Paper Art: Explore the World of Intricate Paper Creations

For today the proclamation of sentence for the three arrested Pussy Riot activists Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samucevich is announced, for what reason there are several solidarity events taking place around the world. In Berlin, the street art collective Mentalgassi (here in Spain), recently put up one of their well-known urban faces, this time showing one of those famous Pussy Riot woolen masks… Pussy Riot is an anonymous Russian feminist performance art group formed in October 2011. Through a series of peaceful performances in highly visible places, the group has given voice to basic rights under threat in Russia today, while expressing the values and principles of gender equality, democracy and freedom of expression contained in the Russian constitution and other international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the CEDAW Convention. (about Pussy Riot) ...

Berlin-based ad takeover artist Vermibus shows how it’s done! Using nothing more than some brushes and different solvents, Vermibus transforms popular advertising posters of fashion models (e.g. Kate Moss) and puts them back to the streets… The gesture of erasing the images with solvent is similar to the gesture of painting, but it is painting counter action. The process is the same, but it is not adding colours on a canvas to create an image, it is removing the colors of an existing photographic image to create a new image and new characters. The models of the adverts have mutated. Some look like ghosts or mummies, some are reminiscent of Francis Bacon’s paintings, some of tribal make-up. ...

The best places in Berlin are now marked as such by students of Communication in Social and Economic Contexts (Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftskommunikation, GWK) at the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK)! The group placed several controversial posters throughout the entire city, presenting slogans like - *U8 is the best place for buying heroin in Berlin. Amen.*, - *Mustafas is the best place for waiting in line in Berlin. Amen.*, - *Kastanienallee is the best place for dying on your fixi in Berlin ever. Amen.* or - *Revaler Straße is the best Technostrich ever. Amen.* For those of you who already visited Berlin, these best places in Berlin should not be that unfamiliar… ...

It looks like Mr. Brainwash’s hype machine just picked up pace in London with him and/ or his team installing some of his large-scale paste-ups in the city, showing e.g. The Beatles and The Queen… Our friends at Hooked managed to get some first photos of Brainwash’s (aka Thierry Guetta) huge British themed paste-ups located in Holburn, and in addition share some more or less interesting rumors of a probably possible UK summer exhibition by Mr. Brainwash! ...

Almost a year ago, French photographer, street artist and TED Prize winner JR started his Inside Out project and since then, the large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic works went worldwide! Whether in Haiti, Brazil, Greece, Israel, or Mexico, people are participating and paste their faces in the streets of their cities. Now it was time to look back and summarize the first year of turning the world inside out… ...

The Black Hills (named after their dark appearance from a distance) are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota. In November 2011, Shepard Fairey and his team created a huge mural in Los Angeles to call attention on the many problems of the native’s reservation… We worked together with Shepard Fairey over the next several months to collaborate and bring something to the streets of Los Angeles. With help from Miguel of La Barracuda this 20x60 wall on Melrose Ave at Fairfax was secured. What you see here is the culmination of the tireless efforts of Aaron Huey and Shepard Fairey. ...

The last post I wrote about famous Italian stencil street art duo Sten and Lex was about the great mural artwork they created in Lyon, France back in 2010 - Now it’s time again! Sten and Lex who are well known for their fantastic and often huge street art stencil works recently created a new mural in Rome! Based on a former wall portrait sketch, the duo created a stencil again and ported the image to the streets of Rome - more precisely on the door of a former porn cinema. Nice idea and successful realization! ...

As I already wrote, ad takeovers have a long tradition in the international street art scene, especially in Berlin. Now, a guy called Vermibus took over some ad light boxes near Kottbuser Tor, Frankfurter Tor and Jannowitzbrücke in Berlin’s city and mutated the shown persons into some ugly, scary monsters! Looks like he used some kind of paint remover or buffing stuff to modify the advert posters…or maybe it’s just paint on the windows…not sure… ...

I was really happy, when I noticed the latest murals by a French crew of urban artists called Animae Dementia. As they report on their blog, they are exploring Berlin right now - After they hit the old NSA station Teufelsberg they recently left their marks on the walls of the abandoned Bärenquell Brewery! Being well equipped with straps and other climbing stuff, they are able to abseil themselves from the roof and paint formerly inaccessible wall parts. Nevertheless it’s not just the technique, but also the resulting murals, showing crazy, comic-like animals, which are just amazing! ...

Supported by Obey, Russian graffiti crew CHO is going to publish their first film! Entitle Комендантский Час (what simply means curfew), the video report includes great bombing, painting, pasting and running action mainly filmed during their trips to and in Spain, France and Russia… Watching the trailer with its nice footage whetted my appetite, for what reason I’m waiting eagerly for the release on December 1st. I’m pretty sure it’s getting huge, but as long as you’re waiting together with me, you should probably check out some other great graffiti action videos, like the 1UP subway graffiti action or the Copenhagen Trains documentary. ...