Stencil Art

Although I did not write about him so far, Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is recently one of my favorite urban artists. With his amazing and very popular Scratching The Surface artworks, he tries “focusing on the act of destruction to create” as he told me in the interview he gave me some days ago… uac: In the last months and years, you and especially your artworks became very popular around the world. A lot of people wrote articles about you, published photos and videos about your artworks and were - like me - fascinated about the way you create your works. Although, nobody really knows something about you. Could you explain who you are, where you´re from and how you got in contact with the so-called urban art? ...

Two days ago, I was invited to visit the opening of the “Source/ Resource” group-exhibition at Wilde Gallery in Berlin. In addition to some works by contemporary artists like Antonio Santin and Awst&Walther they show new artworks by two of my favorite stencil artists, Evol and Pisa73! As always when I take a look at their very detailed and amazing artwork, I was really flashed, but also the artworks by Mirko Mielke, who presented a photo on concrete and a photo on a found wall, were very inspiring! ...

Next month, Italian stencil art crew Orticanoodles will have their first stencil art solo show in Paris, which is simply called “New Works”. Curated by Samantha Longhi, the show will present the new “The Hammer” series, which is about the destruction of our enjoyment of daily consumer goods… “Orticanoodles is a couple of artists who live and work in Milan in Italy and then draw their inspiration in both high and popular cultures. They cultivate a taste for Pop Art and Andy Warhol and for daily objects, but also for the classical tradition. ...

Yesterday, I visited the Pisa73 and Czarnobyl stencil art exhibition in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Although the shown artworks were really nice, they unfortunately were the same I already know from the “Aerosol Fumes” stencil art group exhibition… Nevertheless I took some shots, because Pisa73 and Czarnobyl are two of the most famous Berlin-based stencil artist and their artworks are well-known in Europe and overseas. Most notably is the great location. It’s called the “Nest” and it’s above a little nice café. It’s the same interesting location were the Streetfiles urban art photo show took place in November 2009. ...

Today is the Down-Under day. Some hours ago I wrote that article about the Australian graffiti artist The Yok and now I will write a small post about the upcoming stencil art show by Ben Howe in Hamburg. Yes, you are right, Ben Howe is also an Australian urban artist… The upcoming show is called “Schism Overwrite” and will present his most current stencil artworks and I heard, that he will make some live action - maybe a live painting! ...

Berlin is the world capital of stencil art - You don’t think so? Then take a look at the extravagant “Aerosol Fumes” stencil art exhibition! Since two days, Berlin’s five most well-known stencil artists – Bohomaz, Czarnobyl, Emess, Evol and Pisa73 – exhibit together in the Neurotitan Gallery. The exhibition brings together, what belongs together - Very detailed stencil artworks and large-sized abstract multilayer spray-paints, created by five different urban artists in five different styles. ...

Yesterday, I visited my most favorite gallery in Berlin, the ATM Gallery, to take some photos of the interesting stencil artworks by the Russian street artist Incubus Project. I loved the dirty, futuristic and sometimes unclean style and especially the wooden raw materials, he used to spray on. For me, as a small urban nerd, the robot motives were really treat for the eyes! “The themes are mainly futuristic and by displaying machinery they bring early videos by Kraftwerk, a german technopop band, to memory. Moreover the purist choice of colors -red/black - constitutes another part of their expressive and longevity stencils.” (press release) ...

Yeah, it’s time for end-of-the-year reviews! Some days ago, my friend Luna Park from New York posted her 30 favorites of the year. She is quite a renowned street art and graffiti photographer, so her list of favorite pieces, moments or shots is interesting for everyone else. Today I will show you some of my favorite urban art exhibition shots, I took in the soon ending year. It was very hard, but I think, that I made a good decision. Let my know your opinions! ...

Do you know the Slanted magazine? It’s a typography magazine, which exists since 2005 and is published quarterly. It combines the sectors typography, layout, illustration and photography. The ninth issue, named “Stencil. Type.”, of the Slanted magazine is about stencil fonts and their modern applications! “Slanted presents the innovative work of Gavillet & Rust and their fontlabel Optimo (Geneva), the large format paintings of Christopher Wool (New York), an impressive photo series of Francois Fleruy (Paris) and many more. The sections “Fontlabels, Fonts & Families”, “Fontnames Illustrated” and “Typolyrics” introduce contemporary fonts and designers from all over the world, followed by interviews with John Boardley, Kouga Hirano and Chip Kidd and an interesting type essay by Hannes von Döhren.” ...

An abandoned pool, some well-talented skaters and a lot of time to skate and have fun - what should there be more? Right, an internationally known urban artist who creates a fabulous skull-hell out of the pool! British street artist D*Face recently visited together with Gary Owens, Salba, and other pro-skaters the “Ridiculous Pool” in pro surfer Peter King’s backyard in LA and redesigned it with about 500 to 1,000 skull stencils. ...