Happy Holidays! We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA readers, friends, and family for all of your support in 2022. We have selected some of our favorite shots by our Editor of Photography, Jaime Rojo, and we’re sharing a new one every day to celebrate all our good times together, our hope for the future, and our love for the street.
We do our best, but nature always wins. Here’s one of our favorites from Mexico in 2022.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!
Well, it was all going well until you came along, Ian. No offense dude but it’s like you walk around with a cloud over your head. The negativity from this hurricane has left us feeling blue (or grey) all weekend – just murky, moody skies so dark that you have to turn a lamp on to see in your apartment in the middle of the day. And few graffiti stalwarts will go out in this weather to perform aesthetic acts of mark-making, though there are exceptions.
Meanwhile in sunny northern Mexico in the heart of the desert city called Chihuahua, our editor of photography, Jaime Rojo, found a bounty of new stuff in an abandoned factory. He also met a lot of new friends (see this weeks final image.) Que Estilo!
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: TCK Crew, Gang, CEN, Grer, Lords, Ickes, Skiee, Esza, Loupe, Rosko, Kosmo, Dementes, KAY, EPC, TCK MEA, and Suly.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! It’s Fall Y’all !
If you know us, it’s a Mexico-Brooklyn fusion. Just one of the endless combinations you discover when you truly explore New York, where we speak 700 languages and dialects.
It is no surprise that graffiti, its style and aesthetic, spanned many of the world’s cities and cultures over five decades – as does street art today. You’ll see similarities this week between pieces we just caught in Chihuahua, in the north of Mexico, and NYC, in the North of the USA. The styles recognize history, but there is definitely a youthful vibe out there and here.
Shout out to the Brooklyn (now LIC) street art duo Faile for opening Deluxx Fluxx in the underground of Manhattan’s Webster Hall this week. Thursday night’s opening was full of fans, admirers, friends, and collectors – with Patrick Miller walking the line outside on the sidewalk to greet patient guests who were waiting to get in. Wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling Faile, the new club is eye-popping with fluorescent image making and graphic design in the Faile vocabulary – and yes, there are new video games that are digital eye candy with a sense of irony and humor. Miller told us that the new version of their classic kiosks would hopefully also provide a platform to other artists – an open inclusive attitude that only comes from street artists who actually believe in community. With a stage for performances, a DJ HQ, smoke, and lasers – it is going to be an instant New York classic house to escape into.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Donut, Muck, Maze, Diez, Imok, Ollin, Griz, Tee, Derk, Bonk, Retos, Merck, and TCK.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.
People are so careful sometimes to let you know that certain artists are self-taught. You wouldn’t think it so necessary to make the distinction but it’s often an important demarcation for the academic or self-appointed expert who wants to preserve the class divide, assuring that only persons from families who can afford luxury branded education could possibly be awarded highest distinction in any category.
Consider even newer terms like “Outsider Art”. It’s right there in the name, people.
Talk about so-called “outsider artists,” and there is a certain air of incredulity that such original, imaginative, high-quality work and brilliance could come from those who haven’t been to an art academy. The occurrence is likened to a supernatural fluke, something mystical perhaps channeled through this vessel of a person, not indicative of their own talents necessarily.
“Self-taught” is a source of pride for graffiti writers – taught by the university of the streets, a few will tell you. Some street artists like to say they evolved from the Do It Yourself (DIY) subcultures of punk and anarchists. It’s a source of pride, often hard-won. For those making money selling graffiti or street artists’ work in a gallery, however, they’ll check your resume in addition to your canvas. Its easier to assure potential buyers that an artist attended an accredited, if not acclaimed, university or program, or studied under the tutelage of an art star. It’s about branding, for sure, but it is also infused with class.
The Mata Ortiz pottery style from the northern central region of Mexico took hold in the 1990s when the Santa Fe style of home décor became popular in parts of the US. Originating from the Indigenous peoples who lived here and in this region before the Europeans arrived, the geometric designs and stylized animal patterning on pottery fragments from prehistoric cultures like the Mimbres and Casas Grandes inspired a new interest among ceramicists and potters.
A farmer who liked to explore near the remains of Paquime countryside and to discover pottery remnants in this desert and forest region, Juan Quesada took inspiration and began to develop his own pottery designs beginning in the 1960s. Over the course of the next decades, his work was “discovered” by an anthropologist and ceramic collector north of the border, and he helped Quesada to develop a sustainable business of sales and to spread word of his talent. These prized pottery works that later became part of museum private collections eventually spawned a small cottage industry in the surrounding area that is primarily known for ranching and lumber. Today Quesada continues to create his own art and has helped hundreds of family and friends to participate, learn, and thrive with the opportunity he authored.
He was also self-taught.
So, we lift a glass of tequila to him and all the self-taught artists and artisans – and those who share their skills with others.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street here in Mexico, this week featuring ARSK, Aser, Bianca S, BN One, CFN, Damasco, EXPm, Llario, Jeack, Juan Quezada, Mabe, Mecivo, Neth, Pese, RCW, Seyk, and Shutney.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. While New York suffered a heatwave followed by tropical storms from Hurricane Elsa flying up the East Coast and flooding the subways, this week, we checked in with the evolution of a city in sunny, arid, colorful Mexico.
The aesthetics and language of street art and graffiti are so pervasive, so woven into the international culture in cities, that it hardly surprises us to see it absorbed and re-interpreted wherever we go. We like to return to places that we’ve traveled to previously; it is an opportunity to gauge the changes, the tempo, perhaps to appreciate the influence of the Internet and social media in connecting and re-sorting people based on their interests rather than geography.
In the case of the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua, we see a lively mural program, a small but fervent and well-crafted graffiti, and tattoo scene, and now even a sticker storm of sorts in specific parts of this desert home to international corporate maquiladoras and a proud sense of commitment to traditional culture and history. Topics and influences range from gender roles, machismo, Christian iconography, Japanese anime, tattoo culture, Warhol’s version of POP, empowered female sexuality, devils, angels, wildlife, drugs, economics, and subtly played political critique.
At almost a million people and with its focus on education, its primarily one- and two-story cityscape is only interrupted briefly by a historic colonial downtown, peppered with a few modern glass boxes. Chihuahua is vying for tourists and corporations to come with a redrawn city center, the historical monuments and fountains now modernized with an open and welcoming street plan. But stylistically, we like the margins, where the messages are rather less vetted…
When exploring the street art here, you’ll see international styles filtered through Mexican culture and iconography; However, in the case of OBEY aesthetics repeated on stickers, one could argue that Shepard Faireys’ original fascination with the fantasy of Andre the Giant has as much to do with the Mexican “Luchador” subculture and its films of the 1950s/60s as any subversive impulses from punk that appealed to him in his college years.
Similarly, the one-color small stencil didn’t originate with the Army or Bristol’s Banksy – it has appeared for decades throughout the decorative folk arts here, not to mention the robustly social and politically inspired Mexican mural tradition of the 20th century that is in the creative DNA of street artists worldwide. As the so-called First World de-industrialized in the last three decades, their neighbors have been equally looking for new footing. In the case of cultures like Mexico’s, there is a spirit of innovation and a respect for tradition, an amalgam that may materialize now as something more modern than you expected.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ale Poire, Ayari Ludeas, Bideo TCK, Celest Alonso, Cesar Duarte, David Glezzg, Joker, Maker, Maru Campos, and Mittuh.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.
Happy Hannukah to all our Jewish friends this week as the festival of lights began on Thursday night. “Chag Sameach!”
Meanwhile, the Christmas jam is in full force with lights in people’s windows and in stores and yesterday in Bushwick, Brooklyn…. those little electric lights were surrounding a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe that a small group of women crossing the street was carrying at the intersection of Broadway and Myrtle. They looked like they were holding prayer books or papers with prayers on them. For those of you unfamiliar with the Our Lady of Guadalupe Day 2020, it culminates in a popular Catholic feast that celebrates the belief that a man encountered the Virgin Mary, Mexico’s patron saint, in Mexico City on December 9 and 12, 1531.
Speaking of Mexico, all of our Images of the Week are flown straight here from there today – sunbaked and sweet. Colectivo Tomate is the name of the group responsible for many of these brand new historically-inspired murals in Chihuahua, Mexico – and we thought we’d share this collection of new works from this warm desert-based city of a million only 4 hours from El Paso.
The collective describes itself as an independent group of young Mexicans who seek an improvement in the way of life in the cities in Mexico. They talk about using their mural works and arts programs in terms of healing communities immersed in environments of violence, extreme poverty, or social conflicts – with artistic processes, dialogue, and community work.
Aside from the fact that Mexico is the birthplace of inspiration for the great mural movement in the 20th century, it is also important to recognize that graffiti, street art, and mural art are very personal in how you define them, but those definitions are going to vary from person to person, city to city, decade to decade. It’s good to see how art in the streets here in Mexico is also building healing and strength in the community.
So a shout out to Colectivo Tomate Chihuahua, who is participating in this to celebrate “Chihuahua Capital Creative” – a week where they host talks, conferences, and workshops, entirely free at the Instituto de Cultura del Municipio de Chihuahua.
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Dagoz, Ale Poire, Aleida Medina, AO, Carlos Van Frankenstein, Ely Astorga, Gear, Grimp, Joaquin Salvador Navarro, Luis Miguel Lopez, MES, MiR, Mitthu, MUDA, Raul Rojas, Renik, Terrmoto, Yanely Sara, and Zoe.
Happy Mother’s Day in the US and in Mexico too.
We praise the work and the love that mothers around the world are giving today and every day, with gratitude and recognition for their shaping of our global society. Salute to all the mothers! Without them, it goes without saying, we’d be nowhere.
So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Cake$, DG, Diez, GCG, HOACS, PREZ, Roachi, and Tag.
“Today people all over the world are wearing the keffiyeh to offer support to Palestinians in their struggle for freedom,” says Street Artists Cake$, who sends us this new piece he did near the separation wall. He says he considers the wall to be a symbol of oppression – but worries more now that Coronovirus has hit the region as well – so he depicts Jesus with a face covering. “Because of the pandemic, this stencil is also a caution sign for locals that you need to cover your face to protect yourself and others. A new study and computer model provide fresh evidence for a simple solution to help us emerge from this nightmarish lockdown. The formula? Always social distance in public and, most importantly, wear a mask, scarf or bandana.”
Andele! Welcome to Mexico!
Northern Mexico can be arid and beige and green – and also very colorful. We were swinging through Chihuahua recently and captured some pieces on walls and freights that represent the current Mexicano sabor on the street – a mixture of calligraphy and straight up lettering skills, figurative pieces as well.
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring AEO Crew, DCH, Dos, Dosis, Gear, HB, JPK, Osea, PERISR, Si Loco, Siete, Spy!, Tees, Tiest, and TNO.
Mexico, Norway, Brooklyn – a typical week of BSA Images.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Abraham Chaco, BustArt, Cost, Curve, El Xupet Negre, Gee Whiskers, JMZ, JPS, Juce, Raf Urban, The Reading Ninja, and Turtle Caps.
It’s surreal to be on the south side of the US border when Trump has just signed an executive order to build a wall, decides to try to pick a fight with the President of Mexico and drops a travel ban. Gosh, between giving away everything to his ultra-rich friends, loosening regulations on their companies, bringing Frederick Douglass back to life, skipping the Jews, and insulting some key strategic-historic allies it’s just a wonder that he has time to attack the press and say that everyone is lying except him.
As we looked for murals and graffiti in the warm winter sun on main street and back street walls and along rails and on freight trains, we got a taste for the clever wit and aerosol talents of Mexican Street Artists. It may help that they have the amazing muralist history of Mexico to call upon.
We start this week with a huge mural in downtown Chihuahua with their namesake dog who appears to have a peyote blossom on his mind, perhaps looking for an alternate reality to help process all the alternative facts coming from up north. Is surreality here to stay?
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Antonio Leon, ASET, DAOR, Daniel Montes, Disko, Nino Fidencio, Rick, SPK FUK, Sebastian Gallegos, SOER and Vera Primavera.
Museums, Festivals, and Activism – three of the themes that garnered the most traffic on our published stories on BSA and The Huffington Post this year.
From a scholarly Street Art related exhibition in St. Petersburg to the opening of the Mima Museum in Belgium to the Anti-Banksy exhibition with the Blu controversy in Bologna and the “Magic City” exhibition in Dresden, BSA readers were astutely studying the slow but steady move of Street Art from the street to the museum and the academic canons.
But you also liked the huge multi-player outside exhibitions as well – with stories from Sicily and Northern Spain to Northern Mexico, BSA readers were interested this year in seeing how eclectic locally-organized Street Art festivals and projects are done, and who is doing them.
Finally activism played a big role in what you were re-Tweeting and “liking” and sending to your friends – From Icy & Sot installing anti-radiation work in the Native American desert and then talking about oceans polluted with plastic, to a United Nations food program with kids and artists in El Salvador, to highlighting Indigenous peoples rights with Jetsonorama, to a US cross-country tour to save endangered species by one artist and a Greenpeace show in Barcelona addressing the same issue with 35 artists, it looks like BSA readers are engaged and concerned about socio-politico-environmental issues left and right.
On a side note, we were honored that our El Salvador article was picked up and published in spanish on the UN World Food program website – HERE.
Of course it was good to see that you liked the feature on the notorious graffiti crew 1UP and seeing Nychos slay New York as well. Tasty!
These are the TOP 15 articles on BSA for 2016 from the more than 365 postings we did this year – meaning they all beat at least 350 articles to get here. Congratulations to us all.
No. 15
Borders and Boundaries : A Multi-Disciplinary Exhibit at St. Petersburg’s Street Art Museum
Rafael Schacter Takes a More Nuanced Approach to the Migration Crisis
Commerce and technology have been eroding traditional constructs of the borders and boundaries, especially in the age of the Internet, satellites, transnational banking and trade agreements that create governing bodies that openly dismiss national sovereignty, integrity, identity, aspirations. Borders and boundaries are contested, guarded, or disregarded at will; open to international capital, porous to immigration, hardened by armies.
Daily they are in the headlines: Trump’s plans to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, Syrian war refugees immigrating across European borders, Israel and Palestine’s ongoing land and settlement disputes, even maritime territorial claims of China and the Phillipines in the South China Sea that were ruled upon yesterday – all reveal clues to our historically complicated relationships and geo-political perspectives.
Art to the rescue! continue reading here
No. 14
Icy & Sot Stencil An Enormous Blue Whale in LA
No. 13
MIMA Museum: City Lights with Swoon, MOMO, Hayuk, Faile
No. 12
San Salvador, Street Artists, Food Insecurity and “Conect-Arte”
Vexta.Workshop. Conect-Arte. San Salvador. April 2016. (photo © Yvette Vexta)
No. 11
Discovering a “Magic City” in Dresden, Germany
No. 10
Louis Masai: “The Art Of Beeing” Tour Kicks Off in NYC to Save Endangered Species
No. 9
1UP in Berlin : “ ‘All City’ Doesn’t Even Begin to Cover It ”
1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 8
A “Cathedral” of Characters in Northern Spain
RIM. Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)
The character may be a salty with a haggard stare, or reference a topic with a bit of satire. The scene may be serious, comical, ridiculous or purely sci-fi and horror. You discover the stories and allegories as you walk through the empty manufacturing rooms now flooded with natural light and dust. Expressions and situations here are full of drama that may trigger your empathy, startle your attention, elicit a shiver, or creepily fondle your funny bone…Continue reading here
No. 7
“Art Silos” Rise in the Harbor of Catania, Sicily
No. 6
BLU Allies : A Counter Exhibition to “Banksy & Co.” Launched in Bologna
No. 5
Raising Yellowcake in Grand Canyon: Icy & Sot, Jetsonorama in Arizona
No. 4
Nychos Slays in New York : IKONS Revealed as Never Before
No 3
35 Artists in Barcelona Trying To Save The Arctic with Greenpeace
No. 2
Chip Thomas’ New Mural, Indigenous People, and #NoDAPL
No 1
Chihuahua, a Mexican Desert City with a Few “Street Art” Blooms
“Chihuahua is like one big ranch,” says a local reporter who guides you around this desert city known for beef, cheese, sotol, cowboy boots… and a growing middle class – thanks to the hundred plus multinational maquiladoras operating here with a focus on aerospace, medical equipment, and automobile manufacturing.
The “ranch” metaphor is meant to be welcoming, but it also lets you know that this city of nearly a million can still feel like a small town. This is the capital of Mexico’s largest state, which goes by the same name. And yes, the diminutive and scrappy dog originated here – as did Pancho Villa, and you can visit his homestead if you like.
It’s not the typical city where you might expect to find Street Art, yet only a few blocks from the government palace downtown that holds two stories of wall paintings by Mexican muralist Aarón Piña Mora, you will find new paintings in the dusty side streets that indicate a more international flavor is present.
Largely conservative by most accounts, Chihuahua city in the twenty-teens has been sampling the flavors of the burgeoning global Street Art scene thanks two locally organized arts festivals; Ruta in 2013 and Centrópolis in 2014, and to the stylistic adventuring of local artists on other walls outside these approved ones.
Local custom has been to dismiss those un-permissioned painters as cholos, a disparaging term referring to a criminal element. Today its not as simple to disparage this rising tide of painters in the streets when cities across Europe and the US are actually seeking out and inviting Street Artists and muralists to come and revitalize a neighborhood or draw youth into a city center.
“Street Art has traditionally been seen as a form of vandalism but thanks to the festivals that include visual artists as the special guest it is slowly changing the way people see graffiti and street art,” explains Ivonne Dalila Miramontes, a curator and photographer who studied in the Arts Faculty of the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, and who currently teaches visual arts to high school students.
“It’s a subtle distinction but it’s a big deal, because now the new murals have a meaning and people don’t see art in the streets anymore strictly as vandalism and it has been a great opportunity for local artist to express themselves and be recognized as artists.”
You’ll see tagging on abandoned walls in some neighborhoods, and there is a range of old-school graffiti styles represented along with political ads for candidates and commercial ads for muffler repair shops on the low flung long walls that run alongside some carreteras in Chihuahua.
You’ll also see uncommissioned paintings that are figurative, or minimally abstract, or have a more trained illustrators eye here and there. Suddenly it looks like there is a small mushrooming of art on the streets. Is it a movement, a sign of a future renaissance of arts and culture, as we have seen in many international cities, or is it a chance outcropping that will be stomped out or left to die in the sun?
“It is really great to be able to do my work in different cities,” says Paola Delfin, one of the new breed of Mexican Street Artists who has travelled to festivals internationally at the invitation of organizers in Miami, Puerto Rico, Brazil, even Berlin.
“I like to observe the impact that this work has on the people and on the environment in each of them. Coming from Mexico City where art, specifically muralism, has an important history, it’s always interesting and inspiring to work in new places. Some cities like Berlin also have a huge background of art, muralism or street art, so people are more accustomed to this work.”
Delfin’s own female-centric paintings here were completed during the Centrópolis festival – one with undulating wavelike hair that envelops the monochromatic figure on a partially decayed wall. The other painting uses a more realist technique she is experimenting with; levitating above the street perhaps to recall the magic realism famous in Latin literature by writers like the celebrated Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who wrote many of his greatest works while living in Mexico City for decades.
“’Susana’, the levitating modern girl, is a based on a girl I met during the festival,” Delfin says, “She was helping all the artists there and she helped me a lot – and I like to paint people who had some impact in my life somehow, and I asked here if I could use her as a model.”
Serene and still, the artist says the figure is meant to allude to a dangerous trade that has claimed many young women closer to the border four hours north of here.“I painted ‘Susana’ sleeping. She is waiting to wake up and find some peace surrounding her. For me she represents the young women up there.” Of course some of the works touch on societal themes, and others can have political undertones.
For Bebo, a Mexican artist who has created many of his trademark foxes as stencils and abtract linear forms on walls throughout cities south and north of the border, his work is allegorical – although most passersby won’t necessarily know how strong his intent is. “I use mostly foxes on my work. I think foxes’ faces show how diverse they are physically as specimens but I also like their character – playful and mythical at the same time. ”
“My work can’t ignore this absurd political reality we are in. It feels like the whole of Mexico is a battle ground,” he says as he talks about the five paintings he did in Chihuahua city in 2014. “My work can’t reflect this reality but instead wants to change it. It is a small step to do something. My approach is entirely metaphysical. To fight against the ignorance I use my imagination. To fight against terror I use hope. I like to offer a different path.”
His path to Chihuahua was lead by Felix Lugo, a local artist and independent curator who organized the Street Artists with the Centrópolis festival, which included three days music stages, theatre, traditional cultural events, and according to organizers, close to 100,000 people. Although not all of that foot traffic was here to see the murals, he thinks that a painting is often better than a blank wall.
“I paint to open a dialogue on the streets,” says Bebo, “It is like a window to establish change in a specific city and at the same time to connect people with each other.”
For now, we offer you these images of a few remaining pieces and some brand new ones that were discovered around the city, as well as an abandoned spot north of the metropolis where you’ll find more typical graffiti artists trying their hand at the spray can.
Who knows if this warm and dry city can support the new generation of creative voices that are now being called on in many cities globally to create excitement and engage art fans, but we did see a few cafes and even a gallery or two where this art has been springing up.
“I do see a future for a large Street Art/mural festival,” says Miramontes, who notes that local artists were energized by the attention that the plastic arts were receiving.
“It made me feel that art is being taken seriously in my city. Also the murals are the only things that still remain after all the festivals, and when I pass by any of the artworks I remember being around while the artists were working and seeing friends, families and people in general having fun enjoying this form of art. We just need more people interested and involved in this environment so we can achieve success by bringing this kind of art to the community.”
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>
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!
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>
This article is also published on The Huffington Post.
This article is also published on El Huffington Post.
238
138
45
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
