Friday Five - Art Heroes

This is a fun Friday Five, some of my art heroes!

 1) Miss Van! Aka Vanessa Castex, a French artist who started out in the graff scene and is probably my number one art hero. She has a kick arse style, draws girls and bunnies and boobs, she started out in the streets and now does solo exhibitions once a year that always blow me away! I think she is totally fantastic!!

2) My Childhood art hero, Brett Whiteley, an Aussie painter who unfortuantely died in the early 90s. I use to paint much more messier-ly and I guess why I loved Whiteley so much. The work I've seen in real life at the Gallery was really textural and amazing and huge and it cemented my love even further. His work is abstract but still very narrative and doesn't (in my opinion) isolate the viewer, which a lot of abstract works can do! He does landscapes, australian images, self portraits and amazing nudes...big butts!

3) Yoshitomo Nara, a Japanese artist who is the bomb. I feel I can't say too much this week because all of the artist's awesomeness is so obvious, but, I'll try :P  The main reason I love Nara so much is he has the perfect blend of evil/cute-ness. He draws girls (another thing I love) and I feel if I didn't know he was Japanese I would have guessed it anyway as his images have a distinct kawaii/japanese feel to them! *love*

4) Audrey Kawasaki, an American artist (we're going globe trotting this friday five) who creates such beautiful paintings of girls (are you seeing a theme :P). Her works are usually painted on wood which seems to be her trademark style. Not only are her paintings beautifully executed but there's usually something a little odd about her girls, which makes me love them even more! ahhh *sigh*

5) Banksy, a graff artist from England who I really like so much because not only does he make amazingly well executed stencils, but he manages to also be funny/clever/political and make use of the space so well. I also love how he shows just how mong the art world is, a excerpt from wiki... 

"In May 2005 Banksy's version of a primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife whilst pushing a shopping trolley was hung in gallery 49 of the British Museum, London. Upon discovery, they added it to their permanent collection."

Had another, unfamous artist done such a thing, I'm sure the Museum would have just removed the artwork and dumped it :P

What a funny funny world!