I was finally been able to set aside some time this past weekend to ready Very Nearly Almost‘s issue #17. As usual, VNA have confirmed why they are my favorite magazine covering street art. For their latest issue, which is admittedly not that new so sorry for the delay, VNA interview some of the most interesting figures in street art, including El Mac and Interesni Kazki. Juxtapoz also recently had an interview with IK, but I get bored with Juxtapoz’s interview and found VNA’s interview interesting, so that’s saying something. As long as you ignore the interview with Goldie, VNA has once again shown their commitment to producing a magazine which is equally timely and timeless. They speak with some of the best-known names in street art today, but the magazine will be almost just as readable in a year or more.

The interviews with El Mac and Pablo Delgado were particular highlights for me. El Mac is well-spoken and just seems like a smart guy, which is always nice to learn. And Delgado is a figure who seemed to pop up out of nowhere in London and get bloggers and photographers all wondering “Who the hell is this guy putting up awesome tiny pieces all over Shoreditch?” practically overnight.

There’s also an interview with Malarky which should act as good documentation of his work on Brick Lane given that a lot of it won’t be around for much longer.

For the most part, I read other art magazines because I have to if I want Vandalog to be any good, but I read Very Nearly Almost because I enjoy it.

You can pick up a copy of VNA #17 online.

Photos courtesy of Very Nearly Almost

El Mac is the latest artist to paint a wall on the Montana factory in Barcelona. As usual, El Mac’s mural is big, beautiful and instantly recognizable as an El Mac creation. Watch El Mac paint the wall in the above video, and then you can go over to Graffuturism for more photos of the wall plus information about and photos El Mac’s latest print release, which will be dropping today at Moon Editions.

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

I know I haven’t been too active here lately. My dissertation and job hunting in London has pretty much consumed my life that past few weeks. But I saw this new El Mac piece on Arrested Motion and am absolutely in love with it. On a recent trip to Montreal, Canada, the artist painted this piece entitled Spirit in Summer as an homage to the town of Rosemount. The woman depicted is apparently El Mac’s interpretation of Rose Phillips, after whom the town is named.

Hoping this is going to be a print, because I would love to look at this piece on a daily basis in my flat.

Photo by Arrested Motion

El Mac

First week of school down. Just a boatload more to go. Here’s what I’ve been checking out to procrastinate doing homework:

• A nice time lapse video of Kid Zoom.
• Very Nearly Almost’s latest issue (with Invader on the cover) launches on September 8th in London.
• TrustoCorp have been putting up some clever new work recently. Arrested Motion has the images, and they’re running a TrustoCorp-related contest.
• The NYTimes has an article about the potential demise of 5Pointz.
• Euth, a street artist, sued Green Day for appropriating one of his images in background graphics for their live show. That lawsuit has been dismissed. Melrose&Fairfax seems to lean towards agreeing with Euth on this one, but while Green Day might have been in an ethical grey area by not compensating Euth, they were undoubtedly legally in the right, and on the whole, that’s a good thing. No idea is 100% original and appropriation is appropriate. As M&F point out in this post, a lot of street artists base their work on appropriation.
• Something new from Morley.
• A guy in the Hamptons is selling a bunch of Banksy pieces that were ripped out of walls from around the world. Gawker has some explanation of what happened. Of course the work is all unauthenticated and the morals of the whole situation are pretty sketchy.

Photo by unusualimage

I’ve just had an incredible week volunteering at ‘See No Evil’ in Bristol where over 40 artists have spent the last week painting the dull concrete of Nelson Street. The week finished with an amazing block party (the street was packed!) and it certainly no longer looks dull!

There are too many to mention but for me some of the highlights came from Mau Mau, Xenz, Nick Walker, Mr Jago, China Mike, Tats Crew, El Mac, What Collective, Mysterious Al, Cosmo, Paris, SPQR and Stickee.

The photos below are just a fraction of what is there:

Tats Crew

Nick Walker

Mau Mau

Mr Jago

Xenz

Nick Walker

Mau Mau

What Collective

Nick Walker

El Mac

Mysterious Al

Graffuturism has even more photos.

Photos by Ben

"A Study In Fecundity" by Elbowtoe

I’m baking alive here in Atlanta for Living Walls, but damn things are coming along nicely. Nanook and Gaia have finished a couple of walls, including this one. But Living Walls is a busy event, so I’ve been missing out on a lot this week, including some big news from Banksy. Check all that out here…

• The schedule for Living Walls is up and finalized. Festivities start tonight. If you’re in Atlanta, I hope to see you there.
• El Mac’s painting of a cockroach is pretty crazy.
• Channel4 in the UK has two films of note being shown this weekend: Banksy’s tv special Antics Roadshow (it’s about people behaving badly in public) and Graffiti Wars, which is that Robbo (get well soon man) documentary that people have been talking about for a while.
• Art in the Streets had over 200,000 visitors.
• Fine Art Views has an interview with Blek le Rat.
• Retna, Kenny Scharf and Shepard Fairey painted the outside of a parking garage in West Hollywood.
• New work from Phil Frost.
• Nelio is quite cool.
• Did you know that Futura made a rap with The Clash?
• To coincide with Living Walls, the All City street art and graffiti mapping app is available for free all weekend.

Photo by Elbowtoe

EL MAC / RETNA / Estevan Oriol – LA Skid Row mural (2010) from ELMAC on Vimeo.

Check out this video of a new mural painted by super duo El Mac and RETNA in LA’s Skid Row.