The Wooster Collective

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Founded in 1991, the Wooster Collective is dedicated to showing the world all sorts of street art from around the world.  The artists may not always be well known but one of Wooster’s objectives is to give web space to creatives whose work may not last too long in the places where they choose to place it.  The site is a full own multimedia experience in its own right with videos of art happenings alongside traditional text and image postings.  The Wooster Collective also encourages people to send in pictures and information from around the world so that the posts here are bang up to date.  Recent features have included art by Cena7 and Herakut.  There is also something of a buzz going on about the scale of participative discussion going on at their Facebook page.

Beautiful Decay

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Beautiful Decay is one of those marvelous success stories – started by Amir H Fallah back in 1996 when he was still at High School.  The original issues were photocopied and rode the crest of the fanzine wave in the late nineteen nineties.  Its transformation in to glossy magazine has not meant that it has lost its original vision.  It still is a major showcase for contemporary artists’ work and, like the Wooster Collective, keeps a close eye on those artists who are emerging as well as those more established.  A publication that is determined to constantly and consistently reinvent itself this is mirrored in its website where you will find a huge archive of interesting work around contemporary art.

Obey

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Art and politics have a history that go back to our cave dwelling times.  At Obey, established in 1989, the whole idea is to help people to see things that are right in front of their eyes in a clearer way and not take the observed world for granted.  They want to reawake a sense of wonder in people and their initial method is through the propaganda of their own logo.  Its only mission is to make people react – in itself it is not supposed to have any meaning.  Recent features on the website include the Cesar Chavez prints created by Ernesto Yerena and the attempts by Paper magazine to re-brand America.  Very cool stuff.