Bushwick Open Studios is this weekend, and of course that means that in between scattered studio visits and avant garde performances you will have to go to bars in the ‘hood to soak up that local D.I.Y. flavor. Conveniently, there will be art there too.
Not to be confused with the Kings County Bar Association, the name of the bar is Kings County (so is the county by the way) and the ever morphing roster for this round of ELC mayhem is: RoyceBannon, Anera, infinity, Celso, Abe Lincoln Jr., Ad Deville, Matt Siren, and Dark Clouds.
Brooklyn Street Art:What themes have you been working with?
Royce Bannon: The theme is ELC on a smaller scale, collabos, transmissions, hot chicks, and monsters
Brooklyn Street Art:Who has more fun? Monsters or voluptuous babes?
Royce Bannon: I think that when you combine monsters and voluptuous babes the only outcome is fun… its been proven.
Brooklyn Street Art:Will you be serving cheap shots?
Royce Bannon: Shots are cheap.
New piece by Matt Siren and Royce Bannon (photo courtesy ELC)
Chris Stain first became infected by graffiti’s bold colors, striking form, and independent nature as a child in the summer of 1984. As time went by he investigated other avenues of art such as print making, graphic design, and screen printing. Stain’s work is a direct reflection of the people, neighborhoods, and struggles that are swept along with the every day lives of the common American. It is his hope that through the work he will be able to convey the importance of the role of the less recognized individual of society.
Armsrock is an artist and activist whose work focuses on the human condition in the urban environment. By creating hundreds of unique drawings of his fellow citizens, and placing these original pieces on the walls of the city, Armsrock makes an attempt to generate a critical understanding of the stories and fates that house us.
Big ups to Brooklynite Gallery for getting this exclusive interview with Brooklyn street artist Dain, who has been rockin’ the starlet/portrait pasteups since before Swoon and Supine were playing with those little rounded kiddie scissors and Elmer’s glue, ya’ll.
Dudes’ been mixing wheatpaste since street artists had to make it out of mashed potatoes. This inside look at his home and studio reveals the process, the plain-spoken perspective, and it puts the pox on all those poseurs who are puttin up putrid pink powder-puff pusilanimy today. Period.
The street art collective known as ELC (Endless Love Crew) and other
street art stars will be hitting Kings County Bar for an art show of
extreme proportions. This show will open in conjunction with the Arts
In Bushwick’s yearly “Bushwick Open Studios” event which is sure to
rock Brooklyn!
Participating artists include: royce bannon anera infinity celso abe lincoln jr ad deville dark clouds
NYC Graff as Historical Touchstone
International Street Art Stars
Train Writers turned Fine Artists
High Culture/Street Culture Mashups
Corporate Logos and Celebrity Collectors
If that is not enough variety for you, then you have just been spoiled by too many years living in the center of a cultural and media capital.
You’ll be glad the former photo studios, two blocks north of Manhattan’s West Side Rail Yards, are generously spacious because you’ll need headroom to contemplate the variety of messages that Chantal and Brigitte Helenbeck, Parisian gallerists, are bringing to Hell’s Kitchen for a month.
For Chantal, “The street art style and story is distinctly American. It became a global phenomenon”. Her sister Brigitte agrees and asks her to translate to the visitor, “Yes, it is about movement, and color, it is very free and for this we say it is very American.”
Trains, geometric form, fills, and natural beauty on Coney Island (Daze) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Amidst the flurry of 11th hour installations all over this temporary gallery, the sisters say that they see graffiti and “street art” on a continuum with other schools in contemporary art and art history in general. Chantal observes as she looks around the cavernous 12,000sf upper floor at the “Whole in the Wall” exhibition that the kids that used to be “Bad Boys” (and girls) of graffiti back in the 70’s are now warm and friendly adults who are great to work with. Better yet, many continued to develop their skills and have truly become “great studio artists”. “It is important that their talent and recognition is seen and documented with the art world,” she says.
Lee Quiñones at work (photo Jaime Rojo)
A prime example of that observation could be Lee Quiñones, who is busily running up and down an aluminum ladder preparing a 12′ x 14′ canvas that couldn’t be more of a departure from his style back in the days of Sly Stone and Richard Nixon. A subway train writer as a teen in the 1970’s, his later exhibitions and studio work placed him in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum. The piece he’s working on for this show speaks to a sinister, more complex time using animal symbolism so often seen in the 00’s.
Up close to this canvas, it is an imposing thick dark forest of trees where the sprouting leaves and fallen, swirling fragments are actual dollar bills. Popping forward at you from the center comes the menacing protagonist; a realistic wolf in businessman’s clothing lurking from behind a tree in horn-rimmed glasses, looking at you with a dead-eye stare.
Wolf detail of brand new work by Lee Quiñones (photo Jaime Rojo)
As you talk to Mr. Quiñones, it’s easy to see that he cares deeply about his work, and he spends a great deal of time thinking about it, re-working it in his mind, and relating with it on an emotional level. The metaphor Lee had in mind this time is the children’s story “Little Red Riding Hood” and, as he points to parts of the canvas, you can see the story as it applies to any number of scams and backroom deals that clutter the business pages and Senate hearings these days. You might think of the same connection between financial crisis and the meager options for a teen in New York’s 1970’s while he describes the power brokers that created the current environment. Conspiratorially, he reveals that when the lights are out, the wolf’s eyes actually glow in the dark. He also says this piece is not finished but he’ll know when it is.
“Art is tricky, you know, you gotta look at it a lot,” the Puerto Rico-born painter says, “Then it tells you ‘Stop! Leave me alone! I’m done.’… I talk to my art, I spend time with it.”
“I was thinking of putting Madoff over here”
He contrasts the life and the approach to creative work back in the “wild style” days and now; “My studio is not this big but it’s pretty big so I can step back and take a look at it. When I was painting trains 35 years ago I only had like this much space (holding his hands a yard a part) and I had this big 40 foot (long) train in front of me. …. I had no luxury of looking at it from a distance, or time. But that’s also where I get my nocturnal practice. I can actually stay up four nights without sleep, no problem. And I’ve been up three days now.” A broad smile breaks across his face as he announces this feat of endurance and commitment.
It really DOES grow on trees. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
There is so much exuberance and so much to see at this show that A.D.D. seems like an excellent processing mechanism – Ramellzee’s sculpture on a highly ornate fifteenth century credenza, a French dude in a suit holding forth about the geneology of a chair, Plateus moving briskly across the floor gazing upward at the multiple canvasses and downward upon his high-gloss contorted letter sculptures, Henry Chalfants’ screen prints of miniature trains spread out on some bubble wrap, NYC’s Sharp amiably chatting with Brazillian Nunca (recently at the Tate), stencil godfather Blek le Rat sneaking outside for a cigarette where Blade is showing off the 1972 creme colored roadster he’s restoring, and, quietly, the Banksy rat glances over his shoulder.
The selections of artists for this show are not meant to be comprehensive, as is evidenced by the lack of any number of current European street artists, and almost complete lack of artists from today’s New York. What impact “Whole in the Wall” will have on current “street art” and graff movements is hard to say, but it is an often inventive way of drawing the connections and revealing the threads in a storyline that continues to be told.
Meet you on the Kings Highway! Rammellzee and King Louis mashup (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Martha Cooper prints waiting to be hung (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Okay, who let Sir Duke in the mansion? Don’t let him lick the gold leaf again! (Blek le Rat) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Armed nationalism on Sesame Street (Ikon) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Henry Chalfant silkscreens Blade (in the show) and many others on these metallic plates that clearly evoke the subway trains of the 1970’s and 80’s. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
This just In, a new giant piece by people’s champion Chris Stain and mild mannered Billy Mode on a sanctioned space in Bushwick called “Esperanza”, which means “I love mac-n-cheese” in Polish, I think. Longtime collaborators and buddies originally from back home in Baltimore, the two knocked out this mural over the Memorial Day weekend.
“Esperanza” by Chris and Billy (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: What was the inspiration for the piece?
Chris Stain: My friend Kevin speaks Spanish and I asked him what’s the word for “hope” in Spanish and he said “esperanza”. Since the neighborhood is heavily Latino, Bill and I wanted to do something the people could relate to.
Detail of the mural featuring good homies (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Are you seeing “hope” out on the streets these days? Chris Stain: At times. The idea with this piece is to inspire hope. Just like Whitney Houston said, the children are the future.
Man in photo is actual size (photo courtesy Chris Stain)
Brooklyn Street Art: Those are some dope letters, like they were carved out of blocks….
Chris Stain: Bill is a pretty sharp cat. He devised a template that would help speed up productivity as well as accuracy. The wall is 52 feet wide by 10 feet high. The rectangular shape he drew up and cut out of cardboard was made the width of a single letter (about 5 feet), which made it easier for us to center the piece and for bill to sketch out each letter. Letters are made up of shapes like everything else so he broke this particular letter form down to its most basic shape and we worked from there.
Human Male + Memorial Day Weekend = Lawncare (photo courtesy Chris Stain)
Masters from the 1970s NYC graf movement (Blade, Crash, Daze, Jonone, Quik, Lee Quinones, Rammellzee, Sharp) and European art stars (Victor Ash, Banksy, Blek le Rat, Ikon, Sozyone, Plateus) are among 19 painters, sculptors and photographers showing contemporary works in “Whole In The Wall: 1970 – Now”. It’s an unprecedented, museum-quality, 150-piece exploration of street art’s ongoing transition to, yes, fine art. The pieces are all original and rare; many are new.
piece by Sharp courtesy Helenbeck Gallery The show is an ambitious, two-story, 25,000-sf installation on Manhattan’s industrial West Side, juxtaposing street artworks with authentic 17th Century antiques. It will be an unprecedented presentation.
“Whole In The Wall: 1970 – Now”
Friday, May 29 through Saturday, June 27
11:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesdays through Saturdays; or by appointment
529-535 W. 35th St. @ 11th Ave. (former Splashlight Studio)
Opening Reception: June 18th – 6 – 10PM /
6PM PERFORMANCE BY HUNGRY MARCH BAND at CHRYSTIE ST. and BROOME ST.
Kenny Scharf, Jonas Mekas, Martha Cooper, Agathe Snow, Kelsey Brookes, Cheryl Dunn, Maya Hayuk, Ryan Humphrey, Kenzo Minami, James Jean, Graffiti Research Lab, Scott Campbell, Erik Foss, Peter Sutherland, Mike Giant, Leo Fitzpatrick, Chiara Clemente, Julia Chiang, Takuya Sakamoto, AIKO, Ellis Gallagher, Gaia, Ji Lee, Chris Stain, Chris Uphues, Falcon Duran, Aakash Nihalani, Paolo Bertocchi, Taliah Lempert, Alfredo Bovel and Shane Bovel, Nesta Mayo, Stewert Semple, Benedict Radcliffe, Ashira Siegel, Steve MacDonald, Brian Vernor, Artus De Lavilléon, James Newman, Kevin Foxworth, Joe Stakun, Andrew McClintock, Marco Mucig, Yatika Starr Fields, Daniele De Lonti, Lisa Romans, Amy Bolger, Wonka,Jacques Ferrand, Marc Sich, Herman Mao, David Komurek, Silver Warner, Patrick Trefz, Made in Queens, Greg Ugalde, Camilla Candida Donzella, Fast Eddie Williams, Tristan Eaton, Robert S.L. Waltzer and Gordon Stevenson, Jud Turner, Suzette Lee, Wiilliam Robbins and Jeffrey Robbins, I LOVE DUST, Maripol and Lino, Dana Goldstein, Rajan Mehta, Nathaniel Freeman, Giftcycle, Amelia Shaw, Jessica Findley, Lauren Silberman, Alessandro Zuek Simonetti, Daniel Leeb, Matteo Di Nisio , Ed Glazar, Bradley Baker, Cecily Upton, Rich Jacobs, Chris Thormann, Massan Fluker
Hungry March Band kicks off opening night at 6 PM with a performance in “the pit” at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Chrystie Street and Broome Street. Joy Ride maps will be available at each location.
For available artwork and more information about Joy Ride in NYC please visit www.anonymousgallery.com
or contact info@anonymousgallery.com
For more information about the Bicycle Film Festival, please visit
If you’ve tooled around the northside of BK recently you probably saw a giant porcupine and bear up there. Yes, Broken Crow was in town to participate in two art shows and put up three walls before heading on back to Minneapolis, where they participated in a 24 hour art creating event and painted a gigundo mural on the entire side of a building, with their bud Over Under.
So to recap – They drove from Minn. to Brooklyn in a beat-up loaner van, installed work in 2 art shows, painted 2 murals in Brooklyn, 1 in Manhattan, then drove the van all the way back to Minn. and painted 2 more murals… in 3 weeks. Kind of blows that stereotype about lazy shiftless artists, huh? Now they are exhausted, famished, delirious, and waaayyyy creatively satisfied. John and Mike reflect on jobs well done;
Brooklyn Street Art: You guys have been really busy for the last 21 days! How did the two shows go?
John: The two shows were great, as far as I can tell. I was happy with what we painted, and we got some good feedback, I think that’s the best you can ask for.
Mike: I had lots of fun at the shows. It was great to meet so many talented, and like-minded people.
Brooklyn Street Art: What else have you been up to?
John: Last week we painted two murals in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan, this week we’re back home in Minnesota we did a 3 hour slot in a 24 hour art-making marathon working with teenagers, and we’re also painting a 20×80 foot wall. Who knows what we’ll be doing next week..
Mike: We want to paint it all, but it is nice to be home and have a balance between art and family.
Brooklyn Street Art: How do you guys lay out a plan for the piece in Williamsburg?
Mike: We try to plan, but mostly our plans don’t work out. We usually just start with something that we want to paint. The creative problem solving happens while we are living in the painting.
John: There’s a lot of guesstimating going on, and then usually someone says something like “what do we have that will fit?”, and then the next thing you know, you’re stepping back from it and it’s done.
Brooklyn Street Art: Did you bring all your supplies to Brooklyn or did you have to make preparations once you got here?
John: We brought paint with us, but we spent 2 days cutting stencils while it was raining cats and dogs outside. It was actually a blessing in disguise, the rain, because if it had been nice out, the last thing we would have wanted to do was sit inside cutting holes in stuff.
Mike: While everything might be more expensive in New York, bringing your own supplies comes with the price of 38 hours in drive time.
Brooklyn Street Art: John’s angel boy character can see into the future. What about the porcupine dude?
John: The porcupine is overly concerned about what the angel boy is telling him.
Mike: The porcupine is all about self defense. D-Fence D-Fence!
Brooklyn Street Art: Are you optimists?
John: We are opportunivores.
Mike: Yes.
Brooklyn Street Art: Are those airplanes flying out of the bears’ mouth, Mike?
Mike: They are paper airplanes. Over Under makes them. He loves origami and windsocks.
John: Over Under loves puppies and unicorns. And machine guns.
Brooklyn Street Art: If these animal buddies were talking, what would they be saying to each other?
John: It’s sort of like the scene in Green Mile where the bees start flying out of Michael Clark Duncan’s mouth when he’s on healing people..
Mike: The bear is saying “Move or I will projectile vomit in your face!” The porcupine is thinking”Not again. It will take me forever to pick this sh*t out of my quills.”
Faile has spun out to Bedford Avenue (or at least a couple feet from it) in one more of these spinning columns to thrill the kids and the throngs of Williamsburg denizens, fans, and followers. Rumor has it that you can also charge your cell phone with the energy stored from the spinning, but we couldn’t find the jack : (
The more you see it, the more you know it down in your heart that we have turned a corner.
Hype be damned, the result of Posterboy’s plundering of the inescapable advertising messages you pay $2 to see in the subway is a new visual vocabulary that continues to pull surreal visual punches when you least expect it.
These portraits below could be the work of Posterboy, one of his admirers, or it could be the work of a team. From the average viewers perspective, that’s hardly the point.
Dear Mr. Black President (photo Steven P. Harrington)
The fact that new subway station banners are made of this easy-to-manipulate vinyl sticky backed material, coupled with the fact that there are rarely subway personnel or police in the subway stations these days, and you have a primo creative laboratory for everyone from “culture jammers” to collage artists to pop surrealists.
It’s the visual equivalent of the mash-up so popular in the digital DJ age; whole cloth samples snatched from fully realized pieces and re-matched with other genres, categories, styles, and eras. Sometimes the results are genius, sometimes clunky, many times causing nauseous feelings of disorientation.
Rockin the new specs (photo Steven P. Harrington)
These modern billboard materials are layered one on top of the another but peel back in a jiffy, easy to slice away and see what might be underneath. You may not even see Posterboy’s remix on the crowded platform while you lean against a grimy column. You may be watching a rat skittering along the third rail with a Snickers rapper in it’s mouth. But your train still hasn’t arrived because of (yet more) service cuts, and your phone doesn’t work down here in the tunnel so you glance up at the ad space and see the mangled headline manipulated to say “Get Head” with two floating mouths wide open beneath it.
It’s not graffiti, it’s not really street art, but it’s eye catching even when it’s not completely successful. It feels more like a studio than a gallery, full of experiments, dead ends, and occasional glimpses of brilliance.
You gotta some pretty lips Miss-ter (photo Steven P. Harrington)
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
