A quick round up of some of the great art stuff going on this month – which can also be used as a handy guide to tasteful last minute Christmas presents.

Last weekend saw the Christmas Bazaar featuring Pure Evil, Mr Jago and a whole host of others. The line-up and events sounded amazing and, judging by the above image, it looked the dogs bits as well. Also happening this December is Pictures On Walls annual art-ghet-t0-together headlined this year by Evol with a supporting cast full of familiar names (will Bansky appear, the catalogue says not but history suggests yes), whilst Print Club have their excellent 12 Prints show going on. Meanwhile up north, illustrator Matt Sewell has been working as fast as a Hummingbird’s wings producing some brilliant work around birds (the feathered not the female kind).

It’s been a while since I visited Ben Eine’s website so it was good to see he has given it a lick of paint.

Gone are the mischievous Care Bears and eye watering psychedelic colours and, in keeping with Eine’s upward trajectory in the art world, comes something altogether more slicker. Einesigns 2.0 boasts more refined navigation, greater content and promises to be updated more regularly.

The work on show looks to have gone up a notch as well, with the imagery from his show, The Greatest, at White Walls gallery, looking particularly tasty. Featuring one-off words using his trademark typefaces and vibrant colours, this is one wall I’d happily transport to my own living room.

If anyone is in the market for some Eine, check out No Walls Gallery who have some letter canvases in or why take a gamble on Bonafide issue 02 which has an indepth interview with the king of typo-graff.

If there’s something you want to get off your chest, then you might want to get down to Sickboy’s new installation, open this weekend.

The elusive Bristolian street-artist has taken over the Old Truman Brewery to garnish its walls with his latest imaginings, entitled ‘Heaven and Earth’, in conjunction with fellow artists such as D*Face, Eine and Paul Insect.

The work will include a ‘public confessional booth’, for visitors to admonish themselves of their sins. Sickboy will also be displaying confessions posted by members of the public on his website in the run up to the show, and we have it on his authority that there’s some pretty dodgy stuff.

In an interview he did with Bonafide last week, we couldn’t help but ask how he ended up with such a religious theme. He explained;
“I started off looking at old renaissance paintings, and looking at the signs and symbols in them, reappropriating them as my own…It’s not just to ram a load of Catholicism down your throat!” Let’s face it, it’ll probably make for a better Sunday than church.

Heaven and Hell will be open to the public from 4-6 November at The Old Truman Brewery. Open from 12-7 each day.

Will Coldwell

More exhibition news, this time a bit closer to home. From the 04 – 27 November 2011, Borough and Lane a new exhibition featuring works on paper by American artist Evan Hecox, will be held at Stolenspace, London.

I’ve been a big fan of Hecox’s since seeing his Beautiful Losers exhibition and his contributions to Arkitip. He’s reached the stage that few artists many to do – develop a style of work that is recognisable, popular and influential. Indeed a quick root around the office reveals magazines, CDs and even tees (it’s that kind of office) that feature his work. He’s worked with some of the great indies such as Chocolate Industries where his killer portraits for the Urban Renewal Programme matched the sounds of the releases, and been commissioned by major’s such as Adidas   and bitten – as all great styles are – by Coca-Cola. Hey his work has even been featured on pillow cases.

His own art practice has been flourishing as well. His works on cities are particularly strong and lend themselves to his abstract interpretations and clever use of shadow. His new show draws on his explorations of London town, a journey that took him through the back streets and little used passages and visits to the industrial heartlands and bustling thoroughfares. Likely to be a more nuanced and real view of the capital than a thousand tourist shots taken outside of Buckingham Palace.

Bonafide issue 04 star D*Face is holding his first solo exhibition in Australia during November. His new show takes places at the Metro Gallery, Melbourne, and will give our Antipodean cousins a chance to view work in the flesh by an artist who has made his name subverting popular culture and playing fast and loose with the trademark pop stylings of Litchenstein and Warhol.

The exhibition will launch on the 02 November and include his flutterdies and splutterflies work, original pieces, huge concrete spraycan sculptures (that will also be dotted around Melbourne city – try nabbing that Mr Street-Art reseller on eBay) and, according to the blurb, a new limited edition print.

Having stumbled across their playful Check Yo Self mirrors – a must for any rapper or wannabe rapper’s bathroom – released by CMYK Projects in parallel with the Anti-Social Networking exhibition, Black Book Gallery, all I have to say about Skewville is – believe the hype.

From their clever Wharol-esque Hype boxes to their pieces made out of found objects that speak a native street dialect through to their massive boomboxes on the sides of walls, Skewville aka twin brothers Ad Deville and Droo, have been making street insurrections for over a decade. You may also recognise them for their wooden kicks tossed over phone lines – mark making for the hooded generation.

Check the Factory Fresh Gallery and When Dogs Fly for further info.

Slinkachu is taking his little people on a mini-European adventure. Pitching up at Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, which is in Ludwigsburg near Stuggart, he will bring his finely crafted street vignettes to German audience for the first time. Featuring a mixture of past work and new work (shot on the streets of Berlin, Stuggart and Ludwigsburg). As German art heads might say “überprüfen Sie es heraus.”

White Canvas Project 1: Cam Jam – TRAILER from Supremebeing Ltd on Vimeo.

Clothing label Supremebeing have hooked up with the likes of Mr Jago, She One and Will Barras to produce the White Canvas Project. Using various found objects the live paint jam takes part in an undisclosed part of the English countryside. All have to say about the Mr Jago piece is DAMN THAT’S NICE!

Channel 4 need to be applauded for Street Summer, their season of urban culture programmes, if anything it has come, albeit accidently, at a vital time and will hopefully help express young people’s interests whilst at the same time explain that rap and hip-hop aren’t the devils creation.

Graffiti Wars is the latest one I have watched, a documentary revolving around the spat between Robbo (and his team) and Banksy, with cameo’s from Blek Le Rat, the police and the entertaining Ben Eine. However, I’m in two minds about whether I liked the programme.

In the first instance it was great to see a new documentary dedicated to contemporary art – whether it is street art, graffiti, things that hang in Tate Modern etc. modern art gets nowhere near the airtime it deserves.

On the other hand, I found it a bit Daily Mail-lite, ridden with cliches and clever editing all with the aim of inflating an artistic argument that I’m not sure is that important; for example, the gravel voiced narration – seemingly phoned-in from the latest Guy Ritchie production – seemed to ham up the beef and I’m sure Banksy, in interviews from back-in-the-day, actually comes across as pretty deferential to his forebears. On this note it seemed like the editors were pushing a line of argument that made for good TV rather than rigorous journalism.

For example, if the interviewer had explored the idea that actually most art movements are full of examples of appropriation, networking and copying etc. and put it to those involved that perhaps the graffiti code of conduct it is a bit of pre-historic way of thinking, things would have got a bit more interesting. It was obvious that the protagonist’s wanted to be taken seriously, so it would be good if they’d been asked some more challenging and probing questions about their opinions on art (NB if you are going to be selling your work in an art gallery you are opening yourself up to this type of criticism). Instead I found the whole thing a bit ‘the next hype’ and gushing.

Anyway watch it and make your own mind up. And of course best wishes to Robbo who we hope he makes a full recovery.

Street Fonts: Graffiti Alphabets from Around the World
Claudia Walde
Thames & Hudson

Claudia Walde (or MadC as she is known in graffiti circles) spent over two years collecting alphabets by 154 artists from 30 different countries. Each artist was briefed to design their own version of the 26 letters of the latin alphabet. The results are presented alongside a showcase of their selected works and forms an incredibly comprehensive overview of lettering styles from the world of graffiti and street art. Each Artist showcase is accompanied by a brief write up and detail of their approach. A little too brief sometimes which would probably be my only criticism of the book.

The first thing that strikes you about the book is its sheer size, coming in at 320 pages thick, with over 500 colour illustrations, it’s a heavyweight publication and an eclectic archive of graffiti lettering styles, from old-school to new school to typography school to just plain weird school.

The alphabet has been at the heart of graffiti since, well, the creation of the alphabet allowed a more effective form of communication than cave paintings I guess. In more contemporary, post ‘70s graffiti, writers usually start with a name and develop their own style around that, it’s the foundation of what they do. It makes interesting viewing seeing the variety of unique styles that have evolved from 26 simple shapes.

The book features a host of world renowned artists such as 123 Klan (Canada), Faith47 (South Africa), Inkie (UK) and Hera (Germany) alongside a host of lesser known artists who are more than worthy of the exposure.

A source of inspiration for anyone interested in Graffiti, Street Art, Typography, Graphic Design or street culture in general and a lot more interesting than your bog standard graffiti book.

Words: Paul Allworthy