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Feel Free at Urban Spree: Berlin

September 13, 2016 Artists

Long live Urban Spree!

This hippie/punk/skater/poets/artists haven of graffiti, street, urban and postmodern all splayed across a complex of buildings that are seemingly abandoned but teaming with life, food, music, and free thought. Also, a sense of community.

Bordalo II, Two One and 1UP Crew at Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There are opportunities for rock climbing, biergartening, dancing, tattoo shops, outdoor mix sessions, a furniture restoration shop, a mini- beach, the famed outstanding art gallery with a solid array of graffiti and urban art books, and if you know where the switch is, you can blow 6 foot torches of fire into the night sky from atop a tiki bar.

Icy & Sot. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On the day we were there recently there was even a wedding party in one of the secreted outdoor spaces with two spinning turntables, a basement bar, a bonfire, and, naturally, cake.

Also, naturally, you can go and paint, wheatpaste, slap stickers, spray a stencil, or in the case of Bordalo II, collect together enough local garbage to create a sculptural installation of a long-billed aviary friend.

Scenes like these are always transitory so visit Berlin-Friedrichshain and Urban Spree before the moment passes.

Two One. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Low Bros. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Low Bros . Mr. Penfold. Iggy . Billy . Berlin Bandits. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew . Viva La Resolucion. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zero Cents. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ZOLA. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rallitox. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist. Bader . Blate, Maoro, Komt. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OBEY. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cranio. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Iron Chola. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Christiaan Nagel. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

E. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KA feeling a certain kind of blue. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

E. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aloha. Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday: 02.21.14

February 21, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. TOOFLY in Miami
2. 8 Artists, One Day in La Perla
3. UNO in Bolonga, Italy
4. Phlegm / Run / Christiaan Nagel in London
5. Surplus Candy

BSA Special Feature: TOOFLY in Miami

“There is a different dynamic that takes place when women get together and paint or build or create something,” explains Queens born Toofly as she scales the ladder in Miami during Art Basel this year. The short by Alexandra Henry gives voice to the artist, designer and organizer as she describes coming up in the 1990s wall painting surrounded primarily by dudes. Now as she moves to a different stage and embraces her Ecuadorean roots, Toofly is joined by a new generation of women who are laying claim to the street and adding their voices to the conversation.

8 Artists, One Day in La Perla

An overcast day in Old San Juan is still better than a sunny one inside an office cubicle, ya herd? Here’s a gently rolling survey of a community called La Perla, who in one day received new gifts bestowed from Alexis Diaz, Faith47, Axel Void, Filio, Inti, Conor Harrington, Poteleche, and Franco Jaz. Captured by Tost Fims, it is free of so many of the video making conventions of Street Art film-making that it may be pulling the genre in a new direction.

UNO in Bolonga, Italy

UNO and Matteo Talone take wheatpasting to a new very long expanse in Bologna, hand coloring meters and meters of pop inspired black and white image/text patterning for the Cheap Festival.

Phlegm / Run / Christiaan Nagel in London

A teaser for a series of films (Last Breath) that will be made documenting the beautification of soon-to-be demolished buildings in London. Touring the remains of structural decrepitude is not new, but doing so artfully like this is.

Surplus Candy

A new video from Nick Heller features a tour from the recent abandoned house takeover on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Ronzo and Fine Feathered Sculpture Friends in London

June 23, 2012 Artists

Feels kind of like it’s been street sculpture week on BSA since we dove deep into UFO 907 and the Showpaper show at BAM, but we also wanted to just show you a bit of the London Street Art sculpture activity that seems to happen in earnest in more integrated fashion. If you are looking for examples, check out CityZenKane, Doctor Cream, Christiaan Nagel, Issac Cordal, and Space Invader.

And check out Ronzo, an artist/designer/sculptor who has recently been known for putting a certain little bird in selected locations to kind of keep an eye on things. Sometimes with a multi-colored wash, sometimes in a straight concrete hue, these Birdz look like they could take off if you clap your hands. With gold chain, baseball cap and kicks, these B-boy style birdz also join a line of little characters Ronzo developed over the last decade that include a cockroach, a credit card monster, and a little hooded vandal called “Ed Von Tag”.

Here are some recent images from his site that show the birdz in situ.

Very Nearly Almost (VNA) put together this inside look into the practice of Ronzo, who casts and prepares his figures entirely from beginning to end in his studio and installs them with a bit of humor.

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