JMR takes his usual pristine ne0-abstract lines and let’s them run in a new direction here – downward. An experienced muralist who can knock out 40 foot long walls in a couple of days, you can see his work on a building sized mural at the Pod Hotel in Manhattan, as well as a number of commissioned projects in Brooklyn.
The Ever Clever Stikman does a little robotic dance to spring!
There is no end to the permutations that street art icon Stikman takes; a 3-D sculpture of sticks, screen printed on vinyl, doing a wiggly move on a page of notated music, and of course, smashed into the pavement for you to gaze upon while waiting for the “WALK” sign.
Street Artist Billi Kid, known for poppy portraits of pink cadillacs and jetson era convertibles with his friends and artists at the wheel, George Bush as a WMD swinging cowboy, Sarah Palin as a bikini-clad NRA bimbo, and Jim Morrison doing his own special Easter tribute on a cross – graciously donated this cowboy in profile to the auction on the 24th.
You may have seen his boards bolted here and there, combining historical portraiture and sometimes verse to accompany it – a page ripped from a never-time; something genuine mixed with a camp sensibility.In recent explorations Gore B begins with Audubon-style bird paintings and mixes fonts with them, each taking off with a story in it’s own direction.
To save their reputation and do a bit of DAMAGE:CONTROL the wise visionaries at Factory Fresh have flown in Boris Hoppek and Alex Diamond from Hamburg sister gallery Helium Cowboy to stage an unforgettable show tonight in Bushwick.
Tonight at Factory Fresh
This is what they have to say about it:
“The exhibition is called DAMAGE:CONTROL – each of the artists supplied one of the words when finding a joint theme for the show. Who does the damage and who’s controlling it is hard to tell, all we can leak is that we know who contributed which word
Although being close friends for a long time, Boris Hoppek and Alex Diamond have never collaborated this closely in the past. Everyone involved in the show is really happy with the result: it seems like the perfect match; the works correspond nicely, and the whole set up of the room couldn’t be more harmonic.
While Boris will be showing photos and watercolors, Alex brought along brand new china ink brush drawings as well as a series of collages. Most of the work has never been exhibited before and was specifically created for the Factory Fresh show.
On location, Boris installed a new upskirt installation (this time you have to slip underneath a beautiful, vintage wedding dress), as well as painting one of the walls with markers. Alex has been busy creating a new piece of collage work (assembled and painted on the gallery floor).
It seems to be heavily influenced by this trip, and sports quite an unusual motive compared to others. It comes on 4 wood panels, that are attached to each others, and is integrated into a wall painting, jointly with the six new collages he brought along on this journey. The work is called “Demon skull”.”
Factory Fresh and Heliumcowboy Artspace present: DAMAGE:CONTROL The Art of Boris Hoppek & Alex Diamond Show opens Friday, March 5th from 8pm-11pm
This March, Factory Fresh welcomes heliumcowboy artspace of Hamburg, Germany as we
partner to presents the art of Boris Hoppek & Alex Diamond. Our two galleries will bring
together German Artist Boris Hoppek & transient Alex Diamond’s work as they have received
increasing international popularity in recent years. These artists have exhibited in solo and
group shows in museums, galleries, festivals and art fairs in Europe as well as in the US. In a
joint effort the artist will show new works on paper and Boris has promised an up the skirt
installation.
Boris Hoppek, has been an acclaimed name in the Graffiti-world since the late eighties, more
recently he has become an outstanding talent within the contemporary art scene. By
thematizing sexuality, violence, racism and oppression in a very clean and accurate style, the
artist isolates provocative themes for contemplation. Since 2004, the heliumcowboy artspace
has exhibited his works in three solo shows and on diverse art fairs. In Basel and Miami 2007,
Hoppek set up huge interactive cardboard installations at SCOPE, and today he is one of the
most prominent European artists coming from a background in Street Art/Graffiti. For SCOPE
Basel 2008, Hoppek was invited to convert the water taxis commuting across the Rhine into
floating artworks, bringing his narrative potential away from the constrictions of a traditional
booth scenario onto the water.
Alex Diamond is unseizable as a person and difficult to categorize as an artist, he is more
fantasy than reality. His main issue always centres around his work and its presentation, but
never around the personality of an individual. Alex Diamond appears always as a new and
different creation of a role or character with every one of his shows. Not limited by a CV, a
formative education or even a dedicated technique or style, Alex Diamond constantly
develops a new specific presence for the “Artist behind the work“. Alex Diamond is an artist
who apparently lives solely through the art he creates – and vice versa. He plays mind tricks
with visual aids, pleasing at one moment, disturbing in the next. Independent from styles and
techniques, he mirrors life and our constant fight for possession, superiority, survival and love
in an almost nonchalant way. Having focused on his project Being Alex Diamond for the last
year and a half (and of which also a catalogue has been published lately), the artist will now
present a whole new body of drawings at Factory Fresh.
Runs till April 11, 2010
Whilst the exhibition at Factory Fresh, heliumcowboy artspace will also feature Boris Hoppek with a solo booth at
VOLTA Art Fair NY, showing a boxing gym installation by the artist, that is an extension to his well known punch bag
installation which has been presented lastly at Volta 5 in Basel. For further information in this respect, please
contact i@heliumcowoby.com (attn: isabel)
Factory Freshis located at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop
Factory Fresh Presents: Pufferella “I know You Are But What Am I” and Josh Mccutchen “Polymetrochromanticism”
It’s only a one-week show folks, and Adam has built a sit-n-spin ride that will make you blow all that Genesee Cream Ale like Linda Blair around the front gallery, so you don’t want to miss this opening!
Before we go to the show, a little background; Street Artist Pufferella has played a pivotal role in the New York Street Art scene by running Orchard Street Art Gallery for 7 years with Ad Deville on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, opening the doors and clearing the way for many aspiring graffiti writers and street artists to show their work in a new public setting, many for the first time.
After losing their lease due to greedy landlords, they moved to Bushwick in Summer 2008 to open Factory Fresh, another gallery that opened it’s arms to emerging and better-known street artists and fine artists. On her own, Pufferella has quietly established her own fine art work, consisting primarily of sewn pieces that may be more traditional flat “canvasses” or full-blown soft sculptures.
Taking a break from the sewing machine, Pufferella shows us the inner sanctum of her office at Factory Fresh, which is carefully hung with fabric pieces for the show, effectively blocking all eyes from seeing in the window or over the counter.
The collection of new pieces are brightly colorful, boldly warm. The shiny solid shapes and figures are stiffly posed in simple arrangements, floating in awkward proximity to one another, creating a momentary scene or flash of action. Sewn on lush fabrics, they can take special importance because of the spareness in number and bluntness of geometry.
It’s when these pieces are finished and seen together as a group that Pufferella can get overwhelmed with their significance and she questions if she has been too open as an artist. Speaking about her art and her life, a dual set of impulses emerge – frequently warring with one another. It may be this ongoing conflict that gives many of the pieces a raw energy that is captured in action.
Brooklyn Street Art: I don’t see as much sexual activity in this show as I thought I would.
Pufferella: Oh, yeah? There’s I’d say a good third of the show has those themes. There are some other things going on. Like the tigers! They are so cute I want to take them home with me.
Brooklyn Street Art: So, about these various couples in positions… do you like to imagine sexual relations in unusual places?
Pufferella: I think these are all personal things. Stuff I’ve done or things I think about. I’m very private but I’d say I’m a little wild in certain places.
Brooklyn Street Art: Well, this is the thing; You feel like it is very private and yet you are holding an exposition of it in a very public way.
Pufferella: Isn’t that what art is? Aren’t you supposed to put your soul into it? If I was like, “what am I doing?” then I would produce graphic design. So for me it is that pure. I’m not doing it to sell it, necessarily. So that’s why it’s like, “I think it would be funny if cotton candy fell in love with carrot.”
Brooklyn Street Art: Do you ever have problems or fights with your sewing machine?
Pufferella: Yeah, I mean, I have to oil it, take care of it. I know what the problems are. That sewing machine is like my baby.
When stuff falls out of place, like the pins fall out or I get sliced by stuff, I get pissed. Like when stuff moves and you get a ripple and you have to go back… I spend a lot of time fixing stuff. But I also know what I’m doing wrong. There’s a backing that I’m supposed to put on all of this and my mom gives it to me. She’s like, “Why aren’t you using this?” but I don’t like the way it comes out. It comes out so “crafty”.
So I like it to be a little messed up. Like those kinks and things, I think for me, are what really keeps it “art”. I don’t know.
Brooklyn Street Art: So it’s an effect that you don’t like when you see it, like it has too much of a “finished” quality.
Pufferella: Well, I come from quilters too, and I went to art school and they didn’t because they were farm people who made beautiful quilts, to keep them warm, and they did them nicely. So, I try to differentiate. I know what that (quilting) is, and I’ve tried but I’ve come close.
Brooklyn Street Art: You are afraid of becoming too “crafty”?
Pufferella: Definitely. I think people expect this work to be “craft”. It’s like “appliqué” – like what’s the defining line between me and appliqué? Very little, but I’m hanging on to it.
Brooklyn Street Art: Right, there is a fine line… where suddenly someone is saying, “Can you make a pillow for me?”
Pufferella: And I have done that. Like I did Abe Lincoln Jr.’s bird. But I made it poop and poop-balls came out of it. Yeah the other thing that makes it “art” is the idea. I think when people make quilts they look at patterns.
A Cat and Dog scene from Pufferella’s 2005 show at Pink Pony (Image courtesy Pufferella)
Brooklyn Street Art: Some of these themes are related to circus or performance or childhood fantasy? Pufferella: Yeah, I guess that I feel like it is always coming back to those things. Like my 2005 show at Pink Pony, where I made a circus. I guess that is just what I think about a lot. Funny, carnivale, freaks. I feel like I’m very normal on the outside but very weird on the inside.
Brooklyn Street Art: Can you give me three adjectives? Pufferella: For me?
Brooklyn Street Art: Don’t think about it. Pufferella: Shiny. Giggly. Dark.
Brooklyn Street Art: Okay. Pufferella: Like I think there is that dark humor to everything.
Brooklyn Street Art: Like “Funhouse” humor. Pufferella: Yeah.
Brooklyn Street Art: Did you go to state fairs, or county fairs when you were a kid? Pufferella: Yes, and I think I have that dual nature because my parents were raised on farms, but then they moved and raised us in a different life. We traveled and did all these things that they didn’t really do. So I think there is that dual thing. Like sometimes they were having us milk cows but then taking us to New York City. It was always that way. I grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, which is just outside New York. I did the whole club thing at 16, but I had these roots where I would go back to Michigan and see my Grandma.
Brooklyn Street Art: Did you tell me this is the ideal woman? Pufferella: “The Perfect Wife” Yeah, that piece is about how I don’t feel like I get heard a lot of times. Like I have to say stuff a bazillion times. I might as well be like a video game playing and I might as well have my shirt off. That’s the whole thing with guys. Like I might as well just be serving drinks, playing music, with the mute button on.
Brooklyn Street Art: What about this powerful image? Can you describe her? Pufferella: “You Must Be This Tall To Ride” – this porn pose, like she is stripper dancing, but giving you a rule. It’s like a sign for entering an amusement park ride. So the top of the leg would indicate the height the person must be, and then the other meaning could be for sex. Like it could say “to ride me”, but it doesn’t. That one came about from preparing for a show I was supposed to do with Thundercut and Gaëtane (Michaux), but it got cancelled. So we were all supposed to do a sign.
Brooklyn Street Art: So it is this “come-on” pose coupled with this rejection at the same time.
Pufferella: It is, isn’t it? It could be used for a boy or a girl. She’s very bold. I think that’s the boldest piece I’ve probably done, with all that hair.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s full of energy and action and movement and power. Pufferella: Yeah, it’s funny, I have a hard time looking at that one. Sometimes when I’m all done, I actually cry. I don’t really like my work.
Brooklyn Street Art: Really?
Pufferella: Yeah, like I had a breakdown. Just looking at all of it and what it all means, and really kind of having that put in your face, in a way, it’s like “maybe this is the reality”. Like “What am I trying to say? Why is this what comes out of me?”
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s revelatory, perhaps.
Pufferella: Yeah, I guess. Like I do the drawing, and I guess it doesn’t mean as much as what it ends up being in the end when it comes to life.
Brooklyn Street Art: That’s interesting how it causes discomfort and emotional turbulence. Pufferella: Yeah, I probably wouldn’t do this show if I could back out now. Now that it’s all ready to go I would probably not show it. Because it is like “what am I doing?” The work is very personal I guess.
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Pufferella has been sewing creations for the front room and Josh McCutcheon will be showing himself publicly for the first time in the back room.
And now for your viewing pleasure, a promotional video for the show done by Pufferella’s dearest friends at PLAZTIK MAG
Polymetrochromanticism
The Artwork of Josh Mccutchen
Josh McCutchen lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn and this is his debut show at Factory Fresh. His narrative works are about mythology, science & technology, social commentary, body image, polymorphic shapes, and abstract urban landscapes.
As a television personality Josh hosted “Does This Look Infected” on MTVU network from 2005-2007. When he’s not painting modern masterpieces, Josh is the host, writer, producer, and editor of the Josh McCutchen Show. You can see him in action at http://www.youtube.com/joshmccutchen
For a limited engagement of one week only, come see the magical land of Pufferella. With all new work, she turns the front room of Factory Fresh into a circus specially made to host her latest fabric creations.
With Rides and Amusement provided by her friends Skewville and Plaztik mag, this is one show not to be missed.
Pufferella has been making Fabric creations since 2002 and has been involved with the Skewville missions even longer. Her work deals mainly with sexual relations and the afterthoughts. She is the woman behind the creation of Orchard Street Art Gallery in NYC and Factory Fresh Art Gallery in Brooklyn. Her work has been shown in both solo and group exhibitions throughout NYC, California, Dublin and London. www.pufferella.com
Sweet dreams of summer and banana splits
Polymetrochromanticism The Artwork of Josh Mccutchen
Josh McCutchen lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This is his debut show at Factory
Fresh. His narrative works are about mythology, science & technology, social commentary
and body image. He also works with polymorphic shapes, and abstract urban landscapes.
Josh is also a television personality. He hosted “Does This Look Infected” on MTVU network
from 2005-2007. When he’s not painting modern masterpieces, Josh is the host, writer,
producer, and editor of the Josh McCutchen Show. You can see him in action at http://www.youtube.com/joshmccutchen
Brooklyn Filmmaker Collective “Cinema Set Free” produced this great video about the celebration of Street Art in New York called “Street Crush”. Thank you Antonio, Lawrence, Melissa, and Demitri of “Cinema Set Free” for your talents.
BrooklynStreetArt.com and AlphaBeta Art Space hosted a fun street art show with 43 street artists, 4 burlesque performers, and a kissing booth. Working around themes of “Love, Sex, and the Street”, well-known street artists alongside relative whipper-snappers dug deep for fresh takes on gritty street ardor.
Artists included Aakash Nihalani, Abe Lincoln Jr., Aiko, Anera, Bortusk Leer, Broken Crow, C. Damage, Cake, Celso, Charm, Chris Uphues, Creepy, DirQuo, Ellis Gallagher A.K.A. (C)ELLIS G., Eternal Love, FauxReel, FKDL, General Howe, GoreB, Imminent Disaster, Hellbent, Infinity, Nobody, Jef Aerosol, Jon Burgerman, Matt Siren, Mimi the Clown, NohJColey, Pagan, PMP, Poster Boy, Pufferella, Pushkin, Chris from Robots Will Kill, Col from Robots Will Kill, Veng from Robots Will Kill, Royce Bannon, Skewville, Stikman, The Dude Company, Titi from Paris, and U.L.M.
THE PERFORMERS Nasty Canasta, Clams Casino, Harvest Moon, and your MC, Tigger!
THE KISSING BOOTH A funky loveshack built by artist and set-designer J. Mikal Davis and lorded over by Madame Voulez-Vous. Kissing Booth Volunteers: Ashley, Jeremy, Jess, Justin, Natasha, Ryan, and Val.
THE NON-PROFIT: Art Ready mentoring program for New York City high school students considering careers in the arts, please visit: http://www.smackmellon.org/education.html
POST PARTY Brooklyn projection artists, SeeJ and SuperDraw performed at Coco66 .
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO “CINEMA SET FREE” and
Producer/Cameraman – Lawrence Whiteside
Producer/Cameraman – Antonio Bonilla
Editor – Melissa Figueroa
Voice Over Recordist – Dimitri Tisseryre
Last Thursday Factory Fresh Gallery hosted “Fresh Geezers”, a new show by The London Police and Galo. In a departure from his regular street art job, photographer Vinny Cornelli takes Brooklyn Street Art to the opening with these shots.
Factory Fresh welcomes The London Police, who get themselves into the oddest situations while in pursuit of art. (video still courtesy London Police)
The World Premiere of full-length Galo Video!
Italian street artist Galo enjoys a glass of wine while painting a canvas (video still courtesy the artist)
FRESH Canvasses paying tribute to NYC!
A tribute to their host borough, street artists The London Police combine Brooklyn architecture and a stylized central discombulation of their “character” (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Blowing northward along the coast from Miami’s Art Basel like warm air from a subway grate up my homegirls’ skirt, this trio of street art brothers are some really fresh geezers here to warm you at Factory Fresh.
It’s The London Police and Galo – a motley joyfest of brotherly jest in color and black and white. Their hand work is a contrast of free-form (Galo) and pre-meditated crisp line control (London Police). There are still-wet canvasses and the newly constructed Factory Fresh Screening Room to see two cinematic features. Helpfully, the entertaining videos in this show are not conceptual, so you won’t need a brochure to accompany them.
This quickly mounted show (3 days) is only possible because these guys have a bit of mileage under their belts (12 years and 50 countries, in Chaz’s case), are complete professionals, and they know how to turn out the canvasses while having fun.
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Galo was previously a graphic designer who decided to dedicate his energies to his art, which is colorful, line-based, and concentrates on what he calls his “character” – who really turns out to be more than one guy.
“This is my character. I just draw until I’m satisfied, you know? I think it has a sort of graphic balance. Normally I’m pretty flexible with myself. I like to have the faces squeezed. It doesn’t matter if they have the perfect eye. It’s pretty much informal,” says Galo.
“It is a sort of family because I first started with the one character with the round eye and slowly I started to draw the same kind of lines but with different kinds of eyes and different position of the mouth and so let’s say that they are three brothers. They are always changing”
One of Galo’s favorites from the show. ” Normally I don’t paint big canvasses like this because it is troublesome to ship them. So I shipped the canvasses and I re-framed them here.” (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Upon his recent return to Brooklyn, Galo retrieved some old paintings stored here, which he says he wants to light on fire. “These canvasses basically disappeared for four years. They were in the storage of a friend of a friend who moved to Mexico. So I didn’t see them anymore, they just got ruined. Just to clean my hands I just want to burn them. So I nailed them together. I’m going to burn these and we’ll see what happens,” says the pyromaniacal artist.
Galo stands with a stack of canvasses destined for destruction in the back yard of Factory Fresh, which he painted in about 3 hours with a big fat cap. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Galo shows some technique with the can. “Miami was great, absolutely amazing. The best I’ve ever seen – so many people out there. I painted a really big wall so I was busy painting every day, but for sure in the evening it was just partying, hanging out with other artists.”
Galo peers out through his work in this still from his new full length video premiering tonight at Factory Fresh.
GALO – a Brief Introduction – the full story tonight!
The London Police are Chaz and Bob – Bob does the crisp linear cityscapes and architectural detailing, and Chaz draws the “LAD” character (who is based loosely on the man himself), now happily morphing and shape-shifting into blobs and motifs that echo the original little happy fella they are known for.
On the topic of the endless interpretations and generally ripping apart of the original theme, Chaz explains that he felt their fans might have gotten a bit bored with just the one character, “Once you’ve done one head and then two heads and then three or four heads…after going out and doing the same thing it got to the point where I wanted to go out and do ten heads, fifteen heads.”
This year they limited themselves to strictly black and white, but do not rule out using color in the future.
The City according to the London Police; “”We’re really proud and pleased with the work we are doing this year. We enjoy it, and I don’t think you can really ask for more than that. We work a lot on these paintings. It takes a long time. Everything you see here is doubled, because we use the ink pens. The first layer leaves it a little bit shallow so it needs to be doubled up,” says Chaz (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A student of architecture, Bob worked for an architectural firm a few years ago, which sharpened his acuity, “I’m crazy about architecture but as a living it’s a little bit stale. But it was really good because it was so in-depth that your drawing gets better. Your understanding of architecture gets better and your world grows. Now I can pretty much close my eyes, remember an image and then draw it from my brain,” he says.
And about incorporating the architecture of his host city into TLP’s work, ” I did quite a lot of actual research, visually, and reading up on Brooklyn. The contrast between Manhattan and Brooklyn, obviously is huge. But I like the rawness of Brooklyn. I always have. I’ve been here a few times and I like that you have the low-level housing, three or four stories high, and then you’ve got this huge factory next to it. It’s really bold. That’s what is iconic about Brooklyn.”
In this still from the “Brothers in Arms” documentary to be screened this evening, Chaz takes a little catnap as his hand-cuffed art-mate labors on their deadline. (image courtesy the artists)
“In this show we are showing a documentary film we made in L.A. which was basically us handcuffed together twenty-four hours a day. We lasted five days. It was pretty intense. We didn’t break. I thought there would be a breaking point where I would just need personal space, especially at the obvious times”
The “Brothers in Arms” flyer is posted in the gallery just outside the cinema. Check your local listings for times.
Produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, the brief documentary shows the “brothers” in a variety of natural and staged situations that come off as endearing, entertaining, and a bit goofy.
“It produced a funny, nice documentary so when people come to the show tonight there will be a bit of cinema about every 20 minutes and you can watch the film about Galo, and the film about us handcuffed together, which is stupid, corny, and funny,” says Chaz.
Chaz chats while doing some finer line-work in prep for tonight’s show at Factory Fresh (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Two new smaller canvasses feature scenes inspired by New York disaster movies that have proliferated in the last 25 years. Both Chaz and Bobbie site the movie “Ghost Busters” as a formative influence in their artistic careers. (The London Police) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Chaz works on a canvas patiently while handcuffed to Bobbie, who is getting a tatoo. “It’s really simple, it’s just my girlfriend and my son’s name in script. She was really gobsmacked. She really loved it. I was really fearing showing her, and she was really touched,” says Bob. (still from “Brothers in Arms” courtesy the artists)
About the movie, we discovered that really the idea was Chaz’s and Bobbie just went along. Was there a point when Bobbie regretted the decision?
Says Bobbie, “Yeah, about after five minutes. I was having a terrible time”
“I just couldn’t, – Bear in mind you’re setting up for a very important show – you just couldn’t get anything done. The whole thing – it was okay hanging out with Chaz, you know we had a good laugh. But you couldn’t get anything done. You just can’t physically do anything, it get’s really frustrating.”
But don’t mind this brother, because later in the conversation, he reverses himself and says it would have been great to do it for 2 or 3 weeks. “We wanted to do more than five days but the problem was that show was to open so that was the maximum that we could do but if had had more time that’s when you would have gotten some really good material. It was all novelty, it was all fun. If you went to a party people were really interested – but it would have been great if you could have gone on for two or three weeks.”
Were people waiting for one or both of them to have a meltdown? Says Bob, “Yeah, that’s what they were hoping! But it was five days and because we’re best friends it was never going to happen”.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
