All posts tagged: WD

Finland’s Formidable Multi-City “UPEA” Mural Festival

Finland’s Formidable Multi-City “UPEA” Mural Festival

Finland joined the mural festival fray with some astounding and complex murals for UPEA this autumn. Created simultaneously in different cities, the festival soars with a large scale and with big international talents.

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Guido Van Helten from Australia painting in Helsinki. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

Wisely, they included Finnish artists who are prominent on the local Street Art scene as well and carefully curated the murals to have longevity.

For being their first edition, UPEA16 already claims that it is the biggest street art event in Finland. Of course, they mean “mural event” as true Street Art does not seek permission and is not commissioned, rather it is done illegally. But we know what they meant.

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Guido Van Helten from Australia. Helsinki. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

UPEA16 artists and cities featured are Italian Tellas (in Helsinki), Swedish duo Graffitisthlm (in Helsinki), Australian artist Guido van Helten (in Helsinki), Bulgarian duo Arsek & Erase (in Turku), Swedish artist Ola Kalnins (in Riihimäki), Indonesian artist WD (in Kemi), U.S. artist Andrew Hem (in Vaasa) and Finnish artists Kim Somervuori and Teemu Mäenpää (in Hyvinkää and Hämeenlinna).

Learn more about UPEA by clicking here.

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Wild Drawing from Indonesia painting in Kemi. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Wild Drawing from Indonesia painting in Kemi. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Wild Drawing from Indonesia in Kemi. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Tellas from Italy painting in Helsinki. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Tellas from Italy in Helsinki. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Arsek & Erase from Bulgaria painting in Turku. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Arsek & Erase from Bulgaria painting in Turku. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Teemu Maenpaa & Kim Somervuori from Finland painting in Hyvinkää and Hämeenlinna. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Teemu Maenpaa & Kim Somervuori from Finland in Hyvinkää and Hämeenlinna. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Teemu Maenpaa & Kim Somervuori from Finland in Hyvinkää and Hämeenlinna. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Graffitisthlm a duo from Sweden painting in Helsinki. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Graffitisthlm a duo from Sweden in Helsinki. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Andrew Hem from USA painting in Vaasa. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Andrew Hem from USA painting in Vaasa. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Andrew Hem from USA in Vaasa. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

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Ola Kalnins from Sweden painting in Riihimäki. UPEA Festival 2016. Finland. (photo © courtesy of UPEA)

 

 

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Athens Street Art Reflects Stress of Debt and Suffering of Poor

Athens Street Art Reflects Stress of Debt and Suffering of Poor

As bankers put the final screws to the people of Greece with crushing unsustainable debt and Greece itself struggles with a flood of Syrians fleeing that war-torn country, art on the street is expressing some of the virulent discontent of the everyday people who are watching the economic ground slip out from beneath.

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WD. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

“Rage is all over, you can feel it just by looking all around you,” says photographer and BSA contributor Aline Mairet who shares new images from Athens today with you. The city itself is covered with graffiti tags and political sentiments but the police take almost no interest in the expression of speech that manifests in this way. Curiously, commercial interests do.

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WD. Detail of piece entitled “No Land for the Poor”. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

“I saw a street artist, Nikos Tsounakas, working illegally on his piece,” Aline says as she describes shooting him while he worked. “He explained to me that the only problems he encountered are with the advertisers and their displays, but really not with the police!”

The large mural that has most people engaged and talking with one another is the sleeping figure by Street Artist WD.  Entitled “No Land for the Poor,” it lays out the impact of and ultimate economic violence that is happening to people who are dispossessed of home and country.

Another less elaborate but poignant shot is the black text that reads ‘λάθος‘, translated as ‘mistake’.

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A “magnet wall” in Athens, Greece.  with Laus, 1Up and onter artists. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

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Wake Up people! Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

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The tag in Greek reads “Mistake”. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

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T14. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

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Nikos Tsounakas. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

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Nikos Tsounakas. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

 

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Images of the Week: 02.17.13

Guess it shouldn’t surprise us when we find out that the sticker, wheat-paste, or mural we published of “Street Art” or graffiti actually turns out to be a logo or promotion for someone who is selling sneakers, t-shirts, lip-gloss, tampons, or toe fungus spray. That’s how people pay the rent, yo!

After all, we get press releases all the time from “Street Artists” who purport to get up all over the place in their home city of New Jesusville – but nobody we talk to has heard of them. Eventually word gets around and its not our business to trash people. And we all know at least one or two fine artists who have used the strategy of putting their stuff on the street to add some sort of “cred” to their “brand”. Fine. And look at the countless corporate names that have been inserting (or “integrating”) themselves into all manner of social/electronic media and “stories” in the last couple of years – just to leach off grassroots D.I.Y. culture and make the money and get the clicks but not actually support the art community that birthed it. It’s a complex story.

But it’s hard not to feel a little bit like you just got punked when you walk into a store and find the stuff you shot in a putrid garbage strewn alley is now silk-screened across a cheap flask or frisbee or truckers cap, giving it about as much meaning as a Kardashian wedding ring.

What are we going to do? Oh probably nothing – there is no purity test or reliable scale for measuring when someone has “sold out” and we don’t like pompous peeps who pretend otherwise. We’re just keeping an eye out, sister, and trying not to get fooled again.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alinic, ASK, BAMN, Chris & Veng RWK, Gilf!, Icy & Sot, Lambros, Meer Sau, Mosstika, MUDA, Pixote, Tripel, and WD.

Top image > ASK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lambros (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tripel (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meer Sau “I Love Porno” in Salzburg, Austria. (photo © Meer Sau)

Meer Sau “Art is not a Crime” in Salzburg, Autria. (photo © Meer Sau)

MUDA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! Her tribute to Malala Yousafzai (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris, Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop 203 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BAMN does a memoriam for Aaron Swartz. Pixote on top. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mosstika (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alinic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WD in Athens, Greece. (photo © Philipp Gor)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. Februray 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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