STREET ART in Rome Advent Calendar - Merry Christmas

I have enjoyed photographing STREET ART in Rome

to share with you in an Advent Calendar for 2015. 

Have a wonderful Christmas season. 

During the new year keep your eyes and heart open

to experience the many wonderful things

that surround us in our neighborhoods. 

The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighbourhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes,

the one-of-a-kind glory,

like Father, like Son,

Generous inside and out,

true from start to finish.

John 1: 14 

(The Message version of  the Bible

by John Peterson)

And the Word was made flesh,

and dwelt among us,

and we beheld his glory,

the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,

full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 (King James Version)

STREET ART in Rome Advent Calendar (24.12.15)

Saint Mary of Shanghai, 2015
Mr. Klevra (Rome, 1978)

"The Italian artist Mr. Klevra (Rome, 1978), a Christian Iconography and Byzantine Painting enthusiast, gifted the district of Tor Marancia with one of his Madonnas. Saint Mary of Shanghai, fictional patron saint of the neighbourhood, brings us back to a distant past when Tor Marancia was a village: little houses with packed dirt floors, shared bathrooms and tiny vegetable gardens. At that time this suburb was nicknamed 'Shanghai' because of the frequent flooding, daily bloodsheds and extreme poverty."

From STREETART ROMA, a smartphone app by Artribune

STREET ART in Rome (23.12.15)

The Redeemer Child (2015)
Seth (Paris, 1972)
Tor Marancia

"Seth" Mallard painted a giant boy climbing an imaginary ladder, seemingly drawn with crayons. The title makes reference to the statue of Christ above Rio de Janeiro, and the work honors Luca, a young boy from Tor Marancia who died in an incident while he was playing. Here the boy on the building is peering out a blue window into another world.

This is the fruit stand below The Redeemer Child.

STREET ART in Rome Advent Calendar (22.12.15)

To Carlo Alberto, 93 Tones (2015)

by Alberonero (Lodi, Italy)

Tor Marancia

Il Ponentino (2015)

by Pantonio (Terceira Island, Azores, 1975)

Tor Marancia

"Il Ponentino" is a name that refers to the west wind that the Portuguese artist experienced while being suspended 14 meters above the ground during his many days of painting this mural.

Man Nature Distance (2015)
Jerico (Philippines)
Tor Marancia

This is Jerico's first large scale work and has a reference to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. This mural is a gift of "creation" from the artist to the neighbourhood.

 

STREET ART in Rome Advent Calendar (21.12.15)

Welcome to Tor Marancia

During the last week of Advent I will focus on murals in the neighbourhood of Tor Marancia, about 1 km from my home. There are  20 murals created by an international group of artists in one block of public housing. They exist as an amazing testimony of how art can transform a neighbourhood.

"Welcome to Shanghai" 2015
Caratoes (China)


Over 100 years ago the neighbourhood was nicknamed "Shanghai" by the residents because of frequent floods, mud, shacks and violence. The Chinese artist Caratoes painted over an old sign that said "Welcome to Shanghai." The work features a Chinese opera mask with hands holding an origami version of the Roman she-wolf.

Still Life, 2015
Reka (Melbourne)

The Nourishing Unconquered Sun, 2015

Domenico Romeo (Reggio Calabria, 1988)

The Pyramid, 2015

Best | Ever (British)

Neil Edward and Hadley Newman collaborate together with the name Best | Ever. They created this mural of +hug between a man and a woman.

Waterfall of Words, 2015
Satone (Venezuela, 1977)
This artist was inspired by the conversation of two residents while he as painting and not understanding the meaning of the words they were saying, he captured the gestures, sounds and inflections on this wall.

STREET ART in Rome Advent Calendar (20.12.15)

Wall of Fame - an alphabet of portraits

Jb Rock, 2010

Via dei Magazzini Generali

This wall of famous people is an alphabet of faces painted opposite the portraits of ordinary people done by Sten Lex. (See blog post for 19 December, 2015.) Can you figure out the names of everyone from A to Z? Note: The artist donors his mother with the letter M. his self portrait is for the letter Z.

STREET ART in Rome Advent Calendar (19.12.15)

Ordinary People - "Black and White Power"
Painted by Sten Lex, 2011
Via dei Magazzini Generali (Ostiense)

This is a series of portraits of common people painted using a pointillist technique by the Italian artists Sten (Rome, 1982) and  Lex (Taranto, 1982). It serves as a mirror to a "Wall of Fame" across the street. (See post for Sunday, 20 December, 2015)