History From Scratch
Cutting-edge tools are rescuing ancient graffiti from obscurity—and preserving them forever

by Amy Crawford for Smithsonian Magazine

BEGINNING WITH ITS construction in the fourth century B.C. and continuing for more than 800 years, the Temple of Isis on the small island of Philae, set where the Nile flowed out of Nubia, was visited by a stream of pilgrims. Coming from all parts of the Egyptian empire, and even as far away as Cyprus and Rome, they passed between 60-foot towers to attend elaborate seasonal ceremonies that celebrated Isis’ miraculous resurrection of her husband, the god Osiris, and the birth of their son, Horus. They beseeched Isis, the queen of the Egyptian pantheon, for aid and thanked her for interceding in their affairs.

Before heading home, many also etched their marks—a carving of their footprints on sacred ground, a picture of the deity, a name, a date or perhaps a short prayer—into the temple’s massive sandstone blocks. Some testified to the difficulty of their journey: “Isis, you are the Mistress of the Road,” wrote a third-century A.D. Nubian envoy named Sasan, beside a crude self-portrait. “Our hearts are entrusted to you upon the way.” Others were likely carved on pilgrims’ behalf by the priests who worked at the temple: “His name endures forever: Nesmety, the banker of Isis....As for the one who will erase these writings, his name will be erased forever.”

Been a while since we have looked over our Submit page, complete with fun FAQs to get you all hyped up to submit photos to us. Some of the details needed to be updated for sure, and here are a few:

• We are now posting photos that are about 8-9 inches (20-23 cm) at widest side.
• 72 or 96 PPI preferred density.
• Changed language to make it more obvious that we'll take any size image and reformat it if needed. However, .png files least preferred format.
• Who burns CDs anymore? :P It's all about the cloud.
• Fixed some grammar and formatting, etc.

While social media sites pull all the great images in larger heaps than we'd ever imagine, we got curious about how their Terms of Use are worded with regards to the images on their site. Instagram is the current go-to for uploading stencil art photos. We even have our own small stream, which is very selective precisely because of Meta's terms of use.

Been a while since we've updated the ole' Stencil Archive. Don't worry, we have been hard at work on the back-end structures with an exciting, much needed upgrade on the image albums (aka the Archive) side of this site. We are getting closer to going live, muuuuuch closer......

We're still accepting contributions, and we're still snapping and collecting pics, but new uploads will get started once the new Drupal Archive albums get set up, worked out, tweaked, and made to look beautiful for your scrolling pleasure!

Heading into Fall with some featured artists...

Thanks to Jaime Rojo at Brooklyn Street Art for some of these.

>NEW< Rad Originals

Stefan Winterle

Strok (just one)

John Fekner (just one)

Misstencil (just one)

Snik (just one)

Savior el Mundo (just one)

M-City (just one)

X-Sacto

LAPIZ

JPS (just one)

fnnch

Shepard Fairey (just one)

After 14 successful years: Stefan Winterle says goodbye to Colab Gallery   

Stefan Winterle (his Stencil Archive, and his website) says goodbye after 14 years as curator of the Colab Gallery in Weil am Rhein. During this time he curated 25 exhibitions with over 250 artists from Europe, the USA and Latin America.  

Nach 14 erfolgreichen Jahren:
Stefan Winterle verabschiedet sich von der Colab Gallery

Stefan Winterle verabschiedet sich nach 14 Jahren als Kurator der Colab Gallery in Weil am Rhein. Während dieser Zeit kuratierte er 25 Ausstellungen mit über 250 Künstlern und Künstlerinnen aus Europa, den USA und Lateinamerika.

"I am grateful to have had the opportunity to inspire a growing audience for graffiti and street art culture." In 2010, Stefan Winterle took over the artistic direction of the gallery, founded in 2006, from his mentor and friend Sigi von Koeding a.k.a. Dare, who died at an early age. Stefan Winterle consistently developed his concept of presenting graffiti culture in exhibitions. Discovering talents and inviting them to the Colab Gallery was an essential element of success. Another element was the goal of making the Colab Gallery a sought-after address internationally. More than 250 artists stand for this success, some of whom have graced the walls of the Colab Gallery several times. 

"The quality of the works was more important to me than names," says Stefan Winterle, who consistently followed his credo. Thus, Colab Gallery can claim to be setting the tone in European competition. "We are a gallery and not a museum," as a graduate in business administration, Stefan Winterle also had to consider the economic side of the gallery.

For him, this meant building up a professional team. That is why Colab Gallery today can also be called an art house.

The management and the colleagues of Colab Gallery thank Stefan Winterle for his commitment. His successor has already been appointed. A separate announcement will be made shortly. 

And why is Stefan Winterle leaving the gallery? "Fourteen years in a young art direction is a long time. Many projects are waiting in my studio, which I could otherwise only realize between exhibitions. These works are now my full devotion." I look forward to that.

...and a bit of that!

Thanks to: Dylan Pitman; Josiah; Lynn Ray; Jeremy Novy; Brooklyn Street Art; @Louniki_; @radicalgraffiti; @regoef; @mensch_huis; trifluoracetic-acid; FICKxDINGERZ

Spinning: Foo Fighters, The Chieftans; 85 Maiden, 85 Dead

>NEW< Connecticut

>NEW< Savior el Mundo (NYC)

>NEW< Gary Taxali (CA)

Edmonton CA finally represents!

Black Rock City porta-potty art

New York City

Emeryville, CA

Joe Iurato and Logan Hicks

Praxis

Italy (just one)

Jaune

JPS

Pobel

Here and there in SF

Valencia St. (just one)

The Tenderloin