The Very Best of Urban Art - Opera Gallery

POW!
The Very Best of Urban Art
Opera Gallery and Art Walk bring a collection of the very
best within urban art to Cannes. Art originally featured
in city-landscapes and streets, rendering raw and fearless
images , created by smart habitants of many subcultures.
Urban art is whimsical, colourful and meaningful all at
once. A POW! of modern reflection and artistic appeal.
The pop up gallery in Cannes is an ongoing collaboration
between Katinka Traaseth of Art Walk and the internationally
spread and acclaimed Opera Gallery Group, founded in
Paris and Singapore by Gilles Dyan in 1994. Together they
offer collectors and art devotees a diversity of art from all
the corners of the globe. The pop up concept indicates the
gallery stays on for a limited time only, making the art experience
(and its location) fleeting and even more valuable.
The Godfather of graffiti is SEEN. His nickname points to
his main desire - which in fact is to be seen. And he has
succeeded . Among his infamous stunts are spray painting
the Hollywood sign and outnumbering commercial billboards
with SEEN-artworks in New York City, in the 1980s.
Today a few of his clever icons have found their way to canvases
- lucky enough, for the art collector.
Humor is an obvious part of street art. Ron English certainly
has his intact, probably being the only artist to place the
face of Mickey Mouse on to the breasts of Marilyn Monroe.
And probably being the only artist to fuse Abraham Lincoln
and Barack Obama into one portrait. Character-creatorgenius
and one of the world’s most productive urban artists,
English spins political and consumerist statements on to his
canvases as well as city walls.
Equally resourceful in his painted testimonials is Vitaly
Rusakov . The imagery of this young Russian artist concerns
communism, politics and freedom. His colour-use is
powerful and his designs are brave. His work is spread
through out the walls of Russia, and after being recognized
as more than a street muralist, his raw reports can be
witnessed in galleries as well.
Mr. Brainwash became a street art starlet when Banksy
filmed a documentary about him that premiered in 2010.
The movie Exit Through the Gift Shop earned the street artist
great success, and he has opened numerous sell-out shows
since. His art is provocative and raw, and acts as a tribute to
original, “Warholesque” pop art. Icons, prior pop art, and
entertainment inspire his sneering yet wondrous concoctions.
Mr. Brainwash has in fact become such a sensation,
that Madonna herself asked him to create several album ,
DVD and vinyl covers.
While some street artists are taken with celebrity, others
crave to leave their mark across the globe. Artists participating
in the movement The London Police have succeeded
in doing so in 35 countries, and counting. Founders Bob
Gibson and Chaz Barrison spread love and joy with their
stickers, stencils and spray cans. Their iconic LADS characters
teamed with tight architectural backdrops make for
feel-good, clever creations, on both brick and paper.
The collagist, street artist, and found-art creative duo behind
FAILE is Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller. The duo has become
famous for their innovative techniques of getting their
passive and plain messages across to the impressed public.
Their mediums are many, and their images both colourful
and very strong.
Parisian artist C215 also projects deep meaning from his
dreamy and mystical works. He is also a poet, but he relies
on his piercing colours and strokes to express himself
visually. He leaves his portraits (usually of locals, children or
his daughter Nina) very open to the viewer, so it can tell its
very own lyrical tale to each spectator.
Speedy Graphito, TILT and Krito all draw great inspiration
from advertising, brand-logos, cartoons, symbols and
icons. They have their whimsical and naive colour-use in
common. This trifecta of artists construct mood-elevators,
that still challenge the intellect, in each their individual way.
Speedy Graphito is in fact a pioneer of French street art,
and a master of pop culture references. TILT, also French,
is a sworn server of basic graffiti, proving his old school and
bubbly style is just as relevant today. Krito, who started out
sketching cartoons to amuse children in the nursing home
where he worked, soon became recognized for his markertalent.
Now his bright figures are loved by urban art enthusiasts
of all ages.
Blek le Rat is considered the father of stencil graffiti. He is
the artist that brought the street art scene of New York to
France, but twisted it to his own Parisian tune. In the 80s
he started out painting rats on walls, meaning they were
a symbol of freedom just like urban art. Today he focuses
on people, often life-size, paying extra attention to the
actual figure . There is no added distraction of complex
backgrounds or thematic text. This is to further his goal of
bringing art to the conscience of the people.
Welcome to POW!
Enjoy the exhilarating urban art explosion.
Gilles Dyan
Founder and Chairman of Opera Gallery Group
Katinka Traaseth
Founder and Director of Art Walk
Pop Up Gallery in Cannes
11, square Mérimée, 06400 Cannes
cannes@operagallery.com / +33 (0)4 97 06 53 86