Image Source: Forbes, Michael Prince, Getty Images
Feeling hungry Addictees?
Mona's on the menu. Yes, THE Mona. The one with the smirky smile. There's a petition for Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to buy and eat the painting of the Mona Lisa. Will you be signing the petition Addictees?
The change.org petition reads: “Nobody has eaten the mona lisa and we feel jeff bezos needs to take a stand and make this happen.” The petitioner also doesn’t like to use capital letters for names (twitch).
Under ‘reasons for signing’, one enthusiastic participant commented: “This is the most important petition in modern times. Jeff Bezos needs to eat the Mona Lisa to save the world.”
At the time of publishing, over 8,000 signatures have been gathered.
Welcome to this week’s Weekend Art Fix Addictees. If flavours from the Italian Renaissance don’t do it for you, we have some alternative tasty new snacks from the Anno Domini era for you to salivate over.
Medium: Offset lithograph printed in colours on both sides, stamped "Banksy” on bottom right of the recto image
Edition: Unknown
Year: 2010
Size: 59.5cm × 42.0cm
"Forgive Us Our Trespassing" originally appeared on a wall in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2010, the image was distributed as a poster through Don't Panic to coincide with the release of "Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film".
The mockumentary tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art. The film charts Guetta's constant documenting of his every waking moment on film, from a chance encounter with his cousin, the artist Invader; to his introduction to a host of street artists with a focus on Shepard Fairey and Banksy, whose anonymity is preserved by obscuring his face and altering his voice; to Guetta's eventual fame as a street artist himself (aka Mr. Brainwash).
Medium: Hand signed (verso), limited edition giclée on canvas
Edition: #12/100
Year: 2008
Size: 50cm x 50cm x 3.0cm
"My stance is to make artwork that reflects the nature of what is around us and what we all are a part of. People who are shocked are to some degree either naive or are trying to deny their own indirect participation in our own perverse technological and consumerist evolution. I think a lot about what I’m trying to say in any particular piece and I feel a strong desire to push the envelope on what is or isn’t bad taste to engender discussion." ~ Ben Frost
Source: Ben Frost Interview, Vivianite - The Painters Blog
Medium: 3 colour screenprint on 350gsm Somerset Velvet hand made cotton paper, hand embellished with acrylics & spray paint, signed by the artist
Edition: #2/31 (each piece is considered unique)
Year: 2013
Size: Artwork: 22.0cm x 18.0cm - Framed: 27.0cm x 22.5cm x 4.0cm
HUSH has travelled and worked extensively throughout the world. The influences from Asia, and in particular the feminine elements of Asian culture, play heavily in his pieces. HUSH's lifestyle and exposure to diverse cultures have significantly shaped his growth as an artist and his work provides a powerful commentary on urban culture in different parts of the world.
The transition from HUSH’s manga to geisha represents a very significant period in the artist's development into fine art.
"I'm not a painter that'll paint the same thing for the rest of his life, so I wanted to do some realism but continue the theme of adopting little elements of cultures which then fell into something else." ~ HUSH
Medium: Hand signed, hand-embellished giclée on paper
Edition: #17/50
Year: 2018
Size: 65.0cm x 50.0cm
A victim of an armed attack in Miramar (a seaside resort in Buenos Aires) in 2006, NEST overcame his trauma by painting human nature in his unique style. This theme became the subject of a popular series of exhibitions across the country.
Medium: Hand signed, limited edition giclée on paper
Edition: AP (Artist Proof)
Year: 2018
Size: 90.17cm x 73.66cm
With her work demanding to be dissected beyond its surface value, Sandra's portraits are quite literally torn between comic book's fantastical heroics and iconography.
Sandra creates masterfully detailed images, making her women seemingly emerge from a surreal world onto the canvas, where a dance is performed between reality and imagination, truth and deception. She chooses to highlight the superhero's fragility, struggles and weaknesses and exposes humanity's humanity.
When asked what drew her to use comic book images for this critique, she replied:
"Society is asking us to be superheroes. Preconceptions of what ought and ought not be, how one ought and ought not act, think or believe. False notions of perfection and beauty. Unrealistic expectations demanding women of society to become ‘superheroes’ as if it were their supposed position. One’s own false sense of identity and the societal pressures to remain therein. And also there is a war inside each of us, a battle between villain and heroes. "But I also love to use the images of the fragile heroes. If they can be fragile, then so can we! Let’s allow ourselves to be."
Source: "Freeing the Cage: Interview with Cover Artist Sandra Chevrier", Room Magazine, Issue 37.3 "Geek Girls"
Medium: Mixed media on canvas, signed by the artist
Edition: Unique
Year: 2015
Size: 120.0cm x 75.0cm x 4.0cm
The Connor Brothers aren’t actually brothers at all. British artists James Golding and Mike Snelle came up with the pseudonym as a way to work anonymously. Mike had suffered from suicidal feelings all his life, and James was a former heroin addict; the two art dealers started working together on their own projects as a form of therapy. They exposed their real identities in 2014 so they could undertake more ambitious projects. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Source: "Any advice?" "Don't take crack." Talking mental health with the Connor Brothers, Square Mile, 2018
Until the next one, Addictees, “Gobble da lisa” - Angel Flores
Blair & El xoxo