One of the ongoing photographic projects I’ve undertaken since moving to Vancouver is the documentation of local street artist’s work. I try to keep an eye out when wandering the city and photograph new paste-ups or stencils as soon as I see them because due to the weather and strict anti-graffiti laws, very few pieces stay around for long. I’ve always had an interest in Graffiti but not to the same degree until now because the Vancouver scene distinguishes itself with interesting styles and distinctive work. Some may consider this sort of thing vandalism but I like the idea of bringing art to the street, because it adds a more interesting aspect to the visual landscape of the city and takes art out of the safe and typical environment of a gallery.

Street art is defined as any art developed in a public space, and can include traditional aerosol paint graffiti work, but encompasses many other media and techniques such as wheat pasting, stickers, and stencil graffiti.

A favorite of mine is the work of The Dark, for his large scale, very detailed, stencils and paste-ups. He is one of the most active contributers to Vancouver’s tight street art scene, along with Office Supplies Incorporated and Weakhand. The Dark always throws something up on the boarded over store front on the corner of Nelson and Granville, while both Weaky and OSI currently have new stuff up all over the city, so keep an eye out for it.

This week two gallery shows will begin after the cross country moving service gets all of the art here! Vancouver street artists. “Plumage” opens at Midtown (438 Pender St.) on Friday January 27th at 8pm, and on Saturday “Faces of Basco” opens at Les Gallery (1879 Powell St.) at 7pm.