The year started on a high note with HUY-GERNICA by URIGINAL BARCELONA & IRENE LOPEZ (ES). Owing to last minute vandalism we were allowed to make-over the work FUTURE by TEAMBLAZIN (NL) & MATAONE (BE). The people's and college's wishes, the chosen idea was Guernica from Picasso integrating local elements, thus referencing tribute to WW2, architecture, yet upcoming arts and culture renowned neighbourhood.
Following the success of the mural and an article in Het Parool, Stadsdeel Nieuw-West, Team Sloterdijken asked SAMA to create a canvas that would go as a gift to the Eindhoven municipality. Uriginal and Irene's mixed media style allowed us to create in a space of 5 days the canvas which was shipped and hand delivered to the departing bus from Weesperplein to Eindhoven filled with civil servants and politicians. Street art works FAST :)
Then came #blub - real artist name: #lartesanuotare ! Just like with Exit/Enter, the public and internet kept ignoring the real name of the artist, and gave them their own :) . The collective heard about SAMA from Street Level Gallery in Florence, and of course our last year's exhibition with Exit Enter "Once Upon a Time in Amsterdam". We pasted some in Nieuw-West along the SAMA collection route and sprinkled the centre a little, during King's Night, performance by Lemon and healthy Dutch beer. When I visited one of the "Girls with a Pearl Earring" on the Brouwersgracht - the South-African owners of the boat re-cellotaped her to their electricity box after the rain destroyed the ecologica glue solution.
Luckily, Fonds van Nieuw-West , have granted us some funding to restore and add more works by Lartesanuotare (IT), so we are already looking forward to 2019!
The two Iranian brothers Icy&Sot are not strangers to Amsterdam Nieuw-West. Their debut here is dated back to 2014, when they produced 'Let her be free' on the blue boards of Westside Cafe. The brothers were back in 2016, leaving along the SAMA collection path some 7 'Walking Alone' boys. To welcome them back in 2018 was only natural. In collaboration with Meting Bagirgan of Keys-Art and local kids from Slotermeer school, we made an artwork of Sloterdijk Skyline. The artwork was created after the local kids watched Icy&Sot paint the 'Free' and 'Dream' on the containers from C-Box.
CODEX URBANUS & DARK SNOOPY fell from the sky one Saturday afternoon. The family was visiting the Netherlands and decided last minute to pay SAMA a visit. Luckily the art of Codex Urbanus and Dark Snoopy is 'pure street art' and can be added anywhere without permission. Result? See for yourselves!
New 10 portraits from BTOY had been created for Schiphol SPOT community, based on choices of 20 Innovators proposed by the artist. The members of the community had a choice and this is the result:
MOSTE has returned for an 8 weeks residency, following his successful stay with SAMA last year. Ricardo assisted our new branding team with some illustration work, helped to fix the map of the collection and shared his knowledge about graffiti techniques with our students. And of course, by popular demands he had to restore the sunflowers. The blocks had been waxed and we are excited to see how long they can withstand the weather.
Tribute to Abdelhak NOURI came from the local residents initiative and friends and family from this young talented footballer. This was SAMA's first digital artwork, in a sense that together with the artists our team had to think through 'permanent' solution, which of course goes against the entire notion of 'street art'. At the end it is a mix of digital design and painting by our dear URIGINAL BARCELONA and IRENE LOPEZ. Uriginal is an Ace with portraits whilst Irene specialises in spacial imagery. The mix is Glorious! The artwork is located on Nigel de Jong plein, who personally visited it when announcing the change to Abdelhak Nouri plein.
Another unusual work created this year, which slowly begins to take SAMA activities in a direction of social art and urban design, is DREAM CATCHERS. The original plan was to use illustrations and fantastic characters to make the secret playground in De Bretten park more attractive. However, having spent some time on location and following many discussions with the municipality workers, it became clear that anything artificial would not work. SAMA team had joined forces with Nina QUAX creative studio to dive into the magic world of storytelling, treasure hunting, dream catching. The result is a a collaboration with KOEMA - a thousand layers of paint - who produced for us 3 divine Dream Catchers, which will be placed in the Secret Garden of De Bretten, early in 2019 and launched together with the game.
During one of the culture tables for Sloterdijk area of Amsterdam, we met Cecile from Get Lost project. She in turn introduced SAMA to Tracian, who for her PdH in UvA is focusing on street art, aerosol spray and its impact on the Jamaican heritage and memory studies. And specifically the works of CLEAVER CUNNIGHAM. The time of acquaintance coincided with Cleaver's visit to Amsterdam, and although we were in a middle of other production, how could it be possible to say no to such a great artist? After all, he has 4 works in Kingston's museum and is coming up in Volkskunde Museum in Leiden in 2019. And SAMA has a new acquisition in a collection - the first one made by using aerosol and stencil techniques. We have a Bob Marley!
Pinky from NOLart of Breda has also finally visited SAMA and spruced up the playground in Gebrandy Park.
This year is also very special to SAMA because of the return of our first artist in the collection - BASTRARDILLA. Her new piece in Sloterdijk is representative of the topic CONVERSATIONS. The painter chose to open the dialogue about the environment and our responsibility for it. As the new entrepreneurs are moving into the mix of business and recreational area of Amsterdam, that claims ambition to become the Art District in the forthcoming couple of years, Bastardilla's artwork reminds us about the plastic. The piece is overlooking the harbour of Westpoort.
And last but for most the shiniest is the KENOR's pillars for VIP Schiphol Excellence centre. The parking garage visited by kings, queens and superstars is now dazzling with colourful abstracts of this talented artist from Spain.
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