Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adri, Banksy, Dan Witz, Deform, Demon, Gaia, Jon Burgerman, Ludo, Nick Walker, Olek, Rambo, Slayers, and XAM with dispatches from Paris, Dubai, and Chicago.
“This new piece on the streets of NYC is an extension of some of the past work I have done connecting various concepts of catastrophe. I have found the imagery depicting the horrors of the plague especially pertinent to the state of our environment. Humanity has weathered and lived through various crises that have shaken our imagination and dramatically changed the way we organize our lives moving forward” Gaia
Street Artist Olek is a participating artist at The Crest Hardware Art Show currently on view in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Click on the link below to get full details on this show and go check out some imaginative interpretations:
You get a chance to go out to the park this weekend and sit under a tree or throw a frisbee? It’s not that far to walk really and its good to reacquaint oneself with nature and barking dogs and deviled eggs and other weird salad creations that Aunt Majiminy always forces you to try – even though you didn’t like it the last time she forced you to try it.
But we don’t know what has been in that jug of punch at these little picnics that Overunder, ND’A and Chris and Veng from RWK have been throwing this summer. The characters, the proportions, and the mixing of elements are ever more stretched and eccentric and colorful. These kids are seriously playing with their food – mixing the olives with the jello ambrosia and spreading it on a grilled hamburger and crumbling some ranch potato chips on top.
A distant Street Art relative from Berlin named IRGH is in town this summer and these Brooklyn based artists have put down the gingham table cloth and a wicker basket of aerosol cans in multiple locations to welcome their cousin and put him to work…painting walls. We’ve been chasing them around town in Brooklyn and Manhattan and here’s the wackiness we found:
“I’m so excited to have IRGH visiting and get to paint with him. We developed our painting style in the same direction, but in separate scenes, and different parts of the world and now get to combine forces” ~ Overunder
Our weekly interview the streets, this week including Clown Soldier, Connie, Enomeks, Enzo e Nio, Eve Ensler, Klaus Nomi, Lover, Obey, Over Under, PYR, The Dude Company, and Victor of the Sea
“There were a few things that went into creating this photo and I will try to sum up my meanings and reasoning behind it.
I first off wanted to capture the sort of sideshow spectacle that goes along with a rat being stenciled on a building. Blek Le Rat probably would have been a lot more famous had the full boom of internet media been around during his stencil height.
Most people these days know of a stenciled rat as being a Banksy thing, that too could be blamed on the media in general. I too am a fan of Banksy’s work, back before you had to either stand in a line to get a print or pray you win the lottery that goes into acquiring one these days. The reason for all the people taking pictures is the hype that surrounds his pieces, most of these “photographers” would not even look twice at other graffiti that could accompany the wall, that could very well be a known graffiti legend. I tend to look at some of the photographers taking shots to say they have actually seen a piece in person and the other half are going to upload photos to create a new set of coffee mugs and mouse pads to be sold on Ebay. The “Guess Who?” on the wall was a comment on various headlines and such you constantly see. For every 10 articles of “OMG new Banksy on wall in such and such”, turns out only about 1 is real. Almost anything stenciled on a wall these days will have some amateur journalist drumming up web hits by just putting Banksy’s name in a title. That is my personal opinion and reason for the piece.” ~ Enomeks
Nuart is working on an interesting project featuring some of the worlds leading street artists on the walls of NHH from July through September, including an international seminar on street art and capitalism on September 6 with Tristan Manco, Evan Roth (G.R.L) and some of the countries leading economists. Set to be launched by the King of Norway, it is the official art project for NHH’s 75th Anniversary.
What happens when economics and Street Art intersect? Insert answer here ___________________.
What happens if you mash an elite academic institution like the Norwegian School of Economics with an art scene that has anti-authoritative counter-cultural art roots?
Norway’s giant Street Art festival NUART is helping to host the official art event for the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) in the City of Bergen the NHH with an ambitious schedule of events to celebrating such a momentous jubilee. Stay tuned to see which Street Artists will be getting up on the storied walls of the the NHH this summer.
LA based Street Artists Septerhed and Destroy All Design like to work together on collaborative pieces around the city and recently completed this wall together, their two styles working in tandem. But what is more exciting is this video, actually.
Remember the early association of hip-hop music with graffiti in New York? This new video shot and edited by Carlos Gonzalez careens in the opposite direction – break dancing and hip bumping is replaced with fitful rage and fist pumping, with all the charm of a ransom note.
Under the watchful eye of a bow-tied statue and with the dramatically foreboding rumble and screech of guitars, the roadside video is tinged with putrid nighttime light and thrashing power chords sawing through the hurried splatter of wheat paste and brush. This is a take-no-prisoners approach to the warped wall while glaring traffic flies by; greedy handfuls of gothic glob is grabbed from the gutbucket and slammed across the surface, the swelling cacophony starting to take shape.
Also fun is the way the wheat paste is not merely an adhesive, but a medium for texture and expression. By the time the final shot of the piece stands still and guttural roar of our narrator invokes the image of “raining blood”, I needed to wash my hands. But for all the mechanized punch up and ferocity of blurry faced installing, the designed crispness of the material and subject matter tells you these monsters might live in an arcade or a basement rec room with a big screen, Dorito stained fingers, and a warm two liter soda bottle nearby within arms reach.
As you scan the skies this weekend for bright lights at night you are likely to see a lot of new Street Art in NYC that has suddenly exploded.
At a steady march French Street Artist JR and company is taking over walls in New York during his campaign of installations culminating in multiples in the Bronx this weekend, bursting like the crescendo of fireworks at the end of a show. Similarly Shepard Fairey is in town for a few more days getting up with some new aesthetic and political stuff he’s been working on around the city. In time for this weekends celebrations and commemorations, Street Artist General Howe has put up a brand new hand carved print (his first?) of the skeletal remains of a soldier, expanding on his themes of war and Brooklyn’s historical connection to America’s bloody founding. If anyone thought that Spring had given us a deluge of Street Art in New York City, it looks like Summer 2011 is going to set some records, and not just on thermometers.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Billi Kid, General Howe, Infinity, JR, Obey, Olek, and Stikman.
As we have previously reported here Street Artist Specter was in Paris recently for his solo show “Things Change” at the Since-Upian Gallery. His magnum opus on the street while there was the faithful recreation of a Brooklyn bodega façade that juts out into the street with a surprisingly genuine quality. For added authenticity, the rolldown gate is reproduced with the graffiti tag of Miss 17, ubiquitous throughout many neighborhoods of New York.
Ever challenging to conventional notions of what the Street Art scene is, Specter likes to turn your brain upside down with his actions like his spot-jocking of other Street Artist last year. Plumbing the gray areas again, he reproduces graffiti and Street Art within his own work, at once a documentation, tip of the hat, and visual paradox causing one to re-consider self evident truths about art and vandalism.
While in Paris, Street Artist FKDL played host to Specter and his friend and facilitated a small tour of some well known spots for Street Art, here documented by Lauren Besser in these photographs exclusively for BSA readers:
Anyone on the subway this morning knows what it is like to be mashed together with strangers and attitudes, a roiling mass of boobs and butts and sunglasses on the forehead, Rhiannon on the headphones next to you on the right, death metal on your left, and your upper arm is not as strong as you thought while you grab for something on the ceiling to hold onto. It’s a half sleeping mosh pit of commuters, with people who have just applied nice smelling things, but this ladies bag is still jammed into your back while you are pressing your already wrinkled summer pants against a messengers bike. Here’s an opportunity right in front of me; Might as well smash the lights and crank up the metal and have some Subwaypalooza, people! Or just go see the new Dan Witz show at Jonathan Levine Gallery tonight, that’ll be fun too.
Brooklyn based Street Artist and fine artist Dan Witz has been making art “In Plain View” as he likes to say it, for over 30 years. Throughout his prolific career he has been fearless in his exploration of art and the subjects that he likes to approach. He can paint beautiful photo-realistic canvases of still life scenes and humans in motion with the same ease as murky tormented scenes behind grimy windows and fragile and ethereal humming birds in flight or a lone tiny skate boarder gliding across a rusted metal wall. Pairing his study of light, his classically trained technique, and an enduring punk rock attitude, Witz’s body of work often takes it where you haven’t gone, and might be afraid to.
Mr. Witz’s new book, “In Plain View”, shows how in a span of 30 years he has pushed psychological limits with triggers in your periphery, a pursuit of interactive art with prickly engaging relevance in the public, if the public slows down and sees it. A storyteller out in the open, you’ll stop dead in your tracks when Witz hits you, commanding you to stay there until you can figure out what the hell that is, and ponder why is it there. What’s the story behind this faux door with two humans passionately kissing in the dark? Or this figure behind the wire crossed window; is she in pain? Is he dead? Is this real?
Dan’s solo show “Mosh Pits, Human and Otherwise” is opening tonight at the Jonathan Levine Gallery.
Ad Hoc Art “brought it” for the second year to Queens and at Welling Court with a collection of Street Artists and local families hanging out and painting the neighborhood. The tireless Alison and Garrison Buxton invited 40 or 50 of their closest friends with aerosol to take part over a two day period to transform the atmosphere in this neighborhood which doesn’t get much attention. The lineup includes artists who are pioneers in the graffiti and Street Art game who create alongside emerging talent. The styles vary, but the sentiments of connectedness and community are consistent throughout.
In this extensive collection of photos BSA gives you artists hard at work and hard at play with a little help from their friends. A traditional community mural format where everyone has their own slab to cover in their own style, Welling Court also engages the kids in the neighborhood, who frequently get to try their hand at painting or otherwise assisting the artists.
The day’s proceedings are part plastic art and part performance art as the artists often stop painting to interact with fans, inquisitors, Street Art aficionados and their fellow artists. Its part summer camp and part family reunion with the neighbors getting out the BBQ grill and setting up tables in the street while artists from around the globe are reconnecting and telling long tales and kids on scooters and skateboards weave in and out of the clusters of cans everywhere. With the abundance of homemade food and a variety of music playing at high volume the streets are alive and there’s nothing else you’d want to do on day like this.
John Ahearn is a pioneer in the area of public art known for making sculptures with local people posing as models. His technique of live casting requires the model to sit while John creates a cast of them in plaster. As far back as the mid 1970s Mr. Ahearn’s tributes to his neighbors have been seen affixed to many walls throughout the Bronx. Sited as an important part of the development of the Street Art scene Ahearn’s work has also traveled to private collections of prominent and noted art collectors and art institutions.
Brooklyn Street Art spoke with Mr. Ahearn and asked him about participating in this open venue and how he felt doing his live casting in Queens. He responded with excitement about the word “live”.
“You used the word very properly. I feel alive today. I feel alive and I just turned 60 two weeks ago and I feel this is where my roots are. Right in the sidewalk, doing casting, particularly aimed at little children. We are going to do a piece that involves a child. She is a friend of mine from way back and we are expecting to have a crowd of kids here and it is going to be fun,” said Ahearn.
AD HOC ART – Welling Court Community Street Art Celebration Saturday (Queens)
AdHoc Arts returns to Queens this year to Welling Court where Street Artists and the locals mix it up with music, local and homemade food and artists painting live. Bring your camera and bring a plate of cookies too. Sharing is caring.
The project transforms several city blocks into a 24/7 street-level gallery, bringing art from around the world directly to the heart of this community. Renowned artists with deep roots in the street movement have created site-specific works for this project and many will showcase various creative sundries for your perusal. This new array of visual experiences provides fresh contexts for how people working, visiting, and living in this diverse cultural gem of Queens think about and interact with their environment.
Artists include: Alice Mizrachi, Alison Buxton, Beau Stanton, Bunnie Reiss, Caleb Neelon, Chris Mendoza, Chris Stain, Celso, Cern, Cey Adams, Chor Boogie, CR, Cycle, Dan Witz, Darkclouds, Don Leicht, Ellis Gallagher, Ezra Li Eismont, Free5, Garrison Buxton, Greg Lamarche, Jesse Jones, JMR, Joe Iurato, John Ahearn, John Fekner, Jordan Seiler, Katie Yamasaki, Lady Pink, Leon Reid, Matt Siren, Michael De Feo, Michael Fumero, MIMEO, Mr. Kiji, Neko, Nuria, OverUnder, Pablo Power, R. Nicholas Kuszyk, ROA, Ron English, Royce Bannon, Sinned, Sofia Maldonado, TooFly, Tristan Eaton, Veng RWK, Zam.
WHERE: 11-98 Welling Court {@ 30th Ave & 12th Street}, Astoria, Queens 11102
WHEN: Saturday, June 25th, 2011 from noon until 9pm.
Click on the link below for more information regarding this event:
Right across the street where they’ll be debuting a new piece with BSA in August for “Street Art Saved My Life: 39 New York Stories”, the Brooklyn Street Art Collective Faile is presenting this pop up print show this weekend in Venice, Los Angeles. Tonight at the opening they’ll release a new print too.
“The show will feature a variety of works on paper over the last 12 years. A broad range of new and old prints and original works on paper. There are a variety of new pieces and a few surprises made for the show, including a new collection of works entitled Vintage Book Covers highlighting classic pieces from over the years” – Faile
Worth Something Gold
Edition of 50
Acrylic and Hand Pressed Gold Foil on Coventry Rag 335 gsm
35.75in. x 29in. (90 x 73cm)
Signed, Stamped & Numbered
Faile 2011
Opening Reception: June 24, 2011 (7 – 10pm)
Exhibition Runs: June 24 – July 24, 2011
POST NO BILLS
1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice Beach, CA 90291
310.399.2928
Click below for more information regarding this show:
One of the new clowns out there today is having a solo show of his fine art and some new interpretations of his Street Art funboys as well. With wit and a method to his absurdity, these new works give insight to the solid study he’s actually been doing for years.
Chicago at Pawn Works Gallery, Clown Soldier is “The Human Cannonball”
His new show in Paris at the Since-Upian Gallery is accompanied by some new work on the street – much of it inspired by Brooklyn streets. See brand new photos tomorrow on BSA.
Brooklynite Gallery welcomes the start of the summer with “Parlour” a sexy show Saturday Night. Also DJ Mayonaise Hands will be there with a camera and mike for insightful interviews and scintillating observations. Dress your rockinist cause you know the Bedstuy peeps are always in top form at this gem.
Miss Bugs. Detail of the new print “Eyes Glanced” (photo courtesy of the gallery)
“PARLOUR”
MISS BUGS
June 25 – JULY 16
Opening Night: Saturday, June 25, 7-10pm
MUSICAL GUEST: Hank Shocklee [Bomb Squad]
BROOKLYNTE 334 Malcom X BLVD
Brooklyn, NY 11233
Click on the link below for more information about this show:
Jon Burgerman Doodles on a Car in Brooklyn (VIDEO)
Last weekend for the CresFest and NorthSide Open Studios artist Jon Burgerman was invited by Brooklyn Street Art to paint on a car. We forgot to tell him to get dressed first. Little details like that escape him.
Video by µ-Ziq Theme by µ-Ziq.
K-Guy Print Release “Primate Pontificate”
London based artist K-Guy will be releasing a print on July 1st of his “Primate Pontificate” commentary on the state of affairs of the Catholic Church and their perceived hypocrisy on some relevant topics. He introduced this piece on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI most recent visit to England last year and we found some of these same primates on the streets of NYC in the fall. Funny to see them get released as prints.
Seen from the perch of the Highline, surrounded by a carefully curated urban wilderbush and postmodern biosculpture, the boisterous cacophony of the honking screeching streets below fades into a minimalist Phillip Glass plain, peppered with sharpened and sweet Sufjan Stevens sonnets and Nina Simone longings. Sometimes NYC is best viewed and enjoyed from its high points. Most of the city is up here anyway.
Summer streets are a swirling gritty brew of culture and commerce, happenings and happenstance. To have the opportunity to go to heaven without leaving earth or NYC for that matter is what a well designed public space like the Highline is successful at. Of course it took years of fostering, finagling, financing. A melding of vision and vitriol, the outcome has been an astounding urban oasis. Opened in June of 2009 it has been an instant success, attracting thousands daily.
A once abandoned carcass winding through this lower west side swath of Manhattan, the reclaimed former elevated freight railroad once connected factories and warehouses. Unused for nearly 30 years except by youthful graffiti artists and couples in love, it has debuted as on open pedestrian thoroughfare, a private and public place for citizenry, born from the vision of people and planners. As the second section opened last week the talents of so many are on display : architects, landscape designers, furniture designers, lighting designers and engineers all continue to work on its development (a 3rd phase is in the works) exhausting the limits of their talents and imagination to make this urban gem; a work of art in a city famous for being a difficult place to make things happen.
Here is a taste of the visual experience on the new section and some of the neighborhood it rises above and amidst; Blending the architecture with a bit of archeology, you can see old graffiti that was on the walls of the buildings next to it. It ads relevance, and interestingly, a sense of history, complimented by new commissioned public art installed along the park’s pathways and today’s Street Art below. Despite efforts to pressure wash some of these burners and rollers, one can still appreciate the outlines of the tags and the remnants of the paint on the brick walls; strains of an eroded and beautiful decay rising from the orchestra.
Cities and municipalities around the globe have no cohesive opinion or set of organized practices in response to Street Art. Heated rhetoric and strict criminal proceedings in one city contrasts sharply with a laissez faire or even loving embrace in another. Terminology in one city may lump all artistic expression together with vandalism while another carefully makes distinctions between categories such as vandalism, sanctioned, graffiti, street art, and others.
While one city has on-the-spot buffers and power spray washers and special authorities on the lookout for even a sticker, others are sponsoring projects and setting aside walls or neighborhoods specifically for the growing interest and expression in what they consider a peoples art movement. Some are even rushing to preserve certain Street Art works as important landmarks. Among the contributing factors that determine how a city responds to the occurrence of graffiti and/or Street Art include cultural attitudes, class issues, relative wealth, historical attitudes, the ebb and flow of public opinion, the educational system, the influence of business and arts constituencies, and even the potential for one to make political hay. In between the extremes are a patchwork of options including, of course, the indifferent.
Some times the cat and mouse game in the mind of a street artist can become quite intense and storied. DosJotas is a Spanish Street Artist residing in Amsterdam who has been exploring with his art the relationship between the government and their Street Artists. With his installation titled “Street Wars in Amsterdam” he depicts the relationship in blunt warlike terms, with the power and military might far overshadowing the unarmed aerosol spraying individual. Using plain black stickers cut out as silhouettes, DosJotas portrays a very stark and severely unbalanced use of violent force brought to bear – helicopters, drones, sharpshooters – all allied to blow away the wheat paster or man with a can.
Dude, watch out in Amsterdam, they’ll crush you with a tank. No lie.
Of course, we know (or sincerely hope) the scenes are a metaphor, an exaggeration intended to illustrate. Looking at a description of the project from the artist, we’re thinking there are no snipers on the roof, but that it is a commentary on a more pervasive cleansing of public space that the artist is reacting to;
“To speak of weapons is not to strictly speak of pistols, machine guns or tanks; but of strategies.
The streets have become controlled and tamed by the architects, politicians and businessmen, where any expression contrary to power is censored or criminalized.
A spray, a poster, a stencil or a sticker, may be the best weapons in a city. All subversive and illegal acts performed in public spaces are a defense of public spaces.”
Elfo is a graffiti writer and social commentator whose work intentionally sidesteps traditional notions of style or technical lettering. This …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Gaia. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)
