Battle: Mr. Brown vs. Val Kilmer

PLEASE. the Val Kilmer kid is just some queen street vice mag shitty photographer with a decent sense of humour and a flare for publicity pranks. i've enjoyed watching the VK saga build up over the past few years, but i hardly think that he should be given gallery space/time. i can think of a handful of (far better/ more relevant) toronto-based wheatpasters that deserve the attention.

this? this is like putting SPUD on the cover of 'underpressure' mag.

one. trick.pony.

RIDICULOUS.

you know - i may have been a little harsh.

i guess i'm just a little disappointed with toronto. in terms of (wheat)pasting & stenciling, i feel like we're seriously lagging behind halifax, montreal and vancouver.

there's a time and place for gimmick - and VK is a funny gimmick - but it doesn't really do anything for the artform or culture.

no personal offence intended to the artists themselves...

So, you agree it's a funny gimmick. It's funny and people laugh and they appreciate spotting the tags of VK and others around the city. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the 'cockwolves' tag. I also dig the 'i love you' sprinkled across town. A friend of mine's deck looks out on an 'i love you' and there's something sort of sweet about a building giving off so much warmth.

The Val Kilmer in Toronto is a fraud, and ripped his idea off a group in Newmarket, Ontario who was spraypainting "Val Kilmer" when they were drunk.

Besides his stupid posters that he's been putting up, he has also done the exact same thing the aforementioned group was doing, and that was simply writing the name Val Kilmer in horribly messy letters.

I think it's bullshit that this guy is getting a gallery showing. By far the last thing we need is to promote shit like this.

I agree with asik - irrelevant art at this point in time !!!!!!!!!!

yeah. it's a funny gimmick. but that's not the point.

anyway, asik and twinkie have hit the nail on the head, and there's no point in repeating those same sentiments.

fuck the art - i hear they're servin' Jack Daniels and 40's of Malt Liquor... Yee-Haw!!!

The city has turned into a teenage girl's geography binder. Silly doodles on walls. How can that be so harshly judged? It's nothing.

i am down with embracing local stenciling, especially when it catches you by surprise, like this one, on the corner of st.george/bernard ave.

i don't know too much of the history of this val kilmer thing, but if a small stencil is worth noticing on a decrepit wall, or a a stale hydro box, i'm all for it. but i WILL admit... the stenciling/random postering in Montreal is beyond amazing in comparison to what i've seen it TO thus far.

well it definitely caught my attention.
i was like "What is UP with all this Val Kilmer business?? WHO is doing this? And WHY?"

i guess all the people ripping on the val kilmer stuff just don't get it, i think its funny that you hate it so much that you spend the time writing these post.
way to go.
keep it up

perfect publicity.

dear Shoe and Asik,....

Toronto is behind on a lot of things, mainly because there are so many cry babys like yourselves who think that good art and who gets an "art show" in a "gallery" should be decided by some intellectually holy being with an "art degree" or some shit.
I curate a gallery,...I think Mr. Brown and Val Kilmer are relevant right now because they manage to do something beyond being stuck in sneaker-geek land where the only graffiti that anybody can muster looks like some stale 1981 Beat Street bullshit so I gave them a show.
Bottom line,...I do shows that I like.
If you have a strong opinion about who's good with this art thing, go put a show together, that's what I've started doing
Typically complainers don't have shit going on for themselves and that sounds like you.
xo
M

artlab isn't a real gallery, and the dudes involved are fucking rainbows anyways. No one should be getting upset about this show, it only appeals to the 100 same people that shop at Vice, and go to the queenshead on thursdays. Totally masturbatory.

Fucking Rainbows! I love it. Long live Artlab! Also - Queen's Head is cool now? Plus - the vice store does suck.

Hahahahah! I like to picture pukey crapples actually making the quotation gestures with his hands while he says:

"art show" in a "gallery" should be decided by some intellectually holy being with an "art degree" or some shit."

So, and let me get this straight, the only way to be able to critique an art work, sorry an "art thing" is to create your own show? what planet do you live on? If I were you I'd stick to concentrating on making one song overlap another for drunk hiptards and leave curating shows to those "intellectually holy beings with an "art degree" or some shit."

Ipswitch,....the only hand gestures you'd likely see if you had the balls to say any of this to my face would be my knuckles pounding out your teeth.

you must know me, so come get it sweetheart