Graffiti, Marker & Spray Cans

Almost two month ago, Los Angeles-based mural artist Augustine Kofie visited Berlin for a live-painting at Jaybo aka Monk’s Project Room. Kofie, who was born 1973, is internationally well-known for his amazing technically skills, he uses to create fantastic abstract paintings. Although his artworks only consist of simple geometrically shapes - exact lines and circles - and smooth colors, they seem to be rather complex and elegant. “The Qualities of Light” published an impressive artist profile about Augustine Kofie, in which he talks about his hidden preferences for collecting old things, his inspirational sources and first love, illustration. In addition he shows his studio and gives some insights into his sketching books, etc. ...

In addition to the exclusive prints by famous graffiti artist Roa, I was able to watch Bristol-based urban artist, street art veteran, graphic designer and illustrator Mr. Jago live-painting at the VNA release party at Pure Evil gallery. Jago is internationally well-know for its marvel-influenced, often abstract and chaotic style. In the past, BBC Blast did a nice interview with the smart man where he speaks about things inspiring him, his style and so on… ...

Last Thursday the new, twelves issue of the fantastic VNA magazine was released at the Pure Evil Gallery in London. In addition to having some too much beer and talking to some nice guys, I was able to take some closer looks at the first Roa prints… Roa has been on the top of our hit list for a while now, so it was a real blessing when he came through London and this dream cover could actually come about. Three days of shooting Roa painting was still not enough and we could have easily sat up on that roof watching him paint for quite a few more. (Team VNA, Issue 12) ...

For one week, a lot of interesting and totally different urban artists worked hard under London’s Westway and finally tomorrow the public opening will take place. I already went to see Snub23, Sinna One, Ink Fetish, Funky Red Dog, Foundry, Leeks, Nine-o, Fin DAC and other London-based graffiti and street artists during the last days and of course took some photos… The location is rather nice and the feeling between the concrete pillars, stabilizing the Westway, is pure urban! Take a look at the photos of the preparations - Maybe we see each-other tomorrow! ...

Do you know Tumblingerstraße? It’s a very nice small street with nice pieces on the walls and crazy cars on the street, where graffiti writer could paint without trouble…You think that sounds like a dream? You’re wrong, it’s a mini graffiti animation I found today! The impressing two minutes stop-motion film was part of an thesis at the Design-school Munich and is a sight to see. The film shows, how a miniature graffiti writer creates a new miniature piece on a highly frequented miniature street. ...

Readers of this urban art blog should already noticed the Skalitzers Gallery in Berlin, where for example the Cope2 and the Babou, L’Atlas, Sun7 and Tanc exhibitions took already place. Skalitzers is a new contemporary art gallery located in Berlin, with an international focus on new artists and art forms. (Skalitzers) Recently the “Finding Berlin” project visited the gallery and its owner to talk about graffiti and tagging culture in Berlin and of course about the idea behind Skalitzers. The final result is an nice, but unfortunately short video interview, including some interesting statements about the feeling on the streets in Berlin…I guess, when I’m back in Berlin I will pay a visit to corresponding tagging shop! ...

True Colors is a brand-new and amazing stop motion film by Tomislav Topic, which shows the power of combining different urban art disciplines in one great artwork! When I saw the video first I was really impressed by the fantastic ideas and the kick-ass outworking. Tomislav mixed wall painting, tape art, fire extinguishers, 3D-objects and some other crazy things and tells in that way a nice and creative urban art story… ...

As you maybe noticed, I don’t really like adverts and the misuse o urban art for commercial things, but that ad-campaign is rather good: The World Wide Fund For Nature (short WWF), the biggest international nature conservation organization, tagged some wild animals for their latest campaign “What will it take before we respect the planet?”. Of course, it’s digital work… Although graffiti is used here as a symbol of vandalism, I really like the idea of that campaign. Maybe it’s because I’d never seen graffiti on polar bears, rhinoceroses or elephants before, or maybe it’s because the tagged elephants reminded me of that elephant, Bansky painted for one of his shows - I don’t know. Fact is, that the WWF’s statement is clear: Keep tagging walls in the urban landscape - Stay away from animals! ...

As mentioned yesterday, another live-painting took place at the Project Room by Jaybo aka Monk in Berlin. Two well-known artists, Augustine Kofie and El Mac, started painting in front of the crowd at 7pm and finished their artworks four hours later. It was gorgeous to watch them paint in their totally different styles and to be able to understand how they’re working. The huge count of small details in Kofie’s artworks and that great shadow-handling by El Mac made me and my friend happy. For that reason, I want to make those of you happy, who had no time to come to that interesting art event by showing you some photos (More on Flickr!) I took while the live-painting. ...

As I mentioned some days ago, famous graffiti artist Mode2 painted live in Berlin yesterday! The outstanding artists created a great mural artwork at the “Jacki Terrasse” in Berlin and I was allowed to take some photos of the otherwise camera-shy artist and his doings… It was really great to see how easily he painted that rough wall just with brushes. The new wall now shows a collection of different rawish characters and creates for that reason a very comfortable urban atmosphere. The great thing about Mode2 and his mural artwork is, that he painted everything without having any sketch on paper or some thing like that…I was really impressed! ...