A few years ago, there was much excitement about Straat Museum, a huge, new, innovative showcase for street art planned for Amsterdam (see the Art Junkie post about it here.) Red tape, building concerns and the pandemic set completion back but it’s up and running now and it’s exceeding all expectations.

Reviews of the museum say the exhibitions are superb. The latest is a solo show Take me Down by Mando Marie, known for meticulous devotion to hand-drawn and hand-cut stencils, below.

Housed in an imposing national monument – the 8,000 square metre Lasloods building of the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam North – STRAAT Museum’s permanent collection consists of more than 160 artworks by more than 130 international, street art and graffiti artists.

Canadian artist Michelle Hoogveld is represented there, with a work called Resonance and Canadian-born Chris Dyer painted the imaginary creature (below) in Shamanic journey, which he visualized after taking the entheogenic drink ayahuasca in Peru.

The canvases are all the size of exterior walls. The artists use the same techniques and materials as outside, including scaffolding and elevators.

Browse the Straat Museum site for more.

The Montreal-based artist gathers and superimposes layers of paper, old magazines, comics, fabrics, reclaimed objects, then writes, spray-paints and tattoos the works. Above: The late US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg via Instagram

Like Banksy, the Quebec-born artist operates anonymously and has been photographed only while masked. He has left his mark around the world with his wheat-paste posters in Paris, Berlin, London, Italy, Los Angels, Toronto, Montreal and many more.

Here’s a studio visit video:

His vibrant compositions – which are also featured in galleries around the world – focus on the influential figures of his childhood, mythical characters, political leaders, and cultural icons.

Using a variety of media including collage, acrylic paint, and silkscreen, the artist’s work occupies a liminal space between the street and the gallery. 

His street art is widespread

These amazing street art examples are all from the Stikki Peaches Instagram – definitely worth browsing.

Stikki Peaches has had numerous international art shows and his works are constantly moving into personal, corporate and government collections (including the Canadian Embassy in Paris).

He’s on restaurant and industry walls (including Nike’s HQ) in museums, and even on furniture.

Stikki Peaches, much more to see on his website here.

Represented by Galerie LeRoyer in Montreal.

Apparently no one knew it was a Banksy when contractors moved in to begin demolition for dozens of new homes.

The mural, Morning is Broken, showed a young boy, with a cat at his side, opening corrugated iron curtains at the site in Kent, England. The house, built in the 1500s, was approved for destruction last year.

“We had no idea it was a Banksy. It made me feel sick realising it was a Banksy—we were gutted,” contractor George Caudwell told KentOnline. “We started demolishing it yesterday. The landowner watched us do it and didn’t know either.” (Images are from Banksy’s Instagram, here)

The image of a migrant child signalling for help has appeared on a crumbling wall in Venice, site of the famed Biennale art exhibition, apparently the latest work by Banksy. The mysterious British artist was not invited to this year’s Venice Biennale. 

Meanwhile Banksy’s website shows what appears to be the artist, buried in hat, coat or newspaper, setting up an unlicensed art stall in the central Saint Mark’s Square.

He sets up a series of nine oil paintings in the style of the 18th-century Venetian great Canaletto, which when placed together depict a huge cruise ship surrounded by tiny gondolas, plying their way through the Venice canals. The piece, called “Venice in Oil”, seemed to denounce the mass tourism which is endangering much of Venice – AFP

The text under his video said: “Setting up my stall at the Venice Biennale. Despite being the largest and most prestigious art event in the world, for some reason, I’ve never been invited.”

Here’s his video.

Banksy’s website, here.