Features

ROA in Los Angeles and Chicago

September 12, 2011 Artists, California, Chicago, Features, L.A., Los Angeles, On the Street

When Street Artist ROA hits your town with his aerosoled animal world, large swatches of walls, even blocks, become alive and are instant gathering places for new and old fans alike. The one man monochrome machine from Belgium depicts a curious mix of overlooked animals, sometimes in states of death and decay by way of commenting on human’s impact on the natural world.

ROA in Chicago (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Whether in rural Mexico or urban New York, his work is reliably riveting and a favorite for neighbors and Internet surfers alike. After catching the eye of LA MOCA this spring, his last minute addition to the “Art in the Streets” exhibit brought the collection up to the minute and cemented his place in the graff and Street Art continuum. BSA captured these images of ROA’s work this year on the streets of Los Angeles and Chicago this summer and we’re looking forward to his next stop at “Living Walls: Albany”.

ROA in Chicago (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA in Los Angeles (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA’s work in Chicago was done in collaboration with Pawn Works Gallery. Thank you to Nick and Brocke for their hospitality.

ROA’s work in Los Angeles was produced with Daniel Lahoda for LA Freewalls Project in The Arts District of downtown LA. Thank you to Daniel for his passion and his time with BSA. We wish Daniel a speedy recovery from a recent accident.

Dan Witz WTC 9/11 Shrines

September 11, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Features, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

To mark the 10th Anniversary of the events that took place in NYC on September 11, 2001 we asked Street Artist Dan Witz to share with us his images of a series of shrines that he installed in New York during the summer of 2002. It seems appropriate that Street Art paid tribute and facilitated the public mourning and remembrance of those we lost; All manner of artists took to the streets at that time – and it never really stopped. We are thankful for the time and the effort of the many talents, mostly anonymous, who claimed the streets as their own and who buoyed us during those days. And we are thankful to Dan for sharing with us his work here.

brooklyn-street-art-dan-witz-9-11-shrines- Montage

Dan Witz talks about his “WTC Shrines” –

“Starting at Ground Zero, following sight lines of the World Trade Center drawn in a star pattern on my map, I installed about 40 of these on the bases of light poles. At the time I was thinking a lot about art objects’ possible usefulness in the real world. For me paintings have often functioned as secular shrines—as visual instigators to reverie.

The week before September 11th I was up in the Bronx at a housing project photographing the shrine neighbors left at the doorstep of a murdered 9 year old girl (balloons, flowers, stuffed animals, family photos). I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do exactly, it was just my way of sketching. Then the planes hit and the city parks filled with thousands of candles and flowers and other offerings. Again, I went to take photographs, not knowing what I actually wanted, just on an instinct. At the time I used a large format camera, the old style with the hood and long bellows. Every time I put the hood on and focused the ground glass, I got an unmistakably eerie feeling from all those candles—it was bizarre and chilling, and definitely paranormal. I’ll never forget it”

brooklyn-street-art-dan-witz-9-11-shrines- thompson-street

Dan Witz. Thompson Street, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn. (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. 23rd Street and 6th Ave. NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

from a publicly posted poem entitled

Don’t Look for Me Anymore
(Alicia Vasquez)

don’t look for me anymore
it’s late and you are tired
your feet ache standing atop the ruins of our twins
day after day searching for a trace of me
your eyes are burning red
your hands cut bleeding sifting through rock
and your back crooked from endless hours of labor…

it’s my turn, I’m worried about you
watching as you sift through the ruins of what was
day after day in the soot and the rain
I ache in knowing you suffer my death

rest in knowing that my blood lies in the cracks and crevices
of these great lands I loved so much…

don’t look for me anymore
hold my children as I would
hold my brothers and sisters for me
since I can’t bring them up with the same
love you gave me
and I’ll rest assured
you’re watching my children

don’t look for me anymore
go home and rest…

Signed A. Vasquez, found on 9/14/01 on the “Wailing Wall” at Grand Central Station

Dan Witz. Battery Park, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Financial District, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Weehawken, NJ (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Water Street, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Fulton and Broadway, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Grand Street, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Greenwich Ave. NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Ground Zero, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Jersey City, NJ (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. SOHO, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Peek at Swoon’s “Anthropocene Extinction” Opening at Boston’s ICA

September 3, 2011 Artists, Boston, Events, Features, Museum, Opening

Swoon (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Opening tonight at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, is an exhibition of new work by Brooklyn Street Artist SWOON, called Anthropocene Extinction.

“The title addresses humanity’s impact on the environment,” says Pedro Alonzo, the Adjunct Curator of the show and the guy who brought the very successful Street Art exhibition “Viva La Revolucion” to San Diego last year.

Swoon (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Kind hearted and focused powerhouse SWOON continues her efforts to engage viewers at ICA with her hand cut wheat pasted installations of real people and mythical ones, symbolically telling a tale that brings responsibility for the environment directly to our feet. Wholistic in many respects, we find familiar recurring themes in the subject matter, the construction techniques, even the manner of fruition of the installations; The localized environment in which Swoon’s work evolves mirrors the collaborative vision and processes that will be necessary to address the very real issue of sustainability and disaster more populations are facing.

Swoon (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

For the politically charged time we’re in, a show like this could open itself to charges of smug liberal self satisfaction if the artists’ body of work and projects to create shelter from the storm were not so consistent and authentic. A person entirely engaged in every process, Swoon facilitates others’ stories and incorporates them along with more material considerations, like the 400-pound bamboo temple structure hanging from the ceiling here that uses traditional Chinese construction methods the artist has been studying (It’s excellent when viewed while riding the elevator). Balancing the durability of reinforced joints with the fragility of cut paper species floating through air, the exhibit calls to mind the range of responses we will need to employ if the march toward planetary destruction is to reverse, and if SWOON’s characters are going to survive.

Our thanks to photographer and BSA contributor Geoff Hargadon, who has been documenting Swoon’s installation for the show and who shares images with you here.

Swoon and assistant Alyssa Dennis work on a linocut print (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

An assistant helps Swoon with final touches on this wall. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Swoon (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

An assistant helps Swoon with this portion of the installation. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

An assistant helps Swoon with final touches on this wall. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Support for the Swoon installation is provided by Fotene Demoulas and Tom Coté, Geoff Hargadon and Patricia La Valley, Tim Phillips, and Connie Coburn and James Houghton.

Learn more about the exhibition Anthropocene Extinction at the ICA website HERE:

Read BSA’s interview with Pedro Alonzo here about his curatorial experiences on Viva La Revolución at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego last year.

Listen to an interview with Swoon and Pedro Alonzo on Boston’s WBUR.

Cyrcle Crew : A Sneak Peek at “We Never Die” Show (LA)

August 24, 2011 Artists, California, Events, Features, Gallery, Los Angeles, Opening

Davey, Devin and Rabi Ponder Life Eternal At Design Matters

Life is a mystery, we all know that. In fact, that may be the only thing we know.

In preparation for their new show “We Never Die” at Design Matters, the art collective Cyrcle Crew is letting you get the essence of their take on life and death and the continuum of experiences. With a little levity and a less than heavy heart, sometimes it’s possible to revisit this stuff we all are affected by.

Photographer and BSA contributor Carlos Gonzalez took a peak to their installation and offers some tantalizing views of the preparations for this unusual show with the CYRCLE crew.

Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

The reception for this show is open to the public on Thursday from 7:00pm – 11:00pm. The show continues through October 8th, 2011 @ Design Matters – 10590.5 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. You will need to RSVP .

Please visit the CYRCLE site for more information:

http://www.cyrclebrand.com/

Dabs and Myla Create Their Own “Best of Times” at ThinkSpace Tonight

August 13, 2011 Artists, California, Culver City, Events, Features, Gallery, Los Angeles, Opening

Australian Fine and Street Artist duo Dabs & Myla have been living in LA for a little while and this much will be evident at their fun packed solo show tonight at ThinkSpace Gallery in Culver City. Their love of architecture and words mashed up with 50’s and 60’s hues and artifacts as realized on their works in the gallery travel around a cartoonish camp land.

With this installation, not restricted at all to framed works, they show why they are masters of a vernacular and astute observers of today’s geopolitical realities. When they ask you to breathe as they welcome you in their “Best of Times” world it is not a command as much as it is a cue to prepare yourself to experience their world of vignettes with a little nostalgia.

Dabs and Myla “The Best of Times” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information about this show and reception details click below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=23137

Shepard Fairey in Copenhagen for “Your Ad Here” and 5 New Murals

August 6, 2011 Artists, copenhagen, Denmark, Events, Features, Gallery, On the Street

Shepard Fairey has been in Copenhagen for a number of days for his new show Your Ad Here, which opens to the public today at V1 Gallery. Aside from the gallery installation, naturally, he and his team undertook the job of creating 5 gigantic murals on some of the remarkable vertical walls in this capital city of 2 million.

Shepard Fairey. Copenhagen (photo © Sandra Hoj)

Photographer Sandra Hoj was on hand to witness the installation of one of them and she tells BSA about this piece:

“This piece is the second of five, located on Osterbro. We have an old tradition for murals here, but we rarely see street art of this magnitude. On the second day word had gotten around, and people were camping out in front, following the progress. It was a time consuming piece pasting, tearing and tinting, not even six guys working non stop were able to finish it in just one day. When I returned the next day, it was all done and the sun made it appear almost on fire, crazy beautiful” ~ Sandra Hoj

Shepard Fairey. Copenhagen (photo © Sandra Hoj) “More transition, use more clear. You can always make it darker, but you can’t make it lighter” – SF

Shepard Fairey. Copenhagen (photo © Sandra Hoj) “You can bring it down a little… perfect! SF

Shepard Fairey. Copenhagen (photo © Sandra Hoj)

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To see images of Shepard’s other murals in Copenhagen visit Sandra Hoj’s site here

To read more about Shepard’s show at the V1 Gallery click here

Anthony Lister : Double Rainbow Eyes in LA (NEW PICS)

August 4, 2011 Artists, California, Features, Los Angeles, On the Street

Anthony is an A-Lister in LA

Brand New Photos from Todd Mazer

Late afternoon Los Angeles was the scene of a new splash of wild magic from LISTER yesterday as he sketched out and created a sooper cool visionary for the downtown street scene. In his signature portrait style, the Street Artist created a monochromatic seer with rainbows arching out from inside her glorious mind. Just goes to show you can’t judge someone by their external appearance.

Anthony Lister. Los Angeles, CA (photo © Todd Mazer)

Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of BSA are curating some LA Freewalls with Daniel Lahoda in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles over the next couple of weeks as part of a cultural exchange between NY and LA to celebrate some of the talented people who tell great stories with their art. Daniel is the mind and the man behind the LA Freewalls Project that has already brought a number of amazing artists and art to the streets in the City of Angels.

Photographer and BSA contributor, Todd Mazer was literally on call to capture Anthony Lister’s new piece. Great thanks to Todd, who stayed up late to give BSA readers these first pictures this morning.

“Well inspiration is just as valuable as sleep sometimes” Todd Mazer

Anthony Lister. Los Angeles, CA (photo © Todd Mazer)

And a little orange for the lips. Anthony Lister. Los Angeles, CA (photo © Todd Mazer)

Anthony Lister. Los Angeles, CA (photo © Todd Mazer)

***********************************************************

Visit Daniel Lahoda’s site for more information about his different projects below:

http://www.jetsetgraffiti.com/

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See Anthony Lister in his solo show at Junk Food ART House.

Anthony Lister’s work will also be in the new group show, “Street Art Saved My Life: 39 New York Stories”.

Curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, founders of Brooklyn Street Art in collaboration with ThinkSpace Gallery at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Friday August 12th 6-10pm

Runs until September 4th

C.A.V.E. Gallery
www.cavegallery.net

Miss Bugs in Brooklyn: Girls, Sex and a Car Crash in the Forest

July 13, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Features, Gallery, NYC

A horrendously stunning car crash, windshield smashed in by a wooden stump, a shard of white light cutting sharply through a smoke cloud which rises to eerily announce the arrival of UK Street Artists Miss Bugs in Brooklyn. In “Parlour”, their first solo on view right now in Bed Stuy, the backyard diorama is a plastered paper perimeter of gnarled and murky indigo off road forest, a haunting backdrop to the cut-out distorted and riveting forms who break the 4^th wall toward you with intent.

Miss Bugs. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The curvaceous ladies are cousins of the street pieces Miss Bugs places with great care publicly, cut outs that fade into their surrounding and pop out from it, undulating and teasing and riveting, a perfectly charged counterweight of sex to the violent metal and glass carnage before you. Throughout the inside gallery and backyard installation, Miss Bugs plays with a scale slightly larger than life, giving imperious and distantly cool figures a personal, almost intimidating immediateness.

The front room of “Parlour” at Brooklynite Gallery with Miss Bugs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The distortion of the forms and come hither stand-offishness is softened and sweetened by saturated pop colors and cleverly patterned replications of art you have seen somewhere else. Always willing to take appropriation to new heights, Miss Bugs gladly incorporates signature elements of other artists works into their distorted and sensuous forms, weaving them into the hair, tattooing them across the skin, wrapping their ladies with a body conscious knitted brocade.

Miss Bugs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Speaking with the royal “we”, the very anonymous Miss Bugs talked with Brooklyn Street Art about “Parlour”:

Brooklyn Street Art: What was the genesis for “Parlour” in general and this outdoor installation in particular?
Miss Bugs: We wanted it to be a place that unsettles you… The concept of the ‘Parlour’ exploits the idea that the art establishment plays on people’s desires, whether for money, beauty, sex or ownership. We’ve always looked at these themes within our work, so here we continue to question them. However, this time, we wanted to extend the ideas beyond the work and have the pieces viewed in their own theatrical space making us see the works’ symbolism in a different, darker light. We place our own fictional characters in the middle of the space. ‘The Madam’ is here with her open eyes; to convey ourselves as part of this sometimes strange and seedy world.

The outside installation grew from the concept that the parlour is being protected by a few souls and that this can be a twisted place, full of contradiction… We suppose it’s a nightmare or maybe just a bad dream! Comparisons can be made throughout the show between our ‘Parlour’ and the real world of the art establishment. Just depends how deep you want to scratch!

Miss Bugs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How was it to install your work in Brooklyn this time around?
Miss Bugs: It’s great to show in New York especially Brooklyn, we love it… Just to spend time walking around soaking it all up is brilliant. Since we were kids we saw and heard Brooklyn in music, film and art, so it feels great when we’re here and it always makes us feel at home!

Miss Bugs. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: The imagery gives off sex, cars, alcohol… what are some of the messages you are working with?
Miss Bugs: All these elements we try and show in a warped way; For example, placing glamorous but distorted nudes next to a burnt-out car, which hopefully makes us question our desires and see them differently! When we got the car into the gallery and we realised just how horrific a smashed up car is, it had a sadness about it which we hope we were sensitive to with our cut out figures. The installation of the woodland clearing we wanted to be experienced at night to create a haunting and again unsettled atmosphere, but the smoke machine could have done this job by itself …

Miss Bugs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You borrow from different artists and other cultural art forms (including Shakespeare in one instance) and incorporate many of those images into your work. How do you go about selecting the images? Are they your favorite artists or is it purely aesthetic?
Miss Bugs: The list of artists that we ‘stole’ from and remixed for this show is massive…Hannah Hoch and Kurt Schwitters, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vera Lehndorff, Gustav Klimt, Picasso, Mc Escher, Man Ray, David Lynch, Mel Ramous, Takashi Murakami, Leonardo De Vinci, Banksy, Warhol, Stanley Kubrick

We’ll stop now but the list goes on! You have to look harder for some of them and others can be staring you in the face but sometimes still go unnoticed as they’re seen out of context. Playing with ideas of how we view artwork and how much of its reasoning we understand.

We look at links between the artists and their working methods throughout history. Artists that would not normally be considered to sit alongside each other are then remixed together showing just how the working style of (for example) Keith Haring can gel together with Picasso, and how artists from very different periods in time and culture are using very similar approaches, often where you wouldn’t expect to see it.

Here we’ve selected elements of artists whose work goes someway in helping us tell our own story within ‘Parlour’… Suppose we’re like some sort twisted museum curator cramming the world’s greatest artists together into a small room for an orgy, then throwing some classical writers and iconic film directors in for good measure!

Miss Bugs. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs. Panoramic view of the outdoor installation (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs “Parlour” is currently on view at Brooklynite Gallery. Click below for more information.

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=21691

Honeycomb “Ritual” Opens today at Causey Contemporay

July 12, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Features, Gallery, NYC, Opening

UK fine artist and Street Artist David Shillinglaw prepares his panels for tonights “Ritual” show at Causey Contemporary in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artists and artwork are buzzing around one of Williamsburg’s newest hives for the creative spirit in the July heat as Causey Contemporary prepares the sweetest part of all this industry for you, a Buenos Aires based collective called The Honeycomb. King bee and artist Trystan Bates has sent out the signal to 27 artists from 8 countries to present new works within the theme of “Ritual” for this show.

Alice Mizrachi. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imputing the magic and mysticism of ritual has inspired art of every discipline for thousands of years: authors, musicians, dancers, auteurs, photographers, sculptors, and painters all assist in our transcending the limitations of the physical world.

Alice Mizrachi. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This neighborhood of Brooklyn has been the site of Rites of Passage, creative Rituals, and some say, Last Rites, as a place of collaboration for a diverse artist community and a hive for Street Art for nearly two decades. Across the street from two pieces by Bristol Street Artist Nick Walker and around the corner from a huge wall by Brooklyn Street Artists Skewville, the rituals of preparation continue anew. Here are some of the preparations inside and outside for tonight’s show.

Alice Mizrachi. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Shillinglaw. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Shillinglaw found this piece of wood on the street. He incorporated the blue paint and eventually it will be a part of his installation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adria and Sherley Freudenreich. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tooco (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaz working on his installation (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaz. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information about this show click on the links below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=22430

http://www.inthehoneycomb.com/ritual_press_release.html?r=20110529143837

Dan Witz’ Mind: A Cabinet of Natural and Unatural Curiosities

June 30, 2011 Artists, Book Review, Brooklyn, Events, Features, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street, Opening

Anyone on the subway this morning knows what it is like to be mashed together with strangers and attitudes, a roiling mass of boobs and butts and sunglasses on the forehead, Rhiannon on the headphones next to you on the right, death metal on your left, and your upper arm is not as strong as you thought while you grab for something on the ceiling to hold onto. It’s a half sleeping mosh pit of commuters, with people who have just applied nice smelling things, but this ladies bag is still jammed into your back while you are pressing your already wrinkled summer pants against a messengers bike. Here’s an opportunity right in front of me; Might as well smash the lights and crank up the metal and have some Subwaypalooza, people! Or just go see the new Dan Witz show at Jonathan Levine Gallery tonight, that’ll be fun too.

Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn based Street Artist and fine artist Dan Witz has been making art “In Plain View” as he likes to say it, for over 30 years. Throughout his prolific career he has been fearless in his exploration of art and the subjects that he likes to approach. He can paint beautiful photo-realistic canvases of still life scenes and humans in motion with the same ease as murky tormented scenes behind grimy windows and fragile and ethereal humming birds in flight or a lone tiny skate boarder gliding across a rusted metal wall. Pairing his study of light, his classically trained technique, and an enduring punk rock attitude, Witz’s body of work often takes it where you haven’t gone, and might be afraid to.

Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Witz’s new book, “In Plain View”, shows how in a span of 30 years he has pushed psychological limits with triggers in your periphery, a pursuit of interactive art with prickly engaging relevance in the public, if the public slows down and sees it. A storyteller out in the open, you’ll stop dead in your tracks when Witz hits you, commanding you to stay there until you can figure out what the hell that is, and ponder why is it there. What’s the story behind this faux door with two humans passionately kissing in the dark? Or this figure behind the wire crossed window; is she in pain? Is he dead? Is this real?

Dan’s solo show “Mosh Pits, Human and Otherwise” is opening tonight at the Jonathan Levine Gallery.

Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Opening Reception June 30, 2011
6 to 8 pm

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th floor
New York, NY 10011

212-243-3822

Buxtons Bring “Welling Court 2” to Queens, Artists and Scooters in Tow

June 28, 2011 Artists, Events, Features, NYC, On the Street, Performance, Queens

Street Art in the Community, Creating Community. Again.

Ad Hoc Art “brought it” for the second year to Queens and at Welling Court with a collection of Street Artists and local families hanging out and painting the neighborhood. The tireless Alison and Garrison Buxton invited 40 or 50 of their closest friends with aerosol to take part over a two day period to transform the atmosphere in this neighborhood which doesn’t get much attention. The lineup includes artists who are pioneers in the graffiti and Street Art game who create alongside emerging talent. The styles vary, but the sentiments of connectedness and community are consistent throughout.

John Ahearn with his assistant Kevin with his friend and model Karlee, daughter of his good friend Otto. Karlee and Otto posed for the sculpture to the right. John had planned a live casting with Karlee later in the day but we couldn’t stay to witness it. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In this extensive collection of photos BSA gives you artists hard at work and hard at play with a little help from their friends. A traditional community mural format where everyone has their own slab to cover in their own style, Welling Court also engages the kids in the neighborhood, who frequently get to try their hand at painting or otherwise assisting the artists.

The day’s proceedings are part plastic art and part performance art as the artists often stop painting to interact with fans, inquisitors, Street Art aficionados and their fellow artists. Its part summer camp and part family reunion with the neighbors getting out the BBQ grill and setting up tables in the street while artists from around the globe are reconnecting and telling long tales and kids on scooters and skateboards weave in and out of the clusters of cans everywhere. With the abundance of homemade food and a variety of music playing at high volume the streets are alive and there’s nothing else you’d want to do on day like this.

John Ahearn is a pioneer in the area of public art known for making sculptures with local people posing as models. His technique of live casting requires the model to sit while John creates a cast of them in plaster. As far back as the mid 1970s Mr. Ahearn’s tributes to his neighbors have been seen affixed to many walls throughout the Bronx. Sited as an important part of the development of the Street Art scene Ahearn’s work has also traveled to private collections of prominent and noted art collectors and art institutions.

Brooklyn Street Art spoke with Mr. Ahearn and asked him about participating in this open venue and how he felt doing his live casting in Queens. He responded with excitement about the word “live”.

“You used the word very properly. I feel alive today. I feel alive and I just turned 60 two weeks ago and I feel this is where my roots are. Right in the sidewalk, doing casting, particularly aimed at little children. We are going to do a piece that involves a child. She is a friend of mine from way back and we are expecting to have a crowd of kids here and it is going to be fun,” said Ahearn.

JMR on the left and The Wretched Rapture Crew: Dave Loewenstein, Ashley Jane Laird and Cecilia Ross-Gotta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter Glorifies Graffiti With New Paintings, “Things Change”

June 25, 2011 Artists, Events, Features, France, Gallery, Paris

The More “Things Change”, the More They Stay the Same

Opening last night at Since-Upian Gallery in Paris, “Things Change”, Specter’s solo show is a collection of hand drawn, painted, carved, stenciled and collaged materials showing how the Street Artist continues to broaden technically while focusing socially.

In these images special to BSA readers, these individual paeans to the unflinching rugged personality of Brooklyn streets capture a moment and a bit of humanity as a rapidly downshifting economy gusts and blows through the streets, catching more people off guard as Towncars with tinted windows glide by. It’s hard to feel romantic about a fraying social net through which more people are falling, which is where the care of Specter’s hand rendered scenes, unpatronizing, clear eyed, and possibly sarcastic, take us again.

Similarly and with great determination, this Street Artist uses painting to capture and somehow give honor to the stickers and graffiti tags and stencils and commercial advertisements that appear on New York’s streets in some neighborhoods. Holding a mirror up, clearly with these paintings Specter appears to be glorifying graffiti and street art – a scathing charge leveled at certain museum exhibitions of late.

As in his work over the past few years this show Specter continues to draw attention to the gentrification that speeds unabated throughout many neighborhoods of New York today, as local character is buffed and expunged for vertical glass big-screen sanitized living. The commentary is not so much the lost vibrance and character of a city that doesn’t return, but a focus on the people who are pushed further and further, but to where?

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Specter “Things Change”

Since-Upian Gallery
211 rue Saint-Maur 75010 Paris

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