Graffiti & Street Art Interviews: Artists Speak Out

After the Blu mural, also the famous urban art duo Herakut recently painted a new mural as a part of the CityLeaks festival in Cologne! Although the majority of you will be not able to understand the interview they did (don’t ask me why it’s not subtitled…), the video gives some nice insights into the creation-process and is for that reason worth watching… If you like to see some more of Hera and Akut in action, check out the installation they did in Newcastle, their mural in Yekaterinburg or the live-painting in London! I for one can’t get enough of their rough but also detailed style… ...

Yesterday, the preparations for the upcoming urban culture festival IBUg started and I’m on the straight way to the Saxon city of Meerane. For that reason I put together some interesting street art and graffiti news and deliver you with this the new urban art link-tips… Scottish artist Elph recently made the trip down from Scotland to London for some nice painting hours! Here are some nice shots of the new wall in Shoreditch… ...

Although it just slowly becomes summer in Berlin, it seems the brightest time in the year lends wings to all the creative heads around the world. Because I’m not able to write about all these fantastic urban actions and great street artworks, I give you another brief overview today… After this first mural in Copenhagen, Shepard Fairey recently did another one! Barcelona-based urban artist Zosen has a new video out called The catastrophe of postmodernism, documenting his latest installation. Looks great! ...

Although I already introduced JR’s Inside Out project (did you know that 40 to 50 thousand people are already participating?!) to you, I don’t want to withhold the interview he recently did with Bilal Randeree from Arabian news channel Al Jazeera from you… JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. After winning the TED Prize, he started a new project, insideoutproject.net, that is apparently taking the world by storm. ...

I’m pretty sure you already heard about the new installation famous German urban art duo Herakut recently created in Newcastle, but have you also watched the nice interview they did with OneThirty3? Invited by famous UK-based artist Hush, Hera and Akut painted an entire room in not more than three and a half day. The clue, the room has been open for the public just for one evening earlier this month! ...

Charles Edwards aka Pure Evil is not just artist and head behind renowned Pure Evil Gallery in London but also an important person in Europe’s urban art scene. Recently the online video magazine Spine TV visited his rooms for the latest issue of their Stolen Moments series and talked to him about his art, his history and how he got in contact with graffiti… In the 30s, Hitler was refused entry to Austrian art school twice. I would come back as the head of that college in the 30s and change that decision, and tell him his watercolours were totally amazing, and give him a place in art school so he would be a happy artist, and he would never get into politics and war. (Pure Evil) ...

Berlin-based street artist El Bocho has been working on the streets since 1997. His Little Lucy series (a little girl killing cats), the two CCTVs Kalle and Bernd as well as the new large-scale painted paste-up series are well known not only in Berlin! Recently Paula Kohlmann talked with him about his characters, street-art, life and communication… When I was three or four years old I watched my cousin drawing with crayons. I simply wasn’t able to understand how she was doing it. She gave me the crayons and since then I have never wanted to do anything else but drawing and illustrating. (El Bocho) ...

Moscow-based art collective Faceheads just meet up with Russian probably the best street artist ever, who sometimes is named the new Banksy - His name: ATO! The special thing about ATO is that he creates beautiful street artworks without having any noticeable concept - A fact, a lot of other street artists should also keep in mind as not to get too conceptual with their street art. Worldwide Street Artists: Banksy, ATO, Brainwash - Not sure what to believe? Then you definitely should read our Street Artist Interviews! ...

Graffiti Magazine | Today I first got to know the graffiti mag Sandblast, which “is the first magazine to cover the Middle Eastern graffiti scene in depth.” (Invasian) Including interviews, photos and background-stories, the first issue of the Magazine which will be out in July features graffiti and its protagonists from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Egypt what’s a quite interesting thing with all the riots, protests and revolutions in mind! And also the cover whets my appetite for some more nice shots and Arabic letters on trains and walls! ...

Famous British graffiti artist Ben Eine did it again and stenciled his well-known, brightly colored letter styles on a huge wall in London’s Covent Garden! This new mural is Ben’s try to stirring up a debate with Westminster Council about their zero tolerance policy on graffiti and street art… …two Prets, a Starbucks, a Gap and it’s fucking boring - who the fuck wants that?! (Ben Eine) Again it was Abbie Brandon who filmed him doing his best and talked to him about his work for Amnesty International, the show at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco, artists he likes and much more! ...