Volume 1

I grew up in the Bronx New York, and graffiti, hip hop, and break dancing was the expression of time. I always loved the arts of expression, and in these times, it seems like those liberties are fading. I want to create books that will not only let people view the art that moved me so much, but to allow them to join in on the fun and actually get the feel of understanding the art, by tracing over my pieces until they learn to create their own styles. Upon completing their first piece, they will fall in love with creating graphic masterpieces. SKIP and COAST from STYLEMASTERS.

• 94 Pages

Martha Cooper has spent decades immortalising art that is often overlooked, and usually illegal. Her first book, 1984’s Subway Art is affectionately referred to by graffiti artists as the »bible«. To create Spray Nation, Cooper and editor Roger Gastman pored through hundreds of thousands of 35mm Kodachrome slides, painstakingly selecting and digitising them. They are accompanied by heartfelt essays celebrating Cooper’s drive, spirit, and singular vision.

The images capture a gritty New York era that is gone forever. And although the original pieces have been lost, these resplendent photos feel as immediate and powerful as a subway train thundering down the tracks.

Wild, free and ephemeral - street art and graffiti are a worldwide phenomenon. From Brassaï, who led graffiti into mainstream art around 1960, via the Sprayer of Zurich in the 1970s to the first Banksy works in the UK - Illegal tells a prehistory of street art and graffiti.

Hardly any of the works of this short-lived genre still exist today. They were also often documented illegally and under adverse conditions. Illustrated here are key works and rarities that have never been shown. All were created illegally, i.e. without permission, directly for an audience on the street - not for museum contexts. "People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that's only if it's done properly" [Banksy]. Long-standing picture research has condensed a selection of works by some 100 artists from over a dozen countries and their references to pop music, avant-garde art and literature. We discuss why these artists in particular were significant trendsetters for street art and graffiti before Banksy.

• 300 Pages
• Softcover

A contributing writer to the online journal Photomonitor, she curated the V&A show 'Street Art: Contemporary Prints' (2010-12), which toured the UK, with a version shown in Libya.

She is the author of Street Art: Contemporary Prints, and contributed to Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design, Modernism 1914-1939: Designing a New World and 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die.

Description Surprising, controversial and often simply beautiful, street craft is the next chapter in the story of street art - an explosion of creativity that is reclaiming and transforming urban space around the world.

Featuring:

• Tasha Lewis's blue butterfly swarms bring beauty to derelict corners of New York.

• Spidertag intertwines sturdy rope and nails to construct abstract graffiti in Madrid.

• Mademoiselle Maurice's origami and lace graffiti bring a light touch to the streets of Paris and Hong Kong and many more.

• 224 Pages

• Hardcover

Lee Quiñones: Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond

Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond is the first monograph of Puerto Rican born artist Lee Quiñones presenting his monumental work and following his evolution over five decades.

'If you wanted one artist to speak for a whole genre, Lee is your man. If you want a book that treats graffiti as fine art and illustrates it sumptuously, this is it.' - The Artist

'An inspired outlaw with a meticulous design process and precision painting skills, his voice responded to the social and civil unrest of the era and found expression in painting graffiti, an ancient art form that he and many of his peers had to defend in the larger art world.' - Juxtapoz

'What we have here are essentially moments in time, a stop-frame history of fifty years of graffiti, if you like. If you want just one book on the subject, this would be it.' - Art Book Review

When 14-year-old Lee embarked on his first spray paint mural in 1974, he carried marker drawings into the New York City subway train yards that served as studies to his 52-ft long rolling murals. Drawings, artifacts, and subway photography illustrate how Lee's emergence served as a catalyst for what is now acknowledged as the street art movement. Before Lee, graffiti art was accessed by a small audience of young people who coveted style and scale. Images of Lee's trains illustrate how he changed the face of the movement, infusing kinetic elements of futurism in over 120 subway car murals across the transit system. Lee invented the concept of the freestanding urban mural in his iconic 1978 Howard the Duck handball wall. He introduced spray-paint based work internationally when he opened his first formal exhibition in Rome, Italy in 1979, alongside Fab 5 Freddy. He influenced peers Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, among others, who are shown viewing Lee's work. Lee and Basquiat were the youngest artists to exhibit at Documenta 7. Lee starred as the semi-autobiographical Zoro in Wild Style, the first feature film about hip hop. Images show the social commentary and poetry used in his early expressionistic work. Subsequent paintings show how Lee's practice has shaped a generation of contemporary artists as he further developed his technique. The imagery captures the mood and urgency of 1980s New York and moves from the streets to the intimacy and maturity of Lee's contemporary studio environment.

• Hardcover
• 192 Pages

From renowned photographer Martha Cooper, this is a book about the traditional art of tattooing and a rare portrait of a master artist.

It provides a unique glimpse into the world of traditional Japanese tattooing in Tokyo in 1970, and collects photographs capturing the Japanese art of Irezumi (often associated with the Yakuza, but also widely recognised for its cultural significance and artistry).

It follows the tattooist Horibun through his work, his customers and their tattoos.Martha Cooper came to Tokyo in 1969. She soon became interested in the local art of tattooing and began documenting the work of traditional Japanese tattooist Horibun I who worked with traditional Japanese methods, tattoos made by hand, with different sized bundles of needles bound to sticks which he dipped into coloured inks. His motifs were derived from traditional Japanese legends.

ISBN 9789189944046
Dokument Press
Paperback, 72 pages, 17 x 28 cm.

• 210 x 297mm

The power, glory, diversity, and talent of women street artists finally gets the attention it deserves in the first book to focus solely on the female gaze writ large on urban walls and sidewalks across five continents If street art is, in itself, an act of rebellion, it is tragically ironic that the genre seems dominated by men.

This exciting book is an important first step in shedding light on the substantial number of women who are gaining fame in the street art world. It brings together the work of 24 artists, through dazzling photographs of their work and intimate portraits of their lives based on interviews collected by award-winning journalist Alessandra Mattanza.

On walls, sidewalks, prison cells, grain silos and other nontraditional canvases, these artists tackle ideas around empowerment, feminism, the pink revolution, body shaming and body imagery, racism, and the climate crisis.

From Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh makes site specific work that considers how people experience race and gender within their surrounding environments.

South African multidisciplinary artist Faith XLVII imbues her narratives with a longing for a deeper connection to nature, and a resurrection of the divine feminine.

Italy's Camilla Falsini incorporates joyful, bold colours and simple shapes to deliver serious messages about the environment.

Shamsia Hassani, one of Afghanistan's first female street artists, makes vibrant murals and paintings in which women play musical instruments as a vehicle for self-expression.

Bursting with colourful photographs of works in situ as well as in detail, this thrilling and incisive book proves that street art is not only female - it's the essence of conceptual rebellion itself.

Author Alessandra Mattanza is a foreign correspondent, contributor, and editor for several publishers in Italy and Germany. Her previous books are Street Art: Famous Artists Talk About Their Vision and Banksy. Stephanie Utz is founder of the Munich based Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA).

• 300 colour illustrations
• Hardcover