Kevin Cyr’s Bombed Out Vans Headed To San Francisco
Arrested Motion’s visit to Kevin Cyr‘s Brooklyn studio brings a peak at what to be exported from NY to SF for his “Temporal Spaces” exhibition with Jessica Hess at White Walls. Cyr’s detailed paintings of “derelict service vehicles, bombed with graffiti” and Hess’s intricate oil paintings of graffiti covered industrial sites separately explore “decay and abandonment in urban environments.” Sweet. So… who wants to invite us for a studio visit?
“Temporal Spaces,” Kevin Cyr and Jessica Hess, mar 6 – Mar 27, White Walls, San Fransisco
by Marina Galperina on February 26, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Editor-in-Chief:
This guy is really getting over – he's painting pictures of other people's artwork.
You could negate the quality of the artwork he's reproducing and say "that's not art," but c'mon – this is an Andy Warhol rip-off, and a rip-off of graffiti writers who may not be creating the artwork in "legit" circumstances, but who still claim their work (that's why they leave a name).
Graffiti really has $omething to offer everyone.
@Echo: I disagree with you so much I don't know where to start, but here goes:
1. All artists get over. See #2.
2. Graffiti artists have been stealing, transforming, and co-opting other people's images/characters/icons since it all began. So lashing out an artist doing the same is kinda hypocritical.
3. Whether they're creating it illegally or legally is irrelevant. Their work is in the public space, please don't be like Lady Pink and argue that graffiti writers own a visual copyright to their work, cause that's laughable. If that's the case do I need to ask them for permission when taking photos?
4. Damages: is he really taking money out of graffiti writer's mouth? Of course he's not. If anything he's helping hype them.
5. I'm sure he signs all the pieces, ha.
Im curios which echo you are, either way you sound like the chick one. Andy Warhol rip off? "Cmon Son" in Ed lover voice. Im on one of those trucks and i want him to use my image, i was siked to see that. Thats some art i would definitely co-sign on. shit if i was rich i would probably buy one. Save the hate for the pigs at the corporations who steal a writers image or logo ( or anybody's image or intellectual property), but not a graff fan who makes some sick paintings. We put it in the public domain, etc,etc.
@Bucky "If that’s the case do I need to ask them for permission when taking photos?"
You don't need permission to take photos of most artwork (even in museums), but you do need permission to reproduce and represent yourself with it.
He's repackaging other people's work and ideas.
Also, "All artists get over" isn't quite true. Some artists are really talented, some art is really good and has nothing to do with money.
*I would like to clarify that I'm not hating on this guy as an artist – I do think his paintings are well-done, and most of the artwork on his site is definitely original. Just the way this is presented seems like a rip-off.
@Echo. Ha. So what you're saying is that he should have gotten the permission of these graffiti writers (who didn't get permission to do the vans) before he did the artwork? Besides that being impossible. WOW. That sounds like something Disney would say and would be awfully stifling creatively, no?
all this discussion and no one considers how these poor vans feel about being exploited