Ben Eine
SCARY (Hand painted Skateboard Skate Deck), 2017
Hand painted with blue skate deck on 100% Canadian maplewood
Boldly signed and dated on the front in black marker; numbered 1/10 in black marker pen on the reverse.
8 × 31 inches
Unframed
Hand painted and hand signed. Boldly signed and dated in black marker; numbered 1/10 in black marker pen on the reverse. Since it's hand painted, each of the 10 works in the edition, including the present work, is a unique variant.
In 2010, Ben Eine made international headlines when one of his works ended up as a gift given by British Prime Minister David Cameron to the US President Barack Obama. One of the many contemporaneous articles at the time, reads as follows:
"Eine recalls the moment which would essentially usher in the turning point of his career: “I did a work for someone the end of last year and she phoned me up last Friday and asked if I’d be interested to have David Cameron give President Obama one of my paintings as a gift. I was shocked. She passed my number to Downing Street and then I sent them a few examples and they picked that one.” The “one” is Eine’s TWENTYFIRSTCENTURYCITY, chosen purportedly because its red, white and blue colors are reminiscent of both the American and British flags. It is said to be worth only 2,500 pounds. Before the news that is..."
BEN EINE BIOGRAPHY
Eine (British, b.1970) is a street artist who was born in London, UK as Ben Flynn. He is most famous for his work Alphabet Street, but gained international fame when one of his works was presented to President Obama as a gift. Eine started out as a writer, and then eventually transitioned into a street artist. He specializes in creating work on store-fronts that consist of over-sized letters and bright colors. His work can be seen in cities all over the world, including San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo, Dublin, Stockholm, and London.
Eine began his career more than 25 years ago as a vandal, leaving graffiti tags all over his hometown of London. Eine eventually developed his own creative style; he started to seek out commercial graffiti work after attending a workshop in Leonard Street, London. He created a number of custom fashion designs including the Vandals sweatshirts and eventually moved into screen printing. He then began creating work for the screen printing company Pictures on Walls. Eine produced many prints for artists including Jamie Hewlett (English, b.1968), Bansky (English, b.1974), David Shrigley (British, b.1968), Modern Toss, and Mode 2. He stopped doing this work and launched an independent career in 2008.
Eine's commercial work inspired him to create a variety of lettering styles including circus, neon, shutter, vandalism, wendy, and elton. He was named one of the six best artists working in London by Time Out magazine in 2008. Amnesty International invited Eine to design their 50th anniversary poster in 2011. Eine's artwork has been exhibited in a number of solo and group shows worldwide, including When the Lights Go Out in 2008 at the Andenken Gallery in Denver, CO, Vandalism in 2007 at the Kemistry Gallery in London, UK, Santa's Ghetto in 2007 in Bethlehem, and Nuart in 2007 in Stavanger, Norway. His work is frequently featured in promotional materials and magazines. It can be seen in the video Take Back the City by the rock band Snow Patrol, as well as in the Stepping Stone video by recording artist Duffy.
