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Subwaynet Magazine issue 7 preview |
02 Mar 2010
by Rot13 |
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More than 400 subway photos on 84 pages to celebrate 10 years of Subwaynet, including 24 pages on Milan.
The content list include:
_Copenhagen Metal Heads
_German Bombers
_Wien Styles
_Mixâ?Td Up
_Mser Report
_Cataniaâ?Ts Family
_Paris Rats
_Sine 50 Systems Tour
_American Gangsters
_Milan Under Siege
_WCA Crew in Milan
_Milan Under Siege
_CLSK Crew in Milan
_Milan Under Siege
_OTV Crew in Milan
_Buffersâ?T Hell
_Eastern Legends
_Smole Report
_BTC Crew
_Mixâ?Td Up
Flip through the giant preview here |
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Cop Killer Yang Jia Lives On In Beijing Graffiti |
11 Dec 2008
by GW |
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Yang Jia was from Beijing. He became famous after he attacked a Shanghai police station and killed many police officers. There were many rumors why he did this and many Chinese people felt sympathetic to his crime. His trial was very controversial and many people think it was unfair.
He was executed on 2008 November 26......
Read the rest here |
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Graphotism Revok Interview |
13 Aug 2008
by GW |
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Now I would'nt go so far as to suggest you spend your well earned money on this but the new issue of Graphotism is definitely worth a look for the in depth interview on Revok AWR.
Borders usually has it.
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Issue Two Fanzine |
04 Aug 2008
by GW |
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Issue two fanzine is 62 pages packed to the brim with exclusive photographs, sketches, hand styles, pieces and artwork. It captures and documents the raw adrenalin, exploration, style, energy and mayhem of the European graffiti movement today.
contributors:
Derik, Haksawjim, Kreky, Medi, Tommy Twoka, Knabben Meister Taro, Ogeronekanobi, Paris, Love Atak, and Save The Youth
+ free stickers
£4 inc shipping.
BUY IT HERE |
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2 Books to look out for |
11 Jun 2008
by GW |
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Especially look out for the Vandal squad one, you can read a little excerpt from it here.
VANDAL SQUAD
Released 2 Dec 2008
Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground
Released Jan 2009 |
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Steve Espo Powers in NY Times |
31 May 2008
by GW |
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Click on the image or here
'A love of graffiti has gained Steve Powers notoriety on the streets, fame in the art world and a long arrest sheet. It has also earned him a Fulbright scholarship.
Although his tag, ESPO, can still be spotted on storefront grates throughout New York City, Mr. Powers, 40, has stopped painting illegally. Working out of his studio in Lower Manhattan, he now shows pieces at a SoHo gallery, has published art books, participated in the Venice Biennale and had his first solo museum exhibition last fall at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.' |
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Borders Interviews |
28 May 2008
by GW |
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If you go into Borders go and have a look through the new Issue of Hip Hop Magazine, skip to page 90 something and you'll find a good interview with Ian Lynam about his book Parallel Strokes and why its better than most other "coffee table" graff books out today.
Also look through the new issue of Swindle while youre there for an interview with Cept and Eine.
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Duplo & Sorn |
24 May 2008
by GW |
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Brussels {g}old school book |
22 May 2008
by GW |
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A 100 pages full colour book who present an overview over the graffiti pieces & tags from brussels back in the(g)old days, all pieces done around 1987 - 1992.
to order book:
pavianiprod@gmail.com |
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Mode2 "Never Too Late" Book |
01 May 2008
by GW |
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Mode 2 has a new book which accompanies his last show, “Never Too Late...”, at the Lazarides Gallery, is now on sale. Sixty-four colour pages of drawings and photos from 1985 to more recent times...
The book is available at the gallery, or else by ordering over the phone;
LAZARIDES No 8,
Greek Street Soho,
London
W1D 4DG
tel: 0203 214 0055 |
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PieceBook - the secret drawings of graffiti writers |
16 Apr 2008
by GW |
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Vandal Squad Book |
08 Apr 2008
by Country Bomber |
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Read this over at Graffnews, not sure of a release date yet but ill keep you posted.
'A retired NYPD vandal squad cop is about to publish a book about graffiti. I assume the book will also be about being a vandal squad cop, this should be a good read..The NY vandal squad has got to have one of the best photo collections..and I don’t just mean the shit they take on raids..but all of the years of photographs they must have taken them selves.' |
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Rush Magazine |
05 Apr 2008
by Country Bomber |
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Xplicit Grafx New & Old |
13 Mar 2008
by Country Bomber |
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Get the New Xplicit Grafx Issue 3.8 HERE, see a preview HERE
And bid on the very first issue of Xplicit Grafx on ebay HERE
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Berlin Graffiti |
02 Mar 2008
by Country Bomber |
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One Wall Down, Thousands to Paint
By ANDREAS TZORTZIS
SPRAY cans clink in Ali’s bag as he walks down a cobblestone street in Berlin’s post-hip neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg. He stops in front of a grocery truck parked near a children’s playground and pulls out a can. With a fluid motion, he strokes his name in bubbly, bright red letters, before leaving his mark on a telephone booth, a dozen doors and a concrete wall next to the train tracks.
VIDEO HERE
"It’s a great feeling doing a piece at night and coming back the day after to look at it,” said Ali, 31, an industrial designer who was dressed in baggy pants and a black hoodie and didn’t want his surname used to avoid prosecution. “I also see it as reclaiming the city and shaping my urban environment.”...
READ THE REST HERE |
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pixação |
26 Feb 2008
by Country Bomber |
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A bit about Krink by Rob Walker |
24 Feb 2008
by Country Bomber |
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In his 1999 book “The Art of Getting Over,” Stephen Powers (also known as Espo) profiled and catalogued the work of several dozen fellow graffiti artists. Among them was KR, known for drippy silver tags around San Francisco and also for the unusual material he made them with. “Krink,” Powers explained, “is a homemade silver ink” that was “developed in the KR kitchen.” Back then, KR, who says he stopped writing graffiti years ago and is thus more comfortable being known as Craig Costello, never figured his “Krink” would be known beyond that circle — let alone that it would become a brand name on his custom-designed ink and markers, sold in boutiques and specialty shops in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
“There was never, ever, ever the idea that I would make any money off it,” says Costello, who is 36 and lives in New York. “There wasn’t a brand, or a business plan, or a concept of anything like that.” Costello does a bit of freelance design work as well as various art projects. (The New York arts organization Eyebeam invited him last year to spruce up the facade of its Chelsea headquarters with copious amounts of Krink, as well as paint applied via fire extinguisher.) But today the Krink product line is his most steady source of income.
The evolution of KR’s ink from something a guy made to illegally tag city streets into a brand available in slick retail settings mirrors the way graffiti — or the graffiti aesthetic — has been absorbed into pop culture over a period of decades. Growing up in Queens in the 1980s, Costello was exposed to an earlier iteration of graffiti. This was back when a lot more people called it rank vandalism, and “street art” had yet to become a tactic used to market cars and electronics — or a look mimicked by tony fashion designers. Some at the time used home-brew ink markers; Costello recalls a recipe involving mimeograph paper soaked in alcohol overnight and mixed with a bit of nail-polish remover. A felt chalkboard eraser — stolen school supplies were a common base material — completed a tool for making a “mop tag” (the makeshift marker being the “mop”).
The formula he developed — he’s cagey about specifics — resulted in a metallic look and an expressionist drip effect. He sometimes scrawled the word “Krink” on the side of soda bottles that he filled with the stuff for friends, but that was more of a joke than a branding strategy. It wasn’t until around 2000, after he returned to New York, that the owners of Alife, a street-culture store on the Lower East Side, suggested it could sell. It did: 20 bottles, then 40, then 80. Over time, Costello started working with a manufacturer to make $10 “squeeze markers” (a bit like a shoe-polish bottle) and more penlike markers with wide tips ($8) that fill with ink through a pump-action mechanism. There are now nine Krink colors. There are also Krink T-shirts and sweatshirts made in collaboration with Alife and sold in various boutiques like the trendsetting shop Colette in Paris. (Colette’s Web site was recently decorated with a photo of Costello’s dripping Krink streaks.)
Krink’s packaging has a crisp, minimalist look that doesn’t scream graffiti, precisely to leave the door open to a wider audience than taggers. “This is an artists’ tool, a tool for creativity,” Costello maintains. His own gallery shows have included Krink on wood, on latex and on at least one trash can. Still, visit Krink.com and you’ll see plenty of Krink on public walls and mailboxes. (Krink “changed the look of vandalism” in New York, an expert on such matters, known as Earsnot, told Juxtapoz magazine not long ago.) “O.K., it has a history,” Costello allows. “But our future is about broadening out the audience.”
In fact, the next Krink product is a fine-point marker. And the brand does present a different image than much of what is in online stores openly selling “graffiti supplies.” (On the Run markers, for example, feature a logo of a shadowy guy running with a spray-paint can.) Plenty of young artists have told Costello they love the Krink look — but they’re not graffiti writers and don’t intend to start. So when he talks about expanding into a product line that will make sense in a Pearl Paint store, or even a Michael’s, it’s a sentiment with more pragmatic origins than avoiding demonization as a vandal supplier: the market for the street-art aesthetic and influence is far bigger than the market of actual street artists. |
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INTERNET KILLED THE GHETTO SUPERSTAR |
19 Feb 2008
by Country Bomber |
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By Frank Castle
Years ago, if you were hardcore, you were involved in some pretty deep shit – living life on the fringes of society, not giving a fuck about what was popular or the ‘in thing’. Nonconformist, hardcore lifestyles were for the true diehards who were willing to risk being ostracised by society for what they loved – whether it was graffiti, punk music, tunnel infiltration, porn or any other subculture that was frowned upon by society at large. For decades, real hardcore porn was outlawed in most of the Western world – porn shoots took place in total secrecy. Its stars were at risk of serious criminal charges and were under constant threat of arrest. Ron Jeremy (undoubtedly, the king of hardcore porn) was investigated by the FBI, for his involvement in the formative years of the US porn industry. But he stayed strong, kept it going – filming in secret locations, dodging the police and keeping the underground porn movement alive, until it was legalised. Likewise, graffiti was a very difficult subculture to gain access to. In the 80s, fair enough, you could go down to a writer’s bench and find x amount of the top vandals in any given town. But to actually get down with these people, go to train yards and do some damage, was another story. Back then, it was almost exclusively an illegal pursuit. You’d live the hardcore lifestyle from the time you woke up until you went to bed, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That was it, GRAFFITI. Steal your paint, bomb the top deck of the bus, bomb the tubes inside and out, sneak into yards, get chased by the Old Bill, get raided by BTP – real hardcore living that infected a generation. Everything was done in secret. Sure, Subway Art revealed some of the methods writers use, but there was still so much that was shrouded in mystery – that graffiti really was an enigmatic culture that was penetrated by very few. Nowadays, however, the term hardcore is losing its sting. The true meaning of hardcore, in my humble opinion, is being eroded. The main perpetrator behind this dilution of hardcore is the Internet, and anyone who wants to buy into a subculture that they never would have had access to if it wasn’t for the Internet. Anything you can think of from the darkest, sickest porn, to the strangest, most out-there tunnel explorers, branches of Al Qaeda, brain-washing cults, month-long raves in deepest Ukraine and everything else in between. The only limit, really, is your imagination. Ok, so you might still have to try and infiltrate some of these subcultures that are so freely available, but how many of today’s youngsters learned everything they know about the subculture they represent through the Net? Quite a few, is my guess.
How can you ever call yourself a hardcore graffiti writer, when all you did was log on to Google, type in graffiti, find an online shop, order your ‘Trackside Pack’ – containing 6 silvers, 6 blacks, a mask and gloves – and then used Google Earth to find directions to the best trackside plot in your area? Likewise, how can you call yourself a true exponent of the underground Cataphile movement in Paris, if all you did was log on to the Net, look up the Catacombs and get in touch with some guys who agreed to show you the secrets of Paris’ underbelly? In the 21st century a hardcore way of life can often be contrived – many try to tick all the boxes, replicate what’s already gone before them and live out their so-called hardcore lifestyle, according to the rules and guidelines they read on the Net, rather than simply living and breathing it. That’s not to say that every young person out there can’t be a diehard. Far from it, but nowadays it’s very rare to find an authentic case, and even rarer to see it maintained. We live in an age where everyone has to conform – even the most rebellious individuals find it difficult to fight against the unstoppable force of conformity. It’s nigh on impossible to defeat, so why not go with the flow, eh? We’ve all done it – dyed our hair black and gone goth, got a tattoo, painted a train, injected heroin, joined in with ten other guys to fuck a whore on camera… Whatever it was that you did, with the intention of becoming a hardcore rebel, going against the grain of society, you went out and did it. But it’s all been done before, only more authentic, more original – with no agenda, just straight up real – so it was pointless, right? In 2008, I truly believe that the real hardcore fuckers are the ones holding down a 9-to-5 and still doing their own thing on the downlow. Representing their true beliefs, while fooling society at large into believing they’re just another conformist number. Infiltrating the old boy’s network, the UK’s elitist institutions, playing the game, but winning. Why? Because we haven’t lost our essence. We may be physically trapped in the rat race, but our brains run on different fuel and, when we have our own time and space, we let loose. There’s a whole generation of new hardcore rebels out there leading that double life – working hard, keeping up the façade and enjoying a large slice of hardcore. In essence, what I’m trying to say is, hardcore – whatever it is you’re doing in terms of lifestyle or mentality – is something that you really can’t buy into. Hardcore is an old school mentality and a way of doing things that many aspire to, but few can replicate. Those that do manage it, are either ostracised or so deep in the ‘Matrix’ that you’ll never know.
Via Bones Magazine, the latest issue featuring the above text and much more alike can be downloaded HERE as a PDF. |
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Steve Powers aka Espo - Studio Gangster Book |
10 Feb 2008
by Country Bomber |
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I blogged about this before but I just noticed that Espo's book is now out on the US Amazon for about £10 or from the UK Amazon on March 31st.
The evolution of Espo from graf artist to fine artist has been quite amazing. Not to take anything away from his graf career, but he has taken his letterforms, subversive quotes, and sign painting styles to unexplored territory. This latest book, on occasion of his recent show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, is yet another step into the unknown. Espo created this world of signs and iconography that hits you like a powerful blues song. Not sure what the message is, but it hits you in some dark places despite the bright palettes. But if you don't want to go there, just step back an admire the perfect lettering, throwback graphics, and humorous details. For an Espo fans, this is probably his finest book yet. Hardcover, 115 pages.
BUY IT HERE |
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Graffiti Japan Book |
03 Feb 2008
by Country Bomber |
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Synopsis
Japan has always been a breeding ground for innovative approaches to Western traditions, such as cinema and baseball. Another example includes graffiti, which covers the buildings and walls of Japan's largest cities, as well as the more rural areas. While graffiti in Japan shares many of the same characteristics with examples from other parts of the world, distinct cultural aspects of Japan, from Kanji to popular anime characters, set Japanese graffiti apart.Tokyo-based photographer Remo Camerota has captured these culturally unique aspects of Japanese graffiti, and in doing so has befriended some of the country's major graffiti artists. Colorful spreads and intimate interviews provide a detailed examination of Japanese graffiti, a subject that has yet to dominate the graffiti book market.
Due in April 08. |
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