Features

Fountain 2012 Lands in a Grand Old Location

March 8, 2012 , , , , ,

Armory Week is back in town and Fountain Art Fair is nailing it. At the moment – literally. Walls are going up as you are reading this. 200 feet of walls are dedicated to Street Artists – Enough said. Fountain has moved inland this year from the floating, sometimes harrowing, gallery and submarine Murder Lounge on the Hudson waterfront, and in many ways the new Fountain also feels more grounded. Don’t worry, not too much.

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apart from being in an actual Armory building, a 106 year old institution that lends a certain New York Beau-Arts grandness to it all, Fountain is still anybody’s guess in terms of content and execution; which in our minds is precisely the point of going. The chaotic nature of the creative spirit as wielded by many of these youngish artists means that they are better thought of as corralled, rather than curated, into this grand sweeping space that has plenty of headroom.  Part punk D.I.Y. art party and part Occupy Art Fair, the promise of Fountain lies in the work and your own sense of exploration, rather than the prepackaged pomp of slick-talking retailers.

Naturally there are a slew of Street Artists in Fountain this year, including Chris Stain, Know Hope, GILF, Imminent Disaster, Joe Iurato, LMNOP, Elle, ShinShin, LNY, Cake, En Masse, Sophia Maldonado, Hellbent, Radical! and Wing.  BSA caught some of them working in the last couple of weeks as they completed pieces and we give you some sneak peeks here.

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY, one of the newer Street Artists of New York at the moment, talked to us as he prepared his Fountain piece deep in Bushwick. His careful illustrative style has an unassuming quality, a sort of hand rendered fantasy he is channeling, and discovering, mixing and remixing symbols and imagination.

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you arrive at your current hybrid style of human/animals? Your depictions keep the humans remaining wholly human and the animals remaining wholly animals. They just seem to be attached to each other?
LNY: Animals are very interesting on their own but at the same time they have been used symbolically so much everywhere. For instance I noticed that many countries use the eagle as a national symbol: Egypt, USA and Mexico all have eagles in their national symbols. When I have an inclination to draw I often find myself drawing animals.

Brooklyn Street Art: On this piece you are working on for Fountain you have NYPD Mounted Police with wings on them?
LNY: Usually my ideas just sort of pile up and then they get to something else. For instance the wings are going to be fire actually. I will add a couple more riders and they could be an apocalyptic kind of scene. The fun thing about symbols is that you can read whatever you want into them. I like the ambiguity of symbols a lot.

Brooklyn Street Art: How do you find the process of painting?
LNY: I really don’t paint anymore. I used to paint. What I used to do with painting doesn’t work anymore because I lost faith in the idea of painting – so I have to find something else.

LNY working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Know Hope (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Know Hope. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mockup for Hellbent’s piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Finished! A semi-blurry cellphone pic of it from last night. (photo © Hellbent)

I lo-lo-lala-lo-love you. Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to learn more about Fountain Art Fair 2012

 

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Radical! A Strange Set of Rules for Being Abrasively Pleasing

March 1, 2012 , , , ,
Today we are pleased to bring you two talented players on the Street Art scene, brought together for the occasion of a BSA interview. Daniel Feral guest writes today – a more dedicated and insightful analytical mind on today’s street action would be difficult to find. His subject today is one of the newer street art talents we have had the pleasure of following for for his abstractly entertaining mind and sharp skillz, Radical! Our sincerest thanks to both of them for their contribution to the BSA family.
 

Many paradoxical words and conflicting terms can be found within and applied to Radical’s art: Cute and disturbing. Humorous and distraught. Compassionate and brutal. It’s a kind of Whimsical Hardcore. Hello Kitty Horror. Rural Graff.1 Underground Street Art Cartooning.

Yet, even though this string of vocabulary is conflicted as it proceeds to connect, the chain still contains a pulse of veracity. When first approaching Radical’s murals or gallery work, the color palette and cartoony style betray and instill a sense of fun and frivolity. On closer examination the ragged line, pock-marked surfaces, grimy found materials, and gory scenarios unsettle at a deeper level. This kind of contradiction within the elements of style and tone belie a poetic voice that entertains as well as stimulates further reflection.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The paintings are full of personal themes and motifs that will also be read as cultural commentary. As an example, in a video2 made during his first show in NYC at the Munch Gallery in 2011, Radical shares that he was diagnosed as having ADHD in kindergarten and since then has been on medication for it. So the consistent recurrence of capsules throughout his work is an expression of his personality and part of where the art comes from. Of course, in public on a wall or canvas the pills will be seen as symbols to be analyzed and interpreted through a societal lens as metaphor. This is where the poetry of his imagery comes into play with multiple interpretations bulging within the imagery, kicking like embryos in a womb. Are the pills just our sedatives or our salvation? Is science advancing our cause as aspirational animals or mutating us into empty borgs? Are they a new tool, like the discovery of fire, that will immolate or protect us?

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Utilizing elements of graffiti and street art, illustration and painterly expressionism, cartooning and fable, Radical parades a cast of animals and humans, sometimes one and the same, marching, dancing, limping, crawling, swimming, through a dystopian, rurban3 American landscape where a visionary disillusionment and painful joy reign. These ragged and damaged looney toons literally are the walking wounded: missing limbs, vomiting their own insides, swimming in pills, spinning their heads on their necks like tops. They struggle with existence and yet seem oddly adapted to it and happy about it.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The following interview with Radical and the photographs of his art reveal a young, fanciful and thoughtful man with a high level of facility at his craft. He has found a strong visual voice that has already resonated quickly through the street art and gallery communities. At the end of this interview and in another,4 he has expressed his desire to paint an oval-shaped water tower like a cheeseburger. Maybe it seems like a joke, but we here at Brooklyn Street Art are taking it as a serious request and ask that someone step up to provide just such a canvas. We would love to see a pill burger water tower surveying over all!

Daniel Feral: Where did you grow up?
Radical! : SLC Utah and Cleveland Ohio were my places of upbringing. They’re both really awesome.

Daniel Feral: When did you start making art as a kid?
Radical! : Just really early on when I became physically capable of holding any sort of drawing utensil. Kind of a typical “artsy” kid thing. It has stuck with me my whole life from the beginning. It’s the one thing that hasn’t come as some sort of fad or phase in my life.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniel Feral: When did you start doing art on the street?
Radical! : Around the end 2006.

Daniel Feral: Did you study art in high school or college?
Radical! : Currently studying right now. High school art classes were fun but I never really took them too seriously, not to say that they weren’t an important asset to where I am with my creative pursuits today.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniel Feral: What other kinds of things did you do or were interested in that influenced you as a person and artist?
Radical! : As with a lot of people, music and skateboarding etc. I got a lot of influence from album artwork by people like Raymond Pettibon. I think another great influence on me as an artist and a person was my family and the way I was raised. Growing up, me and my brother weren’t allowed to have video games and many of the “easy ways out” parents would give children to satisfy them. This led to me being outside playing a lot, and with what we had we would always be using our imaginations. I feel like this type of exposure to my surroundings has influenced me greatly as a person and an artist. I still have a desire to creatively interact with my environment to this day

Daniel Feral: Do you feel allegiance to graffiti or street art? Is there a distinction for you?
Radical! : Having been involved in both areas, I have come to have a different kind of love for each. I can also see why writers would hate street art. The subject of defining the two is very difficult for me. I still can’t really decide if the distinction between the two should be made by the way it looks, or by the materials used and the context the act is done in. A good friend and I were having a conversation on whether the characters Twist spray-painted (illegally) were graffiti or street art. He claimed that they were street art because they were characters, where as I was claiming them to be graffiti because of the context they were done in such that they were done illegally with spray paint, and that graffiti didn’t have to be limited to being letters.

Some pretty clear differences to me is that graffiti really only speaks to other writers aside from it being done for self-satisfaction and visual ownership. To society it is just a look. That is why any random person probably wouldn’t know the difference between good graffiti and bad graffiti. As long as it looks like graffiti, it’s either offensive or dope to them. Street art has the potential to speak to everyone. It’s less exclusive in a sense. Also I don’t really consider graffiti to be art, nor would I want it to be art. Art is a whole other world of its own.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniel Feral: Why are the freights so important to you?
Radical! : Because they rule.

Daniel Feral: Who are your running partners? Are you part of a crew?
Radical! : Crews are cool. They can be another set of letters to get creative with and throw up than just your name. I dislike anything revolving around a gang mentality. That’s as far as I want to comment on a crew, ha ha. My partners and beloved friends all know who they are.

Daniel Feral: You seem to have a few different styles. How did that come about? Do they apply to certain kinds of situations or do you just enjoy exploring different aesthetic directions all at once?
Radical! : I’d say they apply to certain situations. With my artwork the way it looks is something that has involuntarily developed over time. It’s a strange set of rules I’ve gradually developed. I’ve been refining some of the visual aspects of the work while trying to progress the imagery without having more than it needs through the ideas being explored behind it all.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniel Feral: You recently had a show in NYC. Where was it and how did it go?
Radical! : Yes I did! It was at the Munch gallery on the corner of Broome and Ludlow in the Lower East Side. It was an extraordinarily awesome experience beyond what I had anticipated. It was also a great learning experience being able to display my work in a very professional setting. Also hopefully I will finally get a damn car from the work I sold.

Daniel Feral: What are your goals as an artist on the street?
Radical! : To make people feel happy, or feel something at all. But also kind of the complete opposite of that. I feel like the street is a place where work can be, and at times should be abrasive. The idea of putting something on the street without ultimately giving a sh*t is pretty jolting in a way. Also, who is going to let you legally paint a giant uzi with a syringe coming out of it, no matter what the meaning behind it is, on their building?

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniel Feral: What are your goals as an artist in galleries?
Radical! : To further explore ideas as an artist, and to not be afraid to break the set of rules I’ve created for my work. Also I would like to slow down and focus longer on specific subjects rather than having a broad range of them. A big struggle I’m having with myself is wanting to keep the imagery engaging and visually pleasing without it obstructing the ideas being conveyed through my work.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniel Feral: Whats coming in the future?
Radical! : More school, more work, hopefully more shows. And maybe someday I’ll get to paint an oval water tower to look like a giant cheeseburger.

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Footnotes from the introduction:

1 An essay by Daniel Feral is in progress elaborating on this term, which stems from an analysis of the subcultural phenomenon that inspired it.

2 Quote from a video shot for Radical’s “Upside Down Frowns” exhibition, Munch Gallery, Oct. 21 – Nov. 20, 2011 posted on ArtFuse.com.

3 Definition: (a) A mix of the rural and the urban. (b) Any geographic environment that is not a very large city, such as NYC, Philadelphia, LA, London, Tokyo, etc., in which its local residents attempt to apply mores or aesthetics of urban culture to similar elements in their environs. (c) A conceptual geographic space that contains the rural and the urban, and attempts to map the cultural interplay between the two. An example of a cultural telemetry that would be scored across this conceptual environment would be the trajectory of fetishism and dissemination of the now mythological graffiti subway culture in NYC in the 1970s by media, in particular the movie Style Wars, and its application to freight trains in a rural environment. These mythic ideals are then morphed to fit the various rural locales and become living metaphors of said NYC subway graff culture.

4 “Back Talk: A Conversation with Radical,” conducted by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, appearing on the Juxtapoz website on Monday, August 8, 2011.

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Contributing writer Daniel Feral

Daniel Feral is a writer, designer, historian and theoretician, who studied literature and writing in college. Afterwards, working as a designer by day, he continued his studies in the library and on the streets at night — where his friends were taking action to transmit the most direct, resonant and radical art at the turn of the new millennium. He has lectured at the School of Visual Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Urban Planning, University of Southern California and Remsenburg Academy of Art.
Email: feral@pantheonprojects.com

For more about Radical!

See his Flickr and Tumblr pages.

Back Talk with BSA and Radical on Juxtapoz

‘Upside Down Frowns’ exhibition at Munch Gallery Works by RADICAL! on Artfuse

 

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A Mushroom Cloud in Manhattan: If You See Somethin’ …

February 29, 2012 , , , , , ,

Artist Jean Seestadt Plants a Package in a Bus Stop

Since the never-ending “War on Terror” commenced so publicly a decade or so ago, an intermittently insistent campaign exhorting the public to be aware of odd things and behaviors has beat a steady message of fearful dread in New York.  Posters on buses, brochures in city offices, and disembodied, firmly voiced recordings on trains and in airports remind us that evil walks secretly amongst us and we should be ever-vigilant and tell the nearest police officer if you see something suspicious.

Aside from the obvious challenge of staying alert on the morning subway ride when you haven’t gotten a coffee yet and you stayed up until 2 am playing “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3”, the plain fact is that most New Yorkers have no idea what strange looks like. We lost that ability sometime after hippies and freaks turned into punks and goths, pants dropped below butts, zombies had parades, “no pants day”, men started making out with each other on the park benches, and of course Donald Trumps hair. For something to catch our eye these days it would have to have to be levitating or in some way involve chocolate.  Otherwise, we’ll keep walking and texting.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The billowing cloud rising in Manhattan this time is from artist Jean Seestadt, whose cut paper installation in the bus stop entitled “If you See Somethin” evokes one prevailing vision of the unmarked package spilling forth it’s curvilinear bilious hot plume into a public place with a stylized hand. On a warmish evening last week it went up on this buzzing island metropolis without anyone saying something.

 

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Following a similar installation in the subway a few weeks ago, Seedstadt brought her new installation to a well lit bus shelter on the street. Aided by a stool, a roll of tape, some scissors, and her good friend Nick, Jean rolled up her sleeves and installed her new work while some people stood by looking, pawing through their mobile devices, or leaning forward to preen down the street for a bus. Cacophonic truck and car traffic, including periodic police cruisers, rattled by in the night while the two enterprising Street/Public Artists took turns teetering on the stool to get it to hang just so. If anyone paid attention at all, no one said something to the artist or her assistant. You see??

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You have done painting and ink work previously. What do you think of cutting paper?
Jean Seestadt: Cutting paper has all the things I like about painting and works on paper, I love the tedious beauty to it, but I was having a really hard time feeling that I could reach a viewer to the fullest when I am forced in a square 2D format.  Also, the process of letting go of the overly crafted piece and knowing it is eventually going to turn to litter is a real release.

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you say these are sculptures?
Jean Seestadt: They are very sculptural… I guess I think of them more as site-specific installations.  They have no meaning when they are in a static setting.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What leads you to mount this work in such a public place?
Jean Seestadt: I was interested the fragile, traditional paper cutting medium being forced into a public context. Each piece will be eventually be broken down by either the viewers or by the environment. Because it is not in a precious space the viewer can approach the work however they’d like-if that means touching it, ripping it, taking it, or taking care of it.  The piece doesn’t really work without people feeling free to do whatever they want.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you seen paper cut work by street artists?
Jean Seestadt: I’ve only heard of Swoon… it doesn’t seem like the ideal material for street art because it only last for a day if you are lucky.  But street art is all about the temporal nature of the city’s surroundings so I think it makes a lot of sense as a medium.

Brooklyn Street Art: What makes you explore the theme of “If you see something, say something”?
Jean Seestadt: I was interested in the daily reminder we all digest about terrorism and how it is a fragile ghost of this city.  It just floats about our transit system and I thought it was really sad and strange. People might think I am making light of terrorism but I am really not.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“If You See Somethin”, Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cake Studio Visit : Inside Out

February 16, 2012 , , , , , , , ,

The Street Artist Readies for Her Show “Inside Out” with Don Pablo Pedro

Inside out. The words capture the dynamic of an artists journey to the canvas – and the Street Artists trip to the wall. Cake, her street name, has been hitting New York streets for five years with some of her innermost dialogues; stories of love, loss, addiction, emotional turmoil. The act of painting, cutting, and wheat pasting her figurative work on decayed and battered walls bears witness to the story. The thought of what can happen to it frightens and thrills her, an experience she has referred to as therapy.

“Because it’s relinquishing control, which I have huge problem with doing in my life, so that helps me,” she explains while glancing out at the Brooklyn street below the window of her warm studio in a former factory on a recent winter day. “You put it there and then you leave it. Someone can go over it, or destroy it the next day, you know? That – I mean that would kill me when that happened. I mean I hate when that happens but it helps me – it makes it so that everything is not so precious.”

 

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s all part of the game for Street Artists. You know it’s temporary but it still feels entirely necessary. The new work by Cake for her show at Brooklyn’s Mighty Tanaka this month is not far from the exposed portraits she has pasted on the street – layered and flat, stiffly lifelike, healthy and gaunt, painfully…pretty.

“These are all of my friend Emily mostly. Usually I take pictures of the models myself, because I know what I want. Instead of that, since she’s kind of an actress and an artist too, I told her to pose herself and to take the pictures herself so she wouldn’t be inhibited by my presence. And so she did… and the pictures turned out f*cking amazing.”

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When you see the pretty torment of a Cake wheat-paste on a brick wall low to the sidewalk, the exposed raw uncomfortable nature of the portrait surrounded by graffiti tags, it can be an oasis from falseness, and a mystery. Like the 4, 5, 6 layers of paint she uses to build the canvas, these figures have more drama stirring than is obvious on the surface. Each painting is almost an unconscious act she says, and with the help of talking with others, she gradually peels back the layers of meaning, becoming conscious. One thing is evident; She’s lived this, and she’ll tell you about it when she’s ready.

BSA: When do you realize the underlying stories in your work?
Cake: Usually by talking about it, or from someone else.
BSA: So sometimes with the aid of another person
Cake: No, like a LOT of the times. Because it helps me when other people see things that I can’t see because I’m too close to it.

She explains how she coached her friend to model for the pieces. “I basically told her to think of these dramatic words, like ‘agony’. Like f*cking rip yourself apart and feel that, you know? Like I wanted to see how you look when you are experiencing that kind of reaction to life.”

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Her intensity when describing this tells you that pain is not abstract. Ironically, that is exactly how she painted before becoming a Street Artist.

“I was an abstract painter for like 13 years, in Pratt and in Parsons. I didn’t do this figurative work or Street Art. But the second I got out of Parsons in 2007 I was doing it. Because I was an abstract painter for so long… paint is like my – like I can really do f*cking sh*t with paint, just because I’m always doing it – Working with the material.

BSA: You have a deep love and regard for it.
Cake: The paint? Yeah I’ve always been like that. I’m such a f*ckin formalist that way. I’m really obsessed with the material.

BSA: So you are a trained fine artist?
Cake: Yeah, well my grandmother taught me how to paint when I was nine, because she was a fine artist. So I was always doing it.

BSA: There are many fine artists on the street now.
Cake: Yeah, that’s good, I like that.

BSA: Yeah it’s like it has changed the whole nature of Street Art.
Cake: What do you mean?
BSA: Previously in graffiti, and when it kind of morphed into what we call street art, there weren’t many art majors, or graduates, or art school kids, or whatever you want to call them.

 

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake: Yeah, Street Artists are art-school kids, right?
BSA: Now there are many, yes. The disciplines are many, the techniques. It’s not limited to say, aerosol art, or stickers or massed produced wheat pastes. It seems like the second half of the 2000s there started to appear more one-offs, more highly individual pieces…

Cake: Well I think that’s because there are just so many out there you really have to work harder to make something beautiful. I mean I do it for beauty. I don’t have any political stances or anything like that. Like I don’t give a sh*t about that. I probably should though, huh?
BSA: I don’t know why you should.
Cake: I don’t know. I mean you should be higher quality, that’s for sure. I don’t know. I think everything should be high quality though, like workwise.

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: So this one is like “The Virgin Mother with Child in Outer Space”
Cake: (laughs) Oh I got this from this picture in Metro over the summer. I’ve never done this before, but I saw this picture. The thing is, do you see this? – the mother’s face, like she’s not panicking. She’s very peaceful and calm, and somehow she’s okay but she’s holding her like dying f*cking baby. I don’t know …it like hit me really hard so I just painted it. But it took me a long time. I started this picture in the summer and then I stopped working on it. And then I was able to finish it with this series. And I usually don’t take so long, I can finish a painting in a f*cking week.

Cake. Her inspiration for the painting above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: What stopped you?
Cake: I don’t know. I didn’t know where to put them. Then I placed them in the night sky. I was looking at all these Renaissance portraits too for this show and there were like f*cking UFOs inside of them. Did you know that?

BSA: No!
Cake: Yeah! In some Renaissance paintings you’ll see a UFO. I’m not kidding you, and it’s totally weird.

BSA: Is it like an aura, an aurora borealis?
Cake: No it’s clearly like a UFO. And in some of them there is a person in them. It’s really bizarre. It’s kind of hokey but I don’t know. It’s like this; everyone is always in wonder “the universe is so big, what does it matter?”. But look at this. This matters. Oh my God I just figured this out. That’s good.

Cake. The first layer of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inspiration in Cake’s studio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Portrait of the artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake and Don Pablo Pedro show “Inside Out” opens Friday February 17, 2012 at the Mighty Tanaka Gallery in DUMBO. Click here for further information regarding this show.

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“F*ck Art” Opens Wide at Museum Of Sex (Not Safe for Work / School)

February 8, 2012 , , , , , ,

Be Sure to Ride the 14 Foot Long “F*ck Bike”

“F*ck Art”, an undulating and adventurous group show by New York Street Artists opens its arms and legs to you at the Museum of Sex (MoSex) tomorrow and whether it’s the human powered penetrating bicycle or the glass bead encrusted dildo, it endeavors to satisfy.

Miss Van. Detail. Oil on Canvas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Co-curated by Emilie Baltz (Creative Director) and Mark Snyder (Director of Exhibitions), the show selects 20 current Street Artists who have pushed notions of propriety into provocation on the street and it invites them to let it loose behind closed doors.  Not that Miss Van needs anyone’s permission; her sensual role-playing painted ladies have been playfully preening on graff-piled walls and blue-boarded construction sites for much of the 2000s.  Similarly the powerfully stenciled sirens by Street Artist AIKO have been bending over in high heels on walls all over the world with just a hint of the geishas from her native Japan for over a decade.

Aiko. Detail. Collage on canvas. (photo © Jaime Rojo).

The “Fuck Bike #001”, a pedal operated plunging machine by William Thomas Porter and Andrew H. Shirley, has at its conceptual base an ode to the lengths a guy will go to reach his natural objective. The two artist met at a Black Label Bike Club event called “Ridin’ Dirty” in 2010 and later schemed together to make an entry for a bike-themed group show in Bushwick, Brooklyn that featured many Street Artists like DarkClouds, Ellis G., UFO, Noah Sparkes and Mikey 907. “I approached Tom with the idea of creating a kinetic bike sculpture which you could f*ck someone with,” remembers Mr. Shirley, “Tom is a very gifted artist and bike engineer, it took a few days for him to build our design.”

Andrew H Shirley and William Thomas Porter “Fuck Bike #001” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Visitors to the show are invited to mount the bike and take it for a spin. “This bike is more sculpture oriented, but still functions sexually. It’s also totally interactive,” explains Mr. Shirley, who has displayed the bike in cities in Europe and America, most recently at Art Basel in Miami in December. So the bike has gotten around and Shirley happily recounts stories of intimate encounters it has had with both genders. (See the very Not-Safe-For-Work film of the bike in action below.)

The street has certainly seen an increase of fairly graphic sex related Street Art in the last decade or so as people have become more comfortable with such themes and much of this show can often be seen throughout the city without the price of admission. Gay couple Bryan Raughton and Nathan Vincent have been putting large and small scaled paste-ups of sexually themed imagery as a Street Art duo called RTTP for about two years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Short for “Reply To This Post”, the line-drawn torsos and spread eagles are all part of their collaborative Street Art project that explores the desires of men seeking men on Craigslist.

 

RTTP. Collage directly on wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Describing the work, Vincent says it’s a process of lifting the mystery off of a just-below-the-radar Internet dating game – and pasting it on a lightpole. “Users post an ad with an image, title, and a short description of what they are looking for tonight. The photograph they post of themselves is drawn and titled with the ad’s title.” By putting these erotically based desires on the streets, Vincent thinks “they magnify those desires that often seem to live at the edges.” Says Raughton of the project, “We see it as an interesting way to take people private desires to the public street.”

 

Lush. Spray paint directly on wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In discussing the origins and underpinnings of a show like this, the co-curators reveal a more academic and sociological grounding than the prurient and salacious sauciness one might infer by a display of so much “F*ck Art”.  We asked Baltz to give us a sense of the context for a Street Art driven sex show.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is your favorite part of curating a show like this?
Emilie Baltz: Seeing the different interpretations and energy that each artist brings to their work is always the most interesting part of curating – with this topic, especially, it’s the fact that they are all pushing the limits of their medium by creating such provocative statements.

 

Wonderpuss Octopus. Sex toy with paint buildup and glass beads applique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: While these pieces are behind closed doors available to a certain audience, Street Artists typically put their work out in the public. Do you think the work should change depending on the audience?
Emilie Baltz: We don’t think it’s about changing the work, it’s about how the work changes the environment it lives in. Street art has a long history of revealing different perspectives on its surrounding environment and by placing this work in a museum it creates a certain energy and visual provocation that changes the relationship we traditionally have to the museum-going experience.

Wolftits. Painted floor mat on rubber.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you think there has been an increase in sex-related street art in recent years, and if so, why?
Emilie Baltz: There definitely is an increase in sex-related conversations in recent years. It’s not that there is more content suddenly, it’s just that culture is actually ready to start talking about it now, rather than ignore it.

 

Tony Bones on wood affixed to wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: We have noticed that themes of sex and sexuality are often quickly destroyed on the street, while other pieces remain for months. Is this a form of selective censorship by the public?
Emilie Baltz: Street art is a dialogue. Its creation is about expression and commentary, and therefore can become a barometer of cultural consciousness (or unconsciousness). The intimate and emotional nature of sexual content can obviously elicit strong feelings in viewers, and, given that street art is an environmental medium, either you have to live with it or get rid of it. Sex walks a fine line between acceptance and rejection. Public response to this kind of art is potentially a mirror into how our society relates to the topic.

Brooklyn Street Art: What surprised you the most about putting this show together?
Emilie Baltz: The enthusiasm from the public. People are genuinely excited to talk about sex in public space and it’s an incredible honor to be able to help facilitate that discussion.

 

Patch Whisky. Detail. Diorama with spray paint, paper collage and painted mannequins. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dickchicken. Detail. Hand colored wheatpaste directly on wall with painting on wood panel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Droid, Gen 2, Oze 108, 907 Crew. Detail. Spray paint directly on wall with image on a light box. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Celso. Paint on Lucite. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cassius Fouler. Detail. New piece painted directly on wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Bike on Display in the Window at The Museum of Sex (NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR SCHOOL)

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F*CK ART
A Street Art Occupation at the Museum of Sex in New York City, opens February 8 and will run through June 10, 2012.

Emilie Baltz, Co-Curator, Creative Director, F*CK ART
Mark Snyder, Co-Curator F*CK ART, Director of Exhibitions, Museum of Sex
Meghan Coleman and Alex Emmart of Might Tanaka Gallery in Brooklyn served as Chief Advisors.

Participating Artists:

AIKO. Andrew H. Shirley, B-rad Izzy, Cassius Fouler. DICKCHICKEN. DROID, GEN 2, OZE 108 of 907, El Celso, Jeremy Novy, JMR, LUSH, Miss Van, MODE 2, Patch Whisky, ROSTARR, RTTP: Nathan Vincent & Bryan Raughton, Tony Bones, William Thomas Porter, WOLFTITS, and Wonderpuss Octopus

 

 

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Dabs & Myla: Carlos Gonzalez Talks About His Video

January 26, 2012 , , , , , ,

Last month photographer and video artist Carlos Gonzalez tagged along with Street Art duo Dabs & Myla in Los Angeles to do a bit more than the typical mural project. Following them through the steps of their own tradition, Carlos captured some of their humanity along with their serious skillz with cans. Since illuminating different angles of the creative process that provide you with more insight is always a BSA value, Carlos has appeared on these pages many times as photographer and videographer. This time he’s thinking his newest project is a documentary. Let’s see what you think.

Dabs & Myla (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Brooklyn Street Art asked Carlos a couple of questions about his experience shooting on the streets and how many arms he would like to have:

Brooklyn Street Art: You like both stills and video. How do you divide your time when shooting a new installation between still photography and video. Do you wish you could have eight arms to cover everything that happens?

Carlos Gonzalez: I still lean more towards still photography even though I have a background in film and graduated from film school. I like the concept of freezing a moment in time. That’s something you can’t capture in video. When one remembers a certain moment from the past, it’s always an image or a single moment that comes to mind. It’s hardly ever a scene playing out entirely. At least that’s my experience. So I feel like photography captures moments that will never happen again in a more honest way.

Of course this complicates things when making a video because in essence, I have to choose between capturing those moments in stills or filming the moment. The best approach: Be ultra aware of everything that’s going on so when the special moment happens, you’re ready to capture it before it’s gone. What’s really interesting about this Dabs & Myla video, and one factor which didn’t hit me till later on, was how uniquely close the mural footage looked to my photos. In this instance, it was just a matter of predicting when those moments would happen and capturing them as soon as possible. So yeah, it’s a balancing act and at times, I do wish I had multiple cameras all running at once from 5 different angles. But even then, I’m sure I would still kick myself for missing out on a small human expression, a certain movement, a wink or a smile. Case in point, the shot where Myla’s hair is blowing amidst the wind. I wish I had photographed that moment as it happened. I still look back and think, “how did I not get that shot?”

 Dabs & Myla (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Brooklyn Street Art: You begin the video with the artists going to a grocery store and debating over purchases. At the end we find out what they are used for.  Can you talk about the experience from your perspective?

Carlos Gonzalez: The experience was really interesting and I felt privileged to be a part of it, mostly because I understood how important this tradition is for Dabs Myla. Before the mural even took place we got together and talked about the tradition, their reasons for doing it, and I even saw early sketches of the mural. From that moment I understood how special this project could be and it simply came down to capturing the whole experience in the most honest way possible. The entire process really came down to capturing as much footage as possible. Sure there were ideas of how to edit the video. But those concepts are always changing so you don’t worry too much about those technical aspects in the start. At least with this video, which I treated like a short documentary, I was just concerned with making sure I filmed moments that feel unique and that have a human element that we can all relate to.

 Dabs & Myla (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

I never once asked Dabs Myla to replay a certain moment just for the camera. I basically asked them to go through their routine as usual and pretend that I was never there. This feeling definitely comes through the video.  From the second they walk into the grocery store to the final shot of the film, it’s all real emotions and actions bursting through the screen. So in a way, this video is not so much about a mural, but rather it’s a story about helping one individual with street art as the backdrop. The last part of the process was to edit the footage in such a way that put a question in the viewers’ minds about what the tradition may be and you keep their attention till the very end so there’s an emotional payoff.

 Dabs & Myla (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Brooklyn Street Art: When you’ve hung out with artists creating murals on the street, have you had occasion to meet people who live there?

Carlos Gonzalez: I have had the chance to meet individuals whose properties or walls are being painted on. And they’ve always being very supportive of the art. I’ve only had one instance where certain people or neighbors feel like street art is affecting their neighborhood in a negative way. So yes, there’s a bit of stigma still attached to graffiti and street art, but it’s clearly changing and it’s more acceptable now than it ever was. And hopefully videos like this one and others can change more people’s perspective about how this kind of art can have a much more positive aspect across different communities.

 Dabs & Myla (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

 Dabs & Myla (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

 

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Skewville’s “Playground” At White Walls in San Francisco

January 24, 2012 , , , , ,

“An idle mind is the Devils’ playground”

Why does that well-worn proverb remind us of Skewville? Check out the “Playground Tactics” on display at their new show in San Francisco’s White Walls Gallery and you’ll get a sense of these stickball kids and what it is like to grow up playing on the street. There aren’t any rubber mats to catch you before the pavement, the ball may smash the corner deli window and you may dent the hood of that car you’re standing on. But kids will be kids.

Mr. Deville shows BSA readers these cool pics of the opening of “Playground Tactics”, and you can see that play is an integral part of the Skewville process, where taking stuff too seriously is not advised, unless somebody sticks their bubble gum in your hair. Then you should chase them down and give them a beating.

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

The Skewvilles are reaching a milestone in their twin lives: They are turning 80. They grow up so fast! It seems like just yesterday they were 76. Join the Celebrations at Factory Fresh with a party and a retrospective of their work next week. For more information click here

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Well Heeled Street Artist ELV : Shoes OOOOO La La

Well Heeled Street Artist ELV : Shoes OOOOO La La

December 7, 2011 , , , ,

Then I met an Englishman.
“Oh,” he said.
“Won’t you walk up and down my spine,
It makes me feel strangely alive.”
I said ‘In these shoes?’
I doubt you’d survive.”

In these Shoes ~ Kirsty MacColl

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Olalalamode”, a project by Street Artist ELV, consists of a closet full of hand painted wheat pastes glorifying the most psychologically laden ladies accessory, the shoe.  These eclectic shoes started to appear on Bushwick streets late summer, so we know they must be for Spring 2012. Garish, oddly elongated, and elevated beyond sense, this catch-me collection might not attract the eye of Imelda Marcos but Lady Gaga could certainly give them a lick. In a bold simple cartoon sketch style, the vividly rendered pumps in bright colors are marching and preening in better alleyways and empty lots everywhere.

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fancy shoes are not usual for the Street Art scene but many a man has been transfixed by a woman in some hot high heels, hoping to have them scattered across his living room floor, or elsewhere in his apartment. Mickey Rooney didn’t have that kind of fortune. “I buy women shoes and they use them to walk away from me.”

Certain women love them more – if for different reasons. That whinneying clothes horse Carrie Bradshaw once supposedly blew 40K on shoes, but no one ever believed the characters on that show actually existed. Madame Marcos, who did exist, lustily defended herself against Philipinos clamoring for her well-coiffed head by exclaiming, “I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty”. And don’t forget Condi Rice, the Secretary of State and accomplished pianist who strutted up 5th Avenue shoe shopping and later catching a Broadway show while Hurricane Katrina ravaged the south. Clearly, the list of people who are driven crazy by shoes is endless. ELV is here for you.

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cryptik “Sacred Syllables” at Hold Up Art

December 5, 2011 , , , , ,
BSA contributor Carlos Gonzalez recently checked out the golden hued installations by Street Artist Cryptik at Hold Up Art in LA. Here he shares with us his observations and photos.

Street Artist Cryptik just opened with a new solo show, “Sacred Syllables” at Hold Up Art Gallery, located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Little Tokyo. The enigmatic, L.A.-based artist has been hitting the streets of for some time with his signature style which includes references to Eastern, Buddhist and Hindu religions. Unlike other street artists, Cryptik’s art holds a spiritual tone that is rarely seen in a city like Los Angeles. Without being overtly religious, the work speaks to those who are looking for more than the flashy, bright palette you might normally associate with Street Art.

Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

This exhibit is an perfect example of this mindset. As soon as you enter the gallery space, you feel like you are entering an alley somewhere in India or a market in a distant part of Asia. Still, Cryptik’s artwork is the main attraction. Utilizing a variety of materials ranging from candles to wood, the collection of work gracefully walks a thin line between street art and spiritual text. The style incorporates a precise use of Sanskrit lettering which he has perfected through out the years, and his lines seem flawless as letters create circular patterns inside the confines of a wooden frame. Without jumping at you, screaming for attention, Cryptik’s work rewards a careful observer.

Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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See more images by Carlos Gonzalez on his Flickr.

 

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Sydney’s “OutPost Project” ReCap

November 23, 2011 , , , , ,
Our sincere thanks to BSA reader and New Yorker Spencer Elzey, who took a trip to Sydney at the beginning of the month and had the opportunity to check out the Outpost Project Street Art festival. Here’s his report.

Overview and a warning. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cockatoo Island is the Governor’s Island of Sydney. The ferry leaves Circular Quay, motors beside the shimmering tiles of the Sydney Opera House, sweeps underneath the arching Harbor Bridge and the tourist who pay $200 for a chance to climb the upper deck above. Twenty minutes later, a large “No Trespassing” sign begins to become in focus. We have arrived at the Outpost Project.

Anthony Lister. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

The island, who’s past includes an old Imperial prison and one of Australia’s largest shipyards, welcomes each street art enthusiast with a detailed information brochure. The inner cover contains a fairly easy to follow map of what lies ahead. Right away three large inflatables (imagine a small grounded hot air balloon) greet you adorned with Anthony Lister’s iconic caricatures. The info packet says it best when describing the images; the “superheroes are never indomitable conquerors or unequivocal villains.” Straddled by two of these is a large piece by Belgium artist, and frequent Brooklyn talent, ROA.

ROA. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Follow the art around the corner through a mural-lined alley between two buildings and some familiar styles present themselves including the stick-figure arms by Perth Street Artist Creepy.

Creepy and Daek. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

The second floor of one of these buildings is the current home to a large private collection of work by Banksy. The OI YOU! Collection had an interesting start, but where it currently stands is 22 pieces by Banksy. Intermixed are items by Faile, Swoon and others. The husband and wife team collecting behind OI YOU!, George Shaw and his wife Shannon Webster, sold both of their cars and re-directed a home improvement loan to feed their need for owning more street art.

Kid Zoom…and documentation of the destruction of three Holden Commodores. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Inside the main building, known as the Industrial Precinct, MOX (Mark Cawood) is hard at work. After over 120 hours of intricate stencil cutting, his diligence is well on its way toward a completed final product. At the end of the hall, behind the small traffic jam of mangled cars, is a life size recreation of the childhood home of Street Artist and fine artist Kid Zoom.

Kid Zoom. “Home” The artist recreate a scale reproduction of his childhood home from early adolescent memory… (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Located deeper within the hall of the Industrial Precinct are two other impressive arrays; NEXT by T-World and Pastemodernism 3. Both of these installations, while serious in their scope, were whimsical at heart. The NEXT collection, overseen by “Melbourne-born T-shirt messiah Eddie Zammit,” asks 20 artists to assemble over 1,500 T-shirts to display. Local shout-outs included Barcade in Williamsburg and Katz’s Deli on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Pastemodernism 3, now in it’s third year at OUTPOST, is the self-proclaimed “largest celebration of ‘paste-ups’ in Australia.” Over 100 artists had a part in this collaboration.

A view of the T Shirt installation. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Traversing the Artery, a limestone lined subterranean tunnel, one passes by a “rogue gallery of 30 hand picked Australian street artists” including HA HA, Ghostpatrol, Numskull, Dmote and Yok, just to name a few.

The Art Gallery in the Tunnel. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Upon exiting, you end up back at the beginning, next to the “No Trespassing” sign and amongst a collection by Will Coles. His concrete cast items, usually adorned with a word or two, are lifelike enough even the Seagulls seemed a bit confused.

Will Coles. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Will Coles. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

New Rock Crew. 1976 Classic School Bus. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

New Rock Crew. 1976 Classic School Bus. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

New Rock Crew. 1976 Classic School Bus. Anthony Lister balloon on the background. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shannon Crees. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Phibs. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Mini Graff. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Max Berry. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

We couldn’t read the artist’s signature. Please let us know if you know who this artist is. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Hazzy Bee. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

HA HA on the left and Shida on the right. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ears. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

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Cern Paints Bruce Lee in Brooklyn

November 22, 2011 , , , ,

李小龍, the Chinese American martial artist and cultural icon otherwise known as Bruce Lee, is receiving a giant tribute by New York Street Artist Cern in Williamsburg, Brooklyn right now.

 

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Over the course of a couple of weeks, this psychedelic scene has unwound from the longtime graffiti artist Cern’s imagination, an interwoven gently surreal color spectacle of traditional Chinese imagery; dragons, pagodas and pines, combined with a frisky feline and fully formed Cern birds from the artists own visual vocabulary. The ephemeral dream washes across the facades of two buildings, framing the commanding image of the master. Brought along for the trip are the inflateable Cern paintings that the artist is experimenting with, and who bring a cheerful bobbing third dimension to the worksite, augmenting the process and producing a curious stream of onlookers. Or is that a stream of curious onlookers?

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We found Cern commanding his cherry picker, doing his mid-air wizardry on a beautiful autumn day perched along this wall that has been a very well known spot for Street Artists over the last decade or more. An abandoned piece of property while Williamsburg was of no interest to anyone but the artists who came here seeking large industrial spaces and places to create, many will recall these walls as a magnet to Street Artists like Cake, Feral, Dain, MOMO, Matt Siren, El Sol 25, Hellbent and many more, who were attracted to its beautiful decay and stately demeanor. With the advent of people with money (and strollers) moving in, the former dye factory is now becoming, what else, a martial arts center. With Cern’s help, the new work keeps artists in the mix.

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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ECB and Old Men in Bushwick

November 21, 2011 , , , ,

German Street Artist ECB recently finished painting this elongated white guys head on a 150 year old building in the heart of Bushwick, Brooklyn. ECB says he likes painting wrinkles and ends up painting men because they have more. Additionally, stretching them out of proportion is a favorite technique, pushing the features and proportions like silly putty to cover as much space as possible. If you have been in Bushwick much over the past two years you’ve seen many of them wrapping around old warehouses and factory buildings.

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While inspecting the latest ECB, we got to meet the owner of the building, Franz, a senior gentleman who actually was so engaging that he gave an entire tour of it, such is the nature of some friendly people. As you walk from floor to floor seeing how the building is used, it might strike you that Franz could easily be a sitter for one of ECB’s pieces. He explains that this building used to be a family farmhouse an stable and a resting station for horses. Travelers on a long trip from the North would replace their tired team of horses with a new fresh team and continue their journey. On their way back home they picked their own team up and headed back home.

Franz, an emigrant from Austria and a Master cabinet maker, has been working with wood and making custom furniture for over 50 years. He purchased the Bushwick farmhouse 35 years ago for $85,000 once the seller agreed to put on a new roof.  Ask him why he still works so hard everyday and he looks at you like you’re crazy. He can build anything you ask, loves what he does, and has a staff of six assistants, one apprentice and an artist for faux wood finishing.

And what about the artists on the street? He said he likes to help out the young artists and is very happy to allow them to paint on the building’s front and sidewalls. He said he enjoys the murals, likes the crumbling paint on the bricks and wants things to stay as they are.

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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