INVADER

Invader is a French street artist on a mission. Working in many cities across the globe he's the instigator of one of the largest community art projects ever produced based on the game "Space Invaders".

Since 1998 Invader has done just that invading over 30 cities; you'll find the tiled pixilated images from the memorable retro game of the 70's. Inviting local communities to help plant his work as well as other projects he really is trying to inspire a new generation of artist, adding a small piece of visual magic locally which you know is appreciated and shared globally should give you a stronger sense of belonging with global community.

Still, all the fun element aside it was a little surprising to see just how much Invader could capitalize on his concept through the sale of over priced D.I.Y kits and map books as well as the usual clothing and figurine merchandise we're told we really want.

That said as long as you know where to look and you're a little lucky you'll never have to spend a penny...

Invaders In my home town Manchester, UK.

A couple of Invaders I came across in New York, USA.

BLU

BLU is an Italian street artist that does no less than impress! Working all over the world he uses masonry paint and extended rollers to create massive character depictions across building faces; sometime funny, sarcastic or just obscure but always without fail intriguing. Moving away from traditional graffiti media BLU has managed to expand his art in ways that spray paint couldn't.

Since the beginning of his career he has been a keen collaborator working with such artist as Sweza and Ericailcane at the beginning of the century in anonymous artistic attacks on the streets of Bologna, Italy. BLU's style and popularity grew and by 2005 he was beginning to embark on a global journey of commissions.

As well as gigantic building statements he also had an early interest in digital media, more specifically stop frame animation. This combined with his versatile use of paint has enabled BLU to create some spectacular stop frame animation that really is not to be missed.

If you enjoyed that you can catch much more on You Tube. For drawings and other great works visit BLU's site.

As well as the obvious enjoyable element to this work there is often also a point, be it political or on elements of society. One piece that any 9-5 avoider would appreciate is the Berlin mural of late 2008. This gigantic image of a mind/headless office worker trying to keep tidy but yet chained down by not only time but also his gold and apparent greed. This image on a commuter’s route of the people it's supposed to represent could be taken as an insult, or maybe someone's sympathetic observation on the masses.

ZEVS

I first came across Zevs in an old article for Juxtapoz. The vibrant image struck me immediately; it was intriguing to see the logo de-solved and spilling into the street. Zevs has taken it upon himself to liquidise corporate logos that encroach on us daily and by doing so he explores the ideas behind visual power.

Zevs is a French guerilla style street artist and keeps his real identity hidden, but this hasn't stunted his polarity at any rate. Starting out visually kidnapping billboard characters from Germany and holding them to ransom in Paris, 2002 (the message of this was strong and rang so loud that now the German media actually reefer to the act of steeling an image from a poster as "visual kidnapping") and moving to Berlin where since 2005 the de-solving logos campaign has emerged. He has also worked on commissions, one being a collaboration with artist Wolfgang Natlacen from which they produced an animated logo for Googles search engine. It's entertaining to see the logo bleed and ooze down the page encroaching over your useable space.

I appreciate knowing there are like-minded people out there that are trying to change the way we view a lot of the visual noise we can't escape in the city. It's refreshing to see brand logos reflecting a slimy dirty vision of themselves and drawing a different type of attention to these consumerist impositions.