The first edition of a new art fair dedicated to Urban Art takes place in few days in Munich. IC has met the organizer to discover more about the event.

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IC: How did you come to the idea of organizing a fair dedicated to Urban Art?

Marco Schwalbe: The idea came after the success of an exhibition we organized last May in Munich. The exhibition took place in the safe of a bank and was therefore called “Kunst im Tresor” (art in safe). It was a 24-hours event which was visited by 1400 people. We were very surprised and understood that there is a real interest in the subject, so we decided to organize the fair.

IC: What is exactly Urban Art?

MS: The term Urban Art is not a scientific definition. It includes several young art developments, such as Street Art, Graffiti, Illustration and Comics, Lowbrow, etc. In the last years it has found its way from a subculture into mainstream media and galleries worldwide. Today Urban Art is shown in museums and sold by auction houses. In some countries there is a very developed Urban Art scene: first of all I would mention places like Brazil and Los Angeles, but also in Poland there is a very active scene. Polish artists are very qualitative and very talented. I would call it a new avant-garde.

IC: Are the participating galleries only German or are there also international participants?

MS: The galleries are mainly German, we are covering 60-70% of the German scene, but there are also international participants from Italy, France, and Spain. However our aim is to create an international event.

IC: Which will be the highlight of this edition?

MS: There will be 20 to 30 artists invited to take part in a life-painting-action. During the exhibition in May the life-painting-action attracted the attention of a huge public.

IC: Which are the prices for works of Urban Art?

MS: Usually you can find works between € 100 for a serigraph and € 10.000.
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Stroke.01 takes place in Munich from October 29 to 31,2009 (Opening reception: Thu from 8pm to 11pm).

80-90% of the street is the U.S. and UK ... that fair is this witout Americans and British?

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MS: The galleries are mainly German, we are covering 60-70% of the German scene, but there are also international participants from Italy, France, and Spain. However our aim is to create an international event.

>>80-90% of the street is the U.S. and UK ... that fair is this witout Americans and British?

The organizer explained that of course they want to create an international event, therefore he is currently talking with American galleries, above all in Los Angeles, to bring them to the fair. But for the first edition it was not easy to bring many international galleries, above all from the States, to Munich.
Among the artists there are international participants

You can find the list of the exhibiting galleries here:
http://www.stroke01.com/teilnehmer.html

Anyway, maybe it could be interesting to get an overview of the German scene?
Do you collect urban art?

I understand Silvia. I hope we succeed.

Los Angeles is an interesting place, but also New York, South America and especially Bristol and UK.

I know (for me is a recent interest in urban art) even in Germany there are great artists but not see them represented by galleries on this fair.

Pisa73, Evol, Case all Germans, I fear that we will not see them ...

Yes, I'm also collect urban art. some piece in my collection.

This weekend a small arts & comics fair in Utrecht, The Netherlands. 85 comic artists, illustrators & other Urban Artist will show their work in St. Janskerk.
kunststripbeurs.blogspot.com (in Dutch).