Cover and Graphic Design by Joana Macedo Printed by ESAD.CR - OD © Typeface This catalogue was written usign the fonts Juice and Zwodrei for titles and subtitles and Swift for texts.
First Edition Print Run: 5000 ISBN: 08420984093 Legal Deposit: 297.233/09 I take no credit for the texts in this catalogue, they were found online. All photographs that doesn’t belong to me I take no credit for. All rights reserved ®
Designed by Joana Macedo First Edition All rights reserved 速
Editorial Contents What is Street Art
8
Uses and motivation of Street Artists
10
Origins and Background
12
Radical and Political
14
As Advertising
18
High Art
20
Thank you Notes
36
Web Research
37
Image Index
37
I ENTERED THIS journey without really knowing what the destination was. My small research on this subject wasn’t near enough of the amount of information that really was not online. So I kept receiving information every time I got out on the streets, keeping my eyes open to every possible good street art image. What I did know was that street art is a whole world, and when I started seeing it with eyes wide open was when I truthfully understood it. Street art isn’t just painting on walls: the images created have a whole concept behind it and it can be to stand by a point of view, mostly political, it can be a way of advertising or it can just be something someone wants to get exposed, their work, their masterpieces. That’s what I searched for, those masterpieces, those mind-blowing images, those point of views - that’s what I brought myself into. ◊
Joana Macedo
What is
Street Art Written by M. Kennedy Photographed by Joana Macedo V.F. Xira, Lisboa
Street art is an original type of art that we can find only in the streets. The term gained popularity during the graffiti art boom of the early 1980s and continues to be applied to subsequent incarnations. The terms “urban art”, “guerrilla art”, “post--graffiti” and “neo-graffiti” are also sometimes used when referring to artwork created in these contexts. Street art is any art developed in public spaces. The term can include traditional graffiti art work, as well as stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheat-pasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Street artists will often work in studios, hold gallery exhibitions or work in other creative areas: they are not anti-art, they simply enjoy the freedom of working in public without having to worry about what other people think. Street artists sometimes present socially relevant content infused with esthetic
Methods and Written by Nina John Photographed by Joana Macedo V.F. Xira, Lisboa
value, to attract attention to a cause or as a form of “art provocation”. Street artists often travel between countries to spread their designs. Some artists have gained cult-followings, media and art world attention, and have gone on to work commercially in the styles which made their work known on the streets. ◊
“Street Art is the art on the streets.”
The modern-day graffiti artist can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, techniques, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color. Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material to form an overall design or image. This method of graffiti is popular amongst artists because of its swift technique that requires very little time. ◊
Street Art · 11
Uses and motivations of the
Street Art ists
Written by M. Kennedy Marialva Boneca e Maria Do Mal Posters of Marialva Doll and Evil Maria’s Collective Bubuia, representing politicians like Cyclops. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Street art is an original type of art that we can find only in the streets. The term gained popularity during the graffiti art boom of the early 1980s and continues to be applied to subsequent incarnations. The terms “urban art”, “guerrilla art”, “post--graffiti” and “neo-graffiti” are also sometimes used when referring to artwork created in these contexts.
Street art is any art developed in public spaces. The term can include traditional graffiti art work, as well as stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheat-pasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Street artists will often work in studios, hold gallery exhibitions or work in other creative areas: they are not anti-art, they simply enjoy the freedom of working in public without having to worry about what other people think. Street artists sometimes present socially relevant content infused. Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers,
particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or in the achievement of a political goal. In times of conflict, murals such as the Berlin wall, have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically and/or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialogue and thus of addressing cleavages in the long run. ◊
Street Art 路 13
Origins and Background B Slogans of protest and political or social commentary graffitied onto public walls are the precursor to modern graffiti and street art, and continue as one aspect of the genre. Street art in the form of text or simple iconic graphics in the vein of corporate icons become well-known yet enigmatic symbols of an area or an era.
Much of what can now be defined as modern street art has well-documented origins dating from New York City’s graffiti boom, with its infancy in the 1960s, maturation in the 1970s, and peaking with the spraypainted full-car subway train murals of the 1980s centered in the Bronx. As the 1980s progressed, a shift occurred from text-based works of early in the decade to visually conceptual street art such as Richard Hambleton’s shadow figures. These years coincide with Keith Haring’s subway advertisement subversions and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s SAMO tags. What is now recognized as “street art” had yet to become a realistic career consideration, and offshoots such as stencil graffiti were in their infancy. Wheatpasted poster art used to promote bands and the clubs where they performed evolved into actual artwork or copy-art and became a common sight during the 1980s in cities worldwide.
Written by M. Kennedy Photographed by Joana Macedo V.F. Xira, Lisboa
Artists have challenged art by situating it in non-art contexts. Street artists do not aspire to change the definition of an artwork, but rather to question the existing environment with its own language. The motivations and objectives that drive street artists are as varied as the artists themselves. ‘Street’ artists attempt to have their work communicate with everyday people about socially relevant themes in ways that are informed by esthetic values without being imprisoned by them. There is a strong current of activism and subversion in urban art. Street art can be a powerful platform for reaching the public and a potent form of political expression for the oppressed, or people with little resources to create change. Some street artists use “smart vandalism” as a way to raise awareness of social and political issues. 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. ◊
Street Art · 15
and Radical Political Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques.
One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names as ‘De Zoot’, ‘Vendex’, and ‘Dr Rat’.
Written by Nina John Photographed by Joana Macedo V.F. Xira, Lisboa
So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture. The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as “on the street” or “underground”, contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements.
“I think graff it i writ ing is a way of def ining what our generat ion is like. Excuse the French, we’re not a bunch of p---- art ists. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it f iercely.” Since the 1990s a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints for a variety of reasons— but primarily because is it difficult for the police to apprehend them and for the courts to sentence or even convict a person for a protest that is as fleeting and less intrusive than marching in the streets. In some communities, such impermanent works survive longer than works created with permanent paints because the community views the work in the same vein as that of the civil protester who marches in the street—such protest are impermanent, but effective nevertheless. On top of the political aspect of graffiti as a movement, political groups and individuals may also use graffiti as a tool to spread their point of view. This practice, due to its illegality, has generally become favored by groups excluded from the political mainstream. Territorial graffiti serves as marking ground to display tags and logos that differentiate certain groups from others. ◊
Street Art · 17
B. Shanti, Captain Borderline, Lisboa Represents a Euro coin, two politicians/economists/specutlators and a several buildings representing activities in the European countries in a chessboars. Connecting to economic crisis. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Street Art 路 19
g n i s i t r e v d A As
Written by Nina John
Miguel Januário, Lisboa
For the project UNDERDOGS 2013, through the intervention project “±MAISMENOS±” Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Photo on next page \\ Photographed by Joana Macedo V.F. Xira, Lisboa
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. In NYC, Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store. Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product. Shepard Fairey rose to fame after his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which his art was plastered in cities throughout America. Many graffiti artists see legal advertising as no more than 'paid for and legalised graffiti' and have risen against mainstream ads. The graffiti research lab crew have gone on to target several prominent ads in New York as a means of making a statement against this criteria. ◊
Street Art 路 21
Written by Joanne Brandy Odeith, Lisboa “Boogie Down Lisbon”, event which inaugurated the “Lisbon Wall” and gathered some of the most recognized nacional artists -Bray,Chure, Creyz, Mar, Mitzer, Nark, Nomen, Odeith, ParizOne, Quê?, Ram and Rote. Dedicated to Lisbon city theme. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
In the early 1980s, the first Art Galleries who started to show graffiti artists to the public were Fashion Moda in Bronx and Now Gallery in East Village, Manhattan. A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffiti artists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine, Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti. Terrance Lindall, an artist and executive director of the Williamsburg Art and Historic Center, said regarding graffiti and the exhibition:
Ar
High
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“Graff it i is revolut ionary, in my opinion”, he says, “and any revolut ion might be considered a crime. People who are oppressed or suppressed need an outlet, so they write on walls—it’s free.” In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners. Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris — a clear acceptance of the art form into the French art world. Many graffiti artists have used their design talents in other artistic endeavors. In 2009 graffiti artist "Scape" published GRAFF; the Art & Technique of Graffiti, the world's first book dedicated to displaying the full techniques of creating graffiti art. ◊
Street Art · 23
Photographed by Joana Macedo V.F. Xira, Lisboa
2 Photographed by Joana Macedo Caldas da Rainha, Leiria Photo on next page \\ Photographed by Joana Macedo Caldas da Rainha, Leiria Street Art 路 25
Street Art 路 27
Odeith, Lisboa “Smile”, Rua das Murtas. Evoking the World Day of Mental Health, there were artistic interventions in the wall of the Psychiatric Hospital Center Lisbon. They invited the creators Aspen, Eime, Jose Carvalho, Mar, Miguel Ayako, Nark, Nomen, Odeith, Robot, Slap, Smile, to produce on the greater wall dedicated to urban art in Lisbon, with about 1km long. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
UAT - União Artística do Trancão Follow the art and soon you will see the river! The path of urban art festival in All traces are from the Rua de São Bento to Boqueirão Duro, under the theme of masks ethnic character. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Photo on next page \\ Photographed by Joana Macedo Caldas da Rainha, Leiria Street Art · 29
Street Art 路 31
Eime, Alto da Eira Stencil that results of a competition for the design/implementation of artistic intervention in the wall located in Alto da Eira. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Photo on top \\ Photographed by Joana Macedo Caldas da Rainha, Leiria José Carvalho e Tamara Alves, Largo da Oliveirinha Represents the patroness of graffitti, “Holy Spray”.
Street Art · 33
Corleone, Calçado da Glória Piece of the Urban Art Gallery, “Lowbrow” theme. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
João Samina, Calçado da Glória Through an extensive stencil, it seeks to raise the issues raised by the observer, the representation of a “Big Brother” that contemplates us with a questioning look. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Street Art · 35
Miguel Januário, Calçado da Glória Piece of the Urban Art Gallery, “Lowbrow” theme. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Add Fuel to the Fire, Calçado da Glória Piece of the Urban Art Gallery, “Lowbrow” theme. Provided by GAU - Galeria de Arte Urbana
Street Art · 37
A special thank you to all the team of facebook page “Galeria de Arte Urbana�, who gave me access to some of the imagens, along with their descriptions.
Add fuel to the fire B. Santi
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Eime
30
João Samina
33
José carvalho e Tamara Alves
31
Marialva Boneca e Maria do Mal
11
Odeith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_art http://www.graffitistudio.net/2013/03/01/different-formsstreet-art/ http://blocs.xtec.cat/streetart/definition-of-street-art/definitionwhat-is-street-art/ http://www.artrepublic.com/art_terms/39-street-art.html http://www.flickr.com/photos/gau_lisboa
16-17
Corleone
Miguel Januário
Texts and images (from Galeria de Arte Urbana) online:
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UAT - União Artística do Trancão
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