Blu recently finished two murals in Niscemi, Italy, where residents are protesting the US Navy’s installation of communications satellites which will be integral to controlling the next generation of military drones.

The above piece is one of my favorites from Blu in quite a while. The drones slowly transform into crosses at a graveyard, and the multitudes of Niscemi stand up and resist against the military monster. Besides the ethical concerns about drones, residents are also worried about the electromagnetic waves that the communications satellites will emit. Check out the No MUOS website for more information about the protests.

Translation: “Free up the landscape”

While the idea of satellite dishes as visual pollution would probably come up anywhere, it’s especially relevant in Niscemi, which looks like an absolutely beautiful place. Just have a look at the spectacular view just next to this mural.

And I also want to give major props to Blu for continuing his mission as a mural painter on his terms, even when he could certainly be making a living by painting at mural festivals around the world and selling his work indoors. Instead, he gets to paint what he wants, where he wants, when he wants, but he doesn’t have the easiest time of it. Any other muralist of Blu’s fame and talent would have a scaffolding or a lift to get help him paint, but all Blu had for these murals was a ladder and an extendable pole…

Photos courtesy of Blu

Had a fantastic time in New York last weekend finishing up The Art of Comedy, but that meant missing out on a lot of news, so some of this week’s link-o-rama is a bit more dated than usual:

• The Wall Therapy mural project in Rochester, NY is working on a short documentary about this year’s event, and they’ve recently released a trailer for that film.
• Station 16 recently released Hanksy’s latest print.
• I absolutely love this collaboration in London between Stinkfish, Cranio, Aeon Fly, and Dscreet.
• Vitche’s latest mural in Sao Paulo has some interesting elements that pop off the wall a bit.
• If you’re a fan of Horfe, you’ve got to check out this video of the Peace And Love crew, of which Horfe is a member.
• How and Nosm are the latest artists to paint the wall at Bowery and Houston.
• KAWS has work on the outside of a NYC subway car, but not in the way you might be hoping, just the way you’d expect.
• Erica il Cane and Blu have collaborated once again, this time on a mural in Bari, Italy.
• Hell yes: Two trucks painted by Aryz.
• A zoo in Turin, Italy closed down. This is what happened when artists were given access.

Photo by Luna Park

Earlier this week, I hosted a movie night at The Wren’s Nest in Atlanta for the Living Walls Conference. Living Walls asked me to put together a list of some short films to show, and I ended up with 27. A few people have asked me to post those films online to share with friends or just to see a film that they missed while they were getting some food, so after the jump you’ll find embedded versions of all 27 films that were screened at the movie night (many of which have appeared on Vandalog before). Enjoy! Read the rest of this article »

Cept

Caroline and I are out in Colorado this week with my family, so art is coming second, but luckily it looks like it’s been a slow week. Here’s what I almost missed…

• An interesting essay about street art and MOCA’s Art in the Streets show (although far from perfect and obvious a little late).
• Sam3 has up to some absolutely great stuff (including a collaboration with Escif).
• Blu has also been busy recently.
• Caroline and I went to the opening of Pandemic Gallery’s latest show and it certainly looks better in person than over photos, but it’s not bad at all.
• Subway Art Blog’s zine can now be purchased online.
• There’s been some anti Chick-Fil-A street art, and one piece has resulted in an arrest. Of course, these pieces play on the Chick-Fil-A advertising that emulates graffiti.
• Dal and Faith47 put up some nice work in NYC recently.
• I absolutely love this piece, however simple it is, by Nuria Moria.
• And this Erica il Cane piece is a lot less simple but equally fantastic.

Photo by Nolionsinengland

ND'A in Bushwick

This week I’ve got a rather major correction to make. A few days ago, I wrote about a piece by Jeice2 where it looked like he went over a bunch of tags with with a poster. Turns out, the poster was just taped on for the purpose of a photograph, and so the graffiti was not covered.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been looking at this week:

• Some beautiful street in LA by A Common Name. Some of the best work I’ve seen done in LA without permission in a while.
• Another fantastic wall by Blu. This time in Morocco.
• Some spots in Germany and San Fransisco by Herakut.
• Pedro Matos has a show opening this month at Ivory & Black in London.
• Galleria Patricia Armocida in Milan has a great 3-person group show on right now with Swoon, Monica Canilao and Dennis McNett. Perfect combo.
• Shepard Fairey has done another digital animation artwork for s[edition].
• The City of Gold festival in Johannesburg seems to be going nicely.

Photo by Mike Pearce

Unknown artist

Well, while I had myself more or less locked in a library underground for the better part of last week, the art world did not stand still. And so we have this special Tuesday edition of the typically friday event – the link-o-rama:

• Olek is facing charges in London (not related to her street art), and needs your help. Hyperallergic has more info.
• Banksy has loaned a sculpture to a museum in Liverpool. Meh. Another artwork that just as easily could have been seen at any urban art group show, but it’s by Banksy so the BBC and the rest of us should apparently care. What is this? It’s not just with Banksy. Bloggers in particular, we seem to have this urge to always be the first to say “Yeah, I saw that girl’s work first and said she was cool” and a fear of being caught in a situation where everyone except us thinks that some artist or artwork is great. And now I’m rambling…
• Blu just painted two walls in Buenos Aires. Here’s the first and here’s the second.
• I’m loving this new sculpture from Leon Reid IV about the financial crisis.
• Todd James also has a new sculpture in both bronze and porcelain. It’s for sale at Toykyo.
• Mode2′s new work (NSFW) might be the best I’ve ever seen from him. Amazing stuff.
• KAWS has a show on now at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
• Knock Knock is a new online magazine with a lot about street art and graffiti in Australia.
• Kunle Martins aka Earsnot aka the founder of the infamous IRAK crew participated in Wynwood Walls this year alongside Jesse Geller aka Nemel. Martha Cooper has shots of what they got up to and then the Wynwood Walls video series has a great episode on them. For some people, it may be hard to avoid comparisons to this wall by Barry McGee. 12ozProphet says “The building painted by IRAK for Wynwood Walls is inspired by Barry McGee’s tag-filled murals… Earsnot and Nemel build on Barry McGee’s tag wall concept by filling the wall with a variety of monochromatic shades of overlapping tags creating the illusion of depth.”

Photo by Damonabnormal

Painting by Bastardilla

The Tubú community is an indigenous group of families now living in the city of Bogotá, Columbia. Tubu Community is a project to help raise money to build a new home in Bogotá for a Tubú family. To learn more about the Tubú people, you can watch this video or read this info.

A new print from Stinkfish

At their webstore, Tubu Community has begun to sell prints and original art by South American and European artists to help with the effort. 100% of the proceeds from these sales go to the Tubú people. Blu, Bastardilla, Buytronick and Stinkfish have contributed original art and Eine and Stinfish have contributed prints, including a new 7-color screenprint by Stinkfish. Expect more products to be added to the webstore in the future.

Photos courtesy of Tubu Community

Blu

The Urban Space at Tudela de Navarra, Spain hosted the Avant-Garde Urbano mural festival on September 26th-30th. The project aimed to revive the architecture of the city with some fresh paint by Blu, Bs. As. Stencil, El Mac, Filippo Minelli, Run Don’t Walk, Sam3, Suso33 and more. The festival was produced by Castel Ruiz and curated by Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada. Here are some photos.

Suso33

Buenos Aires Stencil & Run Don't Walk

Buenos Aires Stencil & Run Don't Walk

FIlippo Minelli

El Mac

Haha, as I was writing this post, I notice this series of posts on Unurth that just went online.

Photos by Ana Alvarez-Errecalde

Portrait of Steve Jobs in France

This weekend I’ll be in Boston. If you have any ideas for what I should get up to, leave a comment. I’ll definitely be checking out Swoon’s installation at the ICA Boston. Here’s what’s been going on in street art while I’ve been locked in my room studying all week:

• Steve Powers aka ESPO designed some beer cozies for The World’s Best Ever. They’re pretty okay, but should your beer cozy really be more than pretty okay? I would honestly feel a bit weird of my beer cozy had some brilliant high-brow design on it. Much more impressive is the latest in Powers’ Love Letter series.
• Philips de Pury and MTV had a charity auction for MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, with particularly nice work by Shepard Fairey and Faile.
• Stik’s latest solo show just opened in London.
• Some beautiful pieces by Sam3 in Porto, Portugal.
• AvoidPi designed the latest cover of Showpaper.
• Blu’s latest mural is in Greece.
• A nice booth for Joshua Liner Galler at Pulse in LA.
• Mr. Brainwash has a show opening soon in LA, but it’s going to be full of other people’s art. Anyone can submit work to be wheatpasted around the exhibition. On the one hand, yay, artists can benefit from Mr. Brainwash’s stupid fame and hype. On the other hand, I guess Mr. Brainwash has acknowledged that he doesn’t have any ideas for art, so he’s just openly benefiting from the art of others to further his own art career. So it’s mutually beneficial, except that individual artists submitting work will gain a lot less from this arrangement than Mr. Brainwash will gain overall.

Photo by Abode of Chaos

Roa

Roa, Pin, Pixelpancho and Blu are some of the first arrivals painting at the Draw The Line festival in Campobasso, Italy. All in all, over 100 artists will participate in the festival, which officially launches in September. In the mean time, artists are coming by to paint. There was some initial controversy about Blu’s piece, but that has since settled down.

Pixelpancho

Pin

Photos courtesy of Draw The Line