The world's biggest art gallery

Street art was once seen just by passing pedestrians. Now, theinternet has revolutionised the form, and it's not only Banksy whois transforming our cities

STREET ART used to be very much a minority taste. Enthusiastswould venture out, at the dead of night, armed with spray cans.They'd use them to jollify a wall, or bridge, or subway train.Sometimes, their work might be very good indeed, but its audiencewould be limited to whoever happened to wander past. An artist'sonly brush with notoriety came when newspapers reported their latestcourt case.

Then the internet came along and changed all that. In a littleover a decade, a genre that was once dismissed as vandalism has usedcyberspace to gain credibility as one of the most vibrant andcreative scenes in urban culture. Inspired by Banksy, who hascompleted the journey from viral sensation to millionaire creator of$60,000 canvasses, Oscar-nominated movies, and bestselling books, ageneration of artists is now starting to fashion lucrative careersout of their former hobby.

"Today, somebody does a tag in Russia, China, Japan, or Africa, afriend photographs it and within a few hours it'll be viewed onwebsites all over the world," says Jeffrey Deitch, director of theMuseum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, which recently opened amajor show on the subject. "I think you can make a good case thatstreet art is now the most influential art movement of the past 30years. The penetration of urban culture is huge, and it'sinfluencing everything from skateboard design to high fashion. Someof these guys have even been hired to design Louis Vuittonhandbags."

Central to this rise has been Sebastian Buck. An Englishenthusiast, based in LA, he founded the website Unurth in 2008. Ithas since become one of the most influential street art forums,helping discover and champion such rising stars as Roa and Escif, aswell as established "names" like Blu, JR and OS Gemeos. On thecoming pages, Buck profiles some of the most exciting talentsworking on what is now the art world's largest canvas.

JR (above, and previous pages)

"Making social commentary arresting, beautiful and impressive isno mean feat. But France's JR does just that, across a globalcanvas. His huge images are usually pasted onto the walls and roofsof buildings. This page carries Wrinkles of a City, in Paris. Theproject on the opening spread, showcasing female inhabitants of aKenyan slum, helped win the 2011 TED prize. Judges praised him for'turning the world inside out'."

EVOL (right)

"This German artist uses stencils to create miniature life-likebuildings from small pieces of urban furniture. Here, he's drawntiny balconies and satellite dishes onto the side of an electricalbox to turn it into a tiny skyscraper. His work is so precise that,when you're glancing at photographs, it can often be hard to tellthat you're not looking at pictures of real buildings."

Claudio Ethos (left)

"Some of the very best photo-realistic street art being createdwith spray cans anywhere in the world today is produced by Ethos, aBrazilian who paints surreal scenes using monochromatic charactersand an occasional swirl of imagination. This figure comes fromBerlin."

Interesni Kazki (above)

"From Ukraine, the Interesni Kazki duo have a fast-growingreputation for creating surreal and complex murals you can look atfor hours. On a technical level, their work is ridiculouslyintricate, helping them pull off unlikely and highly-imaginativetricks with an extraordinary degree of skill. On a visual level,their bold use of colours and the sheer scale of their work jumpsout from the urban landscape."

OS Gemeos (left) "The Brazilian duo, whose name is Portuguese for'The Twins', have over the years developed an incredibly detailed,surrealist style. They are at their most inventive when they maketheir images interact cleverly with existing walls, windows andother features. Their canvases sell for as much as $50,000. Thisvibrant project was a commission by the owners of Kelburn Castle inAyrshire."

SAM3 (above)

"The fluid, silhouette-shaped figures that SAM3 is most famousfor creating may lack facial expressions, but they still manage toconvey so many emotions: in this you can see struggling, striving,and even loving. This is a drive-by work he produced on a housingestate in Murcia, in his native Spain. Unlike many famous streetartists of his generation, Sam3 refuses to participate in the artworld, or to even stage exhibitions. He's a reclusive figure whoseems to be driven entirely by a passion for street-art work, asopposed to commerce."

Blu (above)

"One of the biggest stars of street art, Blu is known for largeand politically-charged works, offering left-leaning commentaries onmodern society. He's critical of oil companies, big corporations,and capitalism in general. This is a classic piece: the officeworker's watch morphs into vast chains which seem to imprison him.He's also become famous for viral YouTube videos, in which he paintsand re-paints pieces of urban furniture."

Escif (above)

"Escif pins down Valencia with poetic, hand-painted murals whichhold my attention longer than most because there's always endlessways to interpret them. He produces character-based studies dealingwith philosophical concepts and emotions. In an interview forUnurth, he once explained: 'I'm not looking to produce decorativepaintings. I'm trying to wake up people's minds'."

Phlegm (above)

"One of the most skilled illustrators producing street art today,Phlegm creates huge walls with detailed scenes of mythical animalsand characters. Perhaps because he works mostly in Sheffield andRotherham, as opposed to cities with major scenes, he remainsrelatively undiscovered."

Roa (right)

"Based in Belgium, Roa often portrays creatures in a state ofdeath or decay. This piece, portraying a dead fish he found nearby,was in an abandoned town near the Salton Sea in Southern California.He paints freehand, with an aerosol can, which isn't easy. He's oneof the few new artists to be included in the MOCA street-art show inLA." *

See independent.co.uk for more work by street artists