All posts tagged: Elbow-Toe

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.25.15

October 25, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This is the harvest season when all the fruits of Street Artists labor are on display for everyone to admire – and just before the frost transforms all the leaves and turns the grass brown and your cheeks red, it is time for you to go outside with your camera. There is a new talented crop of artists on the street that has been maturing these last few seasons and of course there are the perennials on display as well. New York in the autumn is always dramatic; the perfect stage to unveil new productions, new art shows, new movies, new musical compositions, and new standards being set. If the pickings for this weeks BSA Images of the Week are an indication, Autumn is at full peak right now, pure splendor.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Billi Kid, City Kitty, City Rabbit, Danielle Mastrion, Dee Dee, Elbow-Toe, Ernest Zacharevic, Hiss, Kai, Myth, Olek, Phoebe New York, Pixote, Sean9Lugo, Spider Tag, Tom Fruin, Tony De Pew, WK Interact, and You Go Girl!

Top image above >>> Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hiss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tony DePew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Haring motif on vinyl sheets was applied to this doors apparently for a themed party inside the building. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic’s third collaboration with Martha Cooper. Mr. Zacharevic used one of Ms. Cooper’s photos as an inspiration for this piece, which includes a real paint brush. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Rabbit (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Billi Kid (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OLEK says “Rule #1 Never be #2. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

I hear that! Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KAI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe brings an old favorite back to the streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Homer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PIXOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phoebe New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Spider Tag in Athens, Greece. October 2015. (photo © Spider Tag)

Spider Tag. Detail from the piece above. (photo © Spider Tag)

Tom Fruin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. October 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.23.15

August 23, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Such a pleasure and honor to give a tour to Brooklyn Museum members yesterday – mainly because of the mixture of people who traipsed through Brooklyn streets with us: older, younger, academic, street smart, curiosity seeking, students, teachers. The questions and observations helped push our perspectives wider.

Good to be schooled by someone who knew a lot about REVS & Cost, and to learn that LMNOP may have chosen her name with QRST’s in mind. Who knew? It was also great to describe the linotype process as it pertains to Swoons’ practice – and only a block later to discover an original carved plywood version of a linotype drilled to a wall by TipToe!

It was especially refreshing was talking with the woman who had not heard of Banksy or Faile or JR but thought she had heard of Swoon – and to see her write these names in a small book for further research. Sometimes we think all this Street Art stuff is such a big deal, then that “perspective” thing kicks in.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Dain, DeeDee, Don Rimx, Elbow Toe, Faile, Gilf!, Klone, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Myth, Os Gemeos, QRST, Rae, Royce Bannon, She Wolf, and TipToe.

Top image above >>> QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown with Bast on top. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tip Toe didn’t just put a printed poster up. He put the actual printing device with which you make the posters. This could indicate that he wants you to bring your own paper and ink! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth had his text crossed out -originally it said “Bovine lives matter! Go Vegan”. The cartoon image stayed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth quotes Lenin here: “Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth has the Venom character quoting the feminist Lucy Parsons, “Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

She Wolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klone (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx “La Rumba” in Little Havana, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rae is back on the street sculpture tip, a little bit pop this time (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like Elbow Toe gave Royce Bannon some flowers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile does a piece from their series about native peoples coming to reclaim lands. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! going for a conceptual timepiece that recalls names of Americans shot by police, with reference to how often it occurs. This is one of two recent time pieces. The other contains high profile nationally known names that have sparked protests – this one has names that are more recent but we didn’t recognize them or understand their significance till we started Googling. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI depicts Indira, a child who works in a marble quarry with her parents near Katmandu. The same image was also featured in her Welling Court mural this year. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A child soldier forced into conscription in Myanmar by LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Times Square, Manhattan. August, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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The 2014 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

December 17, 2014 Artists

Here it is! Our 2014 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.

Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year: Ask Jaime Rojo, our illustrious editor of photography at BrooklynStreetArt.com , who takes thousands of photographs each year, to respond to a simple question: What was your favorite photo of the year?

For 2014 he has swift response: “The Kara Walker.” Not the art, but the artist posed before her art.

It was an impromptu portrait that he took with his iPhone when the artist unveiled her enormous sculpture at a small gathering of neighborhood locals and former workers of the Domino Sugar Factory, informal enough that Rojo didn’t even have his professional camera with him. Aside from aesthetics for him it was the fact that the artist herself was so approachable and agreed to pose for him briefly, even allowing him to direct her just a bit to get the shot, that made an imprint on his mind and heart.

Of course the sculpture is gone and so is the building that was housing it for that matter – the large-scale public project presented by Creative Time was occupying this space as the last act before its destruction. The artist herself has probably moved on to her next kick-ass project after thousands of people stood in long lines along Kent Avenue in Brooklyn to see her astounding indictment-tribute-bereavement-celebration in a hulking warehouse through May and June.

But the photo remains.

And Rojo feels very lucky to have been able to seize that quintessential New York moment: the artist in silhouette before her own image, her own work, her own outward expression of an inner world.

Jaime’s personal favorite of 2014; The site specific Kara Walker in front of her site specific installation at the Domino Sugar Factory in May of this year in Brooklyn. Artist Kara Walker. (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

And our holiday gift to you for five years running, here is the brand new video of favorite images of graffiti and Street Art by Brooklyn Street Art’s editor of photography, Jaime Rojo.

Of a few thousand these 129 shots fly smoothly by as a visual survey; a cross section of graffiti, street art, and the resurgence of mural art that continues to take hold. As usual, all manner of art-making is on display as you wander your city’s streets. Also as usual, we prefer the autonomous free-range unsolicited, unsanctioned type of Street Art because that’s what got us hooked as artists, and ultimately, it is the only truly uncensored stuff that has a free spirit and can hold a mirror up to us. But you have to hand it to the muralists – whether “permissioned” or outright commissioned, some people are challenging themselves creatively and still taking risks.

Once again these artists gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it. We hope you dig it too.

Brooklyn Street Art 2014 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

2Face, Aakash Nihalani, Adam Fujita, Adnate, Amanda Marie, Andreco, Anthony Lister, Arnaud Montagard, Art is Trash, Ben Eine, Bikismo, Blek Le Rat, Bly, Cake, Caratoes, Case Maclaim, Chris Stain, Cleon Peterson, Clet, Clint Mario, Col Wallnuts, Conor Harrington, Cost, Crummy Gummy, Dain, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Damon, Dan Witz, Dasic, Don’t Fret, Dot Dot Dot, Eelco Virus, EKG, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Etam Cru, Ewok, Faring Purth, Gilf!, Hama Woods, Hellbent, Hiss, Hitnes, HOTTEA, Icy & Sot, Jana & JS, Jason Coatney, Jef Aerosol, Jilly Ballistic, Joe Iurato, JR, Judith Supine, Kaff Eine, Kashink, Krakenkhan, Kuma, Li Hill, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Mais Menos, Mark Samsonovich, Martha Cooper, Maya Hayuk, Miss Me, Mover, Mr. Prvrt, Mr. Toll, Myth, Nenao, Nick Walker, Olek, Paper Skaters, Patty Smith, Pixel Pancho, Poster Boy, Pyramid Oracle, QRST, Rubin 415, Sampsa, Sean 9 Lugo, Sebs, Sego, Seher One, Sexer, Skewville, SmitheOne, Sober, Sonni, Specter, SpY, Square, Stay Fly, Stik, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swil, Swoon, Texas, Tilt, Tracy168, Trashbird, Vexta, Vinz, Willow, Wolfe Works, Wolftits, X-O, Zed1.

Read more about Kara Walker in our posting “Kara Walker And Her Sugar Sphinx At The Old Domino Factory”.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

A Miami Waterfront Stadium Slaughtered by Street Artists to Save It

October 9, 2014 Artists

Just over 50 years ago Cuban architect Hilario Candela designed the Miami Marine Stadium using modernist design to create a great open air theater along the water to watch powerboat racing. In the thirty or so years between its construction and Hurricane Andrew, the 6,566 seat stadium on Miami’s Virginia Key provided natural shade and entertainment including the races, orchestral music, popular music, political events, prize fights – all in a very original and unusual setting. And who can forget it was in “Clambake” with Elvis on skis!

Ron English. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Because of damage sustained during the 1992 hurricane storm, subsequent inspections have left it condemned by the city engineers and a six-year-old restoration and preservation project has been drawing attention to the site and raising money with the hopes of funding its return. While the restoration organization has received support from the original architect, local dignitaries, celebrities and even some corporate funds, the $30 million dollar renovation is still some distance away.

Recently a group of Street Artists and graffiti artists were invited to continue the visual adornment begun by many uninvited writers over the years. “Graffiti artists have been drawn to the stadium and its architecture,” says Street Artist/ fine artist Logan Hicks who participated in and helped organize many of the artists to check out the mid-century modern structure.

“While the city forgot about the stadium, artists continued to embrace it, illegally painting while the city left it to decay,” he says. In fact it is an irony to consider that one city demonizes the same behavior that another invites, but this isn’t the first time that a subculture is recognized for its contribution. Naturally, we know that the work of these artists will most likely be obliterated in the final design.

Ron English. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Now a part of an official campaign to draw attention to the restoration effort, artists from around the country and world have been traveling to the stadium to add their visual signature to the interesting venue. Today we share with BSA readers recent shots by photographer Martha Cooper, who spent some time with Logan and some of the artists for a few days this summer as they explored and hit up some spots in the stadium.

Artists invited to the site include Stinkfish, Axel Void, HoxxoH, Tatiana Suarez, Abstrk, Pixel Pancho, Logan Hicks, Joe Iurato, Rone, Elbow Toe, Risk, Doze Green, Evoca1, Ian Kuali’i, Luis Berros, Dabs Myla, Ron English, Tristan Eaton, The London Police, Crash, Johnny Robles, Reinier Gamboa, Jose Mertz, and Lucy McLauchlan.

Ron English. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Logan Hicks. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

A view from the stadium when it was doing live shows floating in the water offshore from the Miami Herald website (thus the watermark). To look at original photos the paper has for sale click on the photo or HERE.

Reinier Gamboa. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

CRASH. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Luis Berros. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Luis Berros and Crash. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

The London Police. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

The London Police, Crash and Luis Berros. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

The London Police and Crash. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

The London Police and Hoxxochs. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Tristan Eaton getting aerosol satisfaction. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Tristan Eaton. Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project. Miami, FL 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.20.14

July 20, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 907 Crew, Ainac, Aero, Afrodoti Galazios, Blanco, Bleeps, Cash4, Daek, Dasic, Elbow-Toe, Fecks, Icy & Sot, IDT Crew, Mike Makatron, Miss 17, Mr. Penfold, Overunder, Seth, Sheryo, Smells, Sonni, Sweet Toof, The Yok, Tripel, UFO 907, Wolftits, and You Go Girl!.

Top Image >> IDT Crew. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

IDT Crew. IDT is a Chinese Crew. It reads on the background “5ive” to celebrate their 5th anniversary piece. Miss 17 on top was a later addition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sweet Toof. Smells. Cash4. UFO907. Please help ID the rest of the tags. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Makatron with an assistant at work on his recent mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Makatron (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe. The stencils below are by Ainac and Tripel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (we think) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bleeps new piece in Athens, Greece. (photo © Afroditi Galazios)

Blanco new piece in Saratoga Springs, NY. (photo © Blanco)

Blanco. Detail from the piece above. (photo © Blanco)

The Yok, Sheryo, Daek and Fecks for Zoetic Walls in Cleveland, Ohio. (photo © Pawn Works)

DAEK for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo with Sonni on the background for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni for Pawn Works/NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Penfold for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aero for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolftits is even more Art Brut than ever. 907 Crew. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rarf! Seth in Baton Rouge for The Museum Of Public Art. (photo © Overunder)

Untitled. Gowanus Canal. NYC. July 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Images of the Week: 04.13.14

April 13, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Street Artists have been exhibited in museums before so Swoon’s “Submerged Motherlands” doesn’t break ground because of its presence inside a grand institution, even if said institution also holds one of the largest collections of Egyptian art, and is also hosting the largest US exhibition of Ai Weiwei next week, for example.

What surprised us most this week as the Brooklyn Museum threw open its doors to a seven story installation that includes a tree, a gazebo, and two boats that sailed the Adriatic was the rapid rate that this artist has gone from running the streets under cover of night of Brooklyn plastering her linotypes to being invited inside to spray the walls of the Brooklyn Museum with a fire extinguisher. The total time elapsed between her first hand cut paper wheat paste on tattered walls and Friday’s opening was a decade and a half. That is noteworthy in itself, and worthy of someone’s exhaustive examination, but suffice to say that you have to have vision and commitment to pull this off.

Here are new images from the exhibit along with our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Cost, Elbow-Toe, London Kaye, Myth, Nick Walker, Paul Richard, Swoon, and Tava.

Top Image >> Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read our interview with the artist this week – “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands”, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Museum.

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe goes over himself and he feels a bit nostalgic. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker. Dona Isabel is a member of the undead. She is coming home after a night of blood hunting on the LES. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. A new tribute to SAMO and Andy Warhol. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye calling it right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Have You Seen Me? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paul Richard. Discuss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tava (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Her face carried some unseen burden as she swallowed down her shot and our eyes connected from across the room,” Eduardo Jones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lord have mercy. COST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. Save the bees peeps! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. NYC Winter 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Power Of Slow and the Ascent of the Storytellers

March 3, 2014 Artists

A big deal has been made about the so-called virtual experience of Street Art – made possible by ever more sophisticated phones and digital platforms and technology – producing a pulsating river of visually pleasing delicacies to view across every device at a rapid speed, and then forget.

Sit on the city bus or in a laundromat next to someone reviewing their Instagram/RSS/Facebook feed and you’ll witness a hurried and jerky scrolling with the index finger of images flying by with momentary pauses for absorbing, or perhaps “liking”. The greatest number of “likes” are always for the best eye candy, the most poppy, and the most commercially viable. It’s a sort of visual image consumption gluttony that can be as satisfying as a daily bag of orange colored cheese puffs.

This is probably not what art on the street is meant for. At least, not all of it.

Space Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As we have been observing here and in front of audiences for a few years now, the 2000s and 2010s have brought a New Guard and a new style and approach to work in the street that we refer to as the work of storytellers. These artists are doing it slowly, with great purpose, and without the same goals that once characterized graffiti and street art.

London Kaye’s tribute to Space Invader. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While there has been the dual development of a certain digital life during the last decade, these street works are eschewing the shallowness that our electronic behaviors are embracing. Even though the digitization of society has pushed boundaries of speed and eliminated geography almost entirely, it is creating an artificial intelligence of a different kind. In other words there really is still no substitute for being there to see this work, to being present in the moment while cars drive by and chattering pedestrians march up the sidewalk.

Setting aside the recent abundance of large commissioned/permissioned murals and the duplication/repetition practice of spreading identical images on wheatpasted posters and stickers that demark the 1990s and early 2000s in the Street Art continuum, today we wanted to briefly spotlight some of the one of a kind, hand crafted, hand painted, illegally placed art on the streets.

Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The materials, styles and placements are as varied as the artists themselves: Yarn characters attached to fences, tiles glued to walls, acrylic and oil hand painted wheat pastes on a myriad of surfaces, ink, lead and marker illustrations, carved linotype ink prints, clay sculptures, lego sculptures, intricate hand-cut paper, and hand rendered drawings have slowly appeared on bus shelters, walls, doorways, even tree branches.

They all have a few things in common: The artists didn’t ask for permission to place these labor-intensive pieces on the streets, they are usually one of a kind, and frequently they are linked to personal stories.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’ve been educating ourselves about these stories and will be sharing some of them with you at the Brooklyn Museum in April, so maybe that’s why we have been thinking about this so much. There is a quality to these works that reflect a sense of personal urgency and a revelation about their uniqueness at the same time.

If the placement of them is hurried the making of them it is not. The themes can be as varied as the materials but in many cases the artist informs the art by his or her autobiography or aspiration. And once again BSA is seeing a steady and genuine growth in storytelling and activism as two of the many themes that we see as we walk the streets of the city.

Jaye Moon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Keely and Deeker collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Square and bunny M collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BD White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bagman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Images Of The Week: 01.26.14

January 26, 2014 Artists

BSA Images of the Week this week starts with a series of non Street Art photos because they are inside a hallowed hall of NYC high culture, namely the Phillip Johnson designed modernist building that houses the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. International Street Artist, photographer and populist JR made a splash this week here with his project that puts ballet at the center of our eye.

For the second year the ballet has featured a Street Artist to lead their new artist series (last year was the duo Faile) and we’re nominating some names for next year already. This week however, JR’s large scale photographs of the ballet company ruled on opening night as a wide variety of guests walked on them all and marvelled up close and personally with the dancers images that lay artfully throughout the room.

Some guests climbed stairs to look down upon the giant ocular piece from balconies above, and in a true spirit of interactivity some fans went the full-immersion route by laying upon the image itself, striking a pose while friends took shots and tweeted and Instagrammed them. By the time the performers hit the stage we were all primed for the sprightly Gen Y talent to dance, and if this program by @balletnyc is successful, a new generation will also be filling the seats to see them this spring.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ainac, Bask, El Sol 25, Elbow-Toe, JR, Pyramid Oracle, and Swoon.

Top Image >> A new piece by Elbow Toe takes flight on the street in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The JR installation for his collaboration with The NYC Ballet Artists Series at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The JR installation for his collaboration with The NYC Ballet Artists Series at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BASK new wall in Saint Petersburg, Florida. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AiNAC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Girl Power. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. January 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The 2013 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

December 18, 2013 Artists

Here it is! Our 2013 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.

Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year, snapped one second before he was singled out of a New York crowd, handcuffed, and stuffed into a police car – sort of like the Banksy balloons he was capturing.

“Among all the thousands of photos I took this year there’s one that encapsulates the importance of Street Art in the art world and some of the hysteria that can build up around it,” he says of his final shot on the final day of the one month Better Out Than In artist ‘residency’ in NYC this October. It was a cool day to be a Street Art photographer – but sadly Rojo was camera-less in a case of mistaken identity, if only for a short time.

Released two hours later after the actual car-jumping trespasser was charged, Rojo was happy to hear the Chief Lieutenant tell his officer “you’ve got the wrong man”, to get his shoelaces back, and to discover this photo was still on his camera. He also gets to tell people at parties that he spent some time in the holding cell with the two guys whom New York watched tugging down the B-A-N-K-S-Y.

What’s everybody looking at? Jaime Rojo’s favorite image of the year at the very end of the Banksy brouhaha. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

When it came to choosing the 112 images for the video that capture the spirit of the Street Art scene in ’13, we were as usual sort of overwhelmed to comb through about ten thousand images and to debate just how many ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ pieces made it into the mix. Should we include only images that went up under the cover of the night, unsanctioned, uncensored, uncompromised, unsolicited and uncommissioned? Isn’t that what Street Art is?

Right now there are a growing number of legal pieces going up in cities thanks to a growing fascination with Street Art and artists and it is causing us to reevaluate what the nature of the Street Art scene is, and what it may augur for the future. You can even say that from a content and speech perspective, a sizeable amount of the new stuff is playing it safe – which detracts from the badass rebel quality once associated with the practice.

These works are typically called by their more traditional description – murals. With all the Street Art / graffiti festivals now happening worldwide and the growing willingness of landlords to actually invite ‘vandals’ to paint their buildings to add cache to a neighborhood and not surprisingly benefit from the concomitant increase in real estate values, many fans and watchers have been feeling conflicted in 2013 about the mainstreaming that appears to be taking place before our eyes. But for the purposes of this roundup we decided to skip the debate and let everybody mix and mingle freely.

This is just a year-end rollicking Street Art round-up; A document of the moment that we hope you like.

Ultimately for BSA it has always been about what is fresh and what is celebrating the creative spirit – and what is coming next. “We felt that the pieces in this collection expressed the current vitality of the movement – at least on the streets of New York City,” says photographer and BSA co-founder Rojo. It’s a fusillade of the moment, complete with examples of large murals, small wheat pastes, intricate stencils, simple words made with recycled materials or sprayed on to walls, clay installations, three dimensional sculptures, hand painted canvases, crocheted installations, yarn installations etc… they somehow captured our imaginations, inspired us, made us smile, made us think, gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it.

Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

A Dying Breed, Aakash Nihalini, Agostino Iacursi, Amanda Marie, Apolo Torres, Axel Void, Bagman, Bamn, Pixote, Banksy, B.D. White, Betsy, Bishop203, NDA, Blek le Rat, br1, Case Maclaim, Cash For Your Warhol, Cholo, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Billy Mode, Christian Nagel, Cost, ENX, Invader, Crush, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Dase, Dasic, Keely, Deeker, Don’t Fret, The Droid, ECB, el Seed, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Faile, Faith 47, Five Pointz, Free Humanity, Greg LaMarche, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Inti, Jilly Ballistic, John Hall, JR, Jose Parla, Judith Supine, Kremen, Kuma, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Love Me, Martha Cooper, Matt Siren, Elle, Mika, Miss Me, Missy, MOMO, Mr. Toll, Nychos, Okuda, Alice Mizrachi, OLEK, Owen Dippie, Paolo Cirio, Paul Insect, Phetus, Phlegm, Revok, Pose, QRST, Rambo, Ramiro Davaro, Reka, Rene Gagnon, ROA, RONES, Rubin, bunny M, Square, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swoon, Tristan Eaton, The Lisa Project 2013, UFO 907, Willow, Swill, Zed1, and Zimer.

Read more about Banksy’s last day in New York here and our overview of his residency in the essay “Banksy’s Final Trick” on The Huffington Post.

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Images Of The Week: 12.01.13

December 1, 2013 Artists

It’s December yo! The tree is getting lit this week for the tourists and New York art folk are headed to Miami for the ever-more-air-kissed Basel. We’re still recovering from Thanksgivikkuh and looking on the street to find the latest pieces that went up before winter descended. Right now we’re tallying up the list of best real street art images of 2013 – feel free to write us with your favorite pieces.

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Blu Key, Elbow-Toe, Pastey Whyte, Phuze, Rones, Swoon, Ting Tong Chang, and WishBe.

“The Manila Galleons were the Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year between Europe, New Spain (Mexico), the Spanish East Indies (Philippines), and China. The trading route was inaugurated in 1565 with the establishment of the ocean passage with the Far East, and continued until the Mexico War of independence in 1815. The 250 years of galleon trade constructed a world map of early globalization, where Europe, America and Asia were linked with silver, slavery, piracy and luxury goods.

Taking the trading route as a point of departure, my intention is to create a series of street art in several locations: Spain, England and China. These images will create a narrative about globalization. Last month, I had been to Spain and carried out the first part of this project.” Ting Tong Chang

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Images Of The Week: 06.02.13

June 2, 2013 Artists

Stoop sales, hula hoops, fire hydrants, ladders and paint. Get me one of those ices from that guy with the cart on the corner, will ya?

Here’s our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring A1one, Chris Stain, Creepy, Elbow Toe, Essen, Foxx Face, Icy & Sot, LMNOP, Maya Hayuk, Mr. Toll, Rubin, Sexer, Werds, You Are Beautiful, and Zimad.

A writer who has used Arabic lettering since 2003, A1one just completed this new piece and translates it for us. “The word is Love (Ishq). In all the Middle East they can understand the meaning of this word… It refers to the divine or clean kind of love,” says A1one.

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Cat People and Dog People ; Street Artists Bring Trusted Friends

February 6, 2013 Artists

Street Artists are just as attached to their pets as anybody else, and given their reputation for being sort of secretive loners, maybe more. It’s not common but the appearance of cats and dogs on the street without leashes happens once in a while in carefully rendered drawings, illustrations, paintings, stencils, wheatpastes and stickers.

Whether it’s the formal portrait studio quality of C215’s cat stencils, Tazz’s red-nosed glowering dog stickers, or the plump and wide eyed feline hunter wheat-pastes of QRST, these animals are an important aspect of the autobiographical nature of today’s Street Art scene. It is said that observing a pet gives you a good idea about an owners disposition. If so, what would you say about the artist who uses an animal, whether as portrait, amulet, or metaphor – to tell their story on the public thoroughfare?

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