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Tags: Street Art / Graffiti / Brooklyn Travel / → All Tags

Visit the Most Tagged Building in New York

We had a hunch Brooklyn street art has been on the rise recently, as the borough's been looking a little more back-in-the-day every time we turn a corner. Now we've got the stats to prove it—the NYPD reports graffiti complaints are up 20 percent since 2007.

While the police frame this as yet another downside of the struggling economy, we say: bring it on! A little spray-painting and wheat-pasting never hurt anyone.

And the best part is the NYPD even offers up a handy hardcore travel tip—the most freqeuently graffitti'd building in all of New York is the middle school on Starr Avenue in Bushwick. The school, of course, is hardly amused, but why not embrace it? Most Tagged Building in NYC is quite the title—why not quit all that scrubbing and just invite tourists and start charging admission?

· Brooklyn's losing battles in the war vs. graffiti taggers [NYDN]
· Recession Culture: Skip Museums For Brooklyn's Street Art [Jaunted]
· Street Art coverage [Jaunted]

Photo: [mercurialn]

Tags: Street Art / Australia Travel / Public Art / Graffiti / → All Tags

Aerosol Arabic in Melbourne

Melbourne is big on covering the walls of its laneways with street art. We like that. But apparently lots of Melbournites think that the latest decorations of Spark Lane off Flinders Street are taking things too far.

As part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, a British graffiti artist with the less-than-original name of Mohammed Ali--aka Aerosol Arabic--has been flown in to cover Spark Lane with a mix of street art and Islamic calligraphy.

We’re more than happy to wander Melbourne’s sidestreets to check out this kind of art, but apparently there’s a group called Graffiti Hurts Australia who think otherwise--and are sure the festival will only lead to more vandalism.

Check out Spark Lane when you’re next in Melbourne and see what you think--we're pretty sure that this graffiti is totally not hurting Australia.

--AmandaK

Related Stories:
· Imported Street Artist Cops a Spray [Herald Sun]
· Free Stuff in Melbourne: Street Art is All Around [Jaunted]
· Melbourne Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Aerosol Arabic]

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Graffiti Travel: Banksy Unmasked?!

Reporters at the UK newspaper Mail On Sunday announced this past weekend that they've found the true identity of the world's most prolific and no-doubt-wealthy guerrilla street artist, Banksy. Well known for celebrity fans like the newly twinned Brangelina, as well as inspiring political street art, Banksy's secret identity has been the cornerstone of his work worldwide, allowing him to create in public spaces without legal repercussions.

MOS identifies Banksy to be one Robin Gunningham, from Bristol, England. His family was one of modest means, but he attended the buttoned-up, $20,000 a year Bristol Cathedral School in his formative years.

What is certain is that Banksy's individual style is still one of the most widely recognized in the world. He has imposters by the dozens, but no one captures the political acuity that Banksy does. We hope whether or not this story is confirmed as true, it opens doors for street art to become more widely accepted by the authorities. And who knows, maybe it means more Banksy for the rest of us.

Related Stories:
· Graffiti Artist Banksy Unmasked [MOS]
· Graffiti coverage [Jaunted]

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Graffiti Travel: Man Arrested after Allegedly Posting Hijinks to YouTube

Cyrus Yazdani is a 24-year-old convention planner in Las Vegas. But the police say he's also a prolific Los Angeles graffiti artist who goes by the street name "Buket."

Yazdani caught the attention from the 5-0 after appearing on YouTube pulling off daring graffiti stunts like tagging a bridge while hanging precariously over the Hollywood freeway. After watching the clips, a city investigator became weirdly obsessed with bringing Buket down.

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More Graffiti Travel: Street Art in Chile

We'll admit to having a bit of a graffiti obsession lately. After hearing about Berlin's scene and street art in New York, our latest find comes from Jaunted member thenotoriousmeg.

On a trip to South America, Meg dug deep into the scene:

I do love some good graffiti, and I've found South American cities like Buenos Aires and Santiago have some of the best.

Click through the slideshow for a look at some of the coolest tags Meg found in Chile, ranging from the political to the just plain cool.

Have your own graffiti photos to share? Drop 'em in our Flickr pool or send 'em over.

Related Stories:
· NYC's Graffiti Battles [Jaunted]
· Street Art coverage [Jaunted]

[All Photos: Notorious MEG]

Tags: Graffiti / Street Art / Art / Videos / → All Tags

NYC's Graffiti Battles

The latest performance art isn't Off Broadway, it's further downtown, and a bit more of an active, colorful competition. We told you earlier that New Yorkers are rating it. Now it's being created under the gun in front of a crowd.

Art Battles are live graffiti competitions on the Lower East Side where emerging, talented artists are pitted against each other for a set amount of time--under the watchful eyes of an audience--to create the best graffiti they can.

The finished products get judged by the crowd, who gets to kick back with DJs and beer while the art gets made. All works are also up for auction to the highest bidder at the end of the night.

Interested in seeing Art Battles in action? April 4th is the next one, at 10:30pm. Admission's just $12--unless you're in the mood for a bidding war to take some home. After the jump, check out an even longer video of what the Art Battles are all about

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Tags: Art / Street Art / Graffiti / → All Tags

Graffiti Travel: NYC Gets Invaded

If two is a trend, graffiti is back in a big way. A couple days after a big story on the scene in Berlin, now The New York Times is pointing out the coolest street art in NYC.

There's way more to see than just tags and murals:

Street art can be drawings on paper that have been wheat-pasted onto the side of a building; images stenciled right onto walls; sculptures screwed onto a stop sign pole; even tiles arranged to form 1980s video game aliens, which the French street artist, Space Invader, put up dozens of during a recent visit to the city. Did you notice?

If you didn't, Flickr has a ton of photos of Space Invader's New York art.

Your best bet for seeing good stuff is just walking around, keeping an eye on doorways, lampposts, newspaper boxes and looking down alleyways. Neighborhoods like Chelsea, the Lower East Side, Dumbo and Williamsburg are easily walkable and offer a high concentration of stuff to see. And to get you primed, we tossed together this slideshow of what to expect:

Related Stories:
· To the Trained Eye, Museum Pieces Lurk Everywhere [NYT]
· Graffiti Travel: Berlin Gets Sprayed [Jaunted]
· Street Art coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: bbaunach]

Tags: Graffiti / Germany Travel / Street Art / Art / → All Tags

Graffiti Travel: Berlin Gets Sprayed

When we watch old movies depicting New York City in the 70s, we admire a few things, including the imitation leather jackets everyone seemed to have, and the insane amount of graffiti all over everything. Now you can relive an even more intense graffiti culture, says the New York Times, in current day Berlin.

Apparently graffiti art is making a serious comeback in the German capital, with famous tags literally all over the place--in the nice neighborhoods, across sidewalks and up buildings. It's currently the most "bombed out" (read: graffitied) city in Europe.

Young local artists are redefining their own version of "Berliner Strassenkultur" and spraying the place up. Photographer Peter Sutherland says:

It's like everyone grabbed a can of paint at one point and just went for it.

And it's not all amateur hour either. You can spot tags by famous graffiti artists like Os Gemeos and Banksy if you know where to look. Can't get there soon? Here's a closer look:

Related Stories:
· One Wall Down, Thousands to Paint [NYT]
· St. Louis' Dinosaur Tags [Jaunted]
· Icelandic Graffiti [Jaunted]

[Photo: missis_jones]