Winter break in Lisbon

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Cane Morto (Italian crew)

How can one not fall in love with Lisbon! When you walk the streets of this city, in tourist areas or less known places, you see art everywhere. Graffiti, tags, and a diverse array of street art explodes on the walls. Add to all the illegal activity Vhils’ UnderDogs project, and you end up going from surprise to surprise at every street corner.

Lisbon was hit hard by the 2008 economic crisis. As a result, a lot of buildings of the city were abandoned by their owners, quickly enlarging the playground of graffiti and street artists making the city attractive to many international artists.

It’s now a kind of “street art place to be”, which is okay, but you soon find yourself torn between the pleasure of discovering new stunning art pieces and frustration caused by having already seen photos of so many of the murals on the internet. Still, better to share the artwork than not, so here’s some Lisbon street art from Cane Morto, Vhils, Créons, Sumo, Exit-enter, C215, Tinta Crua, Os Gemeos, Kraken, Sam3, Ericailcane, and Mr.chat.

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Vhils
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Cane Morto
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Créons (Belgian artist)

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On the Separation Wall in Bethlehem: Seth, BrotloseKunst, How and Nosm, Banksy & more

On the Israeli-Palestinian Separation Wall -- as seen inside Bethlehem
On the Israeli-Palestinian Separation Wall — as seen inside Bethlehem

I had last visited Bethlehem in 2008. Few of the pieces I saw then on the Separation Wall or in the city itself remain. The wall and its surrounding environs continue, though, to serve as a canvas for a range of – largely political – art. Here’s a bit of what my son and I captured during our recent visit:

French artist Julien "Seth" Malland
French artist Julien “Seth” Malland
Julien "Seth" Malland
Julien “Seth” Malland’s poignant boy amidst the rubble
Germany's BrotloseKunst brings colorful writing to a dismal space
Germany’s BrotloseKunst brings colorful writing to a dismal space; close-up of a huge piece
Sam3 and Erica il Cane
Sam3 and Erica il Cane
How and Nosm
How and Nosm
And still there -- Banksy
And still there — Banksy

 Photos by Dani Reyes Mozeson and Lois Stavsky

Sam3’s “Sailing the constellations”

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Sam3 doesn’t say on his website exactly where this wall is, but hints, “This wall is facing the sea, where it is imagined that one day was Ulysses.” I’m not so well versed in Greek mythology, so I’m just gonna go with the wall being somewhere in Greece…? UPDATE: The wall is in Italy.

Wherever it is, I’m a fan. Sam3 is really a master of playing with space, both the space of the wall itself and the positive and negative spaces he creates in black and white.

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Photos by Sam3

Sam3 in Horsens, Denmark

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Public Art Horsens is a festival along the lines of Nuart or last year’s Komafest, where a town in Scandinavia has invited some of the world’s top artists to liven things up a bit. Horsens, Denmark has about 55,000 residents, and they’re currently being blessed with some new work by Sam3, Escif, Pobel and Brad Downey. The festival is organized by Municipality of Horsens, Simon Caspersen from ArtRebels, photographer Henrik Haven and the local creative community ‘Stormsalen’.

To start, we have some photos of Sam3’s works in Horsens.

Photos by Henrik Haven

Weekend link-o-rama

"The American Cousins" by Cekis in Fleury-Les Aubrais, France
“The American Cousins” by Cekis in Fleury-Les Aubrais, France

So as finals exams and essays begin to creep up on me (70-ish pages to write in the next month), these link-o-rama posts are going to become essential until the school year is up, so you know, I encourage you to read them closely.

Photo courtesy of Ville de Fleury-les-Aubrais

Weekend link-o-rama

Sam3

Well, the big story this week was of course Hyuro’s wall under threat in Atlanta, but a lot more has been happening elsewhere on the web, plus I missed a week of link-o-rama when I was in Atlanta myself, so here’s what I’ve got to share:

Photo by Sam3

Weekend link-o-rama

Cept

Caroline and I are out in Colorado this week with my family, so art is coming second, but luckily it looks like it’s been a slow week. Here’s what I almost missed…

Photo by Nolionsinengland

Sam3 collaborates with the buffman

Sam3‘s latest piece is this wonderful attack on buff. His forced collaboration with the graffiti removal squad/person re-energizes the wall and makes the mismatched buff into something to be noticed. I wonder what the next bit of buff on this wall will look like. Maybe this can be an ongoing collaboration, like this piece by Mobstr.

Photo by Sam3

Bien Urbain festival in Besançon, France

Sam3. Photo by E. Murcia Artengo

We’ve been posting images here and there from the Bien Urbain mural festival that took place in Besançon, France, but now photos of all the works are on flickr. These are a few of my favorite images (from Sam3, Hyuro, Moneyless, TBLR-ONE, Escif, Quillograma, Nelio, ), but definitely take the time to check out this Bien Urbain flickr set to see everything from the festival.

Hyuro. Photo by E. Murcia Artengo
Hyuro (detail). Photo by E. Murcia Artengo
Moneyless. Photo by D. Demougeot
OX. Photo by OX
TBLR-ONE. Photo by E. Murcia Artengo
Escif. Photo by E. Murcia Artengo
Quillograma and Nelio. Photo by Nelio

Photos by Nelio, E. Murcia Artengo, OX and D. Demougeot via Bien Urbain