Art

The work of Toronto-based artist Laurie Kang often blurs the boundaries between image and object.

Mandy-Lyn, Vancouver-based Waldorf Hotel classic party jams DJ by night, gonzo photojournalist by day, snaps portraits with either her 35mm camera, 400 film Kodak, disposable cameras or her 10-year old Nikon.

What makes someone an artist? Totally a cheesy question, right? But honestly, if you’re willing to forget the bullshit and just think about that, what is it that makes someone an artist? When have you “made it” as a painter? It’s not an easy question to answer.

Many people associate environmentalism with gloom-and-doom predictions about the planet and how we are failing it.

In the late 16th century it already had a bad reputation amongst moralists for being a shithole full of beggars, tramps, drunkards and thieves. Maybe that’s why Shakespeare loved it so much. Founded centuries before Brooklyn, Shoreditch is the world’s longest reigning “it spot”.

Icelanders are a rare bunch, and with a population just over 300,000, their global profile betrays their modest numbers. Said to be the most literate people in the world, they are a nation of over-achievers, but in recent years, the little green island’s capacity for the exceptional has been smothered under a blanket of disaster.

Earlier this year Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press settled their two-year legal dispute over the status of the Barack Obama “Hope” campaign poster. Their decision: to split the merchandising profits and to collaborate on an AP/Obey product line. This incident illustrates just how mundane and institutionalized street art has become.