Jordan Seiler. Photo by Ian Cox.

In part 3 of my series of posts about this year’s Nuart Festival (here are parts one and two), I want to highlight some of the less traditional outdoor work at the festival. While mural festivals like Nuart are known for, well, murals, three artists went a different direction for their outdoor contributions to Nuart: The Wa, Jordan Seiler and Aakash Nihalani.

Aakash Nihalani. Photo by Ian Cox.

Aakash Nihalani’s work was, as usual for him, tape-based. While it was 2D like a mural and could have theoretically been painted in the same spot with similar results, the tape reinforces the idea that street art is ephemeral. You couldn’t preserve one of his pieces outdoors even if you tried.

The Wa. Photo courtesy of The Wa.

The Wa installed a series of small sculptures resembling pools of oil in one of the main squares of downtown Stavanger, with the oil leading a path from the sea (where there is a lot of oil) to the nearest ATM. Again, a temporary intervention, but also a sculptural one. Nuart has had sculptures before, but it’s still not all that common at other, similar, festivals.

Jordan Seiler. Photo courtesy of Jordan Seiler.

Perhaps the most shocking of all were Jordan Seiler’s ad takeovers. He replaced around two dozen public advertisements (two large billboards and the rest bus-stop ads) with his own art. Like Aakash, that’s pretty much Jordan doing what he usually does, but it’s something that not many other mural programs seem likely to embrace, particularly programs like Nuart that get government funding. Nuart’s ballsiness is certainly to be commended. That said, it’s important to note that Jordan did something similar but on a much smaller scale in the early days of Living Walls. Unfortunately, only the large billboards lasted more than about 12 hours. Those bus-stop ad guys are quick.

More photos of work by Jordan Seiler, The Wa and Aakash Nihalani after the jump… Read the rest of this article »

Skewville at Nuart 2009

This year’s Nuart Festival takes place later this month in Stavanger, Norway, and I’ll be there along with a really amazing group of artists and speakers. This year’s artist lineup is Aakash Nihalani, Dolk, Eine, Ron English, Saber, How and Nosm, mobstr, Niels “Shoe” Meulman, Jordan Seiler, The Wa and Sickboy. I’m excited to see the “mostly legal” work that those artists get up to.

I’ll be participating in three events at Nuart Plus, a 3-day international summit on street art taking place during the festival. Evan Pricco, Tristan Manco, Carlo McCormick and others will be speaking there too. Here’s what I’m involved in: On the 27th, Jordan Seiler and I will be giving a tour of some of the art (and ads) in Stavanger; On the 28th, Carlo McCormick and I will be at Martinique, a cafe and pub, to debate about whether or not one can truly appreciate street art on the internet; On the 29th, Evan Pricco, Tristan Manco and I will be on a panel about street art and the internet moderated by Eirik Sjåholm Knudsen. Sorry if I’m focusing a bit too much on my own stuff, but I’m really excited to be going to Nuart, especially since I’ll be speaking alongside so many of my friends and idols.

There will of course also be an indoor art component to the festival.

Nuart’s street work begins September 20th, the indoor show opens on the 29th at Tuo Scene and the panels and talks will take place on the 27th-29th.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

The Wa just made this piece on a beach in Biarritz, France. It’s called Parking and kind of requires some human interaction…

Photos by The Wa

This latest piece by The Wa was done in Stockholm, but references The Situationists in France. It’s called Sous les pavés la plage (or, Under the pavement, the beach) after this piece of Sittuationist graffiti.

Photos by The Wa

The Wa. Photo by the artist

There are a few street pieces to share today.

Above is something by The Wa in the tradition of Roadsworth or Darius & Downey, which I think it just fantastic.

And here’s something that Kid Acne put up in London from his Art Fags series (Hooked has more images):

Kid Acne. Photo by Hooked

Here’s two billboards from Ludo:

Ludo. Photo by the artist

It’s worth noting that Ludo is selling a few works on paper with 100% of sales going to Skateistan.

Ludo. Photo by the artist

And Monica wanted to share this piece from E1000ink (who also has some cool new work on Rebel:Art):

E1000ink. Photo by the artist

Photos by The Wa, Hooked, Ludo and E1000ink