Viagrafik

Head on over to Viagrafik for some excellent graff, video and illustration. I know I’ve mentions this collective in passing before but I thought I should give them their own post. The site’s a bit crazy on the pop-ups but the content is still great. “From wall to screen to everything”.

 

Graffiti/Graffs

Graffiti (or Graffs as it called in Europe) by Sandrine Pereira, and published by Fitway, is an extraordinary book about…graffiti (surprised?!). I didn’t buy Graffs with the intention of reviewing it; it was only once I got it home that I realised how unique this book actually is that I realised that I had to share it. In fact, I’m constantly amazed that graffiti books seem to all have a unique feel to them.

This one shines, for me, because of the degree of technical graff within. There’s no high-speed hit-and-run looking pieces on show, it’s all artwork that’s been really skillfully put together with incredible attention to detail. I know that aerosol acrobatics is not everybody’s taste in graff but it’s definitely one of the styles that I dig.

I know that I often say it but the photography in Graffs is pretty amazing, bordering in absolutely incredible actually. I guess that it’s not just the photography but the way the pieces are photographed. In fact, many of these pieces look like they’ve been specifically designed with the post-graff photo being the primary importance. Take one of Bom.K’s pieces. Here’s one of the greatest pieces of art photography I’ve seen. It’s an abstract piece set over numerous parallel planes in an abandoned decaying urban setting. It’s been so well thought out and executed that the shapes, and other lines and characteristics, within the planes all join together and sweep across the whole depth of field. Amazing. Other artists’ work includes Alexone, Superkitch, Diablo, Lksir and many others…and it’s all great stuff.

Anything disappointing? Just that the aforementioned Bom.K image doesn’t take up a full double spread! Graffs is a folded soft-cover book that weighs in at 120. It’s available from all the usual places including Amazon UK and Amazon US.