Ybor City is an historic neighbourhood close to downtown Tampa Florida. It was founded in the 1880s and was home to a large immigrant population, many of whom were employed in cigar making factories. The cigar industry, and the city, flourished from the 1890s to the Great Depression of the 1930s when demand for cigars dropped.
below: Viva Ybor! Painted by Chico Garcia in 2012. It features a portrait of Vincente Martinez Ybor who brought the cigar making industry to this part of Florida.
A large mural in Girona Spain painted by Erica Il Cane (ericailcane) oof a crocdile with wings on its back.
Over the years her scaly skin has lost its greenish blue colour but otherwise she is aging well.
From Wikipedia: “According to legend, she was once a nun who, due to her lack of faith, was punished and imprisoned in the dungeon of the city’s monastery, and could only leave to go to the river that runs through the city (Onyar River). After many years, due to her undernourishment and isolation, she grew scales until she fully metamorphosed into a crocodile-like creature. In spite of this punishment, she was still somewhat saintly, which manifested as a pair of butterfly wings.
A long stretch of railway is elevated as it passes through the city of Girona, Spain. A bicycle and pedestrian path runs underneath. Some of the pillars supporting the railroad have been decorated by street artists.
below: Birds in flight
below: Cyop & Kaf have painted a few of the pillars with their black silhouette-like people such as this stolen kiss.
or this very tall man – He’s all tied up with his feet in the mud? in concrete?
below: KRAM is responsible for two pillars including this blue character on a swing.
below: The other KRAM pillar is this one – quite different from the first.
below: Two pandas
below: A brush to clean the toilet bowl. Not your average painting subject matter.
below: A few pillars are decorated with these red and blue guys – stylized yet anatomically correct – painted by Boris Hoppek
Take a few abandoned downtown Hamilton buildings and add large size artworks by a diverse group of artists and you have the makings of the Wheat Paste Anti Gallery. No artist’s statements, no words on the wall. This is the project has been brought to life by jumblefacefoto, aka Jeremy Lynch (including the producing, printing, and pasting of all the images in the installation).
In this blog post I want to show you the artists whose work now on display “in” Hamilton’s first Anti Gallery (in no particular order). First, Invasive Animal has taken over the front of the Oakwood Place building at 1067 Barton Street East where a sign says “Hop Canadian”. Once upon a time it said, “Save our jobs, shop Canadian”. Also once upon a time, this was a restaurant/bar. Now the animals have taken over.
Some of the animals:
Next door to the Oakwood was a Shoe King store. The “king” is gone and plywood covers its windows and doors; now it is a gallery wall for crkshnk (pronounced crookshank), an artist from New York City. All the images across the storefront are his work.
Another artist on display here is 33wallflower33. Her (and I am assuming that!) women and children evoke a previous age and often have a message to deliver.
My body, my choice.
Next, Brazilian artist antype (aka Luciano Costa) and Stephen Conner (from London England) share space on a building at John and Main.
below: A sample of antype’s black and white distorted portrait-like images.
Circles…..
… floppy circles, planetary circles, and planetary hats.
Stephen Conner’s images are also portrait-like but they are darker.
Installed in May 2023, gone by September 2023….. Urban Ninja Squadron’s T-bonez character livened up a stretch of blank wall at James and Wilson.
Last, but definitely not least, a series of images, or firegrams, by Danielle Goshay pasted onto the facade of the old Colonial Hotel building.
As mentioned above, all works were produced, printed, and pasted by jumblefacefoto
…. or perhaps humans in cat costumes. Love and peace and a frilly tutu.
below: More cats, cats climbing up the wall, signed by eunice.music (aka Eunice Brito) and kosuke_james
below: A concerned looking cat – maybe the ball and chain around his leg is going to be a problem?
below: The yellow and red background pattern was painted by 7 Line Art Studio (aka Duel Ris) and I suspect that the dog was added later by someone else.
below: A second dog, this one in bold shapes and bright primary colours.
This is a post about collecting pictures of all the stickers and pasteups by the artist who goes by the name Sold Out Art Show. We found many as we walked around Brooklyn, the Lower East Side, and other parts of New York City. Sold Out’s characters all have multiple pairs of eyes, often six or seven eyes in total. They also all have a little red broken heart and the word OH! in a corner.
below: Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring”
Last year, canvases with paintings of these ‘portraits’ (and many others) were hung around the city and each was free to take. They are long gone now!
below: Multiple personalities in one place
below: Very recognizable as Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Mona Lisa” even with the extra eyes and the pink hair.
below: This fellow ended up with 14 eyes and bright green hair.
below: And this shocked fellow still has the green hair, but his mustache is half green and half white.
.
below: Collaboration with The Clay Universe aka Christopher G. Villano as well as Robots Will Kill – very blue and very hairy.
Re-visiting Rochester to see how some of their older murals have fared.
400 Atlantic Ave. is a brick building that parallels the railway tracks. It was built in 1920 as an Ice Block Factory to service rail cars but has since been converted to offices and storage space.
The view at street level and still looking good – Abstract shapes stretch out along Atlantic in a painting by Italian artist Peeta, aka Manuel Di Rita.
below: On the other side of the building, is Aaron Li-Hill’s “Together we Fall” from 2015 Wall Therapy event.
Across the driveway, at 410 Atlantic –
Perhaps these squares aren’t really considered “street art” as they are more in keeping with the building’s prior use as a children’s centre/school,
but they do help to brighten up an otherwise dull and ordinary section of the street.
below: Brazilian artist Eder Muniz’s mural features vibrantly coloured animals and fantasy creatures dancing and swimming along the wall in their own little parade Blue of water; blue of air.
below: One of the most human-like character in the mural carries a long serpentine pennon in front of an elephant that is either eating a tree or that has tusks growing into trees.
below: At the rear of the parade, a hummingbird (or similar small bird) rides on the back of the elephant.
below: A host of creatures in the mural’s mid-section – walking, sitting, swimming, floating.
below: Humanoid body; leaf head, all smaller than the long skinny bird legs.
below: Instead of leaves, this little guy has a head full of crystals.
below: Faces on creatures of fantasy. One with plumage like a bird and the other with squiggles and curls like nothing else. Eyes closed. Big lips.
below: Swimming together, a greenish fish and a striped snake.
below: More fish swimming in the blue bubbles.
below: Taking the lead in this little parade is a large green beaked bird character. Following along with the fish and the snake is a snail and a pinkish purple frog. There even seems to be a scuba diver.
below: Here’s a closer look at that grinning frog as well as the spotted iguana beside it.
below: And last, the long finned fish gracefully makes it way through the watery blue.
Eyes on the Streets 