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

NUART 2014: Inside

As usual the Nuart venue for the exhibition is Tou Scene right outside the city centre. Tou used to be a brewery and the old beer caves is the main stage for the street art exhibition inside. The beer caves is not a place for fine art on canvas, but perfect for experimenting with installations, video, light and works directly on thick concrete walls. During the Nuart Festival, the most of the artists do works inside and outside. I think that the inside works shows a different side of the artists creativity, than we usually see in the streets. There are more variety in use of materials and means to express their ideas and artistic visions. By avoiding canvas and presented in a rough environment, the art still smells like street art in form and spirit. The exhibition is open untill 12 of October.

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 Borondo

Work by Fra.Biancoshock

Work by Martin Whatson

Work by Strøk

Work by DotDotDot

Work by Levalet

Work by Tilt

Works by Levalet

Work by Maismenos

Work by John Fekner

Work by Levalet

Work by Maismenos

Work by Andreco

Work by Icy & Sot

Work by M-City (seen from two different angles)

Work by Fra.Biancoshock