Peeta

Teatro (theater) Marinoni, Venice 2012

Yespray graffiti Jam, Settimo Torinese, November 2012

Bosnia and Herzogovina, Graffiti Jam, September 2012

Paris, March 2013

Early on in the history of abstract art, painters gave up the illusion of depth and embraced the limitations of two dimensions. At the time it was an innovation, an acknowledgment of truth in art, but it also led eventually to a whole slew of painters who filled entire large canvases with a single undifferentiated shade of a single color. I won't even name names. But the illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface is just too appealing. It's a trick. Of course it is. Sometimes it can seem like magic, akin to a woman floating weightlessly over a table upon a stage. The artist here, Manuel Di Rita, from Italy, goes by the name Peeta. He started off as a graffiti artist, and though he also produces works on canvas for galleries along the same lines, it's the graffiti that appeals to me the most. Perhaps it's because of the context, in which the illusion, the trick, is augmented by the immediate and undeniable fact of the the flatness of the wall it's painted on. The dichotomy creates an almost immediate and visceral sense of delight. The work is fun. It needs no explanation. A child can appreciate it as easily as an adult and I mean that in the best possible way.
To see more go to his website: www.peeta.net or to his flickr page.

EVOL/CT'INK

EVOL is the moniker of a German graffiti artist who turns random objects into buildings by using stencils and spray paint. He's perfected his technique to create extraordinary optical illusions. The first three pieces here are part of an ongoing series of broken down cardboard boxes transformed into urban tenements and street scenes. Some of these images are quite large and you'll really appreciate them better if you click on and view them full size. He also turns other objects into buildings; electrical junction boxes, parts of walls, a cassette tape, whatever. Anything vaguely rectangular really. You can see a few of his pieces at www.wilde-gallery.com but if you really want to spend time with this artist's work, you'll want to go to his Flickr page and look through his set labeled some of mine. There you can also find this time lapse video of his process.






















"Dieffenbach Str. Backyard" vers.#1 spraypaint and stencil on cardboard 110x98cm











"Lehmbruck" 9-11 spraypaint and stencil on board 54x117cm


















"Wallflower" vers.#1 Spaypaint stencil on cardboard 54x68cm























"PLATTENBAUTEN"
spraypaint and stencil on electrical cabinet, 96 x 78 x 32 cm

















Okay, so now that you kind of get the idea, try to wrap your mind around the following installation piece called "Caspar David Friedrich Stadt"; a recent effort in which he transforms the interior floor area of a slaughterhouse in Dresden. To quote the artist:

"Painted in a 10x8meter hole in the ground on the abandoned slaughterhouse area in Dresden,
probably the former foundation of a huge boiler plant to derive soap from rendered beef fat or other utilization of carcass. However, even 15 years after closing down, it still smells nauseating.

The main slaughterhouse complex was built 1906 by hans erlwein. Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse Five" also takes place there. Caspar David Friedrich painted that area called Ostragehege in 1832, And my favorite footnote is that his father was a soap-boiler ..."

Jessica Hess

Jessica Hess explores two subjects in her work. One is the empty or abandoned urban landscape; the freight yard, the aging industrial area, the alleyway, abandoned buildings and especially the unused doorway. Which brings me to her other subject matter, so ubiquitous in such places: graffiti. At times the portrayal of graffiti completely takes over her paintings so that the whole exercise becomes an interesting riddle in artistic authorship like extensive sampling in music. This may be, conceptually, the more loaded approach but on a purely personal level I prefer the atmosphere she evokes when the graffiti is more pared down and the context of its environment comes to the fore. Either way she has a rich vein of material to mine and shows little sign of needing further inspiration any time soon. You can see a great deal more work on her website at: jessicahess.com

















"Allston II" 36" x 48" oil on canvas 2010

















"Eureka Night II" 36" x 48" oil on canvas 2010























"Graffiti on Alcatraz Wall" 60" x 36" oil on canvas 2006























"Graffiti Truck" 32" x 24" oil on canvas 2007

Thanks to the folks at artistaday.com for introducing me to her work.

Kevin Cyr

Kevin Cyr's primary angle of approach to art is to document small commercial vehicles that have seen better days. He takes those vehicles out of their, obviously urban, context and paints them as affectionate portraits. Not unlike a number of famous painters from the 19th century on, who decided that the poor average worker made as suitable a subject as the rich and famous, Kevin Cyr seems to say, and what about these working class automobiles? Their dents, rust and graffiti are only the accumulation of character. He's clearly having fun with the subject and not taking himself too seriously, but he has another very promising alternative expression: designing, painting and actually building satirical alternative mobile dwellings. In addition to the mobile bike home below he has also designed a shopping cart camper!
Check out all his vehicle portraits and more on his website: www.kevincyr.net
Thanks to the folks at Vivianite.net for introducing me to his work.
(and don't forget to click on the images for larger views)
















"Bushwick"

















"Glorious Work. Happy Life."



CAMPER BIKE PROJECT


















"Scaling the summit"















actual camper bike
















blueprint for camper bike