German Lego Bridge Part of 10-Mile Pedestrian & Cycle Network
A Lego-bridge in Germany by MEGX. (Rolf Busch/Courtesy MEGX)
As children love to imagine, what if we actually built our cities out of Legos? A bridge in Wuppertal, Germany, a city of 350,000 to the northeast of Cologne, offers one vision of what that city might look like. Street artist Martin Heuwold, or as he tags, MEGX, created the grand illusion last fall when he painted a dingy concrete span in the bright hues of every architect’s favorite toys.
The city appears to be banking on the High Line Effect. Faced with the prospect of a declining population, Wuppertal has been looking for ideas to reinvigorate the city and increase residents’ quality of life. The Lego Bridge is part of a 10-mile pedestrian and cycle path called Wuppertal Bewegung e.V. being built through the city on what was once the Wuppertal Northern Railway. Plans are also on the boards for a heritage trolley to run atop the viaduct. [H/T Colossal.]
On View> Repeat Offender Combines Architecture, Cardboard & Spray Paint
Großes Kino (HPM, Charlottenstr Version #3) (Courtesy Jonathan LeVine Gallery)
EVOL: Repeat Offender
Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th floor
New York
Through May 5
While his artwork might be hanging on the walls of a gallery in Chelsea, Berlin-based street artist Evol adds a distinct element of urban grit to his used-cardboard and spray-paint stencil works now on display as part of his Repeat Offender exhibition. The incredibly detailed views capture the abandonment of low-income German neighborhoods, using the texture of the cardboard base to enhance the paintings’ architectural qualities. “Clean surfaces don’t speak to me, so recording these marks is a process of visually remembering the charm of a place that will soon be painted over,” Evol said in a statement. Besides his cardboard paintings, Evol is also showing paintings on metal and photographs on his 2009 installation from a slaughterhouse in Dresden, Germany.
Artist Scratches A Building's Surface To Reveal Murals
Scratched mural on a building facade in Moscow (Alexandre Farto)
Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, sculpts architecture. Using mallets, picks, and jackhammers, Vhils chips away layers of plaster to create large murals in relief. His series of wall etchings called Scratching the Surface appears around the world from Moscow to Italy to the United States. Via Today and Tomorrow.
Salsa in the Square
Things have gotten pretty wild in Times Square, what with the permanent plazas, aquariums, and ice sculptures on the horizon—that last one is going up tonight—so what about a good old fashioned billboard? Well, not exactly old fashioned. In January, Cuban-born street artist Sofia Maldonado took up residency in Times Square’s BLANK SL8 space, where she began work on a clutch of murals that will be installed in the square come march, bringing a bit of graffiti grit back to the area. Our friends at LOOSEWORLD swung by and put together this video of Sofia at work, and there’s another on the way, so stay tuned.
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