All posts tagged: Art Books

BSA HOT LIST: Books For Your Gift Giving 2019

BSA HOT LIST: Books For Your Gift Giving 2019

The ephemeral qualities of art in the streets are effectively contradicted by this site, and we have captured much in the time we’ve been documenting the scene. Even, so, it is primarily digital, our work, our gift to you. If you want something of more lasting value, buy a book.

This year we had the pleasure of reviewing a number of books, and even appeared in a few ourselves with text and photos. If you’re looking for a lovely gift for the graffiti/Street Art/ Urban Art/ Contemporary Urban Art fan in your life, have a look at this list – our Hot List of 2019.

Futura 2000 “Full Frame” by Magda Danysz

From BSA:

Futura Goes “Full Frame” by Magda Danysz

One benefit of being ahead of your time is that you can paint your own rules, discover your own voice, set a standard. A drawback is that you may have to push forward on your own before you gain support for what you are pursuing. The key is to keep moving.

As Futura pulls fully into the frame of contemporary artist, its important for upcoming artists to remember that he had a long route – including being a bike messenger on Manhattan’s untamed streets to provide for his family – while he was waiting until the rest of the street and art world caught up with him. Now that Street Art has confirmed that his abstract explorations on subway trains were an early sign of what was coming, brands and gallerists and collectors often call. “Full Frame” helps appreciate the body of work he developed during that time.

Hendrik Beirkich: “Siberia”

From BSA:

Hendrik Beikirch Traces Lives and Memories in “Siberia”

A corollary to 2015’s “Tracing Morocco” by German street artist Hendrik Beirkirch (aka ECB), a new book travels to meet the rugged inhabitants of Siberia’s countryside in the Russian Federation. The results are starkly genuine, impressively authentic.

Again indulging us in the deep crevasses of many a weathered façade, Siberia invites you to meet the people whom he has met in his travel and presumably befriended, given their ease as subjects. A part of the Jardin Rouge stable over the past few years, Beirkirch has followed the lead of founder Jean Louis Haguenauer, the Frenchman who moved to Russia in the early 1980s and found his own odyssey outside the city to be formative to his character, leading him to write the introduction to the handsome tome.

“Graffiti In New York Hardcore” by Freddy Alva

From BSA:

Urban Styles: Graffiti in New York Hardcore

A welcome and necessary addition to any graffiti academic’s library comes Urban Styles: Graffiti in New York Hardcore, carefully documented by Freddy Alva. A thorough recounting of the birth and growth of graffiti through the lense of punk and hardcore scenes after 1980, Alva presents a parallel evolution of a scene as it was interpreted by a largely white constituency of rockers, anarchists, and rebels who grew up in and around New York at that time.

Alva is careful to give due to the graffiti scene that is more often identified as the roots of this practice of urban mark making; the hip-hop culture of primarily black and latino youth during the 1960s and 1970s. As the neoliberal corporate capitalists took over Wall Street and the Reagan White House, a different sort of graffiti writer was often showing up on the street – and often on stage as part of a hardcore band.

“Smashed: The Art Of The Sticker Combo” by I Will Not

From BSA:

SMASHED: The Art of the Sticker Combo by “I Will Not”

Anyone born after 1960, and that includes most sticker artists on the street today, has a positive association with the humble sticker. From “smiley” and “gold star” rewards stuck to the top of your grade-school class papers to scratch-n-sniff or puffy stickers to MAD magazine product parodies for Quacker Oats and Minute Lice, a lot of kids grew up with good feelings about slaps.

Over the past two decades a serious community of sticker designers, traders, artists, exhibitors and collectors has emerged – virtually assuring that public bathrooms in heavy metal/ punk / hip hop/ alternative music clubs will be covered top to bottom or ‘smashed’ with stickers. Adhesive equivalents of a business card or portfolio sample for many artists, musicians, philosophers, anarchists, and wise guys/gals, stickers are a quick and relatively inexpensive way to get your message out to the world.

“The Rap Quotes Coast To Coast” by Jay Shells

From BSA:

Jay Shells: The “Rap Quotes” Book

Context and placement are key to the success of Street Art. Jay Shells’s project, “The Rap Quotes” more than meets those standards. Indeed his project might be one of the most relevant examples of street art responding to a specific time and place in history that you’ll ever see.

We’ve been repping Jay Shells (Jason Shelowitz) for years since we first found his text-based signage on Brooklyn streets in the oddest of locations. Within a short time they began to make sense, and then brilliant sense – since they acted as a GPS for some of your favorite rap lyrics. 

“What if somehow these lyrics existed visually, in the exact location mentioned?” he says to illustrate his original idea.

“Flowers” by Michael De Feo

From BSA:

Michael De Feo “FLOWERS”

Amid the detritus of the urban cityscape in decline, it is a welcome contrast to see a dandelion or wild daisy sprouting up from a crack in the sidewalk. Not only is it a reminder of the original inhabitants of the land you are standing on it is an ever-present truth that the plants and the trees and the animals will inherit the earth again, no matter what grand ideas you have for it.

The simplest symbol of nature in the layered debris of urban margins, and a decorative one, is the flower that Micheal De Feo has been “planting” on walls since the early 1990s. The practice has sustained him through many cities and travels abroad, introducing him to artists and fans and collectors, eventually pushing him into explorations of contemporary art.

“Street Art Las Vegas” by William Shea and Patrick Lai

From BSA:

“Street Art Las Vegas” Takes a Tour Beyond the Strip

Before there was a scene in Las Vegas, there was a scene in Las Vegas.

Not in just the shimmering, drink slamming, dice rolling, pink-fur bikini with a rhinestone choker kind of way – that’s the real Las Vegas scene that you may think of – but in the urban art scene as well.

In this context, the Las Vegas graffiti/Street Art scene that existed in the 1990s and 2000s that led up to a massive “Meeting of Styles” in 2012 was lively and varied and leaned more toward lettering, handstyle, and characters. Later, beginning in 2013 with a music/art festival called “Life is Beautiful”, a select group of international Street Artists was paid by public and private interests to help the city tap into a growing interest in urban decoration with eye-popping murals.

“Stencillists / Pochoiristes” by Serge Louis

From BSA:

“Stencilists / Pochoiristes” Cuts Across the Street Scene Gallantly, with Serge Louis

Enthusiastic authors like Serge Louis can make Street Art sing, even in print. His new “Stencilists/Pochoiristes” is a finely illustrated hardcover of iconic images from the street. The carefully selected plates are placed within interviews in French and English.

The 17 stencillists whom he has selected are from a populated field of possibilities but he captures a fair range from his travels in Europe – with a few from the US to compliment them.

“Utility Writers” by MRKA

From BSA:

MRKA Gives High Marks to “Utility Writers” in Unique Street Tome

When academics and post-modern esoteric poets plunge into descriptions of graffiti sometimes they proffer colorful didactics and clever terminology like “mark-making” and “gestural” to describe the tagging practice. Conceptualist, graffiti writer, and multimedia artist MRKA takes a step toward the mundane and discovers a new kind of poetry with his “Utility Writers”.

“Stickers Vol 2: More Stuck Up Crap” by DB Burkeman

From BSA:

Stickers Vol. 2: More Stuck-Up Crap from DB Burkeman

In the Street Art continuum that presents itself to the passerby on city streets, the early practice of hand-drawn tags on stolen postal stickers eventually morphed into mass-produced slick runs of personal branding and large scale one-off hand rendered/cut paper pieces wheat-pasted with a brush. This story, ever-evolving, is more inclusive than some may think of when you talk generically about “slaps” on a door or on the base of a streetlamp in the city’s visual dialogue. For the book Stickers Vol 2, author DB Burkeman takes a wider survey of the practice, however, and in his second compendium, he goes where BSA has always followed the creative spirit; wherever it leads.

Dont Fret “Life Thus Far”

From BSA:

Dont Fret: “Life Thus Far”

Nothing to lose your head about, but you’ll be thrilled to hear about the long-anticipated release of the new monograph by the ingenious troublemaker and largely incognito Chicago Street Artist DONT FRET.

Emerging on the streets for a decade or so with painted wit and misshapen characters wheat-pasted where you least expect them, he’s the sharp observer and human humorist whose work is as brilliant as your cousin Marlene, as funny as Johnny at the funeral home, as handsome as the guys behind the counter at Publican Quality Meats.

Well, maybe not that handsome.

Various & Gould “Permanently Improvised”

From BSA:

Various & Gould and a Collaged Human Future: “Permanently Improvised”

“Our early conceptions about a future robot world were made from what we knew about automation and mechanics. Thankfully the surrealists and Dadaists were there to help us with flying ships made of tea pots and mystic, amiable metal helpers soldered and screwed together with spare train pistons and kitchen implements. Our helpers were all carefully oiled and pumping, marching in a mathematical concert through dry-ice fog, propelling herky-jerky humanoids up the path to the thoroughly modern world.

Do Rabotniki exist? They are already here. It just took Various & Gould to remind us.”


~ Steven P. Harrington in his essay “A Mixed and Matched Future-Past: Robotiniki” for “Permanently Improvised: 15 years of Urban Print Collage” by Various & Gould

Read more
Alan KET Brings You “Urban Art Legends”

Alan KET Brings You “Urban Art Legends”

A new hard cover book by Alan Ket aka KET One will be released next month that spotlights a select group of artists from both the graffiti and Street Art scenes, people whom KET calls “Urban Art Legends”.

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-1

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This book is about the artists who have pioneered, promoted and transformed this ‘other’ art world,” says the author, himself a graffiti writer, artist, curator, activist, advisor and entrepreneur. What is fresh about his approach is the egalitarian respect that is given to artists regardless of their genre or associated scene, something we have always tried to balance as well amid a sometimes turbulent volley of antagonism that can sometimes distinguish graffiti/street art discourse.

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-2

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here “Urban Art Legends” focuses on a short list of widely agreed upon influencers of art in the streets throughout the last half century – since the early gang and tagging days of the late 60s in NY/Philly/LA through its various evolutions of the figurative, cartoon-inspired, Wild Style, symbolist, and abstract iterations to its intersections with fine art and DIY movements and pop, politics, illustration, duplication, and multiples. He’s right, this is the ‘other’ art world – and we daily see signs that it is seriously altering the more conventional contemporary art world, sometimes remaking it in its image.

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-3

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With names as varied as Crash, Cost, Blade, ROA, Lee, Banksy, Sane Smith, Faith47, Daze, Nick Walker, and Kase2 – “Urban Art Legends” reaches its arms wide to encompass style masters and stencil masters, each with a brief bio, overview and rationale for their “Legendary Status”. Consider it a primer that adds further rich detail to the canon. KET freely concedes “This is not the definitive book on urban street art. The world of street art is so dynamic and fast-paced that the story is still being lived out,” and elsewhere he says, “there are many more who deserve recognition.”

With that in mind, KET has beautifully captured many important artists and their stories in “Urban Art Legends”

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-4

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

New Yorkers will have an opportunity to meet the author and two of those legends on February 9th at the Museum of the City of New York. DAZE and Nick Walker will join KET to discuss KET’s new book and visitors can also see the new show Chris “Daze” Ellis: The City is My Muse.

March 2nd it will be BSA and Daze in conversation at the museum so you can put that in your calendar as well.

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-5

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-6

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-7

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-ket-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-8

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

“Urban Art Legends” by KET published by Lom Art. London 2015
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>

Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>

Read more
“Tracing Morocco”, Hendrik Beikirch

“Tracing Morocco”, Hendrik Beikirch

Dignity in “Tracing Morrocco” gives pause, requests your consideration.

Last year we wrote about Hendrik Beikirch’s journey to Morocco, The Trades. With the support of the Foundation Montresso he embarked  on a project to paint the portraits of people whose trades might be in danger of becoming obsolete and/or disappearing due to the complexities of the modern world. Tracing Morocco, the book about the project is now out…

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-1

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Magical and venerable tree whose roots piece the rock and seal an irrevocable pact with the earth,” says one of the quotes translated into Arabic, French, and English. This is the long view taken by a mature artist of a life lived with dignity, old enough to see that their roots run deep. Each portrait is compelling, a trades person enmeshed in this North African society, performing a role and a service deemed honest and necessary for the interdisciplinary machinery of daily life.

Barber, shepherd, carpenter, public letter-writer, henna artist, boat builder, tool merchant, fisherman: trades and services of Morocco where Beikirch (Street Artist ECB) traced the landscape, the city streets, the faces. Here you find his related studio practice, his gallery canvasses, his walls – all of which speak to the study he has undertaken of these singular figures.

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-2

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Mohamed, Barber. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Acrylic, india ink, spray paint – each have their individual character, able to tell tales in their own right, now rendered together in service of capturing a face, a woven straw hat, a printed scarf wrapped over the head.

Elsewhere the artist strikes a modern and smooth James Dean / Chet Baker figure in black and white as he seriously renders, pen in hand, thin brush clenched between teeth. He is looking to his future here and while the faces and trades vary, in each one Beikirch has coaxed, captured, delivered the same thing, a light burning inside the eyes.

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-3

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Mohamed, Barber. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The book is well planned, judiciously edited, and warm without sentimentality. Interspersed with cropped images of the completed sketches and canvasses is black and white photography illustrating the tools of the trade, sometimes a practitioner. “Tracing Morrocco” gives credit to the worker for their efforts and their skill and opens the door to so many inquiries, so many stories about the subject and how they have navigated through this life.

Given the successful portrayals here and ECB’s penchant for portraits, one can easily imagine more countries and people may be traced in the future, for you to examine.

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-4

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Ahmed, Shepherd. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-5

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Ahmed, Shepherd. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-7

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Mustapha, Carpenter. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-6

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Mustapha, Carpenter. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-9

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Lahcen, Public letter-writter. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-8

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Lahcen, Public letter-writter. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-11

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Fadma, Henna artist. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hendrik-beikirch-tracing-morocco-jaime-rojo-01-16-web-10

Hendrik Beikirch. Tracing Morocco. Fadma, Henna artist. Montresso Art Foundation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Hendrik Beikirch’s Tracing Morocco published by and in collaboration with Montresso Art Foundation. November 2016.

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>

Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>

Read more
Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien Issue #3: Erotik Edition

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien Issue #3: Erotik Edition

Who says zines died with the printing press? The Internet may have completely redefined how we communicate but the appetite for hand made independent publications has only strengthened in recent years, especially as major publishers have consolidated and changed their strategies to safe titles and topics just to stay alive.

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-1

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’re always happy to see hand-made publications, especially when they are made by artists and collectives. For their 3rd edition, Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien have decided their theme is “Erotik”. With multiple contributions from fellow graffitti / Street Artists, you can see a few recurring themes amongst the figurative pieces. Included are some three dimensional pieces and many shots of favorite artworks on the street, which will apparently conjure erotik type feelings for certain folks.

The release party was at Urban Spree in Berlin and was a throbbing success with the handmade, artist-driven book/zine sold out.

Links to all the participating artists at the end.

 

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-3

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-4

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-5

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-6

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-8

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-7

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-9

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-2

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-street-art-irga-irga-crew-knarf-jaime-rojo-08-15-web-10

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

To order a copy of Issue Nr. 3 of  Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien: Erotik Edition click HERE

screenprinted + handmade Hardcover

and includes works by :

p a n t  (ub)
T O M E K (pal)
GERMES gang
2 5 0 1
Moderne Jazz CREW
GRAPHIC SURGERY
108
BASIK
CT
JAMY
EUGOR & UROD
FRESHMAX
TURBOSAFARY
Giorgio Bartocci
Retro23
MAFIA / TABAK
alberonero
BURN-bjoern
s h i d a
K N A R F

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more
Graffiti South Africa, The Book

Graffiti South Africa, The Book

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-1

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book cover © Jaime Rojo)

A big hardcover from South Africa arrived in the mail recently and we wanted to share it with you because we think you’ll like it.

“I’ve tried to keep my text concise and simple, without burdening readers with copious historical details or ponderous views on artistic expression, sociopolitical issues, or cultural trends,” says author Cale Waddacor of this survey, and you can tell that he intends to keep his word, but he just knows too much valuable stuff to keep hidden.

What he holds back in prose he delivers in a spectrum of representational images that give you an idea of the quality of work going up in this scene with quite a range. From basic outlines and fills to wild style to today’s illustrators, muralists and contemporary artists, South African streets boasts a lot more than you may have imagined.

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-2

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

Arranged by three main areas of Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, you even get a helpful map to help you appreciate the relative distance between them and the higher concentrations of writers in each – Graffiti South Africa gives a rather thorough overview of the scene, its players, and its history. The first book by the founder of the website by the same name, he has collected many images and interviews with artists from the early days as well as some of the newer ones, striking a balance in a widely varied scene that leans heavily toward graff vernacular while trying to incorporate the burgeoning street art scene as well.

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-3

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

The book also features a number of quotes that quickly give you an idea about the environment and the community, ” Writers need to respect each other for being different, and not for being the same. My crew is made up of totally different individuals, with varying views and styles,” says Drone.  The artist React observes a scene that continues to grow and improve, “Graffiti is getting more and more polished and impressive. Mural art has always existed but the mediums have changed.”

Overall, you’ll be impressed by the variety and the quality of work, even if it is true that South Africa joined the international graffiti and street art scene a little later than others. Doesn’t matter, they can boast a rich soil now. Take it from the writer named Lazer, ” We may not have the quantity of writers, but the quality of the bombing, panels, and productions being painted here is world class.”

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-4

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-5

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-6

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-7

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-graffiti-south-africa-cale-waddacor-02-15-web-8

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

 

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor available from Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks! <<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more
The Art Of Nick Walker: A Monograph

The Art Of Nick Walker: A Monograph

We like you to have books, even though BSA is almost exclusively a digital companion for our readers and fans. But yes, we are in love with books and Christmas is coming and so is Hannukah in 5 days or so and the end of the year is just brimming with good heavy tomes to pour over.

Today we’re showing you the new monograph by a 1980s graffiti writer from Bristol who evolved his work into a different sort of experience entirely and is known for his bowler – and Mona Lisa’s bare bum as well. Nick Walker is a world traveler by now and spends much of his time in New York at the moment so it’s a great pleasure to let you know about this big beefy one – something to pour over while the weather outside is frightful.

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-monograph-12-14-web-1

The Art Of Nick Walker. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-monograph-12-14-web-2

The Art Of Nick Walker. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-monograph-12-14-web-3

The Art Of Nick Walker. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-monograph-12-14-web-4

The Art Of Nick Walker. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-monograph-12-14-web-5

The Art Of Nick Walker. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-monograph-12-14-web-6

The Art Of Nick Walker. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-monograph-12-14-web-7

The Art Of Nick Walker. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

The Art Of Nick Walker can be purchased at: http://www.theartofnickwalker.com/

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
 
Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
 
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
Read more
Rafael Schacter and His “World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

Rafael Schacter and His “World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

As we endure our one billionth snowstorm this winter we continue to paw through the stack of beautiful Street Art, graffiti, public art, and urban art books that we are honored to receive through the mail, and today we’re taken by The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti by Rafael Schacter, with foreword by John Fekner.

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-1

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

The substantial hardcover from Yale University Press is a very solid survey of largely undisputed practitioners of Street Art world wide as well as a number of lesser known names, accompanied by succinct and accurate overviews of their individual influences and styles. With contributors that include a good balance of graffiti artists, street artists, academics, authors, graphic designers, writers, and aestheticians of various stripes, Rafael Schacter has done his research; presenting 113 artists from 25 countries with illustrative photography and examples.

Aside from the thankless task of the editing of candidates that will necessarily leave out hundreds of great artists, Schacter endeavors to present a good cross-section, something that represents the scope of the “independent public art” that has now lifted the oeuvre to global recognition along with historical context and without the narrowly pinched European academic need to effect sanctimonious pronouncements or subtly derisive classist views upon it.

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-13

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

“Indeed, there are as many different motivations, styles, and approaches within this artistic arena as there are practitioners themselves – a ‘street art’ for every street artist, a ‘graffiti’ for every graffiti writer,” says Schacter in his introduction, and his appreciation for the fundamentals of a self-determination philosophy toward the act of creative expression permeates the descriptions and analysis while gaining your respect for his adept characterizations.

We gratefully acknowledge his help in trying to categorize and describe the enormous varieties of styles, practices and influences at play today, a quickly sampling of which includes for example abstractionist, absurdist, anti-aestheticism, character based, classic graffiti lettering, collage, conceptual, contemporary, culture jamming, decontextualization, decorative, digital/geek, figurative, folk, geometric, graphic design, illustration, indigenous, installation based, interventionist, naïve, performance, photo realistic, photographic, sculptural, surrealist, symbolic, and typographic.

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-14

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

With a brilliant and personal foreword by conceptual text-based and multimedia artist John Fekner, a veteran of the art-in-the-streets practice that predates the birth of many of the artists in the book, we get a scene-setting update on what collectively is evolving as well as an insight into what is feeding the explosive growth. “For the first time in history, artists who are creating art away from the major centers of art and culture are no longer at a disadvantage. The Internet has increased accessibility through the proliferation of blogs and social media, which has fueled hordes of dedicated fan bases using cell phones and cameras to instantly record, document, and post their interpretations of life, culture, and art online,” Fekner writes.

With a well-rounded atlas like this at hand the student, scholar, and fan can gain a greater understanding of the guys and girls that paint messages in the street as well as an appreciation for their minds and craft.

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-15

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-16

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-2

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-3

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-4

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-5

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-6

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-7

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-8

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-9

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-12

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-11

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

brooklyn-street-art-rafael-schacter-the-world-atlas-street-art-02-14-web-10

Rafael Schacter “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti”

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
 
Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
 
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA
 
 
Read more