Maybe you are familiar with the names of American street art's key players, from Barry McGee to Swoon, but can you name the equivalent artists revamping the streets of Chile, Egypt or Palestine?
A new series from MOCAtv titled "Global Street Art" will pick up where "Art in the Streets" left off, providing a virtual tour of the world's most colorful urban canvases -- from Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Libya and Palestine.
The series begins with an exploration of Cairo's vibrant graffiti as navigated by obsessive street art archivist Soraya Morayef, the maven behind the blog Suzee In The City. Morayef, who grew up in both Cairo and Alexandria, uses social media, street savviness and what she describes as "internet detective work" to hunt down the Middle East's most compelling living walls.
The photographer and filmmaker explained her hopes for her street art short in an interview with MOCAtv:
"I hope the world can appreciate how articulate, thoughtful, dignified and intelligent these artists are... As Arabs we've been battling islamophobia and anti-Arab stereotypes for so long now, it's important to show politicised Arab Youth as comitted artists and activists, not one-dimensional, gun-toting, fanatic terrorists, an exhausted and offensive rhetoric."
Check out the first episode of MOCAtv's "Global Street Art" above and see a slideshow of stills from the glorious Cairo streets below. Which region would you like to see MOCA explore next? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
