Street art - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Street art is any art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

developed in public space

Public space

A public space is a social space such as a town square that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants...

s — that is, "in the street

Street

A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...

s" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

artwork, sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

, stencil graffiti

Stencil graffiti

Stencil graffiti makes use of a paper, cardboard, or other media to create an image or text that is easily reproducible. The desired design is cut out of the selected medium and then the image is transferred to a surface through the use of spray paint or roll-on paint.The process of stenciling...

, sticker art

Sticker art

Sticker art is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers...

, wheatpasting and street poster art

Street Poster Art

Street poster art is a kind of graffiti, more specifically categorized as "street art". Posters are usually hand-made or printed graphics on thin paper...

, video projection, art intervention

Art intervention

Art intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience or venue/space. It has the auspice of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with the Viennese Actionists, the Dada movement and Neo-Dadaists...

, guerrilla art, flash mob

Flash mob

A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, artistic expression...

bing and street installations. Typically, the term street art or the more specific post-graffiti is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism

Vandalism

Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...

, and corporate art.

Artists have challenged art by situating it in non-art contexts. ‘Street’ artists do not aspire to change the definition of an artwork, but rather to question the existing environment with its own language. They attempt to have their work communicate with everyday people about socially relevant themes in ways that are informed by esthetic values without being imprisoned by them. John Fekner

John Fekner

John Fekner is an innovative artist who created hundreds of environmental and conceptual outdoor works consisting of stenciled words, symbols, dates and icons spray painted in New York, Sweden, Canada, England and Germany in the 70s and 80s...

defines street art as “all art on the street that’s not graffiti.”

Techniques

Whereas traditional graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

artists have primarily used free-hand aerosol paint

Aerosol paint

Aerosol paint is a type of paint that comes in a sealed pressurized container and is released in a fine spray mist when depressing a valve button. A form of spray painting, aerosol paint leaves a smooth, evenly coated surface, unlike many rolled or brushed paints. Standard sized cans are portable,...

s to produce their works, "street art" encompasses many other media and techniques, including: LED art

LED art

LED Art is form of light art constructed from light-emitting diodes. Many artists that use LEDs are guerilla artists, incorporating LEDs to produce temporary pieces in public places. LEDs are very inexpensive to purchase and have become a new way to make street art...

, mosaic

Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

tiling, mural

Mural

A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...

s, stencil art

Stencil graffiti

, sticker art

Sticker art

Sticker art is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers...

, street installations, wheatpasting

Wheatpaste

Wheatpaste is a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water. It has been used since ancient times for various arts and crafts such as book binding, decoupage, collage, and papier-mâché...

, woodblocking, video projection, and yarn bombing

Yarn bombing

Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk.-Method and motivation:...

.

Traditional graffiti also has increasingly been adopted as a method for advertising; its trajectory has even in some cases led its artists to work on contract as graphic artists for corporations. Nevertheless, street art is a label often adopted by artists who wish to keep their work unaffiliated and strongly political. Street artists are those whose work is still largely done without official approval in public areas.

For these reasons street art is sometimes considered "post-graffiti" and sometimes even "neo-graffiti." Street art can be found around the world and street artists often travel to other countries foreign to them so they can spread their designs.

Motivation

The motivations and objectives that drive street artists are as varied as the artists themselves. There is a strong current of activism

Activism

Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...

and subversion

Subversion (politics)

Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order, its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy; examples of such structures include the State. In this context, a "subversive" is sometimes called a "traitor" with respect to the government in-power. A subversive is...

in urban art. Street art can be a powerful platform for reaching the public, and frequent themes include adbusting, subvertising

Subvertising

Subvertising is a portmanteau of subvert and advertising. It refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. Subvertisements may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner...

and other culture jamming

Culture jamming

Culture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...

, the abolishment of private property

Community ownership

Community owned assets or organisations are those that are owned and controlled through some representative mechanism that allows a community to influence their operation or use and to enjoy the benefits arising....

and reclaiming the streets

Reclaim the Streets

Reclaim The Streets is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport.-Protests:Reclaim The...

. Some street artists use "smart vandalism" as a way to raise awareness of social and political issues. Other street artists simply see urban space as an untapped format for personal artwork, while others may appreciate the challenges and risks that are associated with installing illicit artwork in public places. However the universal theme in most, if not all street art, is that adapting visual artwork into a format which utilizes public space, allows artists who may otherwise feel disenfranchised, to reach a much broader audience than traditional artwork and galleries normally allow.

Street artists

Street artists such as Above

Above (artist)

ABOVE has been creating public art since 1995. Above is an international street artist who keeps his identity concealed. Above is known for his multi-layer/full color social and political stencils, spinning wooden "arrow mobile" installations, and large mural "word play" paintings. Above started...

, Jef Aérosol

Jef Aérosol

Jef Aérosol is a French stencil graffiti artist. He has been one of the main urban art proponents in France since 1982. He was born in Nantes. He belongs to the very first street art pioneers of the early 80s like Blek le Rat, Miss.Tic, Jérôme Mesnager, Speedy Graphito.He spray painted his first...

, Banksy

Banksy

Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

, Mat Benote

Mat Benote

Mat Benote is a contemporary American artist associated with the graffiti urban art movement. He is most commonly known for placing fine art in museums and public spaces. His work has been displayed in many museums including the Guggenheim in New York City and the Los Angeles County Museum...

, BLU

Blu (artist)

Blu is the pseudonym of an italian artist who conceals his real identity. He lives in Bologna and has been active in street art since 1999.- Early career :...

, Cartrain

Cartrain

Cartrain , often stylised cartяain, is a British artist associated with the graffiti urban art movement. YBA artist Damien Hirst has threatened to take legal steps against Cartain over his art and activities.-Early life:...

, Ces53

Ces53

Ces53 is the name of a pseudo-anonymous street art/graffiti artist from the Netherlands. Ces53 has been active since 1985 and is the maker of many international street art/graffiti paintings, predomninantly in European cities but also worldwide like in Mexico, USA and Burma.-Work:Ces53 started as a...

, Dan Witz

Dan Witz

Dan Witz is a Brooklyn, NY based street artist and realist painter. He grew up in Chicago, IL, and graduated in 1981 from Cooper Union, on New York City's Lower East Side. Witz, consistently active since the late 1970s, is one of the pioneers of the street art movement.Dan Witz's paintings have...

, D*Face, Tod Hanson

Tod Hanson

Tod Hanson born 1963 is a London-based painter and graphic artist. His work is concerned with "a world over amplified and speeding up. The telescoping of industrialised environment, consumerism, technology, celebration, waste and war through time"...

, Invader

Invader (artist)

Invader is a French urban artist who pastes up characters from and inspired by the Space Invaders game, made up of small coloured square mosaic tiles that form a space invader character murel...

, Michael Kirby

Michael Kirby (artist)

Michael Kirby is a street artist who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. His work has been featured and exhibited across the world for governments, cities, museums, and corporations.-Biography:...

, Neck Face

Neck Face

Neck Face is an anonymous graffiti artist. He is known for his frightening drawing style and humorous writings.-Biography:...

, Ellis Gallagher

Ellis Gallagher

Ellis Gallagher is known primarily for chalk drawings made by outlining shadows in New York City. Gallagher was born on September 9, 1973. He is a native New Yorker living in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. Before his chalk drawings he was a graffiti writer, working in NYC mostly. He was...

, Vhils

VHILS

VHILS is the tag name of Portuguese graffiti/street artist Alexandre Farto He gained prominence when his work of a face carved into a wall appeared alongside a picture by street artist Banksy at the Cans Festival in London in 2008...

, Os Gemeos

Os Gêmeos

Os Gêmeos are graffiti artist identical twin brothers from São Paulo, Brazil, whose real names are Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and gradually became a main influence in the local scene, helping to define Brazil's own style...

, Swoon

Swoon (artist)

Swoon is a street artist born in New London, Connecticut, and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida. She moved to New York City at age nineteen, and specializes in life-size wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts of figures...

, Twist

Barry McGee

Barry McGee is a painter and graffiti artist. He is also known by monikers such as Ray Fong, Lydia Fong, Bernon Vernon, P.Kin, Ray Virgil, Twist and further variations of Twist, such as Twister, Twisty, Twisto and others.-Life and career:McGee graduated from El Camino High School in South...

, 108 and Sten Lex

Sten Lex

Sten and Lex , known as Sten and Lex, are two italian street artists.Sten & Lex have been doing stencils on the street since 2000/2001 and today their work is part of the urban landscape in their home town of Rome, London, Paris, Barcelona, New York...

, have earned international attention for their work and have shown their works in museums or galleries as well as on the street. It is also not uncommon for street artists to achieve commercial success (e.g., Ash

Ash (artist)

Ash also called Victor Ash is originally a street artist from Paris, France.He started his artistic career as a graffiti writer in the early 1980s and from 1983 to 1986 he also called himself Saho and Ash2....

, Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey

Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His...

, Ron English, Faile, Mr. Brainwash

Mr. Brainwash

Mr. Brainwash is a pseudonym for Thierry Guetta. According to the Banksy directed film Exit Through the Gift Shop, Guetta who now lives in Los Angeles, California, having been a proprietor of a clothing store and videographer who evolved into a street artist and gallery artist, influenced by the...

and WK Interact), doing graphics for other companies or starting their own merchandising lines. Other pioneers of street art who have completely discontinued street art (e.g., Richard Hambleton

Richard Hambleton

Richard Hambleton is an artist-painter currently living and working in the Lower East Side of New York City. Richard Hambleton has been called the godfather of street art. He is the surviving member of a group who, together with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, had great success coming out...

and members of AVANT

AVANT

AVANT, also known as AVANT street art guerrilla collective, was the artist group active in New York City from 1980 to 1984. By 1984 AVANT had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops and galleries city-wide...

) have also successfully pursued their contemporary art careers in galleries and museums.

In 1981, Washington Project for the Arts

Washington Project for the Arts

Washington Project for the Arts, founded in 1975, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and aid of artists in the Washington, D.C. area.-History:...

held an exhibition entitled Street Works, which included John Fekner

John Fekner

, Fab Five Freddy

Fab Five Freddy

Fred Brathwaite , more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American Hip hop historian, Hip hop pioneer and former graffiti artist...

and Lee Quinones

Lee Quinones

George Lee Quiñones is an American artist and actor. He is one of the several artists rising from the New York City Subway graffiti movement....

working directly on the streets. Fekner, a pioneer in urban art

Urban art

Urban art is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life...

, is included in Cedar Lewisohn’s book Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution, which accompanied the 2008 Street Art exhibition at the Tate Modern

Tate Modern

Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...

in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, of which Lewisohn was the curator.

The 1990 book Soho Walls – Beyond Graffiti by David Robinson documents the paradigm shift in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

from the text-based precedents established by graffiti artists toward art in the streets such as the shadow figures by Richard Hambleton

Richard Hambleton

and the group of five young New York artists working collectively under the moniker AVANT

AVANT

Key locations

While practically all large cities in the world, and some of the larger regional towns, host some form of urban art or graffiti, there are a few locations that are considered to harbour forerunners of particular mediums or foster a pioneering street art culture in general. Such locations often attract internationally known artists who travel to these locations to exhibit their works. The following is a partial list of the most notable locations.

Berlin, Germany has attracted attention to international urban art
Urban art
Urban art is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life...

ists since the reunification of the city, making it one of Europe's street art strongholds. Bizarre post-communist locations, cheap rents and ramshackle buildings gave rise to a vibrant street art scene. Hotspots include Mitte
Mitte
Mitte is the first and most central borough of Berlin. It was created in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by the merger of the former districts of Mitte proper, Tiergarten and Wedding; the resulting borough retained the name Mitte. It is one of the two boroughs which comprises former West and...

, Prenzlauer Berg
Prenzlauer Berg
Prenzlauer Berg is a locality of Berlin, in the borough of Pankow.Until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a borough of Berlin; in that year it was included in the borough of Pankow....

, Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...

and Friedrichshain
Friedrichshain
Friedrichshain is a part of Berlin's borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, and like Kreuzberg across the river it has its own distinct character, with the result that the new double name is hardly ever used outside government administration. From its creation in 1920 until Berlin's 2001...

.
Bristol, England is part of a vibrant street art scene, due in part to the success of Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

.
Buenos Aires, Argentina is very active in street art, presenting major murals everywhere in the city. A fundamental difference with the scene in Buenos Aires is the implicit co-operation of the police, who rarely hassle artists. Some companies offer tours to explore the different street art in the city and learn more about the artists and their work.
London, England has become one of the most pro-graffiti cities in the world. Although officially condemned and heavily enforced, street art has a huge following and in many ways is embraced by the public.
Melbourne, Australia (see Street art in Melbourne) is home to one of the world's most active and diverse street art cultures and is home to pioneers in the stencil medium. Street artists such as Blek le Rat
Blek le Rat
Blek le Rat, born Xavier Prou in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris in 1952, was one of the first graffiti artists in Paris, and has been described as the “Father of Stencil Graffiti” .-Early career and Influence:...

and Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

often exhibited works on Melbourne's streets in the 2000s. Works are supported and preserved by local councils. Key locations within the city include Brunswick
Brunswick, Victoria
Brunswick is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Moreland...

, Carlton
Carlton, Victoria
Carlton is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne...

, Fitzroy
Fitzroy, Victoria
Fitzroy is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra. Its borders are Alexandra Parade , Victoria Parade , Smith Street and Nicholson Street. Fitzroy is Melbourne's...

, Northcote
Northcote, Victoria
Northcote is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Darebin...

, and the city centre
Melbourne city centre
Melbourne City Centre is an area of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is not to be confused with the larger local government area of the City of Melbourne...

including the famous Hosier Lane
Hosier Lane, Melbourne
Hosier Lane is a bluestone cobbled vehicular and pedestrian laneway on the southern edge of the central city grid of Melbourne, Australia. Hosier lane is a much celebrated landmark in Melbourne mainly due to its sophisticated Urban art....

.
Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

is very active in street art since the end of the 90's, the artists involved are many and some one worked in several countries in the world like BLU
Blu (artist)
Blu is the pseudonym of an italian artist who conceals his real identity. He lives in Bologna and has been active in street art since 1999.- Early career :...

, others are better known in Italy. Any list would be incomplete but some of them are: ( RUN, DEM, Ericailcane, OZMO, 108
108
Year 108 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Trebonius and Bradua...

, Sten Lex
Sten Lex
Sten and Lex , known as Sten and Lex, are two italian street artists.Sten & Lex have been doing stencils on the street since 2000/2001 and today their work is part of the urban landscape in their home town of Rome, London, Paris, Barcelona, New York...

, Lucamaleonte, Andreco, Moneyless, 2501, BR1, Mp5, Hitnes, orticanoodles, James Kalinda, Centina, Cyop e Kaf, diegomiedo ) Some of the most important italian street art festival are "POPUP!" in Ancona and "FAME festival" in Grottaglie
Grottaglie
Grottaglie is a town and comune in the province of Taranto, Puglia, southern Italy.-Geography:Grottaglie is located in the Salento peninsula, a whole rock of limestone dividing Adriatic sea from Ionian sea. The countryside around the city is scattered with vast and deep ravines that open the ground...

, Puglia.
Paris, France is also a very active street art scene with artists such as Space Invader
Invader (artist)
Invader is a French urban artist who pastes up characters from and inspired by the Space Invaders game, made up of small coloured square mosaic tiles that form a space invader character murel...

, Zevs
Zevs (artist)
Zevs is an anonymous French street artist.He was an early and influential graffiti artist and active as a tagger in Paris in the 1990s. He is named after a regional train, Zeus, that almost ran him over one day he was down in the metro...

, Mosko et Associés, Mesnager, Zoo Project.
Major Spanish coastal cities such as Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Valencia
Valencia
-In Spain:* Valencia , Spain, capital of the Valencia Autonomous Community* Valencian Community, an autonomous community of Spain**Valencian people, an ethnic group or nationality whose homeland is the Valencian Community...

and Zaragoza
Zaragoza
Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...

have a vibrant Street Art scene.

It started with the Letterism and then with a situationnist slogan painted on a wall in Paris. The nouveau realist, including Jacques Villeglé

Jacques Villeglé

Jacques Villeglé, born Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé is a French mixed-media artist and affichiste famous for his alphabet with symbolic letters and decollage with ripped or lacerated posters...

, Yves Klein

Yves Klein

Yves Klein was a French artist considered an important figure in post-war European art. He is the leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany...

and Arman

Arman

Arman was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman is a painter who moved from using the objects as paintbrushes to using them as the painting itself...

interact with public space but stay, like Pop Art

Pop art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...

in a classic studio/gallery relation. On 1962, The Rideau de Fer (Iron Curtain) By Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were a married couple who created environmental works of art...

is an example of early uncommissioned art. The Same year sees the first can spray work by pioneer Gérard Zlotykamien. After the "chienlit" (expression coined by General De Gaulle to qualify the may 1968 mini-revolution, Paris, like New-York has major city works but no Factory as important as Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

's. In the 1970s, the work of Daniel Buren

Daniel Buren

Daniel Buren is a French conceptual artist.- Work :Sometimes classified as an abstract minimalist Buren is known best for using regular, contrasting maxi stripes to integrate the visual surface and architectural space, notably historical, landmark architecture.Among his chief concerns is the...

is seen in Paris subway. With the election of François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

in may 1981, a "new deal" of public space raise in Paris. So artist like Miss.Tic , Blek le rat

Blek le Rat

Blek le Rat, born Xavier Prou in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris in 1952, was one of the first graffiti artists in Paris, and has been described as the “Father of Stencil Graffiti” .-Early career and Influence:...

, Jérome Mesnager make their first intervention in the street. Blek le rat

Blek le Rat

is one major known influence of Banksy. The late 80s sees writers like Joneone from New York settling in Paris. A long movement of translation that can be observed until the 00s for Seen arrives in Paris after the 9/11. Another urban art movement spottable in the 80s in Paris is the Figuration Libre

Figuration Libre

Figuration Libre is a French art movement of the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. The term was coined by Fluxus artist Ben Vautier.The group was formed in 1981 by Robert Combas, Remi...

(a term coined by Ben

Ben

Ben is often a shortened version of the given name Benjamin, Benvolio, Benedict, or less commonly Bentley, although it is also used as a formal given name in its own right...

) galaxy within gravitates a urban painter collectives (gluing their paintings on paper on publicity billboards) like Les Frères Ripoulin ( Including OX

An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...

, Claude Closky

Claude Closky

Claude Closky is a French artist born in Paris in 1963 who specialized in contemporary art. Frieze Magazine has stated that "Most of Closky’s works explore repetition, accumulation, and alphabetical, numerical or binary classifications." -Monographs:...

, Pierre Huyghe

Pierre Huyghe

Pierre Huyghe is a French artist who works in a variety of media from film and video to public interventions. He won the Hugo Boss Prize from the Guggenheim Museum in 2002.-Biography:...

, Nina Childress and Jean Faucheur) or Les Musulmans fumants (including Vincent Cassel

Vincent Cassel

Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...

in its fanbase). Tony Shafrazi

Tony Shafrazi

Tony Shafrazi is the owner of the Shafrazi Art Gallery in New York, who deals artwork by artists such as Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, and David LaChapelle....

makes the connection between Paris in New York. In the mid 90s, Paris was the "Second city of Hip Hop". Notable figures : André and l'Atlas

L'Atlas

L'Atlas is a French artist born in France in 1978. A painter, photographer and video artist, he lives and works in Paris and frequently shows his work in various cities worldwide.-Characteristics:...

. In 1998, Space Invader

Invader (artist)

Invader is a French urban artist who pastes up characters from and inspired by the Space Invaders game, made up of small coloured square mosaic tiles that form a space invader character murel...

and Zevs

Zevs (artist)

Zevs is an anonymous French street artist.He was an early and influential graffiti artist and active as a tagger in Paris in the 1990s. He is named after a regional train, Zeus, that almost ran him over one day he was down in the metro...

start their invasion in Paris.

São Paulo, Brazil present major murals. There are no more billboard advertising since 2007 due to the Clean City Law. The lively and colourful atmosphere of the city is reflected in the street art scene, quickly evolving into one of the biggest and best in the world, drawing in many artists from around the world to collaborate.
New York City, USA is considered the home of modern graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

. In the early 1980s, the first art galleries that started to show street artists to the public were Fashion Moda
Fashion Moda
Fashion Moda is a cultural concept. As a museum of science, art, invention, technology and fantasy in its South Bronx location from 1978-1993 it combined aspects of a community arts centre and a worldwide progressive arts organization.-History:...

in Bronx and Now Gallery
Now Gallery
Now Gallery was a New York City art gallery based in East Village, Manhattan active in 1983 - 1989. An artist himself, director and owner Jacek Tylicki, has been recognized as an important promoter of emerging artists....

in East Village, Manhattan
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

. The city has a thriving street art scene.
Stavanger, Norway is host to the annual Nuart Festival, one of Europe's leading events dedicated to promoting street art.
Los Angeles, California
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

another famous city in the United States which features influential art and intriguing graffiti pieces throughout the city. Key locations include Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...

, La Brea
La Brea Avenue
La Brea Avenue is a prominent north/south thoroughfare in Los Angeles. Several museums are located along La Brea, and it is known for having many stores and eateries.-Description:...

, Beverly
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...

, La Cienega
La Cienega Boulevard
La Cienega Boulevard is a major, well-known north–south arterial road that runs between El Segundo Boulevard in El Segundo, California on the south and the Sunset Strip/Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood....

, Melrose Avenue
Melrose Avenue
Melrose Avenue is an internationally renowned shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Los Angeles that starts from Santa Monica Boulevard at the border between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and ends at Lucille Avenue in Silver Lake...

, and Hollywood to name a few
On May 13, 2011, LAB ART Los Angeles opened the world's largest art gallery dedicated to street art on La Brea
La Brea Avenue
La Brea Avenue is a prominent north/south thoroughfare in Los Angeles. Several museums are located along La Brea, and it is known for having many stores and eateries.-Description:...

. Spanning 6,500 square feet (600 m2) of space, LAB ART Los Angeles features over 300 works of art and installation from over 30 street artists including Alec Monopoly
Alec Monopoly
Alec Monopoly is an American street artist, graffiti artist, and painter. He is known for his satirical spins using the Monopoly man, in reference to contemporary styles or situations.-About the artist:...

, Thank You X and Smear
Smear (Cristian Gheorghiu)
Cristian Gheorghiu became famous as an American street artist/graffiti artist and contemporary painter under the name of Smear in the 2000s, and his name and tagger name were further launched into the public eye by a series of high profile arrests and subsequent articles on the arrests and on his...

.
Sofia, Bulgaria. In the night between the 17th and the 18th of June 2011 the monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia was painted by anonymous street artists. The Soviet soldiers depicted in the monument for a few days turned into Superman, Ronald McDonald, Santa Claus and others. It was a controversial subject and there were many supporters of the monument staying painted and many against it. In the early morning of the 21st of June 2011 the monument was cleaned.

Graffiti
Graffiti terminology Graffiti terminology A number of words and phrases have come to describe different styles and aspects of graffiti. Like other jargon and colloquialisms, some phrases vary in different cities and countries... Screen-printing Screen-printing Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate... Spray paint art Spray paint art Spray paint art is an art form using spray paint, traditionally on posterboard, but can be done on any non-porous material, such as wood, metal, glass, ceramic or plastic... Stencil Stencil A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...

Documentary films

Rock Fresh (2004), a documentary film about the challenging world of the graffiti artist
RASH
RASH (film)
Rash, stylized as RASH, is a 2005 Australian documentary film, directed by Nicholas Hansen. Its subject is contemporary urban Australia and the artists who are making it a living host for illegal artwork called street art...

(2005), a feature length documentary film which explores the cultural value of Melbourne street art and graffiti
Bomb It
Bomb It
Bomb It is an international graffiti and street art documentary directed by award-winning director Jon Reiss and premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival...

(2008), a documentary film about graffiti and street art around the world
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Guetta happily accepts the assignment, adopting the name "Mr. Brainwash", putting up street art in the city and six months later, re-mortgaging his business to afford renting copious equipment and a complete production team to create pieces of art under his supervision...

(2010), a documentary created by the artist Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

about Thierry Guetta
Roadsworth: Crossing the Line (2007), a documentary film about the legal struggle of Montreal street artist Roadsworth
Street Art Awards (2010), opening of the street art festival in Berlin

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Techniques

Motivation

Street artists

Key locations

See also

Further reading

Documentary films