A group show that features the work of a number of street artists, among others.
Eastern District Presents:
“Plenty of Room on the Couch”
Curated by Jesse Lee Denning
Opening reception – Friday June 26th. 7 – 10pm
Special Guest DJ Todd Weinstock a.k.a. Toddlerone (Cubic Zirconia)
The goal of this exhibition is not only to highlight the vast array of talented artists in a summer spectacle but to also allow our peers, friends, and all around art lovers to purchase and own art that is both affordable and quality work!
Ever clever Jon Burgerman has been hanging out in the BK all summer – (minus a two week stint in sandy, spread-out California) wondering where time disappears to and how to get free lunch.
Now he TELLS ALL in this scintillating visual expose called “My American Summer”
Rising street artist Aakash Nihalanistarted “bombing” the streets of New York City with his colorful isometric forms just over a year ago. What began as repetitive silkscreen studies in the studio later developed into Nihalani’s signature approach to open-air installations. Using tape as his sole medium, he highlights the geometry of the city—from subway signage to a slab of concrete —with clean rectangles, squares and cubes. Employing the modus operandi of graffiti writers, Nihalani revamps public space, offering fresh perspectives and creating room for new words and ideas. His installation for Paraphrase will make use of both the walls and floors of the gallery. He will also utilize the windows that run along Arario’s south wall (facing 25th Street) to exhibit new works on mirror.
Featuring Chris Stain, Christopher Cardinale, Jane Weissman, author of On the Wall, Joe Matunis of El Puente, and Lady Pink, legendary muralist. As part of Arts in Bushwick’s Bushwick Open Studios, panelists come together to discuss topics concerning community murals in New York City, what works on the wall and what doesn’t, community involvement, as well as exploring the rich history of community murals in Brooklyn and its future prospects.
AVOID, BLOKE and FARO converge at Factory Fresh, bringing with them an assorted collection of unique styles that exemplify the next generation of NYC street art and graffiti. On June 5th they will present their artwork as a group in a gallery for the first time. Through blending their ideals and styles, they create a symbolized view of the streets that transcends one world and ushers in another.
The show is based on the year 2012, which represents a notion of change and transition throughout the world, marking the end of the Mayan calendar. Many view this year with apprehension, prophesying apocalypse, climate meltdown or a spiritual awakening. Currently, through economic crisis and constant warfare, an artistic shift is taking place on the streets of New York City.
As we approach this time of great change, the 2012 show places the viewer in the middle of the transformation, an adventure through shifting paradigms of the world.
2012
Opening June 5, 7-10
June 5 – June 21 at Factory Fresh, Bushwick, Brooklyn.
After two successful openings over the weekend, Broken Crow gets up in the BK.
During a brief respite from the rain – for about 8 hours yesterday, Broken Crow brought back the wild into our Brooklyn urban environment. All you need is a cool slab of flat, a couple ladders, and giant stencils you’ve been cutting all night, and you’re ready to rock the block!
Amazing how much you can get done in 3 hours! Broken Crow at work (photo Jaime Rojo)
Bear keeping his distance from his prickly cohort. Broken Crow at work on a new large mural in one of Williamsburg's still ungentrified sections. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Kind of makes all the rain worth it. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Fun things to stumble upon while you are singing in the rain
This number 9 is always coupled with a cartoon character like on Sesame Street. Try to check your reflection in the well-positioned convex mirrors when you pass the construction workers – they are revelatory when you take a good look (Peephole). Under these ever grey clouds we cheerfully welcome Judith Supine in acidic fluorescence; who has returned with a step-up in complexity and keeps true to disform.
9 Birds (photo Jaime Rojo)
9 Eagles (photo Jaime Rojo)
9 Elephants (photo Jaime Rojo)
NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 – are these related to the Beatles in some way?
“BROKEN HORSE” happened faster than you can say “Mint Julip” – in fact this show was too brief perhaps for such concentrated talent and such a strong collection of work.
Two street stencil artists, Logan Hicks and Broken Crow, inhabited an abandoned bank hall in Cobble Hill this weekend only, and even though their approach to their craft was different, they played off of each other happily while grounding each other in their mutual adoration of cutting stencils.
Broken Horse fans (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Friday night, despite a May Day deluge earlier and a misty fog-like darkness that crept through the Brooklyn streets, a fair number of fans of Logan Hicks and Broken Crow – known names on the street art stencil front – hurried past the tall wrought iron gates into a warmly lit temporary gallery with chandeliers and ceiling fans.
Athens Alley (Logan Hicks) (courtesy the artist)
Logan Hicks is a meticulous multi-layering documentarian of imposing man-made structural engineering, architecture, the common byways worn by use and neglect, and the small matter of large groups of humanity. Veins, cracks, surface textures all create a heavy web of detail in a photorealistic way. Even when there are no human forms in the frame and you are looking at the worn geometry of a back alley, the evidence and activity of the throbbing mass is felt as it pounds through it’s ritual of living.
Locust Plague (Logan Hicks) (courtesy the artist)
In one near-epic foreboding scene set on Broadway in Soho, the stark pairing of glistening industrial hues with hot acid red skies feels apocalyptic, yet the multi-headed horde plods on unimpressed and unaware of encroaching doom. Hicks has chewed his way through the tunnels and streets of cities around the world and is frequently drawn to weighty matter, whether marble, concrete, steel, or humans – and sees it without sentimentality.
Golden Insight (Logan Hicks) (courtesy the artist)
Injecting a bit of levity, the Minnesotan duo Broken Crow (John Grider and Mike Fitzsimmons) are primarily concerned with the animal kingdom/queendom, and their less layered style of stencil work promotes the creatures of the natural world back into our unnatural one with a big dollop of irreverence. Normally outside on ladders making large-scale murals, Broken Crow presented gallery-show sized portraits of animals snapped out of their context. Their open expressions talk directly to the viewer, joking or mocking what a fabulous job we’re doing.
Bears on Wall street wreckin' s__t? "Optimism" (Broken Crow) (image courtesy the artist)
There’s a grizzly on his hind legs in front of rubble in the street, here’s a porcupine looking you in the eye as he’s poised to stick a metal fork in an outlet, and now a monkey couple laughs together like they are watching “All in the Family” on the boob tube.
"Fine Whisky Products" (Broken Crow) (courtesy the artist)
The out of context surrealism of some pieces will make you question a comparatively normal scene of birds flying past telephone poles. Broken Crows’ poppy colors, wide lines, and op-art backdrops keep it light, but the subtext may not be.
Broken Horse show - wall of Broken Crows(photo Steven P. Harrington)
“Broken Horse” is a jolt of energy by observant and studied street artists refining their craft and leaving a mark. Hope you caught it, but if you didn’t you can see more work by the artists here:
"I'm not a player I just Crush a lot" (Broken Crow) (image courtesy the artist)
And now for something completely different: Have you heard that song about Taco Bell and Pizza Hut?*
– “gimme a enchilada slice with extra pepperoni and sour cream! Or better yet, lemme have a jalapeno ricotta slice with spaghetti and that orange cheese on top. I’m a rock this burrito pie, son!”
Tonight’s is going to welcome you to a Great Recession-era cardboard box village created by contemporary and urban (street) artists, to register a commentary on the on-going squeeze people are feeling here.
Who better than street artists could help us live on the street in style? With jobs evaporating, the public sector heaving, the hand-out happy banks still refusing loans, and landlords still scalping, it’s easier than ever to imagine a future with the hapless hordes resorting to building their homestead in an empty lot with shipping boxes and various found objects. Think of this show as Martha Stewart for the skid-row set.
A true street art Opening in Brooklyn, with shutters open wide and many doorways to contemplate.
A collection of 30 artists on the street art scene are contributing to the vision of the adoorable Luna Park and her co-curator Billi Kid. Ms. Park, a well-travelled street art photographer who calls Brooklyn home, is among a very select group of intrepid souls cris-crossing the borough by any means possible to get the right shot.
Well regarded and always smartly outfitted, Ms. Park and Mr. Kid have added a bit of poetry to the street art oeuvre by decorating the departure, edifying the entrance, festooning the frontage, and gilding the gateway!
Image by Luna Park featuring a Celso in the doorway.
Brooklyn Street Art: How did you and Billi Kid conjure a show using doors as canvas?
Luna Park: Last year, Billi Kid, Jim and Karla Murray, Cern and Elisha Cook Jr. decorated a room at the Carlton Arms Hotel, which is known for it’s fabulous, one-of-a-kind, artist-decorated rooms. I highly recommend it as an affordable place to send your arty guests. To capitalize on the network of artists they’d built through the hotel, in March 2008 the owners opened Artbreak Gallery in Williamsburg. When Billi Kid contacted them about the possibility of doing a doors-themed street art show, they were immediately on board. I agreed to participate last December and the rest, as they say, was a matter of logistics, logistics, logistics.
Brooklyn Street Art: As you march across the city looking for great shots, have you found that some artists gravitate to doorways?
Luna Park: Definitely! I’d even go so far as to say not only SOME, but MANY. Your average urban door is the perfect gateway to graffiti – pardon the pun – it provides a smooth, even surface, accessible to all and, most importantly, visible to all. Although I don’t subscribe to the so-called “broken windows” theory of graffiti leading to crime, I do think it holds true for doors in the sense that graffiti on doors DOES attract more graffiti. It generally starts with a lone tag and – provided that tag isn’t buffed – the tags soon multiply. Before you know it, stickers get in on the action, the odd wheatpaste sticks around and, voila, suddenly you have a proper door!
Brooklyn Street Art: Why would a doorway be better than, say, a wall?
Luna Park: I’m not saying doors are better than walls, but as a surface on which to write or stick, a doorway offers a certain degree of protection from prying eyes. No one looks twice at someone who is ostensibly fumbling for keys in front of a doorway, but that same person loitering by a wall…
Cake from “The Great Outdoors” (photo Luna Park)
Brooklyn Street Art:Where did all of these come from? Have you been dumpster diving?
Luna Park: Well, I’m certainly not one to condone any kind of illegal activity, ahem, so I’m assuming the doors were all acquired legally, perhaps through a fine, neighborhood purveyor of sundry household items.
I personally salvaged two doors from the curb down the street from my house. Billi Kid acquired his door and several others at a farmhouse sale in rural Connecticut. A few people must have visited demolition sites, as there are a number of extraordinarily heavy fire doors as well. The doors really run the gamut of everything from vintage to factory fresh.
Brooklyn Street Art: Are most of the pieces in this show made specifically for “The Great Outdoors?”
Luna Park: Yep, with one notable exception, all of the pieces for this show are brand spanking new!
“Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” – Johnny Cash
The Dude Company for “The Great Outdoors” (photo Luna Park)
Brooklyn Street Art: Every door has two sides; has anybody addressed both for the show?
Luna Park: We asked the artists to decorate only one side of the door – to make hanging them all the easier – but Celso and LA2 collaborated on one side of a door that already had a piece on the other side. I’d mention who, but that would spoil the surprise.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s not the same as painting ox blood over the doorway, but do you think there is any symbolism to the act of decorating a door?
Street art and graffiti covered doors aside, I think the decorated door functions as a marker, defining the threshold between the private and the public spheres. There are certainly any number of cultures around the world that place markings on doors to celebrate rites of passage: in the part of northern Germany from which my mother comes from, it is not uncommon to see important family dates chalked onto doors, presumably in conjunction with some kind of religious blessing.
“we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell
Feral for “The Great Outdoors” (photo Luna Park)
Brooklyn Street Art: On a grander scale, this show could be a commentary about the times we’re in, with many doors slamming shut, while others that we scarcely imagined only two years ago are opening wide. Do you care to philosophize?
Luna Park: I’m an optimist at heart and a pragmatist by nature, as such, I believe very much in silver linings and unforeseen occurrences. Especially in times of crisis, one has to embrace change, because only by accepting change can one move forward. When Billi Kid approached me with the opportunity to co-curate this show, you better believe I opened that door, despite initial misgivings about never having organized anything of this magnitude before.
I can only speak for myself, but having this show – something I’ve come to see as an incredibly positive force in my life – to occupy me and to look forward to has made the struggles I endure at work all the more bearable. I am slowly realizing that this show has opened doors for others, and that has made this experience all the more meaningful to me. By the same token, the outpouring of support from the street art community – BSA included – has been enormous and for that I am very grateful.
Brooklyn Street Art: Given their past locations and your personal experience shooting the streets, what does it feel like to see these doors lined up in a spare white box gallery space?
Luna Park: There is often critique of street art and graffiti work in galleries, in many cases justified in that some work simply does not translate well onto canvas. But in this case, we’re literally bringing doors in off the street and taking them to the next level (the gallery’s on the 2nd floor). Because the doors are relatively large and heavily decorated, being surrounded by a clean, white gallery wall gives each piece space to breathe. Above and beyond that, it’s nice to see the humble door elevated to a place of honor.
“Listen; there’s a hell of a good universe next door: let’s go.” – e.e. cummings
Brooklyn Street Art: What door surprised you the most?
Luna Park: Without a doubt, Blanco! I’ve been following his stencils since he first started putting them out, seeing his progression with each, more intricate piece. When we invited him to be part of the show, I had high hopes, but he’s really exceeded all expectations and then some! Bravo, J!
That having been said, I’m very pleased by the quality of ALL the work and am super proud of everyone’s efforts. My sincerest thanks to everyone that helped make this show possible.
Brooklyn Street Art: What time do doors open on Saturday?
Luna Park: Doors open at 6pm. I for one can’t wait to find out if it’s Bachelor #1, #2 or #3 behind my favorite door! ;p
“Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.” – Brooklyn’s own Mae West
THE GREAT OUT DOORS
MAY 2 – 29, 2009
Art Break Gallery 195 Grand Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Thursday through Sunday, 1-7 pm.
Opening Reception Saturday May 2, 6-10 pm
At the opening Saturday you’ll also get to see a projection show of Luna Park’s photography, specifically images of doors on Brooklyn streets and elsewhere.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
