Graff-Fest '08 - a graffiti-off in Greensboro, NC

The 915 Skate Park in Greensboro, NC is holding a graffiti contest.

It seems like an easy way to get their park painted by writers...

or maybe a trap by local law enforcement. Muh muh muh!


In any case, it's also a way for the public to see graf artists doing their work out in the open and in the light of day. Get out and make some friends, people.

"Future Arts," an "art brand"

Future Classic, a Boston-based marketing company, will hold a launch party on April 19 at the Boston Center for the Arts for its new "art brand, FUTURE ARTS." They claim we can witness the future of urban art if we go.

However hokey the press release, there will be a couple artists there worth checking out: Rob 'React' Larsen and Yuko Adachi, to name a couple.

From the North Andover Eagle Tribune: "Mike Rich, aka Too Rich, create a graffiti-style mural just outside the school's McQuade Library. He was at the school demonstrating his art as part of a self-titled exhibit inside the library."

"'I don't do so much bombing,' said the 34-year-old Rich, referring to the practice of 'tagging' a building illegally."

-FYI, Eagle Tribune, the term bombing, according to Subway Art (by Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper), the writer's bible, defines bombing as "prolific painting or marking with ink." It could be considered, on the scale of graf prolifics, in between a "throw-up" and a "burner."

I also like the quote from the Art professor, David Raymond: "The graffiti artist is a bandit, but that is not a reason to not call it art. It almost completely lacks pretense. It has a history of forbiddenness. I think that appeals to people. It's not like the art stuff they are studying in class."

Legends of Style returns to Boston.

Though "an event based brand" and partnered with car maker Scion, Legends of Style will not be entirely bereft of authenticity. The Boston veterans Target and React will be exhibiting work, and you should go check it out.

Boston's setting an example?!

So says this editorial in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. But don't bother getting all red in the face, the writer doesn't bother citing actual facts (you know, the stuff newspapers are based on (other than advertising)).

Here's a video that accompanies the piece - includes nice footage of graf artists in action:

"One Person’s Vandalism Is Another One’s Art"

Gotham Gazette editorial by Lenore Costello

Worth a read!

topics covered:

The Eye of the Beholder
see post's title.

The Official View
"[New York City's] City Council, though, does not share that view or distinguish much between street art and graffiti."

Into the Mainstream
"Some artists have stopped limiting themselves using the streets as a canvas and begun using actual canvases, which then sell in galleries for thousands of dollars."

Artists vs. Street Art
"As street art move more into the mainstream, some critics fear it will lose its essential edginess." - among other things...