October 2009: Onio in Brasília

As if I needed another reason to visit Brazil, Onio's street pieces rock my socks. But while most of my Brazilian posts come from Rio or São Paulo, Onio represents the nation's capital, Brasília. Today, he checks in to share a bit about his past and even more about what's to come. He writes:

"I started working alone, but soon I met other people and formed a crew. The crew lasted about 5 years; after it separated, I went back to working alone. Nowadays, I meet up with other people on the street."
"I think my style is something natural. I draw inspiration from other artists, my urban experiences, and of course, experiencing a lot of the streets and in the studio."
"I like to paint the streets of my city, Brasília. The support is infinite, and I never know what's going to happen next: the street, the conditions of the day, and the walls dictate it."
"I have many crazy stories from my experiences in my city. I love the contact you have with the inhabitants of the city while painting. People question and recognize my work and tell me what they think of design. This for me is very valid and interesting: lots of 'crazy' dialogue with the urban environment and its
inhabitants."
"I am currently doing a series of new paintings in my new studio. I'm also planning to launch a magazine with a friend next year. In July 2009, I attended Rua Festival in the Netherlands with Brazilian artists. I'm always working on the streets."

Obrigado, Onio! For more photos, visit his Flickr.

In The Headlines

Thank goodness for catch-up weekends. After a Halloween away and a disease-addled start to my week, I felt a bit behind. Fortunately, I got my hustle on this time and feel relatively caught up. Part of this catch-up process included nabbing a post-Halloween photo to share. (Yep, I am C3PO). Any other wild costumes out there? Drop me a note in the comments section. While I find something to wear, peep the pic and the headlines.

Out in San Francisco, "Mission Muralismo" hits the de Young.

Some idiots tagged over Banksy's stuff in Bristol, claiming that the artist should make some 'real graffiti.' Too bad their shitty tags are absolute rubbish.

I'm sure you've all seen the Krink Mini, but here it is again for old time's sake.

Taiwanese student Hsieh Tsan-yu's murals in Berlin attracted considerable attention.

Omino 71 wants you to vote for his Teletubbies-themed piece?

Zozen also wants you to vote for his videos "Barrio Mutante" and "Tu Mente Duerme." Awesome stuff!

In Spain, the 2010 Festival of Street Art is slated to happen at the Museo de San Javier. Exhibitors can submit entries through January 27.

Dan Witz's show "Dark Doings" kicked off last week at the Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles.

Jon Christopher's Redbots project is winning over the residents of Long Beach, California.

In Jamaica, neighborhoods are proud of their murals.

Friday ProFile: Sofia Maldonado

In the documentary Bomb It!, there’s a great interview scene featuring Brazilian street artist Niña. When a man on the street asks her why she paints, she replies, “Look at those two girls. They are like prostitutes. How is my work more aggressive than that? In Brazil, children are not included in anything that is happening. Schools don’t take kids to art galleries to see an exhibition, to the theatre, or to music shows. I decided to do it for them, to take it from them and give it back to them.”

Sofia Maldonado’s Frog Hollow piece exemplifies this community spirit. Last summer, she and a few local interns spent six weeks transforming the side of Park Street ’s Pelican Tattoo parlor into a vibrant mural. “I was invited by Real Art Ways for their Real Public summer project,” she explains. “Director Kristina Newman-Scott and coordinator Erin Roos spoke to me and we discussed giving some workshops. However, the timing of the project was no good. The kids were in summer camp and the logistics got complicated.”
In addition to the timing, zoning regulations got in the way. “The day I arrived in Connecticut , I got the news that the building was an historic site and could not be painted,” she recalls. “I started brainstorming different ideas and came up with the wood panels. This medium gave the mural a circus kind of look.”
The moveable wooden cutouts generated attention in the neighborhood. “The wooden cut-out female characters all have long nails,” she says, “so I took them to the nail salon before the installation. This was a fun part of the project. The ladies decorated my Latina characters with long fancy nails, tattoos, and rhinestones. It was a beautiful community collaboration because I got to incorporate the nail art culture into my mural. I love recognizing the local art of the communities I work in.”
The ladies weren’t the only people who liked the mural. “The whole community was really impressed with it,” she smiles, “and when I put the Puerto Rican flag in the hands of one character, they were even more proud!” Part of Maldonado’s connection with Hartford stems from the parallels between Park Street and home. “ Park Street reminds me of Puerto Rico !” she exclaims. “It’s a hardcore neighborhood with a lot to give. There are strong female conflicts and, in a way, my mural captures that attitude. I’m working forward to returning and becoming more active in the community.”
Frog Hollow residents may be surprised that a Puerto Rican woman artist painted the mural, but Maldonado has been in the game for a long time. “I’ve been painting murals since my high school years,” she insists. In fact, I used to paint with my graffiti brothers back in Puerto Rico almost every weekend. Now in PR, there is much more tagging but not too many big productions. I just feel like the new generation doesn’t understand what it takes to get up. You got to sweat it, not just tag a few times around the city when you’re drunk! I hope my work inspires the younger ladies. If you love it and take it seriously, you will see a personal evolution.”

Thanks, Sofia! For more info, check out her blog. I'm off to the last cross country meet of the year and then it's GREs tomorrow. Blargh. Send me cool pictures to look at? Thanks.

October 2009: Sjors Vervoort in the Netherlands

I'm always on the lookout for street art innovators. While the medium itself is novel, sometimes a piece pops up that grabs my attention. Enter Sjors Vervoort. This Dutch native recently moved his cardboard creatures down under, but I hope he makes it to the U.S. sometime soon. Today, he discusses the process behind his street creatures. He writes:

"I have recently moved to Melbourne, Australia, from the Netherlands, so I don't have any of the characters here. Some of them will be shown in a museum in Holland though, but unfortunatly not in the States, since I
haven't got any budget. I am thinking of joining an artists program in Utah next year, where I might be able to get fundings to create some characters there. And I'm currently designing new characters to place in Melbourne, Australia."
"To be honest, I'm still a rookie when it comes to street art. I'm an animator and character designer, and have recently started to explore the world of street art. My first street art project was cardboard, an experimental animation. I liked the idea of exposing my characters in the streets. After thinking of different materials, I decided to use cardboard. It's flexible, cheap and easy to manipulate. Characters are really important to me, there universal and appealing to all cultures."
"Since I haven't got much expierence yet, I'm still working solo. But I'm always looking arround for other interesting artists to collaborate with. I developed my style by spending years of drawing doodles. My characters are usually created around a certain theme. And when creating my characters, I'm always thinking in movements, in case I'm going to animate them. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time researching bugs. They have the most beautiful and
organic movements which I can use for my characters."
"I paint my cardboard characters safely at home, probably because I'm still a woosh when it comes to writing on the streets. When my characters are ready, I place them in the streets. With cardboard, I spend a lot of time finding the right locations. I recently started doing stickers, so putting them on walls is still exciting for me."

"I never expected cardboard to be this successful, but since I have had so much possitive feedback. I have decided to continue creating new cardboard characters. Melbourne is perfect because it has a great street art scene. Currently, I'm still designing the characters, and looking arround for big pieces of cardboard."

Fabulous, Sjors! Can anyone hook him up with some giant corrugated sheets? The man needs cardboard STAT! For more creatures, check out his website. (I must say, the tee shirts look fantastic.)

October 2009: Kid Chalao in Madrid

One of the reasons I love street art hunting is because it's an exercise of patience. So often, I find myself running from one activity to another with little down time in between. When I'm looking for street art, I'm forced to slow my pace and look for tiny details within the big picture. Looking for a sticker or wheatpaste is almost like meditating. Kid Chalao and I share the same philosophy about street art; maybe that's why I like him so much. (It could also be that his paintings are fantastic.) He writes:

“My name means 'nuts, crazy boy'. I think it is good being just a boy; everything remains to be learned and there are no certainties. Don´t really believe in those.”
"Even though I’m living, working and studying in Madrid, I come from a region in north-midwest Spain where there´s a really strong wine culture and an amazing folklore filled with stories and really old pagan tales. I´m mostly interested in tales and creatures, as well as in language itself. And I mean common people´s language, not the one they use from Institutions or from the power itself (which has nothing to do with people, but with the individual).”
"I do not really come from a graffiti background, but from a punk one, so those early paintings were just messages on walls. Before that , my brother and I used to write our nicknames in wet concrete. There´s still a few remnants of that in my hometown. Years after that, I moved to Finland for a year, where I started to become much more active with my friend Virta. Now I´m painting quite a lot in Madrid with my hobo-crew called VHS. Good vibes, fun and colorful stuff! We´re part of an urban-art open workshop at Patio Maravillas, a self-sustained social center in Madrid.”
"Urban art seems to be nothing but a present or a joke in the way that you´re wasting your energy, time and money just to suggest things, make people smile or share some ideas. Of course, you get nothing in exchange but these things got to be done if for nothing else, for conviction. Somehow in a world in which we´re forced to walk and listen to the media 24/7, I think it is beautiful to struggle for spreading art in our neighborhoods and cities, so we can gain some sanity.”
“I´m not sure about anything but as life is becoming faster and faster in cities, maybe we can try to endorse the value of “slow” and create art pieces that tell people to slow down and imagine for a change. But who knows…”

Gracias, Kid Chalao! For more fabulous photos, check out his Flickr.

October 2009: Priest in Alabama

Still feeling funky this morning. Thanks to a hefty dose of garlic and Nyquil, I'm functioning on a more human level. When I wasn't knocked out, I spent some time working on today's post. A few weeks ago, I discovered Alabama native Priest's work on Wooster. Since I don't get too many photos from his region, I knew I had to shout him out. Today, he shares some photos and stories from the deep South. He writes:

"I first started doing street art when I realized I couldn't do gallery art."

"Usually, if I do bring people with me it is because I need lookouts. I have learned though that if someone tells me they DEFINITELY want to go with me next time I paint, it means they have no intention on answering their phones at 2 am to go vandalize."
"How did I develop my style? Like Banksy, I try to rip off Blek le Rat every chance I get."
"I love painting in the ghetto because it's a short walk from my cardboard condo."

"I'd say the most stereotypical Alabama thing that happened to me was when I was painting an abandoned building next to a neighborhood and I heard a guy beating his wife. I took off after I heard the screen door slam shut and his wife scream, "He ain't got nothin' to do with it!" I went back 20 minutes later to grab my cans and the woman was pacing around the building and crying; she was all beat up and shit. Two days later, a posting went up on Craigslist with a cameraphone picture of the piece I did trying to find out who I was for 'Album Art' they wanted designed. No thanks."

"I'm working on too many projects right now, but I never finish anything."

Thanks, Priest! Keep holding it down in Alabama. For more photos (sorry about these tiny ones), check out his Flickr.

In The Headlines

Well, a weekend of awesomeness has taken its toll. I thought I was kicking it, so I did everything: pounded preemptive vitamin C, ate extra garlic, even gargling with mouthwash. All to no avail: I'm sick. If I haven't responded to your e-mail, I promise I'm getting to it. While I grab the DayQuil, you can check out these headlines. (I promise I didn't sneeze on them.)

The Italian magazine Ziguline compiled a selection of prints from the country's street artists. Here's one; but you can catch them all on their website.

Tel Aviv welcomes British artist Ame72 for his solo show featuring Legos galore.

British artist Boyd Hill traveled to Abu Dhabi to teach university students the basics of mural and aerosol art.

Erik Drooker's posters popped up around Bryn Mawr's campus this week. The artist was on campus to discuss the connection between street art and graphic narratives.

In Paris, Nukod organized a live painting exhibition featuring Pez. The event runs from November 4 at 2 pm to November 5 at 5 pm. For more information, visit Le Palais de Tokyo's website.

Omino interviewed Zilda on the blogs.

Wired Magazine recently interviewed Spy, dubbing him "the Spanish Banksy."

I hope Indonesian artist Hanan moves from the wooden block to the street. Feeling too limited by canvas, he stretches his imagination on countless other materials.

If you're in Beijing, check out Jon Burgerman's show "Economies of Scale."

Oliver Vernon made over an alley in Northwest DC.
Finally, here are my critters from last week. Hopefully, they made it to Tel Aviv today. I can't wait to see where they go up!