Graffitecture Releasetecture

By Timmy Watson in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 22, 2007 5:00PM

We've heard some rumbling about the new graffiti book Graffitecture for a while now and the official release party is here. From 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. on Friday, February 23 at Heijfina, 1529 N. Milwaukee, you can catch a live graffiti and wall art installation while David Castillo and DJ small MVP spin music.

Enough about the release party, you say, what's Graffitecture about anyway? Over 40 Chicago graffiti artists were given photographs of architectural spaces from around the city and were asked to draw directly on these photos (taken by the editor of the project, Doug Fogelson). The pages are filled with an explosion of color in the middle, leaving the sides a bare black and white continuation of the architectural structure. After virtually flipping through the pages, we wish these artists' would break in to our house and give a little panache to our photos.

The work featured in the book are by artists' such as The X-Men, Jeff Zimmerman, Chris Silva, Fact, Gusher, Michael Genovese, Sketcherone, and Merdok. Included in the book are four essays which focus on the cultural implications of graffitti as well as its increasing significance in pop culture in the last few years. Essays were solicited by the editors to Professors John Jennings, Bridgette R. McCullough, Bridgette Buckley and President of Hartford design, Tim Hartford.