Photography Street Photography
Cross the Streets
- Publisher
- DRAGO
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2018
- Category
- Street Photography, Public Art
- Recommended Age
- 14 to 18
- Recommended Grade
- 9 to 12
-
Book
- ISBN
- 9788898565221
- Publish Date
- Mar 2018
- List Price
- $56.00
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
There is only one international vanguard that brings together the young, the marginalised and the minorities in the amniotic sac of globalization: Street Art. It has many names; graffiti, writing, bombing, urban art, but only one mission: to transform the city into an open-air museum.
Cross the Streets is a multimedia exhibition that celebrates 40 years of the evolution of street art in Rome. No other city has such an untouched history and so it is fitting that Rome begins its cultural regeneration from its streets and its past. Creative inspiration has always been driven by instinct and these fleeting moments are preserved as etchings on everything from caves to catacombs, from Pasquino to propaganda murals. They serve as warnings, denouncements and exorcisms of fear.
Street Art reflects the mood of modern society. Aside from its strength and artistic beauty, the form has always been a political and cultural thermometer. Rome remains one of the most important cities driving this movement and therefore it is right to celebrate it at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO). The museum is able to connect street art to the city in a way that shows the evolution of art and its making.
About the authors
German by birth, Paulo grew up in Latin America and Africa before becoming Roman by adoption. His love for the eternal city allows him to see in Rome one of the world’s most important beacons and brands. Paulo has been immersed in the urban and contemporary art scenes for decades, first as a journalist for international magazines and newspapers, and later as the president of the Castelvecchi Publishing Company, where he produced more than 500 books and several magazines (among which “Aspenia” of The Aspen Institute). Now he leads Drago in a quest to stimulate the collective conscience by showcasing cutting-edge artists from around the world.
Born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia. BOogie began photographing rebellion and unrest during the civil war that ravaged his country during the 1990s. Growing up in a war torn countryh defined Boogie's style and attraction to the darker side of human existence. He moved to New York City in 1998. He has published six monographs the last one A Wah Do Dem (Drago, 2016). He has shot for high profile clients and has been publisehd in world renowned publications. His recent solo exhibitions include Paris, New York, Tokyo, Milan, Istanbul and Los Angeles. Boogie lives in Brooklyn and all over the world.
Born in 1971 in Milan, where he curently lives and works. During the 90s he lived in London where he studied at Central Saint Martins and graduated in Graphic and Media Design at LondonCollege of communication. Hooked in th egraffiti game since 1985 the game turned into his everyday life. Through th eyears he has consolidated valuable experiences with galleries, museums and wall saround the world. Alongside his artistic activity BO139 collaboartes with specila Projects. He has worked as an art director, designer and VJ for brands such as Carhartt Europe, Nike, Levi's, Colmbia Recors, Universal Music, Philips and ohters. In 2005 along with Microbo and The Don Donini he realized the book Izastikup published by DRago: an unique collection of self-produced stickers from around the world. The book is the most comprehensive and first of his kind to be considered todayh a real cult.
Charles Chaz Bojorquez is known as the godfather of Cholo writing. His iconic work can be found everywhere from the streets ofhis hometown to galleries aorund the world not to mention tattooed on thousands of men. The artist grew up in Los Angeles in the 50s. there, he waas introduced to the longstanding tradition of Cholo writing, particularly in East Los Angeles where Latino gangs would tag buildings in their neighbourhoods to claim their territory. His style is a varation on the classic Gothic, an homage to traditional Writing but with sharp lines and accents. Unlike more conventional graffiti artists, Bojorquez prefers brush and paint over spray paint. This allow shim to make precise lines, similar to the thick and thin of a calligraphy pen. Since his first works Bojorquez has created art works in the streets but has also worked for professional galleries has made projects for brands like Converse and Fendi. He has worked ofr movies such as Star Wars has studied graphics in more than 43 countries and has contributed to raise the graffiti status to a recognized form of art. Today is name is a synonym of style in Cholo graffiti so much that his wokrs have been acquired by three Smithsonian museums and a big part ofhis wrt work is now feature by museum archives.
Charles Bojorquez's profile page
Ray Caesar is an English digital surreal artist who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Ray Caesar's portrais frquently involve childlike creatures with phhysical deformiites and grotesque elements set against a fairytale backdrop of darkness and sexual innuendos. His works show intriguing scenarios that can attract and repel the viewer at the same time. In his cretions he merges elements of decorative styles and architectural ages, mixing Art Deco, Victorian style and visula codes from the early 1990s so that his creations stand out for their personality and charm. Caesar's work has become popular amongst celebrities and fashion icons, such as Madonnna who collects his works and has claimed Ray Caesar is one of her favorite artists.
Berlin-based Tore Rinkveld, ,aka Evol is perhaps best known for transforming everyday features of our cityscape into miniature concrete tower blocks through the medium of paint. Inspired by architecture which he seeas as a mirror for society he paints directly onto the surface of electric enclosures, concrete planters and other familiar element sof the modern city as well as working on found materials such as cardboard. Drawing on his background in graffiti he uses his artistic skills to explore the inner workings of the city and makes us look at our surroundings in a new light. Many of the buildings Evol depicts are grey. functional and in a style that has fallen out of favour, yet the have a brutalist monumental appearl. The artist draws our attention to the tstriking geometry of the architecutre and everyday details we sometimes take for granted: a billowing tarpaulin hung from a scaffoliding, shadows dast from a balcony or light falling on a curtain. Unpopulated by figures, these works contain signs of life- the exteriors of compartments in whcih people live and work- but are eerily quiet.
Fred Brathwaite more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, rapper and hip hop pioneer. He emerged in New York's downtown nderground creative scene in the late 1970s as a camera operator. In the late 1970s Freddy became a member fof the Brooklyn-based graffiti group the Fabulous 5 known for painting the entire side of New York subway cars. Along with other Fabulous 5 member, lee Quinones under his direction they began to shift from street graffiti into the art world and in 1979 they both exhibited in a prestigious galleryh in Rome Italy, Galleria La Medusa. In 19890s he painted a subway train with cartoon style depictions of giant Campbell's Souop cans after Andy Warhol. He was the bridge between the New York uptwon graffiti and early rap scene and the downtown art and punk music scenes. "I was bringing the whole music, hip hop . art. break dancing and urban cultural thing to the downtown table",, he sias
Brathwaite Fred's profile page
Fafi is a French street artist, recognized for her unique graffiti style depicting sexy, funny, voluptuous femalre characters in a fantastical world. She is best known for her sassy street art personalities called the Fafinettes who started emerging on the gritty streets of Toulouse, France in 1994. After some time spent tagging the world these relentless characters. feminine and seductive in nature become the subjects of Fafi's collaborations with brands like LeSport Sac, Colette, Adidas and MAC.
Frank Shephard Fairey, better known as Obey, is an American artist, illustrator, graphic designers, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. Born in South Carolina in 1970s he studied at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California and the Rhode Island School of Design from where he graduated in 1992. Fairey quickly rose to prominence as a street artist in the early 90s through the dispersion of posters, murals and a form of art communication based on logos articulated on stickers. He began the Andre the Giant has a Posse sticker campaign (which became known as Obey the Giant) in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. Fairey has expressed that he uses stickers as an instrument for reflection. Through curiosty, people seeing the stickers begin to ask questions abut the urban envioronemnt surrounding them. Faireyìs iconic posters of President Barack Obama was adopted as the official emblem associated with the presidential campaign and encapsulates a number of recurring focuses in the artist works, including propaganda, portraiture and political power. He has been an active artist for over 29 years and his murals decorates cities all over the world.
Fairey Shephard's profile page
Jeremy Fish lives and works in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. His artwork deals with the relationship of all things cute and creepy, and the balance between the two. The work tends to be narrative stories designed with a library of symbols and characters. In the last few years Fish has exhibited his work in Japan, German, Switzerland, Taiwan and all over the United States. Jeremy's education and work experience has lead to a career as a fine artist and a commercial illustrator. Finding a balance between exhibiting his work both across the US and internationally in galleries and museums while maintaining a presence designing skateboards, t-shirts, vinyle toys, album covers, periodical illustrations, murals and sneakers.
Invader is the pseudonym of a French urban artist, born in 1969, whose work is modelled on the crude pixelation of 1970s-1980x 8-bit video games. He took his name from the 1978 arcade game Space Invaders and much of his work is composed of square ceramic tiles inspired by video game characters. Although he prefers to remain incognito and guards his identity carefully his distinctive creations can be seen in many highly visible locations in more than 65 cities in 33 countries. He document each intervention in a city as an Invasion and has published books and maps of the location of each of his street mosaics. In addition to working with tiles, Invader is one of the leading proponents of indoor mosaics created using stacks of Rubik Cubes in a style he refers to a Rubikcubism. He is also known for his QR code mosaic works.
Mark Jenkins is an American artist most widely knwon for his sculptural street installations. Jenkins' pracctice of street art is to use the street as a stage where his sculptures interact with the surrounding environment including passersby who unknowingly become actors. His installations often draw the attention of the police. His work has been described as whimsical, macabre, shocking and situationist. Jenkins cites Juan Munoz as his initial inspiration. In addition to creating art he also teaches his sculpture techniques and installation practices through workshops. He currently lives in Washington, DC.
Miss Van started wall painting at the age of 20 in 1992 initiating the feminine movement in Street Art. Originally from Toulouse, France and having spent most of her artistic life in Barcelona, Spain. Miss Vans has travelled the world painting her instantly recoginzable womoen on the streets as well as on canvas. She has exhibited extensively for decades worldwide in Europe, USA and ASia. Miss Van's recent artistic pursuits have taken her to Los Angeles, Miami, Sapin and Brazil which hallmarks a recent return to street art after several years spent solely painting in the studio charging her new works with increased depth emotion and an elevated romantic darkness and delicacy. Her iconic sultry female characters reappear in sensual yet dark animal maska nad evolving environments. In gauzy romantic compositions they carry a surreal quality of burlesque resonating with a beauiful synergy of rawness, softness and emotion.
Estevan Oriol is an internationally celebrated professional photogapher director and urban lifestyle entrepreneru. Beginning his career as a hiphop club bouncer turned tour manager for popular Los Angeles-based rap groups Cypress Hill and House of Pain, Estevan's passion for photography developed while traveeling the world. With an influential nudge and old camera from his father, renowned photographer Eriberto Oriol, Estevan began documenting life on the road and establisehd a name for himself amid the emerging hiphop scene. Nearly 20 years later, Oriol's extensive portofolio juxaposes the glamorous and gritty planes of LA culture, featuring portraits of famous athletes, artist, ,celebrities and musicians as well as Lation, urban, gang and tattoo counterculture lifestyles. His work has been showcased in select galleries and institutions such as Smithsonian center for Lation Initaiatives, Mesa Contemporary Art Center, Petersen _Automotive Museum and The Museum of Contemorary Art, Los Angeles'ss Art in the Streets exhibit- concluding with two best-selling books of his work: LA Woman and LA POrtraits, both published by Drago.
Lee Quinones is considereed the single most influential artist to emerge from the New York City subway art movement. He is a celebrated figure in both the contemporary art world and in popular culture circles, faithfully producing work that is ripe with provocative socio-political content and intricate composition. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1960, Quinones was raised in New York's Lower East Side. Inspired by the leading figures of subway lore including Cliff 159 of the 3-Yard Boys and Blade One of the Crazy 5, Lee began creating whole 40-foot subway car murals in late 1975. By 1976, Lee was a shadowy legend, leaving his mark in a voracious whole subway car campaign strewn across the #5 IRT. Over the next decade he would paint an estimated 115 whole subway cars throughout the MTA system.
Mirko Reisser DAIM) born in 1971 in Lueneburg is a German graffiti artist who lives and dworks in Hamburg. He is particulary known for his large-size graffiti works depicting his writer name. DAIM's trademark is a technically brilliant and formally complex 3D style that focuses on the processes of construction and deconstruction of typography. The lettering is created using the light and shade effects of colours rather than outlines which seemingly propels them out of their two-dimensionality.
Mirko Reisser (DAIM)'s profile page
Blending themes of pop cultures with techniques reminiscent of the old masters, Mark Ryden has created a singular style that blurs the traditional boundaries between high and low art. His work first garnered attentioin in the 1990s when he ushereed in a new genre of painting, Pop Surrealsim, dragging a host of followers in his wake. Ryden has trumped the inital surrealist strategies by choosing ubject matter loaded with cultural connotation. Ryden's vocabulary ranges from cryptic to cute, treading a fine line between nostalgic clichee and disturbing archetype. Seduced by his infinitely detailed an dmeticulously glazed surfaces the viewers is confronted with juxtaposition of the childhood innocence and the mysterious recesses of the sould. A subtle disquiet inhabits his apintings; the work is achingly beautiful as it hints at darker psychich stuff beneath the surface of cultural kitsch. His painting shave been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide including a career-spanning retrospective at the Centro de Arte Contemporaneo of Malaga as well as an earlier retrospective at the Frye Museum of Art in Seattle and Pasadena Museum of California Art.
Sten & Lex have been doing stencils on the street since 2000/2001 and today their work is part of the urban landscape in London, Paris, Barcelona, New York City and their home town of Rome. During that early period in Rome and Italy in general there wasn't a strong stencil culture such as there was in France and Sten Lex are seen by many as the pioineers of Stencil Graffiti in Italy and were the first to be considered stencil artists. The duo are best known in the history of stencil making for introducing the halftone stencil technique in which the greater part of their stencil portraits is composed of thousands of lines. They usually produce portraits of anonymous people they have pohtographed themselves or found in family photo albums.
Callie Curry aka Swoon creates street art, ,installations and sculptural assemblages, merging art and activism with the intent of improving the world. After completing her tudies at the Pratt Institute, Swoon realized that she would not be content to only exhibit in galleries nad museums. This desire ddrover her art into the streets where since 1999 she has been wheat-pasting life-size portraits of everyday urbaites onto walls in Newe York and other ciites. Swoon takes a humanitarian approach to art and contributed to the reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurrican Katrina nad Hiaiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Kazuki Takamatsu bron in 1978, in Sendai, Miyagi, is a Japanese artist who mixes traditional and modern techinqusein his work. Takamatsu has captured the curiosity of his fans with his technique called depth mapping a style of illustration inspired by Japanese girls comics. In this method the individual pixel becomes a shade of grey which is proportional to the distance from which the viewer sees it. This combination provides the artist with the abiliy to achieve amazing depth and surrealism in his works. Takamatsu's depth mapping technique is aas unique as it is painstakingly intricate, the artist mixes traditional and modern techniques by fusing classic drawing airbursh and gouache painting with computer graphics.
Takamatsu Kazuki's profile page
Ed Templeton was born in Orange County a sprawling suburb of Los Angeles. He became interested in skateboarding when he was in junior high school and devoted all his time to it. Templeton's interest in fine art began as a teen with shopping mall books about canonical painters such as Picasso, Dali, but iwas his later discovery of Egon Schiele that would have a profound effect on him. Templeton eventually became a professional skateboarder which allowed him opportuniites to tour Europe. While there he spent every free moment absorbing its galleries and art museums. soon after he realized his first exhibition a skateboard art show in Chicago. Templeton is owner and creative director for his company, Toy Machine Bloodsucking Skateboard Company. He has also executed design work for Spin as well as Grand Royal, Geffen and Factory Records. Templeton considers his painting and photography pursuits separate from his akteboarding and design work which is more graphic based. He has exhibited his work worldwide.
WK (aka WK Interact) was born in 1969 in Caen, France. He has lived and worked in New York since the early 1990s. WK is interested in the human body in motion, his paintings of figures frozen in a flight of movement reflects this infatuation. The arti's unique process invovles a technique of twisting an original drawing or photograph while it's being photocopied, resulting in the monochromatic palette and streamlined moment-in-time appearance of his finished work. WK site-determines his placements by finding an appropriate location first, then his imagery is chosen specifically with a concrn for encounters in an urban environment of interaction. In the late 1990s his images began appearing on building faces in downtown Manhattan complimentin the constant stir of bodies and the perpetual motion of contemporary urban life in the fast-pace city.