Street Art by Ket

The latest book from Ket is Street Art published by Michael O'Mara books.

Unlike his other books, as the title suggests, this a book about er.......Street Art. It comes in that familiar old school sized photo album format that they produced for Ket's other releases Graffiti Planet 1 and 2. Something that I really liked about those books and again with this one. It takes you back to a time when you flicked through a writers photo album to check out their style rather than this online biznizz.

Anyways, onto the book and its content. Well, given its title you can probably take a guess and name at least a dozen of those featured without having that much knowledge of the Street Art scene. Thats to say, the usual suspects are all included, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, The London Police, Blek le Rat, Insa, etc etc. Due to the mass exposure that these guys receive, and having seen the same old time and time again from each of them, it could lead you to dismiss this book as a bit pointless. That is until you dig a bit deeper and unearth some of the work by the lesser known artists.

The book is split into 3 categories; Stencils, Paint, and Posters/Wheat Paste.

Now I’m not that knowledgeable in the art of stencilling but from what I can see from the work featured, and im going to sound just like my dad here, it all looks the same. Even down to the fact that there appears to be very little use of any other colours except an obligatory black and white combo! Maybe its all in the finer detail and whatever “message” it is that the artists is trying to get across but its all lost on me. This section covers the well known in the scene and hopefully if there is to be a follow up to this, like there was for the first Graffiti Planet, then we will see some others featured bringing a far wider variety to this particular section (Inca get your stuff off to Ket!)

Now, for me the painting section is far more interesting, covering roller tags, through to characters and some abstract pieces. This section shows a wide range of styles and pieces from both the media darlings down to the lesser well known. Amongst these are a couple of character pieces from Pesimo. And also a couple of freaky as you like characters from lemza.

The paste up and poster section has a few interseting pieces but the stand out for me is when I got to Vhils. Now thats the way to go!! Forget this spraypaint stuff and go get your hammer and chisel out. More a re-render than a quick coat of paint to buff his work. Check him out if you havent already. Brilliant.

I know that the street art scene is not every ones cup of tea but to quote one of the featured artists (Kegr) “one mans trash is another man's treasure”.

Well worth picking up for the paint section alone (and a peek at Vhils work), even more so if you are into all forms of Street Art.

Availble for purchase from 19^th May 2011.