Singapore Art Week - Live Graffiti At Singapore Aliwal Urban Art Festival 2016

The one day Aliwal Urban Art Festival 2016 kicked off Singapore Art Week yesterday! Held in conjunction with Singapore Art Week, the event promises to bring out the best of the streets, channeling everything great about Singapore’s urban art scene at the ultimate urban district, Kampong Glam.

At Aliwal Arts Centre in Aliwal Street in the Kampong Glam area, urban art and street culture took centre stage with graffiti art showcases, a space for a skateboarding competition. Aliwal Art Centre is an enclave of art studios that has a wide range of tenants across visual and performing arts. The centre paid special tribute last night to street culture with their annual Aliwal Urban Arts Festival.

Local graffiti gurus from the Rascals (RSCLS)  performed in glorious street art at event. As a street art fan, I’m absolutely thrilled to see initiatives like this: I’ve always wanted to be in thriving street-art communities, as it always adds a distinctive flair to a place that makes it feel more personal, more yours. 

These graffiti artists drew huge attention for their art work whilst creating a live art attraction!

Graffiti artists draw and paint while crowds watch on.

Street and graffiti artists have long used city spaces as a canvas for both artistic expression and creative protest. 

Passersby stopped to watch this live art session in progress as they witnessed the freshly painted murals bring colour back to the streets.

Nowadays, street art is more popular with the public. In other countries, there are street art festivals too. In Bristol in the UK, there is a street art festival in August every year. Artists paint all the buildings in a street. Lots of people come to watch the artists and take photos. Street art can be seen in galleries too. There have been exhibitions of street art in galleries in Paris, London and Los Angeles.

Most street artists are young people who paint in their home city or neighbourhood. Many of them use the internet to communicate and share photos of their pictures with other street artists around the world. Some street artists have become famous and their pictures can be seen in galleries or on city walls around the world. Although i don’t know what will happen to street art in the future, i can be sure that it is here to stay!