Bay Area Graffiti

Documents the San Francisco Bay Area's contemporary street-art scene, showcasing the innovative art against the Northern California landscape and including dozens of artist profiles.

A follow up to the highly successful examination of Bay Areas contemporary graffiti scene, this book gives the history of two decades of graffiti as seen throught the eyes of two graffiti artists. Veteran graffiti writers SFaustina and Jocelyn Superstar have collaborated on a history of the graffiti scene in the San Franscisco Bay area from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. The result of their collaboration, Bay Area Graffiti: 8090, provides a glimpse into street art history that is seldom seen: one that is authored by a pair of writers who have 40 years of graffiti experience between them and provides an insiders view on the history and relevance of graffiti. Bay Area Graffiti: 8090 will include interviews with a range of the periods artists, including BIGFOOT, ESKIMO, MQ, and REVOK.

A must-have for any street art enthusiast, this book presents the most mind blowing examples of renegade creativity in San Francisco. San Francisco's vibrant street art scene exists in areas off the city's well-worn tourist paths. The alleyways and hidden side streets of the Haight, the Tenderloin, and especially the Mission district's Clarion Alley offer unexpected treats to visitors lucky enough to stumble upon them. For more than five years, photographer Steve Rotman has obsessively documented this scene as it evolved on walls, sidewalks, billboards, fences, doors, and other public spaces. Culled from thousands of images, the result is a collection of work that attests to the artists' personal and stylistic diversity, from Mars1's robotic depictions of alternate universes which reflect the local counterculture spirit, to Neck Face's whimsically ghoulish creatures that serve as a testament to entrepreneurial hipsterdom, to Bigfoot's friendly green primates inspired by the area's rich graffiti culture. San Francisco's charm as an international destination also causes foreign artists to contribute to the street dialogue--Brazilian duo Os Gemeos, Londoner D*Face and German painter Dome have all graced the city's walls with their unique points of view. An enterprising photographer, Rotman has forged relationships with many of these often-reclusive artists, allowing him access to some of the lesser-known corners of the street art world.

Is it fine art, social commentary, or simply vandalism? This highly illustrated book probes the issues surrounding the proliferation of graffiti in American cities. 108 photos, 48 in color.

The San Francisco East Bay is home to a large and expanding variety of graffiti artists. In this collection of cities, you can find their expressions and experimentations in secret places that hold surprising bursts of color, pattern, and texture. This area is centered in two bustling cities: Oakland and Berkeley. These two adjacent cities hold a diverse population of over 500,000 people. But to locals, it also includes tiny Emeryville, which is pocketed in between these two cities; the quaint island city of Alameda, which is a short bridge away from Oakland; San Leandro on the outskirts of Oakland to the South; and the gritty city of Richmond to the north of Berkeley. This geographic area is lovingly called "the East Bay." Xan Blood Walker resonates strongly with the aesthetic these artists bring to the area. Coming from a background of being a homeless, drug addicted punk rocker in the 80s, she transformed herself into a recovering psychotherapist, art therapist, and photographer. In these hidden spaces, she finds the magic and tragic beauty that was once her world.

Book description to come.

The birthplace of graffiti, New York City, has evolved into a global center for street art. Its public surfaces host a range of media from handmade stickers and wheatpastes to huge installations and murals. Artists from across the globe routinely travel to New York City to grace its walls as they refashion the city into one huge never-ending unofficial street art festival. Among these are such contemporary urban legends as D'Face, Banksy, Os Gemeos, Case, MaClaim, Invader, Stik and Faith 47. Street Art NYC showcases both sanctioned and unsanctioned works captured in the course of a transformative decade that saw the emergence of over a dozen distinctly engaging projects. The hugely popular Bushwick Collective, L.I.S.A Project NYC and Welling Court Mural Project are highlighted with introductory essays. Local community-based projects and festivals, as well as those responding to specific environmental and social issues, are also represented. Banksy's one month 2013 residency, Better Out than In is documented with words and images. And homage is paid to the legendary 5 Pointz graffiti and street art mecca. Street Art NYC is is a beautifully designed hardcover book. The full color photographs by Lord K2 captures the art in the city, printed on thick coated paper, and Lois Stavsky's text provides the context. This is the only book to spotlight the transformational decade that marked the shift from largely unsanctioned to widely curated street art throughout New York City's five boroughs. This book is a collaboration between Lord K2, an award-winning photographer and curator of the online Museum of Urban Art and Lois Stavsky, a noted street art documentarian and editor of the popular blog, Street Art NYC.

A catalog of an exhibition that surveys the history of international graffiti and street art.