2010

Hold Up Art Presents: “Marxist Glue” A Group Show (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles,CA)

October 18, 2010 Artists, California, Events, Gallery, L.A., Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, Opening

Hold Up Art

Yote: “The Bienvenidos Campaign” Update

October 18, 2010 Arizona, Artists, On the Street, Phoenix

Political postering has a long tradition in the public space – from slick to goofy to earnest to comic, everyone can get into the game of smacking their opinions on a wall or staking it onto a patch of grass. Street Artist Yote has jumped into the ring this year by putting his hand-painted signs amidst the forest of political missives along streets in Arizona.

In Yote’s case, it’s more of a plea for tolerance and brotherhood rather than a shill for a specific vote. Always a fanastic money maker for politicians and even religious leaders, the flames of good old fashioned racism have been fanned again this year. Here’s to the one-person campaign to dampen their enthusiasm.

Yote spoke to BSA about the background for his personal/political campaign called “Bienvenidos”.

“A few days after Governor Jan Brewer signed SB1070 into law she signed HB2281. 2281 bans all ethnic studies programs in public High Schools in the state of Arizona.

Last Thursday and Friday were two events for Ethnic Studies Week here in Prescott, AZ. I donated t-shirts I silk screened saying “Eduquémonos,” meaning “Educate Ourselves.” As well as some “Bienvenidos” stickers for them to sell. I was excited to hear that hundreds of dollars were raised for the Ethnic Studies Defense Fund from those two events. I also donated 50 “Bienvenidos” yard signs for the defendants and students to take back to Tucson.

As the sunset on Saturday Night a couple friends and I descended into Phoenix to add our voices to the political dialogue. Methodically we followed the light rail from North Phoenix to Mesa installing yard signs at every intersection already littered with political campaign signs.

We continued on to Guadalupe, a small town that in part inspired this project. My friend who runs The Garage Bike Shop there had told me a lot of people had left over the summer. Moved on to other places where they would have more security. In the shopping center where his shop is they were down to only a few business still open. Leaving about 20 vacancies. When I was there last fall every storefront was open. There was so much life and abundance then, now its just quiet. But my friend tells me the people who are here, are here to stay. They are ready to ride out whatever else is coming.

Then we headed north to the arts district and hit a few more spots in central Phoenix before finally ending the night on McDowell in West Phoenix. Over 100 signs were distributed throughout Phoenix. Keep an eye out for more appearing all over the rest of the state leading up to the November 2nd election.

Arriving home just before sunrise I was exhausted but felt elated to be participating in the immigration debate. As the election nears I hope “The Bienvenidos Campaign” can help shift the Immigration debate into a more constructive conversation. I also hope businesses and communities embrace the image to represent the hope for safer and healthier communities.

Here is a great trailer for a new documentary about some students experience in the Raza Studies program in Tucson, AZ. http://vimeo.com/15062646

To Support the Bienvenidos Campaign go here:

www.BienvenidosAZ.com

A portion of the proceeds from each sale will be donated to the Ethnic Studies Defense Fund.

Text and Images ©Yote

Gallery 1988 Presents: TrustoCorp “New Americana” (Los Angeles, CA)

October 18, 2010 Artists, California, Events, Gallery, Los Angeles, Opening

TrustoCorp

This month, covert street art conglomerate TrustoCorp brings it’s unique brand of mischief and mayhem to Los Angeles for their first west coast exhibition titled ‘New Americana’. The exhibition focuses on the decay of the American Dream and absurdity of modern American culture. Known for their satirical and politically charged street signs, fake products and other illegal art installations, TrustoCorp brings a hardcore and sometimes comical perspective on the state of American culture. ‘New Americana’ will feature a wide range of new paintings, sculpture and interactive art installations including carnival games and a very special collaboration with speaker company Klipsch and DJ Fred Wreck of Tha Dogg Pound.

TRUSTOCORP

‘New Americana’

Saturday Oct. 23rd. 7-11pm
Sunday Oct. 24th, 11am – 6pm

Gallery 1988
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038

http://www.nineteeneightyeight.com/

http://www.trustocorp.com/

Images Of The Week 10.17.10

October 17, 2010 Artists, Brooklyn, BSA Images Of The Week, Canada, Gallery, Montreal, NYC, On the Street, Week in Images

Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Ski & Werds, Anera, Clown Soldier, Old Crow, Gaia and Radical!

Gaia. Outdoor mural at Brooklynite Gallery (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clown Soldier (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Montreal Street Art (Photo © Adolfo Bejar)

Anera. She hasn’t been feeling friendly lately (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ski & Werds. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Old Crow (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Radical (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wide Open Walls: The Gambia Diaries

October 16, 2010 Africa, Artists, On the Street, The Gambia

The Street Artists have arrived in The Gambia

Near the giant river of Senegal the seven visiting Street Artists are unpacked and acclimated for two weeks (October 12-26) of painting. With a welcome from Lawrence Williams, artist and co-founder of WOW (Wide Open Walls) and of a huge ecological and cultural project in the area of Makasutu, they’re blown away with the natural beauty and enthusiastic hospitality.

With UK Street Artist Eelus as the curator and local artist collective Bushdwellers as hosts, the team is ready; Lucy McLauchlan, Logan Hicks, Mysterious Al, Broken Crow (John Grider and Mike Fitzsimmons), and Xenz. Also on board is photographer Ian Cox who will capture as much of the action as possible in such a spread-out project covering many towns.

The visiting Street Artists first met with village chiefs of local towns to discuss the project, it’s scope, and the various spots that artists will be getting up on. In stark contrast to the rough and tumble reception a Street Artist may encounter in gritty metropolitan areas in other parts of the world, a true spirit of welcoming has greeted the artists from the leaders of the 14 towns. With the intention of encouraging greater tourism and improving the local economy, the initial transformation plan was primarily for the village of Kubuneh but now includes others in the Ballabu area.

“The optimism that exists here is hard to explain,” says Brooklyn Street Artist Logan Hicks, who has been pretty blown away by the experience so far and also by the open welcoming kids, many of whom he captured with his camera. “It’s odd going to a country where the kids are happy to just see you – I am so use to the New York way of life.”

He’s also quick to note the very little they have in material wealth, and is glad that his Street Art work will help draw attention and hopefully money to the local towns. Says Logan, “The other day we had this big meeting with the village chiefs from the surrounding villages. All 14 chiefs were in attendance in their traditional gear, so it was a pretty big deal. But what floored me was that these villages were actually fighting over which village we should paint first!”

With “The Gambia Diaries”, BSA will be bringing you regular updates and exclusive images (like these from Mr. Hicks ) over the course of WOW.

You can participate! If you have questions you’d like to ask the artists, please email us at Gambia@BrooklynStreetArt.com.

For now, take a look at some of these great images of folks from the area and pray for Logan to have the courage to sleep in his jungle lodge! He’s seems like such a big brutish headbanger, but he contends that there are lizards and spiders the size of his hand back at the lodge. We don’t have those back in Brooklyn, although sometimes the rats in the subway tracks are as big as cats. Good luck Logan!

http://wideopenwalls.wordpress.com/

http://www.makasutu.com/

Stencil of the Week 10.16.10

October 16, 2010 Artists, Haiffa, Iran, Israel, On the Street, Stencil of the Week, Tabriz

As chosen by Samantha Longhi of Stencil History X

“Soggettivismo”, from a picture by John Steven Fernandez by Animus (Photo © Animus)

Nazza Hênîa y Kâmîare / ¡Kom-chingôn! / Cordoba (Photo © Nazza)

Anonymous on the streets of Haifa, Israel (Photo © Lois Stavsky)

From Iran, Street Artist Sot in Tabriz (Photo © Sot)

To see more of Animus’ work go HERE:

To see more of Lois Stavsky photos go HERE

To see more of Nazza’s work go HERE

To see more of Sot’s work go HERE

Visit Stencil History X

Quel Beast: Street Art, Hip Hop, and Cross-Undressing

October 15, 2010 Artists, Germany, Interview, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street, Street Talker Interview

Feeling cocky in Chelsea. Quel Beast (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA guest writer Robin Grearson talks about herself, the Street Artist Quel Beast, and the unknowable beast within.

I headed to Bushwick’s Wreck Room last week to talk to Quel Beast about art and see how he’s doing. He’s pasting up some work indoors this week, at Kings County, and a new street piece was almost ready for Chelsea. The Wreck Room is an unpretentious spot where secrets flow easily, and so, over beer and fried pickles, Quel Beast confided to me his frustrations, some obsessions, and what he would do if he couldn’t make art. But he remained quiet about the street piece, which made me nervous.

Quel Beast. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Until today, I hadn’t seen it. It’s a woman; full length, but cocky. She taunts passers-by to check her out once, maybe twice. She’s not wearing much. That much I remembered. She’s like his Chelsea kiss, or, postcard: Dear Art Crawlers. With love from Brooklyn, Quel Beast.

He shows me on his iPhone some of the portraits for the show, called “Back That A$$ Up,” after the Juvenile/L’il Wayne song and video. It’s hours, many beers, two more locations and some wine later, before I ask about the Chelsea girl. Quel Beast answers offhandedly that she’s…weird. I’m sure he knows a better word because he says it like it’s a question. He’s into the piece, and says it exemplifies the direction he sees his style heading. But his question mark says, maybe I’ll hate it, a possibility I hadn’t considered.

I posed for the photo he’s working from to create her. So she’s me, and she’s not. I start wondering if, while painting testosterone-soaked me, her sneer has maybe gotten to him. But then, art is supposed make you feel something, which is the conversation we’ve been having. And I wonder what I will feel when I see her.

Quel Beast (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quel Beast compares art to music, harshly. Placed side by side, art gets its ass kicked. “Art isn’t good enough,” he says, with reverence for music’s power to evoke feeling, stir memory and stir senses. People quickly filter out tags and stickers as visual noise, he points out, adding, “You don’t have a personal experience with someone’s name, the way you can with music.”

“I hate art. Art sucks,” Quel Beast declares, and we laugh. He’s describing his exasperation with the impossibility of art to realize his ideal of it.

But even as he’s describing most art as dismissible in contrast to music, he is a little distracted, scanning stickers and tags on the tables and walls, naming the artists. “Why can’t art do what music can do?,” Quel Beast wonders, and lays down a gauntlet. “An artist has a responsibility to reach out and grab someone the same way a ridiculously awesome song does.”

So it’s natural that Quel Beast’s portraits would have music in their souls; for him, “Back That A$$ Up” is the track that conjures the flow and energy of shared experience that he aspires to render in his paintings. But the series is no fan letter: Quel Beast is looking through the video’s lens at his own agenda. He’s retrofitted his painted subjects as though they were plucked from frames of the video, undressed them, and reversed the gender roles.

Quel Beast (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

He designed the portrait series as his inquiry into the source of our judgments. Where do conclusions come from, for instance, about a two-dimensional woman who may be posturing instead of pouting but in other ways remains unknowable? “Why is it that just because you put your body into certain positions, people will assume anything about you, your identity or your sexuality?,” Quel Beast asks, without knowing the answer.

Juvenile and L’il Wayne provide Quel Beast with audio inspiration for his paintings, but their lyrics tow the misogyny-and-hetero line. Quel Beast reveals only a cool nonchalance about this apparent collision of cultures. By co-opting the rappers’ revelers in an effort to unlock an insight or two on identity politics, won’t Quel Beast ostensibly alienate those fans who would be drawn to a show inspired by hip hop? The more secrets he tells me, the more a picture emerges of someone who doesn’t mind making people uncomfortable.

Early this morning, Quel Beast showed me the Chelsea girl. She has my straight, boyish hips, and a casual, male confidence that is impervious to judgment. Within that masculinity, though, something remains defiantly feminine. He looked at me and said with a shrug, “If there’s one thing I learned from rap, it’s how to deal with haters.” —Robin Grearson

BSA………….BSA………………BSA………….BSA………………BSA………….BSA………………BSA………….BSA………………

Quel Beast, “Back That A$$ Up”, October 16, 10 PM, Kings County, 286 Siegel Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206.

Robin Grearson is an independent writer and essayist living in New York. She has written for The New York Times.

Robin Grearson: www.robingrearson.com

Quel Beast: www.quelbeast.com, facebook.com/quelbeastart

Fun Friday 10.15.10

October 15, 2010 Art Fair, Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, London, NYC, Opening, U.K., Video

Fun Friday

Mighty Tenaka in Dumbo with “Cimmerian Shade”

Featuring the artwork of Katie Decker, FARO, Hellbent, Marlo Marquise, John McGarity, Don Pablo Pedro and Ellen Stagg

More about the show HERE

“Portraits” by Sten + Lex with Gaia at Brooklynite

This is a hot shot straight to Number Uno on the charts Ladies and Germs. Italians with their own understated stencil technique and UES wild-eyed jerkin chicken man. Read more on this show here from yesterday on BSA.

Dan Taylor “Notes from the Inside”

Pandemic is reliably snarky, eclectic, and often on the money. Keep your eye on them because they also think. A lot.

Plus, Dan Taylor was raised by squirrels.

Muralmorphosis

From The Philadephia Mural Arts Program, an animated mural handed back and forth amongst several artists, in the style of Exquisite Corpse.

Artists: Eve Biddle/Joshua Frankel, Rodney Camarce,Bonnie Brenda Scott, Seth Turner, Mauro Zamora.
Curated by Sean Stoops.

Ben Eine at The Moniker Art Fair

“Hell’s Half Acre”

Kind of like going to Macys!

Launched in October 12th and produced by Lazarides in collaboration with Tunnel 228 and off-site exhibition of Dante’s “Inferno”.

Via Babelgum.

Visitors explore a unique interpretation of the nine circles of hell through the vision of artists including Conor Harrington, Vhils, George Osodi, Antony Micallef, Doug Foster, Todd James, Paul Insect, Mark Jenkins, Boogie, Ian Francis, Polly Morgan, Jonathan Yeo.

David Choe Goes to Hell

Here’s his creation of his piece for Lazaride’s “Hell’s Half Acre”.

Via Babelgum

Crest Hardware Art Show Presents: First Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest

October 14, 2010 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, NYC

Pumpkin Carving Contest

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO THE WEBSITE. FOR THE OFFICIAL RULES LOOK UNDER THE HALLOWEEN TAB ON THE MENU BAR
http://cresthardwareartshow.com

Sten & Lex & Gaia Portraiture at Brooklynite

October 14, 2010 Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, Interview, new york, NYC, On the Street, Opening

Sten, Lex and Gaia create portraits for their upcoming show together.

Sten & Lex working on an outdoor portrait (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two different approaches to portraiture are working side by side in Brooklyn right now- and the styles are distinct.Comparing the two in the charged energy of an October day, you’ll agree the contrast is pronounced – drawing attention to individual techniques and influences. Sitting with the portraits for a few minutes, one sees that their similarities may lie in something weightier.

Gaia’s work with color and layering technique has really flown the coop 2010 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sten and Lex began working in mundane portraiture on the streets of Rome in 2001 – a romance that continues almost a decade later. Drawing their inspiration from black and white images of European businessmen and the women who love them in stilted studio photos from the 1960’s and 70’s, they have plundered successive decades of posed formalized faces that are at times stoic, frank, and slyly droll.

Gaia is a study in energy, with increasingly loose lines thrown out and reigned in to wrap around the subject, whether man or animal. With visions of historical painting and European masters dancing in his head, Gaia is honing a vocabulary of symbols and signifiers while cross-shifting between painterly color layering and kinetically charged line drawing. It all accumulates in character more weighted than you might expect.

There lies the commonality of this combination – for such youthful protagonists, a certain weight, whether psychological or spiritual, anchors their explorations even as each is scaling new heights. It’s a highly charged, playful, and smartly grounded combination that reflects the serious times we are in.

Sten & Lex and Gaia. Detail. Man and Beast (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

When you ask them about their influences, Sten and Lex quickly call up old Italian films that pre-date them by Fellini, Pasolini, Rossellini, and Visconti. They also draw inspiration from photographs and portraits from magazines and from vintage photos found in outdoor flea markets in the many cities that they visit. They love the feel of the grain on those vintage photographs and it is that grain that comes across in their work with stencil.

Sten & Lex tons of cutting and pealing (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Using a stencil technique they created called “Hole School”, faces appearing as dots and lines are selectively removed from the image. The resulting grey-scale is striking as if they had blown up everday men and women from vintage photos in magazines or daily newsprint.

Sten & Lex Working on a portrait on top of a collage of posters (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

More recently they have introduced another reductive technique, which they call the “Stencil Poster”. The duos’ work begins by wheat pasting a poster on a surface then cutting the stencil directly on the board. The pieces are removed and the stencil remains on the board, where it is painted black and then removed to reveal the final product underneath. Oftentimes pieces of paper are left on the final portraits like adorning ribbons that also convey a sense of decay and an ephemeral existence.

As they start a new decade they are toying with the idea of using more contemporary images, perhaps their own photographs of friends and ordinary people. But they’ll stay in love with the past and as they put it: “Contemporary art is too difficult to understand”

Gaia. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia talks about his progressing ease and excitement with painting in flame tinged color that he began this year on the street and continues to challenge his creative skills, versus his black and white pieces.

“Logistically is easier to paint free hand in color. Painting in color is layering, free hand. With Black and white I need the projector because each line is very specific. Color work is always more vibrant and uplifting. Black and white work can be morose and dark. I enjoy black and white in my own personal work. The color work is more fitting for a community art because is more palatable and more exciting. People are initially sort of turn away by the black and white work on the street. Not to say that street art’s only merit is to uplift people. If the work is more permanent perhaps it would make more sense to make the art more accessible but if the art is not on a legal wall then the art is more making a statement. The intention is not necessarily happiness but more message or communication or contention,” says Gaia.

Gaia’s Tiger Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sten & Lex “Lex-Sten-Stencil Poster” Book from Drago will be available for purchase at the opening (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

A peak inside the book. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thanks to filmmaker Charles Le Brigand, who got special access to the artists as they prepare for their upcoming show at Brooklynite.

Sten & Lex • Gaia at Brooklynite from Charles le Brigand on Vimeo.

Ink_d Gallery Presents: Dan Baldwin Works on Paper (Brighton, UK)

October 13, 2010 Artists, Brighton, Events, Gallery, Opening

“Change is in the air”

Dan Baldwin
Works on Paper

29 OCTOBER 2010 — 21 NOVEMBER 2010

Coming up, Ink_d Gallery shows Dan Baldwin’s first exhibition solely devoted to works on paper.

For the first time in his highly successful career, Dan Baldwin is making originals on paper, not just any paper, but beautiful hand-made, heavyweight 640gsm paper. Whilst the work incorporates many elements and subject matter that you would expect to see from Baldwin’s paintings there is a new element that Baldwin himself describes as free and spontaneous.

The idea for the show came from a response by artist and gallery to produce a line of affordable originals in response to the current economic climate and wanting to offer something attainable between limited edition prints and canvas. This will be an amazing opportunity to buy an affordable original.

This exciting new show will consist of 12 originals on paper presented in simple wooden box frames, and some new ceramic vases. Also available will be limited edition silkscreen prints and very some rare and much sought after editions.

Zero Cool Gallery Presents: Copyright “Equal Opposites” Solo Show (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)

October 13, 2010 Artists, Events, Gallery, Opening, U.K.

Equal Opposites is a brand new body of work by the artist Copyright. Newton’s law states that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’, Copyright explores this notion, but in a metaphysical sense. He explores the ideas of karma and consequences, often ending in tragedy. The exhibition will showcase collection that of work which examines the various results of the same action. Equal Opposites will definitely create a reaction.

Zero Cool Ltd

63 High Bridge
Newcastle upon Tyne
United Kingdom
NE1 6BX

E: zerocool@zerocoolgallery.com
T: 0191 261 8364

Opening Times

Monday to Friday 11:00 – 17:00

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