Street & Urban Art « Arrested Motion

Category Archives: Street & Urban Art

Openings: Mehdi Ghadyanloo – “Perception” @ Howard Griffin Gallery

Posted by butterfly, February 28, 2015

Having painted over a hundred murals in Tehran, Iranian artist Mehdi Ghadyanloo recently made his debut London show. Entitled Perception with Howard Griffin Gallery, the exhibition featured a series of paintings, miniature sculptures and a cube installation playing with perception and depth. Providing some insight into the Iranian peoples’ desire for expression, Ghadyanloo’s artworks carry universal themes of hope, anticipation, loss and sadness. In parallel, the artist also created a large scale mural in the streets of London entitled We did not start the game, where three girls are jumping […]

Streets: Blu (Bolivia)

Posted by sleepboy, February 27, 2015

It looks like Italian street savant Blu has began his swing through the Americas with a mural in Bolivia. The quickly painted wall again provides biting social commentary on the value of people in the country when weighed against the value placed on money. Next up for Blu will be work for the MANIFESTO street initiative in Mexico. Discuss Blu here.

POW! WOW! ’15 / Streets: Esao Andrews & Aaron Horkey

Posted by SAL, February 26, 2015

Arguably one of the best murals created at this year’s POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) and one of the most unusual and interesting collaborations was the one by Esao Andrews and Aaron Horkey. None of the artists are really known for their mural skills or even large scale works, so it was interesting to watch their talents pulling off one of the most detailed and exceptional pieces created. Painting on the facade of Fresh Cafe in Kaka’ako, this was Esao’s second ever mural he’s worked on, while […]

Openings: “20 Years Under the Influence of Juxtapoz” @ LAMAG

Posted by sleepboy, February 26, 2015

Last weekend in Los Angeles, alongside Robert Williams’ amazing new exhibition (covered), a group show celebrating 20 years of Juxtapoz also opened to the public. Curated by Andrew Hosner from Thinkspace and Gary Pressman from Copro Gallery, the showing featured artists, emerging and established, who have graced the pages of the trailblazing magazine. Participants included Aaron Horkey, Aaron Nagel, Adam Caldwell, Adam Miller, Alex Yanes, Amy Sol, Andrew Hem, Andrew Schoultz, Andy Kehoe, Anthony Ausgang, Aron Wiesenfeld, Audrey Kawasaki, Bezt,, Billy Norrby, Brendan Monroe, Brett Amory, Brian M. Viveros, bumblebeelovesyou, C215, Candice Tripp, Chet Zar, Chris […]

Streets: Reka (Rome)

Posted by SAL, February 26, 2015

James Reka was recently in Tormarancia, Rome, painting a new mural on a residential building. Entitled Natura Morta (Still Life), the finished piece is a great example of all the qualities of Reka’s work – skilled spray control that results in sharp, crispy lines and perfect shapes, a good feel for colors and use of facade color as a background, as well as neat incorporation of architectural elements in his work. In this particular piece, the Berlin-based artist demonstrates the effectiveness of his visual language created over the years. Through […]

Showing: Finok – “O Enterro do Galo (The Burial of the Rooster)” @ Underdogs Gallery

Posted by SAL, February 25, 2015

Lisbon-based art platform Underdogs are continuing their program of collaborating with some of the world’s best young street and urban art talents. After recently working with Nunca on creating a mural and releasing a limited edition print (covered), they recently invited another Brazilian artist, Raphael Sagarra ‐ Finok. During his stay in Portuguese capital, the Sao Paolo-based artist painted a large mural, released his first limited edition lithograph, and opened a solo show on January 30th. Known for his flat imagery based on traditional elements and symbols from rich […]

Streets / Videos: Banksy (Gaza)

Posted by SAL, February 25, 2015

After several months of silence, the world wide phenomenon that is Banksy just updated his official website with a new series of works recently created in occupied Gaza. In his sharp and critical style, Mr B. has put ups some meaningful pieces including a cat playing with iron wire from destroyed homes, an image of the weeping Niobe, a Greek goddess that was punished for pride in her children, a watchtower being used as a merry go-round, and finally a strong message that states “If we wash our hands of the conflict between […]

POW! WOW! ’15 / Streets: Ernest Zacharevic

Posted by SAL, February 25, 2015

While most artists were painting large murals at one location, Ernest Zacharevic contributed to POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) with several smaller interventions scattered around town, making visitors go on a real hunt for his work. Due to their nature, a few of them actually got buffed soon after their creation, but some of them stayed up waiting for people to discover them. The first piece he created was on the side of the bridge on Ala Moana Blvd at the beginning of Waikiki. The Lithuanian artist painted one of […]

Invader Continues Space Invasion

Posted by sleepboy, February 24, 2015

After taking his own work up to space and living up to his moniker, Invader has recently expanded his activities to spread his work further along similar lines. Not only has the French street artist put up his signature tiled mosaics up at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne and Euro Space Center in Belgium (above), but it also looks like one of his pieces has made it up with an astronaut to the International Space Station. Discuss Invader here.

Viewpoints / Recap: Dran – ‘Public Execution’ pop up show in Soho, London (Part II)

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, February 24, 2015

AM recently covered the opening and first week of the last show by Dran, which was hosted by Pictures On Walls and closed on Saturday 21 February. The uniqueness of Public Execution is that it was produced by the artist — bit by bit and in public view — over the course of its duration. A white space filled with spraypainted images of blank canvases on Day 1 evolved into a picture-rich multicoloured venue on Day 17, the grand finale. Some visitors have referred to […]