Street art - over the Web and into the gallery

By Jane Baird

LONDON Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:16 am EST

1 of 4. A visitor pictures artist Phlegm's fine art setup 'The Bestiary' at the Howard Griffith Gallery inLondon February 4, 2014.

Credit rating: Reuters/Luke MacGregor

LONDON (Reuters) - The artworks at a brand-new gallery in London's Shoreditch are except sale,and also their creator prepares to ruin them when the program is over. Phlegm, recognized only byhis pseudonym, did not go to the opening as well as does not give job interviews.

Gallery proprietor Richard Howard-Griffin intends to pay the rental fee from sales at otherprograms. In the meantime, he is offering the first ever before gallery area to an artist which hasactually already succeeded recognition in the underground fine art globe and numerous countlessfans.

"Phlegm is exceptionally valued all over the world", after greater than a years of paint enormousurban murals throughout Europe as well as in the United States, Howard-Griffin said.

A new, mass audience has arised for street fine art as the Internet and mobile phone cams enablefolks to catch images and share them throughout the globe.

Howard-Griffin calls it the "democratization of fine art" and claimed he desires the gallery to serveas a channel for this new surge of artists, instead than a moderator.

"In the past, galleries were how Joe Public came to see artwork", and also the artist relied on an eliteaudience of gallery proprietors and also gallery managers to gain acknowledgment, Howard-Griffinstated.

"Road fine art plays to a big audience, yet it does not have an elite audience."

Phlegm - that Howard-Griffin says "doesn't appreciate cash" - makes a reasonable living by selling alimited variety of his prints and publications straight to fans. He took six weeks to build his program,called The Bestiary.

THE ARTIST As Well As THE AGED CANINE

This is only the second program for the Howard Lion Gallery. Its very first last September did makemoney, around 70,000 pounds ($115,000), for the gallery and also the artist - Londoner John Dolan,who was then homeless.

For 3 years, Dolan had actually rested at the very same area on the ghetto borough's High Street,drawing cityscapes of sandy London and also portraits of George, the Staffordshire bull terrier at hisside.

At the same time, Howard-Griffin, 31, had actually quit his work in a corporate law company toattempt to make a living from his interest in street art - leading assisted trips, curating tiny teamprograms and arranging celebrations and also mural tasks.

He viewed Dolan attracting day in day out, liked his work as well as proposed doing a show. Theowners of an unused storefront throughout the street offered the area.

It took 11 months to organize. Howard-Griffin sponsored prominent street artists to add fantasytouches to Dolan's citscapes. The about ONE HUNDRED pieces in "George the Pet as well as Johnthe Artist" all sold.

It was originally indicated to be a one-off. "(Yet) the John program doinged this well that it providedme the sources and also motivation to money this gallery," Howard-Griffin claimed.

Dolan, that claimed he has actually authorized a book deal on his life tale, explains himself as thegallery's resident artist. He can typically be understood there drawing, while George rests in thehome window and also assists attract visitors.

"The gallery launched me, and I released the gallery," Dolan claimed.

For his next program, Howard-Griffin intends to include Thierry Noir, a 55-year-old French artistwho lived in a squat in Berlin as well as repainted miles of the Wall surface from 1984 until it fell in1989, evading apprehension by the Eastern German police.

His exploits took place long before the surge of a Web audience, as well as the honest show will behis first solo exhibition, Howard-Griffin claimed. "He has nowhere near the level of acknowledgmentin the art globe that he should have."

(Modifying by John Stonestreet)

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