Fine Art from the Streets - Part 2: From Streets to Gallery

For this second post on 'Fine Art from the Streets' I've included some more well-known street artists who, like others, navigate between street and gallery, and public and private spaces. I believe that art is subjective and the works I've included here aren't necessarily the 'best' (if that can even be defined) but for my purposes they are what I like and what I think is good. More than good, these artists are unquestionably talented. 

D*Face (London)

Eine (Hastings, England)

El Mac (Phoenix)

JR (Paris)

M-City (Poland)

Ludo (Paris)

 Gaia (Baltimore)

Sten & Lex (Rome)

Conor Harrington (b. Ireland, lives. London)

Fine Art from the Streets - Part 1: New Artists

I recently checked out from the library (thank you interlibrary loan) a copy of Maximiliano Ruiz's Walls & Frames: Fine Art from the Streets. It features a collection of works from street artists who have successfully made the transition from street to gallery. It also includes gallery artists who use a graffiti aesthetic and whose works are clearly influenced by the street. While I had heard of many of the artists previously such as JR, Conor Harrington, Gaia, Herakut, C215, El Mac, Paul Insect, Evol, Eine, and others, there were many more that I was introduced to for the first time. To me here are the ones that stood out.

DAVE KINSEY (Pittsburgh, PA)

JOSH KEYES (Oregon)

 GEORGE MORTON-CLARK (London, England)

JOHNNY "KMNDZ" RODRIGUEZ (Pomona, California)

DOZE GREEN (San Francisco, California)

JORAM ROUKES (Groningen, Netherlands)

KOFIE (Los Angeles, California)

JEREMY FISH (San Francisco, California) 

DOCTEUR GECKO (Toulouse, France) 

KATRIN FRIDRIKS (Reykjavik, Iceland)

RENE ALMANZA (Monterrey, Mexico) 

DUNCAN LUGO aka MR. LUGO (Bristol, England)

Love the Headline

Street Art: ATL Style

We spent the last day before summer school in Atlanta. We had free tickets to the World of Coke along with a map of street art sites in downtown. There were two pieces in particular that I wanted to see, but, fortunately on our way to and from those we ran into several others. 

Edgewood Ave. near the MLK Jr. National Historic Site and the Ebeneezer Baptist Church is littered with murals. We only had the address for one in this neighborhood but as we drove along were discovering ones on nearly every block. Jaz (Buenos Aires) painted the above piece for the Living Walls Conference which was held in Atlanta last year. This conference on graffiti and street art consists of "artist lectures, workshops, gallery exhibitions and mural series". You can read the entire description of the conference in the link above. 

Jaz (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

We found both the unknown piece, a more traditional graffiti work, along with this gem by the Mexican Nuezz. 

unknown

Nuezz (Mexico)

The other mural that we mapped out was this one by Roa, an artist that I've really enjoyed following the past few years. Here's a link to more of his work. We loved this large alligator that fits seemlessly into the building  and neighborhood. 

Roa (Ghent, Belgium)

This last piece is by Gaia, an artist that has littered Atlanta with his creations. See the map. We ran into this one on a previous trip to the ATL in the Five Points neighborhood. Different from the other artists in this post, Gaia uses wheatpaste to put up paper posters.     

Gaia (Baltimore, Maryland)

Here are a couple others that we ran into while eating lunch at the "Blaxican", a southern comfort food/mexican fusion food cart. Collard green quesadillas anyone? 

 Sam3

LNY

Hitchcock's Underrated Masterpiece

   

Shadow of a Doubt isn't neccesarily the first Hitchock film people think of when they think of the director's best or most popular works. You'll most likely hear titles such as Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest and even Rope. But, it's clear that Shadow is one of the masters' best films. Dark, flawlessly acted and directed, it epitomizes the fear and uncertainties of the second world war. It premiered in 1943 and brought the horror of the Other, as exemplified in Universal's monster films of the previous decade (Frankenstein (31), King Kong (33), Dracula (31)), back home to small town America. Fear no longer came from these monsters but rather from our own backyard. The enemy was no longer an ocean away, speaking a foreign language, out of view. The enemy became our neighbor, friend, our community and even more frightening, a member of our own family. The seemingly normal Santa Rosa, California was now home to its own human monster, Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton).

If you haven't seen it go out and get a copy from your local library or video store. You won't regret it. 

And just because, here are my top 5 Hitchcock films:

1. Vertigo

2. Rebecca

3. Shadow of a Doubt

4. Psycho

5. Sabotage/The Birds

My Son is Cooler than Me

Was there really ever any doubt? Our little man rocks the shades like a champ and outclasses his daddy. 

Double Indemnity on Blu-Ray

Isn't she beautiful? Still trying to figure out if I can justify or afford paying the 12£ ($19.00) and the 3£ ($4.70) shipping from the UK.  

Learn about it here and buy it here.