It’s that time of the week…
Photos by Datachump, •G•, SÖKE, and °°Suede°°
From the Streets of Bogota, Colombia: A Cast of Characters, Part I
When I first discovered the walls in Bogota, Colombia in 2007, I instantly fell in love with their distinct beauty, restless energy and cast of characters. Here are a few images that were captured last week and shared with me.
Special thanks to Luz Coy for taking and sharing these photos. Artists to be identified.
Street art for the internet
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
New stuff from Stinkfish
This new piece, located in Bogota, was based on this portrait by photographer Brett Walker. The stenciling style is a bit darker than what Stink usually does, but it’s an interesting marriage between Stinkfish’s distinctive brightness and Brett Walker‘s characteristic high-contrast darkness.
Photos by Stinkfish and Brett Walker
Cash4 Rules w/Rollers, Stickers, Characters & more
We seem to be seeing Cash4 everywhere these days. Although we largely identify him with his tags, rollers and throw-ups, we’ve been recently noticing — and loving — his characters. Here are a few recent Cash4 sightings:
photos by Lois Stavsky & Tara Murray
New murals from Escif
Escif has been keeping busy as ever recently. Here are just of few of his latest walls. Continue reading “New murals from Escif”
Wild Style Wednesday!
Lazy art for very motivated fans
Laurence Billiet sent over this photo of a piece she spotted in Paris, referencing Damien Hirst’s spot paintings. Hirst’s spot paintings have currently taken over all 11 Gagosian galleries in 8 countries. While some people may think that Hirst may be a lazy artist making art for lazy people, so far three people (including Tanley Wong of Arrested Motion) have completed the “spot challenge” and visited all 11 exhibits, so at least some of Hirst’s fans are pretty driven.
On a similar note, Kaws released a new toy this week.
Photo by Laurence Billiet
Deciduous Lampposts by luzinterruptus
luzinterruptus‘ latest action, Deciduous Lampposts, has brought autumn to Madrid. Here’s what luzinterruptus have to say about it…
As every year, we wanted to pay our personal tribute to the autumn that has gone by, because we love this season, which fills the streets with dry leaves covering the cold asphalt in wonderful orange tones.
But there are streets in Madrid to which, unfortunately, autumn never arrives, they are deprived, with only perrenial leaves, which makes strolling in them like entering into an area with no climatic or seasonal references.
In these harsh gray streets we wanted to carry out our installation Deciduous Lampposts.
For this reason we went to the Parque del Oeste, where we collected 5 sacks full of beautiful dry leaves, which we transported to the city center, specifically to Calle Flor Alta, recently renovated and in which there remains no sign of trees and other adjacent streets, where nature is represented by a few tiny, unidentied trees.
There we put the leaves under the streetlamps, as if they were resistant trunks, tall and erect, under which there is never shade, nor can the green freshness of vegetation on hot days be enjoyed.
It was a joy to see that, despite the late hours and autumn cold, some of the people who had stopped to observe the spectacle of leaves under the lampposts, decided to stay a while, to enjoy the curious scene.
Photos by Gustavo Sanabria
Weekend link-o-rama
Well, the internet went a bit crazy this week, but it looks like we’re winning. Thank you to anyone who noticed that Vandalog was offline on Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA and took the time to contact their representatives to voice objections to the bills. But enough about politics. This is an art blog.
- This Mark Jenkins exhibition in Berlin looks awesome. The show has new sculptures, but it is also the launch of his monograph with Gestalten.
- In a subway station a bit like the site of The Underbelly Project, a number of Russian street artists painted this installation.
- Here’s a beautiful new piece from Phlegm.
- Above has a bunch of new photos on his website.
- The Toasters’ film launches in London on Tuesday.
- Barry McGee will have a show this year at UC Berkeley’s art museum. The show is made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation.
- Leon Reid IV‘s latest project is pretty different from what we’ve come to expect from Reid. It’s a series of posters depicting recent world events. Hrag Vartanian spoke with Reid about the series.
- Looking for something great to do on Saturday night in LA? Try this – New Image Art and The Hole have teamed up for a party with some DJs and musicians plus installations by Retna, Anthony Lister and Drugs Crew.
Photo by Dal