ANDIPA PRESENTS TRESPASS ALLIANCE: INSIDE URBAN ART
Gallery stages first group exhibition of works by internationally acclaimed urban artists

19 June 2008, London: Andipa Gallery, one of London’s leading dealers in modern and contemporary masters, is staging its first group exhibition of work by renowned urban artists. The exhibition Trespass Alliance: Inside Urban Art includes work by globally acclaimed names such as D*Face (UK), Faile (Canada, USA), Swoon (USA) and WK Interact (USA/France) through to the subversive ceramics of Charles Krafft (USA) and newly commissioned works by up-and-coming talent Nick Georgiou (USA), Slinkachu (UK), Beejoir (UK) and Laura Keeble (UK). Trespass Alliance is co-curated by Patrick Nguyen and opens to the public on 26 June 2008.

Press preview:
24 June, 9:30am - 11:30am.
If you would like to attend, please contact Katie Jackson on 020 7221 7883 / katie.jackson@kallaway.co.uk

Trespass Alliance will feature works ranging from D*Face’s subversive figures and Faile’s iconic wheat-pasted and stenciled images to the intricate newsprint sculptures of Georgiou and Slinkachu’s site-specific miniature installations. This exhibition follows the hugely successful Banksy from the collection of Andipa Gallery, which brought 25,000 people to West London during its four-week run earlier this year.

Street Art is capturing critical and public attention around the world. Interest in the work of urban artists has soared, alongside the recognition of Urban Art’s relevance in illustrating and highlighting socio-political issues. The growing appreciation is reflected in the increasing number of works by urban artists surfacing at auction – at times within dedicated sales – as well as in Tate Modern’s first major public display of Street Art revealed in May, with monumental works currently adorning the gallery’s riverside façade.

Acoris Andipa, Director of Andipa Gallery said: “The rise of the Urban Art movement is one of the most interesting and exciting developments in contemporary art since the YBAs arrived on the scene in the early-90s. It reflects the social and political issues and concerns of our contemporary culture in a way that really captures people’s imaginations.

The market for Urban Art is expanding at a phenomenal rate but it is important to remember that value lies in quality works, carefully selected from the overwhelming volume appearing on the market. If we keep this in mind, it will stand the test of time for decades to come.”

Trespass Alliance: Inside Urban Art showcases the vibrancy and striking visual language of Urban Art through a range of works including those on canvas, paper and panel by recognised urban artists, as well as newly commissioned site-specific installations. Andipa Gallery does not endorse the removal of street works from their original context and only sells studio created works.

Andipa Gallery has placed works within museums and private collections across Europe, America, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.


About the artists:

• D*Face is a London-based multimedia street artist, satirising cultural figures while commenting upon our consuming, media-saturated environment. Over the past decade, his work has been seen across the world, from defaced £10 notes circulating the UK to a 9ft tall ice sculpture in the Artic Circle of a spray can with his signature D*Dog wings. His work challenges orthodox thinking, encouraging the public to look at their surroundings more closely.
  
  
• Beejoir creates political art inspired by world events. History, philosophy, politics, and the media inform his trademark slurs which have appeared on walls all over the world. He often combines two very different images to create works with a powerful intensity and a satirical edge.
  
  
• Faile is a North American collective and one of the early pioneers of the global street art movement who have pasted and painted cities worldwide. Famed for their signature wheat-pasted posters and stencils, they have contributed to projects involving fashion, music, photography and design.
  
  
• Nick Georgiou creates meticulously hand-stitched newsprint sculptures, which he integrates into the urban environment. His sculptures breathe new life into discarded books and newspapers found on the streets and comments upon the regeneration of the printed word in contemporary society.
  
  
• Laura Keeble works to question our belief systems. Her discreet but subtly humorous interventions poke fun at our devotions. Her work explores science, religion and consumerism and prompts the viewer to re-evaluate their beliefs.
  
  
• Charles Krafft produces hand painted disasters in delft. From porcelain Kalashnikovs and AK-47s to biological warfare canisters, Krafft’s twisted irony revels in his ornamental china work, commemorating the gritty nature of the 20th Century.
  
  
• José Parlá is a Brooklyn-based artist known for his mesmerizing calligraphic style. Layering paint and wheat-pasted ephemera, his works carry the appearance of decaying walls brought to life with fluid markings and painterly script.
  
  
• Slinkachu replicates urban scenes in miniature. Customising tiny model figures, he creates scenarios played out in cities across the UK to reintroduce a sense of childlike wonder and mystery into the urban environment.
  
  
• Swoon is a New York-based artist known especially for her life-size wheatpaste prints and cut-out paper portrayals of people going about their everyday life. Her intricate and elaborate depictions collaborate with their street environment and have earned her the respect of both urban art devotees and major cultural institutions.
  
  
• WK Interact is a French urban artist based in New York. Famous for his black and white painted murals of skaters, kung-fu masters, boxers and mountain climbers, his work incorporates a unique and often eerie sense of motion.
  
  

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