Explore Vibrant European Urban Art Scenes

It’s going to be hot in Amsterdam later this month, when several popular urban artists like Toast, Besok, Graphic Surgery, ECB, Morten Andersen and Bonzai catch up at the international urban art exhibition Urban Art EFX, presented by Urban Stylistics! *The exhibition themed “from urban to contemporary” showcases an eclectic variety of artwork. These range from paintings, sculptures, installations, photography to video art, created by key-players of the contemporary Urban Art movement. It highlights a snap-shot of their current artistic development as well as the story behind an up-and-coming artist generation, whose roots lay in the Graffiti and Street-art culture. ...

Amateur Magazine - Smash137 After number 6 and 7 as well as 8 and 9, recently the 10th issue of Switzerland-born Amateur Magazine was published and surprised me again… To publish the first double-digit issue is a good reason to party for every mag, especially when it’s released just twice a year. Nevertheless, it seems that in the case of Amateur, the team didn’t party before the release but tried to produce the best issue ever - and in my eyes, this totally worked out! ...

Valencian urban artist Vinz is going to open his first solo show in Austria in two days! Vinz, whose life-sized wheatpastes can be found in the streets around the globe, was recently part of a group show currated by the founders of Wooster Collective, and exhibited at Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York. In his works he usually combines humor and politically charged messages and uses nude male and female figures as a symbol of freedom, which is why they normally attract much attention… ...

Once again it is time to break away from everyday life and rigid routine mundane thought patterns, and leave behind the golden cage of the accustomed. Escape the Golden Cage is back and looks like the first massive urban art festival 2012! Escape the Golden Cage, which sees itself as a quality platform for creativity, communication, art dealers and art education, is the first urban art exhibition in Austria and breaks away from any traditional exhibition due to its unique festival character. During two weeks, the temporary art spaces present renowned and young artists, from its Austrian home and from around the world, whose works are inspired by street art, graffiti and urban life - to our liking! ...

Conor Harrington is an urban fine art king, we all know that! Combining spray and oil paint for several years now, he is one of the big guys when it comes to merge the urban, street influenced dynamics and the classical painting techniques… In the summer 2011, the Irishman home to Ireland for a big project including three murals, with both the journey and the paintings being inspired by Austin Clarke’s poem The Lost Heifer. Luckily for us, the entire trip has been documented and was finally published (six hours ago) entitled Black Herds of The Rain! ...

Berlin-based Quintessenz Creation crew is at least well-known in Germany for their spectacular stop motion videos showing color in motion and other urban art, especially when it’s about the power of true color! During this year’s IBUg street art festival the crew produced a new stop motion film, which went online just a few minutes ago! This time it’s a mix of stop motion and live sequences… Quintessenz is an artists collective based on a core group of former students from Hildesheim, Germany who founded the crew back in 2007. With the help of their films, they try to discover the power of color in abandoned areas and to analyze the effect of color on the environment what leads them to new, impressing paint-experiments…as you can see again is this new film! Thumbs up. ...

Somehow corresponding to the war on Mexico declaration by loosely linked hacking group Anonymous I have some interesting news for everyone being interested in hacking… Due to the amazing success, the Netherlands Media Art Institute extended its The Art of Hacking exhibition, which focuses on the artistic side of hacking, until November 26th, showing works by Heath Bunting, The Yes Men, Übermorgen.com and others. As it is written in the press-release, the artists in this exhibition highlight the imperfections of our surroundings and daily lives. The projects subvert, improve on or circumnavigate official systems and practices and offer alternatives. Superficially, hacking is often associated with spreading online viruses and other digital attacks. Officially these criminal activities are not really known as hacking, but as cracking. The real practice of hacking is done based on far more positive and artistic motives. It’s a state of mind and there are elaborate ethical codes within the hacker community. ...

The anti-establishment Voina art collective, notorious for painting a 65-meter penis on a St. Petersburg drawbridge, is bringing their latest protest to cities throughout Europe. The group today displayed a massive photograph of one of their members on Prague’s Charles Bridge to protest the charges against him in Russia* as Radio Free Europe recently reported. It’s another sign against the criminalization of artists, dissidents and political activists in Russia. Watch the interviews with Voina members Yana Sarna and Aleksei Plutser-Sarno to get the whole story!

Guerrilla, A Street Intervention is a nice half-animated short film by Sjors Vervoort which had its premiere back in August in all Dutch Pathé cinema’s, as a The Rise of the Planet of the Apes supporting film! I just stumbled upon that nice project today and loved to watch it - the idea is smart, the outworking authentical and the urban environment and atmosphere great. Supported by the Netherlands Film Funds, the films main actors consists of cardboard, plastic bags and some nice ideas… ...

The Spanish urban art collective Boa Mistura (consisting of the five artists Arkoh, Derko, Pahg, Purone and Rdick) just informed me about their latest installation: Entitled Planned Obsolescence the TV installation combines outdated technology with stencil art and reminds me somehow on one of these old-school electro clubs in Berlin… However, I liked it, especially because it again shows the diversity of Boa Mistura, who want to represent a mixture of perspectives which complement, influence and mix themselves together in order to create something better. (about Boa Mistura). ...