Welcome to the new/updated site! The Archives and search function may look a bit different, but it is still the same good time. Since 2002, your old-school website for all things stencils. Please consider donating what you can to support the much-needed upgrade. Photo submissions always welcome. Enjoy and stay curious.
Other ways to support this site (beyond submitting pics, videos, exhibit info, etc.):
- Visit the Stencil Archive Support page to purchase a copy of Stencil Nation or take a tour.
- Find the Stencil Archives' best original photos on Instagram and flickr.
More Photo Uploads to the Stencil Archive
Thanks to: Jaime Rojo/Brooklyn Street Art, @Emily_Lykos, @GraffitiRadical, u/Everything4Everyone, u/nzrqrb, @StreetArtUtopia
Spinning: Freddie Hubbard, Dead Can Dance
>NEW< Epyon5 gets real horrorshow
Good advice in Rhode Island
One from Canada
One from Chile
Here and there in San Francisco
SFMTA outlines on Van Ness St., SF
One from Ukraine
One from Portugal
zir0 in Germany
timely one form Lapiz (posted on BSA)
Bump and Update for Our First History Post
Just saw over on Insta that the Stencil Stories exhibit in Heidelberg, Germany went up late last year during the pandemic. Though the exhibit says, via translation, stencil graffiti's true roots have been forgotten, we at Stencil Archive beg to differ! For our 20th year here, we just went through our very resourceful History category (recently updated Feb. 19) and updated some of the older posts (new videos, photos, formatting, etc.).
And we also just updated our first-ever History post, which was a bibliography used for the creation of the book "Stencil Nation". We added two books that were not on the list, and updated Josh MacPhee's "Pound the Pavement" zine series info.
Here are the two new books:
Cut it Out; Banksy; Weapons of Mass Distraction, publisher, 2004.
Stencil Project - Paris 2004 (with DVD); Collectif; CRITERES, publisher, 2004.
Epyon5
Epyon5 is a full time artist who resides in central Illinois. Although originally an oil painter trained in the fine art of renaissance style realism, his focus has shifted to a more contemporary style of stencils and spray paint while combining elements of old world design. Prolific in his undying love for classic cinema, horror, sci-fi, and comics... E5 creates works of stencil art that are not only eye catching, but sought after by collectors worldwide.
A Random Non-Presidential Photo Upload
Thanks to: Esmeralda, Jaime Rojo/Brooklyn Street Art, @Emily_Lykos, @GraffitiRadical, u/Everything4Everyone, u/nzrqrb, @StreetArtUtopia, Josiah
Spinning: Sirens, Loki wailing downstairs with separation anxiety, a clock ticking, paper shuffling, keys typing, random bird sounds
>NEW< Japan
Wheatpaste Recipes from 1880s and 2004
Undenk has a great post with two classic wheatpaste recipes. At least we think there are two, b/c the one from 1880s (photo reposted) is difficult to read.
From Undenk:
Here’s our tried and tested wheatpaste recipe:
Makes two litres of Wheatpaste
8 cups of water, or around 2 litres
1.3 cups of Flour
SeiLeise (DE)
Also: https://www.instagram.com/seileise
SeiLeise is a street artist from Cologne. With his colourful paste-ups he has declared war on the grey of the cities and comments on current events; partly playfully, partly with explicit social criticism. At the same time, seiLeise is considered a pioneer of reverse graffiti. For this, he cleans dirty walls, some of them covered with moss – equipped with a sandblaster, a compressed air bottle and a stencil – and thereby sets very quiet, inconspicuous artistic accents. Only if you look closely will you discover his stencil works.
SeiLeise ist ein Kölner Street Art-Künstler. Mit seinen farbenfrohen Paste-Ups hat er dem Grau der Großstädte den Kampf angesagt und kommentiert das aktuelle Zeitgeschehen; teils spielerisch, teils mit explizit sozialkritischem Bezug. Gleichzeitig gilt seiLeise als Pionier des Reverse Graffiti. Dafür reinigt er verschmutzte, teils mit Moos bewachsene Wände – mit Sandstrahler, Pressluftflasche und Schablone ausgerüstet – und setzt dadurch ganz leise, unscheinbare künstlerische Akzente. Nur wer genau hinsieht, entdeckt seine Schablonenbilder./
Street Art Copyrights and Suing Car Companies
Life in The Fast Lane: How Urban Car Ads Depicting 'Street Art' Can Backfire
Article By:
David Halberstadter
National Law Review, Volume XII, Number 27
Vehicle manufactures and their ad agencies really love to show off their driving machines in action. Television commercials depict sturdy, reliable trucks hauling tons of cargo; four-wheel drive SUVs navigating perilous terrain in extreme weather conditions; and sleek sedans cruising through cityscapes of gleaming skyscrapers and funky urban streets.
It is on the funky urban streets where car manufacturers can sometimes steer in the wrong direction. Their commercials often feature street scenes that may include recognizable landmarks, historic buildings, public art installations like sculptures and wall murals, and even distinctive graffiti. Carmakers aren't the only retailers entranced by "street art." Makers of athletic shoes and apparel like to incorporate graffiti-like designs into their fashions and ads, as well. Filming other people's art, even when in public view, can result in copyright claims, litigation and attorneys' fees, not to mention potential damages. This article offers a brief roadmap for avoiding such claims.
Graffiti - Jaytalking in 19th Century Paris
Graffiti: Jaytalking in 19th Century Paris
The files of Paris police from the late nineteenth century reveal the tumultuous politics of the time through the graffiti recorded in them.
By: Matthew Wills
JSTOR Daily
January 24, 2022
American histories of urban graffiti tag Philadelphia in the 1960s as its birthplace, but people have been scrawling on and carving into walls around the world for millennia, long before the advent of spray paint. Scholar Elizabeth Sage digs into the Paris police files for examples from the late nineteenth century, the fin-de-siècle [Journal of Social History, Vol. 49, No. 4], when the police actively documented the “political, obscene, sincere, humorous, or just plain cranky” writings they found in public.
Late nineteenth century cities, Sage reminds us, were “often represented as politically, morally, and physically dangerous.” The streets of these cities were also—and continue to be—“places of spontaneity, disorder, and resistance.” In Paris, the “perception of streets as dangerous and ambiguous spaces,” where the classes mingled and could be hard to tell apart, meant that the “streets were closely regulated” by the police.
Sage uses urban theorist Andy Merritfield’s notion of “jaytalking”—like jaywalking, but meaning speaking where people are not supposed to—to explore graffiti chalked on “wall, tree, urinal, park bench, or sidewalk,” among other places, in defiance of police regulation.