Mr. Brainwash

Mr. Brainwash

Mr. Brainwash is known worldwide as a pop graffiti artist, who started painting on the streets of Los Angeles. He uses a range of media such as stencils, spray paints, posters, and pop inspired images. His real name is Thierry Guetta.

He is not only known for his art work in the streets but also in the movie industry. He was thought to have gained worldwide recognition with Banksy’s nominated film, Exit Through the Gift Shop.
Mr. Brainwash started his art show in 2008 out in Los Angeles’ ‘Life is Beautiful’ exhibition at CBS studios. The exhibition was able to stay open for three months and attract more than 50,000 visitors. After his exhibition he gained a lot of attention which led to Madonna asking him to design the cover of her 2009 CD album.

Adding to the CD cover he then went on to design 15 different covers for the accompanying vinyl’s singles and DVD releases.
Then in February of 2010 his work made it’s way to New York where he made the unveiling of ICONS. This is a 15,000 square foot exhibition in Manhattan. Since it was a huge success and became sold out it was extended to be open a further six months under the name of ICONS REMIX.
Then in secret for a finale of 2010 he went to Miaimi and turned a 25,000 square ft empty building into what he called Under Construction.


 In 2011 he then returned to Los Angeles where he continued to transform a huge building (80,000square ft) into his own art gallery.
Recently in 2012 he opened his first European show during the time of the London 2012 Olympics.
His work: I found that a lot of his work was actually all in the same area. He had his work based around monarchs and people of history. His work also had a little change in each picture that in some way linked to his pop graffiti style.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker is a African American artist born in 1969. She is known for her stencil style art. She draws her art on black paper, cuts it out, and then sticks it onto white walls. Some of  the walls where she hangs her art on are concave.

 Her artwork is interesting to me and many others. In most of her silhouettes there are different levels. She does this by just placing some images higher than others.

Her art is mainly about America's racial and gender situations. “Most pieces have to do with exchanges of power and attempts to steal power away from others.”
 
Kara's work has another speciality, as most of her work now only lives in pictures. After her exhibitions, she then has the original peices destroyed.

For her inspiration she says it goes like this, “One of my earliest memories involves sitting on my dad’s lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching him draw. I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that, too,’ and I pretty much decided then and there at age 2½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad.”

Kara is  currently living in New York, where she is a professor of visual arts in the MFA program at Columbia University.