Work in Guatamala City by street artist Above during a South American tour in 2007.

At The Journal we spend a lot of time discussing design. More specifically, we talk about user interfaces, graphic design and typography. To take a break from the norm, Inksie’s Dave gives us a tour of one of his inspirations, street art.

Before the computer, graphic design was necessarily tactile. The primary exports of the industry were things like books, posters and periodicals. Type was physical; images were on negatives; layouts were sketched.

Street art and graffiti get back to these sensuous roots. They are art for the everyday, the masses. They manipulate a reality beyond the digital. They are about seeing things in a different way, about an experience, a message. They are about expression.

What’s best part? Its free.

Perspective + Comparison

Street art is, in appearance, similar to the graphic design world in many ways. Graphic arts easily relate to crafts and prints. Even though stencils and spray paint are similar in form, street art and graffiti seem to not be valued in the same manner. Banksy’s work shows up on popular blogs every now and then, but its quite rare to see any other street artists receive recognition. Its a bit frustrating for me, as this was something that sparked my interest in art in the first place. So, I decided to collect a few of my favorite street artists’ work and explain what I find so special about them.

In this time spent studying and finding new things about these artists, I have found a difference between what is considered Street Art versus Graffiti. These artists want to be categorized in their respective fields as it is becoming almost competitive. While searching, I came across a blog that puts this into perspective.

From the position of Graff artists, there has been a lot of apprehension towards Street Art. In one sense it is disappointing to have this perception of dichotomy between ’Street Art’ and ‘Graffiti.’ However the differences between these styles and the tribal politics of Graff have rendered some level of competition inevitable. It is very important to recognize that these differences are major, and that behind them is a vast difference in ideas, aesthetic approaches, culture and history.

Defined: Graffiti is traditional spray painting or tagging while Street Art can be any form of art pasted on walls such as stencils, sticker posting, wheatpasting, street poster art, installations, etc. John Fekner put it plainly when he defines street art as “all art on the street that’s not graffiti.”

Above

"You may not get arrested painting illegally in broad daylight but you sure do get interrupted by curious people passing by," states street artist Above on his website.

I came across Above not too long ago, after reading about his mobile projects that he has ran across Europe, North America, and South America. He started graffiti at a young age. His Above logo, an arrow pointing up, is all over the streets of Paris and Californian cities, an evolution of his Sign Language Tour.

His process is quite involved. Each of these arrow mobiles requires 15 steps to complete. When asked how he makes these:

Good ol’ fashioned wood. I use a jigsaw and still have all 9 of my fingers. So everything seems to be going smooth. After the wooden arrow is cut some other elements such as gluing fabrics, and textiles on to the wood as well as screen printing words and design elements onto the fabrics complete the process.

He even hit up our hometown (Portland, Oregon) and did an interview with a local paper Willamette Weekly. They asked him if people seem to like his arrows. This project took years to create, and his only concern is if it evokes a legitimate human reaction or emotion.

I’m not sure if people like them as much as they seem to evoke a lot of curiosity and imagination as to how they got up there and what they mean. I like that aspect of the arrows: they’re vague. Each reaction holds its own true validity.

There are more and more films being created of these street artists doing their work. It’s always nice to read about them, but getting the chance to see it happen in real-time is a whole different experience. A New York based graphic artist collective recently teamed with Above to create this film of his South Central tour in 2007-2008, making their way from Rio De Janiero to Mexico City.

Banksy

Banksy has proven to be among the most influential artists throughout my ‘artistic’ experiences in life. His work was what initially piqued my interest in art. In  stenciled graffiti, he could ask the most profound of questions and make a bold statement with an ordinary graphic. I found it especially interesting that he kept himself hidden. This seems somewhat necessary in the line of work that he does, but to literally never reveal yourself to take credit for any of your work is quite a feat. This makes a big statement about him as an artist, since he disregards himself and puts his message first. To him its not about recognition. It completely changed my concept of what art was and what it could be.

Apparently, he is releasing a documentary about his work aptly titled Exit Through the Gift Shop. It had it’s first screening at Sundance yesterday. This will be the first-ever recording of him creating his work. I can’t wait for this to be released, it almost makes me want to fly down to Park City this week to see it.

Ellis Gallagher

Keith Haring was a large influence in the artistic community in many different ways. He was a very outside-the-box street artist with his many famous subway pieces in New York. Ellis Gallagher is one that has been influenced by his work and has taken it in his own new direction. He replicates shadows of found objects on the street, tracing them by the shadows they cast. It appears his process is much more involved than Haring’s. He takes so much into consideration with each piece: everything from the size of the object to the different colors of light.

It’s sad in many ways because his works wash away very quickly, usually not lasting any longer than a month. These are all chalk drawings; they become ruined after either foot traffic or rain. This makes the artwork feel much more limited and each piece more unique.

Os Gêmeos

Os Gêmeos, Portuguese for The Twins, is the name adopted by identical twins Otavio and Gustavo. They are among Brazil’s most influential graffiti artists. Birthing out of the South American hip-hop era, they happened to run into not-yet-famous American graffiti artist Twist. They fused styles from both cultures, creating a unique breed of graffiti. This style was usually in the form of uncommon illustrative portraits featuring yellow-skinned people that were “taken from the yellow tinge both of the twins have in their dreams.”

They were forced to create their work outside of popular locations such as subways, and instead created on surfaces of large buildings. This was one thing that drew me to their work: its all on such a large scale, as opposed to so many other graffiti artists who mostly work within their own physical reach from the ground.

Swoon

I was excited to include an artist with a style that seems almost unheard of, wheatpaste. I would love to come across a piece incorporating this style. Wheatpaste is an adhesive created from vegetable starch and water. A print is placed on top of the paste to adhere the artist’s image to a surface. Swoon has been heavily involved with craft-based art projects and uses salvaged materials. The subject matter in these prints varies quite a bit, from very beautiful intricate characters, to purely metaphorical imagery. They are quite striking, very detailed and appear to take a long amount of time. There were so many of these that I want to feature, and it was hard to even pick these five.

108

The Italian artist 108 evolved from graffiti into street art. After spending time reading articles and seeing peoples’ lives devoted to user interface design and information architecture, I thought it quite hilarious when I read 108’s self-described direction: “[the] …firm intention to make visual chaos.”

I must admit: he is quite successful, and I thoroughly enjoy it. 108 seems to love his persona, and the mysterious nature of his large scale works. It’s a very interesting and unique take on street art.

I hope you enjoyed my collection of street/graffiti artists as well as some insights into their work. Please share some of your own, I would love to see some new material.