Street art is moving online. If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably noticed that street artists are making art on the street for the purpose of photographing it and sharing the images online (and maybe you remember these posts). I think it is too early to say for sure whether this transition is a good thing, a bad thing or just change, but it has gotten so pervasive that street art that comments on street art now often focuses on pointing out this transition from in-the-flesh street art to art that was intended to be shared digitally. Here are a few recent examples…

1. Reblog This by mobstr (shown above). This piece was painted in Shoreditch, a spot where it would have been seen by countless street art photographers, but it only lasted 7 hours before getting buffed. No matter. Mobstr got a great photo of it and put that photo online. Now it’s all ready to be reblogged on tumblr.

2. What ever happened to street art on the street? by Lush. Both a comment on the proliferation of street art online and the commercialization of the movement. This image is available as a print at Backwoods Gallery. Lush has also made animated gifs of his work, something else that can only be viewed digitally but is created on the street.

3. Fine by Elfo. The text is in Italian and references this work by Giuseppe Chiari. It translates to “Street art is finished, stop all together.” Rather than painting this in a busy city center, Elfo put it on an abandoned building in what looks like the countryside. The audience for the work is (primarily) the audience that will see this photo online and Elfo is well aware of that. Does this mean the death of street art though? Of course not. Chiari continued making art after his declaration, and Elfo has already made more street art. It’s just that Elfo’s public is primarily a digital one, either seeking his work out or coming across it randomly on a site like tumblr, but either way viewing it for free.

For more about this shift towards a digital street and a digital public, here are two posts I wrote a while ago.

Photos by mobstr, Lush and Elfo

BR1 and Elfo teamed up to make this sculpture in Berlin. It combines so many of my favorite things: Décollage, referencing Gordon Matta-Clark, disrupting advertising and inserting something mildly spectacular into people’s everyday lives. Not the most environmentally friendly work though…

Photos by Elfo

This latest contextual face by Elfo is perfect:

Photo by Elfo

Elfo's road sign for an underground robber

Getting back in the swing of things at school this week. Fair warning, today is the first meeting of a class I’m taking about conceptual art. I’m excited and the professor seems awesome, but just fair warning: That class could bleed over into the rest of my life and lead to an increase in bullshitting from me here on Vandalog. Unfortunately, I haven’t sorted out a proper internet connection yet since getting back to school, so I’ve been a bit lax this week. Here’s what’s been going on:

• This isn’t street art or urban art or low brow or anything really related to Vandalog, but one of my favorite artists, Hiroyuki Doi, has a show on in New York right now. Definitely check it out.
• Kid Acne has a new zine out.
• This collaboration between Malarky, Billy and Mighty Mo is great.
• At first I hated this sculpture from Jeremy Fish, but now I’m thinking I’d love to walk by it every day.
• Last week I asked about graffiti photographers in Philadelphia, and Fat Cap has found a great one.
• I think some of these pieces from Phil Jones are old, some just remind me of Asbestos’ Lost series and some are pretty meh, but damn overall Jones is kicking ass with some fun street art.
• Felice Varini makes me smile.
• Exit Through The Gift Shop was nominated for a BAFTA and won an award for documentaries. In other Banksy news, someone is trying to sell 5 Banksy works on paper, basically preparatory works, for £125,000.
• This “news” article reads like a press release for Bonhams, but there is one surprising bit of information in there: Apparently the Shepard Fairey Peace Goddess, which sold earlier this month at Bonhams for £27,600, is the highest price ever paid for a Shepard Fairey work at auction. I would have thought he’d reached a higher number by now, but I guess most of the work that goes to auction tends to be prints and HPMs, not the large collages or retired stencils that might have otherwise already reached that number. UPDATE: Of course, the article is wrong. That isn’t the highest price paid for a Shepard Fairey work at auction. Not sure if this price is the highest, but it’s much higher than the Bonhams result. So I guess that article is just a giant press release. Sorry.
• And because that last thing was all about money, here’s a relevant old piece from Twist/Barry McGee.
• Jose Parla has been busy in Toronto (Thanks to Simon for the tip).

Photo by Elfo

Photo by Elfo

Here’s one of Elfo‘s latest pieces. When I mentioned to Elfo that this piece reminded me of The Door to Nowhere, it was pointed out to me that the intent of the two pieces were almost completely opposite. The Door to Nowhere led to, well, nowhere. But where does Elfo’s door lead?

Artwork and photo by Elfo. On a similar note, somebody’s left a suspicious package in Soho and nobody cares.

Via Streetsy

This is the latest in Elfo‘s contextual faces series. I really enjoy these because they are simple, but they provide so much joy. People who see this work, whether they are aged 2 or 92, can appreciate a simple face in an unexpected place. And of course, the location of this face is perfect.

Photo by Elfo

At at recent group show in Italy, street artist Elfo decided to try something a bit different. Plenty of artists (particularly anonymous street artists) avoid their own gallery openings. And the ones who don’t will probably tell you that the openings aren’t that fun. They are stressful and tiring. All that talking to everybody who thinks about buying a painting, chatting with people you met once 3 years ago and can’t remember anything about, making sure all your friends get in and get free beer… It’s a lot of work. Well Elfo showed up to this opening, but he didn’t have to worry about any of those things. Here’s what he did:

Seems to me he stayed that way for most of the evening. And yes, that’s really Elfo. What do you think? Certainly it’s something different for a street artist. Here’s a video of the whole piece in action:

Packed Food for Vulture$ from francesco carlo on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of Elfo streetart

Elfo is an Italian street artist who does a huge variety of work outdoors. Here are some of Elfo’s recent artworks:

Contextual Face

Evening

Invisible Elfo

I would love to stumble across this piece by Elfo in person…