American Street Art: Murals, Graffiti & More

Olek is an crochet artist. The New York-based Pole started to crochet things for friends not long ago, went on to crochet urban environment (one of the most popular one is the purple Wall Street Bull) and since then became that famous, museums are offering to buy her entire installations! And although some would describe her works as grandma-style, there’s a certain idea behind the very conceptual urban crochet artworks, as she pointed out in the accidental interview Global Street Art did with Olek a few days ago… ...

As if those countless street art iPhone apps are not enough (there’s already an augmented reality tagging app, the All City street art app, an urban art guide app and several others), Geo Street Art launched two new street art iPhone apps this week for locating street art in NYC and London, as RJ recently mentioned. Curated by a global network of experts, working in collaboration with Geo Street Art, the Geo Street Art Apps comprise comprehensive guides to the global street art scene. ...

boa mistura - typography murals Spanish urban art collective Boa Mistura (who did this crazy TV Kills Your Brain installation) just created some amazing perspective typography murals in Vila Brâsilandia, one of the favelas in Sao Paulo! The five-headed crew repainted several vecos and vielas - those winding streets, being the true articulators of the internal life of the community - in bright colors, presenting words like beauty, pride, sweetness, firmness and love as anamorphic paintings, making the poor suburb a little more colorful… ...

Remember that brilliant Banksy meets The Simpsons episode-intro? Recently another Simpsons street art tribute has been broadcasted, featuring none others than Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Kenny Scharf, and Robbie Conal - some of the major street art legends from over the sea… Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart The episode simply tells the story of Bart becoming a street artist by tagging the neighborhood from Homers car, getting in contact with the guys named above - And it also tells the story of the street art commercialization! Definitely a must to watch. ...

After he painted in nearly every European metropolis (check out the Blu murals in Europe) in 2011, Italian street artist Blu is on a trip through South America right now, painting one mural after another… Argentina’s Blu Murals Especially the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires seems to be one of his favorite target: After he painted that impressive mural of obediently leader following Argentinian folks back in November 2011 and the funny BBQ mural and the Blu Planet painting in December, the Italian mural king came up with a new money river mural just a few days ago! ...

Some months ago, one of the world’s leading artists, TED Prize winner JR came up with the incredible JR Inside Out project, a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Inside Out in Haiti Together with Eyes on Haiti, the global art projectInside Out recently rose souls in the Caribbean country of Haiti! It looks like there are lots of talented photographers around the world, identifying with the JR Inside Out philosophy and for that reason join the challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world, what a great success! ...

A few months ago, Terence Pratt shot a nice time laps video of a Herkaut mural creation progress! Germany’s most famous urban art duo spent some weeks in Los Angeles, creating some amazing wall paintings presented by the Do Art Foundation! Herakut Mural Art Although I photographed Hera and Akut a few times now (e.g. in London and Berlin), it’s great to the the both creating those amazing murals! Furthermore I hope they will go on traveling the world as they did in 2011 - I’d like to see more Herakut mural art around the globe! ...

Remember that fantastic mural by Spanish-born twins How & Nosm in Los Angeles from last month? Recently the Vandalog crew discovered some more flipping How & Nosm walls in New York Cities South Bronx! Another great thing about one of those dope murals is that it’s probably a collaboration with Aryz, who in my eyes is one of the most famous European urban artists at the moment… My advice: Take a look and simply be impressed! ...

Spanish-born twins How & Nosm currently painted a massive mural in Los Angeles! As a part of the L.A. Freewalls project, the mural sticks out a mile and is probably one of the largest murals I’ve seen in the last months… What first started as a simple version of the Anarcho-syndicalistic black-red flag worked out in the end as an impressing, detailed wall painting! In my eyes, the mural was the best and effective advert for their Achtung! show, which recently opened its doors in LA’s Known Gallery. ...

In July 2011, a first-of-its-kind public art mural project called Visual Intervention took place in Rochester, NY bringing together local artists and a group of four artists from Cape Town, SA, including Faith47, DAL, Mak1 and FreddySam who shared their talents and painted several nice murals in hopes of inspiring the Rochester community… Finally, the corresponding documentary was published last week which I don’t want to deforce from you. It gives a nice insight into the entire project, and includes not just statements by the artists and organizers, but also explains the event’s reasons and how everything worked out in the end. ...