BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Absent worries that the banks and oligarchs are poised to crash our economy into the ground and that the privatized profiteering war machine wants Trump to start WWIII its been a fantastic and sunny and crisp warm week in New York. Of course the city is a little more somber since the Yankees missed their chance at the World Series last night. In the spirit of sportspersonship we wish the best to the Astros.
Aside from new street art pieces going up on the street JPO had an opening at Wall Works in the Bronx, Bezt was at Spoke Art, Royce Bannon and Matt Siren had Ember City, Philipe Pantone was at GR Gallery, Dusty Rebel is launching his “Street Cuts” App Monday, and we’re just getting a look at the new show we’re co-curating for VINZ Feel Free in a couple of weeks.
Speaking of Pantone, the two walls he did this week were strong and optically dizzying/thrilling as you would expect – while the subtley more sophisticated walls were inside for Planned Iridescence near by at the GR Gallery on Bowery. The big wall done with The L.I.S.A. Project presented several technical and material difficulties which the artist eventually solved but not without having to spend a whole lot more of time on it than originally estimated: a remarkable feat, even if the wall itself isn’t a large one compared to many others he’s executed around the world. Sure enough it got the New York welcome from a graffiti artist who took the liberty to vandalize it under the cover of darkness and on the very same night of the opening party for his show.
We have grown accustomed to see the artworks by Street Artists and muralists in public vandalized, disrespected and gone over. We don’t know what justification or reasons a graffiti writer has when tagging a well executed wall and the so-called “rules” on the street depend on who’s telling them. It is interesting that the color fits right into the palette, almost as if the tagger found an unspent can that had been left on the sidewalk nearby.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Arrex Skulls, Bunny M, City Kitty, D7606, Dain, Felipe Pantone, Fintan Magee, Gods in Love, Megzany, RUN, Stikman, Stray Ones, and Thrashbird.
Top image: Felipe Pantone in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Felipe Pantone in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Felipe Pantone in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Andrew Tarlow (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dain in collaboration with The L.I. S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Strayones (photo © Jaime Rojo)
bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gods In Love in Cerignola, Italy. (photo © Gods In Love)
The Street Artist who goes by the name Gods in Love did this mural in the San Samuele district of Cerignola, Italy last month. He says that this part of the city is called “Fort Apache” by the locals – an indirect reference to the 1981 movie (and 1976 book) about a crime-ridden neighborhood in the Bronx during the 1960s-70s. The Native American tribe named The Apache that preceded the European’s arrival who lived/live in the mid-western part of this continent were known for being fierce warriors – thus the connotation with a violent proud, yet financially destitute, neighborhood in The Bronx, New York.
“A totem is a natural or supernatural entity that has a particular symbolic meaning for a person or tribe, and to whom it feels bound throughout life,” explains the artist. The term derives from the word ototeman used by the Native American people Ojibway. My choice of working on this figure arises from the need to create an image that can be symbolic of belonging to a neighborhood to a group, a symbol of belonging to the protection of the offspring and therefore of the future, a need for legality and correctness to fight or understand, integrating and accepting it, the illness stemmed from the discomfort of life in a changing neighborhood, willing to redeem. Mine is a metaphor, a symbol in which the neighborhood can fully recognize.”
Thrashbird (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
RUN in Anacona, Italy. (photo © RUN)
City Kitty in collaboration with D7606 and Arrex Skulls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Megzany (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Fintan Magee in Raiatea, French Polynesia for ONO’U Tahiti 2017. (photo © Jean Ozonder)
