Graffiti Germany: Street Art & Urban Culture Explored

MadC Layers Exhibition End of the week, famous female graffiti artist Claudia Walde, better known as MadC, is going to open her next solo-exhibition at 44309 Gallery in Dortmund, Germany! Entitled Layers, the show will present new works made using spray paint, transparent spray paint, ink, watercolour and acrylic paint… Her letters flow into each other and parts of one letter borrow parts of another. Everything is connected; one part can‘t be without the other. Thus, her work is a reflection of our modern life where everything and everyone is connected through the Internet, cell phones, social networks and the media. The graffiti community has long used all those channels to stay connected for decades. (MadC at 44309 Gallery) ...

Imagine a guy setting up his camera and starting to paint a German train. And now, imagine two cleaners coming round a corner, bumping directly into the poorly covert writer! The resulting hit and run is pretty to watch if you’re a fan of schadenfreude like me… As was written on Ektopia, this is “the best little graffiti video, from start to finish, that I’ve seen for a while.” Watch the entire train graffiti story, including a brilliant finish, and let us thank this one minute hero, who had the class to publish this video! ...

Famous German 3D graffiti artist Mirko Reisser aka DAIM, who is well-known also from posters and TV, just spent a day at a beach. Probably because the sun was long in coming, DAIM started to build his version of a proper drip castle - a sand graffiti showing his name in his well-known three-dimensional style… On his own admission, it took him 6 hours to build this great, but still somehow unsteady letter sculpture. Whereas it just took 30 minutes for the sea to destroy it again. For that reason, you maybe could call this result of a graffiti maestro playing at the beach a temporary sand graffiti installation or just an urban sandcastle! ...

Hey folks, good news for all the creative heads among yourselves: We’re starting into this week with a small lottery, giving away three Montana Acrylic Marker Sets sponsored by Inflammable.com, your sneaker and graffiti shop! Each Montana Acrylic Marker Set (see teaser photo) includes, in addition to several smaller things like an USB stick and pencils, three markers and refill paint! All you have to do to win is to follow at least one of the following instructions: ...

Projects, bringing together different arts are almost always my taste, especially when they combine spray-paint and modern technology. The official music video Who Cares by Symbiz Sound is such a project… In cooperation with students from Braunschweig University of Arts and the Institute for Comupter-graphics of TU Braunschweig, Symbiz Sound created this awesome video, combining Rasta hairstyles, exquisite dubstep sounds, live graffiti action, performance and paint with the latest digital production techniques (keyword: Virtual Video Camera). ...

3D is in and trendy, Hollywood is showing is that with almost every new movie they throw on the market and although the 3D technique is not yet as convincing as is probably could be, I really like the idea of the new Taken By A Vandal graffiti documentary, bringing graffiti action three dimensions into our living rooms! Graffiti as seen through the eyes of the artist While watching this action-loaded documentary, we’re following the happenings as seen through the eyes of the 18 graffiti artist, who filmed themselves using head camera. This, and the fact that they decided to add a certain stereoscopic 3D effect, makes Taken By A Vandal become somehow confusing but also unique and very interesting. All in all you could say, this graffiti documentary shows train-graffiti action as just a minority has seen it before… ...

After that phenomenal collaboration with Nawer in Krakow, the Amsterdam-based urban art duo Graphic Surgery just finished a new mural! Located in Dresden, Germany, the 25 meters high wall has been painted as a part of the CityBilder project, which recently took place in town and also includes urban artworks by Frm & Otecki, Moneyless, Saddo, Jens Besser and others. The finished mural now shows an abstract bundle of black and white lines and is simply named Bauhaus after the famous German school for crafts and fine arts. Here are some pics… ...

Urban Art Exposition | The two urban artists Base23 and Morten Andersen have some things in common! First, both are Berlin-based artists. Second, both developed a unique and convincing style. Third, both are hell hounds from the north and fourth, both will exhibit at Pretty Portal Gallery in Düsseldorf at the end of this month! Morten Andersen attracted the public attention by using rhythmic forms and expressive, whirling colours. Base23 hypnotized people creating characters, that remind indian totems of the 23. century. The vigorous and graphical pieces of Base 23 build a strong contrast to the abstract works by Morten Andersen. As a result the viewers will experiece great tension caused by the confrontation of the both artists. (prettyportal.de) ...

Marker Fight | This week, the Paint Club Finals 2010 will take place in Halle, Germany so make sure to save the date! In the last months, Paint Club travelled a good deal through the hottest metropolises of Europe, but now it’s time to break and to determine who is going to be the international Paint Club champion in 2010. Therefore, all champions of each urban hotspot visited during the European Tour were invited to come to Halle… ...

Bigger, more colorful and even more detailed - This is seemingly a actual trend in the graffiti scene. In my opinion it’s to much. For me, a piece is a good one when it’s unique and has a attractive typographic character - Too many colors overlay the rather style… Quite similarly think the people from “Style needs no color”. They released their book “Black on White” with a big live painting (only in black and white) some days ago! Over 20 graffiti artists, including 3Steps, Faker,Mr.Cybe, Panik, Pesk, Ritak and Tabu, painted at the hall of fame in Koblenz. ...