KATOWICE DAY 1

Tellas and Moneyless

Olek

Nuart's GT and Kristel are in Poland at the moment participating in the Katowice Street Art Festival panels as well as hosting a screening of Nuart's documentary  Eloquent Vandals.

Here's the first of several reports from the frontline.

In the center of Katowice, at what is called The Eye of the City, is a pink toy excavator. Approaching it I realize it is an excavator of regular size, but it is dwarfed by the large plaza and the giant stadium disc it is placed nearby. And it is cozyfied by its croched cover of colourful yarn made by artist Olek. The machine that is so present in rapidly changing and constantly rebuilding Katowice is turned into a plaything that locals even hang out on.

 Katowice Street Art Festival seems to be a well organized festival with exhibitions, concerts and academical happenings in addition to the murals. This day there was a debate where Ixi Color of Warsaw, Urban Forms of Lodz, Fame of Grottaglie and Nuart of Stavanger was represented. The debate concentrated on questions like: Who are a street art festival for? Why do you organize a street art festival? What happens with the art when there are so many festivals?

 At the same time an impressive amount of artist are working on their murals. Some have finished already, some are yet to come. Tellas and Moneyless have almost finished. And the risk of their work being buffed during the night is zero, as there is a guy sitting in a car making sure that nobody steals the lift. Everything seems to be taken care of here.

GT

 Photos by Kristel Talv and kalevkevad

KATOWICE STREET ART FESTIVAL

Poland's Katowice Street Art festival is well under way with recent works from Olek and Ludo appearing in the city. Other participants include Roa, Hyuro, Escif, Mark Jenkins, M-City and many more. You can also check out Nuart's contribution, Nuart crew members Kristel Talv and GT will be in town to give a presentation on Nuart as well as host a rare screening of the Nuart documentary Eloquent Vandals.

 More info on the festival here

INCOMING. OLEK SHOW

Some of you will already be aware of the recent controversy surrounding everyone's favourite champion of crocheted street art Olek. Arrested, tagged and briefly jailed, Olek is currently fighting unspecified charges brought after an incident in London.

You can find more about that here and join in the fundraising appeal by purchasing limited edition c-prints or donating : Olek Appeal

In the meantime, whilst still on bail, Olek will be having her first UK solo exhibition with Tony's Gallery. More info on the link below.

OLEK
“I do not expect to be a mother but I do expect to die alone”

27 January – 23 March 2012
Private View: Thursday 26 January, 6-9pm
Nearest Tube, Shoreditch High Street

Tony’s Gallery is proud to present “I do not expect to be a mother but I do expect to die alone”, the first UK solo exhibition by Polish-born, New York-based artist Olek. Renowned for her use of crocheted yarn as a medium both indoors and on the street, the artist has created a major installation and sculptural environment: a distinctive Olek-esque living quarters filled with domestic objects of all kinds. These, along with the gallery walls and floor, have been entirely covered in crochet.

Tony's Gallery