COPE2 has been around for while, people seem to love him or hate him and that can’t be a bad thing for a notorious writer.
Big bubble letters are our favourite so this is a great set of pics for us to see and a decent video of COPE2 stuff. You can buy them too, if you want a bit of graffiti history and have a whole bunch of spare cash.
Here are a few from the curbandstoops.com Interactive Gallery, nice.
DOZE GREEN Interview on Walrus TV – New York Graffiti Artist
The peeps at Upper Playground and Walrus TV have got a great new interview with New York graffiti legend Doze Green (an original member of the Rock Steady Crew), it’s well worth a watch to hear the thoughts of a pioneering old skool graff writer…
They sent over a bunch of info too, here they go!
Doze Green merges influences from his East Coast graffiti and b-boy background with a painting style he refined on the West Coast. The resulting artwork is complex and intensely symbolic, serving as a means of both social commentary and self-awareness.
Doze Green Urban Art - San Francisco - Click for more sick San Fran graff...
His interest in the duality of the human condition is reflected throughout his pieces. Doze Green’s work has been displayed in cities across Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States. Watch the interview, on Walrus TV (actually, got the YouTube vid below).
Doze Green was born and raised in New York City. He is an original member of the infamous Rock Steady Crew. He is a pioneer of Hip Hop Culture and a Graff Legend – the King of Character’s. Over the years, Doze Green’s paintings have progressed from the streets and into galleries. In the same spirit of graffiti they tell the stories of the oppressed which continue to be largely untold.
Doze Green - Panguerra (2004)
His art career began on the walls and eventually the trains of NYC in 1974. By the mid 1980’s he was exhibiting his work in art spaces such as the OK Harris Gallery, Tony Shafrazi Gallery and the Fun Gallery. Doze Green’s work is in many public and private collections throughout the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia.
Doze Green Graffiti Artist - Rock Steady Crew
Here is the DOZE GREEN interview presented by Walrus TV. They have lots of other artist interviews too, check out the page.
Who are Upper Playground?
Based in San Francisco, CA, Upper Playground is the leader in today’s progressive art movement with its innovative apparel and accessories line and art galleries. Since 1999, Upper Playground has been recognized as a catalyst for the fusion of fashion with fine art.
UP apparel and accessories are designed by local and international artists including Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Estevan Oriol, David Choe, and Alex Pardee. The Upper Playground collection is sold in over 300 boutiques worldwide and online. In addition, Upper Playground has stores and galleries in San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, New York, and London.
You should check out Doze Green’s website too, it’s great and it’s full of loads of Doze Green art from years back…
It’s an interesting short graff video, an interview with NY graff hero MERES, talking about the legendary painting spot 5 Pointz Queens in New York. Shows some spectacular graffiti art from International artists who travel to 5 Pointz to paint.
Next week will be an interesting one, I’m putting together a World Graffiti Top 100 images sort of thing… There are so many great photos scattered over the site now so I thought I’d pick my favourites and put them into one place!
It won’t be definitive and I’m sure I’ll miss some cool graff but hopefully it’ll have some pics you may not have seen before, even if you’re a regular reader.
We’ll also have a feature on JONS from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He does some pretty exciting and really unique urban painting, looking forward to it!
Come follow me on Twitter (@worldgraffiti and @streetartists), I put all types of graff and street art related stuff on there, loads of other things too. I’m considering a Facebook Fan page too but I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort really.
An interview with New York’s COPE2, some love him and some don’t, and he’s had his fair share of feuds - I reckon he’s great, a legendary bomber for sure, but that’s just me…
Check out these COPE2 Adidas too! Damn I like these… Limited edition from Footlocker 2008, god knows if they’re still available anywhere…
There is also a new book called Vandal Squad: Inside the New York City Transit Squad 1984-2004, which is written from the NYPD’s point of view, a first for graff books… The launch party sounded interesting, with COPE2 and ex-Vandal Squad cops meeting up to debate and celebrate the release of the book all at once.
You can buy the book from Amazon.com (sorry, it’s not available in Amazon.co.uk but you can get it shipped over), sounds really interesting if you’re into your graffiti history, and it gives a pretty unique view of graffiti in New York over the years.
I’m working out a better archives page at the moment (i.e. one that works) and a few other upgrades and stuff so this bugger of a site loads a bit faster and is easier to navigate, so hopefully next week we’ll be looking pretty AND quick.
In the meantime, check out this little selection of New York graffiti (featuring a Nick Walker piece and a Keith Haring tribute) and this New York TATS CRU video.
‘Iz The Wiz’ Legendary Graffiti Artist Michael Martin Dies
The legendary graffiti artist Michael ‘Iz the Wiz’ Martin was found dead in his home in Florida on 17th June, aged 50. He died of a heart attack.
Iz The Wiz graffiti bombing - the legend dies
Iz The Wiz, the graff bombing legend was known for his prolific painting of the New York City subway trains in the 80s and very early 90s, before the ‘Clean Train Movement‘ pretty much put a stop to the subway art.
Tagging as ‘Iz the Wiz’ and sometimes just ‘Iz’, he painted with bold colours and simple but striking letters, none of the Wildstyle stuff really.
He’d tag and bomb trains all over the 5 Boroughs of NYC, from small simple tags to fat lettering across entire train carriages. Iz put his tag on subway cars running on every line in the system more times than any other artist.
Iz The Wiz classic graffiti art
There is currently a biography and documentary being made by Ed Walker on the artist, it’ll be interesting to see how that comes out.
He was an orphan and found the graff community, starting out spraying graffiti on walls and buildings when he was 14, using the tags SCAT or FCN (for French Canadian National), although he wasn’t Canadian. He also tagged as IKE (his nickname) to start with.
It’s said that he would go out and regularly put out at least 100 throw-ups, making him one of the best known writers of the time. He worked with other graff heroes like Vinny, Evil 13, Odd Partners and the Three Yard Boys.
Here is Iz bombing for a final time, great video, very interesting.
RIP Michael Martin, always pushing graffiti art forward.
OK so World Graffiti Urban Art have been off for a few weeks due to internet problems and a trip to San Francisco, but normal service will be resumed very soon along with a nice new design. I want the site to load faster, and that means doing some stripping down and simplifying, hopefully it’ll look sick.
Got a million new graff shots from San Fran, and a wicked bunch of London graffiti to go up too so I’ll get cracking. Also, I found the Boom Graffiti Bus abandoned on the side of a main road in Greater London, some decent graff painted on the side of a double decker bus – you can’t go wrong. Coming sooooooooon. Got some great painted van/truck shots from San Fran too so I’ll get that up as a post. I’m loving graff vehicles at the moment.
So anyway, until I have my internet connection issues fixed, here is a great video from Tats Cru video, some wicked graff and interviews with Fat Joe and more.
Sorry it’s a bit of a lazy post today but things are hectic, I’ll do my best to be better next week. On the other hand, this graffiti in New York video is awesome!
Looks like a pretty sweet trip - this vid’s nicely put together, it makes a big difference! I have now received my War4 graffiti DVD so I’ll get a review up pronto.
Check out this awesome New York graff, some great and varied photos.
Here’s some awesome graffiti in New York, stencils and urban art taken March 2009 – from the kind fella Nick from MusicMule. Check out his site for the latest indie music news and tunes.
If you know who the artists of any of these other photos are then let me know!
Back to it – check out this one, works really well with the taxis I reckon. I spent frickin’ ages looking for more information, it’s actually a 2008 homage to the legendary 80’s street artist Keith Haring in East Village, New York. His art is well worth hunting out, this tribute is spot on.
Awesome Graffiti in New York - Graff urban art taxis and faces
Yes, a Spock Marilyn Monroe. Sponroe? I’ll shut up now.
Awesome Graffiti in New York - Graff Spock Stencil Andy Warhol Style
Awesome Graffiti in New York - Graff/urban art, love the colours of this one.
