As a precursor to the release of a book on hand styles, entitled Flip the Script, LA graffiti writer Mike Giant gives us a brief history lesson on his introduction to Cholo graffiti. He cites the importance of understanding this history, not just in the graffiti world, but now in the graphic design world and art world, and says, “To me, it’s getting too derivative of things that were already derivative of other derivatives. It continues to just pile on.” Mike comments on the fact that graffiti writers today are picking up hand styles from the internet, as opposed to getting alphabets from their mentors.
If there weren’t pictures to go along with this story, I’m not sure I’d believe it. But there are pictures, and here’s the story of what was probably the first graffiti production in Alaska. I hope you enjoy this anecdote from PMER/CATELLOVISION as much as I have… – RJ
Back in 1995 Myself, REVS & FUEL drove up to Alaska just for the mission of going. When we got to Fairbanks, the place was corrupt, full of drugs, boarded businesses, hookers, depression… it was great. It was July so we had 24 hours of daylight.
We saw this wall in the center of the city and asked the owner for permission. He told us we had to ask the Chief of police because he was in charge of beautifying the community. So we meet Chief Woolley and he gives us a thumbs up and tells us how to paint, what he wants to see: Alaskan pioneers, animals, mountains, all that good stuff. We agreed and got to work…
By the time we were done it was 4am… We had the sun on one side, the moon on the other. We looked at the wall, looked at eachother and said… Let’s get the fuck out of here!!!
We painted a pipeline that started with a shiesty character holding a fist full of money, the pipeline going down the wall, finally opening up with oil spelling our names. We threw in a bloody cross that said “Valdez” and gave him a mountain.
Two days later we found that we were wanted and on the cover of the newspaper for being a “Fast talking band of NYC graffiti artists that duped the Chief….”
The 2013 edition of the Katowice Street Art Festival in Katowice, Poland took place last month. We already posted about Peter Fuss’ mural for the festival, but there’s plenty more to check out. This year Katowice hosted SpY, El Tono, and many more artists. Here are some of my favorite works from the festival:
Recently, Toofly and Meres collaborated on this piece at the Queens graffiti mecca 5Pointz. These New York City natives were introduced to graffiti at young ages from growing up around it, and both gained experience transitioning their graffiti work to gallery pieces after attending two of New York’s prestigious art schools (Toofly attended SVA and Meres attended FIT). Both have since gone on to have successful art careers which incorporate their love of graffiti; Meres is the curator of all the murals at 5Pointz and Toofly has been involved in projects such as starting her own fashion collection.
Check out these recent works from Blaqk, the duo of Greg Papagrigoriou and Simek. The precission and use of space is something a lot of artists could learn from.
Among the artists brought this past week by Converse‘s Wall to Wall project to Hong Kong is one of my favorites — Alex Hornest aka Onesto. I’ve seen Alex’s playfully endearing characters in Sao Paulo, Brazil – where he is based – and in Bogota, Colombia. I’m thrilled that they’ve made their way onto a huge wall in Hong Kong during the 2013 Art Basel Festival!
In/Between, Hyuro‘s solo show at ArtRebels in Copenhagen, is on now through June 15th. It includes 19 watercolor and ink drawings of her street pieces. I’m curious what fans will prefer, the watercolors or the street pieces?
Tatzu Nishi, who people probably know best from his Discovering Columbus project in NYC, recently had a work of his performed for 48 hours for Cultural Hijack, “a survey of provocative interventions” in London aka a bunch of street art and outdoor performances with a good budget behind them. Nishi’s Ascending Descending is a Rube Goldberg device of sorts, except nothing ever gets accomplished. Check out the video:
Olive47‘s latest solo show, bonita bonita, opened a few weeks ago and runs through June 1st at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland. Olive47 describes the work as “a visual dissertation on Joseph Campbell,” but I haven’t read anything by Campbell since high school, so if anyone wants to explain the connections that they catch, please do so in the comments.
