All posts tagged: Finabarr DAC

Images Of The Week: 12.08.13

December 8, 2013 Artists

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 500m, Ainac, Bask, Bishop203, CB23, Edapt, Fin DAC, Hot Tea, Jilly Ballistic, Labrona, Leghead, Medico, Nester, Nico, Paul Insect, Poop Culture, Starfightera, and Tony DePew.

Top Image >> Fin DAC and Starfightera collaboration tribute to Lou Reed/Nico/The Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fin DAC and Starfightera collaboration tribute to Lou Reed/Nico/The Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nester tribute to Nelson Mandela in Poughkeepsie, NY. Mr. Mandela passed away Thursday December 5, 2013 at the age of 95. (photo © Jodi Kyle-Cox)

Paul Insect (photo © Jaime Rojo)

From The Department of Well Being (photo © Jaime Rojo)

cb23, Tony Depew, and Edapt collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea. Also, a nice dog. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bask in Miami for ART Basel 2013. (photo © Bask)

Ainac (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop203 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Medico (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Get it? Poop Culture. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Labrona and 500m in Montreal, Canada. (photo © Labrona)

Keep an eye on your art. Sidi Abdul Khaalig AKA Leghead (cellphone shot) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Another temporary installation by Sidi Abdul Khaalig AKA Leghead (cellphone shot). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. SOHO, NYC. December 2013 (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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Eye on London Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 23, 2013 Artists

For the first week-long “residency” on BSA, Spencer Elzey has been sharing his experiences and Street Art photos from his recent trip to Europe. Today we finish with London, a polished and presentable collection of some of the current scene from the streets.

The city has long played host to a rolling panoply of urban art and artists and is a prime example of the professionalization of the practice featuring a greater absorption into the culture and economy at large with galleries, museums, shops, and paid tour guides all joining in. The upshot is you will see some of the best examples of talent and it may at times seem all quite combed over and generally safe for a general audience. Not that there isn’t dynamism and risk taking, and you will still find unsanctioned work to be seen inside and outside of the tourist hotspots.

Sweet Toof and Roa (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Hosting the Olympics last year brought a self cleansing of much of the organically grown graffiti and Street Art, and the chilling effect of living in an electronically surveilled society with cameras nearly everywhere will undoubtedly be sited to when historians look at the nature of art on the streets from this era.

“London had a lot of Street Art but it felt more corporate and organized for the masses,” says Elzey of his time walking through Shoreditch, Brick Lane, Hackney, Bethnal Green, and Camden. “In the week that I was there I walked by around five Street Art tours.”

Sweet Toof (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“Most of London’s street art is confined to these places – The other areas that I explored around London all seemed pretty clean. This may have been due to the fact that there are security cameras everywhere,” he says. An international first world city, London usually is a destination for the international “circuit” of Street Artists whose names tend to reappear on lists of the various street/graffiti/urban art festivals that now pop up in global cities from Lima to Łódź and Living Walls to Nuart to Upfest and the recently ended FAME.

As with any art form that begins as transgressive and underground and evolves to be adopted by the dominant culture, at times the whole scene begins to resemble the commercial and institutional interests it once mocked or attempted to subvert. “London is great but felt more catered to the bigger players and had the most street art in commissioned form (by the various Street Art organizations), which is good to see some amazing work but cheapens the art a little,” he says.

In the images he shares with BSA readers today you can see the really strong work that is throughout those neighborhoods as many of the artists consider strongly what they will do – and it results in some quite striking pieces. As always, you want to keep an eye on London. Surely it will keep an eye on you.

Miss Van and B. Schu (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Otto Schade (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shok 1 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Gnasher (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Alexis Diaz (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ben Eine (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cranio (photo © Spencer Elzey)

For The Love Of Dog (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Banksy (photo © Spencer Elzey)

A sculptural installation by D*Face (photo © Spencer Elzey)

ROA (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Swoon (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Guy Denning (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Urban Solid (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Sokaruno (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Vinie and Reaone (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Anthony Lister (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Finabarr DAC (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Phlegm (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Faith 47 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

El Mac (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Conor Harrington (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Klone (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Dal East (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Dscreete (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Insa (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Martin Ron (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jana & JS (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Christian Nagel (photo © Spencer Elzey)

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Paris Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 19, 2013 Artists

As we continue our one week residency on BSA for Street Art fan Spencey Elzey, he takes you to Paris to see what is happening on the street there right now. If you were to try to characterize the nature of the work, you may say that it favors illustration, a clean defined line, and a purposeful classical aesthetic.

For years we have associated the romantic city and it’s historical culture and architecture with Street Artists like the stencil pioneers Blek Le Rat and Jef Aerosol, along with Miss Tic, Invader, FKDL, Fred Chevaliar, C215, and Alice Pasquini, to name just a few. Spencer finds some of those artists’ work and and he shares some others here with you too. Naturally, because we don’t cover this city regularly, locals will surely tell you that some of these pieces are a couple of years old, but for an American tourist in Paris, it all looks new from here!

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“It did feel like there was some form of respect for the older architecture, especially in Paris,” says Spencer when comparing his observations of Paris, Berlin, and London. “While all three cities are old (especially compared to NYC), Paris feels the oldest and there seems to be certain buildings or doors that remained untouched.” Maybe that’s why we always think Paris is romantic. Also, Edith Piaf.

Speaking of romance we begin the image survey with two current giants on the Paris scene Jana und JS, who are a collaborating Street Art couple who basically bonded over their mutual love for shooting images. Advocates of photography on the street, you will find they’ve also an affinity for spray paint and stencils and their subject often is themselves. It’s rather a marriage made for the street. You can read a full interview with them here on Street Art Paris.

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“Walking around Paris I also found myself looking up a lot more as compared to other cities; while this was mostly due to the fact that I was looking out for the 100’s of Space Invader pieces, there were lots of other pieces stuck to the walls up high. I thought it was also notable that the walls within the metro tunnels between stations were covered with graffiti in Paris.”

“Paris has street art defined to a few areas specifically,” explains Elzey, “including some of the murals in the 13^th arrondissement that were put together by Galerie Itinerrance, a few areas up around Belleville, and areas throughout Le Marais, which includes sections of the 3^rd and 4^th arrondissements.”

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jana & Js. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Finabarr DAC (photo © Spencer Elzey)

ETHOS (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ella & Pitr. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Clet Abraham (photo © Spencer Elzey)

A large wall by the Chilean Street Artist Inti (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shadeek (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Alexis Diaz (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shepard Fairey (photo © Spencer Elzey)

RERO (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Invader (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Not Invader. Megamatt. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Daco (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Bristolian Nick Walker has a heart (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Tona and Alias (photo © Spencer Elzey)

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Street Art in Vitry-sur-Seine (France) : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 18, 2013 Artists

BSA is lucky to be a clearinghouse for many people who participate in and celebrate the Street Art scene – artists, curators, designers, collectors, galleries, museums, researchers, academics, historians and fans. Because we have never taken advertising readers tend to trust our platform and people in the community give us great behind-the-scenes opportunities to learn and share freely with others about the creative process and the culture on the street. It also gives us the freedom to do whatever we want when planning editorial or content.

Claire Pinatel (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Recently we had this idea about giving our site out to artists or art-lovers a week at a time so they could also fully share their personal experiences of the Street Art/public art/graffiti/ scene. So this week before Thanksgiving we’re giving the whole week to one person as a “residency”, our way of sharing this valuable platform and inviting you to have a greater voice in this conversation.

Spencer Elzey loves art in general and is an avid Street Art fan in particular and he likes to take trips that include shooting images on the street in whatever city he visits. He also supports artists by buying their art, regularly attending art exhibitions, reading and studying about them and following their evolution. Over the last couple of years we have seen that he is also a dedicated Street Art hunter with camera in hand on the streets of New York City when he isn’t at his regular job – and he loves to share what he finds with others on social media and as an occasional contributor to BSA.

When we heard that Spencer was planning a trip to Europe this fall we proposed to him the idea of him keeping a photo journal to be shared exclusively with BSA readers and we offered to help connect him with some friendly guides on his trip so he could get some splendid and exclusive photos. He enthusiastically accepted the offer and here is the first day of Spencer’s one-week residency on BSA, an edited treasure trove of images and insights from the guy himself. We know you’re going to dig it.

Here’s this weeks schedule:

Monday is Vitry-sur-Seine Street Art.
Tuesday will be Paris Street Art.
Wednesday will be a special collection of the installations from the Le Tour Paris 13 project.
Thursday will be his adventures in Berlin.
BSA Film Friday will feature a selection of videos reflecting the cities he toured.
Saturday will be Spencer’s London showcase.

Of all four cities Spencer visited over a two week trip, this one seemed to really embrace the value of street art to the culture, he says. “In terms of which city was the most welcoming of street art I’d have to say Vitry-sur-Seine was because this is really a grassroots campaign kickstarted by C215,” he says of this city of 83,000 that is called a commune and lies on the outskirts of Paris.

It’s not hard to believe that the scene is attributed in large part to the influence of the well-regarded stencil artist C215 as this is a guy who considers his work to be community service and who regularly features people from the city he is in as subjects of his portraits. That’s why he was the perfect guide for Spencer, who says he learned a huge amount of information in a short time.

“I have to say that C215 is one of the more interesting, opinionated and knowledgeable artists that I have come across. We started the morning at his local café with a coffee. I explored around a little by myself while he was attending to some prior engagements with his gallery and then he caught up with me out on the streets. We eventually had lunch and then went back to his house. Topics ranged from his opinion on the scene in general, on other artists, on galleries and it even touched on street art websites and documenters.

“I hadn’t realized that he has only been doing stenciling for seven years but it was easy to see how far his pieces have come from the few monochrome stencils that still remain around Williamsburg (Brooklyn) from around 2008,” remarks Elzey.

“What C215 has done in Vitry-sur-Seine is much bigger than I expected it to be, both in terms of quantity of work in the area as well as the impact on the community. The first piece that he put up there was about five year ago and within that time there have appeared at least 150 different pieces from him and other artists throughout the area,” says Spencer.

Naturally, Elzey was shooting whatever odd or curious or thrilling piece he found on his travels through this city that celebrates artists, in addition to the work done by his host. “I was definitely surprised with how much Street Art there was in Vitry-sur-Seine. I took around 200 pictures of different pieces while there and I’m still seeing pictures on Instagram of things that I had missed,” he says.

One piece in particular by C215 impressed him a lot – because of it’s impact visually and its perfectly contextual placement. Additionally, Elzey felt that it illustrated the regard that the residents have for the artists work and the fact that people didn’t appear to think of it as illegal or vandalism, per se. “While I was exploring and taking pictures, various residents pointed with excitement about pieces just around the corner that I should go look at,” he says.

“There was one older gentleman, probably in his 70s, who just simply said “La porte” and smiled while pointing in a certain direction. I rounded the corner to see a stencil of the Virgin Mary on the back door of the main church,” he says of one of the few religious themed pieces that the artist has created. “C215 had indicated that this was one of his favorite pieces in the area and it was nice to see that residents appreciated it as well. Had it not been for this project there really would be no other reason for me to have travelled down to Vitry-sur-Seine but it was definitely worth it.”

We hope you enjoy this one week residency on Brooklyn Street Art and we congratulate Spencer for his dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm.

Our sincere thanks also go to those who offered their hospitality and agreed to give Spencer a tour on our behalf; to the stencil artist C215, who graciously took him around Vitry and who shared with him a history and background on the scene there, to Maroune and Mehdi at Itinerrance Gallery for providing Spencer with special solo access to Le Tour Paris 13 while hundreds were queing outside, and to the dynamic German duo Various & Gould who welcomed him into their studio and showed Spencer some really cool spots around Berlin. This open and generous community spirit really makes the work that we do feel so inspiring to us, and we thank each of you for playing host to Spencer and for sharing your knowledge with the BSA family.

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