All posts tagged: Kenor

Kenor Paints Kinectic Geometric Confetti for Art Azoï in Paris

April 7, 2021 Artists

Barcelona-based KENOR has traveled around the world and worked with brands creating his own take on kinetic graffiti, whether on walls, on canvas, or as sculpture. Blowing air into his pieces of colorful geometric confetti, the painter catches the chaos of the city and paints it.

It’s a mismatched style that recalls the Memphis movement of the 80s, complete with a poppy palette and occasional patterning. Here with Art Azoi on a lower wall of Parc de Bellville in Paris, you can see how his emphasis on movement drives his creative choices at Place Alphonse Allais.

KENOR in collaboration with Art Azoï. Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)

No Borders: Murs Contra el Murs (Walls Against Walls)

February 21, 2019 Artists, Street Art Festival

This past Sunday, February 17 at La Plaza de las Tres Chimeneas ( Three Smokestacks Square) in Barcelona an international group of artists participated in the first “No Borders Festival.”

Carles G.O’D. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Called “Murs Contra el Murs”, which is Catalan for “Walls Against Walls”, the multi-mural festival intends to highlight the ongoing humanitarian crises of refugees and immigrants at international borders around the world.

Graffiti artists, Street Artists, painters, and illustrators came together to create new murals to speak to the issue and encourage debate and conversation. Artists included Btoy, Carles G.O’D, Dixon, Eledu, Enric Sant, Javier Arribas, Juanjo Surace, Julieta XLF, Kenor, Kram, Pincho, Roc Blackblock, Ruina, Saturno, Simón Vázquez, Tutzo, and Wati Bacán, among others.

Julieta XLF. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

NO BORDERS is a grassroots organization that was created to raise awareness about the refugees, to demand their acceptance, and to raise funds through debates, art and documentaries.

They say they want to raise the uncomfortable questions – which will undoubtedly lead to uncomfortable answers as well. To paraphrase the text on their website:

“Do we settle for a society that violates its moral and legal obligations to refugees? A refugee is a person who flees – Flees because he is on the losing side. Because he thinks, feels or prays differently than those who point him with their weapons.”

As usual, artists are bringing these matters to the street for the vox populi to debate.

Our sincere thanks to photographer Lluís Olive for sharing his shots of the walls with BSA readers.

Enric Sant. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

El Rey de la Ruina. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Juanjo Surace. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Royal. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Saturno Art . Eledu Works. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Pincho. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Kenor. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Roc Black Block . Rubicon. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

TVTZO. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

For more information on the festival running through March 3rd that includes documentaries, panel discussions, workshops, and prints, please go to https://noborders.es/ and follow @nobordersrefugees on Instagram

UPEA Finland 2018, A Cross Country Installation of Quality Murals

October 23, 2018 Artists

UPEART 2018 in Finland took place during the month of September including 20 international and local artists in 12 different cities across the country.

Case Maclaim. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Today we give you a recap of some favorite scenes from the festival across many cities of Finland thanks to the vision and organizing of Jorgos Fanaris and his team who collectively direct the festival from their headquarters in a post-industrial neighborhood of Helsinki. While there is a proud graff scene and history here, and the city has areas like the Pasila Street Art District, the capital is usually known as a sparkling international city of islands and a peninsula by the Gulf of Finland facing Tallinn, Estonia across the bay.

Proudly humble, elegant and rationally romantic, the city is flanked on all sides by arts and culture, low and high, with historical art institutions like the National Museum as well as the more contemporary Kiasma and cross disciplinary Kunsthalle Helsinki. A deeper rooted cultural history is also apparent in the traditional wooden architecture, the influence of its neighbors Sweden and Russia, and its ability even today to evolve with the most modern of global design practice.

Case Maclaim. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For urban explorers like ourselves who wander the margins and explore the forgotten, neglected parts of the metropolis, it was a bit of a shock to see 8 charming Finnish cities and towns in only a few days – interspersed with millions of birch tree forests and sweeping vistas of farmland, with Russia visible at one point just across a canal.

We drove from uncongested towns surrounded by woodlands like Joensuu and Hyvinkää to midsized cities like Tampere and Espoo, using a stick shift Volkswagen and minding the speed cameras on a smooth and well maintained system of roads and highways. Usually we’re looking out for rats and broken glass and homeless drug users, not slow-moving farming tractors and wily-eyed moose who may cross your path.

Case Maclaim. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But the murals! Choosing from among some of the most accomplished painters and planners of design in the current international scene, Fanaris relies on his own history with graffiti, hip hop, and perhaps the Finnish National Opera when selecting participants to invite.

The quality is high in many instances throughout the mural program and municipalities are gifted with some works may prove timeless – until they fade. Perhaps more decorative than transgressive as a whole, these are public works made in collaboration with local tastes. Some meanings are buried beneath layers, others more obvious and on the surface. An unrealized irony of many “legit” mural programs like this one is many of these artists used to do the illegal stuff too.

As UPEART travels and evolves it will be interesting to see how it changes. Fanaris tells us that the future will include installations, sculpture, even performance as the festival becomes more integrated with communities. With a solid foundation of curation on a massive country-wide scale in these first three years, we look forward to see where UPEART moves next.

Mantra. UPEArt Finland 2018. Hyvinkää, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When I was a child I was not curious about painting,” Mantra says, “I was more curious about what I could find in the garden so that’s why I spent a lot of time studying these insects and these animals.” Later he shows us images of butterflies and other winged creatures rendered in high fidelity inside decaying factory rooms, including a large dead bird lying on its side. “I painted this because I had seen a dead bird in the garden only a week before.”

Mantra. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Hyvinkää, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Mantra)

Mantra. UPEArt Finland 2018. Hyvinkää, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Mantra)

Sainer. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think my work is changing recently,” he says. “I have liked to do plainer paintings – like small landscapes . I’m not really into the characters that much in the same way that I was. When I do paint characters they are in the shadow. I like the idea of making portraits where the portrait is not the most important part of the painting.”

BSA: That’s so anti-intuitive – because normally that would be the center focal point, right?

Sainer: Yes – even here the portrait is central but I am trying to play all around it just to hide it. It’s just one of the ideas that I am trying to work with these days.

Read more from our interview with Sainer here.

Sainer. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Waone. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Kotka, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ukrainian artist Waone, of Interesni Kazki titled his mural “Spirit of Antique Book”.

“Reading the real book in the age of technology and internet may look rare and a kind of old fashioned, but not for me,” he says. “This mural ‘Spirit of Antique Book’ I dedicated to all book lovers. It represents the wonderful way to escape from ordinary life to extraordinary worlds, and depicts that magic moment when you read the book and lose yourself between the pages.”

BSA: Does it concern you that school children today are becoming unfamiliar with reading traditional books on paper?

Waone: Hmm I didn’t think about books in schools, in Ukraine we still use “normal” books… But I’m sure normal books will become more and more rare. I don’t judge it and I’m not saying that’s good or bad. I just love the book esthetic, a strong symbol of knowledge.”

Waone. UPEArt Finland 2018. Kotka, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Natalia Rak. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Natalia Rak. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sepe. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David De La Mano. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David De La Mano. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David De La Mano. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Helen Bur. UPEArt Finland 2018. Kotka, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eero Lampinen. Work in progress. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of his own work, he says, “It’s like a mix of fantasy with contemporary and realistic elements – kind of magic realism. I like to play around with fashion different types of characters.”

The characters are here in the evolving mural – three figures who are working the runways of the street in distinctly different styles.

“There is a night demon, a rubber-outfit person, and then an older character,” he says, “They are all walking separate ways in the streets – and it plays around with this street.”

Read more with Eero Lampinen here.

Eero Lampinen. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Eero Lampinen)

Pertti Jarla. UPEArt Finland 2018. Tampere, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fabio Petani. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fabio Petani. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Lisalmi, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. UPEArt Finland 2018. Lisalmi, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leon Keer. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robert Proch. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robert Proch. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal made a number of interesting installations in Karakallio in Espoo, including a haunting series of small buildings attached on trees throughout the forest.

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NOTE: No trees were damaged by installing the birdhouse sculptures on them.

All the participating artists on UPEArt 2018 are: Andrew Hem, Case Maclaim, David De La Mano, Eero Lampinen, Fabio Petani, Gummy Gue, Helen Bur, How & Nosm, Isaac Cordal, Jussi Twoseven, Kenor, Leon Keer, Mantra, Natalia Rak, Pertti Jarla, Robert Proch, Sainer, Sepe, Silja Selonen and Waone.

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.21.18

October 21, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Spooky! Days are getting shorter in Brooklyn.

The winds of change are blowing, but few can discern the direction they’ll go in the upcoming elections as the city is going full tilt into fall and a twisted neoliberalism grinds us to into a frenzy of automated stock trading and market swings that make you nauseous, ever higher rents and food costs, forever-stalled wages, food banks that serve 1.5 million hungry New Yorkers annually and yet a brisk business at Tiffany’s…

— and there are delays on the 1,2,3,4,5,6,N,R,Q,M,L,G,E,F,J,W, and Z subway lines. Every day.

There is word that attendance at the upcoming Village Halloween Parade may be down this year because it’s a daily freakshow at the White House so the novelty is worn thin. Zombie here. Zombie there. Zombie everywhere.

So here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Al Diaz, BB Bastidas, Bob Floss, Captain Eyeliner, Danielle Mastrion, Groose Ling, Invader, Just Paint, Kenor, Lil’ Kool, Michel Velt, Pop Artoons, Sara Erenthal, Sean9Lugo, Subway Doodle, The Postman Art and Vanessa Powers.

Top Image: Girl, I got an attitude. Bowie flips in this intensely colorwashed wheatpaste by The Postman Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo. Detail. For Just Paint. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo for Just Paint. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Subway Doodle for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Al Diaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thank you Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vanessa Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Space Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michel Velt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lil’ Kool (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Groose Ling (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Captain Eyeliner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenor (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidientified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BB Bastidas for The Lisa Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pop Artoons (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sara Erenthal. Bob Floss forcing himself on Ms. Erenthal (as in forced collaboration). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. October 2018 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA + UPEA in Finland

September 20, 2018 Artists

BSA is excited to bringing you new works from Finland next week as we explore Helsinki and nearby cities that are part of the UPEA 2018 Festival. A unique model of mural festival that invites international and local artists to paint across the entire country, UPEART has quietly entered the global Street Art and graffiti stage without entering the fray: providing top caliber artists with uncommon opportunities to create works in cities for a handful of years now.

Waone Interesni Kazki at UPEART (image © the artist)

The full line up for this year’s stellar UPEART edition is:

Andrew Hem, Case Maclaim, David de la Mano, Eero Lampinen, Fabio Petani, Gummy Gue, Helen Bur, How & Nosm, Isaac Cordal, Jussi TwoSeven, Kenor, Leon Keer, Mantra, Natalia Rak, Pertti Jarla, Robert Proch, Sainer, Sepeusz, Silja Selonen and Waone Interesni Kazki, who poses here yesterday with the mural he’s been working on for 10 days

To keep on top of the action on the ground and up on the lifts click on UPEA’s FB link below:

https://www.facebook.com/upeart/

Pop Culture at Citric Festival in Torreblanca, Spain

September 12, 2018 Artists

Celebrity, photorealism, illustration, fantasy, spectacle. These have always been part of popular art culture and have had an increasingly strong representation in Street Art culture, particularly in the last decade and a half as well.

Pablo lurking over the wall by Cobre Art. Citric Festival 2018. Torreblanca, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Since the earliest reproductions of comic-book characters and voluptuous women by graff writers on subway cars in the 1970s, the chasm between your life and this art in public is short. From pin-up girls to stylized Dali’s to adorable animals, its the thrill of recognition, the associations you have with the figure’s back-story, and the familiarity with the visual nomenclature that makes it popular.

Audiences in Torreblanca, Spain have been responding strongly to these images for their local Citric Festival, and photographer Lluís Olivé Bulbena was on the street from last month’s events and he shares some of his shots with BSA readers. Our thanks to him.

Dados Punto Cero. Citric Festival 2018. Torreblanca, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Dados Punto Cero in collaboration with Asier Vera. Citric Festival 2018. Torreblanca, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Daniela Volchkova. Citric Festival 2018. Torreblanca, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Danielle Weber. Citric Festival 2018. Torreblanca, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Uruginal in collaboration with Kenor. Citric Festival 2018. Torreblanca, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Lezzart. Citric Festival 2018. Torreblanca, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Urban Art, Human Space. 6th Edition of “Avant Garde Tudela” in Spain

June 27, 2018 Artists

“Contemporary Muralism” is the tag that organizers of this international exhibition gives to the current practice, and this northeastern Spanish city of 35,000 has hosted a number of primarily European Street Artists for a half dozen years here to do just that.

Miquel Wert. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

“Urban art is an incomparable tool for the transformation of the public space,” say organizers, and this years roster includes SpY, Miquel Wert, Kenor and Lucas Milà. Additionally a program of workshops was given by Andrea Michaelsson – Btoy, along with round tables and conferences in which international and local speakers participated.

Miquel Wert. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

Under the auspices of the Department of Culture and the City Council of Tudela – EPEL Castel Ruiz, the program of “Arte Urbano, Espacio Humano” focuses on a democratic approach to the city that recognizes the contributions of many people who make a city work.

“In the street the work merges with the morphology and geometry of the city,” says one of the curators of this years edition, Arcadi Poch, “at the artistic level the city is an extraordinarily fertile land”.

Our sincere thanks to photographer Fer Alcalà for sharing his excellent documentation here with BSA readers.

Miquel Wert. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

Btoy. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

SpY. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

Lucas Milá. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

In this new piece by Catalan artist Lucas Milá the paint itself plays a role in the story because it appears and disappears with the light and temperature – a project of photochromic paint.

In the mural, made in the town of Peralta, you can see a vegetable farmer, possibly from the area known as the Ribera, whose shirt goes from a dark blue to an absolute white covered with vegetables. Similarly in the background landscape some clouds disappear when the sun hits.

Lucas Milá. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Kenor. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

Jorge Rodríguez Gerarda. Work in progress. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

Jorge Rodríguez Gerarda. Avant Garde Tudela VI. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo courtesy of the artist)

C215. Avant Garde Tudela (Work from previous edition). Detail. Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

C215. Avant Garde Tudela (Work from previous edition). Tudela, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Fer Alcalà)

VI AVANT GARDE TUDELA Y RIBERA 2018
International Exhibition of Contemporary Muralism
‘ARTE URBANO, ESPACIO HUMANO’ VI International exhibition of contemporary muralism. Avant Garde Tudela ‘Arte Urbano Espacio humano’ is an international exhibition of contemporary muralism that was organized by the Department of Culture of the City Council of Tudela – EPEL Castel Ruiz. In this VI edition, the exhibition opened to Ribera with the participation of the towns of Arguedas and Peralta.

Discovering a “Magic City” in Dresden, Germany

July 12, 2016 Artists

A couple of weeks ago BSA was in Dresden, Germany to help lay plans for a new Street Art show opening there this fall called “Magic City” and naturally we hit the streets with bicycles three days in a row to see the city’s graffiti, Street Art, and murals whenever time would permit. The first day we had the honor of getting a tour from Jens Besser, an artist, author, lecturer, and producer of mural festivals in the city who sped ahead of us through a labyrinth of streets to show us a number of the impressive murals he and partners have brought to the city in the last decade or so.

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jens is also a local historian and cultural observer so whether we were talking about a graffiti tag, aerosol hand styles, the Fürstenzug mural of 23,000 porcelain tiles, the overflow of the Elbe River during a European flood in 2002 or the architectural subterfuge of a former cigarrete factory/mosque named Yenidze that escaped allied bombings in 1945, he proved a friendly, adept and educational host.

Optic Ninja – a hand rendered wheat paste. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We did some investigating on our own later through Dresden’s more bohemian/neglected gritty neighborhoods but that first tour clued us in to some of the magic that can be found in this city that lies only two hours south of Berlin. The multitude of skills and voices on the street added additional color to the rich conversations we were invited to contribute to by sage and storied writer, critic and chief curator Carlo McCormick. Carlo generously asked us to be a part of his vision of a “Magic City”, a constructed simulacrum and somewhat surreal streetscape with 30+ artists creating new works of many disciplines and mediums inside a former plane engine factory here, and for years we have provided a platform for this form of storytelling on BSA so it’s fantastic to bring to a theater setting here.

Optic Ninja (photo © Jaime Rojo)

McCormick has an intense affinity for the artists and the creative spirit that rivals how extensively he is versed in the antecedents, undercurrents, and greater intellectual and cultural implications of this world that is loosely described as Street Art or Urban art. We’re honored that Carlo tapped us to create a BSA Film Program to work within this newly designed city and to expand the definitions and perceptions of freewill art in the public sphere. Likewise we are grateful to the incredibly talented and ingenious Magic City team under the leadership of Christoph Scholz for inviting us on board for this project – all of which we’ll tell you more about soon.

“Auch das Team von Brooklyn Street Art (Steven P. Harrington und Jaime Rojo) und das Kuratorenteam um Carlo McCormick und Ethel Seno freut sich, Euch als Magic Citizens ab 1. Oktober in der Magic City in der Zeitenströmung Dresden begrüßen zu dürfen. Der Vorverkauf startet am 3. August!” #MagicCityLife (Photo © Frank Embacher)

In the meantime, here are new images from Dresden for you along with some more information about the upcoming show.

Frm-Kid . Otecki for CityBilder – Collaborative Murals in DresdenFriedrichstadt . Curated by Jens Besser and Frank Eckhardt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Other . Saddo for CityBilder – Collaborative Murals in Dresden Friedrichstadt. Curarted by Jens Besser and Frank Eckhardt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mono Gonzalez. Dabtar . Gregor for Time for Murals. Curated by Jens Besser and Denise Ackermann. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graphic Surgery for CityBilder – Collaborative Murals in Dresden Friedrichstadt. Curated by Jens Besser and Frank Eckhardt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JBAK. Detail. For CityBilder – Collaborative Murals in Dresden Friedrichstadt. Curated by Jens Besser and Frank Eckhardt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ryan Spring Dooely . Moneyless for CityBilder – Collaborative Murals in Dresden Friedrichstadt. Curated by Jens Besser and Frank Eckhardt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenor . H101 for CityBilder – Collaborative Murals in Dresden Friedrichstadt. Curated by Jens Besser and Frank Eckhardt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artourette (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A day and night diptych from Jens Besser (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jens Besser. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jens Besser (photo © Jaime Rojo)

No Name . No Game. – An “open source” roller tag repeated often and seen in many locations in Dresden. We found this one poignant because of the placement of a commercial real estate developer above it, effectively showcasing two uneasy players in the ongoing discussion about the role of art and artists in the gentrification of neighborhoods. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ZCKR Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SMC . GWK . ZBG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more check out #magiccitylife magiccity.de

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A version of this article was also published on The Huffington Post

“The Art Of The Mural: Volume 01” Captures a Moment

May 10, 2016 Artists

Murals hold their own place onstage in public space today for a variety of reasons that we discuss regularly on BSA. From grassroots and public, to private and corporate, we have watched the genre professionalize as Street Art festivals and other initiatives are often coupling artists with brands and are selling canvasses through the organizers galleries. Today we have the first of a promised four-part book series by Art Whino gallerist and organizer of the Richmond Mural Project in Virginia, Shane Pomajambo, that features many artists he has worked with in the brand new “The Art of the Mural”.

Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Featuring more than fifty current graffiti/Street Artists, the survey pays special attention to the show-stopping eye candy that commands attention for these nomadic painters who are developing their craft before an ever larger and more appreciative international audience.

Culture critic and curator Carlo McCormick, who writes the introduction to the Schiffer published hardcover, notes that this mural renaissance is quite unlike the US government funded New Deal era mural programs that produced “hundreds of thousands of murals for schools, hospitals, post offices, housing projects, and various government facilities”. And he’s right, these are emanating from a different place entirely.

Antony Lister. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

The world-traveling media-soaked artists, of which this collection is subset, have had vastly more exposure to corporations and branding perhaps than, say, arts institutions, and a sophisticated self-handling is often on display with artists ever more savvy in their choices of style and content.

A greater percentage are now entering into private collections, galleries, and museums thanks to unprecedented platforms for huge exposure on the Internet, and their public works are adding rich character and dialogue to our neighborhoods and public spaces.

Curiot. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

With academia, art critics, and auction houses all grappling with the rightful place of these artists in contemporary art and society at large it will be instructive to know the history and their lineage, content, context, and patronage. One has to agree when McCormick says that all of these “are helpful for us to consider in looking at and understanding the artists’ walls of today.”

This collection of talent is strong, with many of the mid-large names that are at play in this generation of painters whom are primarily born in the 1970s and 80s. In their work is a cultural appreciation for modern graffiti history as they now channel it along with formal training, art history, advertising, and a multitude of media. With few exceptions, it’s a tight list of artists, the images are riveting (though uncredited to their photographers), and the brief introductions by Pomajambo contain just enough biographical information and artist’ quotes to ground the story and give it context.

“As with everything I do,” says the Queens, New York native Pomajambo, “I always question and observe, and as we reach critical mass with murals I felt compelled to create this project and capture a moment in time.”

Evoca 1. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Fintan Magee. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Miss Van. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

MOMO. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Onur & Wes 21. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Telmo & Miel. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Tone (Robert Proch). Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

All photos of the spreads by Jaime Rojo

The Art of The Mural: Contemporary International Urban Art. Volume 01 by Shaen Pomajambo. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. USA.

Participating Artists
Amose, Arraiano, Augustine Kofie, Axel Void, Bezt (Etam Crew), Chazme 718, Chor boogie, Clog Two, Curiot, Cyrcle, DALeast, Decertor, Dface, ETNIK, Faith47, Fintan Magee, Hense, INTI, Jade, Jaz, JR, Kenor, Lister, Logan Hicks, Low Bros, Meggs, Miss Van, Momo, Mr Thoms, Muro, Natalia Rak, Nosego, Onur, Pener, Reka, Robert “Tone” Proch,Ron English, Rone, Sainer (Etam Crew), SATONE, SEACREATIVE, Sepe, Smithone, Sten Lex, Stormie Mills, Telmo Miel, Tristan Eaton, TWOONE HIROYASU, Vhils, Wes21 and Zed 1

Amsterdam Dances with Graffuturism and Stencil Masters

October 29, 2015 Artists

Amsterdam rocked the decks this month to celebrate urban contemporary art and street art in the Netherlands with visual and music based events giving artists many platforms to shine.

Graffuturism, a term and movement coined a handful of years ago to describe an intersection of graffiti, street art, and abstract geometry continues to stake out new territory and here were gallery and street exhibitions proffering some of the current practitioners whose work could be described as such.

The 5^th Urban Art Festival Amsterdam featured their own collection of Graffuturists from Europe, the United States, and South America including Poesia, the unofficial founder of Graffuturism in a show of works on canvas, prints, drawings on paper, murals and site-specific abstract installations.

Running concurrently was a Stencil Masters show featuring some of the top knife-wielding artists known on the street today along with a few senior early proponents. The diverse program of gallery, street installations and DJs courtesy of the ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) helped further contextualize the art forms for a wider audience of fans.

Stencil Masters exhibition
ABOVE (usa) – BTOY (es) – BUSTART (ch) – C215 (fr) – CANVAZ (irl) – CZARNOBYL (de) – E.L.K. (au) – FAKE (nl) – HUGO KAAGMAN (nl) – IVES.ONE (nl) – JANA & JS (de) – JAUNE (be) – LIJNE (nl) – MANDO MARIE (usa) – NAFIR (iran) – ORTICANOODLES (it) – OTTO SCHADE (uk) – PIPSQUEAK WAS HERE (nl) – STF (fr) – TANKPETROL (uk) – TERA ONE (de)

Graffuturism exhibition
BLAQK BLAQK (gr) – CORN79 (it) – GRAPHIC SURGERY (nl) – KENOR (es) – LABUENA YLAMALA (es) – MICK LA ROCK (nl) – OKUDA (es) – OVNI (es) – POESIA (usa) – POETA (ar) – SKOUNT & GWION / TVBdesign (es) – VESOD (it) – WOW123 (de) – X-O / THE LOST OBJECT (nl / usa)

To learn more please go to www.urbanartfestival.com

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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Fanzara, Spain: “MIAU” Marries Street Art & Cats, Breaks Internet

August 13, 2015 Artists

You knew it would happen eventually, like peanut butter and chocolate on their first date. One day the Internet would deliver to you two of your favorite things together – like cats and Street Art. Yes, it is called MIAU, an acronym that translated from spanish is The Unfinished Museum of Urban Art. The festival is pronounced the way you thought – meow!

Cynics among you, please turn your eyes away from the screen as we show you adorable scenes of murals by Street Artists who basically have adopted a tiny town of Fanzara, 35 minutes from Castellón de la Plana on the east coast of Spain. And by tiny we mean 323 people, most of them senior citizens.

It all happened innocently, according to stories heard by photographer Lluis Olive Bulbena and published reports, when two local guys wanted to invite a small number of Spanish Street Artists to paint murals in the town in the wake of bitter debates that had been happening around a proposed incinerator in town and creating rancor between citizens.

The pay would not be high; you’d sleep on somebody’s couch and eat home cooked kitchen cuisine, but it would be appreciated. An “adopt an artist” program was started and people volunteered to host a visiting painter. The town board came up with a small budget. Word spread quickly and the number of artists interested grew to 20. In little time, as citizens responded favorably, there were 40 new murals in town and many of them were done with some participation of residents.

That was 2014. Last month 21 more artists arrived, worked with local folks, did workshops, had film screenings, a few photo exhibits, had a PechaKucha night, involved youth in painting projects, helped create community, and were serenaded live while painting by La Rondalla Santa Cecilia, a 13 piece local band formed in 1983.

If you are wondering how much of this adorable story is the product of clever marketing strategies by savvy Gen X professionals who made their money in digital advertising campaigns and how much of this is genuine, we understand your suspicions: it is awfully cute. But the murals are real, and the town is real. And yes, there are a number of cats in the compositions as well.

Miau.

The list of artists invited this year are: ANIMALITOLAND, BIBBITS, BORONDO, BTOY, CHLYO, D.JUEZ, EMILIO CHERRY, GAEL, FLU, H101, Joaquín Jara, JULIAN ARRANZ, Kenor, LOLO, LUIS MONTALVO, PICHI & AVO, PINCHO, SGER, THIAGO GOMS, Xelon XL and DEIH.

Our most sincere gratitude to Mr. Bulbena for sharing his photos with BSA Readers.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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Large Murals Adorn The City Of Lodz In Poland

June 10, 2013 Artists

The city of Lodz in Poland is promoting the work of Street Artists from around the world as a way of creating a cultural re-invigoration of this city whose population is three quarters of a million. Begun in 2009, the Urban Forms Gallery has installed more than 20 large square paintings on elevations in the city center.

The public/private partnership and the addition of the artwork has attracted business and investment, and of course urban exploring tourists who can follow a map to see the works within a couple of hours. As a model for employing the talents of Street Artists to create public art in service of the re-invigoration of a city, this one appears to be very successful at respecting the work while adding value to a neighborhood, district, city, and community.

The roster of nearly two dozen works features international Street Artists like Os Gemeos from Brazil, Aryz from Spain, and Remed from France along with one of Poland’s proud Street Art sons named M-City from Gdynia, a city three hours north of here, and two hometown local talents Bezt and Sainer from the ETAM Crew.

Here are a number of images of many of the walls that have been going up in the last few years. Special thanks to Michał Bieżyński for sharing these images with us exclusively for BSA readers.

Click on the links below to learn more about URBAN FORMS and for news regarding the new murals.

http://www.urbanforms.org/projects/en

https://www.facebook.com/urbanforms

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This posting is also published on The Huffington Post

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