Infamous pop street artist Mr. Brainwash’s show “Icons” (February 14 - March 31, 2010) opened this week in New York. The show features a huge amount of artwork, including what feels like dozens of portraits of pop culture icons from various disciplines, including musicians, fashion designers, and artists. It’s in a 15,000 square feet space, on two floors in the Meatpacking District, and is worth checking out.
Mr. Brainwash did not begin as a street artist. First an artist in LA in the late eighties, early nineties, he later focused on documenting the life of street artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey. While filming, Mr. Brainwash suddenly found the camera turned on him by Banksy and the result is a movie about his life and passions titled “Exit Through the Giftshop” which was featured in this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Whitewall sat down with the artist to talk about “Icons” and “Exit Through the Giftshop” this week. The full interview will be featured in the magazine’s Summer Issue 2010.
WHITEWALL: “Icons” opened on Sunday, tell me about the show?
MR. BRAINWASH: After “Life is Beautiful,” [his first solo show in LA] it has been two years, and I’ve been working on different pieces that I wanted to show people. In reality, I was going to do a show in England and I couldn’t do the show before the film [“Exit Through the Giftshop”].
WW: How does “Icons” differ from “Life is beautiful”?
MBW: “Life is Beautiful” was not as focused. The icons is more me, more driven towards my future and I focused a lot on music icons [creating their portraits] with broken records.
WW: Tell me about the movie, did you get to see it yet?
MBW: Yes, to tell you the truth, I don’t know what to think about the movie. I guess it’s too personal for me. The movie is about, the gig, me trying to make a movie and what happened when he [Banksy] turns the camera and makes a movie of me. [About] me being crazy with the camera, my childhood, what happened when I lost my mother.
