As the official media partner with “Living Walls : Albany” founder Samson Contompasis for this inaugural city-wide Street Art event held in New York State’s capital in September 2011, Brooklyn Street Art invited artists to participate, gave the keynote lecture at the New York State Museum, and provided the following coverage of artists and installations, including an overview on The Huffington Post. Follow Living Walls : Albany on Twitter @LivingWallsALB , Living Walls Website

Image © Jaime Rojo Kids, Animals & Street Art In ‘Living Walls : Albany’ (published on Huffington Post) Street Art events which pair local and international talent with bare walls continue to multiply in unexpected locations around the world as young Street Artists and their fans push forward this D.I.Y. scene that had early roots in graffiti. From festivals and week-long events in Toronto to Melbourne to London to Paris to Stavanger (Norway) and Grottaglie (Italy), the first worldwide people’s art movement continues to enliven previously moribund areas of cities and engage local conversations about culture and public space.

Living Walls : Albany Roundup There were so many moving parts in this large and easy going cultural festival this weekend, and we were really happy to meet so many people in the street, at the Marketplace encampment, in St. Joseph’s Church, at the tile factory, and during our keynote lecture at the New York State Museum Saturday. Thanks to Samson Contompasis for asking BSA to partner with him for LWAlbany and a quick shout out to other local partners James Shultis at Grand Street Community Arts, Sivan Shimoni, the staff at NYS Museum, and local blogger KC Orcutt at KeepAlbanyBoring.com

© Overunder Overunder Completes Astounding Tiled Piece Street Artist Overunder just completed his astounding tiled installation this weekend in Albany on the wall of L’esperance Tile Works, a local tile maker with a special 1920s “dust press” that the artist also worked into the piece. For an artist with such a fluid and freewheeling figurative style with a spray can, it is surprising to see it interpreted with such permanence and cogitative consideration.

© Jaime Rojo © Jaime Rojo © Jaime Rojo

Images of the Week 09.18.11, during Living Walls : Albany As Street Artists have been installing their new works on walls around Albany these past 10 days or so, the common story one witnesses is the level of engagement of adults and kids stopping on the sidewalk, in their cars, watching the process, photographing and discussing the art, and exploring the creative process.

How & Nosm © Jaime Rojo Overunder © Jaime Rojo

Work in Progress :How and Nosm and Overunder Here are a couple in-progress scenes with German twins How & Nosm on a lift beginning their new mural Friday afternoon after arriving from Miami, where they completed new work for Wynwood Walls. Also we were excited to have spent some time seeing OverUnder working with a local tile maker and two new assistants from the neighborhood mixing up mortar

Joe Iurato Transending at “Living Walls : Albany” Street Artist Joe Iurato went to church yesterday at St. Joseph’s in Albany, where a number of street artists have been putting together some great work this week. These pieces are floated in front of the walls, rather than painted directly on them out of respect for the original building, an the effect immediately makes the hallowed spaces of organized religion feel more relevant than seeing the Pope on a skateboard.

Overunder (photo © Andrew Franciosa) Overunder and Broken Crow at “Living Walls : Albany” Words by KC Orcutt Images by Andrew Franciosa and MC3 Overunder is a firecracker. From my initial participation in witnessing the Living Walls unfold in Albany, he has been nothing but a friendly and tireless ball of creative energy (in the best way possible) showing me parts of the city I grew up in that I didn’t even know existed on Google maps of places he’s been exploring.

ROA (photo © Andrew Franciosa) Street Artist ROA and a Dead Squirrel for Living Walls : Albany Words by KC Orcutt Photos by MC3 and Andrew Franciosa Within moments of ROA’s arrival on site to his designated building for “Living Walls : Albany,” he spotted a recently departed squirrel, took it as a sign and it became quite clear what he was going to do next. The squirrel population in Albany is (somewhat) jokingly of a “different” breed

© Bob Anderson © Bob Anderson © Bob Anderson

Clown Soldier, Wing, Shin Shin, NohJColey, ND’A at “Living Walls : Albany” Words by KC Orcutt Photos by Bob Anderson With Marketplace Gallery transformed into what is best classified as a sleep away art camp — complete with scattered sleeping arrangements, wheat pastes hung up on the gallery walls ready to greet the outside world, in progress portraits of some of the participating artists by White Cocoa and a healthy buzz of street art-fueled…

Living Walls : Albany Presents: Keynote Lecture “Street Art Stories: A New Direction on the Street” In Street Arts’ latest chapter, the storytellers are hitting up walls with all manner of influences and methods. More than ever before, formally trained and self taught fine artists are skipping the gallery route and taking their work directly to the public, creating cultural mash-ups and highly personal stories of their own, altering the character of this scene once again.

Cell Phone Snap : Broken Crow + Wolves Feasting on a Carcass Is this a metaphor for the rich feasting on the US economy? Or just the Macy’s One Day Sale? Here’s a quick cell phone snap of the new piece by Broken Crow at Living Walls : Albany, complete with blood slopping across the field of yellow flowers. More to come soon.

Cake at Living Walls: Albany Street Artist Cake brought her hand painted people to Albany yesterday, with these portraits of a “wondrous traveler”named Saige. A fine artist who makes one of a kind wheate-pasted one off pieces as a means of therapy and tribute,

JOE IURATO Mr. Iurato spent a couple of days in beautiful late summer sun drenched bliss and managed to knock out two pieces – one on Central ave in Albany, the other on a highway buttress across the river in neighboring Rensellaer. Hewing to some of his favorite themes, you will see references to faith, redemption and the spiritual journey here in some exclusive pics just for BSA readers.

OVERUNDER Makes More Brain Candy for Living Walls : Albany Overunder is a fast-moving free-associating surrealist whose Street Art pieces catch your eye as you skip past a run down neglected piece of property. Always balancing on the edge of your reality and his boundless imagination, the painted plumcake pieces will strum the brainwaves and may make you all skittish like a cat at a rocking chair convention.

OVERUNDER Street Seen This piece is still wet because Overunder finished it as the sun set tonight

Chris Stain (photo © Andrew Franciosa) Chris Stain in Church, Museum : 9/11 Mural With “Living Walls: Albany” Words by KC Orcutt with photos from Andrew Franciosa, Frank Whitney, and Ken Jacobie Working in the monumental landmark of St. Joseph’s church, the focal point marking Albany’s Ten Broeck Historical District, everything echoed. The shake of the spray paint can, Chris Stain’s soft but direct voice, friends casually eating out of take-out containers and the sliding of a huge ladder against the wooden floor echoed …

Gaia and Nanook collaboration (photo © Andrew Franciosa) “Living Walls: Albany” Begins! Gaia, Nanook and a Rockefeller Words by KC Orcutt, Images by Andrew Franciosa A new livelihood is radiating around the colossal work of Gaia and Nanook, which debuted the Living Walls: Albany last week. Their vibrant piece adorns the side of a vacant, unroofed building currently aging on N. Pearl and Livingston.