Saturday, 30 October 2010
WRITE ON AFRICA
Whilst much has been written recently on the Wide Open Walls project in the Gambia we thought our readers would be interested to hear about the following ongoing project. Whilst WoW is without doubt loaded with well intentions, I must say we're still a little ambivalent about what "exporting" this culture to far off places means. It's a sensitive area and one that Write On Africa seems to have handled really well.
WRITE ON AFRICA
In 2008 five artists set out on a 9 day road trip to the Transkei stopping off in communities along the way and painting art for the unsuspecting public.
Medium : “street art”.
6 communities in nine days. Huts, shacks, abandoned buildings, shabbeen walls and nursery schools.
Ricky Lee Gordon from Write on Africa, and Cal Burns from Matchboxology, the creative activists behind this initiative, are both passionate about this project growing and reaching more people,
Ricky wants to continue to travel and paint for the unsuspecting communities taking new artists along for the experience everyone time as he believes it is possible to paint sensitive social but positive messages to even those who are in remote places.
“As an artist it just makes so much sense to me to interact with an audience. I care about the issues we face here in Africa and there is a lot of work to be done. Next year we are planning to travel and paint for unsuspecting communities with new artists coming along for the ride at different parts of the trip.
Our journey was an incredible experience for us as people and impact-full on each of us as artists not to mention the many communities we left with color.
This trip wasn’t a crusade to change the world but rather a cultural experiment. We engaged with people we wouldn’t usually interact with,and our art allowed us to do this,our motivation was also art for arts sake,as we left with some amassing documentation of our work on these new landscapes.”
Artists
Freddy Sam, Faith47, Hac one, Rowan Pybus (film/photography), Jessie Doucha (Driver friend/chef/photography /happy thoughts).
More on the project here
Supported by:
The Scrutinize HIV campaign
http://www.scrutinize.org.za
Scrutinize is a national campaign being undertaken by USAID/Johns Hopkins University/JHU Program in South Africa in partnership with the popular youth brand Levis, other South African partners with creative incubation by Matchboxology.
Many experts have joined in providing Victor with the ammunition to give to you so that we can eliminate the element of the HIV surprise.
Mat©hboxology
http://www.matchboxology.com
Mat©hboxology guides senior management to see social needs as market needs - aligning organisational growth and social growth as intertwined. The revolution of Marketing 2.0 is embracing that consumers and communities want to change the world for the better with their favourite brands and organizations.
Word Of Art -Creative Art Agency.
http://www.word-of-art.co.za
Word Of Art is a stronghold of creative talent that creates opportunities, provides insight, and represents artists in many sectors of the creative industry.
As agents, curators, managers and producers of art, we offer tailored services and implement a range of beneficial pioneer projects for our clients, from concept to fruition.
Through our not for profit writeonafrica initiative we continue to try add to the creative growth of South Africa.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
BEN EINE GOES PRO
Nice all round interview that covers the recent explosion of interest in Eine's work. Eine, Word to Mother and DFace created a crazy trackside collab piece for us back in 2008, will try and dig out the images and post up.
Eine
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
SAVE THE ROA RABBIT
Following on from our recent local campaign to save the Logan Hicks Nuart mural, we've just been informed of another of Nuart 2010s artists work being at threat of removal, this time in London.
It's an interesting development to see an artform that was pretty much born of the internet, using the same medium to mobilize an international fan base to try and save key works, often in communities far away from their own.
The Premises Studio in Hackney are currently the proud owners/hosts of one of Roa's key Rabbit works. The work was painted with their full knowledge on the side of their wall. (Their premises - not a council owned wall.)
They've just been served a 14-day removal order, failure to remove it will result in Hackney Council removing it themselves and billing the Premises for the time, and you know that ain't going to be cheap.
A save the Rabbit petition has been started on the link below. Hopefully fans of Roa's work for Nuart can spare the 20 seconds it takes to sign the petition.
http://www.petitiononline.com/PremROA/petition-sign.html
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
HERAKUT AT MONIKER
Took these a couple of weeks back when at Moniker artfair in London, still can't get over just how good Herakut's work is. Piece is titled "It's not always good to be Golden" which put me in mind of the Hirst piece from 2008.
Timelapse from Babelgum
This alongside the Espo were absolute highlights of the event.
Images from the opening here
Herakut website here
Monday, 25 October 2010
ALEXANDROS VASMOULAKIS
Greek painter, Nuart 2010 artist, muralist, and installation artist Alexandros Vasmoulakis’ collaborated with Athens-based graphic designer Paris Koutsikos to complete a ‘Perfect’ mural in Berlin, Germany. It is their biggest wall thus far.
We received these a couple of weeks ago from Alexandros Vasmoulakis but they were left hanging in the drafts folder. Interesting to read the thoughts behind his work as "pseudo-advertising", places the work he did for Nuart in a different light.
"Perfect. A piece of "pseudo-advertisement" that neglects beauty and offers a ''product'', which is broken and wild. It can be neither sold nor bought; it smiles, screaming its perfection out loud. The magnificent world of advertisements, smiling faces, beautiful bodies, heavenly vacations, give their place to two crumpled girls who, ultimately happy, praise imperfection".
Saturday, 23 October 2010
MAKING OF BANKSY'S "EXIT THROUGH"
Great video interview with producer Jaimie D Cruz and editor Chris King on the making of Banksy's film "Exit through the Giftshop".
Putting together a documentary with a director who doesn't show his face in public, 100s of cassettes of footage that is not catalogued, and an unpredictable charater at the center of it. But these guys did it and discuss it with DP/30's David Poland
Source
Thursday, 21 October 2010
PRISONER OF THE ROAD
PRISONER OF THE ROAD
It's rare that we post anything that isn't directly related to art on here, but as most of you know we also run the Numusic Festival alongside Nuart, this would normally be posted on the music site. However, not only is it probably the best track I've heard all year, it's also raising money for a cause that we hold dear to. As it's a Norwegian track and charity we thought we'd give it some exposure and share it with our international readers.
The track is by ex Madrugada vocalist Sivert Høyem, it's entitled "Prisoner of the Road" and was made to raise awareness and promote the work of The Norwegian Refugee Council who are this year’s recipient of the Norwegian National Charity Telethon on Sunday 24th of October.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent, humanitarian non-governmental organisation which provides assistance, protection and durable solutions to refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide.
You can buy the single from itunes, here
More Info ; www.nrc.no
Donate Here
Tv Aksjon (Norwegian Only)
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
NEW FROM SWOON
Swoon jumps into the Detroit project, carefully pasting her portraits and lace-like paper pieces onto the interior of an ailing Detroit home.
Juxtapoz, along with Power House Productions out of Detroit, teamed up to purchase homes in the community which artists Swoon, Ben Wolf, Monica Canilao, RETNA, Rene Almanza, and Richard Colman will be beautifying over the coming days and weeks to help build a sustainable community.
The funds to purchase these Detroit homes were raised through the Juxtapoz 15th Anniversary Art Auction in November 2009.
More on the project at Juxtapoz
JR WINS TED PRIZE !
Fantastic news.. JR wins $100 000 TED prize. Just to illustrate how big a deal this is for Street Art, two previous recipients of this prize were Bill Clinton and Bono !!!
We were absolutely honoured to host the Scandinavian premiere of JR's "Women are Heroes" during this years Nuart, a truly stunning and moving documentary that in our opinion should be on every country's national curriculum. Well done JR !!!
From Tedprize.com
JR, a moving and innovative artist who exhibits freely in the world’s streets, has been named the recipient of the 2011 TED Prize — an award granting $100,000 and something much bigger: a wish to change the world with the support of the TED community.
JR represents a new chapter in the TED Prize. While a seemingly unconventional recipient, his work matches the creativity and innovative spirit of TED’s community, and his art inspires people to view the world differently –- and want to change it for the better.
JR creates what might be called pervasive art.” Working with a team of volunteers in various urban environments, he mounts enormous black-and-white photo canvases that spread on the buildings of the slums around Paris, on the walls in the Middle East, on broken bridges in Africa, and across the favelas of Brazil. These images become part of the local landscape and capture people’s attention and imagination around the world.
In Rio, he turned hillsides into dramatic visual landscape by applying images to the facades of favela homes. In Kenya, for his project “Women Are Heroes,” he turned Kibera into a stunning gallery of local faces. (See the trailer for “Women Are Heroes” above.) And in Israel and Palestine, he mounted photos of a rabbi, imam and priest on walls across the region –- including the wall separating Israel from the West Bank.
JR remains anonymous -– never showing his full face, revealing his name, or explaining his huge portraits –- to allow for an encounter between the subject and passers-by.
“JR’s mind-blowing creations have inspired people to see art where they wouldn’t expect it and create it when they didn’t know they could,” said TED Prize Director Amy Novogratz.
Over the course of the next months, JR will be working with the TED Prize team to develop an auducious wish that will involve the world in a brand new piece of art. The wish will be announced at TED2011 in Long Beach, California, at the end of February. Watch TEDPrize.org for news.
FROM NYT
Award to Artist Who Gives Slums a Human Face
by Randy Kennedy
It’s not common for important philanthropic prizes to go to people whose work involves criminal trespass and who make statements like the following: “You never know who’s part of the police and who’s not.”
But the TED conference, the California lecture series named for its roots in technology, entertainment and design, said on Tuesday that it planned to give its annual $100,000 prize for 2011 — awarded in the past to figures like Bill Clinton, Bono and the biologist E. O. Wilson — to the Parisian street artist known as J R, a shadowy figure who has made a name for himself by plastering colossal photographs in downtrodden neighborhoods around the world. The images usually extol local residents, to whom he has become a Robin Hood-like hero.
For most recipients, the value of the six-year-old award has less to do with the money than with the opportunity it grants the winner to make a “wish”: to devote the funds to a humanitarian project that will almost inevitably draw donations and other help from the organization’s corporate partners and influential supporters. The chef Jamie Oliver, the 2010 prize winner, recently proposed setting up an international effort to further his campaign against obesity; Mr. Clinton’s wish has channeled significant resources toward the creation of a rural health system in Rwanda.
From the NYTIMES.. Read the full article and check out the slideshows here
JR Website
LOGAN HICKS MURAL SAVED
We haven't posted on this previously as most of the debate has been in Norwegian only, also because we didn't really want to start a mass campaign or create any overtly critical responses that could jeopardise our ability to secure walls for future Nuart events.
We'd noticed a few months ago that the shopping center that we produced the Logan Hicks piece on back in 2009 was undergoing a major external refurbishment. We tried to find out what the plans were for the work, whether it would be painted over or preserved, but our mails weren't answered, we were well into production on Nuart 2010 so it was forgotten for a while. A few weeks ago we noticed the scaffold had now moved into place over the work. Nuart assistant Kristel asked one of the workers what their plans were for the work and was told it would be painted out.. white. She contacted the center and was told in no uncertain terms that the work would be buffed.
Now here's the dilemma..the piece was downtown in a very central location and served as a fantastic advert for street art and it's ability to brighten up and make more interesting what is a pretty depressingly commercial area. But....as much as we and the surrounding community loved the piece, it wasn't our wall, it had been given to us in good faith and we generally hold to the conventional view that one of the interesting aspects of Street Art is its lack of preciousness and self importance, its "Religiosity"if you like, coupled with its intrinsically ephemeral and transient nature.
This raised quite a few interesting questions for us.
1) How could we campaign to save a work for the community on a wall that doesn't belong to us and that could potentially damage our ability to create works on private and public property in the future.
2) If a central tenet of Street Art's being and beauty is it's transient nature, how could we legitimately campaign to save the work.
3) If works are to have preservation orders placed on them, who decides which works to keep and for how long and which works to buff.
4) Are large scale semi-legal Street works to fall under the term "Mural"?, what's the difference between a "Mural" (which presumably should be saved) and a "Street Art" piece (Which can seemingly be buffed at random)
Having pondered on the above, we thought fuck it, who cares, let's try and save it and pontificate on the issues later.. we called the center's owners to see if they would be willing to keep it and were met with an initial icy response of "No, it will be painted over.. It's our wall".. or words to that effect. And they're right of course. Fortunately we had a considered answer " Yes, but it's in our Community"... " Yes, but it's our wall".... Now had this been a smaller private company and not a large Trans-European corporation that pretty much dominates the center, we may have left it at that, but we felt the center owners had enough resources at hand, took enough out of the community in way of rental charges and billboard revenue..that they could afford us this one little concession. One piece of art in a sea of otherwise bland consumerist billboard propaganda.
At the end of the day, we decided to simply publicize the case through local media and let the people decide. The case took off.. and today we're very happy to announce that the center's management and owners have decided to retain the work.
Thanks to everyone who took part and offered support through our facebook pages and local media and a special thank you to Steen og Strøm and the center's management for *"Keeping the Piece".
* See what I did there
Media case below..
NRK : Logan Hicks Mural Saved
NRK : Mural can be painted over
R Avis :Mural could be saved
R Avis :Keep Hicks Mural
PS : If anyone has any considered responses to the questions listed above, we'd be happy to hear them
PPS : If you've been considering donating a wall to Nuart, don't let this put you off. Just read this article in todays The Sun ;)
Thursday, 14 October 2010
INVADER SHOW
Incoming ! Invader show
Roma 2010 and other curiosities
Wunderkammern
From 23rd October to 21st December, Wunderkammern exhibition space will host the first Italian solo show of Invader: "Roma 2010 and other curiosities".
From the Press Sheet
Invader is an artist working in anonymity. Born in 1969 in Paris, he is one of the most important and original international street artists and has exhibited in many prestigious galleries and museums across the world.
Invader is known above all for his public interventions inspired to the Arcade Game Space Invaders, created in 1978 in Japan. His operations are tied up to creative practices of "interference" through which he traces unique trails in the collective space, shaping new signs in the urban landscape. The naturally public formality of his interventions – suspended between visibility and anonymity and between real and virtual spaces – as well as the choice of icons present in the collective memory and practices of the youngest generations, offers a meaningful and original reading of our cultural patrimony.
With the invasion of Rome occurred over the summer, the artist has finally added the Italian capital in the list of the more than forty cities he has invaded so far: from Katmandu to Bangkok, from small urban centres to great city metropolises such as New York, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and above all Paris.
The exhibition at Wunderkammern will present various aspect of his work: from the alias replicating the space invaders of Roma to works made with his original RubikCubism technique, by means of the coloured modules of the famous puzzle, re-presenting images extrapolated from the realm of art history or popular culture, along with specific installations and curiosities. The invasion guide of Roma and the brand new 19th printed invasion map will also be presented in exclusivity at the opening.
On the occasion of the artist's presence in the city, Wunderkammern’s exhibition space opens once again to the dialectic comparison between ordinary and extraordinary, by drawing its own poetry closer to Invader’s narrative language. The artist revisits the urban space generating wonder and transforming daily routes into unique journeys.
Invader Website
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
CHOE & DVS1'S HORSE REAPPEARS
Originally the piece by David Choe and DVS1 created during Nuart 2009 appeared too strong for the public, and certainly for the owner of the wall, who angrily pointed out that an evil devil riding a cyber stallion with a massive hard on into his family bistro, was not what he had in mind when first approached.
The piece was subsequently whitewashed and replaced by a Skewville storefront piece. As the Skewville pasteups have been removed, the devil horse is reappearing from the hinterlife. Could be something to do with the guys recent flirtation with the nine levels of hell.
We've read an abundance of articles on how the ephemeral and transient nature of street art is intrinsic to the form, but this is the first time we've ever witnessed a piece come back to life.
Not unlike Brad Downy's recent experiments on Vienna's Graffiti Wall of Fame.
Photo courtesy of GT
STEN & LEX & GAIA
Nuart friends and family Sten & Lex are joined by NYC's Gaia at Brooklynite Gallery next week for what's shaping up to be an outstanding show.
Their recent show at Rome's CO2 gallery sneaked under most people's radar, here's hoping that Brooklynite and their online fraternity can give this the attention it deserves.
S & L's meticulous and unique approach to stencil art is truly something to behold, it pushes the boundaries of an artform renowned and developed for its *"quick hitness" into a new & more reflective territory. Contemporary ? yes ! But also a touch of the ancient and eternal.
* yes, we're inventing the vocabulary as we go. Sorry about that, it's still early.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
BRAD DOWNEY. REDISCOVERS GRAFFITI
I wouldn't say I loved Brad Downey, that would sound odd, however, he's probably the one artist I have the closest affinity to, and as such, when I see his work and ideas in motion, I get a warm feeling inside. How's that for art criticism ?
Two days working on a small section of The Graffiti Wall of Fame in Vienna.
Fifteen years of hidden layers. Attempting various chemical and mechanical processes to rediscover.
This is the first test.
Brad Downey_was here 2010
BOMB IT 2
Was an honour to secure the rights to screen BOMB IT part 1 at Nuart back in 2007, filmaker and director Jon Reiss is back with Part 2.
Bomb it 2 is the follow-up to Jon Reiss's explosive graffiti movie Bomb It, which through interviews and guerrilla footage of graffiti writers in action told the story of the graffiti movement.
Babelgum commissioned this exclusive sequel, which visits territory unexplored in the first film, including Tel Aviv, Singapore, Bethlehem, Copenhagen, Chicago, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Perth, Austin and Jakarta.
KAWS AUCTION
Classic Kaws piece up for auction, this is one we wouldn't mind having at Nuart Towers.
KAWS
Untitled, 2000
Acrylic and screenprint on canvas. 86.7 x 68.6 cm. (34 1/8 x 27 in). Signed and dated ‘KAWS 2000′ on the reverse.
ESTIMATE £12,000-18,000
Phillips de Pury day Sale
Monday, 11 October 2010
DOLK AND PØBEL
Thought we'd published these earlier but seems not, Norway's Dolk and Pøbel were again in Lofoton late this summer to continue their assault on abandoned houses and barns.
Photos: Rolf Petter Nikolaisen/Nrk
BANKSY, THE SIMPSONS
Banksy scripted intro to The Simpsons takes a massive kick at Fox, Korean film cells, Chinese DVD and T-Shirt outsourcing, rats, death and child labour. Doesn't get much darker than this, how the hell he got away with it is anyone's guess.
"According to Banksy, his storyboard led to delays, disputes over broadcast standards and a threatened walk out by the animation department."
""This is what you get when you outsource," joked The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean."
The episode, called MoneyBart, will be shown in the UK on 21 October.
More from the BBC here
UPDATE : How did The Simpsons manage to track down Banksy.
How did “The Simpsons” manage to track down Banksy, the pseudonymous British artist, and get him to create the powerful opening-credit sequence from Sunday’s episode, which seems to reveal the torturous sweatshop responsible for the show’s creation? And how, after all that mockery, have the producers behind that Fox animated series been able to retain their jobs? Al Jean, an executive producer and the longtime show runner of “The Simpsons,” pulled back another layer of the curtain and explained the stunt to ArtsBeat on Monday afternoon.
Q. How did you find Banksy to do this, and now that it’s done, how much trouble are you in?
A. Well, I haven’t been fired yet, so that’s a good sign. I saw the film Banksy directed, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” and I thought, oh, we should see if he would do a main title for the show, a couch gag. So I asked Bonnie Pietila, our casting director, if she could locate him, because she had previously located people like Thomas Pynchon. And she did it through the producers of that film. We didn’t have any agenda. We said, “We’d like to see if you would do a couch gag.” So he sent back boards for pretty much what you saw.
Q. Were you concerned that what he sent you could get the show into hot water?
A. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it for a little bit. Certainly, Fox has been very gracious about us biting the hand that feeds us, but I showed it to Matt Groening, and he said, no, we should go for it and try to do it pretty much as close as we can to his original intention. So we did. Like we always do, every show is submitted to broadcast standards, and they had a couple of [changes] which I agreed with, for taste. But 95 percent of it is just the way he wanted.
Q. Can you say what got cut out?
A. I’ll just say, it was even a little sadder. But I would have to say almost all of it stayed in. We were thrilled. It was funny, I watched “Mad Men” last night and I wondered if this was my Don Draper letter to The New York Times. I knew just how he felt. But it was great to have a secret.
Q. One of the things Banksy is known for is disguising his identity. How can you be sure that you were dealing with the real him?
A. The original boards that we got from him were in his style and were certainly by an extremely proficient artist. We were dealing with the person that represented him making the movie. I haven’t met him, I don’t even know what he looks like, except what the Internet suggests. And he’s taken credit for it now so I’m pretty sure it’s him. We went through the people that made the movie so I assume they would know how to get to the real him.
Q. Even compared to how “The Simpsons” has mocked Fox in the past, this seemed to push things to a different level. Are you sure there’s no one higher up than you on the corporate ladder who’s displeased with this?
A. I think that we should always be able to say the holes in our DVDs are poked by unhappy unicorns.
Q. Has Banksy’s criticism made you reconsider any of the ways you do things at “The Simpsons” in terms of producing the show or its merchandise?
.....
From Artsbeat. Read the full interview here
Saturday, 9 October 2010
FRESH BANKSY
Fresh new Banksy stencil referencing Keith Haring.. that's Koon's, Haring.. Basquiat next !
Image courtesy wooster
Friday, 8 October 2010
HELL'S HALF ACRE
HELL'S HALF ACRE
Art exhibitions that manage to inspire me to get off my lazy ass, book a flight and jet off to foreign lands are few and far between, however, I'll be making an exception for this one. Lazinc and The Old Vic Tunnels present Hell's Half Acre. Whilst the Frieze Art Fair, taking place the same weekend, is my real idea of the eighth level of hell, Lazinc go the whole hog and provide us with the full nine. Quite a few Nuart friends and tunnels rats, including David Choe and Vhils have already finished their contribution, can't wait to see what's in store. It's rare that galleries get down and dirty and deep into production values beyond banging a nail in the wall and hanging a framed piece. Be good to see how the concept plays out. Divine ? Comedy ? or both..
From the Press Release
The labyrinth of tunnels beneath Waterloo station are being converted into a large-scale evocation of Dante's Inferno. Visitors will explore a unique interpretation of the nine circles of hell through the vision of your very favorite Laz artists plus additional contributions from outside the normal roster including: Conor Harrington, Vhils, George Osodi, Antony Micallef, Doug Foster, Todd James, Paul Insect, Mark Jenkins, Boogie, Ian Francis, Polly Morgan, Jonathan Yeo and many more ... Interaction with the works will be encouraged as part of this multi-sensory experience.
Hell's Half Acre will be open for viewing from 12th to 17th October, 6pm till 11pm Tuesday to Thursday, with extended hours over the weekend.
The labyrinth of tunnels beneath Waterloo station are being converted into a large-scale evocation of Dante's Inferno. Visitors will explore a unique interpretation of the nine circles of hell through the vision of your very favorite Laz artists plus additional contributions from outside the normal roster including: Conor Harrington, Vhils, George Osodi, Antony Micallef, Doug Foster, Todd James, Paul Insect, Mark Jenkins, Boogie, Ian Francis, Polly Morgan, Jonathan Yeo and many more ... Interaction with the works will be encouraged as part of this multi-sensory experience.
Hell's Half Acre will be open for viewing from 12th to 17th October, 6pm till 11pm Tuesday to Thursday, with extended hours over the weekend.
Entry to the exhibition will be free, but as space is limited you will need to book ahead.
Read the full PR sheet here
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
WORD TO MOTHER
A firm Nuart favourite, Word To Mother, will be opening a new solo show at Stolen Space this coming Thursday. We had the pleasure of a studio visit not so long back and can tell you the detail, not to mention the soul, in this new body of work is a real development.
The video really captures the feel and detail that goes into one of WTM's pieces, a refreshing change from the usual banging Hip Hop soundtracked stencil art videos.
BLIND BY STARDOM
Private View: Thursday 7th October, 6-9pm
‘Blind By Stardom’ the much anticipated solo show by Word To Mother invites the viewer to look past the exterior or what is immediately apparent and question what is behind. Referencing popular childhood characters Word To Mother asks the viewer to question the agenda of media that is subjected to us, involuntarily sculpting our values and opinions.
‘Blind by Stardom’ is a comment on society being conditioned to worship fame and celebrity status as a way to keep the masses occupied so to keep them from questioning anything. Distractions in the form of everything from fluffy rendered characters to synthesised pop songs and reality television are used as a front to conceal a more sinister agenda. Nothing is as it seems, taking a cynical view of visual language we are confronted with everyday, nothing is literal anymore.
A limited edition of 100 zines with hand printed cover, full colour print, signed and numbered by Word To Mother will be exclusively released, available from Friday 8th on the StolenSpace website
Please contact Leon with any queries or requests for more information on works available
+44 207 247 2684
leon@stolenspace.com
Sunday, 3 October 2010
NUART. NORDIC JEWEL OF STREETART
We were pleasantly surprised this week to find Nuart being featured in what is probably the worlds largest News site.
FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST
The small, oil rich coastal town of Stavanger in Norway must be feeling a bit blue right now, if elated; with all these new super-sized paintings in the streets. The Nuart 2010 artists have packed up their brushes and dispersed after two weeks of scaling walls and leaving monumental murals for the town to help endure the long, dark winter months ahead. The festival, in it's 5th year under curator Martyn Reed, featured some supremely independent masters of the craft including Street Artists like Blu (Italy), Vhils (France), Roa (Belgium), Dolk (Norway), Erica Il Cane (Italy), EVOL (Germany), Vasmoulakis Alexandros (Greece), Sten & Lex (Italy) M-City (Poland), and Dotmasters (UK).
But Mr. Reed, the visionary engine behind this elaborate and accessible street art installation, doesn't limit himself to organizing just one large festival. Instead he double-tracks it with a hefty electronic-based music festival born from his years as a techno DJ and promoter. Numusic this year featured performances by luminaries like Kraut Rock granddaddies Neu! and American hip-hop cornerstone Grandmaster Flash.
The affable bad boy Reed took a moment this week to look at his route to success so far and tell BSA about what the Nuart festival is and why it is important to him.
Brooklyn Street Art: Putting on a festival of this magnitude must be a big task. How do you do it?
Martyn Reed: Actually, this year, though the largest in scale, was a much easier production than we've been used to. We've learned so much from previous events. All of this years artists were painters, so once set up, people were pretty autonomous. It helped that we spread out the production period to cover two weeks.
Brooklyn Street Art: What has been the town folks' main reaction when they see all the big creatures on the walls of their city?
Martyn Reed: It's incredible, there's nothing but love for Nuart in this city, and it's spread across a really broad demographic, from toddlers to grandparents, and from bakers to the city mayor.
It's interesting because in a city this size anything new, any new developments in culture for example, are judged on their intrinsic merits and not due to media hype or "trends". The city has a population of 120,000 and though a few will be aware of Banksy, Dolk etc., that will be it.
The art isn't really tied to a "culture", to Juxtapoz, or hipsters or the gallery set or to limited edition sneakers and vinyl toys or any of the other commercial detritus that's blossomed around the scene. It's simply art on the street; big bold beautiful artworks that noticeably improve the surroundings. It's astonishing to me that more city councils around the world haven't yet embraced and recognized the value of Street Art.
Brooklyn Street Art: You have combined music with the plastic arts. Is there a cross-over between the two? Does one influence the other when curating the festival?
Martyn Reed: Interesting question, but the short answer is no, not anymore. It's interesting in that Nuart was established to explore the questions you raise.
The Numusic festival, like many other European electronic music festivals, was born from an involvement in early rave and club culture. The social lives of art students began to merge with their studies and aspects of their academic pursuits began to influence club culture; especially with VJs, the early web, digital arts and new media. This proved an especially fertile and creative arena for subversives and artistic outsiders who naturally gravitate to these still lawless new frontiers.
I'd developed an interest in Street Art through being exposed to Banksy, I DJ'd at Cargo in London back in 200o/2001 he was having his first show there in the bar and courtyard.
But Mr. Reed, the visionary engine behind this elaborate and accessible street art installation, doesn't limit himself to organizing just one large festival. Instead he double-tracks it with a hefty electronic-based music festival born from his years as a techno DJ and promoter. Numusic this year featured performances by luminaries like Kraut Rock granddaddies Neu! and American hip-hop cornerstone Grandmaster Flash.
The affable bad boy Reed took a moment this week to look at his route to success so far and tell BSA about what the Nuart festival is and why it is important to him.
Brooklyn Street Art: Putting on a festival of this magnitude must be a big task. How do you do it?
Martyn Reed: Actually, this year, though the largest in scale, was a much easier production than we've been used to. We've learned so much from previous events. All of this years artists were painters, so once set up, people were pretty autonomous. It helped that we spread out the production period to cover two weeks.
Brooklyn Street Art: What has been the town folks' main reaction when they see all the big creatures on the walls of their city?
Martyn Reed: It's incredible, there's nothing but love for Nuart in this city, and it's spread across a really broad demographic, from toddlers to grandparents, and from bakers to the city mayor.
It's interesting because in a city this size anything new, any new developments in culture for example, are judged on their intrinsic merits and not due to media hype or "trends". The city has a population of 120,000 and though a few will be aware of Banksy, Dolk etc., that will be it.
The art isn't really tied to a "culture", to Juxtapoz, or hipsters or the gallery set or to limited edition sneakers and vinyl toys or any of the other commercial detritus that's blossomed around the scene. It's simply art on the street; big bold beautiful artworks that noticeably improve the surroundings. It's astonishing to me that more city councils around the world haven't yet embraced and recognized the value of Street Art.
Brooklyn Street Art: You have combined music with the plastic arts. Is there a cross-over between the two? Does one influence the other when curating the festival?
Martyn Reed: Interesting question, but the short answer is no, not anymore. It's interesting in that Nuart was established to explore the questions you raise.
The Numusic festival, like many other European electronic music festivals, was born from an involvement in early rave and club culture. The social lives of art students began to merge with their studies and aspects of their academic pursuits began to influence club culture; especially with VJs, the early web, digital arts and new media. This proved an especially fertile and creative arena for subversives and artistic outsiders who naturally gravitate to these still lawless new frontiers.
I'd developed an interest in Street Art through being exposed to Banksy, I DJ'd at Cargo in London back in 200o/2001 he was having his first show there in the bar and courtyard.
It hadn't occurred to me until around 2005, when I took over the curation of Nuart, that Street Art was occupying the same ground as these early digital pioneers. They had a similar message but potentially much greater coverage, were generating mass appeal, and all for the price of a craft knife and Internet connection. Suddenly new media looked like the bloated expensive state sanctioned art-form it was, obsessed with the technology of production when it seemed the real technological revolution was going to be in its ability to distribute.
Read the full article here
Read the full article here
The original article appears on Brooklyn Street Art
Saturday, 2 October 2010
CAPTURING BANKSY
No, it's not another Daily Mail attempt to unmask the Robin Hood of Street Art, but a request for images of street work for a charitable project to benefit Sight Savers.
What’s it all about?
Since the early 90s Banksy has created hundreds of ephemeral street pieces here in the UK and all over the world for the public to enjoy.
In that time hundreds of thousands of photos have been taken of these pieces by the public. Capturing Banksy wants you to help us create a crowdsourced book that celebrates Banksy’s street pieces using photos taken by you.
More info here
Sight Savers
What’s it all about?
Since the early 90s Banksy has created hundreds of ephemeral street pieces here in the UK and all over the world for the public to enjoy.
In that time hundreds of thousands of photos have been taken of these pieces by the public. Capturing Banksy wants you to help us create a crowdsourced book that celebrates Banksy’s street pieces using photos taken by you.
More info here
Sight Savers
Friday, 1 October 2010
EVOLUTION OF TAGGING
Barry McGee Feature from The Creative Lives on Vimeo.
"Høyre" leaders will stop tagging
One of the most influential artists of his generation Barry McGee aka twist was recently commissioned to create a mural on New York's Houston & Bowery wall. This iconic NYC wall, which over recent times has seen Keith Haring reproduced, work from Brazillian twins Os Gemeos and of course the much discussed and tagged piece from Shepard Fairey, was covered top to bottom by McGee and assistant Amaze in a wild array of bright red tags.
Although we've published news on this work before, we thought that those supporting the "Zero Tolerance" debate currently raging in Stavanger and the closure of the city's legal graffiti walls at Geoparken, could do with a little education. Unsurprisingly the "Høyre/Right" party managed to include the word "Knives" and "Possible" damage to cars in the area, in a typical attempt to instill fear and violence into a debate about whether kids in the region should be able to freely engage in art.
We hope the photos above help to illustrate how "tagging" in NYC of the 1970's and it's subsequent association with crime, race and violence by right wing political parties.. has somewhat evolved. Høyre please take notice.
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