#artivista

[venusinorbit]

‘A train nearly took my head off’: how Lady Pink shook up the macho men of New York’s graffiti scene

Risking arrest, and even decapitation, she ‘bombed’ yards, tunnels and trains in the dead of night. As she brings the spirit of the subway t

She stopped illegally painting subway trains decades ago – “now I save my crazy for the galleries” – but the spirit of the subway lives on in the London show. And she says she’s still paying the price for her years of youthful rebellion. Twelve years ago, she and her husband moved upstate after “one too many” police raids on their home in NYC. “They took my stuff – including my husband – and messed with us. We had to spend money on an expensive attorney. They’ve told me to stick to the indoor stuff and not paint big old murals because they inspire people. I said yeah – community people, poets, artists, I should hope I inspire people!”

One thing is for sure: she doesn’t have any regrets. “Street art is the biggest art movement, we are in every corner of the world. By whatever means possible, we are taking over this world, it’s our whole plan! I think it’s cool, man – you’ve got to take control of your environment. You don’t need an MA to be an artist, you just need a little paint plus a little courage. Just do it!”

[feminismisfor]

[observaciontorcidadelamante]

❗#stayriot❗#stayRebel❗#stayhome❗

👥#Movimiento🎨 #artesanal #Publicitario #Underground #streetart🗣 #aRtivismo 🎨#arteurbano

[revolutionmakers]

[venusinorbit]

S.F. artist Carlos Villa was told there was no such thing as ‘Filipino art.’ So he made history

The first major museum retrospective of a Filipino American artist in the U.S., Carlos Villa's work is a quintessentially San Francisco story.

“Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision,” the first major museum retrospective of a Filipino American artist in the U.S., is a quintessentially San Francisco story about what it means to grapple with the cultural losses of diaspora and nevertheless persist to form a community.

Born in the city in 1936 to immigrant parents, Villa studied at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and Mills College in Oakland. After five years in New York making minimalist sculptures, Villa returned to San Francisco in 1969, feeling a visceral need to be part of the Third World Liberation Front movement, a multiracial coalition formed at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley advocating for ethnic studies, and connect to his roots. Villa remained in San Francisco teaching at SFAI until one year before his death in 2013 at the age of 76, leaving behind a strong network of artists dedicated to the inclusive cause he had championed.

[venusinorbit]

Shamsia Hassani: The Afghan female graffiti artist capturing women's voices | DW | 19.08.2021

Afghanistan's first female street artist depicts Afghan women as they face renewed Taliban threats. Despite the danger, she pursues her work of resistance.

Shamsia Hassani had already reached a certain level of international success over the past years. As Afghanistan's first female graffiti and street artist, known for her bold promotion of women's voices, she had traveled to do on-site murals and participate in residencies and gallery exhibitions in numerous North American, European and Asian countries.

She landed on Foreign Policy's 2014 top 100 global thinkers list and was included in the second volume of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, a best-selling collection of portraits of game-changing women from around the world.

This past week, as the Taliban took power in one Afghan province after another, eventually capturing Kabul, Hassani's presence on social media found even greater resonance.

Two powerful images showing girls in radiant blue carrying images of hope as dark, menacing gun-toting fighters loom over them — expressions of the extreme fear, despair and violent repression Afghan women now face — earned tens of thousands of likes on Instagram and were shared thousands of times on Facebook.

Hundreds of followers commented in response, concerned and praying for the women of Afghanistan and for the Kabul-based Hassani's safety.

[venusinorbit]

Immigrant-Led Art Project Asks Mainers What It Means To Take A Knee

More than 100 Mainers have posed for The Kneeling Art Photography Project, a social justice community art project that aims to spark conversations about racial justice and highlight the diversity across Maine.

When artist Titi de Baccarat first saw someone kneeling as a cultural gesture in the United States, he was both confused and captivated. He watched a man get down on one knee, open a small box, and ask a woman to marry him - a tradition that people in his home country of Gabon did not practice.

Several years later he watched a police officer kneel on the neck of George Floyd, killing him, and sparking protests nationwide.

“I was shocked that the same symbol of love, the same powerful symbol that American people use to build family, to express love, for getting married… the same gesture, somebody uses it to take the life of somebody else,” de Baccarat says.

After Floyd’s death, de Baccarat took to the streets to protest for the first time in his life and witnessed kneeling as a form of activism. De Baccarat moved to Portland, Maine in 2015 as an asylum seeker, and has since been active in the Portland arts community. Inspired by the symbolic power of kneeling in these varied contexts, he began asking people around him what it meant to them. The answers he got led him to start The Kneeling Art Photography Project. The project "aims to promote humanist and social action in the communities of Maine as a response to the local problems of racism and injustices," according to the website.

[venusinorbit]

Advocating for the Syrian refugee crisis through art and architecture

Mohamed Hafez never pictured himself as an artist until he was one. Hafez was born in Damascus, grew up in Saudi Arabia and went to school for architecture in America’s Midwest. After completing his education, Hafez wanted to return to Syria. However, in 2003, George W. Bush implemented the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System. NSEERS required that Muslim immigrants be interrogated and documented every time they left or returned to the U.S. This made it difficult for Hafez to return home, according to Hafez in his Zoom presentation, “Unpacked: Exploring Refugee Stories through Art,” on Wednesday night.

“Out of homesickness one night I started collecting some materials that I had collected because [as] architecture students we build a lot of models so [we] end up with a lot of scrap materials,” Hafez said. “And I remember this was the very first piece I did, one night I started working on this piece and I found it very therapeutic, cathartic and healing. Of course, I was too young and naive to understand therapeutic art. I was connecting to home and it passed time. I worked on it for twelve hours straight because I really enjoyed it. So I started making more, so I started developing this interest in architecture and art.”

At the start of his art career, Hafez only created his three-dimensional models of Damascus as a pastime while he worked at an architectural firm. His artwork is characterized by his experience growing up in Damascus. He described Damascus as having not only  beautiful architecture, but also a mosque next to a synagogue, next to a church and an art gallery with nude sculptures that contained thousands of years of history.

“I was emotionally attached to this place that I was witnessing being blown out of existence in the Syrian world,” Hafez said. “I would come home from this busy day and I see images like this, seeing beautiful cities like Damascus, Aleppo being wiped out of existence …  we all saw in the Syrian war there isn’t any shortage of blood. The atrocities … were sort of broadcasted right in front of our eyes 24/7, but for me … I was witnessing the atrocities as an architect, not only a Syrian.”