DALeast is a wonderful street artist born in China. DALeast keeps his real identity hidden. The artist works in an easily recognizable style painting animals and other objects that look as if they are made out of thousands of pieces of metal that are in constant motion and action. Though I have posted many times about artists in other genres that are husband and wife, DALeast is also married to a world renowned street artist named Faith47. I have profiled her before as she is one of few women street artists working in South Africa. The couple spends part of the year in South Africa and the other half traveling the globe making wonderful art for us to enjoy.
The artist has been arrested one time. It was in Beijing just before the Olympics took place in 2008.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In this clip we view DALeast and wife Faith 47 working on a mother and child work of art in New York City:
In this clip we view DALeast working on a very large piece of street art:
DALeast has brought new creativity to the street art scene with his unique style of painting! Its also great that we have an artist family that make street art ! AWESOME!
Nelson Mandela has been everywhere the past few days, but lets take a look at some wonderful artwork he produced back in the early 2000s. Mandela was incarcerated for nearly 3 decades on Robbin Island.
For this series that depicts many locations of his surroundings, he made 20 images.
As an artist I find he has a great sense of design. He left out so many shapes and put in only the essentials. Imagine how many items are actually in a prison cell. But his cell looks empty and lifeless.
I also find his printmaking style interesting. Many artists that did illustration in the golden age of illustration used a method of paint and charcoal, sometimes allowing the charcoal to show through. Mandela used a black crayon for his outline. The lines aren’t the boring and straight as you would expect, but they have nice uneven weight to them, making them far more exciting than one might normally think.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Its great to see a great person making great art! Another artist who made great work at an advanced age!
This link has further detail on his Robben Island series. A brief background about each image is given:
To close we take a look at my favorite work of art that uses Mandela as a subject. This work is done by an artist who uses laser cut wood and steel to make wonderful sculptures. His name is Marco Cianfanelli.
Marlene Dumas is a modern artist born in Cape Town, South Africa in the year 1953. Her favorite subjects are people with many works dealing with the genre of mother and child. For her artistic education Dumas attended the University of Cape Town.
price range information: Works in oils have broken the one million dollar mark at auction. Watercolours range $25,000 to the low six figures. Lithographs range $5,000 to $20,000.
Growing up in South Africa, where television wasn’t available until 1976, photography inspired the artist. One American photographer whose work she admired was Diane Arbus, a master at capturing emotion on film. Below an example of Arbus’ photographic work.
Is now based out of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In this clip we visit the show taking place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City featuring Marlene Dumas with our beloved art admirer James Kalm:
The artist usually works with black and white imagery as she tries to capture and promote emotion in her figures. Dumas enjoys using oils on canvas or ink on paper.
Has had exhibitions in the United States at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, California and the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City.
Faith47 is well known graffiti and street artist that was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1979.
She enjoys working in public and looks for old and broken down buildings. She enjoys working in public for the people that walk by and engage the artist in conversation. It could be kids, gangsters, grandma’s she enjoys meeting new people.
Great interview with Faith47. We see her in action and she tells us why she calls the Street Art movement a universal movement that will be read about in art history books.
As far as her style I consider her to be like the street artist Swoon. Both have a very high talent level when it comes to drawing. I have written about Swoon many times because she uses art to improve the world such as working with the people who suffered the hurricane in Haiti a few years ago. A work by Swoon below. Another interesting fact I love about both artists is that anything is fair game when it comes to a painting service. Could be a door, window, or metal gate used instead of canvas.
In many works she uses mixed media from spray paint, to pencil, to collage, gold leaf, wax, crayons and my favorite old time machine, the letterpress.
A great clip here! Having been on this street by accident and I must say its the strangest street I have ever been on and I at first I thought for sure I would get mugged. Its not that bad when you get used to it, but you see all sorts of people missing arms, legs, eyes, and sometimes look like they lepers. Faith47 and few other legendary street artists participate in remaking a small part of this neighborhood. With her empowerment of the community its easy to understand how I compare her to Swoon.
Two themes explored by the artist are poverty and apartheid.
Faith47 is self taught as an artist.
The artist has painted on locations throughout South Africa and China.
Sorry, No pricing information available. Nice to see the street art movement in full bloom with explosions from artists like this who not only work in public, but also have become great printmakers such as Mr. Brainwash, Banksy, or Shephard Fairey.
Brett Murray is artist born in 1961 in the city or Pretoria, South Africa. He has made himself famous for portraying life as a white person in South Africa after apartheid has taken place. His most famous work was that of the president of South Africa the country, he painted the artist with his genitals exposed. This work was vandalized and this gave Murray a shot to stardom in the art world as a political artist and activist.
Below is his most controversial piece, called Hail to the Thief, it features President Zuma.
For his education Murray attended the University of South Africa at Capetown and Michaelis School of Art.
Murray was the founder of the sculpture department at a college based out of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
A link to Brett Murray’s own website: http://www.brettmurray.co.za/
When the statue featuring a female figure alongside the Simpsons was displayed the government thought some public outrage might take place, as some organizations sued the government to prevent the display of Mr. Murray’s work.
Here we see a statue by the artist get covered in yarn. I think its great to see that the public is so excited to interact with a work of art. Just great!
In this clip we see the most controversial incident ever involving the artist with the President Zumba of South Africa. The African National Congress went after Murray with vigor for his not so delightful painting of the President. It is paintings like this that have earned him the nickname of the “Demon of Pop Art. ”
If I were to compare his work to other artists that deal with race except from a person of colors point of view and in both artists racism in the United States. One artist that comes to mind would be Kara Walker. Walker is highly sought after by collectors including Oprah Winfrey for her silhouette paper and canvas cutouts. These works take us back to a time when no one wanted to be black and the darker your skin color. Her works emphasize the bad thoughts and ideas that sometimes come from people not only slavery, but also other touchy subjects such as rape. Below is wonderful example of Kara Walker’s signature style.
Now lets take a closer look at Kerry James Marshall’s artwork which features race and also makes political commentary. With this work we see important people in the history of the United States as far as barriers being broken. We see such people as John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King given wings, they are angels with their spirits always hanging over us. Marshall was born in Birmingham, Alabama in the year 1955. This was the height of racism in the south of the United States.
Its very interesting to see how race is handled in different parts of the globe, sometimes I get tired of the slavery themes used by Kara Walker, so when it comes to race and current political themes its great to compare South Africa to the United States as both have begun to heal the many wounds caused by slavery.
My computer is nearly fixed so I will soon be back to daily posts, until then I have to post when I have the opportunity to borrow a computer.
Make sure and set aside some time today to paint or draw to make this a fantastic weekend!
Mbongeni Buthelezi was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in the year 1956. He is best known for painting the face and figure with little pieces of plastic. His work has a real contemporary feel because its made from contemporary materials, PLASTICS!
The artist studied at the African Institute of Art in Johannesburg. He also studied at the University of Witwatersand.
Everyone of his works of art is made up of thousands of very small pieces of plastic that are cut up and then glued to a canvas. The artist is able to paint faces with plastic by using a heat gun to control the dollups of plastic color he has on his canvas.He always uses “waste” plastics. By using recycled materials he wants the viewer to take notice of how much waste is made everyday in the world.
Buthelezi hopes to communicate hope and meditation thru his artwork. I really enjoy this artist’s positive outlook on life. He hopes to provide inspiration to others. He is convinced that if people hear his story and view his paintings that they too will see anything can happen in South Africa. You just have to be diligent and never give up trying. He loves to tell people his story and how he made a career seemingly out of nothing.
He has worked many years at developing his technique and has eighteen different variation he uses to achieve different textures and ideas.
The artist has shown in New York and Germany.
On line and land based gallery: Seippel Gallery located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Buthelezi currently lives and works out of Johannesburg.
I couldn’t find any price range information.
I love the recycled materials genre of art. So many possibilities and ideas one can use. For some artists that work with recycled materials try checking out Geoffrey Gorman. One of my favorite sculptors that makes animals from trees and wires. Another artist is Vik Muniz. Sometimes the artist uses chocolate instead of a pencil in his drawing. Below is a picture by Vik Muniz. It is was made using a very large wire.
The artist is known for her sculptures of toilet paper. She also is one of few artists working on flat surfaces with glass beads. It gives her work an outstanding sense of depth. Even something boring such as top of a prison security fence, is seen as an outstanding collection of shapes in the artist’s signature glass bead style.
Liza Lou was born in New York in 1969.
Here she talks briefly about her desire to become an artist since she was very young.
This is a great clip to watch! A quick glimpse of how a viewer looks at her work from afar, then when walking closer the image starts to really shine and sparkle. What the viewer might think is just an ordinary fence, is in reality an awesome work of art that I wouldn’t mind to be imprisoned in (for say one hour or so!) Made with aluminum and glass beads.
As you can see from the gallery example, Lou has done portraits of forty two presidents of the United States.
Liza Lou is a huge admirer of the Pop Art Star Andy Warhol, she started working in what is now her signature glass bead style in 1989.
Lou liked the idea of Pop Art. That seen in this wonderful style even something as mundane as a fire hydrant, could be alive and bursting with color.
The artist attending the San Fransisco Academy of Art.
The artist lives and works out of Los Angeles, California as well as South Africa.
Liza Lou gained critical for a work done in 1995 titled “Kitchen.” It was 168 square foot replica of a kitchen covered entirely in beads.
A link to the artist’s website: See her many installations here as well! http://www.lizalou.com/
Lou has worked in many mediums such as glass beads, glass, aluminum, resin, wood, plaster, and enamel.
Various works starting at $5,000 up to $337,000 for a work done in resin. The work is very time consuming so the artist works with many assistants on her larger works.
I had never seen art portrayed in this style, glass beads. I love the idea because its so contemporary. Glass beads are one of the hottest items in crafting right now, and similar to the way Pop art could bring boring items to life, her method can also make boring items such as a kitchen dazzle and sparkle the eye. And the fact that many works are in three dimensions gives the viewer an added sense of depth and gives the artist more opportunities to use her fantastic color combinations.
I think its great that some artists continue to work in Pop Art style. Very interesting that she has chosen to recreate everyday objects in her style such as a roll of bathroom toilet paper or a bag of Ruffle’s brand potato chips done with polyester, resin, and of course glass beads. I loved the results and look forward to seeing some flowers or perhaps a car done in this remarkable style.
The artist was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in the year 1955. He is best known for his animated film shorts. His process is a far longer than doing just a normal drawing. First Kentridge draws the image, then takes a picture of it on film for one to two seconds. He then erases the part of the image and restarts the same process. Draw and erase, draw and erase, draw and erase, until he has enough images to make a film.
His parents were both lawyers who represented the victims of apartheid. It gave him a unique view of life. In South Africa non whites were second class citizens. Kentridge is of European heritage. It helps a great deal to review the political and social unrest taking place in his country when viewing his works. Similar to the very emotional charcoal works of Kathe Kollwitz.
Kentridge grew up in South Africa attending the Johannesburg Art Foundation in the 1970s. The artist went to college at the University of Witwatersand, South Africa earning a degree in politcal science. Kentridge also studied theater in Paris, France. His partner in his theater productions is the HandSpring Puppet Company. Kentridge designs and produces the backdrops used in these productions.
Check out his great puppet design in this short clip.
Kentridge went to school to learn how to become an actor. As he later states he was just terrible and it and made his peace with it. He accepted he was a great producer of images and a great visual artist.
In this clip see Kentridge talk about his process of drawing then erasing as the means to create his stop -animation films. They are quite skillfully done with loads of imaginative ideas such as a chair turning into a table or a cow taking a shower/ bath! Very unique indeed!
In this unique clip watch the artist as he draws and paints himself then walks away the both of him! When I saw this clip I thought about Salvador Dali. Its called “Invisible Mending” and was made in 2003.
The artist makes some incredible linocuts. He has wonderful compositions with exciting lines. The stop animations are very lively and I would enjoy seeing them on a movie size screen. They might be something Walt Disney and Steve Jobs might have come up with on a collaboration.
High price ranges: The artist has sold an oil titled Anti-Waste for $414,000. His charcoal record is $90,529. Drypoint record is $91,000. Watercolor record $128,000.
Low price range: Photography works can be found for less than $1,000. Etchings start $1,000 to $2,000.
This artist is so contemporary and always trying out new mediums its hard to keep track of all of his accomplishments.
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