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TAKE IT TO THE STREETS

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This unique auction in partnership with Hong Kong Contemporary Art Foundation (HOCA) is being held in Hong Kong on 8 December in order to raise funds for the Foundation’s future exhibitions, events and educational programmes. Featuring 32 works generously donated by 29 international artists, the sale encompasses examples of street art that seek to question and explore the very notion of what art is and its relation with power in the context of modern day visual dominant society. Click ahead to see  highlights from the auction.

TAKE IT TO THE STREETS: Auction to benefit HOCA Foundation

08 December | Hong Kong

TAKE IT TO THE STREETS

  • Invader, PA_1177，Alias, 2015-2016. Estimate HK$350,000-450,000.
    Having ‘invaded’ walls and buildings of over 70 cities around the globe with his iconic pixelated mosaics since the 1990s, Invader kept detailed records of the locations and dates of all his ‘invasions’. Occasionally, the French undercover artist creates aliases which are smaller replicas of his public mosaics. PA_1177, Alias is a typical alias example of his invasion in 15 Place de la Bourse in Paris in 2015. Paris is the city where Invader first began his invasion waves and it has been invaded by 1326 invaders to date. The artist scores each of his invasions between 10 and 100 depending on the success of the invasion and the current work’s original is awarded 30 points. Invader’s most recent headline-grabbing invasion was in Hong Kong late September this year when 32 new works were installed in various locations of the city which has now been reinvaded for the third time.

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  • Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant), Chinese Banner, 2016. Estimate HK$200,000-300,000.
    Shepard Fairey, successfully gaining worldwide attention and recognition when his HOPE poster was adopted by Barrack Obama in the presidential election campaign in 2008, is one of the most recognised Street Artist today. The current work is instantly recognisable with the artist’s OBEY icon, which started as a sticker campaign using the face of Andre the Giant in 1990 before it became a viral sensation and extended into a clothing brand. Chinese Banners encapsulates the artist’s socially and politically provocative oeuvre, incorporating a building reminiscent of Tiananmen emblematic of authority and Communism within a composition that recalls the propaganda posters of the Communist Revolution. As an American activist, Fairey presented a new series of posters early this year titled We the People which are designed to protest against the now U.S. President Donald Trump. The posters were made downloadable from the artist’s website and appeared abundantly in marches and demonstrations since their release.

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  • Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, Matter #14, 2017. Estimate HK$120,000-180,000.
    Avidly experimenting with materials, Vhils takes pride in his unique notion of aesthetics whereby the public space is rendered his cathartic canvas in communicating ideas and a palimpsest capturing the daily happenings of the locals through vandalism, not as a destructive act, but a meaningful and poetic process of creation. Matter #14 is an exquisite work in a reduced size that displays the characteristics of his trademark oversized carved portraits showcased in both indoor and outdoor settings around the world. The highly complex composition meticulously carved out of billboards collected from the streets reveals a poignant knowing gaze emerging from a compact explosion of colours. In July this year, Vhils curated the acclaimed Festival Iminente held in London and will be opening his first gallery solo exhibition at the end of November 2017 at Over The Influence in Hong Kong, featuring a new body of works dedicated to the city.

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  • José Parlá, Mono-Transfer Untitled, 2017. Estimate HK$80,000-120,000.
    José Parlá is a great example of artists who have been branded as “street artists” by the establishment, but whose artistic practices continue to involve various traditional media. While Parlá is well known for his large scale public murals, notably the one located at the Barclay’s Centre in Brooklyn and more recently at the One World Trade Centre in New York, he also produces large quantities of paintings, works on paper, installations, sculpture as well as photography and videos. The current work presents the artist’s idiosyncratic style of interweaving abstract composition and calligraphy. His modus operandi of multi-layering his works evokes the building up of narratives, memories, and histories which goes hand in hand with the artist’s interest in exploring the potential of the urban surroundings reflecting these mentioned aspects.

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  • Zevs, Liquidited Chanel White on Black, 2015. Estimate HK$90,000-110,000.
    Best known for his “liquidation” of luxury brand logos, Zevs considered his artistic practice a reverse of power to his advantage to criticise conspicuous consumption and the tyranny of modern day advertising. Liquidated Chanel White on Black recalls the Chanel logo Zevs stencilled on the wall of the Giorgio Armani flagship store in Hong Kong in 2009 which gave the artist a two-week suspended sentence. The current work is the perfect silhouette of Street Art when it falls into the grey area between artistic expression and vandalism.

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  • Nunca, Blonde Indigenous, 2014. Estimate HK$70,000-100,000.
    Nunca as a São Paulo native dedicates his works to exploring the past and present Brazilian culture through the incorporation of indigenous figures in his boldly coloured compositions to confront the modern landscape. One would not be surprised to find gigantic figures not dissimilar to that in Blond Indigenous peering out of walls and roaming about between and around corners of thoroughfares in Brazil’s urban fabric as well as other major cities such as Miami, London and Glasgow.

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  • Finok, Desordem, 2017. Estimate HK$70,000-90,000.
    Characterised by the multicultural references in the artist’s use of imageries, Finok’s artworks constantly evoke an intimate sense of respect and love for the universe rendered in his signature beaming green palette, well exemplified by the current work Desordem .

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  • Anthony Lister, Puberty, 2017. Estimate HK$60,000-80,000.
    Anthony Lister’s artistic oeuvre is lauded for its ability to project an innate sense of contained chaos through the artist’s seemingly unorganised composition and broad iconographic references. Larger than life size, Puberty confronts viewers with its pronounced painterly collage of text-based graffiti and bold figurative imagery. The work’s blasting visual impact is further enhanced by the artist’s choice of vivid palette, creating this dreamlike space that reaches beyond the viewers’ peripheral vision to a deeper psychological realm that provokes the resonation of the audience.

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  • Zhang Dali, Blue Sky, 2016. Estimate HK$60,000-80,000.
    As an artist based in Beijing, Zhang Dali’s artworks are often emotive responses to the flux and temporality of his living surroundings. While the artist is best known for his highly provocative and compelling figurative works, notably his life size sculptures such as Chinese Offspring that he made between 2003 and 2005, Zhang’s oeuvre also includes a series of works on paper which pigeon appears as a regular motif, well exemplified by Blue Sky.

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  • Pixel Pancho, Prime Relazioni, 2015. Estimate HK$50,000-70,000.
    Prime Relazioni features Pixel Pancho’s idiosyncratic humanised robotic creatures that are placed within a setting of neglect and decay, indicating a forgotten future world that lies between surrealism and science fiction. The artist believes that these abandoned robots in states of disrepair will be able to gain a new life through his artistic rendering. The sense of otherworldliness of his complex compositions and use of colour reflects the immense influence that Surrealist artist Salvador Dali’s works had on Pixel Pancho.


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