art

Artists Adds $0 Tags To Her Clothes, Reshelves Them
By Ben Popken on November 7, 2011 2:00 PM  
Artist Jess Dobkin takes her clothes, attaches realistic-looking tags that say "free" on them, and puts them back on the shelves at the original stores she bought them from. She calls the project, "Restored," and made a cheery video about it. More »

Painting Of Chase Branch On Fire eBays For $25,200
By Ben Popken on September 14, 2011 10:00 AM  
Tapping into popular sentiment, Alex Schaefer's painting of a Chase bank on fire just sold on eBay for $25,200. Part of what drove up the price was online buzz after police questioned him while he was painting it, asking him if he planned to do what the painting depicted. More »

L.A. City Councilman Proposes Making Spray Paint Buyers Provide Addresses, IDs
By Phil Villarreal on September 9, 2011 10:15 AM  
Los Angeles is a city crawling with artists and graffiti vandals, and both sectors — as well as other folks who like to paint stuff for legitimate reasons — are big on buying spray paint. In order to keep closer tabs on the graffiti types, the L.A. City Council is proposing a law that would require anyone who buys spray paint to submit their address and identification so police can keep the information on file. More »

Brian Ulrich's Fluorescent Consumer Hellscapes
By Ben Popken on August 17, 2011 11:00 AM  
I'm a sucker for artistically rendered photographs of consumer behavior, which is why I was so excited to hear that Brian Ulrich has a new series up called Retail. Hi-gloss shops populated by dystopic consumers drenched in fluorescence, framed by an expert hand? Count me in, especially if there's a BOGO! More »

Artist Gets $100,000, Uses It To Paste 100,000 $1s On The Wall
By Ben Popken on June 6, 2011 12:00 PM  
What would you do if you were awarded $100,000? Quit your job? Pay off the mortgage? Produce that disco-rollerskate version of Tristan and Isolde you've always been talking about? If you're German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann, you use it to put up 100,000 $1 bills on the walls of the Guggenheim. More »

Artist Sculpts Skull Out Of McDonald's French Fries
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 4:00 PM  
Did you think that no good could ever come from the McDonald's dollar menu? Not so. Check out the art of Christopher Chiappa, who made arc and skull sculptures from burgers and fries, photographed himself with them, and calls the diptych "McMiracles." It's certainly healthier than eating them. More »

(u2acro)

Indulge Your Artistic Passions While Keeping The Bills Paid
By Phil Villarreal on February 14, 2011 6:00 AM  
Inspired by a Francis Ford Coppola) interview, Trent at The Simple Dollar started thinking about what it takes to live as an artist today. Unless you're blessed enough to be able to indulge your passion on a national stage and pay your bills, you probably have to work a day job in order to make ends meet. More »

Gold Pills Makes You Poop Gold
By Ben Popken on December 14, 2010 11:00 AM  
Now you can make your own Golden Poo trophies at home with the line of Gold Pills by Citizen:Citizen. For just $425, these 24k gold leaf filled capsules will "turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth." More »

See All 37 Twinkie Ingredients Beautifully Photographed
By Ben Popken on August 18, 2010 5:00 PM  
Photographer Dwight Eschliman has posted lovely photographs of all 37 of the ingredients inside a Twinkie. Each sits on a plate and is shot from above and boast rich tones and textures, reveling in an unexpected complexity that contrasts how we normally think about the icon junk food. This one is FD&C Yellow #5. More »

Relive Your Fondest Retail Memories With New Graphic Novel
By Chris Walters on June 28, 2010 9:01 AM  
Have you worked retail? You might be amused by a new book called Hello Do You Work Here?, a collection of illustrated true stories about crazy-making customers. More »

See The Fortune 500 Magazine Cover That Was Too Brutally Honest To Run
By Chris Walters on April 28, 2010 9:02 AM  
Fortune magazine commissioned artist Chris Ware to design a cover for their 2010 Fortune 500 issue, so he did. Unfortunately, what he delivered was a detailed, funny, and biting commentary on the current state of our economy—with banker types dancing on the top of mega-buildings that spell out "500," a factory in Mexico churning out big box merchandise, and a "401k cemetary." Fortune rejected it, but hasn't provided any comment on why. Well, okay, it's probably self-evident why they killed it, but it's still funny. More »

Sand Art Portends Economic Apocalypse
By Ben Popken on April 20, 2010 1:08 PM  
Is the Icelandic volcano ashsplosion actually just another of the seven seals bursting before The Economic Rapture envelops us all? These guys seem to think so. I like how they say, "Thanks."
Self-Auctioning Black Box Will Set You Back At Least $6,858
By Marc Perton on February 28, 2010 7:21 PM  
Artist Caleb Larsen's latest creation, A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, isn't likely to appeal to traditional art collectors, who tend to like to hold onto their purchases for a little while. That's because Larsen's black cube is programmed to try to re-sell itself as soon as a new owner takes posession — and buyers are contractually obligated to let it do so. More »

(Photo: Ramon Coronado)

Artist Transforms Target Shopping Cart Into Furniture
By Chris Walters on January 21, 2010 10:17 AM  
I haven't been to Target in a while, but it looks like they're starting to upgrade their shopping carts. Maybe they should convert the old ones to stylish chairs and lamps, the way this artist did, and sell them. More »

Kids Design Cute Heinz Ketchup Packets, Learning Important Early Lessons In Mass-Market Commodification
By Ben Popken on October 20, 2009 8:24 PM  

—>Today my sandwich came with these Heinz ketchup packets with cute little designs on them, part of an insidious plot to sell more ketchup.  More »

Move Over Museum Curators, Bank Of America Wants Your Job
By consumerist.com on August 26, 2009 3:39 PM  

—>Cash-strapped art museums across the country are turning to an unlikely source for new exhibitions: Banks. According to a story in the New York Times, Bank of America, Chase, and a number of other global entities have put together traveling art exhibits and are offering them to museums across the country.  More »

Laser Engraving Gone Wrong? Just Fill It In With A Sharpie
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2009 10:12 PM  

—>If you spent about $150 to have the case of your laptop computer laser-engraved with a cool design and something went wrong, would you expect to be told to fill in the problem areas yourself with a permanent marker? That happened to Haje. He's sympathetic to the technical issues involved, but not happy with the end result.  More »

Buy Tchotchkes At Yard Sale, Make Up A Story About 'Em, Sell Both On eBay
By Ben Popken on July 20, 2009 2:32 PM  

—>Have you ever picked up something at a yard sale and wondered where the heck it came from? Like a disturbing clown painting that the owner has a hard time parting with, or a queer Hummel knockoff. The bloggers at Significant Objects seem to have.   More »

Fancy Fast Food Makes Your Favorite Junk Into Eye Candy
By Alex Chasick on July 10, 2009 4:32 PM  

—>We're really intrigued by Fancy Fast Food, which takes standard fast food items and, using only those ingredients, transforms them into something approaching haute cuisine. The recipes are available on the site if you want to try at home. (Pictured above: the Tacobellini)  More »

Thomas Kinkade, Painter Of Crap, Must Pay $2.1 Million To Former Gallery Owners
By Meg Marco on June 19, 2009 7:13 PM  

—>Thomas Kinkade calls himself the "Painter of Light," and allegedly uses his "faith" to lure in investors to his gallery business. Now two former gallery owners have won a judgment from Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that forces Kinkade to abide by a 2007 arbitration decision that awarded the former owners $860,000 in damages and more than $1.2 million in attorneys' fees and arbitration expenses. Ouchy.  More »

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