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Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 15:08
As Michael Gaca, director of the Belgrave Gallery, St Ives, suggests, it could be anything from "its raw energy to its graphic imagery, from its relevance to today's society to its slightly risqué nature". Whatever it is, there is no doubting the fact that its popularity and the prices it now fetches in the market place have never been higher.
Factors that, in view of the success of the first Street Art exhibition he held earlier this year, have persuaded Michael Gaca that the time is now right for another such show: Street 2.
Indeed, to ensure that it brings with it a similar "breath of fresh air mixed with the smell of aerosol paint" and to place the exhibits in the right context, he has, as it were, rebuilt one of the gallery's interior walls as a brick wall. An imaginative move, the wall provides the perfect setting for British artist Beejoir's Linoleum 2007. One whose "slurs and rants" have been seen on walls all over the world, in this one-off, spray paint on board, he combines past and present, mounting it in a decorative frame which harks back to the 19th century while nodding his composition in the direction of a certain well-known 21st century artist.
An exhibition of international urban art which brings together 21 street artists from eight different countries.
Pride of place has been given to the Parisian-born Blek Le Rat's large Space Cowboy.
A legendary figure and hugely influential in the world of street art, reckoned to be "the father of stencil graffiti as an art form", he is also represented by a screenprint His Master's Voiceless (red) and Desert Storm which, with its oil rig inset, makes a pertinent comment on the reasons for ever blowing up such a storm.
While it may be tempting to dismiss the works of these artists as little more than stencil-based graffiti, there is much more in them than at first meets the eye, and the collective talent of these 21 street artists is enormous.
The way in which British artist Matt Small uses his paint on a VCR machine to make a Portrait is stunning, so too, is yet another British artist Sweet Toof's somewhat macabre but weirdly cheerful Stack of Skulls.
Talking of painting, look out for Canadian Labrona's Untitled oil on canvas. An artist who admits to an addiction for painting freight trains, who says: "I'm not much of a talker, so I use my art as my voice, I send my thoughts and emotions on to the railways for people to see." It is so commanding one wonders if his "voice" was heard more in this country it might make our trains run on time.
As well as good painting there is also some splendid drawing, from Pensive Woman, an ink and wash on board by the Danish artist Armsrock, who lives and works in Bremen, Germany, where he draws "the beautiful, brutal, grim, devastating and the fascinating", to Soup, an etching by the American artist Swoon who lives and works in New York and is regarded, and one can see why, as being "one of the most original street artists to emerge in the city during the past decade".
There are so many striking images here it is impossible to mention them all, but from British artist Nick Walker's naughty and now iconic screenprint Moona Lisa to All Fall Down, a spray paint on canvas by the South African artist Mantis who now lives and works in Australia; from American stencil artist Logan Hicks' labour intensive, stencil and spray paint on panel, inner city study, Distant Future to such screenprints as Gold Flags and Stop and Search by the Bristol-based artist Banksy, who is recognised as being "the undisputed leader of the UK's street art movement", this is a show not to be missed.
Admission is free and Street 2, can be seen in the Belgrave Gallery, 22 Fore Street, St Ives, 10am-6pm, Monday-Saturday, until December 8.
Stories of Love in Blue by American street artist Faile.
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