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The legal battle over the Picasso-Nesjar murals removed by the Norwegian government from the Y Block administrative building in Oslo earlier this week is escalating. The Fishermen hung on the brutalist façade while The Seagull was located in the lobby of the building, which was designed by the Norwegian architect Erling Viksjø in 1969. — The Art Newspaper
Norway's controversial decision to demolish the 1960s Y-block building that was damaged by a car bomb explosion in the July 22, 2011 terrorist attack — and with it, to remove two murals created by Pablo Picasso and Carl Nesjar specifically for this building — has been generating a... View full entry
Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address issues from resiliency, mass timber, community engagement, residential design, art, public art, urban design, Palm Springs modernism and bamboo. Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation?... View full entry
Following the now famous Black Lives Matter street mural in Washington D.C., activists later painted one in Oakland, California. This urban activism has garnered the attention of another city as well, Berkeley, who plans to paint a new street mural on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, in front of Old... View full entry
According to the team's Kickstarter page, Scribit is a write-and-erase robot that allows you to draw any content sourced from the web—and update it in real time. See the video below for some words from Italian architect Carlo Ratti, the inventor of the new technology: View full entry
While technological sleights of hand grow more and more sophisticated, it is important to remember that sometimes paint, pencil, and sunlight are all that is needed to create transformative works of art. A good example of the latter approach comes from Italian artist Peeta, a Venice-based... View full entry
The housing crisis in large cities, especially in Los Angeles, has been an ongoing issue. Currently, Los Angeles County is home to the second largest population of settled homelessness in the U.S. Local government and organizations aim to create solutions in order to combat the issue with a little... View full entry
A colourful mural of a 35m-tall tree in Mexico City is one of three environmentally friendly new public works made using Airlite paint, which purifies polluted air in a process similar to photosynthesis.
[...] the mural aims to increase oxygen levels in one of the western hemisphere’s most polluted cities, where ozone concentration levels remain high despite government regulations on fuel and cars.
— The Art Newspaper
Image courtesy of Boa Mistura."Airlite paint chemically reacts with pollutants in the air, turning them into inert compounds," reports The Art Newspaper. "The roughly 1,000 sq. m mural should neutralise the same amount of pollution created by around 60,000 vehicles a year."The artists responsible... View full entry
A series of apartment buildings in Moscow have been covered with iconic Japanese artwork. Part of the Etalon City apartment complex, the architects had the 6 towers placed along the highway painted with a replica of The Great Wave off Kanagawa—Katsushika Hokusai’s famed woodblock... View full entry
[...] a judge has ruled that a New York developer must pay $6.7 million to a group of graffiti artists to compensate for painting over their work without warning in 2013. The decision represents a decisive victory for street artists in a case that pitted their rights against those of a real estate executive.
The artists sued the developer, Gerald Wolkoff, for violating their rights after he whitewashed their work at the famous 5Pointz art mecca in Long Island City to make way for condos.
— artnet
Citing protection of the artists'—historically significant but ultimately destroyed—works at 5Pointz under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), Judge Frederic Block ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in this closely watched landmark case: "Since 5Pointz was a prominent tourist attraction... View full entry
Was the street art covering 5Pointz, a largely empty warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, significant enough to preserve under US federal law? A federal judge in Brooklyn in currently considering the arguments in a case that tests the limits of the Visual Artists Rights Act (Vara), and could soon decide whether a developer Gerald Wolkoff and his companies violated the act when he tore down the graffiti-covered building to construct residential towers and what, if any, damages they will pay. — The Art Newspaper
David Moreno and Miguel Arraiz of urban intervention art group Pink Intruder created a fruitful splash of color with the MUPFPP Mural in their hometown Valencia in Spain. Inspired by the fruits and vegetables in the city's orchards, Pink Intruder designed the welcoming (and obviously... View full entry
Wolkoff granted permission to artists to paint on the building in 1993, when Long Island City wasn’t hot property....Fast forward to 2013, New York real estate was exploding. The building’s location was highly desirable. — Quartz
5 Pointz, located in Long Island City, was an American mural space considered to be the world's premier graffiti mecca. Bought by developer Jerry Wolkoff in 1971, the building's exterior was graffitied over with a myriad of street art when Wolkoff started leasing space as artists' studios in the... View full entry
For Katherine Craig, the mural is more than a marker of North End’s rising status. The so-called “bleeding rainbow” mural is a cornerstone of her career. And now, since the building’s owner aims to sell or redevelop the property, the artist is taking legal action to protect her work. [...]
The federal suit seeks an injunction that would bar the developer from destroying or otherwise altering The Illuminated Mural [...].
— citylab.com
Related news on Archinect:Muralists and the fragile relationship with the buildings they paint onDetroit issues arrest for "vandal" Shepard FaireyDetroit's struggle to distinguish between graffiti (boo!) and murals (yay!) View full entry
Earlier this week, the online street art community was abuzz about an article by Rafael Schacter for The Conversation, From dissident to decorative: why street art sold out and gentrified our cities. [...]
Basically, Schacter argues that street art isn’t rebellious anymore. Rather, that it’s most notable form is as a tool used by corporations to spur gentrification. Agree or disagree, the article is a must-read.
— Vandalog
Vandalog author RJ Rushmore reached out to some of the influential figures in street art and muralism to get their reactions to Schacter's claim that street art has sold out and become complicit in the corporate gentrification of our cities. He received responses from Buff Monster, Living Walls... View full entry
What rights does a muralist have to the wall she painted on?
That's a question that echoes throughout the country right now, as muralists try to lay claim to their artwork under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. [...]
California muralist Kent Twitchell was in a hotel room in Sausalito, Calif., when he got the call — his six-story mural of Ed Ruscha in Los Angeles had been painted over.
— npr.org
Murals — and the accompanying questions of ownership, copyright, vandalism — are an ongoing sujet in the Archinect news:Detroit issues arrest for "vandal" Shepard FaireyMuralist Kent Twitchell on LA's new mural-friendly ordinanceDetroit's struggle to distinguish between graffiti (boo!) and... View full entry
