2011 Basel Miami Street Art

This past December the cities of Miami & Miami Beach held the worlds'  largest art festival; it included and surrounded Art Basel Miami. In addition to the many large organized art fair and gallery exhibits in both cities, the streets north of downtown Miami (Wynwood Arts District) were turned into outdoor street art venues. Early Sunday morning on the last weekend for the festival, before most people were awake, and in the early morning light, l flitted about theWynwood area and photographed the mostly new work there...and created the slide show presented here, using the effects found on Apple's IPhoto. Check it out (close to 100 great shots.)

More Street Art Than You Can Imagine

If this blog has whet your appetite for more street art graphics, l urge you to go to one of the best archives of this art; it also including articles from the original e-zine "Graffiti Observer". 
                                              See www.sohobooks.net
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two of the best "pieces" l've ever seen

varieties of graf

for purposes of this blog & to eliminate confusion about what kind of street art l'm writing here about, l'll call the varieties of graphics produced on exterior walls "graf". in the posts below l've presented three general categories, or really four; "writing and stencils" contains a photo of writing & stencil combined, whereby the writing is little more than just words or scribbles written in unadorned line form; the "tags" are adorned writing, often the names of graf writers' groups, so adorned way, though beautiful, they are often difficult to read, and it is what most think of when they hear the word "graffiti" since it was the type of graf that first  gained attention, on subway cars in NYC in the 1970s & 80s; "stencils", are just that, created in a studio and then spray painted onto a wall so a black image results; this is the main type of graf depicted in the documentary film - "Exit Through The Gift Shop" - and used mostly by the two currently most renowned graf artists in the world - Fairey & Banksy. "pieces" are more depictions of things, e.g., cars, and people, and have a great deal of variety, e.g., the top "piece" shown is an illusory shadow, the second is a realistic face painted on a metal storefront shutter, the third is done to be so realistic that you have the illusion the people are real, and the fourth is a very realistic interpretation of famous people. directly to the right, are three more examples of graf l'm not sure how to classify, but certainly deserving of being in the family of graf

"pieces"

tags

writing & stencils

Homeless on the streets of USA

The top photo l took about 20 years ago in SOHO, NYC and included in my book "Below 14th Street" as a way of showing, in the biggest, liberal city, even in it's hip-chic areas, people were in desperation, living on handouts, and on the street; the bottom photo l lifted from the south Florida newspaper SunSentinel, today, under the headline (front page) "S. Florida struggles with the homeless.... the bad economy continues to push more and more people into the streets." And, of course, this is the situation throughout our country, then, and especially now. Have you heard any politicians talk about, much less offer solutions. (See debates on extension of unemployment payments, reductions in Medicaid, etc. how much the rich should have to pay to help cover the needs of the poor, sick, homeless...maybe an extra 3 or 4% of their earnings over $250, 000/yr.) l have to say l'm becoming more and more ashamed of this country's...my country's... growing heartlessness. l don't even want to get started on the tragedy in Tuscon. l am sticking here closer to this blogs' original raison d'etre. after all, where do you tend to find the most graffiti, but in the most distressed, most under cared for urban neighborhoods, places you'd likely see the homeless. (see street scene below)

not your "nice neighborhood" street

A STREET SCENE I 'D RATHER NOT SEE

Don't like to write too much without pictures, and thought this would be most appropriate as a lead to my next blog, soon, on the places most street art in the sense of graf is found...the ghettos of the world.