Loosely layered and color-blocked figures in the desaturated tones of pre-Depression 1910s, the new lineup on these walls in downtown Providence, Rhode Island recalls a proud industrial age here – as painted by the graffiti/street artist Arz.
Originally from Palo Alto, he’s now considered a Catalan muralist of large scale works whose more than two decades of experience on the streets has fully formed this trim team of workers. It is a style that hearkens to the elegant depictions of a century ago by illustrators like Frank Godwin – known as much for his depictions of industrial workers as the privileged beneficiaries in their drawing rooms balanced gently on a piano bench.
“The idea is to make a representation where you can read the hard years of the construction of a ‘modern’ city from scratch,” says Aryz in a press release, “representing all the anonymous workers who built it, representing the American Industrial Revolution and the workers in their labors.”
Funded by donations from perhaps some of todays’ captains of industry, the mural lends a grace to that toil, a dignity to the classes who fought for union rights, better working conditions, a minimum wage, an end to child labor. Providence itself is known as the location of America’s first Labor Day Parade on August 23, 1882, with thousands of union members parading through downtown. 11 years later Labor Day became a holiday in Rhode Island.
Previously a graffiti writer in Barcelona, Aryz is no stranger to factory buildings when it comes to getting up. Now the owners of factory-looking buildings invite him to paint. A little over a decade we published his work on the side of a Brooklyn deli with How and Nosm. Today his visual style and mastery of technique has evolved into one that is quickly recognized and admired for its harmony, composition, and impeccable color palette.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Humask & Shadow _ Light off/Light on. Tuco Wallach Pacifico 2. Bastardilla: La lingue dei carciofi 3. Saber: Escaping Los Angeles. From Chop ’em Down Films
BSA Special Feature: Humask and Shadow
For artist Tuco Wallach the street art story has nearly always been a family affair that mixes easily with his Humask campaign. His psychological treatise on man’s relationship with himself and society and masks may be internal, but the actual street practice is often externalized to include friends and family to create, place, document the new works that go into the public places. Here, as a chill holiday recording of a moment, we see the intimate and precise care that goes into his process – a process that is open and welcoming, and participatory. He says the video is about wood cabins, family, shadows, lights, friends, and Humask.
Humask & Shadow _ Light off/Light on. Tuco Wallach Pacifico
Bastardilla: La lingue dei carciofi
In the depths of New York winter, we like to escape to that sticky and warm time in summer when the air and the bees buzzed in unison, the thick richness of the days and nights, lingering in reverie. At the time we called it Bastardilla in Love With Bees and the Taste of Summer in Stornara, Italy. We dare you not to fall in love or at least be enchanted.
Saber: Escaping Los Angeles. From Chop ’em Down Films
“You can tell a lot about a city just by reading its walls.” Okay, Saber, you have our attention. And it’s shot by Chop ’em Down films? We’re there. Here the graffiti writer and fine artists narrate the police state of the LA during one of its more dismal periods caught on camera – and the record of a constant state of uprising.
Now a grand don of graffiti looking back, he sees the fall of LA hasn’t halted, only intensified, but his heart is still in it. He has become performative, crystalizing the movements of his work and his history into a gestural full-body modern performance; rebellious and distraught and yet full of passion – his own evolution from the street to the studio to the street again.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. SOFLES: Raw Brick 2. Conor Harrington: The Patriot. Video by Chop ’em Down Films 3. Sao Paulo Pinacoteca: Os Gemos Reopening
BSA Special Feature: SOFLES: Raw Brick
While much of the western world is waiting around to see who wins the presidential election and wonders where this much vaunted civil war is taking place (Rachel?), let’s have a mental vacation with SOFLES as he shows us a graffiti piece being painted on a raw brick wall. The rich green, the deep purplllleeee…… Ahhhhhh.
SOFLES: Raw Brick
Conor Harrington: The Patriot. Video by Chop ’em Down Films
The Irish immigrants were once treated as badly as the Mexicans are now in America. Now one of them is lecturing on blind patriotism in the US in this new video by Chop ’em Down Films.
Sao Paulo Pinacoteca: Os Gemeos Reopening
In a genuine shifting of fortunes, Brazilian twin graffiti writers OS GEMEOS were once on the run from authorities for their artworks in Sao Paulo. Here to welcome their massive exhibition, is a video sponsored by Sao Paulo’s State Government.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. “Dinner For Few.” A short film by Nassos Vakalis. 2. NYCHOS. Five Weeks Of Rabbit Eye Movement 3. Futura X Wynwood Walls. Chop ’em Down Films 4. Shok1 in St. Petersburg, Florida
BSA Special Feature: “Dinner For Few.” A short film by Nassos Vakalis.
“Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry of wonderful times to come,” an applicable bromide for all those folk who got the big Trump tax cut last year. Meanwhile, you are rationing your insulin.
“(The capitalist machine” solely feeds the select few who eventually, foolishly consume all the resources while the rest survive on scraps from the table. Inevitably, when the supply is depleted, the struggle for what remains leads to catastrophic change.”
NYCHOS. Five Weeks Of Rabbit Eye Movement
A road-trip film is an ideal vehicle for mythmaking and definition of persona, especially when accompanied by timely music choices and distracted stares into the burned horizon. This amber-tinged panoply of rockstar travel shots, nomadic spraycation side trips, behind-the-scenes production, off-the-grid hippy encampments, rusted detritus sculpture, post-apocalypse signposts, and the energized, intensely industrious, exquisite dissection of Nychos that puts his oeuvre under the microscope and behind the looking glass. Alternately elegant and violent, this is a laboratory sweep of imagined scenarios that can make the mind cavort with fear and lust, toil and soil, pensive thought and power chords, ready to be sliced and peered into.
Futura X Wynwood Walls. Chop ’em Down Films
A
brief look at Futura as he recounts his revisiting of a mural he made in Miami.
Calling to the fore his inspired abstractions that first set him apart from the
pack in the late 70s/early 80s, it’s a treasure to see engaged with his past,
his process, his futura.
Shok1 in St. Petersburg, Florida for Shine Mural Festival.
2nd in a row from Chop ‘Em Down Films, this look at the technique of Shok1, who reveals the world through his brilliant mastery of x-ray and fantasy, is a rare treat and a great way to close this week’s survey.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. “Realm: Shanghai” Vhils directed by Jose Pando Lucas 2. ARTRIUM, Moscow. (part 1) 3. Faith XVLII x Philadelphia, ‘The Silent Watcher’.
BSA Special Feature: “Realm: Shanghai” Vhils directed by Jose Pando Lucas
Like other fashion and luxury brands, certain contemporary art galleries are commissioning higher-end film quality videos to put muscle behind the marketing. Naturally, some artwork is camera-ready, infused with the potential for storytelling that creates the “rich content” that social media thrives on, and aids sales teams in the gallery space and at art fairs. Portuguese Street Artist Vhils has director Jose Pando Lucas along as sophisticated seer; The artist once again bringing a storyline into savvy focus, capturing your imagination with his.
“I remember the story I was told,” intones the mystical
modern while staring into the camera. “That in time I would know my place in
this world.”
The tone is perhaps meant to reassure an unsteady heart in a chaotic modern world, to center oneself in a dislocating environment. Viewed as an appealing sales tool, it also skillfully fortifies a self-image of the entitled powerful class who are pre-ordained or chosen to dominate and to lead. Anonymous and existential mournful stares through city windows and at bus stops, the artworks under construction are born of destruction; mottled, rough-hewn, defiant in the city’s margins.
Tradition struggles for its place amidst amazing new technology and rapidly growing infrastructure. The artist posits himself as working man pounding on walls, without airs of class. With this art in your home you are keeping in touch with the common, the everyday insecurities, for you are citizen. You can afford it because, after all, you are also a ruler.
“Nobody really got the answers they longed for.”
“Do we live as we dream?”
“Who else can hear me right now?”
Youthful, fashionable, under constraint, free of constraint,
traditional and unconventional power players laying plans quietly, focusing a pent-up
hunger for more. This is the ocean of wealth and capacity that will define
epochs, not decades.
It ends sweetly, a bon mot that suggests a sense of human camaraderie among competitors of this race. But it is an uncertain connection, born more of wistful desire for a pleasant resolution than actual brotherhood or sisterhood.
“Yesterday is gone. This moment has ended.”
VHILS – REALM (Shanghai, 2019) A film by Jose Pando Lucas
ARTRIUM, Moscow. (part 1)
An educational insight into the people and the place.
Unusual in the Russian Federation, if not the commercialized western cultures which have willfully merged graffiti and Street Art culture to the point of quotidian, The Artrium combines a shopping mall with murals by Street Artists. What is remarkable is the list of names who regale this city skin with new pieces inside and outside, bringing to life an otherwise normal grey and beige block.
Astounding to discover in the center of Moscow, the outdoor gallery boasts artists such as Shepard Fairey, Felipe Pantone, Tristan Eaton, Ben Eine, PichiAvo, Okuda San Miguel, Pokras Lampas, Faith47, WK Interact, Faust, and Haculla. Average visitors may not grasp the remarkable collection of talents, but if you are shopping in this capital city, you wouldn’t want to miss this opportunity that captures a stunning moment in the rotation of the Street Art universe.
Faith XVLII x Philadelphia, ‘The Silent Watcher’. By Chop ’em Down Films
In the words of Faith XLVII;
‘I come from a country that is seething with the frustration of
uncontrollable violence and woman abuse, xenophobia , class and racial
divide.
And have moved to a country where there seems to be a fundamental crisis in the very soul of the nation.
We know this ache of our lands.
And we all know personal ache.
Everybody has their struggle to bear.
And with the weight of the world on our shoulders,
we must still be able to live with empathy
We must somehow keep our hearts open.
The words on this wall are a reference to the City Seal of Philadelphia with calls out for brotherly love.
This is no small commitment.
It also references a quote ‘Optimism is a strategy for a Better Future.’
Paying tribute to Noam Chomsky who was born in Philadelphia and is 91 years old this year. .
The harsh experiences of life can easily make us fall into a negative world view,
or inner psychological depression.
But we each have the ability to transform this base metal of knowing suffering,
into the gold of higher aspiration.
The name of this mural is ‘The Silent Watcher’
We can be the silent watcher, who knows, who loves and who endures.’
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. Conor Harrington in Manhattan 2. Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada “Reflection” Spring 2019 3. Caratoes at Superchief Gallery in Miami 4. DALeast in Seattle
BSA Special Feature: Focus on Zane Meyer & Chop ’em Down Films
Chop ’em Down Films, a film production company based in LA and spearheaded by filmmaker Zane Meyer, has been capturing the scene incredibly as of late. Wherever we go, there he is – jetting from continent to continent to capture and document with video what’s happening in today’s world of street art and graffiti.
The killer detail for us? His soundtrack music choices. Unusual interludes from unsung heroes, sometimes funky and soulful, other times wistful, tilting on the precipice of morning, or mourning. Excerpted as they are from larger works that are somehow familiar, they might not stand on their own in their entirety in your playlist, but they pour layers of meaning and significance on action flying at you from the whirring eye in the sky.
Zane keeps these videos at one minute to meet Instagram limitations (and short attention spans) but he knows how to work within that time constraint to communicate the news and a great deal more; and capture the muscle, the sleek movement, the unwieldy testosterone, the simple song of the heart, the exquisite detail that assures you of mastery, and craft. You don’t know if you heard it or saw it or if it was simply implied; the rich palette of the towns, the stark expanse of the sky, the singing of the birds, the impatience of the cars, the clack and roar of the trains and the sweet action on the streets, plump with possibility, the locals beckoning. With his ability to alchemize, the art is always in context.
Here are four for your enjoyment. Offered without comment, may it please the court.
Conor Harrington in Manhattan
Conor Harrington in Manhattan. Organized by The L.I.S.A. Project NYC and shot by Zane Meyer from Chop ’em Down Films.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. Gonzalo Borondo “Merci” Temple des Chartrons 2. ELLE in Allentown 3. Pejac: YIN-YANG 4. “Beyond The Streets” In A New York Minute – By Chop ‘Em Down Films 5. LL Cool J – I’m Bad
BSA Special Feature: Gonzalo Borondo “Merci” Temple des Chartrons, France. 2019
Finally opened, its the spirit of man and nature working in concert in this vast emporium, a transformatorium, of images and pieces of memory from Street Artist Borondo. If you are in Paris before August 18, it is a must see.
ELLE in Allentown
Former tagger and now fulltime muralist, Elle talks about a new work in Allentown, PA, which is trying to kindle a creative arts / high tech reputation after the iron industry left. “The gist of the entire collage is that all of women are more powerful together,” says Elle.
Pejac: YIN-YANG
Spanish Street Artist and studio artist Pejac is back with one of his visual aphorism that addresses climate change ironically.
“Beyond The Streets” In A New York Minute – By Chop ‘Em Down Films
Like we said earlier this week when this video debuted:
“It’s a unique talent to capture the fervor of an opening like “Beyond the Streets” in one minute. The show spreads over two floors and fifty years – the reunions alone were enough for an hour movie. But somehow Zane catches an individual, personal, flavor in a New York minute.”
LL Cool J – I’m Bad
Also, the because it’s Friday and because LL is Bad
It’s a unique talent to capture the fervor of an opening like “Beyond the Streets” in one minute. The show spreads over two floors and fifty years – the reunions alone were enough for an hour movie. But somehow Zane catches an individual, personal, flavor in a New York minute.
“Questioning the giant monolithic forces that we are all subjected to” – Shepard Fairey
“It all began with an absurd sticker of Andre The Giant that was a happy accident,” says Street Artist Shepard Fairey about his first foray as an artist on the streets back in ’89. “So there’s a giant in the original sticker which evolved into an exploration of control, questioning control, questioning the giant monolithic forces that we are all subjected to,” he says.
You didn’t doubt that Shepard had an anti-demagogue, anti authoritarian, anti-propaganda stance even then; his methods for skewering were cheekily challenging, often employing propaganda methodology of his own to get the point across. Good design, good satire, and grand targets.
As Fairey begins his multi-pronged celebration of three decades of questioning self-appointed authority and the agents of dis-information, the folks at Chop ‘em Down Films have produced the opening salvo here – and we’re sure you’d like to see it.
“Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent” for the OBEY GIANT 30th body of
work – reflecting on 30 years of his art in the streets… and everywhere else”.
Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent. Video by Chop ’em Down Films
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. INTI “Soleil”. Blinded by the Light. 2. Martha Cooper: Queen der Street Art 3. Elisa Capdevila x Anna Repullo. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project 4. Mare 139 : L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition. 5. FAUST: L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition.
BSA Special Feature: INTI “Soleil”. Blinded by the Light.
OMG WHERE does Chop ’em Down get their music from? Finally we said it out loud.
Yes, the monstrous archive of top-notch video that they are amassing of Street Artists and others creating work in the world is scintillating, the gut-punch editing is riveting, the pickings are lush. But time and again Zane nails it into next week with the music choices. Bless you brother.
INTI “Soleil”. Blinded by the Light. Video by Chop ’em Down Films for Peinture Fraiche Festival. Lyon, France.
Martha Cooper: Queen der Street Art via ZDF German TV (in German no subtitles)
Our sincere thanks to Susanne Lingemann and ZDF German TV for this great piece on Martha Cooper during the premiere of Selina Miles’ movie “Martha: A Picture Story” at Tribeca Film Festival. Next stop Sydney!
Elisa Capdevila x Anna Repullo. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project
Easily the winner of wackiest choice of concept and music for the year so far is this wiccan themed duo in Spain painting walls across from each other on an underpass. Something to do with sensuality and competitiveness and … witchcraft? Good painting tho.
L’avenir
L’avenir Graffuturism Group Exhibition
A special collection of works opened on April 26th under the banner “Graffuturism”, guided by its creator and advocate, the artist Poesia. The lineup includes a number of artists along the street art/graffiti /contemporary continuum such as Augustine Kofie, Tobias Kroeger, Carlos Mare, Doze Green, Jaybo Monk, Faust, Kenor, and Matt W. Moore – each with distinct graphic voices of their own. Below are a couple of brief profiles from the show follow here.
“L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition. Mare139.
“L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition. Faust.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. 10 Year Challenge : Doug Gillen Takes It 2. Tavar Zawacki: Mixing Colors In A Parking Garage in Wynwood. 3. NUART 2018 / RE-CAP: Space is The Place
BSA Special Feature: Doug Gillen of FWTV takes the 10 Year Challenge:
Inspired by a meme (what else could be more 2019) Doug Gillen decides to to an inexact comparison of where selected Street Artists have changed and remained the same since 10 years ago. The big ones apparently are staying ahead by going bigger and perhaps developing entire marketing divisions, possibly in danger of being bloated. Elsewhere we see true evolution.
Tavar Zawacki: Mixing Colors In A Parking Garage in Wynwood. Video by Chop ’em Down Films.
Perhaps in a continued effort to bare it all, Tavar Zawacki (formerly Above) takes off his shirt in Miami and tells us about the importance of color to him.
NUART 2018 / RE-CAP: Space is The Place
“You can view it in a museum and it still feels like Street Art, but is the place of the museum the same as the space of the street,” Professor Alison Young from the University of Melbourne poses the question on the docks of Stavanger, Norway. In face, says Nuart, space is the place that determines the ultimate impact an artistic intervention can have.
Tristan Eaton completed his turn at the famed Houston/Bowery Wall in Manhattan back in July…he wanted an Intermission from the noise, the bad news, the stress, the BS and the haters, he says.
So he regaled us and the city with a burst of color and old Hollywood nostalgia. We wrote about the mural HERE and now Zane from Chop ’em Down Films just sent us his video of his capture of the artist and mural. Since we are all mid-summer here in NYC we’d like to take Tristan’s intermission further and give it some love once more…
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
