street art, Neopolitan style!

In both London and New York there are large exhibits in museums devoted to "street art". They look ok, but it's hard to see how this subject can really fit in a museum context, without getting pedantic and dull.

That's part of the point, innit?

While on a visit to Naples Italy this summer, I was expecting to do a photo essay on the garbage strike there.

However, Silvio Berlisconi beat me to the punch, sending in military troupes to scoop up and remove the garbage from the city center.

The place was trash-free when I arrived, and smelled, well, pretty much like any other city.

All of the rubbish was neatly sequestered out of the way, leaking and dripping, while the city fights about the new incinerator due to be built to dispose of this mess. It's all still THERE, mind you- I just wasn't seeing it. What I was seeing, I was not prepared for.

There was this huge wealth of AMAZING painting on the walls and corridors of the old city- I have really never seen anything like this before.

I will let the images do the talking.

Some are political, or offer religious or social commentary, some are about football (go mastiffs!) and mark territory, and some appear to just respond to the existing pipes, holes and other physical features on the city walls.

The level of imagery is very high here. No dumb scrawled names or simple bragging here-this is, as it states above- the Esthetic Rebellion in action!

These works are all exceptional for their use of the available space and surrounding objects, and the sheer lyrical play between flatness and sculptural possibility.

I was Gobsmacked.

There was stencilling, spray paint, brushed paint,

painted-over fly posted xeroxes,

and, there was Collage! stuff, objects, materials glued onto the walls as well!

see below: Things were scratched and incised- as in the commentary on art and nature, below:

How fabulous is this??

One artist in particular took my fancy- her/his style in unmistakable, hats off....

S/he gets a mini-show of her/his own, as follows:

These folks put the average subway tag to shame, indeed, they put the average Chelsea gallery output to shame!

This sculpture(cement and paint?) was outside a shop- I cannot really explain it's presence or function- but hey, that just makes it art, right?