Animal Walls | While we had a more or less hard winter in Europe, famous urban artist Roa flew over the sea and did some nice new mural stuff in Mexico! After having a look at the brand-new photos of his spray-painted animals on Ekosystem I have to say, that Roa’s style is and remains unique in my eyes… In addition to a lot of new walls showing those well-known graffiti animals, Roa also hooked up with Mexican urban artists Saner and Sego to create some wicked collaborations! ...

Squatting | With the help of axes, saws and a battering ram special forces of the German police invaded the creative living project “Liebig14”, one of the last squatted houses in Berlin. Outside, about 1,500 left-winged protesters, students and creative folks demonstrated against the eviction of the building, fought with the police and made a lot of trouble in Berlin’s creative stronghold Friedrichshain. The house was squatted in 1990, shortly after the Berlin Wall fell, when Berlin was a paradise for squatters from all over Europe because of the large number of empty buildings. For that reason it’s really pity to loose this traditional left-winged open space which was not just an alternative housing project, but also a center for alternative politics and a gravitation field for street art and other creative ideas! ...

Urban Exploring | The catacombs under Paris are definitely worth a visit: Deep dark tunnels, skulls and Bones, legal and illegal clubs, graffiti, mural artworks and fire-breather - The Parisian underground is a living theme and exploring park for people (the so-called cataphiles) who want to dip into another, sometimes surreal world… Not long ago, the renowned National Geographic published a nice photo gallery of the catacombs and wrote: Paris has a deeper and stranger connection to its underground than almost any city, and that underground is one of the richest. The arteries and intestines of Paris, the hundreds of miles of tunnels that make up some of the oldest and densest subway and sewer networks in the world, are just the start of it. Under Paris there are spaces of all kinds: canals and reservoirs, crypts and bank vaults, wine cellars transformed into nightclubs and galleries. Most surprising of all are the carrières—the old limestone quarries that fan out in a deep and intricate web under many neighborhoods, mostly in the southern part of the metropolis. (Neil Shea, National Geographic) ...

Graffiti Car Advert | Oh, come on boys and girl - it’s getting boring! After Mini did their “Wash Me” cars by the help of KR, Seak One, Tika, Smash 137 and others and Mercedes Benz had Niels Shoe Meulman, who did some calligraffiti on one of their B-Class cars, now it’s Opel’s turn! The car-manufacturer charged the two graffiti legends Daim and Loomit to create some advert for the Corsa. Both spray-painted the background wall for the new Opel Corsa Campagne 2011, which is now extensively used to promote not just the car but its creative-to-be label and reputation. ...

Urban Art Open-Call | Back in 2010, Polo Jeans Co. Ralph Lauren started the so called “Art Stars” campaign, for which famous urban artists like Case, Daniel Tagno, Delta, Herakut, L’Atlas, Roa, Smash137 and Sten & Lex customized their own 3D denim stars. Now, they organized a open-call competition and ask you to create your own “Art Star”! Until February 4th you have time to become a star by downloading the “Art Star” kit, creating something original and submitting it… ...

Street Alphabet | Do you remember the photo-documentary I did of famous graffiti and street artist Ben Eine painting a wall for the Moniker Art Fair in London? While I took photos, East London based creative producer Abbie Brandon took some nice video footage and interviewed Ben. Now she finished her film about a weekend in Ben Eine’s life… The doc was filmed over a weekend (plus a Friday night before and some neatening up on the Monday). Ben was painting 2 walls - one being PRO PRO PRO on Ebor Street in East London - the other being CALCULATE on Hollywell Lane, also in East London. ...

Splatter Graffiti | Spray-painting without caps is a nice way to create unique backgrounds and fillings and to create in that way a unique, rough piece! Also the famous two graffiti artists Smash137 and Risk used this technique when caught up the other day to paint a wall near Miami Beach. Both destroyed the covers of their cans by the help of some knifes to paint in a more or less uncontrolled way. Although I really love that rough and unconventional style I never tried it myself because it’s a bit waste, but I have to say it looks like a lot of fun and for sure it is an alternative way of spray-painting! ...

Art Market Documentary | “WTF? Another Banksy documentary?”, was what I thought when I recently stumbled upon “How to sell a Banksy”! But after I watched the trailer and read the synopsis I became aware, that this film is not about Bansky, but about the crazy institution of the international art market… Banksy’s work now reportedly changes hands for millions. But he puts up his street art for free. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you got your hands on one of these? Does it mean you’ve found a winning lottery ticket or just scraped some worthless crap off a wall? ...

Stencil Flood | As I already said, the flood ravished city of Brisbane (Australia) is the new honey pot for not just graffiti artists, who paint trains on the dead, flooded railway lines, but also for street artist. A brilliant example for this street art boom in Brisbane is the new stencil artwork by Above, who recently informed my fellow RJ that he “decided to immediately fly from Sydney to Brisbane to make this site specific stencil”. The stencil shows Noah’s ark as well as an elephant and a giraffe sinking! Above said: ...

Graffiti Photography | After I met famous Austrian-based graffiti artist Nychos in London, I caught up with him in Berlin a few days ago! Again we spent almost a half day on a roof somewhere in a big city and again I photographically documented his work… Nychos is well-known around the world for his main street art concept “The Rabbit Eye Movement” (REM), for what reason you can find his often angry and sometimes crazy rabbit graffiti not just in Vienna, London and Berlin, but also in Melbourne, Barcelona, Paris and other big metropolises around the globe! ...