Jonathan Yeo est un peintre anglais reconnu pour ses portraits de personnes connues (voir http://www.jonathanyeo.com/). Voilà qu’il lui a été commandé un portrait de George W. Bush pour la bibliothèque Bush de Washington.

A regarder de près son portrait fait de collage, on pourrait le renommer: “George profonde et mise en Bush”.

A y regarder de plus près, on découvrira les joyeusetés choisies délicatement par Jonathan Yeo. En effet, le portrait est réalisé exclusivement à base de collage de photos découpées dans des magazines pornos.

Si, si, regardez bien l’oreille droite du président : en guise de pavillon, une érection ambitieuse, amoureusement tenue en bouche par une dame un peu trop maquillée. Quant au teint de Bush, frais comme celui d’une jouvencelle, il est constitué d’une pléiade d’anus en tous genres.

Bref, l’art contemporain peut mener dans de nombreux sentiers non balisés. Ici, la détestation de l’image même de l’ex Président de la plus grande puissance mondiale, se décompose et se recompose à l’aide d’anus, de félations, de penis et autres appareils génitaux.

La Maison Blanche s’est étonnée:«Pourquoi quelqu’un voudrait faire un portrait de notre président à partir de matériel pornographique ?»

Là, est la question !

‘The City That I’m Claiming’, oil and aerosol on canvas, 183cm x 122cm, 2009.

The new Lazarides space opened last night with a bang. Theres still a bang going on in my head. The space is gorgeous, as is the work. The inaugural group show entitled Grow Up features plenty of new pieces from Antony Micallef,  Alex Farto, JR, Johnny Yeo, David Choe and Charlie Isoe amongst others. I’ve my next solo show there in November and I can’t wait. Those walls are huge.

One of the best Christmas presents I received this past festive season was from my Mum. She gave me the art book Outsiders: Art by People (hey, what can I say, my mum is pretty rad!).  Banksy’s manager, Steve Lazarides, is known for his eye for subversive, intelligent and attention grabbing artists. In Outsiders, Lazarides gathers them together to create a collection of outsider art. As the subheading says, this is “art by people” for the people. The book features such innovators as Antony Micalleff, Brooklyn-based international artist collective Faile, Parisian artist JR (known only by his initials because of the illegal nature of his work), Conor Harrington and Jonathan Yeo.

Want more info? Go here.

Brought to us by Lazarides Galleries (as well) comes Jonathan Yeo who painted pop stars, royalty and Russian mafia in the 90s. The US Republican Party calls his work “extremely distasteful.” I call it a harsh taste of reality for those on the defense, a swift kick in the ass. Isn’t sex one of the human rituals which make us feel alive aside from eating and sleeping and maybe performing other satisfying bodily functions-too much information to say? Sex sells, people buy into it. Politics, it’s brainwashing. Come on, Jonathan Yeo tears into Bush’s retarded honesty, we may as well call it pornographic cause it reeks of vulgar power. He doesn’t believe his own words ’cause he can’t even articulate them anymore badly. Yeo’s premeditated use of naked flesh is meticulously crafted into Bush’s “underoverestimated” face in his collage of Bush Porn. Sweet Bush tangent…

As I was leaving the space, I walked passed the falling leaves-works thinking that was all there was to see. The security person at front entrance kindly suggested I go back and take a better look. Oh man, when I fixated my eyes on the vaginal/penile cut outs and foreplay game going on, a dirty dirty smile light up my face. Instant gratification is more like it. Pleasure is good, even for a puppet like Bushwacker who doesn’t deserve it as much. Did you register to vote already? Jonathan Yeo lights my fire. And if you like what u saw above click on more below. Dixie

http://www.jonathanyeo.com/063.html
http://www.lazinc.com/

Bowery- Lower east side is surrounded by an ever growing art scene. Stopped through the recent art exhibit right at the corner of Houstion and Bowery. Here’s a few pics of some great art work from artist like FAILE, David Choe, Mark Jenkins,VHILS,Blue Polly Morgan,Borf,Bast and much more.

Well…. really, Paris is a work of Porn Art…

The artist Jonathan Yeo, has been making a name for himself in the art world for years, but he’s broken through into the public eye lately for his “creative” new medium…. Porn Magazines.

Now this isn’t what you think, he isn’t MAKING porn, but rather, making art out of old porn magazines!  The Photo above was created completely of old porn magazines, and depicts Paris Hilton in all her porn friendly glory.  Just to prove that this is all in good natured fun, Jonathan has offered to donate the proceeds of the painting, which is for sale in a London art gallery, to Paris, since she has always complained that she didn’t make any money off of her infamous sex tape.

This artist has also created a similar style work of art depicting George W. Bush, back in 2004, after the white house cancelled a commissioned portrait with him.  I guess it goes to show you that you should never cross an artist!

Opening 09.26

Outsiders NY
Lazarides Gallery New York
282 Bowery

From: 09.26 – 10.12
Hours: 11 AM – 7 PM
Admission: Free

Featuring:
Faile, Paul Insect, JR, Antony Micallef, Jonathan Yeo, Miranda Donovan, Invader, David Choe, Mark Jenkins, Todd James, Vhils, Polly Morgan, Mode 2, BAST, Conor Harrington, Zevs, Blu, Borf, Ian Francis.

More information at Lazarides here or the Village Voice here.

Unfortunately I missed the wonderful Art Car Boot Fair this time. Any comments welcome from anyone who made it, I’d like to know whether it was as fabulous as last year please!?

Instead I give you a review of the Jonathan Yeo exhibition of which I went to the opening night last Thursday at Lazarides Gallery. Attending was a spectacular array of Z list celebrities. Not only was one of the women from ‘Loose Women’ there (possibly one of the most nauseating daytime TV programmes EVER made), but Jamie Theakston, AND the pièce de résistance Ross Kemp – AKA Grant from EastEnders. Okay – maybe Ross is more C list.

Perhaps what attracted the showbiz extravaganza to this event was the long and renowned career of Jonathan Yeo as a portrait painter of both celebrities and politicians in Britain. He has painted official portraits of Tony Blair and the Duke of Edinburgh and has paintings hanging in the National Portrait Gallery.

Why then, has he taken it upon himself to make this collection? Which is a series of collages using bits cut out of porn magazines to create, mainly nudes reclining, reworks of early Picasso’s, but also some recognisable faces including Hugh Hefner and George Bush? Like most contemporary art of today I suspect it is to ‘ruffle a few feathers’.

However, this progression from straight portraiture to these ‘twisted’ adaptations is a way Yeo can make people aware of matters he finds significant.

Talking about his portrait of Bush in an interview with Sky news he said:

“With Bush, I was trying to find a way to address the warped mentality of having deeply conservative beliefs about pornography on one hand yet sending kids off to unnecessary wars on the other. “

See the full review here:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/picture_gallery/picture_gallery/0,,70141-1318249,00.html

Interestingly Yeo was actually requested to do an official portrait of Bush some time ago by the Bush Presidential Library however halfway through painting he was told his services were not need anymore. Perhaps another reason to create a tongue-in–cheek version then.
Or something-else-in-cheek anyway. Sorry, Sorry. That was bad.

Although there is nothing incredibly ground breaking about using porn magazine clippings in paintings – look at Chris Offili’s work for instance, Yeos’ work has a substantial presence about it and the exhibition is worth a visit just because of the stir created around this evocative representation of Bush.

Jonathan Yeo
Blue Period
LAZARIDES GALLERY
6 June – 11 July 2008

Jonathan Yeo
Bush, 2007
Limited edition screenprint
Image size: 863 x 561 mm / Paper size: 1015 x 726 mm
Courtesy the artist and Lazarides Gallery
Copyright: Jonathan Yeo, 2008

Jonathan Yeo
Cassiopeia, 2007
Limited edition screenprint
Image size: 863 x 561 mm / Paper size: 1015 x 726 mm
Courtesy the artist and Lazarides Gallery
Copyright: Jonathan Yeo, 2008

Jonathan Yeo
Hugh Hefner, 2008
Mixed Media Collage. 2008
42 x 52 cm
Courtesy the artist and Lazarides Gallery
Copyright: Jonathan Yeo, 2008

His Bushness marks the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion with a speech hailing its success.

Nice Yeo, though.

Segur que alguns ja l’heu vist, però és que la cosa m’ha arribat fa poc i és divertida (i ben feta). A més, no he tingut temps d’escriure res, així que… En fi, clickeu a sobre del tipus aquest d’aquí sota o aquí mateix i mireu-vos bé el power point, que us explica que es tracta d’un quadre de l’artista Jonathan Yeo fet per encàrrec a la família Bush; però que aquesta l’ha rebutjat… Per què? Fixeu-vos de què està fet el collage…