The famous London artist Endless has signed a limited edition of Fine Bone China featuring his most famous street icons, from Lizzy Vuitton to Chapel N.5.
The system, you know, you can choose to fight it from the inside or from the outside, what makes the difference is “how” you do it. The London-based artist Endless chose to do it in the first way with great irony, excellent taste for composition, scenic talent and perseverance. Features that have made him quickly become one of the artists who have contributed most to “elevate” street art to art with a capital A, by exploiting, just like Banksy, those logics of marketing that are at the same time the object of his artistic reflection.
Graduated from the Cambridge School of Art, where he specialized in art and screen printing, Endless begins with the stencil technique, the simplest way to express himself and at the same time advertise his work on the walls of London, his canvases, as he likes to define them. He chooses the nickname Endless because his projects are characterized by a continuous flow of ideas, the desire to learn new techniques, to experiment, without ever stopping.
It interests me how the perception of anything changes according to its economic value. Art must make people reflect and feel emotions; this is the meaning of my work, which I want to reach as many people as possible.
(Endless, artist)
The fashion icons become the protagonists of his creations, in particular the cult of the brand, of the need for ostentation that characterizes our society, elevating brands and celebrities to new objects of veneration. Inspired by the famous photo of Elizabeth II of England taken by Chris Levine, Endless in 2012 invents Lizzy Vuitton, his beloved Queen, for him the latest true icon of fashion, portrayed in a glam-punk version with a branded shawl.
Lizzy brought him luck and in 2016 he was noticed by Ed Burstell, the director of Liberty London, one of the most famous department stores in the world, who asked him to paint the windows to pay homage to 50 years of British punk. It is a success.
Fashion continues to be a source of inspiration for Endless and his works, conceived by day and created by night in the streets of London, are increasingly critically focused on the contrast between old and new symbols of worship. Like the Deities series in which, for example, the Chanel N.5 perfume is transformed into the word “Chapel” because, in a world where brands are the new gods, shops are the new churches and their legends – Karl Lagerfeld, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell – the new gods.
In 2019, another turning point: Endless meets the gallerist Cristian Contini, founder together with Fulvio Granocchia of the prestigious Cris Contini Contemporary gallery based in Mayfair, London, and Porto Montenegro and in Milan at the Salotto di Milano where the Endless The Queen & Culture Exhibition was held in May 2021. Thanks to this artistic partnership, he began collaborations with major international brands such as Karl Lagerfeld, with whom he works on a capsule collection and a commemorative solo exhibition, and Fiorucci, the first artist since Keith Haring and Andy Warhol to collaborate with the legendary company for the creation of a T-shirt and other limited edition products.
Endless’s artistic consecration arrives in Italy in 2021: he is, in fact, the first street artist in history to add one of his works to the permanent collection of the Gallerie degli Uffizi museum in Florence.
In 2021 Endless launches a new collaboration, continuing a match, the one between art and ceramics already pursued by Picasso, Keith Haring and Gio Ponti, just to name a few big names. Driven by the desire to reach as many people as possible with his works, this time directly in their homes, together with Geminiano Cozzi Venezia 1765, the historic brand now owned and produced by Antonio Tognana, he has launched a deliciously punk limited edition.
The collection includes 3 plates and 3 mugs in Fine Bone China depicting some of the main icons of Endless’s work: Lizzy Vuitton, Chapel N. 5 and his signature-logo; so beautiful that the major department stores in the world have already dedicated entire windows to them, such as the Coin Department Store in Milan.
What’s next? Endless continues its experiments and provocations through the streets of London and is planning new exhibitions, this time squinting at the ancient past to show that between the work of the artists who use the street as a canvas and the greats of the Renaissance there are more assonances of that you think. Word of Eike Schmidt.
Further Info
Cris Contini Contemporary
Geminiano Cozzi Venezia 1765
Pictures courtesy of Cris Contini Contemporary
