About a week ago, I posted some of the best Obama street art. Now, Obama is president, and as a little farewell present to President Bush, I’ve put together the best 16 images of George Bush street art/graffiti. Oddly enough, the art depicting Bush seems to convey a different message from the art featuring Obama.
Enjoy…
Continue reading “A Final Farewell to President Bush”
Okay so I’ll be first to admit that I’m not the best with geography or world cities, but have you ever heard of Ghent? Apparently it’s quite a bit city in the Flemish half of Belgium. In Belgium, I’ve only ever been to Brussels and Waterloo.
Well, apparently street art fans should have heard of Ghent due to the large amount of street art to be found there. Extremely dedicated street art photographer _Kriebel_ has just posted pages and pages of work from the city, so here’s a couple of highlights. Do check out the rest of his flickr photostream though. Lots of really talented Belgian street artists who don’t get enough credit.
Continue reading “Street Art in Ghent. Where’s Ghent?”
So I saw this article on Trendhunter, but their site is a bit disorganized, and I can’t even seem to find the correct photo gallery. So I went out looking for Obama street art pieces on my own. Here’s 16 of my favorite Obama pieces (in no particular order).
Only nine more days 🙂
Check out the rest of the images after the jump…
Continue reading “16 Obama Street Art and Graffiti Pieces”
So I’ve been looking through i.am.doom’s flickr a lot lately. He’s got some pretty cool work up, and his stencils are clean and well-executed. That’s more than I can say for a lot of the work on flickr, which is part of why he’s been impressing me. Besides meeting my pretty low standards for skill, i.am.doom also has unique imagery. Plenty of street artists use grenades, but his “Drop Knowledge Not Bombs” design just makes me smile with his new use of an old symbol.
More photos after the jump Continue reading “I Can’t Get Enough of i.am.doom”
If you took Gaia to a high school drawing contest he might place first or second, but put his efforts on the street and it becomes worth half as much as a real Swoon. It may be a testament to street artist Swoon’s influence and popularity, that an influenced artist can find a ravenous audience without a new style, technique, or thought for where/how to install it. As a derivative work, its more saccharine, dim witted, but just about as popular. Gaia plays the Monkey’s to Swoons Beatles.
That’s one way to think about Gaia. In fact, that diatribe is a portion of a faux New Yorker article which was wheatpasted right next to a Gaia piece.
On the other hand, Gaia might be really good. That’s what I’d say. His work is powerful and the melding of man and animal creates some very beautiful results. Gaia’s the first to admit that his work is influenced by Swoon, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. All artists have influences. I asked Gaia about his, and about his thoughts on people who say he is too much like Swoon.
Gaia: I think that it is quite apparent in my work that Swoon is a strong influence but I believe that the comparison is a little tired now because I really do feel that my pieces are distinguishable. I believe that these comments and mistakes also stem from a real lack of understanding of the the Street Art scene. Once the viewer has a true awareness and visual literacy for the work that is on the street, then such confusion is avoided. Continue reading “A Very Different Post About Gaia”
Beautiful Crime brought Iranian artist A1one to my attention the other day, and I’ve been spending a good deal of time looking through his flickr. Adam at BC likes him “because it’s raw, effective comment.” As for me, I just think his work is extremely varied, and that that’s something that isn’t always true of street artists. Also, I was surprised that street artists could be so prolific in Iran.
My friend K recently wrote a paper for his art history class comparing Iranian calligraphy and Eine‘s work. I wish I’d found A1one a month ago, because A1one’s work would have been perfect for K’s paper. A1one’s lettering is beautiful on the street, and it’s an interesting twist on classic graffiti.
Now, this last one is sure to strike some people as very similar to work by JosĂ© Parlá, and I love Parlá’s work, but what’s nice about A1one is that his pieces can actually be read by people other than the artist. For example, the above piece says “Nefrat” or “Hate”. A1one also notes that while Parlá works on expensive materials, A1one uses found materials as a canvas.
Check out more at A1one’s flickr.
As part of Vandalog’s “Great in ’08” series, which will be running every day for the rest of the month. Check out previous posts here. Street artists from across the world have been given one post to give away to one artist who they feel has been doing great work recently. Today will be the last day of the series (Yes! Accidental perfect timing), and Know Hope has been given the chance to close it out.
Know Hope: I’ve met so many great, talented and dedicated artists in the past six months. lots of amazing art was seen and getting to know and work with them was definitely inspiring. until now, I hadn’t been used to traveling as much, so these were good times. since this is supposed to be a ‘gift’ to an artist I think has done good work the past year, I thought that instead of a gift, it would be cool to use this submission more as a ‘toast’, to close this year and start the new one, a documentation of a moment. so at the risk of sounding PC and/or like a fuckin’ hippy; this is for everyone out there doing their best with what they got, the new and old friends and everybody fightin’ the good fight.
See more photos and videos after the jump…
Continue reading “Great In ’08: Know Hope Says…”
Great news for all the street art print lovers reading this: Mike Marcus and the Street Art London flickr group are organizing a 12 week charity print raffle starting this week.
Each Saturday, a different artist will volunteer a work and suggest a charity which the proceeds will go to. A photograph of this work will be posted to the group and tickets will be available until the following friday via paypal at ÂŁ1 each. There will be no limit set on the amount of tickets available and each individual can purchase as many as he or she wants.
The winning ticket will be picked at random at the end each week the full proceeds will be transferred to the chosen charity.
The schedule for the next 12 weeks is as follows:
Saturday 27th December – Mike Marcus
Saturday 3rd January – Gemma Compton
Saturday 10th January – Xylo
Saturday 17th January – Shuby
Saturday 24th January – Banksy (tickets available to group members only)
Saturday 31st January – Cake
Saturday 7th February – Paul le Chien
Saturday 14th February – Klone
Saturday 21st February – Part2ism
Saturday 28th February – T.wat
Saturday 7th March – L.E.T
Saturday 14th March – Grafter
Find more info here, and check out Mike Marcus’ print (being raffled right now) here.
Christmas is only days away, and I know I’ve still got shopping to do. If you’re like me and you’ve got street art fans that you’ve still got to buy gifts for, look no futher.
1. The Elms Lesters Book – ÂŁ175: Elms Lesters has released this giant book just in time for Christmas. They’ve been working on it for years, and I can see why. There are photos from all their major exhibitions over the years, and interviews with some of their best known artists conducted by art historian Ben Jones.
2. Keith Haring – $63: Another mammoth street art book. A team including Jeffrey Deitch of Deitch Projects have made the definitive book on Keith Haring.
3. Bomb It – $19.95: I’ve actually put this on my Christmas list, so I haven’t seen it yet, but everybody I’ve talked to has said this movie is great. This documentary goes through the history of graffiti, from cave paintings in Pompeii to the modern day.
4. Style Wars – $24.99: The original graffiti documentary, and a must-have for any fan’s collection. This film helped to define 80’s graffiti.
5. Subway Art – $14.96: Like Style Wars, a classic book on graffiti. Martha Cooper’s photographs influenced a generation of writers.
The above piece appeared in London recently. The question is, is it a real Banksy? Check the logo on the bottom, close-up below. Then check out the logo for this advertising agency called The Bank (also below).
So here are the possible ways that this has happened:
1. It’s a legit Banksy and the quality isn’t up to his usual standards.
2. Bansky is licensing his images in viral ads.
3. It’s a viral advert for The Bank designed with no respect for art.
4. It’s a legit Banksy made to look like a viral ad by The Bank.
I really don’t think it’s #1.
I really hope it’s not #2.
#3 is definitely possible. The Bank’s website is full of photos and quotes from pop culture icons like Elvis. Advertising agencies have certianly used graffiti before, and in many case paid the artists for their work. And of course, advertising agencies have stolen from each other and from artists before. So this seems possible, and I’d say it’s probably the most likely scenario. It’s a great ad if you have no morals. They’ve certainly got me talking, so their ad is effective, and that’s what they’ll want to provide for their clients.
I hope it’s #4. How great would that be? Banksy’s recent show in New York had posters done by an ad agency and he was criticised for it. What if this poster is meant to be about the subversion of advertising campaigns? Maybe he’s parodying viral marketing by making a poster sure to be confused with viral advertising. That, would be amazing.
Via Arrested Motion
