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.
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.
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
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:
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:
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by DanielR
