The cultural industry has observed over the past two decades as urban street art projects are developing festivals, fairs and events of different kinds all around the world.
Are we in the middle of a ‘street art’ boom? There are several facts that you should take into account in order to better understand what is the movement like at this exact moment.
- Definition & characteristics about modern art styles,
- The most famous street artists names,
- Indoors & outdoors programmes.
A definition of urban street art. What is it?
It is an artistic movement generally created in a public space, typically performed without official permission, which purpose is to get the attention from the general audience about any given theme.
We relate its beginnings with the 1970s and 1980s New York era, but we may observe as tagging, or scratching names on public property has widely spread since then.
Graffiti style, old-school traditions.
Street art researchers define graffiti as an underground culture, closely related to the hip-hop movement.
The main goal for any graffiti writer is to obtain a strong reputation within the community. Artists from all over the world develop throw-ups or large tags in many different spots:
- Whole cars, painting subway & metro wagons,
- Roll-ups on highways and train tracks,
- Metal shutters, facades and walls.
When do they paint? Are graffiti writers organized in crews? What’s the code that lies in this culture? These are common questions that the general audience typically ask themselves.
Street art culture, new artistic trends
Graffiti writers are usually related to an illegal activity and a negative recognition from the society, but most people may not know that the most famous street artists names once belonged to the community.
They observed the enormous potential hidden in urban street art, thus moved from outdoor venues to modern art galleries and contemporary art fairs.
What kind of resources have we seen in urban art?
- Waterproof paint over metal bollards,
- Silk and other sewing materials around tree trunks,
- Little sculptures & other ephemeral creations.
Who are the biggest street artists names?
Giving one artist or another such category is a very biased opinion. Consequently we wanted to classify them in two groups, giving all of them the same opportunities.
These are the street art artists that you should follow in Instagram.
Emergent male street art artists to follow this 2020.
After checking the street artists names who are participating in this year editions of ARCO, Urvanity and Art Madrid, we chose a brief selection of emergent artists to follow this 2020:
- GVIIIE: Madrid born artist who paints on any surface, paper, tables and walls. Would you classify it as neo-rupestrian style?
- EVER: Nicolas Romero (Buenos Aires, Argentina) blends abstract and figurative images in bright colors for the consequences of his earlier beginnings with lettering graffiti.
- Never Crew: Pablo Togni and Christian Rebecchi (both from Italy) ranked among the top 100 most influential artists in Graffiti Art Magazine’s “Urban Contemporary Art Guide” and honored with the “Artists of the Year 2012”.
Female internationally known creators
In a mostly male dominated urban street art culture, we must give our attention to female artists who are painting graffiti walls around the world.
Do not miss the artworks created by:
- Animalito Land: an unmanageable chaos created by animal like figures, which offered this Argentinian artist the opportunity to spread her graphic designs in different formats, both digital and in the streets.
- Faith47: she attempts to disarm the strategies of global realpolitik, in order to advance the expression of personal truth. Her artistic seeds begin with a raw intimacy, exploring the duality of human relationships.
- Hera: Jasmin Siddiqui is a German street artist who creates Dark comedy on graffiti walls. Her style is characterized by melancholy.
Where to find the most notorious urban street art festivals?
Modern art lovers now have the opportunity to participate and visit festivals which are creating an urban landscape redevelopment.
There exist several events which may sound familiar to you:
Urban street art events around Europe
- If Walls Could Speak (NE): the festival’s mission is to bring more creativity to the streets and create a platform for Street Art, both in Amsterdam and worldwide cities.
- UPFEST (ENG): Bristol helds Europe’s largest Street Art & Graffiti festival. No more words needed!
- CVTà (ITA): A medieval Italian village is fighting depopulation with this vibrant annual street art festival. Civitacampomarano has taken up paint brushes and spray cans as its arms.
Street art festivals in Spain
ASALTO (SPA) is an international Urban Art Festival that since 2005 and for several months hits the streets of the old town of Zaragoza (Spain) with avant-garde artistic proposals, participatory and impressive works developed by urban street art artists.
On the other side of the country, a small town called Fanzara, in Castellón (Spanish East coast) becomes year after year an open-air museum. Hundreds of visitors get there to photograph the artworks created by Spanish well-known artists.
Cooltourspain opinion about the urban street art
Cooltourspain is the first cultural project which focuses its street art tour services and graffiti workshops around the country.
The partnerships we have signed with other urban street art projects in Málaga and Barcelona made possible our expansion to other Spanish cities.
Have you participated at any of our walking tours or ateliers?
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