Sticker Art: A Guide to Urban Decals & Street Art

It’s been a long time, since the last issue of the iconic sticker magazine Klebstoff (German for glue) was published, but recently I received the new fourth issue! First published in 2009 by German Wildsmile Studios, the Klebstoff mag soon became popular in the German sticker and urban art scene. The clue: Each page of the mag consists of real stickers by real artists, what allows you to have a lot of fun with it - I for one decided to entirely cover one of my bookshelf in stickers… ...

It’s all about stickers, stickers, stickers - The Stick Core sticker exhibition will show stickers by artists from all over the world, discovering this specialized urban medium as a part of street and urban art culture! With their wonderful diversity of color, form, elements and expression, in the last years stickers got featured in several exhibition around the world, like the Oversized & Underpriced shows in Berlin. This time, it’s the Idrawalot Gallery by Karl Addison which s hosting and supporting the second part of Stick Core Berlin… ...

For over a decade, the legendary Toasters crew hits cities around the globe, spreading their famous icon (a toaster of course) far and wide! A year ago the first trailer for their own documentary saw the light of day and now time almost has come… The Toasters Worldwide The Toasters, that are three Wolverhampton natives with contacts all over the world (and especially to Italian Ultras), who were into street art already at the early beginning, when street art had not been pigeonholed as street art and lots of its today’s protagonists had been neither that famous. I’m not quite sure why they’ve chosen a toaster as their logo, but what I know is that they used it to establish their own brand very well! ...

Sticker Art | The third round of the “Oversized & Underpriced” sticker art show started last Friday with a big opening party at Superplan Gallery in Berlin! Again, the world’s greatest sticker-museum Hatch Kingdom shows about 40 large-scale stickers (this time US postal stickers!) customized by some well-known urban artists from around the world, including Base23, Herr von Bias, Emess, Aro One, Flying Förtress and many more! Again, a part of the benefit will be donated to the “Skateistan” project by two Australian, who run a skateboarding school in Afghanistan! For sure I joined the big meet and greet and took some shots - luckily before everything was totally overcrowded… ...

Sticker Art Show | Do you remember the last “Oversized & Underpriced” charity sticker art show in Berlin? If not, here’s a small reminder… …back in 2009, the one and only sticker museum around the globe, the Hatch Kingdom in Berlin, organized a fantastic show of customized classical German “Päckchen” stickers, which were auctioned. The benefit has been donated to two charity projects! Now, in 2011, the third round of the “Oversized & Underpriced” series is at the ready! About 50 (in words fifty) urban artists, including Base23, Czarnobyl, Dave the Chimp, Emess, Flying Förtress, Pisa73 and many more, customized oversized prints of the legendary US Postal sticker! ...

Anti-Nazi Action | Irmela Mensah-Schramm is well known in Berlin for her effort against Nazi symbols, signs and slogans in public space. The 65 years old anti-fascist graffiti-grandma documents Nazi graffiti and stickers before she buffs them and is in that way a perfect example for modern anti-fascist work. Vincenzo Caruso and Fabrizio Mario Lussu are currently working on a video documentary called “The Hate Destroyer” about her work, the ideals and Nazi graffiti in general! ...

Sticky Street Art | One of the first medium which was used to put art on the streets have been stickers. They are cheap, easy and effective and for that reason also more and more well used by advert companies. Nevertheless, stickers are still part of street art which is the reason why the next bigger thing in Berlin is the sticker exhibition Stickcore! Stickcore will present stickers by artists from all over the world ans calls you to “discover this medium as a part of street and urban art and get fascinated by its wonderful diversity of colour, form, elements and expression.” Also it is still possible to submit your own sticker to be part of the show… ...

Some people out there seem to have to much spare time…Today I read about that new “Catch Banksy” project by Miguel Delarosa who urgently wants to find Robin Cunningham, a former student of Bristol Cathedral School, who - as some people believe - is Banksy… Download the sticker- or stencil-file. Print stickers and post ‘em all over the planet. Make stencils and spray with your blood! We will get him! Catch him if you can! Supporters could be: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Christina Aguilera, King Robbo. (catchbanksy.com) ...

…to have a relaxed open-air meet-up in Berlin-Kreuzberg this Friday, July 2nd, 7pm! It’s planned as a nice and interesting meet and greet of a group of old and new friends, followers, readers, art fans and party people. I’m sure there will be a lot of fun, sun, drinks and good mood. To make the decision to join the party easier for you, there will be a beer for free for the first 20 people (without warranty), but don’t forget to bring along your own drinks - there will be no bar, only some shops around! Additionally, everyone will be able to grab some Urban Artcore Stickers. ...

Everybody knows these popular Hello My Name Is stickers, which had their great time some years ago. In these days, Graffiti artists started to write there name tags on that more or less cheap sticking papers, begun to stick them up in the cities around the world and started in that way a new mass attack on lampposts, traffic lights, mailboxes, etc. In Name Tagging, graffiti photography legend Martha Cooper presents a dizzying array of Hello My Name Is stickers adorned with tags, the origin of graffiti and today’s street art cultures. Cooper’s introduction, artist interviews and photographs make clear how artists famed and anonymous take advantage of the accessibility and practicality of nametag stickers. ...