Just over 2 years ago, PaintingTheTown made a call for submissions for a graffiti book they wanted to produce. Painting Cape Town: Graffiti from South Africa is the result and is ready for orders!

The site, www.paintingthetown.co.za, documented the process of making the book which is currently at the printers and which will be launched at the end of this month.

The book is the first to cover the Cape Town graffiti scene in extensive detail and includes interviews with 29 of Cape Town’s most prolific and recognised graffiti writers such as Dek3, Faith47, Falko, Mak1 and Wealz. The 250 page book also includes many never before seen photographs dating from the early 1990s to 2012.

The author of Painting Cape Town, Matthew Olckers, started photographing Cape Town graffiti in 2007. In light of the increasing popularity of graffiti and street art Matthew’s aim has been to recognise the artists who have made an impact on the surfaces of the city though the quantity and quality of their work.

Shelflife are the offical publishers and distributors. The book is available for presale now and by purchasing a presale copy you’ll also gain an invitation to the launch event which is scheduled for the 28th of February 2013 in Cape Town.

www.paintingcapetown.co.za

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#TimeLine opened on Monday night at The Lovell Gallery in Woodstock. The exhibition is a public showcase of the extensive personal art collection of Elad Kirshenbaum, otherwise known as Onek.

Elad’s involvement in the creative regeneration of Woodstock and his passion for Street Art are apparent throughout the collection of works on show, which features local and international artists including Shepard Fairey, Faith47, Dran, Paul Senyol, Asha Zero, Swoon, and Bruce Mackay.

We got chatting to Elad to find out his thoughts on street art, collecting and Woodstock. Here’s our Q&A:

Between 10and5: What was the first piece of art you ever owned and how long have you been collecting?

Elad Kirshenbaum (Onek): I have been a Collector all my life…from the toys you get in KinderJoys, to movie posters, to bikes, to skateboards…but I’m a relatively new art collector. This all started with the first piece I bought in 2008, which was an Asha Zero painting – I was fascinated by his technique. I believe that being a collector is in your DNA; it’s just who you are. It is your collections that change and evolve over time; they tell your story.

10and5: Are there any general themes that are noticeable in the collection?

Elad: Looking at all the works together in a gallery, there is a strong Street Art theme that runs through the collection. This wasn’t a conscious decision – but rather a result of the fact that my collection has grown from my passion to be actively involved in my own surroundings. Street Art is the natural extension of that philosophy.

10and5: What are the deciding factors when you choose a piece to own?

Elad: I buy what I like – not what I think others would like, or what would be generally considered a good “investment”. I like to support young, up-and-coming, local artists. Quite a few pieces in my collection have been gifts from artists that I have worked with, so my collection is extremely personal.

10and5: What is it that draws you to street art?

Elad: When I was a teenager, I discovered the work of Keith Haring. I was immediately fascinated by the concept of working in public space and I was inspired by how he would work during the day, so that passersby could see him painting, and respond to his work. Sometimes Haring even changed his work based on that public feedback.

I have always loved this idea of Street Art as a kind of performance. The process doesn’t end with the artist. The artwork continues to change over time – it gets dirty, or tagged, or painted over. It grows to have its own heartbeat. The street keeps the artwork alive.

10and5: You collect work by both international and local artists; are there major differences between local street art and international street art?

Elad: In terms of quality, no – definitely not. The standard of artwork coming out of South Africa at the moment is right there at the top. In terms of content, it obviously depends on the artist. I would say though that there is a strong sense of social consciousness that underlies many of the South African street artists’ works. There is often a feeing of energy and hope associated with change.

10and5: As the founder of Side Street Studios and the original curator of the Woodstock Industrial Centre, you’ve been deeply involved with the creative regeneration of Woodstock. What do you love about the area? Has it become what you hoped?

Elad: Initially I was drawn to Woodstock because the area’s character, and of course, its affordability. When I started working on the Woodstock Industrial Centre there were no lights, no plugs, no toilets; we had to literally beg people to be involved. From the beginning I saw the potential that the area held, but it was definitely surprising to all of us how quickly these changes have taken place.

We began a process of bringing new creative energy into Woodstock, and now, just 7 years later, it has become the unofficial “Art District” of Cape Town. The suburb has evolved and is now also attracting more corporates and agencies… the money, basically. I do sometimes miss the raw-ness that has become more “refined” in some parts recently, but this is all a part of the evolution of space. I am extremely proud of the positive things that have grown out of this journey.

10and5: What’s your vision for Side Street Studios?

Elad:  With Side Street Studios I want to learn from the many art districts all over the world and curate a space that is filled with creative life and energy, while not becoming pretentious, or losing that “raw” feeling that drew me to this area in the first place. I want the space to evolve with its tenants into a rich network of artists, sharing and networking, and developing from within.

We want to keep bringing life and energy to the surroundings through creativity. The most important lesson to be learnt with these spaces is that nobody exists in isolation – we need to respect the environment that we are in. Change and growth is good, but it needs to respect what (and who) came before it. It is important to me that not only the artists in my building, but also the Woodstock locals, feel uplifted by these projects.

10and5: Which local street artists should we be paying attention to?

Elad: There are so many talented street artists all over the country at the moment. I love the work of Faith47, DALeast, and Nerd, to name just a few. Local street artists face a constant battle here – even though Cape Town is the World Design Capital for 2014, the city still has no Public Art Policy.

There has been a drop in mural painting over the last year as artists need permits, which they can only get approved via the “Safety and Security” department – who are definitely not equipped to deal with issues of this nature! In 11 months the design world will be watching Cape Town and our artists need the support of local government so that they can work in the public domain and make us all proud.

10and5: Do you have your eye on anything for your next addition?

Elad:  My eyes are always open for new work. As I mentioned, I like to collect pieces form young up-and-coming artists, and the art of the people that surround me. I especially love collaborations, as they represent not only the artists, but a mysterious chemical reaction – moments in time that will never happen again.

www.sidestreet.co.za/Side_Street/The_Onek_Collection

The exhibition runs till 27 Feb, find more info here.

Photos by Shani Judes

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Woodstock | 17 681 Chappies | Designer: Emma Cook

Did you know that the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” contains every letter of the alphabet?

Last year, Ogilvy Cape Town ran a Did You Know campaign for iconic South African bubble gum brand, Chappies, which invited the public to send in their own Did You Know facts for the inside of Chappies wrappers. The campaign was a great success with over 50 000 entries submitted through Facebook and Mxit.

Chappies has since chosen the top 250 facts, which will be printed onto millions of Chappies wrappers this year, along with the fact-finder’s name next to their submission.

To say thank you to South Africa for the massive response and support, Chappies and Ogilvy Cape Town embarked on a week-long, two city, edible street art campaign that made use of tens of thousands of Chappies. The edible murals were visual representations of six of the final 250 new facts, and went up in Woodstock, Khayelitsha, Parkhurst, the Maboneng Precinct, at the Cape Town Station and at Greenside Design College.

Once completed, passersby by were invited to help themselves to pieces of the pictures. These are the results.

Credits:

Executive Creative Director – Chris Gotz

Creative Director - Jamie Mietz, Prabashan Pather

Creative team – Kate Desmarais (CW), Emma Butlin (AD)

Designers – Emma Cook, Emma Butlin, Danielle Clough, Jamie Mietz

Production – SJ Artists

Videography: Steve McDonald (Nice One Steve)

Chappies on Facebook.

Chappies on Twitter.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Khayelitsha | 10 000 Chappies | Designer: Jamie Mietz

Did you know that an octopus has three hearts?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cape Town Station | 9 972 Chappies | Designer: Emma Butlin

Did you know that the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows? It was fashionable in Renaissance Florence to shave them off!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Parkhurst | 10 000 Chappies | Designer: Emma Butlin

Did you know that a watermelon consists of 92% water?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Maboneng | 10 000 Chappies | Designer: Danielle Clough

Did you know that bananas are slightly radioactive, because they are rich in potassium?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Greenside Design College | 10 000 Chappies | Designer: Emma Butlin

Did you know that the surface area of a human lung is half as big as a tennis court?

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Freddy Sam and Gaia collab | Johannesburg

Ways of Seeing opens at /A WORD OF ART this Thursday but is a result of a month long, cross-country painting project, called ACRYLICWALLS.

For the project, a group of both local and international street artists, Freddy Sam (Cape Town), Know Hope (Tel Aviv), Gaia (NY/Baltimore) and Franco JAZ Fasoli (Buenos Aires), created outdoor murals in Cape Town and Johannesburg sharing their perspectives on South Africa. They documented every step of the way through the shared photo journal, acrylicwalls.tumblr.com.

Thursday will see the culmination of the project and the opening of an exhibition featuring the studio work completed by the four artists over this time.

For Ways of Seeing, Know Hope is dealing with images such as flags, fences and borders, researching and examining these symbols and what they represent, with an emphasis on seeing them as ‘things that stand between’. He says, “I’ve been interested in observing these issues, not necessarily from a directly political point of view, but more looking at them and their impact as an emotional mechanism.”

Gaia will be exploring how one person’s freedom is another’s oppression; flattening objects from South Africa’s history and everyday life. JAZ’s work will be an exploration of the idiosyncrasy of the country and how it embraces him and affects his brush stroke. Freddy Sam will be exploring new ways of seeing our country from a different perspective and is inspired to do so by working closely with the other three.

Exhibition details:

Date – January 24th (runs till March 9th)

Time – 7pm

With music by Gary Morris and Marco Nicolas Filby

Facebook event page

Preview walkabout with artists Gaia and Ricky Lee Gordon aka Freddy Sam from 6 to 7pm on the night.

The ACRYLICWALLS street art:

Franco JAZ Fasoli | Johannesburg

Franco JAZ Fasoli | Woodstock

Freddy Sam | Khayelitsha

Gaia, Freddy Sam, Franco JAZ Fasoli and Know Hope collaboration | Johannesburg

Gaia | Khayelitsha

Gaia | Woodstock

Know Hope | Khayelitsha

Know Hope | Woodstock

Know Hope | Johannesburg

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This short film shows the making of Faith47′s ‘Rhapsody’, completed for the Wall Therapy mural project based in Rochester, NY.

See the trailer for Wall Therapy here.

www.faith47.com

Video credits:

Cinematography – Evan Schap and Eamonn McBride
Editing – Evan Schapp
Music – Fever Ray

The post Rhapsody | Faith47 in Rochester, NY 2012 appeared first on Between 10 and 5.

The winner of the Nokia Asha Street Artist search, Lesego Mathaba, recently completed two murals for the brand in Soweto. These are some ‘making of’ pics to show his process.

Lesego is a graphic designer from Johannesburg who specializes in illustration. Find his work at lesie3d.blogspot.com.

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This is the trailer for WALL\THERAPY, the 2012 follow up to 2011′s VISUAL INTERVENTION, a short documentary covering a public art mural project in Rochester, New York. Among local artists, last year’s project involved four Cape Town based street artists – Freddy Sam, DALeast, Faith47 and Mak1one.

This year DALeast and Faith47 went back for round two.

The filmmakers say, “Essentially, what we are doing is a community-level intervention in the form of mural art in the public space. The walls are our vehicle for inspiring and rehabilitating our community. We are intervening visually to address a fundamental collective need of our citizenry, the need for inspiration. In addition and quite literally, the walls on which our “therapists” will paint are being resurfaced and rehabilitated…given new life and energy.”

Find more info at wall-therapy.com

via SJ Artists

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Faith47′s first local solo show Fragments of  Burnt History opens in Johannesburg at David Krut Projects this evening.

We featured the first installment of the exhibition here. The Long Wait, inspired by Alexia Webster’s photographic series Waiting for Work, is a series of street artworks of groups of men in various postures of waiting.

This teaser video for the exhibition, filmed and produced by Rowan Pybus, follows the making of this series. The song is ’Jim comes to Joburg’ by Dolly Rathebe.

Fragments of a Burnt History will be comprised of an installation of found objects and artwork created in the artist’s studio, as well as a new series of monotypes produced in collaboration with the David Krut Print Workshop.

Find the exhibition details here.

Video via WAA

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A winner of the Nokia Asha Street Artist search has been found! Congratulations to Lesego Mathaba, a graphic designer from Johannesburg specializing in illustration, who won the Nokia Asha street art competition with his mural above. He will be taking his skills to the streets by painting two walls in Soweto on the 2nd and 5th of November, we’re excited to see the outcome.

In the meantime, find more of his artwork on his blog.

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The I ART JOBURG project has come to an end, and has left behind 8 epic, large-scale murals in and around the Maboneng Precinct by some of the world’s most admired street artists.

The project, presented by adidas Originals and curated by Ricky Lee Gordon from /A WORD OF ART, follows the 2011 successes of the I ART WOODSTOCK and I ART SOWETO community art projects.

Along with the launch of I ART JOBURG, adidas also officially opened their new multi-purpose creative space, called AREA3. An exhibition about I ART JOBURG (including photos by Martha Cooper) is on display at AREA3 for the months of October and November, where after it’ll move to Cape Town.

Here are the works, all shot by Martha Cooper, and some info on each of the artists.

i-art-joburg.com

The first, ROA, is a Belgiam street artist famous for his distinctive graffiti wildlife. In a short space of time he completed this mural consisting of six massive African animals.

Madrid local Remed visited the Origins Museum shortly after his arrival in Johannesburg, where he went on a tour of ancient rock art. This inspired the first of two murals he painted in the Maboneng Precinct.

Hailing from Overbrook in New York, Steve ‘ESPO’ Powers and the Icy Sign Team are sign-writing connoisseurs. They created two murals with powerful local-oriented messages: “STAY UP”, which was suggested by a hardworking gent by the name of Bekhi and the other “MAMA”, for everybody’s Mama, Africa.

South African graffiti artist, Falko, enjoys creating split pieces, which usually requires three or more separate walls to accomplish. For I ART JOBURG, Falko painted one image and, without making it too complicated, turned it into a little puzzle thereby effectively creating three different murals.

Fine artist Cameron Platter hails from Durban and with I ART JOBURG made the transition from exclusive gallery space to inclusive community space – a dapper salute to the South African street scene, and a confirmation that street art is fine art. Platter’s mural has its origins in the newspaper classifieds, and as always, the subject matter is truly South African.

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