Mighty Tanaka Presents: Hybridism: Where Raw Meets Refined Premier Exhibition in New DUMBO Gallery Space presents an array of mediums, techniques
New York, NY – November 24, 2009 – Mighty Tanaka (http://www.mightytanaka.com) is proud to announce Hybridism, the premier show within its new DUMBO project/gallery space, opening with a reception on December 3, 2009 through January 7, 2010. There’s a growing creative movement that we’ve dubbedHybridism: a blend of both street art and fine art – a hybrid – as the raw meets the refined. It is the juxtaposition of genres, which both compliments and conflicts; the balance between these otherwise artistic opposites. Hybridism, the show, captures a collection of both twisted fine art and underground street art in a span of mediums: vivid photography, collage, and rich oil & acrylic paintings on everything from canvas to found wood.
Alex and Caleb have been working so hard to make this thing happen!
From classic oil paintings of alcohol-blurred nightlife, a squirrel riding a two-headed goat, and a trippy diorama of the industrialization age, to street-style satanic mummies, tribal paintings on book covers, and graffiti-influenced silkscreens on newspapers – Hybridism displays the atypical and the urban within one space.
“I always look to accentuate the idea of hybridism, and of pairing opposites together; this will be common thread in all of my shows, despite their varied themes,” says Mighty Tanaka owner and curator, Alex Emmart. “My goal? To bring this burgeoning and exciting artistic movement to the next level.”
Featured artists include: Adam Miller, Alexandra Pacula, Alexis Trice, AVOID pi, Bruno Perillo, Destroy and Rebuild, Don Pablo Pedro, FARO, Hellbent, Infinity, JMR, John Breiner, Josh McCutchen, Katie Decker, KOSBE, Lionel Guzman, Mari Keeler, Miss Marlo Marquise, Max Greis, Mike Schreiber, Peter Halasz, Reginald Pean, Robbie Busch, Royce Bannon, Skewville, Vinny Cornelli.
Mighty Tanaka’s Hybridism opening reception coincides with DUMBO’s Culture 411 First Thursday Gallery Walk on Thursday, December 3, 2009, from 5:30PM-8:30PM at Mighty Tanaka Studio on 68 Jay Street, Suite 416, Brooklyn, NY 11201. # # #
About Mighty Tanaka
Mighty Tanaka (http://www.mightytanaka.com) is Alex Emmart and Caleb James: an independent curatorial organization dedicated to the advancement and integrity of the urban arts. Through the utilization of skilled curating and various media techniques, we strive to create a stable foundation for artists operating within the urban environment. Mighty Tanaka is driven by urban inspiration and is clearing the way for this emerging art movement to expand beyond the city walls and into our personal lives. Our mission is to provide a myriad of curated and production services.
Contact
Mighty Tanaka Studio 68 Jay St., Suite 416 Brooklyn, NY 11201 Hours: M-F 12PM to 7PM, weekends by appointment only Office: 718.596.8781
For questions, info or interviews, please contact Alex Emmart at alex@mightytanaka.com or (718) 596-8781.
American jazz saint and snappy dresser Louis “Sachmo” Armstrong is back in New York, courtesy of MBW. Born poor in New Oleans, he ended up in the borough of Queens. (Jaime Rojo)
Transformer viking warrior dude is just so frustrated and verbally constipated that he resorts to giving the finger. (Pimax) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Gimme Shelter (QRST) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Stupendous collage and stencil work. Definitely the Dude Company – but who is the collaborator? (photo Jaime Rojo)
The Dude Company (Detail) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Revs is also doing collaborations more (photo Jaime Rojo)
“Eat Fruit and Die” (Specter) (photo Jaime Rojo)
You must be my Lucky Star (MBW) (photo Jaime Rojo)
A new Marilyn and a Red Velvet Underground banana (Pimax) (photo Jaime Rojo)
From that classic New York underground album referenced above, Femme Fatale
Skaters are pounding ramps together and trading tricks, vendors are setting up tables, gallerists are hanging pieces, and street artists are staking claim to swaths of concrete wall.
JMR has been working 4 days on his installation for the “Tree Grows In Brooklyn” wall, based on the book of the same name. Night is falling but he’s just had a beer and a veggie burger and is back on the scissor lift with a kleig light blasting the wall. Aside from a car running over some paint cans that Indigo and Mania were going to use, everything is running copasetic. Now if the rain stays away…
Here are some shots of some of the work that will be on display tomorrow:
Mania lays up a stencil layer (photo Steven P. Harrington)
JMR punctuates in the black on his 100 ft long mural (photo Steven P. Harrington)
ELC Crew already stopped by (Celso, infinity, Royce Bannon…) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Billi Kid Obama filmstrip on the wall (blurry photo Steven P. Harrington)
Avoid Pi in the Mighty Tanaka gallery (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Martha Cooper has some original Printer’s Proofs from street life in NYC in the 70’s and 80’s (photo Steven P. Harrington)
The softer side of HELLBENT (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Skewville in a conduit frame in the gallery (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Remo Camerota has a gallery full installation of brand new poloroid works – including this stormtrooper (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Street artist Infinity is curating a live “in window” series with a spool of ribbon, staples and scissors. The show is consisting of five timed movements each day that take the spool from the floor to the walls and into 3D space.”Spool” features collaborations with Celso, AVOID pi, and Royce Bannon.
It’s a unique concept that will be interesting to see as it progresses from your vantagepoint of the street while the artist challenges the materials to behave in new ways. Already some of the installations have created patterning and echoes of graffiti, but maybe we are reading too much into it, and probably way too simplistic.
Hearing it directly from the artist- it’s better than “The Making of Thriller”!
Infinity took a break tonight after Day 4 of the installation – Elated, excited, and full of descriptive scientific-philosophical gnostic imaginings. If you catch this dude on a good day, he’ll take you to a magical world of banging hammers and exploding synapses and voltaic currents of life-force.
“Basically this activity (Performance? Sculpture? Installation? Game composition?) is an abstraction, simplification, mutation, of the definition of “drawing,” reducing it to it’s elemental nature, the “line,” and representing it with string so that one can draw in a three dimensional space, crisscrossing and looping through the space like telephone cables, electric wire, like veins, like waves.
“For instance, the first movement is called “Pollack” because we basically are playing with the string on the floor which is reminiscent of Pollack’s drip techniques. The fourth movement, which is about tieing together all the crisscrossing string, is named after Celso because of his interest in knots and an installation he did his summer with fabric woven into a fence. He’ll be doing a duo with me on Friday
“The fifth movemennt is named after David Ellis of the Barnstormers, not Ellis G, who most people seem to think of. Getting to do all these days at the Chashama Space has really been helpful to see what works best.”
“Aside: Transmissions are streaming through us everywhere at all times!!!! You are surrounded and infiltrated!!!!! The tools are no longer pencil and paper but stapler and walls. The five movements are based on the order of actions that one must take to make an interesting i.e. successful “drawing in space”, which actually is the goal, like any other drawing. So since each movement is comprised of a certain set of actions, I named each one after an artist whose signature work is similar to that set, ” says infinity.
These photos below are from end of day today, which was a two day solo piece.
End of today August 18, by infinity
A wild scene in the window at end of today August 18, by infinity
Street artist Infinity is curating a live “in window” series with a spool of ribbon, staples and scissors. The show is consisting of five timed movements each day that take the spool from the floor to the walls and into 3D space.”Spool” features collaborations with Celso, AVOID pi, and Royce Bannon.
It’s a unique concept that will be interesting to see as it progresses from your vantagepoint of the street while the artist challenges the materials to behave in new ways. Already some of the installations have created patterning and echoes of graffiti, but maybe we are reading too much into it, and probably way too simplistic.
Hearing it directly from the artist- it’s better than “The Making of Thriller”!
Infinity took a break tonight after Day 4 of the installation – Elated, excited, and full of descriptive scientific-philosophical gnostic imaginings. If you catch this dude on a good day, he’ll take you to a magical world of banging hammers and exploding synapses and voltaic currents of life-force.
“Basically this activity (Performance? Sculpture? Installation? Game composition?) is an abstraction, simplification, mutation, of the definition of “drawing,” reducing it to it’s elemental nature, the “line,” and representing it with string so that one can draw in a three dimensional space, crisscrossing and looping through the space like telephone cables, electric wire, like veins, like waves.
“For instance, the first movement is called “Pollock” because we basically are playing with the string on the floor which is reminiscent of Pollock’s drip techniques. The fourth movement, which is about tieing together all the crisscrossing string, is named after Celso because of his interest in knots and an installation he did his summer with fabric woven into a fence. He’ll be doing a duo with me on Friday
“The fifth movemennt is named after David Ellis of the Barnstormers, not Ellis G, who most people seem to think of. Getting to do all these days at the Chashama Space has really been helpful to see what works best.”
“Aside: Transmissions are streaming through us everywhere at all times!!!! You are surrounded and infiltrated!!!!! The tools are no longer pencil and paper but stapler and walls. The five movements are based on the order of actions that one must take to make an interesting i.e. successful “drawing in space”, which actually is the goal, like any other drawing. So since each movement is comprised of a certain set of actions, I named each one after an artist whose signature work is similar to that set, ” says infinity.
These photos below are from end of day today, which was a two day solo piece.
End of today August 18, by infinity
A wild scene in the window at end of today August 18, by infinity
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.
Collaboration makes the total Piece (collage and design Anna Robie, photos Jazzmine Beaulieu)
Royce Bannon and the Endless Love Crew
have been working hard and probably playing a little too, and the group show they have engineered is a quick primer on what street art is looking like at the moment in Brooklyn, and elsewhere. The show inaugurates a hallowed creative space for artists in Soho and christens it with a new name, The Combine, at 112 Greene Street in Soho.
The theme of the show, “Work to Do” pays a tribute to words and works of the new president in this land, and Afrika Bambaataa has written a new song with the same name, which he’ll be performing when he reunites with the Soulsonic Force at the opening.
Royce Bannon and a diverse team of talented street artist/graff writers are taking the challenge seriously: Revive the artists’ space in Soho that boasts a proud history and restore it to the constructive, collaborative, democratic roots of a real artists’ community; one that will have a mission of giving back, as well as re-establishing a laboratory for discovery.
These are times for bold actions of hope, and all hands are on deck for a show opening this month called “Work to Do” at 112 Greene Street in Soho, a place that first flourished in the years before the Reagan Revolution.
A Monstrous Welcome to a New Era for 112 Greene Street (Royce Bannon)
Long before Soho became a jewel encrusted haven for high-end couture, over-priced “foodie” groceries, hi-jacking delis, and exclusive password private clubs, the wild-eyed artists were the only people interested in the abandoned buildings south of Houston, and north of Canal. In the decade of the 1970’s, during a financial crisis when a Republican president told our bankrupt city to “drop dead”, that he would veto any bailout for a cash-strapped NYC economy, Soho was a largely abandoned carcass of warehouses and lifeless factories. As is so often the case, it was the perfect playground for the innovative talents of artists and art students needing cheap raw space to create and coalesce and eventually re-start the engine of cultural growth. Like the Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Bushwick neighborhoods in Brooklyn today, Soho in Manhattan was a pounding heart in a hurting city that was drained by an energy crisis, sapped by a costly possibly illegal war on foreign soil, and duped by the ponzi-schemes of corporate titan opportunists at home.
112 Greene Street in Soho was the original home of 112 Workshop, a raw space open between 1970 and 1980, offering exhibition space for installation and performance for the new generation of conceptual artists who emerged from the radicalized minds and cultural upheavals of the previous decade.
With artists having complete control to curate their shows, the space put on challenging and inspirational work of hundreds of people. During the life of this laboratory it produced a list of influential performers and artists that helped shape the cultural cityscape over next 30 years, including names like Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Louis Bourgois, Chuck Close, Spalding Gray, Phillip Glass, Fran Lebowitz, Jeffrey Lew (co-founder), Gordon Matta Clarke (co-founder), Richard Mock, Richard Serra, William Wegman.
A spirit of collaboration and lively exploration returns to this space on March 26 when street artists well known in North Brooklyn today clear out the moribund basement space at 112 Greene and electrify the walls with a new era of youthful big ideas – and with thanks to those who came before in this hallowed space.
Royce Bannon, core member of the collective ELC (Endless Love Crew), is curating an audacious and boundless graphic cavalcade of street art styles to christen the historic space that honors the creative spirit. While ELC has a rotating roster that sometimes totals as many as 9 artists with a variety of styles, the currently active members of the ELC for this project will be Abe Lincoln Jr., Anera, El Celso, infinity, and Royce Bannon. With everyone working collaboratively, the “Work to Do” show pays homage to the new president and embraces a new reality that artists and creatives in the city are feeling right now.
The 112 Greene Street space is christened The Combine with this inaugural show. Steve Loeb and John Robie are creating The Combine to provide a new environment for the exhibition of art; an alternative to the traditional gallery opening and exhibition, transforming static work into multi-media, performance oriented events.
Detail from Kosbe at “Work to Do” (photo Steven P. Harrington)
On a recent sunny Saturday, with Soho sidewalks anxiously trampled with tourists dragging shopping bags out of Prada, Dean & Deluca, and the Apple store, Royce and Chris from Robots Will Kill are laboring below street level on work for the new show. Descending the stairway you hear the blasting remixed hip-hop jams, see the spray-painted names along the walls claiming space for pieces; Ad Deville of Skewville and U.L.M. have staked their real estate, as has Cake and the Smart Crew. Others have already created pieces on their wall allotment; a 7 foot tall Mochni from Veng on the landing, a chaotic collage from Kosbe as you hit the floor, a manic back wall collaboration with Deekers, infinity, and Celso.
A complete history of 112 Workshop
Royce sits at his makeshift table of plywood and saw-horses, pouring over a large book about 112 Workshop, marking its’ pages with post-its, and eyeballing every available inch of the entire basement space, thinking about how to fill it, and with whom. His phone keeps ringing, but he’s concentrating on the long rectangular room. He’s loving this moment, and proud of the work his friends have put into the space. Chris from RWK climbs a ladder to lay-in the first wash of color that will build the backing of… perhaps a robot?
Did you hear the new one about Octomom? (Royce Bannon, Dain, and AVOID Pi) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
The mottled concrete floor is marked with blue tape where a stage will be built for Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force on opening night, and the backdrop wall is already claimed by an undulating AVOID Pi tentacle, some Dain wheatpasted portraits that well up with fluorescent tears, and some smart-aleck monsters from Mr. Bannon himself, and a space remains for Abe Lincoln Jr.. Walk past a stack of plywood into a makeshift rectangular “gallery” room where many 3’ x 8’ foamcore canvasses lean – soon to showcase Deekers, infinity, Celso, and Royce pieces and hung in the windows of a music store further north of here.
Brooklyn Street Art: So who decided to put on this show? Royce Bannon: Steven Loeb (composer, arranger, producer) and John Robie (composer, musician and record producer). They both have really extensive resumes in the music industry that go back to the 70’s – have worked with so many great musicians and artists that have impacted most of us – Kurtis Blow, Public Enemy, James Brown, LL Cool J… and a lot more. This is their space, and they’ve given me full control to make this show rock.
This is how we do it (Chris from Robots Will Kill) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: How did you get involved? Royce Bannon: They hit me up on MySpace about a year ago, I guess. They knew about ELC and liked our work. About November or December they asked me if we could throw an ELC show and I was like “Sure!” We got together and had lunch and they showed me the space. It was a mess when I saw it. It was full of a bunch of wood, tables, broken furniture, junk… it was basically used for storage, hadn’t been used for anything I guess for years.
Brooklyn Street Art: Are they planning to use the space after the show? Royce Bannon: Yeah, they are turning it into an event center, mainly for charitable events. They want to make money, but they want to give back as well. This will be the first kind of event that is following that approach.
Brooklyn Street Art: So they first contacted you to do an ELC show, but you actually know a lot more people who can do work in a space like this. Royce Bannon: Yeah exactly, they were like “we like ELC” and I said, “This is a lot of room to fill for just ELC, so why not invite people who I admire, and some of their friends and we can just crush this whole place up?”
Waiting for the Smart Crew (Cake) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: Have you had to tell people “no” since this roster started filling up? Royce Bannon: Yes, (laughs) I’ve been telling people “no” a lot, and that’s really hard. What I’ve been telling them is to hold on, and once everybody paints, there will be other smaller or tight spots where they can do “fill-ins’, cause some people like those smaller spots too.
Brooklyn Street Art: Looking at this giant space, you are giving people a lot of real estate; these spaces look like 8’ by 8’ chunks of wall. That’s pretty generous. Royce Bannon: Yeah definitely, why not? The spaces are claimed, and we’ve got lots more space to do, and about a third of it is done already.
Brooklyn Street Art: Are people excited to be in the show? Royce Bannon: Yeah, very excited, I think it’s gonna be like a madhouse in here. It’s about 4,000 square feet floorspace.
This place is Smokin’ ! (detail from Kosbe) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: You have been working long hours to accommodate all these artists? Royce Bannon: Yeah, since mid-January I’ve been here like 12 hour days, sometimes late at night. First we had to clean up the space, figure out what materials we wanted to keep. We’re using everything they had left here and re-purposing it, cause “why not”. Better than throwing it away. Like my monsters are cut out of some bookshelves (laughs). They’ve been supplying us with whatever tools we need, gave us a bunch of paint. So with extras, like ladders and tools, I just go to them and we can get to work. They are really supportive of us, plus they’re collectors.
Brooklyn Street Art: So some of the artwork is going to be on sale? Royce Bannon: Yes, I think some of the people are going to actually put their artwork on top of their pieces. We’re going to make a little gallery (gesturing to a 10’x 14’ room) – I think some people are going to put their stuff in there. We’re going to cover the floor, I think, in fake grass… brighten the space up a little bit. But we still got a lot of work to do.
***********************
In planning for the new show, Royce and all of the artists have been inspired by the words of the 44th president:
“In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. It has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up.“
So far the lineup for the show includes: Endless Love Crew, Moody AA, Cabahzm, Cake, 2Easae, Avone, Chris RWK, Veng RWK, Brando * Nev1 * Sinatra Smart Crew, AVOID pi, infinity, Deeker, Keeley, El Celso, Dain, Pufferella, Skewville, Royce Bannon, AnerA, Abe Lincoln Jr., Ellis Gallagher AKA Ellis G., Matt Siren, Overconsumer, Kosbe, Aiko, Abby Goodman, Alone art, Bast, Ben Jackson, Bobby Hill, Buildmore, C. Damage, Chris Brennan, Christopher Gordon, Dark Clouds, Deeker, Destroy and Rebuild, Erica Faulke, Keely, Pufferella, OHM, Smells, Stikman, U.L.M.
Royce Bannon and a diverse team of talented street artist/graff writers are taking the challenge seriously: Revive the artists’ space in Soho that boasts a proud history and restore it to the constructive, collaborative, democratic roots of a real artists’ community; one that will have a mission of giving back, as well as re-establishing a laboratory for discovery.
These are times for bold actions of hope, and all hands are on deck for a show opening this month called “Work to Do” at 112 Greene Street in Soho, a place that first flourished in the years before the Reagan Revolution.
An unprecedented show of Brooklyn street art starts off 2009 at ThinkSpace gallery.
Bam! The year has barely started and the momentum from the previous giant year for street art blows clear into January with a new show of 50 artists from the streets of Brooklyn.
ThinkSpace Gallery, a warm-hearted community space and home of rockin’ shows in L.A. since 2005, plays host to it’s brothers and sisters across the continent with a salon-style show of street artists, graff writers, a hot photographer, and live on-the-street work by the chalk artist from BK.
In the middle of the installation craziness, the curator of the show, Andrew Michael Ford (gallery director at Ad Hoc), and Andrew Hosner (co-founder of ThinkSpace), talked with Brooklyn Street Art about the show:
BSA: So how did AdHoc and ThinkSpace hook up to do this show?
Andrew Hosner: Andrew and I have been friends for a while, and met while he was still doing some curating before hooking up with the Ad Hoc crew. One day we were just shooting the s**t about some show ideas and I tossed out the idea of bringing Brooklyn to Los Angeles…
Andrew Michael Ford: I’ve followed what ThinkSpace shows for quite some time and I was always very impressed with the work. I also have always felt that the folks who run ThinkSpace and myself have very similar tastes as far as curating art goes. Something like this has been talked about or at least thought about for quite some time and when Thinkspace approached us about doing it I felt like it was the right place and right time.
BSA: Is it a kind of East-West cultural exchange?
Andrew Michael Ford: The show is about bringing a large group of Brooklyn street artists and graf writers to Los Angeles. We haven’t discussed bringing LA artists to Brooklyn but I would be open to talking about something like that for the future.
Thundercut (courtesy ThinkSpace and AdHoc)
BSA: Brooklyn’s streetscape is pretty dense and is largely accessible by foot. Do you think the L.A. scene is more spread out? How do the two differ, in broad strokes.
Andrew Michael Ford: I have never been to LA but I heard you need a car to get anywhere out there so I assume it’s gotta be pretty spread out.
Andrew Hosner: I think you nailed it on the head, Brooklyn is much more condensed and has more of a community vibe to it I feel, whereas LA is the true meaning of urban sprawl, being one of the most spread out and varied big cities out there. There’s no real community vibe, save for lil’ pockets here and there, but the breadth of the city kind of goes against the notion of all that.
Dan Witz "Scott" from show "From the Streets of Brooklyn" (courtesy ThinkSpace and AdHoc)
BSA: Maybe this is impossible to put your finger on, but what would be a couple of characteristics that distinguish Brooklyn street art from other cities in the world?
Andrew Michael Ford: For me it started in NYC. I mean, graf started in Philly but really came into it’s own in NYC. I just don’t see that kind of history anywhere else. I see the lineage of graf into street art and that is why so many graf writers have been invited to this show. It’s not just about who is doing a lot of street art. It’s about who is getting up and staying in the streets of Brooklyn regardless of tools being used. I don’t like it when street artists from other cities look at graf here in NYC as some kind of background for their work. It’s a massive slap in the face to all graf writers. Brooklyn street artists have a lot more respect for graf than street artists I have met from other cities, especially from Europe. Maybe that’s the thing that distinguishes what’s going on in the streets of Brooklyn from other places.
Imminent Disaster (earlier work) (courtesy ThinkSpace and Ad Hoc)
BSA: You are showing a LOT of artists…did you have enough (Think) Space?
Andrew Hosner: Hahaha… it will be a very packed show hung salon style, going off of color palette and style. Should look amazing, but it is going to be a visual overload for sure. Patrons will be overwhelmed by Gaia and Rachel Lowing’s thought provoking install immediately upon entering the gallery, then passing through the entry area will be met by a tidal wave of artwork, coming at them from all directions, floor to ceiling… before turning the corner into our project room in the back where Disaster’s massive undertaking will greet them.
BSA: A bit like herding cats?
Andrew Michael Ford: Not really. Honestly, everyone involved believes in this show so much and have been very supportive and helpful in putting it all together.
Matt Siren (courtesy ThinkSpace and AdHoc)
BSA: Will you have time to give Mr. Ford a tour of the sickest sites while he’s there?
Andrew Hosner: It’s hard to say since the focus will be our show, but hopefully on Saturday after the show has passed we will get out to see some of the hotter spots about LA to enjoy works outside. With so many coming to town for the opening, there’s a good chance we’ll be able to watch some of Brooklyn’s finest… cool thing is, all will be able to watch Ellis G. on opening night doing his thing on our block, and I can’t wait for that.
Andrew Michael Ford: I would love to see some stuff by Saber if possible. But really anything good being done would be great to check out.
Ellis G. (courtesy Ad Hoc and ThinkSpace)
BSA: The Brooklyn scene keeps evolving rapidly; what is one trend that you are seeing that is telling you about the future?
I see more and more people throwing up wheatpastes in the streets that I don’t feel are well executed or well placed. I mean, there is room for everything and I love to see what people feel they need to put up but it does worry me sometimes when I see tons of poorly crafted wheatpastes thrown all over the place with no thought to where it is being placed or the quality of the imagery they are producing. I would just like to see people take a little more time in the creation of their art and in the selection of the spots they decide to hit.
Elbow-Toe (courtesy ThinkSpace and AdHoc)
BSA: Whose work is exciting to you right now, and what does it say to you?
Andrew Hosner: I love the work of Elbow-Toe, whose work is really a statement on the state of things in our society right now. His every man piece is by far one of the most powerful and extremely well executed works of this past year. You can look at that work 20 years from now and know that it was referencing the economic struggles were going through currently, while also hinting at the 1st great depression. Powerful work.
Also very inspired by the works of Imminent Disaster, due to her strength in so many different creative outlets… Chris Stain also is someone who should be looked up to. Thought provoking work and just a great overall cat.
Stikman (courtesy ThinkSpace and AdHoc)
Andrew Michael Ford: I think that street art needs to interact with the space where it is placed (good placement is key) and it needs to engage the viewer. Working big can sometimes do this but sometimes it can be a big massive nothing. It’s tough to point to a specific artist but if I had to pick one I can say I’m really intrigued by what the artist Stikman does, as he uses a wide variety of mediums and techniques and always catches you off guard with the placement of his work. Very smart work.
Anera (image by Luna Park) (courtesy Luna Park, ThinkSpace and AdHoc)
BSA: What impression do you think the gallery-goer in L.A. is going to come away with about the Brooklyn street art scene?
Andrew Michael Ford: That’s a great question but sadly one that I have no answer to. I haven’t got a clue what kind of reception we will get when we arrive. I am hoping this can be a positive experience for everyone involved.
Andrew Hosner: I hope they come away feeling inspired and filled with the desire to visit the streets of Brooklyn in person, so they can experience these works as they were originally meant to be, and also feel compelled to explore the works of each in the show further, hopefully coming away with a new favorite that they will watch in the years that lay ahead.
I think many will also be surprised at the sheer breadth and quality of work on view – it is definitely an eye opener type of exhibit. Hopefully this will help to open their eyes to the beauty that is all around them in Los Angeles and abroad. So many walk through their city with blinders on, and it really is a revelation when you start to take in and appreciate the work of urban artists.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
