Street Art Utopia is going to be the coolest website you will visit this week, maybe this month, you will like them on Facebook, and I will guarantee many of you will have one of their posted pictures as your profile pick within 24 hours. The artistry and imagination that the featured artists apply to our everyday environment is as sentimentally delicate as it is sometimes shocking. Whatever emotions each creation resonates, you will be unable to peel your eyes away.
Hosted by a gentleman named, /Vidar, Street Art Utopia will keep you well entertained. The image gallery I posted below is a very small sampling of what is to be found there. Go to the website and Facebook page, even click on a couple of ads just to keep /Vidar in business and his beer money flowing.
If you find some great artwork in your everyday travels, catalogue it! Street Art Locator is a google map of street art and galleries all over the world. Find out if there is any near you.
There are now annual conferences in Albany, NY and Atlanta, GA entitled Living Walls, where for three days, artists and the community come together and set up projects to revitalize a neighborhoods vacant lots and buildings. Their mission being to delve into the sustainability, livability and cultural future of a region, a visible testament to the significant heartbeat the arts provide. Contact them if you find your area in need of such a renaissance.
A little background on street art courtesy of Wikipedia:
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. 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.
Bomb It is a documentary by John Reiss released a few years back that describes the history of the graffiti scene and street art movement. The film in its entirety can be watched at Babelgum.
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