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Posts Tagged ‘Graffiti’

Hybrid Graffiti: Black-and-White Stencils Bring Colorful Tags to Life

06 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

stencil-tags

Nearly photo-realistic figures stenciled in place make bright surrounding tags all the more vibrant in this series of street art juxtapositions by artist Martin Whatson of Norway.

graffiti-revealed-mural

graffiti-mural-context

The characters, generally rendered in black and white, are sized and scaled like residents and passers by in the built environment. The tags, rich and overlapping, look more like what most people would call “graffiti.” The anti-artist Gray Ghost comes to mind, famous for painting over the works of other artists, like Banksy.

graffiti-cleanup

graffiti-in-situ

On their own, each component is somewhat predictable, but in their interactions these works come to life. The characters look through windows surrounded by color, or sweep up street graffiti, or pull back walls to reveal it. The tags, in turn, add light and life to the scenes, points of color in a drab and dreary city.

graffiti-dander

graffiti-cyclist

graffiti-sailboat

Much of his work breaks this format as well, but generally still finds itself at the interaction of urban spaces and imaginary worlds. Below, a figure painting clouds on the wall gives depth and dimension on both fronts: the clouds seem to go back and the painter appears to stand out.

graffiti-clouds

graffiti-cover

graffiti-window

More about the artist and his approach: “Martin has a continuous urge to search for beauty in what is commonly dismissed as ugly, out of style or simply left behind. He looks for inspirations in people, city landscapes, old buildings, graffiti, posters and decaying walls. This interest for decay has helped develop his style, motives and composition and he enjoys creating either unity or conflict between materials, backgrounds, motives and human intervention” (via Colossal).

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Prismatic Graffiti: Bending Light into a Spectrum of Wall Murals

20 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

light art making

These intricately choreographed dances of light and color are at once static but ephemeral, lasting longer than conventional light graffiti but nonetheless made of impermanent light.

light wall art

light art graffiti

Stephen Knapp is a sculptor and muralist who has worked in metal and glass, but his latest array of light paintings turn the latter toward a new and more indirect purpose.

light in gallery museum

light art glass detail

His pieces are not sketched, programmed or otherwise visualized in advanced, but emerge as he begins cutting, polishing, shaping and places pieces of glass on the wall. Unlike many light graffiti artists, the work does not rely on a photographer capturing a fleeting moment, but can be put up on museum walls indefinitely.

light art prisms

light reflected art mural

“The fun of what I do with light, is that there is nothing in our visual memory that prepares us for what I’m doing,” says Knapp. “The fact that what I create can just be done with light, that there is no paint on these panels, is absolutely astounding to people. What I am trying to do most of all here is challenge any traditional notion of perception. What is it? Is it real? Is it not real? Does it matter?”

His work has been featured in galleries around the world from Boise to Naples and a solo exhibition is currently on display at the Pensacola Museum of Art.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Legible Graffiti: Repainting Street Art for Digital-Age Audiences

11 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

legbility

Artist Mathieu Tremblin has hit the streets again, expanding on his portfolio of repainted tags, turning messy walls into neat and readable ‘tag cloud’ arrays.

tag wall before

tag wall after

His past works have turned murals into blocks of color or applied copyright watermarks to urban surfaces so they will show up in photographs, but this series seems to be an audience favorite, perhaps uniquely suited to a digital age.

tag door

tag door 2

In most cases, he simply takes a picture, paints over the existing graffiti (which, given public works, would probably not last long anyway), then matches the relative size and color of the vanished tags but in a consistent typographical style.

tag new

tag new 2

One could argue he the makes dynamic surfaces of Rennes, France static rather than simply legible, but it does raise questions about the intersection of words and meaning when it comes to street tagging. The content seems lost when rendered in boring fonts rather than a stylized hand.

street art repaint

strete art before after

‘The principle of ‘Tag Clouds’ is to replace the all-over graffiti calligraphy with readable translations like the clouds of keywords which can be found on the internet,’ Tremblin says.

tag new

tag new 2

“It shows the analogy between the physical tag and the virtual tag, both in form (tagged wall compositions look the same as tag clouds), and in substance (like keywords which are markers of net surfing, graffiti are markers of urban drifting).”

tag clean

tag clean 2

Oddly, too, the results stand out more than the original graffiti, thanks to familiarity – our mind is so used to seeing and dismissing curvy tags, but comprehending and reading fonted text.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Shadow Graffiti: Typographic Sundial Transforms Building Facade

25 Jun

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

typographic sundial 1

Integrating the shadows cast by everything from stop signs to public benches into street art often requires the luck of seeing the piece in action at just the right time of day, when the shadow is in just the right spot for everything to line up as intended. Catching it in action feels like serendipity and adds a little bit of magic to ordinary urban settings. But in the case of this particular work of shadow art, you could literally stand in front of it all day and just watch it transform before your eyes. The lettering attached to the facade of a building in India’s Lodhi District changes its angle as the sun moves across the sky, acting like a sundial.

typographic sundial 3

typographic sundial 2

‘Time Changes Everything’ by Indian street artist Daku requires the sun’s harsh light in this location and the stark white facade of the building to even be visible to passersby, virtually disappearing on a cloudy day or at night. Get close to the wall and look up, however, and you’ll get a new perspective on the piece, viewing the words upside-down. The theme relates to the passage of time, with words including ‘age,’ ‘illusion,’ ‘season,’ aim’ and ‘memory.’ They start out in italics and then shift into prime legibility at noon before leaning in the other direction.

typographic sundial 4

The installation is part of the first dedicated public art district in India, turning the neighborhood into a gallery that’s available to everyone. ST+ART India invited 25 local and international street artists to contribute to the project, which aims to make art accessible for wider audiences “while having a positive impact on society.” Check out more of Daku’s work on Instagram.

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Subtractive Art: Botanical Wall Graffiti Crafted by Cutting Vines

04 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

spy wall art botanical

Taking cues from both tree sculpting and reverse graffiti traditions, SpY’s work in Besancon, France, turns pruning into a mural-making technique, shaping vines into a circular work of wall art.

spy wild vines carved

spy in man lift

Seeing a shape hiding in the wild-growing vines, the artist rented an elevated work platform and began to cut into the vines, picking and trimming his way around key branches to create a perfect circle.

spy work progress

spy finished mural

The result is rather stealthy, easy to mistake as perhaps some kind of natural pattern, and well-composed, a round shape against a rectangular backdrop, with nods both to nature and architecture. As an organic work, it must be maintained, or perhaps part of the art is in how it goes wild all over again.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Painting in VR: Kingspray Graffiti Simulator & Google Tilt Brush

24 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

graffiti simulator

Virtual reality is not just about interacting with people at distance, or engaging with static worlds designed by others – it can also be a place where users are invited to create their own works of art and design. Games and apps like the two featured here (in videos below) are opening up new digital worlds for creatives to explore and shape.

graffiti simulator experience

The Kingspray Graffiti Simulator, currently in development, gives players a palette and can of spray paint, adding realism through trips and spraying effects. Walking around the simulated world, artists can paint over and re-tag, then walk around to view other works and step back to enjoy the view.

tilt brush artworks

The Tilt Brush app from Google lets users sketch and draw in three dimensions. While the Graffiti Simulator places you in 3D space painting 2D surfaces, the Tilt brush actually lets you paint in space all around you. In turn, the finished pieces can be experienced from various perspectives by the artist and viewers invited to share the experience.

3d art

light painting

“Tilt Brush, at its core, is a virtual reality painting application. It creates something anyone can use, intuitively, for kids, artists, and absolutely anyone,” say the app’s developers. “Within the first 30 or 45 seconds, anyone can start VR painting and making marks in space all around them… It allows everyone to see how powerful VR is and how transformative it will be.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Le Corbusier Murals Applied as Graffiti to Notre Dame du Haut

18 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

corbu vandalized notre dame

Actual murals made by architect Le Corbusier have been digitally added to the walls of one of his most famous buildings, transforming Notre Dame du Haut, added an array of colors to its complex curves.

corbu chapel full size

Architect Le Corbusier, who passed 50 years ago, remains famous for his rigid Modernist works, but for spiritual spaces he made an exception, shifting from a rule-based to an artistic approach.

corbu chapel photoshop art

Still, the resulting structure was simply white and gray, devoid of color until these murals were introduced. The thin-seeming walls are covered from the ground up, but so too are the thick swooping roofs that curve up and around, seeming almost to float above the sides.

corbu modern graffiti mural

The fictional images were crafted by Belgian photographer Xavier Delory, who applied a set of artworks Corbu made for an architectural colleague.

corbu chapel side view

“Le Corbusier was not only an architect, he was also a painter and sculptor. He is the author of the phrase ‘synthesis of the arts’ meaning an alliance between painting, sculpture and architecture. At first he thought about what painting and sculpture could bring to architecture, not playing a decorative role but rather ‘as a house guest’ in a second phase, he moved this level of synthesis to a fusion of modern architectural styles at Ronchamp.”

vandalized savoye

In a previous series, the same photographer re-imagined the Villa Savoye, another famous work by Corbu, sparking a series of fake stories suggesting the iconic house had actually been vandalized.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Appeals to Authorities: 16 Shots of a Year-Long Graffiti Sequence

11 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

What started with a single stenciled word (“RED”) became a year-long interactive art experiment, as graffiti artist Mobstr tested the patience, limits, diligence and ingenuity of officials tasked with cleaning up his work. This was not his first work aimed at the establishment, but it may be his most epic visual dialogue with authorities to date.

“I cycled past this wall on the way to work for years. I noticed that graffiti painted within the red area was buffed with red paint. However, graffiti outside of the red area would be removed via pressure washing.”

“This prompted the start of an experiment. Unlike other works, I was very uncertain as to what results it would yield. Below is what transpired over the course of a year.”

Over the year, as the sequence shows, the artist continually tried to think outside the (red) box, and challenge his adversaries in fresh ways. In a way, the end result was predictable but could also be interpreted as a subtle nod to the original message.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Graffiti to Go: Vibrant Murals on a Fleet of Freighters

25 Feb

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

street art freighters 1

The drive along Spain’s highways just got a lot more colorful for thousands of motorists lucky enough to glimpse one of ten semi-trucks decorated with murals by artists like Javier Arce, Okuda San Miguel, Daniel Muñoz and Marina Vargas. A total of 100 artworks are planned for the ‘Truck Art Project,’ a cultural program bringing vivid street art stylings to public places where they normally wouldn’t be seen. Entrepreneur and art collector Jaime olga, who owns the distribution company Palibex, organized the project in collaboration with Iam Gallery Madrid.

street art freighters 3

street art freighters 10

street art freighters 5

The coolest thing about this project is that the beauty isn’t just on the outside. While it would be great to see freight vehicles offer up their boring, unbranded flanks to artists all over the world as they go about their routes (somebody get on that!), this project takes the concept a step further by offering exhibitions inside, becoming mobile galleries bringing art to small towns and rural areas. That means it’s not just big city dwellers who get to experience it – exposure that could inspire a future generation of artists.

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“The initiative thus becomes a living showcase of the latest trends in painting, drawing and street art in our country (although the ambitious program intends to show further multidisciplinary involving other techniques such as photography, music or film,) away from the white cube and destined to a receiver that is not the usual contemporary art in contexts that are also favorable.”

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street art freighters 8

street art freighters 6

Lots more pictures, and information about each individual artist, can be found at the Truck Art Project website.

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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May The Art Be With You: Star Wars Stormtrooper Graffiti

04 Jan

[ By Steve in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

White-armored stormtroopers of the Star Wars universe may be the true face of the franchise if their stenciled images on walls worldwide is any indication.

Sure their aim is lousy and low door frames are their nemesis but the stormtroopers of Star Wars have done a decent job of conquering pop culture since their 1977 debut. Just ask Los Angeles-based street artist Thierry Guetta – aka “Mr. Brainwash” – who employed them in his “Better to Dream Big” art exhibition in 2012. A gentle top o’ the cap to Artc. and Flickr user Jonas Bengtsson (Jonas B) for posting the above images.

Start the Revolution Without Me

“Hasta la republica siempre” (“To the republic always”) states this subversive stormtrooper stencil snapped by Flickr user Daniel Lobo (Daquella manera) at Washington DC’s Garfield Skatepark on July 28th, 2013. Did this red renegade deliberately disobey Order 66 or merely read it upside-down as 99 reprO?

Go Home Stormtroopers, You’re Trunk

If you start seeing pink elephants after leaving a Brighton, UK pub, maybe you’ve had a pint too many. If larger-than-life stormtroopers are riding those elephants, on the other hand, fear not – it’s just the local street art. Credit presumed street artist “MINTY”, Flickr user Quick HR (quickhr) and Instagram user @gallie23 for the above mildly hallucinogenic scenes. Right then, back to the pub!

Fashion Fighter

“I love Star Wars and in particular Stormtroopers when used in Graffiti or Stenciling,” states Flickr user Walt Jabsco, who captured this fashionable film fighter on a sunny May 30th afternoon in 2008. “I don’t like the fact someone has given this one a blue pendant or Chest Logo but it’s still cool,” adds Jabsco, and with or without the blue bling we have to agree.

The Best Bad Thing

May the Foco be with you, amigos! All things considered, prolific graffiti artist Foco’s colorful mural is the highlight of this run-down district in Itagüí, Colombia. Featuring a cute c’thulu-esque stormtrooper, the mural is captioned “Buena compañía, buenos consejos, las mejores cosa mala” by Flickr user Foco Graffiti, translated as “Good company, good advice, the best bad thing.” Make of that what you will.

City of Lightsaber

It’s been over three years since Flickr user Geoffroy65 captured the stunning tableau above, located near the Bassin de la Villette in Paris’ 19th arrondissement. Let it be said that street art this good deserves to be preserved for posterity. The piece is signed “Marko93″ though it’s indeterminable whether the numeral denotes the artist’s age or the year he composed this piece.

Rooster Trooper

Strange goings-on in Cardiff, Wales, where Flickr user Squid…Mk recorded this rooster-riding stormtrooper on August 3rd of 2012. Will we ever see such a sight in some yet-to-be-made Star Wars flick? At the rate they’re being planned & produced, it might not take as long as you think!

360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Graffiti’

Hybrid Graffiti: Black-and-White Stencils Bring Colorful Tags to Life

Prismatic Graffiti: Bending Light into a Spectrum of Wall Murals

Legible Graffiti: Repainting Street Art for Digital-Age Audiences

Shadow Graffiti: Typographic Sundial Transforms Building Facade

Subtractive Art: Botanical Wall Graffiti Crafted by Cutting Vines

Painting in VR: Kingspray Graffiti Simulator & Google Tilt Brush

Le Corbusier Murals Applied as Graffiti to Notre Dame du Haut

Appeals to Authorities: 16 Shots of a Year-Long Graffiti Sequence

Graffiti to Go: Vibrant Murals on a Fleet of Freighters