The Arteur

Tobias Batz

Tobias Batz' work, a fusion of fashion photography and street art, is a respectful celebration of the female sprit. It reflects the urban landscape of New York City and its inhabitants. His cutting edge use of photography, body painting, spray paint and experimental methods of digital processing pays homage to Andy Warhol, Frederico Fellini, Man Ray and edgy fashion photographers such as Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon.

These works of art can only be called “pictures,” not “paintings,” or “drawings,” for he creates them with paint, and drawing, and photography, and digitized electronic synthesis and editing, a “palate” of all the means that the 21st Century offers to the visual artist.

Why not use them all freely interchangeably and synergistically in single works of art? Why not? You really think that given the chance Leonardo DaVinci wouldn’t have computer enhanced some of his paintings? Or that the late Renaissance Dutch hyper-realists wouldn’t have creamed in their velvet jeans to have been able to play with real photography instead of mere camera obscura?

Tobias Batz knows this very well, using paints, dyes, photos, Photoshop, computer synthesis, whatever, to create images of his urban dreamers, by a 21st. Century artist who has been one of them, and for the evolution of this multi-mode palette as the dominant creative mode of 21st. Century art. An art in which the multiplex means of its creation is entirely unbound and beside the true point of all visual art. Sorry Marshall McLuhan, but in the 21st Century, the medium is not the message, but only a delivery system for the message. The message is not the means with which it was created or the material matrix in which it exists. The message is the image itself.

Ian "Kid Zoom" Strange

Ian Strange also known as Kid Zoom is a street artist with large vision. Born in Australia, he now resides in New York CIty and creates a range of large paintings for both internal and external display. His latest works are entirely freehand aerosol spray paintings that show a remarkable facility with the medium. Kid-Zoom is relatively new to the street art scene but has already gathered a devoted following and an appreciation from other established street artists like Ron English. 

Dan Witz

Dan Witz, born 1957, Chicago, IL, is a street artist in the finest sense. He attended Cooper Union in New York City’s East Village. In 1982 he received a NEA grant and in 1992 and 2000 fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His first book, “The Birds of Manhattan” was published in 1983 by Skinny Books. Solo exhibitions include Semaphore Gallery NY (1985,1986), Clementine Gallery (1996), StolenSpace, London (2007); DFN Gallery NY (2003-5, 6, 7, 8, 10) and Carmichael Gallery, LA (2009). Group exhibitions include: Buying Time: Nourishing Excellence, Sotheby’s NY(2001); and Fifteen, NYFA Fellows at Deutsche Bank, NY (1999). Submission (curated by Juxtapoz) Fuse Gallery NY (2005); From The Streets of Brooklyn, Think­space Art Gallery, LA (2009) and Beach Blanket Bingo, Jonathan Levine Gallery NY(2009). Dan lives and works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Prolific author, video star and artist.

 

Ron English

One of the most prolific and recognizable artists alive today, Ron English has bombed the global landscape with unforgettable images, on the street, in museums, in movies, books and television. English coined the term POPaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, populated with his vast and constantly growing arsenal of original characters, including MC Supersized, the obese fast-food mascot featured in the hit movie “Supersize Me,” and Abraham Obama, the fusion of America’s 16th and 44th Presidents, an image widely discussed in the media as directly impacting the 2008 election. Other characters carousing through English’s art, in paintings, billboards, and sculpture include three-eyed rabbits, udderly delicious cowgirls and grinning skulls, blending stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America’s Premier Pop Iconoclast.

Lucas Price

 
Heralded as a new star in the art world, the artist – whose familiar skeletal, giant toothed street art works with painting partner, Sweet Toof, Lucas Price's work can be seen in high profile spots all over the capital, and the world.

Doze Green

Doze Green was born and raised in the upper west side of Manhattan, New York City and was one of the pioneers of the Hip-Hop culture. He first started writing graffiti in his neighborhood in 1974, and started painting subway trains in 1976. The following year he joined the Rock Steady Crew. The Rock Steady Crew were pioneers of a new style of dance known as breakdancing or B-Boying. The crew first started dancing at art exhibitions and galleries of Soho and the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
 
During this time Doze Green was also attending the High School of Art and Design, where some of the most talented and well-respected graffiti artists came from. Artists such as Lady Pink, Daze, Ernie Valdez, Seen TC5, , , Mr. Wiggles, Mare 139, and numerous others. In 1982 Doze Green showed his artwork in a well-known group show at the Fun Gallery. At this same time after appearances in major movies such as Flashdance, Style Wars, and Wildstyle, the Rock Steady Crew was launched into action and the limelight.
 
From B-boy to graffiti legend, Doze Green has gone to tagging the hallways of South Bronx projects to designing for clothing lines like Kikwear and Ecko. In the process, he's become a proponent of the avant-garde "fusionistic" art movement. Best known for his characters, Doze Green has begun to concentrate on canvases that blend wildstyle techniques with metaphysical concepts. Doze Green is also known for his live painting performances. Doze Green’s work is in many public and private collections throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, and Australia. His works have been published in BlackBook, Anthem, Juxtapoz, Tokion, and Vibe and reviewed on CNN.
 

Eric Felisbret

 Eric Felisbret is a former graffiti artist and acknowledged authority on New York City graffiti. Along with his brother Luke, he created www.at149st.com, a comprehensive online documentation of New York City graffiti. Eric Felisbret is a graffiti artist and historian, widely admired for his traditional style and vast knowledge. Active in the graffiti gallery scene, his paintings have been featured in Spraycan Art and Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City.

Charles Ugas

Charles "Ooge" Ugas is a multi faceted illustrator who works with an assortment of mediums but is mostly known for his clean pen and ink drawings. He has worked with legendary artist Ralph Bakshi (Cool World, Fritz the Cat, Spice City), Mark Texiera (Conan, Black Panther), BadBoy Entertainment, Universal Records, Dirt T Shirts Apparel Company, Vexed Comics and Double Barrel Studios.

Current projects include a graphic novel that could expand into a trilogy. His work is political, edgy and very sharp. I would like to request more large scale paintings from "Ooge".

 

Randy Gilson

Randy Gilson is a Pittsburgh based artist who is committed to adding a touch of art to some of his city's most devasted areas and neighborhoods. Randy is both an artist and an activist whose street art efforts are nothing short of beautiful and amazing. Here is a video of his process:

Os Gemeos

Os Gêmeos (Portuguese for The Twins) are graffiti artist identical twin brothers (born 1974) from Sao Paulo, Brazil, whose real names are Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and gradually became a main influence in the local scene, helping to define Brazil's own style. Their work often features yellow-skinned characters - taken from the yellow tinge both of the twins have in their dreams - but is otherwise diverse and ranges from tags to complicated murals. Subjects range from family portraits to commentary on São Paulo's social and political circumstances, as well as Brazilian folklore. Their graffiti style was influenced by both traditional hip hop style and the Brazilian pixaco movement.

The twins work is extraordinary - often covering huge walls or sides of buildings. Now their art is being honored in a new updated book on World Graffiti called, appropriately, Graffiti World. The book contains street art from more than 150 street artists from around the world.

world.