FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
‘Consumerism cums in your hair’: Hijacking capitalism one advert at a time
10.24.2017
08:23 am
Topics:
Tags:

08hogre.jpg
 
I suppose some may say, “It’s not big. It’s not clever.” But still, it is quite amusing. Artist provocateur Hogre is waging a war against capitalism, consumerism, right-wing politics, and religion one advert at a time.

Hogre illegally takes over large billboards and bus stop advertising displays across London and reinvents them with subversive messages. Santa Claus is no longer celebrating Christmas with a Coke but preparing to start the revolution with a fiery Molotov cocktail. Neighborhood Watch is really Neighborhood Snitch. And car companies are shitting all over the world because “Why worry about Global Warming? We all die anyway!”

Originally from Italy, Hogre’s been making his presence known for about ten years with his clever, amusing stencils and inventive acts of vandalism. It’s all jolly good fun and thought-provoking to boot but I do wonder if such well-intended artistic anarchy is more likely to result in Hogre’s work being curated in an art gallery than awakening the “sheeple” from their addiction to consumerism. But I suppose one can hope.

See more of the mighty Hogre’s art here.
 
01horge.jpg
 
03hogre.jpg
 
See more of Hogre’s sterling work, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
10.24.2017
08:23 am
|
Street art homages to Frank Zappa, Lemmy, David Bowie, Bon Scott, Ian Curtis & more

Frank Zappa street art mural under a bridge in London by James Mayle and Leigh Drummond
A massive mural of Frank Zappa under a bridge in London by artists James Mayle and Leigh Drummond.

I recently came across images of some beautiful street murals of both the sadly recently departed Lemmy Kilmister and David Bowie—which is what got me cooking up this post chock full of graffiti and street art homages to notable musicians and rock stars who are no longer with us.

Of the many public pieces, photographed at places all around the globe, I’m especially fond of the Lemmy/Bowie hybrid that popped up on a utility box in front of a restaurant in Denver, Colorado shortly after Bowie passed on January 10th, 2016, as well as a haunting image of Joe Strummer that was painted on the side of a rusted old van.
 
Lemmy/Bowie street art mashup in Denver, Colorado
Lemmy/Bowie street art mashup in Denver, Colorado.
 
Joe Strummer mural painted on the side of a van by French artist, Jef Aerosol
Joe Strummer mural painted on the side of a van by French artist, Jef Aerosol.
 
Inspired street art dedicated to everyone from Joy Division’s Ian Curtis to James Brown, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
|
04.05.2016
09:14 am
|
Banksy gets Banksied
06.09.2015
04:18 pm
Topics:
Tags:


 
You might not know the name Butcher Billy, but if you love and appreciate (as I do) the “Post/Punk New Wave Superfriends” or the “Real life villains in the Legion of Doom,” then you already know the Brazilian artist’s subversively daffy, pop sensibility.

Billy’s latest intervention takes on the most inspired street artist of them all—BANKSY. What Butcher Billy did was to take a bunch of the most iconic Banksy graffiti designs out there and replace the principals with animated characters from the worlds of Disney, Warner Bros., and Hanna Barbera.  So the maid in “Maid in London” gets replaced with Rosie from The Jetsons, while the girl in “Girl With a Balloon” gets the Donald Duck treatment. You get the idea.

Butcher Billy has slapped together a bunch of the designs, which are available as a coloring book that you can order from Behance.
 

 

 

 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Martin Schneider
|
06.09.2015
04:18 pm
|
Street artist plants a coke-snorting Oscar statue in Hollywood
02.20.2015
02:02 pm
Topics:
Tags:

by Plastic Jesus
 
A life-size statue of Hollywood’s real golden boy Oscar, bent down on his hands and knees huffing lines of cocaine, was installed Thursday morning. The guerrilla art piece, dubbed “Hollywood’s Best Party,” is the velvet-roped handiwork of Los Angeles street artist Plastic Jesus. It was installed at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles (next to Elvis Presley’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star, no less) and was timed to appear just prior to the big Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday.

The Tumblr for Plastic Jesus states he is “inspired by world news events, society, the urban environment, culture and politics,” and that his “work combines humour, irony, criticism and unique opinion to create art that engages on many levels.”

This particular piece is a statement on drug abuse and addiction in Hollywood. On Twitter, the artist points to a Los Angeles Times article about the (apparent) fatal drug overdose of Parks and Recreation producer Harris Wittels:

 

Looking closely at the piece, it appears that the artist gave Oscar use of his custom black “American Excess” credit card to cut his lines of blow.
 
American Excess
 
Of course, the real blow here is that the piece has already been removed. Huffington Post reports that the art was up for just a few short hours before it was ordered out by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The Plastic Jesus team quickly disassembled the golden partier and got him out of there before authorities could. If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of the art in real life, according to an interview with the artist in Huffington Post, he’s planning to be place it outside of Urban Outfitters (at Melrose and Stanley) on Saturday.

via Nerdcore and Huffington Post

Posted by Rusty Blazenhoff
|
02.20.2015
02:02 pm
|
Russia to cheeky Bulgarians: Quit messing up our war memorials

ukraine bulgaria
 
Vandalizing Soviet-era war memorials to fallen soldiers in clever ways in Eastern Europe has become an anonymous sport. Well, Russian diplomats call it vandalism. Others call it awesome street art.

The Russian government has gotten increasingly pissed off by the attacks on the frequently targeted bas relief sculptures on the west side of the pedestal of the Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Russian embassy officially requested that Bulgarian authorities clean up the most recent incident this month, in which red paint was daubed on the monument on the eve of the 123rd anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, track down and punish those responsible, and do more to protect the statues instead of what they’re probably doing now, which is taking photos of it with their smartphones each time it’s vandalized.
 
bulgariancomicsoviet
 
Earlier this year the monument was spray-painted the colors of the Ukrainian flag. In 2011 the long-suffering soldier statues on the monument were notoriously painted to include Ronald McDonald, Wonder Woman, Robin, Santa Claus, The Joker, The Mask, Superman, Wolverine, Captain America, and an American flag. In 2012 balaclavas like the members of Pussy Riot wore were painted on the figures and, in separate incidents, Guy Fawkes “Anonymous” masks and ski masks were placed over the soldiers’ faces. Last August the monument was painted pink with apologies in Bulgarian and Czech for Bulgarian participation in the suppression of the Prague Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Pink was the chosen color in a tribute to Czech prankster and artist David Cerny, who painted a Soviet war memorial in central Prague (Monument of Soviet Tank Crews) pink in 1991. When Cerny was arrested, supporters repainted the tank pink. Similar defacement of Soviet monuments have taken place in Estonia and Romania.
 
sovietarmypink
 
Cerny is also known for floating a boat on the Vltava River containing an enormous purple hand flipping the bird at the Czech government building last fall.

People who object to this sort of behavior have asked that the Bulgarian memorial be moved to the fairly new and apparently disappointing Museum of Socialist Art. The monument’s most hostile critics think it should have been destroyed after the fall of the Soviet Union, so it’s probably fair game as a focal point for political and cultural protests by activists and general mischief.
 

Posted by Kimberly J. Bright
|
08.21.2014
11:43 am
|
Another piece of bloody street art…
10.18.2013
03:52 pm
Topics:
Tags:

tampon street art
 
I actually had to do a double-take on this one, but this lil’ lady—as seen in Richmond, Virginia—is downright endearing! Banksy’s all well and good, but who doesn’t love a winsome piece on “the curse.”

The blood flowing into the grate is a nice touch, too!
 
Via Bust

Posted by Amber Frost
|
10.18.2013
03:52 pm
|
Appropriation in the age of mediated struggle: Noam Galai’s ‘stolen scream’

image
 
New York-based Israeli photographer Noam Galai’s 2006 shots of himself screaming have become unexpectedly widespread emblems of angst and rage that could possibly reach the ubiquity in radical politics of Alberto Korda’s Guerrillero Heroico photo of Che Guevara.

Pro photography blog FStoppers got the exclusive on the fascinating story of Galai’s whim-turned-digital-phenomenon, which spans from his studio to about 40 countries and counting.

After much exploitation of his holler, Galai’s seen fit to cash in himself, which makes sense.
 

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
|
03.11.2011
03:14 am
|
Stealing and selling a Banksy

image
 
Over the past couple of years, the hyper-ascension of everyone’s favorite street artist has led to all kinds of phenomena, including the mainstreaming of the artform and, yes, its commodification.

In the case of Banksy, the adventure of anonymously creating public pieces is being matched by the similar adventure of swiping and selling them. LA Weekly photographer Ted Soqui’s report on the theft of Banksy’s Caution (after it got tagged) in East L.A. (pictured in sequence L-R above) put me in the mind of Jamaican edge-culture worker Peter Dean Rickards’s 2008 jacking of a larger piece that ol’ Mr. Anonymous tossed onto the outside wall of a Kingston pub. Rickards—who does business as Afflicted Yard—shot the video below, which also documents the amazing dynamics that can happen when a dozen Jamaican men work on the same project.
 

The Afflicted Yard: The Rock from Peter Dean Rickards on Vimeo.

 
After the jump: yes, a documentary about how to steal and sell a Banksy…

READ ON
Posted by Ron Nachmann
|
03.01.2011
08:11 pm
|
Yekpare: Fantastic Urban Projection from Istanbul

image
 
As the art of urban projection has grown, its scope has started blasting out into contexts beyond simply pretty pictures on building. Yekpare is one of the most amazing pieces in the format that I’ve seen yet. Art-directed by Deniz Kader and Candaş Şişman of the firm Nerdworking and soundtracked by Görkem Şen, Yekpare is a project that douses Istanbul’s Haydarpaşa Train Station in the symbological 8,500 year history of the city. From the writeup:

The story embraces symbols from Pagans to Roman Empire, from Byzantine Empire to Latin Empire, and finally from Ottoman Empire to Istanbul at the present day…
Haydarpaşa Train Station, with its brilliant architectural forms, is the building on which the story is projected. The connection between middle east to west has been provided by Istanbul and Haydarpaşa since 1906..
The project’s conceptual, political and geographical positioning, the location’s depth of field and the fact that the entire show can be watched from Kadıköy coast; make “Yekpare” a dramatic presentation.

 

‘YEKPARE’ (monolithic) from nerdworking on Vimeo.

Posted by Ron Nachmann
|
07.08.2010
04:05 pm
|
Big Bang Big Boom: Incredible new urban art animation by Blu

image
 
One of the true tests of innovative sequential/evolving visual art is whether it hits you as a fantastic story that a little kid could describe…”Then the van had eyes and then it ate the worm…” This thing does it.

Although the anonymous, hyper-proficient Bologna-based artist Blu has nothing near the global profile of Banksy, s/he’s shown and worked in as many regions, including the wall at the West Bank. S/he’s also been able to work stop-motion animation into his/her ouvre, and the ten-minute video below is the latest fruit.

It seems absolutely relentless and almost epic in its scope. Enjoy.
 

BIG BAG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

 
via Reckon

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
|
07.06.2010
04:38 pm
|
Aliens, bleeding walls and too many cops: The amazing public light art of Madrid’s luzinterrup

image
 
The global metropolis is seeing a golden age of street art nowadays, as seen in the evolution from spraycan through stencil/wheatpaste and on to other outdoor installations. The Luzinterruptus crew from Madrid has been doing some amazing light-work lately with some compelling underlying themes.
Their latest, Ejército de platillos volantes desechables (above), saw them land an army of disposable flying saucers in Parque del Oeste, the home of the rebuilt ancient Egyptian Temple of Debod.
 
image
 
Before that, the Luz’ers’ Publicidad herida de muerte (Mortally Wounded Advertising) commented on the thick layer of posters that cover the city’s walls by making them bleed fire.
 

 
Some months ago, curator Sebastian Buck in Good Magazine surfaced Luz’s Tanta Policía, para tan Poca Gente… (Lots of Cops for So Few People), in which the crew protested the increased police presence in their East Villagesque Malasana neighborhood by decorating 50 random cars with homemade replicas of the city’s official blue siren.

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
|
06.25.2010
12:22 am
|