Brooklyn

Images of the Week: D*Face Drama in NYC With 3 Murals in 1 Week

March 11, 2012 Art Fair, Artists, Brooklyn, Interview, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street, Street Talker Interview

It’s true that the art fairs descended on New York this week. Equally true is that the multiple fairs don’t just bring rivers of collectors and dealers and Looky-Loos, these teeming steaming orgiastic fuster-clucks with names like Poke, Stroke and Fountain also can bring in a wave of the Street Artists! Look at the seven days alone with BSA posts on LA’s Retna, Tel Aviv’s Know Hope and todays’ very special edition King of Images of the Week, D*Face!

D*Face “Love Lost”. The first and largest mural to go up. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face, one of Street Art’s original British invaders, hit up New York with three new murals this week (two in Williamsburg, one in SOHO) employing sharply graphic pop lines and a humorously tart tongue to create works of high drama. With themes of lust, treachery and broken promises, the D*Face miniseries was streamed live on the street with no cover charge or icy art matron scanning through her iPad list for your name.

D*Face “Love Lost”. The first and largest mural to go up. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Her, Hate Him”. The second mural in SOHO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The final mural D*Face did was on Friday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While nicely sunny, the wind whipped through often enough to keep his fingers cold and his collar up. But on days like this New York can feel like a small town and the icy weather didn’t prevent a small group from hanging out, helping the artist and entertaining one another. Producer Stephen Thompson, photographer Jason Lewis and videographer Cliff Cristofarah took turns making observations, cracking jokes, fiddling with the music, and checking out the local parade as it scurried by.

For an additional feeling of street art community, Futura sauntered by to say hello and to offer entertaining stories and even go on a run for refreshments; water, coffees, and Mexican Coca Cola (with real sugar!). With Rob and Cliff taking turns at their MP3 players and the speakers blasting a bit of a 70s arena rock tribute (The Who, Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath), a couple of bike dudes came by to practice their tricks with a dog in the backpack.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How would you describe these new pieces in New York?
D*Face: All the pieces surround the notion of ‘Love’, ‘Loss’ and ‘Longing’, all drawn from recent personal experiences, everything I create is pulled from experience personal to me, hopefully people will also connect to them too. I have three new pieces so I wanted to get three good spots with as much visibility as possible, the larger the better.

Brooklyn Street Art: Will you get a chance to skateboard while you’re here?
D*Face: Unfortunately not. I love this city for skateboarding, but I wont get to do much other than paint walls and hopefully cut loose and party a bit.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about where your work is going thematically now?
D*Face: Thematically my work always draws upon personal experiences, whether thats the saturation of media in our lives, our fascination with celebrity and stardom or more singular experiences such as the loss of loved ones, searching your heart for love or holding people close when you should be letting them go.

I mostly rework old imagery that I’ve discovered, chopping bits of one or several images with another to create a new image that I feel is more relevant to today’s society and certainly the message I want to get across. So thematically its a continuation, it just has several veins that it runs off into.

Brooklyn Street Art: It feels like the Occupy Wall Street movement may have taken up some of the same punk aesthetics and energy that you were first drawn to. Is your work changed or affected at all by OWS?
D*Face: Haha! No not at all, but there’s always someone more punk than you, punk!

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Reworking the vocabulary of advertising and the practice of culture jamming can be very effective as education. Do you think of your work as message-driven?
D*Face: Yes, first and foremost my work has to have a concept, an idea, a message, it’s that which drives my work. Conceptually I’m always trying to push my ideas, push myself, keep myself excited and interested. I don’t want to stand still and see the growth of my work as a flik book, by that I mean small evolutions over time, what I want are solid chapters, which carry a thread of thought linking them all together.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What role does humor play in your stuff?
D*Face: Oh its massively important, life is pretty heavy at the best of times, so even serious messages or thoughts don’t have to be heavy in execution, even the dark thoughts or concepts in my work I hope are executed in a poppy way, I want to draw people in first, get them to appreciate the aesthetic, then hopefully they start to question the image, its content, its meaning. If they don’t and appreciate it only on its surface value then thats fine. I don’t want to ram messages, political, religious, consumerist or otherwise down peoples throats in a way that burdens life’s load.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg reflected on the side window of a vintage Ford Falcon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. Stephen Thompson his producer and assistant showing some back handed technique and snaazy foot wear. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You’ve had some serious success in galleries. Why is it still important to you to hit the street today?
D*Face: I’m privileged to have the gallery success I do. I thank everyone that has supported me and my work over the years, to live as an artist, support my family, employ artists to help me, is an amazing opportunity and something I wake up thankful of everyday.

Whilst I love gallery shows and the opportunity to work in a gallery, it brings with it the ability to create different works, execute concepts and play with space in a different way, but you have to want to see ‘art’ or know about the artist or the gallery to see that work, galleries can be intimidating places, I don’t want that, I want my work to be inclusive, not exclusive, so putting work in the streets is the most effective way of doing this.

You can’t beat the feeling of painting in the street, interacting with people, hearing their views, thoughts and ideas on what it is your painting… you know you get to bring the unsuspecting public in, people that may have no interest in art, never walked in a gallery, suddenly when faced with a painting in the street have a different take, a different perspective… it’s really, really interesting, that interaction, even if they don’t like it, you’ve still changed their day, opened their eyes, hopefully you might get them to LOOK at their surroundings and not just see.

D*Face. Doing a bit of mixiology. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DFace. Stephen takes DFace and Futura’s portrait. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Futura tagging a dollar bill for D*Face. (He did one for Word To Mother as well). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two local kids and a puppy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cliff gets the law of the land. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Painting the three dimensional part of the mural in the studio. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With special thanks to the Corey Helford Gallery for helping coordinate these murals and to Rob at Thunderdog Studios for hosting us on the Williamsburg sidewalk.

Images of the Week: 03.04.12

March 4, 2012 Artists, Berlin, Brooklyn, California, Germany, L.A., Los Angeles, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

Our weekly interview with the street, this week including Bronco, Cindy Sherman, Dan Witz, LNY, Miyok, PK, Read, Royce Bannon, Stikman, Swoon, Trojan Horse, Various & Gould, and Who is Charlie?

LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Who is Charlie? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman says go put your records on (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz was recently in Los Angeles and Daniel LaHoda from LA Freewalls Project took him around to visit some walls. This and the following images are of his series WTF in The Arts District, The Warehouse District and the Manufacturing District. (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

Swoon, Royce Bannon and a Polaroid shot of an amorous couple complete this snap shot of the dialogue on the streets of NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miyok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

German duo Various & Gould spotted this box/crate free standing on the streets of Berlin. The crate was built to protect a very old iron gate from the harsh German winter weather. Then they got thinking… (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Back at their place they build a horse head with a wooden frame and covered it with cardboard. (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. And with the help of BRONCO and Studio Nura they transformed the box into an Art Deco Trojan Horse! (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. “Trojan”, Berlin 2012 (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

We are very excited about the great, talented and hugely influential artist Cindy Sherman current exhibition at MoMA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Secret Project Robot and Brad Truax Present: “Hyper/Hypo” A Group Show (Brooklyn, NY)

February 28, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, Opening

Hyper/Hypo

March 10th to 25th

Brad Truax Presents: HYPER/HYPO

Opening Reception Saturday 3/10 8 to 11

WITH A PERFORMANCE BY: BUBBLES

AND DJ’S ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

In this month long installation and group show curator Brad Truax turns the lens onto the artist and asks them to explore themselves and the way in which they make art. Are they-

HYPER overactive, active, energetic; busy, fidgety; excited, frantic, frenetic,frenzied, adrenalized, feverish; or Hypo- low, under, beneath, down, below normal.

The exploration of the state of mind of the artist will give incite into their work offering a glimpse at the creative process and the aesthetic accomplishments and styles which develop out of these different emotional states… It will be interesting to see if the viewer’s expectations correlate to how the artists actually approach their work- which in turn puts the lens onto the viewer, asking them to gauge their assumptions about the way in which they look at art.

The Superior Bugout Presents: “Leap Year 2012 Party Time” Art, Walls and Music (Brooklyn, NY)

February 28, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, NYC, Opening

Leap Year 2012

The Superior Bugout is very stoked to present a really tight line up of amazing musicians / artists for this night, wednesday 10pm at the el dorado in brooklyn (976 grand st). come out and celebrate the new party holiday LEAP YEAR 2012!!!
with:
JAPANTHER
NINJASONIK
FAKE HOOKER
JOGYO
BEEF
and DJ DIRTYFINGER

with art walls by SMELLS / CASH4 / FADE AA / R2 / GEN 2 / UFO 907

Images of the Week: 02.26.12

February 26, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, California, L.A., London, Los Angeles, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring AVOID, Boxpark, Dan Witz, Gilf!, Jaye Moon, Kosbe, Love Me, bunny M, Power Revolution, Pure Evil, Rae, and some new stuff in London from guest photographer Geoff Hargadon.

bunny M appears with a parable. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pure Evil making posters last night at Boxpark, a pop up mall made of shipping containers in Shoreditch, London. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pure Evil installing the posters at Boxpark. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz brings his “Dark Doings” to the streets of downtown Los Angeles for LA Freewalls Project. (photo © Dan Witz)

Artist Unknown (Or is it an unfinished advertisement?) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And that’s the last word from the streets of Brick Lane in London. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Power Revolution (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marilyn is always game. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Love Me (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Avoid. Buy More Stuff! I can’t. It’s sold out! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST Studio Visit and Interview

February 23, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, Interview, NYC, Studio Visit

The Brooklyn Artist Talks about Painting, Street Art, and Choking Chickens

You’ve seen his cats and dogs and birds and rats and people in wheat-pasted drawings and paintings on the street in Brooklyn the last couple of years, their big dark eyes staring plaintively at you, usually with some critters holding a banner overhead displaying his tag, QRST.

In a way, these are snapshots of his life, endowed with psychological drama and musings and universal or personal symbologies. Comedians and storytellers are always the most successful when they stick to the regular stuff that we all do and weave in the outlandish – just enough that it’s fantastic but not so much that it’s fantasy. QRST renders his characters without romance but maybe nostalgia, their magnetic eyes drawing you past the still countenance, grounded enough to sort of convince a passerby of their realness, even though they can’t possibly be. These are his relatives, his friends, his loves, his memories melted with meandering.

In addition to his regular job he’s been painting on a heavy schedule lately so he can have his show ready for unveiling this Friday in Bushwick, Brooklyn at The Active Space. A visit to his studio reveals a spare, brightly lit quietly manic room with a laptop playing the Bush Tetras balanced on a stool and a careful collection of the tools of the trade – paint tubes, canvasses stacked on the floor against a wall, a small pile of pencil sketches, an easel with a painting of a chicken beating up a boy.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Yeah, it’s called ‘Formative Years,’” QRST says as he describes it’s origin, “My aunt and uncle had chickens and a giant rooster and when I was like two or three, one of them just mauled me. So it’s that story … but it’s also a lot about sex in like a generic, formative way. It’s a cockfight… he’s choking a chicken… So it’s kind of like a joke at my own expense because I’m getting my ass beat by a chicken but it’s also about figuring out masturbation and sex hangups and weird sex issues.

Brooklyn Street Art: It’s all “nested” in there.
QRST: Yeah, and it’s all inside of a childhood.

If it is a battle, the boy in the painting doesn’t look like he’s going down without a fight. His stuff on the street explores the past plainly, including the painful parts, like his serious re-examination of the influence in his life of his deceased father, called “Patron”, laden with symbols and signifiers. The work can be odd, and oddly sensitive to meaning and nuance as QRST is compelled to continually assess and think his way through the battles of life, peering at it from all angles.

QRST does a painting of his mom in a snowy park. “She didn’t know she was posing for it.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think a lot of my work is always autobiographical. It always seems to come from stuff that I’ve experienced or thought about or people or places that I’ve seen, or been in, or things I’ve experienced. I think a lot of it is that. These paintings are not obviously exact. They are little seeds of actual reality that have all this stuff piled around them that comes from my mind wandering. So the stories kind of become fantastical and weird and their own thing but they really do start from a seed of, ‘I was walking down this street and I saw this thing’ – or ‘I was with this guy on the Mississippi River’, or ‘my aunt and uncle have a hummingbird feeder,’” he explains.

Brooklyn Street Art: Aside from studying painting, in a lot of ways I can see that your work is therapeutic for you.
QRST: Absolutely. If I’m not painting regularly I go crazy basically. I get all super depressed and mean. And I’ve had people tell me “I can tell when you haven’t been making art because you’re and a**hole.” (laughs) I’m like “Great! Cool.” I’ve had more than one person tell me that. You can tell when I’m not painting enough. I get really distressed. It can be also be drawing but painting seems to be the best.

One of the 50 hand drawn sketches QRST will be giving away at his opening. ” I just like the idea that a stranger that doesn’t know me gets a thing that I made just because they showed up.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For QRST the work he makes for the street is the fun stuff, the place where he can experiment and get a little looser. His painting teacher from his youth would have cringed at the idea of painting as being fun. “He yelled a lot but was a good teacher,” he remembers. “He used to yell ‘Painting is not fun! Painting is in the blood!’” On reflection, QRST agrees that painting is something more for him. “There is a certain truth to that. I mean, I need to do it and it’s immensely satisfying in a way that is not parallel to anything else in my life. But it’s not “fun”, ya know?”

QRST painted this portrait of his cousins after creating a version of them for the street.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST. The wheat paste version tells stories of their youth in this painted version for the street. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It may still be a little perplexing to the average person passing a particle boarded construction site to see one of his elaborately hand painted, wheat-pasted pieces. To think that he’ll spend forty to sixty hours on a street work that ultimately gets destroyed seems self-defeating but he has clearly delineated in his mind what work is meant to have permanence and what needs to stretch it’s legs and go talk to the city.

“The street stuff is really nice. It can get really stressful too but it feels less formal. It’s hard to describe but I can do whatever I want, and it’s just for kicks. I can figure stuff out real easily and put it out and it really doesn’t matter because it’ll be gone soon. It’s like doing studies or sketches or something,” he explains.

Brooklyn Street Art: It’s also maybe a safe way to experiment with an idea or technique?
QRST: Yeah, it is. It’s easy to be experimental because with oil paint there’s a way you are supposed to do it. I’ve thought about being more experimental on the canvas but then, it doesn’t feel right, at least not at the moment.

Of the studio work and the street work, he sees separate goals and lives. “They serve different purposes, they go in different places, they are supposed to function differently. Also with the street stuff – at the end of it it comes with the adrenaline rush of doing something very barely illegal,” he smiles.

Brooklyn Street Art: They need to walk out that door.
QRST: They do! They want to go outside.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST paints on three panels an homage to both his grandmothers in the gallery. In the family tree tradition his maternal Grandmother sits on the right while his paternal Grandmother sits on the left. The chair’s legs are represented by the roots of trees. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: That’s something I associate with your work is the symbolism and metaphor, the additional layers of meanings that can go in multiple directions.

QRST: I spend a lot of time – I come up with the idea and its something that is sort of stuck in my head and then I start to flesh it out. As I’m painting it, I end up thinking about it a lot obviously. All of the language and connection to it comes out as I’m working on it. I’m like “oh yeah!”.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST’s solo show “Dreaming Without Sleeping” opens Friday February 24 at The Active Space. Click here for further details.

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Cake Studio Visit : Inside Out

February 16, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Features, Gallery, Interview, NYC, Street Talker Interview, Studio Visit

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)

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)

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

Cake. Detail (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.

Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery Presents: “Ocean Size” A Group Show (Brooklyn, NY)

February 15, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, Opening

Ocean Size

Troy Lovegates (image courtesy of the gallery)

Kunsthalle Galapagos presents:

Ocean Size

February 18 – March 4th 2012

Opening Reception: Saturday Feb. 18, 2012 6-9pm

Image: David Enters Adulthood by Jebediah Long, 2012

Tony Ingrisano, Sylvia Jeffriess, Jebediah Long, Troy Lovegates,

James Moore, Fumi Nakamura

Kunsthalle Galapagos is pleased to present Ocean Size, a group
exhibition of six artists who question our perceptions of reality.
Their works coax us to join them in fantastical worlds of bold colors,
precise lines, and mutated patterns. Distorted characters and
fragments morph and fray into an ordered chaos. Disjointed narratives,
found memories and alter-egos situate us, then shift our perceptions
of our own state of being. The work compels us to reach beyond our
own comprehension to something bigger than ourselves, something “ocean
size”.

Along with the exhibition, Kunsthalle Galapagos presents a new limited
print edition by Troy Lovegates,

published by Marginal Editions.

Ocean Size is curated by Julie McKim, Erik Hougen, Albert Shelton, Gracie Kazer

Kunsthalle Galapagos

16 Main St.

DUMBO

Brooklyn, NY

www.kunsthallegalapagos.com

Gallery Hours: Thurs – Sun 1-6pm

F train to York St

A/C train to High St

Royce Bannon Curates: “While You Were Sleeping” (Brooklyn, NY)

February 15, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, Opening

Images of the Week 02.12.12

February 12, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Florida, Manhattan, Miami, NYC, On the Street

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 131, Captain Baby, Dan Witz, Dekrd, Don’t Fret, Ema, Entes, Gaia, LNY, Miyok, ND’A, OverUnder, Pesimo, Shida, SSDD, Stikman, and Willow.

Mighty Tanaka Gallery Presents: “Inside-Out” Featuring Works by Don Pablo Pedro and Cake (Brooklyn, NYC)

February 9, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, Opening

Inside Out

Mighty Tanaka presents:
Inside Out
Featuring the artwork of Cake & Don Pablo Pedro

Look in the mirror, what do you see? Does your reflection smile back at you? Or does it hide behind layers of doubt? As each of us interprets the notion of self differently, the ways in which we choose to outwardly express ourselves varies greatly. For some, personal identity cannot always be communicated simply with words alone, so other means are utilized to translate the inner dialogue. Mighty Tanaka is pleased to bring you our next show, Inside Out, featuring the artwork of Cake & Don Pablo Pedro.

Inside Out is the outward expression of ones innermost feelings. The figurative and symbolic imagery relates to the personal struggle for understanding and emphasizes the desire to be heard. It’s the rare insight into the mind of another, a visual representation of an individual’s emotions. In essence, Inside Out is the exploration of self.

Cake & Don Pablo Pedro, two artists who’s work both compliments and conflicts, juxtapose each other in a complimentary way. From the soft touch of muslin fabric to the rigid edges of a wooden panel, their chosen materials are representational of their message, as they open themselves to the world.

OPENING RECEPTION:
Friday, February 17th, 2012
6:00PM – 9:00PM

Mighty Tanaka
111 Front St., Suite 224
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Office: 718.596.8781

The Active Space Presents: Criminy Johnson AKA QRST “Dreaming Without Sleeping” (Brooklyn NYC)

February 2, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, Opening

QRST

Dichotomy, by Criminy Johnson. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.

The Active Space opens an all-new exhibition space
in its Bushwick facility with a reception for “Dreaming Without
Sleeping,” a presentation of new works by Criminy Johnson | QRST, on
February 24, 2012.

“Dreaming Without Sleeping” allows viewers to glimpse the artist’s
view of our waking world: a bent, slightly pessimistic and
occasionally hostile place populated by animals and people who are
often reluctant to be interrupted by the viewer.

“Criminy makes oil paintings in his studio but often makes wheatpastes
that relate to these in some way. Many people are familiar with
Criminy’s work but may have seen it outside of a gallery setting, and
QRST fans might be discovering Criminy Johnson’s paintings for the
first time,” says curator Robin Grearson, who worked with Johnson last
year on a group show at the Active Space. “Criminy has been in
Bushwick for a few years, and QRST’s street work often shows up here,
so the Active Space is an ideal location to present the two styles
together.”

“We opened in February of last year, so I’m happy that the first show
in our building’s brand-new gallery space falls on our first
anniversary,” says Ashley Zelinskie, director of The Active Space.
“Robin is an accomplished writer, yet this is the third show she has
curated here. Last year we discovered that we really work well
together, and one thing I appreciate about my role as director of a
Bushwick art space is the opportunity I have to support emerging
artists and curators I believe in.” Zelinskie says.

The opening reception for “Dreaming Without Sleeping” takes place
February 24, 2012, from 7-10 PM. The show will be open to the public
by appointment through April 20, 2012. Email ashley@566johnsonave.com.

Dreaming Without Sleeping
February 24, 2012 through April 20, 2012
The Active Space
566 Johnson Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237
www.566johnsonave.com

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D*Face “Love Lost”. The first and largest mural to go up. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Lost”. The first and largest mural to go up. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Her, Hate Him”. The second mural in SOHO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Her, Hate Him”. The second mural in SOHO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Her, Hate Him”. The second mural in SOHO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg reflected on the side window of a vintage Ford Falcon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. Stephen Thompson his producer and assistant showing some back handed technique and snaazy foot wear. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Doing a bit of mixiology. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Stephen takes D*Face and Futura’s portrait. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Futura tagging a dollar bill for D*Face. (He did one for Word To Mother as well). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two local kids and a puppy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cliff gets the law of the land. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Painting the three dimensional part of the mural in the studio. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Who is Charlie? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman says go put your records on (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz was recently in Los Angeles and Daniel LaHoda from LA Freewalls Project took him around to visit some walls. This and the following images are of his series WTF in The Arts District, The Warehouse District and the Manufacturing District. (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

Swoon, Royce Bannon and a Polaroid shot of an amorous couple complete this snap shot of the dialogue on the streets of NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miyok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

German duo Various & Gould spotted this box/crate free standing on the streets of Berlin. The crate was built to protect a very old iron gate from the harsh German winter weather. Then they got thinking… (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Back at their place they build a horse head with a wooden frame and covered it with cardboard. (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. And with the help of BRONCO and Studio Nura they transformed the box into an Art Deco Trojan Horse! (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. “Trojan”, Berlin 2012 (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

We are very excited about the great, talented and hugely influential artist Cindy Sherman current exhibition at MoMA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M appears with a parable. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pure Evil making posters last night at Boxpark, a pop up mall made of shipping containers in Shoreditch, London. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pure Evil installing the posters at Boxpark. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz brings his “Dark Doings” to the streets of downtown Los Angeles for LA Freewalls Project. (photo © Dan Witz)

Artist Unknown (Or is it an unfinished advertisement?) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And that’s the last word from the streets of Brick Lane in London. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Power Revolution (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marilyn is always game. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Love Me (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Avoid. Buy More Stuff! I can’t. It’s sold out! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Brooklyn Artist Talks about Painting, Street Art, and Choking Chickens

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST does a painting of his mom in a snowy park. “She didn’t know she was posing for it.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One of the 50 hand drawn sketches QRST will be giving away at his opening. ” I just like the idea that a stranger that doesn’t know me gets a thing that I made just because they showed up.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST painted this portrait of his cousins after creating a version of them for the street.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST. The wheat paste version tells stories of their youth in this painted version for the street. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST paints on three panels an homage to both his grandmothers in the gallery. In the family tree tradition his maternal Grandmother sits on the right while his paternal Grandmother sits on the left. The chair’s legs are represented by the roots of trees. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DFace. Stephen takes DFace and Futura’s portrait. (photo © Jaime Rojo)