All posts tagged: Buff Monster

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.13.18

May 13, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

A lot of action in Brooklyn these last few weeks thanks to a number of artists swinging through town for the Moniker Art Fair in Greenpoint, as well as the annual peregrination of artists who are arriving in the city that begins in earnest after the last danger of frost has passed.

If you are in NYC you may like to swing by the Quin Hotel to see the “In Bloom”group show in the lobby that opened Thursday co-curated by DK Johnston and Lori Zimmer and the “Chimera” 3-artist show at GR gallery with 1010, Ron Agam, and Nelio. We def recommend the Rammellzee show at Red Bull Arts – many praises to Carlo McCormick and Max Wolf and team for pulling that one off. In case you missed our interview with Carlo, here it is: Rammellzee, Racing For Thunder, and Interview with Carlo McCormick

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Brusk, Buff Monster, False, finDAC, King Amsterdam, Knox, Lady Courage, Low Key Steezo666, Lunge Box, Sonny Sundancer, Swoon, and Wellnoo.

Top Image: Sunny Sundancer finishes his final mural for his #totheboneproject , a grizzly titled “Standing Tall” looking out over Greenwich Village, done in conjunction with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville for Moniker Art Fair. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. TRAP on top. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville taking a break to gossip. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FinDac for Moniker Art Fair in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster for Moniker Art Fair in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brusk for Moniker Art Fair in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lunge Box (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Low Key Steezo666 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lady Courage (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Welinoo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

King Amsterdam (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Knoz . False (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dalek – Buff Monster: “Spaced Out” in Manhattan

March 14, 2018 Artists, Interview

Optically entertaining Street Artists Dalek and Buff Monster don’t typically work together and are known for uniquely different approaches although their new “Spaced Out” double-solo show at GR Gallery in NYC gives a new example of how artists can work together and compliment one another, if not integrate entirely.

In this show of original artworks, wall paintings, editions, and installations, the two find a common language of color while bringing their individual take on character to the party. With Dalek’s Space Monkey making a few appearances and Buff’s melty family popping up throughout this blended linear splatter of optic cosmos, the two personalities come together for the session in a welcoming and satisfying way.

Buff Monster. Mister Melty, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We asked both artists about the show and how they worked together to find a common route in outer space.

BSA: Can you tell us a little about the process of creating work for this dual show with Buff Monster. Was there an effort to find a common aesthetic or approach?

Dalek: I’ve known Buff for years but we’ve really never crossed paths in shows or projects. So when GR started talking to me about this show they mentioned doing it with Buff and my first reaction was “that could be super fun”. I think there is a natural commonality to our work on a certain level so i knew it’d flow well regardless. We didn’t plan much; I’m a horrible planner with shows so i went into it just figuring I’d make it colorful and fun and get done what I could. Once I got in the space with him we definitely got rolling and although there wasn’t any particular attempt to gel everything we were definitely feeding off each others’ energy when getting in the work zone and the show felt really cohesive to me at the end.

Dalek. Space Monkey, 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Your alter ego the Space Monkey often is swimming through pattern and color and contemplating the rate and velocity of technological change. Is he changed or affected by this dual effort in these new compositions? What’s he thinking about?

Dalek: Space Monkey is definitely contemplating a lot – although not fully aware of what contemplation is. I’d say its more effected by my own growth and change through the years than this specific situation. But he certainly felt right at home amongst the goings on and happenings. Mostly Space Monkey is considering how to escape the confines of its 2 dimensional world. The walls are closing in and the struggle intensifies to break free of the ever shrinking constrictive planes.

Dalek. Untitled, 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: When you are creating and experiencing the geometric orchestrations that you manifest, do the optics sometimes vibrate or move before your eyes? Do you ever hear or feel a rhythm when gazing upon them?

Dalek: There is definitely a Kandinsky-like approach in it for sure. Compositions are never planned out – they just go where they naturally feel the need to move. So I listen and engage and react accordingly. There is a rhythm and a flow that moves from beginning to end, sometimes switching tempo or intensity. The colors will vibrate for sure – gets my eyes all crazy and that is probably why I gotta wear glasses these days.

Dalek. H.A.P.P.Y, 2010. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Buff Monster, you are working with a new color palette than your fans have seen very much in the past. What inspired you to venture into this selection of colors.

Buff Monster: I think the unique (limited) traditional Buff Monster color palette is great, but I really wanted these new paintings to have a different feel. Half the pieces in the show are very experimental for me and one of the limitations I gave myself was no black (and similarly, no gray either). When I launched the Stay Melty brand last year, I settled on a new color palette: teal, yellow and of course pink. I guess even though I live in NYC, I’ve really been into exploring a much more tropical and optimistic color palette. I even used the flattest varnish I could find (as opposed to the very glossy varnish I normally use) so that the pieces feel extra soft.

Buff Monster. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: We also notice that there is a digitized aspect to some of your reappearing images – does this aesthetic draw on early computer graphics, video games, or something similar?

Buff Monster: Last year I published the Melty Manifesto, and that discusses the value and integrity of the hand made. It also discusses some of the downfalls of this modern age. I’ve always loved the old ways of doing things (in art creation and reproduction specifically) but how do I deal with this increasing digital world? All my hand-drawn lines get digitized and spread around the world, so why not just digitize them myself? I quite like painting pixels because they’re always off but that’s really appealing to me.

Buff Monster. Trying To Find My Way Out, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Was it a challenge to create a single exhibition with an artist like Dalek, whose own work could be described as more optic and kinectic in discipline?

Buff Monster: I’ve been a fan of his for a long time, which should come as no surprise. Even though he’s been at it longer than I have, I think we’ve both arrived in a similar place with our work. Namely, we created these characters that people know us for, but we’re keen to explore other things. I still make lots of character-based work, but the new work in the show doesn’t have any characters. I quite like how it all came together. The geometric nature of most of his pieces alongside the organic nature of my pieces plays really well; our similar color palette ties it all together. I’m very happy with the show!

Buff Monster. Motley Melties #3, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dalek. Untitled, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster. Two Face, 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster. Mister Melty Painted directly on the wall of the gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dalek. Untitled, 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dalek. Untitled, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dalek. Painted directly on the wall of the gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dalek – Buff Monster “Space Out” exhibition is currently on view at GR Gallery in Manhattan, NYC. Click HERE for more information.

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.12.17

November 12, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Yoko Ono has been talking about and advocating peace for half a century and with her husband John Lennon she asked us first to imagine it.

Is it the absence of something, or the presence of it?

“Think Peace. Act Peace. Spread Peace. Imagine Peace.”

As the US commemorates Veterans Day this weekend, we lead this weeks BSA Images of the Week with Ms. Ono’s latest public art piece, a white banner flag flapping in New Yorks’ wild winds atop Creative Time’s headquarters. Part of a multi-city installation by ONO and Creative Time’s Pledges of Allegiance program, this flag and others like it will fly at museums and other educational/cultural institutions across the country.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Ai WeiWei, Buff Monster, Curb Your Ego, Damien Mitchell, Disordered, Don John, Ghost Beard, KLOPS, Mina Hamada, Sac Six, Patch Whisky, Squid Shop, Turtle Caps, Vinz Feel Free, VY, Yoko Ono, and Zosen.

Top image: Yoko Ono “Imagine Peace” for Creative Time #pledgesofallegiance (photo © Jaime Rojo) Thanks to RJ Rushmore for his help.

Yoko Ono “Imagine Peace” for Creative Time #pledgesofallegiance (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Disordered (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SacSix (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Best buddies (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ai Wei Wei for the Public Art Fund (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M.O. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

VY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Patch Whisky . Ghost Beard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klops . Curb Your Ego and friends… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zosen . Mina Hamada (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mind the heart project (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Turtle Caps (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Garabato Arte (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vinz Feel Free (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don John in Copenhagen. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Squid Shop (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. The Last Picture. NYC October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BED PEACE – John and Yoko

A “Secret Dinner” at the Nascent UN in Berlin

February 28, 2017 Artists

Since its explosion of pigment and hue on subway cars and in the streets of New York and Philadelphia a half century ago to its spread to the hundreds of cities worldwide, the truly grassroots movement of Urban Art refuses to be owned by any one city or one people, insisting upon making its own rules and traveling wherever the creative spirit leads.

As if to underscore that global nature of the Graffiti/Street Art/ Urban Art movements, Urban Nation (UN) Director Yasha Young named the origins of the guests who were attending last weeks “Secret Dinner” at the under-construction site of the museum that opens this fall.

Yasha Young, Director of Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art (UN) delivers her welcoming remarks to the invited guests. A painting by Word To Mother hangs in the background. The painting was originally created for Project M/8 and curated by Stolen Space Gallery in 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“You came from Spain, England, Los Angeles, New York City, China, France, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, every neighborhood in Berlin, from Leipzig, Munich, all across Germany, France, Switzerland, the UK, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and last but not least, Russia,” she said as she stood before a large canvas by the London-based artist Word To Mother and next to Hendrik Jellema, the Chairman of Berliner Leben.

After recounting the three years of accomplishments and aspirations of the new museum to date, Young showed an animated video tour, a somewhat flying birds-eye view of the new museum projected on the wall.

Yasha Young, Director of Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art being introduced by Mr. Hendrik Jellema Chairman at Berliner Leben. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

In two dimly lit street-level raw and cavernous rooms were mounted a number of selected canvasses from the 10 Project M shows that have been curated in the last 3 years announcing the coming museum, each directed and refined by gallerists and cultural experts of various stripes and featuring the work of over 200 artists.

Across the street and Bülowstraße here in the Schöneberg district at the temporary UN headquarters was the grand opening of PM/11. Featuring 16 German artists curated by 3 experts in their respective scenes from Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg, “Radius” points to the vast and diverse urban art community here in a this famous street scene and artists and fans overflowed onto the sidewalk swelling even further when post-dinner guests arrived.

Celebrated photographer and ethnographer Martha Cooper attended the dinner. The library at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art will bear Ms. Cooper’s name and will house items and books from Ms. Cooper’s personal collection. In this photo Ms. Cooper is wearing a skirt created by the American Street Artist Buff Monster. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

With graffiti artists and street artists spread among the 4 long dinner tables a colorful mix of politicians, cultural ministers, academics, collectors, press, curators, ambassadors, philosophers, photographers, and friends shared dinner, drinks, opinions, and their respective knowledge about the scene and the aspirations of the nascent institution.

We don’t know what everybody said to each other, but we did talk about cooking for a family of five with one guest and the trade routes between South Africa and Cairo during the last century and the importance of fish in the Icelandic diet with another.

Case Maclaim dinner plate. Each invited guest went back home with a gift of a special edition of one plate created exclusively for the occasion by an impressive roster of international artists. One hundred plates were created by almost one hundred artists. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Young burst in the room mid-dinner, as she’s wont to do, with a microphone to show a video series of 4 street art projects showcasing artists engaged with community projects, rather dispersing the often-indulged perception that all graffiti and Street Art is transgressive and illegal. Of course a lot of the good stuff is, but most artists possess additional dimensions outside these stereotypical descriptors, including an interest in helping others.

Artists featured included Norwegian Martin Watson, the German duo Herakut, the Polish crochet artist OLEK, and the German born Brooklyn-based twins HowNosm. The projects highlighted were not necessarily UN sponsored but instead drew attention to overall goals of the museum to be engaged with communities outside the typical art-going crowd.

A Daleast dinner plate. Each invited guest went back home with a gift of a special edition of one plate created exclusively for the occasion by an impressive rooster of international artists. One hundred plates were created by almost one hundred artists. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And so now the UN buzz has begun in earnest, with a steady run toward the opening doors of the Museum and significant involvement of international and local contingents of participants in the new institution. If anyone pretends to know how it will all look inside and outside on opening day or the months that follow, they are brave and fantastic in their willingness to prophesy. We say that because despite the much-heralded organizational skills of this land, and they are amazing, you can be sure that a vibrant and alive contemporary scene like this will continue to surprise us.

During the dinner a few films were presented to introduce a new series still under development. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

A general view of one of the two rooms where guests sat for dinner. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Buff Monster says “Stay Melty”

February 18, 2017 Artists

Paint drips and ice cream drips: What flavor would you like? We have strawberry, cherry, coconut…

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

If you haven’t seen Buff Monster and his melty crew on walls in the mid-twenty-teens then you have been looking at the sidewalk for loose change and lost earrings too much. Look up (!) on multiple walls all across the city and your find his friendly quirky sweet creamy characters cavorting and playing and melting together.

He and his fantastic army of ice cream scoops with surreal imaginations and likeable character anomalies have traveled worldwide of course; in multiple languages and on a variety of toys, posters, statues, garments, stickers and collectibles and even a select edition of Garbage Pail Kids cards called The Melty Misfits.

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

Pink dominates the palette and fantasy denotes the worldview for this brightly quirky hard driving globe-trotting Hawaiian native, with Buff himself tirelessly promulgating his little friends into your life and perhaps helping to take things a little less seriously for a moment, and reminding you of your childhood fun times.

Stay Melty is his hard-bound pictorial collection of three years of all action, creation, discipline, collaboration, and production, with Buff giving you an inside view of the pure glamour that goes into becoming a successful and recognized street/fine/commercial artist today. Hint: It’s about the time-honored practice of hustling, people. Also, ice cream.

Meet the man and see his show “Melt With Me” right now in Manhattan.

Buff Monster Stay Melty Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

Buff Monster Stay Melty Published by Gingko Press. Berkeley, CA. 2015

New Yorkers can see the pop up show Buff Monster has today in Manhattan at 168 Bowery.

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BSA “Images Of The Year” for 2016 (VIDEO)

December 14, 2016 Artists

Of the thousands of images he took this year in places like New York, Berlin, Dresden, Moscow, Marrakesh, Detroit and Miami, photographer Jaime Rojo found that the figurative image still stands prominently in the Street Art scene – along with text-based, abstract and animal world themes.

Surprisingly the scene does not appear to be addressing the troubled and contentious matters of the political and social realms in a large way, but the D.I.Y. scene keeps alive and defies the forces of homogeneity with one-of-a-kind small wheat-pastes, stencils, sculptures, and aerosol sprayed pieces alongside the enormous and detailed paintings that take days to complete.

Every Sunday on BrooklynStreetArt.com, we present “Images Of The Week”, our regular interview with the street. Primarily New York based, BSA interviewed, shot, and displayed images from Street Artists from more than 100 cities over the last year, making the site a truly global resource for artists, fans, collectors, gallerists, museums, curators, academics, and others in the creative ecosystem. We are proud of the help we have given and thankful to the community for what you give back to us and we hope you enjoy this collection – some of the best from 2016.

Brooklyn Street Art 2016 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

1Up, Above, Adele Renault, Alaniz, Amy Smalls, George Vidas, GEN2, Apexer, BordaloII, Buff Monster, C215, Collin Van Der Sluijs, Super A, David Choe, D*Face, Duke Riley, El Sol 25, Sean 9 Lugo, EQC, Faile, Faith47, Faust, Shantell Martin, Felipe Pantone, Hueman, Droid907, Icy & Sot, InDecline, Invader, JJ Veronis, Jilly Ballistic, John Ahearn, JR, London Kaye, Louis Masai, MadC, Marshal Arts, Mongolz, MSK, Rime, Myth, Nina Chanel, Optic Ninja, Otto Osch Schade, Panmela Castro, Plastic Jesus, QRST, Reed b More, Remi Rough, REVS, Self Made, Sharon Dela Cruz, Maripussy, Specter, Stikman, Strok, Swoon, Ted Pim, Thievin’ Stephen, Farin Purth, Thomas Allen, Tobo, Uriginal, Vermibus, Vhils, Wing, Yes Two, Zola.

The artist featured on the main graphic is D*Face as shot by Jaime Rojo in New York.

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.30.16

October 30, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

We haven’t had such a frightening Halloween in years! – and we know we speak for many readers as well while we all look at the monstrous tabloid TV parade that is scaring the electorate. Boo!

Luckily we found some treats on the street! And a few tricks, but those are for our paid site, wink wink.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bifido, Buff Monster, City Kitty, Dee Dee, Disto, Droid, Flood, Myth, Nychos, R2, REVS, RODA, Rusk, See True Fame, Sipros, Smells, Smith, Sweet Toof, and Texas.

Our top image: City Kitty is ready for Halloween(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster’s Mister Melty playing Narcissus with great aplomb. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster for Mana Urban Arts Project in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

REVS and friends. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Roda . Droid . R2 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RUSK . DROID (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SMELLS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nychos for Mana Urban Arts Project in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

See True Fame in Long Island City, Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The more times change, the more they stay exactly the same. Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bifido has a new work in Dugenta, Italy that alludes to the harsh living conditions for some that creates wealth for certain industries. The name of the work borrows from the Beatles song: “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (photo © Bifido)

brooklyn-street-art-sipros-jaime-rojo-10-30-16-web

Sipros gives a ride to Stan for Mana Urban Arts Projects in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Texas. Disto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Disto. Gane (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sweet Toof (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Flood (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Hudson River, NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.28.16

August 28, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

“Back in the USSR” comes to mind as we touched down in Moscow yesterday to see and speak with the 60+ Street Artists who are creating this impressive 2nd Street Art biennale “Artmossphere” just a stone’s throw away from the Kremlin, Red Square and The International Military Music Festival that runs all week as well. We’ll be bringing you new stuff all week as part of our partnership with Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art (UN), investigating the creative process with artists, curators, and the organizing force behind all of this event.

In the mean time, we bring you work from New York and elsewhere in this week’s fine edition of BSA Images of the Week.

So, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Aduk, Buff Monster, Crisp, Hiss, Lena Shu, Logan Hicks, Olek, and Wolfe Work.

Above: Logan Hicks. Detail of his mural “Story of My Life” on the Houston/Bowery wall, which pays tribute to the personal and professional friends and family who have helped him in the last 10 years in NYC. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Logan Hicks at work on his Houston Wall mural. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Logan Hicks. Detail. Houston Wall. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Logan Hicks. Houston Wall. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek Our Pink House for Kerava Art Museum. Finland. August 2016. (photo © Olek)

Our Pink House is a new crocheted covering for a house (the second) by Street Artist OLEK – this one associated with Kerava Art Museum’s upcoming exhibition Yarn Visions, which will place the spotlight on knitted, crocheted, tufted and embroidered works.

Drawing an analogy of protection and safety in these pink crocheting patterns that stretch from the top of the chimney to the foundation of stone, this building in Kereva in southern Finland, where many bombs fell during The Winter War of 1939-40. Olek says she is concerned about the 21 million people worldwide who lost their homes due to war and conflicts in 2015 and she wants to create community based projects like this one to draw attention to the topic, and to provide some healing as well.

This particular project enlisted the help of a large group of volunteers, immigrants and women from a reception centre for asylum seekers who she brought together to crochet this covering. “Our Pink House” is about the journey, not just about the artwork itself. It’s about us coming together as a community. It’s about helping each other. We can show everybody that women can build houses, women can make homes,”she says. – OLEK

Nailed it! Hiss is caught up in the Pokemon Go craze that has captured the attention of children, teens, and a certain photographer we know who is a perennial child at heart. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolfe Work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CRISP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ADUK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lena Shu in progress for Artmossphere – Moscow International Biennale of Street Art 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unintended collaboration on the streets of Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Moscow, Russia. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.21.16

August 21, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here we go! Eat all the last fresh corn-on-the-cob, watermelon, lemonade, tomatoes, green beans, black berries, peaches that you can get before the summer disappears and your local grocer turns all those things into plastic hot-house versions imported from Pluto and transported with a million gallons of fossil fuel to you table. New York has many farmers markets and delis with fresh produce — it is not all expensive either. Chinatown in Manhattan still has some of the coolest stuff to eat and hasn’t jacked up the prices.

We’ve been riding around New York looking for new Street Art and for those who are complaining that the scene has devolved into festivals and large murals, you are just being lazy and relying on the Internet for all your news. There are so many artists out putting up small one-off individual pieces with social and political messages on the street – and of course there is a lot of aesthetically pleasing stuff as well. Its all alive and well and we are still missing much of it.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Baron Von Fancy, Buff Monster, bunny M, Crisp, El Sol 25, Mister Melty, PaytoPray, QRST, Space Invader, and Square, Suckadelic.

Our top image: QRST. An ad takeover in Brooklyn, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster. Mister Melty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Baron Von Fancy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Square. Being Their. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pussy Power (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unidentified artist impression of a deranged con artist trying to fool the whole USA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#overthrownewyork (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crisp (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader Ninja (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Suckadelic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#paytopray (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan sunset and the East River. July 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Selection of Murals from “MURAL” in Montreal 2016

June 30, 2016 Artists

Have a look at some of the murals from this months MURAL festival in Montreal, which began in 2013.

There is no discernible theme among the collection here aside from many of them being technically outstanding. MURAL itself has become a very commercial gathering of food and lifestyle vendors, VIP events, a small art fair, hella-brands and djs and, you know, beards.

Klone Yourself and Phillipe Pantone are a couple of the artists pushing boundaries here, with the latter skillfully reproducing a 90’s computer art that is nostalgic and smartly updated in its 3-D rendering.

Our great thanks to photographer Daniel Esteban Rojas who did an outstanding job capturing these to share with BSA readers.

Meggs for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

D*Face for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

Fonki for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

Natalia Rak for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

Mateo for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

Buff Monster for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

With our out most gratitude to Daniel Esteban Rojas for his exclusive documentation of the completed murals in Montreal.

Artists Bring 22 New Murals to “Coney Art Walls 2016”

June 15, 2016 Artists

Just in time for this weekend’s Mermaid Parade, London’s D*Face is finishing up “Live Fast Die Young,” his beauty-and-the-zombie comic couple sipping an ice cream float at the soda counter. Austrian surrealist slicer Nychos has completed his dissection of a Ronald McDonald-ish character without a sketch; running, jumping, nearly flying through the air with aerosol in hand, flinging the spent cans over his shoulder blindly to skitter across the pavement. Baltimore-based freeform anthropologist Gaia is cavorting with passersby who want to take cellphone selfies in front of his painted wall that depicts exactly that; selfies taken in Coney Island.

This is a modern version of the multi-mirror funhouse in mural form, and Coney Art Walls is bringing it again.

22 new murals on standing slabs of concrete join a dozen or so that were retained from last summer to present an eclectic and savory selection from the old-school and the new. When it comes to art in the streets, a salty luncheonette of city-style treats is on a large public platter these days, with names like graffiti, street art, urban art, installation art, public art, fine art, even contemporary art. For some of those hapless gatekeepers of any of these respective categories, this show in this location presents degrees of discomfort and anger as many subcultural roots are now brought into the light in tandem with one another in a public display – funded by a real estate firm. For the artists and majority of fans, however, the trend is more toward delight and gratitude.

While you are unpacking that, consider that lead curator Jeffrey Deitch has often proved very adept at plumbing the aesthetic margins of our culture while rearranging and intermingling the parties, helping the viewer to appreciate their differences. This outdoor exhibit co-curated with Joseph Sitt provides a venue for a wide audience to contemplate the range of expression that New York streets have had over the last few decades, including a few artists who are trying this manner of expression for the first time.

As the Thunderbolt, Steeplechase, Cyclone and Wonder Wheel spin and swerve nearby and overhead, sending screams and personal projectiles into the ocean breeze, you have this paved lot full of paintings to peruse, lemonade in one hand and the cotton-candy-sticky hand of a sunscreen-slathered child in the other. Here you’ll see a large two-walled corner smashed with Coney Island themes by Bronx graffiti masters Tats Cru (Bio, BG183, and Nicer), a selection of hand-drawn wheat pasted portraits of Coney Island youth by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and 4 full-form sculptures by John Ahearn creating a modernist view of divers on the beach .

Tooling elsewhere through the loose labyrinth you come upon a monochromatic cryptically patterned tribute to Brooklyn-born Beastie Boys vocalist Adam “MCA” Yauch by Brooklyn tagger/train writer/artist Haze and a seemingly lighthearted abstractly collaged wall of mermaids by fine artist Nina Chanel Abney, whose work is currently on the cover of Juxtapoz. There is also a spectacular underwater-themed symmetrical fantasy topped by pylons bearing the likenesses of characters from “The Warriors” film by artist duo The London Police, and a stenciled “Last Supper” featuring heads of world currency playing the disciples and George Washington as Jesus sprayed across the face of a huge dollar bill by Iranian brothers Icy & Sot.

We often travel streets and neglected spaces in cities looking for signs of freewill artistic expression and often the creative spirit surprises us as it can be expressed in so many ways with emotion, agenda, and idiosyncratic point of view. It may be the plurality of voices one experiences surfing the Internet or the multi-cultural nature of living in New York with a continuous river of fresh arrivals mixing in with established and old-timers every day, but one comes to expect this variety of viewpoints and rather naturally creates accommodation for inclusion that celebrates without negating – and in many ways Coney Art Walls does that as well.

Oppositional viewpoints are present if you look: There are coded messages and obvious ones, critiques of corporate hegemony, issues of race, commentary on police relations, sexuality, religion, capitalism, community, the languages of advertising, movies, music, entertainment, local history, and examination of roles and power structures.

When tooling around this collection, you may wonder what, then, are the commonalities of this survey. Certainly there are the recurring references to Coney Island lore and aspects of performance and flimflam, oddity, fantasy, even the erotic. Naturally, there are elements of natural wonder as well, perhaps expected with the proximity to the beach and the ocean and the history of this place as a vacation getaway.

Aside from this, the connective tissue is what we frequently identify as what is distinctly New York – the plurality of voices. Arguing, making fun, praising, preening, bragging, lambasting, mocking, singing. Despite the continuous attempts by others to divide us, we’re strangely (very strangely), beautifully united.

Marie Roberts has multi-generational roots here and her work makes you stop and study it. She has painted many visions and views around the neighborhood, and is considered the artist-in-residence. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally from Japan, Brooklyn’s AIKO has a double sided stencil sonnet to the romance of the sea. With “Tale of the Dragon King and Mermaids in Water Castle” Aiko tells a new version of Urashima Tarō, an old Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō, the palace of Ryūjin. Says Aiko, “This piece speaks to my and all women’s fantasies; chilling hard super sexy in the beautiful ocean with friendly dragon who is super powerful and a smart guy – they are about going to water castle having good time.”

Coney Art Walls
2016 New Artists: Nina Chanel Abney, John Ahearn, Timothy Curtis, D*Face, Jessica Diamond, Tristan Eaton, Gaia, Eric Haze, Icy & Sot, London Police, Nychos, Pose, Stephen Powers, Tats Cru, and Sam Vernon. Returning artists who created new works: Lady Aiko, Mister Cartoon, Crash, Daze, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and Marie Roberts. 2015 Murals on display: by Buff Monster, Eine, Ron English, How & Nosm, IRAK, Kashink, Lady Pink, Miss Van, RETNA, eL Seed and Sheryo & Yok. There are also three community walls.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Images Of The Week: 12.06.15

December 6, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

A wild week in world geopolitics, terror, social crisis – interpret them as you may through the prism of art collecting and fandom – as Miami Art Basel and the Wynwood District were bursting with high prices, high emotions, high celebrity-counts, and people who appeared to be high almost all the time. There were also heavy rains, big name music performances, custom designed cocktails, luxury brands, brand fusions, and sponsored walls and events everywhere. Also a stabbing.

Once we can sort through the best photos we’ll definitely share some of the great work with you this week.

Meanwhile, Street Artists continue to create in cities elsewhere and while Miami is celebrating brands, logos and luxury, on the other side of the ocean Brandalism completed a 600 kiosk takeover in Paris this week skewering all of the above and the undue influence corporations are having in writing environmental/trade laws. On the aesthetic tip we’ve recently made a mental note that photo-realism is now reaching a critical mass. So there you are.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Pill NYC, Bifido, Buff Monster, Cash4, Dan Witz, Fuzeillear, Invader, Jordan Seiler, Knarf, LikMi, Luca Ladda, Østrem, Otto Schade, Persue, Pøbel, Rahmi Rajah, Sean9Lugo, Sipros, and Skount.

A portrait of Biggie Smalls. This was probably ripped from the ad campaign and affixed to this phone box. We call this re-porpoising and we consider it to be Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These two pieces are part of the NUART collection of murals painted for previous editions of the festival. They are not freshly painted but we wanted to publish them as they are calling our attention to a topic that is current and urgent and addressed by world leaders in Paris for the COP21 Climate Summit 2015 as well as dozens of Street Artists with the #brandalism campaign.

One cool thing about this piece: The plaid pattern was done by hand with gaffers’ tape – it isn’t freehand painted or stenciled or printed. It’s a 3D piece, including the silvery collar portion. There was a tag and a code at the collar but it was too faded for us to read. From what we could read the tag is #IywIkr (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skount surprised us with this abstract piece in Gold Coast, Australia – not the style he typically does. (photo © Skount)

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