Bifido is frequently using his photography and wheatpastes to conjure a realistic vision of the plays and odysseys that children imagine, balancing as they do along the margins of reality and fantasy. In this new piece he just finished for Collettivo Boca he looks at the practice of putting on a mask figuratively, knowing very well that many of us use masks as adults as well.
He names the new piece after the painter of Dorian Gray in the Oscar Wilde novel about youth and its loss – and appearances. “Basil Hallward” joins other walls made for the festival by artists such as Bosoletti, Millo, Alex Senna, Nemo’s, an Milu Correch in this town called Bonito in the south of Italy.
Migration is as human as it is aviary, and Italian graffiti writer/mural painting duo the WASP collective tells us with this new painting of a stork. Eddyone a.k.a. Edoardo Kucich and Ride a.k.a. Gabriele Guareschi are on top of a building in Turin painting a vertical mural that celebrates extols the elegant migratory bird here where families have been living in “emergency housing”, having escaped strife in their home countries.
Whether the journey is caused by hopeful aspiration or horrified escape, the symbol of the nest in a tree or tucked beneath the eves is also temporary. The housing provides shelter from the elements, a place to have respite before rising to face the new day.
“In the nest we have hidden the symbol of the infinite,” Edoardo says of the stylized lemniscate hovering atop the circular cluster of twigs beneath the large billed stork. “We wanted to represent the fact that over the years, generations of families from all over the world always have emigrated,” he says, perhaps thinking of the families living beneath his feet while he paints.
“These events that have always occurred in the history of humanity, and nothing can stop them.”
Famed cosmologist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking unveiled his ambitious Breakthrough Starshot two years ago; a plan to send a tiny, light-propelled robotic spacecraft through space. For a man of such brilliance the concept of transcending our limitations was a common one to contemplate and explore.
Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)
Street Artist and poet Opiemme uses language, or rather the raw matter of its letters, to propel a column of light across this wall in Torino, Italy for the Museo di Arte Urbana (MAU). As many distinguished guests paid homage to Hawking at a memorial in Westminster Abbey this week and his ashes were interned alongside those of Darwin and Newton, Opiemme says the new street piece is meant as as a tribute to Hawking and his work and his many ambitions, like visiting Alpha Centauri, our nearest star.
“For all the passion about the Universe you infused us with,” Opiemme writes, “your easy words for amateurs of outer space.”
Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)
Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)
Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)
“The happiest flower is the one that is able to have a secure foundation, to receive joy and nourishment.” We paraphrase the Italian muralist Fabio Petani about the name of his new piece in Parco dei Murales in Naples.
He is speaking about flowers as a metaphor for children and families, and says that he took direct inspiration for this new mural from the observations of a group of youth who had been on a tour of this neighborhood and he observed the art and photography they created in a class after they went on the tour.
Petani says he took inspiration for the colors he chose, yellow and purple in particular, as these were the most photographed hues from the students. He says he also saw the geometry of the circle recurring so he used that shape as a formal pattern, repeated.
Currently from Piedmont, Petani was born in 1987 in Pinerolo, Turin, Italy, and he says that his interventions are inspired by flora and he integrates the shapes occurring in nature with the geometric elements of the built environment.
He says he thinks his works are “telling a tale between art and nature through chemistry.”
“Regrets, I’ve had a few But then again, too few to mention”
~ Frank Sinatra
–
“Nazi punks, fuck off!”
~Dead Kennedys
Bianchoshock. “Regrets” Cremona, Italy. 2018. (still from the video courtesy of Biancoshock)
Italian word-player and sociologist Biancoshock examines again the famed throw up and the innerworkings of his brain to bring us this charming call-and-response graffiti tag.
See the video below for the full performance.
Bianchoshock. “Regrets” Cremona, Italy. 2018. (still from the video courtesy of Biancoshock)
Bianchoshock. “Regrets” Cremona, Italy. 2018. (still from the video courtesy of Biancoshock)
Monsters, whales, deer, dragons, dogs, birds, fictional creatures from the woods, very surprised looking people; these are the figures who appear in the murals of Italian Street Artist Mr. Fijordor. A graff writer/ Street Artist since 1994, the quietly engaging wit of his simple illustrations are meant to converse with passersby.
Here he shows you his new mural work just completed on the façade of an elevator company’s business here in Turin, and he tells us it is 130 meters long. “Although the winter is cold I managed to draw a giant wall with skyscrapers, dragons and robots,” he says.
Not quite Domingo, Carreras, and Pavarotti but it’s still an historic achievement in the field of music. The inimitable trio of lively street canines known as Canemorto (dead dog) have just dropped a new track straight from Italy entitled “Gipsy Kings”, the eponymous single from their EP “Golden Age”, performed near the end of the mini-documentary below.
And now they’ve brought Angelino into their mix so you know its all FAME for the future with 4 MCs on the mic. Or, to paraphrase the lyrics, Canemorto with their homie from Studio Chromie gives you zero phonies on the microphoney. Talents like this rarely make it past security, let alone into the studio, so the howling results of this musical are remarkably fresh, painfully funny, and sometimes just painful.
Seen here is the still-warm vinyl for all the old skool DJs rocking turntables, with a custom screen printed B side. For a frameable edition of the cover the artists have also dug deep in created custom painted versions. A new single to add to a list of musical contributions to the Street Art/graffiti world, surely a greatest hits collection is on the horizon as these neo-brutalists show their tongue-style is as slick as their handstyle.
Two new street mandalas here in Milan, Italy from two Street Artists from Iran, Nafir and FRZ. Not surprisingly, the theme is peace, something that feels very endangered in certain parts of the world due to oil, natural resources, banking, private profits, and sometimes geopolitical rancor. The side by side pieces, one based on natural and traditional Iranian decorative patterning, the other more folkloric in motif, each take a different route to the same goal.
“This piece is called ‘Flight of Eslimi’ and it is a statement about changing for the better,” says Nafir, who is originally from Tehran and whose work on the street is usually darker in mood and outlook than this one. “It talks about our ability to become a new form of existence, like the worm (idea) that can change to a butterfly (gold).”
FRz. “Fa Kingz” Milan, Italy (Gif courtesy of the artist)
Tabriz based FRZ creates his mural (and GIF) “Fa kingz” as perhaps a colorful condemnation of the people who are using war and violence to steal and destroy lives and cultural heritage. “It is about the ambitions of those who have power and their unreasonable demands for governing the world,” he says. “Those human beings demolished priceless lives and homes of others just to prove their power and wealth are showing us the selfishness of those who say they are searching for immortality – but for them it does not exist.”
“Angelo, you’ve brought many oafs here,” says his mom at the dinner table, “but these guys… ”
“They really look like rabid dogs,” remarks his father.
Yo Daddy, you’re closer to the truth than you may realize.
Canemorto rapping through the winding streets of Grottaglie, Italy in Golden Age.
Everyone’s favorite Italian trio of graffiti-writing, Street-Art-painting, canvas-painting, rapper-pizza-makers are back on the big screen! And they are still failing successfully.
It’s a running joke now that these witless brothers-in-art are tormented by myriad intertwined demons about their insecurities and conflicts with seeking/avoiding commercial “success” and the mainstreaming/authenticity of the Street Art scene in street culture.
Golden Age, their solo show this fall, is hosted by Studio Cromie and Angelo Raffaele Milano, the owner of the 11-year-old gallery and impresario behind the FAME festival.
FAME, of course, was one of the first so-called Street Art festivals, far before the current onslaught of festivals in cities and towns everywhere. FAME was underground and seemingly authentic before Milano halted it after five years for many of the same conflicting feelings Canemorto has expressed about the commodification of the counter-culture. You’ll see an ad for his now-touring “FAME” movie embedded within this one.
Fake it till you make it—Canemorto sporting slick New York shades in Golden Age.
Golden Age is the new partner video to the show, and the Marco Prosperpio directed film follows the hapless trio through the streets of Grottaglie, Italy, or as one Canemorto calls it in their rap, a “historic shithole.”
“It represents a sort of sequel of our previous video Toys,” Canemorto tells us, “this time the infamous trio has to fool both a crazy gallerist and a gloomy record producer in the desperate hope of getting rich and famous.” Ever brutal and ever witty, this is an ingenious way to fail.
Together with the video, Canemorto is publishing Golden Age EP, a vinyl record (12” – 30×30 cm) with 4 of their jams on side A and a silkscreen print on side B.
Alongside the standard edition, there is also a special edition of 10 copies with handpainted covers, all different from each other.
CANEMORTO
CANEMORTO & ANGELINO – GOLDEN AGE LP
12″ vinyl one-sided record, screen printed on the other side.
4 tracks recorded by CaneMorto & Angelino. Only 100 copies available. Click HERE for more information.
“Man is nature becoming conscious of itself ” ~Elisée Reclus
Focusing his public art and Street Art work on raising our consciousness about the Earth and drawing the connections between us and our environment has been Andreco’s focus for most of this century. Like the 15,000 strong Union of Concerned Scientists who just released a “letter to humanity”, he’s not sure if we will act fast enough to halt the catastrophe we collectively are creating.
During the past year the Italian Street Artist, scientist, and environmental engineer has been working on the fourth step of his project educating people about the consequences of climate change, rooted in science.
Gondolas! Naturally when you think of Venice the first image conjured is of those long thin boats wending their way through canals so you can see the city of water.
Water. That is what continues to rise, eventually eliminating Venice and cities around the globe.
CLIMATE 04 – Sea Level Rise. That is the name of Andreco’s fourth step installation in the project called Climate Change Consequences. The 100 meter long wall painting on the Canal Grande in Fondamenta Santa Lucia opened the new installation on October 27th along with an iron sculpture. Completing the piece are local plants that Andreco selected “for their important role in the resilience of the Venice lagoon.”
In short, the mural tracks expected sea levels of the future, demonstrating in diagrammed color just how high the water will rise. Done in collaboration with the Institute of Sea Studies of the National Research Center (CNR-ISMAR) and others partners, Andreco says he hopes the mural, which runs through February 1, will bring a greater appreciation and raise consciousness in viewers of the genuine impact.
“On the mural there are all the expected sea level quotes in the future, based on the most important international scientific studies on Sea Level Rise,” he tells us. “Also on the mural are the mathematical and physical variables and equations for calculating the extreme waves and the sea level height.”
We really dig these new collaged political cartoons that are on the street as quickly as the weeks news – each depicting one of the many rich white men who are impacting our minds and our bank accounts and our health and sense of security right now. Are we watching the White House or Good Fellas? The backstabbing, front stabbing, chicanery, and ongoing systemic tomfoolery makes you wonder who’s actually running things.
The news cycle is hourly it seems, with tweets and personnel changes and threats happening so fast that people are developing PTSD that is triggered by news alerts on the phone. We have to admire any Street Artist who tries to keep up with the developments and get their commentary on a wall.
Many young and old New Yorkers are wincing from high rent, high debts, crumbling infrastructure, and everyone is working longer hours, if they are lucky enough to work. Some just give up. Meanwhile the one plausible healthcare option that many have gained over the last handful of years? – the servants of the rich have been trying to stab it to death – but they couldn’t muster it this week. Even now – Trump says he’ll stand by and watch it die rather than improve it in any way. Have we ever had a leader who is so cynical?
Even Senator McCain – in our top image above – fresh off his tax-payer funded brain cancer surgery, waivered this week before providing the pivotal vote that saved healthcare for 20 million or so. Most GOP Senators ignored the majority of the US citizens who implored them to fix Obamacare not nix it. But their bank accounts proved far more important than our health. The rich and their corporations are flooding our entire political system and only after we get their money out would we be able to call the USA a democracy. Otherwise we are just fooling ourselves.
So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bifido, El Sol 25, Jarus, London Kaye, Luna Park, Miss17, MSK, Myth, Otto Schade, Rime, SikaOne, Solus, Sonni, Spy33, and Wonderpuss Octopus.
“In this area the government is building a gas pipeline and to do it they are cutting many olive trees. Part of the local economy is based on olive oil production, so people are fighting for preserve their lands and trees. I wanted to address this situation with my artwork.” -Bifido
“This mural depicts a woman sitting at the window sill and reaching outwards. Turning the wall into a window is a metaphor for opening your mind and heart towards new ideas and concepts. The woman is in a red dress because I felt it would compositionally fit into the area of the wall and surrounding buildings.”-Jarus
The 90s graffiti writer who now often participates in mural festivals says he chose this geometric abstraction to represent the poplar tree because of its historical connection to this host city and because of the undeniable intertwined associations he also has with the architecture that these trees often frame.
Part of the “Without Frontiers’ project that ran June 19-24 and was curated by Simona Gavioli and Giulia Giliberti of Caravan Setup Gallery in Bologna, the mural project includes work by artists Elbi Elem, Panem et Circenses, Zedz, and Corn79.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
