Image slideshow
The first 6 months of 2010 are shaping up to be some of the craziest that street art has ever seen. The two big events (so far) are Jeffrey Deitch’s appointment as the next director of Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in LA and the premiere of Banksy’s film Exit Through The Gift Shop at the Sundance Film Festival. Still to come, of what has been announced, are Shepard Fairey’s solo show at Deitch Projects, the Faile/Bast show and Faile retrospective at Lazarides Gallery in London, Mr. Brainwash’s show in NYC, the Barnstormers show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, The Carmichael Gallery’s show in NYC, the Turmkunst project in Berlin, talk of another animation from Blu and so much more. While all those events to come are interesting, they are practically minor footnotes compared to January’s two bombshells.
Jeffrey Deitch is the owner of Deitch Projects, a gallery that has played host to the artwork of street artists from Keith Haring and Basquiat to Barry McGee and Swoon. On the one hand, because his new job forces him to close Deitch Projects, a huge hole is left in the New York City art scene, and no one gallery will be able to fill it. On the other, in the coming years, Deitch could bring street art to MOCA. I’d hate to be one of Jeffrey’s artists today, but if they can make it through a potentially rough patch and find new galleries, they are going to be in a great position down the line.
These days you can’t mention Deitch and Deitch projects without mentioning how the gallery is going to close. Shepard Fairey’s solo show, opening May 1st, will be the last show at Deitch Projects. Already, rumors are circulating about astronomical prices for the canvases compared to his market just a year ago. The show will focus on portraits of cultural and political icons, like his Obama painting. Of course, Obama wasn’t Shepard’s first portrait, just his most successful, but I can’t help but think the show’s theme thing feels a bit more contrived that it should be. On the other hand, the glimpses that Super Touch Art (http://supertouchart.com/2010/02/02/featurein-the-studio-with-shepard-fairey-as-he-prepares-for-deitch-gallerys-closing-show/) has put up are pretty interesting.
But Exit Through The Gift Shop has overshadowed all that news. The plot hasn’t been entirely revealed yet, but what we do know is that Mr. Brainwash (before he was Mr. Brainwash) was making a documentary about street art, but it kind of sucked. After seeing how bad it was, Banksy bought the footage to make his own film, at the same time, Banksy helped set Mr. Brainwash on the path to superstardom. But for me, the best part is that Banksy seems to acknowledge Mr. Brianwash’s lack of talent by billing the film as “the world’s first street art disaster movie.” The film premiered at Sundance, and will get a general release in the UK on March 5th. If the movie makes it to the states and get a big release there, this could propel Banksy, Mr. Brainwash, Shepard Fairey and all the other artists in this film to new heights of fame, and get even more people thinking about street art. So many people who have never cared about art are going to be thinking about street art in a few months thanks to Exit Through The Gift Shop. This could be the next Spellbound.
And that’s really just what we’ve heard about in January, who knows what’s around the corner…
Updates from RJ Rushmore
5 February, 2010