Valencia, 2023: A mural in Valencia dares to communicate beyond its confines. “The Delirium of Juan Carlos I”, affectionately dubbed the “Juanca Wall”, stands not just as a piece of street art but as a bold critique against the actions of the powerful.
At the helm of this venture are two artists, Fasim and Mr. Kern. In the midst of Valencia’s scorching heat, they chose to depict Juan Carlos I, Spain’s ex-monarch and legal fugitive. The imagery is striking – a down-tempo human profile of the king, which for Fasim, instantly brought back the ex-monarch’s infamous statement: “I’m so sorry, it won’t happen again”. But beyond these words, the mural incorporates a hauntingly vivid representation of a real photograph – the king alongside a lifeless elephant.
Fasim, reminiscing about the moment he first saw that photograph, says, “I was terribly shocked by that image. It was a harsh reminder of the cruelty some indulge in under the guise of power and privilege. I promised myself then that there would be a day of artistic reckoning in honor of those noble creatures.”
The mural cleverly integrates the whimsical ‘pink elephants’ from Disney’s “Dumbo”. It’s not just for its aesthetically surreal appeal in bubblegum pink, but a layered metaphor – drawing parallels between the king’s questionable actions and the hallucinatory episodes of Dumbo and Timothy. The intent is crystal clear: to make the imagery evoke the unsettling hunting incident without a single spoken word.
Yet, brilliance often faces hurdles. Battling Valencia’s oppressive summer, the duo had limited resources, they tell us. The end result is a mural with a unique color palette and a message resonating loud and clear: “Juanca, you’re the King of scoundrels”.
This piece stands as more than just a mural; it’s a testament to audacity, wit, and the unyielding spirit of artists who dare to challenge the status quo. Through their artistry, certain narratives, no matter how powerful the figure, will always find a way into the light.
We’ve been shooting and documenting Street Art in Brooklyn for over a decade now so it is a sweet sight to see more artists getting opportunities like the new program by Two Trees Management that is coming online. Of course BSA has curated legal walls around town for artists many times and we created the first Street Art projection show in DUMBO (Projekt Projektor) five years ago, but when an innovative developer with a track record for engendering an arts community gets involved, its a new scale and one with a far greater possibility for engagement of people in public space.
For the improvement district that comes under its auspicious, Street Artists (and other visual artists) are invited to regale the DUMBO walls with as great a vision as they care to present and this time the whole experience could be transformational, if the quality and the mix is handled just right. As the former neighborhood of Williamsburg is similarly evolving, can’t you just see a second wave, a renaissance of Street Art that pays tribute to the first one we’ve been documented since the turn of the century?
Today we show you new work of Street Artist/Fine Artist and 21st Century maximalist MOMO has been bathing a swath of brick with washes of hue and precisely percolating pattern while wielding the scissor lift just below the boisterous Brooklyn Queens Expressway for the last week or so, and the results are brighter and punchier than we are accustomed to – which will be good for those week-long grey patches we must endure in the BK sometimes. We last were with MOMO as he was banging out a huge wall in Baltimore, and it is good to see this talent back in Brooklyn where he once lived, but this nomad will only alight for a short time before swimming to his next exploration.
Keep your eyes open for further developments. You know we will.
Looks like the Yankees could have used Joe Biden last night. “Who is this grandpa man?”, said my homey Ikbar behind the counter at the news stand, irritated that the Vice President has to hog half the cover of the New York Post from Derek Jeter. Guess the Scranton Slugger was knocking them out of the wrong park for some New Yorkers last night.
Also, anybody know why there are 10 TV vans with their saucers rotating on top and kleig lights at the end of their extended electronic probes blinding innocent semi-sleeping commuters walking by the Marcy projects in Brooklyn this morning? Saw Blondy McBlonderwig with perfect teeth and fishbowl eyes shrieking in a trench coat in front of the camera on the way to the M train, safely behind all the “crime scene” tape. Think the news has decided to do a story on the class war?
And now LIVE, here are the important up-to-the-minute stories we’re following for you this hour on WBSA.
1. Bedlam in London
2. Jaye Moon Breaks the Code (NYC)
3. Moniker 2012 (London)
4. John Breiner at Mighty Tanaka (Brooklyn)
5. “Good Guys” in Chicago
6. "Street Art Live" in Da Bronx All Day Sunday
7. SANER "Catharsis" From The Cinema (VIDEO)
8. I Love Paris Volume 5 by kouettv (VIDEO)
Bedlam in London
If you are in London this weekend and are feeling spooky and wild, nevermind that tame Madame Tussard – turn your GPS to “BEDLAM”, Lazarides new group exhibition underground in the Old Vic Tunnels. With artists including Antony Micallef, Artists Anonymous, ATMA,Conor Harrington, Dan Witz, Doug Foster, Ian Francis, Karim Zeriahen, Kelsey Brookes, Klaus Weiskopf, Lucy McLauchlan, Michael Najjar, Nachev, Tessa Farmer, Tina Tsang, Tobias Klein, War Boutique and 3D all of them working on the theme of pandemonium. Inspired by the infamous mental hospital, we were expecting to see Boris Karloff popping around the corner while appreciating scary art that experiments on your brain. Welcome.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Jaye Moon Breaks the Code (NYC)
She’s been constructing on the streets for a year or two, but her main tricks have been in the gallery for about a decade. Street and Fine Artist Jaye Moon has a new solo show titled “Breaking the Code” at the Newman Popiashvili Gallery in Manhattan so you can see where some of this Lego madness came from. Study the numbers and the text and break the code. And don’t forget to hit up Red Hook Brooklyn because Jaye Moon is also an artist in GEOMETRICKS currently on view at Gallery Brooklyn.
For further information regarding this show click here.
For further information regarding GEOMETRICKS click here.
Moniker 2012 (London)
MONIKER ART FAIR is in full swing and open for business until this Sunday. Take a trip to The Village Underground in Shoreditch if you are interested on seeing original works of art by some Street Artists who are moving the conversation on the streets right now. Remi Rough, Penny, Niels ‘Shoe’ Meulman, Ludo, Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada, Hush, C215, Ben Slow are all represented with installations and new works of art.
For further details and a full list of artists and schedules click here.
John Breiner at Mighty Tanaka (Brooklyn)
Not a Street Artist but seemingly always in the street mix – maybe he has a lot of Street Art friends or something because Jon Breiner has been at a lot of events over the last couple of years and we’ve had the opportunity to see his studio work evolve so here’s a shout out. Breiner might be one of those definitely underrated fine artists that you don’t pay much attention to and then BAM!, where the hell did this kid come from? A curator of shows and DJ, Breiner goes deep below still waters; Fastidious in his craft Mr. Breiner’s work gets close and personal, meticulously drawn and painted, portaits with weight intricately real and occasional surreal little stories with plots that are off center. His new show titled “Sooner or Later We All Make the Little Flowers Grow” opens tonight at the Mighty Tanaka Gallery in DUMBO.
John Breiner. Detail. (image courtesy of the gallery)
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Good Guys” in Chicago
Wanna know who “The Good Guys” are? Head over to 2381 Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago where The HOTBOX MOBILE GALLERY new group show will open tomorrow showcasing local talent of Chicago born and raised Street Artists including, Left Handed Wave, Brooks Golden, Clam Nation, Don’t Fret, Espir, Nudnik, Lucx and Nice-one.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Street Art Live” in Da Bronx All Day Sunday
This Sunday the Sermon is at The Bronx and the Minister is SinXero.
Showing brotherly love New York style, a group of Street Artists including Army of One/JC2, Fumero, ADAM DARE, TONE TANK, Elle Deadsex, ENX, Choice Royce, Royce Bannon, See One & Danielle Mastrion, VEXTA, Mike Die, KID Lew, & ZIMAD, as well as, SinXero (SX) & colleague Bayoan will gather at Graffiti Universe for “Street Art Live”. An event to honor Iranian brothers and Street Srtists Icy & Sot.
It’s a Sunrise Service so just stay up Saturday night >> The event begins at 5:00 am until the whole block at Graffiti Universe is completely painted.
For further information regarding this event click here.
Also happening this weekend:
The Kosmopolite Art Tour in Amsterdam, brought to you by Aerosol Bridge Club began on Wednesday and will continue until this Sunday at the MC Theater in Amsterdam. Big mural live painting with appearances from local and international artists with tons of side events. Click here for more details regarding this event.
Monsieur A the French artist is in Mexico City for his solo show “André Saraiva” at the Anonymous Gallery. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more details about this show.
Low Brow Artique Gallery goes soft brow with Dickchicken’s solo show “The Penis Mightier Than the Sword” opening tonight in Brooklyn. Click here for more details about this show.
Mad One and Neely II are hosting “Sticker Phiends” in Tempe, Arizona opening tomorrow. This annual sticker feast attracts a huge following of national and international sticker artists and fans. Click here for more details about this event.
This Tuesday night the annual benefit with work donated by 100+ artists will keep WAGMAG free for everyone. The local art guide started around the same time as the current street art explosion did in the early 2000’s – and the handy guide existed solely as a way to get the word out about openings at art collectives and galleries in the then-artist-neighborhood of Williamsburg. While gentrification has chased most of the artists out of Williamsburg now, Brooklyn continues to boom with some of the freshest ideas and talents and WAGMAG’s maps help you to find shows in 15 neighborhoods all over the borough.
The brainchild and labor of love of Brooklyn artist and gallery owner Daniel Aycock in those early years, WAGMAG now is run by Daniel and his artist wife Kathleen Vance. Together they own the Front Room gallery and regularly work with most of the players on the Brooklyn art scene, keeping it real and accessible. They are also big Street Art fans and have allowed the walls on the front of their gallery to be painted and pasted many times over the years by a parade of Street Artists.
In celebration of all the good work they do to enable artists to receive exposure for their work, and to encourage you to go to their fundraiser Tuesday, BSA talked with Daniel and Kathleen about WAGMAG and Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Street Art:How long have you been in Williamsburg?
Daniel Aycock and Kathleen Vance: WAGMAG, started in 2001 as W(illiamsburg) A(nd) G(reenpoint) M(onthly) A(rt) G(uide). Eventually the demand for listings in other neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn made it necessary to expand to include all of the art districts in Brooklyn. Then we dropped the Acronym and became WAGMAG, Brooklyn Art Guide. We now serve the communities of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Bushwick, Carroll Gardens, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, DUMBO, Fort Greene, Gowanus, Greenpoint, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Red Hook and Williamsburg.
Brooklyn artist Scott Chasse donated this piece “Keep Smiling” to the WAGMAG Benefit.
Brooklyn Street Art:Can you describe what WAGMAG is?
Daniel Aycock and Kathleen Vance: It’s a free monthly art guide that promotes art venues and exhibitions in Brooklyn with a free listing service of art exhibitions and events, with locations and times, community maps and critical reviews.
Art venues are listed in community networks with adjoining maps and alphabetical listing of exhibitions updated monthly and circulated throughout New York. Guest writers present recommendations of exhibits to visit, with critical reviews for additional reference. WAGMAG, a Brooklyn Art Guide, is online at wagmag.org and in print with a free 16-page printed guide that is circulated throughout New York and surrounding areas.
Street Artist Gilf! donated this piece “Empower Equality” (62/200) to the WAGMAG Benefit
Brooklyn Street Art:You have had street artists on your wall outside the gallery like Noah Sparkes, C215, Nick Walker. How do you look at street art in Brooklyn?
Daniel Aycock and Kathleen Vance: The offices of WAGMAG are in The Front Room Gallery in Williamsburg, in a building that has historically been a fertile ground for street artists. We love the public access to art, made available 24hrs, 7 days a week by street artists, which is unexpected, sometimes challenging, and innovative in process and placement.
Street Artist Chris of the collective Robots Will Kill donated this piece “We are 138 ” to the WAGMAG Benefit.
Brooklyn Street Art:Are there any Street Artists donating to the WAGMAG benefit this year?
Daniel Aycock and Kathleen Vance: Yeah, absolutely. We have Chris (RWK), LOL, Gilf!, and Noah Sparkes.
Brooklyn Street Art:Why is Brooklyn such a vibrant lively place for artists to work and live?
Daniel Aycock and Kathleen Vance: Brooklyn has been a magnet for artists for decades. The availability of studio space and relatively lower rents creates an oasis outside of Manhattan – making it into a huge artists’ mecca. Brooklyn builds strength from its communities – which have a friendly and open attitude that fuels creativity and expands the boundaries of art-making today.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: XAM, JR, El Sol 25, NohJColey, Mint & Serf, PEZ, Leo Kuelbs, Michael Mut, MTM, DGa, SX2BU, G2R, JOX, ONU.
Street Artist XAM is participating in this year’s DUMBO Art Festival taking place this weekend in the Brooklyn riverfront neighborhood called DUMBO. The annual art festival champions a huge public art element, with installations and projections in the street, in tunnels, on bridges, – and always contains a mix of sanctioned and unsanctioned art that blur the distinct lines of your position as a spectator or participant. With or without an official map to guide your feet, pedestrians can freely explore and stumble upon small thoughtful pieces and huge mind-bending light projections, conceptual mind candy, social commentary, and political screeds. Together with Art In Odd Places and Bring to Light Nuit Blanche NYC 2011 next weekend, it looks like New York is actively courting art in the streets this Fall – not to mention the street theater and artful costumes and signage playing out live in the “Occupy Wall Street”demonstrations. The DUMBO festival will run until today, Sunday September 25.
An amazing array of artists working with light are transforming a portion of Greenpoint Brooklyn October 2nd for New York’s first actual participation in “Nuit Blanche” a celebration of Street Art from another perspective. NYC has long been a center of electronic arts experimentation and the field is now flooding with amazing new talent.
BSA is participating and encourages you to participate – you will definitely see stuff you haven’t seen before in a welcoming public environment. The entire event will also be simulcast live and will include cities around the world, including our sister city Toronto.
Volunteers are welcomed and needed, especially electricians, tech savvy folks, and people who support electronic art in NYC. To volunteer please email Jacquie at jacquie@bringtolightnyc.org
Dumbo Fest This Weekend
A number of Street Artists are participating in one of Brooklyn’s biggest art events this weekend, and all you have to do is wander the streets. Click the image to download a Map!
No Longer Empty
As part of the Dumbo Arts Festival a few Brooklyn Street Artists have already prepared some new street work for “Watch This Space”, including Chris Stain, Imminent Disaster, Jordan Seilor, and the piece below by Helen Dennis.
Fernando Almanza Image Courtesy of No Longer Empty
Watch This Space
Opens September 24th, 2010 to October 23rd, 2010
Runs Thursday through Sunday, 12pm to 5pm
As a start to the Dumbo Arts Festival, No Longer Empty will be working with exteriors of buildings as well as mounting an exhibition in a vacant gallery space. United under the title of “Watch This Space”, both the exhibition and the mural works will allude to Dumbo’s industrial past as well as its current process of gentrification as the area remakes its image and purpose.
Working with the scaffolding, which surrounds the buildings in Dumbo, Chris Stain and Logan Hicks’s works will portray hauntingly photo realist images of New York crowds in gritty, urban scenery to elevate a sense of the working class hero.
In the gallery space at 55 Washington Street, NLE will be installing a site-specific exhibition, which unites the outdoors with the inner space again referencing the intensive construction of Dumbo in its march to gentrification. Artists to date include Alexandre Arrechea, Alejandro Almanza Pereda and Cal Lane.
Cal Lane creates “soft” or delicate images through “hard,” industrial tools. For instance, the artist has carved floral lace patterns into gardening shovels and car doors and carved intricate tapestries from oil drums.
The interdisciplinary quality of Alexandre Arrechea’s work reveals a profound interest in the exploration of both public and domestic spaces. He creates wry comments on the rapid expansion/demolition of cities mediating between the two impulses with his own push-pull sense of artistic negotiation.
Alehandro Almanza Pereda transforms the most basic objects from daily life or construction sites into poetic ruminations, which often seem to defy the laws of gravity. At once playful and conceptually strong, the viewer is compelled to see wood chips, crates, cinder blocks or florescent bulbs as aesthetic entities capable of transcendence.
Alexandre Arrechea
Alejandro Almanza Pereda
Michel de Broin
Logan Hicks
Cal Lane
Lincoln Schatz
Helen Dennis
Imminent Disaster
Jordan Seiler
Exhibition at 55 Washington Street, Suite 200
Murals on Plymouth, Main and Washington Streets Dumbo Brooklyn
Mighty Tanaka is excited to present our next show entitled CityScapes, a four person photography show that delves into and documents a variety of perspectives in and around NYC. Featuring the work of Vinny Cornelli, Mari Keeler, Shane Perez & Bryan Raughton, each photographer individually deciphers their own unique interpretation of the City through a myriad of techniques and inspirations.
CityScapes invites the visitor to explore the seemingly ubiquitous and familiar environments of New York City through the eyes of the photographers, as they excavate new vantage points through their exceptional observations. From grand panoramas to the subtle details, the show looks to provide the viewer with an in depth examination of the urban environment that most people are likely to overlook.
From multiple exposure photography and models posing in precarious locations to textured urban environments and the grimy gems of the City, this New Century art exhibition aims to uncover the hidden treasures constantly found on the streets of NYC and fuse them within our daily lives.
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, July 16, 2010 – 6:00PM-9:00PM, and closing August 6, 2010
Mighty Tanaka 68 Jay St., Suite 416 (F Train to York St.)
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Hours: M-F 12PM to 7PM, weekends by appointment only
Office: 718.596.8781
Email: alex@mightytanaka.com
Web: http://www.mightytanaka.com <http://www.mightytanaka.com/>;
Street Art takes many turns and I frankly never know where it’s going to turn up. Technically, it would seem that some street artists are always challenging themselves, and you, to reevaluate your core assumptions. Like this ornate sign decoration, which, by the way, does not impede drivers ability to see the message. You wondered how this one stayed up, right? – This week it was in Dumbo, Brooklyn and at first it seemed quite impossible that it was taped to the sky. It appeared in the Images of the Week a couple of days ago – and now there is this video wending its way through the digital world.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
