Launcing my new blog!

I thank all people who have found their way to my blog on this quirky web location. I've done some work and found a new home for my blog, and I hope you will stay in touch by visiting the new place too! I will let the posts on "Distractions" be and the posts will be awailable, but new posts will be posted on Urban ArtWorks from now on.

www.urban-artworks.com

 A companion site is also awailable on facebook and if you like it, please like it :-)

Cheers
Ole

Celebration of life

Late summer, I was visiting  a friend in Oslo. The weather was great, the city was busy and we tried to find somewhere to eat at Karl Johan (Oslo main street). While waiting for food, I looked around and my attention was drawn towards a statue in the park across the street, and people's reactions to it and interaction with it.

The statue depicts the pagan god Pan and Pan was known for his sexual powers. So there he was in the middle Oslo with an erected organ and was getting a lot of attention from people passing by, young and old. A great photo opportunity.

I loved to sit and watch the 'buzz' and the playful interaction the statue created with it's 'audience'. So simple and joyful. A lot of neglected public art would envy this attention. The statue is a creation of Per Ung who died recently (2013). Per Ung was/is probably one of the greatest norwegian artists of our time and I guess that he would love to see his statue becoming 'alive' this way.  A celebration of life.

The World of Mr. A

The iconic Mr A

The man behind Mr. A, Andre Saraiva (born 1971) have been in the graffiti business for about 30 years and have had success as an artist, film director, designer, editor and club owner and probably more. His signature piece in the streets is the cartoonish character Mr. A. Mr. A is a kind of a "tag", fast and easy to spray paint illegaly at night. According to Saraiva, he has painted Mr. A about 200 000 times all around the world.

This autumn Andre Saraiva occupies the front wall and top floor at Mude Museum of fashion and design in Lisbon. His largest show up to date and exhibits different modalities of Andre Saraiva's art and design work. His surf boards, Mr. A in different shapes and forms, his fake event and concert posters, his Mickey with a boner, his Love project and Andrepolis (an urban landscape installation).

Varieties of Mr. A:

Micky welcomes you to Andrepolis:

Andrepolis

Fake posters and the Love project:

Andre Saraiva's art is characterised as pop art and I was mostly impressed by the amount of space he manages to fill. There is coolness to the show, but no message, vision or provocative taste. The Andrepolis doesn't look interesting and exciting (or sexy), and the love project seems to have stranded (at least on internet) and, at last, Micky isn't that provocative anymore. Andre Saraiva is a smart guy, street smart and successfull (baronandre) and that's cool, and he knows how to 'cook soup on a stone'.  At the end, I post a photo of Mr. A from the streets of Lisbon which, after all, still connects him to the street art world.

Humans of Seville

Seville is a beautiful city and the capitol of Andalusia. The say that Seville is the most romantic city in spain, I agree. They also say that the people of Seville is the most stylish.....

Alexandre Farto Aka Vhils "Dissection" Exhibition @ Lisbon's EDP Foundation

I first stumbled upon a Vhils solo exhibition in Paris 2012 (Magda Danysz Gallery) and was strucked by the variety of materials and technics this artist possess in his repertoire. I had previously been impressed by his works in the streets, making beautiful portraits on walls by chipping pieces off the wall, not spraying paint on the wall as usual for vandals. His exhibitions display works in paper, polystyrene, wood (old doors) and metal. Mostly portraits, but lately more and more with words or text. The "Dissection" exhibition at the EDP foundation museum in Belem Lisbon also showed light works and huge installations. The "Dissection" exhibition is just awesome and is open untill 5 of october this year.

Museu da Elecricidade is the EDP foundation's venue for the Vhils exhibition. The venue is located in the Belem area by the Tagus river (Tejo RIver).

The Electricity Museum (in Portuguese Museu da Electricidade) was set up by EDP (Energias de Portugal) in 2004. The EDP museum is a museum of science that presents the evolution of energy and it is a cultural centre where themed and experimental exhibits live side by side with a great variety of cultural events. The Vhils exhibition required huge adaptations of the space in the musuem and is the most extensive display of a Alexandre Farto Aka Vhils works up till now. I see it as a celebration of the portuguese artist and, so to speak, a really powerful liaison. The photos below show some of the works from the exhibition.

 

 

 

 

The biggest polystyrene structure I've ever seen. On have to climb a scaffolding about 5 m and see it from above

 

The exhibition is a visual feast and a mind-blowing experience.

Nuart 2014: Outside

The real thrill for me about Nuart festival is the works that comes up outside, in and around the city. I think the organizers in Stavanger really makes a great effort to keep their tradition of making an outdoor gallery for the visitors and even surprise us with outdoor stunts that have never been done before. This year M-City painted a 150 m long supply ship. When I arrived for the opening, the ship was at sea and I couldn't get my own photos. See here. Hope to get it on another occasion.

Last year M-City painted the control tower at Stavanger Airport Sola, and this year Martin Whatson made his work "Chinook Hearts" at the same airport.  A cool thing about the outdoor gallery in Stavanger, is that you can walk around in the city and see street art works that have been done for Nuart over the years. Awesome and Iconic works by Roa, Pøbel, Phlegm, Swoon, David Choe, DotDotDot, Dolk, Faith 47 and many more. This makes Stavanger the street art city nr. one in Norway.  The photos of the works below are fresh and made for the Nuart Festival 2014. The weather in Stavanger was terrible the opening weekend of the festival and I think my pictures reflect that.

The line-up this year is:

Andreco (IT), Borondo (ES), Dotdotdot (NO), Etam Cru (PL), Fra.Biancoshock (IT), Icy & Sot (IR), John Fekner (US), Levalet (FR), M-City (PL), Martin Whatson (NO), Mathieu Tremblin (FR), SPY (ES), Strøk (NO), Tilt (FR), ± Maismenos ± (PT)

Work by Martin Whatson, bon (muebon) and Alex Face

Work By John Fekner

Work by Tilt

Work by Etam Cru

Work by Icy & Sot

DotDotDot (2013 and signature work by Icy & Sot

Work by Strøk

Work by Martn Whatson

Work by DotDotDot

Work by Levalet

Sunday morning photographing works by Levalet

Work by spY

Work by Strøk

Work by Bon (Muebon) and Alex Face

DotDotDot did this piece for Nuart 2013 and Muebon added the bird in 2014

Work by Maismenos

Work by Borondo

Work by Icy & Sot

Work by Andreco