If you are interested in Urban Art, you must see Exit Throught the Gift Shop. This movie features appearances/"performances" from Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Mr.Brainwash and many others. 

Exit Through The Gift Shop is first feature film tobe made by Banksy. 
Banksy is a graffiti artist whose work can be seen on walls around the world. He protects his privacy to avoid prosecution and has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film.

The movie is the story of how a French shop keeper named Thierry Guetta began to make films of urban artists and in the process attempted to locate and befriend Banksy.

But Banksy encouraged the artist turn the camera back on himself. There is rare footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many other famous and infamous graffiti artists.

"It’s basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed". - Banksy

Famed street artist Banksy stars in this new documentary, a collaboration with Terry Guetta (akaMr. Brain Wash), called "Exit Through The Gift Shop." We had the chance to check out the film, a result of unprecedented access to the artist over the last ten years, and loved the new insight into Banksy's work, as well as learning how it evolved from street art to collective works.

Here is a trailer for the movie from bankskyfilm.com.

After leaving the movie, my first response was to go online and try to verify if any of it was real. Both Banksy and Thierry Guetta are pretty unreliable narrators. I wasn't even sure if Thierry actually existed or if he was Banksy or if he was working together with Banksy.

So is it true? I verified that Mr.Brainwash does exist and thtat the monumental art exhibit shown in the movie did exist and that Mr. Brainwash generated a huge amount of cash form himself in the process of creating "art".

Shepard Fairey who is in the movie said “Of course the more I try to say it’s all true, the more it sounds like I’m somehow perpetuating the conspiracy,” 

Let us know what you think.

And you can see some urban art from Boston, New York other locales here.

A few nights ago I was at a company Holiday party at the MIT Museum. As someone who specializes in Urban Art of Boston and Cambridge, I was intrigued to discover the MIT Holographic exhibit while attending the party.

The MIT Holographic exhibit is on the second floor of the museum and it was there that I discovered this Holograph of Keith Haring (1958-1990).

When I told some of my friends about this discovery, I was surprised to discover that many of them had never heard of him. So I wanted to expose Keith Haring to those who may not have heard about him or who may not have seen his art.

This is a photo of a Holograph!

Here is an example of one of his pieces:

copyright Keith Haring Foundation

His media were performance art, video, installation - but when he found that there was unused advertising panels in the News York City subway -- he began to find his niche. Using white chalk he created hundreds of public/urban drawings.

Of course, New Yorkers, being New Yorkers would converse with him when they came upon him working in the subway. It was his "laboratory" and this was the place he could experiment.

He created more than 50 artworks in cities throughout the world.

One of his most famous is Crack is Wack on the FDR Drive in New York City.

Haring was diagnosed with Aids in 1988 and died in 1990.

from www.boomerlife.org/baby_boomers_population.gif 

What does it mean to say something is Urban Art? Well, wikipedia says the following:

Urban art sometimes known as graffiti is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life. The term urban means "from the city". Sometimes Urban art is called "street art". The style of this art is mostly cartoon based, and sometimes realistic. The art is sometimes viewed as vandalism and destruction of property.

I think that Urban art can be much more than graffiti -- it can be art that captures city life in a photorealistic way and does not have to be painted on the actual buildings or sidewalks - but rather can be images of buildings, storefronts, billboards, and even of people captured in the moment on streets, in front of stores and even riding the public transportations.

Here is an example of some amazing city art from Lisbon, Portugal - this art happens to be on buildings but is it graffiti, or Urban art or both? (click on the image to see more)

You can watch the creation of this here:

and here is some urban art from Boston, MA (click on the image to see more)

Urban art can be exciting, edgy, sexy and not have to be grafiti. If you have any thoughts or ideas on this I'd love to hear them.

Stumbleupon is a website that you can use to discover new and interesting websites. Artists and Photographers and others interested in art can use it discover cool and interesting art that people have suggested and liked. You might find some interesting urban art or some beautiful seaside or coastal art. You will see some giclee prints. The categories are broad but you can tune your results by clicking the like it button when you see something you like.

It works like this -- you go to www.stumbleupon.com and register.

Registration is free. After registering you are asked to describe your interests. You can choose from many categories and select as many as you like.

If you want to focus exclusively on art and photography - limit your selection accordingly. If you don't mind mixing art and music, select some music that you like - I always include Jazz in my selections.

Below is a video showing the whole process.

Using Stumbleupon video

If you are an artist and someone suggests one of your images on your site as a Stumbleupon link, you will likely see an increase in visits to your site.

It's easy to spend a lot of time just "stumbling" around -- so try this when you have some free time to spare.