All posts tagged: Mural Art Festival

$Wall\Therapy 2015 Day 3$

Wall\Therapy 2015 Day 3

July 22, 2015 Artists

In Rochester the weather has been warm but workable, as evidenced by the progress that all the artists have been making. You don’t have a long summer in this city of Kodak so we happily have images to share from a dedicated crew of photographers who are catching all the action while the sun is still blasting and slowly baking the artists.

You’ll see that the Jeff Soto and Maxx242 is nearing completion, Daze is already making plans for a production wall with FUA crew around the corner and Andreas Englund has a number of inquiries from local passersby while he’s painting his first mural here. We’re thinking it will be something rather superhuman.

Jeff Soto – Maxx242. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © @MarkDeffPhoto/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Jeff Soto. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jason Wilder/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Li-Hill. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Lisa Barker/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Li-Hill. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jenn Poggi/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Joe Guy Allard . Matt Roberts. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © @MarkDeffPhoto/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Vexta. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jason Wilder/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Onur . Wes21. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © @MarkDeffPhoto/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Onur . Wes21. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jason Wilder/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Onur . Wes21. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Lisa Barker/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

NeverCrew. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © @MarkDeffPhoto/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

NeverCrew. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Lisa Barker/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Andeas Englund. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jenn Poggi/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Andreas Englund. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jenn Poggi/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Brittany Williams. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jason Wilder/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Daze. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jason Wilder/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Nate Hodge. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jason Wilder/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Nate Hodge. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo ©Jenn Poggi/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

Nate Hodge. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jenn Poggi/Courtesy Wall Therapy)

For wall locations, schedule of events and further details about Wall Therapy 2015 Rochester click HERE

A Community Mural Festival in NYC, Highlights From Welling Court 2015

June 17, 2015 Artists

An annual mural tradition of non-pretense, New York hosted the 6th Annual Welling Court mural festival this weekend in a working class neighborhood in Queens, thanks to a grassroots couple who hustle to match artists with walls and opportunity. More than a hundred artists, whose styles span the graffiti-urban art-street art spectrum, participate every year in this community event that eschews the creeping fingers of commercial interests and the pontificating tongues of the art critics.

That is not the point here. That’s not why you fell in love with Street Art and the unvarnished expression of the creative spirit.

LMNOPI. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thanks to hearty and big-hearted organizers Alison and Garrison Buxton, the selection is as varied as the participants and the neighbors who come out to share home made dishes, music, and personal stories. Invariably the kids are racing around on their bikes and skates, people are meeting artists and posing for selfies, and some of the kids get to try their hand at painting.

So if you want to see what some of the organic art work is on the scene at the moment, walk through this unassuming Queens neighborhood with us and enjoy the real beat of New York. It’s a small selection, but you can get the flavor.

LMNOPI. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Fekner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XO. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin415 . Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Too Fly. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Too Fly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peace (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WANE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C. Cardinale. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C. Cardinale (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea . Mick La Rock. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea . Mick La Rock (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SHIRO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andy Golub . Leif G. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andy Golub . Leif G. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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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Street Art Sancocho : “ArteSano Project” Brings Dominican Flavor (VIDEO)

January 8, 2015 Artists

New Year, new mural festival!

Truthfully, the appearance of new mural festivals today is faster than annual – it’s more like quarterly – but this one in the Dominican Republic was inaugurated three weeks ago and brings a certain hand crafted authenticity that holds promise for its future.

Jade. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

“ArteSano Project” gives you an indication of the personal nature of the art you are likely to see from the 25 local and international artists invited to Rio San Juan from December 11-22. It could be the name influencing our perception, but in one way or another it looks like these artists are chosen for their down-to-earth hand hewn approach. Sometimes decorative, sometimes storytelling, there are familiar themes and motifs that play well to their local audience as well as the virtual gawker.

Even with two dozen artists, it isn’t bloated: no logos or product tie-ins or DJs or high flying scissor lifts scaling massive multi-story walls with abstract surrealism, hyper photo-realism or dark pop human/animal/robot hybrids here – yet. Well, we take that back on the surrealism score; Pixel Pancho is here with a brood of chickens bobbing their industrial mesh necks atop fired tile bodices, hunting and pecking their way toward the beach, and Miami artist duo 2alas & Hox created a portrait of a boy with a partial mask overlay that calls to mind cyborgs (and Sten & Lex). But here in the loungey bare-foot tropical DR coastal area, even Pixel Pancho mutes the hues toward sun-bleached pastels, more easily complimenting their surroundings.

Jade. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Free-running fowl overtook a few artists thematically, including another international artist who usually paints hybrid forms with dimension and almost mythic metaphor, but who this time tried his hand at something much more folkloric. “Importacion Cultural”, the flatly bright piece by Buenos Aires born Franco “Jaz” Fasoli, presents an entire wall with hand cut and paper collage, adding to the general feeling of approachability, and introducing a form of craft-inspired art-making more common to DIY Street Art of the 2000s than recent aerosol-infused mural festivals.

“The community was transformed during those days and over two weeks they began to see these great artists’ work and create specific pieces in different places around the town,” says Mario E. Ramirez, a Puerto Rican artist who has been documenting and capturing the burgeoning graffiti/Street Art scene in his country and places like DR with his partners at Tost Films. He says that an event like this that connects with a community yields a greater dialogue than some of the more commercial Street Art and graffiti enterprises, because the artists get to interact with neighbors closely. “At the completion of the ArteSano each artist felt like a distinguished guest of Rio San Juan. They made us feel at home, it was one of the best experiences of 2014.”

Jade. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

One of the organizers, Dominican born artist Evoca1, has experience working as a Street Artist as well as bringing actual physical sustenance and support to a community. For about four years the Miami based artist has delivered many meals to folks living on the street with his wife and friends through an organization he began called “Sketches For Mankind.”

With Evoca1 hosting the ArteSano project it became another form of community outreach and the curatorial responsibilities for the public art initiative was offered by the folks at the Vienna based INOPERAbLE Gallery, who have represented a mix of urban artists work including some in this show and others that are range into pop, dark pop, graphic irony, and more “traditional” contemporary Street Art.

Vero Rivera. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Organizers say they hope that ArteSano gains traction and that people get to know the Dominican Republic as a good place for urban arts and muralism. There is not much transgressive here; With its mix of mainly latin name-brand and local homegrown talent, it looks like ArteSano makes a respectable entry into the international mural festival mileu with what may be the emerging alchemy of the decorative and the pleasing – peppered with some more challenging themes and muted socio-political messages.

Overall no one will argue that Rio San Juan is a great location for a painter or street artist from the northern hemisphere in December. Among the invited artists were BIKISMO, JADE, 2ALAS, HOXXOH, PASTEL, JAZ, EVER, ELIAN, LEO, VERO RIVERA, MODAFOCA, ENTES, FAITH47, AXEL VOID, PIXEL PANCHO, FILIO, ANGURRIA, 3TAMAROOTS, GABZ, POTELECHE, BAD6, SHAK, RUBEN, JOHANN,SEBAS, and PAOLA.

Bikismo. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Entes. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

IO. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

JAZ. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Elian. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

BAD6 . SHAK. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Fili . 2alas . Hox. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

HOXXOH. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Gabz. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Pixel Pancho. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Pastel . Pixel Pancho. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Pastel. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Moda Foca. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Axel . Faith47. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Ever. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Johann. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Poteleche. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

3tamaroots. ArteSano Project. Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic. December, 2014. (photo © Mario E Ramirez/TostFilms.com)

Thank you to Mario E Ramirez for his invaluable help to make this article possible for 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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Art Basel Special – Miami 2014 Murals

December 15, 2014 Artists

Art Basel has wound up another successful year in Miami and artists, dealers, buyers and sun seekers have departed. In their wake the streets of Wynwood have sustained yet one more onslaught of murals from an international mix of graffiti writers, street artists, and large format illustrators as the Street Art scene’s thick syrup of spontaneity hardens into a slick shell of commercial opportunity. The average working person with two jobs (or no job) may not have noticed that there is a fabulous boom in this economy for some, and the bubbly is flowing all around fairs like this, out into the streets, into the galleries, receptions, cocktails, and celebrity DJ appearances. While it lasts Brock Brake takes BSA readers through the brand sponsored cloud of opportunity and keeps the focus on what made Street Art interesting to begin with; the artists and their work. We think you’ll dig his photos and for the first time here, an essay in his words:

brooklyn-street-art-swoon-Brock-Brake-art-basel-miami-2014-web-1

Swoon (photo © Brock Brake)

By Brock Brake

Miami’s Art Basel might be the world’s largest summer camp for artists. Every year, artists, galleries and enthusiasts from around the world come together in one place to paint, party and socialize. With a never ending list of desired activities and events during the week, it’s impossible to see and do it all. And many of the artists whose work towers on the walls of Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood have been there a week or so longer than anyone.

Evoca1 (photo © Brock Brake)

You know you’ve made it to the right neighborhood coming from the airport when all you see from the highway are large murals and roadside graffiti…and you’re most likely stuck in traffic.

Every single street in Wynwood was filled with artists from various parts of the world who all share one goal: to create. Artist like Meggs, Word To Mother, Hush, Spencer Keeton Cunningham, Lauren Napolitano, Aaron Glasson, Pose, Cleon Peterson, Ron English, Rone, Swoon and many others were all present and active.

Evoca1 (photo © Brock Brake)

It was hard not to get distracted by all of their process while walking from event to event. I spent a total of three full days in Wynwood documenting, visiting some walls more than once. It’s impossible to see it all.

When the fairs close around 7pm, the streets of Wynwood and South Beach explode. There are live painting events like Basel Castle and Secret Walls, pop up galleries, live concerts by hotel pools and, of course, The Deuce; South Beach’s best dive bar beehive of visiting artists.

I’m grateful for my annual “camp” reunion trips to Miami. Reconnecting with old friends you haven’t seen in years while making plenty of new ones. It’s fun to see that as the years go by, everyone is just as much a kid as you remember them. You see the same friend throughout the week wearing the same shirt for four days covered in paint, with no shower or sleep. All of these artists work very hard to do what they do and that’s why I do what I do.

Until next year – BB

Shout (photo © Brock Brake)

Cleon Peterson in collaboration with Shepard Fairey. (photo © Brock Brake)

Rone in action. (photo © Brock Brake)

Rone (photo © Brock Brake)

Bicicleta Sem Freio (photo © Brock Brake)

Aaron Glasson (photo © Brock Brake)

Lauren YS in action. (photo © Brock Brake)

Lauren YS (photo © Brock Brake)

Tatiana Suarez (photo © Brock Brake)

D*Face in action. (photo © Brock Brake)

D*Face (photo © Brock Brake)

Nychos (photo © Brock Brake)

Hush in action. (photo © Brock Brake)

Hush (photo © Brock Brake)

Space Invader (photo © Brock Brake)

Ckue and Soduh (photo © Brock Brake)

Aaron Kai in action. (photo © Brock Brake)

Aaron Kai (photo © Brock Brake)

Meggs in action. (photo © Brock Brake)

Meggs (photo © Brock Brake)

Soduh (photo © Brock Brake)

Word To Mother. Detail of a wall in progress. (photo © Brock Brake)

Word To Mother (photo © Brock Brake)

Pose and Revok (photo © Brock Brake)

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As Street Art Turns to Public Art in Barcelona

November 19, 2014 Artists

Spain’s Second Largest City Hosts “Open Walls”

A popular city for Street Art in the early-2000s that attracted artists from across Europe and elsewhere to its intimate doorways and darkened small streets, Barcelona has become less inviting to illegal painting in recent years due to an organized campaign to contain the freewheeling art and convert it into a respectable city to shop in. Like many cities now engaging the talent if not the transgression of this generation of renegade artists, there are other ways now appearing to help artists get up on walls.

Madsteez. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

In October Difusor, a non-profit cultural association that works with the city, businesses, and the artists mounted Open Walls, a conference and mural program for four days that included installations/interventions, workshops and lectures from an international roster.

Included among the speakers were Todd W. Bressi from City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, mural conservator Will Shank and Leon Cullinane from Nuart. Artist represented were people like Escif, Alexis Diaz, Pastel, Joao Lelo, 310 / Stepan Krasnov, M-City and Madsteez.

Madsteez. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

The resulting mix is wide reaching and good quality, and just when the palette is becoming too subdued and the geometry possibly municipal the wild acid royal canine court by Madsteez parries forth in a line kicking formation. Not everything is rainbows and butterflies; of note are the swarming drones by the Polish M-City, their insect-like bodies clustered madly together in a cloud of all-seeing killers in the sky.

For an “approved” roster of works the variety of styles represents what is happening as modern and contemporary art movements gain currency in the public art eye. Also, you can still check out plenty of illegal spots nearby and Barcelona still is popping with possibility if you know where to look for one of Miss Van’s ladies, or maybe even an old C215 or Faile one-color stencil.

Madsteez. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Escif. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

SPOGO. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

M-City. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Alexis Diaz . Pastel. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Joao Lelo. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Joao Lelo.,Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

310/Stepan Krasnov. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

For more information on Open Walls in Barcelona, please click HERE.

Our special thanks to Nerea Rubio from Difusor for her expert help.

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Sweden Starts “No Limit” Mural Festival in Borås

September 17, 2014 Artists

It isn’t just Nuart any more.

Scandinavia is taking their mural festivals seriously thanks to buoyant economies, arts programming support, and a growing global appreciation for art in the streets in general. Included in the list of recent festivals are Denmark’s Galore (Copenhagen) and We Aart (Aalborg) and Sweden’s Artscape (Malmö) as well as the more graffiti-inflected Örebro, Helsinki’s Arabia and of course the one-kilometer long graffiti/Street Art slaughter that accompanies the mammoth music festival Roskilde.

brooklyn-street-art-ecb-Anders-Kihl-boras-sweden-09-14-web

ECB. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

This month humbly began No Limit in the small city of Borås, Sweden, and artist / curator Shai Dahan hopes to enliven the daily views for this population of 66,000 with his curated collection of international artists from street / graffiti / fine art backgrounds.

An artist and entrepreneur who moved here from New York three and a half years ago, Dahan has been rallying local building owners and government institutions to aid in his idea of mounting a show on walls in the city that emulates the success of such festivals elsewhere.

Isaac Cordal. The small scale installations by the Spanish artist provide a welcome answer to the ever more massive tendencies of wall installations in mural programs. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

“I’ve been on quite a journey and accomplishing this project has been something I have been working on personally for over a year,” he says. With participation and funding from the city of Borås, No Limit this month invited and hosted artists from countries such as The Netherlands, Brasil, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden and included artists like Natalia Rak, ETAM Cru, Peeta, ECB, The London Police, Kobra, Ollio, Ekta, Carolina Falkholt, Issac Cordal and one of the earliest Street Art stencilists, Blek le Rat.

Isaac Cordal. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

“And best of all, we had no bad weather. The day Natalia landed (she was the first to arrive) the sun came out, and it stayed out until the very last day,” says Dahan of the festival that he deemed “phenomenal” and included guided tours for over 200 people at a time.

“After everyone left, it began raining, ” he smiles.

For countries that have a so-called “zero tolerance” for illegal art or any kind like Sweden, mural festivals like these effectively circumvent the rigid approval process that typically characterizes public art projects and many make inroads into engaging public space with art in a new way that is emblematic of a vibrant global movement. It may be a tenuous line to walk, but more cities seem willing to embrace this swing of the pendulum with art in the streets.

The Brazillian Street Artist named Kobra created a portrait of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist, and inventor of dynamite. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Kobra. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police began stripping because of the hot sun and of course, Jane Fonda. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. Detail. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The graffiti writing artist from Venice named Peeta basically killed his wall with a signature three dimensional tag that floats off of the wall. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Simple. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Simple)

Ollio. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Carolina Falkholt. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Ekta. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Etam Cru. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Click HERE to learn more about No Limit Borås.

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Street Poet Opiemme Honors Nobel Laureate in Poland

July 21, 2014 Artists

Italian text worker Opiemme just finished this ode to letters, words, and poetry in Gdansk, Poland for the Monumental Art Festival. A lover of the language, the muralist and public artist hopes to garner attention for the written word.

Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

“I hope to spread poetry and create curiosity, to push people towards reading,” he says as he describes this new 10 story wall that is partitioned into outer space, the sky and the earth. “Like the energy of the sun, the letters radiate, transmitting in different languages knowledge, legends, and customs. They give “color” to our communications like light gives color to things.”

Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

The mural is intended to honor the Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature Wislawa Szymborska, and it includes a passage from his work,“… Truth, do not pay me too much attention. Solemnity, be magnanimous toward me …” from Under a Certain Little Star.

The nearer the words fall to earth, the more he hopes he will capture the interest of young readers. He says the words are simply sliding down the streaming drips of colors made from pouring bottles of paints. Using the eye candy as a seductive player, he says, the piece “is designed to attract the attention of adults and children in order to bring them closer to poetry”.

Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Lukas Glowala)

Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Lukas Glowala)

Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opimemme)

Opiemme. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

Click HERE to learn more about Monumental Art.

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Bien Urbain 2014 in Besançon, France

July 16, 2014 Artists

Artistic Routes Through and with Public Spaces

The month long 4th Edition of Bien Urbain just wrapped in Besançon, France and the results are predictably rather awesome due to the quality of the work, the site selections, and the integrated nature of the entire presentation. “It is not about designing an open-air art gallery or about decorating the town,” say the organizers, and maybe that is why each artist seems to consider the whole before devising his or her addition to it.

BSA has been tracking Bien Urbain since its introduction and each time the collection of artists is thoughtfully selected, with each helping to define and refine the measure of public art without the trite pleasantries of commercially sponsored festivals nor stultifyingly bland results of design by municipal committee.

Whether purely modernist (MOMO), cerebral (Brad Downey) or poetic (Pastel), the contributions to Bien Urbain are more edifying than edifice and enable one to experience “artistic routes through and with public spaces,” as the festivals’ motto intones.

Argentinian muralist Jaz chose the old citadel of Besançon (below) to pay tribute to his hosts and perhaps because his mind was on the World Cup, he also created a sepia-toned version of the Boca football club stadium in Buenos Aires. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

Jaz also brought a pair of wrestlers to end cap this building. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

Ever (or EverSiempre) was a surprise guest this year and immediately took over a space with his allegorical forms and flowing fabrics. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © David Demougeot)

The American artist Brad Downey made a couple of interventions with existing materials in the Battant neighborhood. Brad Downey. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Brad Downey)

“It’s based on a poem for Victor Hugo ‘Les feuilles d`automne’ 1831,” says artist Pastel. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Elena Murcia Artengo)

The Paris based collective Les Freres Ripoulain created this variation on the typical children’s rocking toy . Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Mathieu Tremblin)

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

MURAL Montreal Festival: Day 1 and 2

June 14, 2014 Artists

BSA is pleased to partner again with the MURAL Festival in Montreal to bring you images as the events unfold. Daniel Esteban Rojas tells us it has been a slower than usual commencement this year, due to Mother Nature, “We’ve had a huge rain storm and most artists couldn’t start.”

On the plus side, no one got a sunburn, they have four days to finish the 20 or so planned murals. The artists of course couldn’t wait to get busy on these huge, fresh walls – all calling their names like a siren song, and they got a lot accomplished despite the weather, and the DJs kept playing. Today the skies looks good for the all day block party.

Here we have some detail shots, progress shots and action shots and as the festival progresses we’ll bring you the completed walls for your viewing pleasure…

An indoor/outdoor silhouette shot of Jeremy Shantz at work. Mural Festival 2014. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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India’s First Street Art Fest and the Largest Ghandi Portrait Ever

June 4, 2014 Artists

“St.ART Dehli 2014” Hosts 60 Artists

As Street Art continues to go global here in the twenty-teens, today we bring you images showing that Dehli has become one of the latest cities to showcase it. In what is billed as India’s very first Street Art festival the south Delhi neighborhood of Shahpur Jat hosted a collection of international and local artists this spring to paint murals while a public who is not quite acquainted with public art asked many questions.

Hendrik ECB Beikirch and ANPU take shots of their collaborative portrait of Mahatma Ghandi. / St.ART Delhi 2014 (photo © Akshat Nauriyal)

Working out of the newly rustic indoor venue “Social Space” in the trendy neighborhood of Hauz Khas Village (HKV), the St. ART Delhi effort was a combination of a gallery exhibition and a street art festival that invited 60 or so international and Indian artists earlier this year to create public works.

Overseen by co-founders Hanif Kureshi and Arjun Bahl and curated by Italian Giulia Ambrogi, the festival was possible with the help of a collection of artists, professionals, art school students, and friends who joined with the Goethe-Institut and the Italian and Polish cultural institutes in Delhi. With volunteers, supplies, and a lot of community outreach, the event organizers were able to bring the artists and help get walls for them- an effort which took about a year and a half of serious planning to bring to fruition.

In an underdeveloped area undergoing the same gentrification found in edgy parts of large cities around the globe, the artists found that the long term residents sometimes resisted the change but eventually embraced it, if tentatively at times.

“Pondering was what we had to do for much of the day as the locals were still getting accustomed to strange folks painting their walls and generally made life a bit difficult for the artists and the crew,” writes Siddhant Mehta on the blog of the festival’s site when describing the cautious reaction of folks when seeing painters and scaffolding.

Some residents even requested images of religious iconography before any artworks were created, while some artists entertained requests for cartoon characters or children’s games to be incorporated in their murals.

Co-founder and typography designer Kureshi freely admits it was an easy non-controversial choice when deciding on the portrait that went up on the police building. “After 2 months, we finished around 75 pieces around Delhi including the tallest one on the Delhi Police Headquarters,” says Mr. Bahl as he describes the tallest portrait of Mahatma Ghandi anywhere which covers a 150’ x 38’ – a collaboration between Indian painter Anpu Varkey and German street artist ECB.

Of the 60 artists who participated, many were from India, which may have contributed to a sense of cultural balance in the mural collection created in the neighborhood. Whether is was TOFU from Germany, M-City from Poland, or Alina from Denmark, many of the artists reported that small crowds gathered to watch and, with time, offered gifts such as peanuts or a cup of chai to their foreign guests.

As the global Street Art scene continues to open its arms wider it is promising to see that a new public art festival like this has begun in such a grand way in a brand new location. It is also heartening to see planners who take into account the preferences of the neighbors, and who act with a sense of goodwill when offering public art for arts sake.

BSA extends our thanks to Thanish Thomas for his diligence in getting these images to us and to Hanif Kureshi, Arjun Bahl, Giulia Ambrogiall, Mridula Garg, Akshat Nauriyal, and the entire team at St.ART Delhi 2014. Click HERE to learn more about St.ART Delhi 2014.

St.ART Delhi Street Art Festival Part II

The Tallest Mural of India – Mahatma Ghandi at St.ART Delhi

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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