NEW BOOK FROM VHILS

Nice to see a Nuart piece making the cover for what looks like a greta monograph on Vhils.

Vhils
By: Vhils
Available Soon!
Release Date: September 2011
Format: 24 x 30 cm
Features: 160 pages, full color, hardcover
Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-89955-382-6


Catalog Price: €39,90 | $60,00 | £37,50
Shop Price: €39.90
Vhils is undoubtedly one of the most skilled and talented young artists on the urban art scene today. He creates technically masterful, contemporary portraits by not only adding paint or other materials onto surfaces, but also carving, drilling, scratching, ripping, or blasting his images out of walls. With nothing less than archeological meticulousness, Vhils penetrates through countless layers of posters, dirt, and plaster to set free the unsettlingly poetic images hidden in urban spaces.

The monograph Vhils is the most extensive collection of his personal and commissioned work to date, much of which is published here for the first time. The introduction is written by Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective.

More info and buy here

NUART APPLICATION

Yesterday was the deadline for the local councils application for cultural funding. Here's a peak at what Nuart submitted. Fingers crossed it manages to convince them not to cut support in these times of austerity.

THE "LANDMARK" TOUR

Just received this great little film of the traffic stopping tour that was this years Nuart "opening".

Thanks to Carl Fredrick Salicath
Music by The Low Frequency in Stereo
(Recorded live at Numusic 2010)

NUART 2010 IN PHOTOS

Street Art photography at its finest.

Just received this amazing series of photographs of this years Nuart works from local photographer Carl Fredrick Salicath.

Check out more of Carl's work here

NUART. NORDIC JEWEL OF STREETART

We were pleasantly surprised this week to find Nuart being featured in what is probably the worlds largest News site.

FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST

The small, oil rich coastal town of Stavanger in Norway must be feeling a bit blue right now, if elated; with all these new super-sized paintings in the streets. The Nuart 2010 artists have packed up their brushes and dispersed after two weeks of scaling walls and leaving monumental murals for the town to help endure the long, dark winter months ahead. The festival, in it's 5th year under curator Martyn Reed, featured some supremely independent masters of the craft including Street Artists like Blu (Italy), Vhils (France), Roa (Belgium), Dolk (Norway), Erica Il Cane (Italy), EVOL (Germany), Vasmoulakis Alexandros (Greece), Sten & Lex (Italy) M-City (Poland), and Dotmasters (UK).

But Mr. Reed, the visionary engine behind this elaborate and accessible street art installation, doesn't limit himself to organizing just one large festival. Instead he double-tracks it with a hefty electronic-based music festival born from his years as a techno DJ and promoter. Numusic this year featured performances by luminaries like Kraut Rock granddaddies Neu! and American hip-hop cornerstone Grandmaster Flash.

The affable bad boy Reed took a moment this week to look at his route to success so far and tell BSA about what the Nuart festival is and why it is important to him.

Brooklyn Street Art: Putting on a festival of this magnitude must be a big task. How do you do it?

Martyn Reed: Actually, this year, though the largest in scale, was a much easier production than we've been used to. We've learned so much from previous events. All of this years artists were painters, so once set up, people were pretty autonomous. It helped that we spread out the production period to cover two weeks.


Brooklyn Street Art: What has been the town folks' main reaction when they see all the big creatures on the walls of their city?

Martyn Reed: It's incredible, there's nothing but love for Nuart in this city, and it's spread across a really broad demographic, from toddlers to grandparents, and from bakers to the city mayor.

It's interesting because in a city this size anything new, any new developments in culture for example, are judged on their intrinsic merits and not due to media hype or "trends". The city has a population of 120,000 and though a few will be aware of Banksy, Dolk etc., that will be it.

The art isn't really tied to a "culture", to Juxtapoz, or hipsters or the gallery set or to limited edition sneakers and vinyl toys or any of the other commercial detritus that's blossomed around the scene. It's simply art on the street; big bold beautiful artworks that noticeably improve the surroundings. It's astonishing to me that more city councils around the world haven't yet embraced and recognized the value of Street Art.

Brooklyn Street Art: You have combined music with the plastic arts. Is there a cross-over between the two? Does one influence the other when curating the festival?

Martyn Reed: Interesting question, but the short answer is no, not anymore. It's interesting in that Nuart was established to explore the questions you raise.

The Numusic festival, like many other European electronic music festivals, was born from an involvement in early rave and club culture. The social lives of art students began to merge with their studies and aspects of their academic pursuits began to influence club culture; especially with VJs, the early web, digital arts and new media. This proved an especially fertile and creative arena for subversives and artistic outsiders who naturally gravitate to these still lawless new frontiers.

I'd developed an interest in Street Art through being exposed to Banksy, I DJ'd at Cargo in London back in 200o/2001 he was having his first show there in the bar and courtyard.

It hadn't occurred to me until around 2005, when I took over the curation of Nuart, that Street Art was occupying the same ground as these early digital pioneers. They had a similar message but potentially much greater coverage, were generating mass appeal, and all for the price of a craft knife and Internet connection. Suddenly new media looked like the bloated expensive state sanctioned art-form it was, obsessed with the technology of production when it seemed the real technological revolution was going to be in its ability to distribute.

Read the full article here

The original article appears on Brooklyn Street Art

BROOKLYN STREET ART INTERVIEW

Recently had the pleasure of answering a few questions from Street Art partners in crime over at Brooklyn Street Art.

From BROOKLYN STREET ART
Art Saves lives

The small but very expensive (if you are not a resident) and oil rich Coastal town of Stavenger in Norway must be feeling a bit blue right now. Nuart 2010 artists cleaned up, packed up their tools and left after two weeks of painting monumental murals for the town’s folk to enjoy during the long, dark winter months ahead.

This years’ Street Artists included Dotmasters, Dolk, EVOL, Sten & Lex, Vhils, and ROA, among others. As in the past 5 years under this curator, the ‘10 group is a stellar selection of talent that is helping define what direction Street Art is heading.

The offerings this year were super sized and in many cases bold in color. All of the participants this year were painters, masters at their craft and supremely independent. Martyn Reed, curator and visionary engine behind this elaborate but accessible street art festival doesn’t limit himself to one large festival – instead he marries it with a prestigious electronic-based music festival he created as a result of his years as a DJ. This years’ NuMusic festival featured performances by luminaries like Krautrock grandaddies Neu! and American hip-hop cornerstone Grandmaster Flash.

The affable bad boy Reed took a moment this week to look at his route to success so far and tell BSA about what the Nuart festival is and why it is important to him.

Brooklyn Street Art: Putting on a festival of this magnitude must be a big task. How do you do it?

Martyn Reed: Actually...

Read the full interview here

NUART "LANDMARK" TOUR MAP

One for the locals and any lovers of street art that happen to find themselves in Stavanger these coming months and hopefully years. Local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad have published a flash map with images and locations of this years work.

You can find the map here

Feel free to drop us a mail if in town and we can also point out the locations of previous years work.

DOTMASTERS NUART 2010

, originally uploaded by le´SLiM.

Fabulous photo of the Dotmaster work from Nuart friend and family member Linn Heidi. It's Gold !

VHILS CLOSE UP

Nuart Tour-35, originally uploaded by Jollyaard.

Great close up of the Vhils piece. The portrait is a very well known image of a Norwegian fisherman from the turn of the century, turned out that the wall we were working on used to be a factory for packing sardines, Stavanger's prime industry at the time.

The owner of the wall was shocked to find we had two Portuguese artists painting a Norwegian fisherman and proceeded to produce an old label from a Sardine can written in Portuguese. Apparently it used to be the factories main export country.

A happy coincidence or a very clever curatorial decision, we'll let you decide.

STEN & LEX FOR NUART

Great shots of the Sten & Lex piece from the artist themselves.

More here

LANDMARK TOUR

More shots of the Nuart crowd on the first "Landmark" tour.

NUART'S "LANDMARK" TOUR

Nuart Tour-30, originally uploaded by Jollyaard.

Crazy turnout for the first Nuart "Landmark" tour. Thanks to everyone for getting into the spirit of things, a true traffic stopping revolution. And through Art !

STEN & LEX FOR NUART

DSC_0749, originally uploaded by metamandag.

Sten and Lex finishing up their piece for Nuart after 7 days of some of the worst rain we've seen in a decade. Rewarded with whoops and cheers and a round of applause from the crowd on Sunday.

DOLK FOR NUART 2010

Great shot of the Dolk piece from Ian Cox

DOLK FOR NUART 2010

The first large scale Dolk went up in Stavanger during this years Nuart, this was shot shortly after completion and is the final piece on the Nuart "Landmark" tour. Unfortunately rain from hell fell from the skies before, during and after, well, we say fell, it actually rained sideways, and the work took a serious beating. Whilst we're all for the natural degradation of Street Art and believe it's a natural part of the aesthetic, we're still considering touching this one up.

NUART "LANDMARK" TOUR

The town's people turned out in force on Sunday for the first of Nuart's "Landmark" street art tours. Thanks to Carl Fredrick for shooting this great little vid and to speakers Kristal and GT for their impressive dedication to the cause !

Fancy making the tour yourself ? Download the google map from the link below

Landmark map

DOLK FOR NUART

A rain free moment and it's back in the cherry picker for Dolk.

photo Ian Cox

THE GRAND "LANDMARK" TOUR. TODAY KL1500

Ok, so today's the day. The first grand tour will be starting from Nytorget at 1500 today, Kristal and GT will be our hosts and the nuart crew will be on hand to give one to one chats on the work. The work is up, the sun is shining. Tour will take approx 90 mins with stops and introduction talk at each piece.

Tour starts from Nytorget 17. Rogaland Kunstsenter

For those who want some autonomy or to take the tour another day, You can download and print a google map of the works below.

Nuart "Landmark" Map

VHILS V's GRANDMASTER FLASH

Ian Cox, one of the worlds leading photographers of street art, also known as Ian "Wallkandy", is in town to take shots of Nuart's "Landmark" series, he also found the time to drink a few shots and get down to Grandmaster Flash.

By the way Ian, the forum's down !

EVOL & GOOGLE MAP

Nice piece in local paper on Evol's work and link to our google map.

Google map here