Yesterday, right after the doors of my exhibition opening closed, one of the currently most famous urban artists arrived in Berlin! Yep, Roa is back in town for his upcoming exhibition at Skalitzers Gallery… Simply entitled Transit, the show by the Belgian graffiti artist (his first solo-show in Berlin by the way!) includes new paintings presenting his internationally well-known graffiti animals! Roa brings the creatures which inhabit the fringes of human society back to the metropolis to expose the natural beauty in the cycle of life and death. (Skalitzers Gallery) ...

Melbourne-based artist Robbie Rowlands seems to be obsessed by cutting through things, e.g. rooms, trees, houses, chairs, walls, further things and other stuff. The Australian explores notions of stability and vulnerability through the manipulation of objects and environments as Amir knows to report… The artist takes spaces and objects and shapes them in a form that makes them almost unrecognizable, and of course there is certain violence, an element of destructiveness in the process. But the effect is productive. (about Robbie Rowlands) ...

Back in May, I featured the graffiti art show by the infamous Da Mental Vaporz (DMV) crew from France. Now, two months later, Emile Sacre published a video documenting the preparations and the opening of exactly this show and I have to say that it just looks great! Dran,** Bom.k**, Sowat, Brusk, Gris1, Kan, Iso, Blo and Jaw created a super exhibition including totally different styles, nice collaborations and amazing solo-artworks. In my eyes, DMV just showed again that they play in one of the highest levels in European graffiti. ...

Again some self-promotion for my upcoming solo-exhibition Urban Artists in Action – Another View on Street Art & Graffiti… Because I always like watching live art performances during exhibition openings and to not just present photos of urban artists in action but also to add some action to the opening ceremony this Thursday, I asked famous Australian street artist Buff Diss to create one of his well-known tape art installations on Westberlin Gallery’s window-front! So there’s another good reason for those of you being in Berlin to join the vernissage - Admission is free as usual in Berlin. ...

I just stumbled upon this interesting intervention in Sofia, Bulgaria: An still unknown artist - dubbed Banksy of Bulgaria by some news agencies - transformed figures of Soviet soldiers at the base of the Soviet Army monument into superheroes and cartoon characters! The Joker, Superman, Santa Claus, Robin (not quite sure) and even Ronald McDonald carrying the Stars and Stripes could be identified - I’m not sure about the figures, maybe you are able to name some more… However, in my eyes this guerrilla art action is just superb! The transformation of Soviet soldiers into fantasy characters and in that way the combination of modern US culture and Soviet history is what some may missed in the original Banksy’s latest artworks. ...

It’s urban art festival time in Germany, what’s a good reason for all of you to travel the forgotten, abandoned or public places and spaces in Berlin, Saxony or even Cologne… Artrmx and Colorrevolution are going to present the international urban art festival CityLeaks in Cologne this year! Artists from all over the world are invited to create large-scale murals, paste-ups and installations in public spaces, house fronts, off-locations and galleries during the festival’s outdoor action-week. Well-known urban artists like Blu, (who already created the first mural) Emess, El Bocho, Faith47, Jim Avignon, Roa, Sam3, Smash137, Stefan Strumbel, Zedz and others already agreed, what makes CityLeaks becoming probably the biggest urban art festival on continental Europe. ...

A few weeks after the abandoned art festival at Artbase Grabowsee will have taken place near Berlin, this year’s IBUg festival of urban culture will take place in the West Saxon city of Meerane! IBUg2011 represents an urban culture event that aims at bringing graffiti, street-art and installations closer to the public by embracing existing architecture, and concurrently establishing it as an independent form of art. In addition, derelict industrial grounds are revived to improve people’s awareness for art, culture and architecture. (IBUg concept) ...

After Chazme, Lump, Sainer and Sepe, Sam3 and Blu it’s now famous Spanish mural artist El Tono who painted two new mural artworks in Poland! El Tono, whose trademarks are wall paintings of abstract tuning forks, approves in that way my theory about Polish cities like Warsaw, Krakow or Szczecin becoming new hot-spots for street art in Europe. Also his comments show the wide support by the local citizens… The project was […] organized by the Vlepvnet foundation. Every year they invite local and international artists to work in the city. The building is located on Zlota street in the Wola neighborhood, close to the central station. Thanks to the help from the guys from vlepvnet, the volunteers and the support of the neighbors, we managed to finished the two murals in only seven days. (El Tono) ...

Graffiti legend and famous character-painter Mode2 did (as I mentioned before) a nice live mural art painting event at Schau Fenster Gallery in Berlin-Kreuzberg! Of course I joined this live painting event and took a few photos. Again it was impressing - not just for me but also for all the other visitors enjoying the characters becoming alive - to watch Mode adding his well-known dancing characters to such a big wall. ...

As announced, famous Australian painter Anthony Lister did a nice live art performance in Jaybo’s Project Room (Herakut, Kofie, El Mac and other famous urban artists painted there before!) in Berlin two days ago… Tools, brushstrokes, spraypaint, electric guitar, doubts and hopes, hate and love, heroes on the walls, fallen dreams, questions and answers, visibles and invisibles - Mr. Lister will take the challenge to paint about, with and for Berlin. ...