Mark Khaisman is an artist from Kiev, Ukraine who studied Art and Architecture in Moscow. He produces his art using packing tape on plexiglass, producing eerie sepia style pixelated portraits. At times you really have to look close to see if this really is from packing tape as some of the shading and textures he manages to recreate are mind blowing. More of his work is on his website
Recently there was an art festival called The Cans Festival organised by Banksy in Leake Street, London (affectionately known as 'piss alley' by some of the locals.) The event invited some of the worlds top stencil artists to spray paint the tunnel under Waterloo Station in time for the Bank Holiday.
There was also an element of interactivity at this 'gallery'. If you felt like contributing with your own stencil you had to report to reception where you were given an allocated space to graffiti to your heart's content. BUT, spray outside of your area and you face prosecution. Hmmm, anybody else sense a bit commercialism here!? Isn't this supposed to be a sort of 'guerilla artform'? Yet, the whole event was given permission by the government!
There was some really good pieces of art in there... but, from looking at some of the pictures, I can't help feeling like there was a little too much, especially after the punters had made their mark too. Some of the delight about discovering this form of art is that it can pop up in the most unexpected of places and the artwork sometimes has some sort of context with it's surroundings. But still, there was definitely some good work there.
