Archive for the ‘England’ Category

Banksy Enters An Art Competition In Somerset

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Banksy spoof.

The organisers of a spoof British art competition claim they have caught the guerrilla artist Banksy trying to out-spoof them.

The judges of the annual Turnip Prize were far from impressed by a professional-looking entry they suspect came from the secretive Bristol graffiti artist. Under the strict entry criteria for the pastiche competition the artists must have spent as little time on their work as possible.

Suspicion has mounted about the identity of the artist since the artwork was dumped outside the New Inn pub in Somerset. The pub has been running its own annual art prize as an antidote to the “pretentious” Turner Prize since 1999.

The anonymous entry bears all the sardonic hallmarks of Banksy, the anonymous street artist whose work now sells to wealthy collectors for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The painting shows a stencilled Mona Lisa firing a turnip from a bazooka. The rocket-launched vegetable is shown flying over a seaside pier below the word ‘Banksea’.

Read More: Banksy ‘caught red-handed’ in art prank

Banksy Unmasked??

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

You know. If you dig enough around the net you can find him. Not that hard at all. Or maybe I’m just good at tracking info down on the net. Either way here’s the story.

Hip British graffiti artist Bansky, whose true identity has long remained a mystery, was thrust into the spotlight Wednesday after the publication of a snatched picture allegedly of him at work.

A man believed to be Banksy, whose works sell for tens of thousands of pounds around the world, was caught on camera working on a new picture in an east London street, according to The Times.

His latest work depicts a huge sunflower, formed by diverting the double yellow parking lines from a street gutter across a pavement up onto the side of a house, flanked by a picture of a paint-roller wielding artist.

But the artist himself was believed to have been caught at work for the first time, by a passerby who took a picture on his mobile phone camera, the daily said.

“We never confirm or deny whether any image shows Banksy,” a spokesman for the artist told The Times, which printed the photo of a black-haired man in jeans a camouflage jacket, with a pollution-protecting mask on his head.

Read More: Wall of secrecy: elusive graffiti artist uncovered?

Graffiti Mistaken For Art Slogan…Or Is That The Other Way Around?

Sunday, October 7th, 2007

Like my play on words? Hehe. :)

A slogan created by an artist who famously burned £1m has been scrubbed off the wall of a Sussex art gallery by cleaners who mistook it for graffiti.

James Cauty used white emulsion paint to scrawl “Portslade Massif” across the window and wall of the Ink-d gallery in Brighton to advertise his exhibition.

The Rize and Fall of the Portslade Massif opened there on Thursday.

Brighton and Hove City Council said the removal of the writing by its graffiti team was a “genuine mistake”.

But gallery studio director Dan Hipkin questioned the action, and said the slogan had been on private property.

He said he believed the cleaners feared the slogan – which referred to the exhibition’s theme of gang culture – would create gang warfare locally.

“Brighton and Hove City Council, like anywhere, have problems with graffiti gangs but this is private property and my problems with the cleaning crew doing this is more about freedom of expression.

“Who holds the right to say what is and isn’t a form of expression?

Read More: Art slogan mistaken for graffiti

Another One Bites The Dust…

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

Dovcom? ABS, England U.K. was sentenced today.

A vandal linked to more than 1,000 graffiti incidents causing more than £200,000 in damage has been sentenced to 300 hours’ community service.

Daniel Tyndale, 21, who has had addresses in St Philips, Bristol and Devizes, Wiltshire, received a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years.

He admitted a series of offences throughout the Bristol area.

He was charged with nine counts of criminal damage with 350 other graffiti offences being considered.

Tyndale sprayed graffiti on numerous locations including the listed Bristol University psychology building, a van on Gloucester Road, the Polish church on Cheltenham Road, a shop near Christmas Steps, Newfoundland Road police station and the metal footbridge near Bower Ashton.

Read More: Vandal sentenced over graffiti

Another Asbo Issued To A Prolific Writer From The U.K.

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

“Raider” busted for being a top deck vandal wussy.

A prolific graffiti vandal has been banned from the top deck of any public transport bus anywhere in the country.

Billy Murrell, 17, from Plumstead, south-east London, has several criminal damage convictions on trains and buses using marker pens, police said.

It is the first time Transport for London (TfL) has obtained an anti-social order against a “tagger”.

The order also bans Murrell from carrying marker pens or sharp instruments on public transport.

The anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) which is valid for three years, was issued at Greenwich Magistrates Court on 12 September.

Read More: Top deck ban for graffiti vandal

42 Year Old U.K. Woman Busted For Illegal Graff!

Monday, September 17th, 2007

Who woulda’ thought?

Sharon Balbi, 42, was given an interim anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) at Reading Magistrates’ Court.

On Friday she admitted 13 offences of criminal damage and asked for a further 223 offences dating back to 2004 to be taken into consideration.

Balbi, of Tilehurst, Reading, sprayed tags, including GUS, ICE, ART, CSI and HAWK on vehicles around Reading.

The Asbo bans Balbi from carrying items that could be used for carrying out graffiti offences.

Read More: Paint ban after vehicle graffiti