As we’re getting ready for our yearly visit to Stavanger in Norway, for the 17th edition of Nuart, we wanted to introduce you the artists that will be creating exciting new works around town this year. The festival will take place from the the 31st of August until the 3rd of September, with their indoor exhibition at Tou Scene staying on view through the 15th of October.
This year’s theme is POWER and through their work, the artists will discuss who has it, who doesn’t and how street art can challenge established power structures. “Nuart’s programs are designed specifically to explore and silently challenge the mechanisms of power and politics in public space” says Nuart Festival Founder and Director, Martyn Reed, and adds “This year’s Nuart Festival will bring together a diverse combination of of artists, activists and academics to reflect upon the fluidity of this transgressive new movement.”
Here’s some info about the participating artists:
Young Spanish artist Ampparito (shown above) is best known for conceptual murals that subvert objects, meanings and realities to generate new experiences or situations. With his thought-provoking murals, he provides metaphors and allegories for the human condition and mechanism of societal behaviour. Egyptian artist Bahia Shehab was one of the leading figures in the Egyptian uprising that saw widespread protests against poverty, unemployment, government corruption and the rule of president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Her political street art has been on display in exhibitions, galleries and streets around the globe and earned her international recognition and numerous awards. British ‘craftivist’ Carrie Reichardt blurs the boundaries between craft and activism, using the techniques of muralism, mosaics and screen-printing to create intricate, highly-politicised works of art. Active in community and public art projects for over 15 years, she has been designing and consulting on large-scale mosaic murals in various local communities. British artist Derek Mawudoku‘s work can be found in many private and eminent public collections, but his art is still relatively under-recognised. Australian multidisciplinary artist Ian Strange explores architecture, space and the home, alongside broader themes of disenfranchisement within the urban environment. Recently taking his public art to a whole new level, it now includes large-scale multifaceted projects resulting in photography, sculpture, installation, site-specific interventions, film works, documentary works and exhibitions. American artist John Fekner created a series of environmentally conceptual works consisting of words, symbols, and dates spray painted throughout the five boroughs of New York in the 1970s. He continued these text based interventions over the next few decades and earned a place in numerous museum collections across the US and Europe.
