Sometimes a graffiti artist’s work isn’t all painting walls, ceiling and floors…Sometimes we get the privilege of body painting gorgeous Thai coyote bar girls for amazing club parties and getting V.I.P. treatment, last night was one of those nights. It’s not that often that I get hired for being a body painter but I must admit that it is a thrill every time I do it. There’s something very special about painting people letting the art meet the beauty and then watching your mobile art piece do its thing in its given setting. In this example I was hired by Bangkok’s infamous night club and party venue ‘Insomnia’. The order was a tall one, paint non less than 8 beautiful Thai coyote podium dancers, and do it all in the space of 3 hours! I think even for a seasoned professional this is a tall order. What’s more they all had to be painted from head to toe in a silver base colour and each one had a unique personal look depending on how I felt when I looked and talked to the girl. A mixture of designs were incorporated on the girls, a bit of a Jackson Pollock style paint drip and ink splash effect, or like dripping spray paint from a drippy graffiti piece, animal print; cheetah and tiger, lettering, uv reactive paint (black light paint), golden stature effect…The main point was to incorporate the number 5 as it was club insomnia’s 5^th birthday party event. So I based a lot of my designs around the original flyer which had a theme of swirls, purple, gold and silver. Being no stranger to body painting I knew the only way I’ll be able to complete this mammoth job in such a short space of time was to use stencils, sponges and a lot of speed! I’m not btw talking about amphetamines although I guess they might’ve helped also In the end I managed to get the girls ready in time and along with a crew of make-up artists and exotic looking fashion outfits for the girls I must say they looked absolutely fantastic, a perfect mix of erotic, sexy, edgy and exotic. After that I managed to get a little v.i.p. treatment and I must say the club itself and the people there are a lot of fun, I’d certainly advise any Bangkok dweller to check it out, great sound system also. Well in the end turns out maybe I’d had a bit too much v.i.p. treatment as I lost the money I was supposed to take home and use for my rent, oh well, what can you do, you win some, you lose some, I still feel like overall it was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to do more of this in future! For body painting enquiries please refer to my contact form which you can find by clicking here.

[View with PicLens]

My girlfriend was talking about “Movember” to me, she said it in such a way that made it sound like the colour Mauve-ember..and so i came up with the remix idea in my head. First i had to find a moutached head honcho, someone who is way proud and renowned for the lip rug, I was thinking about the following; Groucho Marx, Hulk Hogan, Salvador Dali, well in the end I settled for Tom Selleck, something about painting this very serious looking man’s tache purple/mauve made me chuckle, I hope it does you to. Enjoy…

For those of you who do not know what Movember is here is a quote from wiki…

Movember (a portmanteau of the slang word “mo” for moustache and “November”) is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November. The event was conceived in 1999 by a group of Australian men from Adelaide.
Since 2004, the Movember Foundation charity has run Movember events to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer and depression, in Australia and New Zealand. In 2007, events were launched in Ireland, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel, South Africa, Taiwan and the United States

For more info visit the official website of the movement/foundation… http://www.movember.com/

I am relaunching my custom portrait stencil service. I have recently started to work in Banksy stencil style again, and although i could mention about 100 odd other stencil artists it would be pointless, Banksy is the name above all names in the game of street art and stencils. How? Who cares…Either way check this video i made showing how i make a Bansky style stencil portrait on premium canvas…Does Banksy make his pieces UV Black light reactive aswell? Not that i know of.

If you would like to order a custom portrait on canvas or 12″ vinyl record please visit my store on this site or on www.yourfaceonvinyl.com actual both stores are a mirror image of each other with plenty of promising products in store for the future. Thanks for looking

Graffiti, Graff, Street art, Stencils, Stencil art, Wheat pasties, urban art in the year 2011 where is it going? Where has it been? What is the future for these urban rebels? – An essay by Vinni Kiniki 2011

There is a shift (or evolution?) in graffiti style all over the world it has occurred in Bangkok, Thailand also. Here many taggers and strictly letter and font based artists have switched to painting images and characters (cartoon style) rather than painting text and font. I attribute this shift with the evolution and survival of urban and street artists as graffiti becomes a mainstream art form which is enjoyed by the many rather than an esoteric core elite. I have a few socio-cultural theories revolving around ‘graffiti’ as an art form, but before I say anything allow me to clarify; I am not talking about Webster’s or Collin’s dictionary definition of the word ‘graffiti’ (that which refers to lewd and unruly anarchist writing in public spaces). I am talking about graffiti as the art form that we as the modern culture have defined it; art which adheres to at least one of the following criteria;

• Urban style art created using a spray can
• Created on or for the intent to be displayed in public places (illegally or legally)
• A highly collected and celebrated art form born out mainstream contemporary culture’s love for all things ‘urban’, ‘street’, ‘raw’ and ‘edgy’
• A visual art commonly associated with underground hip-hop culture and fashion.

Mainstream society’s handling and representation of Graffiti has always allowed a few key players to shine above the rest, be celebrated, valued and be perceived as desirable vandals, the remaining graffiti artists are not so lucky they will be treated not as artists but as common criminals, vandals with no talent. Ever heard the one about ‘Banksy’ street art raising the property value of someone’s house once he has marked it? There are thousands of stencil artist equally as good as Banksy but I guarantee you their treatment by the long arm of the law would not be a lenient. The truth is art in general is one of those esoteric things where most uneducated or unknowing people will praise that which they are told is good. Graffiti is no exception to this rule.

What makes a graffiti artist prominent for the given time period?

I’m not a scholar or a historian this is simply my take on the graffiti phenomenon as I’ve encountered it through experience, verbal communication and text I’ve read and researched on the subject.

Fame (notoriety through bombing and presence, to some graffiti artists “being up” is still the number one pursuit in the game of graffiti. Quantity over quality – everyone can have a go and no one is discriminated against, certainly not due to skill level of using a spray can. Noted time period late 70’s.

Style. The term ‘wild style’ which was coined in the 80’s Bronx, New York refers to a style of graffiti which is superbly complex, colourful and detailed (and very hard to mimic – even by the experienced graffiti writer). The creation of the style could have been a survival response to the previous category; ‘fame’. How else to get noted other than being seen everywhere? The one rules the many, ‘i can do this with a spray, what can you do?’ this is the time when graffiti as we know it left the shores of America and people in Europe notably were taking it to next crazy levels keen to catch up and integrate and ultimately make their mark on the global graffiti scene. Quality over quantity.

Message – This one is rather timeless I’d say. Like I said the original graffiti which some refer to going as far back as the Roman or Egyptian times is rogue writing or messages usually anarchist in feeling and often anti popular propaganda. However to bring it into a modern perspective artists such as everyone’s favourite street art poster boy ‘Banksy’ (the irony is that you will never see him in the flesh). For sure you have read his words or deduced your own statement of intent from analysing his work. Message category certainly suited the style of the apathetic 90’s, the people needed to wake up to their own voices. We as a global nation knew something is wrong, apart from the common forum of the internet the street proved as a great posting board where the window could not be closed with the click of an X.

Ingenuity – This to me sums up the graffiti movement in the year 2000 in general. Across the creative and other social board’s people are aiming to bring something new to the table. Combining styles, ideas and contexts. Certainly the graffiti art form was exhausted in terms of using a spray can and a wall. During this time period a street artist doesn’t necessarily get recognition from ability, balls or coverage but more through gimmick and uniqueness. A noted player would be someone like French artist ‘space invader’ who uses mosaic tiles over stencils, spray paint and wheat pasties. His actual artistic talent can be heavily debated but regardless his style and art is celebrated. I could make a brief analogy to the post-modernist movement where players such as Duchamp were celebrated for exhibiting a urinal in an art gallery context and calling it art. No artistic skill is required, anyone could’ve done it…Perhaps that is the beauty of Space invader’s work, people feel it’s something they can do and feel included. Some people can argue that it is in fact Banksy who should be king of ingenuity, personally I’d disagree this on the merit of his stencil work but perhaps some of his other 3D (street sculpture?) work breaks certain boundaries of creation in a ‘street art’ context.

Lastly I announce the most modern measure of the popular and desirable ‘street artist’ (notice it’s not a derogatory term like graffiti or vandal anymore?)

Mass appeal – We live in the world where what sells is king, and quite frankly most graffiti (or art in general) where the artist prides himself on skill and style means fuck all when compared to whether people are buying it or not. So artists are producing for the people. Graffiti is popular as an art form and its style must reflect it thusly. Many graffiti artists have ditched wild style and complex or grotesque concepts in favour of cute, recognisable and cuddly – something that everyone can enjoy. I guess in an ironic way the complex graffiti from previous years was far too esoteric and ‘hi-brow’ (lol) for the common person or even gallery owner to enjoy. Certainly people like Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat went a long way to breaking down these boundaries but it’s still hard to imagine a Brooklyn gangbanger graffiti artist and a flamboyant effeminate gallery owner having tea and crumpets and discussing current affairs.

In summary

Nowadays you don’t need to have even painted a street wall using spray paint to be termed a ‘street artist’. One of the biggest ironies is that this very term ‘street art’ refers to art which has been genetically bred and nurtured within the confines of a white walled gallery – not on the street. You follow the common street artist formula and that’s it, you are an instant urban hot shot (look at Banksy’s film ‘Exit through the gift shop’ – Mr Brainwash anyone?). While there are still many graff artists ‘keeping it real’ following the original graffiti bible which was given birth to in the Bronx, New York in the late 70’s the truth is there is no A-train in London, Warsaw, Bangkok or any other city besides New York* so in my humble opinion whatever, it’s up to you. Some artists do it for fame, other artists do it out of compulsion, some artists do it to convey messages to their urban monkey peers (God complex?) and so on. Truth is I really don’t care, do it for whatever reason you like, everything is possible, everything is valid. I neither confirm nor deny that I am a “graffiti artist” or a “street artist” or that my style is “urban”, I am simply an artist and a creator who is using his right of visual dexterity by sampling and playing with as many art styles and forms as I see fit to my taste and visual manifesto. Truth is this is certainly a style that I love to create and play with and it means a whole lot more to me than what I could write about in the space of this article.

Vinni Kiniki Oct 2011, Bangkok, Thailand.

(* – Yes there may be another ‘A-Train’ but not ‘the A-train’)

[View with PicLens]

A graffiti jam (graffiti battle, paint share, paint day) that happened in the Taling Chan district in Bangkok, Thailand in 2011. It featured prominent Bangkok based Thai graffiti artists and new style Thai street artists alike. The names include but is not limited to key Bangkok based graffiti artist players such as; Alex Mardi (Mr face AMP), A.M.P. (amp tattoo and clothing), Bon (AMP), Abbie Original, Bonus (TMC), MisterBows Graffiti, HAM (time machine ham), Stor (storone NDR), Leo (TMC), Side (TMC), Punky DonkeyMask, Graffiti Thai Nef and international graffiti artist Vinni Kiniki (UK/Poland) and Cece Nobre (Brazil) – he also happens to be the organizer of the event “Enter Soul: Meeting of the Styles”

The graffiti jam happened over the course of one day and was organised with the intent of having fun, bringing Thai graffiti artists together and for the filming of a documentary film about underground Thai culture in Bangkok, Thailand. The location has to be kept a secret however if you contact me personally I’ll happily explain or perhaps show you where it is.

All of the artists you see in these photos are available for hire to paint your space, walls, interior, mural or whatever else you had in mind. The graffiti artists you see range from hard core graff artists who have been in the game for 10 years plus and graffiti players who have been doing this a short while, perhaps some even less than a year. Please stay tuned for more information about then individual Thai graffiti artists who took part in the graffiti jam. Information about the Bangkok underground film documentary and lots more…Interviews, photos, more graffiti in Bangkok and in Thailand. Draw your own conclusion but I will tell you personally the Thai graffiti art scene is very much alive and is growing in popularity and is positive and unlike the graffiti scene I experienced and know in London, UK.

Word by Vinni Kiniki Photos by Jeremy Sinismer

Graphic design for a party in Rayong, in Thailand for a full moon party 2011, produced using photoshop and some stock vectors, imagination and a love for restriction, a design brief where the common photo copier is your best and only friend…

I used to do this a lot a long time ago, in fact when I first started designing flyers for my friend’s parties; house parties, squat raves, underground club nights, gigs, rock concerts, gatherings and stuff like that I didn’t even have a computer to call my own!

What I’m talking about is old school, grass roots style “no money for 300DPI cmyk full colour double sided printing on 200gsm card flyer promotion”. Young people (amongst other groups) needed to party and needed get their messages out, and before the day of the facebook party era and affordable pay-as-you-go mobile phones well, the photocopier was the saviour for the quirky illustrator and graphic artist. Even compared to owning a computer printer it was plain to see that the photocopier or Xerox machine is simply the cheapest and most efficient way to run up a stack of A6, A5, A4 or even A3 copies, black on white to have your information distributed. Basically hand drawing a flyer and then photocopying it for cheap, using a guillotine or a craft knife to slice them up… but at least there is no waiting time or dependence on arsey printer technicians…

So what we have here is quite far from where I originally started with drawing hand drawn and designed flyers. This image was made using Photoshop CS3, although any version for CS1 up would be perfectly fine for the job. What you see here is a whole bunch of layers being subtlety texturized and augmented to produce what looks like a beach rave scene with the full moon low in the sky merged with a vinyl record and silhouette of a sexy lady posing in front of a silhouetted crowd of energy driven ravers, it is designed for the mighty Gutter Rainbows party crew for a 2011 Full moon party happening in Rayong, In Thailand and I had fun making it. Actually I will be performing some live painting at this event but details about that to follow later…

So, long story cut short it was a while since anyone asked me to design in black and white specifically for the photocopier…Here are my top tips for anyone facing the same task

Designing a black and white or grey scale image file meant for one computer aided print (via laser or inkjet) and then reproduced on a photocopier…

1. SET YOUR PHOTOSHOP FILE TO GREYSCALE OR BLACK AND WHITE! IMAGE–>MODE- Choose…Design in Black and white from the beginning. Don’t go kidding yourself that you can design  a colour image and then simply switch it to grey scale mode at the end and everything will look fine, because if it does your very lucky. Be sure to accommodate shitty reproduction graphics, ink smudges and belts of black or inconsistent ink printing which comes with the territory of the photo copier.
2. If you are working with many different layers and elements in your file, stop every now and then to select the complete are, COPY MERGED and paste it as a top layer. Adjust the brightness and contrast, also the Levels to see how your image would fair using a lame photo copier machine, remember your design may be perfectly balanced tonally but all your effort may be ruined by a commercial grade mass reproducer…they are not renowned for accuracy or perfection!
3. If you cannot do the above squint your eyes slightly, can you still read all the information on the flyer? If it’s A4 size do not make your letter any smaller than 14 point, it’s pointless…
4. As with all street based promotional material be sure it’s catchy, direct and the info is well laid out, sometimes people will have to absorb all the info in 3 seconds whilst walking past, make sure the main info hits you first and the other stuff can be observed on closer scrutiny. Walk around your screen from different angles, look away, walk out the room, walk back in side, look at your screen, can you read it from 5 metres away? If not, you should probably re-design.
5. Test! Print one out and go to the local photo copy place and try a couple of settings, try to photo copy at normal setting, try at a dark or darker setting try the same with a light and lighter setting. If your artwork and all the information contained on it can still be deciphered you’re doing everything A-ok!

One final tip would be actually play around with a photocopier sometimes, get to know it’s weaknesses and strengths, get to know how to make it do stuff it’s not supposed to, because you never know when you’ll be stuck with anything but a pen and paper in an old dusty and sleepy town without any computers let alone and internet connection for stock photos…Then it’s just you and your old friend the Xerox machine.

My own major inspiration for creation Dave McKean was (no pun intended) keen to quote the photocopier as a major aid in his production of cutting edge fantasy surreal landscapes and photomontages using real elements such as people and household objects. Also standardly, there were small “hacks” that you could do during your photocopying process, photocopy a document but move the paper rapidly during the scanning of the image process to produce wavy and trippy looking photo copies. Also who could forget firm favourite such as enlarge, reduce, literal copy and paste using real life glue paste and cutting scissors, oh those were not the days, give me a Abode creative sweet with photoshop and illustrator any day…obviously like with the SLR vs. Digital SLR camera argument there are small subtle analogue nuances that simply cannot be reproduced using digital graphics editing software, but in a world where we have to choose between a pinball machine and a photocopier I will choose the pinball machine every time. Wow, I sound old, and I feel even older when I’ve realised how much I’ve digressed writing this simple blog post about a Full Moon party black and white graphic design meant for being reproduced on a photocopier.

I will try and dig up some of the old rave flyers i did and post them up here for a comparison to the clean image above…

Yeh So while i’m still battling with my old host and my new host to get yourfaceonvinyl.com transferred to a new server it’s left the project kind of in Limbo. Which is rubbish timing considering i am taking part in a show  especially about art produced on or with vinyl.

It’s opening on the 4th of July in the Funhouse Gallery Detroit. it also happens to be the opening party for the Gallery aswell. So i’ve sent of a couple of vinyls to include in the exhibition which features over 50 artists internationally. Good stuff, hopefully some of these will get snapped up and then i can eat

What else, here is an official gallery release statement excerpt…

No this is NOT a vinyl toy show- does the world really need to manufacture more vinyl crap for creative types to paint on? We think not. We believe there’s more than enough Ray Coniff Singers and Air Supply vinyl records to go around for the next 100 years.

Also here is a link to the facebook event http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=152975121425641 also i’ve been told there will be photos of the event put up after it happens so i’ll be sure to upload those too…Which i think will be posted here on flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdgallery/discuss/72157626080741710/

Here is a sneak peak of one of the vinyl’s i’m exhibiting it’s a Frank Zappa piece one of the greatest experimental rock n roller’s of all time, i don’t think this title does him enough justice, but it’s hard to sum up a man who produced such an ecclectic and amazing body of work. This is my dedication to him to paint him on a medium which most of his music was released on…

Yes this is an original vinyl record - and no, i did not use an original mothers of invention album

Oh and also it should be worth mentioning that the http://yourfaceonvinyl.com/ project is under construction as pre-mentioned. For the time being please can you see the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Face-on-Vinyl/183570185025080

Also i know it’s a slight case of over kill but you can also like and preview whats going on at yourfaceonvinyl headquaters through this like box plugin. You only have to click like once!

THANK YOU!

More paint used than it is possible to carry in one backpack...

Welcome

After much thought, deliberation and procrastination I decided it’s about time I sort out my website state of affairs. For a while I’ve been using a custom built HTML/Flash combo site with an IFRAME featuring my WordPress blog inside of it… Well that worked ok, but it was a complete nightmare to keep up to date with accurate and new information relevant to time and space.

So again I say welcome to www.vinnikiniki.com v4.0, Yes this the 4^th version of the site and actually this new look for the website marks my 10^th anniversary of sharing my work, ideas, thoughts, art and music online. I feel happy that I’ve been through the whole birth and evolution of the internet so far…

Anyway enough geekary, more about art…

To re-launch the site (bare as it is right now) I am showing you this composite of some of my best works from 2010, unfortunately many pieces I did over 2010 were lost due to a hard drive theft which was a real blow. However I try to remain undeterred and aim to keep pushing forward, onward and upward… And yes it’s an age where it’s getting increasingly more difficult to find work as an artist but you have to look at the other side of the coin…

There are still many drab, dry, grey and empty walls out there in the wall to paint on! So keep reading, looking, listening and reacting…I’ll keep you up to speed as much as I can. I’m loving 2011 already.

Brezts makes his mark on the Kuala Lumpur Wall of Fame

Ok, so I know it’s not usual to write a press release for a graffiti piece…lol…but I wasn’t sure how else to call it.

But this is good news for me, it means my mission has been started. I have officially “exported” my art on a large scale into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, my art is now officially international (as long as it doesn’t get wiped of the wall…)

On my recent visit to Kuala Lumpur I managed to meet up with the Phobik graffiti Krew, Nice guys, very talented, i visited them at their awesome (not so well known) shop in K.L. called district http://www.thisisdistrict.com

Basically if your a graffiti artist in need of serious supplies in Kuala Lumpur; Montana spray paint, Molotow or Krylon you need to head here….

Otherwise if you want to “keep it real” and do it how the locals do it do yourself a favor and pick up some PYLOX spray paint, it’s the best and cheapest car paint I’ve used in my life! Although the caps are a bit shit.

So there you have I am now officially a proud member of the Kuala Lumpur Wall of Fame…but  for how long I cannot tell you!

For more information about this adventure and info about the graff scene in Kuala Lumpur go here