Art Installations: Urban Interventions & Public Space

One week ago, my friend the Portuguese street art blogger Target wrote an interesting article about an at that time upcoming street art installation by the famous urban art collective Faile. One whole week, the Faile-team and their helpers worked hard on their massive, big and unique installation and what came of it is a fantastic temple in the city of Lisbon, which is part of the art festival “PortugalArte10”! Today, Target uploaded impressing shots of the creation process… ...

Since I asked whether “Back to the Roots” is a new trend in design and urban art, I was still on the search for some example which underline my theory. Recently I found something interesting on a blog of one of my commentators… Wood meets Typography In 2009, the british graphic design company Why not Associates recently created so called typographic tree columns in collaboration with Gordon Young, a visual artist who focuses on creating art for the public domain. If you like words and nature, I guess you will love this great wood typography! ...

Lisbon-based street artist and blogger Target is maybe the biggest agitator of the current graffiti art exhibition by worldwide popular graffiti artists Os Gemeos. He recently visited the show and took some photos: I got there quite late as it was less than an hour to close, and between meet and greets and taking some pics, the actual art visualisation got lost in the time. I can without a doubt asure you I’ll be back for a more relaxed view of the show, since there’s always so many details going on, it’s impossible to find every line they draw on a single hour. (by Target) ...

Yes, it’s a commercial work, but nevertheless it’s really amazing! The Berlin-based street art crew Mentalgassi did a nice job at the Alexanderplatz in the heart of Berlin. They created so-called “Flip-Images”, large-scale image-installations which make it possible for the public to see different images from different perspectives. Mentalgassi are well-known for their oversized paste-ups, showing expressive, crazy faces of their friends. In the past, they also experimented with concrete, stickers and X-films, self-sticking color transparencies, for the ticket validators on the Berlin subway-stations. ...

“Holz51” is a great name for that “back to basics” collaboration of the two well-known Berlin-based urban art and design collectives Klub7 and 44Flavours. Some days ago, the corresponding art exhibition opened at the Neurotitan Gallery in Berlin… 44Flavours as well as Klub7 are popular for their incomparable style and the alternative ways in creating their artworks. Their art is by and large unique in the German urban art scene, what makes it every time interesting to see what they created new… ...

Yesterday, the Oscars prize giving ceremony took place in Los Angeles and yes, I was not surprised that Christoph Waltz got his Oscar for his “Inglourious Basterds” Nazi-part, because in conclusion he’s an Austrian… However, also British street artist D*Face visited LA. During the last days, he installed two skeleton-like Oscar sculptures, each about two meters high and now referred as “Zombie Oscars”. As you maybe know, D*Face loves skulls and skeletons - What’s the intention behind that interesting installations, D*Face told NBC Los Angeles: ...

Between the 19th and 22nd November, there was an international art show in the United Arab Emirates, called the “Abu Dhabi Art Fair”. Around 50 galleries from the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States presented artworks. One of the exhibiting artists was famous French street artist and photographer JR! He created a large scale wheatpaste installation in the center of the UAE’s capital. When I saw the exclusive photos the first time, I was really shocked, because of their great atmosphere. ...

20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, an American TV channel and a German urban artists collaborate to celebrate the end of separation in an artistic way. “Go Beyond Borders” is a tape art project by Berlin-based street artist El Bocho and CNN. In the last days, El Bocho and his crew created unique art installations using tape at historic sites along the former Berlin Wall and made some videos of their actions. ...

Next month, urban intervention artist Dan Witz will have his new solo-exhibition, called Dark Doings, at the Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art. The artworks which will be presented are small window-imitations, which show in a very realistic way people, who are imprisoned. Dan placed these mixed media installations on doors all over New York City in the last weeks. If you pass by one of his Dark Doings, you guess that the person is right behind the door! ...

Famous stencil artists M-City has a new, very interesting project! After creating the biggest stencil artwork worldwide some month ago, he started constructing and building the Fabryka. The M-City­ factory produces nothing, it serves no useful purpose, but it stirs the senses nevertheless, and its huge dimensions emphasize the transformations that contemporary culture is undergoing. This factory needs no workers. The engines that keep it going require little attention. The ghostly nature of the installation evokes a vague sense of danger and forecasts the end of physical work. ...