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Graffiti

18 articles

Graffiti is an art form in which artists use spray paint and markers to apply decorative imagery to public environments, such as mass transit, buildings, bridges, etc. This highly radical form of contemporary art is often referred to as aerosol art, subway art or spraycan art.

Although it is thought of to have prehistoric or classical antiquity roots, the term graffiti gained coinage in the 1970s in the aftermath of the 1960s’ wild trend of defacing, decorating, and painting the urban settings — mainly in Philadelphia and New York City metros— by using markers and aerosol spray paint.

Graffiti artists use all kinds of spray paints, stencils, or markers, and their canvases include billboards, subways, abandoned industrial complexes and public walls.

Banksy - Forgive Us Our Trespassing, 2011, acrylic, spray paint and marker pens on wooden panel, in four parts, 655 x 421 cm (257⅞ x 165¾ in) feat

Banksy’s monumental stained glass window – Forgive us our trespassing

Graffiti, Paintings, Stained glass windows, Street Art   4 min read
Banksy’s Stained-Glass painting was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, California. The artwork shows a painted old stained glass window with the glass panes of the window covered with graffiti. At the front, we can see a young boy in street clothes kneeling and praying in front of a paintbrush and [...]

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Jonas Wood’s still life mural covers the entire Los Angeles MoCA

Graffiti, Paintings   2 min read
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles may feel hidden because of its downtown location. For a long time since it was designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, it has been associated with its less conspicuous qualities. Since L.A. painter Jonas Wood covered the museum building facade with a reproduction of his Still Life [...]

Jonas Wood’s still life mural covers the entire Los Angeles MoCA Read

Barry McGee’s tag murals – Walls covered with hundreds of red tags

Graffiti, Paintings   5 min read
When the iconic gallerist Jeffrey Deitch swapped the East Coast for West Coast, many wondered about the state of street art in New York City. Granted, the newer generation of gallerists such as Joshua Liner and Jonathan Levine had become preeminent curators with their fresh take on street art. However, with his unlimited resources, Deitch [...]

Barry McGee’s tag murals – Walls covered with hundreds of red tags Read

Os Gemeos painted this entire Boeing plane

Graffiti, Paintings, Street Art   3 min read
In 2014, the dynamic duo Os Gemeos covered the Brazilian national soccer team’s jet for the world in their enthusiastically colorful, signature designs that blend folk art with street art. Covering nearly every inch of the jet’s exterior surface, they spray-painted the airplane with colorful characters with brown and yellow faces meant to represent the [...]

Os Gemeos painted this entire Boeing plane Read

Christopher Morris: How the New York Subway looked in the 1980s

Graffiti, Paintings, Photography   1 min read
22-years-old at the time, Christopher Morris was working as an intern at the photo agency Black Star and was determined to make something of himself as a photographer. According to the agency, the recently rediscovered photographs “provide a window on a long-gone New York, a metropolis that once pulsed with a very different energy—a frenetic [...]

Christopher Morris: How the New York Subway looked in the 1980s Read

Krink-Hawaii-feat

Krink’s / Craig Costello’s intriguing drip paintings in Hawaii

Graffiti, Murals, Paintings   2 min read
Craig Costello became known for his distinctive graffiti work on the streets of New York City in the 1990s. His breakthrough came when he started experimenting with homemade ink markers using a mixture of ink and other materials. This resulted in a signature drippy effect that set his work apart from others. The drippy aesthetic [...]

Krink’s / Craig Costello’s intriguing drip paintings in Hawaii Read

Martha Cooper Nils Mueller

Martha Cooper shows her subway art photos in exhibition

Graffiti, Paintings   3 min read
This Saturday, the exhibition of Martha Cooper and Nils Müller opened. The exhibition is running until the 8th of January, 2011. From Saturday, 3rd December 2011 to 8th January 2012, photographers Martha Cooper (US) and Nils Müller (DE) showed works at The Gallerian INC. in Bochum, Germany. Both are well-known for taking photos of graffiti [...]

Martha Cooper shows her subway art photos in exhibition Read

senseless-drawing-bot-so-kanno-takahiro-yamaguchi-feat

What is the Senseless Drawing Bot? Takahiro Yamaguchi & So Kanno

Graffiti, Paintings   1 min read
The Senseless Drawing Bot by the two Japanese Takahiro Yamaguchi and So Kanno explores the relationship between machine and art and was shown at the exhibition “UTOPIA no OSHIRASE” in Tokyo in October 2011. What the device does The Senseless Drawing Bot is a self-propelling device on a skateboard that sprays abstract linework on a [...]

What is the Senseless Drawing Bot? Takahiro Yamaguchi & So Kanno Read

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Jazoo Yang (양 자주) created these unusual murals in South Korea

Graffiti, Paintings, Street Art   4 min read
Jazoo Yang is a South Korean artist who lives and works in Beijing and Seoul. She uses her paintings and installations to document others’ solitude, often in interesting ways. Her paintings, which she creates by using brushes or knives, are usually not finished so that the surface becomes the infinite space for her. Yang has [...]

Jazoo Yang (양 자주) created these unusual murals in South Korea Read