- 41
Zevs
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Description
- Zevs
- Liquidated McDonald's
- Incised with the artist's name and number II
- Screen printed Plexiglas
- 160 by 80 cm, 63 by 31 1/2 in.
- Executed in 2007.
Provenance
Lazarides Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
London, The Outsiders, Zevs: Liquidated Logos, November 2007
Catalogue Note
Born in 1977, artist Aguirre Schwarz started out as a graffiti writer in Paris in the 1990s and has since then become one of the hottest and most explicitly politicised artists of our time. Working mostly under his street name Zevs, Schwarz is known and celebrated for his work impersonating various characters such as The Shadow Flasher and The Serial Ad Killer as well as his unique combination of a street art mentality with pop art techniques.
Zevs’ art comments on the widespread influence of celebrities and corporations and aims to highlight and subvert the very essence of contemporary culture. Some of the artist’s trademark techniques include using steam cleaners to create images on dirty walls in public space or using invisible ink to create paintings visible only under UV light. Zevs’ Liquidated Logo series represent one of his most iconic pieces in his career. To create these works, the artist transformed highly recognizable logos into unstable, deconstructed forms dripping from the canvas. Logos of Apple, Google, and Gucci, which symbolize the ubiquitous commercial and materialistic culture of the modern day, were effectively deformed and liquidated.
Besides traditional forms of art, Zevs’ career is highlighted by some of his more iconoclastic acts including the high profile visual kidnapping of a billboard model in Berlin in 2002, his infamous arrest following the liquidation of the Chanel logo in Hong Kong in 2009, and the Visual Violations series where he blurs the faces of celebrities.
Despite his focus on working on the streets in the public domain, Zevs has garnered considerable attention from France's "high art" establishment in his iconoclastic ways of blurring the line between street pieces, conceptual art, and vandalism. To date, the artist has extensively participated in exhibitions and performances worldwide, including the 2010 Moscow Biennial, Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek (Copenhagen), the Mechelen Cultural Center and the historic Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich). He currently lives and works in Paris and Berlin.
Zevs’ art comments on the widespread influence of celebrities and corporations and aims to highlight and subvert the very essence of contemporary culture. Some of the artist’s trademark techniques include using steam cleaners to create images on dirty walls in public space or using invisible ink to create paintings visible only under UV light. Zevs’ Liquidated Logo series represent one of his most iconic pieces in his career. To create these works, the artist transformed highly recognizable logos into unstable, deconstructed forms dripping from the canvas. Logos of Apple, Google, and Gucci, which symbolize the ubiquitous commercial and materialistic culture of the modern day, were effectively deformed and liquidated.
Besides traditional forms of art, Zevs’ career is highlighted by some of his more iconoclastic acts including the high profile visual kidnapping of a billboard model in Berlin in 2002, his infamous arrest following the liquidation of the Chanel logo in Hong Kong in 2009, and the Visual Violations series where he blurs the faces of celebrities.
Despite his focus on working on the streets in the public domain, Zevs has garnered considerable attention from France's "high art" establishment in his iconoclastic ways of blurring the line between street pieces, conceptual art, and vandalism. To date, the artist has extensively participated in exhibitions and performances worldwide, including the 2010 Moscow Biennial, Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek (Copenhagen), the Mechelen Cultural Center and the historic Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich). He currently lives and works in Paris and Berlin.