Art Books: Explore the World of Graffiti & Street Art

It’s the last day in this year’s October and although it’s still sunny (at least in Berlin) the dark and cold season is coming closer and closer. For that reason I’d like to give you the chance to grab some good reading before you’re getting bored while staying inside all day long by recommending you the latest urban art books and magazines I got so far… To do that in a somehow structured way, I collected a stack of urban art related publications by different publishers which I’ll introduce to you one after another during the first half of November. And to extend this Urban Art Books & Mags Special and to bring joy to some of you I will also give away some of the presented printed works. So make sure to check out the upcoming book and magazine reviews! ...

For some (like me) he is just a very popular street artist, for others he is a legend, worth to write down all the myths around him… In his book Banksy: Myths and Legends, Marc Leverton collected stories about Banksy himself. Compiled between 2009 and 2011, some of these stories have been told so many times they have become the stuff of legend, while others are more questionable and can best be described as myths. ...

After The Laughter is the title of the second, upcoming book by publisher Publikat about one of my favorite urban art duos Herakut. Telling the story behind their stories, the hand-made scrapbook with 240 fully collaged pages on which Hera and Akut share the good sides and the bad from the second half of their collaboration years (2009 to 2011) includes not just fantastic insights into their creative process and details of their great artworks, but also - and I’m really happy about that - some of the photos I took, documenting their mural in London! ...

Yesterday, the preparations for the upcoming urban culture festival IBUg started and I’m on the straight way to the Saxon city of Meerane. For that reason I put together some interesting street art and graffiti news and deliver you with this the new urban art link-tips… Scottish artist Elph recently made the trip down from Scotland to London for some nice painting hours! Here are some nice shots of the new wall in Shoreditch… ...

Roa: An Introduction To Animal Representation by Mammal Press is the first limited edition book by famous Belgian urban artist Roa! As announced I was able to get some quick photographically insights into it during the opening of Roa’s currently running exhibition in Berlin, for what reason here are the first and exclusive insights… Although the book I looked over was just some kind of a quick prototype (the final version will by slightly different), it felt good in my hands and seems to be a must to have not just for collectors. It includes not just photos of Roa’s murals from all over the globe, but also a great collection of Roa sketches and drawings as well as corresponding text describing animals. ...

Seems like almost every more or less bigger city, like New York, Berlin, London, or Valencia has already its own street art book. Of course they have different formats, qualities and focuses, but in the end each of those books gives a brief overview about what’s happening in streets. Today I bumped into Seattle Street Art by A. Tarantino, which was published earlier this year and includes about 100 colorful pages, documenting a small part of Seattle’s street art life… ...

Yesterday, right after the doors of my exhibition opening closed, one of the currently most famous urban artists arrived in Berlin! Yep, Roa is back in town for his upcoming exhibition at Skalitzers Gallery… Simply entitled Transit, the show by the Belgian graffiti artist (his first solo-show in Berlin by the way!) includes new paintings presenting his internationally well-known graffiti animals! Roa brings the creatures which inhabit the fringes of human society back to the metropolis to expose the natural beauty in the cycle of life and death. (Skalitzers Gallery) ...

Out of Sight - Urban Art / Abandoned Spaces, which was published just this month, is the book you want to have if you’re an urban explorer and urban art enthusiast in equal measure! The book features those artists who appreciate the privacy of and feeling in abandoned spaces and presents in that way mind-blowing urban artworks in decayed factories, abandoned warehouses and industrial sites! Not all art craves attention, some of it hides in secret places. Some of it is buried treasure, out in the urban wilderness, left scattered in empty rooms of derelict buildings like strange markings left by an unknown tribe… ...

Graffiti Photography | Alex Fakso is well-known around the world and with good reason part of my top urban art photographers list! Although his astonishing graffiti action photographs have already been featured in the nice “Heavy Metal” book, Fakso recently published a new book called “Fast or Die”! And although this is something like a successor “Fast or Die” focuses not just on the atmosphere of plain graffiti, but also on subways… ...

Art Books | After the fantastic “Urban Interventions” book and the brilliant “History Of Uncommissioned Urban Art”, the German publishers of Gestalten are going to release the next hardcover masterwork. The topic this time: Political Art and Activism! Life has become significantly more political in the new millennium, especially in the aftermath of worldwide financial crisis. Art is both driving and documenting this upheaval. Increasingly, new visual concepts and commentaries are being used to represent and communicate emotionally charged topics, thereby bringing them onto local political and social agendas in a way far more powerful than words alone. (Gestalten) ...