All posts tagged: graffiti

Nard in Capetown, South Africa. A Concrete Flower.

July 1, 2013

New Video Illuminates an Articulate Student of Graffiti and Street Art

As our thoughts turn to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the revolutionary leader of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner who turns 95 this month and who remains seriously ill under the watchful eye of everyone, we send good vibrations and wishes to him and his family.

On a hopeful note we are glad to bring you this story about a young Street Artist from Capetown who is creating a legacy of her own with aerosol cans.  An articulate student of graffiti, Nard is now pursuing a colorfully geometric, often character based street art route on walls around her city and has also begun to travel internationally – recently even to Brooklyn, where she posed for BSA in this photo for Jaime Rojo.

Nard in Brooklyn late winter 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Graffiti here started in Apartheid when people were writing “Free Mandela” and political messages,” Nard relates in this brand new mini-documentary by Ry George. “They didn’t even know about graffiti as a pop element so they just used to paint those things until they got exposed to hip-hop,” she explains as she describes the stories she has learned about how early graffiti writers actually learned about style through mailing letters, sketches, and photos back and forth with other graffiti writers elsewhere in the world.

Now she is a part of “the biggest art movement in the world,” she says of the global Street Art scene. “That’s because of the freedom that comes with it.”

Screenshot from “Concrete Flower” ( © Nard and Ry George)

Screenshot from “Concrete Flower” ( © Nard and Ry George)

Screenshot from “Concrete Flower” ( © Nard and Ry George)

Screenshot from “Concrete Flower” ( © Nard and Ry George)

“I think when people speak about graffiti they usually mean how it started with letterforms and tags.  When they speak about Street Art it is anything else besides letters. Like the traditional sense of graffiti isn’t exactly how it is because everybody is sticking to that rule of ‘a tag and a throwup and a piece and bombing and ‘getting up’  – the same thing that people did back in the 70s or 80s, and sometimes letters can be Street Art.” – Nard from “Concrete Flower”.

A neighbor steps up to get a close look at Nard’s work. Screenshot from “Concrete Flower” ( © Nard and Ry George)

Screenshot from “Concrete Flower” ( © Nard and Ry George)

‘Concrete Flower” was shot and edited by Ryan George @ry_george, featuring interviews with local graffiti artist FERS @fersyndicate and street art photographer Klaus Warschkow @klauswarschkow. Thanks also to Jamie Litt.

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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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Canemorto Stares Madly at London and Bristol

June 29, 2013

Canemorto have just galloped around Bristol and London for a few weeks and have left a number of these somberly bewildered guys in their wake. You remember in our last visit with the trio whose name means “dead dog” the stretched out horizontal is a particular favorite, and it it occurs to you that they may have something of a predilection for Picasso-esque portraits as they return to these sort of deranged dudes again and again.

(photo © Canemorto)

These gesticulating and grimacing sitters seem to have a lot on their mind, and who can blame them given the downward chugging economy, tiny apartments, longer working hours, government austerity and what not. Even so, these perplexed posers are not troublesome, rather than troubled. Either way, the energy of the lines and the clattering of the strokes as they bang into one another keeps these new pieces by Canemorto stealing the scene.

(photo © Canemorto)

(photo © Canemorto)

(photo © Canemorto)

(photo © Canemorto)

(photo © Canemorto)

(photo © Canemorto)

(photo © Canemorto)

 

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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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Bushwick Is Hot Now. Hurry!

May 29, 2013

Bushwick Open Studios is Paved With Street Art

Brooklyn’s already percolating artists neighborhood called Bushwick continues to thrive despite the circling of real estate agents, lifestyle brands and celebrity chefs. Born in the mid-late 2000s as it’s older sister Williamsburg to the West began to professionalize, this noisily industrial and dirty artists haven got a reprieve from gentrifying forces when the deep recession slowed the rise of rents for artist spaces, which remained still relatively cheap by Manhattan’s standards. Today the area boasts a diverse influx of artists, students, cultural workers, and entrepreneurs who are experimenting and collaborating on projects and shows.

Spagnola (photo © Jaime Rojo)

That radical economic downturn probably also nurtured the nascent Street Art scene here, which was one of the early outliers of a cultural influx as artists and explorers began to skateboard to the local delis and stare at laptops for hours in the one or two cafes that offered  Wi-Fi. Outcroppings of this new art movement combined with old-school graffiti to pop up on selected concrete and corrugated walls, signposts, and deteriorated blocks where the authorities were disinterested and the neighbors only partially curious in their activities.

It’s an age-old New York story by now; a neglected or winding down post industrial neighborhood reacts to the incoming and odd-looking artists with a sort of bemused affection, happy that at least the block is getting some attention for a change. Puzzlement eventually leads to familiarity and then buying you a sandwich – and then asking you to paint a mural inside his foyer. While national and international Street Artists were already making Bushwick a stopping point thanks to some of the earliest galleries like Ad Hoc and Factory Fresh, the scene recently got newly shot in the arm by a local resident who is facilitating much desired legal wall space to a crowd of artists who otherwise would be hunting and hitting up less-than-legal spots.  Not to worry, there are plenty of aerosol renegades and ruffians scaling walls at night too; this is New York after all, yo.

Zimad (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But for now the Bushwick Collective, as it is newly christened by wall-man Joe Ficalora, has infused an adrenaline rush of creativity inside and outside the area that is roughly bordered by Flushing Avenue, Starr Street, Knickerbocker Avenue and Cypress Avenue.  The Collective has guidelines on content (nudity, politics, profanity) so the works are not completely unfettered in the true spirit of Street Art/graffiti, but most artists are happy for the luxury of time to complete their work and not look over their shoulder. With a selection of murals that are densely gathered and easy to walk through, the new collection has attracted attention from media folks (and tour guides) on the main island brave enough to venture into the gritty wilds of Brooklyn for a Street Art safari.

As Bushwick hosts its 7th annual open studios cultural event this weekend, intrepid pedestrians who march through opening parties, rooftop DJ jams, dance performances, live bands, transcendent costumery, sidewalk barbecues, open fire hydrants and more than 600 open artist studios will also be buffeted by a visual feast on the streets themselves. As long as the L Train is running (fingers crossed) you can just get off at the Morgan stop. From there it should be pretty easy for any curious art-in-the-street fan to be regaled with big and small works of graffiti, Street Art, tags, wheat-pastes, stencils, rollers, murals, and ad hoc installations all day and night.

Trek Matthews (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A shout out to Arts In Bushwick, an all volunteer organization that has steadily grown and fostered an open sense of community inclusiveness each year for Bushwick Open Studios and to the many volunteers who have contributed greatly to the success of many of the cultural workers here.  Without an open studios event many of these shy and quirky artists and performers would simply have stayed unknown and unknowable.

So far Bushwick still has the unbridled imperfect D.I.Y. enthusiasm of an experiment where anything can happen, but grey ladies with kooky bright colored spectacles have already begun to flip it over to inspect it with one hand while pinching their nose with the other, so savor this authentic moment.  Ethereal by nature, you know the Street Art scene is never guaranteed to you tomorrow – neither is the mythical artists bohemian hamlet of New York’s yesteryear.  For now we’re hopping on our bikes to catch a golden age of Bushwick before it’s repackaged and sold back to us at a price we can’t afford.

The first series of images are walls from the Bushwick Collective, followed by a series of walls that you may also see in the neighborhood.

MOMO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Solus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Pasquini (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toofly and Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stik (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Billy Mode and Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixel Pancho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brett Flanigan and Cannon Dill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gats (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo and The Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here are a series of walls not related to Bushwick Collective.

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A portion of a wall by the 907 Crew, Sadue. Don Pablo Pedro, Smells, Cash4, and Keely (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phetus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peeta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BR1 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apolo Torres (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris, Veng, RWK and ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cruz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KUMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free Humanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Keely and Deeker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kremen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a full list of activities, studios, schedules and directions for Bushwick Open Studios 2013 click HERE.

 

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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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eL Seed and Jaye in New York Nomadically

eL Seed and Jaye in New York Nomadically

May 6, 2013 ,

Tunisian-French Street Artist eL Seed is in New York right now to showcase his unique hand at calligraffiti, a genre of graffiti that has steadily grown in the last few years as traditional graffiti writers have tried their hand at differently stylized executions of lettering. Together with Jaye, a more traditional graffiti writer from Tunisia, the country that began the Arab Spring two years ago, eL Seed is spraying a number of messages in his own adaptation of Arabic on walls in New York for just over a week.

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Born in Tunisia in the early 1980s and raised in Paris, the quick witted and thoughtful eL Seed calls well known calligraffiti artist Niels Shoe Meulman “a legend” and looks forward like a true fan to meeting Retna, even as his own painting exploits in the last couple of years include an enormous script on Tunisia’s tallest minaret, a high profile design gig with luxury brand Louis Vuitton, and a just completed 52 mural project on Salwa Road that features his own graffiti inspired calligraphy honoring Qatari culture and life.

“I spent nearly four months there, and painted almost one kilometer of wall,” he says of the project that traced his progress with a blog and enabled him to teach eager art college students how to use an aerosol can.

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As a culturally bi-national artist who travels increasingly often, it is fair to say eL Seed is one of the new Street Art nomads who now regularly travel from city to city across the globe hitting walls. Maybe that’s why New York feels normal to him.

“I feel like everybody is a nomad in New York. You come, stay, and you leave, you know?” he says while we stand across the street from the still-wet wall he is completing on the Lower East Side with Jaye. What does this hot pink curvilinear script edged in red with the dropped shadow say? “Yeah in Arabic it says ‘We should all be nomads. We should cross ideas the same way we cross streets and cities.’ ”  He sites the Cuban painter and poet Francis Picabia fro inspiring the text. The installation, and another one at 5 Pointz with Meres in Queens next weekend, are both part of “The World Nomads Tunisia” festival organized for the fifth time by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF).

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I like a lot of pink and black,” he says as he surveys the new wall, which combines his stylized calligraphic lettering with the bubbled aesthetic of Jaye’s early graffiti style that many associate with NYC trains in the 70s. The new collaboration is just the sort of fusion that a multicultural city like New York is accustomed to, and one that it thrives on. “It is a good mix because we both represent a tradition of sorts. What I do is more related to very old traditions, what Jaye does is more relevant to our time, more modern. But the mix is a good combination, you know?”

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you experienced any negative reactions or attitudes while you have been painting?
eL Seed: I was a bit scared to come here and paint some Arabic after what happened in Boston, and actually people have been coming and treating me very well. They are totally open-minded and they accept it in a positive way. That is how we can break stereotypes. Some guys even said, “Yeah, we need more of that”. You know when a white American man comes to you and says, “I would like to see more of that”, you know, I say “Oh that’s cool”.

Brooklyn Street Art: Yeah it’s a good sign, right?
eL Seed: Yeah, it’s pretty good.

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This weekend you can check out a new wall eL Seed and Jaye will be doing in Long Island City at 5Pointz in collaboration with Meres One, one of New York’s well known graffiti writers and founder of the revered graffiti holy place. On Sunday May 12th you will have the opportunity to view their new work during a celebratory reception from 6-8pm at 5Pointz as well.

In the meantime they hope to hit a wall with the Bushwick Collective and maybe a couple of other walls this week before eL Seed heads back to Paris for two more walls waiting for him, including a project that’s already featured Shepard Fairey and most recently, C215. Also a nine story building by the river.

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I’m glad that in Paris they are finally accepting my work,” he says as he recalls his first attempts to get permission to paint walls in the city that prizes it’s unique culture and heritage. “Last year they said ‘We cannot have Arabic script in Paris,’ ” he recalls as he remembers having a hard time getting people to agree to his calligraffiti.

Why the seemingly sudden change in political winds, he cannot say for sure. One might guess that it has something to do with word getting around about his collaboration with Luis Vuitton, the French luxury brand that has collaborated recently with Street Art names like Aiko, Retna and Os Gemeos and has more on the roster for future projects.

Whatever the reason, he wants to take his game up a notch. “Now I have two big walls, so that is good.” How would he challenge himself? “Maybe I can develop a new alphabet,” he smiles.

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed and Jaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The project is sponsored by The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and offers opportunities for an exchange of ideas about urban revolutions.
To learn more about World Nomads Tunisia 2013, please click here.

 

A video from eL Seeds’ recently completed project in Doha in Qatar.

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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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Laura Shechter, Painter of Graffiti

February 4, 2013

“I particularly feel graffiti beautifies blighted areas, and gives them style and dignity.” ~ Laura Schecter

Brooklyn born contemporary realist painter Laura Schecter takes cityscapes and graffiti into consideration as a formalist and you may even say with an element of romanticism. With abstract painter and “father of minimalism” Ad Rhinehardt as a teacher at Brooklyn College in the 1960s, Schecter says she evolved a philosophy of aesthetics.

In these paintings of building facades that are covered with graffiti in an urban environment, Schecter gives realist attention to the detail so accurate that at first glance most viewers will believe they are looking at the work of a graffiti or Street Art photographer who jumps fences, climbs rooftops, and follows train tracks to capture a shot. In fact, she can be equally enthusiastic about her regard for some of her finds. “I particularly feel graffiti beautifies blighted areas, and gives them style and dignity,” she says.

Laura Shechter “D’Art” (photo © Laura Shechter)

“Within contemporary realism, I consider myself a “perceptualist”, which I define as being more concerned with usual vision,” explains Schecter as she describes these paintings and her approach to the aerosol tattooed surfaces of the city. As most painters will tell you, it is about capturing the right moment when the sun and the ambient influences in the environment reveal character or a certain spirit.

“My cityscape paintings, which are photo-based, describe one moment of light. I have always been interested in decorative patterns and high key color.  So doing cityscapes with graffiti was a natural direction for my work to take. I render each graffiti artists’ work with the same care as I would a piece of satin or a handed painted 19th century porcelain piece.”

Laura Shechter “New Utretch Station” (photo © Laura Shechter)

Schecter says her work evolved during the feminist art movement and she incorporated some of its ideas, but is also influenced by northern Renaissance art, Indian Miniatures, and interacting with other contemporary realists.  “I traveled around the world in the late 1960s and 70s and the experience added complexity to my art work which seems so rooted in western painting tradition, but also includes the aesthetics of the east, notably, India.”

Laura Shechter “View from the 7 train” (photo © Laura Shechter)

Laura Shechter “5Pointz” (photo © Laura Shechter)

Laura Shechter “The Green Dumpster” (photo © Laura Shechter)

Laura Shechter “View from 9th Street” (photo © Laura Shechter)

Laura Shechter “Noel in Bushwick” (photo © Laura Shechter)

Laura Shechter “After the Rain” (photo © Laura Shechter)

Click here to see more of Ms. Shechter’s artwork.

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How & Nosm Studio Confessions

How & Nosm Studio Confessions

January 16, 2013 , , , , , , ,

It is an age of self-discovery, and the twins continue to be surprised by what they find as they attack huge walls with zeal and precision in New York, LA, Miami, Stavanger, Prague, Las Vegas, Rochester, Philadelphia, Rio – all in the last 12 months. Now while they prepare for their new pop-up show, “Late Confessions”, to open in Manhattan in a couple of weeks, the combined subconscious of How & Nosm is at work, and on display are the personal storylines they will reveal if you are paying close attention.

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s a crisp sunny Saturday in Queens and we’re in the studio of a secured elevator building with cameras and clean floors and air thick with aerosol. Davide (or is it Raoul?) is on his knees with a tub of pink plastering goo, applying and smoothing and sanding this large oddly-shaped structure. When it is painted it will debut in the newly renovated Chelsea space whose walls were destroyed during the flooding of falls’ super storm “Sandy”. The gallery space of Jonathan Levine wasn’t large enough for the scale the brothers have grown accustomed to working with, so this more cavernous temporary location will take on a feeling of being part exhibition, part theme park.

How & Nosm. At work on a sculpture. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The impermanent sculpture of pressed cardboard is rocking between his knees as he straddles the beast and chides his dog Niko for jumping up on it. Rather than a sculpture, you may think it’s a prop for a high school play at this phase, but soon it will become a shiny black beacon of psychological/historical symbolism culled from the collection of objects they gather in travel. Born from the imagination of the brothers and affixed with bird decoys, clock faces, large plastic blossoms, and a rotary dial telephone, these rolling clean lines and saw-toothed edges of these sculptures will glisten under a heavy coating of midnight lacquer soon.

How & Nosm. Detail from a sculpture. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Like so much of the work HowNosm choose for their sweeping street murals, these new pieces may be read as undercover confessions of artists on display, but you’ll need to figure that out on your own.

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As you walk through the high-ceilinged studio, the excited twins talk continuously in their deep baritones at the same time at you around you and in German to each other. The barrage of stories are spilling out and trampling and crashing like cars off rails; An energetic parlay of authoritative statements and direct questions about work, walls, gallerists, graffers, cops, trains, toys, techniques. All topics are welcomed and examined, sometimes intensely. Sincere spikes of laughter and sharp swoops of fury act in concert: clarifying, praising, and dissing as they swirl in a rolling volley of goodness, pleasantly spliced with a caustic grit.

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looking at the precise lines and vibrant patterns at play in their work today, there is a certain cheerfulness and high regard for design in the compositions and sense of balance. Both of them site influences as wide as early graffiti, later wild style, cubism, and the abstractionists in their work. Fans are attracted to the confident and attractive illustrative depictions of scenes and characters, appreciating the ever strengthening free-hand command of the aerosol can and stencil techniques that HowNosm have demonstrated in their machine-like march through the streets of world over the last decade plus.

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Though they estimate they have visited over 70 countries, they still love New York and both call Brooklyn their home right now.  And while the work they do hits a pleasure center for many viewers, time with both reveals that the stories within can be anything but cheerful. Raoul characterizes their work as dark and negative, born from their shared past, the adversity of their childhood.

“Negative sounds… I don’t know if that’s the right word for it,” says Davide, “but it’s not the bright side of life.”

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And so goes the duality you’ll find everywhere – a study of opposites intertwined. One paints a skull in the half circle, the other paints it’s reflection alive with flesh. You’ll see this split throughout, unified.

“We came from one sperm. We split in half,” says Raoul. “Life, death, good, bad. We’re one, you know. We used to do pieces by ourselves with graff – you know I would do “How” and he would do “Nosm” – then with the background we would connect.  Now we would just do pieces with our name “HowNosm” together as one word. I never do a How anymore, really.”

Their early roots in graffiti are always there, even as they became labeled as Street Artists, and more recently, contemporary artists. But it’s a continuum and the line may undulate but it never leaves the surface.  Davide describes their auto-reflexive manner of moving from one icon or scenario to another seamlessly across a wall and he likens it to a graffiti technique of painting one continuous stream of aerosol to form a letter or word.

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It’s like a ‘one-liner’,” he says, referring to the graffiti writer parlance for completing a piece with one long line of spray. “That’s kind of far from what we are doing right now but it is all kind of one piece. The line stops but it kind of continues somewhere. We are refining and refining, and it takes time to develop.”

Blurring your eyes and following the visual stories, it may appear that a spiral motion reoccurs throughout the red, black, and white paintings of HowNosm. Frequently the pattern draws the viewers eye into the center and then swirls it back out to connect to another small tightening of action. While we talk about it Raoul traces in the air with his index finger a series of interconnected spiral systems, little tornadoes of interrelated activity.

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This technique of creating inter-connected storylines is a way of intentional communication and storytelling, and how they describe events and relationships. It is an approach that feels sort of automatic to the brothers. “Our pieces make you think. You look and look and you find more images and you try to understand the whole concept,” says Davide. “I think you can spend quite some time just looking at one piece. You start somewhere and you can develop a story around it but you go somewhere else in the piece and you may do the opposite.”

Would you care to make a comparison to those other well known Street Art twins, Os Gemeos? They are used to it, but aside from being brothers of roughly the same age who began in graffiti and work on the streets with cans, they don’t find many similarities.

“Our stuff is more depressing,” says Raoul, “and way more critical. We talk about the negative aspects and experiences in life.” How much is autobiographical? As it turns out, it is so autobiographical that both brothers refer to their painting historically as a therapy, a cathartic savior that kept them out of jail and even away from drugs growing up.

“We kind of had a very disturbed childhood,” explains Raoul, “Welfare too, so…. I smile a lot and shit but in my paintings I think it is more important to express myself with what most people want to suppress and not show, you know? There’s a lot of love stuff, too. Like heartbroken stuff, financial situations – about myself or other people.”

How & Nosm. The sun goes through a hand cut stencil. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Davide agrees and expands the critical thinking they display in these open diaries to include larger themes they address; deceptively rotten people, corporate capitalism, familial dissension, hypocrisy in society, corruption in government.  It’s all related, and it is all right here in black and white. And red.

“Ours are continuing lines,” Davide says as he traces the canvas with his fingers, “Like this knife here is going to turn into a diamond.”

Niko provides security and inspiration at the studio. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Detail of a completed sculpture. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Detail of a completed sculpture. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm’s pop-up exhibition “Late Confessions” with the Jonathan Levine Gallery opens on February 1st.  at 557 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011. Click here for more details.

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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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Fun Friday 11.23.12 – VIDEO Request Edition – Chosen by You

November 23, 2012

It’s the BSA Reader Video Request edition of Fun Friday for all us peeps who are not shopping today. We asked our Facebook friends and fans for their favorite street art related video flicks and give them to you here- in no particular order. Peace out and have a great Black Friday everybody.

1. Vhils in Germany
2. Wild Style Part 1
3. Open Air
4. In Bed with Invader
5. En Masse in Miami
6. Berlin Street Art as Lyrics (Emus Primus)
7. Shai Dahan new Ted Talk “Beyond Borders”
8. TEJN LOCK ON STREET ART – Street Art Sculpture by Tejn
9. Burn – Episode 3
10. Graffiti Verite Part 1
11. Japanese Stencil
12. BLU – BIG BANG BIG BOOM
14. Hanoi Lantern Bearers – Vietnam with The Yok
15. Bomb It

Vhils in Germany

The Portuguese Street Artist at work, produced by Euromaxx, recommended by Crist Graphicart (German language)

Wild Style Part 1

The classic Charlie Ahearn movie as recommended by Nahua Prince Huitzilin

 

Open Air

“In 2006, we created this short for the University of Southern California’s Public Arts Studies Program.

This documentary explored the studios and methods of six of the top street artists in America: Faile, Skewville, Mike De Feo, Dan Witz, Espo and Tiki Jay One.” Recommended by Lou J Auguste

In Bed with Invader

H Veng Smith likes this one with Invader.

En Masse in Miami

“At the end of November (2011), the En Masse Art Initiative flew down to Miami to take part of the Miami Art Basel events. With the help of Sodec Quebec and Galerie Pangée, EM teamed up with Scope Art Fair, Fountain Art Fair, Safewalls, Primary Flight and the Found store to create multiple work of art. During 10 days, the team grew exponentially, adding members from all around the globe; Tel-Aviv, Montreal, Brooklyn, Woodstock, Staten Island, San Fransico, San Diego, Miami etc.”  – recommended by Beth Tully

Berlin Street Art as Lyrics (Emus Primus)

Emus Primus and photography of Berlin Street art, set to music. As recommended by Da Andal

Shai Dahan new Ted Talk “Beyond Borders”

The keynote is about my travel into Palestine.  Considering what is going on there –  Being that everyone is talking about the violence, this video can reflect a bit of light on how there are some ways to find peace.  It may not find the sort of wide peace we hope to all gain there, but through the message in the keynote, I hope people can see that Israel and Palestine can share a common beauty: Street-art.” Shai Dahan

TEJN LOCK ON STREET ART – Street Art Sculpture by Tejn

Suggested by Mogens Carstensen

Burn – Episode 3

“The third episode of BURN graffiti video series. Best episode so far! Featuring rolling freight, live painting and more!   As recommended by Beyond The Rail Photography

Graffiti Verite Part 1

“Part 1 of the 1995 Los Angeles graffiti documentary directed by Bob Bryan. Featured artists include Duke, Skept, Tempt, Prime, Mear, Relic, Cre8, and Design9.”

Japanese Stencil

A stencil artist creates a piece as a tribute to Japan in the wake of the destruction it suffered last year. – As recommended by Crist Graphicart

BLU – BIG BANG BIG BOOM

“an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could probably end. direction and animation by BLU.”   This one recommended by Martha Becker

Hanoi Lantern Bearers – Vietnam with The Yok

In Vietnam on a roof. As recommended by The Yok

Bomb It

The full documentary – “Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on 5 continents, BOMB IT tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe.” Recommended by Orson Horchler

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Bathroom Graffiti on Canvas With Mint & Serf

Bathroom Graffiti on Canvas With Mint & Serf

November 21, 2012 ,

New canvasses celebrate the graffiti-covered bar bathroom and its aggressive lack of style.

A quick snort, a scribbled tag, and you my love.

Now that you are caked with sweat and nearly deaf from gyrating and slamming your body to the music at your favorite jam-packed downtown dive, it’s time to hit the line for the unisex bathrooms and wait behind frat boys, saucy girls, and a couple of drag queens.

The closet-sized bar bathroom is barely big enough for a toilet and sink and may have been cleaned sometime in the last week. This one was last remodeled in the 1970s probably – and has been a thin slice of respite, however tawdry, for years – shunting many guests away from the rumbling roar of a New York nightclub and providing a private moment.

An actual bathroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the left. Detail from a new canvas by Mint & Serf on the right. (both photos © Jaime Rojo)

With battered and buckling flooring underfoot and one bare light bulb overhead, it’s a good place for guests to fix their hair, snort a line of coke, perform a rushed sex act with a new friend, or perhaps to barf. If you happen to have a juicy black marker in your boot you can scream a quick tag across the pileup of graffiti that smothers the walls, or slap a sticker on it, before zipping up and pushing your way out the door to find another beer.

For Mint & Serf, this is inspiration.

And now they are bringing it to the canvas.

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Like when you go to some Williamsburg bathroom and you see this pile of tags – that’s the aesthetic. That’s the graffiti,” explains Mint during a recent in-studio visit, “ because graffiti to me is this aggression, this turbulence. The beef, the sex, the fame. You know what I mean?”

The new collection is still evolving, and it began initially with spreading canvasses out and inviting friends to hit them up whenever they visited the studio. “(It’s been) an ongoing therapy session where a lot of our friends would come in and start doing fill-ins and tags. Then about a month or two ago we started taking them down and focusing more on each one,” says Serf.

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When viewed on their own, each of these canvasses does look like a sawed off chunk from a sleezy restroom wall, but not like a Banksy. While the guys appreciate that Street Art and commercially successful graffiti artists have their place, this bathroom aesthetic is from the CBGB punk era perhaps, rather than the MTV polished rebelliousness that followed. Raw, aggressive, unstyled – it’s a return to the gestural, the raw markings of graffiti, in an effort to strip it back to the nerve endings. If the campy stylings of latter day Banksy are Green Day, Mint & Serf are evoking the Dead Boys or Sex Pistols. Not that early punks were unstyled, and neither are these deliberately raging canvasses.

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As they talk, there are references to some of the 20th century painters whose work was repulsive before it was revered, and these 30-something graffiti artists are not afraid to disgust you while pursuing work that feels real. “Because there is beauty in ugliness,” Mint opines as he talks of initial responses to Bacon, de Kooning, and Picasso. With time, he says, people realized “They actually are masterpieces, you know.“

But you may hear them bracing for some criticism, even as they appear confident in this direction. “I know it’s probably gonna be kind of hard to swallow for a lot of people just because they are used to seeing graffiti work nowadays being very precise and calculated,” says Serf, “But it is what it is. It is probably the most honest work we have done to date.”

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The stripping back, the lack of artifice, the aggression – it all comes through here on this collection that is not yet ready for public display. For guys who have had commercial success as graphic artists creating more stylized installations for hotels and night clubs and who have a solid track record in product and lifestyle design, this new work is a return to what originally attracted them to doing graffiti on the street.

“One of the reasons I got into graffiti is because of the crazy stories I’ve heard about it. About jumping rooftops, stealing paint, staying out late, going to raves, getting laid – all this shit. The turbulence of that lifestyle, that’s what turned me on. Not doing a piece for 20 hours,” says Mint as he stares up at the cacophonic canvasses.

He continues, “For us it’s taking an existing portrayal of graffiti, which is these beautiful, colorful pieces, and just stripping it down to graffiti.”

And as a specific reference point, Serf couldn’t be clearer, “It’s all about the bar bathroom.”

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf in studio, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf, Pablo Power and Jacuzzi Chris at The Broadway Chapter.  February – August 2012, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In studio with Mint & Serf, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti and stickers cover the walls of a bathroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inspiration: Graffiti and stickers cover the walls of a bathroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti and stickers cover the walls of a bathroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti and stickers cover the walls of a bathroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti and stickers cover the walls of a bathroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (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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Carlo McCormick at Nuart 2012

November 17, 2012

One of the best parts about a celebration of Street Art culture like Nuart in Norway is that there sometimes is an opportunity to speak with and listen to people who make it their mission to put it into context. New York art critic, curator, editor, and writer Carlo McCormick has an exhaustive knowledge and enthusiasm for the scene that evolved on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1970s and 80s concurrently with the evolution of graffiti into a celebrated art form.  As Street Art continues apace, having perspective on some of its precursors is imperative and McCormick knows how to bring it alive.

An moment of elation with Carlo McCormick while he addresses the Nuart audience in his keynote presentation Re:mark. (image still © Nuart 2012)

To hang out with Carlo on the street is a joy because he can ground your current observations with his knowledge of their antecedents and yet become as equally appreciative of the new artists on todays’ scene whom he hasn’t heard of.  During this talk he gave this year at Nuart in a very conversational somewhat meandering unscripted way, Carlo reveals the mindset that is necessary to keep your eyes open and appreciative of the new stuff without feeling territorial or enslaved to the past. We appreciate him because he recognizes that the march of graffiti, street art, public art, and it’s ever splintering subsets is part of a greater evolutionary tale that began before us and will continue after us.

Carlo speaks about New York artist Haze and the distinct parallels between corporate branding with the practice of developing and distilling one’s tag for repetition on the street.  (image still © Nuart 2012)

Carlo at ease, conversing with you. (image still © Nuart 2012)

During his presentation McCormick dedicates a significant portion of his remarks to the historical practice of subverting advertising and official forms of messaging – referring to the Situationists, “détournement” and similar methods of playing with perception and turning it on it’s head. Here is an uncredited image from his presentation of a Times Square scene where artist Yoko Ono’s billboard toyed with the perceptions that the Vietnam war was inevitably unending while also alerting a compliant citizenry to it’s role in the matter. (image still © Nuart 2012)

“As I do my best as a really bad scholar to investigate this history of graffiti and mark-making – kind of prior to the official history – the greatest evidence that I find of stuff is in the real canon of fine art photography. Just about every famous photographer turned – I mean it’s not incidental – turned their attention to this illicit anonymous practice., ” Carlo McCormick at Nuart.

 

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UPDATE: SABER Tags Sky Over New York to Defend Arts and Bash Romney

September 23, 2012

UPDATE: BSA exclusive new footage courtesy of video artist Chris Jordan plus new images from Jaime Leo, Eszter Klajman and Chris Jordan.

New York’s skies got majorly tagged today. And Mitt Romney got called out in front of 8 million people as a #GOPFail

New Yorkers who looked up from stoop sales, soccer games, and strolls across the Brooklyn Bridge saw graffiti artist and fine artist Saber flying five planes in formation across sunny Sunday skies with messages castigating the presidential candidate for his plans to kill funding for cornerstone arts programs like the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Public Radio (NPR), the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).


“#DefendtheArts” was sky written by artist Saber over lower Manhattan at 2 pm today. NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As the planes spelled out #DefendTheArts over Manhattan, Saber explained to BSA in a phone interview, “Basically I’m calling out Mitt and any other politicians who are cutting arts funding because they are actually cutting jobs that are an engine to our economy. Not to mention the effect these programs have on creativity and inspiration.” One dot-matrix style message said “Protect NPR PBS NEA from cuts” while another offered the Twitter hashtag simply entitled “#MittRomneyHatesArt”.

“Protect” – which was followed by words like “actors, writers, poets, designers..” The ARTS. NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As one of a handful of high profile graffiti/street artists in the US who have taken the national stage with their social and political commentary, Saber has “gone big” before, but never on this scale and never over New York City in an hour and a half display that he estimated could be seen over a 20 mile radius. “NYC is the art center of the world,” Saber says, “It is quite a good feeling to be able to spread this public message.”

BSA Exclusive Raw footage by Video Artist Chris Jordan shows artist Saber spraying the sky over Manhattan (VIDEO)

The extremely wealthy Republican candidate Romney told Fortune last month that in addition to scrapping the new national health program that is offering medical care to millions, he intends to cut funding to major arts programs if he is elected, saying of the arts programs, “I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to stand on their own.”

Rather than relying simply on the generosity of patronage, Saber thinks that the government and society at large benefit from investing in artists in an increasingly “creative economy” – many of whom he called out in the sky today, including artists, writers, poets, designers, actors.

Saber. Protect The ARTS. NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Taking his campaign to social media with the #DefendTheArts hashtag this time, Saber very visibly entered the national fray during the healthcare reform debate of 2009, saying that the existing for-profit system cut out people like himself, uninsurable because of his epilepsy.  Today grassroots activism that emanated from downtown NYC has expanded the conversation and he acknowledges those voices who have focused attention on Romney and the so-called 1%. “We’re making sure to fly directly over Zucotti Park with a big ‘Occupy Wall Street’ message, because that’s what New York is too.”

Amid the political messages skywritten by Saber are shout outs to friends and graffiti artists who have passed; a nod to the roll-call community memorial walls that graffiti and street artists have done in cities for decades. This new way of “getting up” also has Saber waxing poetic as he sees the effect his fresh tags have at 34,000 feet as they melt into the blue canvas over most of NYC. “It’s almost like I’m painting in the sky – it has a really beautiful effect when a fresh one lays over the one that is fading away.”

As the planes made long oval trips over Manhattan, the East River, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and back, the normally tough stuff graff guy couldn’t really mask his enthusiasm, “I’m really excited about it!”

Telling you to Tweet “@Saber” from his #defendthearts campaign over NYC 2012 (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

“Actors Poets”, Saber in the sky over NYC 2012 NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Poets Patrons”, Saber in the sky over NYC 2012 NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Poets”, Saber in the sky over NYC 2012 NYC 2012 (photo © Jamie Leo)

“Artists”, Saber in the sky over NYC 2012 NYC 2012 (photo © Eszter Klajman)

“#OccupyWallStreet”, Saber in the sky directly over Wall Street and Zucotti Park. 2012 NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“#OccupyWallStreet”, Saber in the sky directly over Wall Street and Zucotti Park. 2012 NYC 2012 (photo © Chris Jordan)

“Artists Designers”, Saber in the sky over NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Protect NPR PBS NEA” (upside down from here), Saber in the sky over NYC 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Protect NPR No Cuts” , Saber in the sky over NYC 2012 (photo © Eszter Klajman)

Saber included shout outs to #graffiti, #streetart, and some graffiti artists and crews- here is one photo made from two cell phone photos (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

While he was 34,000 feet up over NYC, Saber had to do a few shout-outs to friends back home in LA; AWR and MSK, and even a misspelling of artist RETNA’s name. Other tributes included New York street artist Keith Haring (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

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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 Presents GEOMETRICKS, Curated by Hellbent

July 26, 2012

BSA Presents GEOMETRICKS

Curated by Street Artist Hellbent

As part of their Vandal or Visionary Series, where BSA selects one Street Artist to curate a show that follows their specific vision of the scene, BSA is proud to introduce Hellbent as curator of the inaugural show of the series titled “GEOMETRICKS” at new Gallery Brooklyn in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York City, opening September 22, 2012.

Participating artists (alphabetically): Augustine Kofie, Chor Boogie, Drew Tyndell, Feral Child, Hellbent, Jaye Moon, Maya Hayuk, MOMO, OLEK, OverUnder, See One
***

GEOMETRICKS turns the spotlight on the movement on the streets that boasts bold color, wild patterning, sophisticated lineplay, and a modern approach to abstraction.

As the stylistic circle widens on the street, GEOMETRICKS grabs a razor-sharp cross section of the growing number of graffiti artists who depart from traditional forms of lettering, Street Artists who are not interested in Pop-inspired icons or irony, and fine artists who never considered the “rules” of the street to begin with.

GEOMETRICKS references modernists, tribalists, and the rhythmic symmetry of the natural world, with it’s hexagons and spirals and comforting repetitions. Old labels about graffiti and Street Art mean little; this group takes the formalist clarity that references geometry, folk art, and science, and often smashes it with an abstract hammer.

Parallel, perpendicular, rigid, curvilinear; lines and shapes intersect and play off color-rich pattern – challenging the shape, form and expectations of many in the Street Art scene. GEOMETRICKS show how graff and Street Art right now are exploding in a new direction together without first asking for permission, again advancing the conversation of art on the streets.

 

“I’m stoked to be able put together this GEOMETRICKS show with some artists who I’ve really admired for a long time as well as some of the new players on the scene. This show is a great opportunity for me to create a vision and really put a dream team of artists into one room and show people what I am diggin’ right now.” – Hellbent

The Vandal or Visionary Series presented by BSA
GEOMETRICKS
Curated by Hellbent

September 22 – October 28, 2012

Opening Reception
Saturday, September 22, 2012
6 pm – 9 pm

With sound provider SLEPTEMBER
Sponsored by Sixpoint Brewery

 

Gallery Brooklyn
351 Van Brunt St
Red Hook
Brooklyn, NY 11231

347.463.4063
info@gallerybrooklyn.com
gallerybrooklyn.com

Gallery Hours
Thursday-Saturdays: 12-6pm
Sundays: 12-5pm

Vandal or Visionary Series presented by BSA

The Vandal or Visionary Series calls into question the simplistic characterization of artists who work on the street as one dimensional vandals and it wonders aloud what a gallery show would look like if viewed through their eyes. Many artists have always had a better understanding of the scene than academics or experts who talk about it and this series allow us to see a show curated by someone with a direct view and a very unique perspective.

BrooklynStreetArt.com is a daily source for Street Art reporting, interviews, and photography in New York and around the world.

We’ve been thinking a lot about this show and recently published examples on the street that are indicative of this new direction;

“Art from the streets has been heralding a new eye-popping geometric disorder that can now fairly be called a movement.”
~ From our recent piece on The Huffington Post : “Color, Geometry and Pattern on the Streets”

 

Read all BSA posts on The Huffington Post HERE.

Follow BSA on Twitter

See the BSA Tumblr page

Join the BSA Fanpage on Facebook

For more details on GEOMETRICKS please contact us at GEOMETRICKS@BrooklynStreetArt.com

Thank you for your support.

See the GEOMETRICKS Square Invite

 

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MART in Argentina: “buena onda” in the Streets

MART in Argentina: “buena onda” in the Streets

June 25, 2012 ,

“Graffiti Saved My Life”

Today Brooklyn Street Art has the pleasure to welcome Rosanna Bach as a guest collaborator. A photographer, writer, and Street Art and graffiti fan, Rosanna is exploring her new home of Buenos Aires and documenting whatever attracts her eye. Today she shares with BSA readers images from local Street Artist MART as well as an interview she had with him in his studio. Our great thanks to Rosanna and MART for this great opportunity to learn about his history as a graffiti writer and how it turned into a career as a painter.

MART (photo © Rosanna Bach)

Mart was kind enough to invite me up to his apartment/studio in the barrio of Palermo where he grew up. Palermo is also the barrio where has left his mark, a trail of colorfully spirited murals. Beginning as a graffiti writer, Mart says he has been painting since age eleven. In our interview he shares his artistic and personal evolution over the past fourteen years painting in the street. He also shows us the drawings he’s preparing for an upcoming exhibit.

As I was admiring a compilation of photographs and drawings sporadically hung above the staircase of the entrance, Mart comments to me, “I like photography more than painting.”

Rosanna Bach: Why?
MART: I find meaning in things that I’m not familiar with. I’m familiar with painting. I know how to do draw, although I don’t draw hyperrealism for example but I know how I could do it. But photography is incredible.

Rosanna Bach: For me it’s the opposite.
MART: Because you’re a photographer.

Rosanna Bach: But anyone can take a photo.
MART: Anyone can paint. Do you understand why I like it? Because it’s not mine.  I feel like painting is my world and photography is another, like dance. I love dance. I’d much rather go to a dance recital than an exhibit. Exhibits don’t captivate me in the way that other art forms do; it’s like “Hmmm.. yes, yes, alright got it.” I’m very quickly able to read the person.

Rosanna Bach: You are interested because you want to learn about other worlds?
MART: But it’s not because I like it that I feel the need to do it myself. You respect what you do otherwise it’s like a lack of respect. I prefer seeing other “worlds” because they move me.

Rosanna Bach: So did you start out painting alone or was it something you did with your friends?
MART: I was very young – already in primary school when I started writing “Martin” all over the walls. My sister had a boyfriend (Dano) who was older then me and he exposed me to hip-hop style graffiti. He taught me how to do it – I thought it was so great. So I started writing “Mart”, Mart, Mart, Mart, Mart, Mart…. all over the streets until I got bored of writing my name, until it made no sense anymore.

Rosanna Bach: How long did it take you to tire of that?
MART: A considerable amount of time but I learned a lot of things. I learned how to paint.

 

MART (photo © Rosanna Bach)

Rosanna Bach: And your style? I’m sure it’s evolved a lot over the years.
MART: I started with graffiti but simultaneously started drawing and that’s what led me to this.

Rosanna Bach: And the figures you draw? I find them to have a lot of hope and a little magic…
MART: I think that’s how I live, in a world of magic all the time. I feel like a very fortunate person, and I’m grateful for that. I don’t take it for granted. I’m lucky that I’m well, I’m happy, my family is well..

Rosanna Bach: This is a mentality that many of us are lacking.
MART: That is the exact reason why I paint in the street; For others, not for myself .  Of course it is for me a little as well because I obviously enjoy doing it but mostly it is for others. That’s why I paint what I paint, things with “buena onda” (good vibes). To paint for myself in a frame would be strange. It’s for everyone, that’s what I find interesting about painting in the streets. And I’m not talking about graffiti because it’s made for a closed community. Like, “Dude you have a great outline” — wonderful. It’s for a micro-world and it can only be appreciated by a select few… “my name” is all about my name my name my name.

 

MART (photo © Rosanna Bach)

Rosanna Bach: But you once started like that as well.
MART: And I’m thankful for that because it’s what made me understand in time that I was painting in the streets for a reason and thanks to graffiti I learned to paint large and I learned quickly.

Rosanna Bach: So your figures are your interpretation of your life. Do you take ideas from your dreams sometimes?
MART: I love dreaming I dream a lot. But they’re not interpretations of my dreams. Or perhaps they are — But I don’t believe so.

Rosanna Bach: You could say that they’re your alter-egos?
MART: Its my feelings, my interior. So, yes.

MART (photo © Rosanna Bach)

Rosanna Bach: When did the transition occur when painting became your profession?
MART: There were two elements that paralleled with each other. One of them was a big job for the Cartoon Network that I got asked to do when I was 18 — an ad campaign with graffiti. And the other was that my friends went to prison. We’d always lived in this barrio, and when I was younger my friends and I were delinquents. So I realized that painting was a way to distance my self from that. With painting I can earn a living and not do bad by anyone. So I chose to paint. It wasn’t only an evolution of me as much as it was as a person, an adult, as a man. I chose that path. I chose the good path.

Rosanna Bach: That’s interesting because usually people relate graffiti to delinquency and vice.
MART: For me graffiti saved my life. I have my house and thanks to graffiti.

Rosanna Bach: Are your parents creative at all?
MART: No. But they’ve always been fully supportive. They’re like my angels. They used to drop me off to paint all over the place. They love me very much.

Rosanna Bach: Do you travel a lot?
MART: When I can and I want to I do. I like traveling. But how can I explain it? I like being patient and I like living peacefully. I don’t feel a burning need to travel, I do it when I want to in the time I want to. I want to live for many years and feel like I’m going to live for many years. That’s also why I don’t send photos of my work all over the place — I don’t like excess. Fame isn’t my prime objective. If people know my work it’s because I wanted them to see it in the street and that they understand what it’s about and what I’m about.

Rosanna Bach: I find that mentality to be quite true to a lot of graffiti artists around here, it comes from quite a pure place.
MART: I don’t know, but I paint for my city.

Rosanna Bach: Do you think you could paint for another city one day?
MART: Maybe. I don’t know, perhaps Berlin. I’m going there for three months this summer

Rosanna Bach: In the graffiti community here, most of them are your friends. So your friends are quite a big part of your working life. Have you ever wondered what it would be like without them?
MART: Good question. I’ve never thought about it. It would be very different. Firstly if I hadn’t met Dano I never would’ve started painting in the first place. I wouldn’t exist. And if my friends left I think I’d go and find them.

Rosanna Bach: If you weren’t painting have you ever thought of what else you would do?
MART: I have but it’s not worth wasting my time to be honest. I paint, that’s what I’m already doing. That’s what I do.

 

MART (photo © Rosanna Bach)

MART (photo © Rosanna Bach)

MART. POETA (photo © Rosanna Bach)

MART (photo © Rosanna Bach

Please visit MART at the site below to learn more about his art.

http://flavors.me/airesmart

To view more beautiful photography from Rosanna visit her Tumblr page below:

http://rosannabach.tumblr.com/

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