Sorn by AVK ONE
Hope you all had a scrappy Vandaline’s Day!
Nuans by SÖKE
Mask by SÖKE
Zaki and Aroe by Voodoodi London
Zore SB by Anarchosyn
Mathe (Jobe ID) by Voodoodi London
Photos by Anarchosyn, AVK ONE, SÖKE, and Voodoodi London
Alex and Fans by SÖKE
Fresh futuristic.
Cemo by Voodoodi London
Horphe by Etchplate
Maestro by Datachump
Photos by Datachump, Etchplate, SÖKE, and Voodoodi London
Jeak by SÖKE
It’s that time of the week…
Hose by Datachump
Fans and Rude by SÖKE
Fild by •G•
Photo and piece by °°Suede°°
Inok and Okus by Datachump
This new piece, located in Bogota, was based on this portrait by photographer Brett Walker. The stenciling style is a bit darker than what Stink usually does, but it’s an interesting marriage between Stinkfish’s distinctive brightness and Brett Walker‘s characteristic high-contrast darkness.
Photos by Stinkfish and Brett Walker
Hush created the pieces for his new installation in a mere two weeks. The work, which will be shown until March, is in San Francisco at 941 Geary (White Walls‘ sister gallery). This definitely looks worth checking out in person.
Photos courtesy of Hush
Bask and Skeb by Suede
Wild as ever.
Dem189 and Lek by Thias
Piece and photo by Achoe
Spazm and Dely2 by SÖKE
Ador and Kryo by Thias
Various artists. Photo by Paris sous les sticks
It almost goes without saying that Martha Cooper has been one of the most important documentarians of graffiti culture for the last few decades. Her urban and hip hop culture photography is iconic. More recently, Martha Cooper has expanded her graffiti documentation to the photography and collection of stickers. Her two latest books, Going Postal and Name Tagging, spotlight sticker art made with postal labels and Hello My Name Is stickers.
On Saturday from 1-3pm, Martha will join sticker fanatic and author of one of my favorite books, DB Burkeman, for a book signing at a sticker exhibition curated by DB. The show, STUCK-UP: A Selected History of Alternative & Pop Culture Told Through Stickers, is at Chicago’s Maxwell Colette Gallery and features stickers from a top-notch roster of artists.
I would gladly hop on the next plane and see this exhibit in person, but that was not an option so instead I asked Martha Cooper a few questions.
Caroline: In your book Name Tagging, you explain how you began appreciating stickers after you bought your first digital camera. What was it about the digital medium that initiated this interest in stickers?
Martha Cooper: Pre-digital, I rarely took my heavy, bulky Nikon out unless I was headed for something specific to shoot. It cost about 50 cents for film and processing every time I clicked the shutter. So although I had noticed stickers for years, I hadn’t looked at them closely and hadn’t bothered to shoot many.
My first digital camera was a little Olympus that I could easily carry around with me all the time. It had a very good close-up lens and performed well under low light. Once I had the camera, it didn’t cost any more to keep shooting so I was free to take as many photos as I wanted. Transitioning from analog to digital was a challenge. Shooting stickers was an unstressful way to practice new technology with interesting subject matter.
C: What led to you removing and collecting stickers off the street, rather than just photographing them?
MC: I’ve always been a collector. I like to look at different examples of things. At first after shooting a nice sticker, I printed it and saved it in an album. That began to feel unsatisfactory–I wanted the original. I only shoot and collect hand drawn stickers and this is pretty much the only form of graffiti and street art that can actually be removed from the street. Of course writers have criticized me for this and I know this is a dubious defense, but someday I hope to have a museum sticker exhibit.
Various artists. Photos by Lois Stavsky
Photo by Luna Park
If Chris Stain isn’t already in your street artist repertoire, this is someone you need to know. Baltimore bred and current New Yorker, Stain transitioned from graffiti writing in his early days to the stencil portraits and paste-ups that have made him known around the world today. The beauty in Stain’s work comes from his ability to capture the soul and often overlooked tenderness of the urban world.
1. Describe one of your first experiences with graffiti.
I got into graffiti after seeing the movie Beat Street in 1984. The only type of paint my friends and I had was Testors model car paint. The cans were small and you couldn’t get far with them but it was easily concealable.
We all lived in rowhomes in Balitmore so our main targets were houses on the end of the block because they had the biggest open wall space and traffic on the main streets could see our work. We also wrote in the alleys behind the houses as well, decorating the backs of peoples cinderblock fences. Once the neighbors caught on to who was writing all over the neighborhood we moved on. We really had no idea what we were doing. We mostly just wrote our new chosen aliases in a form of cursive and printing that we combined. Like the beginning of anything new it was incredibly exciting.
"French Kiss" feat Amy Winehouse by Dem189, Seth, Lek, and Swiz. Photo by Thias
Brief break for holiday- Let the wild resume! Full force and feral.
Joule by Datachump
Serval by Datachump
Onea by SÖKE
Dalm and Pare by SÖKE
Asend One by Abstract Rationality
Photos by Abstract Rationality, Datachump, SÖKE and Thias
