We are thrilled to announce the opening of our second show, PUBLIC WORKS, at LALA Gallery on Friday, August 3, at 7:00 pm.
This groundbreaking two-part exhibit, a collaboration with LA Freewalls and MacDonald Media to benefit Art Share LA, features murals by renowned contemporary artists in one of public media’s most controversial spaces – the billboard. Contributing artists include How & Nosm, Insa, Push, Revok, Risk, Ron English, Seen, Shepard Fairey, Trustocorp, WCA Crew, Uglar, and Zes.
The first part of the exhibit will feature the murals up-close-and-personal at LALA Gallery from August 3 to 17. The murals will then be on display on billboards throughout Los Angeles on a rotating basis during the next year.
The great thing about a California King Size mattress is you can fit six people on it comfortably. Five if you need to accommodate beer, corn chips, coffee cake, and a bong.
The point is California is a quintessential long-ass big-ass state that rivals many entire countries in terms of the size of the overall economy, the miles of beach, quantity of Mexicans, and metric tons of silicone injections. That’s why it hardly surprises us when Daniel Lahoda reports that recently his LA Freewalls project crossed the 100th wall mark and that INSA just completed the biggest project so far. Clocking in at 9,300 square feet, the Street Artist covered more space with paint than the Kardashian sisters use preparing for a poolside photo shoot. But these results are spectacular and the scale is quite fitting for this city.
Our thanks to collaborator and photographer Todd Mazer, who doesn’t just capture the action here. He rhapsodizes with it before revealing the full project at the end. Enjoy the largesse.
INSA had a mission to complete on the walls of this building. He also has a philosophy and a work ethic when doing his craft. Click on the link below to read how he came about to see this project completed:
LALA Gallery in downtown Los Angeles had a well attended inaugural show last week to realize physically something that had up to this point been a dream for Street Art fan and champion Daniel LaHoda. With names like How & Nosm, Cryptik, Cern, Shepard Fairey, and Dan Witz among others on display (and in the flesh) the gallery welcomed many of the LA Freewalls crowd inside and off the street where they were less likely to wander into traffic – A good move considering the refreshments that many of the clamoring crowd appeared to enjoy as they milled around the gargantuan outdoor rooftop gazing upon the glowing orbs of Cern One punctuating the LA night.
Talented photographer and BSA collaborator Todd Mazer was on hand during the opening and sends some original inside photos for BSA readers to get a sense of the raw industrial space and environment.
It’s not often that a major city gives a spotlight to a graffiti / Street Artist and issues a formal proclamation about it, but that is exactly what happened Saturday in Los Angeles. AskewOne, a native of one of LA’s sister cities, Auckland, New Zealand , was honored by the City as his new mural “Under the Influence” was unveiled as part of the LA Freewalls Project.
“It’s much more likely in this city that a graffiti artist will be arrested than be recognized for positive contributions to the community”, as LA Taco reports, but really when you consider the major inroads that the LA Freewalls Project has made into the dialogue around the value of Street Art in LA’s local politics, it can’t be entirely surprising. It probably helps that the image itself incorporates the American flag into the composition– sort of disarms that whole negative rant that some politicos use when lumping Street Artists together with other social scourges like drug addiction, domestic terrorism, and the Ice Capades, doesn’t it?
“AskewOne is one of the world’s preeminent public artists, and one of the most accomplished contemporary graffiti writers,” says Daniel LaHoda, who spearheads LA Freewalls and who also hosted the inauguration of the new LALA gallery Saturday night with many of today’s best known Street Artist’s work on the walls. According to an official press release, the now famous LA mural moratorium will soon be lifted and “Kamilla Blanche, Senior Deputy for Arts and Culture, and the Director for Sister Cities, is excited about the possibilities to expand Los Angeles’ place as the national epicenter of public art.”
BSA is very pleased to be able to share with you these images of the new piece as shot by photographer Todd Mazer.
1. ROA at StolenSpace “Hypnagogia” (London)
2. Katowice Street Art Festival 4/20-29 (Poland)
3. LALA Gallery Inauguration Saturday (Los Angeles)
4. Herakut “Loving the Exiled” at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
5. Marsea Gives You the “High Five!” at New Image Art Saturday (LA)
6. Erica Il Cane “Una Vita Violenta” at Fifty24MX Gallery (Mexico City)
7. Brett Amory “Waiting 101” at Outsiders Gallery (Newcastle, UK)
8. OLEK in Barcelona with Botero (VIDEO)
9. C215 “About Copyrights” (VIDEO)
10. The Bushwick Trailer (VIDEO)
ROA at StolenSpace “Hypnagogia” (London)
With his current show, now on view at the StolenSpace Gallery in London, ROA will demonstrate how you can be asleep and awake at the same time. His solo show “Hypnagogia” opens today to the general public and offers a dissected view of ROA’s fantastic world of animals and beasts. ROA’s hand crafted book “An Introduction To Animal Representation” by Mammal Press is on sale at The Old Truman Brewery on 91 Brick Lane. Hurry there are only only 125 tomes being offered.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Katowice Street Art Festival 4/20-29 (Poland)
Katowice, a Silesian city in Southern Poland celebrates Street Art with their own Street Art Festival, now on its second year, from April 20 through April 29. The gray, concrete architecture that dominates this town will be imbued with color, shapes and fantasy with the help of this city most prominent daughter, OLEK aided by an illustrious list of first rate of fine and Street Artists including Mark Kenkins, Escif, Boogie, Moneyless, Ganzeer, Ludo, Mona Tusz, Swanski, 0700 Team, Tellas, Dan Witz, Hyuro, M City, ROA, Goro, Kilo, Nespoon, Aryz, 108, Wers, Ciah-Ciah, Etam Crew, Otecki, Razpajzan, Sepe, Chazme, CFNTX Crew, Onte, Jezmirski, Terry Grand, Dast, Impact, Malik, Turbos and Mentalgassi.
For further information regarding this festival click here.
LALA Gallery Inauguration Saturday (Los Angeles)
The West Coast continues to assert itself as a power house in the art world and as a Street Art mecca with the inaugural show of LALA Gallery. A brand new gallery conceived by Daniel Lahoda, the mind and soul and legs of LA Freewalls Project.
LALA’s line up of artists for this first show augurs an auspicious beginning and a successful life which we hope last for a long, long time. “LA Freewalls Inside” is the title of this show and artists included are: Anthony Lister, Askew One, Becca, Cern, Chris Brand, Cryptik, Cyrcle, Dale VN Marshall, Dan Witz, Daze, Dee Dee Cheriel, Evan Skrederstu, How & Nosm, Insa, Jaybo, Kim West, Kofie, Lady Aiko, Ludo, Mear, The Perv Brothers, Poesia, Push, Pyro, Ripo, Risk, Ron English, Saber, Shepard Fairey, Swoon and Zes.
For further details regarding this show click here.
Herakut “Loving the Exiled” at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
Herakut, the indefatigable German collective are a busy duo with an impressive craft and a mastery of the can and paint brushes. Never compromising their artistic output regardless of their environment or medium they set their collaborative standards high with an output rich in earthy colors. Their palette of ores, reds, grays, oranges, blues, browns and yellows give birth to a universe of characters that are fantastic and mysterious and in pursuit of you, the spectator. In San Francisco at 941 Geary Gallery Saturday the reception will be open for the artists and you at “Loving the Exiled”.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Group Show “High Five!” at New Image Art Saturday (LA)
HIGH FIVE! the new group show at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles opens tomorrow and the artists include Alia Penner, Ashely Macomber, Curtis Kulig, Deanna Templeton, Maya Hayuk and Vanessa Prager.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Also happening this weekend:
Tomorrow, Saturday April 22 will be the last day to see Erica Il Cane show “Una Vita Violenta” at the Fifty24MX Gallery in Mexico City. The gallery will also participate with Erica Il Cane at the Zona Maco Mexico Arte Contemporaneo Art Fair in Mexico City. April 18 – April 22. For further details about “Una Vita Violenta” click here. For more details about Zona Maco, Mexico Arte Contemporaneo Art Fair click here.
Brett Amory solo show “Waiting 101” At the Outsiders Gallery in Newcastle, UK opens today to the general public. Click here for more details about this show.
OLEK in Barcelona with Botero (VIDEO)
Still working on that scarf you’ve been knitting for OLEK’s birthday? You missed it.
We are incredibly proud to announce the opening of LALA Gallery on Saturday, April 21, 2012 where we will be presenting LA Freewalls Inside.
LA Freewalls Inside is a group show featuring over 40 artists who have helped make Downtown Los Angeles one of the biggest and most recognizable public art spaces in the world, including Shepard Fairey, SWOON, HOW and NOSM. Keep a lookout as we unveil the final line-up over the next two weeks.
So spread the word, bring a friend and help us break-in the space for the first of what will be many, many, more events.
It could be Bronx Bravado but the New York based Alemannic Street Art bros How & Nosm say they want to hit 100 walls this year.
One hundred.
So they just saved us having to come up with 28% of our postings for 2012! Woooo Hooooo! Heute gehen wir steil! (German slang for “Let’s party tonight!”)
So here we are today with the just-completed “Mood Swings”, their new mural in downtown Los Angeles on the side of the brand new LaLa gallery, a new venture by Daniel Lahoda.
Special thanks to photographer and BSA contributor Birdman, who was on the scene to capture the action for the BSA family.
This section of Los Angeles is like so many – teaming anonymous streams of cars and trucks rumbling by, oblivious, almost menacing to you on the sidewalk with their rapacious roar as you ascend the ladder, can in hand, a glint of mischief in your eye. Headphones buffer the cacophony, the conversations with mates giving warmth in this garish flashing peopled no-mans’ land.
With a sense of satisfaction the Street Artist collaborative Cyrcle complete their first installment of a year-long series for the LA Freewalls project on Mateo Street next to Aiko, Saber, and Kofie. Exclusively for you, photographer Carlos Gonzalez captures these artists in the Spring of life as they create in the bluish hues of Winter.
“Original Art Murals comprise a unique medium of expression that serves the public interest.”
Shocking as that may sound, it is just one of the statements contained in a proposed new mural ordinance in Los Angeles. We don’t usually dip our toes into policy discussions regarding public art, preferring to concentrate on the art and the artist and where we’re headed from that perspective. But it has been a bit of high theater to see the machinations at work in a city prized for it’s history of public murals as official policy has wiped out perfectly legal community approved artworks and secured the rights of corporations to blight neighborhoods with billboard messages to buy goods and services.
”For months, the L.A. Department of City Planning has been teasing street artists with announcements of a new ordinance that would lift the current ban on all pre-approved murals on private property in Los Angeles,” says the LA Weekly Blog yesterday, as they take the council of the celebrated local graffiti artist Saber and his community arts activist buddy Daniel Lahoda, among others, to pound out an agreement that puts public art back in peoples hands. Without talking about vandalism, the current laws on the books actually prevent a property owner from commissioning artwork on their own buildings. The new policy will re-classify murals as “original works of art” as long as they are not shilling for a business. Also, puppies are cute. And boys like girls in short skirts. And the Pope is Catholic.
Below a selection of images from the murals in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles as part of the LA Freewalls Project spearheaded by Daniel Lahoda.
Street Artists How and Nosm have just completed a 6 day installation of a brand new piece with the LA Freewalls project here in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles. With occasional interruptions for rain and food and sleep, the twins methodically knocked out a complex and detailed mural 106 feet wide and 60 feet tall (32m x 18m) that effectively nails their reputation as two of the most talented artists on the Street Art scene today, not that it was in doubt. With two decades of work under their belts, it is a rare combination of focus, relentless creative exploration, and artistic integrity that has shifted the work of these guys into an international limelight over the past couple of years.
Named “Heartship” the gargantuan mural is on a mission to entertain, elate, and educate about what self-taught artists with heart can produce and add to the man-made environment. In a direct way the whole project strikes at the center of the current “mural moratorium” in LA, which many local artists view as narrow, marginalizing, and inept.
“The fact that this mural exists contrary to any official public art policy in Los Angeles is a miracle, and a testament to the courage, will, and determination of everyone involved in the project,” says Daniel Lahoda, who’s LA Freewalls Project has routinely advocated for a review and revising of the City’s official policy toward public art and Street Art.
This Saturday (10/15) the brothers will also be celebrating “ACHTUNG!”, their first solo show, with 50 new original works at Known Gallery in LA. Expect to be suitably blown away, and to see a huge crowd.
Haven’t seen the Roman soldier lurking around with his paintbrush helmet lately so it it was a real special treat to see on the old Twitter machine that Nomade was putting up some new stuff Saturday, in downtown LA. Complete with decaying Roman columns….. it’s just funny, that’s why – don’t be a grouch. The Nomade fellas put this fresh piece to reclaim their old spot next to Lady Aiko and Kofie Augustine while under the watchful gaze of Daniel Lahoda. It’s part of LA Freewalls of course and there may be an animation in the near future we hear.
Late afternoon Los Angeles was the scene of a new splash of wild magic from LISTER yesterday as he sketched out and created a sooper cool visionary for the downtown street scene. In his signature portrait style, the Street Artist created a monochromatic seer with rainbows arching out from inside her glorious mind. Just goes to show you can’t judge someone by their external appearance.
Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of BSA are curating some LA Freewalls with Daniel Lahoda in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles over the next couple of weeks as part of a cultural exchange between NY and LA to celebrate some of the talented people who tell great stories with their art. Daniel is the mind and the man behind the LA Freewalls Project that has already brought a number of amazing artists and art to the streets in the City of Angels.
Photographer and BSA contributor, Todd Mazer was literally on call to capture Anthony Lister’s new piece. Great thanks to Todd, who stayed up late to give BSA readers these first pictures this morning.
“Well inspiration is just as valuable as sleep sometimes” Todd Mazer
Curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, founders of Brooklyn Street Art in collaboration with ThinkSpace Gallery at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Friday August 12th 6-10pm
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
