All posts tagged: Cyrcle

Paul Insect is Attracted to Light at the Barracuda Wall

The Barracuda Wall in Los Angeles is a safe outlet for Street Artists and graffiti artists to try out ideas without worrying that they have to look over their shoulder.  The boxing club inside is owned by Miguel De La Barracuda, thus it’s name and it’s a good spot to get seen, if only for minute before it’s replaced.

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

What this fight club gives the lie to is that Street and graff artists are somehow at odds with one another, a mythology propagated by young hot heads sometimes. In fact, this high profile wall in LA shows that most peeps are big enough to allow everybody to get a chance to express the creative spirit, and often they collaborate. A quick bit of Googling will show you a diverse list of work on the Barracuda wall over the last couple of years, including people like Ron English, Gabe and OG. Defer, Prime, Gabe88, Anthony Lister, Escif, Sanir, Gregory Siff, Shepard Fairey and AWR MSK, Hush, Chad Muska, Cyrcle, Free Humanity, and David Flores. It’s a never ending reinvention for the never ending traffic on Melrose Avenue, a gift from a business owner to his community and the artists.

Photographer and BSA collaborator Carlos Gonzalez captured some excellent night shots of  Street Artist Paul Insect at work on the wall one night last week. Masking out the portions of the wall for painting with a roll of masking tape, alternating sharp lines with drippy, Insect put up a pair of eyes to keep track of a piece by Risk below.

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Paul Insect’s solo show “Triptease Revue” opens this Thursday at Post No Bills Gallery . For further information click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2011/10/24/post-no-bills-gallery-presents-paul-insect-triptease-revue-venice-beach-ca/

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Lab Art Gallery Presents: “Fixed Bicycles and Canvas Art” (Los Angeles,CA)

Lab Art Gallery

brooklyn-street-art-LAB-ART-gallerybrooklyn-street-art-LAB-ART-gallery-Septerhed-bikeStreet art meets fashionable bicycles as LAB ART Los Angeles, the nation’s largest gallery dedicated to street art teams up with Solé Bicycles, the one-stop-online-shop for contemporary fixed-gear bikes. On September 15th, 2011 the Fixed Bicycles & Canvas show will premiere custom designed Solé Bicycles by 12 of the biggest, most influential street artists including: AJL, Chad Muska, Common Cents, Cyrcle, Desire Obtain Cherish, GoodBoy, Gregory Siff, KH No. 7, LOUIS XXX, Mar, Septerhed, and Thank You X.

Fixed Bicycles & Canvas is a collaboration between street art curators and owners of LAB ART, Rachel Joelson and Iskander Lemseffer, and Solé Bicycles owners, USC schoolmates Jonathan Schriftman and Jake Medwell.

As street art began on the street as guerilla artwork and has recently transitioned from the streets into galleries, fixed gear cycling, otherwise known as fixie, has gone through it’s own transition. What started as a signature among urban bike messengers, fixies have become a lifestyle trend in major cities worldwide.

The exhibit is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Joelson and Schriftman who wanted to bridge two popular cultural phenomenons: street art and fixies. The pair decided to fuse the renegade art spirit of LAB ART’s street artists with the youthful, hipster appeal of Solé bikes.

Fixed Bicycles & Canvas will also feature paintings corresponding to each artist. The one-of-a-kind artist custom designed bicycles retails for approximately $950 to $ 1,200.

The exhibition will debut at a private viewing party on September 15th, 2011 at LAB ART and will be open to the public on September 16th and continues through October 16th, 2011.

About LAB ART Los Angeles:

LAB ART Los Angeles is the largest art gallery in the nation dedicated to an alternative exhibition of street art and installation. Spanning 6,500 square feet of space, the gallery features approximately 300 works of art and installation from over 50 of the most prominent and up-and-coming street artist of the Los Angeles Street Art scene and beyond. LAB ART has been featured on FOX News, KTLA News, Huffington Post, LA Times, LAist, and more.

About Solé Bicycles:

Solé Bicycles provides supremely designed, high quality, affordable fixed gear and single speed bikes. Started in 2010, Solé has grown to be one of the industry leaders and featured in Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Huffington Post, LA Confidential, and more.

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Hold Up Art Gallery Presents: “Cluster Mess” Gosha Levochkin New Works and a Collaboration with Cyrcle (Los Angeles, CA)

Hold Up Gallery

HOLD UP ART GALLERY

PRESENTS

New Works by Gosha Levochkin

Cluster Mess

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Opening Reception

Saturday, September 3, 2011 from 7:30 PM to 11:00 PM

Exhibition runs through Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Hold Up Art

358 E. 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Hold Up Art presents the work of Los Angeles-based artist Gosha Levochkin, whose latest collection of ink and watercolor works entitled CLUSTER MESS will be on display from September 3 through October 5.  Twenty-seven original paintings, depicting a surreal urban environment and the characters that dwell there, will fill the space. This exhibition will also feature a collaboration between Gosha and Cyrcle, the Los Angeles street art collective whose “cut it out” works have taken the city by storm.

CLUSTER MESS refers to Gosha’s approach to the urban landscape, something that has always intrigued him. His work often strives to capture the aging of a building through the effects of time or use, and how people live among the dense clutter of the city and make it work, while still maintaining an underlying sense of humor. His fans have come to expect playful and thought-provoking compositions. This new collection of paintings from Gosha is marked by a conscious departure from his previous works in palette and narrative.

“My palette is different this time. I wanted to add more colors and I kind of let them do their own thing,” says Gosha of CLUSTER MESS. “I also added a storyline to my characters which is something that I haven’t done before. My installation will be a good example of showing how everything is disconnected yet connected at the same time.”

Gosha’s goal with this new exhibit is to make the viewer want to learn more about the characters; to imagine themselves in the world that he’s created.

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Images of the Week 08.28.11

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Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bast, Chris Uphues, Cyrcle, Dain, Enzo & Nio, Ja Ja, LMNOP, Shepard Fairey, Skewville, Swampy, and Willow.

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Ja Ja (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dain’s new work in NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dain’s new work in NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Carlos Gonzalez shares with you this huge floral skull from the Cyrcle opening this week in Los Angeles (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Chris Uphues (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Enzo & Nio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Enzo & Nio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown. A tribute to the much maligned and misunderstood urban dwellers. We love pigeons here at BSA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bast Corner Deli (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bast Corner Deli (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bast Corner Deli (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Shepard Fairey OBEY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville goes green (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swampy giant pink rooftop in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fun Friday 08.26.11

Fun-Friday

Here’s your Fun Friday Menu (all entrees come with a slice of pepperoni pizza)

1. New Film Opening About Toynbee Tiles – Ticket Giveaway
2. CYCLE Crew : “We Never Die”
3. Street Art Saved My Life: 39 New York Stories
4. That Was FUN! “The Grassy Lot” Opening
5. 8 Hours in Brooklyn – VERY COOL SLO MO, BRO
6. There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute: Re-creating the Cardiff Giant by Ty Marshal
7. Narcelio Grud “Sonic Spray” By Yeah

New Film Opening About Toynbee Tiles – Ticket Giveaway

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“Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles”

Opening in NYC at the IFC Center on Friday 09/02,.the film is about the Toynbee Tiles and an unlikely team that tracks down the mystery’s source for the better part of a decade. It won Best Documentary Directing award at this years’ Sundance Film Festival so it’s got cred.

Win Tickets To Opening Night! First person to send an email to info@argotpictures.com with BSA in the subject line gets a pair of tickets for opening night this film by Jon Foy. Second person will get tickets to any night during the run.

CYCLE Crew : “We Never Die”

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Photo © Carlos Gonzalez

This is about reincarnation, right? Check out Design Matters, which opened a show by CYCLE crew last night to find out.

CYRCLE "We Never Die" by Adolfo J Lara

For more information about this show click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=23806

Street Art Saved My Life: 39 New York Stories

Now in it’s 3rd smashing week, this show in Venice has been getting lots of great visitors and conversations, mostly because the participating artists put so much of themselves into this densely layered show.

Names you know, and others you don’t – but you may hear more about in the future, all telling their New York Stories.

brooklyn-street-art-cave-street-art-saved-my-life-jaime-rojo-08-11-3From left to right: Clown Soldier, EMA, Sweet Toof, Kid Acne, Nick Walker and Skewville. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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From left to right: Creepy, How & Nosm, White Cocoa and Know Hope. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information about this show click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=22943

That Was FUN! “The Grassy Lot” Opening

Congratulations to Joe Franquinha and Liza and Crest Arts for putting together a very successful community-feeling event on the grassy lot last night. A LOT of people, a LOT of art, a LOT of fun conversations. And it didn’t rain! (Even though Joe was prepared for that too) Thanks to Keith Schweitzer of MaNY and all the artists who participated. Best guest we met? Joe’s mom, who raised her boy right.

Here’s a fun video Keith made:

8 Hours in Brooklyn – VERY COOL SLO MO, BRO

Can you spot the big portrait by a street artist that has been featured on BSA in this video?

There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute: Re-creating the Cardiff Giant by Ty Marshal

Narcelio Grud “Sonic Spray” By Yeah

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Cyrcle Crew : A Sneak Peek at “We Never Die” Show (LA)

Davey, Devin and Rabi Ponder Life Eternal At Design Matters

Life is a mystery, we all know that. In fact, that may be the only thing we know.

In preparation for their new show “We Never Die” at Design Matters, the art collective Cyrcle Crew is letting you get the essence of their take on life and death and the continuum of experiences. With a little levity and a less than heavy heart, sometimes it’s possible to revisit this stuff we all are affected by.

Photographer and BSA contributor Carlos Gonzalez took a peak to their installation and offers some tantalizing views of the preparations for this unusual show with the CYRCLE crew.

brooklyn-street-art-cyrcle-carlos-gonzalez-desing-matters-10-webCyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

The reception for this show is open to the public on Thursday from 7:00pm – 11:00pm. The show continues through October 8th, 2011 @ Design Matters – 10590.5 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. You will need to  RSVP .

Please visit the CYRCLE site for more information:

http://www.cyrclebrand.com/

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Images of the Week 06.19.11

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A certain surreality is slipping through the sunbaked streets as we cross the summer threshold.  The mashup aesthetic of course has been going since the early days of Bast (or before), but now that visual moorings are loosed, all manner of recombinant strains of references and their assigned meanings are also aflight. Not all of these are examples of this movement, but many appear influenced by it. As usual, Street Art is as much a reflection of the society as it is a participant in its directional moves.

Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Banksy, Clown Soldier, CV, Cyrcle, Delicious Brains, Gaia, Hellbent, Hugh Leeman, ILL, Imminent Disaster, Jolie Soutine, KAWS, Mosstika, QRST and ROA with photographs by Jaime Rojo, Carlos Gonzales, and Birdman.

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Mosstika has a new installation in the park in Dumbo, recalling the da-daist Brooklyn performance artist Gene Pool and his grass suits.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mosstika. We have heard that the name of the piece is “Yeti” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Imminent Disaster appears again on the street with this medallion of paper cutout and illustration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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It looks like Clown Soldier now guards the only Banksy in Chicago. An unknown artist stenciled the image of the woman laying down on the “steps”, themselves a shadow of previous construction.  (photo © Clown Soldier)

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Delicious Brains “Last Supper” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR’s global project “Inside Out” on the gates of the Green Hill Food Co-Op, where a huge neighborhood community reception was held Friday night to celebrate the new installations here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A casualty of lust on the streets. An unknown artist wheat-pasted the portrait of Brooklyn/Queens congressman Anthony Weiner, an outspoken powerhouse who advocated for populist causes during his 20 years of public service and who resigned his post this week amidst a Sexting scandal. Now the only question for Weiner is what’s up?  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CV. World hunger never went away. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cyrcle “Overthrone!” in Los Angeles (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle “Overthrone!” In Los Angeles (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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ROA in Los Angeles as part of LA Freewalls project (photo © Birdman)

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To the left there is a new “Splasher” in town. To the right the “sorry” wheat paste is a faux street art installation for a movie shoot about love and youth. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hugh Leeman “Indian Joe” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hugh Leeman at his studio (photo © courtesy of the artist)

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Hugh Leeman. “Sam” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jolie Soutine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This new QRST piece in Manhattan is an inscribed funeral dirge mourning the “disneyfication” of a once vibrant and envelop-pushing arts culture that made way for new artists in the city, with the visage of the current mayor worn as a mask by a plump and relaxed rat.  We can only assume it is a reference to Manhattan, because a creative Babylon is going full force in some parts of Brooklyn as we speak.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A sticker intervention by an unknown artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kaws reacts to the cost of bottle service in the Meat Market while sitting below the lush, landscaped, and recently extended Highline. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kaws (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. The sky on fire as the sun sets on Manhattan Friday night. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cyrcle + Muska at The Barracuda Wall “Post No Bills”

The famed Barracuda Wall plays host to the Street Art conversation in LA once again with this ironic installation from Cyrcle and Muska, captured here by photographer Carlos Gonzales. Post No Bills, for readers who live outside of Metropolis, is a standard warning that appears on the walls of construction sites to discourage outdoor advertisers from plastering their entreaties for you to purchase deodorant, electronic devices, hair straightening goo, and cruises to Killarney. elmhurst_post_no_bills

(image © Fading Ad Blog http://www.fadingad.com/)

Naturally, poster companies routinely ignore the admonition and plaster thousands of ads every year upon them despite the warnings and usually with indemnity.

brooklyn-street-art-Chad Muska-Cyrcle-carlos-gonzalez-barracuda-wall-4-webCyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Sandwiched between the ads you’ll find the Street Artist, whose voice jumps out from the commercial cacophony and this installation is a commentary on the claim commercial entities have on public space, while the tiny public voice is often squeezed out.  While some real estate developers have actually hired Street Artists and others in recent years to adorn their construction sites with their work, the majority of these lots simply are a toggled message of “Post No Bills” one day and hoochie mamas in thongs shilling energy drinks the next.

In this installation Street Artists  Cyrcle and Muska playfully draw attention to these signs and cast them as fine art installation, a deliberate postmodern repetitive rhythmic visual chant for pedestrians and drivers in the city to enjoy.

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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For those who need to have their street art labelled, Muska and Cyrcle helpfully provide this placard.  (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Carlos Gonzalez is a LA based photographer and contributes regularly on Street Art topics to BSA. Click on the link below to see more of his work:

http://www.facebook.com/CarlosGonzalezPhotography

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Hi-Graff Hybrids Through the Lens of Carlos Gonzalez

It may seem impossible to imagine, but rock music never dated classical till the Beatles, and before Run DMC married rock and rap there was no love between the two. Hardly seems worth mentioning now as the subgenres of music propagate nearly weekly – have you seen the Techno Hippie Disco people in your neighborhood yet?

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Cryptic, Chor Boogie (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Likewise, it seems like only a decade ago the chasm could not have been wider between hardcore graffiti writers and the relatively new Street Artists popping up on the street. It’s not that the two didn’t know each other and see each other at barbecues and even get drunk together sometimes, but their divisions and personal alliances disallowed hanging out regularly. Those Cold War years are being chopped away brick by brick like the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, and a new language borrowing vocabulary from graffiti, street art, fine art, advertising, and pop/punk/hiphop/skater/cholo/tattoo culture continues to emerge in ways we never thought of before.

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Cryptik, Chor Boogie (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

The current show at Hold Up Gallery in the Arts District of downtown LA called “Hi-Graff” reveals the lengths that artists will go to work together these days, and the results are a surprising hybrid. Photographer Carlos Gonzalez took these shots to illustrate what curator Brian Lee refers to as graffiti’s “embellishment period”.

Says Gonzalez, “Hi-Graff” is “an impressive show featuring some of graffiti’s greats as well as some notable up and comers. ” It’s a thrilling sign to see everyone can actually get along, and with frequently stunning results.

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Foreground detail NICNAK, Background Cryptik, Chor Boogie (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Clearly, the show succeeds in more ways than one and it points very much toward a street art movement where trends and talents can all merge into one cohesive unit, both inside a gallery space and on the concrete streets,” Carlos Gonzalez

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Left -Vyal, Defer, Slick. Right -Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Right Wall -Cyrcle. Left Wall -Risky, OG Abel (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left Wall -Cyrcle, Teal. Center Wall -Augor, Zes, Bonks, Right Wall – Vyal, Defer, Slick (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Bonks (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Augor, Zes, Bonks (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left -RTSYSTM, Right-Andy Rios  (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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James Haunt (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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(let to Right) NICNAK, Axis, Rick Ordonez (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left Wall -Vyal, Defer, Slick. Right Wall -Spurn, Codak, Kym CBS (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left Wall -Spurn, Codak, Kym CBS. Right Wall -Risky (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Spurn, Codak, Kym CBS (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Codak, Spurn (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Carlos Gonzalez is a contributor photographer to BSA. To see more of his work click on the link below:

www.facebook.com/CarlosGonzalezPhotography

“Hi-Graff” at Hold Up Art

Featuring the work of Alec Monopoly,Augor,Cache,Chor Boogie,Codak,Coto,Cryptik,Cyrcle,Defer,Free Humanity,Midtz,Rick Ordoñez,RISK,ROOTSYSTM,Slick,Spurn,Teal,Vyal, and Zes

358 E.2nd St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012

On View May 7th-June 2nd, 2011

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Holdup Art Gallery Presents: “Hi-Graff” (Los Angeles, CA)

Hi-Graff
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“Hi-Graff” is an installation-based street art exhibition that explores the concept of Graffiti as a contemporary art movement… 

The exhibition, which opens on May 7th 7-11pm, showcases graffiti in its most original form –collaborative murals applied directly to walls.  Though LA has seen hundreds of street art exhibitions in the past 5 years, there has always existed a growing disconnect between the artwork shown in the gallery shows and what these street artists produce on the streets. “Forcing a street artist to produce canvas or panel works as the only way of showcasing in a fine art gallery seriously compromises the quality of work, and direction these artists are taking.  We wanted to open up our walls to these artists so the final product will closely mimic the actual art production of these artists on the streets, in an in-door environment” (Curator Lee). This allows the audience to truly understand and juxtapose where their talents and aesthetic differences lie.  For “Hi-Graff”, Hold Up Art has brought together over 20 street artists to produce 10 separate collaborative murals highlighting unique trends and styles in Graffiti.

The artists that were selected for “Hi-Graff” embody a range of styles and techniques, showcasing the varying stylistic directions taken by contemporary graffiti artists.  As with any art movement, Graffiti has evolved much since it had truly taken a hold in Los Angeles back in the 80’s.  According to Curator Brian Lee,  “We are now entering into a high point, the embellishment period, in the artistic movement of Graffiti.  Not only are we witnessing the rise of a third generation of graffiti writers, a generation that actively looks forwards as much as it does backwards, but the public perception and reception of graffiti has grown increasingly warmer.  With the release and world wide success of the movie “Exit through the Gift Shop,” Museum retrospectives on Street art as a culture like at the MOCA, and the ever present force of street art designers like Shepard Fairey–designing for everyone and everything from album covers to billboards for the Grammys–street art has permeated into every facet of American youth culture”  (Curator Lee).

“Hi-Graff” Details
Opening May 7th, 7-11pm
On Display May 7th-June 2nd, 2011

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