The Magnet Wall. The Organic Wall. Street Art is drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Even if a city officially prohibits any form of uncommissioned Street Art, it probably has a few spots where artists can reliably put their wheat-pastes, stencils, stickers, even sculptures – a community nerve center that quickly gives an overview of the players in the local scene. Usually the art is covered instantly by more art and if it lasts a few days intact it has had a good run. Since Street Art is an ephemeral scene, the artists know this and they are not particularly bothered by the rapid turnover, knowing that their piece will be seen by their peers and the public at large.
We always think of the streets as an outdoor gallery, and recently in Los Angeles we checked out this magnet wall in the Arts District where it could not have been a more apt description. Hanging out for a little while on this block, we saw a group of four teens taking a casual walk on a sunny day pivoting to the wall to check out the new additions, to point, comment, joke, and pose with each other in front of their favorites – making faces and giving each other the rabbit ears in photos. Minutes later a European tourist family, urban hikers with cameras and fannypacks, carefully scanned the patterns, textures and layers, taking photos and discussing their discoveries. Even a bulky fella crossing the street to get into a van emblazoned with a plumbing company logo – paused for a second to snap a cellphone pic before rumbling down the street.
This LA wall is a bit of a community billboard; an outlet and a showcase, where Street Artists try out new stuff and sometimes express personal or political sentiments. It’s never the same, and usually interesting.
What: Hold Up Art and Work Magazine present Fist Pump, a exhibition of new work from internationally recognized, Los Angeles-based activist and street artist Homo Riot, whose highly charged, and sometimes sexually explicit imagery have became part of the city’s socio-political and physical landscape. Homo Riot’s message started out as a “fuck you” to the supporters of Prop 8, but has morphed into something larger and more profound; seen now as an emblem of pride and strength to the gay community. With drag queens, performance artists, and more eye-candy than a Weho Wednesday, this is the art event of the month and should not be missed.
When: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Arrivals 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Reception ends at 11:00 PM
Where: Hold Up Art
Little Tokyo District of Downtown
358 E. 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Convenient Parking Structure Next Door
Who: Music by club favorite DJ Chris Bowen.
Live Performance Art Installations by Rafa Esparza and Trenton Szewczyk. Special appearance by Lady Bear (wearing a Homo Riot-designed ensemble).
New Image Art is pleased to announce PURE LOGO, a group exhibition co-curated by Los Angeles artist Skullphone, which features the diverse multimedia artists Evan Gruzis, Curtis Kulig, Takeshi Murata, Cleon Peterson, Skullphone, Paul Wackers and Hugh Ziegler.
PURE LOGO explores the omnipresence, necessity, form and functionality of logos as they metamorphose to communicate within increasingly brief discourses. The trajectory of each individual artist informs the exhibition’s overarching investigation of logos, both literal and symbolic, and links the artists through investigations of representation.
Evan Gruzis was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1979 and received his MFA from Hunter College. His technically rigorous ink and watercolor paintings are known for their combination of seductive light and absurd, vacuous pop imagery. In 2008, he published his first monograph, Dark Systems, in conjunction with a solo exhibition at Deitch Projects. Gruzis belongs to numerous collections, including that of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Currently, his work is on view in two solo exhibitions: Exotic Beta at The Hole and Shadow Work at Nicole Klagsbrun, both in New York. Abroad he is represented by DUVE Berlin and Galerie SAKS, Geneva. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
Curtis Kulig is best known for obsessively covering his canvases and the streets of New York City with the two-word phrase “Love Me.” An inversion of New York’s famous slogan, Kulig’s ubiquitous plea speaks at once to humans’ most primal desire and belies self-doubt and -criticism. “Whatever it’s become,” Kulig says, “It’s kind of my everything.” Kulig was born in North Dakota and got his first taste of creating in his father’s screen-printing shop at age 13.His work has been featured at Mallick Williams & Co, Leo Kesting Gallery, and NYEHAUS in New York; Subliminal Projects, in Los Angeles.
Multimedia artist Takeshi Murata‘s immersive, painstakingly hand-drawn animations exploit broken code and programming glitches to fracture video footage into hypnotic, pixelated distortions and flowing color fields. His evolving processes, visualized in computer-aided hand-drawn forms onscreen, shift and morph into organic forms that teem and pitch, creating images that at once gesture toward technological fragmentation and painterly abstraction. The Chicago-born artist received his BFA in Film/Video/Animation from the Rhode Island School of Design and his work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo; Peres Projects, Los Angeles; and Deitch Projects, New York; among others. Murata lives in Saugerties, New York.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Cleon Peterson currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Peterson paints an anxiety-ridden dystopia where corruption and injustice plague the social order. Deviance prevails, as desperate characters struggle for power and control over their environment. The indiviudual is displaced and forced to navigate this brutal world alone, finding hollow bits of pleasure and meaning in violence, sex, religion and drugs. In this show Peterson has evolved full circle creating utopian symbols that are uniquely unrepresentative of any past movement. The Los Angeles-based artist has shown at galleries internationally, including Alice Gallery, Brussels; Deitch Projects, New York; and Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco.
Los Angeles-based Skullphone first gained notoriety on city streets in 1999 for his iconic image of a black-and-white skull holding a cell phone. He drew attention once again in 2008 when his work appeared on the then-new digital billboards above the streets of L.A. Skullphone’s Digital Media paintings document our world – one which is increasingly communicating with brief encounters via technology – through a laborious painting process. Through painted pointillism on mirror-polished aluminum panels, these images dislocate when the artwork is approached. Skullphone’s work has been shown at Mallick Williams & Co, New York; Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles; the Riverside Art Museum; and was featured in MOCA’s 2009 FRESH Silent Auction.
Paul Wackers‘s work is rooted in inventive means of figuration. “My work is first a response to the world and then a reaction to what is has to offer,” notes Wackers. The formal quality and sensibility of his work is reminiscent of a 17th-century Dutch still-life painter à la Margareta Haverman or Willem van Aelst merged with atmospheric, broken-down geometric landscapes or a diptych-inspired composition on a single canvas. In these works, dreamlike non-places are populated by objects and elements that interact as part of another world that is jarringly similar to our own. Trained in fine arts at the Corcoran College of Art and Design and as a painter at the San Francisco Art Institute, Wackers’ works have appeared in solo exhibitions at Eleanor Harwood Gallery, in San Francisco, and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, London and Brussels.
Hugh Ziegler originally hails from Richmond, Virginia, and lives in Los Angeles. He received his BFA in painting and art history from the Rhode Island School of Design and was awarded an artist fellowship at the Ox-Bow School of the Arts in Saugatuck, Michigan. Ziegler has exhibited his work in Los Angeles; Providence, Rhode Island; Saugatuck, Michigan; and Richmond, Virginia. In addition to contributing to Pure Logo, he’s currently creating a body of work for a December exhibition Johansson Projects, in Oakland.
New Image Art Gallery
Since 1994, New Image Art has been the most influential gallery contributing to the underground art movement on the West Coast. Founder and director, Marsea Goldberg, has been responsible for launching and fostering many of the most recognizable and sought-after artists in the contemporary and street art genres, including: Bäst, Cleon Peterson, Clare Rojas, Date Farmers, Ed Templeton, Jo Jackson, Neck Face, Osgemeos, and Retna. New Image Art continues to push boundaries and grow its roster of both established and rising talent.
Still from Saber’s time-lapse video of his big flag for Occupy Los Angeles
Saber, Graffiti Artist, Fights To Lift Mural Ban In LA:
For the artist Saber, participation in the democratic process has always been complicated. He’s an international graffiti legend, holding the world record for the largest graffiti piece, done along the LA river in 1997. Despite its place in the history books, the city of Los Angeles spent a whopping $837,000 to paint over it in 2009. Now Saber is approaching public art laws from a different angle, spearheading an effort to reform Los Angeles’ mural policies.
1. MONIKER in London
2. CASH FOR YOUR WARHOL with Garage
3. Dabs & Myla with Shea&Ziegler from London
4. D*Face with Stolen Space
5. Able and Baker Gallery from Cologne: Ben Aine. ROA. Pure Evil. Herakut. Rero.
6. AIKO with Andenken Gallery from Amsterdam
7. AIKO Solo Show at PURE EVIL (London)
8. Word to Mother solo show “Essence of Adolescence” Friday Stolen Space Gallery
9. “Ok, Enough, Goodbye”, film at MOMA
10. How and Nosm solo show “Achtung!” Saturday at Known Gallery (LA)
11. WRONA at Pandemic Saturday (Brooklyn)
MONIKER in London
Let’s all head to Shoreditch in East London this weekend for the Moniker International Art Fair, where there will be new stuff from a bunch of Street Artists . In addition, some of the galleries at the fair are having openings back home. Here are some of the exhibitors to help you find your way:
Word to Mother solo show “Essence of Adolescence” Friday Stolen Space Gallery
‘Essence of Adolescence’ is an enlightening glimpse into the artist’s visually obsessed mind. Word To Mother invites the viewer to take a glimpse of his inner mindscape. An outward manifestation that combines references drawn from his childhood and the visual stimulation that he absorbed; cartoons juxtaposed with more serious emotive thoughts and fears that face him as an adult living and painting in East London.
Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia will be on hand to answer questions when they screen their new film “Ok, Enough, Goodbye” at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City this weekend.
Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia. “Ok, Enough, Goodbye” Still from the movie.
The screenings with the Auteurs in attendance will be held this weekend on Friday and Saturday.
For more information about times and tickets please click on the link below:
Street Art collective Nomade continue apace with reinventions of their fearless painting Roman soldier – that spear is a paintbrush by the way – in LA once again. The piece is 89 feet long by 22 feet high (27m x 7m) and located in the heart of the Arts District in Downtown LA, their sixth installation over the last couple of years with the LA Freewalls Project. The group boasts designers of various stripes who have been actively involved in a number of LA industries and who collectively bring this metaphor to life in new ways, each time with elements of photorealism, illustration, and a generous amount of propagandic heroicism from classical antiquity.
Street Artists How and Nosm have just completed a 6 day installation of a brand new piece with the LA Freewalls project here in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles. With occasional interruptions for rain and food and sleep, the twins methodically knocked out a complex and detailed mural 106 feet wide and 60 feet tall (32m x 18m) that effectively nails their reputation as two of the most talented artists on the Street Art scene today, not that it was in doubt. With two decades of work under their belts, it is a rare combination of focus, relentless creative exploration, and artistic integrity that has shifted the work of these guys into an international limelight over the past couple of years.
Named “Heartship” the gargantuan mural is on a mission to entertain, elate, and educate about what self-taught artists with heart can produce and add to the man-made environment. In a direct way the whole project strikes at the center of the current “mural moratorium” in LA, which many local artists view as narrow, marginalizing, and inept.
“The fact that this mural exists contrary to any official public art policy in Los Angeles is a miracle, and a testament to the courage, will, and determination of everyone involved in the project,” says Daniel Lahoda, who’s LA Freewalls Project has routinely advocated for a review and revising of the City’s official policy toward public art and Street Art.
This Saturday (10/15) the brothers will also be celebrating “ACHTUNG!”, their first solo show, with 50 new original works at Known Gallery in LA. Expect to be suitably blown away, and to see a huge crowd.
The Grey Scale Paintings
Walking along what seemed like an endless series of tracks my senses became accustomed to the dark labrythiniun tunnels that lay below. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and my ears acclimated to the endless series of subtle noises. Dripping water, the squeal of rats chasing each other, the release of train compressors, the clicking of the tracks as a train approached the next station, then, all at once, the roar of a passing train echoing through the tunnel, and then, silence.
This new series of works entitled “The Grey Scale” is an exploration into the context in which many of my subway works were created. Walls layered with years of tags and signatures, gravel floors covered in dust and debris, flickering lights, and the gleam of sharp steel tracks piercing the darkness are all portrayed in the context of subterranean tunnels that lead to nowhere. This is a world in which we are encouraged to stay away from the light at the end of the tunnel. These new works call to mind some of the layered complexity of Rauschenberg’s early black paintings or perhaps the subtlety of Cy Twombly’s blackboard paintings. Others yet clearly show references to the gritty urban landscapes of the New York ash can school: John Sloan, William Glackens, Robert Henri, and later most of all, Reginald Marsh. These artists chose, as I do, the streets as their primary source of inspiration. The paintings are a kind of hybrid that draws from the vocabulary of both the graffiti world and urban realism.
The staid cleanliness of a single-colored surface is a disturbing testament to society’s uniformity and the pressure society places on one to conform.
Such a surface, standing alone and dull, cries out for attention.
Answering its call ‹ and recognizing its potential ‹ HOWNOSM bless the surface with confidence, courage, action, vitality and just a touch of the world’s inevitable darkness and death, transforming it into a truer reflection of both the world around it and their own varied lives.
ACHTUNG! is a collection of pieces that resemble broken mirrors, each filled with messages that are, by turns, sharp-edged, blurred and fast-changing. They serve as a reminder of the need to, and the dangers of failing to, walk alertly through this life.
New York’s Fountain is spraying westward this weekend in LA and photographer Birdman gives us an inside look at some of the preparations of the Street Art contingent for this show. Somehow Fountain manages to keep a loosely organized chaos on point wherever it goes, a perfect bit of ground between the cracks of the concrete where things of beauty are likely to pop up.
1. Fountain LA This Weekend
2. NUART 2011 – Stavanger, Norway
3. “Bring to Light” in Greenpoint Brooklyn for the 2nd Year – Saturday Night!
3. “Rituals” on 14th Street, Art in Odd Places
4. Pantheon Projects at THE NEW YORK ART BOOK FAIR AT MoMA PS1
5. Art Platform Los Angeles
6. RETNA at Art Platform (LA)
7. Brian Adam Douglas at Art Platform (LA)
Fountain LA This Weekend
New York’s own specially warped outsiders are in LA this weekend, and BSA is happy to sport support for whatever madness they can stir up, including the Murder Lounge, which Dave Ill says will be in full effect. (Murder- .slang. To defeat decisively). When you are milling around the big LA shows this weekend make sure you stop by Fountain and say hello to Señor Kesting and check out the Street Art contingent doing their thing on the Left Coast ya’ll.
NUART 2011 has arrived and the streets and buildings of Stavanger are a heating up with all the artists getting up and doing what they know what to do best: Paint. Brooklyn’s own Dan Witz already hit the streets with his “King Baby” street installations on faux city street signage. Tonight (Friday) their is a panel debate with artists, Carlo McCormick and Juxtapoz Magazine that we wouldn’t miss.
Artists include DAN WITZ (US), DAVID CHOE & DVS1 (US), VHILS (PO), HERBERT BAGLIONE (BR), DOLK (NO), LUCY McCLAUCHLAN (UK), HERAKUT (DE), TELLAS (IT), ESCIF (ES), HYURO (ES), PHLEGM (UK)
For a complete listing of events and schedules please visit the NUART site:
“Bring to Light” in Greenpoint Brooklyn for the 2nd Year – Saturday Night!
“All manner of projectors blasted on the walls with myriad images, forms, and shapes, some breathtakingly beautiful. Other artists created sculptures and installations that worked as light vessels and amorphous creatures while collaborative dancers entertained groupings of appreciative observers.” from BSA’s review on Huffington Post
OCTOBER 1ST, 2011, Greenpoint, Brooklyn New York. 6:00 pm to Midnight.
Bring to Light is a free nighttime public festival of art in New York City that takes place simultaneously with “nuit blanche” events in cities around the world. Inviting emerging and established artists to make site-specific installations of light, sound, performance and projection art, the event creates an immersive spectacle for thousands of visitors to re-imagine public space and civic life. Bring to Light will transform streets, parks and the industrial waterfront of Greenpoint, Brooklyn set against dramatic views of the Manhattan skyline.
Nuit Blanche (French for “white night” or “all-nighter”) is a global network of locally-organized nighttime contemporary art events. Originating in Paris in 2001, the nuit blanche concept now involves millions of people in cities around the world.
One performance we will NOT miss will be Chris Jordan and Josh Goldberg, who have serious chops in public projection work, presenting CHRONO GIANTS.
Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL features a wide variety of actions, participatory performances, theatrical presentations, public installations, and small and large-scale interventions all of which revolve around the concept of ritual.
Art in Odd Places (AiOP) presents visual and performance art in public spaces with an annual festival each October along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River.
Opening Reception for Art In Odd Places Festival 2011
Friday, September 30, 6-9pm
Theaterlab
137 West 14th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
New York, NY
For a complete listing of artists and a full schedule of events and locations visit Art In Odd Places site:
This art book fair always rewards you – just walking around the floorplan of MoMA PS1 is a trip and the books are tripped out. This year we are in a new one – The Pantheon Catalog from Joyce Manalo and Daniel Feral;
“The street has always been the thumping beat that pumps the pulsing lifeblood through creative New York. Yes, there is a lot of action behind the walls in the offices and galleries and studios and stages and clubs and boardrooms, but everyone knows it is the kinetic electricity of life on the street that inspires New Yorkers to dig deeper and dream bigger and play hard.”
~ from the essay Street Art New York, The 2000s, Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of Brooklyn Street Art.
If that is not enough to make you absolutely plow down crowds to get there, consider the real talents who are going to be there to SIGN YOUR COPY:
***Catalog Signing on Sunday, October 2nd, 3-3:45 PM featuring***
Join Pantheon Projects at The NY Art Book Fair
September 30-October 2, 2011, 11AM-7PM, at PS1/MoMA, Free Admission
Hours: Friday–Sunday, 11AM-7PM
THE NY ART BOOK FAIR
September 30–October 2, 2011
MoMA PS1
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue
Long Island City, NY (map)
Art Platform Los Angeles
From their press release; Art Platform – Los Angeles will demonstrate the rich and vibrant cultural landscape of Southern California and underscore Los Angeles’ influential position within the contemporary art world. MMPI is one of the largest show producers in the world, including a growing portfolio of premium art shows. We have assured the continued development and enhancement of the Art Show division by bringing together some of the top minds in art fairs under one partnership”
For more information, location and a complete list of exhibitors please visit Art Platform at:
If you can’t wait to see the Retna spread as shot by David LaChapelle in October’s Vanity Fair you can check out these new pieces at Art Platform and see BSA’s photos from his New York show this spring.
New Image Art Gallery will be exhibiting at Art Platfrom Los Angeles Featuring new large-scale paintings on canvas and paper by RETNA Visit them at booth #108
Brian Adam Douglas at Art Platform (LA)
Andrew Edlin Gallery will exhibit Brooklyn Fine and Street Artist Brian Adam Douglas along with Henry Darger, Thornton Dial and Jeremy Everett. Visit them at booth 814.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
