All posts tagged: Paris

Image X 100 : New Echoing Portrait Sculptures in Paris by Gwelm

January 27, 2014 Artists

Street Artist Multiplies Obama, Depardieu, and Rhiannon

New urban interventions from Gwelm in Paris speak to the power of a portrait in the image drenched twenty-teens, and surprisingly, the conceptual sculptures know how to break through to the most catatonic among us.

Gwelm. Rihanna. Paris, France. January 2014. (photo © Gwelm)

Entitled “Portraits 2.1” the collection of echoing images are placed in the public sphere for passersby to encounter and possibly be perplexed by. Gwelm says the new pieces begin with “the realization of the power of the image in the news and the collective unconscious, as propagated manifold by the Internet and social networks.”

Certainly the impact of some of these images is unchallenged, with the naked hungry child and dogs sniffing at the cadaver of a former Libyan president Muammar Kadhafi being perhaps the strongest. Others require more discernment or interpretation. Each choice is magnified by its repetition – a sort of electronic visual error that you associate with the screen and digital world, not this physical one. The series multiplication and superimposing of tens or even hundreds of the same image brings them to alternate life, subverting their meanings and warping them in the minds eye.

Gwelm appropriates Shepard Fairey into this portrait of Obama. Paris, France. January 2014. (photo © Gwelm)

Are they mocking indictments of human avarice, celebrity, hypocrisy? Commentaries on social conditions, advocacy of ideology, or just a clever reuse of imagery intended to prick your anterior lobe? Like a sophisticated artist and showman, Gwelm doesn’t always give you the easy answer, allowing you to decide. Describing his method of selection, Gwelm says, “Faced with the multitude of ‘ready-to-think’ images, the synergy of images diverts the mind and gives rise to questions about what we are supposed to see.”

Our digital life is full of disjointed imagery, but it is unusual when it takes this form in public space. We’ll give Gwelm points for pushing us into an uncomfortable place that implicates our involvement with these intelligent visual provocations. It’s not easy to do that these days.

Gwelm. Depardieu. Paris, France. January 2014. (photo © Gwelm)

Gwelm. Famine. Paris, France. January 2014. (photo © Gwelm)

Passersby must be startled to see dogs sniffing at the body of Muammar Kadhafi in this temporary sculpture by Street Artist Gwelm in Paris. Paris, France. January 2014. (photo © Gwelm)

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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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13 from 2013 : Spencer Elzey “A Once in a Lifetime Moment”

December 31, 2013 Artists

Happy Holidays to all you stupendous and talented and charming BSA readers! We thank you from the bottom of our socks for your support this year. The best way we can think of to celebrate and commemorate the year as we finish it is to bring you 13 FROM 2013 – Just one favorite image from a Street Art or graffiti photographer that brings a story, a remembrance, an insight or a bit of inspiration to the person who took it. For the last 13 days they will share a gem with all of us as we collectively say goodbye and thank you to ’13.

To close out our 13 FROM 2013 series we bring you photographer Spencer Elzey who has been a contributor to BSA periodically and who took a cool trip to Europe this year and who was featured for a full week on this site. The image he chose of eL Seed’s piece on the side of a soon to be demolished building captures the “La Tour 13” project and the ephemeral quality of Street Art. It is an apt metaphor for the passage of time itself that reminds us to celebrate and cherish what we have today.

Tomorrow? Tomorrow is 2014.

Spencer followed his passion, seized the opportunity to meet new people and to experience new street environments and he shared with us all his sense of wonder and celebration. As we say goodbye to 2013 we thank him and all our readers for keeping that spirit of discovery alive and for being an active participant in the creative spirit.

el Seed. Paris, France 2013. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

A Once in a Lifetime Moment

~ Spencer Elzey

I selected this picture for a few different reasons. Firstly, I liked this picture from an aesthetic standpoint. The way that the orange building pops against the monochromatic Parisian landscape makes it hard to miss, especially to someone who is a fan of public art and has an eye peeled for these things.

The fact that this art – and even more so this building – was short lived made it almost a once in a lifetime moment. Usually a Street Artist goes into painting a mural with the awareness that his or her canvas is temporary and that within a few months it will be covered up.

Knowing that the whole building was going to be knocked down put this on a whole other level. Out of the 100 plus works of art that were painted and installed within the building there were lots that were better, however, I chose to submit the picture of the exterior almost as a symbolic tombstone for everything that it contained. This picture also represents a series of big accomplishments for myself from a personal level.

I couldn’t imagine a better way to memorialize my whirlwind trip around Europe then by having a weeklong feature on BSA. To top that off Steve and Jaime choose one of the articles for publication on their weekly column at The Huffington Post Arts & Culture and this photograph was the banner picture.

Thinking about these moments still puts a smile on my face.

Artist: el Seed

Location: Paris, France. 2013

#13from2013

Check out our Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo here.

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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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Towering Gallery Full of Art to Be Demolished : “La Tour Paris 13”

November 20, 2013 Artists

The numbers are astounding; 105 artists, 9 floors, 36 apartments, 30,000 visitors.

One hour.

That is how much time Street Art enthusiast Spencer Elzey had to himself inside the largest gallery of Street Artists and graffiti artists ever assembled specifically to transform a building for a public show. As he looked out a window to see the snaking lines of Parisians and tourists restlessly waiting to get in, he couldn’t believe his luck to be able to walk through the exhibit by himself and get off some clear shots before the throng hit.

El Seed. La Tour Paris 13. Exterior of the tower. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“The La Tour Paris 13 experience was something that I’ll never forget,” Elzey recounts as he thinks of himself nearly running from apartment to apartment with camera in hand, each room a new discovery, many of them inspiring awe.

“I was on an adrenaline rush while I was inside since I only had an hour by myself before it opened to the public. It wasn’t until later in the morning when I looked back at all of my pictures that I was able to fully understand exactly how much art I just witnessed,” he says.

Kan. La Tour Paris 13. Come in. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Mehdi Ben Cheikh from Galerie Itinerrance, who curated the project La Tour Paris 13 gave permission to Elzey to get these shots for BSA before the crowds arrived and now he was snapping as many as possible.

Over the course of the year artists have devised specific paintings, sculptures, and installations inside the housing tower knowing that it would be exhibited for a month before being demolished. “The number of artists and the amount of space dedicated to this one exhibit is something that I don’t think will ever again be replicated,” he says.

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

While touring former living rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens Elzey quickly discovered that aerosol and markers were not the only materials used by this global pool of street/graffiti/urban artists who came from far places like Brazil, Iran, US, Tunisia, and even Saudi Arabia in addition to many European countries.

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Some artists had staged new perspectives and environments by combining sculptural elements that married into their wall pieces, others like C215 cut into the floorboards to create a relief, still others worked in and around the decaying, partially destroyed infrastructure to create venues that slid into the fantasies of subconscious. “It was a free-for-all in a sense that once inside the apartment the artist had free reign to transform it however they wanted,” he says.

“What isn’t apparent in the pictures is how dark a lot of the rooms were. There were at least three rooms that were essentially dark with the exception of a little black light, while others were dimly lit by a solo lamp or fluorescent bulb. Sometimes you had to walk through holes in the walls to access further rooms.”

Seth. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

In his images here you can see the variety of styles and influences that the artists brought to the game, each accepting that it was a one-time-only installation. Maybe this group wasn’t so hard to convince, since the very nature of art on the streets is ephemeral.

“Street Art on the street has an expiration date, but the exact amount of time in which it will stay up isn’t known,” says Elzey, “It can either be covered up by graffiti or another wheat-paste, it can be removed by the building owner, or it can just wither away from being exposed to the elements.”

La Tour Paris 13 brings to mind the multitude of urban explorers who regularly trek into abandoned and neglected places all over the world and leave their mark, activating previously moribund spaces with art, but no one has ever launched a show like this with such genuine quality or with this scope.

Uriginal. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“The closest thing that I can compare it to is 5 Pointz,” Elzey says of the grouping of buildings in New Yorks’ Long Island City that provided what was perhaps the original group show venue for urban art from the 1990s until yesterday. In an ironic mirroring of events, 5 Pointz and its multitude of external paintings underwent “the buff” the night before last after running an every-changing show for about three decades.

The 5 Pointz factory buildings themselves are also slated for demolition and will make way for new condos. “We all knew that its days were extremely numbered,” he says sadly of what had become a New York cultural heritage icon to some and a holy place for graffiti writers and Street Artists and fans from around the world.

Tellas. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

The true impact from the La Tour Paris 13 project and 5 Pointz may happen in the mind and heart of the artist and the art fan; perhaps the beauty of this exercise, however short lived, is that the public is being encouraged to re-imagine old buildings for new uses, to consider what else we can do with private and public space.

When that conversation takes place we often realize how the limits of creativity are determined in no small part by imagination.

Sambre. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

While we keep tracking the routes and machinations of this first global people’s art movement that has evolved into Street Art, we fully expect that we will continue to be surprised and inspired by the creative spirit and by artists.

For Spencer, this Tour was a lot more personal. “Having experienced something like this on such an immense scale and with a definitive end date made me feel like I was part of something special.”

Stew. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shoof. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

David Walker. Detail. Jimmy C in the background room. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Guy Denning. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Katre. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Rea1. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Pantonio. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jaz. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

C215. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Belem. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Add Fuel. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Dado. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Bom K . Liliwenn. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Agostino Iacurci. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Entes. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Inti. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Dan 23. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Maz. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Hopnn. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

JB Rock. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

el Seed. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cekis. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Nebay. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ethos. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Mar. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Loiola. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Mosko. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cope and Indi 184. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ludo on the exterior with a view of the line to get in. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Visit La Tour Paris 13 site for a full set of photographs, details and a full experience of the project.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

Artists participating include: 108 ( Italy) – 2mil (Brazil) – Add Fuel ( Portugal) – AGL ( France ) – Lacurci Agostino (Italy) – Alexone ( France ) – A1one (Iran) – Amin ( France ) – Aous (Saudi Arabia) – awer (Italy) – Azooz (Saudi Arabia) – Belem (Portugal) – BOM.K ( France ) – Btoy (Spain) – C215 ( France ) – Celeste Java ( France ) – Cope2 (USA) – Corleone (Portugal ) – Dabro (Tunisia) – Dado (Italy) – Dan23 ( France ) – David Walker (UK) – Eime (Portugal) – eL Seed ( Tunisia) – Ethos (Brazil) – Etnik (Italy) – Fenx ( France ) – Flip (Brazil) – Gael ( France ) – Gilbert ( France ) – Guy Denning (UK) – Herbert Baglione (Brazil) – Hogre (Italy) – Hopnn (Italy) – Indie 184 (USA) – Inti Ansa ( France ) – Inti Castro (Chile) – Jaz (Argentina) – JB Rock ( Italy) – Jimmy C ( Australia) – Samina Joao (Portugal) – Jonone (USA) – Joys (Italy) – Julien Colombier ( France ) – Kan ( France ) – Katre ( France ) – Kruella (Portugal) – Legz ( France ) – Lek ( France ) – Liliwenn ( France ) – Loyola (Brazil) – Ludo ( France ) – Mrs. Sanbor ( France ) – March (Portugal) – Marko93 ( France ) , Mario Belem (Portugal) – Maryam (Saudi Arabia) – Mateo Garcia Leon ( France ) – Maz (Saudi Arabia) – moneyless (Italy) – Mosko ( France ) – Mp5 (Italy) – Myra ( France ) – Nano (Chile) – Nebay ( France ) – Nemi Uhu ( France ) – Nilko ( France ) – Orticanoodles (Italy) – PANTONIO (Portugal) – Paulo Arraiano (Portugal) – Peeta (Italy) – Philippe Baudelocque ( France ) – Rapto (Brazil) – Rea 1 ( France ) – Rodolphe Cintorino ( France ) – Roti ( France ) – Sambre ( France ) – Sean Hart ( France ) – Sebastien Preschoux ( France ) – Senso (Italy) – Seth ( France ) – Shaka ( France ) – Shoof (Tunisia) – Shuck2 ( France ) – Sowat ( France ) – Spazm ( France ) – Speto (Brazil) – Stew ( France ) – Stinkfish (Mexico) – Sumo (Luxembourg) – Tellas (Italy) – Tinho (Brazil) – Tore ( France ) -Uno ( France ) – Uriginal (Spain) – Vexta (Australia) – Vhils (Portugal) – / Maismenos (Portugal).

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Paris Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 19, 2013 Artists

As we continue our one week residency on BSA for Street Art fan Spencey Elzey, he takes you to Paris to see what is happening on the street there right now. If you were to try to characterize the nature of the work, you may say that it favors illustration, a clean defined line, and a purposeful classical aesthetic.

For years we have associated the romantic city and it’s historical culture and architecture with Street Artists like the stencil pioneers Blek Le Rat and Jef Aerosol, along with Miss Tic, Invader, FKDL, Fred Chevaliar, C215, and Alice Pasquini, to name just a few. Spencer finds some of those artists’ work and and he shares some others here with you too. Naturally, because we don’t cover this city regularly, locals will surely tell you that some of these pieces are a couple of years old, but for an American tourist in Paris, it all looks new from here!

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“It did feel like there was some form of respect for the older architecture, especially in Paris,” says Spencer when comparing his observations of Paris, Berlin, and London. “While all three cities are old (especially compared to NYC), Paris feels the oldest and there seems to be certain buildings or doors that remained untouched.” Maybe that’s why we always think Paris is romantic. Also, Edith Piaf.

Speaking of romance we begin the image survey with two current giants on the Paris scene Jana und JS, who are a collaborating Street Art couple who basically bonded over their mutual love for shooting images. Advocates of photography on the street, you will find they’ve also an affinity for spray paint and stencils and their subject often is themselves. It’s rather a marriage made for the street. You can read a full interview with them here on Street Art Paris.

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“Walking around Paris I also found myself looking up a lot more as compared to other cities; while this was mostly due to the fact that I was looking out for the 100’s of Space Invader pieces, there were lots of other pieces stuck to the walls up high. I thought it was also notable that the walls within the metro tunnels between stations were covered with graffiti in Paris.”

“Paris has street art defined to a few areas specifically,” explains Elzey, “including some of the murals in the 13^th arrondissement that were put together by Galerie Itinerrance, a few areas up around Belleville, and areas throughout Le Marais, which includes sections of the 3^rd and 4^th arrondissements.”

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jana & Js. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Finabarr DAC (photo © Spencer Elzey)

ETHOS (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ella & Pitr. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Clet Abraham (photo © Spencer Elzey)

A large wall by the Chilean Street Artist Inti (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shadeek (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Alexis Diaz (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shepard Fairey (photo © Spencer Elzey)

RERO (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Invader (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Not Invader. Megamatt. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Daco (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Bristolian Nick Walker has a heart (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Tona and Alias (photo © Spencer Elzey)

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Images Of The Week: 11.10.13

November 10, 2013 Artists

Dang, this city is full of a lot of energy and the streets are showing a new-found enthusiasm for art in the public sphere since getting goosed by _____________ (we can’t say that name one more time). And we have a new mayor, by the way, straight outta Brooklyn, yo. And he’s not a billionaire for the first time in 12 years and his family looks just like New York.

So here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring B.D. White, Chuck Berrett, Cost, Hellbent, Hot Tea, Icy & Sot, Marko93, MOR, Mr. Toll, Myth, NM Salgar, Rambo, Smart Crew, The Lurkers, and Vicki DaSilva.

Top Image >> A multi-layered hand-stencilled piece from B.D. White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot for Wall Therapy. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot for Wall Therapy. Detail. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot for Wall Therapy. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot At Woodward Gallery, Project Space. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent wrapped an entire store in lower Manhattan just below Union Squre. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vicki DaSilva lights the night for Le Tour Paris 13. Paris, France. (photo © Vicki DaSilva)

You wonder how the above image was accomplished? Check out this interview with the artist Vicki DaSilva, who has loved graffiti for decades and has found a way to express her appreciation for art and activism in the public sphere using her own unique approach.

A hot shot of Marko93 light writing for Le Tour Paris 13. Paris, France. (photo © Marko93)

Hot Tea says a big hello to “Banksy” in New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rambo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MOR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Lurkers with Smart Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Lurkers with Smart Crew. Deatail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Lurkers with Smart Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cost/Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chuck Berrett/NM Salgar (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Queens, NY. October 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday 09.27.13

September 27, 2013 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening: Graphic Surgery for “The Canals Project“, OLEK in “Russia’s PRIDE“, Team OBEY Visits FAILE, STREET ART BRAZIL via Frankfurt, and M-City in Paris.

BSA Special Feature: Graphic Surgery
for “The Canals Project”

Erris Huigens and Gysbert Zijlstra, artists from Amsterdam who together are called Graphic Surgery, work here in the industrial fields along the waterway near London’s site of the Olympics last year. The primary audience will mostly be floating by in this area once known for local spontaneous Street Art and now curated, and Graphic Surgery’s silhouetted geometrics will be sharply cutting as you pass, minimal and constructivist while you propel through the rippling canal. All the mirroring and refracting of angles and shapes are flattened momentarily, wavering and ricocheting off and with their surroundings in black and white.

As they speak the two artists take you with them to see how it is done, and how it is inspired – capturing the lines and the physical context of placement with intention while their intersections with modernism and industry are distilled.

Graphic Surgery: The Canals Project. London 2013. Produced by Cedar Lewisohn.

OLEK “Russia’s PRIDE”

A new video documenting Street Artist Olek as she did a public art installation in St. Petersberg last week. You can also read her interview this week with BSA here: OLEK Interview and Exclusive Photos “From Russia With Pride”.

Team OBEY Visits Team FAILE

A quick look inside Faile’s studio as they prepare for their currently running show at Dallas Contemporary museum.

STREET ART BRAZIL via Frankfurt

Ending today the Schrirn Kunsthalle has been showcasing the diversity of Brazilian graffiti art as Brazil was the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Artists included are HERBERT BAGLIONE, GAIS, RIMON GUIMARÃES, JANA JOANA & VITCHÉ, NUNCA, ONESTO, ALEXANDRE ORION, SPETO, FEFE TALAVERA, TINHO, and ZEZÃO

M-City In Paris: Interview

A relaxed look at stencil Street Artist M-City as he completes a huge wall in central Paris, followed by an interview at Itinerrance Gallery by Chrixcel.

With special thanks to Fatcap.com

Visa Problems? Don’t Worry. ROBBBB Will Take You To Europe

September 3, 2013 Artists

We like to say that the world has become more global over the last twenty years, but that doesn’t necessarily apply to you. Money, jobs, and trade are increasingly free to traverse boarders in this age of globalism, yes. Getting a visa to leave and explore and learn about another culture and come back home may still prove to be impossible, depending on where you live.

Beijing based Street Artist ROBBBB recently took a small troupe of his countrymen/women to Europe and put them on the streets of Milan, Florence, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon. He says it is a sort of cultural exchange, even if the real people in these wheat-pastes never left home.

“I put the most real and authentic Chinese people in these pieces so that they could be in a different political, social and cultural environment in Europe,” he explains of the six-city tour. “I also wonder how the Europeans will think of these Chinese subjects and what their reaction is to seeing them in these locations.”

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BSA Film Friday: 08.30.13

August 30, 2013 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening: Augustine Kofie in Paris with TRBDSGN, C215 is “Dreaming In The Back of The Classroom”, Ben Slow with Jim McElvaney and Best Ever in London, and Know Hope prepares for “The Abstract And The Very Real”.

BSA Special Feature: Augustine Kofie
in Paris with TRBDSGN

Kofie, Hobz and Honda address the wall schematically and with precision; an integrated and collaborative conversation with cans, tape, diffusers, an improvised protracter, and cell phones of course. It’s an unassuming record of a dedicated trio working together while kids fly by on transportation methods that are similarly time-tested as well as improvised.

C215 is Dreaming In The Back of The Classroom

For his recent TED Talk Christian Guémy reveals his philosophical approach to his creativity on the street, the impact of his personal relationships and his life path on his work. It is instructive to see the profound effect of a persons’ biography on the selection of work and even how it is expressed on the street.

(Turn the CAPTIONS button on lower right corner for subtitles)

Ben Slow, Jim McElvaney and Best Ever in London

Four guys on Old Street in London take on the challenge of a huge wall together at The White Collar Factory by Fifth Wall.

Know Hope prepares for “The Abstract And The Very Real”

The weight of the world, patriotism, and his place in the street. Living in Israel, Street Artist/fine artist Know Hope understands well the personal, the political, the historical – and how a continuously charged environment affects the art he creates. For his new gallery show at Lazarides, the artist reflects on his poetic approach to abstract realities. While examining walls, borders, and fences Know Hope pursues avenues to show how the bonds between emotional perceptions and political ones are inseparable.

Paris: A Mid-Summer Mural Art Dispatch

August 19, 2013 Artists

A quick look at three new murals from Paris today as the summer of ’13 has been one full of mural art around the northern hemisphere it would appear. Today we check the very active Street Art scene in Paris, which occasionally boasts large-scale murals as well.

Illustrator Alexis Diaz, or La Pandilla, has been travelling around Europe this summer (London, Turin) and we look at his most recent fantasy in Belleville to start us off. You may see similarities to Phlegm and even Gaia here in his work as he combines human limbs and animals to create heretofore non-existent hybrids and hand rendered illusion.

The scale here is also pretty impressive as Tunisia’s eL Seed carries his calligraffiti to ever larger installations since knocking out that minaret in Gabes last year and the series of underpass walls on Salwa Road in Doha. Finally we get a peek at Paris-based artist Pole Ka as she offers a new piece in her series of anatomies on the street.
Our special thanks to Sandra Hoj for sharing her images with BSA readers.

eL Seed painted this huge mural on a building set for demolition. View from the Metro near “Quai de la Gare” Station. Paris. (photo © Sandra Hoj)

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Exposition Art Urbain – Colletion Nicolas Laguero Laserne (Paris, France)

July 28, 2013 Afghanistan

Exposition Art Urbain
Vernissage le mercredi 4 septembre 2013 de 18h à 21h
Exposition du 4 au 15 septembre 2013.

La collection d’art urbain sera accueillie dans les 200m2 de la Mairie du 1er arrondissement de Paris.

Environ 50 œuvres seront présentées à cette occasion. Des grandes figures de l’art urbain telles que Barry Mc Gee, Banksy, Blu, Boris Hoppek, Dem 189, Dran, Faile, Invader, Jacques Villeglé, Jef Aerosol, Jonone, JR, Lek, Ludo, Rero, Roa, Shepard Fairey, Sowat, Speedy Graphito, Swoon…
Mais aussi des nouveaux talents de la scène urbaine tels que Roti ou Studio 21 bis…

Exposition Art Urbain – Collection Nicolas Laugero Lasserre

Culture Jamming Street Artist COMBO Stages Topless Spectacle in Paris

July 18, 2013 Artists

A Femen Revolution with French Street Artist COMBO

In the face of 21st Century misogyny and a general discomfort with public nipples of the female variety, a male street artist named COMBO just staged a high profile half naked protest with wheat-paste, brushes, and breasts in Paris on July 14. Reinterpreting the painter Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People that commemorated the July Revolution of 1830, COMBO brought the famous topless symbol of Liberty into the streets of 2013 by way of tribute to a brash new feminist movement that is appearing more often across Europe.

COMBO. “Femen Leading The People (or the street’s tribute to feminism)”. Detail. Paris, France. July 2013. (photo © and courtesy the artist)

“By hijacking such an iconic piece of art,” says the twenty something art director cum Street Artist, “I want to denunciate the discrimination and other misogynistic behavior that women still suffer too often and to pay a tribute to the activists’ fight.” The activists in this case are people like Inna Shevshenko, the Gen Y leader of Femen, a theatrical and warrior-like group of women who advocate in public displays of power and bare chests to address issues like sexism, misogyny, homophobia, religious hypocrisy, and sex trafficking.

COMBO. “Femen Leading The People (or the street’s tribute to street feminism)” Paris, France. July 2013. (photo © and courtesy the artist)

Sure, breasts of young women are naturally attention grabbers and they’ve been accused of cheap manipulation to sell an idea but they contend it is on par with the same objectification that is used to sell shampoo or cars and this time women are the decision makers regarding message.

“A woman’s naked body has always been the instrument of the patriarchy,” Shevshenko is quoted as saying in The Guardian, “they use it in the sex industry, the fashion industry, advertising, always in men’s hands.” Rather than presenting the allegorical goddess-figure of 19^th century painters, these women are not striking a pleasant, pleasing and pliant pose, but rather one of power in their efforts to champion rights for women and girls.

COMBO. “Femen Leading The People (or the street’s tribute to street feminism)” Paris, France. July 2013. (photo © and courtesy the artist)

It’s traditional for the President of France to unveil a new version of the heralded Marianne on July 15 to be used on an official stamp, and COMBO may have intended to upstage the unveiling by a day. And in a matter of uncanny timing, this little bit of wheat-pasting presaged the news that the actual inspiration for this years model was none other than Inna Shevshenko.

According to Reuters “A postage stamp depicting France’s cultural symbol Marianne has touched off a flurry of controversy after one of its creators revealed it was inspired by a topless feminist activist who hacked down a Christian cross in Kiev last year with a chainsaw.”

Which leads us back to the Street Art installation and photo op – COMBO tells us that his new piece stayed complete for only one day until it was smothered by graffiti.

Well, not the top half.

La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People) by Eugène Delacroix, 1830

COMBO. “Femen Leading The People (or the street’s tribute to feminism)” Paris, France. July 2013. (photo © and courtesy the artist)

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Galerie OpenSapce Presents: Augustine Kofie “California Soul” (Paris, France)

May 20, 2013 Afghanistan, Artists

Augustine Kofie
Vernissage en présence d’Augustine Kofie, le samedi 25 mai de 16h à 20h à la galerie Openspace – 56 rue Alexandre Dumas, Paris 11ème

Infos pratiques :

GALERIE OPENSPACE
56, rue Alexandre Dumas, Paris 11e
Du mardi au samedi, de 14h à 20h
M° Alexandre Dumas (L2) ou Rue des Boulets (L9)

AUGUSTINE KOFIE – VERNISSAGE DE L’EXPOSITION ‘CALIFORNIA SOUL’

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