Iranian artists at the first international street art festival in George Town, Malaysia, marked the beginning of a prosperous year for urban art.
During the past week, 15 street artists from across the globe including two from Iran arrived in Penang, Malaysia to showcase their works at the international art festival, Honaronline reported.
‘Different Strokes’ - a collaborative project by Hin Bus Depot Art Center and UK’s Graffiti Prints - is the second edition of a street art festival in Malaysia following its successful first edition ‘Urban Exchange’. It is also the third edition of a series of exhibitions curated by Giancarlo Petrucci. It showcases brand new works across all mediums.
The artists include Ernest Zacharevic (Lithuania), Sandra Chevrier (Canada), Icy and Sot (Iran/NYC), Martin Whatson (Norway), Beejoir (UK), Alexface (Thailand), Snik (UK), Nafir (Iran), Sabek (Spain), Levalet (France), Roamcouch (Japan), and Gabriel Pitcher (UK).
There are 10 locations all around the state identified for the artists to spray or paint their works. One of the popular spots is Nagore Square, which was also used in the previous art festival by Hin Bus Depot, ‘Urban Exchange’.
According to the exhibition website, many of the peeling walls of pre-war shophouses in the city became canvases for street artists’ collaboration in creation so that the state government decided to monitor and control the event by forming a committee to vet these works.
“I painted so many that Giancarlo told me to stop painting,” Nafir said describing his enthusiasm at the event. Different Strokes runs until April 19.
Nafir, an artist from Tehran, could not resist the temptation to spray paint as many street arts as he possibly could. He also brought along some of his previous works that were on display at Stencil Art Prize Exhibition in Sydney, Australia last October.
Icy (born 1985) and Sot (born 1991) are stencil artists from Tabriz Iran, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. The two brothers continue their creative works to help dismantle preconceived perceptions of Iranian tradition through their striking stencil artwork. Since 2006 they have held exhibitions around the world and their outdoor works have been seen on the streets of Iran, Turkey, Paris, Berlin, Norway, Italy and New York, to name a few.
