February 2010: 999 in Turin

Bush took a lot of heat during his administration, but he's not the only world leader who receives criticism. Turin-based artist 999 knows how to morph a politician's worst qualities into the best form of street art. Armed with his stencils and wheatpasting supplies, 999 covers Italy with social commentary. He writes:

"I started making ‘street art’ with little stickers and stencils in 2005. My old works were uncertain and full of experimentation. Just for fun, I started make stencils and pasteup posters with my friends in my hometown. Afterwards, I looked for my own style and technique. Intrigued by old engravings and illustrations, I found inspiration on the 'net and in old books. Then I take the particulars, reshape them, and mix them with my personal style. I use a lot stencils on paper, so I create posters to pasteup in the streets."
"Now I live in Turin in the north Italy because I go to university there. But my hometown is Termoli, a little city on the coast of the Adriatic sea in the south of Italy. I work everywhere, but most of my posters are on the walls of Turin and Termoli."
"I'm not a collective; I just work by myself. In fact, my production is slow and discontinuous. My real life takes a lot of my time, so I can only work in my free time. However, I have a lot of friends who sporadically help me and I like working with other artists-friends."
"I don't know, really don't know. I realize that my present works are different from old one, but I don't know why. I paint in the backyard of my building in Turin; I make posters and then pasteup in the streets. I paint in the night, when people are sleeping, so I can spray peacefully. I like painting on walls but it's hard with big stencil and I must be fast. So I paint on walls when I can, on abandoned places, during exhibition or events, or even on walls with permission."

"One night, I went out with a local artist. He has a poster with a satirical image of Italian politic Borghezio transformed into a kebab (Borghezio and his political party hate foreign and Muslim people). While we pasted up his poster, we were seen by a police car. They stopped us, examined our documents, threw the glue in a manhole and confiscated the poster because they liked it. They didn't destroy it; they confiscated it to paste up in the police station because in their opinion, it is a really fun image."

Grazie, 999! For more interesting wheatpastes, check out his Flickr.

In The Headlines

Thanks to beautiful weather and lots of activities, this weekend was great even though I'm not feeling my best right now. I found a new bike FO' FREE, photographed different parts of CT, ventured down an abandoned train track to a lonely freight car and bridge, hiked through the woods to the top of a mountain, and...now I have a killer headache. While my cranial conundrum may have changed my plans, I still got news for y'all.

Got this video of Logan Hicks in my inbox. Looks like he’s keeping busy.

UGeorgia senior Colin Tom loves plastering the Athens campus with wheatpastes of his own creation.

After many years out of the game, Richard Hambleton is sharing his art with the world. (Or is Armani exploiting his story? Can’t quite figure this one out.)

Toldeo may not care for street art, but the city’s artists love the Glass City.

Shoot an e-mail to Miss Bugs at carryyoursins@gmail.com for a chance to win a free “Carry Your Sins” print.

Dan Bergeron has some prints for sale; they’re the very first of their kind, so I expect they’ll go fast.

Hollywood may take the Oscars seriously, but D*Face had fun toying with the iconic statuette.

If you’re planning a trip to Croatia this summer, be sure to check out Zagreb’s street scene.

Lyon’s All-Over Gallery presents works by Polish artists FRM, Otecki, and Zbiok. The show opens March 13 and runs through April 13.
Jessica Stewart’s latest show, “Street Art Experience,” opens in Rome on March 19.

The Guardian talks to JR about his “Women are Heroes” series.

Soooo much street art in the NY Times this week. Jonathan Levine’s gallery and interviews from Lee Quiñones? Brilliant!

Friday ProFile: Yote

Street art is fairly common in urban spaces, but it's an oddity out in the desert. Yote was born and raised outside of Washington, DC, but later relocated to northern Arizona. Four years ago, he began messing around with street art, but it wasn't until last year that he adopted the moniker Yote. "The name 'Yote' is slang for 'coyote,'" he explains. "It's most commonly used by those who hunt them. If you do a Google image search for 'yote', the majority of the images are of dead coyotes."

Fortunately, Yote does more painting than he does hunting. In fact, his surroundings profoundly influence his pieces. "Before Yote, I was constantly reinventing my style, making each piece completely different from the previous," he reflects. "I guess I was trying to find my own style and vision. But as Yote, I am focused on rendering animals somewhat realistically and taking whatever I learned from my previous piece and incorporating it into the next." Animals inspire him, but he also loves gleaning ideas from other printmakers. "Without folks like Swoon and Gaia, who knows when I would have learned the potential of the medium on the streets," he insists.
Covering the better part of Arizona from the Navajo Nation to Tuscon, Yote hopes to bring people closer to nature. Speaking of his viewers, he explains, "I would like them to develop a connection with the animal or symbol. Hopefully through repetition, the meaning and power of the symbol will present itself to the viewer, allowing for a deeper connection of themselves and the systems they are a part of."
Conveying a message comes at a price, and Yote's met his fair share of characters while working. "At times I feel unsafe at night," he admits. "In Prescott, I just run into drunks, methheads, and cops, so I try to get up in the daytime as much as possible. In my experience, the more people around, the less likely someone is to say something about me."
At the moment, Yote juggles the responsibilities of studying psychology with creating new pieces. In the future, he plans to push his works further. "I would like to include a lot more colors, patterns, shapes, and symbols," he says. "Currently, I'm painting some large-scale pieces to put up in the Navajo Nation with Jetsonorama." Perhaps he'll even collaborate with some of his wheatpasting heros. He should do it soon before they get too big; when asked to predict the future of street art, Yote imagines, "Ten years from now, I think women will be dominating the streets."

Thanks, Yote! Keep up with his projects by visiting his Flickr.

Also, gotta give a shout out to Sarah's Chor Boogie documentary. They're in the last three days of fundraising, so kick them some change if you have some. This weekend should be great: warm weather! Photo scavenger hunts! Small Black + Washed Out + Tanlines at The Warehouse! Brilliance!

March 2010: Signafk in Jerusalem

I'd love to travel this summer and Israel is high on my list of ideal locations. Between the landscape, the food, the art, and the people, there's so much I want to see and learn about. I feel like Signafk would make an excellent tour guide. While most people think of Tel Aviv as the country's street art capital, he holds it down in Jerusalem. He writes:

"I first started doing graffiti something like 7 years ago. I started with the classic NY style as a basic for my letter structure and started developing my letter style from there. Back in 2003, you could count the writers in Israel on one hand, so all the graffiti I saw was through the Internet. After 3 years of writing, I started working on my characters. I stopped looking at work on the Internet and decided to work on my style trying to make my own Israeli style."
"I don't really know how my style developed. I was just trying to do new things more and more and came to what I do today. My style is still developing and I don't think it will ever stop."
"My city is Jerusalem, Israel. Most of my work is made in the abandoned building of this city. Israel is really small, I work a lot in other cities around the country."
"Because I'm the only member of my crew located in Jerusalem, I'm used to going out and working alone. My crew is AFK (Always Fresh Kids). Today we have 9 members in the crew working together as much as we can."
"At the moment, I'm working on an illustration for an exhibition next week in Tel-Aviv. It's an illustration called 'Musical Thought'."

Thanks, man! Keep up with Signafk and the rest of his crew.

March 2010: Dimitris Taxis in Athens

Greek artist Dimitris Taxis doesn't let mediums pen him in. Sometimes, he's out on the street putting up a fresh wheatpaste. At other times, he's indoors sketching out the next frame of a comic book. Wherever his artistic endeavors take him, he's all about pushing ahead and improving in the future. He writes:

"Well, I started doing graffiti in 1998, but I suppose I got involved with street art in late 2004 when I pasted my first handmade poster somewhere in Athens. At almost the same time, I published my first short story inVavel, a comic magazine, and used the name 'Dimitris Taxis.' I decided to use the same name on the streets too."
"I usually paste my posters alone. I don't have a favorite place, just wherever I feel like working. I prefer ruined neighborhoods, old houses, or abandoned factories."
"I also enjoy collaborations with friends or other artists.Sometimes,when someone spots an abandoned factory or something big enough for a lot of people, we gather around and have some kind of BBQ there: food, beers, graffiti and lots of fun! I love these times!"
"I'm influenced a lot by several 80s-90's European comic artists and, of course, by classic painters/sculptors in art history.Both painting and comics,as well as graffiti and design, has developed my style into what it is today."
"Now I'm working on my posters and experimenting a lot with painting on canvas and wood because I'm preparing my first solo exhibition. I have a lot of work to do till then!"

Thanks, Dimitris! For more photos and updates, stop by his Flickr.

March 2010: Mobstr at Kitch-en Gallery

As LL Cool J said, "Don't call it a comeback!" Kitch-en Gallery may have taken a second to breathe and chill with it, but they're ready to rock once more. Last week, they shot me an e-mail about their latest show. Apparently, they saw my post on Mobstr and wanted to share the details. They wrote:

"Yes you heard right, Kitch-en Gallery is back - just like the Terminator said."
"We may have been away for a little bit, but rest assured we've not been lazing about on some private beach with palm trees and gorgeous sunshine. Nope we've been searching high and low across the country, the world, and the universe for a brand new line-up of artists, all for your viewing pleasure and its very nearly time to take off the virtual dust sheets and reveal all."
"Thursday 4th March 2010 at 6pm inside a disused shop unit in Newcastle (and in the virtual world of www dots all around the world) Kitch-en Gallery will officially relaunch. A new website, new artists (and some of our old motley crew of course) and lots of entertainment to see through the night including a specially curated exhibition of Limited Edition Prints, Originals and Vinyl Toys by the likes of Ben the Illustrator, Phlegm, Craww, Alexander James, Joel Millerchip, Matt JOnes aka Lunartik, Mr Arteest, Jessie Douglas, Tom Satchell, Myne, JamFactory, Creative Ginger, European Animal, Cloud Commission, Mobstr, Lunabee, Mr Guy All artworks will be for available for sale on the night and there are prices to suite all budgets."

We'll also have some live art/painting/doodle action by the ever so marvelous Ghetto Method Collective. Mudfoot Blaps will be on the ones and twos bringing you funky sounding delights for your ears and we've heard a whisper that legendary North East breakdancers, Bad Taste Cru will be making an appearance. Who knows they might even bust a move or two. Following on from the exhibition, there will the official Aftershow Party starting at 9pm down at the super cool Alvinos Bar. We'll have exclusive access to the top floor bar and terrace where there will be more live art delights and bust a groove music to see you through til the early hours."

Big ups to Ridley Properties, Davies Bell & Reed, the Newcastle City Council, Art AV, and Alvinos Bar for helping with the event. If you're anywhere close to Newcastle, get over there this Thursday!

In The Headlines

The Olympics are over and so is the weekend. Filling my days with long runs, concerts, and visiting with friends left me a bit exhausted. At some point this week, I hope I get to sit and not move for a second. While I was a busy bee, I still found time to compile your headlines. Enjoy!

The crew of the Chor Boogie documentary has seven days to raise money for post-production costs. If you can, throw some money their way!

YZ and Céline Malraux teamed up to created Mind Your Eyes, a series of street pieces synthesizing wheatpaste graphics and poetry.

If you get a chance, head over to Ripo's website and check out his Heart for Haiti prints. Proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders to help victims of the recent earthquake.

Marc and Sara from Wooster Collective spoke in South Africa about making public space open to the public.
Mr. Di Maggio reminds us that earth is not a toy.

In Hartford, artists rethink graffiti and street art. Chicago's still confused with how it feels about street work.

In Greece, Athens appreciates murals created by a certain pair of Brazilian twins.

The Boiler House in Cardiff serves as an indoor showspace for graffiti artists.
In NYC, Luzinterruptus fought traffic with literature and the books won.

Black Book has an interview with Mr. Brainwash.