World of Street & Outdoor Arts

A blog about Art, Photography, Film, Music, Design, and Collaborative Projects.

A wonderfully whimsical new art installation was just unveiled in London. Called 'Cloud I Meteoros, it shows gray statues sitting on top of two fluffy-looki…

Click to see the pic and write a comment...

Street artists JR and José Parlá recently teamed up to create enormous and yet very intimate portraits of senior citizens who survived the Cuban Revolution (1…

In 1975 Kraftwerk made a song called Radioactivity, warning the people about it’s risks for the population. 2 years ago there was a new chapter in nuclear disasters in Fukushima. That was the inspiration for this masterpiece by 2T-381. Tsjernobyl, Three Miles Island, Fukushima… Whats’s next?

We declare the world as our canvas

His ‘code name’ could be mistaken for the name of a rifle: P183. The covert graffiti artist, often referred to as ‘the Russian Banksy’, has died. Pavel won recognition as the creator of provocative art works scattered across Moscow.

P183 went international after several British, American and French dailies published photographs of his works, saying his ‘guerilla’ tactics of painting street murals were similar to those used by iconic British nonconformist Banksy.

However, P183 didn’t take the comparison as a compliment, noting he had been shaping his signature style for the past 14 years.

The mysterious figure, allegedly in his late 20s, preferred to cover his tracks and hide his face with a black balaclava to remain anonymous. A can of spray paint never failed him, helping the up-and-coming artist share his ideas with those who kept their eyes wide open.

“Like poets who put their thoughts and reflections onto paper, I want mine to be heard,” Pavel explained in an interview with RT last year. “With my work, I want to communicate certain ideas to people.”

Last April, Pavel pulled off his most daring stunt, which provoked panic among the city’s police force.

An area in an industrial zone in Moscow was cordoned off and a bomb disposal team was called in after a report came in of a suspicious object underneath a railway bridge.

Much to everybody’s surprise, instead of a bomb the police detected a model of a space invader from the popular 80s arcade video game.

Pavel told RT that his project was called “a traffic jam fighter.”

It featured a robot imitating the game by shooting passing cars with a red light laser. But no harm was caused to the cars or their drivers.

“Who could have possibly mistaken a two-meter-wide space invader for a bomb?” Pavel wondered. “What astonished me the most is that when media reported this, they had a picture of actual grenade next to the text. You’ve seen the reaction of the people in the video recorded – it made them laugh! No one was suspicious about this!” the artist told RT.

Many called Pavel a graffiti vandal. But with his pieces lasting more than a few days before being removed by street cleaners there was always more than meets the eye. Photographs often became the only way they could be captured for posterity.

The elusive artist studied communicative design at college. Abandoned buildings, bridges, schools and the Moscow Metro were his creative ‘playgrounds’.  

The artist often put freedom under the spotlight, as well as civil activism. One summer Pavel painted riot police on a Metro entrance, in a bid to relive the days of the 1991 attempted coup.

Shortly after the 2011 December's State Duma elections, which were wrought with claims of electoral fraud, he ventured into politics.

"Put simply, I want to teach people in this country to tell lies from the truth and to tell bad from good,” the artist told RT. “This is what our people still cannot do.”

“Expressing your opinion is a form of civil defense,” the artist believed.

Yay! As we predicted on Facebook, the Flagel crew made a new snow art piece in Brussels!

This series of sculptures, aptly known as Churchtanks, by artist Kris Kuksi presents a controversial re-imagining of cathedrals as heavily armored tanks. Like…

The Russian street artist Pavel Puhov, also known as P183, died last week at the age of 29. We featured his ingenious work last year. Ernest Zacharevic painted this image in his honor on a wall in Kuala Lumpur.Link -via Street Art Utopia...

Back in 2009 artist Roa (previously here and here) painted this amazing lenticular street artwork on Curtain Road in London. Depending on the angle of viewing the art shifts between the fuzzy exterior of a rabbit to an illustrated interior of its circulatory system, a trick he used late last year here in Chicago to pretty gruesome effect. You can see much more of Roa’s work over on Flickr which seems to be updated most frequently. (via twisted sifter)

We declare the world as our canvas

A 20-year-old Montreal woman is in trouble with the police over an Instagram post. Jennifer Pawluck took a snapshot of graffiti depicting a local top police officer with a bullet in his forehead. She believes she's done nothing wrong.

The picture has gone viral since Pawluck posted it, while the original graffiti has since been removed.

She is now facing a court hearing for her post, accused of criminal harassment and intimidation against high-ranking police officer, Ian Lafrenière.

Lafrenière, who is head of the police communications division, was frequently seen in the media during last year's student protests in Quebec. Thousands took to the streets at the time, protesting tuition fee hikes, dozens were arrested. Pawluck was herself arrested three times during mass roundups, but never under a Criminal Code.

Pawluck was summoned by police and questioned for several hours after she posted the graffiti image online. Police maintain she acted with intent to harass Lafreniere and gave him cause to fear for his safety.

ccused insists she’s done nothing wrong and the actions of the Montreal police are tantamount to harassment.

"I am someone who is very artistic. I know that the photo is violent, but all the same I thought it was well done. My aim was not to be threatening,” she told CBC News.

"I think the person who created the graffiti should be in my place … all I did was take a photo," she said.

Upon being released from custody, Pawluck was prohibited from any communication with Lafrenière, not that she had any. Furthermore, she can't come within one kilometer of a Montreal police station.

Criminal defense attorney Eric Sutton thinks the arrest is politically motivated.

"I think this may be somewhat of a political statement by the police that they have zero tolerance for anything that's seen as threatening to their image," he told CMC News.

It is not clear whether the police will pursue everyone who re-posted the image since the first post. 

Pawluck has not been formally charged, but is scheduled to appear in court on April 17.

 

 

Alexey Menschikov is an artist and photographer from Russia. Like most street artists, information on Alexey is sparse. His street art style is simple and subtle, often integrating elements like cracks on the pavement and paint chips on a wall into his work. To see all of this work check Menschikov at the links…

The first UK exhibition of Berlin-based artist Evol, who transforms electric boxes and concrete blocks into miniature high-rise flats.