As usual, the artist community has jumped in feet-first to help others by donating their work.
Mr. Brainwash, who is having a show next month in New York in a 15,000 sf space in the Meat Packing district of Manhattan, is donating a portion of the sales of his new print to the Red Cross.
Aerosol is well-known for his other rock and roll icons in the 30 years he’s been getting up all over the globe with stencils: Dylan, Jagger, Bowie, Vicious, Morrison, Lennon and Yoko, Hendrix, Cobain, — and of course there are New Yorkers like Patty Smith and The Ramones.
Now, as he prepares to make his debut solo gallery show in New York in 2010, Aerosol is in an EMPIRE STATE OF MIND and pays tribute with this fresh new portrait of rapper Jay-Z.
Every era has it’s icons, and with a 20-year old son of his own, clearly Aerosol has his eye on one of today’s best known music pillars. Now with more Number 1 Albums than Elvis Presley, it only makes sense that Brooklyn’s hometown hero has passed into the icon pantheon of Aerosol.
Each stencil is cut slightly differently to create the whole image.
Slight variations in hue also add the illusion of dimension.
The new Jay-Z by Jef Aerosol.
Here’s the Press Release for the Upcoming Show at Ad Hoc January 29th.
Street Artist Royce Bannon will be part of tonights event
Come and bear witness to the Style Warz. This event is the official art/electronic/hip hop exhibition that will present to its guests the unification of three creative forms on a historic date of amalgamation, MLK’s birthday. We will gather to enjoy each other’s company, and also see artwork being exhibited and created live, by renowned and talented artists including Royce Bannon, Elizabeth Stewart and many others!!! DJs Dennis Sebayan and Hollywood Holt will be showcasing their respective electronic and house skills on the 1s and 2s, and New York’s Donny Goines and DC’s M1 Platoon will be performing. Art exhibition begins at 4pm and the party keeps rockin’ until midnight!
Venue: The Sullivan Room between 218 Sullivan st. ( W. 3rd and Bleecker)
Sullivan Room: http://www.sullivanroom.com/sullivanroom/ClubInfo.html
Jan 18th, 2010
RSVP : Stylewarz2010@gmail.com
Our weekly interview with the streets
Aakash Nihalani's new green piece (photo © Jaime Rojo)
From Mike Fitzsimmons and John Grider, two street art stencil artists known as Broken Crow, comes this colorful mural called “The Lion Man” that they created last summer.
A recurring theme in the Broken Crow approach to story-telling is a reclamation of the man-made world by the natural one. Realistic animals express distinct personalities and opinions about what our grand blind ineptness. In a merging of the animal kingdom with ours this piece uses the body of Charlie, their model, and supplants his head with a lions’ as he crawls along the wall on all fours.
Aside from the coolness factor, the benefits of seeing how work is produced in a time-lapse video are myriad for both the fans as well as the artists. Questions about technique that you may have had can be quickly answered, and subsequent murals can be improved by the artist by observing themselves in action.
This video is really nicely done by Benjamin Clasen of Saint Paul, the sister city of Minneapolis, MN, where Broken Crow hail from.
On Friday two young and hungry New York Street Artists combined their artistry, critical intellects, and kinetic energy (and questionable dancing skills) to help define street art for a new generation on the cusp of the 2010’s.
Paint, paper, ladders, wheat-paste, razors, brushes, mashups, jazz messengers, rough housing, and bad dancing. OH yeah they rock hard! Gaia and NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)
In an age of shifting definitions in the art world, the Street Art world, and, well, the whole freakin’ modern world, you can take heart to know that the kids still know how to have fun, and some of them are willing to work their butts off in pursuit of a vision.
NohJColey prepping the background before the wheat-pasted pieces (photo © Jaime Rojo)
On a 30 foot by 8 foot luhan-wood billboard in Brooklyn, Gaia and NohJColey brought their A Game to the street and auspiciously stretched the definition of wheat-pasted smart-aleck wall-wrecking.
The wall is curated by Brooklyn Street Art for Espeis Outside Gallery.
Gaia picking up the choice first cuts of lamb (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Both New Yorkers, they communicated since Thanksgiving via email while Gaia was in school in Baltimore. They traded sketches, ideas, pictures, opinions – and when Gaia’s winter vacation started, they hung out at each other’s studios and kitchen tables planning the collaboration. Both guys had labored over their hand drawn and hand painted pieces for few weeks, so when it was game day, it really felt more like graduation.
What’s this I see? Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Whoops, piece of it ripped. No prob, just lay on the paste (Gaia) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
It was cold on the street yesterday, but no one cared and the mood was celebratory. NohJ even refused to eat because he was too excited to put his work up – eventually he did eat though.
Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)
It’s very popular right now to make fun of skinny jeaned hipsters, because, frankly, we have to make fun of somebody. In Gaia’s case, he’s just skinny. Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The double headed furry thing of doooooomb. (Gaia) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Horsing around and doing bike tricks and break/dip/jerk dancing of course was a periodic pursuit by galloping Gaia so the work got interrupted by Major Lazer and Free Gucci once in a while. We think it was the cup of coffee that pushed him over the edge – you might as well give him a dumptruck of cocaine – the kid was jumping around like a long-tailed-cat in a rocking-chair convention.
NohJColey had some last minute cutting to do of his pieces on the floor inside where it was warm. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Meanwhile, on a totally different wavelength, NohJ was chilling to ear-blasting jazz from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – giving him a valium-nuanced, snappy kind of gait.
Gaia and NohJColey laying in the back ground depth (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: They really look like animals from over here
Gaia: Yeah they don’t look like sh*t when you’re close to them.
Brooklyn Street Art: It looks like you did some mirrored lambs heads.
Gaia: Yeah. I did this mural in Baltimore which was a bear head and then a cow head on another wall, and all the kids at the pre-school thought that the bear was either a seal or a dog.
Brooklyn Street Art: I thought that big bear you did looked like a woodchuck.
NohJ: I always know what your animals are though.
NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gimme that sheep! I wanna have it! Gaia lends a hand to the giant hand (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: So why did you use this ochre color, usually you use just black and white.
Gaia: NohJ and I had talked about something that would tie everything together and make it a little more continuous. I figured I’d just do the color ochre to tie in with the rest of his pieces, so it would make it a little bit more congruous or fluid between the two of us.
NohJColey working with his piece (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: What’s this additional paint layer you are putting into the background on the wood right now?
NohJ: Basically it’s to add dimension. That’s it.
Gaia: And texture…
NohJ: I mean the wood has texture but..
Gaia: It’s a trope.
Brooklyn Street Art: A trope?
Gaia: What were we calling it before? Distressed! It’s a distressed trope. It’s a trope of distress.
NohJ: I like the border on the far right, it’s getting into the “Sepia Zone”.
It’s hard for Wall Street to hold it’s head up. (Gaia and NohJColey) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: How long have you guys been planning this piece together?
Gaia: This? Like for a month or two.
NohJ: Yeah like two.
This screen almost looks like it is reading his vital signs. Looks like his heart may need some regulation (NohJColey) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: NohJ, what’s the New York Stock Exchange logo thing on the little screen?
NohJ: He’s a stock broker. He’s like totally f**king obsessed with trading stocks. He cares nothing about family. He has a new-born son, he cares nothing about it. He just wants to trade stocks. That’s pretty much what it’s about.
Ouch! That’s gotta hurt. (NohJColey) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
All the added elements, the watches, the hands with the glass of wine and the cell phone, those are what the person is drawn to and pretty much what they care about on a daily basis. Now there is a lamb, a mutated creature in their midst. But they are so caught up with the pristine life that they’re unable to embrace something or someone that is different.
NohJColey (Detail) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Are people going to know what this piece is about?
NohJ: Probably not.
Brooklyn Street Art: Are you going to try to tell them?
NohJ: I think it’s open.
Gaia: Well the internet always serves as a wonderful place of clarity
One of Gaia’s favorite symbols, and one of his hands. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Your styles are so different from one another. Do you feel like it was difficult to collaborate on a piece?
Gaia: Uh, no, not at all.
NohJ: Not really.
Working the seam (Gaia) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia: I actually like when you have collaborations when you have an initial idea and there isn’t too much communication between the two collaborators because then you don’t too much overthink it and it starts to fall apart. You don’t get constipated, you just do your thing.
NohJ: I felt a bit constipated, in the beginning.
Gaia: I mean it’s always tough to begin something.
NohJ: I only felt that way because I’m working with your lamb and I’m like, “What kind of imagery works well with a lamb?”
Gaia: That’s interesting because I knew exactly what I was going to do – two lambs. And you had to do a response to that. I don’t know if that’s fair.
NohJ: Yeah it’s fair.
Gaia in an Empire State of Mind (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Well somebody had to start the process.
Gaia: Yeah, I guess. I’m just always a little sensitive about collaboration because of school.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s because you’re a sensitive fella.
Gaia: I don’t know, I try to be. It’s my….it’s how I get girls.
NohJ: Oh that’s how you do it.
Gaia: That’s how I do it.
NohJ: Ahhhhhh, maybe I should.
Gaia: No man, you’re always like back in the corner, you’re like the whisperer guy with the girls.
NohJ: But that’s sensitive too.
JUBILATION! Gaia and NohJColey do a few tricks for the street fans (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Where did you learn all your break dancing skills?
Gaia: I can’t break dance, I wish I could break dance.
Brooklyn Street Art: What is that dance you just did in front of your piece?
Gaia: It’s dipping.
Brooklyn Street Art: Dipping!
Gaia: It’s like L.A. sh*t.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s like “Baltimore” Dipping?
Gaia: Yeah Baltimore Dipping.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s like a dipping sauce dance!
Gaia: I wish I could f**king break dance. That would be awesome. I’m gonna learn.
THE FINAL PIECE “Mutual Discrepancy” by NohJColey and Gaia
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Here is “Mutual Discrepancy” the short film by Nicolas Heller, a NYC/Boston filmmaker who likes to explore personalities on the street.
An aspiring director, Nicolas worked with Gaia on a short over the summer of 2009 and is in the process of doing a documentary on him. You can a short video he did of Gaia and see some of his other film work at NicolasHeller.com. Many thanks to Nick for his skillz.
Brooklyn Filmmaker Collective “Cinema Set Free” produced this great video about the celebration of Street Art in New York called “Street Crush”. Thank you Antonio, Lawrence, Melissa, and Demitri of “Cinema Set Free” for your talents.
BrooklynStreetArt.com and AlphaBeta Art Space hosted a fun street art show with 43 street artists, 4 burlesque performers, and a kissing booth. Working around themes of “Love, Sex, and the Street”, well-known street artists alongside relative whipper-snappers dug deep for fresh takes on gritty street ardor.
Artists included Aakash Nihalani, Abe Lincoln Jr., Aiko, Anera, Bortusk Leer, Broken Crow, C. Damage, Cake, Celso, Charm, Chris Uphues, Creepy, DirQuo, Ellis Gallagher A.K.A. (C)ELLIS G., Eternal Love, FauxReel, FKDL, General Howe, GoreB, Imminent Disaster, Hellbent, Infinity, Nobody, Jef Aerosol, Jon Burgerman, Matt Siren, Mimi the Clown, NohJColey, Pagan, PMP, Poster Boy, Pufferella, Pushkin, Chris from Robots Will Kill, Col from Robots Will Kill, Veng from Robots Will Kill, Royce Bannon, Skewville, Stikman, The Dude Company, Titi from Paris, and U.L.M.
See the Street Crush Artists Here
THE PERFORMERS Nasty Canasta, Clams Casino, Harvest Moon, and your MC, Tigger!
THE KISSING BOOTH A funky loveshack built by artist and set-designer J. Mikal Davis and lorded over by Madame Voulez-Vous. Kissing Booth Volunteers: Ashley, Jeremy, Jess, Justin, Natasha, Ryan, and Val.
THE NON-PROFIT: Art Ready mentoring program for New York City high school students considering careers in the arts, please visit: http://www.smackmellon.org/education.html
MUSIC The DJ was Jesse Mann streaming live on DailySession.com
POST PARTY Brooklyn projection artists, SeeJ and SuperDraw performed at Coco66 .
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO “CINEMA SET FREE” and
Producer/Cameraman – Lawrence Whiteside
Producer/Cameraman – Antonio Bonilla
Editor – Melissa Figueroa
Voice Over Recordist – Dimitri Tisseryre
The original “Street Crush” Press Release
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Forget Avatar – Put Grandma in front of a Green Screen!
(The image you see behind them is the image they’re looking at)
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You don’t have to stay in a loveless, abusive relationship with your Big Bank.
“Brooklyn is the ‘Caribbean Capital of America’—by some counts, we have the largest Haitian population in the United States—and our hearts go out to our Haitian brothers and sisters in need,” said Borough President Marty Markowitz and Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham.
“Brooklyn and Haiti share the common motto ‘In Unity There is Strength,’ and Brooklynites have been united once again—as we were in 2008 following a series of devastating hurricanes and a tropical storm—in opening up their hearts, wallets and pantries to the victims of this catastrophic earthquake. Our office will be working closely with the Caribbean community in the days ahead to lend support to Brooklyn and New York City-based relief efforts.”
AMERICAN RED CROSS
Text “HAITI” to “90999″ to make a $10 donation.
2025 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
(800) REDCROSS (733-2767)
Special reporting from BoroughingBrooklyn.com and The HuffingtonPost.com
“If You Don’t Know Me By Now”
This tune was off their debut album and became one of the group’s signature ballads. Just the beginning of a long love affair his fans had with Teddy Pendergrass.
Teddy Pendergrass, one of the most successful R&B singers of the 1970s and ’80s, passed away yesterday in Philadelphia after a battle with colon cancer. He was 59.
Before you have a heart attack – this is just a picture brought into an iPhone and then skillfully played with an APP.
Yo, son, you need some more practice with that sh*t
NOW LET’S SEE, If I use this while riding the train from Da Bronx to Brooklyn, does that make me ALL-CITY?
Eastern District La Mode Noir presents:
Black Apple is home a Public School exhibit
Public School’s Artistic Director and gallerist Michael “tido” Cabrera will commission
3 artist of Eastern District’s collective Aakash Nihalani’s ,Mario Brother’s and Cahbasm to introduce Eastern District la mode noir a collaborative project with Eastern District gallery and New York’s fashion house Public School. The artists and gallery will translate their work into the medium of fashion via Public School Garments. Deigning Art inspired tees
All 3 artist through their different mediums of work have been trying to offer people a different perspective of New York (The black Apple) whether it being addressing social issues or just wanting people to engage with their work using public spaces.
Public School Finding perfection in imperfection, holding a pen in one hand and a sword on another Public School and Eastern District make their home the black apple a home a platform of learning,
Please join us for the exhibit “Black Apple is Home” curated by the black apples.
The exhibit will give New Yorkers a chance to view and interact with the Artist’s work who will be collaborating with Public school from the perspective of an actual gallery space and it will be a pre-introduction of the shirts that will be at exhibit at the public school booth at NY’s capsule trade show.
Eastern District Gallery 43 Bogart Street. Brooklyn NY Take L train to Morgan Ave
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
