The first book-signing for the new book is coming up at Spoonbill and Sugartown, this Thursday, July 22 at 7:00 PM. Spoonbill and Sugartown is a Williamsburg Brooklyn favorite. In addition to stocking erudite, eclectic art titles, used and rare books, Spoonbill has always supported artists and the arts community.
Come and meet Steve and Jaime and some special guests from the book that Juxtapoz describes as “A genuine who’s who of current renowned street artists, this book’s made even better thanks to publishing by Prestel, well reputed for producing classy tomes. The paper’s heavy and fantastic, image colors vibrant and rich, while the selection of photographs and artwork by Rojo and Harrington go unmatched to recent urban art updates.”
Spoonbill & Sugartown, Booksellers was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 1999. We pride ourselves on the books we offer, but our greatest achievement can be seen in the eyes and heard in the testimonies of our loyal customers.
If you pay close attention, you will always see something new on the street in Brooklyn. Thanks to the imagination and efforts of General Howe, a street artist who has been laboring carefully in small scale plastic soldiers placed in historically accurate locations on the street, you may also get an education. In this most unusual of street artists lies a deep commitment to honoring the sacrifices of soldiers of war and he deploys his installations to help us learn some of the history that our culture has forgotten – and hopefully draw some connections to the current wars we are engaged in.
From General Howe:
“I make war in Brooklyn. Did you know the Revolutionary War was fought in Brooklyn? Did you know we’re at war in Afghanistan and Iraq? It’s easy to forget we’re battling in foreign lands against invisible adversaries. I bet you know more about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This is why I make war in Brooklyn.”
Brooklyn Street Art: How did you get so interested in history?
General Howe: I used to work in the United States Senate and was exposed to U.S. government, politics, and history all day, every day. If I found something interesting I would explore it further in the senate library. After reading the book 1776 by David McCullough I realized that a portion of the Revolutionary War (now known as the Battle of Brooklyn) went down in the neighborhoods I lived and travel in within Brooklyn. I’ve been researching locations and events of the Battle of Brooklyn for about three years now. For example, the area of the Brooklyn Navy Yard was a bay filled with British prison ships. Over ten thousand patriot soldiers died in those ships due to poor conditions or torture. Places where we live, work, eat, and socialize are the same places where people fought, killed, and died during a revolution. Coincidentally, I find a lot of street artists working in these same locations.
BSA: In your art you work with plastic toy soldiers in installations and collage, do you go back to memories of your childhood playing with toy soldiers?
General Howe: Childhood experiences have become a big part of my process. If you watch a 5-year-old play, they have so much magic and imagination going through them that is hard to match as an adult. The battles I make are influenced by all the pretend battles I fought growing up. Reflecting on the countless hours I would spend with my friends or by myself hunting down bad guys with plastic guns or spears made of tree branches was so intensely creative. I try to tap into that same energy. To help me do this, I have been collecting old coloring books, games, and toys that I had growing up.
A look around his fort reveals influences for General Howe.
BSA:The Battle of Brooklyn plays a big role in your installations. What significance is this battle to you and to the country?
General Howe: The significance of The Battle of Brooklyn is that I feel more connected to it and its purpose then the current wars we’re fighting in the Middle East. It’s definitely significant to our history as a country. We almost lost the entire revolution in Brooklyn. Washington recognized that the British had the upper hand at the time, so he had the entire army retreat to Manhattan. It took many losing battles and retreats, but eventually we gained the upper hand and the rest is history.
BSA: Is there a central message that you want to convey with your work and installations?
General Howe: There isn’t really a central message, more like a central goal. The goal of my work is for the viewer, or participant, to have an experience of reflection on his or her own experiences. Be it, war, childhood, or anything else that comes to the surface. We were attacked on 9-11 and we’ve been fighting 2 wars in the Middle East. It seems like that is all easily forgotten in our daily life. As we get older our childhood diminishes and memories are forgotten. For myself, I need to hold onto those memories in order to understand what’s going on now and live through it.
BSA: The American assemblage artist Joseph Cornell spent a lot of his life in Queens. Do you see his work as an important influence on yours?
General Howe: The quality a self-taught artist produces is intriguing to me, but Joseph Cornell has not had an influence on my work. The work for shows, and recent street ICON pieces I have been making, are influenced by religious icons. One summer I spent some time studying art in Venice, Italy and I would sometimes stumble across religious icons built into actual walls of buildings in random streets and alleyways. Their purpose is to invoke spirituality and reflection. I try to achieve this same experience in the context of being in the street environment, childhood play, and of actual war.
The writings of John Dewey have had a major influence on my work and me personally. Walking around Brooklyn looking at the different textures and decay along with various forms of street art and graffiti provides constant inspiration.
A rendering by Goya for his “Disasters of War”
Influential Artists for General Howe:
Seeing SWOON’S (and many partners) boats from Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea float down the East River will be a memory I never forget. The wheat pastes of Elbow-Toe never get old. Thundercut crosswalk stickers are brilliant and I always look forward to new Peru Ana Ana Peru films. The prints of Goya, especially Disasters of War are timeless and three of my favorite paintings are Thérèse Dreaming by Balthus, The Guitar Player by Manet, and The Death of Marat by David.
I am also an art teacher at a rigorous high school and the drive and dedication my students posses definitely keeps me going.
BSA: When you are manipulating and carefully placing your figures, do you worry that they will be stepped on?
General Howe: No way, part of the reason I became interested in street art was the ephemeral quality the work attains once placed in the street. The environment, nature, or people will unpredictably change the work. In one installation someone melted all the soldiers down to figurative stumps. Another person tastefully rearranged a battle inside a hollowed out log. Whether they’re playing with or destroying a battle, the fact that they’re spending time to do that and having an experience is why I create work in the street.
Hosted by Brooklyn Fire Proof East, 119 Ingraham Street, Brooklyn, NY
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 8pm-Midnight
From the D.I.Y. scene in Brooklyn comes a show of epic proportion featuring art and design themed around the greatest celebrity of the modern era, the BIKE!!!
This exhibition draws together talented artists from NY to California around the launch of PORTER CYCLES, an independent bike builder established in 2010 in Brooklyn. All types of media will be represented: film, prints, photography, sculpture, installation, sound art, performance, and more. Also, a variety of weird bikes, performance track bikes, and cargo trailers will be displayed. Everything will be auctioned between 8pm and midnight. All proceeds go to the artists unless donated to Porter Cycles by artist.
DJ’s, live-silk-screening, and bike performances will run throughout the night.
Artists:
Amy Smalls, Amigo Unit, Andrew H. Shirley, AVOID ∏, Chloe Swantner, Conrad Carlson, DARKCLOUDS, DeeDock-Hobby Horse-5003, Hillel, Ellis Gallagher,Fumie Ishii, Greg Henderson, Ian Helwig, Ian Vanek, Jennifer Shear, Julian C. Duron, Ian Colon, Julie Glassberg, Keith Pavia, Lindsay Ellesar, MIKEY 907, Nick Chatfield-Taylor, Noah Sparkes, Ryan Doyle, Tod Seelie
Tony Bones, Travis Moonschien, UFO 907, Weiwei Lin, William T. Porter,
Curators: Andrew H. Shirley and W.T.Porter (wthomasporter@gmail.com)
Event Space Coordinator: Leslie Padoll (leslie@brooklynfireproof.com)
Porter Cycles exists to serve the bicycle, cyclists, and bicycle culture.
Porter Cycles designs and builds human powered vehicles of all types, including practical use vehicles, utility vehicles, and carriage trailers for the commercial market.
Porter Cycles’ future goal is to replace the semi-truck+trailer with a human-powered equivalent capable of long distance travel under heavy cargo through all conditions.
Porter Cycles is an active participant of the sustainable-living movement.
The finished piece, and the route to it. Both are completely intertwined.
During yesterday’s creation of Nick Walker’s brand new stencil entitled, “Amerikarma” we met so many people on the sidewalk as we continually shifted our stance under the trees while the sun scorched the Brooklyn sky. The events of the day (as well as the prep for the day) all somehow infuse the artists’ final piece in your mind.
As much advance planning as you make, you’re going to run out of supplies (masking tape). And water. And then you have to have to pee. The natural and man-made elements can aid or complicate (bright light, blasting heat, dripping air conditioners). Visitors stop by to say hello and take pictures and catch up a little or comment, Kathleen from the Front Room brings you the third pitcher of iced tea with cups, and Tanley from Arrested Motion arrives with Thai food for everybody’s lunch.
All the while Nick is calculating and measuring and problem-solving as he executes this new stencil for the first time – discovering what works and what needs to be adjusted. It’s all very ALIVE – the honking horns, the beautiful young women and men in their summer clothes, the 60-ish father from Virginia who stops to ask 3 of us to help him lift a clothes rack into his daughters’ apartment, the musicians going in and out of the downstairs next to us, and Stuart borrowing a kids bike for a spin or another one’s baseball glove for a game of catch across Roebling Street traffic.
By the time Nick is putting the Mickey Pistol portion across the bottom of the bullets and stripes flag, all the conversations have been had, the popsicles eaten, and cell phones have little warnings about low power on their screens. A few finishing details sharpen the image and accentuate the impact before final pictures are taken and chairs are returned to Daniel and Kathleen, along with the orange extension chord.
People now slow down to look at the piece, and the kids start splitting because dinner is ready back home. Nick decides to do a full signature instead of his typical symbol with the date. He likes it so much that he announces he may begin signing all of his stencils like that. The process of making the piece is intrinsically woven into the street environment, and the art is the only only reminder that remains.
Nick Walker braved the punishing heat today, and conquered it, to work on the streets of Brooklyn for the second day in a row. BSA was with him all day. Here is the final product called “Amerikarma”. Not much of a talker, Nick prefers to let you determine the meaning of the piece. BSA will bring you tomorrow a documentation of the process Nick used to create this loaded stencil.
The Bristol Kid Hits Brooklyn With the First 2 of a Slew for NYC
British stencil artist Nick Walker has brought a thick wooden crate of fresh new stencils with him, and after pacing and eyeing the tubular entrance to an old Brooklyn horse stable, he decides on just the right stencil to be placed near the street entrance to welcome travelers– a pudgy Mariachi player with a Mona Lisa face.
In New York for one week, the world class street artist provokes and beguiles right from the start. No surprise from a man who has just caused a bit of a stir in Paris streets with his Le Curancan, a high-kicking line-dancing gaggle of Moulin Rouge girls showing their panties and hiding their faces behind burkas.
In his trademark style, the new stencil is photographic, raw, and funny. People poking their heads in to peruse the bootlegged mashup crack a smile, some shaking their heads slowly. A quiet unassuming Mariachi has a sudden impact.
Nick’s carefully spraying the layers of the Mariachi Mona Lisa with his trusty mate Stuart, who, in between maniacally checking messages on his two iPhones (one for each continent), holds the layers steady and proffers suggestions or jokes. Just a couple of blokes wisecracking and eyeballing the sidewalk scene as the hot dirty breeze rolls down Metropolitan Avenue, coating every creature in a thick sweaty glaze.
Mariachi Mona Lisa completed, pictures taken, we slog through the burning streets 4 blocks away to the entrance of a metal fabrication warehouse. For this piece to be framed by two doors, Nick selects the newly minted snake handler.
With his smooth undetectable merging of sources, the image combines elements from a snake handler photo, a posing assistant in a lab coat, and the artist himself wearing a towel over his face and a familiar looking hat. Familiarity of elements and attention to detail also enable a moment of escapism as you wonder who this figure is and what they’re doing. Is it pictoral? Metaphorical?
As each stencil layer is unpacked and unfolded onto the sidewalk, an amused audience of metal workers, motor cycle enthusiasts, and photocopier salespeople stop to discuss and ask questions. Once again, the street feels alive with creativity and activity, folding chairs are offered, and bottles of water.
Incredibly the story does not end there, as only blocks later a snake handler appears on the sidewalk before us and drapes Nick with the reptile so he can finally try his hand. This is his first time actually handling a snake. He said the spotted serpent was smoother than he thought, and strong, and he felt at one moment like it was tightening around his throat.
Tomorrow Nick will hit New York streets again. The clock is ticking after all, and there are more fresh unseen stencils to be unveiled. We’ll be there to catch his sly grin and wonder what he’ll pull out next.
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Special thanks to Stuart, Joe Franquinha, his mom and pop, David Markusen-Weiss, Brian Dencklau, Isaac Zal Sprachman, Tim Mellema, Hannah, Mehdi, Moshe, and Joe for the assistance, hospitality, and conversation.
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.
Appropriating an image from the opening lines of Dante’s Inferno as visual and thematic source material for the exhibit, the artists in Among Darkened Woods present works that seek to represent the derivative potential of darkness, to probe the obscure, to lend plasticity to shadows and other forms evanescent, to perceive presences and apparitions in that which seems to have disappeared.
While Dante’s infernal quest leads him from the selva oscura of life’s proper path gone astray, as it were, to visions of the most profound reaches of physical suffering, punishment and ceaseless decay, the works here suggest an earlier stopping point, a less hellish locus, a place perhaps only subtly subterranean where forms have not yet dropped into the abyss of a falling apart, evoking instead the ordered calm of a falling away.
Featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures and mixed-media works by Tim Kent,
SHM Kim, Adam Collison, Amanda Nedham, Mary Kate Maher, Monika Zarzeczna and Paul D’Agostino, and featuring an essay accompaniment by Paul D’Agostino.
Pandemic, established in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2009, is an artist-run space dedicated to showing work from up-and-coming, unknown, and well-established talent alike. Embracing (but not confined to) urban street art, Pandemic is attracted to artists who think outside the confines of conventional normalcy — artists whose fresh concepts and unique visions inspire a broad audience.
Beginning on July 31, 2010, Pandemic will present the work of Don Pablo Pedro. Don Pablo Pedro draws on the technical conventions of Old Masters such as El Greco and Hieronymus Bosch, and provocatively blurs the lines between perversity and sensuality, sacred and profane, suffering and ecstasy. Don Pablo Pedro’s work has previously been profiled by P.S.1 and Brooklyn Street Art, and the artist maintains a website at http://donpablopedro.blogspot.com/.
There is no cover charge for this event; we attach a press release with additional details below. For further information, please contact our Media and Development Director, Megan Canter, at meganecanter@gmail.com (copied here) or by telephone at 973-220-5032.
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
Elfo is a graffiti writer and social commentator whose work intentionally sidesteps traditional notions of style or technical lettering. This …Read More »
In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »
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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.
