As always, I’m blown away by Tant and Unga of Broken Fingaz. The two hit London yet again, as they were in town for a group show in December at Hoxton Gallery.

And one from Tant and Unga in Bristol

Photos courtesy of Broken Fingaz

Tellas and Ciredz

Looks like the art world has gotten back on track after the holiday season. Lots of links this week.

• Over at Complex.com, I wrote about the 10 (well, actually 12) street artists that I think people should be watching for in 2013.
• Rae, one of the artists on that list of mine, has a solo show opening at Signal Gallery in London later this month.
• Broken Fingaz are also on that same list, and it looks like they have some new work up in London.
• Sten and Lex get up in an ancient church.
• I’d never heard of Kraser Tres before, but damn can he paint.
• And so can Sokram.
• Faile are working on a huge project with the New York City Ballet. It sounds like a bit of a strange collaboration at first, but I’m excited to see the results. It seems like this has given Faile an opportunity to develop new work in a direction that they would have otherwise never gone, and the results that have been teased so far look strong.
• 2501 has a show opening this month in Bologna.
• A lot of Rammellzee’s work is on display now at New York’s Children’s Museum of the Arts.
• There’s some great work available in the Iron To Gold/Ashes To Hope benefit auction which will help to fund an artist residency program in Detroit.
• Here’s a nice video of Kid Zoom at work.
• I might have asked this question before, but can someone please explain the appeal of Barry McGee’s recent Brooklyn mural to me? The first of the videos here has some info about it, but I need more. McGee has previously stated his objections to painting so-call beautifying murals. The only time in recent memory that I can recall seeing anything similar to the Brooklyn mural is the one he painted a few years ago in Miami, but even that piece included a fair bit of traditional graffiti. Plus, the Brooklyn mural was painted by the billboard painting company Colossal. I’ve got no problem with artist assistants or anything like that, but the whole thing strikes me as McGee just saying “Sure, if Cadillac wants to pay me a bunch of money to license one of my images and hire someone else to paint it on a building, I’ll take that paycheck.” And hey, more power to the guy if he can get Cadillac to pay him for that, but is that all that’s going on here or am I missing something? Has McGee’s philosophy about public art changed?

Photo by Tellas

This summer has been anything but slow and relaxing for Broken Fingaz Crew. After 3 months touring Europe, painting walls, doing collaborations, 2 solo shows in London and Vienna and a group show in Paris, the crew is finally headed back home to Tel Aviv. But before, Tant and Unga left Austria with these murals (and this cool animation), which were inspired by a few old books they found in a coffee house they they were staying in, about how death is just around the corner.

Photos courtesy of Broken Fingaz

Seth in Cambodia

Julien Seth is a public art documentarian for French television. The job’s required traveling has given Seth some interesting opportunities. Plenty of street artists these days travel and put work up around the globe, but instead of sticking to some blandly universal subject matter, Seth’s murals are inspired by the countries they’re painted in.

Here are a few examples of Julien Seth’s work. For more, check out his Facebook or his Flickr.

Seth in South Africa

Seth in India

He’s collaborated with Know Hope and Broken Fingaz in Israel, with El Decertor, Entes & Pessimo, Jade in Peru, and he is part of the “French Kiss“ collective with Dem189, Lek and Swiz in his home country of France. Currently, Seth is in the Ukraine, painting with Kislow and Teck.

Seth with Unga in Paris

Seth in Hong Kong

Seth in Chili

Seth in Cambodia

Photos by Seth

If you’re a Broken Fingaz fan in Vienna, you’re in luck. If you’re not a Broken Fingaz fan but you are in Vienna, you’re still in luck because you’re about to become a fan. If you’re a Broken Fingaz fan and are not in Vienna (like me) but can afford to travel there (not like me), call work and tell them you’re sick because this Thursday, June 28th they have yet another solo show (because let’s be honest, who’s going to put work next to BF’s?) opening at Inoperable Gallery. For this show, they’ll be exhibiting some new works alongside pieces from their recent show in London and will hang through the month of the July. The piece above, done recently on the side of the gallery, is entitled “Chase the Devil” which is a play on the long history of Devil mythology in Vienna.

It seems that Unga will not be apart of this show, but he’s been busy; Unga and Insa have been blowing up the ‘Reblog’ button with this dope mural GIF. He also put up work with Lush in London and in Paris with Seth, Dem189 and Babs which was probably around the time of the group show in Paris, for which Broken Fingaz showed alongside Pure Evil and  Pascal Le Gras.

Photos courtesy of Inoperable Gallery

Photo by HookedBlog

Just after the closing of their first major UK exhibition “Crazy Eye Hotel“ at the Old Truman Brewery, Broken Fingaz let loose on the streets of East London. The Israeli crew, consisting of Tant, Unga, Kip and Deso, was able to put on the indoor display of their comic-strip-acid-trip-illustrations through support from the British Israeli Arts Training Scheme; a program built from a bilateral agreement between the British and Israeli governments that enables a creative exchange between the nations’ artists.

Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz

Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz

What better way to say “thank you” to the political effort funding your first major solo show in England, than to further-exhibit your art illegally? On one hand, London is without a doubt one of best cities for street art, so can you blame them for getting up while there? On the other hand, if the British Council, the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Ministry of Culture and Sport, all of whom provide funding for this program, believed that perhaps they were actually funding some no good vandal punks to get up abroad, would it jeopardize the program?

The fact that they were putting up work was no secret, in fact it seemed advertised almost as much as the show itself. …But on that first hand, Broken Fingaz crew is phenomenal. What do you think?

Photo by HookedBlog

Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz

Photo by HookedBlog

Photo courtesy of Broken Fingaz

Photos by Hookedblog and courtesy of Broken Fingaz Crew

Masters of Mystery

Here are two pieces done recently by a couple of my favorite artists, Tant and Unga, from Israel’s Broken Fingaz crew. Fresh attitude, vivacious energy, and ample ability.

Born Dead

Photos by Tant

Seven internationally recognised Israeli street artists are showing at the Inoperable gallery in Vienna.

The show features work by Know Hope, Zero Cents, Ame 72, Klone, Broken Fingaz, DoverD, Foma <3.

Most of the artists are from, Tel Aviv (‘the bubble’). Know Hope calls the city the “most secular, dynamic and fast-paced city in Israel”. Broken Fingaz are from Haifa, in the north, which also has a surfing community for what it’s worth.

Tel Aviv is a great graffiti destination. Not without police, but just far more laid back than most other big cities. You can read more about the Tel Aviv street art scene in an article I wrote for the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz last year.

Take a look at Zero Cents blog (maybe NSFW)- I was moved by the post, ‘R.I.P. Whoresy’.

Broken Fingaz

Broken Fingaz

Photos courtesy of Inoperable Gallery and Broken Fingaz

While Blu and David Ellis may be the reigning kings of street art turned into animations, they’ve got some serious competition from Israel’ Broken Fingaz crew. Tant and Unga painted this video animation over three days. Some crazy stuff. Very similar to Muto and Combo and maybe not as innovative or artistically awesome, these guys have definitely put in some serious work and their technical skills are up there. Check it out:

Broken Fingaz -Graffiti Stop Motion from Broken Fingaz on Vimeo.

Via Animal New York