Takashi Murakami, the Japanese artist who makes intriguing work out of cartoon mushrooms and whose style we most covet, currently has a retrospective going on at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The best part is SuperTouch is giving us a personal tour of the exhibition narrated by the artist himself. Even if your Japanese AND your Spanish are a little rough, you’ll get a kick out of seeing the evolution of a master’s art. For the full tour, click here.
Our experience with steel wire sculptures has been limited to crappy key rings and county fair crafts. So when we stumbled upon Frank Plant there was a little bit of hesitation. Not only did he smash our previous notion of wire work, but broadened our idea of what’s possible. Take a look at this man ‘throwing’ a gravy boat — total want. Frank now finds himself a resident of Barcelona, but you don’t have to be intercontinental to check out his metal machinations. Read a story or two on his blog or take a look at his portfolio on flickr.
The Gift: You like Spanish cartoon characters … we like Spanish cartoon characters. And now it’s time you owned a few from one of our much-hyped friends, Tolky Monky. The muy bien prize pack contains a T-shirt, sweatshirt, and small poster.
The Rules: Go and visit their website, take a look some of their characters, and report back here with a new, original story for guys like Undie the Raccoon or Beeboy to post in the COMMENTS section (although, you can choose any of them.) Only one entry per reader. Duplicate entries will be discarded.
The Deadline: Contest is open now through midnight on 12/10.
We’ve covered a few urban reinvention projects, Guerrilla Gardening and Aakash Nihalani come to mind. Madrid street artist SpY has been making the Spanish laugh with is comical, ironic works involving surreal extensions of what we find commonplace. A basketball net 50 feet high, escaping signs, graffiti for the blind, balloon bouquets for cows, and his tasteful redecoration of statues are all part of SpY’s vision of how the world should be. He is the kind of artist you want to come to your city because he just makes things fun. The good news is he’s traveling — a couple projects in London and China — so keep your eyes peeled for anything that makes you laugh. To be a little more specific check out his works on the newly launched website, SpY.
Next time you make a pilgrimage to see Gaudi’s architectural wonders in Barcelona, make sure to stop by the Iguapop Gallery/apparel store. The shop opened in 2003 within the El Born neighborhood – the hip, funky district where the locals snap up hot goods in the Catalan city – and hosts art exhibitions featuring the work of both local artists and international urban art sensations like Tim Biskup and Miss Van alongside hot new fashions.
In case you still haven’t figured it out, vampires are going to be all the rage this fall. Between two new TV shows and the film Twilight, everyone’s going to be talking about bloodsuckers. In celebration, the Spanish Tolky Monky has added the vampire rabbit Moneja to a lineup that feels like a cross between Joe Ledbetter’s illustrations and the wacky personalities inside Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. She’s not available yet on their new line of polo shirts, but if you’re a lady — or just want to dress like one — you can snag a pink, black, or purple fitted tee that sports her image.
