This is part 2 of a series of new works from the 10th Annual Street Art Fest Grenoble, with photographs by veteran photographer Martha Cooper. The massive variety, quantity, and quality of works at Grenoble place it ahead of many festivals, as you can see here. Many of the murals are in context with their surroundings and collaborate with them in a meaningful way. For its 2024 edition, the Street Art Fest Grenoble-Alpes celebrates its 10th anniversary under the direction of Jérôme Catz and The Spacejunk Art Center. Today we focus strictly on the big statements, and there are many.
Today, we have new works from the 10th Annual Street Art Fest Grenoble, with photographs by veteran photographer Martha Cooper to show us the way. This is the first of two installments. Grenoble, surrounded by majestic mountains, once again becomes a dynamic canvas for artistic expression in a way that distinguishes this region from many others. The 2024 edition of the Street Art Fest Grenoble-Alpes celebrates its 10th anniversary with a diverse showcase.
The Spacejunk Art Center, under Jérôme Catz’s direction, organizes the festival, which features a variety of street art styles, from large-scale murals to digital installations. The robust program aims to inspire and educate through concerts, exhibitions, guided tours, and workshops. The event promotes accessibility and cultural dialogue, encouraging interaction between artists and the public. Luckily for Brooklyn Street Art readers, Ms. Cooper has an investigative mind and also treats us to fresh shots of graffiti in the open and hidden spots.
This year’s lineup includes prominent artists such as Madame, STOM500, JACE, Fintan Magee, Innerfields, Belin, Maye, and Jimmy Dvate. They join the collection of over 400 murals already in the city, adding new layers of creativity and commentary. Although the artists do not all arrive simultaneously, the festival’s evolving schedule ensures fresh installations throughout the event.
We invite you to explore this series of photographs showcasing the latest additions to Grenoble’s artistic landscape. Stay tuned for the next installment.
From October 18 to 22, 2023, the Points de Vue Festival celebrated its seventh year in the realm of public art. This annual gathering brought together a group of nine artists, spanning local and international talents, to adorn the walls of Bayonne and the communes of the Northern Basque Country. Supported by a blend of private and municipal funding, the festival acts as a vibrant showcase for the diverse world of street art, skillfully blending pleasing imagery in murals across Bayonne, all while weaving a narrative that nods to the roots of street art and graffiti. Simultaneously, it seamlessly integrates the region’s rich cultural heritage, its inhabitants, and historical narratives.
Evolved in its presentation, the festival offers a comprehensive program encompassing exhibitions, concerts, and screenings, to cultivate an environment that encourages audiences to engage with artistic creation from multiple angles. Through interactive workshops, attendees have the chance to nurture their artistic potential, with encounters with artworks often igniting passions or fostering enduring curiosities. Since 2022, Points de Vue has also facilitated gatherings of visual arts professionals, openly addressing the ever-evolving dynamics of the sector with the public.
Today, the Points de Vue open-air gallery in Bayonne aims to transcend physical and intellectual confines, infusing streets, landscapes, and daily life with a unifying artistic essence. This year’s festival brought together artists from both international and local realms, showcasing a rich diversity inherent in their works. Whether through graffiti or contemporary art, these distinguished participants, drawn from various influences and backgrounds, leave their indelible creative mark on urban spaces, a trend increasingly witnessed at festivals of this nature.
Elisa Capdevila finds her muse in the ordinary occurrences of life, accentuating the lyricism of unassuming events in a life: a holiday, a familial repast, a stroll through the countryside… Her murals, dispersed across various European nations, make us envision and reflect.
After painting murals commercially for prominent brands, Sophie Mess heads on an artistic journey that she hopes will empower her to express her creative vision more freely. Now it looks like the world she conjures on urban canvases derives inspiration from the domain of botany. Infusing the urban landscape with vibrant hues amid its grey facades, Sophie Mess encourages onlookers to reflect upon the balance/imbalance of the natural world.
Exploring the conventions of classical art and graffiti, the artistic partnership of PichiAvo forges an urban dialect at the intersection of creative movements, a style embraced by both critics and the wider audience. Their creations consistently captivate with their colossal presence, where contemporary and ancestral elements harmoniously coexist.
A Franco-German artist, residing between Berlin and Chile, Jan Vormann restores city walls by incorporating a Lego mosaic within their crevices, and has been doing this for many years. His artistic statement carries a playful and peacemaking essence, subverting the monotonous world of grown-ups while playfully acknowledging the inner child within us all.
Starting in 2021, Points de Vue has been extending its reach beyond the confines of Bayonne, encompassing the expanse of the Communauté d’Agglomération Pays Basque. This expansion offers invited artists the unique opportunity to engage in residencies within local communities, enabling them to draw inspiration from their host locations. Over several weeks, artists immerse themselves in the local environment, fostering dialogues with community members to craft new works that mirror the essence of their welcoming surroundings. These interactions cultivate authentic exchanges, bringing urban art into new, personal territories.
For this year’s edition, the French-German artist Jan Vormann undertook a creative endeavor at the Gribraltar stele in Uhart-Cize, a historical site at the crossroads of the Compostelle pilgrimage routes.
Situated in the North Sea, 18 kilometers west of Haugesund, Utsira epitomizes Norway’s maritime heritage in Rogaland County. As the county’s smallest municipality, this 6.15-square-kilometer island with around 200 residents is deeply rooted in Norge traditions. Its historic dual-tower lighthouse has guided North Sea vessels since 1844.
Utsira not only boasts natural beauty and wildlife, including migratory birds and local livestock, but also showcases innovative sustainable energy projects, like their wind and hydrogen initiative from the early 2000s. Its archaeological treasures, from stone rings to burial mounds, echo the island’s deep heritage. Embracing both the old and new, Utsira has attracted international street artists here since 2014, enhancing its cultural tapestry. To experience this unique blend, take a ferry from Haugesund.
Icy & Sot, Issac Cordal, Pichiavo and Borondo have all created artworks here, so have SNIK, Hama Woods, and JPS, and several others during the last decade. The names are only as important as their proximity to a fan, as it turns out. As you cycle along the narrow winding roads or trek up the rocky hills, you might overlook it at first, but there’s likely a piece of street art nearby – just beyond where those two rams are butting heads.
Visiting the Utsira island for the first time in August of that year, public art curators and organizers Tor Ståle Moen and Borghild Marie were very curious about how the islanders would react to their idea. Would they welcome or resist the idea of bringing street artists to paint old barn doors or enormous seaside boulders in this pristine and remote home to 211 people?
“The island was 100% “clean” from any tags, graffiti, and street art,” says Tor. “They didn’t even have the names of their streets at that time.”
The magnetic charm of the island’s pristine beauty, deep-rooted history, and innovative spirit drew the duo back, time and again, to see more of the terrain and classic Norwegian architecture, and close-knit community. Over the span of a decade, people here warmly welcomed a handpicked ensemble of street artists, each personally cherished or inspiring to the pair. First-timers on the island are now treated to a subtly integrated treasure hunt of site-specific artworks tucked away and openly displayed in equal measure. The island’s lively art program has quietly become a shining example of how tight-knit communities can joyfully embrace the language of street art, all while celebrating and safeguarding their rich cultural heritage.
“The white-painted picturesque old-fashioned Norwegian wood houses were perfectly blended with the green and grey colored landscape,” Tor says of the environment where he and Borghild first inquired about their idea. “The answers came quickly as many people were interested in observing one of the artists while they were painting—and they positively commented on their art.”
“The oldest person living on the island, Tobias, was 87. He approached us and said, ‘There are too many grey walls in this world. Would you like to come over to my house and paint my wall in front?’ Of course, we reacted positively, and the artist ‘3 Fountains’ painted two kissing kids in front of his house. Tobias both smiled and had tears in his eyes when he saw the piece for the first time,” says Tor.
“‘Now, doesn’t the wall look much better?’” Tobias told Tor. “I used to work as a sailor back in the day, and I have seen street art in New York, Rio De Janeiro, and other cities back in the 70’s and 80’s. Finally, I can now see street art on my island. Thank you very much.”
We spoke with Tor Ståle Moen and Borghild Marie as they prepared to celebrate ten years of curating street art on the island of Utsira and asked them about their experiences there.
BSA: What were the origins of bringing street art to Utsira? How was the idea formed and presented? TSM & BM: Several of Tor’s street art friends wanted to come to Stavanger to paint, but Stavanger already had a festival curated by NuArt. Borghild Marie knew Utsira, with its unique environment and engaged population with Tove Grimsby as a passionate doer. So she wrote Tove, and asked if this tiny Island without street names wanted some street art. The answer was loud and clear: ‘Yes, please!’
BSA: Does the project rely on public funding? Is there funding coming from private donors? TSM & BM: The project has been supported by both public and private funding, but primarily with public funding, the Utsira municipality and the region of Rogaland as major donors. But private donors have helped with labor, material, food, housing, and support with travel costs, etcetera. The whole island has contributed, and we have as well.
BSA: Who is the project manager or director? Is she/he/they based in Utsira? TSM & BM: It’s more of a committee work, and by now, all involved are locals. We contribute as advisors when needed.
BSA: Can you speak about the residents and their involvement in the process? Did they have strong opinions in favor or against bringing street art to their island? TSM & BM: The islanders have greeted the art and artists, with great warmth. They have baked cakes, cooked dinners, taken the artists fishing, and invited them to their homes. Many of the artists have engaged in teaching art techniques at the school, and Icy and Sot conducted a beach cleanup together with the islanders.
BSA: Can you describe the collaboration between Martyn Reed, who ran the Nuart Festival based in Stavanger, and this Utsira project? How has the project evolved over time? TSM & BM: Nuart was invited to promote the events mutually to strengthen the whole region’s identity as a street art location, but their contribution is very limited.
BSA: What’s the process of extending an invitation to an artist to participate? It is such a remote location – how does the artist live there, and who do they interact with? TSM & BM: They have been housed in various ways, but most have stayed in the “artist in residence” space at the lighthouse.
BSA: Can you speak more about how residents have welcomed the artists and offered assistance or volunteered to help? TSM & BM: As answered above, the response has been overwhelmingly engaged and heartfelt. Many have contributed with gear (ladders, etc.), food, friendship, nature experiences, babysitting, etc. They express gratitude because the art enhances the everyday life on the Island, bringing new impulses and people to the Island.
BSA: The project is now in its 10th anniversary and recently, the British duo Snik painted on the island. What are the plans for the future? TSM & BM: We don’t know, but we have our eyes on big names who suit the Island well.
BSA: On a personal level, what does the project mean for you two, and how involved are you presently in bringing more artists to Utsira? TSM & BM: We have a deeply felt love and passion for Utsira and will support the project with our network and advice. But it is equally important to us that the islanders own the event. It’s their environment, and the art should live and breathe their voice and pace.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. MOMO “Final Call” Via Studio Cromie
2. 5 Minutes with: Rosy One (Schweiz)via ILoveGraffiti.de
3. PichiAvo “Used to Be” at Underdogs gallery in Lisbon
4. ARAI sings “Little Stupid Boy”
BSA Special Feature: MOMO “Final Call”
MOMO and that dude from Studio Cromie have an in-depth conversation about a new series of non-representational artworks by MOMO, as represented by that dude from Studio Cromie.
Buon appetito!
MOMO Final Call. Via Studio Cromie
First entranced by hip-hop culture in the late 80s and writing graffiti in the early 90s in Switzerland, Rosy One moved on to train bombing and was hooked for life. Rosy One says she doesn’t see herself accommodating herself into conventional society; she favors working alone although she’s been in crews, and describes her style as having a “sweet and tough” aesthetic, clearly influenced by the New York, Paris, and Berlin scenes.
Turn on the subtitles – they work!
5 MINUTES WITH: ROSY ONE (SCHWEIZ) VIA I LOVE GRAFFITI DE
“What first draws their attention is the mixture of graffiti with classical art. We try to convey our roots and that this is what we know.” PichiAvo have always traveled and spoken to you in the myths and the margins. The nexus of the two is the genius that can be found amidst the ruins, at the margins of society. Exposed to the elements, these generations are called to the fore, equally at home inside or outside.
“Our work is in the studio, and our work is in the street, and we aim for there to be a balance between both worlds.”
Keep your eyes open for a collaborative canvas with Vhils. Another diamond in the rough.
PichiAvo “Used to Be” at Underdogs gallery in Lisbon
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. MuralFest Kosovo 2022 2. PichiAvo in Linz, Austria 3. Graffiti TV 103: Ler2
BSA Special Feature: MuralFest Kosovo 2022
Doug Gillen’s register has dropped to something deeper in this new video at the Kosovo 2022 MuralFest that he does for his brand FifthWall TV. As ever, he seeks to connect you with the people who are working to engage their city with art in the streets. Adopting the theme “Offline” – the same as the 2018 Moscow Artmossphere International Urban Art Festival that we co-curated – the MuralFest artists are reconsidering life and community in a way that is free from the electronic platforms we have all been communicating on. It makes sense because art in the streets began here with the people and with the city.
MuralFest Kosovo 2022 via FithWall TV
PichiAvo in Linz, Austria
A quick soundless timelapse of the PichiAvo magicians doing their mural at Promenade Galerien in Linz in Austria.
Graffiti TV 103: Ler2
This episode of Graff TV features graffiti writer Ler2!
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. George Booth life at The New Yorker 2. DOES X JORIT team up for a large mural in Napels, Italy. 3. PichiAvo in Linz. Timelapse video.
BSA Special Feature: George Booth life at The New Yorker
Directed by Nathan Fitch, the iconic artist George Booth looks back on fifty years of work for The New Yorker.
Drawing Life: George Booth
DOES X JORIT team up for a large mural in Napels, Italy.
Get in, get out, no one gets hurt. Our few days in Miami were full of adventure on the street and at parties and receptions for artists. The party rages on tonight and this weekend at the fairs and in the galleries and bars and streets of course, but our last events were interviewing Faile onstage at Wynwood Walls last night, going to the Museum of Graffiti 2nd Anniversary party/opening for FUZI, and, well there was this thing with Shepard Fairey and Major Lazer and a guy proposing marriage to his girl before the crowd…
But really, where else but Wynwood do you see Blade and his lovely wife Portia on the street, or sit with Ron English and his son Mars on folding chairs directly on the street in front of his new pop-up, or have a hug with ever-sunny Elle in front of her lift, or hide in the shade with seven 1UP dudes across the street from their massive new space piece, or talk with Ket in the back yard with “Style Wars” playing on a large screen behind him and the DJ while a florescent colored Okuda marches by, or chase Lamour Supreme while he tries a one-wheel skateboard around a parking lot, nearly crashing into Crash who is in his cherry picker with Abstrk painting a wall? The dinner at Goldman Properties Monday night? Dude.
Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (screengrab courtesy of Wynwood Walls)
We’re not really name-droppers, you know that, but honestly it was like a family reunion dinner with perfectly punctilious attention to detail over at Wynwood Walls this week – after two years of Covid fears killing everyone’s buzz. We saw Daze, Shoe, PichiAvo, Bordalo II, Jonone, Shepard Fairey, 1Up, Add Fuel, Case MacClaim, Nychos, Faile, Martha Cooper, Nika Kramer, Mantra, Ken Hiratsuka just to name a few – cavorting with collectors, cultural workers, fanboys, journalists, bloggers, academics, critics, bankers, gallerists, curators, museum people, real estate folks, photographers, dancers, silk climbing aerialists and hustlers of many flavors – and all the class of ’21 artists whom Jessica Goldman invited to paint this year. A Miami mélange, we’ll call it.
Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (screengrab courtesy of Charlotte Pyatt)
We were even having dinner with Martha when a local stencilist named Gregg Rivero sat in an empty chair at the table with us to offer an array of small stencil works featuring graphically pornographic scenes – to choose from as a memento of Miami indubitably. Naturally, we carefully perused his entire collection of 20 or so spread-eagles, doggie-styles, Shanghai-swans, Mississippi-missionaries, Dutch-doors, bobbing-for-sausages, and lord-knows-what-else. After careful consideration and we each selected a favorite stencil and he autographed it. Just not sure what room to hang it in…
Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (screengrab courtesy of Wynwood Walls)
Our treasured part of the Miami art vortex ’21 was meeting some BSA fans and Faile fans mixed together at the artist talk hosted by Peter Tunney at GGA Gallery last night. An action-packed hour of pictures covering their 35 year friendship was on offer for the assembled – focused mainly of course on their 22 year professional career. What an amazing career of image-making it is too – and even though we were prepared, there are always surprises with such dynamic dudes who have parlayed an illegal street art career into a well-respected and pretty high profile career with intense collectors and fans of their simplest silk screens and works on paper to their wood puzzle boxes, wood paintings, toys, ripped paintings, and their very new, completely radical approach that breaks their own mold for this “Endless” exhibition. And need we say it, Faile have already released a number of NFTs of course – which some in the audience didn’t know that Faile had – but could have guessed since Faile pioneered interactive digital games that accompanied their analog works as early as 2010 when most people still didn’t even have a smart phone.
But we digress. Back in New York now and it’s grey and cold and unwelcoming, and of course we love it. Thanks Miami! See you soon.
The image below was taken in Wynwood, Miami. At the panel, with Faile, they talked about the process of making their art and one of the subjects was about ripping up posters from the street…. – and how their original name was Alife. Two blocks away we found these ripped posters advertising Alife.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Ocean Cleanup: “That’s A Big A** Catch” 2. PichiAvo: Venus de Mil in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 3. ASVP in NYC via Tost Films
BSA Special Feature: Ocean Cleanup: “That’s A Big A** Catch”
Are you looking for career fulfillment? To do work that actually matters? Here’s a path you may look into. Just look at the reactions and the faces of the people involved.
“The crew offshore in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch achieved our largest ocean plastic catch to date in a single extraction with System 002 on September 22nd, 2021. This load amounts to 3.8 tons and concludes the last short test of the campaign.”
Ocean Cleanup: “That’s A Big A** Catch”
PichiAvo: Venus de Mil in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A fresh new wall from the dynamic duo PichiAvo in Largo da Batata square in São Paulo. One of their strongest works to date, for the Nalato Festival.
ASVP in NYC via Tost Films
Filmmaker Mario of Tost Films captures a brand new abstract wall by Brooklyn’s own ASVP.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. A Kaleidoscopic Journey Through Money 2. My Dog Sighs “Inside” as Discovered by Doug Gillen and FWTV 3. PichiAvo’s Paris St-Michel mural
BSA Special Feature: A Kaleidoscopic Journey Through Money
The confidence and reverence that humans give to currencies is as much an article of faith as any religion can conjure. In fact, it is a requirement for any money not backed by gold – your faith. The motifs and icons and design flair employed in its presentation to the user are indicative of our values as well. Here the director and designer Lachlan Turczan breaks apart the elements, finds their similarities and differences, and delightfully, mesmerizingly, re-flows the results to a musical soundtrack by Blake Mills.
“I made hi-resolution scans of banknotes from 23 countries ranging from the 1800s to the modern-day. Machine learning was used to further enhance these scans so that I could zoom in on the intricacies of the engravings. Using replacement animation techniques, the guilloché patterns wash over the viewer in a barrage of linework and geometry. Iconic scenes throughout history are also shown: the age of exploration leads to industrialization, wonders of the world are replaced by office buildings and icons of freedom stand in stark contrast to images of slavery. The project culminates with the collective eyes of all world leaders staring back at the audience.”
My Dog Sighs “Inside” as Discovered by Doug Gillen and FWTV
Paul Stone aka My Dog Sighs in Portsmouth, UK is one of the interior immersive exhibitions that you have been hoping to go inside again but have been leary of because you might get sick and die. Now watch as your Doug sighs walking through the “inside” of this artist’s animated mind.
The PichiAvo duo continues around the world with classic gods intermingled and floating among graffiti gods. Here in Paris they depict Poseidon and Niké on the Boulevard St-Michel.
Madrid’s Art Week – who would believe that it could actually happen? And to prove it, we have the 5th Anniversary of Urvanity defiantly strutting from one end of the COAM headquarter to the other. Taking its original inspiration from graffiti, post-graffiti, surrealism, pop, and that broadly applied “Urban Contemporary” tag, Sergio and the Urvanity team have persevered this year again.
Case Maclaim presented by Ruby Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)
Where others have failed, Urvanity has succeeded and grown and even matured – with more than 25 national galleries and others from as far away as New York, Brussels, and Bogotá. This is not about fanboys and big unsubstantiated claims, Urvanity drives for quality, and it shows.
SANER presented by Swinton Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)
The talks this year revolved around high-caliber artists, gallerists, architects, and curators of projects that have made new pathways and invariably give you insight and inspiration in equal measure. BSA has been proud to sponsor this thinking-persons fair, along with the artists and creators; we even hosted their talks a couple of years ago and loved the folks we met there.
Here are a few images of fine art works evolving from the street practice of a number of artists whose names you may recognize.
PICHIAVO presented by Stolen Space Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)Laurence Vallières presented by Swinton Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)Grip Face presented by Limited by Solo Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)D*Face presented by Stolen Space Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada presented by Duran Monkey Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)Belin presented by Duran Monkey Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)Wasted Rita presented by Ruby Gallery. Urvanity 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of Urvanity Art Fair)
To see the complete list of galleries and the artists exhibited with the available works click HERE
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
