Part skate photography, part intimate portrait, this is a bold collection of work straight from the mind of the artist, as seen through Sem Rubio's iconic photography. After working together for over a decade, Rubio and Gonzales have created an impressive archive that became the seed for this stunning monograph.
Hailed for a sense of fearlessness and creativity, Gonzales has always had a way of changing the game, whether through his inventive skateboarding or his creative art and writing. His long-standing collaborations with brands including Adidas, Supreme, Thrasher, RETROSUPERFUTURE, JanSport, and Études, gathered together for the first time in this volume, showcase a rebellious vision that has cemented his place in both skateboard and pop culture history.
This indispensable volume gathers new, personal insights into legendary tricks and collaborations. It is a verbal and visual testimony of his many worlds. Specially-commissioned interviews with Spike Jonze, Hiroshi Fujiwara, KAWS, Ed Templeton, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Blondey McCoy, Gus Van Sant and more are peppered throughout the book, making this a truly kaleidoscopic portrait of the ever-evolving, revolutionary artist.
This monograph gathers and presents the largest assemblage in one volume about the life, work, and ideas of Banksy - the world's most discussed artist of recent decades. Featuring hundreds of works - Girl with Balloon, Mickey Snake, Dismaland, Love is in the Air, Barcode, Monkey Queen -- the book includes reproductions of paintings, serigraphs, and stencils. The most iconic works are here, but so too are numerous installation objects and a selection of memorabilia all with the official approval of Pest Control, the group that manages all things Banksy. Banksy is considered the world's greatest practitioner of street art at work today. His work has always implied political critiques - of inequality, injustice, discrimination, consumerism, pollution, and the establishment. But, Banksy is a ghost -- no one knows his identity. He is an exemplary case of fame and notoriety built upon absence, anonymity, and the denial of one's explicit contribution to the public debate if not in terms of creative activism. Banksy's relationship with the art market is also complex: at the same time mocking, distant, and hostile and yet all he does is based upon a marketing logic that has proven to be among the most effective ever attempted. In short, an apparent (or real) contradiction between adhesion to the market and ferocious criticism of the market itself. This volume is published to coincide with a major traveling exhibition of over one hundred Banksy works, but it is sure to be a must have for art lovers and Banksy fans alike for years to come.
Richard Hambleton (1954 2017) was a Canadian artist known for his pioneering street art. He was a surviving member of a group that emerged from the New York City art scene during the booming art market of the 1980s, which also included his close friends Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. As a conceptual artist, Hambleton s early work instal-lations titled Image Mass Murder from 1976 1979 were secretly placed onto streets in over 15 cities, depicting chalk-body outlines and blood-splattered crime scenes of what appeared to be victims. This theme of a prevailing violence, fear, and morbid curiosity elicited surprise and anxiety from its unsuspecting viewers. In the early 1980s, Hambleton created his most iconic Shadow Man works artfully splattered ominous shadowy figures on unexpected street corners, walls, and alleys that startled viewers into a visceral awareness that the city was still a dangerous place. This book features over 200 images including his early Shadow Man canvas paintings, as well as photographs of his in situ street work, a selection of his Marlboro rodeo horse silhouettes, and his Beautiful Paintings series of landscapes and seascapes, alongside other works on paper; behind-the-scenes studio shots; personal, unseen photographs of the artist; and inspirational imagery. Hambleton was renowned for influencing artists such as Banksy, Blek le Rat, and Shepard Fairey. This arresting, one-of-a-kind book will appeal to those interested in visual arts, street art, graffiti, and art history.
