2011/02/28
Buenos Aires,Italy, & Colombia
Triangulo Dorado, 'Floating Man', Buenos Aires Posted: 21 Feb 2011 12:35 AM PST    |
Centina + James Kalinda, Italy  |
Stinkfish, Bogota  |
Escif-Spain
Escif, 'Considering Gravity', Spain
Posted: 21 Feb 2011 07:26 AM PST
'Considering the gravity of stuff.' I like everything Escif does, but this is one of my favorite walls he's ever done
Paris & Brooklyn's Global Graffiti
Rae, Brooklyn
Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:53 PM PST
artist: Rae location: Brooklyn, NYC Tweet | share + Specter, Paris
Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:47 PM PST
From Specter's series of portraits of homeless people, called 'If I Saw You In Heaven'.
Zeh Palito,-Zambia
Posted: 25 Feb 2011 08:53 AM PST 
Zéh Palito is a Brazilian artist, but he just spent 6 months volunteering for DAPP, an NGO in Zambia. 'I think this trip was an amazing experience. I lived one life in 6 month. Many volunteers go to Africa, thinking that they are going to help peoples there, of course most of then they do it. But I think I learned more from then. There every day is a new life is a new lesson. I learned to enjoy every moment, situation, place, person. And don’t complain about things, or think that I have a problem, life has any problem, life is just beautiful.' artist: Zéh Palito location: Zambia
Zéh Palito is a Brazilian artist, but he just spent 6 months volunteering for DAPP, an NGO in Zambia. 'I think this trip was an amazing experience. I lived one life in 6 month. Many volunteers go to Africa, thinking that they are going to help peoples there, of course most of then they do it. But I think I learned more from then. There every day is a new life is a new lesson. I learned to enjoy every moment, situation, place, person. And don’t complain about things, or think that I have a problem, life has any problem, life is just beautiful.' artist: Zéh Palito location: Zambia
Blu-Ericailcane,Bologna
Blu: 'After months of freezing cold, painters crawl out of their cave… i went back to work with Ericailcane'
2011/02/16
2011/02/14
Mentalgassi - Spain. Getxo (near Bilboa)
Last month we featured a photo paste-up artist known only as "JR" who received the TED award .Now we'd like to present another similar artist from Spain we think you'll like the whimsical paste-ups from Mentalgassi
2011/02/11
Egyptian Protest Graffiti
Egyptians might be some of the first graffiti artists in history with their famous hieroglyphics and carvings found everywhere on ancient Egyptian tombs, but this new wave of art is different. Graffiti in Cairo today is dominated by anti-Mubarak messages on city walls, military tanks, and smartly-written signs carried by frustrated people, and it is taking over the streets and being used to protest against the current government.
One of the first works of graffiti I spotted was drawn on the Qasr al-Nil bridge, which was the scene of a huge battle on Friday between protesters and Central Security forces that resulted in protesters taking over Tahrir Square. The tear gas, which people later discovered was expired and extremely dangerous, was used heavily on protesters, who were picking up the small canisters and throwing them back at the CS forces or into the Nile.
The graffiti, which looks magnificent under the large lion statue standing at the mouth of the bridge, reads: Game Over Mubarak.
After the military forces took over control of security in the city, they were welcomed by the protesters with relief; the chanters often repeated, “We and the army are on one side.” Army officers were hugged and kissed. They reacted nicely to protesters as well.
“The army will never attack its own people,” one of the reporters in a newsroom I joined says. “They will act nicely with people, even if it was only for show to allow a military leader to become the new president.”
The tanks of the military are being used as billboards for graffiti. The clean, yellowish vehicles are now spotted with slogans cursing the current president, asking him to leave the Egyptian people alone, or asking for the support of the army.
One of the first works of graffiti I spotted was drawn on the Qasr al-Nil bridge, which was the scene of a huge battle on Friday between protesters and Central Security forces that resulted in protesters taking over Tahrir Square. The tear gas, which people later discovered was expired and extremely dangerous, was used heavily on protesters, who were picking up the small canisters and throwing them back at the CS forces or into the Nile.
The graffiti, which looks magnificent under the large lion statue standing at the mouth of the bridge, reads: Game Over Mubarak.
After the military forces took over control of security in the city, they were welcomed by the protesters with relief; the chanters often repeated, “We and the army are on one side.” Army officers were hugged and kissed. They reacted nicely to protesters as well.
“The army will never attack its own people,” one of the reporters in a newsroom I joined says. “They will act nicely with people, even if it was only for show to allow a military leader to become the new president.”
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| A young protester holds an upside down image of embattled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak overlaid with the words, "Leave you coward." The graffiti behind the youngster reads: "30 years of humiliation and poverty." |
Egypt's Got Graffiti ?!
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| Egyptian Graffiti |
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| Graffiti on Egypt's National Museum says no stealing and a poem |
Urban art is now a widespread phenomenon around the major metropolis and urban centres of the world and certain forms of it could be said to have existed for millennia. Graffiti can be defined as being inscriptions, slogans and drawings; scratched, scribbled or painted on a wall or other public or private surface. The word "graffiti" is derived from the Latin word "graphium", which means "to write." The term "graffiti" was originally used by archaeologists to describe drawings and writings found on ancient buildings and monuments in Pompeii, Egypt and in the Roman catacombs.
There are certainly many such scrawlings around Cairo, mostly consisting of advertisements for a variety of services, religious platitudes, football club slogans and occasionally amusing folk sayings. Also common are murals painted on public school gates and depictions of the Hajj pilgrimage and the ‘Khamsa’ or the hand of Fatima to ward off the evil eye. But graffiti that can be found in other cities is more of a rarity, the sort of graffiti associated with the hip-hop movement and the aspiration to turn oppressive urban spaces into vehicles for expression. In a way this form of graffiti, as well as street-art, can be considered “an equalization of expression in public contexts” as held by art critic Crispin Sartwell. In a world where only money or political power can purchase commercial space – street artists are artistic thieves in the best 'Robin Hoodesque' sense of the word – stealing expanses of ugly urban space in the name of freedom of expression and turning them into places of public discourse standing against bland authoritarianism. And slowly but surely a graffiti/street-art movement of this variety is emerging in Cairo and Alexandria, despite often clashing with governmental forces, as with the case of two graffiti artists from the opposition group known as April 6 Youth, Ahmad Maher and Amr Ali who were arrested for spray painting political slogans on Feb 17, 2010.
Also worth mentioning is small group named Alex Street Art, which organizes graffiti workshops based in Alexandria. The group, a brainchild of fine arts student Aya Tarek, started off in 2008 as a graffiti-art collective known as Foq wa Taht (Above and Below) on the groups' blog http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/ Tarek explains that her intention behind founding the workshops is “to build an organised Egyptian street-art movement. The majority of Egyptians have never been to an art gallery in their lives, simply because the art presented in such white cubes doesn’t reflect them; it doesn’t reflect their realities. It’s mostly westernised and made for the enjoyment of certain highly-sophisticated people. Art should not be limited, it should open to everyone, and so if Egyptians still fail to reach art, we will bring art to them, to a wall just around the corner,” she maintains. Gradually the movement is building up momentum with workshops and graffiti-related events being organised by prominent cultural centres all over Cairo with the aim of prompting more and more people to create much needed art for the street - an art defined by its lack of elitism – true vigilante art.
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