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Escif – Around the Wall
Escif is an artist I was first introduced to in 2006 by Blu, who recommended him for inclusion in the Street Sketchbook book. Since meeting him back then in Barcelona and the publication of Street Sketchbook, Escif’s work has continued to grow and develop. Constantly painting and producing, his techniques have become honed over time…
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Roa show @ Pure Evil
I was greatly looking forward to seeing new work by Belgian artist Roa this week and his show at Pure Evil gallery did not disappoint. I love his use of found objects in these pieces – something that he began developing at his last show at Galerie Iterance in Paris. Roa is one of the…
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Classic Brazilian graffiti footage
I was first properly introduced to Brazilian Graffiti through Ignacio and Louise at Lost Art. In 1999 they sent me copies of Fiz magazine – a magazine designed by Os Gemeos – the magazine completely blew me away! At the time very few gringos were aware of the exciting graffiti scene that was developing especially…
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Vhils in Colombia
Abundantly creative is perhaps the best way to describe Vhils, a young Portuguese artist who constantly innovates with new techniques and approaches to his art. I’ve long been a supporter of his work – and was lucky enough to be able to invite him Cans Festival in 2008. It was also a pleasure to feature…
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Leeds College of Art
Thanks to Terence Jones exhibitions officer at Leeds College of Art for organising a show of Choque Cultural prints at the college. He sent me a few snaps of the prints in situ and they look great…
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Blu & Nunca
Two artists who have consistently excited me over the years are Nunca and Blu. Nunca was one of the artists we featured in Graffiti Brasil and while we were working on the book (in 2004) both myself, Caleb and Lost Art thought him the artist most likely to break through. At the time Os Gemeos,…
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Hugo Kaagman – Stencil King
This post comes a little late – Hugo Kaagman‘s book Stencil King was published in November 2009 by Lebowski Publishers. I was honoured to be asked to write the introduction to it. I first got to know Kaagman’s work on an art college trip to Amsterdam in 1986 – I was blown away by what I…
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Stop motion updates
Both Sam3 and Ericailcane have recently completed some brilliant stop motion animations. The first Nadadores a ceramic animation by Sam3/2010, is an earth poem filmed in Murcia’s outskirts. It is the first time I’ve ever seen an artist animating ceramics! To do this he had to create a number of ceramics at different stages. The…
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Chicha Posters update
Having become interested in Chicha posters recently I stumbled across a Peruvian Street artist called Faber who uses these posters as a backdrop to his work. A great use of found surfaces and colour contrasts for this emotive subject.
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Ericailcane – Potente di Fuoco
The most wonderful artist’s book of last year has to be Ericailcane’s Potente di Fuoco. The idea is so simple but just brilliant. Twenty years after he had drawn them Ericailcane’s parents showed him his first drawings featuring both creatures from this earth and fantastic ones. In this book he reinterprets them again side by…