All posts tagged: Bast

FUN FRIDAY 09.14.12

It’s a BSA Fun Friday and we’re gonna tell you all about some stoopendous Street Art shows this weekend from Brooklyn to Chicago to Paris to Vienna but first….Everybody get up and do some FF dancing like my homeboy PSY in Korea.

This sh*t is Gangnsta, bro.

SEOUL, YOU THINK YOU GOT TALENT…

1. VIDEO “Gangnam Style” Dance Frenzy from Korea
2. Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)
3. “Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)
4. LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)
5. “All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)
6. “Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
7. GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)
8. Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)
9. Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope “Others’ Truths”
10. The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria
11. Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You”
12. “Permanence at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada
13. eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)
14. When Lucent Met Herakut (VIDEO)
15. Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)

Street Artist Bäst has always mixed a savory chopped image salad.  With his dicing, cutting, collaging and stencilling work on the street over the last decade, a lot of his recent stencils are twisted Bodega style signs advertising basic staples for the pantry. But of all the collaborative advertising that Street Artists have been getting into, we never could have predicted this; Olive oil. You can actually go to snooty classist foodery Dean and Deluca and buy a bottle of Bast style olive oil right now. Only 500 were made in this limited edition and the oil smells better than the petroleum-spilled brownfields in industrial Bushwick where you usually see his work, so why not?

This Brooklyn native artist has been amusing, hijacking, and inspiring with his work on the streets of New York for well over a decade and it’s also cool to see his gallery work at his solo show “Germs Tropicana” opened last night at Opera in Manhattan. If the pieces are too pricey, Dean and Deluca is just a couple of blocks away!

Bäst (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)

Outside is the brand new wall piece by ND’A and Dirty Bandits. Inside this art store/gallery they are joined QRST and Gilf! in this new small show called “Just Your Type”, opening tonight.

ND’A (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)

Parisian Street Artist LUDO was in multiple shows around the world and blanketed the Paris Metro and bus shelters with his subvertisements for two years before a gallery in his native city invited him inside. Tonight Galerie Itinerrance will have LUDO’s first solo show entitled “Metal Militia”.

With a truly unique approach to social critique that serves as a cunning indictment of the advertising industry and the military industrial complex, you won’t find anything like the pretty disgust than the work of LUDO.

LUDO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)

Ever the ballsy wiseguy, the Klaughaus Gallery in Manhattan continues to produce and present quality shows that challenge your possibly prejudicial pre-formed perceptions of propriety and pugnacity. This time they invited West Coast natives Reyes and Steel to exhibit at their space with a show titled “All Write You Scumbags”.

From the press release, “The New York debut for both artists and showcases a distinct chemistry cultivated over years working together as friends, creative partners and members of MSK, one of the highest regarded graffiti artist collectives in the world.” To find out what this means go to their show opening tonight.

Reyes (image © courtesy of the gallery)

Steel (image © courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)

Street Artist ROA concludes his US Summer Tour 2012 in San Francisco at his own victorious opening Saturday at  941 Geary Gallery. The show is aptly called “Dominant Species” and will feature many of the cast of creatures you have grown to expect.

“Here is a Street Artist who has very effectively escaped the street, an introvert traveling quietly in the extroverted world, with open eyes and an acute talent for observation; decoding the universe through study of the natural, and unnatural.” BSA

ROA at work on his recent stop over in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read BSA’s feature on ROA this week and to see beautiful images of his work in Mexico, Africa and Cambodia earlier this year click here.

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN are transforming the space at the Creative Alliance Gallery in Baltimore with a collaboration that promises to spill over the street and beyond. If you want to see what the trio is up to put the gameboy down and head out to the gallery for their opening tomorrow night with an exhibition titled Zim Zum.

MOMO at work on his recent participation on Baltimore Open Walls this Summer. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

See MOMO in GEOMETRICKS, presented by BSA and curated by Hellbent next weekend in BROOKLYN, baby.

Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)

Chicago based Street Artist Don’t Fret has a new solo show, “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay” opening Saturday night at the Bizzare Gallery in Chicago.  So if you are planning to arrive naked, BYOB and put your wallet under your armpit. Lo-fi comic book doodling that make most people look like family day at the tractor pull, Don’t Fret drawings are people you know and often dang hilarious.

Don’t Fret in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this Weekend:

  • If you are in Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope is releasing a new zine titled “Others’ Truths” and he’s mounted a small exhibition of the drawings that illustrate it. This exhibition will remain open all day today until 4:00 pm. Click here for more details on this show.
  • The 2012 Edition of The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria is now open. The festival has an important selection of Street Artists putting up works throughout an entire week of programs. Roster includes Blu, Evan Roth, Florian Riviere, Isaac Cordal, Mark Jenkins, and ZukClub. Click here for more details on this festival.
  • The film screening by Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You” is being hosted by the Joshua Liner Gallery in conjunction with their current show by the artist “A Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures”. The screening will take place tomorrow at The Tribeca Grand Hotel. The artist will be in attendance along with the director and a Q & A  will follow the film. Click here for more details on this event.
  • “Permanence” is the title of the new group show at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada. With an ambitious line up international and Canadian artists this show aims to juxtapose the “ephemeral nature of street art with the permanence of collectible art.” From their press release. Click here for more details regarding this show.

In the spirit of Unity, we present Street Artist eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)

This week there has been much news of sadness, discord, and suffering in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Street Artist and painter eL Seed gives us a moment to pull back and reflect on the beauty and poignancy that a religious belief system can contribute to the lives of some.

Here he creates ‘Madinati’ Calligraffiti on Jara Mosque in Gabes.

When Lucent Met Herakut by The One Point Eight (VIDEO)

“A short documentary which presents the show involving graffiti duo Herakut and the Lucent Dossier group, detailing both the rehearsal process and the final performance in a unique and different way.”

Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

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Opera Gallery Presents: Bäst “Germs Tropicana” Solo Exhibition. (Manhattan, NYC)

Bäst

 

Brooklyn-based artist Bast has been an important part of the street art scene for the past 10 years both in New York and Europe, where his wheat-pasted images feature prominently across the urban landscape. An elusive character that has rarely been seen in public, and whose very existence has been debated, little is known about Bast’s work outside of what the public sees throughout New York’s urban environment. Fortunately, more has become known about the artists as his images have evolved to gallery-exhibition status in recent years.

Bast is held in high regard by his fellow contemporaries such as Banksy, Faile, and Paul Insect. In 2010, Bast collaborated with the artist collective Faile on a conceptual video arcade project called Deluxx Fluxx. This project allowed the audience to interact with both of these artist’s work in an arcade game form. While not reviewed heavily in art publications, Deluxx Fluxx received favorable reviews by noted journalists such as Stephen Heyman of the New York Times who argued “art can be diverting, but people sometimes need winners and losers to get in the game.”

For Bast’s first solo show in New York City in 2004 at Transplant Gallery, fellow elusive artist Bansky wrote the introduction to the exhibition’s catalogue. His words give a glimpse into the personality of the artist: “Bast is an artist who represents for Brooklyn. He does this by writing ‘BAST-BROOKLYN’ on other people’s property (and in one case when visiting London the side of a moving red double-decker bus). He does this by speaking with a deep Williamsburg drawl that makes Al Pacino sound like a girl, but mainly he does it by making art that actually feels like Brooklyn. The borough is said to contain every culture and race that exists on the planet earth but that doesn’t necessarily make it interesting- so does the United Nations building but who wants to look at that? The key to Bast’s appeal is not being very responsible. The work isn’t so much a ‘melting pot’ of culture as a food blender, set on max and left until the motor burns out…”

Banksy adds, “His art is fast and loose and cheap, which is strangely why it endures, it’s punchy and it has value. As the great disgraced film producer Robert Evans once said “it’s irreverence that makes things sizzle, its irreverence that gives you a chance of truly touching magic…”

Bast’s work is also appreciated by many in the fashion industry. He has collaborated with Agnes b. on several occasions, who was an influential figure in the art world in the 1980’s during the peak careers of Haring, Warhol, and Basquiat and continues to cultivate artist’s careers today. Bast also teamed up with renowned fashion designer Marc Jacobs to create a clothing collection for one season that eventually lead to creating a 5 season long collaboration. This was a career highlight for Bast as Marc Jacobs had only worked with Takashi Murakami and Kaws previously on his collection label.

Bast’s current show at Opera Gallery New York, “Germs Tropicana,” displays a new direction for the artist, one where Abstract Expressionism meets Pop-Art. In addition to this new style, this group of work continues to explore his already know collage style of faces. The imagery in these pieces appear similar to giant petri dishes, where his text and pop iconography, aka germs, take over the canvas. This body of work is the evolution of Bast, and ties together many of the different styles which he has created over the years.

Fellow contemporary artist Paul Insect describes Bast and his work as, “Coney Island’s original warrior, copied by many, stolen by all…New York’s modern day Basquiat, Bast’s eccentric style delivers a punch to where most people dream of hitting.”

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Images of the Week 06.10.12

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, featuring 156, Ian “Pop Mortem” McGillivray, Bast, Dabs & Myla, Dan Witz, Glam Gramma, Howl, Jaye Moon, Kem5, Kuma, Maurizio Attelan, Pierpaolo Ferrari, and Was.

Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari at The High Line Park for Toilet Paper Magazine. Untitled. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dabs & Myla with Kem5 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dabs & Myla with Kem5 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dabs & Myla with Kem5 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WAS… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz in Vienna from Don’t Enter series (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz in Vienna from Don’t Enter series (photo © Dan Witz)

Howl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast . Kuma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

156 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Glam Gramma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Glam Gramma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ian “Pop Mortem” McGillivray. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Images of the Week 05.20.12

The streets are alive again with all manner of styles from wheat-pastes to stencils, painting, murals, weaving, sticking, slapping, pop appropriation, comic parody, memorial outpouring, collectivism, mavericks, fantasy, pattern, geometry, photography, and yes, beef! Call it what you like, it looks like art is in the streets.

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alec Monopoly, Bast, Ben Wolf, Bishop 203, Dain, Danielle Mastrion, Don’t Fret, Enzo & Nio, Heidi Tullman, Hot Tea, Jason Woodside, Klub7, KRSNA, Michael DeNicola, Mr. Clean, and Sonni.

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Wolf and Heidi Tullmann. This is a work in progress and we’ll have more on this installation later in the week. Also, a Faile prayer wheel is in the foreground. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klub7 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klub7 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Clean. Mary is such a good spokesperson isn’t she? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don’t Fret is a wild thing in Chicago. (photo © Don’t Fret)

Don’t Fret in Chicago with this parody of Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting “Nighthawks” (photo © Don’t Fret)

Original painting of Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting “Nighthawks”.

Michael DeNicola welcomes the new residents of Gentriburg (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop 203 with loving assistance by Elle. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There have been a number of great tributes on the street to the Beastie Boys in reference to the painful loss of Brooklyn’s MCA on May 4th. This one is by Danielle Mastrion. If you’d like to send us others, maybe we can collect them all into one posting. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alec Monopoly adorns the fake facade of a new night life venue to open this Fall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Krsna’s take on “The Scream” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Enzo & Nio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The acrylic box screwed onto the wall was originally an audio device for people to plug in their own earphones and learn more about Jason Woodside’s mural (shown here on last week BSA Images of the Week) in collaboration with the New Museum project titled CNNCTD+100. The box was partially destroyed and an unknown artist stenciled the earphones later.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni’s new installation “Music Machine” on the back of the old CBGB’s curated by Keith Schweitzer and produced through FABnyc’s ArtUp program in collaboration with MaNY Project (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni “Music Machine” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Fun Friday 05.11.12

1. “Streets of the World” Now Open in Soho
2. “A Night With The London Police” (Newcastle)
3.  Word To Mother (San Francisco)
4. “Lo-Cal” at C.A.V.E.
5. “French Invasion” in Ventura City
6. “The Exchange Project: Series I” in LA
7.  Lister in a video by Carlos Gonzalez
8.  REVOK: The Seventh Letter x The Hundreds

“Streets of the World” Now Open in Soho

“Streets of the World”, the massive new show at Opera Gallery is open to the public today after a boffo opening last night. It’s not all brand new stuff, but we’ve never seen it before – this is a very fun Street Art to go see. Also, for Aunt Bea, there’s even a real live Banksy! Make sure to go down stairs as well as the show continues in the basement.

Os Gemeos serenading you out the window (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also…“The Streets of the World” Converge at Opera Gallery

“A Night With The London Police” (Newcastle)

If you are up to spending the night with the naughty boys of The London Police then head over to Newcastle yonder in the UK where at Unit 44 Gallery where they’ll charm you with their natural wit and talent tonight at the opening of their show “A Night With The London Police”.

And now Chaz will attempt to hypnotize you. The London Police (photo © Unit44)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Word To Mother (San Francisco)

In San Francisco at the White Walls Gallery will be the British Street Artist named Word To Mother on Saturday. He’s been busy tagging and will be glad to tell you why he “Can’t Afford To Be Broke”.

Word To Mother (photo © Jennifer Goff)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

At C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice Beach, CA “Lo-Cal” A group show including BECCA in the back room. Click here for more details on this show.

At the Fabien Castanier Gallery in Ventura City, CA a “French Invasion” takes place with JonOne, Nasty, Rero, Speedy Graphito and Tilt in a group show. Click here for more details on this show.

At The Navarro Residence “The Exchange Project: Series I” in LA opens on Saturday with Radical!, Patrick Porter and Scott Michael Ackerman. Click here for more details on this show.

 

Lister in a video by Carlos Gonzalez

On this video Carlos Gonzalez interviews and documents Anthony Lister during his multiple trips to Los Angeles.

REVOK: The Seventh Letter x The Hundreds

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“The Streets of the World” Converge at Opera Gallery Tonight

Without much fanfare, the Opera Gallery is selling the streets of the world. The crossroads of many countries meet there tonight as the gallery presents a survey of some of the better-known Street Artists of the moment and a few predecessors; a show of their growing roster of names from the last decades’ explosion on the street and a reflection of the tastes of a new generation of collectors.

Take a survey of the action in auctions, galleries, art fairs, Flickr pages, and even blogs, and anyone would conclude that the streets are a source of life that ignites the imagination of many in the art world today. While the movement of Street Art and graffiti-inspired art into commercial sales always sparks debate about it’s rightful place (or definition), the undeniable fact is that the market for Street Art is now in full bloom.

Banksy. This piece was originally shown at the Bristol Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So here they are, some of your favorite Street Artists, most of whom have been profiled here on BSA, collected in one space for you to view and appreciate under well lit conditions and protected from the elements. Watching the transition from ignominy to untouchable over a little more than a decade is positively head spinning as the identities of many of these same artists were once shrouded, and some still are. When you look at pieces made specifically for the gallery, it can be gratifying and illuminating to see whose talent can evolve and deepen when there is no need to hit and run, or look over your shoulder.  As we cross this gossamer veil to see the work of these artists once more before it disappears into private collections, it’s worth noting that the creative spirit is always alive for anyone who wants to access it. That’s what keeps us running to the street.

BSA got a chance to see the show going up – and caught just a few of the amazing pieces – but many were not unpacked yet or hung.  If you are in New York, this little show is a big one that you will be glad you saw.

Among the artists on view are Anthony Lister, Rone, Kid Zoom, ROA, Dal East, Blek le Rat, Herakut, How and Nosm, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, b., Know Hope, The London Police, M-City, Sixeart, Hyuro, Liqen, Interesni Kazki, Paul Insect, Remi Rough, Nick Walker, Mark Jenkins, Saber, Augustine Kofie, Revok, Faile, Bäst, Swoon, Ron English, Trustocorp, Mare 139, Jose Parla, Eric Haze, Logan Hicks, Aiko.

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Saber (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Interesni Kazki (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Interesni Kazki (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mark Jenkins (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Logan Hicks (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blek le Rat (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jose Parla (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron English (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mare139 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Love Me (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

b. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexandros Vasmoulakis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Streets Of The World” opens today at the Opera Gallery in Manhattan. Click here for further information regarding this show.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Opera Gallery Presents: “Streets of the World” (Manhattan, NY)

Opera Gallery

Lister “Dancer in Motion-Black” (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

May 11th – May 31st
Free admission: 11:00 – 7:00 daily
Telephone number: 212.966.6675

For the first time, Opera Gallery will be uniting forty of the most important contemporary artists to emerge from the Street Art Movement. These artists span the globe, including the United States, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Poland, Belgium, Israel, Spain and China, proving that the Street Art Movement has no borders. Opera gallery is proud to have put together this unique show. Thank you to all the artists for creating some of their best works for this occasion.

Featuring Anthony Lister, Rone, Kid Zoom, ROA, Dal East, Blek le Rat, Herakut, How and Nosm, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, b., Know Hope, The London Police, M-City, Sixeart, Hyuro, Liqen, Interesni Kazki, Paul Insect, Remi Rough, Nick Walker, Mark Jenkins, Saber, Augustine Kofie, Revok, Faile, Bäst, Swoon, Ron English, Trustocorp, Mare 139, Jose Parla, Eric Haze, Logan Hicks, Aiko.

Know Hope “What Happens When the Blues Set It” (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

Opera Gallery

115 Spring Street  New York, NY 10012

(212) 966-6675
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Images of the Week 04.01.12

Images of the Week 04.01.12

 

Our weekly interview with the street, featuring Alias, B.D.White, Bast, Ben Eine, Bishop 203, Gilf, Istanbul, MEMO, ND’A, Never, QRST, RWK, Sis-Art, Stikman, Vampire Cloud, and Veng (RWK).

BAST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BAST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alias. A wheat paste from Istanbul (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Vampire Cloud (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop 203 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! We’ll be keeping an eye on this one…it is going to grow! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

B.D. White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sis-Art sent this image of her wheat paste from Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico! (photo © Sis-Art)

MEMO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rusted Metal: Canvas and Collaborator on the Streets

Street Art is ephemeral. That, for the most part is true. Unless we consider the role that the Internet plays in the way most people experience it. Then it doesn’t seem ephemeral at all.

From the moment a piece of Street Art appears, its evolution begins. Transformed by the elements; rain, sun, the rusting and oxidation of metal, the fading of paper. If you become familiar with a piece on the street, you might see it daily on your way to work or school or the laundromat. Over time it matures, evolves, takes on new characteristics, and eventually disappears.

Today we look at metal and it’s collaborative behavior as art material, its personality, its natural qualities. Industrial lots, garbage bins, heavy old gates secured with chains and locks, scrap yards, untreated wood facades – they all provide a myriad of surfaces, textures, shapes that serve as canvas and collaborator. Over time you observe the aging process of a stencil on a metal plate, or a decaying wheat paste peeling off of it or rusting into it, masking it’s shape onto it. The collaboration of materials and elements can be one of the most beautiful experiences one encounters on the streets, even an enduring one.

Here are some pieces on metal for you to enjoy.

Revs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kaws (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

See One (photo © Jaime Rojo)

See One (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Dude Company (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anera (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

White Cocoa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohjColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The 1% (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jolie Routine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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Valentines from the Street : BSA With Love

If Street Art reflects society back to itself, and we contend that it does, then we must be in love. Among the myriad sentiments you’ll find on the street are those that are politically angry, socially strident, or comically sarcastic. Additionally we often find emotional expressions on the street that are positively loving, or lustful. Whether a sign of attainment or of aspiration, these amorous interludes let us know that feelings of longing for another are universal. Happy Valentines to you with love from the street.

Street Artist AIKO with a stencil based on a photo by Martha Cooper (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aiko (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boxi. Love in the times of catastrophe. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter’s very public declaration of love.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea and Cernesto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A sticker from Paradox (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ND’A and Labrona (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Love Me (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Interesni Kazki (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Uphues (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop 203 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Dare (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Making Faces” at Opera : A New York Party

“Making Faces” is as much about mix mastery as it is happenstance – kind of like walking on the street in New York. The boldly unmatching collection of portraits on view at Opera Gallery in Soho is sometimes thrilling, even challenging in it’s dismissal of category. There is this new crop of many of the Street Artists you’ve seen in the wild these last few years hanging with stars of the Chinese new wave, early 20th century European revolutionaries, an historic leader of impressionism, a surrealist – you know, a gamut. You could call it cleaning out the closets, or you could call it “Girl Talk curates the gallery”.  Either way, it can be thrilling to see these pieces in this context; sparring, harmonizing, both.

The divine madness of Street Artist Judith Supine loses none of it’s wild energy here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art springs at you when you are in ratty decayed lots in Bed Stuy, and similarly here you have rely on your own intellectual strengths to process the work in it’s surroundings, analyzing and imagining the coupling, or tripling.  Is this a master or a pretender? You’ll figure it out eventually but the stimulation lies in your ability to let go of hard classifications and surprise prejudices to re-assess the faces and appreciate an occasional revelation at this New York mixer.

b. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

b. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yue Minjun (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexandros Vasmoulakis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lita Cabellut (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paul Insect (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kid Zoom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron English (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rostarr (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artists include Yasmina Alaqui, Marco Guerra, Karel Appel, B., Jean-Michel Basquiat, BAST, Simon Birch, Bernard Buffet, Lita Cabellut, Marc Chagall, Sas Christian, Mauro Corda, Dinorah Delfin, Jean Dubuffet, Lori Earley, Ron English, Paul Insect, John John Jesse, Kid Zoom, Li Tianbing, Bengt Lindstrom, David Mach, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Phiippe Pasqua, Pablo Picasso, Gerard Rancinan, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Rostarr, Judith Supine, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Tom Wesselman, Yan Pei Ming, Zhang Xiaogang.

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