Mr Brainwash, the artist known best for his role in Exit Through The Gift Shop, is currently having a gallery show at Yorkville's Gallery One. Right from walking towards the gallery, Mr. Brainwash's presence is in your face, with posters and spray paint covering the building's walls in the style of an over night covert throw-up. The artist's in-your-face pop mash up style is everywhere you look in the show and VERY hard to miss. I was surprised there were no flashing lights.
If you are familiar with the artist from the video, then his work will be recognizable at once. The gallery includes a giant spray can of "tomato spray", the painting from the series used for Madonna's greatest hits album, Celebration, and a slew of Andy Warhol/Banksy/Obey mash-up knock offs. The work is far from subtle, very loud, and very busy. Most of the pieces feel very reminiscent to works that have been seen before. (Warhol screen prints come to mind) There is the odd piece that shows some genuine creative talent and thinking. Some of these pieces include original oil paintings that mix traditional styles and street art sentimentality. One that I particularly enjoyed was an oil painting of an Englishman in a dress coat on a skateboard.
All of this, good art or bad, comes into question when you begin to consider the context of how and why the art was made. As Mr. Brainwash shows us in Exit Trough the Gift Shop, his work is created by hired employees that he directs around in a workshop/studio fashion - he is not the first contemporary or classical artist to have assistants make his work, but some how he makes this process look cheap. It also seems apparent that his work is created with the intention of being highly marketable and capable of turning huge profits. (His work at Gallery One is selling -and has sold already- for prices as high as $40,000) It is possible that he is the right person, in the right place at the right time. He is selling street art style pop art while its popularity is arguably at its highest its ever been. Most street artists create work that is held down by the context of the medium - street art is on the street. Its hard to commoditize artwork that is affixed to alleys and sidewalks and is ruined when removed. Mr. Brainwash is taking the street style and selling it at a high price.
...why this hurts my head
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a Bansky film that portrays itself as a documentary about street art today. The film's maker Thierry Guetta aka, Mr. Brainwash, turns from amateur videographer to overnight art world sensation by following the steps laid in front of him by Banksy. It is arguable that the whole film is actually a mockumentary that sets out to take a satirical look at how the art world operates and how shallow the value of art is. If this is the case, then Mr. Brainwash is a character of the movie who's role is to demonstrate this point. (by creating crap overnight and selling it to the wealthy and famous alike for boatloads of money). If Mr. Brainwash is a character of this film...why is he still out there making art and selling it in upscale galleries? Does his character continue? Is this not a character at all, but a real man, truthfully portrayed in the film? Is this all an ongoing project that was begun by Banksy and Obey and now lives on in its own right?
Find out more for yourself and let me know.
