Wild Art

Wild Art is the artistic expression that won’t fit into the narrow confines of the established art world. The stale walls of the world’s major galleries would have you believe that they hold a monopoly over the best of human creativity, but David Carrier and Joachim Pissarro seek to challenge that. Their new book, Wild Art, argues for recognition of artwork that is made and displayed far from the beaten track. It could be anything from graffiti, car art, body art, ice and sand sculpture to flash mobs or burlesque acts. But what every piece holds in common is the ability to shake viewers from their state of indifference.

But who are the wild artists? They are misfits of the art world, the people who operate on the fringes; those whose work can’t be squeezed comfortably into a retrospective. To celebrate Wild Art’s launch party at our 71a Gallery in Shoreditch on Thursday October 17 at 6.30pm – which you can sign up for here – Huck collected four of our favourite insurgent artists who feature in the book.

Haroshi
Haroshi is a Japanese artist who constructs intricate sculptures from discarded skateboards. He compresses old decks together then cuts this composite into shapes which he painstakingly glues together to form incredible wooden mosaic structures. No unloved piece of skate paraphernalia is left untouched as wheels, spacers, trucks and bearings also find their way into his pieces.

Tilt
Tilt grew up in Toulouse and undertook his artist’s apprenticeship on the walls and trains of the South of France. Always eager to travel, Tilt has thrown up some mad pieces all over the world but he’s rooted in classic hip-hop graffiti style. Lettering is at the centre of his work, as he pushes and stretches his tag to the limits of what is typographically possible.

The Glue Society
Based out of Sydney and New York, The Glue Society are a creative collective who juggle artistic projects, film direction and TV work; all with a comically surreal edge. Their mind-bending pieces frequently poke fun at their audiences and play with perceptions.

The Ant Farm
The Ant Farm were a counter-culture era avant-garde architecture, environmental design and graphic arts group founded in 1968. They stumbled on their name after describing what they were doing to a friend as “underground architecture,” to which she replied, “oh, underground architecture is what ants do!” Their Cadillac Ranch in the Texan desert features ten Cadillacs with their noses ploughed into the ground at an angle that corresponds to the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Come to the free launch party of Phaidon’s incredible Wild Art on Thursday October 17 at our 71a Gallery, Leonard Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 4QS. More info and guestlist here.