All posts tagged: Gaia

(VIDEO) 2012 Street Art Images of the Year from BSA

December 19, 2012 Artists

Of the 10,000 images he snapped of Street Art this year, photographer Jaime Rojo gives us 110 that represent some of the most compelling, interesting, perplexing, thrilling in 2012.

Slideshow cover image of Vinz on the streets of Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Together the collection gives you an idea of the range of mediums, techniques, styles, and sentiments that appear on the street today as the scene continues to evolve worldwide. Every seven days on BrooklynStreetArt.com, we present “Images Of The Week”, our weekly interview with the street.

We hope you enjoy this collection – some of our best Images of The Year from 2012.

Artists include 2501, 4Burners, 907, Above, Aiko, AM7, Anarkia, Anthony Lister, Anthony Sneed, Bare, Barry McGee, Bast, Billi Kid, Cake, Cash For Your Warhol, Con, Curtis, D*Face, Dabs & Myla, Daek One, DAL East, Dan Witz, Dark Clouds, Dasic, David Ellis, David Pappaceno, Dceve, Deth Kult, ECB, Eine, El Sol 25, Elle, Entes y Pesimo, Enzo & Nio, Esma, Ever, Faile, Faith47, Fila, FKDL, Gable, Gaia, Gilf!, Graffiti Iconz, Hef, HellbentHert, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Interesni Kazki, Jason Woodside, Javs, Jaye Moon, Jaz, Jean Seestadt, Jetsonorama, Jim Avignon, Joe Iurato, JR, Judith Supine, Ka, Kem5, Know Hope, Kuma, Labrona, Liqen, LNY, Love Me, Lush, Matt Siren, Mike Giant, Miyok, MOMO, Mr. Sauce, Mr. Toll, ND’A, Nick Walker, Nosego, Nychos, Occupy Wall Street, Okuda, OLEK, OverUnder, Phlegm, Pixel Pancho, Rambo, Read Books!, Reka, Retna, Reyes, Rime, Risk, ROA, Robots Will Kill, Rone, Sacer, Saner, See One, Sego, sevens errline, Sheyro, Skewville, Sonni, Stick, Stikman, Stormie Mills, Square, Swoon, Tati, The Yok, Toper, TVEE, UFO, VHILS, Willow, Wing, XAM, Yes One, and Zed1 .

Images © Jaime Rojo and Brooklyn Street Art 2012

Images of the Week 12.02.12

December 2, 2012 Artists

As you know, this is the last month in human history so it’s been great knowing you. Hold still, let me memorize you.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Anthony Sneed, Bast, Cavite, Con, Cost, Curtis, Dceve, Defs, Esma, Eyez, Faile FKDL, Gaia, Miyok, Nanook, New Chalk City, Obey, Peat Wolleager, Phooey, Read, and Wing.

From left to right; FKDL, Cost, Faile, Bast, Judith Supine and Anthony Sneed on an overnight installation for a special project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile and Judith Supine. Detail of the previous wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

From left to right: Anthony Sneed, Faile, OBEY, Judith Supine, Faile on an overnight installation for a special project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine and Faile. Detail of the previous wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile. Space Shuttle Challenger. Detail of the previous wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Space Shuttle Enterprise on a final fly over NYC shown here catching a piggy ride above The Statue of Liberty in April of this year. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Esma, Con, Dceve and Curtis on the top. Photo taken after hurricane Sandy brought down fences on empty lots. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peat EYEZ Wollaeger largest stencil/mural to date. (photo © Chris P Rice)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OYE READ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nanook and Gaia collaborating in Buenos Aires, Argentina for Meeting of the Sytles. (photo © GAIA)

“The cycle of neoliberalism is broken when in 2002 Ghelco was occupied by its employees during the Argentine financial crisis. The last chain link hand floats voting on the other side of the composition. There are 41 Ice cream cones for each worker in the occupied factory. One hand voting represents the democratic decision making process of the cooperatively run ice cream plant” -GAIA

Nanook and Gaia collaborating in Buenos Aires, Argentina for Meeting of the Sytles. (photo © GAIA)

Phooey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

New Chalk City (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Defs in Cavite, Philippines. (photo © Defs)

Miyok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Chinatown, NYC. November, 2012. (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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Arabbers; A Dying Baltimore Tradition Brought to Life by Gaia

October 17, 2012 Artists

Street Artist Gaia regularly highlights people from whichever community that he’s painting or wheatpasting in. Passersby commonly stop to talk while he’s working, often adding layers of history, knowledge, opinion, and nuance to his piece while he works. With his newest wall in Sandtown, a neighborhood of Baltimore, Gaia draws attention to a dying local profession that is hanging on, but barely.

Gaia “The Arabbers” Sandtown, Baltimore. 2012 (photo © Gaia)

Arabbers, pronounced locally with a long A (“A-rab”) were salespeople who had as many as 400 commercial carts offering fresh produce and other items rolling daily through the streets of Baltimore at one time, according to some accounts. Horse-drawn carts were a normal part of the early 20^th century street life and amazingly B-Town still supports a few of these small business people on the streets in the 21^st.

Because of new zoning and bylaws enacted during a period of urban renewal, the city restricted where horse stables existed, and many were put out of business. But during our travels through Baltimore with photographer Martha Cooper, who grew up there, we have had occasion to meet a number of the people who still carry this trade forward, some for many generations. Their small fenced off plots of land and stables appear suddenly like an oasis of farm life from another era in the middle of otherwise urban blocks. Once able to provide a good living to a family, Arabbers still brings fresh food to under served communities at reasonable prices. Unfortunately the proud profession is now endangered by the economic pressures of rising fees, the costs of animal care, and stable upkeep.

One of the people featured in the new mural by Gaia, Great Grandpa Manboy. Sandtown, Baltimore. 2012. (photo © Gaia)

“The Arabbers are a dying Baltimore tradition,” says Gaia, “that have long been a staple of this remarkable city.” The NYC Street Artist, who has been living in Baltimore for a handful of years while attending university as an art student, feels a kinship to the families who are still enduring to keep this kind of livelihood sustainable. “These men and women define the word ‘hustle’,” he remarks, “trotting along both desolate and vibrant landscapes selling their goods and making ends meet. This mural depicts four generations; starting with the great grandfather Manboy in the middle and up to Fruit’s son on the top right.”

Gaia “The Arabbers” Sandtown, Baltimore. 2012 (photo © Gaia)

As the many expressions of Street Art freely bleed into all of art’s disciplines, many of Gaia’s more recent work clearly overlaps the traditions of community murals, where local residents are called out and celebrated, deified, congratulated, and mourned. In this case, the tradition also extends to being a little bit educational as Gaia points to some of the contributing factors that endanger a profession here, “ The Arabber portraits are mixed with the logos on the containers in which their produce comes: a global economy meets a fading, tough tradition.”

Gaia “The Arabbers” Sandtown, Baltimore. 2012 (photo © Gaia)

A Pony in a Baltimore stable. 2011 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pigeons and Ponies mix well at a Baltimore Stable. 2011 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quick Shots of The Grassy Lot: Edition 2012

September 18, 2012 Artists, Features, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

We’re keeping it local today with an empty patch of real estate on Manhattan’s Lower East Side called “The Grassy Lot” that’s been semi-curated for about a year with an eclectic mix of American and Australian ex-pats. It’s a nice little patch of grass that is sometimes rented out for events and receptions – also it is used occasionally for rumored topless sunbathing, water balloon fights, or the periodic impromptu late night assignation after stumbling out of a nearby watering hole.

Queen Andrea on the wall where Nanook and GAIA painted last year. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Like all fun things, Summer is drawing to a close, at least officially. For those of you who walk the streets of this city either with your eyes closed or fixed on your belly button we inform you that it was the Summer of Love ’12 for The Yok and Sheryro, who stayed at the top of the aerosol charts due to their sheer industry. This little lot has some examples of their stuff, but really they seemed to get up all over. Here also is Queen Andrea, who has also been making a strong showing of late, along with stuff from Cake, Cern, Daek1, Gaia, Nanook, Never, and Sean Morris.

Brooklyn impresario Joe Franquinha of Crest Art Show fame was the procurer of art at “The Grassy Lot” again this year and we extend our gratitude to him for letting us give a peak to BSA readers.

Queen Andrea. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Queen Andrea detail with a duet with Cern’s birds on the right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Yok from last year illuminates the way for Cern. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daek 1 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Oh, and one more thing…”, Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean Morris ate too many Sheryo hot dogs this summer, evidently, and is still in a food coma. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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FUN FRIDAY 09.14.12

September 14, 2012 Artists

It’s a BSA Fun Friday and we’re gonna tell you all about some stoopendous Street Art shows this weekend from Brooklyn to Chicago to Paris to Vienna but first….Everybody get up and do some FF dancing like my homeboy PSY in Korea.

This sh*t is Gangnsta, bro.

SEOUL, YOU THINK YOU GOT TALENT…

1. VIDEO “Gangnam Style” Dance Frenzy from Korea
2. Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)
3. “Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)
4. LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)
5. “All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)
6. “Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
7. GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)
8. Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)
9. Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope “Others’ Truths”
10. The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria
11. Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You”
12. “Permanence at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada
13. eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)
14. When Lucent Met Herakut (VIDEO)
15. Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)

Street Artist Bäst has always mixed a savory chopped image salad. With his dicing, cutting, collaging and stencilling work on the street over the last decade, a lot of his recent stencils are twisted Bodega style signs advertising basic staples for the pantry. But of all the collaborative advertising that Street Artists have been getting into, we never could have predicted this; Olive oil. You can actually go to snooty classist foodery Dean and Deluca and buy a bottle of Bast style olive oil right now. Only 500 were made in this limited edition and the oil smells better than the petroleum-spilled brownfields in industrial Bushwick where you usually see his work, so why not?

This Brooklyn native artist has been amusing, hijacking, and inspiring with his work on the streets of New York for well over a decade and it’s also cool to see his gallery work at his solo show “Germs Tropicana” opened last night at Opera in Manhattan. If the pieces are too pricey, Dean and Deluca is just a couple of blocks away!

Bäst (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)

Outside is the brand new wall piece by ND’A and Dirty Bandits. Inside this art store/gallery they are joined QRST and Gilf! in this new small show called “Just Your Type”, opening tonight.

ND’A (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)

Parisian Street Artist LUDO was in multiple shows around the world and blanketed the Paris Metro and bus shelters with his subvertisements for two years before a gallery in his native city invited him inside. Tonight Galerie Itinerrance will have LUDO’s first solo show entitled “Metal Militia”.

With a truly unique approach to social critique that serves as a cunning indictment of the advertising industry and the military industrial complex, you won’t find anything like the pretty disgust than the work of LUDO.

LUDO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)

Ever the ballsy wiseguy, the Klaughaus Gallery in Manhattan continues to produce and present quality shows that challenge your possibly prejudicial pre-formed perceptions of propriety and pugnacity. This time they invited West Coast natives Reyes and Steel to exhibit at their space with a show titled “All Write You Scumbags”.

From the press release, “The New York debut for both artists and showcases a distinct chemistry cultivated over years working together as friends, creative partners and members of MSK, one of the highest regarded graffiti artist collectives in the world.” To find out what this means go to their show opening tonight.

Reyes (image © courtesy of the gallery)

Steel (image © courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)

Street Artist ROA concludes his US Summer Tour 2012 in San Francisco at his own victorious opening Saturday at 941 Geary Gallery. The show is aptly called “Dominant Species” and will feature many of the cast of creatures you have grown to expect.

“Here is a Street Artist who has very effectively escaped the street, an introvert traveling quietly in the extroverted world, with open eyes and an acute talent for observation; decoding the universe through study of the natural, and unnatural.” BSA

ROA at work on his recent stop over in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read BSA’s feature on ROA this week and to see beautiful images of his work in Mexico, Africa and Cambodia earlier this year click here.

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN are transforming the space at the Creative Alliance Gallery in Baltimore with a collaboration that promises to spill over the street and beyond. If you want to see what the trio is up to put the gameboy down and head out to the gallery for their opening tomorrow night with an exhibition titled Zim Zum.

MOMO at work on his recent participation on Baltimore Open Walls this Summer. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

See MOMO in GEOMETRICKS, presented by BSA and curated by Hellbent next weekend in BROOKLYN, baby.

Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)

Chicago based Street Artist Don’t Fret has a new solo show, “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay” opening Saturday night at the Bizzare Gallery in Chicago. So if you are planning to arrive naked, BYOB and put your wallet under your armpit. Lo-fi comic book doodling that make most people look like family day at the tractor pull, Don’t Fret drawings are people you know and often dang hilarious.

Don’t Fret in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this Weekend:

If you are in Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope is releasing a new zine titled “Others’ Truths” and he’s mounted a small exhibition of the drawings that illustrate it. This exhibition will remain open all day today until 4:00 pm. Click here for more details on this show.
The 2012 Edition of The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria is now open. The festival has an important selection of Street Artists putting up works throughout an entire week of programs. Roster includes Blu, Evan Roth, Florian Riviere, Isaac Cordal, Mark Jenkins, and ZukClub. Click here for more details on this festival.
The film screening by Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You” is being hosted by the Joshua Liner Gallery in conjunction with their current show by the artist “A Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures”. The screening will take place tomorrow at The Tribeca Grand Hotel. The artist will be in attendance along with the director and a Q & A will follow the film. Click here for more details on this event.
“Permanence” is the title of the new group show at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada. With an ambitious line up international and Canadian artists this show aims to juxtapose the “ephemeral nature of street art with the permanence of collectible art.” From their press release. Click here for more details regarding this show.

In the spirit of Unity, we present Street Artist eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)

This week there has been much news of sadness, discord, and suffering in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Street Artist and painter eL Seed gives us a moment to pull back and reflect on the beauty and poignancy that a religious belief system can contribute to the lives of some.

Here he creates ‘Madinati’ Calligraffiti on Jara Mosque in Gabes.

When Lucent Met Herakut by The One Point Eight (VIDEO)

“A short documentary which presents the show involving graffiti duo Herakut and the Lucent Dossier group, detailing both the rehearsal process and the final performance in a unique and different way.”

Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

Creative Alliance Presents: “Zim Zum” A Collaboration Exhibit with MOMO, Michael Owen and GAIA. (Baltimore, Maryland)

August 30, 2012 Artists, Baltimore, Events, Gallery, Opening

ZimZum

ZimZum Show Explodes Street Art World with Genre-‐Defying Piece Created by Street Artists MOMO, Michael Owen, & Gaia Opens Sept 15, 2012, 7-‐9pm

ZimZum turns street art on its head with a first-‐time collaboration between renowned artists Michael Owen, Gaia, and MOMO, by merging the work of multiple street artists into one unified piece that subsumes the individual styles of the artists into a new, singular voice. Such an intertwined, profound collaboration is rarely done in the street art world, where maintaining one’s unique imprint is at the essence of the genre.

The colossal work will fill the Main Gallery and spill onto the street, thereby pushing street art and the artists in a second way. The work must resonate with two radically different audiences simultaneously: the gallery world and the pedestrian consumer of street art, the casual passer-‐by. ZimZum is the kabbalistic idea that the creation of the universe was caused by God breathing in then out.

With large wheat paste line drawings of animals and historic figures referencing urban development, Gaia has burst into public view since 2009, exhibiting internationally from New York to Seoul, and Los Angeles to Amsterdam. Michael Owen is known as the artist behind the Baltimore Love Project, a planned series of 20 murals across Baltimore with silhouetted hands spelling the word “Love.” He’s also a Resident Artist at the Creative Alliance and has completed numerous public and private commissions, including one of the world’s longest murals in the underpass near the Baltimore neighborhood of Highlandtown. MOMO garnered early notice for “the world’s largest tag,” an innocuous, wobbly, 8-‐mile line of orange paint, spelling his name across the streets of Manhattan. He has since emerged as a leading presence internationally, with beautiful, site-‐sensitive, geometric-‐abstract murals pushing both abstraction and street art in new directions.

Following the opening, stay for the Sweatboxx Dance Party, from the producers of the successful FUSION series, paying tribute to the Baltimore club scene. We dare you to dance ALL NIGHT LONG! Two DJs, Booman (B-‐More) and Jav (Chocolate City), bring you the best of Baltimore Club and classic Hip Hop in one night. DJ Booman Is well known for his Doo Dew Kidz classics like “Watch Out For The Big Girl.” He’s engineered remixes for Usher, Katy Perry and Michael Jackson. DJ Jav (Javier Velasco) is a regular on WPFW’s “Decipher” Hip Hop Show.

Creative Alliance at The Patterson
3134 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224

http://www.creativealliance.org/

GAIA New Wheat Pastes in Chicago

August 20, 2012 Artists, Chicago, On the Street

“In true form, GAIA found himself in some of Chicago’s worst neighborhoods during one of the bloodiest summers on record,” says Nick Marzullo, owner of Pawn Works Gallery. According to most news reports the city has suffered the most violence in years, and the summer heat seems to exacerbate the duress. “Homicides are up by 38 percent from a year ago, and shootings have increased as well, even as killings have held steady or dropped in New York, Los Angeles and some other cities,” writes Monica Davey in the New York Times, and while July’s total of 49 murders represented a drop, it is hard to feel safe on many streets.

Gaia. Englewood Chicago, August 2012. (photo © Thomas Fennell IV)

How a Street Artist decides to put up work in a dangerous neighborhood is not clear, or what motivates the work. Sometimes it is to activate a space, to humanize it. Other times it is merely an opportunity to get up. These pieces somehow feel contextual, especially the large floating head. While the portrait may not be a direct commentary on the violence, we know that many of the dead in these crimes are fathers, brothers, and sons.

Gaia. Englewood Chicago, August 2012. (photo © Thomas Fennell IV)

GAIA in Chicago with a Cuban Madonna, Michaelangelo, Masks

August 16, 2012 Artists, Chicago, On the Street

Street Artist Gaia visited Chicago last week to hit some walls in his grandly fulsome style with imaginative remixing of classics. Here’s a guy who is perfectly badass about handily switching symbols, metaphors, cultures, belief systems, history, art history. The results are perplexing if you think too hard about it, thrilling if you are willing to detach the forms from their original contexts and appreciate the new associations that their juxtapositions can present.

Hosted by the fellas at Pawn Works Gallery and shot by talented photographer Brock Brake, Gaia created his new pieces as part of their ongoing project “Art in Public Places” in the Pilsen neighborhood and in Chicago’s West Town.

Gaia at Nini’s Cuban Deli in Chicago’s West Town. (photo © Brock Brake)

First off is the piece with African masks and a Cuban female figure that references the historical ties of the two regions. “Thanks to the lovely people at Nini’s Cuban Deli,” says Pawn Works Nick Marzullo of this place tucked into Chicago’s West Town. Gaia says the mural depicts the rich alloy that is Santeria. In it the Catholic twin saints Damian and Cosmas flank the African Ibeji masks.

“These are icons which were imported by the Spanish through Catholicism. African slaves sit underneath a woman performing a ceremony as Oshun, an Oshira of love and the river,” Gaia explains on his Flickr page.

Gaia at Nini’s Cuban Deli in Chicago’s West Town. (photo © Brock Brake)

Following are images of a considerably longer mural that the Street Artist did while in the Chicago. In a practice that is often his case, this mural is also site-specific. Reflecting the neighborhood of Pilsen, it’s meant as a visual representation of two other cultures merging that have successively defined it. Gaia says that he is exploring the notion of the word “immigrant”.

Gaia in the Pilsen Neighborhood with The Chicago Urban Art Society and Alderman Danny Solis (photo © Brock Brake)

“It is about the confluence of Polish and Mexican culture, says Gaia, “I just used Michaelangelo figures from the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgement scene primarily because both cultures share Catholicism – and because the bodies are so dynamic.” That explains why some of the figures looks so Michaelangelic – but with animal heads replacing the original figures human/god-like ones.

Gaia did this one in coordination with Pawn Works, the Chicago Urban Art Society and the office of Alderman Danny Solis.

Gaia in the Pilsen Neighborhood with The Chicago Urban Art Society and Alderman Danny Solis (photo © Brock Brake)

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Living Walls Atlanta 2012 Begins, 26 Artists Converge!

August 15, 2012 Artists, Atlanta, Events, On the Street, Street Art Festival

It’s Time for the Women to Represent as LW ATL Breaks New Ground Again

Sarah Emerson at work (photo © Dustin Chambers)

For the last two years at Living Walls Atlanta it’s been like graffiti summer camp; bodies and pillows and aerosol cans intermingled and stacked indiscriminately across the living room floors of friends apartments. Sketchbooks. Pizza boxes. Condoms. Campfire songs.

The third installment of the conference for Living Walls, The City Speaks, starting today and running through the 19^th, will build on the comaraderie established since then and on the lessons learned by those organizers who dared to mount this huge Street Art event on a shoe string budget and a dream. The number one change this year is that there is a bit of funding. Thanks to diligent fundraising and the donations of generous people like BSA readers who clicked a banner and gave, the Street Artists and other participants this year are actually staying in hotel rooms and everyone has a bed.

“All of the out of town artists are here, Hyuro just got in last night,” excitedly reports Living Walls organizer and BSA contributor Alexandra Parrish. So everybody is rested and ready to go.

The second important change this year is that it is all about the women.

In a completely unheard of and shocking move, the organizers/curators have invited only female Street Artists to participate this time, making this the World’s First All Female Paint Fest! It’s a remarkable achievement in a scene that has been dominated by the male of the species, almost by definition, since the graffiti scene began in US cities about a half century ago. In most people’s opinion, it’s about time too. Speculation abounds about how the atmosphere and the output will be affected. For one thing, there will probably be fewer toilet seats thoughtlessly left up. Also, better hair care products (no offense Gaia).

Sheryo at work (photo © Dustin Chambers)

“Over the past two years, 50 artists have participated – only two were female, and neither of them had a chance to paint a wall,” remarks Parrish as she illustrates the imbalance.

Of course there are already new pieces up to greet the participants that were done since March leading up to today’s opening that were not done expressly by females. Readers of BSA have seen an array of international artists from all over the world that came to paint big murals every month since including Gaia, Nanook, La Pandilla, Trek Matthews, Interesni Kazki, Evereman and Neuzz.

BSA has brought you full detail coverage of all those walls going up and now we’re gonna shout it from the roof tops as all this female power is loosed on the streets of Atlanta. And what an amazing lineup it is! The list includes: Indigo (Canada), Fefe (Brazil), TIKA (Switzerland), EME (Spain), Hyuro (Argentina), Martina Merlini (Italy), Miso (Australia), Cake (New York), Swoon (New York), Martha Cooper (New York), Sheryo (New York), White Cocoa (New York), Jessie Unterhalter and Katie Truhn (Baltimore), Molly Rose Freeman (Memphis), Teen Witch (San Francisco), olive47 (Atlanta), Paper Twins (Atlanta), Sarah Emerson (Atlanta), Sheila Pree Bright (Atlanta), Marcy Starz (Atlanta), Sten and Lex (Italy), Karen Tauches (Atlanta), Knitterati (Atlanta), Plastic Aztecs (Atlanta), Nikita Gale (Atlanta), Patricia Lacrete (Atlanta), Mon Ellis (Atlanta), and Andrzej Blazej Urbanski (Poland).

Here’s a Teaser for DAY 1

For a full list of events, schedules maps and other details click here:

TONIGHT:

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15TH
Vandalog Movie Night
Wren’s Nest in West End
9:00pm-11:00pm
RJ Rushmore from Vandalog will present a series of street art and graffiti short movies.

See the BSA posts this year for all of the installations leading up to this day:

“The Sunrise of Edgewood”, GAIA & Nanook open Living Walls Atlanta 2012

La Pandilla and Trek Matthews in Cabbagetown for Living Walls Atlanta

Interesni Kazki at Living Walls Atlanta

Priceless Culture: Mexican Artist Neuzz in Atlanta For Living Walls 2012

A Roof With a View : Looking at Art Up Above

July 25, 2012 Artists, On the Street

Climbing up on a roof during the sultry city summer can be liberating, and it turns out to be a prime place for painting too. Away from the cacophony of the sweaty streets, the breeze up here is a little cooler and stronger and aside from the occasional potted tomato plant or sun-tanning waitress, you are on your own. You may not own any personal real estate, but right now this is all yours, this sweeping urban vista of grand, glassy, grimy, gawdy, and gutted.

For years graffiti writers and Street Artists have sought these undiscovered spots as a kind of refuge, an urban backyard for hanging out and going big, often collaboratively. You could say that rooftop spots even have a certain lore, a place to tell stories about and revel in. In a hard-knock nasty city that sometimes seems to swallow people whole, on this rooftop with a view you can do a huge piece and feel like you are holding it all down. Not to mention the bragging rights you can claim for hitting a high profile location that grabs eyeballs and raises the stakes. As for the city dweller, the work, as ever, is subjectively reviled, ignored, or celebrated. No one can truthfully deny its affect on the character of the cityscape.

Here are some choice roof shots by photographer Jaime Rojo across New York, LA, Chicago, and Boston to give you a birds eye view of some art from on high.

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Anonymous Gallery Hosts: “Art, Music, Success” A Live Auction Event To Benefit the Bronx Success Academy 1 (Manhattan, NYC)

July 19, 2012 Artists, Auction, Events, Fundraising, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC

Art Music Success

ART MUSIC SUCCESS

Art, Auction, Fundraiser on Wednesday, July 25th from 7-11pm at 2 Cooper Square

(corner of Bowery and 4^th Street) to support the Bronx Success Academy 1 (“BSA”).

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Michael Anderson, Donald Baechler, Hisham Bharoocha, Kadar Brock,

Michael DeFeo, Helen Dennis, Erik Foss, Eric Freeman, Gaia, Evan Gruzis,

Eric Haze, Matt Jones, Curtis Kulig, Greg Lamarche, Maripol, Dennis McNett,

Chris Mendoza, Tom Otterness, Stefan Sagmeister, Bill Saylor, Yuri Shimojo,

Peter Sutherland, Swoon, Chuck Webster, Wendy White, Dan Witz,

Romon Kimin Yang (Rostarr), Davide Zucco, and more!

Advance tickets can be purchased now for $100 and will sell out soon.

Please visit: http://sabronx1event.eventbrite.com/ and encourage your friends to come as well.

A preview of the artworks will be available online 5 days before the event.

For further information, visit http://anonymousgallery.com/art/art-music-success/

NEW YORK CITY:
Wendsday, July 25, 2012 / 7-11 PM
2 Copper Square (Bowery and E. 4th st)

New York, NY

The Painted Desert, Part II

July 10, 2012 Arizona, Artists

The sheltering sky is huge in Navajo country, and city slicker Street Artists have room to expand their minds and their imaginations when they get out to see the landscape dotted by occasional man-made structures. Jetsonorama and Yote invited a handful of them to come out and meet some local artists and the folks who live here.

By meeting the business owners and community members who invited them to create work on their buildings, the artists learned a little about local customs, their histories, and relationships. According to Jetsonorama, the guys appreciated that this project wasn’t about big walls with lots of exposure and were interested in connecting with people and the land to inspire their work. The resulting collection has a character and context very specific to the culture and the qualities of life here.

Overunder. White and yellow corn are symbols that play into the creation story for many native people. Overunder incorporated those symbols with the power lines that punctuate the sky here. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Click HERE to see Part I of The Painted Desert Project

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