"Collapse": junk papers collage.

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Click: Jon Batiste, Freedom

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Legacy of Street Art

Spotlighting Women Leading the Genre

Medianeras, “The Crystal Ship” (2021) in Ostend, Belgium.

For street artists, the urban landscape is an infinite canvas. Whether wheat pasted, sprayed, or layered with brushes, vibrant compositions revitalize public spaces and provide an ever-evolving barometer of the political climate and current affairs. The genre has been historically dominated by men, but a new book by journalist Alessandra Mattanzaand Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art founder Stephanie Utz shifts the dial.

Elle, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg” (2020) in New York City

Women Street Artists spotlights the diverse practices of 24 graffiti and mural artists hailing from around the globe who work in a variety of styles, from large-scale public projects like Camilla Falsini’s vibrant pavement composition in Milan to striking interventions like Olek’s pink, crocheted coverlet for “Charging Bull,” Wall Street’s masculine bronze sculpture. Each finds walls, sidewalks, demolished structures, prison cells, grain silos, and other nontraditional surfaces to express ideas around feminism and empowerment, body imagery, racism, the climate crisis, and other critical issues.

Camilla Falsini, “Tactical Urban Planning Intervention” (2020) in Milan, Italy.

#LEDIESIS, “Superwomen” (2019) in Italy

Olek, “Charging Bull” (2010), Wall Street, New York City

Christina Angelina in collaboration with Ease One (2015) in Miami, Florida

You can find a copy of Women Street Artists on Bookshop.org, available now in the U.K. and scheduled for release in the U.S. on December 6

A few more of Demura Sensei's student

After last class training in Honbu Dojo

May 29, 2016

A 6 +minute video,The Artist Who Couldn't Draw, here

Just because ...

Spot-billed Duck

Thursday's Smiles ...

"Mother and Child": Drawing, digitized.

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Click: Jacob & Daniel Caesar, Time Alone w/ You.

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Mammoth Straw Creatures Populate Japanese Farmland in the Annual Wara Art Festival

All images courtesy of Wara Art Festival

If you were to visit Japan’s Niigata Prefecture during the region’s annual rice harvest, you’re likely to find enormous tarantulas, eagles, and dinosaur-like creatures stalking the bucolic landscape. The towering sculptures are part of the Wara Art Festival, a summertime event where massive animals, mythical creations are fashioned from the crop’s leftover straw.

Traditionally, the byproduct is used as livestock feed, for compost that revitalizes the soil, and to craft household goods like zori sandals, although farmers increasingly have found themselves with a surplus as agricultural technology and culture changes. This shift prompted a partnership between the people of the former Iwamuro Village, which is now Nishikan Ward, and Tokyo’s Musashino Art University (known colloquially as Musabi) in 2006. At the time, Department of Science of Design professor Shingo Miyajima suggested that the unused straw be used in a collaborative art project between the university and local farmers, resulting in the first Wara Art Festival in 2008.

Today, students design the oversized characters—you can see previous year’s creations in this gallery—and artisans from Nishikan Ward construct the wooden armature and thatched bodies. The monumental figures stand as high as 30 feet, looming over the green landscape in a playful celebration of local culture.