This week in the international-street-art-sphere portraiture was the method of choice. Just for you, we’ve compiled the portraits that we found to be most striking. View them below.

Aryz (above) worked on a collaboration with David Choe in L.A. You can clearly distinguish the American’s artist surrealistic style colliding with the Aryz‘s creepy world.

Invader

Last time we heard from Invader he was pasting a mosaic of Spider-man onto the Parisian landscape. The French artist now dropped a new work in London depicting another hero, Luke Skywalker, chilling out with his father, Darth Vader.

Ben Slow & Mear One

Ben Slow and Mear One worked on a politically charged collaboration for the streets of San Francisco. The two street artists portrayed Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in a light that acknowledges their shadier dealings.

Jack TML

The incredible Israeli artist Jack TML was recently in Germany to paint an indoor piece somewhere in Munich. His figurative work is charged with feelings of distance and proximity.

Aryz, prior to his collaboration with David Choe, worked on a gigantic mural in San Francisco. The Barcelona-based artist worked on merging the insides and outsides of his female character using his signature color pallet.

Stik is currently honoring the Chichester Street Art Festival  alongside Run & Phlegm. Working with his minimalistic stick figures, the British artist produces a piece that creates movement through subtlety.

The post STREET ART: BEST OF THE WEEK – The Art Of Portraiture appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The post Street Art: Borondo, Ghostly Figures appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Wall painted with Daaan and Sanne

Skount, a Spanish street artist, has  been living in Amsterdam since 2009. The incredible artist works with illustrations of characters based on various cultural images. His masked creations are often mysterious and inspired by mostly ancient and extinct cultures that he resurrects through paint.

Skount is currently in Greece where he just finished painting “Five Worry Dolls” (above.)  The dolls originate from Guatemala, where they are called “worry dolls.” They are targeted at worried people, as their name implies. If people are unable to sleep because they are worried they use the dolls to express their fear and place them under their pillow; they’re kind of like dream catchers. The Spanish artist painted this piece in response to the current economic struggles Greece is facing. A fear for their future is omnipresent and is undoubtedly making a lot of people restless.  In their case they do not need one doll under their pillow, but five! This piece is one of the subtlest and most powerful murals to respond to the ongoing European economic crisis. Take note.

The post Street Art: Skount Alleviates Worries About The Economic Crisis appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Spanish

Follow him here

The post Street Art: Kraser Tres will not be lost in translation appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Spanish street artist Vinz is back. His sensual works recently hit Valencia, Spain for “Market.” The “Feel Free” project uses nudes and sex as a symbol of love and friendship.

The critique of consumerism in art has been overexplored. Here is an intresting reflection on the use of human bodies and sexuality in the advertising industry to sell products that rarely have much to do with the painted picture. The D&G reference is reminiscent of the highly criticized D&G ad setting a gang rape scene (below):

The post Street Art: Vinz – Human Bodies & Sexuality in Advertising appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Vinz, a Spanish street artist, merges delirium and sensuality in his lively characters. The artist creates highly detailed collages of beaked women laying in the nude. The monochromatic bodies seem deceptive and used – deprived of color yet empowered by passion. The bird heads are vividly colored, every feather has its own movement.

He explains that his use of bird heads and nudity “is related to the iconography of various religions. Birds and naked people are extracted from the book of Genesis in the Bible. Mayas, Aztechs, Sumerians etc. talk about the figure of reptile as the animals which take control over us, like police in our world. And the frog appears in Apocalypse scenes and is responsible for Humanity disasters. This is why I use them to build men in suit characters.”

Read full interview: Here

The post STREET ART: VINZ, Bird Women and Nudity appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.