During the collaboration called “Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea”, a project by Street Artist Swoon that included a colorful and handsome cluster of artists, performers, and neo-enviro-hippies for a dying planet, the fictional “Flood Tide” was directed and shot. The seven large floating sculptures made of re-claimed materials were constructed by the crew and floated down the Hudson River (itself a dump site for industry that is being reclaimed by citizens) stopping occasionally for supplies and theatrical and musical performance.
Tonight a pre-screening of the tale that uses the Swimming Cities project as backdrop will be shown for free as part of RoofTop Films project. In case you haven’t been there, Socrates is sited at the edge of the East River in Long Island City, Queens, where the same flotilla made a voyage before arriving at Swoon’s solo installation at Deitch Gallery that same summer.
Eventual touring of the film will include museums, performance spaces, community centers, as well as more conventional theaters with a live musical score performed by Dark Dark Dark.
NYC in summer is always about abundance. Lots of cheap or free fun available for everybody. For music lovers there is the multitude of free concerts. For theater there is free Shakespeare in the Park and free outdoor movies in many parks. Foodies have the many street fairs with a cornucopia of deliciously exotic food from everywhere in the world. The sporting sort can play free in the many parks – baseball, volleyball, soccer, Frisbee, tag, hide and seek. This weekend brings parades and fireworks and block parties and hotdog eating contests…
For those that love all sorts of arts and street art in particular the city’s streets are also abundant and are talking loudly and singing beautifully, like the mockingbirds at night in the Brooklyn trees. Recently Swoon and Imminent Disaster are giving us tons of eye candy and food for thought. Over Under is trying his free hand at painting and presenting his nudes, as is Celso. And Chelsea just got a new Jeff Soto. Well known, well weathered, or well underappreciated, artists continue to call the streets of New York their gallery.
So you might as well move the furniture out on the sidewalk for your 4th of July Bar-B-Que this weekend and enjoy the best of both worlds. Look, some guests have already arrived! Pictured below on the Brooklyn street are Veng (RWK), Imminent Disaster, El Sol 25, Yote, and Andrew Michael Ford. Is the beer cold yet?
Let Jimi Put You In the Mood for a Patriotic Weekend
In Manhattan – Street Artist Dennis McNett’s Wild Kingdom Runs 50 Feet of Barney’s Windows
Brooklyn based artist Dennis McNett totally smashed the windows at Barneys with his imagination. “Passerby’s can see over sized wolf, owl, and skull masks paired with mannequins dressed in evening wear with a backdrop of psychodelic starbursts and swooping wolfbats. Dennis’s woodcut blocks, prints, masks and paper mache sculptures adorn the mannequins and window interiors. His imagery from nature, folklore, mythology, and story telling mixed with the graphic carved wood patterns from wood block prints sets a very unique stage for the store and this part of town.”
Barneys NY Madison Ave. between 60th and 61st through July 12th
They are best seen at night as they have been professionally lit. Check out Dennis at www.wolfbat.com
Brian Douglas "Bears" Photo Courtesy of the Artist
PERRY RUBENSTEIN GALLERY
527 WEST 23 STREET
ANNOUNCES
SHRED
Curated by Carlo McCormick
July 1st – August 27th, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday July 1st, 2010 6-8pm
Perry Rubenstein Gallery is pleased to announce SHRED, curated by Carlo McCormick, senior editor of Paper magazine, opening on Thursday, July 1st from 6:00-8:00pm and on view through Friday, August 27th, 2010. A small catalogue brochure with an essay by McCormick will accompany the exhibition.
SHRED will feature collage-based works from a diverse group of artists, some who have pioneered collage as fine art and others who are expanding upon the subversive flavor inherent to the medium. Featured are works in myriad media—from simple collages of newsprint on paper to lively video animations made from cutout paper silhouettes.
The exhibition will include historic works by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008);Bruce Conner (1933-2008); a prominent member of the Beat community recognized for his innovative assemblages; California-native, Jess (1923 – 2004) whose oeuvre includes collages based on alchemy, religion and comic strips; Dash Snow (1981-2009) whose work on paper appears deceptively simple; Gee Vaucher whose surrealist tendencies are tied to punk; and Jack Walls whose self-portraits incorporate photographic imagery taken by his long-time partner Robert Mapplethorpe.
Provocative new works were specifically produced for the exhibition. The collective Faile will show a ripped painting featuring brand new iconography. Shepard Fairey, Leo Fitzpatrick, Mark Flood, Erik Foss, Swoon, Judith Supine will all debut their latest works. Finely cut paper collage by Brian Douglas (Elbow-Toe) resembles intricate painting and Shelter Serra will present three-dimensional work: cast roses in white silicone. Video works by Martha Colburn, Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Bec Stupac will be featured, with Stupac premiering a new piece.
PRG is thrilled to welcome Carlo McCormick as guest curator for this extraordinary summer exhibition. McCormick is a prominent New York City-based author, curator, critic and champion of the downtown art scene. He has authored numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and culture, including The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974-1984 published by Princeton University Press which he coauthored. He has lectured and taught extensively at universities and colleges around the United States. His writing has appeared in Aperture, Art in America, Art News, Artforum, Camera Austria, High Times, Spin, Tokion, Vice and countless other magazines. He has curated exhibitions for the Bronx Museum of Art, New York University, the Queens Museum of Art and the Woodstock Center for Photography.
Street Artist JMR has been talking about a new series called “White Man’s Consternation” and here’s a picture of one that is surely from this series. I instantly think of Dick Cheney, especially with the armed vigilante/private security figure by Primo in the doorway. Apparently the series is meant to reflect the troubled image of the white men who still comprise most of the dominant roles in Western society.
Last weekend the Phun Phactory returned to New York’s streets for an aerosol infused celebration of Old Tymers – and a promise for the future.
The original graff spot of the same name was founded in 1993 by Pat DiLillo and the pioneering aerosol artist Michael “Iz The Wiz” Martin, who recently passed away. Created as a safe place to promote legal aerosol art in New York City, the Phun Phactory allowed many a newcomer to practice and perfect their skills in a supportive environment, frequently working side by side with veterans. The Queens factory building in Long Island City across from MoMA/PS1 became a free public outdoor art exhibit and is considered a landmark. The original site, now known as 5 Pointz, passed from their hands by the end of the decade.
Saturday a large corrugated metal wall, 3 sides of a block in an industrial site in North Brooklyn, feted newbies and old skoolers to “Old Tymer’s Day”, a gathering of aerosol artists who began riding trains and spraying tags during a time in the city’s recent history when the hand-lettered graffiti style defined the urban environment and spawned an international youth culture infatuated with all things New York City.
Because of we’re kind of ignorant about graffiti at BSA, rather than concentrate on too many individual pieces and artists, we wandered the scene meeting people and listening to the DJ beats, soaking in the sun, and feeling a little bit of the magic. It was a hot and humid day and most people moved slowly to endure the heat, enjoying hanging out, trading stories, talking about technique, walking over to the barbecue, and taking a seat behind the wheel of a classic convertible. The vibe was nice and the feeling of community and creativity was in the air.
Jeremy Vega, the Director of the Phun Phactory, says that very soon a new Phun Phactory will headquarter itself in Williamsburg and will make available more than 500,000 square feet of public space for artists of all mediums to showcase their artwork legally. Judging from the number of young people we saw hanging out Saturday, the new generation will be in attendance.
This crew of stylish people spontaneously jumped together for a photo as soon as they saw the tripod. In front of this piece by CANO were Boltism, KCONE, Atom, CANO, Vic, and Chino.
Sitting on a loading dock, these two stayed cool and did tags in a black book. They said their names are Mary Kate and Ashley.
The barbecue was open and working, and one guy was making mixed fruity drinks in a blender! Sharp knife too.
Had a really nice conversation with this guy, who was waiting for his 18 year old son to bring by his paint so he could start his piece. His name is Zord AKA ZD, G+F, TDT, Tns, R+W, MPC. He said he was the king of the BMT, J and M lines circa 1985-1990. We discussed his Kiss action figure collection that got thrown away, Satanism, addiction, opinions on the differences between graffiti and street art, film school, and peace and love.
This was an impromptu (and shaded) area for blackbooks, which people brought to be signed and traded back and forth discussing.
Nothing like a robot dance and some heavy metal air guitar for fun on a Saturday.
Dan Witz: “In Plain View” — 30 Years of Artworks Illegal
and Otherwise is the first and long overdue monograph
on the work of Dan Witz. A benefit of having one of the
most sustained careers in street art, if such a thing exists, is the degree of growth, freedom and experimentation that such an extended period allows. Another advantage would be the influence of the aesthetic environs within the changing cultural landscape, especially if you happen to work in New York City.
From the no-wave and DIY movements of New York’s Lower East Side of the 70’s, through the Reaganomics of the 80’s to the flourishing of graffiti art in the new millennium. Whether stickers or paste-up silk-screened posters, conceptual pranks and interventions, or beautiful tromp l’oeil paintings, the medium is inspired as much by the nature and subject of his art as by the mutating urban conditions in which the piece is executed.
– Hide quoted text –
Besides obvious craftsmanship, the artwork of Dan Witz evinces a rigorous conceptual framework. This framework not only opens up a dialogue with graffiti and street art which dominate the urban environment, but also allows for the retention of clear and open lines with the canon of art history.
Dan Witz, born 1957, Chicago, IL, attended Cooper Union in New York City’s East Village. In 1982 he received a NEA grant and in 1992 and 2000 fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His first book, “The Birds of Manhattan” was published in 1983 by Skinny Books. Solo exhibitions include Semaphore Gallery NY (1985,1986), Clementine Gallery (1996), StolenSpace, London (2007); DFN Gallery NY (2003-5, 6, 7, 8, 10) and Carmichael Gallery, LA (2009). Group exhibitions include: Buying Time: Nourishing Excellence, Sotheby’s NY(2001); and Fifteen, NYFA Fellows at Deutsche Bank, NY (1999). Submission (curated by Juxtapoz) Fuse Gallery NY (2005); From The Streets of Brooklyn, Think space Art Gallery, LA (2009) and Beach Blanket Bingo, Jonathan Levine Gallery NY(2009). Dan lives and works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Inside of two minutes, Retna puts the lie to some of the street’s arguments about the legitimacy of these three routes that the creative spirit can follow. Turns out that walls only divide.
Local Family Business Showcases Artists Of All Stripes
You won’t find a more excited community-minded, artist-loving dude than Joe Franquinha, who is the second generation owner of a hardware store in Williamsburg/Bushwick, Brooklyn. Crest Hardware, founded in 1962 on this same block by Joe’s dad and uncle, is the hardware store for the multitude of artists who have moved into the neighborhood over the past decade or so.
Nine years ago they had the first Crest art show in the store itself using hardware materials to make and inspire the art. The eclectic and frequently humorous show drew attention to the bursting artist community and grew larger each year. In 2008 ago Joe expanded the show to include musicians and DJs from the neighborhood and started calling it “Crest Fest.”
This year the festival has 140 artists, 15 DJ’s and 8 bands. Joe says, “There is an abundance of musical talent in this area as well as art and I wanted to take the opportunity to showcase them too. It’s been getting progressively bigger, and it’s always free to attend. That’s the main thing. We want people to be able to enjoy it, come on in, have fun and take a day off and absorb culture in so many of it’s facets.”
Joe took a few minutes from installing art to talk about the show that left the white box for the tool box:
BSA:I see a lot of hardware of course, but do you also sell art supplies?
Joe Franquinha: Spray paint is definitely an option I’ve been weighing recently. I think probably in the next year or so our spray paint section will probably expand, including companies like Montana, maybe something like IronClad 1. But Montana seems to be what is on most people’s radar. Then it’s a matter of them figuring out which one they want, the Spanish one or the German one.
BSA: Do you have any people who do street art in this show? Joe Franquinha: Yeah there are a couple of people – there is Peat Wolleager from St. Louis, he goes by Stensoul. General Howe has a piece in the show and I’m excited for people to see the piece he made just for Crest Hardware. He’s doing some really cool work so I’m proud to have him on board. We still have a couple of days for people to be doing installing up to Saturday. (editors note: while the complete artist list was not available at press time, there are a number of street artists in the show including Royce Bannon, Celso, among others)
BSA: Why do think it is important to show the work of local artists? Joe Franquinha:One hand really has to wash the other as far as supporting your local artist goes. Artists shop at my store to get their materials and if I have the ability to help promote their art and their passion side by side with mine, I’m gonna do it.
But it is fun and artists are here every day in the store and in the neighborhood. They eat at these restaurants, they shop in these stores, they frequent these bars… so to be able to give them a chance outside a gallery show to showcase their work, not only to their fellow artists but maybe someone who has no idea about their work …. It brings your work to a whole different demographic. If they are a street artist, maybe someone has only seen their work out on the street. To be able to show people that the artist is capable of also putting their fine art work into a show – it can bring it to a whole other level for them and opens up people’s minds to different experiences.
Street artist Duece Seven entered this door in last year’s art show (photo courtesy Crest)
BSA: Do you have any favorite street artists off the top of your head? Joe Franquinha:Off the top of my head, I really love ROA’s work. I think it’s nice clean work – it feels like pictures ripped out of animal anatomy books. Like old books made of pulp paper that feel like they could crumble. But the animals he does are redrawn at this incredibly magnified size so I really dig his work a lot.
C215 is another artist who I really admire. I also really admire his world traveling capabilities and he just gets up everywhere he possibly can. I was in Morocco, a small town called Esoria right on the water and I was in this square and about 50 yards across from me I could see this stencil on the wall. It was kind of blurry from where I was and I was curious to see whose it was and sure enough it was his work. So it is pretty cool to see his work everywhere I go.
A very entertaining stop animation film made for this years art show in the store. Joe would like to thank Anthony Ferrara, James Peach, Gustavo Roman & Buck Merritt for their creativity, energy and support. You’ll also notice some street art by Chris Stain, Skewville…. who else?
BSA:Is there is a piece in the show this year that you are very excited about, either due to it’s complexity, or a new technique that was used?
Joe: Yeah every medium is different, and it’s not that I love one more than I love the other but I also have my personal preferences. In a show like this, it’s not just about hardware because it is in a store that has been here nearly 50 years, a lot of the people who are in the show aren’t just making their work for a hardware store, they’re making it for us, the Crest people. So one piece in particular that I’m excited to showcase is by Chris Collicot – when you look up close at this piece it’s just a bunch of washers and screws and you step back about 20-30 feet, and because it’s a perspective piece, it’s a picture of my father. To know that my dad struck a chord with this artist when he moved here from LA and he came into the shop looking for some help and he found something more than that. He found a place that he can rely on. So that is one of the more special pieces for me.
Street artists Peru Ana Ana Peru also participated in last years show (image courtesy Crest)
SPECIAL SILENT AUCTION at Crest Art Show (In Store)
NOMADE Piece to Benefit Free Arts NYC
Street Artist Nomade has donated this piece to be silent auctioned during the Crest Art Show. 100% of the proceeds go to the programs of Free Arts NYC, which serves NYC kids from disadvantaged backgrounds with arts and mentorship programs. Drop by the store to place a bid before July 31, 2010. Auction is in conjunction with BrooklynStreetArt.com
For general information regarding Crest Hardware Art Show and/or Crest Fest please contact Info@CrestHardwareArtShow.com
Gaia surfs for Italianate beheadings: Carvaggio and Guido Reni
Creating a new symbolic vocabulary based on fables, myths, and Biblical stories as well as his own imagination, Gaia plays with tropes and tangents in pursuit of enlightened understanding. A cultural omnivore of sorts, his own understanding is informed as much by Questlove as Caravaggio, Plato and Panda Bear, metaphor and M Arch, aerosol and oil paint. And linoleum. And wheat pastes. And colored pencils. Well past the digital dawn of all-things mashup, Gaia continues to mess with meanings and modalities in search of a new way to communicate messages that are as old as written history. For now his meme is the human cycle of creation and destruction, with an underlying preoccupation with the latter.
A recent visit to his studio space in Brooklyn finds Boy Wander with his laptop on a makeshift table and linoleum scattered across the floor. His new pieces for his show Saturday at Irvine Contemporary Gallery in Washington, DC nearly complete, Gaia talks about the vocabulary of his symbols and their evolving meanings.
On the significance of animal heads and their interchangeability, “I wanted to work with these decapitated heads and mix with them with the animal and human heads – hybrids – so the animals are never out of the picture – so again it’s this message of the saviour being killed. Like the thing that was going to save us is massacred by us. So it’s like this cycle of saving, destruction, saving, destruction, not listening, listening. – these different prophecies”.
Even as war seems perennial, anyone with eyes can tell you that we are living in a darkened time of pushing the earth’s environment to a precipice, and with good reason the younger generations are taking it quite hard. A legacy of poisoned air, water and diminished resources is more frequently on their mind because that is the legacy that’s been left to them. We talked with Gaia about his take on the state of the environment and how it influences him personally, thus creatively.
BSA: So what’s up with this preoccupation with death and destruction in your work?
GAIA:Well, yeah, death and destruction is just like my generations notion that the world is coming to an end and we have to fix something. We’ve inherited all of these problems. “Global Warming” sort of came into being as a real conscious collective awareness as I was growing up. I remember it coming into being and it just taking over mine and my peers lives. I remember (the movie) “Inconvenient Truth” was like the turning point and noone could stop thinking about it. It’s really just about this collective environmental consciousness that it’s inextricably bound to globalization and us not knowing how to necessarily leave that system, how to exit that circle.
BSA:It does seem like your generation is more aware and more concerned with the topic of environmentalism, environmental degradation, apocalyptic visions than any previous generations.
Gaia: Yeah but not necessarily doing anything about it.
BSA:No? There is not an activist sense?
Gaia: Yeah there is an activism but also there’s also a feeling of hopelessness as well. Just the fact that we don’t know how to deal with it.
BSA:How to turn the tide?
Gaia: Yeah how to turn the tide and also how to live alternatively so we’re not affecting the world negatively.
For Gaia, visions of cataclysm and brutality depicted in the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch and Bruegel the Elder provide hours of entertainment in their detail and somewhat matter of fact presentation of suffering . One favorite (below) is “The Triumph of Death”, by Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Gaia talks about his most important oil painting, “The Rooster is the main messenger. The animal is speaking to us and caring for us and guiding us. The Rooster is more like the presentation of what we have done. He’s more of the guy who comes down and presents the crimes. I feel like this is the most important piece of the show because it’s like the idyllic perfect image of destruction, how we envision the end of the world, and then the interior is the Utopian: the beautiful lurid color of sky. It could be Revelation but it’s also the romance of escapism.”
Saturday is Ol Tymers Day – but not at Yankee Stadium.
The Phun Phactory to Convert Williamsburg Industrial Zone into the World’s Largest Outdoor Mural Art Gallery.
The graffiti art pioneers, those who painted in the train yards in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s will come together to kick-off the new Phun Phactory and commemorate the life of legendary artist Iz The Wiz.This event is being curated by artists 2ILL and Blade and will feature more than 50 celebrated old school writers all painting on location.
The Phun Phactory Aerosol Art Corp. will re-launch this summer, converting the Williamsburg, Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone into a neighborhood of mural art. The Phun Phactory was founded in 1993 by founders Pat DiLillo and the late and pioneering aerosol artist Michael “Iz The Wiz” Martin. The original project occupied an industrial zone in Long Island City, directly across from the MoMA/PS1 museum and provided more than 200,000 sq. ft. of public space to showcase works of aerosol artists from around the globe. The new Phun Phactory will headquarter in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and will make available more than 500,000 sq. ft. of public space for artists of ALL mural mediums to showcase their artwork.
On June 19th 2010, The Phun Phactory will kick-off commemorating the anniversary of co- founder “IZ THE WIZ” with Ole Tymers Day. This event will take place on Wythe Ave. & N. 15th St.and will begin at 10AM. Ole Tymers Day will bring together the most celebrated aerosol
artists of the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s, those that were painting in the train yards before their art
made it to the galleries. BLADE and 2IL, names recognized around the globe as pioneers in graffiti art will curate this event. On this day, The Phun Phactory will also feature dozens of mural artists from all parts of the world. This project has received unprecedented support from artists, city officials and business partners who will be present for the event.
The Phun Phactory Kick- Off Event
Date:Saturday, June 19th 2010
Loc:N. 15th St, & Wythe Ave Brooklyn
Time:10 am- 8pm
Saturday, June 19th
rain date: Sat., June 26
10 am
Wythe ave & N. 15th st
A New Print Echoes Wall Piece He Did at Welling Court
Chris Stain has been busy participating in shows in LA and Philadelphia and Queens, NY over the past couple of months – including this piece he did for the wall at Welling Court last month.
Now he’s releasing a new print based on the same image:
“Damn Right I’m Somebody” by Chris Stain. Screen printed on archival paper. Hand colored with spray paint. 25″ W x 9.5″ H
The artist talks about where the image comes from, “This print was inspired by the J.B.’s song of the same title. A lot of times growin’ up in inner city conditions children can get lost in the mix and their value of self worth has the potential to rapidly decline. What I wanted to show with this piece is that no matter where you are from you are important because you are alive and you have just as much importance as the next person.”
In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
During the collaboration called “Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea”, a project by Street Artist Swoon that included a colorful and handsome cluster of artists, performers, and neo-enviro-hippies for a dying planet, the fictional “Flood Tide” was directed and shot. The seven large floating sculptures made of re-claimed materials were constructed by the crew and floated down the Hudson River (itself a dump site for industry that is being reclaimed by citizens) stopping occasionally for supplies and theatrical and musical performance.
