Tuesday, 30 June 2009
WK INTERACT INTERVIEW
New York based street artist WK Interact’s work is inspired by the concepts of movement, gesture, and place. His site-specific pieces have garnered notoriety through the obvious concern for spatial context with which he approaches each location and through his fluid depictions of figures in motion. Blurring lines between street art, fine art, and design, WK Interact has exhibited in galleries internationally and collaborated with brands such as Nike, Adidas, and BMW. Watch the interview from “The Run Up,” available for the first time to the public for free, on Upper Playground Walrus TV
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
RECYCLED GRAFFITI
Monday, 22 June 2009
Aakash Nihalani’s urban art consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares. The execution of the pieces is done with almost no planning and placed on places around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city.
Saturday, 20 June 2009
PAINTBALL GRAFFITI FROM EPOS 257.
Loving this idea from Epos 257 out of Prague ! Hoping it becomes a trend !
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
NUART 09 : DAVID CHOE FOR UPPERPLAYGROUND
In 2008 Juxtapoz Magazine, along with Upper Playground asked David Choe, Alex Pardee, Saber, and Retna to paint their way across the United States.
Traveling the country from Washington D.C. to the Bay Area with spray cans in their hands and cameras following, they bombed, brushed, and painted, leaving a swath of color and creativity in their wake. This short documentary piece, set to the music of Cutsoquick, captures the artists as they hit the streets collaborating on huge pieces and connecting with fans and admirers of their art from all walks of life.
Monday, 15 June 2009
DECKED OUT NUART DECKS
Last year we invited our artists to create a one off unique deck that will sometime in the near future be auctioned for our decked out project.Decked Out is a charity dedicated to channeling some of our resources into the townships of South Africa and beyond. We've hooked up with SHiT Skateboard company and are currently working on setting up various projects in Durban where the youth are being decimated by gluesniffing. Workshops, Skate Ramps, Graffiti projects, Recylcled decks and numerous other projects are planned for 2010.
We'll be asking participants from Nuart 09 to contribute in some way, shape or form. It's early days and formalities of setting up the charity are laborious, but once it's up we'll post more news.
NUART 09 : CHRIS STAIN
Friday, 12 June 2009
BANKSY EXCLUSIVE FOR BRISTOL POST
The Bristol Evening Post can exclusively reveal that the mysterious artist, best known for his subversive stencil graffiti work, has taken over much of Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery.
We even have a world exclusive in publishing a picture of the outlandish installation that will greet the hundreds of thousands of art lovers who are likely to descend on the city through the summer from around the world.
Banksy's Summer Show, entitled Banksy vs Bristol Museum, opens to the public tomorrow, and will run for three months. Admission will be free.
Exclusive interview with the Bristol Evening post here
HOMECOMING FOR BANKSY
World-famous graffiti artist Banksy has returned to his home city of Bristol to hold an official exhibition.
Staged in the council-owned City Museum and Art Gallery, Banksy v Bristol Museum features animatronics, installations and a sensory display.
"This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off," said Banksy.¨
The exhibition runs from 13 June to 31 August 2009.
It is Banksy's largest project to date and features more than 70 of his pieces.
"This show is my vision of the future, to which many people will say: 'you should have gone to Specsavers'", added the artist.
The exhibition and its location have been a closely-guarded secret since October, with just a handful of museum officials in the loop.
"I think we may have dragged them down to our level rather than being elevated to theirs," said Banksy of the subterfuge involved in staging the show.
Although Bristol has seen work by Banksy adorn the city's outdoor walls, this is his first official indoor exhibition in the city since 2000.
That show was held at the Severn Shed restaurant on the waterfront and featured several paintings which have since gone on to sell for thousands of pounds at auction.
Banksy has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Bethlehem.
He became famous after a series of 'guerilla' stunts which saw him paint the West Bank barrier and put an inflatable figure of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner at Disney World.
It was Bristol where he first made his mark though, with a series of graffiti paintings on iconic local buildings such as the city council headquarters, an M32 bridge and the Thekla floating nightclub.
His work has since become highly collectable.
From BBC's website
Thursday, 11 June 2009
BANKSY SNEAK PEAK
From bristol-street-art.co.uk
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
BANKSY SHOW CONFIRMED
After a few weeks on the rumour mill Banksy finally confirms his new show. Opening this Friday somewhere in Bristol.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
SWOON IN VENICE
The Brooklyn artist Swoon and her merry band of anarchists from deepest Bushwick are invading the Venice Biennale this week—on boats built from garbage. New York City garbage. There's a terrific interview here from NYmag with Nuart participant Swoon on her amazing journey to Venice with her Swimming Cities project.
NUART 09 : GRAFFITI RESEARCH LAB
Our favourite New York terrorists will be back at this years Nuart providing us with the all important cultural alibi we need to justify spending public funds on Graffiti Art. An often overlooked aspect of Mr Powderly's stunning work. GRL, we salute you !
NUART 09: LOGAN HICKS RETURNS.
Stencil master and all around nice guy Logan Hicks will be joining us again this year. Here's a short vid on one of the pieces he did for us in 07.
NUART 09 : LEON REID IV
Leon Reid IV alongside Brad Downey is perhaps one of the worlds foremost urban sculptures operating in our cities over the past ten years. Leon will be joining us for a couple of weeks in Sept for Nuart 09 where he'll be teaching at the local artschool as well as creating a few of his globally renowned street works. Here he explains a few of his motives behind his latest commission earlier this year.
NUART 09 : NUART TAKES SHAPE
Article on this years Nuart education program which will see Leon Reid and Chris Stain take over the first two weeks of term at the art school. Previous teaching programs, workshops & atists presentations from the likes of Graffiti Research Lab, Rene Gagnon, Nick Walker, Know Hope & Zeus have led to a massive increase in applications for the course. It's long been one of Nuart's ambitions to have the styles and techniques of street art and graffiti being taught in the education system. After all, a can is just a tool for applying paint right ?
NUART 09 : BRAD DOWNEY
There are multitudes of signals and systems that govern our cities and imperceptibly determine our everyday movement. Artist Brad Downey stakes a claim for the right of the individual to interpret and understand these systems, and thus regain power in the public arena. We're very proud to have him participate in this years Nuart Festival !
This interview gives a little more insight into Brad Downey's work and methods. Brad will be joining Nuart this year for a week of gallery and street work. There'll also be a screening of Brad's brilliant documentary "Public Discourse" at the city cinema. Possibly the best most gritty doc on street art there is. This and his book "Darius and Downey" are still available on Brad's website, we highly recommend you buy them !
NUART 09 : DAVID CHOE TO NUART !
NUART09 : SWOON
Swoon is an street artist known for her paper wheat-paste cutouts of people that interact with, and become a part of the urban landscape. The nature of her art lends itself to “beautiful states of decay” and her paper cutouts explore the use of negative and positive space. SWOON’s works have been displayed at the MoMA, PS1, Tate Modern and at galleries such as Deitch Projects (NYC) and Gallerie L.J (Paris).
Friday, 5 June 2009
SKEWVILLE FACTORY FRESH
2012
Factory Fresh and
Mighty Tanaka present:
AVOID, BLOKE and FARO
Friday, June 5th 7-10pm
Show runs till June 21
This June AVOID, BLOKE and FARO converge at Factory Fresh, bringing with them an assorted collection of unique styles that exemplify the next generation of NYC street art and graffiti. The three artists known on the streets for ridiculously massive tags, culturally inspired graffiti and paper airplanes and airships have caught many peoples eye in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. On June 5th they will present their artwork as a group in a gallery for the first time.
The show is based on the year 2012, which represents a notion of change and transition within the world, marking the end of the Mayan calendar. Many view this year with apprehension, prophesying apocalypse, climate meltdown or a spiritual awakening. Currently, through the economic crisis and constant warfare, an artistic shift has taken place on the streets of New York City. Artists AVOID, BLOKE and FARO signify a changing of the guard in graffiti and street art. Meshing these two individual cultures into one, these three artists represent the overall change of how individuals view street art and graffiti, bringing it together as one.
AVOID, BLOKE and FARO have been constant contributors to the painted interpretation of the urban environment for many years now. Each artist has developed a text-based style as well as iconic imagery that have become ubiquitous details within our daily lives. Through blending their ideals and styles, they have created a symbolized view of the streets that transcends one world and ushers in another.
As we approach this time of great change, the 2012 show places the viewer in the middle of the transformation, setting about on an adventure through a shifting paradigm of the world. It seeks to enlighten and project the change that is constantly around us with the progression of both society and art.
