UKRAINE: Sergiy Lysiuk aka ARM – Mural Artist and Contemporary Painter

The artist Sergiy Lysiuk aka ARM from Chernivtsi in the Ukraine started dreaming about doing portraits since he can remember. Back in school time inspired by the Hip Hop culture he just simply started spraying toilets but it soon became a deeply passion and developed in a highly talented skill which he is now doing professionally. On canvas he creates very detailed and elaborated motifs of people, this is more the modern art type for galleries and to hang inside a room. But his first excitement is about bigger pieces on the street and the mighty murals. Like he said: On the street it is like an open gallery and free to watch for anyone.

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USA: Mural Artist and Ecuadorian Graphics – LITUMAISM

Edgar Lituma Soto has traveled to all corners of the world. Tracing a path through colorful alleyways in South America to the swarming, vibrant markets of southeast Asia, his art is an intricate blend of multicultural influences and the visions of the hazy dreamworld between sleep and consciousness. The uniquely artistic member of his native Ecuadorian Sucua family is now a graphic designer and animator by trade, though his downtime is full of creative endeavors—the products of a passion for self-expression. His work has appeared in local galleries, pop-up shows and in mural form. Despite a severe case of chronic wanderlust, Soto calls Atlanta home at the moment.

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GREECE: The COLORS Hotel Thessaloniki – Modern style in historic walls

While staying in Thessaloniki we spend a lot of time on going out, having delicious meals and enjoying the vibrant nightlife. During one of these evenings I met Christina Drakopoulou and asked her, if she knows any graffiti artists or recommendable places for streetart. And yes, she knew. Her place: The Colors Hotel. Actually there are three of them. The Colors Hotels are old remodeled buildings with artworks of local sprayers. Again a magic meeting, it could have been fate or it just happened by accident, but of course we made an appointment for a visit. A few days later I met Christina at the building in 13 Tzimski Street, she showed me the place and we recorded an informative interview, as well we made a little movie about the place and some of the artistic rooms.

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GERMANY: Fotojörg and Graffiti Magazine MAINSTYLE

The photographer Jörg Udo Kuberek, or just “Fotojörg” for short, started documenting Frankfurt graffiti and street paintings at the end of the 1980s. In the beginning there were political slogans on facades or funny slogans on toilet walls, but soon the passionate motivational seeker came across the colorful wild style, characters and just the right graffiti. Over the years, several thousand pictures from the Main metropolis and the region have accumulated – you’d have to print it! The idea for the Mainstyle magazine was born, but initially only seven print editions in black and white were published at the beginning of the 90s. To be exactly, the first one went out on 24th of July in 1990. After a short break with various photo exhibitions on urban street art, but also on other themes such as “Abandoned Places”, Fotojörg went online with Mainstyle in 2011.

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THAILAND: Streetart Bangkok

It is actually not that easy to find graffiti or street paintings in Bangkok. At first you wouldn’t think that and the city is also basically just a single “street art”. A mish-mash of humans strolling around, countless food variations and stalls. Everything is packed with stuff, the buildings and walls are full of trinkets, neon signs, advertisements, cable clutter, hanging laundry or any kind of garbage. But that’s why there is not much room for bigger graffitis there. At least in the center. Of course there are tags everywhere and smaller fast made stuff, but large free wall surfaces are rare and bigger artworks are more found in the outer neighbourhoods or at hidden places.

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CZECHIA: Streetart Prague – Lennon Wall of Freedom – Graffiti and Urban Art Collection

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and is also known as the „City of a Hundred Towers“. It has around 1.3 million inhabitants and lies on the Vltava River. Worth seeing are the colorful baroque buildings in the Old Town, the Gothic churches and medieval buildings. One of the city’s landmarks is the Charles Bridge with a series of statues dating back to 1402. There is also plenty of streetart and graffiti throughout the city, for example one of the probably oldest „Halls of Fame“ in the world, the LENNON WALL, which has been a symbol of freedom and peace since the 1980s.

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NETHERLANDS: Streetart Museum Amsterdam – Gabriele Romagnoli from GRTalk preserves artworks in Virtual Reality

For the past seven years, in collaboration with renown artists worldwide the Street Art Museum Amsterdam – or just SAMA – has built a collection of over 300 pieces that lightens up the walls of one of the most degraded neighborhoods of the city. Many of them are still present in the collection, but around 70% have been removed, demolished or painted over. By the end of this year renovation of the area will start and, even though it is part of the evolution of the urban landscape, the second monumental piece will turn to rubbles. To preserve the artwork long after it will be gone, SAMA together with GRTalk embarked on a project that uses photogrammetry, virtual reality animation and 360° videos to create an experience that merges realities and tell the story of the mural “Fatherhood” from the artist STINKFISH and the already gone artwork “Safety”.

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LITHUANIA: WSUP – Graffiti Shop Vilnius and SPRAY WAY CREW

Paint and colors, graffiti and graphics, these guys know everything about the perfect marker, the best spray cans and where are the wall spots in Vilnius. Actually they are selling all the equipment in their creative shop, as well they are familiar with the streets because they frequently paint themselves wonderful pieces and huge murals around the city and make their surrounding more colorful. They are convinced of what they sell; surely they are using the cans and markers themselves and know what they are talking about. This article is about the fabulous WSUP graffiti shop in Vilnius and the SPRAY WAY CREW.

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