Since 2002 (updated often), your old-school website for all things stencils. Photo, video, links, and exhibit info submissions always welcome. Enjoy and stay curious.
Chaplin alive in the streets of Timisoara, Romania
Stencils have been in the streets of Poland for decades. While researching art history for the "Stencil Nation" project, a man painted protest stencils in the streets during the communist era. His father also tagged the streets during the fascist occupation during World War 2: The Nazi occupiers painted German propaganda on the walls, and this vandal would make minor adjustments to the text to create Polish-language culture jams. Talk about détournement!
"Great street artists have their own style and personality." Intrview with Blek Le Rat, father of stencil art by Federico Giannini (Instagram: @federicogiannini1), published on 24/05/2020 Original interview, in other languages, at Finestre sull'Arte
Blek Le Rat [his Stencil Archive] is one of the world's greatest street artists whose career is about to turn 40 years old. We interviewed him and got an insight into his art.
Street artist Blek Le Rat (Xavier Prou; Paris, 1951) is one of the pioneers of international street art and the father and initiator of stencil graffiti, the same technique that would be used and made famous by Banksy, who can be considered an epigone of the French artist. His career began in 1981, when he began painting on the streets of Paris after being fascinated by the graffiti he met in New York on a trip in the 1970s. Blek Le Rat is thus about to turn 40 years old: we caught up with him for an interview about his art and his latest works. The interview is curated by Federico Giannini, editor in chief of Finestre Sull’Arte.
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Upper Haight, San Francisco.
FG. To begin with, I would like to talk about your latest work, M.U.R. (Mobulable, Urbain et Réactif), made in Rennes in September 2019. Can you tell us about this work, how it was made, how the idea came about?
BLR. I am not used to working on modular walls: it was the first time I intervened in this mode. I had been invited by Patrick Daniello, president of the association Le mur de Rennes, and it seemed to me a beautiful thing, also because under these conditions, that is, when you work on an “authorized” wall, you do not work in urgency, and with the fear of being arrested by the police. Therefore, one can continue to think about the image while working, one can build in multiple times because mishaps do not arise due to the extreme urgency of having to quickly finish an image made illegally. Regarding this modular work in Rennes, a friend, Thierry Gauthé, known as Bergu, had arrived in the morning to see me paint. The fortuitousness of this encounter led us to agree that it would be wonderful if Thierry intervened on the image as he did on my stencils in the 1980s, adding his famous bats. It was a magical moment, I really enjoyed this work in Rennes, and looking back at the image today I still cannot help but see in it a relation to the Covid-19 epidemic.
One of Stencil Archive's 1st pics (Budapest, 1995)
Why are we starting this European country update with the letter "H" you ask? While looking over what was left to revise over on that continent, it began there. That simple. We will give out short lists of links to countries over there, or on the edge of there, in the coming days. For now, we begin with...
Jonathan Fisher (Wakuda Studio) did some fun work for the KEXP studio. There was a wall of Wakuda speakers behind a staff only door. What else was painted back there?
Great timing for completing our USA A-Z updated archive posts: Stencil Archive visited Seattle, WA last weekend and managed to catch an array of styles and placement, some ads, and some utilitarian. KEXP studio had Jonathan Fischer stencils all over their space.
While going back through and updating the archives, the 2008 Seattle visit during the Stencil Nation book tour included a fun collab wall project. Here is our tour mate Chris Carlsson, who was also presenting a book, cutting out a stencil for the wall.
Chewbacca drinks the Disney-flavored water in Austin, TX
Woah. Serious rain and flooding here in HQ San Francisco. Remember to hold your loved ones close, watch those pools of water with wary eyes, and keep your local drains clear of debris. We are continuing our USA A-Zed links for all the updated Stencil Archives. This round also includes our USA Random folder, where stencil images with no state given go to live. We do not accept images without location information, but sometimes....
Saw this on a New Hampshire highway, turned around, hit the exit, walked up a bank, snapped the pic.
All the USA archives are updated (artists archives coming soon)! We'll spend most of the week posting direct links for easy access. Had a totally fun time looking through all these photos. Portland, ME and NH visits happened while on an activist gig. Minnesota snaps went down while in the state doing another activist gig. Snapped some Baltimore, MD and Detroit, MI pics while on the Stencil Nation tour. Was just in St. Louis, MO after the recent solar eclipse. Memories!
