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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 17:56:14 GMT
The Zoo Project which tries to reinserting people killed during the Jasmine Revolution back into the public consciousness so that they're not forgotten. The figure on the right is Mohamed Bouazizi, whose act of self-immolation in protest at the authority's confiscation of his goods was the catalyst for the Arab Spring:  Tragically, the body of a young man shot in Detroit last July has been identified as that of Bilal Berreni AKA Zoo Project. Zoo Project was a brave and talented artist who was producing genuinely important work and my heart goes out to his family. Rest in peace. |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 17:56:51 GMT
There's a good article about Zoo Project in the Detroit Free Press here.  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 17:57:30 GMT
l'Atlas has completed a number of works for the sixth Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial:  The admittedly fairly Parlá-esque Matox will also be showing new work as part of the biennial and a number of the new canvases can be seen here:  Also, the father of modernist Arabic calligraphy, Hassan Massoudy, has an exhibition entitled Honoress Exhibition as part of the biennial: |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 17:58:12 GMT
Two excellent books about Arabic graffiti, both of which have been mentioned previously on this thread, have recently been released. ' Lost Walls' documents eL Seed's road trip around Tunisia and it covers history, faith, culture and identity, as well as eL Seed's beautiful calligraffiti. ' Walls of Freedom' is by the same people who produced the Arabic Graffiti book and covers the first three years of the Egyptian revolution and the graffiti which accompanied and supported the revolution. You can read the first 20 or so pages of Lost Walls here and the first 40 pages of Walls of Freedom here.  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 17:58:41 GMT
There are photos of Vincent Abadie Hafez's stunning new mural in Tarifa in Andalusia entitled ' Rosa de los vientos (Rose Compass)' on his website here. The detail is beautiful and well worth checking out but here's a context shot from his website; the piece to the left is by Axel Void and the piece to the right is by El Niño de las Pinturas:  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 17:59:14 GMT
l'Atlas returns to New York for a show at the Catherine Ahnell Gallery entitled ' [space]' from 15 May to 22 June. Here's a couple of pictures of the show print which is currently being produced at Idem Paris:   Also, l'Atlas has a whole bunch of timelapse videos of him producing his larger installation work on his Vimeo page. I've only posted a couple below to avoid spamming this thread but the rest can be found here. Lastly, here's a great video of French digital artist Miguel Chevalier's latest installation at Église du Sacré-Cœur in Casablanca: |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 17:59:45 GMT
I've mentioned Morran ben Lahcen on a previous post about Moroccan street art but I'm really impressed with the development of his work. He's currently got a show at David Bloch in Marrakesh entitled ' [Horizontal]' which runs through until 10 June.    |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:00:07 GMT
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:01:22 GMT
OK, so none of the below have anything to do with graffiti or street art but who cares. Youssef AbdelkeAbdelke recently had exhibitions in both Paris and Beirut including the work below. Of the three artists I mentioned in my previous post about Syrian art I think Abdelke is the only one still living in Syria, which I think is incredibly brave and noble considering he was a political prisoner for two years under Hafez al-Assad and was again imprisoned last year by Bashar al-Assad. I think it's genuinely important that there are people like Abdelke documenting what's happening to ordinary people in Syria in a way that photojournalist perhaps can't and communicating it to the rest of the world.  Sara ShammaShamma has a small show at the Royal College of Art towards the end of last year including a 16.5 metre long canvas, but I think this was my favourite piece. The show was about the changes and behaviour of people at war and under threat, rather than the political side of the situation.  Khaled Akil Akil is based in Aleppo and his work is towards the fine art end of the photographic spectrum but his portraits beautifully capture the soul and character of his subjects. This piece is from a recent exhibition in Turkey.  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:01:55 GMT
eL Seed has just finished this piece on the side of L'Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris:  The building itself is stunning and well worth a visit if you're ever in Paris. Every window has a light-sensitive aperture which automatically opens and closes depending on the strength of the sun:  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:02:46 GMT
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:03:08 GMT
I know it's not street art or graffiti, but the New Museum in New York are currently showing an exhibition entitled ' Here and Elsewhere' which features 45 artists from across 15 countries including Wafa Hourani who is a Palestinian artist based in Ramallah. The piece below shows a futuristic version of the Qalandia refugee camp:  Further details here. And on even more of an aside, if anyone hasn't read a graphic novel by Joe Sacco entitled ' Palestine', which depicts the everyday realities for ordinary Palestinians, then I would highly recommend it. It's been a long time since I last read it but I was sadly reminded of the excellent book by today's latest shelling of a UN-school in Gaza.  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:03:45 GMT
Following on from last month's Djerbahood project, Galerie Itinerrance is putting on an exhibition with eL Seed at Sadiki College in Tunis which runs from 3 October to 20 October:  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:04:17 GMT
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:04:51 GMT
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:05:28 GMT
A few things from Egypt... The documentary ' Art War', which chronicles Egypt's January 25 Revolution through the graffiti which appeared on the streets, can be streamed or downloaded for free until Sunday via the War Art website here. Art War features the work of artists like Ganzeer, who I've posted about earlier on in this thread. The only down side is that I don't remember it featuring the fantastic Aya Tarek, but fortuitously she's currently painting a big wall in El Gouna on the Red Sea with Ammar Abo Bakr. Here's a progress shot from her Instagram and I'll update this thread when I find a photo of the finished wall:  There's an interesting looking exhibition in Cairo at the moment entitled ‘ Without Barriers’. The exhibition features the work of graffiti writers like Mohammed and Ali Khaled and the work centres on love, relationships, and sex in contemporary Egypt. The piece below is by Lamis Solyman and there are more photos over on Egyptian Streets:  EDIT: Here's the finished wall by Aya Tarek and Ammar Abo Bakr from her Instagram:  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:06:05 GMT
A couple of good looking exhibitions opening next week... eL Seed has an exhibition entitled ' Declaration' which opens at Tashkeel Studios in Dubai on 19 November and runs through until 27 December:  And l'Atlas has an exhibition entitled ' Transversal' at Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome on 21 November and runs through until 17 January:  EDIT: Just seen @miloisonfire's thread about the l'Atlas show here. |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:06:41 GMT
Here's some photos of eL Seed's exhibition via his, the gallery's, Myne and Canvas Mag's Instagrams. The work uses the words of Nizar Qabbani's poetry and isn't at all what I was expecting but I think it looks fantastic.  And on the subject of calligraphic sculpture, I really like the contrast of the smooth flow of the Arabic script and the rough concrete in Yazan's street piece:  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:07:13 GMT
el Seed is releasing a couple of hand finished screen prints in conjunction with his Declaration show mentioned above. On both of them the black layer is screen printed and the pink and blue is hand painted in acrylic. They're both editions of 8; the pink version is 56x76cm and the blue is 76x112cm. They're both available by emailing the Tashkeel at tashkeel@tashkeel.org  A 2km+ wall was painted in Dubai this weekend, which is apparently the longest graffiti wall in the world; it looked fairly sterile and didn't do much for me but if anyone wants to see photos they are available here. Strangely, the Tunisian writers like The Inkman weren't given visas by the UAE authorities and therefore couldn't take part but The Inkman has started a far more interesting looking new project entitled 'Story of Brave Men' about workers from an older generation painted on the walls of the former work buildings:  And lastly, I came across an interesting interview with Aya Tarek over on Reorient, which is available here.  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:07:40 GMT
Ganzeer, who came to prominence painting on the streets during the January 25 Revolution, has his first solo show at Leila Heller Gallery in New York next week. Ganzeer's work is overtly political and the exhibition, which is entitled ' All American', will feature reinterpretations of contemporary urban symbols on canvases, screenprints and canvas. The exhibition runs from 16 January to 21 February 2015.  The exhibition is curated by Shiva Balaghi who is a lecturer in art history and Middle Eastern history at Brown University. You can find a whole host of lectures and talks by her online and I would highly recommend watching some of them:
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:08:19 GMT
l'Atlas and Morran Ben Lahcen are undertaking a joint residency at Villa des Arts in Casablanca running from 26 March to 26 April 2015. The residency will include an exhibition, site specific installations, lectures and also urban interventions at Moulay Al Hassan Square and the Villa des Arts in Rabat.  Also, here's a few photos I came across of the Parisian studio which l'Atlas shares with Tanc; incidentally, in all the pictures of their studio that I've seen it has been this immaculately tidy!  |
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Post by feralthings on Apr 7, 2015 18:08:40 GMT
For some reason it looks like I haven't posted about Myne in this thread before. He was born to Iraqi parents, brought up in the UK and currently lives in Dubai, which is where this installation called ' From order to chaos (The Cloud Chronicles)' has been created for the Sikka Art Fair which has just started:  If anyone's new to his work them here's some of Myne's signature cloud work:  |
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Post by elvis on Apr 8, 2015 7:54:29 GMT
A huge thanks to feralthings for re-creating this fantastic thread for our viewing pleasure and knowledge. |
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Post by cnh on Apr 8, 2015 8:07:02 GMT
Great to have you here @ferralthings  quality thread. |
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 8, 2015 10:29:07 GMT
Marvellous feralthings.
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quality thread.