Street_art - Celebrity Encyclopedia

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, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Typically, the term Street Art or the more specific Post-Graffiti 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,^[1] "street art" encompasses many other media and techniques, including;

Traditional graffiti also has increasingly been adopted as a method for advertising; its trajectory has even in some cases led to its artists' working on contract as graphic artists for corporations.^[2] Street art is a label often adopted by artists who wish to keep their work unaffiliated, and strongly political. Street artists are those whose work is still largely done without official approval in public areas.

For these reasons street art is sometimes considered "post-graffiti" and sometimes even "neo-graffiti".^[3] 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.

Street artists

Street artists such as Banksy, D*Face, , Swoon, Twist, 108, Ellis Gallagher, Neck face , 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, WK Interact, Kaws and Buff Monster doing graphics for other companies or starting their own merchandising lines.

Key locations

Berlin (Germany) has attracted attention to international street artists since the reunification of the city making it one of Europe's street art strongholds. A lot of bizarre post-communist locations, cheap rents and ramshackle buildings gave rise to a vibrant street art scene. Hotspots there are Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain.

Bristol (U.K.) also is part of a vibrant street art scene due to the rise of "Art terrorist" Banksy.

Melbourne (Australia) is home to some of the world's most diverse street art cultures (see Street Art in Melbourne). There are a number of important sites across the Melbourne city centre. One of the most colourful being Hosier Lane near Federation Square & Canada Lane in Carlton. Both boasting some of the finest street art in multiple mediums in Australia and internationally, with street artists such as Banksy, regularly frequenting the streets of Melbourne.

Sao Paulo in Brazil is generally viewed as one of the capitals of street art, and particularly murals. The lively and colourful atmosphere of the city is reflected in the street art scene, quickly evolving into one of the biggest and best in the world, drawing in many artists from around the world to collaborate.

However many cities are plastered with the scrawls and writing of these artists, any wall is a target, any wall is a canvas.

Gallery

References

^ For the development of style in this medium, as well as an examination of the political, cultural, and social commentary of its artists, see the anthropological history of New York subway graffiti art, Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York, by Craig Castleman, a student of Margaret Mead, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982.
^ As just one example, note the Bronx-based group Tats Cru, whose members began as a subway graffiti crew, but whose work covers traditional neighborhood memorial walls, public schools, hospitals, representation at the Smithsonian Institute's 35th Folk Arts Festival, and also logo and advertising design for such corporations as Snapple and McDonald's. Some of their work can be found on their website, <www.tatscru.com>.
^ "Neo-graffiti" is a term coined by Tokion Magazine in the title of its Neo-Graffiti Project 2000, which featured "classic" subway graffiti artists working in new media; others have called this phenomenon "urban art." A discussion by the Wooster Collective on terminology can be found at <http://www.woostercollective.com/2004/01/what_the_hell_should_we_call_i.html>.
^ Jorge Rodriguez Gerada - artjammer.com

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