There’s a lot of street art in the gallery-theater compound tucked into a back-alley courtyard off Rosenthaler Strasse in the Hackescher Market area of Berlin. Below is an illustration-styled painting a girl with pink hair, reminiscent of a character in a Japanese comic book (“manga”) or graphic novel.
The Humboldt Box on Museum Island in Berlin’s Mitte. The building is an “interim” exhibition structure on the site of the future Humboldt Forum, which will be built on the same site and completed in 2019.
Love this. Here’s another one of those sculptures that’s bound to make somebody say “WTF?” when they see it. We stumbled upon this near the Museum for Photography and Zoo Station in Charlottenburg, in Berlin. The artwork is a powerful, mysterious and verging-on-ominous post-modern object, hinting at some dark industrial process with its pipe-like elements. Thing of beauty within the faded, conservative glamour that is heart of posh West Berlin.
While some of the Global Graphica team have decamped to Berlin this week and is posting from the German capital, some of us have been cooking up a little visual goodness of stuff in New York City.
Here we bring you the first clip in the Global Graphica “Visual Culture” video series: A video snapshot of some of the art, architecture, design, branding, street atmosphere and creative landscape of the NYC Meat Packing District.
Visual Culture in the NYC Meat Packing District from Super Core on Vimeo.
The wonderful modern-contemporary architectural design of the towering GSW Hochhaus building in north end of Kreuzberg, near Mitte, in central Berlin.
Stencil street art on Museum Island in Mitte, in Berlin. What’s so striking about this stencil is that it’s duplicated and the image of a masked man — reminiscent of a terrorist – and the “A” (for “anarchy”?) is itself mysterious and discomforting.
That the image is on a government street barrier in the cultural heart of Berlin, an area with scant graffiti or street art, is a statement, perhaps. The juxtaspostion of black stencil paint and the red and white of the barrier catch the eye as if to worn the viewer.
The presence of a hardcore German football (soccer) club supporters sticker — Karlsbande Ultras — brings another element of disruption to the image and the hint of violence.
In front of the Martin Gropius Bau museum in Berlin currently hangs a large red banner that says “Freiheit fur Ai Wei Wi” (Freedom for Ai Wei Wei”), the influential Chinese artist who was arrested and held by authorities for a few months earlier this year. A major exhibition of Wei Wei’s artwork is scheduled at the Gropius Bau this autumn.
Pictured here are True Religion’s bicycles parked in front of the denim brand’s Berlin shop on Munzstrasse in the Scheunenviertel neighborhood of Mitte.
Bikes are everywhere in Berlin. The streets are filled with cyclists and there are many bike lanes connecting neighborhoods. The city has adopted a bicycle-share system like those pioneered in Montreal, Barcelona and elsewhere in recent years.
Some shops and hotels deploy there own albeit small branded bike-loaner systems.
The “How Long is Now” on the side of the landmark Kunsthaus Tacheles artist studio-squat complex on Oranienburgerstrasse in Mitte.
Mykita is a maker of high-quality, high-end eyewear. The company has built a much-loved brand around the design and manufacture of edgy, stylish hand-made frames that sell globally to a loyal following. (We have to admit, we are among the brand’s devotees, with a couple of pairs of Mykita glasses already to our name and, perhaps, another set.) Below are a couple of futuristic pairs of eyeglasses in the display window showcase at the beautiful flagship Mykita boutique in the Scheunenviertel neighborhood of Mitte, in Berlin.
We’ve seen a few of these Alias “Devil Girl with Roses”stencil artworks in Berlin, around the Spandauer Vorstadt area of Mitte and in the Prenzlauer-Berg area. This one was found – to be more precise – on Kastanienallee street in Prenzlauer-Berg.
