This video featuring Athens-based graffiti writer iNO perfectly captures his ability to turn quick gestures with a spray can into something that almost looks as if it was produced with aid of a camera. Many of the artist’s interior and exterior works incorporate the idea of two faces or figures merging, either morphing into each other or growing outwardly. Watch the video above to see it all come together. (via colossal submissions)
Italian graffiti writer, painter and sculptor Manuel Di Rita (aka Peeta) lives and works in Venice where since 2000 he has risen to international fame for his unique 3D graffiti style. Using a variety of shading, gradients and shadows his work often appears to be hovering just off the surface on which it is painted. Peeta not only creates work in public spaces but also creates similar figures with paint on cavas as well as sculptures. Above is a mixture of artworks both old and new, and you can see much more over on Flickr and at Ayden Gallery.
Risking life and limb atop a tall scaffold, Belgian street artist Strook (who you might remember from his mossy pressure-washed street art) just completed this impressive drawing titled Metropolis inspired by Fritz Lang’s 1927 film by the same name. The drawing was done entirely with white marker inside the Concertgebouw (concert building) in Bruges, Belgium but because of the changing light patterns during the day the piece looks as if was done in black when viewed opposite a light source. Watch the video to see the entire piece come together.
Fine artist and designer INSA creates elaborately painted walls that are photographed in sequence to create these amazing, psychedelic animated gifs. His latest piece (top 3 images) is a collaboration with artist Stanley Donwood called Hollywood Dooom to help celebrate the release of a new album for Atoms for Peace, AMOK, for which Donwood did the album artwork. INSA painted the entire exterior of XL Recordings four times to create the frames for the animation. Of the work he says:
My challenge was to take two very static items, a beautiful lino-cut and a less beautiful box of a building, and bring them to life. After a week of sweating in the Los Angeles late summer sun re-painting the whole building several times I got there. Animated as a continuous GIF it may only live online but some would argue that is where most now live there lives…
You can see more of INSA’s gif work and other pieces on his blog. (via the creator’s project)
Prolific street artist C215 (previously) has been making new work seemingly all over Europe lately with stops in Lisbon, Barcelona, Dublin, London, and elsewhere. His vibrant stencil works rely on carefully layered fields of color and texture making each piece seem like it’s practically illuminated from behind. You can explore his Flickr page for many more works, and he opens a solo show at Montana Gallery in Barcelona on December 13th.
Using materials that for centuries have been reserved as tasty decoration the finest cakes and pastries, Montreal-based artist Shelley Miller attacks brick walls and deteriorating urban surfaces with cake icing to create ornate scrolls and decorative motifs. While the medium itself is purely culinary, her illustrations and patterns borrow heavily from calligraphy and decorative arabesque scrolls seen in ancient temples and mosques. Another added dimension is its impermanence as the works crack, drip, and melt off the wall, potentially disappearing in just a few days.
Most recently Miller presented an interactive piece at Nuit Blanche in Montreal called Throw-Up, and you can follow updates via blog—check out that book sculpture! (via collabcubed)
I can’t speak from personal experience about the political climate in Yekaterinburg, Russia but if we take this video from the ad agency Voskhod at face value it appears the powers that be neglected the city’s infrastructure one day too long. After repeatedly commenting and complaining about the pockmarked streets of Yekaterinburg, local blog URA.RU turned to Voskhod to create a brilliant campaign: under the cover of night they would paint the faces of local politicians around the most unsightly potholes and potentially shame them into action. The response? It worked! Via Ads of the World:
Quality of roads is the eternal problem of Yekaterinburg – the fourth largest city of Russia. The local site URA.RU, which writes about life in the city, decided to remind politicians that it is their duty to repair the roads. The problem is – our politicians don’t care about potholes. Their only worry is their own public image. We associated road holes with the images of certain politicians. In the night, on three potholes in city center, we drew faces of the governor, the mayor and the vice-mayor. The news about caricatures became a sensation. With this intense PR the politicians were no longer able to sit idle. The holes were fixed. The news about the action was released in more than 300 media venues, the website traffic on URA.ru doubled. The officials at last started to do their jobs.
Gotta love it when art and politics come together to create something positive, hopefully they don’t have to paint a face next to every pothole in the city. See much more over on Red Hot Russia.
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© 2010-2013 Christopher Jobson, all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. I try my best to attribute images, videos, and quotes to their creators and original sources. If you see something on Colossal that's misattributed or you would like removed, please contact me. The Colossal logo and name Colossal are the trademarks of Christopher Jobson.
