Semafory Project By Roman Tyc

Posted on May 17, 2012 by wheelbarrow

Back in 2007, Czech guerilla artist Roman Tyc took to the streets of Prague for his Semafory Project and replaced 48 walk signals with whimsical figures that make you take a second glance. Hiding in plain sight, the clever culture jammer installed some wild and mild designs in broad daylight. The new silhouettes depicted a man walking a dog, drinking, being hung and urinating. While the locals found the project entertaining, the authorities didn’t find it too funny. Roman was arrested and forced to replace all the lights back to normal. He did however elect to not pay the fine and was sentenced to 30 days in the slammer. The public protested his punishment and decapitated the semaphore figures by painting their heads black.

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Groundbreaking Street Art Smashes Up Through Sidewalks

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Urbanist

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Oh yes, you read it right: breaking ground was meant in the literal sense – think Sandworms from Beetlejuice, chewing through asphalt on their way to attack and nature’s own bright orange warning color.

Epos 257 is an urban artist with many tools, techniques and approaches, but few are quite so attention-getting as a presumably-rogue pipe (or mythical snake) that bursts up from the cobblestones or concrete right at your feet.

The creatures comes straight out legend, leaping into view in modern form: the Mongolian Death Worm is the creature of nightmares, spewing flesh-eating acid as it terrorizes a population. To this day, scientists cannot say of the stories are based on fact or fantasy.

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Brush with Death: Street Art Comes Alive (and Attacks!)

Great street art can seem to jump right off of the wall at you. In this short film from Corridor Digital, the art really does come to life...and it's not nice. 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

8 Bit Revolution: Jaw-Dropping Pixel Art That Smashes Stereotypes

The phrase "8 Bit" evokes images of dusty videogames and dank recreation rooms with shag carpeting. Say goodbye to this stereotype, and hello awesome pixel art. 5 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Wild Creatures in Urban Mexico: New Street Art by ROA

10-foot-tall wild animals spring to life in the streets of Mexico from the spray paint can of Belgian artist ROA, champion of the underdogs of nature. 12 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

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Painting Reality: Surprised Motorists Make Sudden Street Art

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Urbanist

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Guerilla Action & Art. ]

Ingredients: 500 liters of brightly-colored, eco-friendly, wash-away water-based paint, one elevated location with video camera and a whole mess of (2000) cars just waiting at an intersection to be unwitting participants in creating a huge mural.

Guerilla artists of IEPE dumped blue, yellow, purple and red along each major motorway crossing at a single (huge) central space during a pause in traffic, all from their own well-timed vehicular conveyances stopped on the various sides.

When they peeled away, bicyclists and moped riders began to trail thin lines of color, crossed in turn by larger leavings from four-wheeled vehicles around them. Mixed paints overlapped and bled to form new colors along the way. A beautifully simple act of interactive and chaotic art on the street – fortunately, no drivers were too distracted to stay the course despite the rather complex nature of this particular intersection.

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70 Stunning Works of 3D Street Painting & Mural Art

These amazing artists produce three-dimensional works that trick our sense of perspective and seem 3D despite being painted, drawn or chalked onto flat 2D surfaces. Click Here to Read More »»

Painting the Town in Vivid Colors: 3 (More) Types of Unusually Legal Urban Street Art

Here are three examples of strangely legal urban street art from artistic Japanese manhole covers and creatively painted American circuit boxes to downright bizarre Russian street lamps. 36 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

7 Unusually Geeky Street Graffiti Projects: From Digitized Spray-Painting to Physical Hyperlinking

The following examples span the spectrum but share elements only a geek can fully appreciate. 37 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

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3D Floating Graffiti: Brilliant Interactive Alleyway Art Illusions

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Urbanist

[ By WebUrbanist in Graffiti & Drawing & Urban & Street Art & Urbanism. ]

Our minds are addicted to making order out of chaos and finding patterns in noise. This stunning perspectival art project takes the wonderfully windy streets of São Paulo, Brazil and layers a new level of meaning on their walls.

Boa Mistura is a Spanish art collective that engaged the community around this intervention. Helped by local families – children in particular – they painted words of hope and inspiration (including terms that translate as beauty, pride and love) that the observer must shift to see.

Each piece involves a single bold-colored backdrop on which one capital-lettered word stands out – in the photos, it almost looks unreal.

These 3D illusions break apart from anything but the perfect view, but in their deconstruction are also strangely beautiful and eye-catching – another dynamic element and splash of color in the complex streets and alleys of the city.

“The work of Boa Mistura is all about the love of graffiti, colour and life. This group of 5 Spanish artists is, as the name says, a good mixture. Arkoh, Derko, Pahg, Purone and Rdick have developed their work in different fields, applying both a diversity of styles and the different views of each member.”

“Boa Mistura represents a mixture of perspectives which complement, influence and mix themselves together in order to create something better. From graffiti and mural painting, to graphic design and illustration, Boa Mistrua want to give the world its colour back. 5 heads, 10 hands, just one heart.

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20 Fabulous Light Graffiti Artists & Photographers

Light graffiti is uniquely ephemeral and inextricably intertwined with the art of photography, sometimes even invisible to the naked eye and apparent only on film. 13 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

The Secret and Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal: Satircal or Strangely True Artistic Genius?

Most would argue that graffiti removal is at best the elimination of vandalism or at worst the destruction of art, right? 40 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

3D Architectural Illusions: Amazing Paintings, Murals and Mosaics

Inside a home, on the outside of a building or even in a swimming pool, the illusion of 3D can transform a space, giving the appearance of depth, texture and place. 36 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

[ By WebUrbanist in Graffiti & Drawing & Urban & Street Art & Urbanism. ]

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QR Hobo Codes: Secret-Symbol Stencils for Digital Nomads

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Urbanist

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geek Art & Graffiti & Drawing & Technology & Futurism. ]

This project tackles what is probably the last place anyone expect to find a digital-age intervention: the centuries-old tradition of the mobile and homeless communicating via shorthand markers, left to denote different risks and advantages to illicit living spaces.

From its creators at Free Art & Technology: “These stencils can be understood as a covert markup scheme for urban spaces — providing directions, information, and warnings to digital nomads and other indigenterati. We present these as modern equivalents of the chalk-based “hobo signs” developed by 19th century vagabonds and migratory workers to cope with the difficulty of nomadic life.” (Hobo signs via Sources: Fran DeLorenzo (left),Wikipedia (right).

But it also goes beyond the conventional messages once conveyed: “Indeed, our set of QR stencils port a number of classic hobo annotations to the QR format (“turn right here”, “dangerous dog”, “food for work”) as well as some new ones, with a nod to warchalking, that are specific to contemporary conditions (“insecure wifi”, “hidden cameras”, “vegans beware”).”

As ingenious as this all is, the question, of course, remains: even in an age where almost everyone has a cellular phone, how many truly nomadic peoples have one? The answer, though, may be: more than we realize.

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Hoboglyphs: Secret Transient Symbols & Modern Nomad Codes

Hobos once traveled the country by rail, looking for honest work. Along they way, they developed their own fascinating written language to communicate secretly. 9 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Surreal Decay: Stunning Light Graffiti with Stencils

Melbourne street artist TigTab uses stencils to create light graffiti as you've never seen it before - crisp and still yet dynamic and otherworldly. 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

The Puzzling 3D Digital Art of Kazuhiko Nakamura

Japanese artist Kazuhiko Nakamura reaches deep into the recesses in his brain for the bizarre mechanical puzzle pieces that he assembles into his digital art. Click Here to Read More »»

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Subway Parasite: Stealth Projector Lights Up Train Tunnels

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Urbanist

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Futurism & Urban & Street Art & Urban Videos. ]

Watching the city go by from an elevated or even ground-level rail system can be relaxing, but the transition to an underground section is at best boring, at worst jarring.

Here to lighten the mood a bit during the duller parts of your nighttime or subterranean transit is a quirky little device designed to attach to the outer shell of a passenger train. It was created by Frédéric Eyl for a Digital Media course at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

Suddenly there is a school of fish struggling to keep up, an under-earth ecosystem, or some other speed-appropriate scene to liven your day. Of course, actually sticking one of these on an unsuspecting car might be cause for police concern, so whether they will work well without approval is another matter.

From the artist: “Parasite is an independant projection-system that can be attached to subways and other trains with suction pads. Using the speed of the train as parameter for the projected content, the projection starts with the train moving inside a tunnel. These tunnels bear something mystic — most people usually have never made a step inside any of those tunnels. Confusing the routine of your train-travelling-journey, your habits and perception the projections Parallel Worlds — making use of Parasite — allow you a glimpse into a different world full of surrealist imagery.”

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Graffiti Sites: Train, Wall, Street & Subway Photos

Though it's found all over the world, graffiti tends to accumulate on the same spaces in each location. Most commonly: trains, walls, city streets, and subways. 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

6 Abandoned Railroads, Subways, and Train Stations

The age of the railroad may be over, but the marks of these powerful transport systems are evident everywhere you go - as well as abandoned train and subway stations. 12 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Twisty Mystery: Ancient Underground German Tunnels

At least 700 cramped, mysterious tunnel systems exist beneath urban and rural Germany with many more in the rest of Europe - but what were they for? 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

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Liquid Street Art: Tricycle Deploys Calligraphic Water Poetry

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Urbanist

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geek Art & Graffiti & Drawing & Urban & Street Art. ]

Nicholas Hanna is a Canadian artist who has poured new life into a traditional art form, turning a tricycle into a means of rapidly deploying Chinese characters in liquid form. Like disappearing ink, the intentionally ephemeral work also vanishes in the artist’s wake.

On a recent trip to China, this particular WebUrbanist author had the privilege of watching an old street artist at work – the elderly man in question bent down, touched brush to pavement, and traced out letters that dried slowly behind him. In a few more years, he might need something like this newfangled contraption just to continue his work.

A computer poised on the front of the bike (or trike) lets the rider and author type out their message on the go, while digitally-controlled water bottle valves behind deploy it on the pavement.

The resulting calligraphy may lose a little of the artistic nuance, but reflect a meeting of classical techniques and the digital age in a medium that someone realized might be ripe for a new chapter.

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Feeling the Earth Move: Urban Sidewalk Liquid Intervention

Pedestrians in a French town were surprised to find that one day, a playful new addition to their brick walkway suddenly appeared...seemingly out of nowhere. 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

10 of the World’s Most Amazing 3D Street Artists: From Sidewalk Sketches to Awesome Wall Murals

Artists like Kurt Wenner, Eduardo Relero and Tracy Lee Stum create street art that's so incredible... 175 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Word on the Street: 14 Fun Urban Street Ads

Advertisers take to the streets with ads that turn asphalt, manholes and sewer grates into surprisingly effective marketing platforms. 6 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

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Max Zorn: “Stick Together”

Posted on February 10, 2012 by andrew

Max Zorn, a street artist based out of Amstterdam, is a stick-up kid in the truest sense of the word.

Jon Burgerman Hits Up The Streets Of NYC

Posted on February 8, 2012 by wheelbarrow

Jon Burgerman is internationally known for adapting his characteristic art style to all sorts of surfaces: canvas, vinyl, sneakers, windows, or whatever might lay in his path. The esteemed UK doodler has recently adorned a block of New York sidewalk with the whimsical line-work we love.

via zeutch

The Art Of The Bone Yard Project

Posted on February 7, 2012 by wheelbarrow

Where good airplanes go to die, great street artists go to create. In Tucson, Arizona, the Pima Air & Space Museum recently opened Return Trip: Art of the Bone Yard Project. Originally conceived in 2010 by Eric Firestone and curated by co-organizer Carlo McCormick This unique art exhibition features the work of some of the best urban contemporary artists as they revitalize WWI aircraft with a fresh coat of color and creativity. The first installment of the Bone Yard Project, Nose Job, opened last summer with customized nose cones by a couple dozen graffiti artists. The second part which recently opened exhibited fresh murals on DC Super planes by Andrew Schoultz, How & Nosm, Nunca & Retna, a C45 by FAILE, and a C97 Cockpit by Saner. More 3D metal canvases were painted by Aiko, Peter Dayton, Futura, How and Nosm, Mare, Tara McPherson, Richard Prince, Lee Quinones, Saner, Kenny Scharf, JJ Veronis, Colin Chillag, Crash, Daze, Daniel Marin Diaz, Tristan Eaton, Jameson Ellis, Ron English, Faile, Eric Foss, Mark Kostabi, Lisa Lebofsky, El Mac, Alex Markwith, Walter Robinson, Hector Ruiz, Randy Slack, Judith Supine, Ryan Wallace, and Eric White. The Art of the Bone Yard project will be on view through May 31.

Get more details at Eric Firestone Gallery and PimaAir.org.

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photos via TheFlopBox & Eric Firestone Gallery