Brooklyn
Optimo : Hometown Primo in a Top Hat
Optimism Straight Outta NYC
BSA doesn’t spotlight too much graffiti because we’re not very smart about it, and there are a lot of geniuses on graff out there. Plus the S-A part of our name precludes much BS on the graff tip. But some artists straddle the edge of graff and Street Art, and one artist who keeps catching our eye because of his placement and the light-hearted comedic quality of his character is Optimo, sometimes referred to as Werds (depending where you are surfing).
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Short for Optimo Primo (best cousin), the graffiti artist Optimo grew up as a boy in Chelsea in the 1980s excited and ignited by the colorful graffiti he saw on trucks and trains around him. As a true original New Yorker, he names some of his stylistic influences as 1990s graffiti writers including Wolf1, Revs & Cost, Seen, Reas, and Sabe. His signature character has been on the streets since 2006, the American flag bandana as a symbol of free expression and the First Amendment, and the showman top hat something the artist likes to wear as well.
Now a full time artist selling his stuff on the streets of Soho, Optimo has showed his work in a gallery setting with a 40-piece show at Revolution Studios in Chelsea last summer and in a group show at Brooklyn Fire Proof in Bushwick as well as Culture Fix on the LES in the fall. His soft spot is box trucks, which he says he’s painted over 100 of, according to his bio on Tumblr, and he aspires to retain his signature style of “optimism”. Here is a BSA collection of images of work in New York and Miami by Optimo NYC.
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo. Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Images of the Week 01.29.12
The streets have been seeing an uptick in socio-political messages recently, whether because of the Occupy protests, or because artists are exercising their speech in low cost, low-tech, person-to-person methods. The very personal nature of this kind of messaging actually feels impactful when it catches your eye with a sense of intention, grabbing you by the ear and making you think. This week we have Street Art commentary about housing, class inequality, the abuse of poser, erosion of privacy and fears of a police state. It makes sense that art on the streets is reflecting us back to ourselves.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street; this week featuring Buff Monster, Cash4, Cope, Dirty Teddies, Ema, Enzo & Nio, Essam, Faile, Hush, Ment, Shiro, XAM, and XXX.
ESSAM. A more conceptual culture-jamming series of new signs in certain New York neighborhoods is meant as a way to raise awareness by an Iraq war veteran turned civil libertarian, according to news reports published recently. This sign warns about alleged plans for Police surveillance drones could be ubiquitous in society. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Wolf rides, anyone? Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hush gets to know some of the local neighbors while busy at work in San Francisco (© courtesy Hush)
Hush has been on the street in San Francisco this week (photo exclusively for BSA © courtesy of Hush). Stay tuned for a Hush special feature on Monday of his current show.
Ema (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The billionaire Mayor of New York is taking a hit here from this Street Art poster by Enzo & Nio. Styled as Marie Antoinette, Michael Bloomberg is portrayed as a haughty royal who is disconnected from the rabble, and cares not a wit. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A masters graff wall in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
XAM is addressing the ongoing bank mortgage crisis in the US with this street sculpture installation on Skid Row in Los Angeles (photo © XAM)
Cash4 with Ment (photo © Jaime Rojo)
You see! XXX (photo © Jaime Rojo)
You can always spot the tourist dinosaurs with their fanny packs in Times Square. Dirty Teddies (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Fun Friday 01.27.12
Today on Fun Friday:
1.”Making Faces” at Opera Gallery (Soho, NY)
2. “Nostalgia” at Rook & Raven (London)
3. “Bone Yard Project” at Pima Air & Space Museum (Tucson, AZ)
4. Phlegm at Nuart (VIDEO)
5. Official Trailer for “Getting Up” (VIDEO)
6. The Big Egg Hunt: Baku Magazine x Secret Wars (VIDEO)
“Making Faces” at Opera Gallery (Soho, NY)
An unusual collection of portraiture is on display starting today in Soho that knocks your head for a spin because of it’s loose theme that can stretch to embrace a century or two, a few continents, and about 30 schools of art.
Favorite pairing from last nights opening: Picasso next to Judith Supine. If he only knew.
BAST in the wild. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“Making Faces” throws a cocktail party for old masters along with contemporary fine and Street Artists, including Judith Supine, Bast, Paul Insect, Rostaar, B., Zhang Xiaogang, Ron English and Kid Zoom sharing wall space with Chagall, Matisse, Miro and Basquiat among others.
For further information regarding this show click here
“Nostalgia” at Rook & Raven (London)
At the Rook & Raven Gallery in London the group show “Nostalgia” opens todaywith new works by Various & Gould, Dain, David Shillinglaw and Stinkfish, among others.
Various & Gould in Brooklyn, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dain in Brooklyn, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“Nostalgia” participants: Terry O’Neill, Dave White, DAIN, Rosie Emerson, David Shillinglaw, Various and Gould, Alex Daw, James Mylne, Stinkfish, Charlie Masson
Here is a video of David Shillinglaw, who prepared his piece for the “Nostalgia” show over the course of a week:
For further information regarding this show click here
“Bone Yard Project” at Pima Air & Space Museum (Tucson, AZ)
Another mind-blowing project – curated by Medvin Sobio and Carlo McCormick and conceived by Eric Firestone – opens tomorrow in Tucson, where there is a lot of space. Carcasses of planes lovingly wrecked by artists you love; The Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona announces the opening of “Round Trip: Art From The Bone Yard Project” this Saturday January 28.
The Retna Plane (photo © courtesy of Medvin Sobio)
More than 30 artists have participated in Round Trip including DC Super 3 planes painted by graffiti artists How & Nosm, Nunca, and Retna, and a C97 cockpit by Saner, and C45 planes by Faile and Andrew Schoultz.
For further information regarding this show click here
The Bone Yard Project 2012 by Viejas del Mercado (Medvin Sobio & 塚本清市) Featuring Retna, Nunca, Saner and How & Nosm.
Also happening this weekend:
At the Urban Folk Art Gallery in Brooklyn founder Adam Suerte has curated a show that includes ten years of work from his personal collection. Click here for more information.
Phlegm at Nuart (VIDEO)
Official Trailer for “Getting Up” (VIDEO)
“After being diagnosed with ALS and rendered almost completely paralyzed, legendary L.A. graffiti artist Tony “Tempt” Quan gets his voice back through technology that reads the movement of his eyes and enables him to create art and write once again.”
The Big Egg Hunt: Baku Magazine x Secret Wars (VIDEO)
Marcelina and Mr. Hicks paint their big egg.
Urban Folk Art Gallery Presents: “The Collected Works of Adam Suerte” (Brooklyn, NY)
Adam Suerte, Founder of Urban Folk Art© Studios and the UFA© Gallery, as well as co founder of Brooklyn Tattoo® will show painting, printmaking, illustration, and some mixed media, and artfacts from his 11 year tattoo career. Most of Suerte’s work consists of urban styled imagery often directly depicting the surrounding neighborhoods he grew up in. Adam was born and raised in South Brooklyn in the late 60’s and 70’s. He wrote graffiti as a teenager, attended Music and Art High School, and earned a BFA in Illustration at Rhode Island School Of Design. He returned to Brooklyn in the early 90’s and co-founded the artist collective Urban Folk Art©. In the late 90’s he apprenticed tattooing as tattooing became legal in NY in ’97. By 2001 he co-founded Brooklyn Tattoo® with his current business partner Willie Paredes. In Jan 2011 they set up the most current physical manifestation of the collective next door to the Tattoo studio. This show celebrates the first year of Urban Folk Art© gallery’s effort to bring emerging, established and legendary artists of all mediums and backgrounds into view through their venue. There will be a limited edition ‘year in review’ gallery guide to the past years artshows available the night of the opening as well as other tshirts and merch adam suerte has been known to create.
Pandemic Gallery Presents: “All Talk” A Group Show (Brooklyn, NY)
“ALL TALK”
Feb.17th – March 11th, 2012
Opening Reception: Fri. Feb. 17th, 7-11pm
Featuring works by:
Aakash Nihalani
Andrew H. Shirley
Cassius Fouler
Destroy & Rebuild
Gabriel Specter
Isabel Lasala
J. Ralph Phillips
Jenna Hicock
Jesse Edwards
Jesus Saves
Map
Merk
NohJColey
“ALL TALK” features some of New York City’s boldest anti-heros, cynics and preachers. Those that run us through the gauntlet of fine art, design, and graffiti. From spray paint to oil paint to print making, this group of artists will display a collection of work to be hung in a gallery, but that can also be seen on the streets, walls and rooftops of New York. Their consistency and work ethic have been unparalleled in a scene that seems to be full of come and go artists looking for quick fame. This group has proved themselves time and time again to be among the most authentic and dedicated creators around. Engulfed with the love for what they do, they demonstrate their undaunted drive and creative dominance…………… unless it’s just all talk.
Tues.-Fri. 11-6pm
Sat. & Sun. 12-7pm
closed Monday
Skewville Turns 80. A Bday Bash-Retrospective At Factory Fresh (Brooklyn, NY)
Skewville
The boisterous Skewville Twins turn 80 years old combined and they are inviting you to come and celebrate with them at Factory Fresh in Bushwick for an evening of art, fun and mischief.
As the largest collectors of their own work. Skewville will showcase past favorites such as the original giant “Hype” signs from Wooster Collective’s 11 Spring Street show in 2006. as well as the Skewville “Lawnmower Stamper” that prints out ” Keep on Grass” and The Secret Laboratory Book Shelf Door from Basement AIr Show in 2005. Also featuring their wooden sneaker archives from 1999 to present as well as recent artworks from the past few years will also be available and on display.
Skewville’s 80th Birthday
Opening reception Friday February 3rd from 7-10pm
Show ends Sunday, March 11 at 7pm
special Hasidic Street-Art Duo – Jewville
Factory Fresh is located at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop
Images of the Week 01.22.12
Welcome to our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Destroy All Design, En Masse, False, Goel, Lisa Enxing, Logan Hicks, NTAS 1979, Pez, Pink Clouds, Ron English, and this snappy new one from VINZ that was set free in Williamsburg last week.
You can tell she’s cold. Know how? Vinz (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A camoflauged buck from Ron English grazes before a streetscape by Logan Hicks for Wynwood Walls. Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“He is SUCH a party animal” Lisa Enxing (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pink Clouds Yellow Bunny. Red heart bunny by unknown artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A collective mass of illustrations by En Masse in Miami for Art Basel 2011 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NTAS 1979 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pez in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
False (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Goel in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Destroy all Design new wall in Los Angeles (photo © JB Jones)
Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Power of Pun : Steve “ESPO” Powers’ Signs in Brooklyn
Philadephia born New York Street Artist Stephen Powers AKA ESPO has been covering walls in Brooklyn since last summer with puns, phrases, and messages that hide in plain sight. Borrowing from a visual vocabulary of mid 20th century commercial signage and injecting his low-brow sarcasm and a knack for wordplay, the former graffiti writer perfected this kind of lettering more than a decade ago doing non-commissioned street art work in broad daylight on storefront grates in dilapidated New York neighborhoods.
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Like his barking carney signage for famous Coney Island, the work has all the subtlety of a cannonball. But you may be bamboozled. The sharply sweet uptown fonts and punchy retro palette could look like he’s giving you the straight dope, but a second glance reveals the winking eye of a court jester. With an advertisers sensibility, his recent expansive public art installations – “Love Letters” to Philadelphia, Syracuse, and now Brooklyn – have a tough-as-nails enamel gloss while the soft center swirls a sentiment more gooey, even maudlin.
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Using phrases snatched directly from Brooklyn folks conversations on the street as well as his penchant for the parlance of snake oil salesmen, Powers yells boldly these non-sequitur and illusory missives across a parking garage, regularly looking back to see if “yah heard?”. It’s what emotional signage this size demands and gets, if only for a second.
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Images of the Week 01.15.12
So, what have you been up to so far this year? Watching Sh*t Cats Say? We’ve been learning cool stuff like Specter and friends Russell and Peter getting up in the JCC center , imagining who on earth might create a Street Art piece lionizing Ron Paul, seeing the spanky new Aiko and Bast reunited wall, and reading impressive 2 page email press releases for Street Artists who apparently get up in NYC but we never actually see and no one talks about. It’s a weird fun life and we’re totally okay with it.
Meanwhile, here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week including Aiko, Anthony Lister, TMNK, Bast, C215, Dain, ECB, Gaia, Gilf!, Gold Dust, Gufo, How & Nosm, Cope, Juango, KCA, Oiler, Palladino, Shin Shin, Snort, and Xavier.
Cope. Xavior (photo © Jaime Rojo)
How and Nosm in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A colorful and powerful Snort and Report tribute to Oiler (RIP) in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)
TMNK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Aiko and Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Aiko and Bast. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Aiko and Bast. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Palladino in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shin Shin (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Anthony Lister for Wynwood Walls Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gufo over Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Duplex, Gilf!, Gold Dust (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Juango and Michael in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia, C215, KCA in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman Wants You To Have A Sexy 2012
You’ve seen him in the pavement, you’ve seen him stuck to lamp posts, now see him every day inside your locker at school! Stikman made a handful of these for the new year, featuring one of those dapper dames from calendars you used to stare at while sitting on two phone books at Dad’s barber shop.
2012 by Stikman. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Always reinterpreting the iconic Stikman in new venues and mediums, this perky little new pin-up by the Street Artist is Joyce Ballantyne meets Penthouse meets The Car’s album “Candy-O”. 2012 is just big enough to slide into a legal sized envelope and Stikman is feeling very generous indeed, allowing us to send one free to the first five BSA readers who write and tell us why you love Stikman.
These calendars are not offered for sale anywhere and he only made a handful, so write to us with your address at stikman2012@brooklynstreetart.com and tell us why you love Stikman. We’ll write back to the first five.
In the meantime, enjoy these shots from Jaime Rojo in New York; Stikman’s recognizable character pops up very often in different parts of the city. Below are some of our favorite versions.
Stikman plays with Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Word! Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Watching your step, Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Straight to the heart of the matter, this Stikman appears on the remains of a piece by Know Hope. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman in cartoon hand (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A re-purposed movie poster by Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mighty Tanaka Gallery Presents: “Lost and Found” A Group Show (Brooklyn, NY)
Brooklyn, NY 11201