I had the chance too see Bo130 and Microbo (from the video above) along with Blek Le Rat, Blue, D*Face and Space Invader at a beautiful show in December called The Streets Of Europe.
Jonathan LeVine Gallery’s goal in organizing this series of International Street Art exhibitions (First Brazilian, and now European) is to help create a visual dialogue within our global community, a creative exchange of ideas that transcend class and cultural differences, while crossing geographical borders. The objective is to promote freedom of expression through exposing new artwork to people in different cities worldwide.
Blek le Rat
A pioneer of graffiti writers in Europe, Blek le Rat was one of the first to use stencils on the street. His method of creating street art changed the face of graffiti and continues to influence artists around the world.
I especialy love Blu
With a penchant for drawing and public art, Blu started painting walls around his native Bologna in 2000. His pieces often cover entire sides of buildings, which he either paints using brushes mounted on long sticks, or by simply standing on a friend’s shoulders.
Space Invader
Referencing the 1978 video game, mosaics featuring “Space Invaders” became a familiar sight on the streets of Paris in the late 90s. Space Invader's usage of tile to create street art, rather than paint or stencil emphasizes his commentary of how information networks have affected and transformed society. Space Invader creatures can be found on the streets of over thirty five cities worldwide. Recently, his exhibition work has evolved, incorporating Rubik’s Cubes to create Invaders and building 3D sculptures which echo the same imagery in his two-dimensional street pieces.
D*Face is more like a stylized cartoonist whose characters are too alive, demanding and confrontational to be limited to television sets, canvases or drawing boards. They’ve completely escaped the pen of their creator, repopulating the walls of London by transforming the streets into a cartoon landscape of slit-eyed spheres and sharp-eared gremlins. But here at this show I was truly amazed by his work (the approach and the handling of the pieces as well as the themes he chose) and I was surprised that he evolved so much and didn't just present the characters he is so well known of!
