In a world where technology allows artists cheap, easy access to print off 1000's of digital renderings with minimal effort, NewYork-based artistic duo ASVP are standing out. While the artists' identities (as well as the acronym ASVP) remain shrouded in mystery, the time and attention to detail they put into their handmade, silk-screened pasters is attracting some serious attention.
"Nearly everything we do is totally original artwork that is hand drawn, first in pencil, then in ink, then refined over-and-over again and slowly redrawn again in an ultra-clean digital form that gives us the ability to pull super clean, high quality prints. Then we burn our own screens and make our own prints.
We're learning that some people think the images are lifted because of how clean they are. This kills us... The handmade quality is an integral part of who we are and what we hope people will appreciate what we're doing."
Their pieces can be seen on the streets of cities around the world, like London, Zurich, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong, and all across the US in cities like San Francisco, Detroit, Cleveland and here in Chicago where there are still a couple of old ASVP pieces riding from years ago. So when you do spot one, take a minute to appreciate the fact that it wasn't spit out of a copier at Kinko's.