Smot and his lace world

First time I saw the works of Smot in March this year. Since that time he/she has developed a lot and we can notice more and more works on the Parisians walls. As far I couldn't find nor his website, fun page nor the Flickr account and so on. Maybe in the future he will add more information on the web about himself/herself, at least I'm waiting for that.

The only work I came across that was not placed within the lace plate is the one presented below. Funny beetle with one big eye, strong human arms and a crown above the "head" may represents many things. The quickest and simplest association that came to my mind was a suggestion of supernatural power of the smallest creature and/or nature...which will rule one day??? Creepy cartoon...I'd better leave it to others to figure it out.

The rest of the Smot's art works are always place in the middle of the circle-shaped plate framed by the lace. It has become his strong trademark already (I'm wondering how he cuts it out each time). Anyway, as a subject different things are chosen: faces, parts of the human body and simple objects (though, mostly those very sharp and dangerous are taken into account). Next step is to create something completely new from given object by adding supernatural value to it. 

Below: truly beautiful mind or nature combined with the human body (like a beetle above) as a new supernatural value?

Also, it's possible, that Smot wants to show, that we perceive the things, which seem to us at first glance: ugly, brutal, sharp, boring, ordinary etc., much more differently, only when it is placed within a pretty frame or has a nice "package". Like on the picture below, we don't see the saw blade as fast as the lace around, which grabs all the attention at first glance.

Explosive grenade with the butterfly wings. New supernatural object only or a sarcastic perception of the reality?

Moreover, Smot produces the white&black lace plates as well. Nice work compiling the strong contrast between simplified graphic of the face and complicated-rich in form lace.

One uknown artist revealed - Stewearth!

In August'13 second post from the series "Unknown artists" has appeared on this blog. The Gallery of Unknown Artists (part II-stencil). Well, I'm very happy to have discovered recently (completely by chance) the name of one of the authors. Then, I'm posting again this "lucky" stencil here:

"Jizo" by Stewearth

As I wrote in a previous post: "This one wasn't easy to notice. Down the wall, somewhere between the gutter and old electrical box. Stencil was hidden like this samurai is hidden under his huge hat." 

The name of the artist is Stewearth and name of this stencil work: Jizo. Wikipedia says that Jizo is: "a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism, usually depicted as a Buddhist monk in the Orient". 

On his website we can see that Stewearth is very busy with different kinds of art: stencil, graffiti, poster/paste-up, exhibitions, street art, clothing etc. The main motifs are usually intertwined with Asian culture (Japan, China etc)  but also many of them with Japanese series of fighting games. 

Stewearth

Couldn't find the name of this work though. But maybe these warriors don't have any, as Stewearth draws quite a lot of different versions of them... Waiting for more!

Expressions of the city - faces of Paris

Probably it doesn't exist, the more interesting subject for artist than a human face (except entire human body of course). Why? Well, what could be more expressive? Moreover, the street artists want to catch our attention much more than the other artists do, and nothing is more intriguing and eye-catching than a wall, that we're just passing. Especially, when it has its own proper eyes and observing us at the very moment...

Let's start with the most famous street-face of Paris. Just next to the Pompidou Center and occupying an entire wall, there's an art piece made by the "father" of street art - Jef Aerosol. As we can read in Wikipedia: Aérosol (French stencil graffiti artist born in 1957 in Nantes) is represented by several galleries in France and abroad. He made the cover and gave its name to the first book ever published about street stencils: "Vite Fait, Bien Fait". His trademark is the little red arrow, which appears on each and every work of him. Nobody really knows to what it refers. To reveal by everybody by his own. 

Jef Aerosol

This "lovely" face of Jack Nicholson ( The Shining movie, 1980)  was taken as a subject for the work of the young artist Zona Yarost. The artist's comment for this stencil is: "La salle de bain est libre?" ("The bathroom is free?"). As far I noticed that Zona likes to "pick up" the topic that are somewhat connected with war, violence, macabre etc...

Zona Yarost

Next photo shows two different works from two different artists. First one, unknown, is playing with the words: "STREET TARTE" (which refers to "STREET ART"). Whilst it's neither most subtle nor most complicated play on words, another artist, Petrus von Tricht, allows himself to comment it with his own paste-up, saying: " un homme banal" ("an ordinary man"). Petrus von Tricht likes to use the walls as a sort of common dialog between the artists, but there will be another post about him. 

Unknows artist and Petrus von Tricht

LomoZano has worked on a lot of faces already, but this little series presented below, illustrates Parisian women together with different fashion (particular for different times), general moods of it,  etc... More or less elaborated works, thus I think it would be better to produce less and focus more on the quality of it.

Parisienne pleine d'amour (Parisian woman full of love)

Lomo Zano

Parisienne oui! J'aime les anness 30 (Parisienne, yes! I like the 30s)

Parisienne melancolique (Melancholic parisienne)

Lomo Zano

Parisienne gourmande (Gourmand/greedy parisienne)

Parisienne reveuse (Dreamy parisienne)

Lomo Zano

Clown face. Artist unknown, though it didn't appear in one place but in a few already. Maybe the artist will unveil his name soon.

Unknown artist

This unbelievable expressive face was done by an unknown (as far) artist, but at least I managed to find who's face is it. It belongs to the French comedian, actor and political activist Dieudonné M'bala M'bala (wikipedia). If somebody is interested, here you can buy the tickets for his next "show".

Unknown artist

I left my two favourites for the very end. Fred le Chevalier and Madame. Fred's character, the little boy with a bird in his hand, says this time: "J'habite un maison en mai" - "I live in a house in Mai". Fred being poetic, like always.

Fred le Chevalier

Madame's collage presented below, I found completely by chance, behind some trash, tree and cardboard...We can see little vignette-like saying "Les secrets culinaires de Madame" (Madame's culinary secrets), which announces (probably) the whole series of those "culinary" paste-ups.

Madame Mustache

The rest says: "La cuisine c'est bien meilleur quand c'est relevé". It's a bit hard to translate this French phrase literally, but more less it goes: "Cooking/cuisine is much better, when it's sublime/lofty". 

Madame Mustache

Miam miam!

The Gallery of Unknown Artists (part II-stencil)

Second part of the gallery dedicated for the artists that didn't sign their own works. Like I mentioned in my previous post (The Gallery of Unknown Artists part I), this time I will present only stencil/graffiti works. If someone recognizes some of the artist, I would be thankful for giving a name in the comment below the post.

First two photos are about money. 1 Franc to get a toy from the machine; and one-dollar bill "says": "Winter is coming". (the photos were taken in March 2013).  

Enamored couple, or Les Amoureux (in French) is the stencil work showing gey couple kissing. But as we look closer - it's not a modern couple from 21st century. We can see (at least it's my impression) two princes taken out directly from Disney cartoons. What the artist wanted to say? Disney male characters are "too" gay??? 

 No comment needed. Simple WTF.

One of the most beautiful stencil I've ever seen as far. Jim Morrison  - Back in 10 minutes. What makes it even more powerful is the fact, that this stencil we can find near the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, so the place where Jim Morisson "sleeps" till today... 

A bit further, but still in the same district of the cemetery we can find this ballet dancer.

It doesn't happen very often, to find a work under our feet, on the pedestrian way. This way it won't last too long. But what makes it even more interesting, after googling what's written on it: "Kolsch Loreley", I found a piece of nice music instead of website of the artist. Really great idea (a collaboration between two artists or auto-promotion?) and nice to listen to! Kolsch Loreley

Bestiary of Codex Urbanus

Codex Urbanus, the pseudonym of the French artist born in Paris in 1974, is closely associated with his art. There's no official website, just account on tumblr or artslant. The artist describes his art as: figurative and surrealistic. 

It appears as incredibly large urban encyclopedia of all kinds of species and creatures, which are the mix of prehistoric animals, video games inspirations and own artist's imagination. Of course, it's not a typical encyclopedia -  it exists only on the city walls and only for short period of time (usually). 

There's an interview with Codex Urbanus in French, where he explains that "Codex Urbanus is an urban work, which echoes the medieval or Aztec illustrated manuscripts." 

Another part of the interview: "How would you describe the style of Codex Urbanus?". "Free - would be the first adjective. I need to be very decisive whilst graphic defining the animal and at the same time very fast and stealthy. I can't afford to be as detailed with my drawings as, for instance, the painter/drawer in the Natural History Museum."

"What's the goal of you'r work?" (another quote from interview). "The first goal is undoubtedly, to offer a dream to the people and make the walls more beautiful. I like to see the interactions between the people and my animals, to see them taking photos. Second would be to create a permanent and coherent bestiary* in Paris, but it's an every day hard work, as the species disappear (under the municipal painting) from the walls very quickly." 

*a medieval book [usually illustrated] with allegorical and amusing descriptions of real and fabled animals

Konny's statements

First two photos were taken in February this year. It looked like somebody adopted a theme of Kate Moss face as a main theme of his/her work. Recently in Paris, we can discover a whole lot of those. Konny Steding, that's the name of German artist behind these street art works. This summer she went out into the streets around Centre Pompidou, which is her favorite place in Paris since very long.

We can't really find too much information neither on her website, nor on her Facebook page. Any personal story is given, besides of CV and some short movie, with the statement saying: "It took a few years to see that not talking was better than talking too much" - Marcel Duchamp. 

This explains the philosophy of Konny's art. She decided to show her work, very expressive portraits (usually) instead of creating the story around herself, that sometimes might be faster than the art. As a active painter and street artist, she's been present on the artist scene since '94 already and most of the time cooperates with the art gallery named: Moretti & Moretti (website).

"God save the art-institutions"

"God save the art-institutions" sounds pretty funny in this situation, as she has pasted-up a lot of her work on the walls around the city. Maybe this way she claims that there's no point to exhibit your work in the galleries only, but at the same time the "art institution" still remains as the only true "home" for it?

"God save the art-institutions"

All the portraits, besides of being expressive in itself, have the expressive titles, too. Such as, for example: "Fight back", "We all love you", "O.M.G", "No need to panic" etc.

"You are freaking me out"

"ONEK", it's just a signature of another artist that was done in purpose, or by mistake, because the art work belongs to Konny.

Birdy kids' parisian invasion

First time I noticed Birdy Kids in February this year. Funny bird packed in the square, made by three young artists, who founded Birdy Kids in 2010. They say about their street art, that is funny, colorful and for everybody. 

After 4 months I came back to the same place in Paris and what I've seen: they are still there, they occupy this place constantly. 

 This summer they decided to be omnipresent in Paris.

Moreover, there's been some evolution within the characters, because besides of Birdy Kids, we have now Snaky Kids also... Apparently...

Super Birdy?