On the Street

Images of the Week 04.03.11

April 3, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson

The streets are coming alive with sculpture-like objects this spring – repurposed household items and brand new houses for the avian set are suddenly popping up like yellow and purple crocuses on the toxic banks of the Gowanus Canal. Also you’ll notice a bit more nudity these days, some frankly frank, as spring and a young man’s/woman’s fancy are abloom.

Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Fly Kid, Haculla, L.O.L. Von Shan, Obey, Rae, Rambo, RTTP, Sabio, Shepard Fairey, Stikman, Tristan Eaton, and XAM.

This sculpture, in SOHO by RAE is a perfect example of the ongoing D.I.Y. movement that adds to the conversation on the streets. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAE. The thrills of photographing Street Art can be similar to those of a treasure hunt. When I have the opportunity to witness the public being engaged with the art in the street the thrill turns into poetry. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Guuurl, he is so fly! Fly Kid From Brooklyn (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

This billboard on the BQE has had a long run and it could be landmarked. Alternately, it could be a fine ad for Taco Bell fake meat products. Sabio. Obey. Rambo (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM’s bird houses seem to stay up for about a minute and a half – before they get damaged or removed; Possibly because they are obstructing traffic messages, dunno. They come with a satellite dish on top, presumably for in-home viewing of Animal Planet specials on the mini plasma. “CSD DWELLING UNIT 1.6” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM “CSD DWELLING UNIT 3.0” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM “CSD FEEDING UNIT 1.0” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM “CSD DWELLING UNIT 1.6” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An instant Mash Up/Collage/Collab with a Supreme poster of Lady Gaga – or is that Madonna? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

L.O.L. Von Shan is rather straight backward about the subject. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This whole low-rider jeans thing has gotten out of hand. RTTP. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Haculla balances graff and street art, horror and humor. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like RAE has a handle on the street sculpture matter. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman internalizes Natalie Portman’s character (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” completed mural (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click on the link below to see process shots of the mural:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=19625

Jaime Rojo. Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fun Friday 04.01.11

April 1, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street, Opening, Philadelphia

1. Birdsong ZINE Benefit
2. Nomade on LA Freewalls
3. 10th Anniversary of Robots Will Kill in Philadelphia Tonight
4. PANTHEON Opens in Manhattan on the Street Tomorrow
5. EL Celso Closing Party Saturday at Pandemic
6. Spring is Just Around the Corner! Time For Wedding Planning!
7. GAIA Does Giant Martha Cooper Tribute in Chicago
8. BSA Was in the Newspaper Yesterday
9. Happy April Fools! Insane German Synth Pop “Razor Scooter” Video

10. Banksy Revealed as Nude USC guy having sex on the roof

Birdsong ZINE Benefit – Support Your Local ZINE – Tonight at Brooklyn Fireproof

The Birdsong Zine birthday party and benefit — celebrating 3 years of the Brooklyn artist small collective that produces birdsong among other zines, celebrate with a print show and sweet live music.

–art: featuring limited edition $20 prints by a group of artists who have contributed to, or who have been interviewed by, birdsong over the past three years: Blanco, Cara Fulmor, Cat Glennon, Elizabeth Hirsch, J. Morrison, Julia Norton, Joey Parlett, Danielle Rosa, Will Varner, and Michelle Yu

–bands: Sweet Tooth Nelson + Jess Paps, Baby Alpaca, Hunter, Little Victory

When: Friday, April 1st. Doors at 8pm, bands start at 9pm

Where: Brooklyn Fire Proof,119 Ingraham St @ Porter Ave, Brooklyn (Morgan L)

Why: $$$ goes to offset some of the cost of producing birdsong #15, a Brooklyn-based full color bi-annual lit/art/interview zine.

Flier: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5094/5500993586_760caca9fc_b.jpg

Nomade on LA Freewalls

Haven’t seen these fellers in action before, now, have ye? Bunch of black blobs on their faces though. Did you see the pictures of the final installation here a couple of days ago?

10th Anniversary of Robots Will Kill in Philadelphia Tonight

And if you find yourself in Philly today and want to have a good time and experience great art and excellent company head over to the Vicent Michael Gallery where RWK Art Collective is celebrating their 10th Anniversary of art making

At the Robots Will Kill show will be this piece “Winter Flower” by Veng RWK

PANTHEON Opens in Manhattan on the Street Tomorrow

Curators Daniel Feral and Joyce Manalo invite you to go window shopping this Saturday April 2 to view and buy the art on display on the windows of the old Donnell Library across from MOMA for their exhibition PANTHEON: A History of art from the streets of New York City. See some detail pics from the show here:

907 Crew. Detail. “907 Was an Inside Joke” (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

PANTHEON:
A history of art from the streets of New York City
Windows exhibition runs April 2-17, 2011
On view 24 hours a day

EXHIBITION LOCATION
chashama at the Donnell
20 West 53rd Street, b/w 5th & 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10019 (across from MoMA)

Image Credit: GRAFFITI & STREET ART diagram by Daniel Feral is a 75th Anniversary celebration of Alfred H. Barr’s CUBISM & ABSTRACT ART diagram.

EL Celso Closing Party Saturday at Pandemic

Pandemic will be hosting a closing party for their El Celso show tomorrow night (1/2) from 7-11pm

It’s your last chance to dance like a maniac in their exclusive…El Celso Mini Discoteca.

Pandemic
37 Broadway (between Wythe and Kent)

Brooklyn, NY 11211
(917) 727-3466

pandemicgallery@gmail.com

Spring is Just Around the Corner! Time For Wedding Planning!

Fools rush in …. where angels fear to tread. Enjoy some of these inspiring Photoshopped delights from romantic Russia and your friends at Sad And Useless

GAIA Does Giant Martha Cooper Tribute in Chicago

Pawn Works and Maxwell Colette Gallery recently hosted New York Street Artist GAIA in Chicago for his “Resplendent Semblance” show and helped him find some walls, like this one in an image from the Pawn Works site, which doesn’t mention that the original image is a photograph from Martha Cooper. Ms. Cooper’s Remix show prep begins in earnest today as she touches down in LA to start installing the her photos and the 50+ original works by graffiti and street artists who have reinterpreted them.

Image of GAIA piece courtesy and copyright of Pawn Works

From our piece with Chris Stain, Billy Mode, and Ms. Cooper a couple of weeks ago:

Brooklyn Street Art: Oh yeah! Gaia is doing that one for this show!
Chris Stain: He is? Cool, that’s cool.
Brooklyn Street Art: Well he loves doing birds, and feathers, and animals.
Chris Stain: Well Gaia’s a bird brain, that kid, so it makes sense.

BSA Was in the Newspaper Yesterday

Yes we geeked out to see Brooklyn Street Art in the AM New York newspaper yesterday morning! Plus we were all over the fact that NohJColey and El Sol 25, two of the newest talents on the street got some props. Oh yeah, and that guy Shepard.

See it in the online version here.

Happy April Fools! Here’s An Insane German Synth Pop “Razor Scooter” Video

Jesus Waves Italy’s Flag in Turin

March 30, 2011 Artists, Italy, On the Street

Street Artist Angel Cruciani Commemorates 150 Years of Italian Unity

This month Italy commemorates 150 years of unification. In March 1861 Turin became the first capital of Italy after the political and social movement known as il Risorgimento brought together most of the city-states from the Italian Peninsula. Rome was not part of this unification as it was still controlled by the Pope as part of the Papal States. In 1871 Rome became the third and last capital city of Italy.

To mark this occasion Italian artist Angel Cruciani has been busy stenciling numerous cities across Italy with a stylized and nationalistic portrait of Jesus, essentially unifying Church and State. Taking it’s cue from narrow facial lines in The Shroud of Turin, the stencil campaign brings the “Jesus Street” project all over Italy’s plazas and main streets.

Angelo Cruciani (photo © Veronica for BSA)

A negative of the Shoud of Turin from Wikipedia

Pandemic Gallery Presents: Leon Reid IV: A Decade of Public Art (Brooklyn, NY)

March 29, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, On the Street, Opening

Leon Reid IV

Leon Reid IV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leon Reid IV: A Decade Of Public Art

Photography, sculpture and drawings exhibiting the span of Leon Reid IV’s public artwork, 2000- present.

On Display:
Sat. April 16 – Sun. May 8, 2011

Opening Reception
Sat. April 16, 2011 7-11pm

‘A Decade Of Public Art’ is Leon Reid IV’s first New York City solo exhibition and features a new public sculpture viewable outside Pandemic Gallery. The show reveals a vast range of unpublished material associated with his well known public artworks. Sketches, maquettes and video footage flesh out works such as “True Yank” the controversial Abraham Lincoln intervention; “Free As A Bird,” a sculpture installed on a prison guard tower; and “The Kiss,” the cherished London installation for which he is most known. Reid provides a glimpse into his plans for future public works, including his monumental “A Spider Lurks In Brooklyn” project, which recently received Fiscal Sponsorship from New York Foundation For The Arts (NYFA).

Listed as one of the “60 Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future” by Thames & Hudson, Leon Reid IV has been on the edge of public art for over 15 years. He grew up as a traditional graffiti writer (a.k.a VERBS) and quickly developed a knack for unconventional practices such as painting street signs and installing them during daylight disguised as a construction worker. His most famous work of this period is “Verbs St – Oh Yes I Did” a cleverly manipulated subway sign installed in Canal Street station, NYC. His experiments in graffiti lead him to move beyond the genre and pursue site-specific installations under the pen-name Darius Jones. The New York Times featured an article on “It’s All Right”, a subtle contortion of a One-Way sign and a Phone sign creating the illusion that the two are in love. Reid is one of the few artists responsible for introducing sculpture into the language of street-art, his techniques of installation combined with his humorous and romantic themes have made a sizable impact on urban artists of his generation.

Reid’s current work remains sculptural, highly contextualized and is often installed on existing architecture. In Norway, “The Great Recession” features a giant Kilroy-Was-Here styled sculpture hanging over the ledge of a local bank, apparently holding on to his last dollar. In Brazil, “Bring The House Down” depicts a life-sized human figure made of chain, attempting to uproot the building pillar of a cultural institution. Reid’s latest works add striking visual elements to existing structures, the result of which he considers a true collaboration with the structure’s architect.

At present and through out his career, Leon Reid IV has designed his work to communicate directly with the public at large. He considers every site -be it domestic or international- an opportunity to create work that is meaningful and accessible to the community where it exists.

Leon Reid IV’s work has been exhibited worldwide and featured in publications/media such as: Time Magazine, The New York Times, PBS, BBC, Radio National Australia, Good Magazine, Creative Review, Recharge and The Wooster Collective among others. He co-authored a novel based on his experience in graffiti and street-art “The Adventures Of Darius and Downey” as told to Ed Zipco” Thames & Hudson 2008. Reid holds a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and an M.A. from Central Saint Martins School Of Art and Design in London. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

PANDEMIC gallery
37 Broadway btwn Kent and Wythe
Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.pandemicgallery.com

Gallery hours:
Tues.-Fri. 11-6pm
Sat. & Sun. 12-7pm
closed Monday

or by appointment

L train to Bedford ave, J train to Marcy ave, or Q59 bus to Broadway/Wythe

New Nomadé for MMXI in Los Angeles

March 29, 2011 Artists, California, L.A., Los Angeles, On the Street

Los Angeles wasn’t built in a day, and either were these pieces by the LA Street Art collective known as Nomadé, who finished work this weekend with “Tertia”, a large scale Roman Warrior looking over his shoulder on a pristine white wall in downtown Los Angeles.

“Tertia” (photo © Nomadé)

Only a couple of years ago Nomadé forged this common character who marches through the detritus of a sometimes crumbling modern Rome, XI torrid years into el siglo XXI. Now in preparation for their upcoming “Sniffin Glue” show at New Puppy they completed wall number IV for the LA Freewalls project on the corner of 7th and Mateo downtown.

Nomadé for LA Freewalls Project (photo © Nomadé)

Pepper stops to pose triumphantly with “Tertia”, by Nomadé (photo © Nomadé)

Creepy Gets Way Up in NYC

March 28, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Features, Interview, NYC, On the Street, Street Talker Interview

The Australian Street Artist Does a New Wall in Brooklyn (Video)

He calls it narrative-driven character-based folk art, and Street Artist Kyle Hughes-Odgers AKA Creepy has been taking his skinny armed and legged people to walls around the world since he started doing work on the street in 2005. Not uncommon for artists who work on the street, Creepy didn’t initially have any idea how to get his stuff into a gallery so his real audience began when he started hitting walls. Now New Yorkers are getting a chance to see the tightly droll and clean Creepy aesthetic.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Comfortable with tiny canvasses and massive walls installations, the startlingly sane Creepy had a pretty banner year in 2010 with his first solo show at Turner Galleries in his home town of Perth, including over 100 pieces on wood and 8 large works on canvas. He also painted for weeks on a commission for Murdock University’s art collection; a 7 piece project of large panels totalling 150 ft in length (45 meters) when finished. As the year ended he had some fun in Sydney with the Lo-Fi Collective on a show called “Microcosm” with Beastman, Max Berry, and Phibs.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now he’s in New York for a visit to really get the rhythm of the street, meet cool peeps and hit up walls (and a van) while doing some sight seeing with his lady. Brooklyn Street Art had the opportunity to watch Creepy work with cans last week on a new piece in the BK that speaks of his signature brand of whimsy, and his affinity for textural patterns, symbols, and shapes. Peculiar and blithe, his illustrated characters go solo or hang out in pairs usually, contemplating ennui or maybe heavier thoughts, but somehow you can’t feel too dark looking at the playful juxtapositions and color palettes.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Kind of cold up on the roof, no? Were you expecting it to be so cold?
Creepy: Freezing! I couldn’t bend my fingers at the end of the day.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the inspiration for this piece?
Creepy: Currently my new works are based on ideas of burden, memory and nostalgia. I was trying to show a sinking feeling of lost time or of being somewhere else in your head apart from the immediate reality. I’m thinking of great moments of the past that you could never replicate – that kind of thing.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Your sense of color, proportion, and geometry are excellent. Would you describe your style as being illustrative?
Creepy: I’m not sure – color and balance are really important to me. I came from a drawing background but I would rather paint these days. A lot of illustrators seem like painters to me. I don’t know what the different rules are that make you an illustrator or a painter.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You like using patterns, and you sometimes you go back replace the pattern on part of the piece with something new. What are you evoking with the mix of shapes and colors?
Creepy: I like the idea that many smaller details (patterns) in life exist individually but make up a much larger picture or story, and each tiny detail is just as important as the next. They need each other to make up the bigger idea – like a city or a personality. Sometimes I replace the pattern while painting if I feel like the color balance is not quite right.

Brooklyn Street Art: We’ve seen a lot of monsters and women in your figurative pieces. Are they favorite topics?
Creepy: I just try to tell stories in my work from ideas and events I have experienced in life. Sometimes those stories need creatures, women and men.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Thematically, where do you draw your inspiration?
Creepy: From dreams, memory and the harsh and humorous everyday.

Brooklyn Street Art: How has your visit to New York been? Have you seen any interesting art?
Creepy: It’s been such a great trip and really interesting. Scope/Volta/Armory week was on when I first arrived and I got tickets to those events (thanks to you guys!) which was a rocket launch into the NYC art world. I have seen a lot of inspiring works in galleries and on the street. My friend Sean Morris was in NYC for his show at Bold Hype in Chelsea, so it was great to be able to go to his exhibition as well.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You have done tiny little 2 inch square pieces and massive building size mural installations. What size do you prefer to work in?
Creepy: I like working on all scales. It’s nice to get outside and paint massive works and then switch it up and head into the studio and do a small painting with tiny brushes.

Brooklyn Street Art:What are you going to try to do before you leave?
Creepy: Hopefully a couple more paints. I went to a Knicks game the other night so that pretty much made my year – even though they lost.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With a special thanks to Kara Peacock for her time lapse of the installation.

Images of the Week 03.27.11

March 27, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

Birdwatching in Central Park is one of the most popular naturalist activities, and Street Art watching is a favorite naturalist activity of cultural soothsayers here at BSA. You never know what kind of plummage or pattern you are going to see as you round the corner of an abandoned lot or rusted doorway. As the geological, political, and economic seasons shift, different birds can be seen in the urban brush – reappearing familiar ones, and new previously unseen. Like an avid birdwatcher, sometimes you can find the name in your guidebook, other times you just note the markings and hope for future clues.

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Arms, Jaque Fragua, Marisak, a new kind of Obey, Shin Shin, XAM, and Yatika.

We start with a black and white photo of man wheat pasted next to black graff on a white wall or was it the other way around?In either case the resulting dynamic made it look like the installation was intentional and the stark monochromism and subject matter play off one another. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marisak (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Arms (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shin Shin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shin Shin. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM ‘CSD FEEDING UNIT 1.0’ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Name. Game. Fame. Obey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Irony. Obey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Too many conflicting and contradicting messages. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yatika Fragua Spring mural. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yatika Fragua. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaime Rojo. Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In memory of Elizabeth Taylor 1932 – 2011

Overunder & No Touching Ground : Lending a Hand to Japan

March 26, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Features, NYC, On the Street

Amazing new work has been appearing around New York by Street Artist Overunder for about a year and a half. An illustrator, painter, and text writer – the styles are quite varied and intermixed and the themes are often symbolic, fantastic, and blurred. One recent piece, a large scale realistic collaboration with a street artist named No Touching Ground, is a memo-pad tattooed arm with a short list to accomplish, finished with a cluster of rollup gates. While the wall was permissioned, the rain was not and it complicated matters for the two artists. In fact, weather is always a component in the work of the street.

When describing the new piece, Overunder explains how one must plan for a works degradation when it is created for the street:

“So pre-production consisted of picking out bits and pieces from my sketchbook followed by an impromptu photo shoot of my arm and tattoo. But the real genesis of the piece was admitting it’s faults. Like saying no matter how good the work is it’s still going to chip, still going to tear, and rip, and fade. It’s going to do everything that we’ve become accustomed to when choosing to work outdoors. So the spin was how can we use deterioration to our benefit?

Overunder and No Touching Ground (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Helping Hand’ is our hypothesis to what I would call a “slow” painting. Painting, as I’ve always understood, is based on getting to that point when you say, “it’s done, it’s a masterpiece.” The slow painting anticipates elements of change and works subtractively. So when it starts it’s finished, and then you create layers on top to allow that finale to be postponed.

It was a list of things to do that I wrote on my real hand and then sprayed on this larger-than-life hand. I added a new note on the list: DONATE TO RED CROSS JAPAN. I then left one note undone: PAY RENT. I hoped this subtle prioritizing would get people to question how much they really could help.”

“Lastly I worked on the gates and the names. The longer I’m in NY, the more I’ve become infatuated with roll-up gates and use them in my work, either for imagery or as canvas. The gates are stacked against one another like they are in the city but further abstracted. I then took names of writers; Optimist, Cope, Heart, Give, Host – to be read by writers or non-writers to get two different yet similar perspectives. “

Following are images of other pieces recently done by Overunder and ND’A.

Street Artist Tristan Eaton Goes Biblical

March 24, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, NYC, On the Street

Inspired by the Book Of Revelation’s story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Brooklyn based Street Artist Tristan Eaton has been laboring with bloody hatchet in one hand and eye-smiting aerosol can in the other for the past three weeks to complete his latest street mural, a heroic tribute to the end of the world. Biblically based work doesn’t hit Brooklyn too much but Tristans’ trysted twist on fantastical End Times titillation might make you think of the interior of a cathedral or of flying buttresses and pointed arches in a revelatory way.

Comic books and science fiction, particularly the work of Brooklyn native artist and master fantasy creator, Frank Frazetta, are heavy influences on Eaton, who has spent hours pouring over Fazetta’s copious and heroically buffed warrior–goddesses and Keltic conquerors embattled with monsters and space aliens on album covers, book covers, movie posters, and in graphic novels.

By delving into the mythical worlds of Mr. Frazetta, Tristan found that the already fantastic centerpiece story from the last book in the Bible need not be literally interpreted in his mural. Using the palette established by his neighbors How & Nosm, Eaton uses red, white, black and pale horses to symbolize Conquest, War, Famine and Death, giving the main roles of ushering apocalypse to the ladies instead of the typical males. While there is still work to be done in this grand undertaking, it is evident from Eaton that hot women on horseback will be the harbingers of the Last Judgment. Repent while there still is time.

Mural updates and much gnashing of teeth to follow.

Tristan Eaton (photo © Jaime Rojo) Tristan’s piece is next to How and Nosm’s piece created for Contra Projects during Armory Week.

Word Power! Text on the Street

March 23, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

Today we bring you some text-based greetings from the street.

This billboard for the downtown newspaper Village Voice comments on the homogeneity of Manhattan culture on the corner of Bowery and Delancy. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Could be a way to sign a letter (Warmest wishes,Yours truly,Your friend, See you in Rio, Best Regards, Congrats) or maybe it’s a command. Love Me. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

“you’re makin’ out with school kids, winos and heads of state.
you even made it with the lady,
who puts the little plastic bobins on the christmas cakes.
butchers’ assistants and bellhops, you’ve had them all here and there.
children of god and their joy-strings, international women with no body hair.” – Buzzcocks

* Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver

OBEY Hits SXSW in Austin and Releases Print for Japan

March 22, 2011 Artists, Austin, On the Street, Texas

SXSW, the annual music/culture/technology festival winds down the circus-like atmosphere of new bands and big-name performers and ideas cramming venues with one show and roundtable after another, sometimes resulting in chaos. A regular Street Art contributor to this scene, Shepard Fairey hit up some walls as part of the Local to Global Outdoor Gallery Project.

In response to the tragedies created by the tsunami in Japan Shepard Fairey is releasing a new variation on the Dark Wave print. Profits from Dark Wave/Rising Sun will go to relief efforts in Japan.

Release Date: 3/24/2011 at a random time at ObeyGiant.com

Thanks to photographer Geoff Hargadon, who took these Austin images of Obey’s brand new work using a monochromatic palette that looks pretty fresh!

Street Artist Don John’s Experience in Tokyo

March 21, 2011 Artists, copenhagen, Denmark, Features, Japan, On the Street, Tokyo

As we listen to, watch, and read the cautiously optimistic developments at the nuclear power plant in Japan and consider the ever-growing estimates of the number of people lost during the last week and a half, we send our condolences and support and reflect on our fragility and survival. In ancient times populations fell victim to natural disasters as we do today. While we are better prepared in many ways, that preparation is tempered now as we watch our outstanding technological advances turn into our nightmare, compounding the severity of damage rendered by the natural world. As leaders in Japan talk about using this crisis to learn, we reflect on nuclear facilities, deep water oil rigs, and technologically lethal implications of our own creation.

(Please see 5 ways to help at the end of this posting)

Street Artist Don John lives in Copenhagen but happened to be on vacation in Tokyo when the calamitous earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck the coast of Japan. Nearing the end of holiday there with his girlfriend, some of his recent wheat pasted portraits had just appeared on streets in the Shibuya area of Tokyo.

The imagery for these pieces, developed far before the earthquake, in some ways mirror the shocked and saddened visages of the citizenry. Nonetheless, Don John reports that most people in Tokyo took the unfolding events in stride and reached out to one another and strangers to assist in a time of uncertainty and need. See some of his observations further down the page.

“We were amazed about how friendly and helpful Japanese people are, even in a situation like this. All trains stopped in Tokyo after the earthquake and we had 5 kilometers to walk back to our hotel. This super friendly guy offered to walk with us all the way to make sure that we found it. Having been around the people that are affected by this disaster makes it even more terrible to follow the developments in the news.” ~ Don John

From Sarah Milner Barry at New York University News, here are 5 ways you can help our brothers and sisters in Japan:

Text REDCROSS to 90999 or JAPAN to 80888

Each text to REDCROSS will provide $10 for the Red Cross, and each JAPAN text will send $10 to the Salvation Army. If texting JAPAN, make sure you respond YES when you receive a “thank you” message. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

Visit the Google crisis response site

The site provides an aggregate of different websites accepting online donations, including the International Medical Corps, UNICEF and the Japanese Red Cross Society. The website is also continuously updated to provide the latest information about the crisis.

Donate via iTunes

Apple has created a simple donation page on the iTunes homepage where you can send money to the Red Cross in just a few clicks.

Spread awareness on Twitter

Here are some key hashtags to remember:
#Jishin: focuses on general earthquake information
#Anpi: confirms the safety of individuals or places
#Hinan: lists evacuation information
#311care: provides medical information for the victims
#PrayforJapan: shows general support and best wishes for victims of the crisis

Attend NYU’s vigil for Japan on Tuesday, March 22 at 7 p.m. at Gould Plaza, on 4th Street between Greene Street and Washington Square East.

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This sculpture, in SOHO by RAE is a perfect example of the ongoing D.I.Y. movement that adds to the conversation on the streets. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAE. The thrills of photographing Street Art can be similar to those of a treasure hunt. When I have the opportunity to witness the public being engaged with the art in the street the thrill turns into poetry. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Guuurl, he is so fly! Fly Kid From Brooklyn (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

This billboard on the BQE has had a long run and it could be landmarked. Alternately, it could be a fine ad for Taco Bell fake meat products. Sabio. Obey. Rambo (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM “CSD DWELLING UNIT 3.0” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM “CSD FEEDING UNIT 1.0” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM “CSD DWELLING UNIT 1.6” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An instant Mash Up/Collage/Collab with a Supreme poster of Lady Gaga – or is that Madonna? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

L.O.L. Von Shan is rather straight backward about the subject. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This whole low-rider jeans thing has gotten out of hand. RTTP. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Haculla balances graff and street art, horror and humor. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like RAE has a handle on the street sculpture matter. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman internalizes Natalie Portman’s character (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” completed mural (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaime Rojo. Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Birdsong ZINE Benefit – Support Your Local ZINE – Tonight at Brooklyn Fireproof

Nomade on LA Freewalls

10th Anniversary of Robots Will Kill in Philadelphia Tonight

At the Robots Will Kill show will be this piece “Winter Flower” by Veng RWK

PANTHEON Opens in Manhattan on the Street Tomorrow

907 Crew. Detail. “907 Was an Inside Joke” (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Image Credit: GRAFFITI & STREET ART diagram by Daniel Feral is a 75th Anniversary celebration of Alfred H. Barr’s CUBISM & ABSTRACT ART diagram.

EL Celso Closing Party Saturday at Pandemic

Spring is Just Around the Corner! Time For Wedding Planning!

GAIA Does Giant Martha Cooper Tribute in Chicago

Image of GAIA piece courtesy and copyright of Pawn Works

BSA Was in the Newspaper Yesterday

Happy April Fools! Here’s An Insane German Synth Pop “Razor Scooter” Video

Street Artist Angel Cruciani Commemorates 150 Years of Italian Unity

Angelo Cruciani (photo © Veronica for BSA)

Angelo Cruciani (photo © Veronica for BSA)

Angelo Cruciani (photo © Veronica for BSA)

Angelo Cruciani (photo © Veronica for BSA)

A negative of the Shoud of Turin from Wikipedia

Leon Reid IV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Tertia” (photo © Nomadé)

Nomadé for LA Freewalls Project (photo © Nomadé)

Pepper stops to pose triumphantly with “Tertia”, by Nomadé (photo © Nomadé)

The Australian Street Artist Does a New Wall in Brooklyn (Video)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marisak (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Arms (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Arms (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Arms (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shin Shin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shin Shin. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM ‘CSD FEEDING UNIT 1.0’ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Name. Game. Fame. Obey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Irony. Obey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Too many conflicting and contradicting messages. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yatika Fragua Spring mural. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yatika Fragua. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaime Rojo. Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and No Touching Ground (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and No Touching Ground (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and No Touching Ground (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder next to an old Miss 17 throw up (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton (photo © Jaime Rojo) Tristan’s piece is next to How and Nosm’s piece created for Contra Projects during Armory Week.

Tristan Eaton. Sketch for the mural (photo © Jaime Rojo)