Huck is a bi-monthly magazine rooted in skate, surf, snow, music, art and activism. I contributed to the latest issue no.30 which is an ‘Art Special’.

Firstly I wrote a piece entitled “The Fundamentals of Street Art” – which outlined what I believe to be the key ingredients in this art form.

Secondly they asked me to curate the back section of the magazine by choosing artists who I found particularly inspiring.

My choices included Colombian graffiti artist – Bastardilla, Open source guru – Evan Roth, Light artists – Luz Interruptus, Thrift store painter – Wayne White & Stencil impresario – Evol. You can see the magazine online for free here.

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Above’s new Passport book is huge! The special boxed edition now stands as the biggest book on my shelves. I was flattered to be asked to contribute a text to this artist’s monograph alongside others such as Faile and Wooster Collective. Ever since featuring Above in my second book Street Logos we have stayed in touch regularly, I’ve followed his travels and watched his work evolve over time so it was a pleasure to give my perspective on that.

Having created street art across the globe this book is a perfect celebration of his many free-wheeling adventures. The boxed version of the book is also an impressively designed object.

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Earlier this year Nuart festival asked me to contribute a written piece on the subject of Street Art for their book “Eloquent Vandals. The History of Nuart”. Based in Stavanger, Norway – the Nuart Festival has consistently brought some of the most interesting Street Art year after year to a city that is otherwise off the beaten track. Although its hard to be unbiased towards an organisation that has supported my work -I’ve always felt that Nuart has consistently shown a genuine passion for Street Art and strives to keep innovating in the way it operates and supports artists which is exemplified in contents of this book which was published in November 2011.

My essay entitled “The Medium is the Mess Age” was intended to be a back to basics look at Street Art, introductory yet personal and getting into the important relationships of street art – the viewers, the street, the city. This is a theme I’ve been looking at in a renewed way in recent talks and articles.

The book is also a very personal look into the creativity of the artists who over the years have made their mark on the festival.

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Last month I took part in a debate called …Capitalism? held at NHH Norwegian School of Economics in collaboration with the Nuart Festival.

NHH, a leading business school in Norway, had the idea to use street art as a way to engage with how the institution was perceived internally and externally and more broadly to comment on ideas about economics and capitalism.

NHH perceives itself as an institution with long and proud traditions and as a key player in the Norwegian economy both when it comes to educating future economic‐ and political elite and as an contributor in contemporary societal debates. However, NHH may also be perceived as an intellectual gatekeeper for capitalism and economic liberalism, a conservative environment where debate only takes place within the “safe” boundaries of the institution and as being little accessible for “normal people”.

To challenge this perception of NHH, the school collaborated with Stavanger’s Nuart festival to invite some of the world’s most renowned street artists such as Escif, M-City, Dolk and Eine to comment on NHHs ideological foundations on the schools huge walls. The artistic comments from the street artists was be supported by an academic program of presentations of which I was a participant.

The works created by the artists can be found on their website along with videos of the conference. The presentation by fellow speaker Evan Roth which centred around ideas about open source was very inspiring. It was interesting to note that the expectation was that the murals produced would be confrontational and controversial – but given complete free reign to produce whatever they wanted the artists produced work that was more contemplative and intriguing.

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Its been a while since the event but I had a throughly enjoyable and interesting time this August at the Atlanta Living Walls Conference. Now in its second year this grassroots festival is a celebration of street art with over 20 walls painted across the city by artists worldwide, including old friends such as Sam3, Escif and Labrona and artists I hadn’t met in person before such as the amazing Jaz from Argentina, Entes and Pesimo from Peru and Freddy Sam from South Africa.

Entes & Pesimo

I was very flattered to be invited as key note speaker to take part in some interesting debates which discussed the role of street art within public arts programmes. The conference included artists, public art organisers, workshop coordinators, community gardeners and many more to look at the wider picture.

Freddy Sam

The main venue for an accompanying exhibition, launch party and general hang-out was a place called the Goat farm – a complex of many old industrial buildings that are now being used for arts studios.

Goat Farm

One of the buildings which usually hosts a dance studio was the venue for our Pecha Kucha talks. This was the first time I’d done a Pecha Kucha before – the idea is that you have 20 slides and for each slide you speak for 20 seconds. The whole thing is automated so you have to speak fast – I’m not sure how well I did as I only prepared the night before. RJ from Vandalog and the American artist Gaia put on some stirling performances.

Feral Child

This is now my all time favourite Roa piece!

For more on Living Walls check out their website and Facebook page.

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I was pleased to be commissioned by the Observer magazine to compile my 10 Best Street Artworks as part of their 10 Best series. The feature appeared in their Review magazine on the 7th August and can also be found here on line at their parent newspaper’s website … http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2011/aug/07/art

Steve Powers: A Love Letter to You Project, Philadelphia  Photo: Becki Fuller

It was a tricky assignment, since it had to cover some history and what is generally a vast topic. It’s perhaps not the 10 ten best critically or aesthetically, but in my own opinion these are 10 excellent examples of Street Art that make the most of the possibilities of the genre, with a focus on community and communication.

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News from my friend the Brazilian stencil artist Daniel Melim – he just painted this 30 meter high mural in downtown Sao Paulo. If you know your way around the city you’ll know this is a great spot – next to some squatted buildings and near to the Pinacoteca…

More images here…

http://entretenimento.uol.com.br/ultnot/….da -luz-sp.jhtm

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Dubbed unimaginatively as the Bulgarian Banksy – you’ve got to hand it to the anonymous artist this is an audacious move…

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Finally one of my favourite artists Basco Vasko has a website.

For years I’ve scrabbled around trying to see his work online – also featuring him in my last book but now he’s spent some time collating his work and sharing it here – a very interesting artist in my opinion.

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Since traveling to Mexico – I’ve become a great fan and follower of its urban art scene particularly the young talent that is emerging there. Three Mexican artists who I featured in Street Sketchbook Journey’s – namely Sego, Saner & Dhear have been invited to create a show in Spain…

Here are a few images of what they got up to…

Sego

Saner

Sego

For more info check Belio Magazine.

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