All posts tagged: Sofles

Nice Surprise Festival / Re-Cap

October 12, 2023 Artists

As the ‘Nice Surprise’ Street Art Festival wrapped up, Pobel’s impressive mural on Stavanger silos brought a bit of theater and activism to the fore. With a short lead time and a lot to learn, this first-time run festival was a heartfelt invitation to twelve talented artists from around the world, asking them to share their creativity from a variety of different vantage points in the street art/graffiti parlance with folks in Stavanger. It’s been a journey of unveiling and discovery, and here at BSA, it’s been our pleasure to travel alongside, capturing every mural and sharing it with you. Today, we give you a one-stop recap of all the pieces from the first ‘Nice Surprise’ festival.

Tito Ferrara (Brazil). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We want to say thanks to Atle Østrem, Pøbel, Tore Pang, Izabell Ekeland, and Stine Oliversen for their gracious hospitality, enthusiasm, and attention to detail. We also wish to express our gratitude to Ian Cox, Tor Ståle, and Ludvig Hart for sharing their photographs with us. Thank you also to the great people we talked with on the streets and at our formal presentation at the theater. Perhaps we’ll see you next year!

Tito Ferrara. Detail. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pøbel. (Norway). Nice Surprise Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Ian Cox)

Pøbel. Detail/WIP. Nice Surprise Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Ian Cox)

Kjell Pahr Iversen (Norway) & Atle Østrem (Norway). Nice Surprise Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Ludvig Hart)

Kjell Pahr Iversen & Atle Østrem. Nice Surprise Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kjell Pahr Iversen & Atle Østrem. Detial. Nice Surprise Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Ludvig Hart)

Gary Taxali (Canada). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tamara Alves (Portugal). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tamara Alves. Detail. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Doze Green. (USA). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Doze Green. Detail. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

TelmoMiel. (The Netherlands). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

TelmoMiel. Detail. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Belin. (Spain). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sofles (Australia) Mathis (Norway). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sofles & Mathis. Detail. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sofles (Australia). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sofles. Detail. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sofles, Smug One, Milliana, and Norse. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Nychos. (Austria). Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nychos. Detail. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In case you missed any of them, here are our postings from the festival:

Nice Surprise! Stavanger, Norway – Sofles & Friends Paint a Train for New Festival

Sofles & Mathis – Nice Surprise – Stavanger

Nychos Surprises Surreally – Nice Surprise Festival, Stavanger, Norway

Doze Green Spirits – Nice Surprise Festival – Stavanger

Belin and Ragnar Lodbrok: Tribute to a Viking in Battle at Nice Surprise Festival – Stavanger

Tamara Alves, a Car Engulfed in Flames – Nice Surprise Festival – Stavanger

“Re-Shaping Reality” with Telmo Miel at Nice Surprise Festival in Stavanger

Toilet Paper, Sparrows, and Neighbors: Telmo Miel Pt 2 in Stavanger

Gary Taxali at the Podium and on the Wall at Nice Surprise Festival – Stavanger

Tito Ferrara, Two Jaguars, and a Brazilian in Stavanger – Nice Surprise Festival

Faces from the Streets of Stavanger

Taxali Sails Into Street Art at “Nice Surprise” – Part 2

Unveiling Atle Østrem: A Fusion of Urban Narratives and Personal Expression

Modest Stencils to Towering Facades: Pøbel’s Path to Creation, Curation, Community

A Surprise Collab on Three Walls: Kjell Pahr Iversen & Atle Østrem in Stavanger

Norwegian Generations: Kjell Pahr Iversen & Atle Østrem Create Triptych in Stavanger :Part II

From Grain Silos to Grand Canvases: Pøbel’s Tribute to Norway’s Farming Frontline

Sofles & Mathis – Nice Surprise – Stavanger

June 29, 2023 Artists

Experience the synergy of history and contemporary urban art practice during this summer’s Nice Surprise street art festival with BSA in this Norwegian city. Join us as we celebrate Stavanger’s 900-year milestone with a new cadre of artists and programming that continues the modern heritage of this fortunate city on the North Sea with street art and graffiti.

Brisbane-based Sofles is an Australian graffiti writer and street artist known for his exceptional skills in both graffiti and mural art. Known for his distinct style, and mastery of many styles in graffiti, he’s been honing his skills since the late 90s. He’s developed a unique and versatile style that blends graffiti lettering, characters, and abstract elements – always infused with movement and a limitless sense of discovery.

Sofles & Mathis. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Here’s a wall he did a collaboration on with Mathis, a straight up Norwegian painting pro with lots of commercial experience and respect in the graffiti game. Mathis Anvik has a lot of great work in many styles on his social media, including stuff from Vestfold Kunstdekor, a company that specializes in painting buses, or RUSSEBUSSER – often known as party buses used by Norwegian high school graduates. But that’s another story

Sofles was the very first artist to paint in Stavanger, Norway for this first edition of Nice Surprise!, an auspicious and new Street Art Festival that will get its wings throughout the summer in this Nordic city. While in town, Sofles painted a whole train with his pals Smug One, Milliana, and Norse, which you can read all about it here. He also painted this wall in collaboration with Mathis and a wall in the downtown center of the city by himself. Tor Ståle Moen, a resident of Stavanger and frequent BSA collaborator, shared the photos of the murals with BSA readers to enjoy.

Sofles. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Nice Surprise! Stavanger, Norway – Sofles & Friends Paint a Train for New Festival

June 27, 2023 Artists

Experience the synergy of history and contemporary creativity during this summer’s Nice Surprise street art festival with BSA in this Norwegian city. Join us as we celebrate Stavanger’s 900-year milestone with a new cadre of artists and programming that continues the modern heritage of this fortunate city on the North Sea with street art and graffiti.

The street art community is abuzz with anticipation for the newly sprung Nice Surprise! street art festival taking center stage in Stavanger, Norway (pop 150,000). Stavanger, as a champion for street art and graffiti, is perhaps better known for Nuart, the long-running transformative event that breathed new life into the city, attracting acclaimed artists from around the world and elevating intellectual discourse studying graffiti and street art. Now the city is giving the seal of approval to Nice Surprise to bring its own distinctive blend of artistic brilliance and community-based camaraderie to this oil capital of Scandinavia.

Nice Surprise likes to say that it is a festival organized by artists for artists. Pøbel and Atle Østrem are artists, co-founders, and part of the team. They are internationally known as pioneers and proponents of the street art scene and have been active for at least two decades. Nice Surprise is working this summer to bring some high-profile international and local artists – and some surprises – to the city from June through September.

In addition to being a meeting place for like-minded individuals passionate about street art, Stavanger is preparing to commemorate its 900-year anniversary. Nice Surprise will embrace historical neighborhoods like Pedersgata, Domkirken, and Ullandhaug to bring fresh ideas and art into these cherished locations. By merging contemporary street art with the city’s strong cultural legacy, the festival hopes to honor Stavanger’s past while sparking excitement with relevant new works that blend artistic brilliance with historical reverence, possibly provoking some introspection.

This summer BSA will be in Stavanger to bring you images and developments of Nice Surprise as an international and local roster of names come through town. Today we begin with a collaborative train piece by Sofles, Smug One, Milliana, and Norse. The train is what we believe is to be the first legal whole train to be put in regular traffic, where it will run over the entire festival period.

Sofles, Smug One. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Milliana, and Norse. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Seagulls like to build their nests next to the tracks to keep warm from the heat that emanates from the rails and the stones. The trains move at a very slow pace in this area going in and out from the workshop buildings. The area is not too busy with almost no predators to fend off. Nice Surprise! Festival. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

BSA Film Friday: 03.17.23

March 17, 2023 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Sofles “Gold Fat Cap”

2. Thomas Medicus -Best Before.

3. Edward Hopper’s New York: First Impressions via The Whitney Museum

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BSA Special Feature: Sofles “Gold Fat Cap“

Fresh paint from Sofles, a night session from a beyond-writer at the height of his powers and using a single gold fat cap. To the sounds of breezes, traffic, and the muffled strains of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Chuck Berry. Followed in the sunlight by birds chirping. Isn’t life rich?

Thomas Medicus -Best Before

His sculptural works are usually more involved than this. Still, it is entertaining to watch the active destruction of this piece using at least some of the vocabulary of deconstruction and urban decay.

Unpacking Hopper’s New York: First Impressions via The Whitney Museum

“Edward Hopper’s first impressions of New York with exhibition organizers Kim Conaty, Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints, and Melinda Lang, Senior Curatorial Assistant. In 1899 when he was seventeen, Hopper began commuting to New York from Nyack by train and ferry to study art. In 1906, he entered the commercial art field and worked as a freelancer for several New York advertising agencies and magazines. Starting in 1913, Hopper lived and worked at 3 Washington Square North and, with his wife Jo, he remained until his death in 1967.”

BSA Film Friday: 09.16.22

September 16, 2022 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Sofles / Elevate. By Sofles and Aftermidnight Film Co.
2. Queen Elizabeth II Almost Died / The Simpsons
3. SAABE, “I’M NOT DONE YET” Via Montana Colors

BSA Special Feature: Sofles / Elevate. By Sofles and Aftermidnight Film Co.

Oh yes, the oppressive, stultifying, soul-sucking corporate office job. It deviously diminishes you, taking credit for your ideas, and uses a thousand cuts to demoralize you slowly but surely (human “resource”, anyone?). Australian graff/street artist Sofles plays the role here as a character lifted from a graphic novel; the unwilling cog in the machine whose urge to create bucks the system.

“Awesome editing and story!” says one of the hundreds of comments amassed on this 5-day-old video that suggests no one gives up on their dreams, especially you.

Sofles / Elevate. By Sofles and Aftermidnight Film Co.

Queen Elizabeth II Almost Died / The Simpsons
During this period of mourning where many are reflecting on QE II’s influence on society, culture, art, even Homer Simpson…

SAABE, “I’M NOT DONE YET”

Sabe knows. After three-plus decades getting up he has inspired a lot of fans and peers with his wild style writing in Europe, making him what some call a true legend from Copenhagen. He’s known for a wide range of styles, bombs, burners, and panels, seemingly talented at them all. Stay to the end, as they say, to hear some of the insights that he shares about himself, his work, and his life.

This is not your average graff head video because he keeps it real, even if painful to say or hear.

“I feel like I had a family.”

“Maybe I feel like a loser.. but Iam happy because I can paint.”

“I’m not done yet.”

BSA Film Friday: 04.08.22

April 8, 2022 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Chris Pape: The Freedom Tunnel via VICE
2. SOFLES: The Humble Rollerdoor
3. Stargazing Mojave/Joshua Tree National Park
4. Angel and Z Podcast Interview NECKFACE
5. Tripl Stays True to the Name

BSA Special Feature: Chris Pape: The Freedom Tunnel

All time Top 10 stories in NYC graffiti lore will invariably name-check the “Freedom Tunnel,” so called in the 1980s because of its most famous writer, Chris “Freedom” Pape. You may not know where it is located, but you know that it is cavernous, that the sun is filtered into it from grates above like jolts of raw power, and that it is also home to many New Yorkers who are off the grid. That’s just one of the many ironies of calling this “Freedom Tunnel.”

One of the revelations of this intimate interview is that Freedom is rational in his rather laissez-faire approach to people and painting, preferring his own counsel and leaving others to theirs without judgment. These could be the gifts of later life on display – certainly rarely heard sentiments from your average vandal. He says he chose the tunnels as a strategy to avoid the withering criticism that he heard other writers had of train pieces while reviewing passing cars. An illustration painter, his time-intensive works based on more classical fine art works and techniques were unusual on the graffiti scene, perhaps presaging the coming Street Art movement.

SOFLES: The Humble Rollerdoor

With his customary ease and can-control panache, SOFLES is aided here by sophisticated variations in pacing, focus, gaze of the camera. Drop in a few visual glitches and slights of hand – all against a non-background audio that sounds like pouring rain, and he takes us somewhere else again, again.

Stargazing Mojave/Joshua Tree National Park

Is life magic? Are there holes in your dreams into which birds can drop into? Is the earth in movement at all times, always dancing? Yes, it is.

Angel and Z Podcast Interview NECKFACE

It doesn’t get better than this. Interview with a writing/fine art legend in a fleabag hotel. Who knows what kind of wisdom he’s about to lay on you.

Tripl Stays True to the Name

Okay okay okay you win!

Tripl broke trainwriting with this one 🤯

Watch to the end pic.twitter.com/YxreprAHkw
— Montana Colors (@MontanaColors) April 8, 2022

BSA Film Friday: 10.08.21

October 8, 2021 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Sofles: Same As It Ever Was (Feat Tuesy) by After Midnight Film
2. ShenShen210
3. Shipo All Night Long: Madrid via SystemBoys

BSA Special Feature: Sofles: Same As It Ever Was (Feat Tuesy) by After Midnight Film

Oddly you’ll see little or no mention of New York art-rock geniuses Talking Heads in this new video of Sofles and Tuesday painting. The video and song are both called, “Same As It Ever Was”, and it is good to see a new generation blown away by this music, recontextualized here as a graffiti writing soundtrack.

Sofles: Same As It Ever Was (Feat Tuesy) by After Midnight Film

ShenShen210

“ShenShen210: was the first female graffiti artist on the West Coast to do quality work, and graffiti is the most important art movement in the last 40+ years.” – Jim Prigoff, photographer, art historian, author of “Spraycan Art with Henry Chalfant”

Shipo All Night Long: Madrid via SystemBoys

Staying up all night with graffiti writer Shipo in Madrid as he jumps, climbs, lays down next to walls under the cover of darkness to leave his mark.

BSA Film Friday 08.20.21

August 20, 2021 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Banksy: Great British Spraycation
2. NYC! Sound (Back) On
3. Sofles in Brisbane featuring Gamo & Kitsa

BSA Special Feature: Banksy : Great British Spraycation

The summer days begin to wane and you’ve played all the games with your siblings and cousins three times or more. Before heading back to school, time to rummage around Uncle Bob’s garage and find a can of spray paint he used to fix a kitchen chair for Aunt Keisha. You wonder to yourself, “What could we do with this?”

BANKSY: Great British-Spraycation

NYC! Sound (Back) On

Been waiting for Covid to give us a break so New York could get back to our version of normal. This summer it’s still been hard but New York is definitely back in all its many ways. Makes us wanna dance!

Sofles in Brisbane with Feat. Gamo&Kitsa

You been getting up lately? Just released here’s a Brisbane, Australia wall jam with Sofles in collaboration with honored guests Gamo and Kitsa from Marseille, France.

BSA Film Friday: 08.06.21

August 6, 2021 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. FEM – Graffiti Documentary
2. GRAFFITI TV: HUNGR
3. SOFLES / MARVEL

BSA Special Feature: FEM – Graffiti Documentary.

Now from Bremen, Germany – “Just like a sports addiction, or a sugar addiction, I’m basically addicted to graffiti.” Fem says she is like Sherlock Holmes, Crocodile Dundee, and Pipi Longstocking all rolled into one.

FEM – Graffiti Documentary. Via Spray Daily

GRAFFITI TV: HUNGR.

Speaking of crocodiles, here’s a summertime Hungr spraying out a wall ankle deep in water, wearing a pair of crocks.

SOFLES / MARVEL

Here you are again, about to be drawn into the Sofles vortex, this one particularly MARVELous.

BSA Film Friday: 07.09.21

July 9, 2021 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Case Maclaim for WallStoryTown in Bad Vilbel, Germany
2. Sofles / Blood Moon
3. Okuda San Miguel. RONDA
4. Riton x Nightcrawlers – Friday ft. Mufasa & Hypeman (Dopamine Re-edit)

BSA Special Feature: Case Maclaim for WallStoryTown in Bad Vilbel, Germany

Delabrave coming on strong in the one-minute category with Raül Acuña directing and a concise track progression on a master. Here in Bad Vilbel, Case Maclaim has no bad angles.

Case Maclaim for WallStoryTown in Bad Vilbel, Germany.

With mastery of a differently complex language using only cans, Sofles generates a fantasy with cities in clouds and the reflections of the Blood Moon overhead, a plump and racing belt of graffiti adventures sustaining the action underneath. High marks to After Midnight Film for editing and solid choice of Spooky Bizzle for the soundtrack.

Sofles / Blood Moon

Ever loosening his familiar components of representation, OKUDA reappropriates with skill and humor to create this dual portrait. Intercut with the majesty of flamenco, the strumming, swirling, finger-snapping, hand clapping bailaora lays the foundation for our visual cantanto, Okuda San Miguel.

Okuda San Miguel. RONDA

Riton x Nightcrawlers – Friday ft. Mufasa & Hypeman (Dopamine Re-edit)

The newest anthem that helps you dance your way into the weekend!

BSA Film Friday: 06.11.21

June 11, 2021 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. “Bubble Tea” with Sofles
2. Doug Gillem Discusses Stereotypes in Street Art
3. Vero Rivera in Columbia, SC. Via Tost Films

BSA Special Feature: “Bubble Tea” with Sofles

Sofles gives us such beautiful Fridays – with a jump in his step and a flair in the sweep of his arm. It’s bubble time!

Our Expectations of Street Art’s Role in Projecting and Reflecting Values

It is not a surprise that street art reflects the culture back to itself, including elements that some will find objectionable or disgusting – this has always been true. As the so-called “culture” of street art becomes professionalized and monetized and regarded as legitimate by institutions and commercial interests like brands, we continue to hear that it is now being, to some extent, more closely examined. Doug Gillen of FifthWall TV explores criticisms of one artist’s work – FinDac – in regard to Asian tropes and stereotypes.

People have mentioned FinDac’s work for the last half-decade at least, so it is interesting that a current heated awareness regarding identity politics is pushing the conversation further. Truthfully, stereotypes about blacks, gays, the police, media, the military, women, men, religious institutions, politicians, sex roles, gender roles, political parties, geopolitics… have always been on display in myriad forms in street art and graffiti. It can be a worthwhile exercise when we begin to examine them in greater detail.

Vero Rivera in Columbia, SC. Via Tost Films

A commission for a suburban coffee shop mural, this hand painted work by Vero Rivera is a few steps removed from the street art and graffiti scene that first sparked out interest decades ago. The dynamics are different, but the spirit of creativity is the same.

BSA Film Friday: 05.21.21

May 21, 2021 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. SOFLES / Spillway
2. SOFLES/ Geometric 2
3. Abandoned Places with Cycki and Gienio via Dope Cans
4. The Day the Dollar Died 5/20/21

BSA Special Feature: SOFLES / Spillway

Did they say spillway or speedway?

In this edit by After Midnight Film Co, the low shutter speed effect ramps up the excitement of bombing.

In his comment on Youtube, Maxwell Morris says, “What in the actual f? Best bombing I have ever had the pleasure to witness. Pushing form, color combinations, abstraction, technique and motion and energy to a new level.”

SOFLES / Spillway

SOFLES/ Geometric 2

Abandoned Places with Cycki and Gienio via Dope Cans

In a return to smart sound and video editing, these two remind us how delicious silver bubble tags are. Satin sheeny and crunchy dopeness.

Song shout-out to Nicolas Jaar – “Space is Only Noise if You Can See”

The Day the Dollar Died 5/20/21

“We expect to play a leading role in developing standards for CBDCs,”
~ Fed Chairman Jerome Powell

“So, bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”

~ Don McClean

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