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Ben Long (born 1978 in Lancaster) is an English contemporary visual artist, known for large-scale public works that use everyday materials such as scaffolding in their construction. He lives and works in London. [1]
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Ben Long (born 1978 in Lancaster) is an English contemporary visual artist, known for large-scale public works that use everyday materials such as scaffolding in their construction. He lives and works in London. [1]
Long graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 2001 where he was taught and influenced by the British artist Darren Lago. His earliest works were loosely associated with the Street Art and Urban Art movement which blossomed at the beginning of the 21st century. [2]
His first series of artworks, collectively titled The Great Travelling Art Exhibition, were graffiti-style temporary drawings executed in the dirt gathered on shutters of haulage trucks. [3] [4] In 2002 The Great Travelling Art Exhibition was shortlisted for the Pizza Express Prospects contemporary drawing prize. Because these artworks were on the back of trucks, Long submitted videos of himself making the drawings and the vehicles filmed being driven around London. [5]
These were followed by Scaffolding Sculptures, contemporary monuments constructed from the utilitarian building material. In 2009 the Contemporary Art Society commissioned Horse Scaffolding Sculpture for the Economist Plaza in central London. [6] Later in the same year Long's Brass Bandstand was shortlisted by the Arts Council England for the £500,000 Artists Taking The Lead art commission for the North West region of the UK, [7] the prize being later awarded to Anthony McCall for his Projected Column. [8] [9]
During the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, UP Projects in partnership with Haringey Council commissioned Long to construct Lion Scaffolding Sculpture to coincide with day 68 of the Olympic torch relay. Situated on the grounds of Bruce Castle, a former 16th-century manor house, the 9m tall artwork stood from 25 July until 25 September 2012. Speaking about the series Long has stated that: "With each construction I am basically trying to make a contemporary British monument that reflects the change and evolution that our towns and cities are constantly subjected to." [10]
In 2014 Long was invited by the City of London Corporation and Sculpture In the City [11] to exhibit an artwork in the capital city's square mile financial district. As a direct response to Robert Indiana's Love sculpture and the ongoing issues surrounding the global financial crisis that started in 2007, Long created a Scaffolding Sculpture mimicking the style of Indiana's Love, but instead constructing the word WORK from the components. [12]
The sculpture was erected in front of the entrance of architect Norman Foster's landmark building 30 St Mary Axe, [13] more commonly known as 'the Gherkin', in June 2014, on loan until summer 2015. In August 2014 IVG, one of the two owners of 30 St Mary Axe, filed for insolvency and the building went into receivership. [14] Work Scaffolding Sculpture was subsequently removed at the request of the receivers of 30 St Mary Axe, having stood there for 9 weeks. [15]
In 2015, Long exhibited several works including Horse Scaffolding Sculpture as part of Banksy's five week long Dismaland art show at the former Tropicana Lido in the English sea-side town of Weston-Super-Mare. [16]
Solo gallery exhibitions of Long's work include Crown Jewels (2009) and Art Work (2008).
Graffiti is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls, and bridges throughout the world. His work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Art intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience, venue/space or situation. It is in the category of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with Letterist International, Situationist International, Viennese Actionists, the Dada movement and Neo-Dadaists. More latterly, intervention art has delivered Guerrilla art, street art plus the Stuckists have made extensive use of it to affect perceptions of artworks they oppose and as a protest against existing interventions.
Thierry Guetta, best known by his moniker Mr. Brainwash, is a French-born Los Angeles–based street artist. According to the 2010 Banksy-directed film Exit Through the Gift Shop, Guetta was a proprietor of a used clothing store, and amateur videographer who was first introduced to street art by his cousin, the street artist Invader, and who filmed street artists through the 2000s and became an artist in his own right in a matter of weeks after an off-hand suggestion from Banksy.
King Robbo was an English underground graffiti artist. His feud with the artist Banksy was the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary called Graffiti Wars, first shown in August 2011.
See No Evil is a collection of works of public art by multiple graffiti artists, located around Nelson Street in Bristol, UK. The artwork was first created in an event in August 2011 that was Europe's largest street art festival at the time. It culminated with a block party. The street was mostly repainted in a repeat event in 2012. The artworks comprise murals of various sizes, in different styles, some painted on tower blocks, including a 10-storey office block. The works were created under a road closure, using scaffolding and aerial work platforms.
Better Out Than In was a residency undertaken by the pseudonymous graffiti artist and political activist Banksy in New York City during October 2013. Banksy unveiled at least one work of art daily, documenting it on both a dedicated website and an Instagram account. The majority of the works were stencil graffiti and chiefly political, a distinctive characteristic of Banksy. Other pieces and multimedia exhibits toyed with dark humor and satire.
Ben Moore is a British art curator, entrepreneur and artist. He is the founder and curator of Art Below, a contemporary art organisation that places art in public spaces and has had shows in England, Germany, Japan and the United States. He is also the founder and curator of Art Wars, an exhibition of designs based on the Imperial Stormtrooper helmets from Star Wars. In 2021, Moore was part of the Art Wars NFT project which resulted in massive losses for the purchasers of the NFTs and claims of copyright theft from artists whose physical work was reproduced without their permission.
Dismaland was a temporary art project organised by street artist Banksy in the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England. Prepared in secret, the pop-up exhibition at the Tropicana, a disused lido, was "a sinister twist on Disneyland" that opened during the weekend of 21 August 2015 and closed on 27 September 2015, 36 days later. Banksy described it as a "family theme park unsuitable for children." The aesthetic of the "bemusement park" was potentially inspired by the "Dismayland" series of paintings created by American artist Jeff Gillette, who also participated in the exhibition.
A pop-up exhibition is a temporary art event, less formal than a gallery or museum but more formal than private artistic showing of work. Pop-up exhibits are erroneously called pop-up museums, such as the Museum of Ice Cream but do not fit the International Council of Museums definition of a museum. The idea began in 2007 in New York City where space for exhibiting artistic work is very limited. Although the idea originated from New York City, pop-up exhibitions occur all around the world. A recent example is Banksy's Dismaland, which ran from August to September 2015.
Aiko Nakagawa, known as Lady Aiko or AIKO, is a Japanese street artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for her ability to combine western art movements and eastern technical, artistic skills, as well as for her large-scale works installed in cities including Rome, Italy, Shanghai, China and Brooklyn, New York.
The Drinker is a statue by graffiti artist Banksy, not to be confused with the stencil of the same name, a graffiti artwork of a rat drinking a cocktail, on a wall at North Beach, Lowestoft, England.
The Creative Folkestone Triennial is an arts festival held every three years in Folkestone, Kent, England.
Well Hung Lover, also called Naked Man Hanging From Window and simply Naked Man, is a mural by the anonymous street artist Banksy, on a wall in Frogmore Street, Bristol, England.
Jeff Gillette is a contemporary American artist based in Southern California. He is best known for his subversive 'slumscape' paintings ironically featuring Disney characters. He is often cited as the inspiration for Banksy's 2015 Dismaland theme park installation, in which he was a featured artist.
Show Me the Monet is a 2005 oil on canvas painting by graffiti artist Banksy. The work is an appropriation of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series. Banksy has appropriated Monet’s paintings to now depict a traffic cone and two shopping carts polluting and submerging into Monet's pond at Giverny. The work is believed to be a commentary on the negative impacts of capitalism and consumerism within society. Show Me the Monet exists within Banksy’s Crude Oil series. The work was sold in October 2020 by Sotheby’s. The work was sold for £7.5 million.
Rubén Sánchez also known as Zoonchez is a Spanish artist known for creating colorful compositions in his works, mostly with elements in balance. He has made sculptures and large-scale public murals works in Canada, UAE, France, Jordan, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, Sweden and the United States.