A group of artists were asked to spray paint the walls of a refugee camp tv set with Arabic graffiti (to make it feel more authentic) for the award-winning television drama, Homeland.
The producers didn’t care what they wrote so the artists saw that as an opportunity for subversion.
Shae Petersen aka SRIL recently completed his largest mural ever, a 100 ft masterpiece in Salt Lake City, Utah. The colossal artwork can be found on the walls of the Stone Unlimited building and was created (with permission) without stencils or tape.
We recently caught up with the artist and asked him to shed some light on his most ambitious project to date. See our interview below along with process shots of the mural. For those interested, SRIL (pronounced ‘surreal’) is currently offering 100 limited edition, 13×19 high gloss prints, signed and numbered.
What was your inspiration for the 100ft mural?
The wall itself was an opportunity to push myself, being my largest solo mural to date… I wanted to create something powerful, something that was hard to go unnoticed.
Can you explain the story that is going on in your wall?
From left to right: Neptune, Zeus, Hades, and the eye containing the universe. I prefer to let the viewer decide what it all means, although it definitely has some subliminal messages if you look at it long enough.
How long did it take?
I worked on it 4 days a week for 3 weeks. Depending on weather and fatigue I probably averaged about 4-5 hours per day. I think in total it took 45-55 hours.
What were some challenges you faced?
Utah weather mostly, some of the days I was getting sun burnt and struggling to stay hydrated, while others I was forced to paint in the rain. Painting the whole wall with a ladder too… not only does it slow you down to go up and down a ladder that much, it also beats you up pretty good. I was on a daily dose of ibuprofen, and long hot showers.
Was this a commissioned piece?
Not really, The business paid for the paint, but I was allowed full creative freedom, and donated all the time and labor for the project. I felt like it was a win win.
What fascinates you about aerosol painting? How did you get into it?
The challenge of it I suppose. It takes quite a bit of time to become proficient at (I’m still learning myself) – But the end result is difficult to match in my opinion.
I started out like most would assume, doing illegal graffiti, mostly letters (which I still LOVE), I decided a few years back to really focus on improving my realism and large scale work.
Are there any current artists you’re really digging?
Adnate, Sofles, and Peter Westermann come to mind off the top of my head.
How different is your mindset when working on huge murals/walls versus studio work on canvas and even clothing?
Staying focused and motivated is key, I’m generally a pretty impatient person, so keeping myself disciplined, and getting the work done every day takes a little more work than the small scale stuff.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists?
Never let your ego get in the way of improving your craft, take the criticism and the praise lightly, keep pushing yourself…the results will follow.
Tour Banksy’s now defunct Dismaland with filmmaker Jamie Brightmore as he takes you on a cinematic journey through some of the ‘Bemusement’ Park’s most interesting attractions.
For more information on the ‘Official Unofficial Film’ visit JamieBrightmore.com
Eduardo Kobra is a spray paint artist from São Paulo, Brazil, that is best known for his kaleidoscope-like street art portraits. The artist’s work can be seen in cities around the world with many spanning several stories in height.
Many of Kobra’s source images are instantly recognizable, from portraits of famous artists and musicians like Dali and Dylan, to iconic photos like V-J Day in Times Square. His signature style incorporates bright colors applied in a variety of patterns.
Below you will find some of my personal favorites, but be sure to check him out at the links below for much more!
Banksy unveiled new artworks today in ‘The Jungle’, a refugee camp in Calais, France. One piece features Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, with an Apple computer in one hand and a black bag in the other. In a rare statement accompanying the work, Banksy added:
“We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world’s most profitable company, it pays over $7bn a year in taxes – and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.”
According to Quartz:
Jobs’ father, Abdulfattah ‘John’ Jandali, was born in Homs, a city now ravaged by Syria’s brutal civil war, in 1931. He studied at the American University in Beirut, and then came to the US to continue his education at the University of Wisconsin. There he met Joanne Schieble, who would become Jobs’ biological mother. The couple gave the baby up for adoption in 1955 in San Francisco. [source]
Other artworks erected in Calais include: a play on Theodore Gericault’s ‘Raft of the Medusa‘, featuring a luxury yacht and helicopter; a young boy looking through a spyglass; and a tongue-in-cheek line scrawled in orange paint saying, ‘maybe this whole situation will just sort itself out…’
In addition to the artworks, members from Banksy’s team installed 12 permanent structures and a makeshift play area inside the refugee camp. They used leftover materials from his Dismaland ‘Bemusement Park’, which opened earlier this year.
You can see a complete gallery of the ‘Dismal Aid’ project here.
[via Banksy.co.uk]
How an iconic piece of graffiti circled the world and united soldiers from various nations.
XAV is a Spanish artist known for both his incredible tattoos as well as his large, spray painted murals of animals and people. The artist has attracted nearly 10,000 followers on both Instagram and Facebook.
In the recently completed street art mural above, we see a huge elephant breaking through a wall. The actual cinder blocks in front of the artwork, along with the puddle of water reflecting the image, really add to this photo of the artist beside his work.
Since 1979, artist Felice Varini has experimented with perspective, painting seemingly random surfaces that look fragmented and disjointed. The ‘big picture’ only comes together when viewed from a specific vantage point.
The Swiss-born, Paris-based artist often uses simple geometric shapes that look almost ‘superimposed’ onto their surroundings. The style is similar to the 3D sidewalk chalk artworks that distort and stretch images, but snap into life when viewed from a certain perspective. The optical illusion, forced perspective art technique is also referred to as Trompe-l’œil.
On Varini’s website you can find all of his artworks in chronological order from 1979 onwards, along with photos of the works from various angles so you can appreciate how Varini uses his environment to achieve the illusion. You can also keep up with the latest news and works from the artist on his Facebook page.
Street artist Jerkface put up this awesome mural of Care Bears with Wu-Tang logos last October in New York City’s Nolita (north of Little Italy) neighborhood.
The artist is well-known for his cartoon street art mashups. Be sure to check out his website and Instagram for many more whimsical artworks.
[via Street Art News]
Seen here is a huge wheatepaste artwork JR put up last fall on the façade of the La Voix Du Nord building in Lille, France. The artwork is part of JR’s ongoing ‘Unframed‘ series which began back in 2009.
The theme of the work is immigration and the source photo (which has been cropped and filtered) was taken in 1982 by Jean-Louis Mallet and is part of the Voix Du Nord’s photo archives. The project was done in conjunction with La Voix Du Nord and Lille3000.
Sydney-based artist Scott Marsh recently completed this hilarious mural of the ‘Kanye loves Kanye’ meme.
The spray painted piece can be found on the side of Zigi’s Wine & Cheese Bar in Chippendale, Sydney, Australia.
The artwork is based on the photoshopped image above. The original is actually a photo of Kanye kissing his wife Kim Kardashian on the red carpet of the 2015 Grammy Awards.
Marsh has also completed murals of other iconic hip hop artists such as this Notorious B.I.G. portrait at the Lord Gladstone Hotel. You can find a timelapse of the B.I.G. mural embedded below.
Artist Biancoshock recently retrofitted a series of abandoned manholes in the Italian cities of Lodi and Milan. The artist turned the abandoned spaces into miniature versions of a kitchen, bathroom and living room.
Biancoshock says the project’s goal was to raise awareness for disenfranchised people in places like Bucharest where ‘more than 600 people live underground in the sewers’. He cited this article for more information on the issue and wanted to use his art to speak about people living in extreme conditions.
For more from Biancoshock, follow him at the links below.
[via Colossal]
“From Doom to Boom” is an incredible new mural by artist Collin van der Sluijs that can be found on the 9-story wall of 1006 S Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
The mural features a yellow-headed blackbird that was once common but has now disappeared from Chicago due to loss of habitat, pool land management and invasive species. The other is a red-headed woodpecker that is in need of conservation before it too disappears from Chicago.
The mural is part of the Wabash Arts Corridor and van der Sluijs also has his debut US solo show, Luctor Et Emergo, from May 7–28, 2016 at the Vertical Gallery in Chicago.
Collin van der Sluijs is a renowned painter and illustrator from Maastricht, The Netherlands, where he lives and works. He started writing graffiti at the age of eleven, and when he was twelve he began his studies at the professional painting college in Goes. He spent the next eight years studying various art disciplines in different schools across the Netherlands and graduated from the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost in Breda in 2004 with a Masters degree in fine art.
You can find a complete list of available works by van der Sluijs here. To learn more about the mural, check out Collin’s website.
Street artist OakOak uses a plant’s purple flowers as the hair for the popular Simpsons character, Sideshow Bob.
The tiny, site-specific artwork was spotted in Saint-Etienne, France and is sure to bring a smile to any passing pedestrians with a keen eye and love for the long-running, animated series.
It all began with a simple “hi” (6th floor, 3 windows from the left). An employee at Harrison and Star at 75 Varick Street in New York city put up the innocent greeting, not knowing if anyone would respond.
Shortly thereafter a “Sup” appeared from the building across the street at 200 Hudson.
Both buildings in the Tribeca neighborhood boast a number of marketing and media agencies as their tenants and it didn’t take long for everyone to get in on the action.
Horizon Media, Cake Group, Biolumina, Harrison and Star, Getty Images and Heartbeat Ideas all got in on the action. The agencies of 200 Hudson and 75 Varick were in an all out war. Even the Post-It manufacturer, 3M, got involved; supplying free Post-It notes for both buildings.
And then one night, under the cover or darkness, Havas Worldwide ended the battle in one fell swoop.
According to the building supervisor for Havas Worldwide, a few of the company’s graphic designers rendered the building and laid out exactly how the giant “mic drop” should be placed in each window pane.
Then a group of co-workers stayed late one night with beer and pizza and executed the design floor by floor. Sadly, the building managers were not as impressed and have ordered a ceasefire and told all participants to have everything taken down by this weekend.
Chen Yingjie aka Hua Tunan (featured previously here and here) is an incredible artist from Foshan, Guangdong, China.
Born in 1991, Tunan blends traditional Chinese art and Western graffiti into his own unique ‘splatter’ style, painting huge outdoor murals and large canvas works, mostly of animals as well as collaborations with fellow artists.
The artist is active online and you can keep up with his latest works on his website as well as Facebook and Instagram.
Sainer and Bezt are two amazing artists from Lodz, Poland. Together, the duo are known as the ETAM CRU, and their building-sized murals have taken them around the world, putting their stamp on cityscapes for major art festivals and commissions.
We’ve featured their larger-than-life portraits previously (here and here) but haven’t caught up with their latest work in the last couple years.
Below you can see some highlights from Sainer and Bezt. Some of the artworks were done individually while other were joint efforts. For more, follow their latest developments on Facebook.
Julia Riordan is a creator/street-artist who discovered her passion for crochet and knitting at the age of 10. Since that time she has continually explored the field of knitwear, enjoyed seeing it become her passion, and now the real thing. In 2012 Julia launched her own knitwear label, Julia Rio, specializing in unique, colorful beanies.
Throughout this time Julia has always been a big admirer of street art. After completing her first yarnbomb in the streets of London in 2013 while studying at the London College of Fashion, her adrenaline and creativity sought out more of this type of expression. Julia is now living in Stockholm and continues to explore her love of knitted art by covering fences, trees and public spaces with yarn.
You can keep up with the artist’s latest creative expressions on Instagram by following @juliarioknit.
[via Colossal]
Mathieu Tremblin is an artist currently living and working in Strasbourg, France. Born in Le Mans in 1980, Tremblin graduated with a degree in fine arts and is a founding member of the duo Les Frères Ripoulain (2006) and BIP (Bureau d’investigation photographique) collective (2005-2015).
In an ongoing series entitled, Tag Clouds, Tremblin makes graffiti tags legible by rewriting them in plain text, in a style similar to popular tag clouds found on the Internet (even the Sifter has one in the sidebar).
In a 2013 interview with The Atlantic’s CityLab, Tremblin states:
I consider “Tag Clouds” as a traditional graffiti fresco work. I come from a local graffiti scene and painting over a wall covered by tags to make something more complex, letters or characters whatever, is what graffiti writers do. But what’s interesting is that the final mural deals with the writer’s ego- their name. Having that direct communication, being known by anybody, is what writers are searching for. “Tag Clouds” removes all alterity or identity and makes it properly decorative and appreciable to any passerby, which is also the purpose of a graffiti fresco, showing technical skills for decoration.
This work sounds like a kind of oxymoron, you could understand it as a way to make a dirty signature proper as institutionalized visual communication, sterilizing wild graffiti writing by removing all traces of alterity and at the same time giving the opportunity to anybody to be able to read graffiti script and get in touch with it.
So agreeing with or being against the piece as a graffiti writer is a complex thing to decide because I’m half paying tribute to and half normalizing the local graffiti scene. I just translate writers names at the same scale and they usually continue to play with the blank spaces, adding their signature between regular typography I painted with stencil. In fact, the project is giving focus to some walls that writers weren’t paying attention to anymore because they were filled with tags. Mostly though, it generates new graffiti challenges instead of killing the energy behind it. [source]
[via Design You Trust]
