some video... A1one Two Dayz in Tehran

To continue a posting from a few days ago about the group graffiti exhibition Visual Slang 2008 in the LES which includes A1one here is a clip of the artist in action. Two Dayz in Tehran wanders through the streets of Tehran to see some of A1one's street art.

A video tour of the first street art exhibition in Tehran in 2007.

Some pictures ... for a Monday morning (Beirut)

Continuing with the theme of street art.. here are a few images taken from the streets of Beirut.

Here is a wall near Monot and USJ done a few years ago.The text is in Arabic which translates to "Beirut never dies". It was done a few years ago one a night when Beirut was under seige...


or another artist... arofish.. and his stenciled kite flier in the suburbs Dahiyeh
or his trash tv stencil...

or an homage to the men that clean up the city streets of Beirut.. the stenciled sukleen man

or 3dom and their stenciled people pulling the plug out of the wall... encouraging people at home to turn off the media outlets.. and find other more pleasant activites

or 3dom's three people breaking through the metal bars that sectioned off areas of the city...



The 961 Underground also is represented with a mural..

If these images are an indication of what the street art community is doing in Beirut then it looks all good..we can only hope that everyone keeps on keeping on.

A1one in the LES

A1one @ Abrons Arts Center

Visual Slang 2008: The Modern Imagination from Tehran to Tel Aviv is a group exhibition highlighting street art from some of the world's largest urban centers notably Tehran with the artist A1one and Tel Aviv with Ame 72, Know Hope, Klone, 0 cents and Smiling Bag Productions. Other artists include:C215,Cekis,Lorenzo Gomez, Adi Mahalu,Noa Mahalu,Mateo, Kenji Nakayama, Onesto, Johan Potma, Julio Rolle, and Stinkfish. From NYC there are Cern, Cope2,Chris Cortes, Indie184,Meres, Spaze Crafte One and Zito.

A1one is considered one of the Islamic World's leading graffiti artists currently working in Tehran. Included in the LES exhibition are 8 of his original pieces that push people to think, react and question. Iconic images from the Golden Arches logo to the infamous cloaked Iraqi prisoner from Abu Ghraib, a sort of macabre logo for the US led war in Iraq are stenciled on arabesque patterns. In many of his pieces Farsi and Iranian typography are incorporated. His pieces are eye-catching both for the choice of subject matter and the vibrant colors he uses.

An interview with A1one can be read at Rebel Without a Crew: Street Artist A1one in Tehran by Hrag Vartanian for the Zine at www.artcal.net.

While the exhibition is a unique opportunity to see A1one's pieces for the first in the US, it would have been great to include other artists working in cities in the Middle East such as Arofish , 3dom or the REK Crew in Beirut.

The exhibition is curated by Lois Stavsky and is at the Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center from the 17th of July to the 31st of August.