2010

Invader Uses GPS to Map Attack of San Diego

brooklyn-street-art-invader-san-diego

Actually it’s just a street art tour, complete with map

French Street Artist Monsieur Invader, a favorite of New Yorkers and Jonathan LeVine Gallery, has created a 21 stop Invader Tour in the streets of San Diego for visitors to the new show “Viva la Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape” opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCASD).

The show features 21 artists from 8 countries including Akay (Sweden), Banksy (U.K.), Blu (Italy), Mark Bradford (U.S.), William Cordova (U.S.), Date Farmers (U.S.), Stephan Doitschinoff [CALMA] (Brazil), Dr. Lakra (Mexico), Dzine (U.S.), David Ellis (U.S.), FAILE (U.S.), Shepard Fairey (U.S.), Invader (France), JR (France), Barry McGee (U.S.), Ryan McGinness (U.S.), Moris (Mexico), Os Gemeos (Brazil), Swoon (U.S.), and Vhils (Portugal).

Invader in New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Invader in New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Heavenly Invasion Space Invader
Heavenly Invasion, Space Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Free Screening Tonight of “Flood Tide” at Socrates Sculpture Park

brooklyn-street-art-swoon-flood-tide-stillDuring the collaboration called “Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea”, a project by Street Artist Swoon that included a colorful and handsome cluster of artists, performers, and neo-enviro-hippies for a dying planet, the fictional “Flood Tide” was directed and shot.  The seven large floating sculptures made of re-claimed materials were constructed by the crew and floated down the Hudson River (itself a dump site for industry that is being reclaimed by citizens) stopping occasionally for supplies and theatrical and musical performance.

Tonight a pre-screening of the tale that uses the Swimming Cities project as backdrop will be shown for free as part of RoofTop Films project. In case you haven’t been there, Socrates is sited at the edge of the East River in Long Island City, Queens, where the same flotilla made a voyage before arriving at Swoon’s solo installation at Deitch Gallery that same summer.

Eventual touring of the film will include museums, performance spaces, community centers, as well as more conventional theaters with a live musical score performed by Dark Dark Dark.

Learn more at http://www.rooftopfilms.com/

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“Shred” At Perry Rubenstein Gallery

“Shred” At Perry Rubenstein Gallery

A Tight and Irreverent Collage Show Curated by Carlo McCormick

Judith Supine "Patrice " 2010 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

In this piece for “Shred”, Street Artist Judith Supine clearly enunciates the radical psycho-sexual non-sequiturs that make Supine’s collage a powerful voice in New York Street Art at the moment. In addition to the signature acid bright template are the cigarette, the nudity, and the reference to childhood that occur often in pieces by the artist. The paper collage is scattered with raised green metallic pieces that look like broken fingernails forming smooth lumps under the resin. The artist confirmed in fact that the “finger nails” are glass jewel beetles. Judith Supine “Patrice ” 2010 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

To curate any show well requires a finely balanced hand that can go unappreciated. If the gentle and deliberate directing of artists and their contributions is not thoughtful and focused, a show may feel off-kilter, unkempt, even ruinous. Although he denies it with humility in equal proportion to his expertise, curator Carlo McCormick displays his adept hand at collage (or assemblage) in “Shred”, the new collage show he curates for the Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York’s Chelsea district.

In talking about the genesis of “Shred”, McCormick describes a downtown East Village scene and the concurrent Graffiti scene of the 70s and 80s that imploded messily at the end of a hyper-excited zenith. An author, editor, and speaker who is considered expert on the topic of NYC’s downtown scene at the time, McCormick knows well what the signs of our fickle obsessions can look like, “And yes everyone gets kind of famous for a bit and a bunch of money flows through it and it is over”.

Drawing a few connections, he explained he’d like to avoid the “the kind of phenomenology of that moment” that Street Art could find itself precariously hanging on the edge of.  So it is with purpose that he extends the span of this collection to broaden the dialogue about the practice of collage.

“The main thing I thought was about street art – involving the wheat pasting and it’s stenciling and it’s silk screening – is that it has inherently a lot of collage effects”. In addition to today’s adventurous street artists who are represented here by Faile, Swoon, Elbow Toe, Shepard Fairey, and Judith Supine, McCormick also includes some of their predecessors and peers, like Jess, Erik Foss, and Gee Vaucher. For final balance, he called upon three film makers who are “really ripping shit apart”.

Recognizing that “collage was not exactly invented yesterday”, McCormick stipulates that he was crafting his own message by selecting these artists. The great common denominator? “Well obviously surrealism had a great part in it. I’m looking for the more outré elements of it. I’d say it’s an attitude; there is a certain irreverence in it, and caring about the materials working with it”. Talking with a few of the artists and guests Thursday night at the opening, those elements are present in this show and were very well received.

Mark Flood "Twilight Feelings" (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

An elongated mutant pop pretty boy by Mark Flood, “Twilight Feelings” 2010 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jack Walls (Detail of an Installation of 5. Photo © Jaime Rojo )

Using photographs taken of himself by his lover Robert Mapplethorpe, Jack Walls creates optical vibrations in these recent collage pieces that span and unite both the Downtown and the Street Art explosions.  (Three of Installation of Five). 2008  Photo © Jaime Rojo )

Faile Detail "Never Enough" (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Duo Faile reprise imagery from one of their recent street art stencils in this large acrylic and silkscreened piece that welcomes guests at “Shred”.  “Never Enough” 2010. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jess Untitled (Konrad Lorenz) Detail, (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

An early example of collage at “Shred”. Jess “Untitled” (Konrad Lorenz) 1955. Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brian Douglas (Elbow-Toe) "Bears" Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brian Douglas (Elbow-Toe) “Bears” 2010. Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

In attendance at the opening was the Street Artist known as Elbow Toe, who created one of the more mystifying images, both in it’s content and it’s thousands of hand-cut pieces that are applied in such a painterly fashion that standing a few feet away from the piece can lead a viewer to believe it was done with oil and brush.Speaking about a new series of collages based on psychological and possibly autobiographical themes that he’s exploring, Elbow Toe said, “It was the first one I’ve done….all the collage stuff is heading in a more narrative direction. And this is the first of many that are all getting much more weird, I guess.”

Leo Fitzpatrick. Untitled. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

A grouping of collages by Leo Fitzpatrick. Untitled. 2010 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erik Foss "Look Out" 2010 Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

A seriously dog-eared commercial landscape (signed MORAN) from a 1966 suburban living room, long since faded and liberated from its frame and stained by water drops, artist Erik Foss turns it into a surreal other planetary world with clusters of owls, floating moons, and robed faceless wizards and witches dressed by the House of Stevie Nicks.  Erik Foss “Look Out” 2010 Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

“Shred” July 1 – August 27, 2010

Perry Rubenstein Gallery

527 West 23rd Street

New York, NY 10001

www.perryrubenstein.com

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Show & Tell Gallery Presents: Anthony Lister “The Beauty of Failure” (Toronto, Canada)

Anthony Lister

Anthony Lister "He Who Kneels In Darkness" 2010) Image Courtsey of the Gallery

Anthony Lister "He Who Kneels In Darkness" 2010) Image Courtsey of the Gallery

Show & Tell Gallery is pleased to welcome Anthony Lister to his first solo exhibit with the gallery as well as his first exhibition in Canada.

The Beauty of Failure is a unique look at the reward and punishment systems, and more specifically when the two overlap.The paintings and sculptures in this show demonstrate a tounge in cheek look at contemporary pop culture through Anthony‘s signature artistic style.

Anthony’s paintings, drawings, sculptures and happenings pullfrom his experiences as a youth in Australia. Superheroes,skateboarding, graffiti, tattoos, the internet, and pop culture are reflected in his artistic practice. His fine art has been displayed in galleries across the globe in cities such as New York, London, Los Angeles, Sydney, and we are excited to add Toronto to the list.

Address
1161 Dundas St. West
Toronto, ON
M6J 1X3
Canada
Gallery Hours
Wed – Sat: 1pm -8pm
Sun: 1pm – 7pm
Mon & Tue: By Appointment Only

Phone:
+ 647.347.3316
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Carmichael Gallery Presents: “The Uncovering” New Photography by Boogie Plus a Show Case of New Work by M-City (Culver City CA)

Carmichael Gallery

Boogie "Attack" Image Courtsey of the Gallery

Boogie "Attack" Image Courtsey of the Gallery

Carmichael Gallery

THE UNCOVERING

New Photography by Boogie

Carmichael Gallery
5795 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
June 5 – July 3, 2010

July 10 – August 7, 2010

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 10, 2010, 7-9pm

For Immediate Release:

Carmichael Gallery is pleased to present THE UNCOVERING, a powerful cross section of new photography by Serbian native Boogie. The exhibition comprises a series of limited edition silver gelatin, chromogenic and archival pigment prints whose thematic material considers the space, sensation and narrative depth between endings and new beginnings.

There will be an opening reception for THE UNCOVERING on Saturday, July 10 from 7 to 9pm with the artist in attendance. The exhibition will run through August 7.

Born and raised in the city of Belgrade, Boogie emerged as a documenter of Yugoslavia’s civil
war of the 1990s, capturing through his lens the realities of the violent rebellion that ransacked the nation around him. These early experiences shaped his intensely sober artistic voice and dark perspective of human existence. Upon moving to New York City in 1998, this attraction to hardship and chaos transitioned to a visual exploration of the streets and homes of Brooklyn, presenting gang members, prostitutes and junkies in an astonishingly honest, familiar manner.

Subsequent journeys have taken him to cities such as Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Istanbul, Cuba, and
Mexico.

THE UNCOVERING is both an extension and a departure from Boogie’s previous bodies of
work, reflecting a new phase in his personal life and professional evolution. Having recently
returned home to Belgrade for the birth of his son, his experimentation with new color palettes in several of his works engenders a potent sense of renewal. The vibrancy of these photographs enhances the dialogue initiated by the breathtaking black and white portraits for which he is more widely recognized.

Boogie’s reach in THE UNCOVERING is broad, but cohesive – images of vandalized property, storm clouds, public housing, youth and the elderly both stand alone and chronicle a more extensive, multi-layered story. As a photographer, Boogie is singular in his ability to remove his presence as the mediator between the subjects of his work and those viewing them from without.

His illumination of the complexity of the human condition without the imposition of his
own ego or ideologies presents a more compelling foundation for the contemplation of his
weighty subject matter and the socio-economic, philosophical and emotional currents that press from beneath.

Boogie currently lives and works between Brooklyn and Belgrade. He has published five
monographs: IT’S ALL GOOD (powerHouse Books, 2006), BOOGIE (powerHouse Books,
2007), SAO PAULO (Upper Playground, 2008), ISTANBUL (Upper Playground, 2008) and
BELGRADE BELONGS TO ME (powerHouse Books, 2008). He has shot for many high profile clients and has been published in world renowned publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Flaunt, Vibe, Source, Maxim and PDN.

Prior solo exhibitions have taken place in Paris, New York, Tokyo and Istanbul, however Boogie claims that his biggest achievement to date is being a father to Maya and Aleksandar, the two most photographed children in the world.

M-City Image Courtesy of the Gallery

M-City Image Courtesy of the Gallery

a showcase of new work by M-City

Opening Reception

Saturday, July 10 2010

7 – 9 PM

Please RSVP to rsvp at carmichaelgallery dot com
5795 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

The exhibition is open to the public through August 7 2010

About Carmichael Gallery:

Carmichael Gallery exhibits works by some of the world’s most exciting emerging contemporary artists, with a focus on narrative and figurative painting, mixed media and sculpture. This is the gallery’s first solo exhibition of photography.

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BLU : Beyond Street Art, “BIG BAG BIG BOOM” (VIDEO)

Tackling the little stuff, Street Artist BLU addresses Evolution, the possible end of all life, and the the Big Bang Theory

Brooklyn-Street-Art-New-Video_Blu

We’re posting this video online just as New York is going to lunch – or more likely, is ordering lunch for delivery because nobody wants to venture out into the crushing heatwave.  This grand opus of animation and ingenious humor deserves the ten minutes you’ll need while crunching on your deli sandwich and potato chips.

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Factory Fresh Gallery Presents: “Among Darkened Woods” A Group Show

Factory Fresh Gallery

Factory Fresh Gallery

Factory Fresh Gallery

Appropriating an image from the opening lines of Dante’s Inferno as visual and thematic source material for the exhibit, the artists in Among Darkened Woods present works that seek to represent the derivative potential of darkness, to probe the obscure, to lend plasticity to shadows and other forms evanescent, to perceive presences and apparitions in that which seems to have disappeared.

While Dante’s infernal quest leads him from the selva oscura of life’s proper path gone astray, as it were, to visions of the most profound reaches of physical suffering, punishment and ceaseless decay, the works here suggest an earlier stopping point, a less hellish locus, a place perhaps only subtly subterranean where forms have not yet dropped into the abyss of a falling apart, evoking instead the ordered calm of a falling away.

Featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures and mixed-media works by Tim Kent,
SHM Kim, Adam Collison, Amanda Nedham, Mary Kate Maher, Monika Zarzeczna
and Paul D’Agostino, and featuring an essay accompaniment by Paul D’Agostino.

Image Courtsey of the Gallery

Image Courtsey of the Gallery

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Pandemic Gallery Presents: “Fuck Don Pablo Pedro”

Don Pablo Pedro

Don Pablo Pedro

Don Pablo Pedro

Image Courtesy of the Gallery

Image Courtesy of the Gallery

Pandemic, established in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2009, is an artist-run space dedicated to showing work from up-and-coming, unknown, and well-established talent alike.  Embracing (but not confined to) urban street art, Pandemic is attracted to artists who think outside the confines of conventional normalcy — artists whose fresh concepts and unique visions inspire a broad audience.

Beginning on July 31, 2010, Pandemic will present the work of Don Pablo Pedro.  Don Pablo Pedro draws on the technical conventions of Old Masters such as El Greco and Hieronymus Bosch, and provocatively blurs the lines between perversity and sensuality, sacred and profane, suffering and ecstasy.  Don Pablo Pedro’s work has previously been profiled by P.S.1 and Brooklyn Street Art, and the artist maintains a website at http://donpablopedro.blogspot.com/.

There is no cover charge for this event; we attach a press release with additional details below.  For further information, please contact our Media and Development Director, Megan Canter, at meganecanter@gmail.com (copied here) or by telephone at 973-220-5032.

OPENING SAT. 7/31/10 7-11PM
@ PANDEMIC
37 BROADWAY
BROOKLYN, NY 11211


(L subway to Bedford stop or Q59 bus to Broadway/Wythe)
Gallery open daily 11am-6pm

—-
Pandemic Gallery
37 Broadway between Kent and Wythe
Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.pandemicgallery.com

pandemic logo 1.jpg

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Images of the Week 07.04.10

NYC in summer is always about abundance.  Lots of cheap or free fun available for everybody. For music lovers there is the multitude of free  concerts. For theater there is free Shakespeare in the Park and free outdoor movies in many parks. Foodies have the many street fairs with a cornucopia of deliciously exotic food from everywhere in the world. The sporting sort can play free in the many parks – baseball, volleyball, soccer, Frisbee, tag, hide and seek. This weekend brings parades and fireworks and block parties and hotdog eating contests

For those that love all sorts of arts and street art in particular the city’s streets are also abundant and are talking loudly and singing beautifully, like the mockingbirds at night in the Brooklyn trees.  Recently Swoon and Imminent Disaster are giving us tons of eye candy and food for thought. Over Under is trying his free hand at painting and presenting his nudes, as is Celso. And Chelsea just got a new Jeff Soto.  Well known, well weathered, or well underappreciated, artists continue to call the streets of New York their gallery.

Swoon
Swoon (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jeff Soto
Jeff Soto (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder
Overunder (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imminent Disaster
Imminent Disaster (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imminent Disaster Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
Imminent Disaster Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Celso (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
Celso (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon
Swoon (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Owl
Owl (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon
Swoon (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swoon Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder
Overunder (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imminent Disaster
Imminent Disaster (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

TrexNYC
TrexNYC (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JMR’s Transition to a Black and White World

JMR’s Transition to a Black and White World

You’ve been seeing a new direction for Brooklyn Street Artist JMR recently. Instead of huge multi-colored abstracts that sometimes contain a portrait within, we have seen a number of smaller black and white wheat-paste portraits. We’d heard that JMR was a doing a new series about white men and their consternation. Understandably that seems like a timely topic. BSA wanted to ask JMR what’s driving this change in direction.

Jim Rizzi (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jim Rizzi (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

It took a little bit, but we found JMR. As it turns out, he’s abandoned NYC for the moment and is in a frigid underground vault in Texas, to hear him tell it.

“I am held prisoner to my air conditioning, as the sun burns all vegetation around me to a light umber. No one wanders aimlessly in this climate. It is as if the outside were contaminated by nuclear fallout and my neighbors are holed up in their backyard bunkers.”

Jim Rizzi

Jim Rizzi (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: So what is going on with these white guys? And why has the human form become clarified and less abstract?
JMR: I haven’t written a cohesive description of what I am doing in ages, and have begun to wonder exactly what that is. Not what to write, but what I am doing. In the push to stay relevant as an artist, there is a fine line between putting your name out, and putting out something relevant.

In a nutshell, ultimately, and I use that word loosely, my goal is to express some sort of emotion in these portraits. I’ve spent much of my artistic career in the dark shadows of abstraction, but to put abstract work out to the general masses seems less affective. A black and white paste-up seems more relatable than an abstract one. Not that I am trying to get people to recognize the humanity around them, because I am not. I am trying to portray some humanity in my art.

Jim Rizzi (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jim Rizzi (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

While that explanation was clear enough, you can’t say with certitude that this is where he’ll stay. It may in fact be a transition stage to where JMR is going. He gave a funny sort of series of observations that reveal a funny sort of self-reflective artist who may be at a turning point. He even gave this startlingly clear analogy that sounds a lot like the race for recognition among artists in a city full of artists, everyone following a source of light in hopes of sustenance or recognition.

“I take my daughter to feed these giant carp at the lake nearby and there are hundreds of them (carp, not lakes). When you throw whatever it is you’ve brought to feed them, they frenzy; thrusting their open mouths to the surface in hopes that something falls in. It’s violent. Some fish actually get pushed to the point where their whole bodies are out the water. I can’t help but equate that to all of us, regardless of craft or profession, and what we are aiming to do; Trying to stay at the top of the pile. Just to get those pieces of bread, cereal, stale pretzels, bagels, hotdog buns.”

Jim Rizzi (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jim Rizzi (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Take that for what you may. I’m taking it with an icy cold six-pack of PBR out on the lake. Have a nice Saturday everybody.

JMR

One of JMR’s murals from a more colorful abstract period way back last year. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fun Friday 07.02.10

Fun-Friday

It’s Only Street Art When It’s On the Street

So you might as well move the furniture out on the sidewalk for your 4th of July Bar-B-Que this weekend and enjoy the best of both worlds.  Look, some guests have already arrived!  Pictured below on the Brooklyn street are Veng (RWK), Imminent Disaster, El Sol 25, Yote, and Andrew Michael Ford. Is the beer cold yet?

Andrew-MIchael-Ford-yote-imminent disaster-el-sol- 25-veng-rwk-web

(image © Jaime Rojo)

Let Jimi Put You In the Mood for a Patriotic Weekend

In Manhattan – Street Artist Dennis McNett’s Wild Kingdom Runs 50 Feet of Barney’s Windows

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Dennis_McNett-Barneys-July2010

Brooklyn based artist Dennis McNett totally smashed the windows at Barneys with his imagination. “Passerby’s can see over sized wolf, owl, and skull masks paired with mannequins dressed in evening wear with a backdrop of psychodelic starbursts and swooping wolfbats. Dennis’s woodcut blocks, prints, masks and paper mache sculptures adorn the mannequins and window interiors. His imagery from nature, folklore, mythology, and story telling mixed with the graphic carved wood patterns from wood block prints sets a very unique stage for the store and this part of town.”

Barneys NY Madison Ave. between 60th and 61st through July 12th
They are best seen at night as they have been professionally lit.  Check out Dennis at www.wolfbat.com

Biggie on the Street at 17 – Where Brooklyn At?

You’ll Hear This One At Least ONCE This Weekend

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