Last week we reported about David Choe being paid in 2005 in stock by Facebook, for painting murals in their offices. That stock might become worth 200 Million USD, after Facebook’s IPO and official stock market listing. Complex took a look at the richest living artists, and it is interesting to see where Choe ranks in there now.

Here is the complete list:

1. Damien Hirst – 1 Billion USD
2. Jeff Koons – 500 Million USD
3. Jasper Johns – 300 Million USD
4. David Choe – 200 Million USD
5. Andre Vicari – 142 Million USD
6. Takashi Murakami – 100 Million USD
7. Anish Kapoor – 85 Million USD
8. Antony Gormley – 50 Million USD
9. Gerhard Richter – 40 Million USD
10. David Hockney – 40 Million USD
11. Cindy Sherman – 35 Million USD
12. Richard Prince – 30 Million USD
13. Andreas Gursky – 30 Million USD
14. Chuck Close – 25 Million USD
15. Georg Baselitz – 25 Million USD

For background on each one of the artists, check the full article over at Complex.

Every year ArtReview publishes their Power 100 List, naming the 100 most powerful figures in the world of art. Inclusions range from famous artists to prominent curators, gallerists and collectors. Ai WeiWei makes the number one spot in 2011, which is not surprising, following the big reactions to his arrest earlier this year. Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Gerhart Richter, Anish Kapoor, Jeffrey Deitch, Emmanuel Perrotin, Francois Pinault and of course Damien Hirst also all made the list. Check out the Top 10 here below.

1. Ai Weiwei
2. Hans Ulrich Obrist & Julia Peyton-Jones
3. Glenn D. Lowry
4. Larry Gagosian
5. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda & Brian Kuan Wood
6. Nicholas Serota
7. Cindy Sherman
8. Iwan Wirth
9. David Zwirner
10. Beatrix Ruf

See the full list here.

The Selby paid a visit to artist Steve Powers aka ESPO in his studio space. It is always great getting an inside look at the spaces of creative people and especially of somebody as iconic as ESPO. The studio can be best described as a creative mess, that certainly has its own charm, with lots of art, sculptures and random inspirational pieces floating around. A full look at the feature can be seen here.

Some pictures from the studio visit also follow after the jump.

Clarks Originals celebrates the 60th birthday of the iconic Desert Boot with a special auction for the War Child organization, for which artists and illustrators have customized the shoe.

16 Artists, illustrators and personalities from Holland and Belgium were asked to customize the famous Clarks Originals Desert Boot. This to celebrate the 60th birthday of the crêpe sole shoe introduced by Nathan Clark. Amongst others DJ and shoe-fetishist Mr. Wix, fashion-illustrator Piet Paris and image-stylist Dyanne Beekman co-operated. These unique and arty Desert Boots will be auctioned from November 30th till December 9th 2009 via www.clarks.nl and www.clarks.be. Full profit will be donated to the charity organization War Child.

Detailed images of the Clarks Originals 60th Anniversary Desert Boot creations by the artists and illustrators follow after the jump.

Organized by London’s RS&A, the “Art of Chess” is an ongoing touring exhibition. Leading contemporary artists (for example, Damien Hirst and Paul McCarthy take the chess board as basis for their own creative interpretation of the game. McCarthy incorporates the contents of a pantry, Hirst focuses more on the games interactions within the mind. The latest incarnation of the exhibition is currently on view in Dublin at the Sebastian Guinness Gallery. Included is a newly created short film by Gavin Turk, a still of which you can see above. The exhibition will be on view in Dublin until October 9.

Via: ArtInfo

View the chess sets devised for “The Art of Chess” by Hirst and McCarthy after the jump.

As part of their 1HUND(RED) Artists project, Converse now got together with Danish brand Wood Wood. They worked on the Chuck Taylor Hi and gave it a very clean look. The entire upper comes in a lavender premium suede, the lining features the Wood Wood star map pattern, the tongue comes with a Wood Wood logo tag.

Otherwise the sneaker comes with the usual Converse 1HUND(RED) details, such as the red lace wholes at the top. A fantastic monochrome take on this classic sneaker by Wood Wood.

The Converse 1HUND(RED) Artists Wood Wood Chuck Taylor Hi will be released on October 1rst at the following US locations: Nom de Guerre, Dave’s Quality Meat, St. Alfred and Undefeated LA.

Detailed images of the sneaker follow after the jump.

Monument Snowboards has launched their new website and with it presents the line-up of their artist driven Fall/Winter 2008 collection. 
The new line-up of snowboards features the works of renowned artists Krink, Todd Tourso, Kime Buzzelli, Thom Lessner, and Owleyes. 
Have a detailed look at the entire collection of snowboards by Monument after the jump.

The Fall/Holiday 2008 Converse 1HUND(RED) Artists collection spans the globe with representation from Africa, Brazil, Japan, Norway and US with a varied list of artists ranging from Brooklyn based artist Michael Schall to African graphic designer Warwick Kay. Each artist, tasked with the creation of an original design, developed unique shoes that range from playful, graphic cartoon character images to designs that emphasize the importance of the project’s mission. Other notable artists include Colletivo Design (Brazil), Grandpeople (Norway), Ginger Jones (USA), Mister Never (USA), Amy Ruppel (USA), Laura Trowbridge (USA), UPSO (USA) and Yuko Yabuki (USA).
Here above you see the model designed by UPSO, check out the others after the jump.

Nike worked together with Bob Haro on recreating his original BMX number plate as an artist canvas. The number plate was then given to several artists, including Michael Lau, Tet from WTAPS, Greg Higgins, Lee Basford and others to create their version of the plate. The final BMX number plates were exhibited at the Nike Beijing BMX event a couple of weeks ago.
The Shadow Conspiracy crew also participated and now put a nice feature on the exhibition online. Check out the feature here.
Check out our Michael Lau Interview feature at the same event here.
And have a look at some of our favorite number plates after the jump.

Arkitip has become one of our favorite art magazines in recent years, not only because of content, but also because the overall package was always interesting and worth collecting. Now their latest issue 46 has been released and once again they put some very special together.
Issue 46 comes with 3 covers, created by Kevin Lyons, Michael Leon and ben Drury. You can get one or collect them all. The issue includes editorials from Studio von Birken/Ben Pogue, Tony Arcabascio, Nieves, C.R. Stecyk III, Frank Novak and Joshua Gregory. Each issue comes with a blank Beams T x Arkitip t-shirt and each issue comes with a heat transfer sheet designed by the cover artist, that you can then apply to the t-shirt.
A great idea. As usual the issue comes hand packaged and limited to 1500 sets.
Get yours now here.