Invader in Kathmandu

Cristopher Cichocki

Tasty. Cristopher's work must be seen because words can't do it any justice.
Tip: the small pictures are clickable.

Scullphone billboards LA

Not sure I believe he paid for these, but I guess that would be the easy way to get up.

Banksy wall sells for more than $400,000

[Australia] "... as one of Melbourne's few remaining pieces of stencil art by the elusive British graffiti artist Banksy, the little diver gained further cachet yesterday when another Banksy work on a London wall fetched £208,000 ($A453,700) on an eBay auction."

Sweet. The auction winner has to remove and replace the wall on top of that. I see portability problems continuing ;^)

Witness really smart idiots grousing about it being vandalism anyway: Banksy e-bay auction . Anyone care to bet these folks would paint it out instead of cashing in, if it were on their house? I bet they'll all be leaving spraypaint in the milkbox overnight and praying the stencil angel comes calling now.

Of course, Banksy probably makes no money on his works' newfound life as wall(s) at large, but buzz like this is what you want as an artist, clearly. Can't hurt the gallery price to have people excising masonry for it. Maybe this will eventually be the downfall of the Palestine wall? We can only watch and hope.

the Junky projects

Lovely and unexpected street art

Thanks to Chachi for the tip.

Street art: Orion and Blu

Ossario : Alexandre Orion


Blu

A1one interview on PingMag - Graffiti in Iran

A hardcore scene in a whole different way. PingMag did a great job with the interview too. Best of luck to A1one!

The New york graffiti war (wtf?)

"...as the works of popular public artists rise in value, so do the neighbourhoods around them. The work of popular street artists, inadvertently or not, spurs processes of gentrification and urban renewal. In New York, the majority of chosen works have been in the Lower East Side, a neighbourhood akin to Montreal?s Plateau, where trendy bars, vintage clothing shops, and small boutiques reign. The street art is used as a selling point, helping to reconstruct the image of the neighbourhood into one of bohemian charm, art, and culture."

Who would have thought that people would drop the broken windows litany and start kvetching that unauthorized painting causes property values to rise? Or maybe it's only stickers and stencils that are good? So ... a balance of graffiti with the street art would maintain equilibrium? I'm having trouble following the logic, if any. Except, of course, someone with little going for them but no-style splashing and a manifesto has somehow gotten fame (again). Now that I do get.

It makes you wonder, though, whether graffiti and property value are actually related at all.

If so, I guess the vigilante has the situation well in hand. Buy the local art and your neighborhood value goes up. Destroy the local art and your neighborhood remains ugly but cheap for the art-destroyers.

Maybe we should just aim for one nice, even coating of outdoor art in all our neighborhoods and stop this game now.

Traffic Go Round

Hilarious guerilla sculpture by Mark Jenkins.