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    “Transcend” by Snik in Gloucestershire, England

    Artistic duo Snik is back with a new mural entitled “Transcend” for Cheltenham Paint Festival in Gloucestershire, England. The artwork features their signature stencil technique. As stencil artists, they are traditionalists. Where others have moved on to the digital techniques, using laser cutting and computers to support their work, SNIK have remained true to the origins of their craft. They still painstakingly hand cut their complex multi-layered stencils.

    Nik Ellis and Laura Perrett the artists behind Snik are based in Stamford, UK. They have been working across the globe for over a decade, perfecting their skills to become one of the most progressive artists of their kind.
    Snik’s bold aesthetic is characterized by frozen scenes of dynamic action. Their work focuses on the ordinary, such as tangled strands of hair or the folds and textures of fabrics. These subtle aspects are elevated to hint to a deeper meaning. A meaning that remains elusive, for the viewer to draw their own meaning from.
    Check out below for more images of the stunning mural.

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    “Opera” by Edoardo Tresoldi in Reggio Calabria, Italy

    Italian scenographer and sculptor Edoardo Tresoldi recently presented Opera, his new public art permanent installation last September 12th on Reggio Calabria’s seafront, promoted and commissioned by the local Municipality and the Metropolitan City.

    Opera was created to celebrate the contemplative relationship between place and human beings through the language of classical architecture and the transparency of the Absent Matter. The open wire-mesh structure – consisting of a colonnade of 46 pillars peaking at 8 meters within a 2,500-square meter park – will offer a new monument fully crossable and accessible to locals and visitors alike. The installation will be part of one of the largest European public spaces and aims to become a new landmark in the region.

    During the opening weekend a series of free music, performance and poetry events was held. The sound installation by Italian musician and composer Teho Teardo narrated the fusion between Opera and the site through a sound design articulated through the different moments of the day: morning, sunset and night. In addition, poetry events curated by Italian poet and writer Franco Arminio and a secret concert by the well-known Italian songwriter Brunori Sas.

    Opera is a monument to contemplation through which the place further defines itself. Tresoldi plays with the grammar of classical architecture – as well as with the transparency of the wire mesh – to research new visual poetics in dialogue with the surroundings and the viewer. The pillars, Western cultural heritage’s founding archetypes, compose a courtly frame allowing for a further interpretation of the park.

    The installation generates a mental agora that leads visitors into an ever-changing perceptive dimension thanks to the park’s varying heights and depths. Operaopens up relationships in several directions within an already materially open space: the perspective corridors run towards the landscape while the transparent pillars define an open structure that accommodates, accompanies and defines the spatial experience and establish a direct relationship between earth and sky.

    Opera is Tresoldi’s second installation in Calabria after Il Collezionista di Venti in 2013, and the second major permanent public artwork in Italy after the Basilica of Siponto in Apulia, commissioned by the Italian Ministry of Culture in 2016.

    Take a look below for more images of Opera. 

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  • Coverage: “8th Ply” Group Show in Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Continuing their successful collaboration Sasha Bogojev and Mark Chalmers team up again for 8th Ply. Curated by Sasha Bogojev and presented by The Garage Amsterdam, 8th Ply is a group exhibition featuring artists whose lives were, and are, significantly marked by their connection with skateboarding.
    Seven layers of maple wood, or 7-ply, is the core construction of the skateboard deck and the bedrock of this globally popular sport/lifestyle. In a year when skateboarding was destined to debut as an official Olympic sport for the first time in history, 8th Ply is here to put a focus on another layer of this popular activity.
    Working in a variety of mediums, applying different techniques, and using a diverse range of aesthetics to express their creativity, the presentation aims to provide a glimpse at the uniqueness, imagination, and resourcefulness of the people closely connected to skateboarding. And while skateboarding itself is now a big part of popular culture and is getting heavily branded as a mainstream sport, 8th Ply serves as a metaphor for the cardinal ingredient that turns a wooden plank into a form of identification.
    The exhibition features artists whose lives were, and are, significantly marked by their connection with skateboarding, such as Ed Templeton, James Jarvis, Jean Jullien, Adam Neate, Boris Tellegen, Parra, Josh Jefferson, Andrew Schoultz, and Jeffrey Cheung.

    “From my perspective, 8th Ply represents the channeling of human energy and emotion into the artifact of the skateboard. The combination of board and rider together allows each to become greater than the sum of their parts. My work across the globe bears witness to the inspiring magic that occurs when skateboarders—particularly among SOC—are allowed to move beyond the local and contribute their viewpoints, actions, and activism to the global language of skateboarding culture. Each rider carries a different thread of humanity which, when woven into the broader fabric of skateboarding, emboldens the next generation to see skateboarding as an outlet for their voice.
    As a young Black teenager, I witnessed firsthand how overt and covert racism negatively affected the lives of people of color, and I sought ways to disrupt its effects. Once discovering skateboarding, I found a new space of freedom and self-expression, as part of a multi-gendered, multiracial collective dedicated to pushing through life’s challenges atop 7-Plys of Hardrock-maple. The diversity within our coalition offered a blueprint, which demonstrated that when harnessed correctly, skateboarding culture might offer the possibility to challenge power, build community, and create social change.” – Dr. Neftalie Williams, Artist. Scholar. Diplomat. Activist. Skateboarder.

     The Garage Amsterdam was created in 2004 by Mark Chalmers, a creative director and founder of the internationally lauded Creative Social. Mark also runs the international studio Chalming.Co where he is working with artists and art to build global brands through culture. Brands such as Nike, Dior, Google and Patagonia. Fascinated by the power of grassroots networks, Chalmers started The Garage Amsterdam, as a place where artists could stay while in Amsterdam, create and exhibit work and connect with other artists.
    Scroll down below for more photos of the group show.

    Images by Rene Messman

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    Guerilla Take Over of 100 UK Billboards in Anti-Car Protest

    Environmental activist groups from the ‘Brandalism’ network have installed over 100 parody car advert posters on billboards and bus stops in England and Wales. The guerilla artworks featuring brands such as Range Rover, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Citroen, Lamborghini and Vauxhall were installed without permission in Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, London and Exeter.
    The billboard posters criticise the car industry for misleading adverts that have driven up demand for polluting vehicles and private car use – resulting in increased carbon emissions from road transport and worsening air pollution and congestion in towns and cities.

    “Car adverts promote private car ownership as a status symbol. Themes of power, success and social status are mixed with exotic locations and empty roads to promote a myth of freedom and mobility. The resulting problems of traffic congestion, worsening air pollution and climate breakdown are left out of these glitzy ads.
    Outdoor advertising billboards are used to promote new cars to motorists stuck in traffic. It’s absurd.
    Our towns and cities have become so dominated by private cars that we’re struggling to implement sustainable alternatives as the health and social costs mount. The active promotion of polluting vehicles through advertising campaigns isn’t helping the situation. We need a cultural shift away from cars,”Peter Marcuse from Brandalism said.

    Over 30 international artists including Paul Insect, Jimmy Cauty, street artist Dr.D, Fokawolf, satirist Darren Cullen, Matt Bonner and Michelle Tylicki created 45 different artwork designs.

    One poster by Birmingham street artist Fokawolf: “Ignore the Kids, Burn the Planet’ with a picture of an SUV.

    Brandalism is an international collective of artists that challenge corporate power, greed and corruption around the world. Intervening into ad spaces that usually celebrate consumption, Brandalism use ‘subvertising’ as a lens through which we can view the intersectional social & environmental justice issues that capitalism creates.
    In January 2020, 41 artists instigated Australia’s largest unsanctioned art campaign in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in the wake of devastating wildfires and inaction on the climate crisis. In 2015, the Brandalism group replaced 600 bus stop posters in Paris ahead of the UN climate talks critiquing major polluters such as Volkswagen and Air France.
    Check out below for more photos of the advert posters.

    Another billboard featured the highly fuel inefficient BMW X5 reading “Embrace the traffic jam, Driving you into Climate Breakdown.”

    A mock Lambourghini advert by 006 – Michelle Tylicki presented the bright SUV within a hellscape of 16th century artist Hieronymus Bosch

    Artwork by Paul Insect

    Artwork by Dave Walker

    Artwork by satirist Darren Cullen

    Artwork by Hogre

    Artwork by Matt Bonner

    Artwork by Paul Insect

    Artwork by Matt Manson

    Artwork by Dr.D

    Artwork by Jimmy Cauty

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    “Two Figures Behind Glass” by Fintan Magee in Ipswich, Australia

    Australian artist Fintan Magee has recently finished another mural in Ipswich, Australia. This work depicts two rail-workers behind beveled glass. The Arctic glass pattern in the painting was common in middle-class Queensland homes in the 1960s and was used in French doors and windows.

    “Some of my earliest memories of Queensland architecture was my father’s silhouette through the glass doors when he got home. The work explores the role of de-industrialization in urban communities and on the suburban fringes of Australia. The figures in the mural appear distant, disconnected, isolated, and breaking up.”

    “As middle-class homes become increasingly out of reach for working-class Australians and lower-pay and job insecurity continues to shape how we work, this painting explores how nostalgia shapes    political views and how workers view their communities and the outside world. The work specifically looks at two rail workers from the city of Ipswich” the artist said.

    Additionally, Fintan Magee says the inspiration behind the painting was honouring those continued to work essential jobs – keeping the economy functioning and food supply moving during the coronavirus lockdown.
    Fintan Magee is a Sydney based social realist painter, specializing in large-scale murals. Magee has solidified his position as one of Australia’s leading public artists and has traveled extensively, completing projects in countries across the world, including Belarus, India, Jordan, Spain, Tahiti, USA, among many others.
    Scroll down below for more images of the stunning mural.

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