"CNY Und Erotik" by BAST

I have never realised how big the Und Erotik print is till we have it displayed flat at the framer.

This is the biggest piece of artwork I have ever own. And the framer is charging me ridiculous price for the custom frame (which I paid anyway, with a grunt of disgust though).

And it is hard to discribe the beauty of this piece. The red on gold is beautiful, but it is the glitter that BAST have covered the Und Erotik with that makes the print sparkled under the lights of the framer shop.

A 1/1 piece and I can't wait to get it framed asap.

BAST (and a little bit of Faile)

Ever since Blaine Fontana declared that he will be taking a break from solo exhibitions in 2008, I thought that I can relax from artwork purchasing for a while.

As a fan of both Daniel Danger and Dave Kinsey, I am a regular reader of the thegiant.org forum (It is a forum that is primarily a Obey fan forum) where DD and Kinsey have their own artist threads. While scanning through the various artist threads, one particular artist caught my eyes.

BAST.

BAST is an artist that pasted his artworks on the streets of NYC. His art is so messy and sometimes dirty-looking that I guess some people might even find them ugly.

But somehow the weirdness and grittiness of his art appeal to me.

In Singapore, grafitti is banned and the police classify grafitti as vandalism and take a tough stance on "vandals". The last time a vandal was caught, not only was he given a prison sentence, he has to be caned. (Hence the famous "Singapore cane" that you might have heard about in the old ECW hardcore shows). Thus street art is something really interesting to a Singaporean like me who is not exposed to grafitti art. (though Juxtapoz has been slanting towards this art movement recently)

I find Banksy amusing (but too expensive), I find Obey nice (but nothing really special) and I am not even sure whether Kinsey is a street artist (I really like his prints regardless).

But I somehow really really like the insane images BAST are putting out.

So, I spent a few nights reading up on the guy and he has his fans at wallkandy (excellent forum), faile.co.uk and thegiant (and of course his haters at expressobeans lol). His bastny.com site is a joy to view (though I hate missing out on his late batch of print offerings in Jan since I only discovered him in Feb).

And I bought two of his prints.

Thug

Cash Baazar (this photo from expressobeans is actually the piece I bought 4/4)

And I have a special "Chinese New Year" Und Erotik coming.

Regular Und Erotik

A sneak preview of my CNY Und Erotik that is coming my way. (Supposed to be red on gold but it looked silvery in the photo)

The Cash Bazaar is a truly amazing piece. The multiple layering on the piece is crazy. Every corner you stare at you will discover some minor details you have never noticed before.

BAST original paintings are too expensive for me (and those beautiful ones are too big for my apartment) and so I have to focus on his prints. BAST will be having a show at Jonathan Levine Gallery later this year and I am looking forward to hopefully scoring a small OG or get my hands on any prints he might have!

I am worried about how this will affect the direction my collection is going. Because of BAST, I have started paying attention to Faile as well.

Faile is more popular than BAST. And I can understand the appeal of Faile. Anyone who has a love for comics will like Faile artworks.

I just have one print (no photo yet, waiting to go to framer) that I bought on impulse. My credit card is still suffering from my recklessness. :\

Bunny Boy Blue

Mine is as dirty as the one shown above and I love it! However I believe I will not be buying more Failes since their pricings have since rocketed thanks to those crazy rich Brits buying up their originals in the last few street art auctions.

I think I will concentrate on getting more BAST. :P