In 2007 the global population living in urban environments passed the halfway mark, and that trend is accelerating. As cities become bigger and denser, and within the rigid structures of a mass-market society, truly meaningful personal interactions become increasingly elusive. The anonymising effects of scale and excess on the actor in the postmodern city can lead to a shared sense of social isolation.
In Four Cities Black Rat Projects will take a look at the four artists whose experience of urbanity propelled them to create within their environment in similar ways. With new works by represented artist Swoon, and secondary market works sourced from Os Gemeos, Banksy and Shepard Fairey, BRP will map the parameters of the street art movement across continents through the voices that emerged simultaneously as the strongest of their respective city scenes.
Artists featured: Swoon, Os Gemeos, Banksy, Shepard Fairey
Where –
Black Rat Projects When –
20th May – 23rd June 2011 (Preview – 19th May – 6-9pm)
Meet Mehdi Ghadyanloo, a proficient street artist from Teheran, Israel.
The artist style is ‘illusion’ and his works always need you to look again and again to understand what it is all about but that illusional aspect is most definitely why so many people appreciate it.
Surreal scenes are often depicted in his murals such as a man floating up into the sky and holding on helium balloons.
Mehdi Ghadyanloo is a painter and designer based in Tehran, Israel. His street art is extensive. What makes his artworks particularly intriguing is that they are full of dimension that tricks the brain.
Taschen booksample sale in Sloane Square will be taking place at their store at 12 Duke of York Square, Chelsea, London SW3 4LY from 26-29th January.
Expect to find unique books and enjoy strolling through Taschen store in South West London. We included below a selection of some of the items you will be able to buy.
Gisele by Taschen
> Born in the Brazilian countryside, and nearly six feet tall by the age of 14, Gisele Bündchen grew from humble roots into the most successful supermodel in the world. This book celebrates her 20-year milestone in the industry with a unique and spectacular collection of jaw-dropping glamour and intimate, personal insights.
Mario Testino – in your face by Taschen
> Mario Testino’s boundless talent with a camera must be maddening for other photographers working in a highly competitive field, but he remains one of the most revered stars in his profession. Often imitated and never equaled, Testino is graced with a natural ability to float effortlessly from studio to backstage to after-party, producing stunning shots in any kind of situation.
About Taschen
TASCHEN, founded as a small comic shop in Cologne, Germany in 1980, is today renowned as the world’s leading publisher of illustrated books. Our twice yearly warehouse sale offers open copies from our full program of fashion, design, photography, travel, lifestyle, art, pop culture, and sexy books for 50-75% off their list price.
This year our sale is from 26-29th January and the store at 12 Duke of York Square, Chelsea, London SW3 4LY is open 10am-7pm.
This project is focused on using anything but a traditional canvas to create art. It looks at connecting with the surroundings and use anything and everything to help you make your art.
Events and paint jams will take place and took place this summer which the video below will show you. To coincide with the events, limited edition prints will be released as t-shirts.
In last summer’s event, David Walker, Mr Jago, She One, Will Barras and Bue the Warrior produced great works on retro furniture, car parts and more.
Do not miss the WCP Gallery event where you’ll be able to see some of the works produced for the project. Preview on Thursday 13/10 – 81 Leonard street | EC2A 4QS. The show runs until the 17/10/11.
Time to show some support and also to expose the polluted water issue that is happening right now in China.
“Not only is China one of the world’s twenty most water deficient countries, but irresponsible corporations and slack government has made water pollution highly prevalent in China. Today, as much as 70% of all rivers, lakes, and reservoirs in China are affected by water pollution, and with each passing day the situation only gets worse.”
Greenpeace is using what can called ‘street art’ and has launched a campaign by some creative street installations across the globe recently – mannequins bearing the Chinese symbol for water – ? ‘Shui’
Some have been spotted in London, see the pictures below.
The year: 2001, the place: Buenos Aires, Argentina, the event: a terrible economic crash.
The outcome and most probably the best one: the explosion of the street art scene. Artists as a reaction to what was happening started to paint the streets and for some of them in a rather large scale.
Buenos Aires Calling is the show Graffitimundo presented at Pure Evil with the aim of bringing a feel of this scene to London.
I got very excited when I heard about this show as I know how much Argentina and the whole Central and South America street art scenes have been buzzing in the recent years.
I walked into Pure Evil and saw those stencils on the wall and thought ‘hmmm another set of stencils, I have seen it all before’ but looking at them closer and especially those from the artist rundontwalk and I was actually liking what I was seeing.
By Rundontwalk | Click to enlarge
Rundontwalk uses an intricate graphic in his stencils (strangely reminding me of the back on those chairs I have got at home) which apart from being a certainly noticeable technique skill, gives another dimension to the works. The tiling sort of effect reminded me of Paul Normansell’s way of painting.
On of the pieces using this intricate technique is ‘Influenza’ representing a pig wearing a mask which the artist painted in reaction of the panic that followed the swine flu outbreak. Great effect with great colours.
Click to enlarge
I did appreciate the other stencils from other artists but really liked these tiny pieces of art full of colours on oddily shaped pieces of wood representing even querky characters or abstracts. I found a ressemblance with BASHER’S world of characters.
Stencil technique has been embraced by a very large number of artists these days like in Argentina and if the technique is pretty much the same worldwide, I felt that this collective of artists and more generally South and Central american artist really want to put accross a message and do not just do stencils where esthetic is what only matters but their meanings too.
Nothing wrong with wanting to put out there a cool looking Goldie type stencils but it is nice to know that some artists really try to engage their audience by trying to deliver a message to them.
This show really managed to transpire how much the Argentinian street art scene is vibrant and not ready to die just now, oh no.
Colours, colours, there are loads of them, shapes, representations are everywhere like street artist right now in Buenos Aires and surroundings. Feels good.
Lego, lego and lego. We like it very much here at ART-PIE and were very excited to learn about the release of their latest short film – The Brick Thief.
To make it even better, the whole thing is in stop-motion.
Taschen 
