Last Friday, I visited the launch party of the new and really recommendable urban art book by Tristan Manco called “Street Sketchbook: Journeys”, which is something like an extension of the original “Street Sketchbook” from 2007. Street Sketchbook: Journeys continues the theme of an artist’s creativity by looking further at the idea process. Featuring in-depth interviews and illustrated with sketchbooks and behind the scenes photographs this book follows the artistic journeys of thirty extraordinary artists from around the world. (press release) ...

It’s the month of urban art fairs and festivals. In addition to the Stroke.03 in Berlin and the Moniker in London, the urban art festival “Escape 2010” will take place in Vienna until the end of October. Enthralling national and international artists were invited to the exhibition in order to display and communicate the current positions of urban art. Above all, the intrinsic references to space and urban settings as well as comic, pop and street art are the main focus of the show. (about Escape 2010) ...

For some of you it’s just another way of street art commercialization, but with round about 25 participating galleries and art collectives, Stroke.03 is the biggest urban art fair in Germany and will this year take place for four days in Berlin. Including eleven indoor live-paintings by well-known urban artists like Morten Andersen, FinDAC, Herr von Bias, SP38, and nine outdoor mural live-paintings by Roa, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Faith47, and others in the streets of Berlin, the third issue of Stroke will dominate the German capital’s urban art life during October 7th and 10th, 2010! The main part of Stroke.03, the art fair, will take place in the former train-station Gleisdreieck, in the heart of Berlin. ...

Yesterday, London’s Pure Evil Gallery opened its doors with a lot of hype and TV cameras for the “New Paintings” exhibition by famous Banksy-basher and old school graffiti artist Robbo. Of course I visited the opening and took some shots of the paintings, including a lot of drips, colors, paint and kitsch, but I’m still unsure what to think about that exhibition… I talked to some people and asked them what they think about Robbo’s paintings and stencil artworks and one of them told me that the whole exhibition is maybe a big fake. Although it’s not the Anti-Banksy exhibition I’d expected, Robbo may wants to show how easy (and in that way stupid) it is to create street-art-like artworks in his opinion. ...

I actually noticed that you can watch Banksy’s street art documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” online now, because someone uploaded it to the online video platform Vimeo! After I watched the film the first time I was a bit overexcited and wrote… Exit Through The Gift Shop is a masterpiece of a street art documentary, a great film for those who have no knowledge about street art and its pioneers and a even greater film for those you have! ...

Short news for those of you who are in Berlin today: Circle Culture Gallery will open its doors for Jaybo’s “Hazardous Brushstrokes” exhibition this evening! The art show will present Jaybo’s latest artworks, including crazy paintings and of course hazardous brushstrokes… Jaybo’s work always seems to take giant leaps and it’s quite hard to keep up with his ever changing styles and ideas… This show is no different, a big departure from the figurative into some really abstract realms. I only wish I could be there! (Remi Rough) ...

Roa is probably one of the current most famous graffiti artists in Europe. His unique style, those great animal motives with its high recognition value and his Europe-wide presence are the reason for his success. Only a few weeks ago, first prints of his graffiti artworks were published! Recently the Fatcap Crew did a nice interview with the Belgian urban artist and talked with him about abandoned places, Jimi Hendrix, street art, of course his animals and many more… ...

One of the first posts on Urban Artcore was about Graffiti-inspired Design, including graffiti candles, graffiti lamps and of course that amazing fat cap chair by the Swedish design duo Don’t Feed The Swedes (DFTS). What I didn’t knew when I wrote the article was that already in 2006 industrial designer Sander van Heukelom invented the design of “The Original Fat Cap Chair”, which is, as its name suggests, a fat cap formed chair made of fiber glass with polyester and will be available this fall! ...

For those of you who like the commercialization of street art, the next month will be pretty interesting: In Berlin, the “Stroke.3 - Urban Art Fair” will take place between October 7th and 10th (more about that commercial street art event later!) and in London, the “Moniker - International Art Fair” will take place between October 14th and 17th. Because I’m currently in London, I’ll write about that Moniker-event first… ...

I totally forgot to write something about that nice abstract graffiti, installation, architectural art exhibition by Dutch graffiti legend Boris Tellegen aka Delta, which took place last week in Paris. I’m glad that the Street Giant posted some photos from the show… With exposure around the world, the artist has been praised for his non-traditional approach to graffiti art. This tribute exhibit featured Delta’s most recent works at the Doors Studio in Paris. (streetgiant.com) ...