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Pow! Wow! Taiwan 2014 Recap Part 2

What happens when you give 40 street artists hundreds of cans of spray paint and let them loose in Taipei? As the Pow! Wow! team took over the Taiwanese capital, the cityscape was covered with murals by artists visiting from around the world alongside those based there.

James Jean stands in front of his work. Photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta and Vincent Ricafort/Pow! Wow!

The largest wall of Pow! Wow! Taiwan was in the Ximen district with murals that wrapped around the an entire city block. Pow Wow co-director Kamea Hadar with the help of Jeffrey Gress (both based in Hawaii) began with a photorealistic woman’s face at the corner where the two massive walls met. Visiting and local artists painted murals extended from either side. Taiwanese greats Bobo and Mr. Ogay added orange cartoon faces and Debe laid down some of his street-style lettering on the opposite wall.

Pow! Wow! Taiwan is all about colliding the worlds of street art. About half of the participating artists are Taiwanese and active in the local scene. The week of May 28 through June 3, they had the opportunity to work together in the same city and in many cases on the same walls as the visiting artists, many of whom you may recognize from previous editions of Pow! Wow! Hawaii. As the week progressed, you could watch as collaborations grew and extended beyond the newly finished walls. The last couple days, a few unplanned murals began springing up. See more images from Pow! Wow! Taiwan below and see Part 1 of our coverage here if you missed it.

James Jean’s monochromatic mural stands out against the dark concrete. Photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta and Vincent Ricafort/Pow! Wow!

James Jean painting. Photo by Anna Carey/Hi-Fructose.

Detail of James Jean’s mural. Photo by Anna Carey/Hi-Fructose.

Collaboration between Yok and Sheryo at the Taipei Zoo. Photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta and Vincent Ricafort/Pow! Wow!

A mural by Woes Martin stretches along a staircase. Photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta and Vincent Ricafort/Pow! Wow!

Woes Martin with his work. Photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta and Vincent Ricafort/Pow! Wow!

Warped pandas by Woes Martin. Photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta and Vincent Ricafort/Pow! Wow!

A collaboration between Rone and Aaron De La Cruz juxtaposes portraiture with design. Photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta and Vincent Ricafort/Pow! Wow!

Mr. Ogay painting, protected by the scaffolding. Photo by Anna Carey/Hi-Fructose.

Collaboration between Kamea Hadar, Jeff Gress and Reach. Photo by Anna Carey/Hi-Fructose.

The piece continues along the same wall with pieces by Debe and others. Photo by Anna Carey/Hi-Fructose.

Topics

mural, Pow! Wow! Taiwan, street art

art, gats, graffiti, jessica hess, oil painting, painting, street art

May 5, 2014

Jessica Hess often tells people she paints landscapes, but "landscape" doesn't quite sum up the documentary function of her work. Her oil paintings are not about the buildings and the trees, but rather an ephemeral, fragile moment: when graffiti gets put up on city walls. The future of a piece of graffiti is unstable — it could be buffed or tagged the next day. Its longevity is unpredictable. Hess memorializes these ephemeral artistic expressions, choosing broken-down, tagged-up locales that inspire her in her daily surroundings in Oakland and San Francisco. Curator Ken Harman shared a story about how a group of people were moved by Hess's work when they saw the tag of their deceased friend in one of her paintings — an insignia that had heretofore been eradicated from the walls on which it was painted. His presence lives on in her work.

Pose Paints Vibrant New Installation in Detroit’s Belt

Library Street Collective, mural, Pose, street art, urban art

May 29, 2015

Chicago artist Pose recently rocked an installation in Detroit’s Belt, an alley in the city’s downtown that has been converted into an outdoor art exhibition space, curated by Library Street Collective. Already filled with art from some of the world’s leading street and contemporary artists, Pose has added to the madness with his signature collage of vibrant colors and cartoony textures. See more photos after the jump, courtesy Library Street Collective.

TwoOne’s Interdisciplinary Artworks Explore Masks and Rituals

Hiroyasu Tsuri, street art, TwoOne

June 6, 2014

Known on the street by his alias TwoOne (a name that is nearly impossible to Google successfully), Hiroyasu Tsuri is a Japanese-born, Berlin-based artist whose interdisciplinary practice extends from murals and paintings to sculptures and ritualistic performances. The artist is interested in the concept of masks as a way to deduce the universal qualities of human psychology. His anthropomorphic animal portraits — though they may recall many types of mythologies, from Japanese to Native American — are devoid of a specific cultural context. Instead, TwoOne attempts to tap into the traits that make all human beings tick. His massive murals exhibit curiosity, jealousy, lust and loneliness, tying a thread between the experiences of humans and other creatures.

The Power, Movement in Case Maclaim’s Murals

Case Maclaim, mural, Spray Paint

August 30, 2017

Case Maclaim is the moniker of German artist Andres Von Chrzanowski, a muralist known as a co-founder of the Maclaim Group, a troupe known for using spray paint to combine photorealism and surrealism on public walls. In particular, the artist is known as one to “embrace the power of movement through the universality of hands.”

Pow! Wow! Taiwan 2014 Recap Part 2

On View: Jessica Hess and GATS at Hashimoto Contemporary

Pose Paints Vibrant New Installation in Detroit’s Belt

TwoOne’s Interdisciplinary Artworks Explore Masks and Rituals

The Power, Movement in Case Maclaim’s Murals

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