Oi You! Street Art Exhibition

Oi You! Street Art Exhibition

Rugby visitors to Nelson have more to view than Australia playing the Russians. Today (Fri 23) an exhibition opens featuring 23 works by the elusive Banksy, thanks to a new Nelsonian with a passion for street art.

George Shaw and his wife Shannon moved to Nelson from the UK in 2009, bringing their 23 Banksy limited edition prints and originals with them. These are the major draw card of Oi You! which also includes work by Faile, Antony Micallef, Os Gemeos and many more.

Alongside these is an installation by Auckland’s Cut Collective, the top works from the nationwide Oi You! competition, a series of works called Corrupt Kiwi Classics based on iconic art works by New Zealand painters and other installations including a new take on a giant bucket of KFC.

The Oi You! exhibition gathered international acclaim long before opening day, with Banksy et al works invited to Sydney’s Cockatoo Island as part of an urban art festival called Outpost Project (November 4 to 11 December).

George says the organisers agreed to delay their show by a month so they could include his collection.

“Cockatoo Island is home to the famous Sydney Biennale so it’s a more than a coup to have them want our collection,” he said. “It’s not just Banksy that has knocked their socks off – it’s quality and diversity of the collection as a whole.”

The Oi You! competition attracted over 300 entries in the open and schools’ sections. The finalists were selected by top New York street art collective, Faile, who were very impressed with what they saw - finding it tougher to judge than they had expected.

George says he’s not really surprised at the level of interest and growing awareness of street art.

“This is the age of citizen journalism, it’s the age of the YouTube video and art is the last bastion to fall to DIY,” he says. “Art is not about being able to paint a landscape or someone’s portrait, it’s about expressing your ideas - that’s what gets people excited about urban art.”

Oi You! is at the Energy Centre, Founders Heritage Park Nelson, September 23 - October 24 2011. Full details on the exhibition at www.StreetArt.co.nz

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