Repopulate -- Blake Shaw Video Painting Tel Aviv / Jerusalem 2013 (THE BRIDGE Preview) from SWEATSHOPPE on Vimeo.

In April 2013 Blake Shaw traveled to the Occupied Palestinian Territory for his first trip to launch "The Bridge", a new telecommunication art project to facilitate real-time artistic collaborations amongst people across borders using 'Nomad.OS' a live-streaming software he is currently developing.

In this video he takes portraits of refugees from Balata, Al-Jalazone, and Al-Am'Ari refugee camps and uses video painting to paint their portraits onto historical sties in the Israeli cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the old city of Jaffa in an effort to symbolically return the image of these refugees to their ancestral homes.

Video Painting is a technology developed by Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy aka SWEATSHOPPE that uses custom interactive software, video projection, and electronic paint rollers outfitted with LEDs to create the effect of painting videos on walls. The technology allowshttp://vimeo.com/65691265 them to explore the relationship between video, architecture, and mark making and create video collages in real-time.

JR, a good friend of the Wooster Collective, explores these questions as part of his ongoing Inside Out project, now the subject of "Inside Out: The People's Art Project", a fantastic new documentary premiering this Monday night on HBO.

JR first conceptualized Inside Out as he began to post his now iconic portraits in locations such as the West Bank barrier wall, which gave these anonymous faces new meaning and importance. The HBO documentary is both a record of JR's call for the world to become part of Inside Out and an exploration of the "power of paper and glue", to borrow JR's expression.

In the film, director Alastair Siddons explores the impact of Inside Out on events both personal and political. In a North Dakota reservation plagued by youth suicides, the project literally gives grieving parents a new perspective on their anguish. In footage taken just after the Arab Spring, we watch as Tunisians participating in the project learn for themselves how quickly making art can become a political statement. The effect is an uplifting testament to the power of street art.

Inside Out: The People's Art Project premieres on HBO this Monday, May 20 at 9 PM EST.

Here's the trailer:

MUST WATCH: Russian artist Petro Wodkins installs a statue of himself "pissing" in front of Brussels's most famous statue, Manneken Pis.  This is one of the most bold and daring performances of street art we've seen in a while! 

For us, the event at Story was a terrific opportutity to share a ton of stories and insights that we rarely talk about in public.  We taped the event and are thrilled to share with you the first two parts of of our conversation...

New Faith47 in London. This piece is titled, "London. You Beast."

mounting sabotaje al montaje + Katie Yamasaki artists created this new mural in Argentina titled, "I Dream That I Can Breathe Underwater."

New Sten & Lex "peel away" mural at the Katowice Street Art Festival.  Click here to watch a making-of-the-mural video.

Vapour Trail Series - Anthony Lister from HARUKA IRIE on Vimeo.

Check out Anthony Lister in action in this video produced by EndOfTheLine.  Real artist at work.

Lister was also one of our many talented artists in our book Graphite. The book features original artwork from 31 artists that cannot be found in any other publication. It's not too late to get a copy. Click here to order

Subtiel means "Subtle" in Dutch.

The Desert Speaks from R Patrick Griffin on Vimeo.

Ryan Patrick Griffin has been experimenting with live projection painting in nature.  Everything captured through the time lapse video was created on the spot, described by Griffin as "an unfolding freestyle in dancing light under the spin of the night sky."  We love the emergence of nature, technology and freestyled digital art to create a one of a kind experience.  Enjoy!

HOPSCOTCH - TAPE ART RHARHARHA at JAKARTA from RHARHARHA on Vimeo.

TAPE ART RHARHARHA from RHARHARHA on Vimeo.

"Wrinkles of the City" is one of JR's biggest project to date--completed in 5 cities around the world.  We received an exclusive video from the UFA Lab where they interviewed JR and filmed him working on site in Berlin.  Check it out to learn more about JR's vision and his incredible process.

As avid art fans and collectors, we're excited for this limited run exhibition featuring never-before-seen portraits of Andy Warhol. The portraits were taken by celebrated photographer, Steve Wood, and collected dust in Wood's large filing cabinet unseen for over 30 years.  In 2012, Wood's friend and fellow photographer, David Munns, serendipitously stumbled across the lost images and urged Wood to share the images with the public. Hence, "Lost Then Found" was created to bring the rare portraits of Andy Warhol to light.

The "Lost Then Found" exhibition will be open for 10 days from May 2 to May 12, 2013 in New York at 345meatpacking.  Mark your calendars, you don't want to miss out on this exciting opportunity!

The latest mural by Vinz titled, "La Marca €spaña / The €Spain Brand," is a reinterpretation of Picasso's famous "Guernica."  Both pieces represent an attack over Spanish society.  Vinz used his own characters and the values they represent to make a profound statement about Spain's current society: financial and political systems are growing and creating a desperate situation among Spanish citizens. On display at the Institut Français, Vinz created this mural to show that justice needs to be restored.

Learn more about his message through the breakdown of symbols below:

Bird-woman with baby: The hungry, misery of the citizens

Bull: Symbol of Spain, it's the effort to restore a country that sinks through cracks

Bird of Peace: A dismembered peace

Riot Police: This represents the continuing riots in the streets caused by the policies of public cuts

Arrow: Down direction, as the Spain demoralized

Bomb €uro: How the european economy has exploited in Spain

Battle Horse: The anger and rage of a country that does not let ride

Migration: Emigration of university graduated and Immigration of cheap labor

Evictions: The drama of thousand of people who loose their homes each day and some commit suicide

Hope: The main character, with a candle approaching to the €uro symbol

We respect and support Vinz's work very much here at Wooster Collective. Don't miss your chance to grab one of the Vinz Limited Edition Box Sets or the Vinz edition of Wooster on Paper while they last!

HOTTEA hits Los Angeles with his signature yarn bombing.  The day photo was done in Culver City and the night ones were done Hollywood. Check them out if you're in the area!

Photo credit: Jennifer Jaimes

From Stinkfish: I write to you ths time to share one of my recent walls here at my home town Bogota (Colombia) and a video of the process as a part of the project OFFPROJEKT, "...a curatorial collaboration creating dynamic intervention between art, music, performance and moving image, further exploring aesthetic and sonic convention.

Some of our favorite artists from the Trespass Calendars are in this show. Check it out. 

DOLK, PØBEL, ANDERS GJENNESTAD AKA STRØK, MARTIN WHATSON, DOTDOTDOT, MIR, STEIN, & HAMA

STENCIL ART NORWAY presented by  Reed Projects Gallery, Stavanger, Norway

PREVIEW FRI APRIL 12  7:00 PM
APRIL 13-MAY 5   Open Tues-Sat 10:00-4:00

UBUNTU from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Street artist ABOVE initiated a community art project in Cape Town, South Africa.  Hundreds of discarded tires were littered across the impoverished town, so ABOVE decided to have the kids paint the tires then stack them into one unified totem pole.

The word UBUNTU is a southern African ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other.  Many of these kids have never held a paintbrush in their life.  We're thrilled to see ABOVE spreading joy and positivity to people across the world with his art.

What's the one thing that you learned in the last decade that you had wished someone had told you 10 years ago?

The following response comes from Nuria Mora:

Instead of reaching an answer, this question has multiplied into many questions in my mind:

Why paint in the street? What are walls and who do they belong to? Why are people so upset with graffiti when advertising is much more abrasive? Where do we begin and end the freedom of each one? How do I want to participate in this world? What does my share look like? What are the social and political burdens of my street art? Over time, I find more questions than answers. I think I'm getting old! Or it's simply part of the process.

When I think about my street art each day, I realize that the value comes from the performance and ephemera of it. The finished piece is a memory of my experience being out and painting.  The art market likes to use the aesthetics of graffiti to sell products at luxury prices, muffling its politically charged roots. It's best to witness street art in its authentic form across urban environments. This experience is priceless.

Of all these questions, the only thing that remains unchanged over the years is that my work continues to be questioned.  Street art is a reflection of the individual and the landscape; I resist explaining a statement or action precisely through words because my art is open to free interpretation.  In the words of, Jean de la Bruyère, "The glory or merit of some men is to write well, the other is not to write."

For most artists, this is a selfless act.

A fan comes across a piece of street art, takes a photograph of it with their mobile phone and then shares it with others on their Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook feed.

For most street art fans, this is also a selfless act.

A photographer visits street art locations around the world and takes hundreds of photographs of every single piece of street art they can find. The photographer then photoshops and crops the photographs so that only the artwork is seen in the frame, often making it look like the photograph is an actual print made by the artist in their studio. The photographer then sells these photographs in bulk to a middleman who then licenses them to a variety of poster companies and online print shops around the world.

For us, this is not a selfless act.

The reality is that most street artists have no idea that their art work is being sold commercially. And when they do find out, they don't have the financial resources to fight it. Because the large poster companies have thousands of images being licensed to them, and because they trust their suppliers, they often don't know who the artist is in the image they are selling, nor are they aware that the artist isn't being compensated from royalty payments made to the middlemen.

For years this practice of selling cropped street art photographs commercially has bothered us and countless artists.

Recently, we were invited to participate in a talk in New York sponsored by Art.com. The event is scheduled to take place this Thursday evening. But after agreeing to do the talk, we soon learned that Art.com currently offers hundreds of photographs of street art for sale, many of which the artist who's work is featured was never contacted nor compensated by the supplier. 

We made Art.com aware of this issue and told them that we could no longer participate in the talk without this matter being quickly addressed.

To our surprise, and to their credit, Art.com agreed to speak with us about this very issue. 

Today, we're pleased to announce that Art.com, the world's largest online specialty retailer of high-quality wall art, has agreed to remove every photograph of street art in which the artist whose work is in the photograph is not being compensated, and does not want photographs of their street work to be sold in this manner. 

While we're still working out the details, in the coming weeks we will be working with Art.com to help identify the artists who's work is being featured in over 600 street art photographs currently being sold on the site. If the artist wishes to have the photograph removed, Art.com has agreed to remove it. If the artist wishes to replace the existing unauthorized photograph with a new photograph or image that they own themselves, we will be assisting the artist in putting a licensing agreement in place for their work to be sold on the site.

We are very pleased that Art.com has agreed to work with us and the artists to provide compensation back to the artist if the artist wises to have their work sold. After speaking with the team at Art.com we feel strongly that their intentions are good and they do indeed want to take an active role in stopping photographs of street art from being sold commercially without the artist's permission. 

The agreement with Art.com is a major step in stopping this growing form of profiteering from street art. 

We hope that this will put other sites on notice, and that they will follow Art.com's lead and remove commercial photographs of street art from their sites as well.  We have always believed that artists have the right to be compensated for the commercial exploitation of their work no matter how that work was publicly displayed. It is because of this that we have never run advertising on our website even though we could have made hundreds of thousands of dollars by doing so over the years. 

So in the spirit of cooperation with art.com we hope you will join Evan Pricco from Juxtapoz and us this Thursday evening. We'll be there and we hope you will as well. 

Marc and Sara Schiller, Wooster Collective

Street artist, Dan Witz, has partnered with Amnesty International to collaborate on a campaign about the injustices against people imprisoned for their political views.  WAILING WALLS brings together the powerful elements of street art, social media and QR code technology to create a truly engaging experience for viewers to learn more about the issues and contribute their voice. Brilliant!

WK 360 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery from Charlie Wan on Vimeo.

If you're in New York, don't miss this special public event on SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2013 from 4-6pm at Jonathan Levine Gallery with an artist talk at 5pm. All guests in attendance will receive a complimentary copy of the exhibition catalog.

The video above offers a small glimpse of the installation set-up in preparing for 360, a 25 year survey exhibition of works by WK at 557 W 23rd Street.

Hope to see you there!

What's the one thing that you learned in the last decade that you had wished someone had told you 10 years ago?

The following response comes from The London Police:

Chaz: I wish someone would have told me that Galo would still be alive and I might have been less cautious with my drug intake.

Bob: I wish someone had told me that in the future TLP would release an album of 'DOG SONGS' that are free to download on 'soundcloud.com' that O could shamelessly plug instead of giving a real answer to this question.

VINZ "Market" / SC gallery Bilbao 2013 from SC gallery on Vimeo.

Spanish artist, Vinz, recently created this video in Bilbao, Spain, as an exhibition of his most recent work.  Vinz's work sheds insight into the madness of consumerism and the way advertisers often use sex and nudity to sell products that have nothing to do with either subjects. The posters that he wheatpastes on the streets are called "Honest Advs."--a trademark of Vinz's style and message as an artist. Enjoy!

Visit our online store to purchse the Vinz Feel Free Limited Edition Box Set or the Vinz Feel Free book!