The first time I heard of Invader was when I found the Banksy documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop on Netflix. At the time my knowledge of street art was pretty much just limited to a vague awareness to Banksy’s existence since he’s probably one of the most famous street artists in the world so it was pretty interesting to learn about other street artists who weren’t Banksy. Unfortunately, due to poor timing I never actually finished Exit Through the Gift Shop since I got a bit sidetracked with what I was watching and it was pulled off before I could finish it. I was actually surprised they would pull it off due to Banksy’s philosophy but I’m guessing it wasn’t so much up to his but due to some licensing or copyright issues that are out of his control.

After discovering Invader from Exit Through the Gift Shop I really fell in love with his work. His pixelated/8-bit style is something I just find really unique and I thought it would be cool to either go on a tour of city hunting down some of his work or at least check out an exhibition featuring him.

Eventually, my wish is granted because I come across a sponsored Facebook post advertising an exhibition of Invader’s work titled “Into The White Cube” taking place at Over The Influence’s LA gallery that featured many examples of Invader’s work during his career.

After my experience trying to go Shepard Fairey’s Damaged exhibition I figured I wouldn’t bother going to the opening reception and dealing with something that would more than likely turn out to be a giant clusterfuck and involve me standing outside in the cold for 6 hours. Since the exhibition was supposed to go on for a little over a month I figured I’d just wait a couple weeks and just go when it hype died down a little so that I’d be able to go and get pictures of everything in peace.

If you’re one of the rare people whose attention I’ve managed to capture and you’ve read through more of my blog you’ve heard me say in the past that hopefully I can turn this blog into a golden ticket and use it to get into cool events and get free shit. Hell, I’m hoping I’ll reach a level where I won’t need to hit people up and ask them for stuff, instead I’m hoping it will be the other way around and they’ll be asking me to go to their event to take pictures or they’ll send me free shit to photograph for them.

Going to this exhibition I feel that I’m one more step towards my goals, but after taking a look back at my photos I realized that I still have a long way to go. I remember when I came up with this site I thought the best way to set myself apart from other people and their blogs was to have some damn good pictures and after looking at my photos I did not do that.

The problem with my photos is that I was too focused on making sure I got pictures of the artwork is that I didn’t try to do anything creative while I was there. No fancy angles, or framing, I did nothing creative whatsoever.

I’m really pissed at myself. Not just because I did nothing to set myself apart from others but also because of all the money I’ve sunk into equipment to take these awesome photos and I’ve done so little to use all my stuff to my full potential.

In my posts from LA Comic Con I’ve brought up how I need practice shooting conventions so I can get more creative with my pictures and I think right now I need to do the same thing with art exhibitions. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find some stuff soon because I am just dying right now to just break out my camera and just start taking pictures of stuff.

Until then please enjoy these pictures from Invader’s Into The White Cube Exhibition.