Those organic, often narrow and winding, street art/graffiti tagged thoroughfares that we are drawn to are often an open secret to bohemian neighborhoods in cities; so full of life, these alleys of discovery tell you that dynamic minds are here, ready to interact with you. In recent years the concept has been adopted as a way to revitalize a vein that has gone dormant in downtowns as well – inviting, encouraging a series of artists to adorn one patch of the public dispatch, paving a visual tour by foot to remind you that planned public space can be welcoming place.
Here in Salina, Kansas, murals are a part of a greater downtown art rejuvenation along with multiple construction projects in the historic district is being revitalized and transformed – with a combination of publicly and privately funded initiatives. Directed by Salina Arts and Humanities, the selection of artists painting friendly themes and styles are mainly local and regional in origin.
Today we have a good selection of recent murals in Artwork Alley and shots of the artists at work.
A splendid selection this week of very entertaining pieces across the city. As we enter December, you can see that graffiti and street artists are going full-steam ahead into the new year – with personal, political, philosophical, and even romantic sentiments.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, SRKSHNK, Modomatic, Sara Lynne-Leo, Molly Crabaple, Cope, Riisa Boogie, Ollin, Short, Rezones, Asker Uno, Danielle BKNYC, McManiphes, Kojo Hilton, Rad Bio, Duster, My Name is Annie, and The Jolly.
A new book here features six years of selected works from a Polish graffiti writer, muralist, and professor of art and painting at a secondary school in his hometown of Olsztyn, Poland. He reckons that his life is one of ‘Planned Freestyle,’ meaning that having structure imposed upon him is very helpful in focusing his creative mind. You may quickly appreciate this characterization if you know any artists.
The collection of selected works here by Bartek Swiatecki is as luminous and optically rewarding to the viewer as they are opaque to the mind and stirring to the heart. With prolific and gently evolving abstractions in movement, you can see an artist at work, at play, and at his personal best – topping his previous work. The grandson of another painter and professor (of philology), Miroslaw Swiatecki, and the nephew of a famous painter and animator, Marek Swiatecki, perhaps it was only a matter of time before this 90s graffiti writer moved into more formal practices on canvas and walls.
In an in-depth interview, Pener reveals his sometimes complex feelings about the label of street artist, almost as if it diminishes his abilities and craft.
“Almost all of my friends I paint with are graduates of art faculties at universities or academies; most of them are architects or graphic designers,” he says. “Each of us works hard, so I get angry sometimes when we are labeled street artists because it is a huge simplification.”
The sentiment rings true, although we have never had anything but respect for street artists, regardless of their formal training. We witness a struggle for definitions at nearly every juncture along this graffiti/street art/fine art/mural art/contemporary art continuum.
In the end, the work speaks for itself, as this book can attest.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Edward Hopper’s New York. Via Whitney Museum of American Art 2. The enveloping work of Barbara Kruger: MoMA 3. Man Who Turned Trash Into Family Treasures / The Garbage Man
BSA Special Feature: New York Through Edward Hopper’s Eyes
“The city of New York was Edward Hopper’s home for nearly six decades (1908–67). For Hopper, New York was a city that existed in the mind as well as on the map, a place that took shape through lived experience, memory, and the collective imagination. It was, he reflected late in life, ‘the American city that I know best and like most.’ “
Edward Hopper’s New York. Via Whitney Museum of American Art
The enveloping work of Barbara Kruger: MoMA
“Margarita Lizcano Hernandez, curatorial assistant in the Department of Drawings and Prints, takes a close look at Barbara Kruger’s ‘Thinking of -You-. I Mean -Me-. I Mean You.’ and describes the sometimes overwhelming feeling of being surrounded by the colossal installation.”
A Man Who Turned Trash Into Family Treasures / The Garbage Man / A film by Laura Gonçalves.
At a long table laden with traditional dishes, a family shares fond memories of an uncle, who fled Portugal’s dictatorship and became a garbage collector in Paris, in this film by Laura Gonçalves.
Bringing two of the elements of Hip Hop together on his latest mural, painter and photographer (and occasional professor) Henry Hang shows his enthusiasm here in his native Paris with an aerosol can and brush with equal passion.
A former graffiti tagger with ALB in the early 1990s, Mr. Hang also practiced dance as a bboy – saying that he is bringing it all together on canvas and walls with the energy of graffiti. Last year he was teaching students at the Figaro fair about all of the plastic and performative arts that contribute to the “aestheticization of hip-hop culture.” This new wall with Art Azoi combines his appreciation for all of it.
The figures are lifted and turned with a certain elegance: always in motion and gravitating above the ground with a resolute honesty found in street performance sometimes. Not that he is trying to be too literal; his appreciation for impressionism is evidenced by the title he has given himself, “Le Degas De La Street Dance.” Seeing his enthusiasm and his expression of it is inspiring in itself.
Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï) Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï) Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï) Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï) Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï) Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï) Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï) Henry Hang – Le Degas De La Street Dance. Elise Herszkowicz | Art Azoï. Centre Ken Saro-Wiwa. Paris, France. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)
It’s time for Street Art and graffiti fans of all flavors to make their annual peregrination to that Mecca of murals and art fairs and performances on the street, Miami, during Art Basel.
Specifically, we constantly roam through Wynwood, which began with a very healthy graffiti scene a couple of decades ago. Now people of all kinds roam the streets here to see newly commissioned and uncommissioned works commingle.
We also include a list of the official art fairs to hit below. Expect to hear Bad Bunny on the streets, see a lot of hot pink fashion, and New York’s Chainsmokers at LIV this weekend.
Smell the aerosol, the tacos, and lather on the coconut sunscreen – and be ready to mingle with some of the best this gritty commercial and the still organic street scene offer.
WYNWOOD WALLS
Click HERE for further information, schedules and tickets.
MUSEUM OF GRAFFITI
Click HERE for further information, schedules and tickets.
SCOPE ART FAIR
SCOPE HIGHLIGHTS BELOW: Click HERE for further information, schedules and tickets.
ART BASEL
Click HERE for further information, schedules and tickets. Below are highlights from the list of participating galleries:
If you want to learn how to do it correctly, you would be wise to study from a master. When it comes to stencil art on the street, this is a brilliant place to begin.
C215 – The Stencil Graffiti Manual. Schiffer Publishing 2022
The Paris-based stencil artist C215 learned his skills in the street and in the studio beginning in the mid-2000s after being influenced by the burgeoning practice in the street art scene of Barcelona and recognizing the practitioners in his home in Paris. Within a few short years, he was watching the evolution of all his peers – and even curating their work into shows. You can see many styles and techniques by surveying the field, and you’ll decide whose work is a cut above.
“The book that you are holding in your hands is therefore, a manual, an inventory of techniques to be appropriated in order to get yourself started in the art, or to help you develop stenciling’s potential. Stencils have no limits and can be adapted to all styles,” says the author in his introduction.
The Stencil Graffiti Manual is a ‘how-to’ book that gives you room to experiment while clearly pointing you in the correct direction. He shows you the tools needed, describes the techniques often used, provides a primer on historical uses of stencils, reviews principles of style, reflection, pattern repetition, figurative work, abstraction, and how to manipulate your work using Photoshop and Illustrator. It would be fair to say that your skill level is probably addressed here, regardless of whether you are beginning or have been looking for a way to expand your practice.
In a friendly, straightforward tone, C215 also interviews and features some of his friends and peers known for excelling at the techniques of cutting and spraying. A small selection of the pre-eminent stencil artists is featured here whose work has been found in many international cities dating back to the 1970s, including artists like Add Fuel, Ben Eine, Evol, M-City, Miss.Tic, Jef Aerosol, Monkey Bird, Nick Walker, Snik, Sten & Lex, and Stinkfish – all of whom have appeared here on BSA over the years. Each has a different interpretation of the art-making form, and each has formulated a unique voice and perspective.
“Many artists agreed to take part in the interviews,” says C215. “Throughout these pages, they share with you their expertise and their passion for stenciling. This multi-voiced manual is not only the fruit of my experience, but also, and above all, of the meetings and links forged over time with other artists in this field.”
C215 – The Stencil Graffiti Manual. Schiffer Publishing 2022
Dourone has done it! They’ve painted the Internet!
Dourone. “INTERNET”. Ecole Brassart in Aix-en-Provence, France. (photo courtesy of the artists)
You didn’t think it could be done; depicting this far-flung mass of hot-n-bothered pixels teaming with the past, the present, and the Google across two screens. However, the duo has painted the platform that informs and clouds your understanding simultaneously at the École de Communication (EFAP) and the BRASSART school of design in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Dourone. “INTERNET”. Ecole Brassart in Aix-en-Provence, France. (photo courtesy of the artists)
The duo keeps it all within their range of the color palette, an appealing, disconcerting combination of hues lit from behind, combined as if through a software filter to be just two shades beyond real. “They were both made with our color range which consists of 41 different shades of acrylic and brush paint,” they tell us of these new paintings upon the two schools.
Dourone. “INTERNET”. Ecole Brassart in Aix-en-Provence, France. (photo courtesy of the artists)
Somewhere in here is the DNA of this painting pair, an involuntary echo that reveals their true figurative nature, but passed within a screen of thousands of emoting, reflecting, archiving, gesticulating, glitched verbiage. The walls are in concert, yet not related. Painstakingly painted without automatic lifts, the creatively, kinetically connected artists tell us returned to the age-old tradition of scaffolding.
“This mural in two parts evokes the current state of communication,” they say, “or how we are constantly connected to each other and sometimes so alone.”
Dourone. “INTERNET”. Ecole Brassart in Aix-en-Provence, France. (photo courtesy of the artists)Dourone. “INTERNET”. Ecole Brassart in Aix-en-Provence, France. (photo courtesy of the artists)Dourone. “INTERNET”. Ecole Brassart in Aix-en-Provence, France. (photo courtesy of the artists)
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Winston Tseng, Mike Makatron, Maker, MFK, Ollin, Slue, KEZ5, Big Ash, D30, 2Much, and Sekt.
A curation of sculptures in the environs of the great Egyptian pyramids is an audacious idea and one full of potential. With Egypt’s origins in the history of graffiti, it is also sublime to see some of today’s most talented international street artists who have made meaningful contributions to the scene, like El Seed and SpY, participating in this project by director Nadine Abdel Ghaffar.
Founder of Art D’Égypte, Ghaffer is an Egyptian curator, art consultant, and cultural ambassador – who speaks about the project as an ode to the transcendental power of art, with a focus on the convergences possible between historical and contemporary.
“Art becomes a collective responsibility, a conversation across time that enables each artist to contribute his/her own story to history,” Ghaffer recently told Scale Magazine. The second exhibition in a series, she calls the new show “Forever is Now II”.
Today we focus on the contribution of the Spaniard SpY, who continues to expand his visual and sculptural vocabulary with striking displays of geometric splendor that interact geographically and mathematically. SpY tells us that “‘Orb’ draws its inspiration from ancient Egyptian culture, using forms and materials that reference elements of mathematics and the notions of creation and rebirth.”
A multi-faced sphere of reflective geometries that simultaneously give individual interpretations of the sky, Pyramids, and the surroundings. It is a visual concert that pays respect to past accomplishments and instantly captures the streaming feeling of our digital world today. SpY says it is also inextricably linked to the lifetime of our sun, “conveying notions of creation and rebirth.”
Location: Pyramids of Giza, Egypt Exhibition: ‘Forever Is Now II’ by Culturvator/ Art D’Égypte Director: Nadine Abdel Ghaffar Organizations: Culturvator/ Art D’Égypte, UNESCO, Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Luna Luna – The Art Amusement Park Returns 2. Gera 1 Combines Glitch and Figurative in Berlin 3. “Forever Is Now” Second Edition at Giza Pyramids via Art D’Egypte
BSA Special Feature: Luna Luna – The Art Amusement Park Returns
35 years after its first creation, the Luna Luna is resurrected from its original home in Hamburg in 1987 to tour other cities. Inspired by a traditional luna park,the original works like a Keith Haring Carousel, the Basquiat Ferris Wheel, and many other features designed by about 28 more artists like Kenny Scharf, Roy Lichtenstein, and David Hockney, they called this “The world’s first and only art amusement park.”
“As long as I can remember, I was always interested in distortion,” says Gera1 about this new mural in Berlin, which he says combines elements of figurative painting with glitch art. He doesn’t mention his sublime sense of color.
“Forever Is Now” Second Edition at Giza Pyramids via Art D’Egypte
Forever is Now .02 showcased ambitious works by Therèse Antoine (Egypt), Natalie Clark (USA/Spain), Mohammed Al Faraj (Saudi Arabia), Emilio Ferro (Italy), Zeinab Al Hashemi (UAE), JR (France), Ahmed Karaly (Egypt), Liter of Light, eL Seed (Tunisian), SpY (Spanish), Pascale Tayou (Cameroon) and Jwan Yosef (Syria/Sweden).
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
