The most swiftly-evolving art-form, Urban Art is a creative chameleon that takes on many forms, from street murals to paste-ups, guerrilla-style installations to limited edition prints and canvasses; this is a movement that refuses to slow down. Its latest incarnation is the objet d’art; a limited edition cube that brings the inimitable typographical style of world renowned artist Ben Eine to life.
Objet d’art [ob-zhay-dahr] n., pl. Objets d’art. Literally “art object”, or work of art, in French, the term has long been reserved to describe works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, of high quality and finish in areas of the decorative arts.
The most swiftly-evolving art-form, Urban Art is a creative chameleon that takes on many forms, from street murals to paste-ups, guerrilla-style installations to limited edition prints and canvasses; this is a movement that refuses to slow down. Its latest incarnation is the objet d’art; a limited edition cube that brings the inimitable typographical style of world renowned artist Ben Eine to life.
Curated by London’s Fragile Ventures and rendered in concrete, metal and wood; the cubes depict Eine’s letter ‘E’ in Shutter, Tenderloin and Circus fonts. The Eine edition launches at Megumi Ogita gallery in Tokyo on Friday, 5 December with a simultaneous global launch online at www.fragileventures.com
Martin Root, Creative Director of Fragile Ventures comments: “We launched Fragile Ventures to realise and develop a three-dimensional urban art concept. As enthusiasts of the movement we were keen to work with our favourite artists to make this concept a reality. We couldn’t have launched with a better partner than Eine and we are incredibly proud of his work for Fragile.”
Ben Eine adds, “Since I was a small child, I’ve always loved making and building things – usually a mess - but now I’ve had the chance to create something unique, hand-crafted and beautiful. And I can still play with them.”
Ben Eine
Eine shot to international fame when the British Prime Minister presented one of his works to President Obama as a gift on his first official state visit, but is arguably more famous for ‘Alphabet Street’ – the shutters and murals he painted in his trademark colours and typography in Middlesex Street, London – described by The Times as “a street now internationally recognized as a living piece of art with direct links to The White House.” From single letters to complex and wry statements, Eine has left his mark worldwide on shop front shutters and public walls as well as in museums and galleries from the UK’s renowned Lowry Museum to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In 2012 Eine collaborated with luxury brand Louis Vuitton to create an extremely limited edition silk scarf featuring his signature letters spelling out GREAT ADVENTURES.
Fragile Ventures is an independent company established to give artists a platform to develop their work into three-dimensional forms and communicate it to the world.