All posts tagged: Art Book Review

Anders Gjennestad: A Door as “Canvas”

June 25, 2018 Artists

A door as canvas. A door as canvas.

It sounds the same on the street as it does in the gallery space, and for Norwegian Street Artist Anders Gjennestad the two appear nearly identical, aside from context.

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Whether he is discovering the neglected urban factory door long after the spirit of industry has roared its last turbine and reaching toward his backpack for a spraycan, or he is hoisting a piece out from the pile of collected iron-bound wooded slabs in his Berlin studio, functionally each of these doors is a canvas.

Every urban explorer sees the potential of walls that are long abandoned and spoiled with rot and piss and pushed open by weeds, worn away by rain. The world is a temporary place anyway. I am only here temporarily.

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

This cavorting, twisting, athletic dance with long shadows by men in hooded sweatshirts is a flicker across the canvas that you catch from the corner of your eye as your life dances by. His stenciled figures are expressive, interactive, fully alive, kinetic in spirit – singular and plural.

The symmetry and rythmic action is sport and performance and energetic expression across this patinaed, warped wood; this oxidized and oddly puckered and heavy iron and brick.

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Step many paces back from the aged factory wall and your perspective has been altered and the burr bushes and Bishop’s weed and crumbled concrete rubble you are standing in are strangely moved, even moving. Staring at his figures as they run diagonally up and across the entire expanse of a massive wall you realize he has tilted them along an axis in such a way and at such a scale that your own feet may be on a plane that is perpendicular to their ground, and you may fall.

You too have begun to dance to Anders’ optics, a figure in his urban choreography, and you too can take flight before gravity pulls you downward, as it will.

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising

March 15, 2018 Artists

“The constant imposition of advertising in front of our eyes is an oppressive, dictatorial and violent act,” posits the artist, activist, and author Hogre in this new collection of works and words called Subvertising : The Piracy of Outdoor Advertising.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

It sounds rather extreme when put this way, but perhaps that is the dulling power of advertising’s omnipresence in public space year after year. Each of us can certainly recall a time when there seemed like there was more open public space and fewer images and graphics and text telling us what to do, what to buy, who to hate, how to behave. Artists like Hogre are sounding the warning on our ability to recognize its power over our perceptions.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

Street Artists have been siting Guy Debord and the Situationists as the most influential originators of this practice of upending the commercial messages in public space, and many artists and collectives in recent years have begun in earnest campaigns of short-circuiting the machine.

Since the Situationist’s time in the 1950-60s, an ever-growing number of subvertising artists, thinkers and disaffected marketing majors have banded together to turn messages on their head – folks like The Billboard Liberation Front, Ron English, and Jenny Holzer come to mind. Now Hogre finds his practice with many peers, anonymous and known.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

This collection of recent interventions of commercial billboards across London by Hogre and associates is documented in two page full color spreads accompanied by explanatory texts about the intention and inspiration. To the average citizen the messages range from blatant to quizzical to cryptic to so subtle that they may never be detected by the majority of passersby – but the thrill of the takeover never diminishes.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

And the impact of the work should not be discounted – As creative and strategic as any advertising campaign or propaganda or disinformation, these acts of artful messaging can actively embarrass a public initiative, illuminate an environmental hazard, examine fundamental political structures, or question negative social attitudes toward sectors of society like immigrants or others in the margins.

The point made by Hogre and others is that as long as one recognizes that billboards and posters are a platform for delivering speech, that platform should be available to everyone regardless of their status, station, or bank balance. Styled as a system-fighting rebel, Hogre and his co-artivists are ultimately an optimistic voice in the public sphere – if for no other reason than to draw our attention to exactly how many commercial messages we are dining on daily.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. SUBVERTISING. THE PIRACY OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISING Published by Dog Section Press. London.

Converting Gold From Our Waste: “Bordalo II / 2011 – 2017”

January 30, 2018 Artists

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Are those Ai Weiwei bicycles clustered and suspended in the air overhead? Rather they are stored here like a 3 layer spoke, wheel, and frame cake, pressed to the side of this bricked wall tin-roof warehouse along with rolling office chairs waving their legs in the air like little lady bugs stuck on their backs.

Everything here has been pressed into position by the small mountains of white garbage bags filled with something soft, like dollops of whipped cream. The entire confection is sprinkled across the top with lanterns and light fixtures plucked from decades of the last half-century.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Such is the splendid stuff of dreams and discovery for Bordalo II, the Lisbon-based Street Artist and maker of garbage relief animal portraits in cities across the world.

These are the things that when arranged on shelves and in placed relation to a floor plan, within parameters and boundaries of our mundanity, will comprise a perfect environment of domesticity; full of memory, associative emotion, symmetry. Objects, materials melted and poured, carved and plain, screwed and snapped, polished and sprayed, emulsified, inset, extruded, coiled, soldiered, plated, woven. These dimensional collections of matter matter to us. Metal alloy. Plastic polymer. Blown glass. Rubber, copper, steel, bakelite, particle board, glue.

Disarrange. You create chaos, disruption, disunity, discontent. Arrange again and create a muskrat, a buck deer, a petulant parakeet, an undulant octopus.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II, so-named after his watercolor master grandfather Real Bordalo who passed last year at 91, has in six or seven short years made a name for himself with your garbage, refusing to allow it to go to the junkyard or to float in the ocean just yet.

“After surveying the variety of offerings that included industrial, commercial, and consumer detritus, he speedily chose what appear to me to be a random bunch of junk,” writes five-decade photographer of urban art and artists, Martha Cooper about how he captured her interest.

“It was a genuine pleasure to watch an animal evolve before everyone’s eyes. As I watched him create the sculptural mural I was amazed to see how he utilized the shapes, textures, and aesthetic qualities of the found items to recreate the octopus in such a true-to-life manner.”

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Hers and others’ observations and essays are collected in “Bordalo II, 2011-2017” released in concert with his massive solo show “Attero” this November in Lisbon. A graffiti writer as a youth with his crew R315 Dream Team, the artist credits the three years at the Fine Arts Faculty in his city for allowing him to discover sculpture and to experiment with different materials, seducing him away from strictly painting. With it he is creating critique of our love of “things” and the excesses of consumerism, especially those excesses that are endangering wildlife.

“Bordalo is a master of our refuse,” says writer and critic Carlo McCormick, “what we throw way in our endless glut of consumption, the ideas, sensibilities and dreams we discard in the name of progress and all that accumulates unwanted, ignored, and even reviled by society’s voracious appetite for something disposable.” McCormick looks carefully at the implications of such an art practice and praises Bordalo II for the sharp tongue he brings to a sometimes superficial conversation occurring in the Street Art scene.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

No hero is he, nor does he pretend to be. Rather Bordalo II uses his work to remind us of our integral part of a cycle that includes everyone and everything. João Pedro Matos Fernandes, the Portuguese Minister of Environment adds his voice to those in this unassuming but powerful tome after laying out the treacherous story of our trash.

Speaking of Bordalo’s work, Mr. Fernandes writes,” It calls to our attention the choices we make in our everyday life, and to the consequences of our actions. And he does so in a scathing fashion, which I thoroughly enjoy, by using trash to represent some of the more emblematic species which our behavior puts at risk.”

It’s a brief snapshot of the artist in motion, with surely more evolutions to come. Ever the delicious quipster with the poetic tongue, McCormick lauds the street trash wizard.

“And in this world where we choke the planet with out incessant rubbish, let us celebrate those alchemical artists like Bordalo II who have that rare gift of being able to turn shit into gold.”

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

INTI Commands First Monograph : Color, Carnaval y Resistencia

January 8, 2018 Artists

“Certainties, simple explanations, last hopes, magic thoughts and fears. All of them confronted by what is evident.”

Thus describes the figure slung with bullets, holding a necklace with a cross and delicately balancing a small green apple on his index finger on a larger than life mural in Santiago, Chili. The visual language of this graffiti/Street Artist and muralist name Inti is his to wield, a cosmic folk that glows with celestial waves surrounding an other-worldly race of characters.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

The messages these massive murals carry may be layered, their determination and commitment is not to be doubted. His new grandly gilded monograph certainly earns your attention, and keeps it with quality materials, photography, and accessible crisp writing by Pablo Aravena that dares to be esoteric when describing the artists work.

Born from a post dictatorship community muralism that blossomed in the 80s and 90s as the country forged a new identity, the explosive graffiti scene that first captured the imagination and street practice of the teenage Inti was eventually channeled into a fine art education and formal study of the tenets and techniques of the painters. Paired with a fascination with religious dogma, the traditions of carnival and the symbols of power, hope, ornament and sustenance, Inti is forging a language known to him and his characters in a way that still can foster an empathetic response from the viewer of his massive murals in places as farflung as Honolulu, Boras, Beirut, Belgium.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

The Valparaíso-born artist whose name translates in Incan to ‘Sun’ is a master of light as well, shining it in gentle cadences across singular figures who could be multi-natural, sans-national, or inter-stellar.

Gathered in folds of robes, adorned in floating baubles and brightly glowing with reflecting patterns and gentle animals in arms, they may be evocative of carnival figures, fortune tellers, and of religious seers from around the world and throughout history, as is his universal searching for meaning, ultimately sharing some truths too no doubt.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

INTI: Color, Carnaval y Resistencia by Inti Castro (Author),‎ Pablo Aravena (Author)

Trilingual French/Spanish/English.

“Street Art In Sicilia” Tours You Through 31 Cities and 200 Artists

August 22, 2017 Artists

A good size to put in your backpack as you hike through neglected neighborhoods, industrial sites, and historical highpoints in cities like Catania, Messina, and Palermo, this new guide to legal murals and illegal Street Art in Sicily is one of a kind.

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

A serious undertaking that documents 31 urban centers that vary widely in distinctive personality, more than two hundred artists are captured and carefully, succinctly described for a wide audience of tourists, Street Art fans, students, even academics. With three authors who collectively have studied architecture, semiotics, sociology and photography, you get a mapping that reveals not only physical location but a describes a cultural one as well.

Sicily’s scene is said to have come to life in the 1990s, as did much of today’s Street Art scene did globally, and the irony of having a guide book is that by nature this art is here today, gone tomorrow, sometimes literally. Its this acclaimed ephemerality that means hard-bound guides like this may become less useable after a relatively short time but by including legally permissioned/commissioned murals along with actual Street Art the longevity of this one is extended.

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Additionally neighborhoods with the organic graffiti/Street Art scene often continue to have new pieces for discovery even after individual pieces fade or are destroyed. Depending on the speed of gentrification in any given municipality – there may be no art left by the time you get there because development tends to blot out organically grown rebel art scenes. Regardless Street Art in Sicilia is a valuable record of the 2010s, with great care taken to make the work it captures alive and relevant to it surroundings, and you.

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Street Art in Sicilia – Guida ai luoghi e alle opere
Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo
Dario Flaccovio Editore, 2017

Street art in Sicily – Guide to places and works
Authors: Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo
April 2017, 256 pages

Jerkface: “Saturday Mornings” Deconstructed, Reconstructed, Repeated

August 15, 2017 Artists

“We all draw from memory,” says Futura 2000 in the introduction, “and default to past experiences, finding associations to the various cast of characters. In some cases the faces have been changed to protect the innocent.”

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

A direct link to his childhood and the televised cartoons of Saturday morning, where the majority of cartoons were relegated to appear in the 1970s and 1980s, Street Artist Jerkface recreates and multiplies his associations of happy times full of adventure, mysteries easily solved, crimes categorically punished.

His new book “Saturday Morning” collects the recognizable works of other artists and removes the emotional expressions found in facial features, recombining their other characteristics and playing with their associated resonance.

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Here are their features, elements from their environment, replicated, recombined, repeated as a pattern – sometimes creating new scenes and storylines. These elements have already been sold, have become familiarized as part of a visual vocabulary in the young minds of millions – a shorthand for action and adventure, comedy and the sunniest denial, simplified and bluntly persuasive interpretations of fundamental good, evil, power, and identity.

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Somewhere in here is the identity of Jerkface as he remixes the historical, psychological, emotional reverberations of characters made familiar by others, now materials for him to painstakingly paint under layers in studio en route to technical perfection, in aerosol on walls outside for big poppy impact on the passerby.

By dissecting the whole, one wonders what is the source of an images power. By focusing on composition, the initial intentions are edited, certain elements magnified and drawn attention to, others unseen. Here is a chorus of Aladdins, a moshpit of Mickeys, a crowd of Charlie Browns. Once you get used to these rhythmic deconstructions/reconstructions, your Saturday mornings will be forever changed.

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

“The Art Of Writing Your Name” Expands Potential for Both Art & Writing

August 9, 2017 Artists

Niels Shoe Meulman on the cover of The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

“Writing”, as in the graffiti sense of the word, has become quite tastefully adventurous of late, as calligraffiti pushes and pulls it in height, dimension, finesse. Evolved from our first recorded history, the modern stylizing of the letter form is as fascinating and wild as it is domesticated, the mundanity of your particular tag now veritably swimming in many depths and swirling currents, weaving complex melodies, hitting notes previously unheard.

JonOne The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

This was inevitable, now that you think of it, this organic and ornate practice of making your mark, and the freedom to explore it came from the street. Mark-making indeed. You can call it “The Art of Writing Your Name,” as have the authors/artists Christian Hundertmark and Patrick Hartl.

Born of many late night talks and collaborative painting sessions together, merging Christian’s abstract graphics and collage with Patrick’s calligraphy and tagging, the two slowly discovered a mutual collection of writers and artists whose work they both admired, a book slowly taking form in their minds. “Our late night sessions also implied long conversations about the evolution of Graffiti to Street Art to urban calligraphy,” the authors say in their preface.

Poesia The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Graff writers in the mid 90s Munich scene, both had developed their individual styles beyond the classic street vocabulary, now evermore interested in discovering new materials, forms, processes, influences. Just released this summer, this new collection confidently illustrates what until now may have been evident to only a few; the aesthetics of writing have expanded and permutated far beyond their own roots in graffiti, tattoo, traditional calligraphy.

“Every artist brings a different approach with their calligraphy artwork,” says perhaps the most prominent of the genre today, Niels Shoe Meulman, who blazed into the publishing world with his tome “Calligraffiti” in 2010 after bringing his practice to the street and gallery. “We all come from different experiences and have different things to say.”

SheOne The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Indeed the list here includes the literal interpretations to those so far dissembled as to appear purely abstract, the aerosoled, the inked, the drippy, the purely light, the monstrously brushed acrossed floors and rooftops, the molded and bent and aroused into sculpture. Here the letter form is stretched to its limits, far beyond its relevance as part of codified language, more so the malleable warm putty in the hands of the artist, molded and mounted and even mystifying in the service of energy, kineticism, emotion.

“I start with quite randomly placed fat cap tags on the white surface,” says German author/artist Hartl to describe his particular technique, “then I overpaint it like 80% with slightly transparent paint, tag the wall with markers, overpaint that layer again, then I do stickers and posters, rip parts off again, repeat all these steps again and again until I’m happy with the result.”

Said Dokins The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Without doubt many will find inspiration in these nearly 300 pages, these insightful interviews with artists like Stohead, Usugrow, Saber, Kryptic, Faust, Carlos Mare, L’Atlas, Lek & Sowat, Poesia, Tilt; the forward by Chaz Bojorquez, the singular, at times stunning, photos and supportive texts.

Made for “graffiti fanatics, hand lettering fans, street art junkies, calligraphy lovers, and type enthusiasts”, co-author Christian Hundertmark edited the respected “Art of Rebellion” series and he knows his audience and this slice of his culture. The 36 artists are not the only ones representing this evolution in calligraphy, but they are certainly some of the finest.

Lek & Sowat The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

L’Atlas The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Tilt The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Carlos Mare The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Faust The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

The Art Of Writing Your Name: Contemporary Urban Calligraphy and Beyond by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags – und Handels GmbH & Co. KG. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Artists included are Chaz Bojorquez, JonOne, Niels Shoe Meulman, Poesia, Cryptik, SheOne, Said Dokins, Stohead, Usugrow, Patrick Hartl, Lek & Sowat, L’Atlas, Tanc, Mayonaize, Soklak, Mami, Tilt, Blaqk, Soemone, Jan Koke, Jun Inoue, Vincent Abdie Hafez / Zepha, Carlos Mare, Egs, Simon Silaidis, Faust, Luca Barcellona, Bisco Smith, Creepy Mouse, Defer, eL Seed, Rafael Sliks, Saber, Pokras Lampas.

Jeremy Fish and “Happily Ever After”

July 25, 2017 Artists

If you missed his show this month with Jonathan Levine, you can comfort yourself with a copy of his book Happily Ever After, which gets you promptly inside the head the storytelling Jeremy Fish.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

It’s unusual to see his work in New York (or in this case New Jersey) since after leaving Upstate New York nearly two decades ago this fine artist/commercial illustrator has been dancing in the arms of San Francisco. You think we’re being poetic about his West Coast cred, but he literally illustrated 100 drawings in SF City Hall over 100 days, was awarded with his own “Jeremy Fish” day by the city, might have the record for the most shows at Upper Playground Gallery, and has even collaborated with a cannabis company to create a branded oil and vape pen.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

You can see the influence of skater culture, tattoo culture, and Street Art/graffiti in his crisp aesthetic that brings animals, skulls, camping, and the chill life to every design and fantasy. Bombing around in a 1976 Dodge Van with a dream catcher hanging off the rearview mirror is not just a mindset for Fish, it is a natural fact. It’s also a symbol for his wandering spirit.

With exactitude and whimsy and a bit of sarcasm wending its way through this handsome hardcover, you can get an insight into the paintings, screen prints, sculpture and murals that Fish did over a recent 6 year period. Naturally it ended Happily Ever After.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

“Street Art” by Ed Bartlett: A Quick Primer for the World Traveler

June 24, 2017 Artists

Since the early 70s Lonely Planet publishing has made guidebooks for travelers of the world, enabling people to gain a greater understanding and to appreciate localities, cultures, and histories. Ed Bartlett now adds to this vast compendium of understanding a concise and varied survey of Street Art from his vantage point as an avid bicyclist, traveler, and expert on Street Art.

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

The modest sized and easy to carry hardcover is a quick read that crosses 42 cities, selected pieces from each, and interviews with artists as well. An accessible and attractively illustrated collection of photographs and text, it is a good introduction to the reader of casual interest and an apt primer for those who don’t have much time to immerse themselves but would like to get a solid foundation on this global phenomenon of Street Art, graffiti, and art in the streets in general.

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. The London Police, Skount and Invader in Amsterdam. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Wild Drawing in Athens. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Conor Harrington, Maser and Various artists in Dublin. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Guido van Helten, Agostino Iacurci and Fintan Magee in Kyiv. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Aryz, Inti and Telmo and Miel in Lisbon. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Phlegm, Eine and Remi Rough, Steve More,Augustine Kofie,LXOne and AOC in London. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Guido van Helten in Reykjavik. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Nunca in Toronto. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

RUN: “Time Traveller Artist Man” Tells All With His Hands

March 8, 2017 Artists

“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
Carl Jung

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

The founder of analytical psychology would have looked at the hands of RUN and perhaps understood more about his lifelong psychological process than the average intellect, and yet seeing RUN’s carefully formed people on the street captivates your imagination as well.

These are the dreams he creates with his expressive hands, conscious or unconscious features that over time have developed into archetypes to be combined, adorned, alone, and recombined. Not surprisingly, his people often have a grasp, a hold, a flair for the five fingered gesture as well.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

His graffiti days as a teen in the 1990s were formative, not least because after tagging he discovered his passion for the figurative and his enthralling respect for the materials of art making. It also helps that his outgoing personality helped him mix easily with peers on multiple secretive artistic escapades.

When you see the list of his compatriots it occurs to you that RUN had no choice but to be astounding. It also occurs to you that Italy has produced many of the best quality and imaginative, innovative Street Artists. “At the beginning of 2000 we started a sort of Italian school of underground muralism,” he says of his colleagues Blu, Ericailcane, Dem, Hitnes, Allegra Corbo, 2501, Basik and Moneyless. The muralism continues, and some of these names are possibly walking toward canonical.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

The writer and Street Art authority Tristan Manco helps capture the significance of this person’s journey;
“Part travelling diary, part monograph, Time Traveller Artist Man charts the triumphs and tribulations of an imaginative soul with a passion for travel, whose worldwide voyages have become a catalyst to create art that is elemental and playful, with the ultimate goal of engaging with people from all walks of life.”

On the occasion of his first serious monograph, the artist has taken the time to point you to his studies abroad in a solid tome published by Unicorn. In studio you contemplate the tools, in the street you contemplate the technique.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

In his wall painting travels, which include The Gambia, Senegal, UK, Poland, Shenzhen, Croatia, Morocco, and many cities in his home country you see the nature and the wisdom of Giacomo Bufarini’s people – and his regard for them lies in the pattern, the abstraction, the gesture.

He cannot stay still for long, his subconscious and his dreams are full of movement. Thus, RUN. There is too much to see, too much to think about, too much to respect and explore. Rather than talk about it, his hands will tell you all you need to know.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London, UK. 2016

RUN Time Traveller Artist Man is published by Unicorn Publishing Group. London, UK. 2016

“It does not suffice in all cases to elucidate only the conceptual context of a dream content.
Often it is necessary to clarify a vague content by giving it a visible form.
This can be done by drawing, painting, or modeling.
Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
Carl Jung

Buff Monster says “Stay Melty”

February 18, 2017 Artists

Paint drips and ice cream drips: What flavor would you like? We have strawberry, cherry, coconut…

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

If you haven’t seen Buff Monster and his melty crew on walls in the mid-twenty-teens then you have been looking at the sidewalk for loose change and lost earrings too much. Look up (!) on multiple walls all across the city and your find his friendly quirky sweet creamy characters cavorting and playing and melting together.

He and his fantastic army of ice cream scoops with surreal imaginations and likeable character anomalies have traveled worldwide of course; in multiple languages and on a variety of toys, posters, statues, garments, stickers and collectibles and even a select edition of Garbage Pail Kids cards called The Melty Misfits.

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

Pink dominates the palette and fantasy denotes the worldview for this brightly quirky hard driving globe-trotting Hawaiian native, with Buff himself tirelessly promulgating his little friends into your life and perhaps helping to take things a little less seriously for a moment, and reminding you of your childhood fun times.

Stay Melty is his hard-bound pictorial collection of three years of all action, creation, discipline, collaboration, and production, with Buff giving you an inside view of the pure glamour that goes into becoming a successful and recognized street/fine/commercial artist today. Hint: It’s about the time-honored practice of hustling, people. Also, ice cream.

Meet the man and see his show “Melt With Me” right now in Manhattan.

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

Buff Monster Stay Melty Published by Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

New Yorkers can see the pop up show Buff Monster has today in Manhattan at 168 Bowery.

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“Shoe” is His Middle Name: New Book by Niels Shoe Meulman

February 1, 2017 Artists

“They both see words as images,” says Shoe about graffiti writers and Medieval scribes in a 2013 interview with the BBC. His latest tome extrapolates this reverence for the letterform, an obsessive repetitive family of gestures, now often abstracted, that the artist first stumbled upon as a pre-teen in the late 1970s. Since those days he became known as graffiti artist, painter, designer, writer, calligrapher. Here is where it comes together.

Niels Shoe Meulman Shoe Is My Middle Name Lebowski Publishers, Amsterdam 2016.

“Shoe is My Middle Name” is the fourth publication by Niels Shoe Meulman and one that expands, amalgamates, solidifies his influences, mistakes, discoveries; forging a unique voice that is his own. Sometimes identified with Calligraffiti, but there is so much more to it; now the smudge and the smoke and the splatter has lead him in other directions, from supple and savvy wrist turning small scale to full-body massively immersive gestural painting.

Whether it is a push broom on a roof or a brush on mottled papyrus or the masterful swoop and turn of the squeegee, Shoe knows that there are no half steps once the liquefied pigment hits the surface. A commitment has been made.

Niels Shoe Meulman Shoe Is My Middle Name Lebowski Publishers, Amsterdam 2016.

A large coffee table book with a unifying cerulean wash / black two-tone pointillist screen motif throughout, the story of his many exploits is moderated with poetry and outtakes of reviews by or observations by the artist. In one descriptive passage about his work “The Secret Ingredient”, the Amsterdam lifer who has traveled the world says it required “a perfect mix of intuition, imagination, courage and madness.”

Carlo McCormick writes in his essay, “We honor Shoe as the great cross-pollinator who came to New York City as a kid to meet the graffiti master Dondi and brought Wild Style back to Europe, but his strength remains just how far he can still can carry this immoderate load.” Based on his path and his evolution, we’ll consider this beautiful monster to be in a mid-career retrospective and some of his most masterful work is yet to come.

Niels Shoe Meulman Shoe Is My Middle Name Lebowski Publishers, Amsterdam 2016.

“DID TUNNELS IN PARIS
THAT WALL IN BERLIN
DID ACID IN BROOKLYN
ALL WITHOUT SIN

DID ROOFTOPS IN LONDON
IN MUNICH SOME TIME
DID TRAMLINES AND STATIONS
NO LIFE WITHOUT CRIME

DID TRAINS IN THE BRONX
TAGS ON A PLANE
DID MURALS IN DELHI
ALL WITHOUT SHAME

DID LECTURES IN DUBLIN
GOT CHASED BY CHINESE
DID EXHIBITS DOWN UNDER
AND IN LOS ANGELES”

From “A Writer’s Song” by Niels Shoe Meulman

Niels Shoe Meulman Shoe Is My Middle Name Lebowski Publishers, Amsterdam 2016.

Niels Shoe Meulman “Shoe Is My Middle Name” is published by Lebowski Publishers / Overamstel. Amsterdam, 2016. Click HERE for more information.

Johannes Mundinger: “La Bella Confusione”
April 25, 2024
You are inundated with information, disinformation, propaganda, images, videos, entreaties, siren calls, threats, promises, summaries, conjecture, stunning beauty, deliberate obfuscations, …Read More »
BSA Hits The North! – See You Soon in Belfast, Northern Ireland
April 23, 2024
We are excited to announce that BSA will be part of the exhilarating ‘Hit the North’ 2024 festival in Belfast! …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.21.24
April 21, 2024
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! “It’s the only time of the year when New York City smells good,” …Read More »
Barcelona Tributes for The Amazing SKE
April 18, 2024
Today, we pay tribute to an iconic figure from the Puerto Rican graffiti scene, Eliezer “SKE” Pagán Torres. Born on …Read More »
Elfo Declares “I’m a Figurative Painter”… and I’m the Queen of England!
April 16, 2024
Elfo, the ever-witty Italian street artist, strikes again with his latest work scrawled across an abandoned building in Italy. Known …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.14.24 / “Return2Burn” in Hunts Point, Bronx
April 14, 2024
Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week. We decided to dedicate this weekly survey to the artists of “Return 2 …Read More »
Martha Cooper and Seth in Kibera. Kenya: Part 2 / “We Are One”
April 11, 2024
Nestled within the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya, Kibera is a testament to its inhabitants’ challenges and its collective indomitable …Read More »

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

Anders Gjennestad. “Canvas”. Published by Galerie Friedmann – Hahn. Berlin 2018

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

HOGRE. Subvertising: The Piracy Of Outdoor Advertising. Dog Section Press. London, 2017.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

Bordalo II 2011 – 2017. Editor & Publisher Bordalo II. In conjunction with ATTERO and exhibition by Bordalo II held in Lisbon. November, 2017. Lisbon, Portugal.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

INTI. Éditions Albin Michel, 2017. Paris, France.

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Street Art In Sicilia. Mauro Filippi, Marco Mondino, Luisa Tuttolomondo. Palermo. IT. April 2017

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Niels Shoe Meulman on the cover of The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

JonOne The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Poesia The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

SheOne The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Said Dokins The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Lek & Sowat The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

L’Atlas The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Tilt The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Carlos Mare The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Faust The Art Of Writing Your Name by Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark. Publikat Verlags. Mainaschaff, Germany, 2017.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

Jeremy Fish “Happily Ever After” The Artwork of Jeremy Fish.

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. The London Police, Skount and Invader in Amsterdam. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Wild Drawing in Athens. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Conor Harrington, Maser and Various artists in Dublin. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Guido van Helten, Agostino Iacurci and Fintan Magee in Kyiv. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Aryz, Inti and Telmo and Miel in Lisbon. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Phlegm, Eine and Remi Rough, Steve More,Augustine Kofie,LXOne and AOC in London. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Guido van Helten in Reykjavik. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

Street Art by Ed Bartlett. Nunca in Toronto. Lonely Planet Publishers. UK. April 2017

“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.” Carl Jung

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

The founder of analytical psychology would have looked at the hands of RUN and perhaps understood more about his lifelong psychological process than the average intellect, and yet seeing RUN’s carefully formed people on the street captivates your imagination as well.

These are the dreams he creates with his expressive hands, conscious or unconscious features that over time have developed into archetypes to be combined, adorned, alone, and recombined. Not surprisingly, his people often have a grasp, a hold, a flair for the five fingered gesture as well.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London, UK. 2016

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
Carl Jung