May 2010

Weekend Roundup: Winds, Swoon, Woodward, Brooklynite, & TrustoCorp Hipster-Feeding

May 10, 2010 , , , , ,

It’s the month of May and this weekend you couldn’t bear to be on the streets of NYC –

Even though we managed to see new stuff INDOORS by Swoon, Matt Siren, Royce Bannon, Michael DeFeo, Stikman, Celso, DarkCloud, LAII, Deekers, M-City, and Dolk – The cold, high winds made street walking quite uninviting and threatened to blow the top off of Swoons’ Konbit shelter installation along the East River while she signed copies of her new book inside Urban Arts Projects.

Along Williamsburgs’ fabled Bedford Ave. yesterday you would have expected hipsters and the college kids who emulate them to be slavishly completing their brunches and slumpingly parading to a stylized dodgeball game at McCarren Park. There they would be chugging from giant styrofoam cups of beer purchased from The Turkey’s Nest and texting friends about their TOTES crazy life.

Instead all that could be found were hearty Polish ladies with corsages pinned on their heavy woolen coats from the Mother’s Day Services at church, a few of the regular lumpy neighborhood drunks slouched and drooping off the park benches, and some miserable young families forced out of their apartments by sheer child-driven insanity.

That’s why this newly discovered sign by TrustoCorp almost seemed like a cheery promise of warm weather, asymmetric haircuts, neckbeards, and hand-rolled cigarettes just around the corner.

This place is a zoo. Trustocorp anticipates an ironic kickball game to come... (crappy phone photo © Steven P. Harrington)
They Don’t Eat Much Anyway —This place will soon be a zoo, and Trustocorp anticipates a number of ironic kickball games yet  to come… (crappy phone photo © Steven P. Harrington)
Dark Clouds at Woodward (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Dark Clouds at Woodward (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Matt Siren at Woodward (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Matt Siren at Woodward (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Stikman at Woodward (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Stikman at Woodward (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

At Brooklynite the crowd was pumpin' to the sounds of DJ Evil EE in the backyard and looking at new work from M-City and Dolk,while this fellow and his boyz were banging out a street rhythm on the sidewalk in front of the gallery. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

In BedStuy, Brooklynite the crowd was pumpin' to the sounds of DJ Evil EE in the backyard and looking at new work from M-City and Dolk,while this fellow and his boyz were banging out a street rhythm on the sidewalk in front of the gallery. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Dolk and M-City at Brooklynite (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Dolk and M-City at Brooklynite (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

In the backyard gallery at Brooklynite this Dolk was lit from below quite effectively (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

In the backyard gallery at Brooklynite this Dolk was lit from below quite effectively (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

M-City and Dolk at Brooklynite (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

M-City and Dolk at Brooklynite (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

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Images of the Week 05.09.10 on BSA

May 9, 2010 , ,

Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring:Urban Arts Projects, Swoon,  REVS,  Dolk, General Howe, QRST, Shepard Fairey, Nomade

A newly painted REVS "Street Sport"
A newly painted REVS “Super Sport” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon’s “Konbit Shelter” sculpture in the East River Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to raise awareness for her building project in Haiti. The installation was presented in conjunction with the Urban Arts Projects.

SWOON
SWOON (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SWOON
SWOON (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SWOON
SWOON (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SWOON
SWOON (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DOLK
“The Boxer” by Dolk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GENERAL HOWE
General Howe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nomade

Nomade (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST
Hi my name is Norm and this is Rex. We like to go for walks over to the park and visit with our other dog friends.  (QRST) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GENERAL HOWE
General Howe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SHEPARD FAIREY
Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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GAIA “The Reinvention of Nature” at Gallery Heist (SF)

May 8, 2010 ,

gaia_poster_horizontal_2-01_web-1Gallery Heist is pleased to present The Reinvention of Nature, the San Francisco debut exhibition for Brooklyn/Baltimore based street artist GAIA. The Reinvention of Nature – Opening reception: Saturday, May 15, 2010, 7-11pm MAY 15 – MAY 31, 2010 Gaia is a Brooklyn and Baltimore based street artist with a background in Printmaking and Sculpture. He is currently enrolled in his final year at MICA (Maryland Institute of Art) with a major in interdisciplinary sculpture. At the age of 21 Gaia has built an impressive resume having exhibited in art fairs and galleries through out Brooklyn, London, D.C, Miami and Los Angeles. His work has appeared along side street art contemporary geniuses such as Blek Le Rat, Shepard Farey, Swoon, Matt Small, D*face, Sweettoof, Brian Adam Douglas, Lucas Price, Nick Walker, Slinkachu, Imminent Disaster, EVOL, Pisa 73, Oliver Vernon, and Dalek just to name a few.

Marrying the animal and the human form, Gaia conjures mysterious figures that carry a heavy sense of mythology and recall a past when man and nature were once united. These romantic creatures stand in relief to the urban environment as they lurk and beckon in the city’s forgotten and neglected spaces. The conveyance of their story relies on the chance coincidence with a passerby, and even in that intimate moment, their narrative is precarious and delicate. Gaia works with linocut prints and painted images applied to paper and then mounted as paste ups on the street or on panels for finished works.

ABOUT THE GALLERY Art is an extension of our culture and our communities and in many ways art defines our times. Art is not a luxury it is a necessity. My mission is to foster innovative artistic expression and provide sanctuary for the creative process while stressing the importance of it. The walls of Heist will house work that is representational to this generation offering a contemporary program of artists who challenge and analyze our social and cultural responsibility, traditions, and behaviors; artists who are on the forefront of a conscious art movement. To encourage and support this conscious art movement, I have opened Heist and hope that you will choose to be a part of it. Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12:00-8:00pm Mondays by appointment. Gallery Heist is located at 679 Geary Street near the corner of Leavenworth, southeast of the intersection.

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New Interview and Signing With Swoon: Her Book With Jeffrey Deitch

May 8, 2010 ,

“Never wait, and never let the bastards get you down”

Swoon’s got a book, as you know – and she’s going to be signing it Saturday in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn_Street_Art_Swoon_Book_Cover May 20109780810984851

Jake Dobkin at the Gothamist just published a delicious interview with the paper-slicing queen on the street. They talk about “Swimming Cities”, the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, MOCA, Jeffrey Deitch, and her trip to Zambia.

Rushing past (image courtesy Jake Dobkin at The Gothamist)
Rushing past (image courtesy Jake Dobkin at The Gothamist)

From the interview:

Looking through the pictures, we were struck by how much artistic ground you’ve covered in just ten or eleven years. What do you see as the essential themes that bring all of your work together?
Workaholism. Um, just kidding. Themes? How about the hands on creation of our world—that’s tops. And the creation of moments of pause, human connection, empathy, surprise, wonder and ridiculousness. Bringing what you make to people in places where they are not expecting it. The belief that loving attention can and will be transformative. Democratized public spaces. The tying together of classical mediums and modern contexts. An obsession with looking deeply into the faces of other human beings. Also, never wait, and never let the bastards get you down. Are those themes? They should be.

Read the complete interview with Jake here:

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EUROTRASH INVADES BROOKLYN AND WE COULDN’T BE HAPPIER

May 7, 2010

It Isn’t Just for the Meat Packing District Anymore!

DOLK "PRISION PAINTER"
A new Dolk piece this week in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Break out the Prada sunglasses kids, the ever-clever and fun folks at Brooklynite Gallery have produced a show with two European Artists: DOLK and M-City, entitled “Eurotrash”

A new toaster design from MCity!
A new toaster design from MCity! – a “graphic brand of stencil artillery” Indeed, and wide enough for bagels!

But these artists are far from trash, although they are pretty Euro. Rae just liked that term because it is funny and because some correspondents in some neighborhoods are reporting that they are immersed in a sloshing sea of it.  Pure hyperbole, I’m sure.

lkjh

Dolk goes old school with this stencil subject and deliberately mucks it up for effect.

And now, back to me.  “Eurotrash” makes me think of the 1980’s, when the term first stuck and wealthy young Europeans living in New York were chronicled in a column titled “Eurotrash” by Taki Theodoracopulos in the now defunct The East Side Express.  Ahhhh, visions of Lacroix pouf skirts and slick men in ponytails with big long thick cigars swell to mind.

A KNOCKOUT! Excellent placement for this gigantic DOLK piece in BK!
A KNOCKOUT! Excellent placement for this gigantic DOLK piece in BK!

And NOW, back to me. And then came TECHNO and TRANCE and it was all over the big Euro-club, exalting Eurotrash to an international lifestyle embraced by a sh*tload of people. What do you need to make a good ET dance song, you ask?

1. Powerful synth riffs that create the hook of the song, and hi-energeee massive arena-style walls of sound, 2. Rapping in a military and/or ganga fashion, preferably by a strapping black German with a gap between his front teeth, 3. A soaring wailing female vocal about sexual availability, preferably with a German accent or in a Nordic language emitting electronically from a distant chilly erotica planet 4. A galloping baseline and some sirens and a solid two minutes of intro and outro beats for mixing purposes.

MCity, despite the heavy monocromatic industrial quality of his stencils, is a funny guy. Here the Manchurian Helena II

M-CITY, despite the heavy monocromatic industrial quality of his stencils, is a funny guy. Here the Manchurian Helena II plowing through a sea of beach umbrellas. I think.

To bone up on whom we speak you can read all about the society scum characters in Irvine Welsh’s short story “Eurotrash” included in his book “The Acid House”

Here's hoping for another steaming bull market! M-CITY
Here’s hoping for another steaming bull market! M-CITY

Zeromancer have a song called “Eurotrash” where they sing: We are nothing but Eurotrash,
We take Plastic we take Cash! Get the ringtone here!

"The Boxer" - a pretty stunning canvas by DOLK tomorrow at Brooklynite.

"The Boxer" - a pretty stunning canvas by DOLK tomorrow at Brooklynite.

Tell you what. Why not hop on the L train headed toward Brooklyn and ride just a few stops past Bedford Ave and go to BedStuy and see the show for yourself?  It’s not as good as Mr. Brainwash of course but there will be cameras to capture your look – even a live video feed!  Sorry no bottle service.

Special thanks to Jaime Rojo for background research on this important topic.

“EUROTRASH”

DOLK • M-CITY

OPENING RECEPTION:
Saturday, May 8, 7-10PM

Special Musical Guest:
DJ EVIL DEE (Da Beatminerz)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Can’t make it to the show? Check out our
STREAMING LIVE COVERAGE of the opening
on our website: BrooklyniteGallery.com

Brooklynite Gallery is located at 334 Malcolm X Blvd., Brooklyn, New York 11233

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Avoid PI and infinity In the Laboratory Making Preparations for their Bubbling Babbeling Show on the 21st

May 7, 2010 , ,

Babel Code : osmotic transmissions and JPEGS

You won’t find too many eggheads in the circles I run in.  Well maybe, but I’m too dim to realize it.

It is pretty evident when you meet street artists “infinity” and Avoid Pi that you may need some footnotes to follow if you want to really understand what direction they are going.  Don’t worry, I’m not completely snowed – just watch their feet, right?

A collabo called "The Treachery of Words" by infinity and Avoid Pi

A collabo called "The Treachery of Words" by infinity and Avoid Pi

The upcoming dual show by these somewhat mad scientists on the 21st at Mighty Tenaka should be a jolting trip of symbolism and secret languages and DNA strands – and a developing visual vocabulary that reliably is improving.

Avoid Pi "All One"

Avoid Pi "All One"

These are a few behind the scenes images of prep for the show,

An "infinity" 2 sided collabo.

An "infinity" 2 sided collabo.

as well as a sparky new video piece they made to promote it, which makes the hairs stand up on my arm. Fun times!

(even though it says May 20 in the video, it’s the 21st)

More about this show and these artists to come.

Babel Code : osmotic transmissions, Art from the minds of AVOID pi & infinity

  • Location: Mighty Tanaka Studio in D.U.M.B.O
  • Duration: May 21st – Jun 11th, 2010
  • Mighty Tanaka
    68 Jay St., Suite 416 (F Train to York St.)
    Brooklyn, NY 11201

    Click to see large

    Click to see large

    Web: www.mightytanaka.com

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    Flying High With ROA in Brooklyn, NYC

    Flying High With ROA in Brooklyn, NYC

    May 6, 2010 , , ,

    As the sun sets, a mighty and serene Ibis rises 35 feet on a battered Brooklyn wall

    ROA begins his portrait of the Ibis, a wading bird common in the marshes on the mid-Atlantic coast of the US. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    ROA begins his portrait of the Ibis, a wading bird common in the marshes on the mid-Atlantic coast of the US. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Today we continue with our coverage of ROA’s arrival into New York and his second piece this week, a stunning long-necked Ibis on a tattered and weathered former rope factory in Brooklyn.

    We all took turns on the cherry picker (hooked up by our buddy Joe F. ) which was a blast to operate and after we scraped the wall free of ivy and managed to not smash any windows, ROA hopped inside and put on his safety harness and drove that bucket smoothly, like your grandpa on a Sunday drive through the countryside.

    Using only his eye, his spray can, and a confident hand, ROA mapped out the shape of the feathered creature with no false lines, and no chance of erasing.  Periodically he brought the mechanical bird to the ground to step way back and assess his progress and make adjustments: the wild animals’ belly got a little fatter, the feathers more shading for depth.  As the sun receded and the lights came on, the painting of the Ibis felt more like an “event”, a performance onstage in the floodlights by one of Street Arts’ rising talents who can command a stage and keep it real.

     

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    In Part 2 of ROA’s interview, he talked to BSA about his roots in graffiti, his transition to Street Art, and a few words about our move to the second wave of the street art movement.  (see Part I here)

    Brooklyn Street Art: How long have you been making animals?
    ROA:     I think I had a big period when I did all kinds of stuff – from letters to whatever when I was younger. Then I started doing characters. Then for myself I really changed my way of painting and I found out that I really wanted to paint animals.  This is a couple of years ago. But then when I look back to the stuff I did when I was younger, there were some earlier tags that were, at that point, not important for myself but when I look at them now I realize that they were already there.  In the last few years I think I really know what I am doing.  There were signs that told what I might become.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: So you were writing graffiti first, lettering, tags?
    ROA:     Yeah, I started when I was like 13 so we copied things out of Spray Can Art and Subway Art – these things were for us like The Bible or something.  So if we had a vision of how a piece should be it was like things we saw in these books — colors and a black outline and a white highlight. So for a long time that was what we did.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: These books were like textbooks for the school of graffiti.
    ROA:     In a way, definitely. When I started doing that I started skating and listening to Public Enemy. As a Belgian kid growing up in the late 80’s – early 90’s that was the strong influence, these kinds of things – so graffiti was one of these things.  So in our minds, it should be done like that. So I think at that point nobody was doing anything else, there was just old-school graffiti..

    Brooklyn Street Art: It had become globalized at that point…
    ROA:     And it is still there. It’s still being repeated now.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: When did you first see that there began to be a little divide in the graffiti/street art evolution? When did you first get an inkling that things were changing?
    ROA:     I think because I started to do different stuff, I started to see that there was different stuff.  It was not really obvious.  People were doing things that were more “characters” like a hip-hop MC with a cute female with a big butt and a chain around (the neck) and a big ghetto blaster. Then at certain points people started painting less of the MC styles  – they started to paint extra old-school and “crappy “– in a deliberate way because they wanted “crappy”.  A few years ago this was the first “unconventional” graffiti that I started to see – they tried to look crappy.  That was for me the first moment that I started to notice a change. And that was the moment when I started to say “you have new styles”.  It shouldn’t just be just the old style.  You have new styles.

    Brooklyn Street Art: So perhaps you had exhausted that vocabulary. You had done everything that you wanted to do and you wanted to discover something different.
    ROA:     I realized that I wanted to do something different. I had been drawing all my life and I sketched a lot.  Most often my sketches were way more powerful than the finished pieces on the wall.  So the moment I started to “sketch” with a can, that was the moment when I started to see for myself the change. When I stopped doing surfaces and I started doing lines… It is just a way of painting or drawing. You have a certain kind of culture where it came from but aside from that – it’s just paint and a surface to paint on so at that point I realized that there are so many things you can do and ways you can try to do it with spray paint.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: So now the proverbial horse is out of the barn and there is no use closing the door..
    ROA:     Yeah, I think so. It’s too late, that’s for sure. Of course you don’t know what the future will bring and I’m not saying I’m going to do forever what I am doing now.  I try to keep on pushing it farther and sometimes I take two steps back and re-examine.  It is not always clear, that’s the nice thing.

    Brooklyn Street Art: So, for you it is like an evolution.
    ROA:     Yeah, I think so. It’s an endless evolution. That’s what is so nice about drawing or making stuff.  It’s like a piece – when is it finished? Never. You can work on it for hours and hours more and then “Is it finished?” – you never know, eh? It’s like with drawing, too..… when are you a skilled artist? When you die probably, then. Then you are at the end of your journey, then you know what you know. Then you can not know more. Until then you can learn every day.  With drawing it is not like a game you can complete.  There is always a new level.  Even if you get to the next level, then you have ten new levels.  That is a nice thing about it, there is no ending.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Regarding the first wave of Street Art:
    ROA:     …everybody found a style and repeated it over and over and it was all around and people saw it and it was crazy what you could do with one small logo. Then at a certain point, it gets boring too.  If you have the same logo over and over — I’m not the guy who says what other people should do, though.  I want to do what I want to do.

    Brooklyn Street Art: So you feel like now we can identify some of those practices as being a part of the “first wave” of street art?
    ROA:     I think that made a big difference. Then people made logos and t-shirts and toys and calendars and condoms and whatever, which is ,in a way, really funny.  You can do it with stuff like that and you can be all over.  But at this point I think we are at a new level and people can do stuff like that but it is more interesting if somebody does stuff with it and it continues and it grows and it lives and you can be surprised by most of the new work.  It is not like this symbol repeated again and again with a different color and a little slight twist.  In the end, it’s been done.  Sometimes it is time to move. When DuChamp put his urinal in the museum it was really one of the biggest statements of the last century. Definitely. But the next guy who did something similar was less interesting.  If you see what was done later in the same tracks, it’s really boring.  It’s good that things get knocked down and rebuilt and knocked down.

    The finished Ibis by ROA in Brooklyn, NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    The finished Ibis by ROA in Brooklyn, NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Don’t miss ROA in his first New York Solo Show at Factory Fresh May 14.

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    Using “HOPE” to Burnish a British Conservative

    May 5, 2010

    Adaptation You Can Believe In

    It’s striking how the British Newspaper “The Sun” is presenting their endorsement for conservative candidate David Cameron. Turning a campaign visual theme from the 2008 US presidential candidacy of winner Barack Obama on it’s head, the design choice for tomorrow’s cover is a move variously cited as bold or bereft. We’re just wondering if Shep will smell a lawsuit in there somewhere.

    The cover of tomorrow's Sun newspaper features a Fairey'd treatment of conservative Cameron.

    The cover of tomorrow's Sun newspaper features a Fairey'd treatment of conservative Cameron.

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    Winging It With ROA – FreeStyle Urban Naturalist Lands Feet First in Brooklyn

    Winging It With ROA – FreeStyle Urban Naturalist Lands Feet First in Brooklyn

    May 5, 2010 , , ,

    While city birds sing and traffic swells and murmurs, Street Artist ROA shows BSA how his great unsung animals are made.

    One of ROA’s new Brooklyn birds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    The eagerly anticipated arrival of one of Street Arts’ spray can naturalists in New York was begun with a marathon 15 hours of painting of two walls in Brooklyn that in the early morning hours of today.

    Energetic and excited to be here fresh from a successful show in London at Pure Evil Gallery, where he sparked great interest with his loud-speaking silent animals inside and outside the box, the down-to-earth realist ROA began his NYC tour with two incredible gifts to his host city. With days to go before his first New York solo show at Factory Fresh gallery in Brooklyn, it only seemed natural to ROA to get up strong on BK walls before heading inside to knock out new pieces.

     

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    “Brooklyn Free Style” was the word ROA decided to describe the approach he had yesterday to his work – a nod to the hip-hop culture of creating on-the-fly as well as the sometimes chaotic path a day in Brooklyn can take for a jet-lagged Belgium who didn’t really know where his new walls were, let alone what they would look like. Just like you might expect from a former graffiti/skater kid who still listens to Public Enemy and Suicidal Tendencies to keep balanced, this guy only wants to hit higher more difficult walls than the last time, and he does.

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    As we saw throughout the day, a bit of chaos is a natural environment for ROA and one he relishes creating within – embrace the imperfect world. He likes to take what comes flying at him and deal with it with dexterity and an intuitive flow. Our day included rented cars, roaring trucks, ladders, chairs, bricks, soil, plants, trees, a monstrous cherry picker (thanks Joe), pleasant sun/punishing sun, high winds, dark skies, blowing rain, flying garbage, old vines, utility lights, fat caps and thin, good paint and bad, rollers, a harness, utility lights, hand-rolled cigarettes, and some of Brooklyn’s best family biz food.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Like a wild willow sprouted from a patch of SuperFund soil in an abandoned industrial city lot, ROA bends and twists and re-configures effortlessly, ultimately standing strong no matter what flies his way. His credo is to find inspiration in adversity and yesterday he made obstacles seem effortless – welcoming the challenge, incorporating design issues and moving forward. It makes sense that his chosen subjects are the animals that get overlooked, are many times missed, yet persevere despite man’s dreadful determination to destroy.

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    In this first of a two-part interview, ROA talks to BSA about his approach to his work and his animals.

    ROA: I’m not really prepared, but I have a lot of things with me. I have a lot of cans, caps, things with me so I can decide what I want to do at the point at whatever point I am in the piece.

    Brooklyn Street Art: A little Brooklyn Freestyle
    ROA:     Yeah a little Brooklyn Freestyle.

    Brooklyn Street Art: How did you decide on this particular bird today?
    ROA:     I think because of the shape of the wall and with the stuff that is in front of it, it makes sense. It is really important when you enter a place that the animal looks at you. If not, it would not the same dynamic. Also it is not necessary to fill up the whole wall – it is filled but it is not filled.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: It genuinely occupies the rest of the wall without really being there.
    ROA:     Yeah. That is not always possible, sometimes you have a ladder, sometimes you do not have a ladder to reach, some times you have a pole, some times you do not. What you make all depends on what you have and how high the wall is.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: So that is one of the first things that art students learn about : how to recognize and deal with positive space and negative space compositionally. A lot of your work definitely utilizes the negative space surrounding it.
    ROA:     Yeah, I think it grew by doing so many walls. In the end you begin to feel how something should be on a wall. It’s logical when you are a little kid and you begin painting graffiti and you have six cans and a wall and you just start right there. As you paint more and you paint bigger you begin to see the thing in its totality. I think placement is kind of important for the piece. But it is also the possibilities that exist that tell you what you can and cannot do. It’s always depending on the possibilities. You can see immediately what it should be, and you see what is actually possible. If the two come together then you’ve got the perfect situation.

    ROA

    ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: So you do what you can with what you have.
    ROA:     Yes, I think that is the main rule. And the wall is part of that. In a way, the wall tells you what you should make.

    Brooklyn Street Art: You do tend to favor more difficult surfaces instead of smooth flat pristine surfaces.
    ROA:     Yeah, I like texture: I like when a wall, or an area, or a building tells a little bit of a story. It is sometimes really boring to paint on a wall that is just one color. It is always better to start from something that is interesting. That is probably the same reason why I don’t paint normal canvasses. There is not a lot of inspiration. But if you’ve got some dirty materials, it’s got a little bit of the story already. In that way it is like the walls… The shape and the textures tell you immediately what the possibilities are. There’s always more than one way.

    ROA

    ROA  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: Do you have any animals at home?
    ROA:     Yes I have a cat and a turtle. The turtle was a gift from a really good friend of ours and the cat chose our home as its home so that’s how the cat came. At a certain point she was there and she didn’t want to leave so she stayed. We had moved to a new house with a basement and we were there for a month and I decided to check out the basement and I left the door open. At night we were watching TV and the came in. I thought it belonged to one of the neighbors so I put it outside and the next day she was back in the basement. So probably she was living there for a long time before us. We moved to 3 different houses and she moved with us and 10 years later she is still our cat.

    ROA

    ROA  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    ROA

    ROA  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: Did you ever do a portrait of her?
    ROA: No. That’s not true I did some sketches of her – her form, a study of a cat. But I never painted her on a wall or something like that. I think animals like cats, even though they are powerful and beautiful, when you draw them you you can end up really easily with something that is a clichéd image of them. I have done an image of a cat with its skeleton inside but I’m always a little bit scared of doing cats, dogs, tigers – you know what I mean?

    ROA

    ROA  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: Have you seen the cats that C215 does? He does those pretty successfully while avoiding “cute”.
    ROA:Yeah, it’s true. The way he does it is not like a postcard or a cheesy album cover from the 80’s, you know what I mean? Anyway I like to paint unpopular animals. In a certain way I think it’s nice to paint animals that people expect.

    Brooklyn Street Art: You also like rats…
    ROA: I like rodents. Birds and rodents. Without having made a choice, I feel really good painting birds and rodents.

     

    ROA (Photo©Jaime Rojo)

    ROA (Photo©Jaime Rojo)

    Brooklyn Street Art: Do you feel like you are telling their story?
    ROA: I’m definitely representing for them. That’s for sure. Regarding their “story”; I don’t know what they want to be told. If you could ask a bird what they are thinking about what I’m doing…. Definitely people eat chickens, pigs, and cows but they are not so familiar with the animal itself. They know it as food and these animals are more useful animals in a “product” sort of way so I think it’s good to confront people with what they are eating or what they are not familiar with. But I leave it more for people to see what they want in the animal. There is not a message – maybe for myself but it should not be seen that way. It’s just nice to do animals that are not typical. A lot of people hate pigeons and rats but I like them a lot. I think it is fascinating that certain animals really did not die out because of humanity but instead they use humanity to survive. I think it is interesting to see birds making nests in old buildings.

    Brooklyn Street Art: They persevere..
    ROA: in spite of our total f*ckups and global destruction. So I think it’s really fascinating – more than our cats and dogs that are totally domesticated as pets.

     

    One of ROA's two new Brooklyn birds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    One of ROA’s two new Brooklyn birds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

    Tune in tomorrow for PART 2: Amazing images of ROA’s giant second Brooklyn piece and we talk about his start as a graffiti kid, how he transitioned to street art, and why we may be entering the “second wave” of street art.

    READ PART 2 HERE

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    Stencil Top Five 05.03.10 from BSA

    May 4, 2010 , , ,

    Stencil-Top-5

    “Geishaglass” by Exart created with nine layers of stencils on glass.

    “Geishaglass” by Exart created with nine layers of stencils on glass.

    This attractive solarium sports a tribute to the 90's movie "Trainspotting". Samantha translates the text loosely as
    Welcome to  l’hermitage, have a seat! This attractive and airy solarium sports a tribute to the 90’s movie “Trainspotting”. Samantha translates the text loosely as “When you’re a junkie, your only trouble: Get Dope”.

    Stencil artist Spizz names this one “Sound System is the System Sound”
    Stencil artist Spizz names this one “Sound System is the System Sound”
    In this scurrilous depiction of what appears to be UK politians hanging by the neck, T-Wat urges viewers to Vote Green. Please note that BSA would never advocate violence toward anyone. Period.

    In this scurrilous depiction of what appears to be UK politians hanging by the neck, T-Wat urges viewers to Vote Green next to a pile of tires. Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg, and David Cameron, all running for the top post in Britain appear to be "hung" - a reference to a "hung parliament" possibility, and not an advocation of actual hanging (Please note that BSA would never advocate violence toward anyone. Period. )

    C215's solo show “Urban Painting” in Milan

    C215's solo show “Urban Painting” in Milan

    See more at StencilHistoryX.com

    See more Exart images here

    See more Spizz images here

    See more T-Watt images here

    See more C215 images here

    The Stencil Top 5 as picked by Samantha Longhi of StencilHistoryX

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    SWOON BOOK SIGNING AT URBAN ART PROJECTS

    May 3, 2010

    SWOON

    brooklyn-street-art-swoon

    Saturday, May 8th from 6-9PM

    Urban Art Projects

    136 Wythe Ave. at 8th Street

    Brooklyn, NY. 11211

    Free beer and music!

    Swoon will be creating an installation with the books themselves, and they will be sold right off the wall so be sure to stop in and get an exclusive piece of this project.

    This event is open to the public.

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Contact: Amy Franklin

    Senior Publicist

    212-229-7183

    afranklin@abramsbooks.com

    “…different than any street art I had ever seen. There was a sensitivity in the rendering

    of the figure that I was astonished to see on the street. It was some of the freshest work

    I had seen outside in the city since the early 1980s.”

    —Jeffrey Deitch, owner, Deitch Projects

    “A lot of us in New York have extremely personal connections to

    Callie’s art…her figures walk out of the city and leap onto the walls.”

    —Jeff Stark, artist and creator of Nonsense NYC

    Swoon

    By Swoon

    With an introduction by Jeffrey Deitch

    Artist Caledonia Curry is known as Swoon to admirers who follow her work on streets and in galleries all over the world. She is perhaps best known for the life-size prints and figural paper cutouts she has pasted on walls for the past ten years, each portrait taking on a new life as it is slowly destroyed by the elements. Much of Swoon’s work is like this—beautiful and powerful, but ephemeral.

    Swoon’s projects are often grand in scope, requiring weeks of preparation and huge numbers of collaborators to make them a reality. And then they disappear. Her art collective, Toyshop, was known for organizing massive street parties and demonstrations in New York City that were elaborate and dynamic, but fleeting. Her most recent focus has been on armadas of boats fashioned from scavenged junk and then launched by crews of craftsmen into the Mississippi and Hudson rivers and the Adriatic Sea.

    This book captures Swoon’s work—her portraits, boats, installations, and parties—and presents them with reflections from collaborators and colleagues. Deitch Projects owner Jeffrey Deitch provides an introduction to the artist and her work, and other contributors include: culture critic and curator Carlo McCormick, Nonsense NYC founder Jeff Stark, journalist and Toyshop-member Rollo Romig, gallery owner Thomas Beale, and playwright Lisa D’Amour. Swoon herself writes the captions and the essay for her Miss Rockaway project.

    As a prelude to her next project, building konbit houses in earthquake ravaged Haiti, Swoon is working with Urban Art Projects and a team of engineers and architects to produce a domed sculpture to raise awareness of the housing crisis in Haiti.  Pending NYS Parks approval, the sculpture will be exhibited in Urban Art Projects’ inaugural Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition in East River State Park during the month of May.   This project is also sponsored by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and in addition UAP received a FY2008 Initiative Grant, and the Sponsoring Member of the local legislative initiative pursuant to which this Contract is funded is Assemblyman Joseph Lentol.

    To celebrate the release of Swoon‘s new book and her project with Urban Art Projects, there will be a book-signing with the artist present at Urban Art Projects’ headquarters, located at 136 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, on May 8th 2010 from 6 to 9 pm.

    About the author

    Swoon has been creating street art in New York City since 1999. She studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and has traveled internationally to create exhibits and host workshops. Her work can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Tate Modern, or on the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn, NY.

    Jeffrey Deitch is the owner of Deitch Projects in Manhattan.

    About Urban Art Projects

    Urban Art Projects is a 501(c) (3), Internal Revenue Service-recognized charitable, educational nonprofit corporation, in Brooklyn, New York. The organization was formed in 2007 to provide the organizational framework for public art exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.

    Swoon

    By Swoon

    Abrams

    May 2010

    US $35.00; CAN $45.50

    192 pages

    200 full-color illustrations

    Hardcover

    ISBN 978-0-8109-8485-1

    ABRAMS The Art of Books Since 1949
    Founded by Harry N. Abrams in 1949,     ABRAMS was the first company in the United States to specialize in the creation and distribution of art and illustrated books. Now a subsidiary of La Martinière Groupe, the company publishes visually stunning illustrated books in the areas of art, photography, cooking, interior and garden design, craft, architecture, entertainment, fashion, sports, pop culture, as well as children’s books and general interest titles. The company’s imprints include Abrams, Abrams ComicArts, Abrams Image, Abrams Books for Young Readers, Amulet Books, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, and STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book. Abrams also distributes books for The Vendome Press, Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate, Royal Academy of Arts, Booth-Clibborn Editions, Five Continents, and others.

    www.abramsbooks.com

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    MAYHEM! Crowds Jam the Streets for Shepard Fairey’s show at Deitch Projects

    May 3, 2010 , ,

    Well, it happened. May Day Arrived.

    The immigration reform marches
    in major cities across the U.S.?

    The day that the British Petroleum oil spill
    started lapping up on gulf shores?

    The occasion of a mis-fired car bomb in Times Square?

    No, silly, the END OF AN ERA – Deitch Projects Final show featuring America’s Top Street Artist – Shepard Fairey.

    Part of the MayDay Mural piece - replicated on the Houston Street (photo © Reana Kovalcik)
    Part of the MayDay Mural piece displayed – a mirror image of the mural on Houston Street nearby. (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    The crowds bloated the streets outside, possibly dwarfing the crowd inside. Some old-timers said attendance may have also dwarfed the famed Haring and Hirst shows of years past and there was plenty of visual stimulation on the pavement, including a motorcycle gang and a fair amount of actual street art to gander, so even those hapless who were penned outside the formal show didn’t seem hopeless.

    The artist signing work for his fans (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    The artist signing work for his fans (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    The artist and the gallerist were in attendance, which is always nice, and minions of fans and insiders mixed with assorted downtown celebrities and catty journalists.  Mr. Fairey, in an interview with BSA earlier in the week , told us that HYPE is everywhere today, and one could say that the air felt kind of warm and summery thick with it.

    (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    And fun!  Did I mention Fun?

    A wall of framed rubyliths (photo © Reana Kovalcik)
    A wall of framed rubyliths (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    John and Yoko in the foreground (photo © Reana Kovalcik)
    John and Yoko in the foreground (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    Looks like Brooklyn style made it to the show too. (photo © Reana Kovalcik)
    A little Brooklyn style was in the house. (photo © Reana Kovalcik)

    See more photos by Reana Kovalcik HERE

    Read more

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