Steve Lazarides
| Steve Lazarides | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 (age 47–48) Bristol, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Gallerist and Art Promoter |
| Known for | One time associate of Banksy and promoter of street art |
| Website | www |
Steve Lazarides (born c. 1969) is a British art gallery owner best known for once being the agent for the graffiti artist, Banksy. He is noted as one of the first figures to help popularise street art, and as an authority on the latest trends in underground art.
Steve Lazarides grew up in Bristol, England. He worked variously as a chicken processor, builder, and photographer, having studied photography at Newcastle University.
While in his twenties, Lazarides was working on a photograph shoot for Sleaze Nation magazine when he met Banksy. He then began selling the graffiti artist's work to friends and became Banksy's agent, with some sources claiming he "launched Banksy's career". Lazarides subsequently launched the 'Pictures on Walls' website to promote graffiti art, and widened his scope to work with a larger roster of street artists. He continued this tradition by creating an in-house print studio, Lazarides Editions, and working closely with the artists to create high quality prints to share with the Art community. The market in street art took off in 2007 only shortly before the 2008 Recession, with Banksy's work, "Laugh Now", selling for £228,000 at auction in early 2008. According to the Financial Times, "If there had been one individual responsible for whipping up and sustaining the fever around urban art, and who stood to lose most from its demise, it was Steve Lazarides."
Lazarides opened up his first gallery in London in 2006, and brought many unknown artist’s in the UK to light including holding Invader’s first UK exhibition, Space Invader’s Invasion London and Rubik Bad Men II. Lazarides now represents artists including the renowned portrait painter Jonathan Yeo, the Parisian artist JR, the contemporary English painter Antony Micallef and Portuguese graffiti/street artist Vhils.
In 2009 he moved headquarters from Charing Cross Road into a five-story Georgian townhouse on Rathbone Place, near Oxford Street, with the first exhibition at the new Lazarides Rathbone being of the Portuguese graffiti artist Vhils, this was also the artists debut UK show. Lazarides Rathbone now forms the flagship Lazarides space with Lazarides Editions creating prints in a separate site (situated in Greenwich). In 2016 Lazarides opened Banksy Print Gallery in South bank’s Mondrian Hotel, the space centers around Steve’s time with Banksy and also offers the chance to buy secondary-market Banksy prints.
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Wikipedia