Murderous Art...

And lastly but not in the slightest way least I went to the see David Choe's 'Murderous Hearts' exhibition at the Lazarides gallery at 8 Greek St, Soho upon the recommendation of my Art Director.

David Choe is an American street artist who who uses various mediums, such as pencil, oils, watercolours, spray paint and even tip-ex to create his pieces. He first made a name for himself with his two award-winning graphic novels, 'Slow Jams'(1996) and 'Bruised Fruit'(2002).

With his work there are a lot of images within the image giving a chaotic feel. This adds to his work as you can see something new each time you look at it. His style is simultaneously beautiful, anarchistic, weird and brutal without taking itself too seriously. The exhibition is on until 28th March, and you can find more info about this exhibition and the artist at lazinc.com.

Anti-brand

The second exhibition I saw was a Riflemaker exhibition, PSJM "Made By Slaves For Free People" which you can find at 79 Beak Street in Soho. You can check out their website at www.riflemaker.org. PSJM are Madrid based artists Pablo San Jose and Cynthia Viera whose work, 'Proyecto Asia', (Asia Project) has caused some controversy along the way.

"PSJM challenges the idea of brands as creators of symbolic values via abstract identities and logos which shape the identity of the individual. Many of the great multi-national trademarks which symbolise capitalist democracy born in free countries achieve maximum profits due to the exploitation of Asian workers."

The major brands which are targeted include Puma, Nike, Adidas and Disney with slogans such as 'Made By Kids For Kids' and 'Made By Slaves For Free People'.

Gracefully Ethereal

The past week I've been to a few interesting art exhibitions. The first was Peter Doig who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004 at the Tate Britain. He is also known for being Europe's most expensive living painter after a painting of his was sold at auction for £5.7 million. His work is highly sought after by the top private collectors around the world.

He paints landscapes mostly based on found photographs, although he doesn't paint in a photorealist style, and of his early childhood memories of snowscapes in Canada. There are also reoccurring motifs from the film Friday the 13th and of his experiences working in the theatre where he dressed up in the costumes with a friend. He is now based in Trinidad, a place where he spent some of his childhood, and is now an inspiration for his paintings.

His style has been described as magic realist and dreamlike due to his unusual colour combinations of glowing greens, blues, reds contrasting with pinks, yellows and white. So it's definitely worth going to the exhibition just to see the paintings in real life as the prints simply don't do them justice.

Politically incorrect but funny....

Hugleiker Dagsson draws comics and is something of a celebrity in his homeland in Iceland. I discovered his first English translation book 'Should You Be Laughing At This?'last year and he has since released a 2nd collection titled 'Is This Supposed To Be Funny?'.

His cartoons comprise of stick figures doing terrible and questionable activities, dealing with subjects such as murder, arson and incest and making them funny. Yes perhaps I'm a bad person but believe me he makes it funny! Does it make him a bad person and more importantly does it make you a bad person if you find his drawings funny?

Well considering he has been embraced in his homeland, his two books could reveal something about the Icelandic sense of humour. Remember it is dark for virtually nine months of the year with three months of complete sunlight over there. Check out his books 'Should You Be Laughing At This?' and 'Is This Supposed To Be Funny?'

Run your own corporation

Here's a fun game and an idea of how to run your own Mcdonald's from cow to burger. Make sure you go through the tutorial first before you start the game as it is quite a lot to learn.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/molleindustria/mcdonalds-videogame

Our London Town

You've probably seen the billboards and tube posters of the new Nokia Meet London campaign by Wieden and Kennedy. The posters are comprised of photos of real Londoners taken with camera phones with the line 'I chose this person because...'.

The aim is to map London through people rather than the landmarks. On the website www.meet-your-city.com, visitors are encouraged to introduce a friend to the city by uploading a picture and saying why they were chosen. The pics are then put into locations on a map of London and in an exhibition section that is divided by subject such as 'In Love', 'East End Girls' and many more.

It's a great campaign which encourages viewers to participate and interact with it. So if you get a chance check out the website and introduce a friend to the rest of London.

Chilly out!

Over the weekend a record number of people went to the beaches to make sandcastles and eat ice-cream. The temperature was 9 degrees, not exactly a scorcher but I guess there's no stopping us Brits once a bit of sunshine emerges from the dead of winter.
Anyway, I'm hoping spring comes soon as I'm getting a bit bored with the long winter.