Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Enzo and Nio, El Mac, Hargo, L.E.T., Paul Richard, Poster Boy, QRST, Retna, Skewville, Nice-One and Sweet Toof.
With photography by Carlos Gonzalez, Geoff Hargadon, and Jaime Rojo.
This weekend is a perfect storm of shows that are opening on the East, West and points in between.
Up Close And Personal: RJ Curates Street Artists Into an Upper West Side Apartment (NYC)
In the intimacy of a private residence in the Manhattan suburbs of UWS, RJ Rushmore of Vandalog fame along with Keith Schweitzer and Mike Glatzer of newly minted M.A.N.Y. have mounted a fresh new open house show just off Broadway. An exquisitely curated show with marquee names and a few newbies the selection is solid in quality and unusual in it’s scale.
Troy Lovegates aka Other (image courtesy of the curators)
Participating artists include:
Aiko, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Don Leicht, Edible Genius, Elbowtoe, Gaia, How & Nosm, Jessica Angel, John Fekner, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mike Ballard, OverUnder, R. Robot, Radical, Retna, Skewville, Tristan Eaton, Troy Lovegates aka Other and White Cocoa.
Aiko’s cans are on proudly on display at the bachelor pad, and that’s not all (image courtesy of the curators)
Dates: May 12th– 15th, 2011
Times:
May 12th, 7 – 9pm
May 13th, 7 – 9pm
May 14th, noon – 9pm
May 15th, noon – 7pm
Note: Due to the limited exhibition space, people may be admitted in block times every half-hour.
Location: Apartment on the Upper West Side (217 West 106th Street, Apartment 1A, New York, NY 10025) – Between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues.
Cost for entrance: Free
Go to Hellbent and John Breiner Tonight in Brooklyn (NYC)
Mighty Tanka is presenting a show with two Brooklyn based artists: Hellbent and John Breiner.
Mr. Hellbent says of the show: “The best part of making a show like this is to finally see it up on the wall and the way that everything interacts. I have been thinking of these pieces as parts of a quilt, different fabrics being stitched together. The different colors, floral stencils, animals, and jaw bones melding together and playing off one another, even down to the different depths and sizes of panels, but until it was hung they were just pieces, not yet a whole. Its given me an opportunity to show the different elements that i am working with and how they have grown out of one another and to display all the different carvings and stencils patterns together, where on the street they are separated in different locations.”
To learn more about “Smiled Distress” at Mighty Tanaka tonight please click on the link below:
Matt Siren and My Plastic Heart present “Ghost in the Machine” (NYC)
25 spirits in the material world have made tributes to Street Artist Matt Siren’s Ghost Girl character for this show on the Lower East Side tonight. The custom toy show transforms the character that appears in doorways around New York, each putting its own unique spin on his character.
The show includes work from 64Colors, Royce Bannon, Steve Chanks, Chauskoskis, DarkCloud, Deeker, Gril One, J*RYU, Jester, Keely, Abe Lincoln Jr., Map-Map, Marka27, Brent Nolasco, Lou Pimentel, Reactorss, Marc Reusser, Todd Robertson, Robots Will Kill, Chris Ryniak, Matt Siren, Scott Tolleson, Julie West, Wheelbarrow, Wrona
Click on the link below to learn more about this show:
Ghost in the Machine May 13th 2011 – June 12th 2011
Chicago Street Art Show Tonight (CHI)
Tonight the book “Chicago Street Art” is being released at the the Chicago Urban Art Society in conjunction with a show titled “The Chicago Street Art Show”
Brooklyn’s AD HOC has a New Puppy in Los Angeles (LA)
On the West Coast the dynamic duo and husband and wife Garrison and Allison Buxton have curated a group show “I have a dream, I have a nightmare: Friday the 13th” at The New Puppy Gallery opening this Friaday from 7:00 to 11:00 pm
Artists include: Alison Buxton, Beau Stanton, Bill Fick, Broken Crow, Bunnie Reiss, Chor Boogie, Chris Stain, CRASH, Dabs & Myla, Daryll Peirce, David Loewenstein, Don Leicht, Ezra Li Eismont, Garrison Buxton, Hellbent, Joe Iurato, John Breiner, John Carr, John Fekner, Jordan Seiler, Know Hope, Lady Pink, Michael De Feo, Mikal Hameed, Paul Booth, Peat Wollaeger, Ray Cross, Rex Dingler, ROA, Robert Steel, Sean Starwars, TheDirtyFabulous, & Thundercut.
WHERE:2808 Elm Street, Los Angeles, California 90065
English Kills Group Show Saturday, “The Mother Ship” (NYC)
Chris Harding, owner and ringmaster of the Bushwick Brooklyn-based space station English Kills brings out his strong stable of artists for this group show aptly titled “The Mother Ship” opening this Saturday at 7:00 pm. It’s not necessarily Street Art – but this is a hotbed of new ideas so it is always worth your trip.
Participating artists include:
Brent Owens, Andy Piedilato, Vilaykorn Sayaphet, Jim Herbert, David Pacheco, Hiroshi Shafer, Gyles Thompson, Sarah H. Paulson, Holly Faurot, Tescia Seufferlein, Peter Dobill, Steve Harding, Judith Supine, Lenny Reibstein, Andrew Ohanesian, Jason Peters, Don Pablo Pedro, Steven Thompson, Andrew Hurst and Rob Andrews.
English Kills is located at:
114 Forrest St. Ground Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11206
(718) 366-7323
Specter is a “Repeat Offender” 5/14 at Pawn Works in Chicago (CHI)
Brooklyn based artist Gabriel Specter’s solo show “Repeat Offender” opens this Saturday at the Pawn Works Gallery.
Opening Reception Saturday, May 14, 2011/ 6-10pm
PawnWorks
1050 N. Damen Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60622
Ph: 312.841.3986
London Police in Denver, “Amsterydynasty”
In Denver Colorado Black Book Gallery brings back the glamour of the 80’s with The London Police and Handiedan in a show titled “Amsterydynasty”
AD HOC ART GATHERS 34 INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS TO EXPLORE DREAMS, NIGHTMARES, SUPERSTITIONS, AND EXISTENCE TO YEILD CREATIONS RANGING FROM THE PAINFULLY REAL TO THE ETHEREAL FANTASTIC.
— An Art Exhibit Celebrating the Expansiveness of Consciousness & Culture —
WHEN: Exhibition Opens Friday, May 13th, 7-11pm
with an additional Artwalk Opening: Saturday, May 14th, 7-11pm
Through June 18th, 2011. Hours: 12-6pm Thursday – Saturday and by appointment.
WHAT: AD HOC ART presents “I have a dream, I have a nightmare: Friday the 13th”, an eclectic and electric charge of vast creativity, synapses, and neural networks seeping into Los Angeles’ artmind via New Puppy LA.
That we are living in very fascinating and unprecedented times on the cusp of something is crystal clear. What that “something” is, exactly, is not. What waits on the other side? Is it beautiful or horrendous, sustainable or cataclysmic, truthful or deceptive, just or fraudulent? We all play a leading role in guiding the future of this sweet unraveling already well underway.
Around the world, energies are coming together, people are relating, and the future is so bright. Is the light from the billions of shining smiles of a humane and democratic existence that sustains life; or is it the glistening blast from a bomb dropped by the sociopathic ceo/politico at MegaGlobalBankCorp determined to take all or nothing at our expense?
To divine an answer, dreams, nightmares and Friday the 13th energies have been harnessed, channeled and will be unleashed this 13th of May in the City of Angels.
Enjoy these visual nuggets swimming through the realms of spacetime.
Artists include: Alison Buxton, Beau Stanton, Bill Fick, Broken Crow, Bunnie Reiss, Chor Boogie, Chris Stain, CRASH, Dabs & Myla, Daryll Peirce, David Loewenstein, Don Leicht, Ezra Li Eismont, Garrison Buxton, Hellbent, Joe Iurato, John Breiner, John Carr, John Fekner, Jordan Seiler, Know Hope, Lady Pink, Michael De Feo, Mikal Hameed, Paul Booth, Peat Wollaeger, Ray Cross, Rex Dingler, ROA, Robert Steel, Sean Starwars, TheDirtyFabulous, & Thundercut.
I swear if the world does not burst into flames this year and the sky doesn’t cloud with locusts and the Chinese don’t bomb the shit out of the heartland and if Angelina Jolie does not ride naked and pregnant on an 8-headed lion with wings and Jesus Christ doesn’t appear floating in the sky with his arms open to welcome all the Republicans who just got sucked out of their cars up into his embrace – if all that does not happen on May 21, 2011, I will never again listen to any prophecies for the rest of my time here with you. I’m serious. I have spent my entire frickin’ life expecting supernatural star spangled annihilation and a prison planet and all I got was this orange “War on Terror” t-Shirt and a machine that scans my nuts at the airport.
Street artist Beast put up his/her own series of billboards in Los Angeles last week. In this case, we can actually say that we are seeing the Signs of the Beast. He used the back of 25 bus shelter benches, which usually advertise nasal decongestants and accident lawyers 800 numbers, to bring an uplifting message of impending pestilence and catastrophe and unemployment. Times are so bad that superheroes are trying to cut in line at the job fair.
You know, we spent $3 Trillion on something over the past 10 years with this war machine, surely someone could start up a World War to give these spandexed and bedazzled folks some work. Although I don’t see too many people carrying resumes in hand here, so they could also use some career coaching.
Photographer and BSA contributor Birdman captures Belgian Street Artist ROA at work in Los Angeles last week as part of LA Freewalls Project spearheaded by Daniel Lahoda. ROA loves long walls and jumped on this one like a bird of prey.
Perusing the selection of night images, a hallucinatory sun burned tint washes over ROA’s images like a lost day baking in the desert, certain feathered friends flying in circles over your head.
Among the thousands of people who make up the graffiti community around the world, there are few names that carry the same legendary quality as SABER. Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, SABER was raised by creative parents and discovered his passion for art at an early age. At 13, his cousins introduced him to graffiti when they took him to see the spray paint-covered Belmont Tunnel. From that moment on, he was hooked. After honing his skills on local walls, SABER joined MSK, and was later inducted into legendary piecing crew AWR.
SABER was already a fixture in the Los Angeles graffiti scene by 1997 when he completed the largest graffiti piece ever created. His piece on the sloping cement bank of the Los Angeles River was nearly the size of a professional football field, and took 97 gallons of paint and 35 nights to complete. In a famous photograph—taken by his father just after it was finished—SABER stands on the piece and appears as a tiny speck amid a giant blaze of color. It catapulted SABER to legend status in the graffiti world.
SABER began exhibiting in his fine art in 2002. While known for his elegant and aggressive abstract letterforms, SABER’s artistic output has also included drippy, surreal cityscapes and his painstakingly rendered “new reality” canvases. SABER has also worked corporate projects with Hyundai, Scion, Boost Mobile, Roland Sands Design, Montana Paint Company, and Karmaloop. His monograph, SABER: MAD SOCIETY, complete with stories of his graffiti misadventures, was released by Gingko Press in 2007 and is now in its second printing.
In October 2010, SABER released a video in which the year’s heated debate about healthcare was spray painted over the American flag. While some saw it as desecration, SABER advocated for healthcare reform in the video, revealing that he had epilepsy and was un-insurable. This work led SABER to create a large group of American flag paintings called the Tarnished series.
In 2011 SABER’s artwork is featured in two museum exhibitions, “Street Cred” at the Pasadena Museum of California Art and “Art in the Streets” at MoCA Los Angeles.
Bryson Strauss and the L.A. Art Machine keep an eye on global art phenomena and support the ongoing conservation of Los Angeles’ substantial outdoor mural collection, continuing to promote a vital art community on all levels. This week they hosted Brazilian Street Arts Ethos to come and paint and the results have been giant! Talented photographer Carlos Gonzalez jumped into some very tricky spots to get you these dynamic process shots of Ethos in action.
“Hi-Graff” is an installation-based street art exhibition that explores the concept of Graffiti as a contemporary art movement…
The exhibition, which opens on May 7th 7-11pm, showcases graffiti in its most original form –collaborative murals applied directly to walls. Though LA has seen hundreds of street art exhibitions in the past 5 years, there has always existed a growing disconnect between the artwork shown in the gallery shows and what these street artists produce on the streets. “Forcing a street artist to produce canvas or panel works as the only way of showcasing in a fine art gallery seriously compromises the quality of work, and direction these artists are taking. We wanted to open up our walls to these artists so the final product will closely mimic the actual art production of these artists on the streets, in an in-door environment” (Curator Lee). This allows the audience to truly understand and juxtapose where their talents and aesthetic differences lie. For “Hi-Graff”, Hold Up Art has brought together over 20 street artists to produce 10 separate collaborative murals highlighting unique trends and styles in Graffiti.
The artists that were selected for “Hi-Graff” embody a range of styles and techniques, showcasing the varying stylistic directions taken by contemporary graffiti artists. As with any art movement, Graffiti has evolved much since it had truly taken a hold in Los Angeles back in the 80’s. According to Curator Brian Lee, “We are now entering into a high point, the embellishment period, in the artistic movement of Graffiti. Not only are we witnessing the rise of a third generation of graffiti writers, a generation that actively looks forwards as much as it does backwards, but the public perception and reception of graffiti has grown increasingly warmer. With the release and world wide success of the movie “Exit through the Gift Shop,” Museum retrospectives on Street art as a culture like at the MOCA, and the ever present force of street art designers like Shepard Fairey–designing for everyone and everything from album covers to billboards for the Grammys–street art has permeated into every facet of American youth culture” (Curator Lee).
“Hi-Graff” Details Opening May 7th, 7-11pm
On Display May 7th-June 2nd, 2011
In select neighborhoods of Los Angeles, certain street artists keep it local. You might see them in one neighborhood but not another, as the term “all-city” is not too important. Here’s a selection of pieces from the Arts District, Culver City, West Hollywood, Echo Park and Venice.
As we depart the City of Angels and the Devils go back to dirty old New York here are some images from the more organic and populist walls that exist in certain neighborhoods in every city. A Street Art pulse-taking, you can observe and assess the vitals of a community and some of the currents running through it just by observing these magnet walls that attract a cacophony of expression.
In the case of this block of walls, the Street Art is notable also for the high degree of political speech one can not find in “papers of record” on display for anyone who cares to see it or report on it. Whether it’s AIDS, censorship, or the military industrial complex, political speech has always been integral to the conversation on the street that these artists bring. With references to leaders like Julian Assange, Ronald Reagan, Ben Bernanke, and Nelson Mandela as well topics ranging from Abu Graib, FOX News, corporatized American Indians, and of course MOCA’s Jeffrey Dietch whitewashing the work of Italian Street Artist BLU’s wall, the LA Street Art scene is on fire with popular discontent and acidic criticism. With roots in people’s movements, seeing these displays from a great number of sources is actually a bit of a tribute to free speech and the city that permits its continuance.
The variety of styles and processes is pretty wide, ranging from large-run stickers and screen printed posters to hand stitched abstract geometry and penciled portraits, some exhibiting the New Guard that didn’t make it into the timeline at the museum show running this summer. Aside from the political, other themes include celebrity, video games, pop culture and simple illustrations and fascinations or daydreams. As usual, some of the freshest stuff is displayed in the gallery of the streets – uncurated, unpermissioned, unbought, unbossed, and – giving lie to the charge of street art as a simple marketing tool – many times it is unsigned. As today’s new street artists claim what they consider a birthright to circumvent the established system and take their work to the street, you’ll see an ongoing conversation that is full of life.
It’s been a hot week in Los Angeles for the Brooklyn set, this much warmth and sun consecutively is unsettling for cold northerners accustomed to six months of winter and unbearable cold. The hundreds of museum goers who are lined up to enter the MOCA “Art in the Streets” show this morning mark the end of official events over the last week as well as the private openings, events, and walls that popped up everywhere.
This weeks interview with the streets is largely an interview with Daniel Lahoda, an Angelino who has procured walls for visiting and local street artists in a few neighborhoods of the city since 2009. With no membership fee or admission, everyone is able to see the work of a whole lot of street artists where it was originated thanks to his organizational and diplomatic skills and his vision. We were very fortunate to receive a personal tour of the walls from Daniel over the course of a couple of days, including the gargantuan piece finished this week by Dabs & Myla with How & Nosm and the still fresh 42nd LA Free Wall as it was being completed by Street Artist Aiko. Since so many artists were in town for the general craziness, expect to see some new walls going up shortly that will thrill and delight.
So here’s this weeks interview with the street featuring Aiko, Augustine Kofie, CA, Carl Rauschenbach, Crayola, Dabs & Myla, David Flores, DFace, X, Herakut, How & Nosm, JR, Kid Zoom, M-City, Nomade, Philip Lumbang, Ripo, Roa, Saber, and Shepard Fairey.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Poster Boy and Sweet Toof. One of the more effective Poster Boy interventions recently spotted. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
