Category: Photos

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Eine and RYCA hit Hackney

It’s been quite a week for Eine, what with the prime minister giving President Obama one of Eine’s paintings as a gift, but Eine has taken that experience and put it right out on the street in this new collaboration with RYCA. Eine painted the words “The Strangest Week” and RYCA painted the phrase “Power Up.”

Besides looking great, this piece actually asks an interesting question of the art world. Eine and RYCA have literally used the same stencils, the same ideas, the same paint and the same spot to paint this piece. Ben Eine’s work gets publicized by major newspapers, and RYCA isn’t nearly as well known outside of the street art world. In fact, Eine’s involvement in this wall is probably why I’m writing about it. So yeah, the art world is kind of silly. But this also speaks to the beauty of street art when it’s outdoors. The thousands of people who will walk by this wall every day have no idea if those words were painted by me, Hackney Council, Eine and RYCA or maybe even Banksy; they just enjoy the message.

Photos by Unusualimage

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New Monuments by Specter

Specter continues with his street sculpture monuments with these two new pieces. These works are an intriguing consideration of street culture and street objects. Taking these readymades produced by happenstance and isolating them into considerate abstractions. Inevitably such pieces bring the awareness back to the simple moments that exist in our everyday surroundings.
via LunaPark

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Faile at Portugal Arte 10 in Lisboa

Just my opinion, but this might be the craziest, most awesome thing that Faile have ever done. For Portugal Arte 10, Faile have built a structure, am ancient temple really, in the middle of a public square in Lisboa. I imagine there’s actually some signage nearby explaining what is going on (like how David Ellis’ trash sculpture in Times Square was surrounded by signage and a fence), but I hope there isn’t and I don’t see any. Maybe, just maybe, a tourist or two will wander by this and be very confused and intrigued…

The piece looks absolutely stunning, and their classic imagery sometimes looks like it was made for sculpture. Sometimes, I kind of enjoy hating on Faile, but with this project, that just seems impossible. The tile mosaic designs, relief sculptures, prayer wheels… everything looks like it turned out as perfectly as anyone could have imagined. They have taken their pop art completely out of any tradition context, and it still works. Amazing stuff.

Some of Faile’s artwork doesn’t make you think at all. It’s just images. But this sculpture, it really makes you think. Or, makes me think at least.

What if Brooklyn were suddenly abandoned for 500 or 1000 years? What would people think when they finally returned and saw what the early 21st century was like? And how much would even survive that long? And seeing as a religious structure, the piece becomes even more complex.

All these photos have come from vernissage.tv, who will be posting a video of the piece soon.

Photos by VernissageTV

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Nick Walker’s trip to New York City

I wasn’t the only one visiting New York last week. Bristol’s Nick Walker was in town with some stencils. So far as I know, all the images he put up are brand new.

Here’s my favorite piece from Nick’s trip, Nutterfly. But before you look at the photo, and see where it was painted, a bit of background. There was this mural, a fantastic mural, painted in New York a few years ago by Conor Harrington. Conor’s fans loved it, New Yorkers love it. Everyone was happy. And then NPA came along and covered the mural with an illegal billboard, which Jordan Seiler and Dickchicken removed. That all happened about a year ago. Then just last month, another advertiser actually paints over the mural with another illegal ad, destroying Conor’s piece. Soon after, somebody painted over that ad, destroying the advertisement’s message, but not bringing back Conor’s piece. So for about a month, there was this big black block over Conor’s mural. That’s where Nick painted his Nutterfly. I’ve written this whole explanation because I don’t want anybody to get the wrong idea and think that Nick painted over a perfectly good Conor Harrington mural. He didn’t. Anyway, here’s the piece:

The wall before Nick showed up
Nutterfly

Photos by Nick Walker

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SHEONE in Brick Lane

SHEONE just painted a beautiful piece in Brick Lane. One month exactly until I move to London. This also better be there. I am beginning to get worries everything I want to see in person will be vandalized or painted over before I get there!

SHEONE

Photos Via SHEONE

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Whitecross Street Party

On July 24th and 25th, the “Whitecross Street Party: The Rise of the Non-comforsits” will be in full swing in London.  The whole street will turn into a creative canvas for leading street artists including Shepard Fairey, Dotmasters, Filthy Luker, Eelus, Burning Candy,  and much more. Right now, everyone involved is starting to put up the public pieces, but come the weekend, the road will be turned into a giant block party. Let’s just hope these pieces get to stick around for awhile because I am really liking what I see thus far.

The full list of artists and activities can seen on the Whitecross website here.

Here are some pictures of the setup of the event that were caught today.

Mr.E.Dawe
Shepard Fairey, Peter Dunne and Filthy Luker
Burning Candy

All Photos Via Wxstreet Party

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The Cordy House lenticular

Roa. Photo by Magnus D

The shutters at London’s Cordy House are probably best known for Roa‘s hare (see above, or my post last year), which he painted there last year. It’s probably become Roa’s best-known work. What most people outside of London don’t realize is that Roa wasn’t the first artist to make a “lenticular” at Cordy House, and now he isn’t the last either.

As early as January 2009, and I think before that as well, Dr. D had used the Cordy House shutters in a similar way:

Dr. D. Photo by cluttergeoff
Dr. D. Photo by cluttergeoff

And earlier this month, Ludo made something great for the same spot:

Ludo. Photo by Hooked
Ludo. Photo by Hooked

While Roa’s piece on this wall is probably my favorite (so far), it’s worth remembering that he hasn’t been the only one to do something cool on the Cordy House shutters.

Photos by Magnus D, cluttergeoff and Hooked

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Final Gaia Pieces in Seoul

The premise of this illegal street project was to extend my investigation of traditional folklore and religion in the United States to the city of Seoul. Utilizing Korea’s rich history and extensive mythology, a piece exploring the various conflicts that have defined this contentious nation was installed in each quadrant of the city. The application of each piece is structured according to the principles of Ohaeng, the five directions of the universe, thus the implementation is therein physically defined by the direction of Korean Mysticism. To see the whole project check out this set on flickr.

Sunrise Neighbor from Gaia Uroboros on Vimeo.