Graffiti America: Exploring US Street Art

Graffiti Flags | US-American graffiti artist Saber got a massive popularity push back in 2009 when he created that brilliant graffiti flag video to support the US-American health care reforms by Barack Obama. Afterwards Jeffrey Deitch, the famous director of the controversial MoCA in Los Angeles, decided to support Saber as one of the most representational figures for today’s graffiti and street art movement. Featuring a level of sophisticated detail, including collaging, and the skill you would expect from one of the world’s greatest graffiti writers, these pieces represent an artist at the top of his game. (Arrested Motion) ...

City Documentary | Do you remember the ruins of Detroit, which are a paradise for urban explorers and artists from all over the globe? Right after I published that post I got a message by Bixentro from London, who informed me about a small documentary by Palladium Boots about the city of Detroit, in which Mister Knoxville himself explores abandoned areas and the new generation of creative people restructuring and reorganizing the public life… ...

Abandoned Places | Right, I have a marked preference for old and abandoned buildings. The remarkable charm, the historical atmosphere, the silence and the explorer-feeling are indescribable, for what reason you need to take photos to catch the power of the moment! Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, both born in Parisian suburbs, photograph for several years abandoned places around the world. Their most famous photographs are those showing “The Ruins of Detroit”, which were already shown in different galleries in Paris, Stockholm and Strasbourg. ...

Some days ago, I received an interesting book about street art in South America or more precisely Buenos Aires! Matt Fox-Tucker and Guilherme Zauith present in “Textura Dos - Buenos Aires Street Art” their impressions from the streets of the Argentinian capital and its neighborhoods on about 140 colorful pages. After “Graffiti Argentina” this is just the second book I know which documents the colorful urban artworks in Argentina. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with a vibrant street art scene attracting some of the world’s best graffiti artists. Matt Fox-Tucker has spent more than six months exploring the city’s 48 neighbourhoods documenting and photographing the incredible murals, stencils and graffiti textures that decorate the surfaces of its offices, shops, factories and homes, and touch the lives of the people around them. (buenosairesstreetart.com) ...

I already wrote about the street art, skateboard and punk documentary series “DIY America” earlier this year, but yesterday I found that interesting Os Gêmeos interview you have to watch! The identical twin brothers from São Paulo talk about their art and their Sunday painting trips as well as about the consistent further development of graffiti. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and gradually became a major influence in the local scene, helping to define Brazil’s own style. Stylistically, Os Gêmeos are heavily influenced by the cryptic art of the São Paulo–based pixação graffiti movement as well as American hip-hop, which the twins grew up with in Brazil. The brothers have gained international fame, displaying their work in exhibitions in major cities in the US and Europe. ...

Last weekend I caught up with Argentinian stencil artists RDW in London and took shots of some live action on the streets - The result was a huge stencil-sprayed portrait of Che Guevara on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. Make sure to this out! Some of RDW’s latest stencil artworks are currently part of “Buenos Aires Calling”, the Argentinian street art show at Pure Evil Gallery and could be seen there until September 12th! ...

Last Thursday, the Buenos Aires Calling group-exhibition opened at Pure Evil Gallery, showing unusual, rough street art from Argentina. It’s the first collective exhibition of work from Buenos Aires street artists in London - Naturally I was there and took some photos! Buenos Aires has one of the most active and unusual street art scenes in the world. An economic crash in 2001 acted as a catalyst for a generation of young artists to start painting in the streets. Public acceptance of street art nurtured the scene, giving artists the freedom to experiment at a scale and level of complexity unseen in other cities. (Pure Evil Gallery) ...

Today I received an interesting message by LukeDaDuke - The Temporary Art Centre and cultural initiative WEI organise a no budget, mixed media festival including an cardboard art exhibition… The American city Detroit is the inspiration source for the No budget festival this year. I have been asked to fill a van with art for this festival. And I want you to join me in this project by making art on cardboard and send it to me. The size of the carboard is limited to A2. ...

Do you remember the Living Walls, The City Speaks urbanism and street art conference, which will take place in Atlanta this August? It’s a street art-influenced conference which wants to be a starting shot for a movement of people who want to recreate their cities self-determined… The project will be divided into three components: a component devoted to public murals involving poster art, a lecture series which the Georgia Tech architecture department has agree to host for us, and a that of a gallery opening taking place at the Eyedrum. (about Living Walls) ...

Have you ever skateboarded an abandoned swimming pool? If not, your chance has come! It’s relative easy: All you have to do is to travel to one of these small villages in the United State like Fresno, find one of these empty houses with its big swimming pools, clean the pool and start to skateboard! And if you take some cans with you, you could paint the pool afterwards, like street artist D*Face did it some month ago… ...