street art

 

Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to art of an illicit nature, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, and street installations. Typically, Street Art is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism, and corporate art.

The motivations and objectives that drive street artists are as varied as the artists themselves. There is a strong current of activism and subversion in urban art. Street art can be a powerful platform for reaching the public, and frequent themes include adbusting, subvertising and other culture jamming, the abolishment of private property and reclaiming the streets. Other street artists simply see urban space as an untapped format for personal artwork, while others may appreciate the challenges and risks that are associated with installing illicit artwork in public places. However the universal theme in most, if not all street art, is that adapting visual artwork into a format which utilizes public space, allows artists who may otherwise feel disenfranchised, to reach a much broader audience than traditional artwork and galleries normally allow.

Techniques

Whereas traditional graffiti artists have primarily used free-hand aerosol paints to produce their works, "street art" encompasses many other media and techniques such as wheatpasting, stickers, stencil graffiti, mosaic tiling, video projection and street installations.

For these reasons street art is sometimes considered "post-graffiti" and sometimes even "neo-graffiti".^{[citation needed]} Street art can be found around the world and street artists often travel to other countries foreign to them so they can spread their designs.

Guerrilla art

Guerrilla art is a street art movement that first emerged in the UK, but has since spread across the world and is now established in most countries that already had developed graffiti scenes. It is a street art which embraces a more active, aggressive and usually covert approach to adapting public space. It owes much to the early graffiti movement, in fact so much that in the United States guerrilla art is still commonly referred to as "post-graffiti art".

Guerrilla art differs from other art forms in the fact that it has no external boundary between the image and the environment. While a traditional painting can be moved from one gallery to another without the meaning or the artistic credibility of the piece being affected, street art is environmental, the surface to which it is applied to being as fundamental to the piece's meaning as that which is applied. Without the dynamics of modern life, guerrilla art is reduced to ‘art for arts sake’ and would accordingly be defined by what it is as opposed to what it does.

The production of guerrilla art is focused on cause and effect, not the material piece itself. It aims to produce an effect within the minds of those people that live within the environment being altered. It does not necessarily aim to produce art that is meaningful in itself.

Guerrilla artists

Guerrilla artists increasingly seem to be moving towards a philosophy of painting a continuous work of art, adding to it over time as less developed elements of the piece are erased by graffiti cleaning efforts or in the battle for space. Art on canvas is not guerrilla art. Although many guerrilla artists regularly produce ‘trapped art’, they do not generally consider it to be the same thing. This has manifested itself in a wave of new canvas styles that have a guerrilla art style, but are more comprehensive and finished. Few traditional artists would create artwork intentionally meaning for it to be mass produced with little fidelity and put up with wheat paste. Many guerrilla artists hijack major branding for their own publicity and identity, often at odds with the brand itself. This can be seen with D*Face's hijacking of the Walt Disney signature.

Some guerrilla artists are anti-capitalist, some only wear Nike trainers. It’s not a movement that attempts to support or to oppose brand conditioning. It is the general public’s artistic response to it.

Artistic Movement

Artistic movements are responsive. This movement is a response to the ever increasing power and importance of the brand in everyday life. Developed, inner-city environments are where both branding and guerrilla art flourish. This is not coincidental.

The most important development in the street art movement and the reason for its 'guerrilla' tag is the adoption of guerrilla marketing techniques over traditional artistic methods. The use of guerrilla marketing methods to create ‘artistic publicity’ has seen the evolution away from artists as creative individuals and towards artists as brands.

It is this branding and the profound effect it has upon the minds of the general public that drives the guerrilla art movement.

Documentation

Wooster Collective is the most widely recognized institution documenting street art. PEEL magazine [1], (Issue 1, published December 2003) is the world's first 100% street art magazine featuring an international array of artists in all mediums. In December 2006, the Overspray Magazine [2] staff helped the Wooster Collective organize a three-day exhibit of graffiti and "street art" that was installed inside the building at 11 Spring Street in New York City.

Many books have also been published on the subject including "Street logos" by Tristan Manco and "I NY - New York Street Art" by Kelly Burns. 'Beautiful losers' documents many older street artists that have since graduated to the fine art world. 'Next' is a powerful documentary by Pablo Aravena on the international street art culture.

Street Artists

Street artists such as Banksy, SPACE INVADER, Swoon, Cartrain, Twist, Zevs, 108, ORB, Ellis Gallagher, Judith Supine, Neckface and Os Gemeos have earned international attention for their work and in turn migrated the showing of their works to the museum or gallery setting as well as the street. It is also not uncommon for street artists to achieve commercial success (Shepard Fairey, Faile Kaws and Buffmonster) doing graphics for other companies or starting their own merchandising lines.

Key Locations

Melbourne (Australia) is home to some of the world's best street art (see Melbourne street art). There are a number of important sites across the Central Business District (CBD). One of the most colourful being Hosier Lane near Federation Square & Canada Lane in Carlton. Both boosting some of Australia's finest street art.

Gallery

Faux air vent attached to building by artist Skewville; it says FAKE	street art in Zaragoza by 108	Charcoal wall drawing by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada<ref>http://www.artjammer.com</ref> in Barcelona	A streetart-poster by Artist Hannibal Vector
Shop shutters by London street artist Eine	Example of a "Cutout" in the streets of Leipzig by Artist KarlToon		Street Art in Padangbai, Bali, Indonesia
Mural on the side of The Hole in the Wall, in Austin, Texas, USA. The text on the signs gets changed every so often.	James Brown stencil art, Por el Rastro, Madrid.	Street art of Serge Gainsbourg in Marseille (France)	Frank Zappa memorial. Vilnius, Lithuania
Street Art - Melbourne, Fitzroy.	Stencil street art in Buenos Aires, Argentina	Article about street art	Graffiti in Sevilla, Spain. Neva Micheva, 2004
Street art made by Stockholm based street artist Hop Louie, who has Christer Pettersson as one of his main characters.	Richard Pryor	street art in Frankfurt	A stenciled pair of doves by artist Q
by A1one /Iranian Street Artist / wheatpaste in Tehran / ValiAsr Ave.		Street art on Brick Lane in London by Committee The Committee (art)

References

External links

Ekosystem.org Popular site for European, American and other street art
Streetsy.com A site that documents street art in New York, among other cities
StreetRes.com Information for street artists
Blade Diary, Stencil Blog
Italian Street Art, European biggest no profit organization
SerraGlia, Street message art
www.urbanfeedback.net- exhibition 2008 - urbanart exhibition basel, switzerland
www.german-street-art.com
www.streetartmap.org
www.reclaimyourcity.net
TehranWalls
Photo Essay on Street Art
publicgallery.info A public gallery for artists to present their work

• Street Art. Paintings & Drawings. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.

See also

Graffiti
urbanfeedback.net- exhibition 2008 - urbanart exhibition basel, switzerland Graffiti Art Stencil Art Spray paint art Screen printing Guerrilla art Woodblock graffiti

• List of street artists
• Mission School
• Reclaim the streets
• Street installations
• Street Poster Art
• Wooster Collective
• Melbourne street art
• Street art from Mexico, Latin America, Europe...
• Italian Street Art cultural organization

Further reading

• Claudia Walde: Sticker City: Paper Graffiti Art (Street Graphics / Street Art). Thames & Hudson, 2007. ISBN 978-0500286685
• Street Art by Allan Schwartzman, The Dial Press, 1985
• Street Logos by Tristan Manco. Thames and Hudson (2004). ISBN 0500284695
• Stencil Graffiti by Tristan Manco. Thames and Hudson (2002). ISBN 0500283427
• Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture by Christian Strike and Aaron Rose. Distributed Art Publishers, Aug 2005. ISBN 1933045302

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