MOSES & TAPS™ Nine years after their legendary book INTERNATIONAL TOPSPRAYER™, which is out of print long-since and traded for hundreds of euros by now, MOSES & TAPS™ release a brick twice as thick: GRAFFITI AVANTGARDE™ GRAFFITI AVANTGARDE™ is a heavyweight!

With 544 pages, more than 2000 photos in ten chapters as well as a variety of exciting and subtle texts, it gives a deep insight into MOSES & TAPS™ broad work as graffiti artist since 2011.

The book shows how they managed the balancing act between bombing trains and being accepted artists and explains why these two worlds are not mutually exclusive.

The monograph begins with an interview with MOSES & TAPS™ by the criminologist Ike, in which she explores the question of what actually constitutes the graffiti avant-garde, who it is, what goals it has and what it drives.

The TOPSPRAYER™ chapter, in which MOSES & TAPS™ lead us through various stops on trains from Russia to the USA, is followed by the SPLASH™ chapter, in which you learn on which places you can leave colorful traces with spray cans without using a fatcap and letters.

Afterwards the scepter is handed over to ALIAS™, whose professed 1001 trains in 999 days on 176 pages are rounded off by his stories and the action photos of Edward Nightingale.

In SCRATCHITI™ MOSES™ shows why he paints glass panes in order to clean them, how he brings them from the train yards to the museum and back again and we learn why he hates Mickey Mouse.

In the chapter CORPORATE IDENTITY™ Robert Kaltenhäuser then deciphers how all chapters can be connected via MOSES & TAPS™ CI codes, why yellow-blue works better than Banksy and what s behind the TM. In IMAGE OF GRAFFITI™ TAPS™ makes clear, why Graffiti must be illegal and reveals how one can create an image of it on canvases nevertheless. 

While the chapter SCHÖPFERISCHE ZERSTÖRUNG™ („creative destruction“) deals with the complexity of MOSES & TAPS™’ works, which are expressed in collage pieces, the part KONZEPT-VANDALISMUS™ is dedicated to their unique conceptual works on trains – and sometimes also the walls inside.

To round the book off, MOSES & TAPS™ explain and illustrate in two separate chapters their very personal approach of developing their styles.

Distinctive hand style lettering is an essential skill for artists and designers. Deftly executed hand crafted letter forms are a nearly forgotten art in an age of endless free fonts. Graffiti is one of the last reservoirs of highly refined, well practiced penmanship.

The most reviled and persecuted form of Graffiti, the Tag, is seldom appreciated for the raw beauty of its skeletal letter forms. Most tags are removed immediately, and thus the casual viewer seldom has a chance to discern the difference between entry level and advanced hand styles.

Within the pages of Flip the Script, author Christian Acker has systematically analyzed the best graffiti hand styles, contextualizing the work of graffiti writers from around the United States. Acker presents the various lettering samples in a clean organized format, giving the material a proper, formal treatment evoking classic typography books.

224 pages, Hardcover

Taking inspiration from their entire archives, the fourth volume extracts the absolute essence of Flight Mode. Again augmented, the concept gravitates around a nucleus we all call home. Bigger edition, more pages, increased quality in both content and feel. Including international works by acclaimed artists such as Edward Nightingale, Ixap, Alone, Sfaer and many more.

The book is printed in an limited edition of 650 copies.

200 × 240 mm, Hardcover

Estevan Oriol is a Mexican-American photographer who is famous for his black-and-white photos of Los Angeles low-rider and gang culture. Now he has trained his lens on the Japanese youth biker subculture known as “bosozoku”, whose adherents ride Japanese road bikes customised with extravagant paint jobs and modified with often illegal mufflers. Bosozoku motorcycles offer a nod to American chopper culture with a look found only in Japan.
ISBN 9781584237211. Gingko Press . hb. 160 pages, 200 x 255mm, 120 illustrations.
Publication date: August 2021.

A comprehensive history and interpretation of the Street Art movement, featuring all the key practitioners from Banksy to Swoon.

Street Art is a phenomenon and subcultural movement that reaches from the darkest urban backstreets to the most glamorous international art fairs. Simon Armstrong examines how it evolved from its origins in the 1970s New York graffiti scene to embrace many new materials, styles and techniques along the way, tracing how this marginal art form graduated into art galleries and the art market, while also heavily influencing design, fashion, advertising and visual culture.

Despite having earned a place in the canon of 20th-century art history, Street Art’s qualifications are often disputed both by the art establishment and practitioners themselves, all concerned with notions of authenticity. Examining Street Art’s controversial history in detail, this book provides a full-colour worldwide journey, taking in all of the movement’s significant artists and artworks, styles, materials and methods, and showcasing the works that have come to define it more than any other. It also examines its close relationship to Pop Art and Digital Art, and explores possible futures for Street Art.

About the Author
Simon Armstrong is an author, artist, agent, editor and book-buyer for Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Tate Liverpool. He has worked as a DJ, club promoter, Head of Retail at London's Design Museum. He is the author of Cool Art and Cool Architecture.

• ISBN: 9780500294338
• Paperback
• Language: English
• Number Of Pages: 176
• Published: 19th September 2019
• Dimensions (cm): 21.59 x 13.97 x 1.27 cm