Graffiti brightens up drab city neighborhoods - a stunning selection of interesting works by street artists. What is street art: interviews with street artists

Street art is a type of modern urban art. It is difficult to determine when wall paintings first appeared; such fine art is one of the oldest. But despite this, controversy regarding this activity does not subside, because many people believe that street art is an act of vandalism. But is it? Let's dive deeper into the world of street art and try to figure out what it really is.

What is street art and what does it look like?

Street art translated from in English means “ Street art" This direction means:

• Wall drawings;
• Images in in public places and at various sites;
• Street installations;
• Stickers;
• Posters, etc.

This direction includes everything that is an urban style. visual arts. There is a widespread misconception that graffiti is the only manifestation of street art. However, it is not. Graffiti is just one type of street art, but far from the only one.

The history of street art from its inception to the present day

It would be correct to note that street art has existed since the advent of Homo sapiens. At first, creativity manifested itself in the form rock paintings. Later, already in a civilized society (in Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, etc.), people began to express their thoughts through writing on walls. These were advertising messages, declarations of love, expressions of political thoughts, etc.

Street art, as we are accustomed to seeing it today, supposedly appeared during the Second World War. The first case is considered to be the appearance of the viral inscription “Kilroy was here”. It was carried out by a certain Kilroy, who (allegedly) worked at a bomb factory in Detroit (USA). At first, the inscription appeared on all boxes of bombs made at this plant. The phrase was then supplemented with a drawing and further distributed by American soldiers.

Street art flourished in Philadelphia in the 1960s. This place is still considered historical center graffiti culture. In the 1970s, localization moved to New York. It all started in a Manhattan neighborhood called Washington Heights. At this moment, “tagging” was invented. At the same time, a tradition arose of putting the street number next to the nickname. The first to do this was Julio 204. Among the graffiti artists of that time, competition broke out for recognition as the best. This encouraged writers to develop a new style of execution - this is how graffiti codes and styles appeared.

It is also noteworthy that until 2012, no street art museum had been created anywhere in the world; There were no departments that could present this style to the public. For the first time, the Street Art Museum was opened in St. Petersburg. The main goal This museum's purpose is to provide information about street art and graffiti. The museum also provides assistance in organizing modern projects, is engaged in supporting young artists. Representatives of the museum are trying to introduce a new approach to the development of creativity, using industrial facilities located far from the city center.

Types and techniques of street art

The division into styles can be observed mainly among graffiti. The following techniques are distinguished:

• Writing– the process of applying graffiti without reference to style. Includes absolutely all varieties;
• Bombing– fast application of patterns under extreme conditions;
• Tagging– artist’s signature, his nickname.

In addition to the application technique, there are also types of graffiti that differ in style:

• Bubble-letter– graphics using capital letters and volumetric shapes similar to bubbles;
• Throw-up– New York style, which involves the use of two colors and simple shapes;
• Character– depiction of characters in the style of a graffiti artist;
• Wild style- one of the most common types involving the application complex drawings. Requires a high level of skill;
• 3D-style– 3D-style images, as well as optical illusions.

There are a huge variety of techniques for applying drawings and performing installations. New directions appear regularly, artists try to find their own style and stand out from the crowd of other writers.

Famous representatives of the direction

In street art, as in any other direction, there are famous representatives:

• Banksy - this artist is called the “gold standard” of modern art. His identity was never revealed. Many of his works are included in the register of protected objects. Originally from Bristol, works and exhibits throughout the world;
• Vhils – Alexandre Farto, originally from Portugal. In his technique he uses an electric drill. Collaborated with legendary group U2;
• Above (TavarZawacki) - started in the USA, but then moved to Berlin. The subject of his works are themes of injustice modern system, as well as poverty of certain segments of the population;
• Roa - in her works depicts animals, often emaciated, with organs open to view. He tends to imitate the effect of x-rays in his works;
• C215 is a French street artist who travels the world and decorates the streets. His favorite topic is his own daughter Nina, who can be seen in images, sometimes in the form of a little girl, sometimes transformed into a young woman;
• Jean Michel Basquiat is a late artist who left a bright mark on history. He started out as a graffiti artist, and at the height of his career he completed many stencil projects in collaboration with Andy Warhol.

Contemporary street art comes in many forms. Sometimes writers touch on complex topics. But this does not make the writers’ creativity any less beautiful. Now we can see how many works turn into National treasure, and artists from all over the world realize their creative potential.

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“Street art won’t solve global poverty, but it can make you think and smile.”

Street drawings have long since crossed the line when they were considered only vandalism and did not carry anything reasonable, good, or eternal. No, of course, meaningless and most often mediocre “tags” exist and will not go away. But modern street art is much deeper and broader than just tags, an expression of protest or one’s position. It has grown and taken on, among other things, a social function.

website I have prepared a list of artists whose works make cities more beautiful, and people a little better and happier.

His project “Living Walls” is known far beyond the country’s borders; his works are regularly included in the world’s selections of the best street art. Nikita’s kind, big-eyed creatures, organically integrated into the space, playing with the shape of the walls, already exist in many cities of Russia: in his native Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Kazan and so on.

Alexey Menshikov

Artist from Penza Alexey Menshikov decorates the streets of his city with funny drawings, successfully fitting them into the surrounding landscape. Its positive characters will not leave anyone indifferent and charge you with positivity for the whole day.

This talented street artist from Russia is an adherent of the surrealist style, which thin thread permeates all his work. The subjects of the works are very diverse - from drawing representatives of heroes of subcultures and various phenomena to surreal and fairy-tale motifs.

Artist from Yekaterinburg Slava PTRK is a real experimenter, often choosing strange and unusual objects for his works. All his drawings and installations are an encrypted message, a call to turn on the imagination and think about the problems of our time.

Another artist from Yekaterinburg, famous for his unusual and topical works, often related to political events.

Moscow street artist Zhenya 0331С (Ozzik) is used to comparing what is painted in his hometown and on the streets of the world. This helps him realize why he creates his work. For Ozzik, street art is full art, the ability to convey feelings or emotions through what you know how to do.

A young, productive and damn talented graffiti artist from St. Petersburg. She works in photorealism technique and creates bright, unforgettable characters.

Andrey Adno was born in 1986 and now lives in Kaliningrad. The artist claims that graffiti has never been his main source of inspiration. close to him old school graphic design, Soviet posters and everything that balances on the edge of graffiti and conventional art.

If you ask “what is street art” in a search engine, you will get a scattering of definitions from “provocation” and “hooligan art” to “evolutionary forms of graffiti” and “ special forms immersion in urban space." Having no solid, or, to be honest, virtually no theoretical basis in the country, street art nevertheless lives the full, hard life of a street organism. During December 2010 - January 2011 in Moscow for the first time there will be an exhibition street stencils. Without diving into the morphology of the concept of street art, T&P talked with the participants and the organizer of the exhibition about the border between graffiti and street art, its role in contemporary art and prospects in the international space, about social and political, about the past and the future.

Incubus Project: Complex issue. From the series, What is music? Street art is a dialogue between the artist and street space.

Ame72: Graffiti (as this media is called) is about letters, names and fonts. Street art is intended to draw public attention to certain ideas through stencils, stickers, posters, installations and other things.

Street art is about other people, not the artists.

Dmitry Krasov – organizer of the international exhibition of stencils TRAFORO | exhibition of stencil art 2010, head of the Internet project “Everyone needs a stencil”

Dmitry Krasov: Most of graffiti artists pursue the goal of depicting their name beautifully and efficiently. Street art work can be done with very little skill artistic technique, but with a very strong message. This is much more important. I can't be responsible for all graffiti in general, but in my opinion it is self-quoting.

Igor Ponosov: There is a substitution of concepts here, since by street art and street art we mean the form of “post-graffiti”.

Susie Garden (Strafe): In Russia it is very difficult to make money from street art, because street culture is very young. Most people in this country don't know anything about street art.

Incubus Project: No. Russia is not ready for its street artists. You can sell T-shirts with your own prints, but this has nothing to do with street art. You can sell paintings, but you can’t live on it. We have no base, no unified street art movement, no community. Few people are seriously interested in street art.

Ame72: I work and support myself only as an artist. You can make good money from art, but I wouldn't call these works street art.

As soon as street art moves into galleries, it automatically becomes urban, pop art, contemporary art, abstraction, blop art - call it what you want, but not street art.

Captain Razor (Zuk club): Some people think that street art is the techniques you listed. This is wrong. These are simply techniques of self-expression.

Igor Ponosov: There is no division as such, it is generally accepted to divide by technique: stencils, stickers, posters, sculptures. There are no categories as such for content, since we have few people dedicated to theorizing, critiquing and monitoring the entire scene. There is a direction called “intervention” - this is an invasion of the city, changing objects in the urban environment. For example, an inverted bench or two benches stacked on top of each other.

Incubus Project: If we talk simply about the manner of performance, then this moment in street art they use everything they can. Now, in my opinion, everyone is switching to posters. Personally, I switched.

Ame72: Street art can be in any form the artist wants. As long as it's on the street, it's all street art.

Street art is beginning to “transition” into a gallery, academic format: Banksy’s works are sold in a New York gallery, recently there was an exhibition of London graffiti artists in Moscow, an exhibition of Traforo stencils. Is street art not deceiving itself if it was originally aimed at fighting commercialization and consumerism, and is now starting to make money?

Dima Krasov: I don’t see anything wrong with this. This is the same as posting photographs of your work on the Internet; the photograph is already in electronic format, you can download it or send it to a friend, and this is already documentation.

Captain Razor (Zuk club): On the contrary, it would be great if gallery artists started doing street art. The gallery as a platform gives a result that the street cannot give, and vice versa.

Ame72: If you can support yourself by doing something you love, go do it.

Susie Garden (Strafe): Good question. And I don't know the exact answer. In my opinion, this is a naive opinion that we can make art without a market at all, this is impossible. There are artists who exhibit in galleries and sell for crazy amounts of money, but they will still find an opportunity to work on the street. It's a compromise.

Incubus Project: Nothing tastes better than something new, no matter what you call it. This is not deception, this is development.

Igor Ponosov: There is an established art market, but it’s a bit boring right now. We need fresh blood and energy. The curators are trying to integrate street energy into the galleries.

Does the development of street art representation techniques influence the development of marketing and advertising? technologies?

Igor Ponosov: Advertising agencies are intercepting methods of disseminating information faster than street artists themselves. Moreover, this is all done by these same street artists and graffiti artists, which irritates me most of all. Previously, you walked and looked at the floor, hiding from advertising, now you can’t even look at the floor. We even had initiative group Of two people, we were painting.

If you make “art”, even if it sounds loud for now, then at least you don’t need to crap.

Is there a chance to get closer to Europe in terms of legislation?

Dmitry Krasov: There are few chances, but there is always hope. If the project is good and interesting, you can try to get official permission. No one will immediately allow explicit works or political statements. Vandalism in all cities is vandalism. It’s just that in Europe there are certain areas where you can officially paint. In our country, these are only a few official sites in the country. There is an All-Russian Exhibition Center site in Moscow.

There are large international art exhibitions such as FIAC in Paris, FRIEZE in London, where the entire art elite, gallery owners, buyers, curators, etc. flock. Any chance for street art to be officially represented at FIAC 2011 or 2012?

Dima Krasov: The presence of street art at such events will be mandatory. This culture will be fixed as a certain layer, then interest in it will be lost, then renewed, etc. If today's audience begins to appreciate street art, then in 10 years it will already be a classic for another generation.

Susie Garden (Strafe): Why not. Street art is already like old news. This is mainstream.

Incubus Project: Aren't they already there? This is probably a question of whether or not snowboarding should be included in the Olympic Games.

Igor Ponosov: Quite possible, because now the demand for street art has increased. Of course, all conversations about street art come down to the Banksy film. His contribution is not even to the street artist community, but to common system art, he tries to hack it in his own ways. And he ends up in galleries - in fact, he even laughs at it, while making money at the same time.

Ame72: It's already presented.

It has become fashionable to think about appearance city, bicycle parking, the actions of the new mayor regarding city decoration. According to the General Plan of 2025, about 70% of historical buildings in the center of Moscow will be demolished. Do you think this will affect street art? You will not have the brick wall of an old mansion, but a glass panel or a gray block.

Captain Razor (Zuk club): I don't think it will have much impact. On modern building There’s not much to draw, there are cameras everywhere and heavy security. If buildings are demolished, then, on the contrary, it will be possible to draw on them more freely.

Susie Garden (Strafe): I prefer when the wall is old and interesting, when you can see the consequences of urban destruction. When traces of old posters are visible. Drawing on new buildings with huge windows looks more like a protest.

Incubus Project: New buildings and street art. It will simply be washed even more often than now. And hit on the heads much more often, since there will be more guards.

Igor Ponosov: I think everything has an impact. If you look at European trends, in Germany, for example, there are quite strict fines for writing inscriptions. It shapes new format, because the artist must apply the drawing as quickly as possible.

Action of the art group “War” in St. Petersburg, when they painted a 60-meter penis on the Liteiny Bridge, which rose in front of the windows of the FSB. Is this street art?

Dima Krasov: Yes. That's exactly what has risen - this is street art.

Captain Razor (Zuk club): They are actionists, this is by definition street art. Many street artists came out of "graffiti" and they continue to paint on walls, but not graffiti anymore. Nowadays, street art is understood as mainstream (post-graffiti), and “War” does not fit into this category. There are completely different motives here.

Susie Garden (Strafe): Of course. This is another form of street art, closer to performance, to action.

Incubus Project: Yes, I live nearby. This is street art. Good interaction with space. Erecting dick! Isn't this poetic?

Igor Ponosov: If we regard street art as a form of post-graffiti, then it is street art. It is difficult to classify it as street art, because it stands out with its political overtones. There are portals that cover street art all over the world, they regularly post “War” events.

Exhibition Traforo.

The project “Everyone needs a STENCIL” is carried out international exhibition[“TRAFORO | exhibition of stencil art 2010"](http://www.traforo.ru/traforo/traforo2010.htm) in Moscow from December 1, 2010 to January 11, 2011.

Captain Razor (Zuk club): I was surprised that there was a lot of work on political theme. I don’t remember that there was an exhibition of stencils in Moscow before. I'm showing my work: two images connected by a thread. The thread imitates a laser.

Susie Garden (Strafe): In Moscow, in Russia, people are very original, more original than in Australia. At the exhibition I am showing a Rhinoceros triptych on a tree. I always do half figurative, half abstract.

Incubus Project: I haven’t seen it yet, I’ll draw it right at the opening.

Dima Krasov: Firstly, the exhibition is international: there are artists from Great Britain, Australia, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Secondly, the exhibition is divided into conventional thematic spaces: socio-political, entertainment, etc. I recommend visiting all sites, entrance everywhere free, except for one gallery, entrance there is 50 rubles. The exhibition introduces as much as possible large quantity people with stencil art. Therefore, not one site was chosen, but several galleries and art cafes, and a printing university.

What can you wish for street art and contemporary art?

Captain Razor (Zuk club): I wish street art development. Freedom to "War". There's a lot going on right now interesting point, when the government begins to oppress the art community. We must stand against this, otherwise it will not lead to anything good.

Dima Krasov: There is no point in wasting time justifying your laziness, you need to waste time implementing your ideas.

Igor Ponosov: I would like to wish street artists courage and patience to resist the aggressive environment. It seems to me that Moscow has a very aggressive environment.

Every time we walk around Moscow, we find something new and interesting in it. Street art is one of the unusual objects of the city, we are already... Today we will show drawings on the walls of houses, office buildings and other structures, drawn by different street artists. Such drawings are divided into illegal, that is, made without permission, and legal, made with the permission of local authorities (or commercial structures, legally coordinating their order with local authorities).

The most interesting graffiti of Moscow 2016 —>

Today I will show you illegal street art that appeared in 2016. As you can see, illegal immigrants in Moscow are not only vandalism, not only painted trains, tags polluting city walls, not only endless fences painted with the same tags along railways. Let me note that currently there are no places in the city allocated to accommodate “permitted illegal immigrants.” I won’t touch on city graffiti festivals, when those who want to paint are given a wall in a specially designated reservation on which they can draw whatever they want. I don’t consider these jobs to be illegal. Usually, illegal drawings exist in “informal courtyards”, mainly in the center of Moscow, where local authorities do not paint over such works. In addition to Zoom, whose creativity, hundreds of other street artists paint in the city. I believe that the creations of some of them deserve attention.

In January, the Kinchev Wall appeared on Pokrovsky Boulevard. The drawing on it is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Alice Army fan community, created in 1991 on the initiative of Konstantin Kinchev, leader of the Alice group. In May and October the wall was painted over, but fans restored the drawing each time.

Alex214 painted several garages in Kuzminki, the result was a metro train. Among the figures is Martha Cooper, a legendary character for street art lovers. She is known throughout the world as a photographer who captured the emergence of graffiti culture in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Portraits of girls from Keirs from the Insmut team. Some street artists criticize his working method. They believe that the meaning of street art is to come and paint. And when the author comes back several times to finish the work, using tape to draw straight lines, this is no longer street art. I am calm about such reasoning. It’s just strange to me that some of the girls at Keirs come out looking kind of masculine.

Akor (Artem Korotkov) paints in the south of Moscow, and I usually don’t get to his works. An ironic drawing on a building in the Biryulevsky Forest Park.

Akor on Shipilovsky Proezd.

There, on Shipilovsky Proezd, there is a fox from Choys. Interestingly, he is one of the few who write his nickname in Cyrillic - Choice.

Bear made of green leaves from Choice with Mendeleevskaya.

Choys said that in this drawing he wanted to show the students' emotions from the arrival of September 1st.

Musician from Choys.

Antonia Gapotchenko, who chose the nickname Lev, came from Lipetsk in 2011 to study as an illustrator and remained in the capital. She is a graphic designer by training. She considers herself an illustrator, she always was and remains one, but now she also draws on walls. It’s surprising that she didn’t write her nickname at all, but immediately started with drawings. The first of them appeared in May 2015 in St. Petersburg near the railway tracks. Antonia has her own recognizable style, her favorite character is a naked girl in the jungle, bursting with beauty and health, and drawn without excessive realism of form. And although a girl who draws girls is usually not taken seriously in the graffiti community, short term she managed to gain authority. A year and a month after the start of her career, she was already commissioned to paint an 8x5 meter wall; other authors take a decade to complete this journey. True, the Outline festival, for which the wall was made, did not take place, so the audience did not see this work.

Sometimes men appear in her drawings.

Antonia loves to find some kind of “abandoned” place, since for her it is important to combine the design with the environment around it.

Street artist Frankie, like Banksy and Zoom, works in the stencil genre. The nickname F20 once stood for the name of a two-person band. Over time, the composition of the group changed, and now only Frankie remained under the nickname F20. He received an architectural education and works as an architect. “But I want to do something else where you can do whatever you want without approvals - you just want and do.” Frankie started drawing a long time ago, but he has felt like an artist since February 2010, when he found his style. Now he is receiving a second degree in Graphic Design.

Two of his works from 2015 are located near MPEI. From an interview: “Sometimes the place itself dictates the desire to draw. Next to MPEI, between the buildings there is a very slum alley - you won’t even understand that this is a university - and I did three works there. Two of them still remain, no one touches them, although the tags around them are painted over. Maybe the university administration doesn’t mind them hanging there, I don’t know.”

Children's imagination on Maroseyka.

The work on Arbat appeared on Valentine's Day.

“So smooth, dear?” on Ogorodnaya Sloboda.

The stork in many cultures is a symbol of new life. A waste barrel as a symbol of the destructive influence of man-made factors on nature. The stork built a nest on an old barrel, nature won. In the courtyard on Pechatnikov Lane.

And again the stork and modern civilization.

Miracle Yudo fish-whale. Instead of a village there is a panel microdistrict.

Lost girl with a teddy bear on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard.

The band Frankie often listens to is Magnetic Poetry on Seliverstov Lane.

Sourt is a master of the genre called “black and white photorealism.” His works can be found in the south of Moscow, which is far from me. The first time I went was in the winter, and I found only one of his works from 2014 - a portrait of Mayakovsky, the rest were painted over. An interesting character - imagine, someone took and illegally drew Mayakovsky on the fence of the park!
In 2016, not far from the Begovaya metro station, Benicio del Toro appeared as Gonzo in Terry Gilliam’s film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).

Yuri Nikulin appeared not far from the Mendeleevskaya metro station.

I did not recognize this man on Shipilovsky Proezd.

Actor Anthony Hopkins, not far from the Oblaka shopping center on Orekhovoy Boulevard.

Actor and musician Pyotr Mamonov, writer Viktor Pelevin on Merry street(there is one near the Tsaritsyno metro station).

I’ll finish the review with the works of two street artists, who by status have already become just artists, although sometimes they continue to paint on the streets.

Alexey Mednoy was born in 1985. He graduated with honors from the design department of the Ivanovo Art School named after Malyutin, but later moved to Moscow, the city in which he was born. The first facade in Moscow on Tsvetnoy Boulevard was created as part of the festival " Best city Earth" (2013). In his paintings and graphic works one can confidently read the author’s established style, expressed in characteristic techniques. He uses an achromatic range of colors, broken shapes, and crushed images. Mosaic compositions, as if assembled from colored glass shards, refer to the tradition of modernist artists.

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Andrey Berger was born in 1986 in Barnaul. He is known under the nickname Aber, the origin of which is clear without explanation. He is an architectural designer by training and graduated from Altai State Technical University. Andrey became interested in street art in 2001 and since then has been painting on walls and actively engaged in creativity. Lived in Novosibirsk, now lives in Moscow, heads the First Graffiti Agency.

His first noticeable work on the facade of the capital’s house “Inspiration” (2013) is located near the Prospekt Mira metro station and was done together with Marat Morik from Novosibirsk. The girl on it is realistic, but Andrey himself prefers geometric abstractions. I managed to photograph his illegal work. Well, do you like this style?
Later in 2016, Andrey will perform works in the same style in Denmark at the Aarhus Art Convention, and in Germany (Munich) at the Stroke Art Fair. In 2016, similar graphics were painted on porcelain plates for the five-star Silken Puerta America hotel in Madrid. More precisely, especially for one of the floors of this hotel, which was designed by the great Zaha Hadid. Other floors were designed by Norman Foster and Jean Nouvel.

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Publication prepared by: Vasily P. Photo by the author.

Instructions

On the one hand, street art, at its core, is designed to resist the aggressive urban environment, on the other hand, without aggression modern city Street art itself would not have arisen.

Street art grew out of street tags, which, in turn, at the end of the 60s of the last century in Philadelphia (USA) were transformed into graffiti. By the early 80s, when competition arose between graffiti artists, graffiti from hard-to-read font tags increasingly began to transform into interesting artistic compositions and catchy slogans: “Boredom is counter-revolutionary”, “Run, comrade, for old world", "Culture is life in reverse" or "Be realistic, demand the impossible!"

Now, in the era of complete eclecticism and post-post-modernism, the boundaries of the concept of street art are blurred, like the boundaries of other types of art.

Street art is any creative action created in the urban environment, in the space of streets and squares. Street artists can be not only artists who directly transform static space, giving it new meaning and codes.

Street artists are Street musicians, mimes, break dancers, flash mobbers and actionists. That is, all those who go out into the street to create. And it doesn't matter, he's doing it creative person constantly or performs one, but important for himself and, as he believes, for those around him Action.

Street art is an aggressive art that actively draws all participants in city life into dialogue. Even if, for some reason known only to him, a street artist places exclusively “cute cats” in the urban environment, in any case, he imposes them completely shamelessly, regardless of anyone’s opinion.

Anyone can do street art. If only there was unconventional idea, which I would like to tell the world, since street art can be expressed by any means, but must carry a concept. Street art is conceptual art.

Street art artists choose their means of expression based on the concept. And these means of expression can be different: stickers, stickers, posters, spray paint, crayons, stencils, plastic, electrical tape, laser projections and LEDs - everything from which you can quickly create an artistic object and have time to get away with it. The fact is that in many countries around the world, street art is still considered vandalism, and not a transformation of a boring, gray urban environment.

However, when the authorities of some countries realized that street art can bring profit to cities, since it attracts tourists who are willing to pay even for excursions