Street Art in the Time of Corona

by Xavier Tapies

From Paris to L.A., London to Bergen, Sao Paulo to Vienna, and many more, no one has quite captured the strangeness, heroism, frustration or surreal quality of the coronavirus pandemic quite like the world's street artists. This brilliant compact volume features the best heroic nurses, lovers refusing to let COVID cool their passion, strange edicts from government, presidential recommendations featuring disinfectant, feelings of entrapment and longing for freedom...

These artworks aren't just a fantastic take on the pandemic, but really capture the whole range of emotions that the world has lived through. Fine art isn't up to the task of defining this era. Street artists have taken on that mantle and have done it brilliantly.

Genres: Photography, Art

127 pages, Hardcover

Published April 27, 2021

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these works are very good. Most aren't amazing, but they're certainly competent works that speak to the moment. Street art being especially geared to address issues and convey the sentiments of the culture and peoples as these things are unfolding closer to real time. So as a time capsule of the Covid pandemic, this is a really valuable little book. It doesn't offer too much commentary, which is good. Occasionally I'd even prefer even fewer words about each piece, so as to let the art and the viewer speak for themselves. I wish they'd been able to compile a more internationally varied batch of artists, in particular more from the global south, and Africa (which isn't featured at all). That's a big chunk of the world missing from this history. Another volume focusing on some of these areas would be really cool.

[➸ Gwen de Sade · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice to flip through the book, there was nothing mindblowing, but I enjoyed it. Funny, how street art is really one of those few little things that was able to go on, while the art world is standing still.

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavily Eurocentric, which is a little disappointing. I would have liked to see a broader array of artists and regions of the world represented. At times I disagreed with the brief interpretations of the artworks' meaning, but art as always is in the eye of the beholder. Hope to see more street art preserved in art books as a complicated and emotional snapshot of the early 2020s.

[Dorthe Svendsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastisk inspirerende, får troa på mennesker igjen, veldig godt satt opp!!

[Jessica Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art book - mini coffee table like.

Worth the review as COVID changed everything for everyone and street art is a snapshot of the emotions of the moment.

It’s well done.

[Pierpaolo Sicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non male per chi ama la street art e vuole capire il punto di vista di molti street artist!