Spraycan Swat Team Covers Entire Train with Graffiti in Minutes

Compared to some of the street artists featured on Watch. Read. Repeat. who tend to, relatively speaking, take their time when creating their images, this group in Germany is a friggin graffiti swat team.

“A” Train Dancers Bust a Move on the NYC Subway

The unexpected and spontaneous can often be a lot more fun than planned and calculated.  This is one of the reasons I love street art.  A chance encounter with a captivating image can be an enthralling experience.  Not limited to spray paint on concrete, street artists and performers share their talents in unexpected venues, as do these dancers on a New York City subway car.

Scratching the Surface with Portuguese Street Artist “Vhils”

Only 23 years young, contemporary Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, chips away at established notions with his destructive approach to street art.  Reverse graffiti, architectural sculpture, creative vandalism?  Whatever you chose to call it, the images he scratches into building facades with jackhammer and pick are downright mesmerizing, haunting even.  Weather-worn faces gazing out from alleyways, lonely apparitions consigned to oblivion.

Banksy Creates “The Simpsons” Opening. Dark, Political… Surprise.

This past weekend’s “The Simpsons” took their regular opening credits “couch gag” somewhere they haven’t been before.  Dark… actually, very dark and unexpectedly thought pervoking (unexpectedly until you realize who storyboarded it, that is).  Riffing on slave labor-like conditions in Asian factories, that happen to be making “Simpsons” animation slides and dvds, the opening sequence was created by none other than our favorite guerilla street artist Banksy.  (video after the jump) 

TURF FEINZ Crew – Turf Dancing in the Rain – YAK FILMS

Dedicated to youth-led multimedia production, YAK Films started as a mixed team of  young photographers and filmmakers looking to offer an alternative to what they consider “played-out mainstream media”.  And here at Watch.Read. Repeat., we’re all for supporting that mission.   

Per YAK’s website, their work with urban dance began with the TURF FEINZ crew from Oakland, CA, innovators of the TUF dancing style.  Appraise for yourself the modestly magnificent camera work (and superhuman foot work) in the video below.

Drainspotting: Japan’s Beautiful Manhole Covers

As the title suggests, Remo Camerota’s blog Drainspotting,  requires an eye for the odd bursts of color along city streets.  The covers are part of a 20 year beautification program between Japanese cities and various foundries to make manhole covers that reflect the particular culture of the city in which it’s located.

Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art

Wooster Collective founders edit a new book of the most astounding outlaw street art

Books on street art are as common as taggers who think they’re going to be the next Banksy. So when we heard the elusive artist himself wrote the intro to “Trespass,” a book billing itself as a “A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art,” we decided to take a closer look.

Brooklyn Street Art, “Mutual Discrepancy” by GAIA & NohJColey

Straight outta Brooklyn, brooklynstreetart.com tracks the new creative spirit that runs in the streets, the artist studios, and galleries of New York and beyond. New hybrids, new techniques, and new mediums are expanding the definition of public art, street art, graffiti, and urban art; each vying for the attention of passers-by.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

By Michael Kurcfeld

Today we take it for granted when seeing graffiti art in a posh gallery, but arguably the first artist to channel the urban street frequencies of his time and get it onto the “white walls with white people with white wine” was Jean-Michel Basquiat.

In 1988 this singularly gifted artist, who had leapt to fame in Warhol’s New York, died of a drug overdose at the age of 27. Filmmaker Tamra Davis took all of the footage she had shot of her good friend, including a never-seen interview and B-roll of him working in his studio, and put it in away in a drawer. 20 years later, she decided it was not hers to hide anymore and made it the core of a superb documentary, Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.

Got MPG? Derringer Cycles Go 150 on a Gallon of Gas and Look Great Doing So

Derringer is the neo-classical interpretation of a 1920’s era board track racing motorcycle, but that’s not all.  Designed by world-renowned industrial designer, Adrian Van Anz, this revolutionary moto-hybrid was conceived as an exciting new option in highly-efficient transportation.  

Pier Pressure: Banksy’s Politically Charged Dolphin Ride Mocks BP

If you think this dolphin looks furious — it is — and with good reason!

This colorful kiddie ride comes courtesy of gleeful art prankster Banksy, an artist well known for his graffiti and politically charged installations.