Do you know Mizzo, a female street artist from switzerland? Now you know!

Mizzo, whose real name is Myriam Gaemperli, is a Switzerland based artist who grew up in Jonschwill, SG. After her studies in different art disciplines (art school, graphic design, for example) in Switzerland and London, she became what she always wanted to be, a skateboard artist. She’s comfortable drawing with all sorts of materials, from a pencil to a paintbrush.
She has different projects, both indoor and outdoor, such as her work with brands like Diesel, Bionyc and Doodah and her illustration of the Call-To-Action wall in Zurich.
Check her website. It provides an overview of her artwork.

Text by Yafa for the Fatcap team

Es ORO Polymedia Projects will present a showing of works by contemporary painter and legendary graffiti writer Rich “Bama” Admiral on Friday, May 16th, 2008.

The show will include never before seen paintings by the self –proclaimed “Nightcrawler”. Bama pioneered as a graffiti writer in the Bronx, he began selling his work in New York galleries in 1973.

The exhibit will run for one month, with an artist talk reception on May 25 th, 2008. This is the third installment of a series of shows by es ORO. The space has already been dubbed the hottest young gallery in the area. es ORO will have works by Bama and other artists available on the website during and after the show dates.

Opening Reception: Friday, May 16th 7:00PM to 10:00PM EST

Afternoon Reception w/Artist Talk Sunday, May 25th 3:00PM to 5:00 PM EST

Closing Reception Saturday, June 14th 7:00PM to 10:00PM EST

Artist Statement by Rich “BAMA” Admiral
From my beginnings as a graffiti artist in the early 70’s, I’ve been on a quest to find my true inner voice; to try and get beyond the label of just being a “street artist”. Yes I am the second person to sell a painting as a graffiti artist, (Razor Gallery - 1973). This boxed me into the graffiti art movement, but I was always searching for a more unique take on aerosol art. I never turned my back on my graffiti past, but I always wanted to do more than paint my name or please the gallery heads. To express myself from my heart and mind (I am so I paint). It is what I live for. I love to paint, I need to paint and I love to be different. With luck people will like the Bama I’ve become.

Gallery Statement by Eto Oro, Director es ORO Polymedia
Rich “BAMA” Admiral is a Bronx based contemporary expressionist painter and graffiti pioneer. He began “writing” in the New York subway system in the early 1970’s. He then moved on to showing his work in the gallery system. Since then his work has been exhibited around the United States, Switzerland and Holland. In his self-titled solo installation Bama presents a small series of tonal paintings that resemble softened abstractions of Swiss surrealist H. R. Giger’s work. Bama’s show will also include a video installation and live DJ set by the artist.

www.esorogallery.com

Mr Chat is one of these street artists that became famous thanks to one character. In this case it’s a yellow cat smiling and runing on the cities walls. This cat is world famous! It’s a star!

After having troubles with justice (there was a public display in his town against his trial) Mr Chat is now doing shows and exhibitions. The big Cat in the second picture was created in front of the Pompidou Center in Paris during his exhibition in this famous contemporary art center. Mr Chat is always doing street art all over the world.

Official Mr chat site

A French site helps you to find Mr chat’s creations

Today you’ll meet a young Female graffiti artist : Toofly From NYC. Enjoy her artwork!

Toofly is a major actor in the graffiti and Hip Hop community in New York City. This young woman, from Queens, started to draw and paint in the streets in the beginning of the 90’s, when she was about 15 years old. At the time, this movement was still rebellious and marginalized and not many women were involved in it.
Her artwork is influenced by the calligraphy and illustrations of some artists she admires (Clark, Ench, Bis, Skuf and many others), but she also developed her own style and characters and is now acknowledged as an equal by these same artists.
In the Spring 2007, Toofly launched a fashion and accessories collection, under the signature of TOOFLY NYC, that can be found in a variety of stores all over the US and in countries such as UK and Japan, in limited quantities, though.
She also organizes, through Younity, a female urban arts collective that she created with her partner Alice Mizrachi, many exhibitions, art programs, book publishing, for young women artists, to promote street arts among the public. She also tries to encourage women’s participation to these events and helps them position themselves in the mainly masculine world of Graffiti.
Her art and designs can be admired in numerous books, videos, magazines like Graffiti Women, MTV Tr3, Trace, Juxtapoz, and on her website. She is currently working on many projects, including a billboard for an American brand in association with other artists and canvases for the Sweet City Woman exhibition at Fuse Gallery in May.

Text by Yafa for the Fatcap Team

Toofly official site

Photo by Genxcel

Ador is a graffiti artist specialised in Graffiti characters. Here’s a text that he wrote for Fatcap to explain his vision of art! After the text you will see his artwork, particularly the first picture : It’s a wall in his town, and every week he changed the item in the hand of his character… great concept! Enjoy the talent, Ador from Nantes.

“Drawing has constantly been of great significance to me. Pleasure has always been the most important thing, and all the interest of painting on walls lays in exchanging and sharing, all in a good mood, to make big common drawings. Big drawings made alone are also very pleasant. It’s not about hip hop so much, it aims not to take anything seriously, and it remains somehow subjective, but it takes a lot of hard work. Spray paint is usually exclusively intended for walls, and in parallel, people tend to improce it more and more on canvas. The link between those two kinds of production does not really exist yet, but might, later on. The important thing is to make a picture (an expressive image) that can tell about our surroundings, our environment, the places we live in, or about what we know, without being too chatty , while remaining open to various interpretations.”

More graffiti by Ador

Hey party people! Here’s an amazing artist: Dan23. He wrote for the fatcap worldwide graffiti blog a little text to explain his art. Here we go!

My approach follows basically 2 paths. The first is to bring to light people who are fighting for a fairer world, more equitable, and more beautiful. There are important political figures such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Malcolm X …, many artists related to music (James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron…) because it is a medium that allows you to quickly understand the emotion and artists whose approach I find generous (C215, Titi Freak…), and many other people that I meet.

It seems important to me to point out that, in a difficult and often unfair world, many generous people still remain. I therefore try, to my degree, to be a link, to give emphasis to their struggles and the beauty of their efforts.

My second priority is to try to work on a maximum of different mediums, so my work can benefit a maximum of people. Being self-taught, I began to draw illustrations for magazines, associations, music labels and 2 years ago, I opened my gallery in Strasbourg, which gave me the opportunity to organize exhibitions and meet with artists. From this moment, a sequence was launched: I started to produce a lot, perform exhibitions, and my bulimia pushed me to execute live performances during concerts. I have realized, step by step, that art makes you see the world from a different angle than the one offered by the media, and this thinking pushed me recently to put my creations in the streets and I expect to place as much as possible out there because I believe that art can change our relationship to others, it can gather men to learn how to live better together.

Translation By Yafa

Yo people, here’s an interview of an Iranian graffiti artist named A1one for the Fatcap Worlwide blog.

Graffiti from Tehran! Enjoy the talent!

Who is A1one?
I ‘m born and living in Tehran / iran / middle east. I started my work from 2003 with stencil and then painting some simple eyes around the neighbourhood just to express my self, move general public mind and fulfil my energy to do crime. When I searched in internet about wall paintings, murals, sprays, I discovered graffiti and street art. I loved the concrete energy of this culture which help me continuously to find what I am. So I dedicated my energy in art-crime. I paint outdoor about twice a week but I do indoors to practice in my studio every day. Nowadays I got to main goals: the first one is to achieve my own style in stencilling and prints, and the second is establishing Arabic letter Graffiti styling. This last one is also one of my personal honors to make many versions of general graffiti and tagging fonts for Arabic letters.

How is the graffiti scene in your country?
In Tehran Graffiti is both emerging and also not born yet. Tehran is really a big and developed town in our country but the number of writers is so low. For a city of 16 million of citizens we have about 30 writers. To be true, none of these writers are yet professional because all of them are between 16 to 22 years old and they are working their style from 3 years to 2 years ago. Most of them aren’t really doing daily or weekly art on streets. They do one work in a month or season. So we can say that graffiti is emerging in our country and particularly in Tehran. I worked from 2003 and focused on graffiti from that time and I’m glad to be respected by 90% of these mates. I meet graffiti artists in my exhibitions and we share tips and tricks. In the first years, I had some problems with 2 new comers who started to disrespect me by tagging on my works buffing it, changing my tags. But now it’s ok, they show respect.

How is the graffiti repression in Iran. Is it hard ?
No laws yet. May be dangerous if they feel this may be political. It can be so easy to say “sorry I didn’t know it was a crime !”. Of course if you want to go really big and be known by every one it can be more dangerous.

Can you explain your name?
I was alone in whole city when started, felt alone. I invited others while I was the the first: A the only 1 huh? In arabic and english language mix you can read it like : Al-one. Read it alvan : “alvan” means Colorful in arabic language.

Iranian graffiti links:

Graffiti from Iran
A1one graffiti artist
A1one personal blog

The famous New York street art and graffiti artist Steve Powers aka Espo is in Dublin. He’s providing the town with some great street art: enjoy!

More info on Supertouch

Today is a special day : The Jace Day!

Jace is a famous street artist. You can find is work all over the world. He’s the creator the Gouzou characters. For the Fatcap Graffiti Blog readers, here’s a biography of him and some pictures of his faboulous artwork.

JACE lives on Reunion Island, a small French island located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. He moved there in 1982 aged just 9 years old. Jace was initially inspired by the New York style graffiti from the Martha Cooper’s book “Subway Art”, and he began his street stuff in 1989. Developing his own style over the next few years, Jace created his famous character “Gouzou” in 1992. Although Jace continues to paint traditional murals, his real talent lies in interacting with his environment in a very humorous way using his small character. Indeed, Gouzou can be found on bill boards where Jace has taken advantage of the picture and used him to ridicule the original advert.

There are currently 4 books detailing Jace’s paintings and street installations, the first of which was printed in 1999. Since then Gouzou has become a real icon of Reunion Island where he is recognised by everyone. Jace also has hundreds of fans who often go “hunting” with their camera to catch each and every one of Jace’s practical jokes. However Jace’s talents are not limited to just Reunion Island as Gouzous can also be found in London, Rome, Prague, Paris, Le Havre (France), Mayotte Island, Bali (Indonesia), Madagascar Island, Mauritius Island, New York, Budapest, Tokyo, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Barcelona, Macao, and many more places.

However, Gouzou can sometimes be rather mischievous and disobedient and his father Jace needs to be very strict, and at times he will enclose Gozou in a gallery for several weeks. But Gouzou will quickly finds his way back to freedom. But perhaps the irrepressible nature of Gouzou really just symbolises Jace’s own sense of adventure; “nothing can stop me; neither the fines, nor the jail, nor the mountain or the seas, nor the future of street art when the fashion ends…” So the spirit of Gouzou lives on.

Jace Official site

Street art and graffiti by Jace

An other biography from the legendary site : At 149 Street

Martha Cooper is a photojournalist specializing in art and anthropology. She is among the handful of photographers who methodically documented subway graffiti during the 1970s and 1980s. Her body of work is the most extensive and significant of its kind.
Cooper’s hands-on approach to documenting the culture set her appart from other photographers. The majority of photographers focused specifically on documenting the paintings, isolating them from their environment. Cooper’s approach was to photograph the paintings within their full context. She spent several years photographing elevated subway lines from empty lots the rooftops of buildings in a crime ridden South Bronx. She captured New York City’s state of urban decay; providing a fuller visual understanding of the artwork and the times.

Cooper gained the confidence of some of the most respected artists in the community, such as DONDI, DURO, LADY PINK and others. This confidence afforded her opportunities to document the execution of many subway paintings. Assuming great risk Cooper accompanied writers to train yards and lay-ups capturing many significant moments in aerosol art history.

The landmark book Subway Art published in 1984 which Cooper co-authored with Henry Chalfant is frequently credited as the catalyst and foundation for aerosol art movements worldwide. In 1994 she co-authored R.I.P.: Memorial Wall Art with Joseph Sciorra. Her photos, covering a wide variety of topics in addition to graffiti have appeared in countless publications throughout the world including National Geographic. Recently she has contributed to Seattle Experience Music Project’ s History of Hip Hop. Her work has been displayed at the Museum of the City of New York and The Whitney.

here’s an Interview with Martha Cooper Conducted by @149st February 21, 2001.

Today you’ll meet Phlegm, a graffiti and street artist from UK. He wrote a text about him for The Fatcap Blog. We discovered his artwork with one of his graffiti paint …on on a plane! Here’s Phlegm!

I’m twenty eight and I’m based in Sheffield uk. I’m primarily a cartoonist and illustrator who has an addiction to self publishing and underground art. All of my comic work is with black Indian ink and a dip pen. I only use colour when I’m screen printing or painting walls (or planes.)

I have a strange relation to graffiti, having a style that’s grown entirely from my self published comics rather than letter styles. My comic comes out every four months or so and i work endlessly on them, and have done for the past four years. I started out as a cartoonist but the graffiti side of things has really taken over the past three years. I think it’s because my style has been so effected by what i draw for the comic it’s stopped almost all outside influences. I love to get run down urban spaces and factories and play with the space. It’s such an immediate way to get your picture on the wall. A painting in the street becomes part of the cities architecture, influenced by what’s around it rather than being some awkward canvass in an art gallery.
x phlegm x

Phlegm official art site

Hey people, here’s an autobiography by Peeta for the Fatcap Worldwide graffiti Blog : Peeta is one of the master of 3D style, a pure graffiti artist from Italy. Let’s go…

I use to write Peeta since 1993. I’ve started to paint in a little town between Venice and Padova (Italy) by my self, without any reference. As i grew up, I’ve started to move in Padova and Venice, I met many other graffiti writers, they gave me insight, and my style during the years evolves quikly from a kind of organic style to 3D style. Since 2000 i am a member of the EAD crew from Padova, this crew was born in 1991, it’s a crew with breakers, writers and music. Since 1999, I’ve started to travel around Europe, and I’ve been invited in many shows exibitions and mostly to graffiti jams and meetings, like the Meeting of Styles and many others. Since 2003 I am a member of the FX crew from New York City, this is a really oldschool crew since the 80’s.

During the last years I’ve been travelling to all aorund Europe, US, Mexico, Colombia, and from 2006 i am a member of the RWK crew from New York. In the last eight years I’ve been painting on canvas selling them in my websites to people from all over the world, in the same time I developed some sculptures. Sculpting and painting, but also the photography are, in my opinion, disciplines who helps each other. Everytime I make a sculpture i recieve a lot of knowledge about 3D space and shapes, that’s help me to paint in a better way. And while I’m painting I develop new ideas for new sculptures. It’s a kind of circle.

Recently I’m doing industrial design too, wich is stimulating me new fresh ideas. I’m also doing new sculptures made by several materials and industrial technologies. It’s my way to combine Graffiti and design, to keep evolving Graffiti.

Peeta site

Here’s a graffiti artist from San Francisco, EON75. enjoy the talent !

Eon75, born Max Ehrman in Naples Florida, was first slapped in the face by this obsessive art form called graffiti in 96 when he was going to school in Gainesville Florida. There is a mile long wall of fame there called the 34th street wall and one weekend Daim and Kane7 (seemso) passed through and did a memorial wall. Having never seen this level of skill before it blew him away would could be accomplished with spray paint, he immediately went to the wall the next day and painted his first piece under the name “Quad”. That is when the addiction started.

After finishing school Eon75 went to Berlin Germany for three years to pursue and finish his masters in Architecture. Berlin was a huge influence on his graffiti career, there he traveled all throughout Europe and painted in many cities and walls throughout western Europe. Here he was exposed to styles and techniques he had never seen before. This really opened him up to the possibilities of the medium. Eon75 now travels back to Europe every summer with the Meeting of Styles and paints in Germany,Belgium and Holland with friends for a couple of weeks.

Now living in San Francisco Eon is a freelance designer and artist. He has his hand into a little bit of everything including, product,toy,clothing design and of course art. His current focus is canvas and gallery shows but of course anybody that wants to get down on a wall he is for it anytime. Currently he is showing in several galleries throughout San Francisco and Socal as well. He is also apart of The Energy Show which is an international Graffiti art show that travels around the world.

You can find more of his work at the below websites.

Eon75

Max Ehrman

BLVD Gallery is proud to present new works from NYC Graffiti Legend GHOST AKA Cousin Frank, a pioneering influence for many graffiti artists around the world. Having started writing in the golden age of the 1970’s, Ghost has first hand knowledge of the many adventures and accomplishments of the NYC subway graffiti movement. The original style, vibrant color combinations, and strong sense of satire of his graffiti has managed to ease the transition naturally to his more gallery oriented pursuits.

Ghost has spent many years dedicated to the formation (or deformation) of the standard English alphabet creating limitless possibilities for him to subvert the language in his unique style. He has managed to create work that bears the unmistakable mark of an accomplished draughtsman without it being either overbearing or overwrought. The humor that permeates Ghosts’ work comes from the underground comics tradition from his youth, more Zapp! Comix than Marvel. Ghosts’ improvisational approach to graffiti, he never planned ahead what his work would be like, gives his current series of paintings a lightness and spontaneity that has the feeling of an inside joke between old friends.

Ghost has shown his work in galleries across the globe and has become a major part of the visual aesthetic of companies like respected streetwear brand Stussy. There is also a documentary in production chronicling the many contributions Ghost has made to the global graffiti movement. This show will be the second time that BLVD Gallery has been privileged to work with Ghost whose amazing mural in the “Claimin’ Space” exhibition was a highlight for many at the 2007 Bumbershoot arts festival.

An other legendary graffiti artist from the purest NYC graffiti site : At 149 ST

PHASE2 - Pioneer of Graffiti history

Often referred to as a father of style PHASE2 is considered by many to be one of the most significant painters of the aerosol art movement. In the early 1970s PHASE2 was a key figure, helping to pioneer the creation and reinterpretation of new letter forms. Many present day aerosol paintings across the globe are clearly derivative of integrations and embellishments created by PHASE.

He was president of the prestigious INDs crew as well as the Bronx chapter of the Ex-Vandals. He was a major force in creating a visual look for Hip Hop. He was one of Hip Hop’s first major underground graphic designers. He designed promotional flyers and posters for early hip hop’s top acts such as Kool Herc and Grand Master Flash.

He is the founder IGT TIMES, the first magazine dedicated to Aerosol art. He is also the author of Style from the Underground a perspective on the evolution aerosol art’s development.

Phase2 biography

Cope2, a graffiti living legend.

Fernando Carlo aka Cope2 is a well renowned New York graffiti artist hailing from Queensbridge. Known worldwide for his Wildstyle pieces and bubble lettering, he fell in love with the art form in the early ‘80s.

It was the beginnings of an illustrious career that has seen Cope2 form a crew called “Kids Destroy”, which was later changed to “Kings Destroy” as he was the self proclaimed King of the notorious New York 4 Line.

Here’s an interview of this Legendary graffiti artist Cope 2.

What are some of the best memories you have of writing?

Cope2: The New York Subways! The early ‘80s, just watching your pieces go by, those are my best memories. It doesn’t get better than that, you know. The ‘Glory Days’ is what I call it.

Does the way you started out, doing graffiti on trains, compared to what you do now?

Cope2: Not at all, it’s history; it’s something that you’ll never live again. There’s no way you could do that now. You can paint trains now, but it’s not going to run through the city, it’s something that’ll never be captured again, especially in New York. Maybe in other countries – like I was in Rome and I saw the subway system bombed over there. That shit was crazy, I was trippin’ off that shit, I was like “I gotta come back here and get busy!”

What do you think of newer styles of writing?

Cope2: It’s cool man, it’s amazing! I see all these new styles of writing all around the world - it’s too much - I can’t understand it sometimes (laughs)! It’s crazy how graffiti has evolved. I’m like the second generation of New York writers, before me you’ve got the first generation, old school writers like RIFF170, TRACY168, PHASE2. To see it evolve from that: STAYHIGH149 to motherfuckers like, DAIM, CAN2 and SWET in Europe and MODE2, all these dope writers from Europe, it’s amazing man, it’s just fucking crazy! I don’t understand it sometimes. It’s really an amazing art form, graffiti!

What about characters?

Cope2: Well, I’m not in to characters much. I mean I used to do them back in the early ‘80s on the subways, and characters are important especially if you’re doing a wall, but not even. You can do a burner, and it can all just be about letters and style, but if a dude is down for doing characters, it’ll hook up the wall, flava up the wall, or the train. Characters are important sometimes, especially if you do some dope b-boy characters, like my man, SERVE; and this kid AROE from England does some nice characters; CAN2 has his own style of dope characters. Characters are important especially if you want to add flava to a burner.

What are the differences between bombing and legal walls? Do you think there is a fundamental difference? Are legal walls ‘getting up’?

Cope2: The difference is that bombing is illegal; it’s the ‘real’ way of doing things. Graffiti was always illegal and I still bomb illegally. I can’t as much as I used to, I’m older now; you get into beef with the law, and I can’t really afford that, but I guess people have just got to do what’s best for them. I do everything; I paint canvases, and I still paint subway trains, I’m versatile. I do walls, I do legal walls, I go bombing, illegal and trackspots, I don’t care, I do it all. Legal walls are if you just want to paint somewhere without hassle, you can ask the owner, and you know, just get busy!

What do you think of graffiti being co-opted by the corporate world?

Cope2: I think it’s cool man. In reality, you know, the world turns and if an artist is going to get paid a lot to do some artwork for a company, you’re going to take it. I don’t care who you are. If you’re not going to take it you’re an idiot! Times are hard and at the end of the day you got to pay bills, and you got to put food on the table. You got to make your money, man. When you’re young it’s cool to be wiling out, bombing everything, but when you’re my age and nearly 40 years old already, you can’t be doing that too much. I live off graffiti, it might not be good for other people; there are other graffiti artists in New York that have good jobs, their own companies; I live off this, this is my living. So if a corporate company wants to hit me off for my artwork it’s all good, and now especially I have a manager, it’s only right. I’m going to make my money.

Do you think it lessens the power of graffiti?

Cope2: No, not really because, where I was a hardcore, legendary bomber of New York, now I’m more into making money. However, there are kids younger than me who I speak to, who are doing what I was doing, so everyday there is a newborn, hardcore graffiti bomber. A lot of these hardcore writers, they’re always like, “damn, I hope some day I can come out with a sneaker, or do some canvases and sell some paintings”. The way I see it, you’ve got to make money, man. That’s what it boils down to. Who cares if they say, “you’re selling out”. You’ve got to make your money, man, live your life, and do what’s best for you.

Is graffiti art?

Cope2: To me it’s the best style of art because it goes in so many directions. Graffiti goes from hardcore, illegal to legal, to corporate, to subways. Of course it’s art. You can call it what you want, ‘vandalism’, etc… it comes in all shapes and forms. That’s how it is.

What do you think about graffiti in the fine art world, for example galleries, museums, etc?

Cope2: I think it’s cool, you know, like I said, I’m into canvases, SEEN is into canvases, a lot of writers: DAZE, you’ve got BANKSY - he’s not a graffiti artist, he’s more of a street artist, but you know he’s making his money – and OBEY, but again these guys are more ‘street art guys’. You’ve got graffiti artists like, SHARP, T-KID and SEEN doing canvases, and making a living off of it. I think it’s cool. They should open a museum for graffiti artists. Why not? Have some of the old dinosaur graffiti artists from back in the days. I think that would be dope to have. Because graffiti comes in all shapes and forms, combining all different concepts, at the same time you have an artist doing a show at a gallery, you have a kid down the block bombing buildings, bombing trains. That’s why to me it’s the best art form. Not only because I do it, but because it’s not just one art that only stays on canvas, or only stays on trains. It’s versatile, it’s everywhere, look at it, you’ve got it on Adidas, and probably down the block you have it on the side of a building. That shows you how powerful and amazing graffiti art is.

What do you see as the distinction between the artist, Banksy, and yourself?

Cope2: I don’t know, man, I’m more of the ‘real deal’… I represent graffiti art - trains and bombing. Banksy’s not really a graffiti artist. To me he’s just a street artist. Everyone is different though, which is cool, because it balances things out. He has his audience of fans, and I have my audience of fans; some people like his stuff, and some people like mine, and maybe some people like both of our styles. Maybe we do a show together, it would be amazing! Graffiti art, original graffiti art, by one of the best at graffiti art, and one of the best at stencil art, or street art, whatever the fuck you want to call it!

What do you think about using stencils in graffiti?

Cope2: To me using a stencil, it’s not that real, but I’m not going to knock it. I mean I could go around putting up COPE stencils, and adding a little mouse to it or something. What’s amazing is the amount of money Banksy makes off of it. You’ve got to give it to him, he’s making his, and I’ve got to make mine, but I still keep it pure and real. If you see my sneakers you see the real graffiti, GRAFFITI KINGZ, you see the COPE throw-ups. KILLER DOGZ. KINGZ DESTROY.

What do you think about the Internet in relation to graffiti? What about magazines, zines, etc.? Is the internet part of getting up?

Cope2: I remember 10-15 years ago there used to be graffiti magazines everywhere, now there’s only a handful from certain countries because of the Internet. You take a flik of a piece today, and put it on the internet, already the whole world knows, the whole world has seen it. Today a lot of writers use the Internet for the purpose of getting up. I think that’s kind of a short cut to fame. Some kids don’t pay their dues, they’ll do a burner or a throw-up and put it on the Internet, everyone sees it - they heard of the kid already, but if you look into the background of the writer, he didn’t do anything, he didn’t pay his dues, he hasn’t been around. So it’s kind of like a quick, short cut to fame, but you know that’s what it is and you’ve just got to go with the flow.

If you could go back in time knowing what you know now, and use all the time, effort and dedication that made you so famous in graffiti for a different purpose, would you and if so for what?

Cope2: I always wanted to be a boxer because as a kid, growing up in the South Bronx, in the projects, I was always getting into fights. I took up boxing for a while, but then I had a kid at a young age so I had to start working, and not only that, but getting high and drinking beer, hanging out with the wrong crowd, I stopped going to the gym, but, I love boxing. I actually got Mike Tyson tattooed on my arm - he’s one of my idols. I’ve been watching Tyson since, like, ’85. You know, just watching him fight, he was explosive. I love boxing as a sport - it’s my favourite. If I hadn’t been a graffiti artist, I would have loved being a boxer, a world champion though. You know, pure blood line, you don’t get no purer than me. I’m not trying to be egotistic or anything, but you know, I’m the purest. I come from the Bronx, and that’s what it is. I ain’t none of these fake phoney Joes or nothing, I’m the real deal!

from : British Hip Hop official site by Demian Smith (www.Paintandbeatz.com / www.frissongallery.co.uk)

Cope 2 official graffiti site

Myspace graffiti Cope2

Daim is the Master of 3D graffiti.

Here’s a text that he wrote. He explains his relation to graffiti. You can find the complete text version in Daim Official Site as well as his biography.

DAIM - creativ from time to time

I‘m someone who can really concentrate on something, who can work on something and drown himself in it. And I don´t mean for a few hours or a few days. Once I began writing, I couldn´t let go of it anymore. There were times when I didn‘t do anything else but writing every day. When I lived in Switzerland I sat on my couch for six months and did nothing else but drawing. Once a week I went shopping and that was it. Graffiti gives incredibly much to me, otherwise phases like these would not be possible.
By concentrating on certain ideas, technique or style, by working on a certain thing over a long period of time, by engaging in this process, in the end, you´ll find out a lot about yourself and your personality. In the end this reflects in the styles that you will develop.

But you´ll reach boundaries automatically. Limits set by the graff scene you´ll learn to accept, sometimes you try to cross or even push them. But also in the field of graffiti which surely made me try other techniques or exhaust this field. In the end you´ll reach your own limitations which you choose to accept or fight. Graffiti gives a self-determined life to me, which let´s me decide what I will do when, or even if I will do it or not. Thank god I‘m a restless man, driven by an inner urge to do something. In other cases the self-determination includes the danger not to do anything at all. Except from being on travels, there are no days when I´m not in my studio. That‘s something else graffiti gives to me. To have the possibility to write in different places, to meet new people and their cultures and to see foreign countries. And with that, to collect new impressions, evolve new ideas and implement those. To paint huge walls with others and always create new pieces.

Graffiti in this place includes the momentary ness itself. Pieces, which are done that way, will only last for a certain period of time. Surely you have your archivated photographs, but that‘s not the same. Graffiti teaches you to accept the momentary ness. Of course, to fight that fact, I paint canvases and big commissions which leave my traces for a long time. To me graffiti is something that I still want to do in twenty years. But I will not put up any boundaries to me with a term that someone will call “classical graffiti”, something that does not exist to me. Writing your name and present it to someone, can also be done on the computer in the internet or on canvases in exhibitions.

Because of that you can‘t be too old for graffiti, in my eyes. You can take the positive aspects for yourself in any age. The challenge, which means graffiti to me, can not end. You are always in search of perfection: your own technique, writing with the can, evolving your own style, realisation of commissionary work, while working on canvases or sculptures and in organizing exhibitions, the work with the computer, animating styles…
Every new influence that reaches you from the outside and every new technique you get to know brings new challenges and new ideas. The organisation of a huge project like Dock10 in the harbour of Hamburg or an exhibition like “Urban Discipline” can give you the kick that you had when you went outside for illegal writing in the past.

Graffiti also means challenge to me, because I don’t want to set the style that I formed as a limit. Experiments and evolvement can‘t be pushed aside only because there is a certain expectation connected to me. I find it quite interesting to see how others perceive me and my art. The only important thing is not to get influenced too much by that in an unconscious way. Once you created a style, it gives you the possibility to work on it further on and not to have to “start all over again” every time. To break out and experimentate can also mean that you change techniques or the place of the presentation. A 3D-style on a wall is not the same as one that is done on a canvas in a museum or as a graphic on a sticker.

In the last few years some kind of work-in-phases developed, which means that I mostly work creatively whenever I’m travelling. Many walls and canvases are being done in that period. When I‘m home in Hamburg I deal with all the stuff that make these travels possible, which means the organisation and planning. Hamburg also means working for and with getting-up, the studio community which I founded together with TASEK, DADDY COOL and STOHEAD in 1999.
In this community we didn‘t commit ourselves to get something done, we didn’t put up any goals. We gave ourselves the time to evolve and define ourselves. Only in this way collective projects can be done, which made us stick together more, but also let us realize, that to every one of us a personal artistical work should be placed before all. We are not a company and that gives us the space to develop and implement our own artistical activities.
Because of the fact that the single relationships between the getting-up artists were pretty different in the beginning, it was especially important that no one would feel constricted. Things like that happen especially when you know someone pretty good or not very well. In the beginning we tried to evaluate on what we were getting involved with and we all were smart enough not to put our expectations on a too high level. In a group you have to lower your individual needs for the benefit of the community from time to time, without neglecting your personal artistical work or even yourself. We used to have phases when this seemed almost impossible. After we put up the third “Urban Discipline” exhibition, we had to realize that we either had to become an agency for organising exhibitions or to take a break.

The more or less we chosed the second, but through the work on the “Urban Discipline” movie, which we produced together with halbbild from Berlin and which will be released in early 2005 on a double DVD, the activities around this project will only be finished after that. We don‘t want to cut the possibility to organize an exhibition similar or same like this one.
The reactions to the “Urban Discipline” exhibits were pretty positive and they still are, which we can see on the loads of visitors on our website ( www.urbandiscipline.de). That was a good motivation to us. The time for an exhibition like this was just right. At that time it was still possible to organize something like this one, even though we invested and lost a lot of money.

I never dealed with the fact that some time I wouldn‘t be able to live of graffiti and that I couldn‘t be able to become self-employed. I didn’t even have to, because on one side I was earning my own money with commissions very early. On the other side my parents always gave me the feeling to be there for me and this way made it possible for me to go my own path. Meanwhile I have more time to focus on my own work. Especially on my travels where most of the latest stuff was done.

About a year ago I decided to publish some of my stuff in a book. The work on the book (DAIM – daring to push the boundaries) and on my web page, which I completely reconstruct right now, captured me with most of my time. I don’t mean to document my whole piece of work in it. It is more like a chosen insight, pretty much like my personal “best of”.

A different part of my work is the fashion label DAIMartwear that I recently founded with two partners. It gives me the opportunity to establish in other areas. I got the idea for that when I made some designs for brands like Carhartt, Levi’s and Tribal.
To me 2005 is going to be very exciting. For sure I will write, but also the other areas, which I am concentrating on right now will be elaborated. There is a lot going on – you can be very strained…

It’s rare to see on the same wall many individuals graffiti that match with each other (I’m not talking about graffiti fresco, big crew murals and whole-car). In this pictures you can see the graffiti styles of Zeus, Kwin, O’clock, Spyn, Jonone, André, Orne, Ortie,Mor, A2R Crew,156 Crew,BPM Crew… You’ve got some trhow-up, chromes, and a little wildstyle.

Graffiti and street art…What else?

Just for you, a famous graffiti clash from the Wild War DVD O’CLOCK from the 156 crew and NATIO from the 777, VAD crew, TW crew.

The Keyword of this session is “Haine”

O’clock VS Natio Graffiti clash

Muro is a street artist from Bilbao born in 1979. He passed his childhood skateboarding, painting with Carioca markers and Alpino colours pencils. He moved to Canary Islands when he was 10, and discovered graffiti and street art in 2000.

When he finished his studies in graphic design he decided to travel and drop his street art on the walls of many big cities. Actually he work as art director in an advertisement agency and also make his personal projects as illustrator and graffiti artists. You can find his art in the streets of those cities, but also in Berlin, London and Indonesia. He use to paint with some artists like East, and Disoh.

You can appreciate is artwork on his official website : Muro, Murocracia

Enjoy the talent! (click on the pictures to see it in a bigger size)

Muro and East

Muro, East, Disoh

Photographers : Muro