Austin Street Art and Graffiti

The South Austin Popular Culture collects, conserves, and exhibits vintage posters and live music ephemera from the 1960s through today to educate future generations on the rich and unique culture that makes Austin the Live Music Capital of the World.

SouthPop seeks to enrich a growing and changing community by becoming the premier source in Texas for art and artifacts of local music history from the 1960s to the present and its impact on local, national, and international culture.

Although SouthPop's focus is on music related matters, we also look at other cultural aspects of living in Austin, Texas.  One thing we notice that crosses generational boundaries, from the 1960s to present day, is street art.  Long a tradition in Austin, there have been "guerilla" (unsanctioned usually) art all around town.  

Photographer Bob Simmons began shooting photographs of street art and graffiti in earnest in around 2008.  Out of the approximately 500 photographs Bob gathered, SouthPop chose almost 150 for a special exhibit in fall 2014.  What you will see in the following panels shows the similarities of what is happening all across the US and, indeed, the entire world.

Bob Simmons photographed another round of art at the place on Lamar Blvd just at the 5th Street railroad overpass where a new condo's management is in a war of sorts with the street artists.  This is an example of the artists coming back right away after the condo management paints over the street art.  This sarcastic treatment of Lance Armstrong  by the artist known as ER is a good example of what shows up at that location.

The middle panel is illustrative of the school of thought by most street artists, whether as a collective or as an individual artist.

A large number of photographs shown here are from one location in Austin, called the Hope Outdoor Gallery.  This morphed into being at a failed condominium site near 11th Street and Baylor, just off Lamar Blvd.  People began “decorating” the shells of the condos that were abandonded before they were ever finished.  The new owner of the property (whose offices are in the castle seen at the top of the  hill) thought it was a fascinating outpouring of creativity so he chose to support those efforts rather than squash it.  He set up a non-profit group, hired staff to help coordinate the artwork that comes and goes and although it won't last forever, this businessman is helping nuture creativity in Austin.

Hi! How are you?  This artwork in the top left panel, created by musician Daniel Johnson, is on the wall of a restaurant at Guadalupe and 21st Street in Austin, Texas.  



From artwork promoting reading to the decorated door of a private home, street art is everywhere.

Some of the artists represented in these photos are:

Asco.Blucka Rockabald       Asher Feehan

Brandon Snow                    Briks

Bunce                                 Dave Lowell

ER.                                     G52

Gent                                  Grim

Killah Cask One                 Lucas Aoki

Man with Pencil                 MIke “Truth” Johnston

MNS                                  Mouf

NonStop                           Olivia Rains

Roshi_K

and 

Sweet

The South Austin Popular Culture collects, conserves, and exhibits vintage posters and live music ephemera from the 1960s through today to educate future generations on the rich and unique culture that makes Austin the Live Music Capital of the World.



 



SouthPop seeks to enrich a growing and changing community by becoming the premier source in Texas for art and artifacts of local music history from the 1960s to the present and its impact on local, national, and international culture.

The top panel to the left:

The artist known as Truth painted this image under a bridge near the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail in Austin, Texas.

Middle Pane, left:

All across Austin there is street art.  As sanctioned public art and as guerilla art, Austin loves this artform!  This image depicts a mural on the side of a wall of an ironworks company in east Austin.

Lower Left panel:

Here's Truth again.  Too much grape soda.

Top left panel:

Outdoor artwork on the side of a building in downtown Austin, Texas near the intersection of Congress and 8th Street.  The yellow cab parked in front of it makes this look like a painting whose images were put together on purpose.



Middle panel:

The railroad bridges in Austin are perfect for messages left by street artists.



Lower panel, left: 

Here's Truth and friends again.  This wall, right under the 5th Street railroad bridge, is the site of an ART WAR between the street artists and the owners of a nearby condo project.  The property owners paint over the wall and the artists doggedly return, painting more images as time goes by.

These panels to the left and right are from around the downtown area in Austin, Texas, with only the top right panel's image being from the Hope Outdoor Gallery.  From 8th and Congress (lower right panel) to a downtown railroad bridge (lower left panel) this town is chock full of art.



The middle right panel shows art at a now long gone club on the east side of Austin. East Austin was one of the final areas in town with affordable real estate (that's over now) and before the gentry got wind of it many artists and other bohemians moved into the area.

At the lower right panel we see, in the heart of downtown, in an area where there is a lot of construction going on, the City of Austin uses public art funding to commission a series of murals on a wall at around 8th and Congress Avenue.  This image has now been replaced with another mural.