Speedy Graphito - Technical Temptation

Speedy Graphito, City Love, Painting on Canvas

Street Art pioneer Speedy Graphito was born in Paris in 1961. Speedy Graphito began his art career in the 1980´s on the streets of Paris, creating dynamic paintings and street murals using spray paint and stencils.




Speedy Graphito, Toxic Game,
Screenprint Unique on Paper

Originally a graphic designer and art director, Speedy Graphito quickly established a distinct urban art style that incorporates schematic and charasmatic characters, cartoons and manga alongside contemporary commercial brands, logos, and iconic pop culture imagery. Speedy Graphito´s art is inspired by the virtual and physical urbanscape, but predominantly the barrage of advertising that dominates today´s consumer culture. Street Artist Speedy Graphito has become recognized and revered for his satirical exploration of commercialism, often turning a critical eye on our society through his pop graffiti art.

Speedy Graphito, Temptation,
Screenprint on Paper

Particularly influenced by the iconography of Disney characters and video games, street artist Speedy Graphito often turns a critical eye on our society, as his artworks feed off the collective memory of iconic imagery to create a new universal language. As an example, Speedy Graphito´s "Temptation 2011" features Disney´s Snow White enamored with the half–eaten logo of Macintosh Apple, creating a shrewd and satirical criticism of consumer seduction.

An astute representation of social communication in the internet era, Speedy Graphito's "Snow White" screenprint mirrors our media and technology dominant social intercourse. Our new social experience is saturated by both text and pictoral messages, echoing the layers of an inundated graffiti wall. The seduction is explicated beyond Snow White and the Apple Logo, but further distinguishes our mass enchantment with a technological world at our finger-tips - just a click away from satisfaction.  

Speedy Graphito, Money, Painting on Canvas

Speedy Graphito´s paintings, prints, and street art murals can be found worldwide. Already recognized in the international arena, Speedy Graphito´s Art is well known in France, England, USA, Belgium, India, Japan, Brazil, and Dubai, as well as major auction houses. Speedy Graphito has recently participated in a number of solo art exhibitions in Los Angeles Art Galleries, as well as exhibiting at the 2011 Miami Art Basel.

Denis Bloch Fine Art is pleased to offer original paintings, drawings, limited edition screenprints, and unique prints by Street Artist Speedy Graphito.

Mr. Brainwash Biography

Mr. Brainwash ("MBW") is the pseudonym for the graffiti street artist Thierry Guetta.

Mr. Brainwash was born in France in 1966, and has become one of American's most popular 'street art' artists. Originally a videographer, Mr. Brainwash began his career in 1999 documenting the lives and artwork of various graffiti street artists such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey. Mr. Brainwash has collected hours of footage often risking his own neck following graffiti artists creating their street art.  

Shortly after his initial introduction to Banksy, Mr. Brainwash made the decision to transition from art lover to artist as depicted in the film “Exit Through the Gift Shop”. Mr. Brainwash soon graduated from a few hand drawn stickers to making giant sized paste-ups, and his iconic pop graffiti art is now seen on the streets and art galleries of New York and Los Angeles.

The film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” as well as Mr. Brainwash and his relationship with the street artist Banksy is shroud in great controversy and mystery. There has been debate over whether the documentary is genuine or a mockumentary, although Banksy answers "Yes" when asked if the film is real.

Mr. Brainwash - Tomato Spray

Mr. Brainwash's uniformly subversive style fuses historic pop imagery and contemporary cultural iconography to create his own pop art - graffiti hybrid. The development of this style has catapulted Brainwash to international stardom. Mr. Brainwash's first solo show 'Life is Beautiful' was held in Los Angeles in June 2008, showing over 100 artworks. In addition to Mr. Brainwash’s widely recognized iconic art images, Life is Beautiful featured larger than life art installations which included a 20-foot robot made of old televisions, and a life-size recreation of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and a pyramid made from 20,000 books. Originally scheduled to open for only two weeks, the art exhibit was extended for three months, attracting more than 30,000 visitors.

Mr. Brainwash's graffiti -styled art has continued to garner recognition from art collectors and street art enthusiasts alike. In 2009, Mr. Brainwash collaborated with Madonna on her Greatest Hits album, creating the cover art for Celebration.

Mr. Brainwash - Love is the Answer

In 2010, Mr. Brainwash opened his second art exhibition ICONS in New York City. The show featured Mr. Brainwash’s paintings and silkscreens of world icons such as Madonna, Charlie Chaplin, and Albert Einstein, as well as portraits of music legends constructed of broken records and large-scale sculptural installations such as a giant boom box and a NYC cab in a life-sized Matchbox packaging. The sold-out art exhibition was extended until early May 2010. Not only were major art collectors acquiring Mr. Brainwash's paintings and prints but also prestigious auction houses. In the Fall of 2010 Mr. Brainwash made two significant auction sales for his unique paintings. The smaller of the two pieces featured a portraiture style depiction of model Kate Moss selling for $67,000. The larger piece continued Brainwash's fascination with Albert Einstein and featured the historic physicist in a front of a graffiti adorned wall holding a sign reading “Love is the Answer”. The work sold for well above the pre-auction estimates for $120,000.

Mr. Brainwash currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Note:

An interesting note on Mr. Brainwash’s unique signature and authentication – Mr. Brainwash has a series of additions to his signature to help further authenticate his original artworks. On the back of every unique piece he stamps his thumb print and adds a numbered code from a dollar bill. The bill is then cut in two, one half is given to the owner of the piece and the other is kept at Mr. Brainwash’s estate for future authentication. Any unique piece sold by Denis Bloch Fine Art will be accompanied by a certificate of authenticity as well as the dollar bill.