This month’s Creative Review Magazine (Jaunary 2010) features an article about the Chica poster culture of Peru. These posters are screenprinted with fluorescent colours typically with a strong black background. The designs are drafted by hand and with extraordinary skill, each layer of colour is the result of a hand cut paper stencil. Although I had seen similar posters in Mexico these Chicha posters have a very distinct aesthetic and culture behind them. I was made aware of their existence through my friend Nano from Equipo Plastico and through him I managed to reach Jules Bay a curator in Lima an expert in this area to find out more. It was fascinating story and so I approached Creative Review with the concept of a feature article on this subject. Like last year’s January 2009 issue which I was also involved with, Creative Review decided that it would be exciting if the cover of CR could be made in Lima using this technique – within weeks the cover image was designed and printed in Lima and now on news stands around the world…
A documentary was also commissioned which can be seen here
60 : Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future is a new book published by Thames and Hudson this November. To commemorate 60 years of Thames and Hudson, this book celebrates sixty innovators in art, design, fashion and other creative fields. I was asked to compile and write the “Street World” chapter featuring 5 artists that have been innovators in this field. My choices were Space Invader, JR, Darius and Downey, Swoon and Blu.
The book is handsomely hard-bound, with a die-cut glossy cover – although I don’t think the jacket cover will survive much handling…
As part of my research for a new book I was lucky enough to travel to Mexico – stopping in Cuernavaca, Mexico City and Oaxaca. Among the many artists I met were Saner and Smithe. It was great to watch them painting for an afternoon – more to be revealed in the book soon…
I am very pleased to have participated in an article for this month’s CreativeReview. In honour of Choque Cultural Gallery’s publication of a fabulous book of woodcut art called Xirugravuras which also highlights the dying art of the Lambe Lambe poster and the Grafica Fidalga workshop – which I posted something about in 2007.
Release: September 2008
Format: 24 x 28 cm
Features: 160 pages, full colour, hardcover
Stephan Doitschinoff’s street alias is Calma. This book presents the emblematic and spiritual paintings and murals that the Brazilian painter has emblazoned on houses, churches and walls in rural villages in his South American homeland. His metaphoric imagery feeds off Afro-Brazilian folklore, pagan and alchemic symbolism and contemporary pop culture. For the first time, Calma documents his artistic journey through these rustic areas and presents the complete visual pandemonium of a young urban artist who creates powerful figurative worlds.
Modart is one of my favourite magazines - I am biased though, as I regularly write articles for them. Issue 14 has the fantastic Adam Neate as the cover star and inside an article I wrote about the talented Brazilian artist – Stephan Doitschinoff.
Issue 15 is due out soon – featuring an article I’ve written about Santa’s Ghettoin Bethlehem.
Many thanks to Matt (45rpm) for producing this trailer for me to promote the ‘Street Sketchbook’ book. Using footage taken out our launch at Rough Trade, Brick Lane, London.
During my research for Street Sketchbook it was a pleasure to travel to Bologna last year to meet three artists whose work I love; Ericailcane, Blu and Dem. It was great to spend days there, to see the way they worked and interview them.
Modart magazine asked me to write a few words about Erica il Cane in one of their recent issues….
Erica il Cane
The Italians have coined some evocative nicknames for their artists; like Botticelli, which means, “little barrels”, Uccello meaning “bird” (he had a thing for painting birds apparently), and Masaccio, which means “messy”. Today we should add Erica il Cane, “Erica the dog”, to that esteemed list. Originally formed as an artists’ group, the name now refers to just one Bologna-based artist, although from his output you’d suspect he had more than one pair of hands.
Erica il Cane’s work takes on many forms, from delicate etchings to vast murals, as well as otherworldly short films created with animated models and mixed media. At a young age he was lucky enough to be introduced to printmaking by his artist father who owned a press. He produced his first etching aged 8 and has continued with the technique ever since. On a different scale he is becoming recognised worldwide for his large-scale murals and graffiti, which he often produces with fellow Bolognese artist Blu. Combining their visual ideas across the façades of entire buildings, their work is breathing new life into the art of wall painting. As if this wasn’t enough, he dedicates whole months to animation, enjoying its creative potential to combine not only drawing but light, sound, time and space.
Whatever the medium his art opens a doorway into another universe, populated with extraordinary characters – which could have escaped from the darkest corners of a fairytale book. While there are echoes of Alice in Wonderland and antique animal Illustrations in his style, his drawings are a combination of original penmanship and his personal sense of humour.
Animal figures play a starring role, sometimes portrayed anthropomorphically, depicted in human postures, wearing Victorian style clothing, and other times more naturalistically,even anatomically stripped down to bare bones and organs. In the spirit of fairytales his images often have an allegorical message for the human world; frailty, violence, greed, pride and all our sins are explored. Raised in a small town in the mountains of Northern Italy, Erica il Cane grew up respecting nature, which lead to a sensitivity towards animals and the issue of animal treatment. It’s perhaps no surprise that he is vegetarian.
For a number of months I have been working with a team of students from Brislington Enterprise College, Bristol to produce a magazine called Smudge.
Once a week I worked with the students, introducing them to design ideas and generally helped them realise their own ideas for the magazine. The broad theme of this issue was ‘Space’ so the students looked at issues ranging from local places to Outer Space. The team made their own puppet story, took photographs, designed type, wrote poems, interviewed artists and reviewed films and generally worked very hard!
I finally have a printed copy of my new book “Street Sketchbook” published by Thames and Hudson, ISBN 978 0500 513620. The book will not reach the shelves for another few weeks yet.
I have to say that its looking fantastic – hard bound, rounded corners, spot varnished cover and 272 pages!
After two years hard work [...]
