All posts tagged: Bom-k

Moniker Art Fair: Scenes From Behind The Scenes

May 3, 2018 Artists

“I try to make sure I’m presenting work from artists not necessarily because they’re popular,” Tina Ziegler told us a few weeks ago, “but because they are or have been influential and/or fundamental to urban & contemporary art’s growth.”

Herakut. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

That may explain why D*Face was nearly sprinting to his wall in Greenpoint yesterday while Egle Zvirblyte was mounting the brightly sexified animals around the bar and the Skewville twins were sweating the details on their installation on a roll-down gate. Of course, since they are actual Brooklyn Street Artists the bros appeared as cool as the elevated JMZ train with the windows open.

For that matter, the action inside the exhibition spaces was also jamming, including Jasmine from Herakut, who was painting a passage in her distinctive handstyle across a booth here in this former merchant marine factory warehouse.

Hera of Herakut at work. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s the first Moniker International Art Fair in Brooklyn for the next four days with 27 exhibitors, a number of “artist residencies”, live mural painting, music performances by Princess Nokia, a “Street Heroines” talk with documentary director Alexandra Henry and a 5 Pointz history presentation with Meres One.

As the preparations for Moniker’s debut in NYC got underway we visited the location and found an energetic team busy at work helping the many artists and the galleries who represent them transfixed with the task of setting up shop, build the installations and paint the walls outside. Here’s a peek for you.

Jose Mendez at work. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jose Mendez. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at work for Moniker Art Fair in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The amazing team at Swoon’s Heliotrope Foundation setting up. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASVP setting up. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brusk. Detail. Jonathan LeVine Projects booth. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Derek Gores setting up. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MeresOne. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bom.K Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Egle Zvirblyte. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Le Gran Jeu. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tina Ziegler. Chief instigator. Fair engine. Founder. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Princess Nokia Putting Everybody in the Mood for Spring and Summer in Brooklyn

Bom.K x Moniker x BSA

April 26, 2018 Artists, Interview

In advance of Moniker in Brooklyn this May, we are interviewing some of the artists who are influenced both by street practice and fine art as the contemporary urban art category continues to evolve. Today, BSA is talking to Bom.K.

Parisian painter Bom.k develops huge frescoes that are truly evocative of the universe he grew up in; “Brutal, dirty, violent, suburban,” he says. Hellish monsters push through the wall in rage, nude figures contort and twist, grotesque hybrids of humans and animals and chimeras and nightmares overwhelm with a technically masterful touch and sometimes a sense of gentle humor. He says he draws upon his life experience, obviously in concert with an outstanding imagination.

Bom.K canvas “Embrouille part03” (copyright the artist)

A teenager in the early nineties with “Spray Can Art” and “Subway Art” in his possession and as inspiration, he says that these were “sacrosanct Bibles” from Prigoff, Chalfant, and Cooper that inducted him into the language of the street with a distinct New York inspiration. He did multiple tags, throw-ups, and frescos showing off lettering and character skills before co-founding Da Mental Vaporz with Iso as the century turned.

Steadfastly developing his craft and body of work on walls, Bom.k has brought his infernal bestiary into gallery settings in Paris, Denmark, LA, Berlin, and elsewhere. He’s published an illustration based book, created sculpture, prints, and of course outstanding canvasses that will summon fearful beasts of such dimension that Francis Bacon would invite them for dinner and possibly meet afterward at a dark bar with Gonzo for drinks.

Bom.K (photo from the artist’s Instagram account)

Brooklyn Street Art: How would you describe your work to someone who is seeing it for the first time
Bom.k: I would describe it as an instant projection from my imagination. It is a picture made by my thoughts and transposed into a medium by the action of painting or drawing.

BSA: Do you have any personal experience with Brooklyn and its history of Street Art or graffiti?
Bom.k: The graffiti scene and street art in Brooklyn has certainly been very influential in the world. I have never painted in Brookyn yet, but like many others it would be a great pleasure to be able to.

Bom.K (photo from the artist’s Instagram account)

BSA: What’s most important to you?
Bom.k: To be original and to feel good about my technique.

BSA: Are graffiti and Street Art allowed to change, or should there be a strict definitions they adhere to?
Bom.k: Graffiti and street art don’t have to respond to rules if the goal of the rules is to control and judge. It should appeal to as many people as possible. The practice has to stay free and independent.

Bom.K (photo from the artist’s Instagram account)

BSA: Moniker says your work has been influential and/or fundamental to urban & contemporary art’s growth. Can you see their point?
Bom.k: Oh, it’s a strong statement. I’m not sure to be the best person to talk about that. I hear sometimes that my work has been an inspiration for some artists. This is quite gratifying to hear it but I can’t say more. I have no idea about it. I just focus on my work.

BSA: Name one artist whose work you admire today.
Bom.k: I can name around a hundred without much effort. One among so many others, Dran.

For more information please go to Moniker Art Fair HERE.

Tour Paris 13 : Fluorescent & Towering Show Book

December 13, 2014 Artists

Another book to tell you about today! Remember when BSA took you to Paris that time and we skipped the line and went into all the floors of this soon to be demolished building?

“The numbers are astounding; 105 artists, 9 floors, 36 apartments, 30,000 visitors.

One hour.

That is how much time Street Art enthusiast Spencer Elzey had to himself inside the largest gallery of Street Artists and graffiti artists ever assembled specifically to transform a building for a public show. As he looked out a window to see the snaking lines of Parisians and tourists restlessly waiting to get in, he couldn’t believe his luck to be able to walk through the exhibit by himself and get off some clear shots before the throng hit.”

That is how we described it in November 2013 when Spencer took us on a whirlwind tour of TOUR 13.

Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Published last month this towering book with the page edges sprayed neon orange was released by Mehdi Ben Cheikh in French and English to commemorate the event, and seeing the installations this way is going to make you wish the place wasn’t destroyed. 500 new photos previously unpublished allows you to see the show as you travel from the cellar to the top floors.

You may wish you had more background on the artists and the context and clearly not all of the artistry is of similar quality but you will be satiated by the images and thankful that they were recorded during their brief duration. Published by Editions Albin Michel, in partnership with the Itinerrance Gallery, this show will continue to soar long after the dust has settled.

Entes . Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inti . Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ethos .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Seth .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Moneyless .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artists included in the Tour Paris 13 project:

108, 2MIL FAMILIA, A1ONE, ADD FUEL, AGL, AGOSTINO IACURCI, AMINE, ALEXÖNE, ARRAIANO, AWER, AZOOZ, BOM.K, BTOY, C215, CEKIS, CELESTE JAVA, CLET, COPE2, CORLEONE, DABRO, DADO, DAN23, DAVID WALKER, DEYAA, EIME, eL SEED, ENTES, ETHOS, ETNIK, FENX, FLIP, GAËL, GILBERT, GUY DENNING, HERBERT BAGLIONE, HOGRE, HOPNN, INDIE, INTI ANSA, INTI CASTRO, JAZ, JB ROCK, JÉRÔME GULON, JIMMY C, JOYS, JULIEN COLOMBIER, KAN, KATRE, KEITH HARING, KRUELLA, LEGZ, LEK, LE CYKLOP, LILIWENN, LOIOLA, LUDO, MAIS MENOS, MAR, MÁRIO BELÉM, MARKO, MARYAM, MATÉO GARCIA, MAZ, MONEYLESS, MOSKO, MP5, MYRE, NANO, NEBAY, NEMI “UHU”, NILKO, ORTICANOODLES, PANTÓNIO, PEETA, PHILIPPE BAUDELOCQUE, RAPTO, REA ONE, RODOLPHE CINTORINO, ROTI, SAILE, SAMBRE, SAMINA, SEAN HART, SÉBASTIEN PRESCHOUX, SENSO, SETH, SHAKA, SHOOF, SHUCK 2, SOWAT, SPAZM, SPETO, STeW, STINKFISH, SWOON, TELLA’S, TINHO, TORE, UNO, URIGINAL, VEXTA, VHILS, and WISIGN

Click HERE to read BSA’s coverage of this project before the building was demolished.

BSA Film Friday: 05.02.14

May 2, 2014 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. Da Mental Vaporz and ‘The Wall’
2. YZ – Lost in the City
3. NYCHOS: Pen and Paper
4. Stealing Banksy
5. E1000 x Pablo Herrero at Memorie Urbane 2014

BSA Special Feature: Da Mental Vaporz and ‘The Wall’

To mark their new show that opened this week at BC Gallery, the 10 member France-based collective known as “Da Mental Vaporz” release this panoply of inventive and tight wall work and, as it turns out, canvasses. It is reassuring to see original thinking and solid skills still can win the day, and good to see artists sticking together to make great collaborations.

Included are Bom.k, Blo, Brusk, Iso, Dran, Kan, Lek, Gris1, Jaw and Sowat.

“The works of these artists can speak for themselves independently, differentiating from each other mostly in medium as in style and technique that which as soon as they are shown in a common context, creates an extraordinarily interesting and thrilling relationship. As can be deduced from the name ‘Da Mental Vaporz’, which, translated, means “The Vapors of the Psyche” it is for the artists a matter of concern to make the observer aware of the abyss of the personal psyche.” – from the description on Vimeo.

YZ – Lost in the City

YZ takes us on a trip through her city and invites us to get lost with her. For those non-French speakers, it is still a rewarding discovery that comes two thirds of the way through the small film that features jazz rhythms that wend you through the avenues of Paris, the suburban streets and into her studio.

NYCHOS: Pen and Paper

“All of my family – my dad, my grandpa, they all are hunters,” says Nychos at the picnic table as he explains his fascination for slicing apart animals and allowing us to see what organs and systems are arranged within. While listening to heavy metal you learn that Nychos was elated when he discovered his love of depicting dissection in graphic detail. He said, “Okay this is something I can stick to and go crazy on it.” May we all be so fortunate to find that thing too.

Stealing Banksy

“It’s like looking at a collection of hunting trophies severed from their natural environment,” our narrator intones, “stuffed into frames and soon to be seen by the privileged few”. Fair enough, you say, as long as I’m one of them. Wendy Hurrell says in her description of her new documentary “Stealing Banksy”, that she has been following Banksy’s work for a decade or more, and “it has been my privilege to wallow through the moral dilemma that is taking his works from the streets, legally and selling them for charity – never to be seen by the masses again.”

E1000 x Pablo Herrero at Memorie Urbane

The Blind Eye Factory shot this very large mural painted on the wall of a cemetary for the 2014 Memorie Urbane Street Srt festival in Gaeta, Italy

“Major Minority” ; The Great Gathering of a Tribe

March 13, 2014 Artists, Interview

Poesia and EKG Talk to BSA about an Audacious Survey

A new show organized by Poesia, a San Francisco based graffiti artist and founder of the site Graffuturism, pulls together one hundred or so artists from eighteen countries with the goal of mapping one constellation in the cosmos – a global survey of urban artists that hopes to articulate a body of aesthetics he’s calling Othercontemporary. And why not? Audacity and vision are qualities these times call for and if successful could lead to a clearer understanding of the trends, techniques, practices, and narratives underlying what has been happening on the streets for the last half century.

Kwest (photo © Brock Brake)

With New York artist/historian/semiotic explorer EKG as a guide, the two have been synthesizing their findings and discovering the genuine firing of synapses that indicate they are uncovering the electrical impulses that have made graffiti / street art/ urban art feel so completely relevant to the last two generations. A “Major Minority” hopes to chart the course for the third.

Mags (photo © Brock Brake)

Poesia invites you here to take a look at some of the pieces that will be on display, as shot by Brock Brake. Brooklyn Street Art asked Poesia and EKG about the survey and to make some conjecture about the way forward.

Brooklyn Street Art: Each generation and movement is defined and labeled by its participants, peers, and observers. In your treatise on this moment and this collection of artists you say that Stefano Antonelli coined the term Othercontemporary to perhaps set it apart from Contemporary. Why does this term sound appropriate to you?
Poesia: I had initially used the term Neo-Contemporary. After a brief discussion amongst some peers Stefano mentioned this term – it seemed the most accurate out of the terms being discussed. I feel it’s important because it starts a conversation about something other than contemporary art, and describes rather bluntly our separation from contemporary art, yet defines the contemporary nature of our art form. I have grown tired of comparing what we do to contemporary art, maybe this term will get people talking about something more present.

Slicer (photo © Brock Brake)

Brooklyn Street Art: Take a guess and swing the bat wide, why has the established art world taken so long to give recognition to the urban artist?
Poesia: Canonization usually takes place long after the genuine moments of art movements, or when they are at their peak. Its no different even in today’s Internet era, even with all the information at their fingertips academics won’t ever understand why a 12 year old child and a 50 year old adult writes on walls. Its easier to make use of their MFAs by extending the reach of the contemporary art conversation than it is to look at society and to try to understand the writing on the walls.

Hellbent (photo © Hellbent)

Brooklyn Street Art: Has something happened in the last 5-10 years that has caused so many urban/street/graffiti artists to make more geometric and abstract work that usually avoids the organic, figurative, and pop? Any idea what is driving it?
Poesia: It’s a culmination – one of those things where maybe all the right ingredients are there and it happens.

Graffiti, being an abstract art form in its nature, lends itself to pure abstraction. Experimentation with the letterform usually takes place more with color and shape than it does conceptually or from a representational perspective. Additionally with the birth of Street Art it opened up the playing field a bit. Artists now were forced to compete visually with representational imagery on walls. It has allowed many artists to leave letterform and the rectangular space of a piece or even “wild style”. The horizontal rectangle was replaced with the square or vertical rectangle – that also pushed for the evolution of the artist.

Silvio Magaglio (photo © Brock Brake)

Brooklyn Street Art: What will a viewer begin to realize when looking over the constellation of works in this show?
Poesia: That painting is alive, and urban art seems to be the most relevant embodiment of this. This post-historical art form seems to be sending a message that there is something left in the visual image and its power. The goal was to show the widest spectrum possible from figurative to minimal in the area of Urban Art and I think we accomplished that.

Silvio Magaglio (photo © Brock Brake)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you speak about the “unique participatory and non-exclusionary nature” of urban/street/graffiti art practices?
EKG: Graffiti/Street Art (here defined as the public surfaces they affix themselves to, the container superseding the content, the medium as the message) is a broadcast channel that will not exclude anyone who wants to participate. Anybody with a passion to be seen and heard can broadcast on the graffiti/street art wavelength, as long as they are driven to take the risk of breaking the law in order to make their aesthetic statement.

When someone illegally transmits a signal on a public surface, aka a wall or monitor, there is no editorial hierarchy, no censorship board, no review panel, and no proofreaders. It is an individualistic and anarchistic means of expression. In order to transmit your mark, you don’t have to pay anyone, you don’t have to ask for permission, you don’t have to take a vote, you don’t have to take into account anyone else’s approval or opinion about your message.

At heart, graffiti/street art are visual civil disobedience, no matter the initial conscious intention of the mark maker, although a combination of action and intention can make the mark more meaningful to the receiver once they learn more about the broadcaster.

Vsod (photo © Brock Brake)

Brooklyn Street Art: “Illegal” and “transgressive” are two root words that reappear in your discussion of the collection. Did this movement germinate from anti-establishment sentiments, marginalized populations?
EKG: Doing anything illegal can be considered transgressive, but, more specifically for this discussion, illegal aesthetic manifestations are a minor infrastructural irritant that accrue a massive semiotic tumescence of cultural weight.

Currently incarcerated under the simplistic and myopic legal category defined as vandalism, aka criminal mischief, illegal aesthetic manifestations should instead be interpreted as more of a cultural statement than actually being a debilitating crime that selfishly and meaninglessly attacks a particular individual or society as a whole, as has been promoted by institutional authorities protecting the status quo.

The Original Writers discovered that Graffiti was a powerful means to: express rebellious dissatisfaction on political, economic, societal and cultural levels; define one’s identity as a powerful entity that was omnipresent, by proxy omniscient; delineate physical and semiotic territories that were theirs as opposed to their foes or society at large; connect with other members of their age group to form alternative communities of like-minds; and gain recognition with their peers and the public overall.

Like the seers who were channeling the oracles of our time, the old school original writers instinctually discovered an art form that continues to engage and challenge our global culture. Fifty years later the movement is still kept alive inside and outside by practitioners of all ages, styles, and intentions. Graffiti is no longer perceived as merely vandalism perpetrated by megalomaniac antisocial teens, but a positive and powerful cultural change agent practiced by conscious objectors of all ages.

Drew Young (photo © Brock Brake)

Brooklyn Street Art: Specifics please: please place an artists name next to each of the following word whose work comes to mind.

Poesia: Okay, here are examples.

Activist: Boniface Mwangi
Idealist: Moneyless
Geometric: Nawer
Minimal: Christopher Derek Bruno
Expressionist: Jaybo Monk

Askew (photo © Brock Brake)

Brooklyn Street Art: Sometimes it appears that the street is providing the stage for an explosion/implosion of all other historical art movements coalescing and deconstructing and recombining and mutating before us. Perhaps it’s because the street is reflecting society and we are all drinking from the Internet River. Maybe we’re witnessing a true globalism. You can say the movement on the street has roots in graffiti, and we would agree. But is it even possible to make sense of what is happening right now?
Poesia: I can only be a participant in this moment and hope to engage the conversation in real time versus when it won’t matter anymore. I think Urban Art is one of many emerging art forms that have been bubbling on the surface for a while now. As the generation shift takes place we will be accepted at the moment when we are irrelevant, as so many art forms before us. This makes today more important than tomorrow. I don’t know if I have the capability to make sense of it all, but I appreciate every second of it.

Bezt Etam (photo © Brock Brake)

Vincent Abadie Hafez Zepha (photo © Brock Brake)

Thiago Toes (photo © Brock Brake)

Sat One (photo © Brock Brake)

Katre (photo © Brock Brake)

Sowat (photo © Brock Brake)

Gilbert1 (photo © Brock Brake)

Dem189 (photo © Brock Brake)

Bom.k (photo © Brock Brake)

Borondo (photo © Brock Brake)

“A Major Minority” opens this Friday, March 14 at 1AM Gallery in San Francisco, CA.

Click HERE for more details on this show.

The Full Essay “A Major Minority” Group Exhibition by Poesia and EKG can be found HERE.

The interview answers from EKG were edited for length – please see his full responses on his Facebook page HERE.

We would like to thank Brock Brake for his excellent photos of the art and to Poesia and EKG for their thoughtful and insightful answers to our questions.

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Towering Gallery Full of Art to Be Demolished : “La Tour Paris 13”

November 20, 2013 Artists

The numbers are astounding; 105 artists, 9 floors, 36 apartments, 30,000 visitors.

One hour.

That is how much time Street Art enthusiast Spencer Elzey had to himself inside the largest gallery of Street Artists and graffiti artists ever assembled specifically to transform a building for a public show. As he looked out a window to see the snaking lines of Parisians and tourists restlessly waiting to get in, he couldn’t believe his luck to be able to walk through the exhibit by himself and get off some clear shots before the throng hit.

El Seed. La Tour Paris 13. Exterior of the tower. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“The La Tour Paris 13 experience was something that I’ll never forget,” Elzey recounts as he thinks of himself nearly running from apartment to apartment with camera in hand, each room a new discovery, many of them inspiring awe.

“I was on an adrenaline rush while I was inside since I only had an hour by myself before it opened to the public. It wasn’t until later in the morning when I looked back at all of my pictures that I was able to fully understand exactly how much art I just witnessed,” he says.

Kan. La Tour Paris 13. Come in. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Mehdi Ben Cheikh from Galerie Itinerrance, who curated the project La Tour Paris 13 gave permission to Elzey to get these shots for BSA before the crowds arrived and now he was snapping as many as possible.

Over the course of the year artists have devised specific paintings, sculptures, and installations inside the housing tower knowing that it would be exhibited for a month before being demolished. “The number of artists and the amount of space dedicated to this one exhibit is something that I don’t think will ever again be replicated,” he says.

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

While touring former living rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens Elzey quickly discovered that aerosol and markers were not the only materials used by this global pool of street/graffiti/urban artists who came from far places like Brazil, Iran, US, Tunisia, and even Saudi Arabia in addition to many European countries.

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Some artists had staged new perspectives and environments by combining sculptural elements that married into their wall pieces, others like C215 cut into the floorboards to create a relief, still others worked in and around the decaying, partially destroyed infrastructure to create venues that slid into the fantasies of subconscious. “It was a free-for-all in a sense that once inside the apartment the artist had free reign to transform it however they wanted,” he says.

“What isn’t apparent in the pictures is how dark a lot of the rooms were. There were at least three rooms that were essentially dark with the exception of a little black light, while others were dimly lit by a solo lamp or fluorescent bulb. Sometimes you had to walk through holes in the walls to access further rooms.”

Seth. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

In his images here you can see the variety of styles and influences that the artists brought to the game, each accepting that it was a one-time-only installation. Maybe this group wasn’t so hard to convince, since the very nature of art on the streets is ephemeral.

“Street Art on the street has an expiration date, but the exact amount of time in which it will stay up isn’t known,” says Elzey, “It can either be covered up by graffiti or another wheat-paste, it can be removed by the building owner, or it can just wither away from being exposed to the elements.”

La Tour Paris 13 brings to mind the multitude of urban explorers who regularly trek into abandoned and neglected places all over the world and leave their mark, activating previously moribund spaces with art, but no one has ever launched a show like this with such genuine quality or with this scope.

Uriginal. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“The closest thing that I can compare it to is 5 Pointz,” Elzey says of the grouping of buildings in New Yorks’ Long Island City that provided what was perhaps the original group show venue for urban art from the 1990s until yesterday. In an ironic mirroring of events, 5 Pointz and its multitude of external paintings underwent “the buff” the night before last after running an every-changing show for about three decades.

The 5 Pointz factory buildings themselves are also slated for demolition and will make way for new condos. “We all knew that its days were extremely numbered,” he says sadly of what had become a New York cultural heritage icon to some and a holy place for graffiti writers and Street Artists and fans from around the world.

Tellas. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

The true impact from the La Tour Paris 13 project and 5 Pointz may happen in the mind and heart of the artist and the art fan; perhaps the beauty of this exercise, however short lived, is that the public is being encouraged to re-imagine old buildings for new uses, to consider what else we can do with private and public space.

When that conversation takes place we often realize how the limits of creativity are determined in no small part by imagination.

Sambre. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

While we keep tracking the routes and machinations of this first global people’s art movement that has evolved into Street Art, we fully expect that we will continue to be surprised and inspired by the creative spirit and by artists.

For Spencer, this Tour was a lot more personal. “Having experienced something like this on such an immense scale and with a definitive end date made me feel like I was part of something special.”

Stew. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Visit La Tour Paris 13 site for a full set of photographs, details and a full experience of the project.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

Artists participating include: 108 ( Italy) – 2mil (Brazil) – Add Fuel ( Portugal) – AGL ( France ) – Lacurci Agostino (Italy) – Alexone ( France ) – A1one (Iran) – Amin ( France ) – Aous (Saudi Arabia) – awer (Italy) – Azooz (Saudi Arabia) – Belem (Portugal) – BOM.K ( France ) – Btoy (Spain) – C215 ( France ) – Celeste Java ( France ) – Cope2 (USA) – Corleone (Portugal ) – Dabro (Tunisia) – Dado (Italy) – Dan23 ( France ) – David Walker (UK) – Eime (Portugal) – eL Seed ( Tunisia) – Ethos (Brazil) – Etnik (Italy) – Fenx ( France ) – Flip (Brazil) – Gael ( France ) – Gilbert ( France ) – Guy Denning (UK) – Herbert Baglione (Brazil) – Hogre (Italy) – Hopnn (Italy) – Indie 184 (USA) – Inti Ansa ( France ) – Inti Castro (Chile) – Jaz (Argentina) – JB Rock ( Italy) – Jimmy C ( Australia) – Samina Joao (Portugal) – Jonone (USA) – Joys (Italy) – Julien Colombier ( France ) – Kan ( France ) – Katre ( France ) – Kruella (Portugal) – Legz ( France ) – Lek ( France ) – Liliwenn ( France ) – Loyola (Brazil) – Ludo ( France ) – Mrs. Sanbor ( France ) – March (Portugal) – Marko93 ( France ) , Mario Belem (Portugal) – Maryam (Saudi Arabia) – Mateo Garcia Leon ( France ) – Maz (Saudi Arabia) – moneyless (Italy) – Mosko ( France ) – Mp5 (Italy) – Myra ( France ) – Nano (Chile) – Nebay ( France ) – Nemi Uhu ( France ) – Nilko ( France ) – Orticanoodles (Italy) – PANTONIO (Portugal) – Paulo Arraiano (Portugal) – Peeta (Italy) – Philippe Baudelocque ( France ) – Rapto (Brazil) – Rea 1 ( France ) – Rodolphe Cintorino ( France ) – Roti ( France ) – Sambre ( France ) – Sean Hart ( France ) – Sebastien Preschoux ( France ) – Senso (Italy) – Seth ( France ) – Shaka ( France ) – Shoof (Tunisia) – Shuck2 ( France ) – Sowat ( France ) – Spazm ( France ) – Speto (Brazil) – Stew ( France ) – Stinkfish (Mexico) – Sumo (Luxembourg) – Tellas (Italy) – Tinho (Brazil) – Tore ( France ) -Uno ( France ) – Uriginal (Spain) – Vexta (Australia) – Vhils (Portugal) – / Maismenos (Portugal).

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Galerie Itinerrance Presents: BOM.K “Vertiges et somnolence” (Paris, France)

April 23, 2013 Afghanistan

Acteur important de la scène du graff, Bom.k s’est fait reconnaître par son extrême dextérité et la singularité des thèmes qu’il explore à travers son art. Sa maitrise parfaite de la bombe lui a permis d’acquérir des traits d’une finesse hors norme/

One of the most known figures of the graff world, Bom.k is reconized for his incredible dexterity with which he handles spray cans, no one else has that ability to draw such thin lines with this rudimentary tool

Bom.k a toujours été une figure particulière de la scène graffiti française. Il n’y a qu’à regarder ses dessins, ses toiles et ses murs pour s’en rendre compte. Rapidement il s’est libéré des règles traditionnelles du Graffiti pour suivre son propre chemin et créer un univers rempli de monstres difformes, de chairs et créatures sexuées hybrides, de villes claustrophobes et de visions d’horreurs magnifiées/

Bom.k has always been one of a kind in France’s Graffiti scene. One only has to look at his drawings, canvases and walls to be convinced.

Quickly, he set himself free from Graffiti’s traditional rules, to follow his own road and create a unique universe, full of distorted monsters, screaming flesh, hybrid sexual creatures, claustrophobic cities and idealized hellish visions.

http://www.itinerrance.fr/

“Wall & Frames”, Today’s Street Artists, Tomorrow’s Masters

December 10, 2011 Artists

There is an uneasy reluctance among some artists in the graffiti and the Street Art community to let themselves be seen hanging with art collectors or even entering galleries sometimes because they might lose credibility among peers for not being ‘street’ enough. Seeing well manicured men in pinstripes and shrieking birdberry women with tinted/straightened/plumped everything looking at your shit hanging on a wall and asking vaguely patronizing questions about it like you are an exquisite curiosity could make you go out and slice their tires after downing a few white wines. Not surprisingly, “keeping it real” sometimes translates to keeping it out of private collections.

Even as there is an every-growing recognition of art and artists who work sometimes illegally in the street, it’s a sort of high-wire act for anyone associating with art born in margins, mainly because it forces one to face the fact that we marginalize.

Sociological considerations aside, over the last decade there is a less traditional definition of Street Artist entering the fray. The graffiti scene originally boasted a sort of grassroots uprising by the voiceless and economically disempowered, with a couple of art school kids and the occasional high-minded conceptualist to mix things up. It’s all changed of course – for myriad reasons – and art in the streets takes every form, medium, and background. Now we see fully formed artists with dazzling gallery careers bombing right next to first time Krinks writers, graffiti writers changing gears and doing carefully rendered figurative work, corporations trying their hand at culture jamming (which isn’t a stretch), and all manner of Street Art referred to as an “installation”.

A new book by Maximiliano Ruiz called “Walls & Frames”, just released last month by Gestalten, presents a large collection of artists who have traversed the now permeable definitions of “street”, gallery, collector and museum. Admittedly, this may be a brief period of popularity for Street Art, if the 1980s romance with graffiti is any indication, but there is evidence that it will endure in some form. This time one defining difference is that many artists have already developed skill, technique, and a fan base. Clearly the street has become a venue, a laboratory for testing and working out new ideas and techniques by fine artists, and even a valued platform for marketing oneself to a wider audience.

A spread of work by Conor Harrington in “Walls and Frames”.

The resulting work, whether hanging on a nail inside or painted on a street wall, challenges our previously defined boundaries. The current crop of street art stars and debutantes, many of the strongest whom are collected here by Ruiz, continue to stay connected with the energy of the street regardless of their trajectory elsewhere. Some are relatively new, while others have been evolving their practice since the 70s, with all the players sliding in and off the street over time. The rich and varied international collection is remarkable and leaves you wanting to see more work by many of the artists. All considered, “Wall and Frames” is a gorgeously produced book giving ample evidence that many of today’s artists in the streets are tomorrow’s masters, wherever they practice.

Augustine Kofie in “Walls and Frames”.

Sixe in “Walls and Frames”.

Remed in “Walls and Frames”.

Anthony Lister in “Walls and Frames”.

Judith Supine in “Walls and Frames”.

Alexandros Vasmoulakis in “Walls and Frames”.

DFace in “Walls and Frames”.*

Interesni Kazki in “Walls and Frames”.

Jorge Rodriguez Gerada in “Walls and Frames”.

M-City in “Walls and Frames”.

Artists included are Aaron Noble, AJ Fosik, Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Alëxone Dizac, Amose, Andrew McAttee, Anthony Lister, Antony Micallef, Axel Void, Basco-Vazko, Base 23, Ben Frost, Blek le Rat, Bom-K, Boris Hoppek, Boxi, C215, Cekis, Conor Harrington, D*Face, Dan Witz, Daniel Muñoz aka San, Dave Kinsey, Der, Dixon, Docteur Gecko, Doze Green, Dran, Duncan Jago aka Mr. Jago, Eine, Ekundayo, El Mac, Evan Roth, Evol, Faile, Faith 47, Fefe Talavera, Gaia, George Morton-Clark, Herakut, Herbert Baglione, Interesni Kazki, Jaybo, Jeff Soto, Jeremy Fish, Jesse Hazelip, Johnny “KMNDZ” Rodriguez, Joram Roukes, Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, Josh Keyes, JR, Judith Supine, Katrin Fridriks, Kevin Cyr, Kofie, L’Atlas, Lightgraff, Logan Hicks, Ludo, M-City, Mark Jenkins, Mark Whalen aka Kill Pixie, Maya Hayuk, Medo & Demência, Meggs, Miss Bugs, Miss Van, Morten Andersen aka M2theA, Mr. Kern, Mudwig, Nicholas Di Genova, Okuda, Patrick Evoke, Paul Insect, Pedro Matos, Peter Owen, Pose, Pure Evil, Remed, Remi/Roughe, René Almanza, Retna, Ripo, Ródez, Sam3, Sat One, Shepard Fairey, Sixe, Smash 137, Sowat, Sten & Lex, Stephan Doitschinoff, Tec, Tilt, Troy Lovegates aka Other, Turf One, Vitché;, Wendell McShine, Will Barras, and Zosen.

The launch; “Walls & Frames” will be presented at Gestalten Space Berlin on December 15th.

RAS Gallery Presents: Bom-k . Dran . Sowat “Divujar Mata Violente” (Barcelona, Spain)

September 4, 2010 Artists, Barcelona, Events, Gallery, Opening

Suben Presents:
brooklyn-street-art-Bomk-Dran-Sowat-ras-gallery-barcelona

SUBEN PRESENTS

DIBUJAR MATA VIOLENTE
Bom-k . Dran . Sowat

Opening Thursday September 9th from 7.30 till 10 pm
RAS Gallery Barcelona . Carrer Doctor Dou 10

Like everything else that’s good in life, Graffiti kills. It’s the gas in the spray cans, the chemicals in the inks, the sleepless nights spent obsessing about new ideas and days wasted wandering the train tracks…

Working together for the first time in a Catalonian gallery, French graffiti writers Bomk, Dran and Sowat of the Da Mental Vaporz crew, are willing to share their last will with Europe’s Street Art Mecca. Hopefully, the show will be filled with their usual hyper realistic sexual beasts, disillusioned children’s’ drawings, vandalized sketches, dripping calligraphies, crossed out black and white pictures and whatever else they may have in store for us.

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Herakut. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hera of Herakut at work. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jose Mendez at work. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jose Mendez. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at work for Moniker Art Fair in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at work for Moniker Art Fair in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The amazing team at Swoon’s Heliotrope Foundation setting up. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASVP setting up. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brusk. Detail. Jonathan LeVine Projects booth. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Derek Gores setting up. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MeresOne. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bom.K Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Egle Zvirblyte. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Egle Zvirblyte. Detail. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Le Gran Jeu. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tina Ziegler. Chief instigator. Fair engine. Founder. Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bom.K canvas “Embrouille part03” (copyright the artist)

Bom.K (photo from the artist’s Instagram account)

Bom.K (photo from the artist’s Instagram account)

Bom.K (photo from the artist’s Instagram account)

BSA: Name one artist whose work you admire today. Bom.k: I can name around a hundred without much effort. One among so many others, Dran. For more information please go to Moniker Art Fair HERE.

Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Entes . Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inti . Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ethos .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Seth .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Moneyless .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Special Feature: Da Mental Vaporz and ‘The Wall’

YZ – Lost in the City

NYCHOS: Pen and Paper

Stealing Banksy

E1000 x Pablo Herrero at Memorie Urbane

Poesia and EKG Talk to BSA about an Audacious Survey

Kwest (photo © Brock Brake)

Mags (photo © Brock Brake)

Slicer (photo © Brock Brake)

Hellbent (photo © Hellbent)

Silvio Magaglio (photo © Brock Brake)

Silvio Magaglio (photo © Brock Brake)

Vsod (photo © Brock Brake)

Vsod (photo © Brock Brake)

Drew Young (photo © Brock Brake)

Askew (photo © Brock Brake)

Bezt Etam (photo © Brock Brake)

Vincent Abadie Hafez Zepha (photo © Brock Brake)

Thiago Toes (photo © Brock Brake)

Sat One (photo © Brock Brake)

Katre (photo © Brock Brake)

Sowat (photo © Brock Brake)

Gilbert1 (photo © Brock Brake)

Gilbert1 (photo © Brock Brake)

Dem189 (photo © Brock Brake)

Bom.k (photo © Brock Brake)

Borondo (photo © Brock Brake)

El Seed. La Tour Paris 13. Exterior of the tower. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Kan. La Tour Paris 13. Come in. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Seth. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Uriginal. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Tellas. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Sambre. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Stew. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shoof. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

David Walker. Detail. Jimmy C in the background room. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Guy Denning. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Katre. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Rea1. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Pantonio. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jaz. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

C215. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

C215. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Belem. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Add Fuel. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Dado. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Bom K . Liliwenn. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Agostino Iacurci. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Entes. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

BSA: Name one artist whose work you admire today.
Bom.k: I can name around a hundred without much effort. One among so many others, Dran.

For more information please go to Moniker Art Fair HERE.

DFace in “Walls and Frames”.*