Bananagun are an Australian psychedelic rock band from Melbourne that was initially formed as a solo project by Nick Van Bakel and subsequently grew into a quintet. Besides Van Bakel (guitar, percussion vocals), the band consists of Josh Dans (bass), Jack Crook (guitar), Charlotte Tobin (djembe, percussion) and Jimi Gregg (drums). « Do Yeah » – the band’s debut single – was released as a 7-inch single in 2019.
« The True Story Of Bananagun » from 2020 is the band’s debut album. Released via the British label Full Time Hobby (Timber Timbre, Katie Von Schleicher), the LP is Bananagun’s first release as a quintet.
For their last exhibition of the year, Urban Spree Galerie invites the French painter Orsten Groom to exhibit in Berlin his new incendiary series “CHROME DINETTE”. The solo show, his first exhibition in Germany, will open on Friday, October 23rd, 2020.
While being a radically independent artist, Orsten Groom has established himself in a few years as a key player in the young French painting scene, oscillating between alternative circles and museum institutions.
His first retrospective was presented this year at the ACMCM contemporary art centre in Perpignan (France) – at only 37 years old.
The Berlin exhibition brings together over 30 works, presented in two sections:
– the Large Ensemble of 17 paintings “CHROME DINETTE” (accompanied by its proverbial Divan), a danse macabre summoning Sigmund Freud, Moses and sick poodles – under the aegis of Frank Zappa;
– A retrospective selection of Orsten Groom’s emblematic large formats, a genuine «subconscious» journey with Parietal Sarcophagus allures.
Orsten Groom’s painting is presented as “Post-Historical Cave Art”.
The famous German artist Jonathan Meese said about him: “Orsten Groom comes from the caves and the Middle Ages and keeps history alive in today’s art. He comes from the future“.
Apocalyptic Frescoes, saturated with Creatures drawn from the Memory Styx by Demented Talmudic Investigations, Carnivalesque Recapitulation of History from the Flow of Origins and Art History – His Painting roars on Large Canvases populated with Figures entangled by Mythological and Grotesque Archetypes, Danses Macabres gleaned by a Language Detective, an Amnesiac Epileptic Archaeologist. Its Material is Dense, Volcanic, inhabited like the ancient Livers of a Divinatory Ritual.
«This turmoil is similar to the one I feel in the Grottos of Lascaux or Chauvet, in front of El Greco or Picasso paintings, or, in the 20th century, facing the essential work of Gérard Gasiorowski», writes Olivier Kaeppelin, former Director of the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and curator of his recent Parisian Exhibition POMPEII MASTURBATOR.
Orsten Groom experienced in 2002 an aneurysm that left him amnesic and epileptic. He graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2009 and Le Fresnoy in 2011. He is the recipient of several awards: Prix l’art est vivant (2019), Prix de Peinture de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts (2016) and Prix de Peinture Antoine Marin (2015). The reputed paint manufacturer Marin manufactures a colour to his name, the “Pink Groom”.
He is also a musician, author of collections of English cubist poems, filmmaker (2011 Jury Prize for his film BOBOK at the festival Côté-Court) and since 2012 author of the video cycle Les Ballets Russes.
He has collaborated with curators and authors Olivier Kaeppelin and Paul Ardenne, the filmmaker Guy Maddin, the translator and poet André Markowicz, as well as the writer Boris Wolowiec.
ORSTEN GROOM: “MÂÂT” (NOCTURNE) – 210 X 140 CM – OIL ON CANVAS – GXXI
The Opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a concert by the POODLE MHUND ARKESTRA, formed for the occasion by Orsten Groom, the Magnificent Jimmy Trash & Big Daddy Mugglestone.
Ich bin der Dreck unter deinen Walzen / Ich bin dein geheimer Schmutz Und verlorenes Metallgeld / Ich bin deine Ritze und Schlitze / Ich bin der Autor aller Felgen Und Damast Paspeln / Ich bin Eier aller Arten / Ich bin alle Tage und Nächte / Ich bin der Chrome Dinette / Und du bist mein Sofa. – Frank Zappa
CHROME DINETTEis Burning Divan, Hypnotic Sphinx and Sick Tongue of the Unpronounceable God.
ORSTEN GROOM: CHROME DINETTE
“Divan, Divan, Weisst du, Wer Ich Bin?”
23.10.2020 – 23.01.2021
Vernissage: Friday, 23.10.2020 from 18:30 in presence of the artist
“Straight outta Lockdown / The Freedom Prints” is a series of vintage Mode 2 prints (from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s), hand-painted or hand-sprayed in 2020, and re-numbered in very limited runs.
We inaugurate this summer with a series of print releases from the Berlin-based graffiti “legend” (he HATES that term!) Mode 2.
Published originally by Pictures on Walls, Lazarides, MHI or Sergeant Paper, most prints sold out quickly, some runs were never released, and the artist recently came across much of these print archives that had been stashed away years ago; some from his personal quota and the rest returned by the publishers.
The idea came to release them again, though not without hand-finishing each series; even the ones that had already been through this process. Each print has therefore been custom-painted by Mode 2, to embellish the works with matching Belton spray colors or acrylic paint. Those HPMs have been re-numbered to create a new edition, with added aesthetic value and a marked difference from the original release.
The first print of the series is called “Sofa Spank”, originally released in 2010
Urban Spree Prints releases the first screen print of the Croatian-born, Berlin-based visual artist Marina Mika.
Mika’s illustrations are always hand-drawn and her universe is a composite world inspired by art nouveau, anime & manga, lores and fantasy.
Titled « Animal Spirit« , the hand-pulled screen print comes in a limited edition of 35, all signed and numbered by the artist. The print has been manually produced at Urban Spree on a Somerset 310g/sm paper and bears 2 deckle edges (the left and right sides of the paper have been torn on purpose to reveal the white structure of the paper through the black ink.
The print will be released this coming Wednesday 24.06 at 18:00 C.E.T. on the Urban Spree webstore and in our Berlin shop.
10 years after its publication, we are happy to re-release the second edition of Mode2’s legendary book « Never Too Late… » in 2 different editions.
The book will be released exclusively on the Urban Spree webshop here on Friday April 3rd at 18:00 CET (Berlin time).
Originally published in 2008 in a 64-page hardcover version, the book sold out instantly. A second, revised softcover edition of 80 pages was commissioned in the wake but was never properly released.
Since it’s « Never Too Late… », we are finally releasing the book for its 10th Anniversary Year.
To celebrate the return of the prodigal book, in addition to the regular trade edition, Mode2 has designed a Special Edition of 100 copies. Each of the 100 book covers has been spray-painted and each copy is signed and numbered.
Numbers 001-050 come with a screen-printed tee-shirt of the cover’s motive, printed in-house at Urban Spree (Earth Positive brand, organic, fair trade cotton) while numbers 051-100 will be only the signed and numbered edition of the book.
Published by Lazarides Gallery, London, in April 2010
10 years after its publication, we are happy to re-release the second edition of Mode2’s legendary book « Never Too Late… » in 2 different editions.