For a considerable time now at BSA we’ve been discussing with authors, artists, academics, writers, historians, political scientists, sociologists, criminologists the topics of Street Art, graffiti, Urban Art, public art, and the milieu. Often considered is whether a piece or action is illegal, legal, activist, aesthetic, mark-making, territory-marking, interventionist. With few exceptions, there are often exceptions when it comes to labeling works and the artists who make them.
SPY. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Ian Cox)
Perhaps with more emphasis than it merits, we regularly note that no point on our individual or societal timeline is static. The state of art and creative expression in the public sphere is one of continuous evolution along the continuum. From Villeglé and his ripping back of layers of street posters that revealed the colorful strata of public communications like a social scientist to Add Fuels’ surreal ripping back of the skin of buildings to reveal a decorative Trompe-l’œil Portuguese tiling, art of the streets has infinite through-lines that defy our ability to label them.
But we try.
Invariably, it pisses someone off. For the record, we’re okay with that.
Henrik Uldalen. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Ian Cox)
“Street Art” the term has had a number of definitions in common usage since at least the 1970s (probably earlier) that include things like handcrafts, jewelry, even the current ballyhoo, the mural. Today, because we’re all so much more enlightened and street-wise, we are convinced that no credible scholar of academia or the street would include a mural in the definition of Street Art, which must be illegal and (most likely) installed on-the-fly.
Recently Raphael Schacter made a claim to renaming a family of practices that moves beyond the confused state of labeling we are in to something with more clarity called “Intermural Art”. He says with his signature humor and cadence that “Street Art is a Period. Period.” – and that very soon, if not already, we are moving beyond that period.
Jeff Gillette and Jaune collaboration. Pictured here is Jaune at work. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Ian Cox)
Aside from the association that “intermural” has with both murals and with boys and girls playing dodge-ball in the school gymnasium (sorry that’s intramural), it somehow doesn’t capture a post Street Art period that is expanding to include so many practices and practitioners that it is altering things its path. But we get the point. Wait, did we just say “post Street Art”?
That’s what Martyn Reed at Nuart would like us to consider as a term that describes what he is illustrating with the curated installations this year for the festival in Norway. With a number of leaders of thought and letters doing some heavy lifting of street art antecedence and corollaries (and beer steins) at this annual festival over the last few years, it is with some careful consideration that he chooses his artists, and his terminology.
Jeff Gillette . Jaune NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)
According to the show description ‘Post-Street Art’, an inside exhibition that opened last Saturday and continues through October 16, is an expression that “has been adopted to describe artworks, artists and events that are “informed by” and “aware of” the strategies, forms and themes explored by Street Art but which couldn’t rightly be regarded as ‘Street Art’ or ‘Street Artists’ per se. The term could also be used to describe a new breed of studio practice-based street artist, whose interest in and knowledge of the contemporary art world often far supplants that of an engagement with the street.”
Yes and yes. Additionally, we have heard this studio-originated practice that is informed by street practice described as Urban Contemporary or more simply Urban Art. You may also wonder how the label intersects with Post Modern and Post-Graffiti, if at all. We will not turn over these little monsters to look at their stomachs just now. Instead, let’s see these new exclusive photos from Ian Cox and Tor Ståle Moen of some of the new installations at ‘Post-Street Art’ at Nuart 2016.
Participating artists include: Add Fuel (PT), Axel Void (ES), Eron (IT), Evol (DE), Fintan Magee (AU), Henrik Uldalen (NO), Hyuro (AR), Jaune (BE), Jeff Gillette (US), KennardPhillipps (UK), MTO (FR), Nipper (NO), Robert Montgomery (UK) and SpY (ES)
Robert Montgomery. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)
Robert Montgomery. Process shot. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Ian Cox)
Evol and Add Fuel collaboration. Process shot. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Ian Cox)
Evol . Add Fuel. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)
Fintan Magee. Process shot. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Ian Cox)
Fintan Magee. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)
Nipper. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © James Finucane)
Nipper. NUART 2016. Stavanger, Norway. September 2016. (photo © James Finucane)
EXHIBITION – ‘POST STREET-ART’
11 September – 16 October 2016
Opening hours: Wed – Fri 12:00 – 17:00 / Sat – Sun 11:00 – 16:00
Tou Scene Beer Halls, Kvitsøygata 25, 4014 Stavanger
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
