Urban Art Association

Really like em

Thanks for posting Afr1ka! Funny as Jason recently got in touch with us at Spoke Art. He'll be mailing us a painting soon to check out in person, if it's as stunning as I expect, expect big things from us both!

Thanks so much for posting Justin! and everyone for your feedback.

Its interesting i was just introduced to Conor's work a couple weeks ago via instagram and its funny to see 2 artists coming from totally different places creating somewhat similar work, i imagine we have the same influences. While its flattering to be compared to such and amazing artist and painter as Conor, it is definitely something im gong to keep in mind in my new works and try to stray from a bit.

There are still a few prints left if anyone is interested 1xrun.com/runs/Studio_Di_Un_Uomo and thank you to anyone who has purchased so far!

  Can you send a link to your work? 

In my opinion, any similarity in your work is superficial. I wouldn't look at one or the other and think it was copied. Only that you were both incorporating classical influences into your work. Doing a modern take on an old style isn't really an idea that anyone can claim. 

I stated the same thing in the first and second statement, that knowone can own the old master works and the style is different it is easy to see this. Yet that doesnt mean that it isnt similar enough especially if Jason is going to be considered an urban contemporary whatever that term means. We have messaged each other. I can go on about his but in the end it always comes down to a couple of things. One, ignorance of knowing or not doesn't equate to it being ok. Second its what you do after your knowledge of having a similar style that will in the end show where the intent lies. As an artist you have to know your contempories and what they are doing. Similarities and concepts will always bleed over into each other I am not naive to think I am the only person doing this as now I know I clearly am not, yet I am confident in my history with the series. What bothers me more is when sites that I support 100% and know my history and interviewed me specifically about this series of work cosign something that is this similar its justifiying it in some way. When curators like galleries, blogs and print houses start to endorse artists without doing their homework you get issues. To me I asked the artist personally his history first before going after him harshly in public. I do this all the time with artists that have similar styles to other contemporary painters. The reason to do this is to make sure you are not endorsing an artist who takes the easy path by copying another artists style within the same genre. I am not saying Jason is doing this, I am saying I see it happen all the time within our culture. I dont endorse it and when I get an email from a pioneer or originator of a style that has issue with something I listen and try my best to be subjective. There are times when I later retract a post because I learned later that one artist although technically great maybe even better than the originator didnt have claim to his style. I am not saying this practice is bulletproof I am saying if you ask artists that know their contemporaries who currently paints in an old master style one of the 2 names mentioned above will come up. I dont want to drop names but standing amongst your peers means more than gold to me In my proffession. Good luck to Jason he is a talented painter and I look forward to seeing his work evolve over the next coming years as I can see he still quite young and has a bright future.

Connor doesnt paint old master imagery he uses his own form of imagery that is painted in a renaissance style. He doesnt reapproriate caravaggio or caravaggesque imagary. He establishes his own set of imagary for his own concepts. Banksy has reappropriated the old masters and that is all that his work has in common with either mine or Jason's. El Mac has done some paintings as well. Yet when you think about these artists you dont think old master reinterpetations. We can name 10 others that have dabbled in it as well yet who can you say has taken it on for a long period of time. Can you name a urban artist who has made 30 paintings or more based on Old masters?

Again you are simply stating what I stated in my post yet saying it differently. Lets not distract this thread more than we already have I have messaged Him and we have discussed it. If you want the last word you got it. I will gladly go in depth and debate this with you privately if you like. This artist is talented I made my remark and that is that. I hope the best for him and this Run.

I really like both Poesia and Conor's work but I think of what they're doing as quite different to one another. Poesia's work seems to be responding to the religious and mythological art of the renaissance; whereas Conor's work seems to be influenced by baroque and neo-classical paintings of politics and power. Katie Sims' work deals with renaissance and baroque art but her work is very different again; I don't know anything about Seife's work so I'm not really in a position to comment in that respect.

A few people have compared Conor's work to Carravaggio but I have to admit I don't really see the similarities myself. The subject matter seems very different and Conor doesn't use chiaroscuro for which Carravaggio is best known.

Apologies if I'm taking this thread even further off course.

Yes great work Jason.  Looking forward to my original arriving....

Nuart and feralthings great post and I also agree Conor being compared to Caravaggio is a bit of a stretch. Not that he isnt talented but because of all the points you guys mention. Stylistically and painterly he has nothing in common with caravaggio other than being a great painter. He is altough Conor Harrington and that I think is enough for him. I would say maybe people are just saying he is a great painter and when one thinks of a great painter caravaggio always comes to mind. So in this way yes he is a great painter just like caravaggio.

I really think Conor has a clear vision of his work which is a fight in itself even when you have talent. Having a direction and feeling comfortable with your subject matter is rare and a true quality of an artist. That being said I can name a few other painters who also might deserve a nod as well in this conversation. Beauty is only the beggining like anything worth persuing substance must also be not far behind.

It is difficult to view an artists work without seeing much and this is one of the reasons I reached out to Jason direct. I dont see why people get upset or dont understand artists protecting something that they hold dear to them. I have been around long enough to watch talented artists feed off artists who remain quiet and reap the rewards of others. I dont blame the artist who does this I always blame the artist who lets this happen and does nothing about it. When an artist like myself stands up for himself it is because there is a belief in something and it is natural to protect that something. One of the biggest issues with our scene and I see it time and time again in artists taking influence then turning it into ownership. I dont get why more dont see this and actually enable it. I try my hardest to know as much as possible about my contempories in order not to be confused with their work. Like me and Nuart debated about in another thread there is a thin line between the real thing and those others, it takes a keen eye to see the small nuances that differentiate these things. The initiated as Nuart puts it can see the details. Also as Nuart mentioned intent and being able to see a large body of work is also a guideline when the details even get blurred. Its great to get some conversation going about these things even if it does derail thread Not because of this situation but because it goes for the whole genre. I am not speaking about jason but making a comment in general. I wish artists would step up more and protect their lifes work, even if it is ok, its not ok.

Also just as a side note here was something written by daniel feral about my work that might give some insight into how my series of work started.

"In this exhibition entitled, More Force than Judgment, Poesia draws inspiration from a quote by renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari describing the work of Tintoretto. The quote resonates with Poesia because of his involvement over the past two decades with the graffiti movement. Graffiti as an art form has not usually been taken seriously because it is perceived as consisting of actions and aesthetics that have to do more with force than judgment. Art historians and collectors in the past have been unable to make the connections between the power of a spray painted tag on the street, a Pollock drip on a canvas, or a Tintoretto sketch on a piece of paper. These relationships are made synonymous on these canvases as a pointed metaphor about the importance of the graffiti writer's mark on art history, as well as on the physical world itself.In the paintings themselves, Poesia creates a direct dialogue with art history and graffiti's recently recognized, yet still contentious, central role in it in the new millennium." Daniel Feral

Intent. The work has now grown into dealing with not only graffiti's role in art history, but the embracing of the tradition in painting, and also the demise of religion and its traditions. These 2 roles are pieces to an evolving dialogue with the old masters. I find it odd that When philosophers create papers they disect and reinterpet the masters like plato and aristotle in order in the end introduce their own vision or concepts. Yet we as artist are being taught to reject tradition and any form of our masters, Replacing them with new conceptual yet empty vessels stripped by modernism. I feel only by deconstruction of form in much the same way derida uses it in literature can we start to see the underlying forms. I know it sounds like a lot of Art BS but contrary to some, us new urban artists have a unique position in shaping the artworld of the next century and I believe it involves tradition and painting, not conceptual BS and relationional aesthetics.

i have purchased a number of prints from 1xrun now and very good service. If you go to your account on there website it states the delivery date. For this print it is listed as October the 9th. This is the 4th print i have purchased from here , still waiting for the Remi print to turn up too. but thats due end of sept , so no dramas.

going to frame mine without a mount, as i like the way the originals looked when framed. might even step away from my standard black frame and go a bit more gold

hmm doubt it though

All a matter of personal taste, but I rarely like gold frames, unless genuinely antique and a bit battered. A charcoal grey frame might work.