José Parlá is back in Europe.

Born in Miami into a family of Cuban exiles, José Parlá moved to Puerto Rico at a very early age before returning to Miami again when he was nine. He currently lives and works in New York, and only recently traveled to Cuba for the first time. His life, like his work, is therefore at once extremely particular and generally reflective of the wanderings of today's urban populations.

Galleria Il Trifoglio Nero in Genova will open on March 29th with the show Memory Documents.

"I call my works 'Memory Documents' because they become fragments of places I've been through. I am not only using paint to create my paintings, but I am also collecting bits of paper from walls, old newspapers, chunks of materials from the street or subway stations to reuse as collage onto my own surfaces and rework them until the colours of mould, rust and deterioration are right for the composition. The process may take weeks or months." - José Parlá.

Autumn in New York, 2 x 4 feet, mixed media and collage on wood.

Via di San Lorenzo, 2 x 3 feet, plaster, acrylic, oil and enamel paint on canvas

The New Grand Tour Manifesto, 4 x 6 feet, collage, ink, oil, polyurethane and enamel on wood.

This a nice and simple stencil demo using photoshop, I can't hear the soundtrack so I hope it's not to bad!

The next in the Morning After series is the London version and this will be available to buy on Thursday 22nd November at the ‘White Noise’ show at the Black Rat Press Gallery.

Black Rat press on Nick Walker

Nick Walker is one of Britiain’s graffiti pioneers. Working out of Bristol for over twenty years, Nick’s work, like many of his peers, most notably Banksy, has moved away from conventional grafitti to stencil art.
Nick’s work employs a good deal of wry humour, treating iconic figures with a refreshing irreverence. The Mona Lisa in particular comes in for some stick – from being morphed into Marge Simpson to mooning the viewer.
Although the saucy over the shoulder image is starting to be a regular feature of Nick’s work so it might just be that he’s turning into a dirty old man and it’s nothing to do with the art at all. Except of course art’s littered with dirty old men. So let’s go with that and just say that Nick Walker is the Paul Gauguin of street art and leave it at that shall we…

For more information go to http://www.blackratpress.co.uk/

Shepard has joined many of Alain Ket Mariduena’s friends in supporting his on going battle with the NYC courts by presenting an Art Benefit for Alain Ket’s Legal Defense. Art will be auctioned off on July 26th and an event will be held on August 1st in NYC with proceeds going towards the defense fund.

Alain Ket Maridueña is a publisher, writer, Hip Hop historian, activist and graffiti artist from New York City. He was charged in New York City courts (Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan) on counts of felony criminal mischief, possession of graffiti tools, and X., all relating to a search performed on his home in New York City in late 2006.

Alain Maridueña’s arrest had come in the context of a growing anti-graffiti sentiment in city government due to the growing gentrification of New York City and as part of the Mayor Bloomberg’s quality of life push, one started by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Alain’s arrest appears to be politically motivated attack for his involvement with Marc Ecko and Ecko’s successful lawsuits against the city of New York in order to hold a graffiti event and repealing a spray paint sales ban to 18 year olds. Many consider the charges against Alain excessive.

Alain’s court cases are ongoing and his family and friends will be raising funds to pay his legal defense, setting up public events to educate people about the incarceration of artists, and providing financial, logistical, and legal support to Alain throughout his proceedings.

For more information visit www.supportket.org and www.thewallsbelongtous.com

JONATHAN LeVINE GALLERY presents E PLURIBUS VENOM NEW WORKS BY SHEPARD FAIREY A SOLO EXHIBITION

The title E Pluribus Venom which translates Out of many, poison is derived from ‘E Pluribus Unum’ (out of many, one) an early motto adopted by the U.S. Government which appears on U.S. coins and dollar bills. In the opinion of artist Shepard Fairey, many becoming one, or a loss of power and influence of the individual in favour of homogeny is a symptom of a society in decline. ‘E Pluribus Venom’ could be interpreted as saying both that there is poison in the American system and that many individuals are motivated by venom and anger toward this system.

‘E Pluribus Venom’ is comprised of artworks designed to question the symbols and methods of the American machine and American dream and also celebrate those who oppose blind nationalism and war. Some of Fairey’s works use currency motifs or a Norman Rockwell aesthetic to employ the graphic language of the subjects they critique.

Other works use a blend of Art Nouveau, hippie, and revolutionary propaganda styles to celebrate subjects advocating peace. The art addresses monolithic institutional power and authority and the role of counter culture and independent individuals to question the dominant paradigm. Shepard Fairey’s new body of work contains politically-charged paint, screen print, stencil, and collage mixed media pieces which use metaphor, humour, and seductive decorative elements to deliver provocative but beautiful results. These works blur the perceived barriers between propaganda and escapist decoration, political responsibility and humour with the intent of stimulating both viscerally and intellectually.

Dumbo Installation Space Reception presented by JUXTAPOZ and SWINDLE Thursday, June 21st from 7-11pm
Installation Space is on view until July 6th 81 Front Street (at the corner of Washington St) Dumbo (Brooklyn), NY 11201

For more info please visit http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/shepardfairey/ or www.obeygiant.com

Say hi to this nocturnal Sydney based street artist. He's got a show coming up at Monster Children that you need to see...

Kill Pixie is a prominent street artist from Sydney. Besides trawling the dark streets at night with a can in his hand, this young chap also also works indoors on these great canvas works as seen below and has shown them throughout galleries in his native Australia. He's also got a show coming up at Monster Children on the 19th of July, and a collaboration show with Edward Woodley on the 21st of September at the Don't Come gallery in Melbourne.

Check out full interview over at fecal face

Art Battles is a live-art competition where artists create work side- by-side in front of a live audience. For six years Art Battles have been a platform for talented artists to showcase their skills in and around NYC in a most unique setting and under tremendous pressure to perform. There's no time to sleep on your ideas, no chance to mull the nuance of each brush stroke. No, with Art Battles, time is as much of the essence as is inspiration and talent.

In May 2007, MTV hosted Art Battles live on the picturesque MTV outdoor deck overlooking Times Square. That evening, 12 artists vied for a chance to have their art displayed in Times Square for public judging.

After almost two hours of paint-induced frenzy, eight finalists were chosen:

Concep, Nick Poe, Leif McIlwaine, Martina Kubinyi, Ben Angotti, Brian Ermanski, Kevin Ragnott and Megan Whitman.

Now, the artwork they created during that Art Battles session has been reproduced onto shades that hang in the MTV TRL studio windows high above Broadway, the most famous street in the world. These artists are veterans of the Art Battles that have been staged all over New York.

The only difference is that this time, the ultimate art jury is you.

Check out the eight finalists and see their work. And be sure to watch the video montage of the May 4 event to see what they did to get into the finals. Art Battles are as much about the finished pieces as they are about the personality and performance of the artist in the moment.

After you've gotten to know the artists and their work, cast a vote for your favorite and tune into TRL on June 11 when the ultimate winner is unveiled LIVE! The winner gets the coveted center shade in our studio windows and bragging rights.

You decide who has the illiest painting skills and whom deserves the title of the 1st MTV Art Battle.

HISTORY:
Created by Sean Bono, Art Battles began in 2001 on a small lot on 45 E. Houston Street in downtown New York City. Since then, there has been tremendous organic growth in the movement with artists battling independently all over the world. It is a means of breaking down the boundaries of elitism and making art more social and tangible to everyone.

At its most basic, Art Battles are a competition in which two or more artists compete against one another in front of a live audience. Painting or drawing on canvas, they strive to create their best piece of artwork in the moment. The artists are limited only by the amount of time each has to complete their painting.

The true essence of Art Battles is the unearthing of the struggle an artist experiences when confronted with an unfamiliar atmosphere and an audience. It is here that the balance of raw talent, creativity and ingenuity can trump an opponent. To the viewer, this is the beauty of watching an Art Battle unfold, often unpredictably.

The connection the viewer feels after being part of the creation process is what compels them to choose their favorite at the end of every competition, with the winners judged as much on the quality of their art piece as they are for their performance in the heat of battle and their personality.

For more information on Art Battles check out www.artbattles.com.

THE FOUNDER
Sean Bono moved to New York City in 2000 from neighboring New Jersey in pursuit of a future in art. He made his first big splash in the NYC art scene at 19 years old, as the creator of Art Battles, a live competitive art show he staged in a junkyard gallery/ performance space in downtown Manhattan. Sean's skills have since become polished, yet still maintains an explosive painting style. At 25 years old Bono is an artist with a very exciting career to come.

April will see the re-launch of the Commodore brand, with a new line in top end gaming computers for home users. Not only will you get a high spec gaming machine but you will also get the chance to customise the look of your PC to suit your home environment.

Gone are the grey and black cases that you get with your standard PC, now you can chose from nearly 100 individual pieces of art. Selecting from image categories such as Gaming, Landscapes, Street Art and Art Photography your pc will take on a whole new look.

It is hoped that in the future users will be able to submit their own artwork, enabling you to give your PC paint job of your dreams!!

Oh yeah and just in case you're getting excited, there are no prices yet but your new sexy Commodore PC is expected to set you back between £1000 and £5000...

To see more of the artwork available visit the commodore site

For more information please visit www.obeyvswk-agnesb.com

New prints anounced on kinseyvisual.com. Featured paintings below are 'The Last Chapter', 'Falling Flower' and 'Untitled Tree 3'

Some more info about Dave Kinsey

Not one for the nine to five grind, Kinsey started the creative design studio BLK/MRKT after moving to the west coast following his education at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and the Art Institute of Atlanta. Its success has allowed him to pursue his path as an accomplished designer and fine artist.

His work captures the universal essence of the human condition through an energetic portrayal of urban characters. Working spontaneously, and utilizing a range of mediums including wood, canvas, chipboard, acrylic paints, found materials and pen
and ink, he constructs multi-layered, textured environments easily likened to the complexities of contemporary urban life. His portraits depict beings who are both triumphant in their defiant stance to their surroundings, and tragic, as they transmit a visual display of raw emotion and jangled nerves.

The style and substance of his body of work originates in street art, such as his “unlearn” message, and in keeping with his goal “to expose as many people to art as possible and to honor the power art has when it’s created and accepted”, Kinsey founded the BLK/MRKT Gallery, allowing him to provide a crossroads for a new movement of young and electrifying iconoclasts.

In addition to these pursuits his fine art has been shown in galleries and museums worldwide, among these a recent exhibition at the URBIS Museum in Manchester. He has also been featured in such publications as The New York Times, LoDown and Black Book, and invited to speak at numerous institutions such as The Art Center College of Design, UCLA, Montserrat College of Art and The University of Florida.

For more info visit www.kinseyvisual.com or www.blkmrkt.com

Design is Kinky was created by Andrew Johnstone in mid 1998 in a small flat in Sydney, Australia. His main reason for starting Design is Kinky was simply to get involved in the design community that he saw beginning to grow online. Influenced by sites such as Digitalthread, Zeldman.com, Shift and the K10k crew, as a designer Andrew was excited at the potential that the community showed and decided to jump on board and become a part of it.

So over a few sleepless nights Design is Kinky was born. At the time no one was really interviewing designers, Andrew found the few interviews he had read really interesting, so he felt that this would be a good theme to base the site on. The first Profile was on Niko Stumpo, an Italian designer who Andrew greatly admired (and still does). Niko's Profile set the scene for the following profiles of which there are now over forty.

www.designiskinky.com

For the past quarter-century, Ron English has been waging a quixotic guerilla war against corporate America by hijacking some of its most visually arresting billboards. Openly declaring that ordinary people deserve free speech, but that corporations do not, his guerilla tactics come in two basic varieties. Sometimes he explicitly repaints (that is, mutilates) advertisements hawking cigarettes, liquor, and fast food, thereby making them seem vulgar or stupid; more often he and his crew swoop down, climb up on to the foot of a billboard, substitute a sign of their own - usually a mordant parody of the original ad - and then high-tail it before the police arrive on the scene. Sometimes he gets arrested; usually he does not.

MC Supersized and Son
   
Spruce up your walls with this supersized offering of Ron English's MC Supersized and son. English's clown prince of a fast food nation gets the royal treatment with this 24' x 36' high-quality art print. Available at KidRobot.com

Ron is widely recognized in the art world as one of the earliest and most celebrated in a line of "culture jammers" — people who utilize the images of popular corporate advertisements and turn them on their head.

Click here for more information on Ron English.

"Two things seem to be clear:

First. That change is inevitable.
And second. That change polarizes people.

They say that things take five years to fully come into their own. And with the street art movement, we see that exactly to be the case. In truth, it wasn't until last week's trip to London that we fully understood how significant the changes have been in the street art scene. It wasn't until last week that it fully hit us how much the movement has finally come into its own on so many different levels.

And one thing is clear - this has polarized a lot of people.

Coming back from London, we started explaining it to our friends as:

"The Banksy Effect"

While we've always been unabashed (and unapologetic) fans of Banksy, we now see Banksy as the single greatest thing that has happened not only to the street/urban art movement, but to contemporary art in general"

Read the full article over at  www.woostercollective.com

The Obey campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology.

The first aim of Phenomenology is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one's environment.

The Obey campaign attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the campaign and their relationship with their surroundings.

Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail. The medium is the message.

www.obeygiant.com

Submissions for Grafuck: Book 3 are open. They are seeking the most inspiring, striking, smart, creative, brilliant erotic work from all fields. Grafuck: Book 3 will be published in full color, with images only.

You can email low resolution RGB spread images (5.25”H x 14.25”W @ 72 dpi) to love@grafuck.com by April 22nd for initial consideration. A maximum of 3 spreads are allowed. Selected contributors will be notified and asked to provide high resolution 300 dpi files.

http://www.grafuck.com/

All the featured artists on http://maarav.org.il/draftedart/ are Israeli citizens or individuals that live, work and create art in Israel but oppose the actions of the Israeli government and military. They feel it is important that this statement comes out of Israel and is created by Israelis, therefore they are not accepting art from fellow artists abroad. They would, however, welcome any future collaboration focused on joint struggle, especially with artist in our neighboring countries.

http://maarav.org.il/draftedart/ more pics on Flickr

A mural by Bristol graffiti artist Banksy is being put up for sale along with the five-bedroom house on which it is painted. In the past, there has been difficulty selling the building, in inner-city Easton, because potential buyers wanted to remove the painting.

To get round this problem, the current owners are selling the artwork via an art gallery, and throwing in the house for free.

"The owners are not prepared to obliterate it. They want this important work of art to be preserved. They have fought off several attempts to have the graffiti removed," said Sarah Anslaw, of the Red Propeller Gallery, which is selling the mural through sealed bids.

The artwork is expected to sell for in excess of £200,000, the house's market price.

Graphic Agitation 2 explores graphic protest in the digital age, in particular over the years since the Gulf War. The book deals with a range of protest imagery from hi-tech and low-tech to no-tech and is comprehensively illustrated with image