ARTE: BOW DOWN

Lakwena takes over Shoreditch Boxpark with UP IN THE AIR and BIG UP!

UP IN THE AIR

The immersice installation continues Lakwena's expoliration into the use of decoration in worship and myth-making.  Here she juxtaposes a contemporary expression of the sacred with the intrinsically commercial and transient surroundings of BOXPARK re-appropriating a space synonymous with commerce and entertainment to create an intimate place of praise.

In her "box" unit #26 you can read the text "Throw your hands up in the air" painted across the walls and ceiling.  The phrase "bow down" in large silver vinyl letters is on the floor.  In the outdoor upstairs area of Box Park she has an outdoor installation with text that reads "Shout Out"

ARTE: TBT

Its more fun if you mute your computer and watch them all play simultaneously.

ARTE: LAKWENA x CLINIQUE

Lakwena collaborates with Clinique creating a limited edition makeup bag. They spent 24 hours with her in her hometown of London, exploring and documenting places she's inspired by. You can catch it at The Wink. 

ARTE: LAKWENA TALKS TO DAILY METAL

Lakwena was recently interviewed by Daily Metal magazine, a snippet is below, click the photo for the full article.

"You keep mentioning a broader audience being attracted by art.  Is that what you are trying to do?  Get a wider audience to experience art?

Well, I don't think art should be elitist and the idea that only a small group of people would see my work doesn't excite me. It seems boring and narrow. That's why I'm so grateful for every opportunity to paint in a public space. On the other hand, I also like the gallery space. Just before the LA show I kept thinking that it's nice to be able to have complete control over a space. What's  exciting about galleries is how clean and clear they are and how you can completely construct an environment. At the same time, despite a gallery’s infinite possibilities, you have to remember that art is never neutral and always has a context. So, even though the gallery might act as a white box, it's still located on a particular street, in a specific neighbourhood etc. In this particular case, the gallery happened to be in LA, the heart of the film industry. Hollywood is the home of cinema, where all those people who are telling stories that get sent all over the world are. It felt poetic that I was showing these pieces in the same city. I like to respond to what's happening around me and not make art in a bubble. I didn't intentionally set out in the beginning to respond to LA, but it seems like the connection slowly unfolded."

Photos by Mafalda Silva

ARTE: LAKWENA ARTIST TALK

Live stream of the skype session between Lakwena, us and a live audience!!

ARTE: Hi-Fructose reviews I Remember Paradise

Hi-Fructose Magazine reviews Lakwena's exhibition, I Remember Paradise

Emerging London artist Lakwena Maciver has been making a name for herself with her bold, text-based murals. After traveling the globe with her street art, the artist recently touched down in LA for her solo show, “I Remember Paradise,” on view at Papillion Art through March 15.

The large-scale wood relief paintings in the exhibition evoke the vibrance of Maciver’s outdoor works with their contrasting patterns and bright colors. With short messages at the center of each piece, her catchy, design-heavy paintings call to mind contemporary advertising. While appropriating this aesthetic, the artist liberates her slogans from any corporate affiliation and uses them to promote positive thinking.

A sound installation Maciver created in collaboration with musician Abimaro accompanies the paintings in the exhibition. The interactive work explores the harmonious relationship between the first and fifth note on a scale, adding another dimension of experience to the positive vibes of “I Remember Paradise.”

written by: Nastia Voynovskaya

ARTE: I Remember Paradise - LA Times Review

The Los Angeles Times review of Lakwena Maciever's I REMEMBER PARADISE solo exhibition.

The sense of adventure in Lakwena Maciver's universe

by Christopher Knight

Seven recent paintings by London-based artist Lakwena Maciver, who often goes by just her first name, fairly shout. They’re homemade street signs, a deft cross between commercial logos and personal emblems.

Lakwena paints in flat colors on wood panels. The hues are as bright as a Technicolor rainbow.

They’re applied as stripes, checkerboards, targets, giraffe-like squiggles, lightning bolts and zigzags. One painting -- the largest, 16 feet wide and composed from six panels that happily overwhelm the small room -- is adorned with big, dangling sequins. Their shimmer and shine are animated by a pair of electric fans that create an artificial breeze.

Each painting carries a text in raised letters. What links them is their future orientation.

“Imagine eternity.” “Build to last.” “The best is yet to come.” “Faded glory.” “Wake me up.” “I repeat.” In Lakwena’s visually excited paintings, the present urges looking toward tomorrow.

“Just passing through,” blares the big sequined painting in trumpeted lettering. Indeed, we are -- both at the gallery and in life.

These big, jaunty paintings couldn’t be happier or more enthusiastic about the prospect. At a time when so much else seems fraught and troubled, Lakwena’s welcome art advocates for an insistent sense of open-eyed adventure. 

ARTE: LAKWENA TALKS WITH DESIGN INDABA

Lakwena Maciver will open her solo exhibition next month, January 17th.  Get to know the artist a little more in this interview done by Design Indaba.

London-based artist Lakwena Maciver’s huge outdoor murals may be influenced by the exuberant scale of neon signs in Las Vegas but her most recent work, commissioned for the Africa Calling exhibition at London’s Southbank, drew on her African heritage.

Maciver visited family’s home in Uganda for the first time as an adult and her installation for the exhibition is bred out of this experience. During her trip she snapped photos of patterned minibus taxis and the intricate grille work on building facades.

For Africa Calling – curated by Kathy Shenoy of ethical online store Shake the Dust and Liezel Strauss of Subject Matter Art and the My Japan photographic project – she presented three small wooden-panel paintings. Emblazoned with the words “karibu” (“welcome” in Swahili) and “paco” (“home” in the Ugandan dialect of Acoli), they are rendered in striking colours and graphic patterns.

“These pieces are a way of processing what I experienced there and the idea of ‘home’. They’re about understanding who I am and where I come from.”

Her body of work centres on signage, language and social phrases. “Language is really important in what I do,” she told Design Indaba in this interview in London. “Words, typography and language – the meaning and the actual visual look of words.”

She creates work in multiple media that lives inside galleries, on the street and sometimes on apparel and products for brands such as Adidas, Converse, Diesel, Palladium Boots, Red Bull and Toms.

Maciver’s street murals are titanic and painted in brilliant colours reminiscent of early Technicolor films. The first one she ever painted, saying “I Remember Paradise” on a wall in Miami, has lettering that is taller than her.

The London-based designer grew up predominantly in England but she is preoccupied with things that reference her African roots.

Her aesthetic is made up of bold graphics, geometric fields, text and bright colours: “This is influenced by what I saw growing up and what appealed to me – which were the things that referenced my African heritage.”

ARTE: LAKWENA'S EVER AFTER

Lakwena did a mural in Las Vegas last month during the Life is Beautiful festival.  The "EVER AFTER" mural is a continuation of her "I REMEMBER PARADISE" series we will be debuting in January 2015!

ARTE: I Remember Paradise

Lakwena's wall in Wynwood Arts District...and the pop up gallery Women on the Walls is up at Wynwood Walls for another month.

ARTE: Women on the Walls

LAKWENA makes her Miami debut at Art Basel!  She is working on a huge wall mural as we speak in the Wynwood Arts District.  Jeffrey Deitch curated the group exhibition of women street arists.  We hope you can join us in Miami to see Lakwena's amazing wall and new works in the pop up gallery! 

December 3 - 8, 2013 in the Wynwood Arts District.

The logo for the Women on the Walls group show, designed by Lakwena

Update on Wednesday, November 27, 2013 at 12:17PM by PAPILLION ART

Excerpt rom the press release:

Wynwood Walls presents a new outdoor mural project and a gallery exhibition celebrating the contributions of outstanding women artists who are part of the history and the new energy of street art. Women on the Walls will incorporate nine new wall murals and the gallery exhibition showcase the work of essential innovators like Lady Pink and Claw Money, and artists who are redefining street art today from a woman’s perspective like Maya Hayuk and Sheryo.

Five artists have been selected to create new wall murals in the Wynwood Walls compound. These are Aiko, from Japan, Fafi from Paris, Miss Van, from France, Maya Hayuk from New York, and the legendary Lady Pink. Aiko, who was part of the first year's mural project, is known for her sensual Japanese Pop imagery. Fafi and Miss Van are among the most influential street artists in Europe, creating pop figuration from a woman's perspective. Maya Hayuk's unique geometric style work is currently featured at the entrance of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Lady Pink was the most influential woman artist in the early history of New York graffiti. She was one of the stars of the 1983 film Wild Style that helped spread the imagery of New York Wild Style graffiti around the world.

Faith 47 from South Africa, Kashink from Paris, Lakwena from London and Sheryo from Singapore, have been commissioned by Goldman Properties to create new wall murals in the Wynwood neighborhood adjacent to the Wynwood Walls compound. These influential artists represent the international reach of the street art movement. Faith 47 recently completed a socially engaging project in Cape Town and Johannesburg using quotes from the Freedom Charter. In contrast to other women street artists, Kashink only paints men, usually four eyed fat and hairy gangster like figures. Lakwena, trained as a sign painter, creates dazzling compositions fusing words and geometric shapes.

thewynwoodwalls.com

ARTE: LAKWENA'S LETTERS

Letters are hand-painted on A4 sized acid-free 200gsm paper.