Welcometo “ARTHAPPENING” at A-Gallery Thursday,February 16 at17-21. It will be afantastic eveningwithwonderful art; nicemingling andwine tasting withchampagne and Italian winesfrom theFrenchcompany.
REBECCALUNDH:abstract painting LIUBOLIN:photography, “hidingin the city“ SHAI DAHAN: urban art JÖRGDÖRING:contemporarypopart JOHNNYBOYERICSSON:urbanart VINCENTEDMONDLOUIS: photography,portraits Jan Jörnmark: photography,urbanart
Carnage & Making Deals Zine Present:
SNOWBLIND + Carnage Zine Release featuring New Yorkʼs ATM Crew at Klughaus Gallery, NYC
Opening Reception: Friday, February 17th, 2012 from 6-10pm Show Runs Through Sunday, March 3rd, 2012
With SNOWBLIND, Klughaus Gallery, in conjunction with Carnage and Making Deals Zine, is proud to present a group of artists who have captured the gritty pleasures of the winter season.
Photographs from renowned urban documentarian Martha Cooper and Carnage zine creator Ray Mock show slush, sludge, and frozen faces contrasted with empty, peaceful city streets and the blinding white of last nightʼs snowfall. The show also features clever, snow-inspired artwork and photography from Jesse Edwards, Mike P, Alexander Richter, Michael Fales, Oscar Arriola, Graham Shimberg and Bob Barry.
The showʼs opening reception will mark the launch of issue #2 of Carnage, a limited edition zine featuring the prolific and highly distinctive work of New York Cityʼs ATM Crew.
Klughaus Gallery exhibits a variety of contemporary art. The gallery works primarily with artists that have roots in graffiti and street culture and seeks to develop itself as a leader in fostering urban art appreciation within the local (Chinatown/LES) community.
Klughaus Gallery is located at 47 Monroe Street, New York, NY 10002. Gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 1-7pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 12-6pm. For more information, please email info@klughaus.net or call (646) 801-6024.
Martha Cooper is a documentary photographer who has specialized in shooting urban vernacular art and architecture for over thirty years. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and published extensively in magazines from National Geographic to Vibe. Some of her publications include Subway Art, New York State of Mind, Going Postal, and most recently, Tokyo Tattoo 1970.
Ray Mockʼs mission as a photographer is to capture the uncooptable core of city culture and make ugly look pretty. His work has been featured in books, in magazines and on countless websites. He publishes Carnage and likes to hang around trains.
Jesse Edwards is a Seattle based artist who focuses on oil paintings ranging from classic landscapes to more unconventional still-lifes. In addition to his paintings of guns, marijuana plants and graffiti tools, he is known for his pixilated nudes as well as his quality work with ceramics. He has studied at the Cornish School of the Arts and Gage Academy and has exhibited his work throughout the United States in many prominent galleries and museums including Seattleʼs Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA), Woodside/Braseth Gallery, BLVD Gallery, Deitch Projects, The Hole NYC, and The Museum of Sex. Edwards has also been featured in many prestigious publications including the New York Times, Seattle Times, Vice Magazine, Seattle PI, and City Arts Magazine.
Mike P is a New York City based artist who works in a wide range of mediums focusing on painting and illustration. His art can be found in one form or another in many of the places that he has traveled around the world.
Alexander Richter is an NYC based commercial photographer specializing in portraits for editorial, advertising and the music industries. When he is not making pictures, he can be found with his wife in Maine drinking fresh squeezed lemonade and eating lobster rolls.
Michael Fales can be found photographing the streets as the city comes alive in the morning, or exploring itʼs tucked-away nooks. His photos have appeared on numerous websites, books, and exhibitions. He currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife and two cats.
Graham Shimberg is a photographer, track-walker, freight-nerd, and bindle-stiff.
Bob Barry documents graffiti amidst the paranoia and the Disney-fication of a post-9/11 New York.
Oscar Arriola is a Chicago-based photographer who has enjoyed documenting graffiti, city life, tuxedo cats, rogue cops, and artists since the mid-80’s. His photography has been featured in the recent Chicago Street Art book.
“Back in the day, there were these old buildings in downtown Los Angeles on Broadway Street that were abandoned, but they were so beautiful. Zes and I wanted to climb them no matter how high they were, just so we could write on them. They might not have been paintings, but to me, they were still works of art.” – RETNA
Known Gallery is proud to present Excavated Revelations, a dual exhibition featuring new work by Los Angeles-based artists ZES and RETNA. Introduced in their youth by their mutual friend AYER, ZES and RETNA led parallel lives through an upbringing in graffiti. Utilizing a fluidity and precision they mastered by painting some of the most coveted walls in the city, their refined technique is now exemplified in this fresh body of abstract work.
ZES began his career at the young age of thirteen and gained recognition for his determination to climb some of the city’s most challenging locations, stealthily navigating the streets of Los Angeles and commandeering its obscure walls at night. Growing up in the heart of the city, by the age of fifteen, ZES became one of the youngest members of the legendary MSK crew and has helped define the contemporary graffiti movement. Widely respected for his innovations to West Coast wild style, his determination to overcome the obstacles the nature of graffiti presented resulted in a fervent approach to his modus operandi. His longevity has allowed him to produce a substantial amount of work on the streets, making him one of the most influential and recognized graffiti artists not only in the city, but also internationally, along with his contemporaries AYER, REVOK, and SABER. He has traveled from coast to coast in search of new environments that challenge him to climb higher and paint pieces that express his creative intensity. To this day, ZES can still be found on rooftops, ledges and fire escapes.
RETNA is always brimming with new ideas. This past year alone, his work has been spotted everywhere from tail wings of jets to the walls of the Museum of Contemporary Art. RETNA continuously pushes personal, artistic and physical boundaries as demonstrated in Excavated Revelations. In this exhibition, he challenges himself with various methods including etching, the most esteemed technique used for master printing. The age-old process utilizes zinc plates, produced and manipulated through washes and resists and placed in a bath charged with an electric current that physically “etches” the plate. An impression is then printed by running the plate and a sheet of paper through a press at about 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. The result is beautifully embossed into the paper.
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036 info@knowngallery.com
310-860-6263
Inside Out
Mighty Tanaka presents:
Inside Out
Featuring the artwork of Cake & Don Pablo Pedro
Look in the mirror, what do you see? Does your reflection smile back at you? Or does it hide behind layers of doubt? As each of us interprets the notion of self differently, the ways in which we choose to outwardly express ourselves varies greatly. For some, personal identity cannot always be communicated simply with words alone, so other means are utilized to translate the inner dialogue. Mighty Tanaka is pleased to bring you our next show, Inside Out, featuring the artwork of Cake & Don Pablo Pedro.
Inside Out is the outward expression of ones innermost feelings. The figurative and symbolic imagery relates to the personal struggle for understanding and emphasizes the desire to be heard. It’s the rare insight into the mind of another, a visual representation of an individual’s emotions. In essence, Inside Out is the exploration of self.
Cake & Don Pablo Pedro, two artists who’s work both compliments and conflicts, juxtapose each other in a complimentary way. From the soft touch of muslin fabric to the rigid edges of a wooden panel, their chosen materials are representational of their message, as they open themselves to the world.
OPENING RECEPTION:
Friday, February 17th, 2012
6:00PM – 9:00PM
Mighty Tanaka
111 Front St., Suite 224
Brooklyn, NY 11201
“F*ck Art”, an undulating and adventurous group show by New York Street Artists opens its arms and legs to you at the Museum of Sex (MoSex) tomorrow and whether it’s the human powered penetrating bicycle or the glass bead encrusted dildo, it endeavors to satisfy.
Co-curated by Emilie Baltz (Creative Director) and Mark Snyder (Director of Exhibitions), the show selects 20 current Street Artists who have pushed notions of propriety into provocation on the street and it invites them to let it loose behind closed doors. Not that Miss Van needs anyone’s permission; her sensual role-playing painted ladies have been playfully preening on graff-piled walls and blue-boarded construction sites for much of the 2000s. Similarly the powerfully stenciled sirens by Street Artist AIKO have been bending over in high heels on walls all over the world with just a hint of the geishas from her native Japan for over a decade.
The “Fuck Bike #001”, a pedal operated plunging machine by William Thomas Porter and Andrew H. Shirley, has at its conceptual base an ode to the lengths a guy will go to reach his natural objective. The two artist met at a Black Label Bike Club event called “Ridin’ Dirty” in 2010 and later schemed together to make an entry for a bike-themed group show in Bushwick, Brooklyn that featured many Street Artists like DarkClouds, Ellis G., UFO, Noah Sparkes and Mikey 907. “I approached Tom with the idea of creating a kinetic bike sculpture which you could f*ck someone with,” remembers Mr. Shirley, “Tom is a very gifted artist and bike engineer, it took a few days for him to build our design.”
Visitors to the show are invited to mount the bike and take it for a spin. “This bike is more sculpture oriented, but still functions sexually. It’s also totally interactive,” explains Mr. Shirley, who has displayed the bike in cities in Europe and America, most recently at Art Basel in Miami in December. So the bike has gotten around and Shirley happily recounts stories of intimate encounters it has had with both genders. (See the very Not-Safe-For-Work film of the bike in action below.)
The street has certainly seen an increase of fairly graphic sex related Street Art in the last decade or so as people have become more comfortable with such themes and much of this show can often be seen throughout the city without the price of admission. Gay couple Bryan Raughton and Nathan Vincent have been putting large and small scaled paste-ups of sexually themed imagery as a Street Art duo called RTTP for about two years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Short for “Reply To This Post”, the line-drawn torsos and spread eagles are all part of their collaborative Street Art project that explores the desires of men seeking men on Craigslist.
Describing the work, Vincent says it’s a process of lifting the mystery off of a just-below-the-radar Internet dating game – and pasting it on a lightpole. “Users post an ad with an image, title, and a short description of what they are looking for tonight. The photograph they post of themselves is drawn and titled with the ad’s title.” By putting these erotically based desires on the streets, Vincent thinks “they magnify those desires that often seem to live at the edges.” Says Raughton of the project, “We see it as an interesting way to take people private desires to the public street.”
In discussing the origins and underpinnings of a show like this, the co-curators reveal a more academic and sociological grounding than the prurient and salacious sauciness one might infer by a display of so much “F*ck Art”. We asked Baltz to give us a sense of the context for a Street Art driven sex show.
Brooklyn Street Art:What is your favorite part of curating a show like this? Emilie Baltz: Seeing the different interpretations and energy that each artist brings to their work is always the most interesting part of curating – with this topic, especially, it’s the fact that they are all pushing the limits of their medium by creating such provocative statements.
Brooklyn Street Art:While these pieces are behind closed doors available to a certain audience, Street Artists typically put their work out in the public. Do you think the work should change depending on the audience? Emilie Baltz: We don’t think it’s about changing the work, it’s about how the work changes the environment it lives in. Street art has a long history of revealing different perspectives on its surrounding environment and by placing this work in a museum it creates a certain energy and visual provocation that changes the relationship we traditionally have to the museum-going experience.
Brooklyn Street Art:Do you think there has been an increase in sex-related street art in recent years, and if so, why? Emilie Baltz: There definitely is an increase in sex-related conversations in recent years. It’s not that there is more content suddenly, it’s just that culture is actually ready to start talking about it now, rather than ignore it.
Brooklyn Street Art:We have noticed that themes of sex and sexuality are often quickly destroyed on the street, while other pieces remain for months. Is this a form of selective censorship by the public? Emilie Baltz: Street art is a dialogue. Its creation is about expression and commentary, and therefore can become a barometer of cultural consciousness (or unconsciousness). The intimate and emotional nature of sexual content can obviously elicit strong feelings in viewers, and, given that street art is an environmental medium, either you have to live with it or get rid of it. Sex walks a fine line between acceptance and rejection. Public response to this kind of art is potentially a mirror into how our society relates to the topic.
Brooklyn Street Art:What surprised you the most about putting this show together? Emilie Baltz: The enthusiasm from the public. People are genuinely excited to talk about sex in public space and it’s an incredible honor to be able to help facilitate that discussion.
F*CK ART
A Street Art Occupation at the Museum of Sex in New York City, opens February 8 and will run through June 10, 2012.
Emilie Baltz, Co-Curator, Creative Director, F*CK ART
Mark Snyder, Co-Curator F*CK ART, Director of Exhibitions, Museum of Sex
Meghan Coleman and Alex Emmart of Might Tanaka Gallery in Brooklyn served as Chief Advisors.
On Thursday March 1, 2012, Siren Studios’ artist series platform; Rooftop Sessions will present Gregory Siff | There & Back. Having just come down from his first, and highly successful solo show with The Site Unscene, Gregory is back with a new body of work. In There & Back, Gregory reveals the private moments of his journey through the past two decades, exposing his range of emotions as well as those who had an impact on him along the way. Gregory’s unique technique and application of ink stains, spray, marker tags, knife etchings and poetry, visually express the maps of his reality; drawing from experience, conquest, loss and love. There & Back follows Gregory’s struggle of coping with the fracturing of a dream and the transformation to something greater once that fracture heals.
Most recently collaborating with street legend and artist Risk from The 7th Letter. Gregory has been commissioned by The Standard Hotel and The De la Barracuda Wall; has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, London, Dublin, Italy and Vancouver; and has appeared at MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch’s Art Parade, in Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, Paper Mag, LA Canvas, Complex and Glamour. An exclusive Twelve Bar tee shirt, designed by Gregory, will be available the night of the show.
For There & Back, Gregory will also be collaborating on an installation with students from Communities in Schools, a non-profit organization that works within the public school system to determine student’s needs and establishes relationships with local businesses, social service agencies, health care providers, and parent and volunteer organizations to provide needed resources. Gregory is a dedicated supporter of planting success in children through the arts and will donate 10% of all proceeds from There & Back to Communities in Schools.
Siren Studios is located at 6063 W. Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA. For Gregory Siff’s There & Back, Siren Studios’ Rooftop Session has teamed up with curatorial director Eli Consilvio of The Art Reserve as well as curators JB Jones and Wil Atkinson from The Site Unscene. Siren Studios created Rooftop Sessions, a periodic artist platform that extends their current contribution and support to the art scene in Los Angeles
A History of Queer Street Art opens for its month long engagement at Physical Goods
Gallery in the heart of Hollywood, CA on February 9th and will run through February 29th 2012. Originally curated and exhibited in San Francisco by SF based street artist Jeremy Novy, the exhibit is re-imagined and brought to Los Angeles by LA’s own Homo Riot.
A History of Queer Street Art, first presented in 2011 at the SOMArts Center in San Francisco, documents the work of queer and pro-queer street artists from around the world. Spanning more than two decades of work, the collection includes pieces by notable queer street artists as well as showcasing present day street activists.
At the heart of the History of Queer Street Art is a timeline of works collected by Novy which incorporates prints, stencils, stickers, photos, street pasters and even the gallery’s walls — creating a “street art experience” from a queer perspective. The Los Angeles version of the exhibition, produced by Homo Riot, will also feature new works by well-known European street artists like Paul Le Chien, Adrian & Shane, as well as American mainstays like Prvtdncr and Jilly Ballistic, and many other young and emerging queer street artists. Homo Riot has curated video presentations as well as art installations throughout the Hollywood gallery to further enhance the experience.
“It was important for me to bring this show to Los Angeles. Not only is LA one of the most
influential cities in the world when it comes to street art but historically, the city has been the site of many central movements in the struggle for LGBTQ equality. I hope this show will be seen as an important milestone in the queer artistic history of LA.”…Homo Riot
“It’s important to celebrate our history and to know the outstanding LGBT artists past and
present who are bold enough to express themselves in public. I hope this show inspires future artists to create art for the world to see,” Brian Meiler of Physical Goods Gallery.
1. The Skewvilles are turning 80 tonight (Bushwick, BK)
2. “Unpaid Dues” Cassius Fouler at Orchard Windows Tonight (LES, NYC)
3. “Should The Light Not Take Us” – Armsrock at the Galleri Profilen (Aarhus, Denmark)
4. “Street Wall” at Fourth Wall Project Gallery Saturday (Boston)
5. Philip Lumbang solo show “New Arrival”
6. LA Mural Ordinance Community Discussion with Shepard Fairey and Saber
7. New Sten & Lex Low Res VIDEO in Rome
8. MAMBO Goes for a Swim (VIDEO)
9. Creepy Tries to Control the Ocean (VIDEO)
We start Fun Friday this week with thanks to Don Cornelius for making the Soul Train an incredibly important part of the ride for lots of us for four decades.
Much respect to his work and to his family.
Here’s his interview with a new group called Run DMC.
The Skewvilles are turning 80 tonight (Bushwick, BK)
Join the Skewvilles today at Factory Fresh as they celebrate their 80th Birthday with a Retro-Retrospective. See some of the treasures they’ll be lugging out of the basement here in yesterday’s post.
For further information regarding this show click here
“Unpaid Dues” Cassius Fouler at Orchard Windows Tonight (LES, NYC)
Despite initial apprehension, Orchard Windows Gallery is proud to present Cassius Fouler, who is in about four shows this month. Dang!
For further information regarding this show click here
“Should The Light Not Take Us” – Armsrock at the Galleri Profilen (Aarhus, Denmark)
Armsrock says his new show is an investigation of parapsychology, ideology and crisis, through drawings, objects and texts. His style is getting tighter too.
For further information regarding this show click here
“Street Wall” at Fourth Wall Project Gallery Saturday (Boston)
New York is chocolate and Boston is peanut butter so when you mix these artists from both Street Art scenes together in one show you get something grittily sweet that will stick to the roof of your mouth. Want a root beer? Vodka? Featuring LNY, Radical!, Tiptoe, Nanook, The Phantom, Geoff Hargadon, Zatara and Blackmath.
Philip Lumbang solo show “New Arrival” at the Unit 44 Gallery in Newcastle, UK opens today. Click here for more details on this show.
LA Mural Ordinance Community Discussion with Shepard Fairey and Saber at Lab Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Find out how the new mural laws in Los Angeles are affecting the Urban Art and what the answers are to your questions. This event takes place on Saturday. Click here for more details.
New Sten & Lex Low Res VIDEO in Rome
Italian Duo Sten & Lex have a new body of work on the streets of Rome. Here they show us how The Stencil Poster was born.
MAMBO Goes for a Swim (VIDEO)
MAMBO pays tribute to Johnny Weissmuller and the Molitor swimming pool in Paris:
Creepy Tries to Control the Ocean (VIDEO)
Creepy “If We Can’t Control the Boat Let’s Control the Ocean” by K. Hughes-Odgers
Dichotomy, by Criminy Johnson. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.
The Active Space opens an all-new exhibition space
in its Bushwick facility with a reception for “Dreaming Without
Sleeping,” a presentation of new works by Criminy Johnson | QRST, on
February 24, 2012.
“Dreaming Without Sleeping” allows viewers to glimpse the artist’s
view of our waking world: a bent, slightly pessimistic and
occasionally hostile place populated by animals and people who are
often reluctant to be interrupted by the viewer.
“Criminy makes oil paintings in his studio but often makes wheatpastes
that relate to these in some way. Many people are familiar with
Criminy’s work but may have seen it outside of a gallery setting, and
QRST fans might be discovering Criminy Johnson’s paintings for the
first time,” says curator Robin Grearson, who worked with Johnson last
year on a group show at the Active Space. “Criminy has been in
Bushwick for a few years, and QRST’s street work often shows up here,
so the Active Space is an ideal location to present the two styles
together.”
“We opened in February of last year, so I’m happy that the first show
in our building’s brand-new gallery space falls on our first
anniversary,” says Ashley Zelinskie, director of The Active Space.
“Robin is an accomplished writer, yet this is the third show she has
curated here. Last year we discovered that we really work well
together, and one thing I appreciate about my role as director of a
Bushwick art space is the opportunity I have to support emerging
artists and curators I believe in.” Zelinskie says.
The opening reception for “Dreaming Without Sleeping” takes place
February 24, 2012, from 7-10 PM. The show will be open to the public
by appointment through April 20, 2012. Email ashley@566johnsonave.com.
Dreaming Without Sleeping
February 24, 2012 through April 20, 2012
The Active Space
566 Johnson Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237 www.566johnsonave.com
“ArchitectureSculpturePaintingMusicPoetryDancePerformingVandalism” At first glance, these forms diverge, yet the broader realm of the arts and culture cannot deny that street …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
