BOOK OF ART | Isaac Salazar

This has to be one of the most ingenuious usage of a book that I have ever witnessed. To view more images, visit the artist FLICKR page and be amazed at the art of folding.

BANKSY | revealed | Ebay?

(Mashable) -- UK artist Banksy, he of the guerilla techniques and ever-increasing popularity, is about to be unceremoniously identified to the highest bidder in an eBay auction, which ends Wednesday.

At press time, the winning bidder is offering one slim dollar shy of a million. Bidding started at $3,000; the auction has had 38 bids.

In the listing, the seller states, "I have uncovered [Banksy's] identity by matching up the prices of his sold pieces to corresponding tax records. I will reveal no more details... I give you 100% assurance that it is most certainly the full name of the street artist known as 'Banksy.'"

The seller also says that eBay had previously terminated his auction because he was selling an intangible good; the seller is now technically offering for auction a piece of paper containing Banksy's legal name.

The party offering Banksy's identity is hardly a power seller, having a fairly sparse but mostly positive record that dates back to 2001.

At this time, we have no way of determining whether the winning bidder is being taken to the cleaners to the tune of $1 million or whether the seller is legitimately peddling an exclusive glimpse into the identity of a public figure who clearly wants to be anything but public.

However, we read on the artist's website that not all Banksy work that is sold necessarily corresponds to the artist himself.

CNN: Banksy still hiding in plain sight

"Banksy neither produces or profits from the sale of greeting cards, mugs or photo canvases of his work," the site reads. "He is not represented by any of the commercial galleries that sell his paintings secondhand."

Banksy gained a bit of stateside exposure in October 2010 when he directed an opening sequence for "The Simpsons."

What do you think of this auction? Would you want to know Banksy's identity, or do you think he deserves to live privately and relatively anonymously? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: CNN

THE ART OF THE DEAL | Bape x Bicycle Playing Cards

Inspired by their new collection A Bathing Ape has collaborated with Bicycle to create a set of cards for those who desire the 'extraordinary' over the 'ordinary.' My only question is at what cost? Should your game really compliment your game? Only you can decide!

Tuesday by mr. and mrs. amani olu on Thursday

WHAT: Mixed Greens is pleased to present Tuesday, our first exhibition organized by an independent curator. We are excited to let amani olu take the reins and unite an incredible mix of emerging artists to explore and deepen our understanding of the everyday in contemporary art.

In 1849, French artist Gustave Courbet painted The Stone Breakers, which captures two men in the act of breaking stones, traditionally the lowest class of work in French society. Courbet presents their menial labor in a straightforward manner, omitting romanticized and idealized gestures. This radical painting is the first historically significant depiction of everyday content in art. Almost fifty years later, Marcel Duchamp enraged the art world with his seminal readymade sculpture, Fountain. By the 1960s, Andy Warhol was producing paintings of Coke bottles, Campbell Soup cans, and high profile American celebrities. Courbet, Duchamp, and Warhol employed everyday content in their work in part to upset bourgeois sensibility. Courbet’s paintings rejected the historical and fictional subjects found in Neoclassicism and Romanticism, Duchamp’s Fountain posed an epistemological question (What is art?), and Warhol celebrated and criticized Post–War Americana by appropriating its iconic imagery. Warhol’s successful consideration of consumer products and popular culture is what gave rise to the inclusion and critical reception of the quotidian in art since the 1960s.

Akin to Courbet, Duchamp, and Warhol, contemporary artists continue to explore the everyday from a literal perspective, often through representation of content or emphasis on materials. Tuesday, however, aspires to expand the field of everydayness by culling together contemporary works that are less obvious manifestations of the everyday. Embodying various forms of the quotidian from noticing to the commonplace, this exhibition attempts to engage viewer expectations. On the surface, the proposed works are seemingly beholden to one central idea; yet, through a combination of artist dialogue and interpretation, the everyday, once subtlety embedded in the object, becomes apparent. Despite the substantial relationship to the everyday in their work, this subject does not necessarily motivate the exhibiting artists. The aim, then, is to pull their work apart and re-contextualize it with the intention of discovering new meaning and promoting further understanding.

curated by mr. and mrs. amani olu

WHEN:
On view: January 13 – February 12, 2011
Opening: Thursday, January 13, 2011, 6PM
Curator’s Talk: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 2–3PM

WHERE:
Mixed Greens
531 W. 26th Street, 1st Fl.
New York, NY 10001
mixedgreens.com

Exhibiting artists: Conor Backman, Joy Drury Cox, Jon Feinstein, Van Hanos, Heather Rasmussen, Peter Segerstrom, Breanne Trammell, and Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins

SOURCE