Graffiti urban street art exhibition at Elms Lesters

LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN :

NEW YORK'S COUNTER CULTURE

Between 28th October and 19th November 2005 Elms Lesters hosted an exhibition featuring the work of five frontline, Brooklyn based, contemporary, pop-surrealist and urban artists:

STASH . PHIL FROST . MARK DEAN VECA . RON ENGLISH . WK INTERACT

New York is currently experiencing an explosion of interest in this genre of fine art, and these five artists were selected as controversial. maverick exponents of this subculture.

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In addition to works on canvas and paper by each artist, a full sized 9.4 metre (40') billboard installation by RON ENGLISH entitled "GUERNICA FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE BOMB FELL" as well as looped screenings of the film ,,, "POPAGANDA - the art and subversion of RON ENGLISH"

Director/ Producer: Pedro Carvajal

THE FEATURED ARTISTS:

RON ENGLISH has pirated over one thousand billboards over the last twenty years, replacing existing advertisements with his own hand-painted "subvertisements." He revels in taking on the establishment, tearing down corporate icons, and unravelling social constructs. His works on canvas contain an equally biting commentary whilst being flawlessly painted in a hyper-real style.
His paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide and his work is included in prominent collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris and the Whitney Museum in New York.
The film "POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English" was recently premiered in Edinburgh during the G8 summit. Shot 'guerrilla style' it features ENGLISH as one of the leading figures of the international agitprop movement of artists who paint over billboards and create other art that takes aim at the emptiness of modern culture.

PHIL FROST lives and works in New York.
His original work on the streets has grown and matured into exquisitely beautiful complex pieces of art. Using anything from old barn doors, window panes, leaves, paper, sticks, feathers, ink, aerosol, gouache and oils, he produces textured multilayered paintings and sculptures that combine flat repetitive organic shapes with his trademark characters, and heavily textured worked areas, reminiscent of tribal shields and artefacts from Melanesia and Australasia.

STASH has lived in Brooklyn all his life. He painted his last active subway in 1987 and has since showcased work internationally, both individually and as part of mixed shows. Stash has moved beyond the realms of graphic art and has now firmly established himself as an innovator and influencer in the world of contemporary urban / pop art.

MARK DEAN VECA was born in Louisiana, but is now based in Brooklyn.
His work is instantly recognisable with it’s brilliantly coloured surreal cartoon landscapes often depicting contemporary popular icons, taking inspiration from imagery as diverse as 18th century Toile de Jouy fabrics to Mad Magazine, Robert Crumb, Dr. Seuss and The Furry Freak brothers.
His work has been included in major exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout America.

WK INTERACT was born in France, and has lived in NYC for over 15 years, during which time he has decorated whole tracts of the city’s SoHo district with his dynamic and energetic imagery. But his black and white speeding figures simply do not allow themselves to be tied down to one place - they are permanently on the move; pushing, stumbling, running...
His work has been exhibited internationally from America, England and France to Japan and Hong Kong and most recently he was commissioned as one of the participating artists in the HOTEL FOX project in Denmark.