10:26 AM | Digg
New Complex Covers by Kaws and Myself
We did some interior stuff as well. It’s been a multi Magazine month for both of us it’s a very hot summer.
http://www.complex.com/CELEBRITIES/Cover-Story/Lupe-Fiasco/Lupe-Gallery?pc=5
Posted on August 01, 2008 at 08:23 AM | Digg
Some new prints I did at picturesonwalls.com
I did some more prints with Pictures on Walls. A few of these are still available.
http://www.picturesonwalls.com/Art_Artists.asp?Artist=Todd%20James&Offset=0&PageNo=1
http://www.picturesonwalls.com/Art_Artists.asp?Artist=Todd%20James&Offset=3&PageNo=2
Posted on July 31, 2008 at 01:14 PM | Digg
This should be coming out very soon possibly mon.
Posted on July 18, 2008 at 11:41 AM | Comment (2 comments) | Digg
So I don’t follow this shit at all but I keep seeing this picture floating around. I can only assume these guys are saying something like” HA HA HA HA hey check this guy out, he fucked Maddona what a looser!” and “HA HA HAHA Check this idiot out he make millions of dollars and I’m sitting here paying for it, what a douche bag!”
Posted on July 16, 2008 at 09:56 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
newve crew-Some where near mordor
My friend Sub5/Lawe newave with his halflings cast some old school magic in silver in black. SUB RIDE CAL
Posted on June 28, 2008 at 04:55 PM | Digg
My good old pals From the Gents of Desire social club are getting artistic and benevolent with Undefeated and Nike.
Posted on June 27, 2008 at 12:49 PM | Digg
Identity crisis & what happens when things go wrong
I dont have the energy to describe my distaste for this but let me thank Jamie O’Shea at supertouch for exausting his mental capacity and addressing it.
Posted on June 20, 2008 at 08:43 AM | Digg
Tonights celebration party as imagined by my friend Rob Anderson “naked double dutch, hair braiding, and he’s got to have a fire hydrant installed that shoots Hennesy .” I’m there in spirit.
Posted on June 13, 2008 at 05:53 PM | Digg
check the link http://www.slashgear.com/wiispray-prototype-graffiti-controller-for-wii-0611925.php
Posted on June 06, 2008 at 04:20 PM | Comment (3 comments) | Digg
Rival one West Coast Artists one of the earlier writers from LA’s golden age sadly passed away Recently. He was talented cat both with letters and building cars I met him out there in the late eighties and early ninetys. When I come across some flicks I’ll post them.
Posted on June 04, 2008 at 08:59 PM | Digg
I got a copy of Chino and Sacha’s publication master piece titled…
Here is half of one of my personal favorites and there are many favorites to choose from. Go Cop!! Ass gas or Grass no one rides free. My brother you must get your own.
Posted on May 31, 2008 at 08:36 AM | Digg
Delta New show June 6th in London at Elms Lesters
I just got a few preview pics to share from my friend Delta in Holland who is opening a new show on June 6th-28th. He has been working hard lately and shipped 20 pieces for his upcoming show. His new Exhibit will include collage wood relief canvases prints objects and a video he is working on right now in his art fortress a geodesic dome complete with force field and moat. If your visiting 12oz I’m assuming you know Deltas work and with out a doubt if you can get to the UK you should check out the show.
http://www.elmslesters.co.uk/exhibitions/exhs07.html
Posted on May 29, 2008 at 09:17 AM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
