Spitalfields Arts Market (http://www.spitalfieldsartmarket.co.uk/) is a gallery situated just off Spitalfields Market. It specialises in reproducing urban art (graffiti) onto blocks and canvas. A photo is taken, then professionaly mounted or printed to a block or canvas to be sold as the final artwork. Some of Banksy (famous for lots of trompe d'oeil works)'s most iconic works can be found here.
First impression of the gallery is its tidiness, so I felt the art of very approachable (given the nature of urban art, this is the way it should be). Perhaps it's due to the homogeneous size of all the blocks. The rather comprehensive display helps elevate the importance of his works and emmulate his works to a higher status of fine art. It's a good compromise for some money-pinched art lovers - one can purchase a block of excellent quality for a mere 35 pounds.
His works all have a hint of humour and were easily understood by audience at first sight. Compared to other more traditional art works, urban art doesn't demand concentrated attention to understand - I was surprised by how fast I was able to react with a learned smirk to each piece ;-)
Commerical:
Commerical:
1. Branding - The gallery itself has a name called Smudge Gallery, yet there's another more commonly known branding called Spitalfields Arts Market. I need to go back and chat with the gallery assistant again for the reason behind having two names. I see this as potentially misleading and inconsistent for PR purposes. Plus Spitalfields Arts Market simply sounds too common and generic for such a unique niche gallery.
2. Rights - I chatted with the gallery assistant about rights to sell the works. Interestingly, Banksy didn't ask for loyalty due to nature of the work - graffiti should belong to the public. On the other hand, Banksy avoided endorsing for the works as well. So maybe that explains the relatively low cost of art work due to the absence of loyalty share with the artist. The only cost of the gallery then is maybe the production?!
China:
Definitely a smart business idea in China. There needs to be good quality and well recognised urban art first to gather audience. Once that's ready, there's no need to involve any artist in the running and profit making of such galleries, because anyone can take photos of any urban art and sell the blocks / canvas. However, knowing the Chinese mentality, I highly doubt if the Chinese graffiti artist would live with someone else making profits from his / her works for free. In other words, Chinese artists probably see themselves owning the graffiti art and hence seek for a loyalty. Or the reasoning could be reverse - they would like a share of the profit, and hence declare the works to themselves ;-) I need to check this with Chinese graffiti artists when I am in China.
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