Legendary street artist Futura will be hitting the streets of Richmond VA this Friday! Futura, who got his start painting on the New York subways back in the 70s when that was still possible, soon built a legally-approved artistic career, beginning with his 80s era gallery showings alongside such artists as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He worked extensively with The Clash in the early 80s, doing artwork for their single "This Is Radio Clash" and a guest vocal on their Combat Rock track "Overpowered By Funk," as well as appearing on tour with them, doing live paintings while they performed. In the 90s, he created artwork for the electronic music project Unkle, and worked with clothing companies like Nike, Levi's, North Face, and more, as well as designing his own clothing under the label Futura Laboratories. His fine art career continues to this day, with exhibitions around the world, and in recent years, he's made appearances in music videos, documentaries, and video games. His latest project is a design for a limited, collector's edition Hennessy VS Cognac bottle, and his national tour in support of this project will bring him to RVA this Friday!
Futura is visiting several different cities across the country as part of his tour in support for his work with Hennessy on this limited edition label, and Richmond is fortunate to be one of those cities. As part of his trip through town, Futura will be making a public appearance at the ABC store on Thompson St, located at 101 N. Thompson, next to Ellwood Thompson's Natural Market. Beginning at 2 PM on Friday, Futura will do a live painting on a canvas within the ABC store, after which he'll be signing limited edition Hennessy bottles until 4 PM. This public event offers RVA citizens a chance to watch a master of street art create a painting before their very eyes! And with the bonus opportunity to get an already-rare Hennessy bottle that will become even more valuable with the addition of a Futura signature, this becomes the sort of exclusive opportunity that comes around so infrequently, we can't recall the last time something this cool took place within the borders of our fair city. So take the afternoon off work, and start your weekend off right with Futura at the ABC Store. You'll be glad you did!
Check out some of Futura's art below, and dig on "The Escapades Of Futura 2000," a super old-school rap record Futura put together in the early 80s, featuring The Clash and Fab 5 Freddy.
