New York Street Artist Chris Stain is making some new pieces for his upcoming show at CAVE Gallery in LA with Street Artist Veng and Taka Sudo on February 11. The signature portraits, mounted on wood, of the everyday people Stain is known for depicting, are joined here by a new one one of the noted and celebrated American poet who passed in 2011, Gil Scott Heron.
Often you catch a piece by someone on the street or in a gallery, and you wish you knew the story behind it. Sometimes there isn’t much of a story – it’s more of an aesthetic exercise. In the case of Chris Stain, the work is frequently drawn directly from his ongoing study and observations of socio-economic conditions in American society. With his portraits he examines how people are deeply impacted by a system that they feel affected by but frequently unable to affect in a meaningful way. Other times they are simply meditations on being alive.
Each piece is made from a hand-cut rubylith film that he burned onto a screen and then printed on wood and colored in by hand. Here are some detail photos, along with Chris’s words to describe them.
Gil Scott Heron by Chris Stain
Gil Scott Heron
For many years now I have gained inspiration from the music and writing of Gil Scott Heron. After his passing I thought it seemed fitting to create a piece in homage to the man and his achievements. If you know of Gil’s work and life you know that he struggled at times from addiction and the curve-balls that life threw at him. What I appreciate about him most is his ability to express his experiences in such a heartfelt way through music and writing.
“Skin Head Girl” by Chris Stain
Skinhead Girl
When I was younger, in the mid 80’s, I was an avid disciple of hip hop culture. When I hit adolescents I was turned onto punk rock and skinhead culture. Obviously not the white power skins here people. There’s a good little video here explaining the history of Skinhead and where it came from.This piece is a throw back to those days and how it meant something to be a part of an alternative lifestyle.
“A Small Something” by Chris Stain
A Small Something
This piece looks back on the feeling of first riding off on a bike on your own. The first time you leave your neighborhood and explore; freedom, in a sense. As you get older it’s not such a big deal to adventure out alone. With this piece I further explore the use of handwritten text in the layout to see how it interacts with the image. However with any of the above pieces people will read into them whatever they want which is okay with me.
“What Holds Today” by Chris Stain
What Holds Today
The title is a play on words for what today holds. It’s about trying to make it through the day no matter what’s in store. Some days are easier than others and some days you just feel like giving up on everything. So What Holds Today means whats going to keep this day together when the shit hits the fan.
“Willem” by Chris Stain
Willem
Willem was a student I had in one of my printmaking classes last year. I photograph the kids as part of our self portrait project. When Willem stepped up in front of the camera with this pose I thought that there was no way I wasn’t using this picture for a piece of my own! I have painted this outside twice in NYC and once in Miami but this is the first time I made it as a finished piece for a gallery.
Here is the 2nd half of the Miami images we captured for you from the massive blocks long street installation party called Art Basel this year. Most of these pieces are legal, many are not. You can call them Street Art, but not all are actually on the street and many could also be classified as murals.
Now is a perfect window of opportunity to go see these as many will be buffed in the next few weeks and months, as property owners sell the buildings or decide they didn’t actually dig the art as much as they thought they would. Within a decade or so, this area in Miami will most likely be less enthused with and even hostile toward graffiti and Street Art in general, but the red carpet is laid out at the moment. Artists are flocking from all over the world to jockey for walls, hoping to be seen by potential fans and collectors, or at least to hang out with peers and make new friends. This is a moment on a timeline and, for right now, the colors, patterns, textures, messages and lucid dreams are pulsating on walls everywhere; a mountain of creativity set free.
So here are more than 50 images in our interview with the street, this week featuring 2501, Adjust, AM, Andrew Schoultz, Art Basel 2011, AWR, Bask, Ben Eine, Bik Ismo, Buff Monster, C215, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Col, Cope, Dabs&Myla, Des, Ema, Emo, Entes Pesimo, Ethos, Ever, Florida, Gaia, Interesni Kazki, Jade Uno, Jaz, Joe Iurato, Liqen, Miami, Michael DeFeo, Neuzz, Nomade, Nomads, Nunca, Pancho Pixel, Pez, PHD, Pi, el Pancho, Primary Flight, Remote, Retna, Roa, RONE, Shark Toof, Shiro, Smells, Spagnola, Stormie Mills, Vhils, Wynwood Walls, and Zed1.
With special thanks to all the people who helped us out, showed us around and provided insight and background, especially the good folks from Primary Projects and Wynwood Walls.
The following essay by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art, appears in the book “Eloquent Vandals The History of Nuart”, edited by Martyn Reed, Marte Jølbo, and Victoria Bugge Øye and published in 2011 by Kontur Publishing. More information appears after the essay.
Freed from the Wall, Street Art Travels the World
The Internet and the increasing mobility of digital media are playing an integral role in the evolution of Street Art, a revolution in communication effectively transforming it into the first global people’s art movement.
While that may seem hyperbolic, just witness the millions of images of Street Art uploaded on photo sharing sites, the time lapse videos and full length films online, the hundreds of blogs, websites, discussion forums, chatrooms, Facebook pages, Twitter addresses, and phone and tablet apps dedicated entirely or partially to Street Art and graffiti and the multifaceted culture that grows around it. Thousands of people daily are populating the databases, compiling a mountainous archive of something once quaintly referred to as an ephemeral art. This said, the transformative story is that the images are now freed from their sources to float in the ether for anyone with a digital device to access. Within the space of a decade, art that once lived and died on a wall with a local population is now shared via digital capture and upload, gaining access to a worldwide audience. Immediately.
The multi-authored amorphous swirling whirlwind of street art, graffiti, public art, and urban art is simply too vast for any person to get their arms around or explain – yet our digital media tribes are enabling us to collect it, share it, and study it in larger numbers than ever imaginable. As artists and professionals for 25 years in New York, a city with a legacy of graffiti all its own, we have been extremely lucky to witness the blossoming of the current Street Art movement; to document it, analyze it, discuss it, and share it by real world means and virtual means with thousands of others. With the dual forces of high rents and corporate gentrification pounding the final nails into the coffin of the established creative neighborhoods in Manhattan, gritty bubbling new and youthful artist neighborhoods of Brooklyn became de facto showcases for the Street Art scene at the turn of the century, and we were shooting images and tracking its evolution from the beginning.
In concert with the Internet, all manner of art that occurs in the streets is being captured and shared, discussed, critiqued, celebrated or dismissed by people of searing intellect and those who cannot locate their own country with their finger if you spin a globe in front of them. As text has been loosed from print in this post Gutenberg Parenthesis world of Sauerberg, so too our local Street Art is freed from its wall. Going from “All City” to “All Timezones” has radically transformed how Street Artists perceive their work and their audience, with the concept of “place” profoundly altered.
Nuart became a focal point for many in the Street Art world in the early 2000s because of its highly curated nature and its expansive brand of personal interaction with public space. A hybrid of high-minded civic involvement and an art form with roots solidly in anti-authoritarianism, Nuart has presented a rolling roster of Internet stars and miscreants of the Street Art scene. It’s a highly unusual mix: quality experimental elements birthed by the interconnectedness of the virtual world, soon imitated by other entrepreneurial Street Art enthusiasts. With the help of the Internet this Norwegian port town of Stavanger is an international player in the Street Art scene, a by-invitation celebration capable of drawing a wide range of serious talent to create epic pieces in singular locations. When the images and videos of installations at Nuart are relayed through the forums and chatrooms and blogs and Flickr pages around the world, other cities begin rethinking public space and examining with a new interest the players in their own Street Art scene.
A large part of our understanding of art and its expression for generations has come from textbooks, lorded over by scholars and experts who were trained by others using similar texts passing along received knowledge and prejudices. For those rebels of the graffiti and Street Art movement who have never given much credence to formal education, the unbound and chaotic nature of digital communications actually feels more organic and trustworthy. In large part, with the exception of the formalism of the logical structure comprising the undergirding of the Internet, its explosive growth has been more intuitive and behavioral than left-brained or hierarchical. The beauty of a new Street Art piece on a nearby wall is electrifying to share with the digital tribe, and in so doing, it legitimizes ones status among peers and the work of the artist as well. With the innate desire to learn being regularly quenched by members of this tribe, collective intelligence is rising more quickly than any organized curricula could ever aspire.
Image Capture, Sharing, and Platforms
Graffiti and Street Artists have always benefitted from documentation of photographers like John Naar, Keith Baugh, Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, and James Prigoff, who are largely responsible for the capture and preservation of the historical knowledge we now have of graffiti in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s. Without the benefit of instant communication of these images, copies of Cooper and Chalfant’s book Subway Art and Charlie Ahearn’s movie Wild Style relied upon actual physical distribution channels and commerce to travel around the world and inspire young artists. “Viral” was a word associated with antibiotics.
As film turned to digital at the turn of the century and cameras and personal computers became far more affordable, the convergence of technology gave professional and amateur photographers the incentive to roam the streets hunting for street art and the ability to have the instant gratification of seeing their photos online. As in the early days of graffiti, Street Artists of the 2000s didn’t shy away from the attention photographers were giving to their work and a new symbiotic relationship between the street artists and web savvy photographers was born where certain artists would place their work where it was likely to be seen and photographed, and hopefully distributed online. Like the days of Cooper et al., digital photographers assisted many of the current stars of Street Art to gain exposure to an appreciative fan base and to increase their popularity during the decade.
With the introduction of the online image-sharing platform called Flickr in 2004, the already rapid spread of Street Art photography completely ballooned as fans from every city and town and hamlet began uploading their Street Art images to one location where everyone could coalesce around their common interest. With a database structure and system for tagging, images could be categorized, sorted and most importantly, searched. No longer reliant on the approval of gatekeepers or site curators, Street Artists gained autonomy and audience largely on their own terms and with the help of photographers who scoured the streets to capture their work. Of the current 6 billion or so images uploaded to the site since then, millions are of street art – a de facto common repository and shared research archive for artists, professionals, curators, collectors, and casual fans.
A new central nervous system in formation, Flickr and other lesser-known sharing platforms had a profound causational relationship to the dissemination of Street Art culture to a worldwide audience. You knew Melbourne and Bristol and São Paulo and New York had a Street Art scene, but Sacramento? Shanghai? Stavanger? In addition to images and videos, the platform provided common space for exchange of opinion, ideas, and news, fostering online and offline relationships and enabling Street Artists and photographers to pursue their work as a possible career route.
Photo sharing sites of course are not the only means for the worldwide distribution and formation of a common understanding of Street Art culture. Today’s digital biosphere includes primary content sites and blogs, aggregators (or self-described “curators”), peer-to-peer forums, Social Media, and mobile apps as part of the overall knowledge base, forming an increasingly common understanding about Street Art, it’s origins and it’s evolving expression in the public sphere. No one can doubt that this familiarity has only aided its popularity.
In one significant role-reversal, the online experience of Street Art has also altered the behaviors on the streets and once sacrosanct “rules” of the street have been turned on their head. Although it was once verboten to reveal a street location for fear of reprisal, now both street artists and fans geotag their images so they can be found on a map with any GPS enabled device. As mobile device use eclipses Internet use in the next couple of years and hardware and software becomes more flexible, sophisticated, affordable, and available, there is no doubt that more apps and platforms using mapping and GPS are likely to thrive. Whether through image sharing platforms or mobile apps, these systems of tagging are providing exact information for self-guided tours by fans and tour groups, peers, enemies, and of course, law enforcement.
Excerpts from additional subtopics of this essay:
Tribes and Co-Surveillance
“The growth of connectivity is producing a foundational change to the world of the Street Artist and his or her relation to society as a hidden and/or marginalized figure. Increasingly it appears that it is impossible to be socially isolated when you are so busy relating, even if anonymously. Unwittingly, the stereotypical vision of the outsider is melting as one is pulled into a collective environment where peers regulate and monitor the actions of one another and settle disputes or give encouragement and opportunities. The new digital world, once thought to be impersonal, is increasingly fluid, intuitive, and connected; enabling a near eradication of feelings of estrangement, ostracization, marginalization, and isolation for many people, Street Artists included.”
Reaching an Audience
“Arguably the act of spraying a tag or signing your name to your art can be called advertising or at the very least, branding; A Street Art purist who rejects any ideas of the advertising taint may instead put their work on the bottom side of a railroad tie, but we haven’t heard of it. Everyone understands that the primary motivation is to have one’s work seen, and thanks to the Internet and digital media, an ever-growing sophistication in self marketing is on display from Street Artists who are adept at making art, and even those who are not.”
Democratization, Homogenization and Gate Keepers No More
“A certain homogenization of recurring styles, techniques, and themes due to mass disbursement also has begun, creating certain elements of an international style with clearly traced antecedents. A common language, vocabulary, and terminology that began with print media and graffiti continues to grow and refine itself. An international galaxy of galleries and festivals, and increasingly, museums, expands and contracts with lists of overlapping names traveling from continent to continent in search of walls. Listed after the artist’s name in parenthesis is the abbreviation of their country but in practice the Internet has quickly enabled them to become virtually stateless. Thanks to instant availability, a 14 year old in a sleepy small town is schooling himself with YouTube right now and with luck and skill will inherit that state as well.”
~ Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art
Editors: Martyn Reed, Marte Jølbo, Victoria Bugge Øye, Features: 304 Pages, full colour, hardcover Format: 21 x 26cm Language: English & Norwegian Publisher : Kontur Publishing
Eloquent Vandals is the definitive book on one of the worlds leading street art festivals featuring exclusive essays from some of scene’s biggest names. Over 300 pages of exclusive images including works by Swoon, Brad Downey, David Choe, Vhils, Blu, Ericailcane, Logan Hicks, Dface, Nick Walker, Judith Supine, Graffiti Research Lab, Blek Le Rat and many more…
Eloquent Vandals tells the story of how Stavanger, a small city on the West Coast of Norway gained a global reputation for Street Art. For the past six years, the annual Nuart Festival has invited an international team of Street Artists to use the city as their canvas. From tiny stencils and stickers to building sized murals, from illicit wheat-paste posters on the outskirts of the city to “Landmark“ pieces downtown, found everywhere from run down dwellings and train sidings to the city’s leading galleries and fine art institutions, Eloquent Vandals documents the development of not only Nuart, but also one of the most exciting art movements of our times.
“The Internet and the increasing mobility of digital media are playing an integral role in the evolution of Street Art, a revolution in communication effectively transforming it into the first global people’s art movement.
While that may seem hyperbolic, just witness the millions of images of Street Art uploaded on photo sharing sites, the time lapse videos and full length films online, the hundreds of blogs, websites, discussion forums, chatrooms, Facebook pages, Twitter addresses, and phone and tablet apps dedicated entirely or partially to Street Art and graffiti, and the multifaceted culture that grows around it. Thousands of people daily are populating the databases, compiling a mountainous archive of something once quaintly referred to as an ephemeral art. This said, the transformative story is that the images are now freed from their sources to float in the ether for anyone with a digital device to access. Within the space of a decade, art that once lived and died on a wall with a local population is now shared via digital capture and upload, gaining access to a worldwide audience. Immediately.” – Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, Eloquent Vandals : A History of Nuart Norway
Street Artist ROA in Norway (photo courtesy Nuart)
One of the three books BSA was published in during 2011, Eloquent Vandals tells the story of a Norwegian waterfront town that became a focal point for the emergence of Street Art during the first decade of the century. Edited by Marte Jølbo, Victoria Bugge Øye, and the Nuart festival founder Martyn Reed, the book explains how badass Street Artists and vandals can coalesce for a few weeks to make great walls come alive and educate through forums, roundtables, and lectures. Nuart and its accidental oracle, Mr. Reed, give us a smart and shining story of how to brilliantly engage public space with the very same artists who usually get blamed for defiling it.
Over the last few years this port called Stavanger became a high profile portal for thrilling work by many globally known Street Art explorers every September and thanks to the easy reach of digital communications, people in cities across the globe experienced it. That was the very aspect that drew us into the project; the fact that Street Art has become so global so rapidly thanks to the engagement of everyday people via digital technology. In our chapter “Freed from the Wall, Street Art Travels the World”, we deconstruct the various pathways and digital social tribes that enable an elevated consciousness about this global peoples art movement.
“A large part of our understanding of art and its expression for generations has come from textbooks, lorded over by scholars and experts who were trained by others using similar texts passing along received knowledge and prejudices. For those rebels of the graffiti and Street Art movement who have never given much credence to formal education, the unbound and chaotic nature of digital communications actually feels more organic and trustworthy.”
To be invited to participate in this book along with experts whom we admire greatly, most notably culture critic Carlo McCormick and author and lecturer Tristan Manco, is a great honor. To give background and context for a festival that includes some of the heavy talents in Street Art including Vhils, Blu, Skewville, Logan Hicks, Graffiti Research Lab, Blek Le Rat, Chris Stain, Ericailcane, Swoon, Judith Supine, Nick Walker, Dot Masters, ROA, M-City, Evol, Dan Witz and many more, it was a rare honor indeed.
1. Play a New Holiday Video Game from Chris Uphues – “Holiday Jingle Rocket”
2. “Rezolution”, a group show at Hive Gallery Tonight (Phoenix, AZ)
3. “Paranormal Hallucinations” at Pandemic (Brooklyn, Yo!) (Saturday)
4. David Choe and DVS1 for Nuart 11 (VIDEO)
5. “Images of the Year 2011” From Brooklyn Street Art (Video)
6. VINZ FEEL FREE. Don’t be afraid. Feel Free (VIDEO)
Play a New Holiday Video Game from Chris Uphues – “Holiday Jingle Rocket”
Street Artist Chris Uphues uses his signature characters to create this very entertaining game for you to play with while chugging eggnog and rum today as you drink and drive at your keyboard. Try to keep your sled flying over the houses without being hit by giant blobs of snow! It’s a winter blast!
Make sure to click on the link below to play the game:
“Rezolution”, a group show at Hive Gallery Tonight (Phoenix, AZ)
Chip Thomas AKA Jetsonorama and a number of other artists open today in a group show that is getting a lot of pre-buzz here and on Twitter and FB. It should be a great scene tonight at The Hive.
A very fun group show to end out the season before everybody goes into the holiday haze, featuring some unsung gems in the Street Art and graffiti scene, as well as others, including CHARLIE MARKS R.I.P, LLEW payote, Deuce Seven, Egyptian jason, Matt CRABE, Josh and Amy Shandick, Mikey Big Breakfast, Conrad Carlson, G II, Ryan C. Doyle, Mikey I.T., Tamara Santibanez, Othello Gervacio, Mike. P, and Swampy (above).
For further information regarding this show click here
“Images of the Year 2011” From Brooklyn Street Art (Video)
It’s been an excellent year for Street Art all over the world and we’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot of great stuff from big names to the anonymous. Eye popping, brain-teasing, challenging, entertaining, aspirational and inspirational – it’s all happening at once. We’ve been walking the streets, meeting the artists, going to shows, curating shows, speaking to audiences, providing walls, and asking questions. It ebbs and flows but never stays the same. With the rise of the Occupy movement this autumn, we’re already seeing an uptick in the number of people taking their messages to the street with a renewed intensity.
VINZ FEEL FREE. Don’t be afraid. Feel Free (VIDEO)
It’s been an excellent year for Street Art all over the world and we’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot of great stuff from big names to the anonymous. Eye popping, brain-teasing, challenging, entertaining, aspirational and inspirational – it’s all happening at once. We’ve been walking the streets, meeting the artists, going to shows, curating shows, speaking to audiences, providing walls, and asking questions. It ebbs and flows but never stays the same. With the rise of the Occupy movement this autumn, we’re already seeing an uptick in the number of people taking their messages to the street with a renewed intensity.
Let’s take a look at some of our favorite shots, whether from a rooftop in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a block-long wall in Miami, or the “Art in the Streets” show at LA MoCA. As you sample this eye-candy platter, dig the staccato soundtrack made of sounds culled from Brooklyn’s streets by electro duo Javelin, who spent a day in the Red Hook neighborhood collecting sounds and then mixed them in the back of their car. This is the kind of D.I.Y. ingenuity that is fueling the fire in artists neighborhoods all over the world, with people taking their stories and skills directly to the streets. With Javelin as the perfect auditory partner here’s 90 shots by photographer Jaime Rojo from 2011.
The scenes and scenester included here: 5 Pointz, 907Crew, Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO, Aakash Nihalini, No Touching Ground, Aiko, Martha Cooper, Anthony Lister, Boom, INSA, Miami, Primary Flight, LA Freewalls, Los Angeles, Kim West, Kopye, L.E.T., Purth, Lisa Enxing, Baltimore, Banksy, LA MoCA, Barry McGee, Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, Albany Living Walls, Chris Stain, Billy Mode, AD HOC Arts, Chris Uphues, Monster Island, Wynwood Walls, Creepy, Brooklyn Street Art, Jaime Rojo, Steven P. Harrington, Dabs & Myla, How & Nosm, Vhils, Dain, D*Face, ECB, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, EMA, The London Police, Kid Acne, Will Barras, Enzo & Nio, Faile, Bast, Faith 47, Gaia Clown Soldier, General Howe, Hellbent, Herakut, Invader, JA JA, Jaz, Cern, Joe Iurato, Welling Court, John Baldessari, JR, Kenny Scharf, Knitta Please!, LMA Cru, LUDO, Mosstika, ND’A, IRGH, Labrona, Overunder, Nick Walker, NohjColey, Nomade, Occupy Wall Street, Os Gemeos, Veng, Chris, RWK, QRST, Radical!, Rambo, Retna, Gifted, Demon Slayers, Read, Booker, Read More Books, ROA, Shepard Fairey, Shin Shin, Wing, Skewville, Specter, Swampy, Sweet Toof, Swoon, Toofly, Various & Gould, VHILS, XAM, YOK, Pantheon Projects
Miami is basically “South Brooklyn” starting right about now, minus the bagels, the B62 bus, and the compulsive habit of cutting you off mid-sentence. Artists, galleries, fans, party girls and boys, djs, – they all head south the first few days of December for the big fair and all the little ones.
It already seems a little quieter here because Fountain took the weirdos, Wynwood Walls took the Soho softshoes, and The Underbelly collected the hardcore characters just long enough to sign a book and scarf some pizza before looking for a tunnel somewhere. Art Basel is a feast and the draw of Street Art and graffiti continues apace this year, with entrants from all the strata looking for a wall, and maybe a party, and a honey to go skinny dip with.
We picked a few Street Art related gems here that you might want to hit, but even if you show up in Miami this week with no plans, you’ll easily find some trouble to get into, we trust. Do your best.
After a full year underground, The Underbelly Project is coming to Miami during Art Basel. A pop up gallery, the show will feature original artwork from many of the 103 international artists who participated in the hidden subway project in New York. The exhibition will feature a video piece of multiple installations happening simultaneously, as well as new pieces by many of the artists. Additionally a book signing of the first volume to come out about the project, published by Rizzoli, will take place on December 2nd. Artists participating in the signing include: Dabs & Myla, Rone, Gaia, Lister, Eric Haze, Joe Iurato, Adam Feibleman, Know Hope, Jeff Stark, Jason Eppink, Jim and Tina Darling, The London Police, Dan Witz, Specter, Surge and other surprise artists.
Included in the show are street, graffiti and fine artists alike. The full line-up includes: Faile, Dabs & Myla, TrustoCorp, Aiko, Rone, Revok, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Mark Jenkins, Anthony Lister, Logan Hicks, Lucy McLauchlan, M-City, Kid Zoom, Eric Haze, Saber, Meggs, Jim & Tina Darling, The London Police, Sheone, Skewville, Jeff Stark, Jordan Seiler, Jason Eppink and I AM, Dan Witz, Specter, Ripo, MoMo, Remi/Rough, Stormie Mills, Swoon, Know Hope, Skullphone, L’Atlas, Roa, Surge, Gaia, Michael De Feo, Joe Iurato, Love Me, Adam 5100, and Chris Stain.
THE UNDERBELLY SHOW 29 November – Press Preview 5pm/ Private View 7pm 30 November – Collector’s Preview 7pm 1 December – Secret Wars US vs. UK 6pm 2 December – General Opening 5pm and Artist Book Signing 6pm
The show will take place in the heart of Wynwood at 78NW 25th Street
SCOPE
Jonathan Levine Gallery At Scope with WK Interact, Aakash Nihilani, Olek, and Jason DeCaires Taylor
“Placing a focus on public art for this program, the gallery will present a series of works that highlight a diverse range of distinct styles, cultural perspectives and unconventional mediums. Each of the four artists selected represent fresh directions in creating work in public space through their innovative vision and inventive use of materials. Photography documenting their interventional imagery, sculpture, and performances convey the transformative effect their work has on its surrounding
White Walls will be hosting four booths at SCOPE, situated in the center of Miami’s Wynwood Gallery Arts District, featuring a MTN Colors Group show with APEX, Neon, Estria, Vogue, Blek le Rat, HUSH, Kofie and Chor Boogie, a White Walls Group show with Casey Gray, Ben Eine and Greg Gossel, and solo shows for both ABOVE and ROA. APEX, Eine, Kofie, ABOVE, ROA and Chor Boogie will also be painting at the Kohn compound on 24th street.
For a full listing of exhibitors and events click here SCOPE
Wynwood Walls
Wynwood Walls is premiering 7 new Street Art murals and 16 new pieces at Wynwood Doors and walls outside.
Debuting in tandem with the new murals and installations during Art Basel this year on Tuesday, November 29, 2011, the “Shop at the Walls” the first Wynwood Walls Pop Up gallery space that will offer artworks and the new Wynwood Walls book.The book has interview with Street Artists and photography by Martha Cooper.
Artists include Retna, The Date Farmers, How and Nosm, Gaia (USA), Saner and Sego (Mexico), Liqen (Spain), Neuzz (Mexico), Nunca (Brazil), Vhils (Portugal), Interesni Kazki (Ukraine), Faile (USA) and b. (Greece). Kenny Scharf is expected to augment his existing wall, and remaining work from the last two years from Nunca, Shepard Fairey, Aiko, Ryan McGinness, Stelios Faitakis and avaf will be on display.
Walls Outside the Wynwood Walls, encompassing key locations outside of the actual art park itself and in the surrounding neighborhood, will be created by Friends With You (USA), avaf (Brazil and France), Nunca, and Interesni Kazki (Ukraine); joining works previously completed by Swoon and Barry McGee.
Location:
Wynwood Walls and the Pop Up Shop are located at NW Second Avenue – between Joey’s Italian Café on 25th Street and the art-filled Wynwood Kitchen & Bar on 26th Street – and are open to the public free of charge.
HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD: WYNWOOD (Video)
Fountain Art Fair
“Our preferred punk rock lopsided Anti-Fair.” —Brooklyn Street Art
This year Fountain Miami’s signature on-site street art installation is curated by Samson Contompasis, director of Albany’s The Marketplace, and will feature over 150 feet of work Street Artists including Sharktoof, Chris Stain, Olek, Hugh Leeman, Chor Boogie, OverUnder, White Cocoa, Army of One, Clown Soldier, Joe Iurato, CAKE, Tip-Toe, Elle, Ian Ross, Know Hope, Depoe, and Zero Cents.
Brooklyn’s own Mighty Tanaka Gallery is showing at Fountain Participating artists include: Adam Void, Alexandra Pacula, Alice Mizrachi, ChrisRWK, Ellen Stagg, Gigi Chen, Hellbent, Hiroshi Kumagai, JMR, John Breiner, Max Greis, Mike Schreiber, Robbie Busch, Skewville, TooFly, URnewyork, VengRWK & Miguel Ovalle
December 1–4, 2011 2505 North Miami Avenue (at the corner of 25th St) | Miami, FL 33137 General Hours: 12pm–7pm daily Tickets: $10 daily / $15 weekend pass. All tickets sold at door.
Primary Projects
A new exhibit debuting during Art Basel Miami Beach 2011
Thursday, December 1
Opening Reception
7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
RETNA, Jessy NITE, Stormie MILLS, Evan ROBARTS, Lena SCHMIDT, Luis PINTO, Andrew SCHOULTZ, Karen STAROSTA-GILINSKI, Kenton PARKER, TM SISTERS, Samantha SALZINGER, Emmette MOORE, Anthony LISTER, Charles KRAFFT, Tatiana SUAREZ, Edouard NARDON, Andrew NIGON, Johnny ROBLES and Lawrence GIPE.
Primary Projects
4141 NE Second Avenue
Suite 104
Miami, FL 33137
Living Walls is working with with Primary Flight, one of the original graffiti and Street Art mural projects, to create 3 new murals in the Wynwood District.
Painter Anthony Lister is also a Street Artist. His surreal pop and celebrity culture-infused abstractions are candy encrusted apples which may have something sharp inside. Many are figurative studies and wire frames bending wildly into characters who cavort and mock with blunt swipes of color, overlaid by costumed sexual role play… or is that a personal projection? Did I mention elegance, defiance, wit? Wait, there is so much here! Truth is, his work can be a cock-eyed psychological tempest, jarring to the head, strangely sweet.
A decade of discovery under his superhero belt, Mr. Lister continues to analyze and build his creative practice and it always includes work inside the gallery and outside on the street. He’s currently preparing for his solo show in Sydney called “Bogan Paradise” at Gallery A.S. At the same time he’s part of a group show with a gaggle of his Aussie expats on view at 941 Geary in San Francisco for “Young and Free”, including Kid Zoom, Dabs & Myla, Dmote, New2, Ben Frost, Meggs, Ha-Ha, Reka, Rone, Sofles and Vexta. Not to mention his participation in our show last month in Los Angeles at C.A.V.E. with Thinkspace, “Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories“.
The artist took some time recently to talk to Brooklyn Street Art about his practice;
Brooklyn Street Art:How much of one of your painted portraits is autobiographical? In other words, what portion of Mr. Lister is super hero, super model, furtive schoolboy, or Homer Simpson? Anthony Lister: I don’t really think about myself when I paint. My figurative works are more like reflections of characteristics I absorb from real life day to day.
Brooklyn Street Art:If you were to wear colored glasses, which color do you think you would most likely screen the world through? Anthony Lister: Pink, like John Lennon.
Brooklyn Street Art:Francis Bacon said, “The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness.” Would you drink that cocktail? Anthony Lister: Nice words. I agree.
Brooklyn Street Art:What role does analysis play in your creative process when bringing a painting to fruition? Anthony Lister: Analysis is the outcome of considered processing. Constant consideration is crucial.
Brooklyn Street Art:A big piece you did on Metropolitan in Brooklyn – you reworked that face a couple of times over a period of months, producing what appeared as a slowly morphing image. Were you covering up tags, or were you unhappy with the original, or maybe combating the effects of age with a little nip and tuck? Anthony Lister: When I re-work street paintings I think of it like I am a hairdresser. When something is in the public it has a different existence to something living privately in a residence. I’m like a hairdresser I guess.
Brooklyn Street Art:You have spoken about your work as reality, or a reaction to realities. What realities are you depicting these days? Anthony Lister: I just finished a body of work for a solo show in Sydney. This next body of work is about contemporary Australian culture. The exhibition is titled “Bogan Paradise.”
Brooklyn Street Art: When you consider the Street Art scene that evolved around Melbourne, how would you characterize its nature in a way that differentiates it from the work in other cities around the world? Anthony Lister: No different. This whole street art thing has sprung up post the turn of the digital revolution so it is on the Internet quick and the artists who inspire others and the ones who are easily inspired are constantly swimming in the same aesthetic pools of consciousness. Not to mention that most of the prominent artists travel lots so it is easy to see work of the same artist in multiple cities around the world at the same time.
Brooklyn Street Art:The titles you give your gallery pieces are entertaining, instructive, illustrative. Do you ever want to place a placard near a piece you’ve done on the street – just to make sure the message gets across? Anthony Lister: No. My street practice is less thoughtful and therefore needs less commentary.
Brooklyn Street Art:When is a painting complete? Anthony Lister: When it tells me so.
On Every Street Michael DeFeo has been busy curating a large exhibition entitled, On Every Street for Samuel Owen Gallery in Greenwich, CT.
Mark your calendars, folks… the show opens on October 6th and features over 30 artists that work in the streets or use the streets in their works.
Artists in the exhibition are: Above, Aiko, Michael Anderson, Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, C215, Tony Curanaj, Michael De Feo, D*Face, Ellis Gallagher, Keith Haring, Ron English, Blek le rat, Faile, Shepard Fairey, John Fekner, JMR, Gaia, Richard Hambleton, Hargo, Maya Hayuk, Don Leicht, Tom Otterness, Lady Pink, Lister, Ripo, Mike Sajnoski, Jeff Soto, Chris Stain, Swoon, Thundercut, and Dan Witz.
Stay tuned for more details, this is surely going to be one not to miss!
On Every Street
October 6 – November 3, 2011
Opening reception: October 6, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Samuel Owen Gallery
378 Greenwich Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06830
+1.203.422.6500
Greenwich is approximately 35 minutes from Grand Central Terminal and the gallery is only a one minute walk from the Greenwich Station.
For the last 10 months this initiative to bring Street Art and public art to the forefront of the conversation in New York’s capital has been a boon to discourse, unusual during a period of retrenchment and an ongoing financial crises that is rocking every segment of society in the US. After years of incremental cuts to arts programming in public schools and cultural institutions at every level, it is a perfect opportunity for artists to re-assert their voices as this Street Art movement continues to evolve and develop in an organic way. Ironically this scene with roots in graffiti has shape-shifted and its emergence looks like a democratic movement, messily yet constructively filling a creative void for this new generation while the budgetary axes continue to fall around them.
As Street Artists have been installing their new works on walls around Albany these past 10 days or so, the common story one witnesses is the level of engagement of adults and kids stopping on the sidewalk, in their cars, watching the process, photographing and discussing the art, and exploring the creative process. Some folks have even become assistants to the artists, creating a sense of ownership, and yes, community. There is obviously more to this evolving story, and we’ll continue to track it.
Below are photos from photographer Jaime Rojo to give you an idea of the wealth of creativity that is alive in Albany at the moment. And we commence with our weekly interview with the street this week featuring Broken Crow, Chris Stain, Gaia, How and Nosm, Joe Iurato, LNY, Nanook, ND’A, NohJColey, OverUnder, Radical! ROA, Shin Shin, and Wing. First, we go to church with Joe Iurato.
Wooooo Hoooooooo! It’s Friday in Brooklyn! Great news in the mailbox from the postman this morning about a big Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum this April “Keith Haring: 1978-1982”. Guess it was meant to coincide with the big “Art in the Streets” exhibit that was moving from LA MOCA to Brooklyn in 2012 but was cancelled recently. That’s okay, we still get Keith, a patron saint of Street Art. And we are completely convinced that “Art in the Streets” will be coming to New York, so don’t be surprised.
Living Walls : Albany This Friday Saturday Sunday in New York’s Capital City
BSA has been partnering with Living Walls : Albany to bring you the new Street Art and other stuff and today is the official kick off day, coinciding with a big Fall festival Albany has every year. Props go to Samson Contompasis for his unwavering commitment to artists and the creative spirit.
Yo, check the archive to see all the BSA coverage http://mim.io/5e3391 . Also follow the Twitter Feed at @LivingWallsALB . The list of participating Street Artists includes How & Nosm , Chris Stain ,Gaia, Cake ,Michael DeFeo, Broken Crow, Over/Under, Nanook, Jon Burgerman ,Veng, Depoe, Radical!, White Cocoa ,Evereman Scott, Michael Ackerman, Uneek, Clown Soldier, Marcus Anderson, Joe Iurato ,Papertwins, Jacqueline Brickman ,VRNO , Hellbent, ROA ,Gregory Maxwell, Dunn II, YARK, Army of One, Deacon Czar
Saturday, September 17th Located in the Clark Auditorium of the New York State Museum
3:30-4:45PM KEYNOTE LECTURE
“Street Art Stories: A New Direction on the Street”
Presented by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, founders of Brooklyn Street Art
In Street Arts’ latest chapter, the storytellers are hitting up walls with all manner of influences and methods. More than ever before, formally trained and self taught fine artists are skipping the gallery route and taking their work directly to the public, creating cultural mash-ups and highly personal stories of their own, altering the character of this scene once again. Eclectic, individual, and as D.I.Y. as you can imagine, these Street Artists may have knowledge of who came before them or not, but they are determined to be a part of one art scene that is perceived as authentic, relevant, and alive.
Join Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, authors (“Brooklyn Street Art”, and “Street Art New York”, published by Prestel/Random House) and founders of Brooklyn Street Art (BrooklynStreetArt.com) and contributing Street Art writers for The Huffington Post ARTS, as they show and compare examples of work from New York’s streets today. Then join a lively discussion in a Q&A session to help explore this storytelling practice and discuss how it may be evolving what we have been calling “Street Art” for the last decade.
Hosted by “Living Walls : Albany”, Samson Contompasis, Director, and Grand Street Community Arts, James Shultis, Executive Director.
Mexican Street Artist KRAKEN at Hold Up Gallery (LA)
KRAKEN’s solo show “Fantasmas” this on Saturday:
For more information regarding this show please click on the link below:
Isn’t that nice? Neckface and his fine feathered friend “Fuck Life” have a dainty little show at New Image Art this weekend in West Hollywood. Bring your Barbies!
For more information regarding this show click on the link below:
Over the next few weeks, New York State’s capital city, Albany, will be the site of a large scale Street Art show with many artists whom you are familiar with and a number of new ones on walls in desolate areas, historic districts, and even a church.
When local artist and visionary Samson Contompasis asked BSA to be partners with Living Walls last winter, we already knew about his reputation as a stalwart proponent of the creative spirit who opens doors for artists of many stripes. If Samson is in love with something, it’s going to happen.
Now “Living Walls: Albany” has grown to encompass not only multiple walls for Street Artists from around the world but the involvement of civic leaders, building owners, arts institutions, historical ombudspeople, electronic and print media, artists, musicians, galleries, a museum, and arts programming for kids and families. That was one sentence.
For our involvement BSA will help keep you up on all the walls with people we’ve worked with before and new ones too, bringing you regular updates from now until the big weekend of the 16-18th, which will have live art, music, symposia, and a keynote by your buddies here. Today we’d like to introduce two talents on the Albany scene who will be leading the way in our coverage, writer KC Orcutt, and photographer Andrew Franciosa as they were on the scene when Gaia and Nanook first started their new piece.
A new livelihood is radiating around the colossal work of Gaia and Nanook, which debuted the Living Walls: Albany last week. Their vibrant piece adorns the side of a vacant, unroofed building currently aging on N. Pearl and Livingston.
Ten minutes into my third visit, a handful of neighborhood children flocked in front of the massive brick before me to point out what they liked about the Street Art as two passer-bys curiously paused. The figure of a man pushing a contemporary piece of art (currently housed in the Rockefeller Empire Plaza Concourse) towards the face of Nelson Rockefeller is inexplicably alluring. The collective work is as perplexing as it is simple.
The merging of Albany landmarks in a notion of “pushing forward” is an attentively constructed kick off to the project this fall. One of the energetic neighborhood children, unaware of his metaphorical wisdom, looked at me and said, “I guess it’s a new day.”
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
