When Matt Stuckey and Joel Van Der Knapp (of The Treehouse fame) wanted to create something to make the environment a bit more fun and engaging, they turned their skills to painting a mural representing the interaction between urban landscapes and organic elements in the creative hub that is Ebenezer Pl, Adelaide.

“Basically we just want to create something we’re happy to look at everyday. Hopefully people who we would never meet otherwise will notice and appreciate our work and contemporary art in general.”

Standing at over a story tall and about 9m wide, it’s impossible to miss the gigantic abstract form.

“It is huge. Both of us have a very bold, graphic style, so we’ve taken that look and scaled it up,” explains Matt.

With their studio just around the corner, Ebenezer was an obvious choice.

“It is between us and coffee, so we pass it frequently. It is a great location in a really creative hub. There will certainly be more and more street art in the East End in the near future so it is a great place and time to be up and visible.”

http://tree-house.com.au/

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
Welcome to the graf life

Someone had to capture the energy, creativity and originality of graffiti besides American photojournalist Martha Cooper. And that someone – make that someones – was husband and wife team Jim and Karla Murray. At a time when most children were playing with My Little Ponies, Transformers and Super Soakers, they were familiarising themselves with Pentax, Polaroid and Fuji film. Getting into photography at an early age saw the pair unite to capture the art they felt wasn’t being documented properly.

“We had ties in the graffiti world and began photographing artists’ work that we knew personally,” Jim says. “At that time (mid ‘90s), before digital photography became popular, many artists did not photograph their own work because they didn’t own a camera. After photographing some of their work, we became captivated by the art form and sought out more and more work to photograph.”

Graffiti first surfaced in America about 1960 and by the 1970s the movement moved to the walls and train panels of New York, headed by pioneers including Taki 183 and Lady Pink. It wasn’t long before graf started echoing the Ramones song title: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. But anyone who appreciates graffiti knows it’s not always everlasting. And that’s the exciting thing for the pair – no two days in New York City are ever the same.
“The nature of graffiti art is such that it constantly changes as new art covers what had been there before. We would often return to the very same locations and see new artwork there.

“You can’t be lazy and say that you’ll come back tomorrow or another day because whatever you are photographing may not be there. We definitely learned that the hard way documenting graffiti.”
Even the pair’s work environment varies daily, from underground locations (subway tunnels) to overground locations (abandoned factories). An ever-changing location and a temporary art form hasn’t stopped them from excelling at their chosen field. They’ve had photographs exhibited in galleries throughout New York and Miami, along with photographs and articles appearing in Peel Magazine, Mass Appeal and Time Out New York.

Add books to their achievement stable – “Donna Karan bought many copies of Broken Windows, our first graffiti book” – and they’ve just completed Storefront: The Disappearing Face Of New York City. It’s a 10-year project that documents the aesthetics of different neighbourhoods and stores they encountered while on the graffiti hunt.
“Many neighbourhood stores had closed, or we would come across old stores, still in business, but somehow different. They were either refaced, remodelled, or original signage had been substituted with new, bright and shiny plastic awnings. The whole look and feel of the neighbourhood had changed and much of its individuality and charm had gone. The result was unsettling. We made it our mission to thoroughly document these stores. We set out with our 35 mm camera and micro-cassette recorder. After taking only a few pictures and speaking with only a handful of storeowners, we knew we had a compelling story.”

jamesandkarlamurray.com

NOW TRY THESE:
Broken Windows-Graffiti NYC (Gingko Press 2002)
Burning New York (Gingko Press 2006)
Storefront: The Disappearing Face of New York City (Gingko Press)
Graffiti Miami (Prestel, 2008)

Connecting with the blind and vision impaired communities and encorporating elements of the work he has produced on the streets across the globe, ANDY UPROCK follows ‘Trailblazers’ with the debut of his interactive Braille works in a solo exhibition Graffiti for the Blind – Poetry in Braille – Peace at the MTV Gallery opening Wednesday November 26 from 6-9pm. Presented by Mooks and Vice and in association with Vision Australia the exhibition is a series of emotive interactive works comprising of Braille poetry with cups, a collaborative Braille jewellery collection with TMOD and a series of photographs.  All works are for sale with a percentage of proceeds donated to Vision Australia.

via: http://www.sweatybettypr.com/blog/?p=855

Sydney resident Atome brings us closer into his world of art and graffiti with an online virtual gallery which will feature new projects. His first is an online exhibition of a collection of doors appropriately named The Doors.

check it