“Uh, they’re toilet rolls,” Miel says plaintively when asked what are the mysterious shapes that reappear throughout this newly painted mural for Nice Surprise Festival in Stavanger. You shouldn’t be surprised, though – he was setting up some figure studies with his young son, who decided to keep himself entertained with the unusual/usual household item while his father set up some photos.
“I don’t know. I was photographing my son, um, and took these from him, uh, with him looking through the holes of the toilet rolls.” The sparrows fit nicely, he says, possibly inspired by the themes of freedom, autonomy, nesting, and natural beauty. Later he looked at the shots of his son and decided to include him in triplicate.
In a captivating twist of street art photography fate, our lens wizard, Jaime Rojo, found himself at the perfect moment to capture an echo of this mural in everyday life. Just as the final layers were drying on the wall to be frozen in time, a local resident nonchalantly strolled into the frame, proudly carrying a tower of toilet paper on his shoulder. Ah, the marvel of the mundane! As our pal, Carlo is fond of saying, artistic sparks often arise from the everyday tapestry of life, the quotidian. So, why not in this very spot?
Nestled within the embrace of these sleek, modern ivory apartment complexes, this newly unreal creation will be a visual companion for many here for the foreseeable future. The denizens of these chic abodes hold the ultimate gavel on this whimsical medley of influences and components; all swirled together in a soft, ethereal palette of light and shadow.
After all, the residents here get to decide what inspires them. So far, we have witnessed that the reviews of this one are quite positive when opinions are sought. Particularly those of a woman who calls herself Guro, who stops by to enthuse at the top of her lungs at Miel as he paints three stories above us.
“I live over there, right there. So I open my door, and I want to look at this.” Without any unsolicited advice from folks standing nearby her regarding the content or inspiration or how to measure it against art canons or political winds, she gives her opinion and observations about what she sees before her.
“He must love birds. He must have a connection to them. They come to him so freely. Maybe he’s been feeding them. Maybe he’s been raising them. Maybe,” she says. It is a thoughtful assessment. She says she didn’t know there was a new street art festival called “Nice Surprise” this year, nor that this mural was part of it.
“You see all the birds?” she asks a visitor with a glint in her eye. “They are relaxed. They’re happy wherever they are. And that’s how people should be. You know, everybody deserves to feel secure and loved and taken care of and not feel frightened by the surroundings.” For her, this is a canvas for emotions.
“It is just so wonderful. And it’s wonderful that we can go here and take a look at it and, and have your feelings flow. I look up, and I think you feel compassion and love.” The enthusiasm for this one is forceful as if vitality bursts from every stroke of the master. It is just as palpable as her disapproval is unmistakable for a mural by Doze Green a short stroll away.
“It’s dead. It doesn’t give me anything. It’s not three-dimensional. There aren’t human forms.” She does not have a favorable view of a formalized art world either, as she continues the critique.
“That makes me feel like that represents the cold world where art is supposed to mean this and that. You just give them a lot of nice words and then you’re supposed to follow. I don’t buy that. I don’t, so I don’t like that kind of art.”
Luckily for her, for us, and perhaps others who will be treated to these fervent opinions, the new piece by TelmoMiel can stay happily here in her neighborhood.
“Look at the colors. I look, oh, I think it’s, I think it’s just marvelous. I think it’s marvelous.”
Anticipation buzzes in the air as Stavanger braces for TelmoMiel’s upcoming, completed piece, a highlight of the Nice Surprise Festival that honestly has already produced several surprises across the city this summer in this seaside city in Norway.
Though just a day away, the unveiling of this tall mural promises to be worth every moment of the wait. This week, the senior residents of this verdant complex have been stopping by, their curiosity piqued, craning their necks skyward to decipher the enigmatic and surreal tableau taking shape before their eyes.
As Miel readies to return to Amsterdam by Friday, he reveals that the true depth of this evolving piece might continue to elude the casual observer. The elongated and intricately reproduced forms, playing with shadows and reliefs, deviate from conventional norms, yet they merely hint at a narrative woven into this captivating work-in-progress.
“I’m just shaping, re-shaping reality, actually,” the artist says as he lowers the cherry picker to the ground for a few minutes to talk about the piece that continues the duo’s practice over the last decade of crafting visually arresting, imaginatively surreal narratives that you may not deconstruct, but you’ll engage with. “Yeah, I’m just digitally trying to find new ways to make the composition,” says Miel, “and make it interesting.”
In the quiet embrace of rural Estonia, street artists find a harmonious refuge.
With the century’s turbulent past, its break with Moscow in the 90s and its joining with NATO and the EU in the 2000s, Estonia today enjoys political stability, economic growth, a thriving tech sector, and a progressive social welfare that enhances the well-being of the average Mari and Jaan. As with most European and American cities, there is an established or burgeoning street art and graffiti scene, with a healthy representation of the styles and techniques interpolated through a local lens, and the reverberations of pop satire, Bansky humor, and certain anarchic stencibilites on streets. Since 2018, the mural aspect of the street art movement has traveled to rural areas as well via the Rural Urban Art (RUA) Festival in small villages to bring people out of their homes to engage in a public art that is new and unusual to many.
This June, artists from Estonia and eight other countries spread out across small villages of Viljandi municipality whose populations range from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand to introduce aesthetics and sensibilities emanating from more heavily populated areas, now firmly in new contexts. “Many local people saw such action for the first time and all the while, the feedback and emotions were so highly positive,” says Salme Kulmar, the creator of the festival, “It’s a sign that visual art also belongs to small towns and that there is actually a need for it!”
Like the Fanzara Miau Mural Festival in Spain and the Utsira project on an island of 200 inhabitants in Norway, the efforts of RUA organizers are focused on smaller audiences than a typical festival, yet the impact of art on the streets can be as profound as the splashy commercial ones in London, Montreal, or Brooklyn. Each edition of the festival has been staged in different areas, earning RUA the distinction of calling itself a nomadic street art festival. The scale can be small or larger, like the 86 meter mural by Ukrainian artist Andrey Kovtun this year.
There’s something about the feedback here that seems to resonate on a deeper, individual level.
“Throughout the festival we felt a lot of love from the locals,” says Kulmar of the various artists interactions with neighbors and families. Among the accounts, residents of one building cooked lunch for the Italian artist daily while he worked, some locals in Päri village hosted a celebration for Ukrainian artist Andrey Kovtun, and a final celebration including a smoke sauna invited all the artists to the home of Ulvi Tatar in Kolga-Jaani village.
“It was a week full of love,” says Kulmar. And murals of course.
Artists of RUA 2023 included: Andrey Kovtun, Luogo Comune from Italy, Peter Skensved (Denmark), Myforestbridge from Ukraine, Maxime Ivanez and Annabelle Tatto from France, Pidžin from Lithuania, Maikki Rantala from Finland, Uneg from Mexico, Karolis Dezute from Lithuania, Andrey Kovtun (Ukraine).
“Lord have mercy, it is motherf_______ hot out here,” said the teenage girl standing at a bus stop near the Marcy subway station on Broadway yesterday as we trudged by. She was right, and the heat felt like waves coming off the pavement and buildings in the late afternoon haze and blasting bright sun. We leave this searing and steamy, sometimes smokey, July and stumble toward August, looking for a handkerchief and a glass of lemonade and patience. New York, at its polar extremes, is more than challenging at times for everyone on the street, on the subway platform, in the barbershop, in the laundromat, on the stoop, in traffic, and in the park. Riding your bike through the streets gives you a little breeze, and new street art regales you with news of the day.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Neckface, Plannedalism, V Ballentine, Enrinko Studios, Seb Bouchard, Words on the Street, Alex Itin, Loove Labs, Shirk, Crash 42170, George Spencer, and Snake.
Graffiti history and contemporary creativity merge this summer during the inaugural run of the Nice Surprise street art festival in the Norwegian city of Stavanger. Join BSA as we celebrate the city’s 900-year milestone with a new cadre of artists and programming that continues the modern heritage of this city on the North Sea with a season of new street art and graffiti.
Born in 1983, Tamara Alves is a Portuguese visual artist and illustrator based in Lisbon. Holding a degree in Arts from ESAD-IPL and a master’s in Contemporary Artistic Practices from FBAUP, she considers her figurative work as a form of activism in the streets.
Here in Stavanger, for the Nice Surprise festival, she creates a monochromatic scene enlivened by a burning car – an object she has used before to symbolize love, a relationship, a mutilating crash of the heart. The body is engulfed in flames while the figure stares at it dispassionately, possibly with red-rimmed eyes. Alves gives this mural the name “go on baby… burn a while”.
Her artwork weaves a visceral narrative, celebrating the raw, primal vitality of intense emotions and the transformation of connections. Through interactions between human and animal figures and natural landscapes, her universe embodies love in its rawest form – intertwined with wounds, pain, tears, but also pleasure, joy, and ecstasy. At times, her visual soliloquies resemble wildflowers thriving in the wilderness.
Since the early 2000s, Tamara Alves has participated in numerous projects, group and solo exhibitions, and impactful street art interventions. Her unmistakable presence has established her as one of Portugal’s most notable street artists, and her schedule of mural painting is seemingly overflowing.
Graffiti history and contemporary creativity merge this summer during the inaugural run of the Nice Surprise street art festival in the Norwegian city of Stavanger. Join BSA as we celebrate the city’s 900-year milestone with a new cadre of artists and programming that continues the modern heritage of this city on the North Sea with a season of new street art and graffiti.
Street artist Belin grew up far from the Vikings in his home of Linares in Andalusia, Spain.
But that doesn’t mean he can’t paint a mural tribute to one of Stavanger’s heralded Vikings, Ragnar Lothbrok, on a wall in his post-neo cubist style here for the Nice Surprise Festival. Renowned for his exceptional photorealistic murals, this paint-wielding athletic warrior is celebrated on the street and in the gallery for his ability to create lifelike portraits that often incorporate cubism, distortion, and surrealism elements.
“Inspired by Ragnar Lodbrok, I play a Viking in battle,” he says on his Instagram.
A renewed enthusiasm for the history of conquerors from this part of the world is due in part to the success of onscreen series like “Norsemen”, “The Last Kingdom”, “Vikings: Valhalla”, and simply “Vikings”. Ragnar Lothbrok holds a significant place in both Norwegian and Viking history, representing the spirit of exploration, adventure, and valor that has become synonymous with the Viking Age. His connections to Stavanger, whether historical or mythical, have added to the city’s allure as a destination for those seeking to immerse themselves in the world of Norse mythology and Viking heritage. According to some sagas, Ragnar is said to have been born in the vicinity of Stavanger, although the exact location is disputed.
“Each mural is a new challenge since I love continuing to face large formats, continuing to work with the same energy as always and freehand,” Belin says of this new mural, “which is why I value my work so much. “Playing with the lines, with the space and the colors is what amuses me the most, and I think you can feel it when you see this mural.”
Self-taught, Belin holds his graffiti roots seriously, finding opportunity through experimentation and practice – and has left his mark on walls and buildings across the globe. From Spain, where he has been to cities like Jaén, Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga, to the United States with murals showcased in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, and across Europe in France, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium, he has also ventured to Latin American countries like Mexico and Argentina. He discovers new people, cultures, and histories wherever he goes and often paints them into the composition.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! A great week, minus the loss of Queens-born singer Tony Bennett Friday at 96, the sweeping of new immigrants out from under the BQE without regard for their few belongings and papers, and our general awareness of increased poverty on the streets, the introduction of the CBDC FedNow program with no fanfare in the press, and the gruesome news of the alleged serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann. On the other hand, we had some bright sunny days with lower humidity that pushed New Yorkers out in the streets and our parks to play games and read books and sashay in short shorts and strike up conversations with one another.
In street art and graffiti news, we appear to have entered an era of low-brow nouveau naive hand styling that has taken over characters and letters. Perhaps it is an attraction to the guileless or a need for clarity amidst the clutter – or that Gen Z doesn’t buy the bulls**t. Whatever it is, our art in the streets has a childlike quality that charms without being charming. So, drop the pretense, Pasqual. We all somehow know we are living in the eye of the hurricane so reach out and re-connect. And our street art is dazzling, entertaining, and has a sense of humor forged through sheer determination.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Chris RWK, Smells, Captain Eyeliner, JJ Veronis, Homesick, Neckface, Panic, Timothy Goodman, OH!, Aidz, Toe Flop, Wizard Skull, Emilio Florentine, Jakee, Tiny Hands Big Heart, RH Doaz, TobBob, Lucky Bubby, She Posse, Eww Gross Ok Fine, Carlton, Skiti, Five Gold Stars, Ekem 132, Rah Artz, 3Modes, Mdot Season, Luce Bokes, Words on the Street, Okina Cosmo, Alex Itin, and TomBob NYC.
Urban Revolution. On view from July 21 / December 03. Lisbon, Portugal.
“Urban[R]Evolution: A Journey from Graffiti to Contemporary Art” is a large exhibition that marks the rise and popularity of urban art and features original installations by 18 renowned Portuguese and international artists. Curated by Pauline Foessel and Pedro Alonzo, this showcase takes place at Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon, running from June 21st to December 3rd.
The historic and iconic building that once served as the National Rope Factory during the late 18th century, catering to the needs of the Portuguese Navy by producing ropes for naval purposes, is situated near the scenic Tagus River. With its imposing neoclassical and industrial design, the building stands as a testament to the city’s cultural heritage and is now a versatile venue for hosting events after its meticulous restoration. With free-standing booths carefully built not to endanger the historic structure, the flow of the exhibition offers a pod-like adventure to visitors to experience individual artists’ work and visions. Some utilize the spaces fully with installations, while others choose the homey quality of an artist’s studio with work in progress.
The exhibition brings together a lineup of artists whose work was featured in early graffiti images by photographer Martha Cooper, second-wave western street artists who have burnished their names in the commercial urban contemporary art milieu, and a collection of names more locally known – each with profound ties to the graffiti and street art scene. Among them are esteemed names such as Barry McGee, Futura, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Vhils, and Obey SKTR, to name a few. The curators thoughtfully selected these artists to narrate the fascinating development of urban art, tracing its origins from early tags, graffiti, and subway pieces to its current expression as street art and mural art.
Many of the artists are associated with previous projects of the curators and with one of Lisbon’s anchors of the street art scene, the artist and businessman Vhils. Aside from these connections and the common roots of early graffiti culture, it may be difficult for ticketed visitors to the show to discern the commonalities of the works on display. The connective tissue between the booths will be the many iconic photographs of North American photographer Martha Cooper, whose lens has captured the human experience in urban areas for about 50 years, immortalizing the origins and evolution of graffiti, street art, and urban art – when the scene was viewable directly on the train cars and streets of major cities like New York.
Another nerve center for the show is the installation by conceptual street artist ±MaisMenos± , known for his thought-provoking art pieces and street activations that sublimely challenge social norms and provoke critical thinking. Within this kinetic electronic display, a phalanx of screens emulates a bustling stock trading floor, listing street artists and graffiti artists and their market line charts bumping up and down alongside various commercial, academic, institutional, and cultural influencers and influences that have coalesced to foster their success.
In this exhibition’s composition of artistic expressions, each artist has the opportunity to tell their unique story through their installations and accompanying texts, reflecting on their journey from the streets to the contemporary art world. “Urban[R]Evolution” is a testament to the significance of Lisbon as a vital city for urban art, with the show embracing a dynamic mix of international pioneers and established/emerging talents from Portugal.
This major exhibition, presented by Everything is New and Underdogs Gallery, invites visitors on a dreamlike, poetic, and moving journey, oscillating between light and shadow, the humor and rancor of the street, expressing the heart of urban art’s evolution. It is an immersive experience into urban art’s origins and possible future, exemplifying a sample of the boundless creativity and diverse voices that have emerged from the graffiti and street art scene.
Our sincere thanks to exhibition participant and famed photographer Martha Cooper for sharing here her photos exclusively with Brooklyn Street Art, and to Vasco Vilhena, one of the exhibition’s official photographers.
The artist presented a video installation addressing the “market” for graffiti and street art, the intersection with art and commerce in a brilliant display.
“This took me to what is my thesis subject, where my work is the centerpiece of an eventual (or questionable) dichotomy between street art and the art market, the evolution from illegal, interventive and subversive work into a continuous institutionalization, mercantilization and commoditization, normalized with the (before pursued) but now consecrated and valuated (street) artists.
All of this materialized in an art industry (or market) of artist-companies, studios, galleries, festivals, fairs, museums, curators, collectors, political and media attention, touristic tours, financialization, etc, as so it is with the art world as a whole. Being this specific show, for its size, importance, where it is, its public, a realization of this “evolution”, or this stage of the urban arts. So I thought of an installation as a self-critique and self-awareness of this stage and present context of urban art (one of which myself and my work makes part), how capitalism kidnaps, agglutinates and transforms its (possible) critique and counter-culture, commodifying, massifying and selling it.”
Here’s the latest hit from the first-time street art festival Nice Surprise in Stavanger, Norway – a novel fusion of historical roots and contemporary brilliance showcased in the latest mural by the artist Doze Green. Born and bred on the vibrant streets of New York City, Green’s trailblazing journey in graffiti writing and breaking crews during the 1970s and 80s resonates deeply in the telling of this street art culture. With this modern expression as a mature visual artist today, it may strike you as a rare gift of great significance here – given his direct relationship to the foundational early days of graffiti and hip-hop.
As an original member of the iconic Rock Steady Crew, a pioneering force in hip-hop culture, Green’s mastery in breakdancing and subway-tagging graffiti informs the bedrock of his studio practice and public artworks. Venturing into uncharted territories, Doze Green’s contemporary canvasses embody a signature style of figurative abstraction and letterforms, interwoven with metaphysical inquiries about narrative, time, and the essence of existence.
Green has described his pieces as “biological entities; a swarm of arrows coming in from infinite perspective.” In this newest creation, “Spirits of the Midnight Sun,” Green draws inspiration from Norway’s enchanting 24-hour daylight periods that grace the northern region for three months every summer.
It is a pleasure to witness the artistic journey of Doze Green, and to see how it intertwines with the pulsating rhythm of life, art, and this modern city so far from his own. With his language of symbols and iconography, Green nods to the rich historical Nordic lore surrounding Norway’s natural wonders with much respect. The title also indicates that for the artist, the mural captures supernatural energies and mythic storytelling – through a lens of abstraction. In this context, the new work reads as an amalgamation of historical roots and contemporary vocabularies – and a reflection of the authentic voices of these streets.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! And how beautiful this city is, even when the heat is on. The amount of talent on our streets is so overwhelming, thank you New York.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Homesick, Mort Art, Optimo NYC, Savior El Mundo, Neckface, Lungebox, DEK2DX, Hektad, Paolo Tolentino, Jappy Agoncillo, SMURFO, Mike King, Mat Lakas, Lasak Art, Snith Node, Big808, Talia Lempert, Individual Activist.
Sponsored and curated by Biennale Street Art, this new wall in Padova, Italy is by muralist JDL, who has said that she makes art about people who are not being seen and not being heard. In this case, she says the mural is inspired by a person she calls ‘F’, “who knew his life would fall apart soon due to a personal crisis but still lived life fully. I spent a happy moment with him, learning to find joy in difficult times and how to dance with my eyes closed.”
JDL (Judith de Leeuw) says she chose this topic because it is on the façade of a building that houses the public institution INAIL (Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro), which provides insurance coverage for workplace accidents and occupational diseases in Italy. Operating under the supervision of the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, INAIL’s primary responsibility is to ensure that employees in Italy are protected and compensated for any injuries or illnesses they sustain as a result of their work. It offers mandatory insurance coverage to employers, which helps to provide compensation and benefits to employees who experience work-related accidents or develop occupational diseases.
“I am very happy and honored,” says JDL, “that my piece and its meaning meant so much to the people who, for instance, lost a hand because of an accident.”
Nychos, the distinguished Austrian illustrator, urban artist, graffiti artist, and muralist, has gained international acclaim for his incisive and scientifically anatomical creations exhibited across numerous cities worldwide. Born during the early 1980s, his surrealist style gradually took shape, evolving through a process of experimentation enriched by influences stemming from hunting, heavy metal, tattoo culture, and associated subcultures. Nychos consistently taps into his profoundly introspective nature and a yearning to deconstruct objects to unravel their inner workings.
While participating in the inaugural Nice Surprise Festival in Stavanger, he presents “The Girl with the Tiger Tattoo,” a work imbued with profound personal significance. In a departure from his customary practice, Nychos even composed an Ode dedicated to this piece, a novel endeavor for the artist. While some may find themselves taken aback by the thematic content of his latest creation in this particular town, Nychos is well aware of the discerning nature of this audience, which has long celebrated the presence of exceptional artworks in the public realm.
Expressing his sentiments on his Instagram page, Nychos declares, “Stavanger has undeniably etched a special place in my heart.”
Elfo is a graffiti writer and social commentator whose work intentionally sidesteps traditional notions of style or technical lettering. This …Read More »
In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »
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