Image of EINE at work painting his alphabet that will be appearing throughout San Francisco over the next couple of weeks.
London-based artist, Ben Flynn a.k.a. EINE has several projects coming to San Francisco. One work was just created in Hayes Valley on Ivy Street at Laguna on the back of the Hayes and Kebab building. This work parallels some of the work in his opening gallery exhibition at White Walls Gallery , 839 Larkin Street, with a show called GREATEST opening on March 12.
Bill Bulkley, of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association’s Arts, Culture and Entertainment committee, describes the work at Ivy and Laguna as, “part of his series related to the gallery show (at White Walls) of superlative words. The word HARDEST, painted in his original graphic format in multi-hued smiley faces, is superimposed over pre-existing tags that were obviously painted by neighborhood kids. (The tags do not reach very high.) My understanding of it is that by layering the graphic works, Ben is addressing the idea of tagging as a weaker form of street art. Ben’s murals are all done with permissions now, although he did start off as a graffiti artist. This work may challenge the aesthetic sensibilities of some but the concept is unique. Ben has NEVER done this before and that makes the work more significant in his body of work.”
Look for futher posting on this work at it develops and potentially changes. Go take a look at HARDEST as it stands at Ivy and Laguna.