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| Reviews & Critics Wooster Collective - 02. October 2004 USA GRAFFITI WORLD... The Bar Has Been Set And It's Now Pretty Fuckin' High For the last few months we've been hearing terrific things about an upcoming book on street art and graffiti called GRAFFITI WORLD : STREET ART FROM FIVE CONTINENTS The book was conceived and put together by Nicholas Ganz and edited by Tristan Manco. Nicholas is a graffiti artist himself who lives in Germany and Tristan, who many of you will know from the Wooster site, is a graphic designer from Bristol. Tristan is also the author of two other amazing books on this subject, Stencil Graffiti and most recently, Street Logos. So last week while in London, Sam Clark, the designer of the book, showed us a preview copy. To say that we were blown away by GRAFFITI WORLD would be a massive understatement. Sam's layouts are spectacular and the work that Nicholas and Tristan have put into the book is remarkable. With over 2,000 meticulously laid out photographs, the book showcases the work of over 180 artists from all over the world. Some you will know from the Wooster website, but many of them you will not. In our minds, GRAFFITI WORLD is by far the best book ever to come out on graffiti and street art. The main reason for this is the sheer magnitude and quality of the photographs. They are amazing. The art on each and every page is absolutely stunning. Graffiti World sets the bar so high, that it will be hard for others to "one up" it. The book is so packed with art that it can take you days to absorb it all. We're still going through it. So without trying to sound like a cheesy book critic, our advice to you is that if there's one art book to get this winter, this is the one. And here's one additional reason why: The retail price in Europe for GRAFFITI WORLD is only 20 pounds. In the States you can pre-order the book on Amazon for $24.00 USD. When we asked Sam why (and how) the book could have a price of only 20 pounds (most publishers would have charged well over $100 for it) he mentioned that one of the main reasons for this was the generosity of the artists themselves. The community of artists around the world were kind enough to provide thousands of photographs without taking a fee, and this savings was passed on to the buyer. So big up not only to Nicholas, Tristan, Sam, their publishers at Thames and Hudson, but also to all of the artists! One other thing that we thought was cool, was that 600 copies will be published in hand painted boxes by a group of artists including Paris, Adam Neate, Kid Acne, Nick Walker, Other, and Above. In the US, the book will be published later this month by Abrams. One nice touch that they did was to turn the cover into a large fold out poster... Publishers Weekly USA GRAFFITI WORLD: Street Art from the Five Continents Nicholas Ganz, edited by Tristan Manco. Abrams, $35 (376p) ISBN 0-8109-4979-2 Following the unrelated project Autograf: New York City's Graffiti Writers (powerHouse), which also took an auteur-based approach this past season, Ganz (whose pen name is Keinom) widens the scope to present those he sees as the world's top graffiti writers, offering alphabetical sections of artists from the Americas, Europe and "The Rest of the World." Short prefatory histories put New York at the center of the modern graffiti world, with South American countries like Brazil later having "reached a high standard." The work is beautifully photographed throughout; multiple pieces by each artist are laid out appealingly over verso-recto spreads, along with a paragraph by Ganz detailing the artist's origins and the main thrust of the work (and occasionally a photo of the artist him or herself). From gigantic murals to tiny stickers, Ganz has seen and photographed it all and talks knowledgeably about everything from "wildstyle" fontage to the non-orthographically based "character culture," where artists create (and replicate) cartoonish figures in various figurative exploits. Striking a colloquial balance between insider's knowledge and thoughtful presentation, Ganz's book should be durable for its cohesion of vision, if not for the scale of presentation of each artist. (Nov.) Elusive Styles - November 2004 UK When Thames & Hudson first published Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant's legendary 'Subway Art' twenty years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that the fiercely underground artform would explode into such an influential global movement. Three years in the making, 'Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents' written by Nicholas Ganz and edited by Tristan Manco (the author responsible for both 'Stencil Graffiti' and 'Street Logos'), is the latest and arguably one of the most comprehensive celebrations of graffiti to date - an ambitious attempt at breaking down the trends and styles that have made street art what it is today - a worldwide phenomenon. "My basic idea was to show the creative energy which exploded inside the culture and into nearly every country in the world. I wanted to give an overview of the creative forms in graffiti and street art and the very interesting, inspiring and influential artists the movement has brought out during its more than 35 year history" explains German author Nicholas Ganz aka Keinom. A graffiti artist himself, Ganz roamed the globe - literally but also via the world wide web - to gather the material for this project. His research took him to some pretty extreme spots from the freezing climes of Canada to the ghettos of Johannesburg and Cape Town where he had to hide his camera in a bag to avoid getting robbed. "The most unusual place I went on my travels was definitely South Africa. When I visited a local yard one night, I heard gunshots pretty close. It's a completely different world to mine. Even New York isn't as hectic. This trip inspired me so much that I'm thinking about doing another book about the life and social structures of the country. Another crazy place I went to was Canada. In contrast to Cape Town where it it was really warm and sunny, I was suddenly walking into a freight train yard in a temperature of minus 20 degrees and more than a metre of snow. It was interesting to see how people dealt with the cold to paint their pieces; some use oilsticks for instance. I thought that the colours in the cans might freeze and that I wouldn't be able to paint my stencils." After all the research, selecting the vast selection of flicks - 2000 pieces from more than 180 artists - was by no means an easy task. "Choosing the images for the book was really difficult, since there are so many interesting artists" states Ganz. A surefire visual treat for aspiring writers and art aficionados alike, 'Graffiti World' is packed with knowledge inc. artists' biographies, a glossary of graff terminology and a useful list of essential links. It also incorporates interviews with many featured artists from giants such as Banksy and Brazil's Os Gemeos to emerging artists from around the world. 'Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents' is published by Thames & Hudson. Hardback ISBN 0500 511705, £19.95. Make sure you look out for LTD edition collectors' boxes hand-painted by Adam Neate, Other, Paris, Kid Acne, Nick Walker and Above. For more info and visuals, hit up Keinom's recommended street art sites: www.graffitiworld.org www.ekosystem.org www.woostercollective.com www.graffiti.org http://graffiti.netbase.org | ||||||||