To bring street art to the attention of the busy Amsterdam citizens, Nicole Blommers and a couple of fellow street art lovers founded Amsterdam Street Art back in 2009. This week, from Wednesday 22 to Sunday 26 June, the second edition of the Project Amsterdam Street Art (ASA) will be taking place. This year’s festival involves over thirty street artists from the Netherlands, England, Israel, Ukraine and many other countries, showing Amsterdam the fun and the beauty of street art.
Nicole doesn’t have a background as a street artist herself. “I started getting interested in street art three years ago in London, through a stencil festival at Waterloo organized by the famous street artist Banksy,” she tells me. “ A friend of mine, who was really into Banksy, was visiting me and we went to the festival. After that, I started to document street art in London. When I returned to Amsterdam, I started Amsterdam Street Art to show people that there is a lot of street art around and that it is an accepted form of art. Street art can make people smile or make them think.”
She adds that there are many places in Amsterdam to see street art. Most of them are located in the center, like the Spuistraat, the Nieuwmarkt area, Prinsengracht and the Pijp neighborhood. Another great spot is the NSDM plot at the northern part of the IJ.
The Amsterdam Street Art Project features quite some remarkable artists in 2011. Think about the Spanish artist Btoy (Andrea Michaelson), who focuses her art on stencils and iconic photography. One of the most original participating artists is probably the Italian Guildor. Rather than using walls, or even streets for that matter, his work consists of something that’s abundant in Amsterdam: water! On Saturday, he will bring his project ‘write on the water’ to the canals of Amsterdam. Apart from these foreign masters, many Dutch artists will participate in the events.
Ives.one is one of them. His work is already visible in manyarea’s in Amsterdam. You can find the image at the right at Prinsengracht.
Next to street art and photo exhibitions, the program obviously leaves some space for the real work. The organization managed to ensure several locations where the artists can show their skills: a wall at Prinsengracht, billboards near the Sloterdijk station, Bellamyplein, Pand 14 in Holendrecht, and hopefully the famous I Amsterdam letters at Museumplein. Definitely a good reason to keep your eyes open the next days and spot some of these artists at work!
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