Off The Wall: Complex Selects the Art of the Week

This past week, LA announced plans for a K-Pop museum, an American tourist accidentally broke the finger off of an ancient statue in Italy, the trailer for George Clooney's movie about art thieves came out, TMZ parodied Lady Gaga's nude video performing the Abramovic Method, and very sadly, the Miami police tasered an 18-year-old graffiti writer to death. Things were all over the place, but as art continues to trend in 2013, the intersections will only become more frequent and the art will only get weirder. Enjoy this week's installment of Off The Wall.

RELATED: Off The Wall: Complex Selects the Art of the Week (August 2)

Off The Wall: Complex Selects the Art of the Week

No matter what you think of Banksy, a pretty heartwarming story came out about him this week. The story goes that Banksy painted a water tank in Los Angeles with the words, "This Looks a Bit Like an Elephant," which collectors subsequently bought after they realized it was done by him. Little did they know that a homeless man named Tachowa Covington had been squatting there for seven years, and the collectors evicted him. Last week, Covington told The Independent that Banksy gave him enough money to live for a year, adding, "There ain't no better man than Banksy...He was an angel to me. He helped me more than anybody helped me in my life." Banksy put his artistic influence and revenue to good use and redeemed himself in the eyes of people who thought he may have selfishly commandeered the space.

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Last May, Amazon announced that their plans to have an art store would soon become a reality. On August 6, the world was able to see the result, and as Andrew pointed out, you can now have both socks and a Picasso painting in your shopping cart at the same damn time. While many newer companies have created online stores for art with stylish user experiences, a mega-store hadn't done so yet. The Amazon Art Store is considered to be in its beta stage still and has around 40,000 works and 4,500 artists so far. If you're looking to buy an awesome art piece without breaking the bank, have no fear, there's a category for "Under $200" and quality pieces for as low at $10. Get collecting!

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Besides IKEA launching a mobile app that allows you to see their furniture in your home and Google's Chris Messina leaving to work at an art startup, NeonMob, a certain livestream effort takes the cake for the Art Tech Moment of the Week.

August 6 would have been Andy Warhol's 85th birthday, so the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh set up a 24-hour livestream of the gravesite at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery. Was it a little creepy? Yes. Would Warhol have approved, though? Probably. They called the project "Figment," since Warhol once said that's the word he wanted engraved on his tombstone.

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Who doesn't like a good flower crown? The answer is no one. This Tumblr gives your favorite models, animals, political figures, and celebrities the flower crown they ought to sport all the time, even if it's 2013 and only Lana Del Rey seems to be doing it.

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Katharina Grosse" set up her "Wunderblock" exhibition at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, and it includes a multi-color indoor installation with large mounds of soil striped in rainbow. She adds to the euphoria with vibrant paint drips on the walls and Colorblocks sculptures. If you're in Dallas, dont miss the chance to enter another world with "Wunderblock."

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When Complex Music found photos of Jay Z and Dame Dash taking pictures and chatting at the birthday party of a Def Jam employee in Williamsburg, they unleashed hilarious memes imagining what the two could have possibly been discussing or thinking.

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We all make mistakes, but the builders of the Intempo Skyscraper in Benidorm, Spain made a huge one. As part of an attempt to represent economic rebuilding in Spain, the crew got over-excited and tried to add an extra 27 storeys to an already 20-storey building. The bad news? THEY FORGOT TO EXTEND THE ELEVATOR. Oof. Stay tuned to see how they fix this monumental faux pas.

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In sad street art news, the Olympic Legacy List has been commissioning the work of non-local artists on London's eastside River Lea Navigation, only a short time after they painted over the work of local artists to "clean up" for the Olympics last year. In better news, The Wooster Collective has celebrated their new "10 Years of Wooster Collective" exhibition at Jonathan LeVine gallery by commissioning works all over Brooklyn. Faith47's headless winged creatures are breathtaking amongst equally beautiful works by Shepard Fairey, DALeast, Buff Monster, The London Police, and Eltono.

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Besides the random yet not terribly surprising news that James Franco has a creepy doll of himself for sale at the Disney store, this week's random news was trumped by Lady Gaga's video demonstration of Marina Abramovic's Abramovic Method. The two sit in the woods, Gaga aaahhhsss throughout, and she hugs crystals...fully naked. Based on Gaga's recently released photographs by Inez and Vinoodh, she's not shying away from bearing it all for her new album, ARTPOP.

The only thing more random (and awesome) than Gaga doing the Abramovic method is a video of TMZ employees doing a parody of it in their office. This makes us think that the Abramovic Method could become the new Baauer "Harlem Shake," and based on its promotion of monotasking (you know, the opposite of multitasking), we would not be mad.

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Jay Z didn't rap "Somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is twerking" for nothing. The fall, when her new album BANGERZ will supposedly be released, will inevitably be filled with magazine covers and spreads of the actress/singer twerking up a storm. She tweeted this image from a shoot for Notion magazine, which shows her ever-evolving style and partly matches her look from Big Sean's "Fire" video, released August 2.

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To promote his latest blog entry on VICE, where Franco discusses his love for Paul and Damon McCarthy's work, James Franco Photoshopped himself into Paul McCarthy's Snow White Universe piece. His art prowess has reached new heights.

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Last Wednesday, "10 Years of Wooster Collective" opened at Jonathan LeVine Gallery to to a crowd of street art-lovers and the artists who themselves contributed work to the show. Shepard Fairey and Ron English were signing autographs alongside their pieces, while everyone collectively celebrated the work of Marc and Sara Schiller and how the culture of street art wouldn't be the same without them. This Vine of a moving Skewville piece shows just one of many outstanding pieces at the exhibition.

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Thursday was National Cat Day, so the September 2013 title Balthus and Cats Alain Vircondelet feels right for the Art Book of the Week. Painter Balthus Klossowski called himself the "King of the Cats" and was known for being mostly withdrawn with the exception of his feline obsession. Vircondelet effectively portrays Balthus as very cat-like himself—quiet and attracted to the alleyways of life. The obsession was real for Balthus from a very young age; for example, after losing his childhood cat, Misou, he drew forty Indian ink drawings in his memory.

The strength of Balthus and Cats is in the amount of material shared by his family—photographs, mementos, and reproductions of his cat paintings—which make the book a posthumous revelation for many of Balthus' biggest fans. For the prolific artist, cats were loyal, creative companions and muses. They helped him realize himself and his work in a way that will appeal to any art lover. Visit an exhibition concurrent with the release of the book at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from September 23, 2013 to January 12. 2014.

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Kavinsky's "Odd Look" video is pure magic. Anyone who has listened to Kavinsky's new album OutRun knows that it's got an '80s electronic vibe that makes you want to exclusively listen to it in a car at night. Surprise! The video matches that sentiment, and Kavinksy saves/kidnaps a hot diner girl (Victoria Geil) in an epic fight scene. The dark deserted diner vibes meet bright neon colors and an outrageous, classic narrative to show boy saving girl and girl waking up in his car, terrified.

Adrian Piper's Imagine [Trayvon Martin] piece speaks volumes. As rallies and meetups continue to happen all over the US to express disapproval of the the court's ruling that George Zimmerman is not guilty, Piper's image hits a very sensitive nerve that all should be confronting.

(Digital image, 10.5" x 10.75" (26.5 cm x 27.33 cm). Distributed courtesy Elizabeth Dee Gallery. Collection Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation Berlin. © APRA Foundation Berlin)