All posts tagged: Grottaglie

Ceramic Faile: A New Collection With StudioCromie in Grottaglie, Italy

Ceramic Faile: A New Collection With StudioCromie in Grottaglie, Italy

Angelo Milano, the founder of Studiocromie and FAME Festival, has been courting Brooklyn artist duo Faile for more than a decade, and they finally created a series of ceramics together for his studio art business in Grottaglie under the tutelage and traditional expertise of the centuries-old Ceramiche Nicola Fasano’s workshop.

Faile. Large Vases. Stenciled and Glazed Terracotta. (photo courtesy of Faile)

The model of hosting artists for a variable length of time and offering them cooperation with local artisans to create commercial products was part of the original concept of FAME, in addition to the well-curated placement of stunning murals on walls by artists including Erica Il Cane, Vhils, Interesni Kazki, Conor Harrington, Cyop & Kaf, Momo, Lucy McLauchlan, Bastardilla, and Ted Moneyless. Since the mural festivals’ dissolution by Milano a half dozen years ago, he’s hosted a growing list of talents mirroring his eclectic fine eye for quality, and devil-may-care philosophical stance – the solo show and rap album with the Italian trio Canemorto both come to mind, for example.

“Exploring a mix of our stencil processes and combining it with a variety of their methodologies,” says Faile (Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller), “we created a small collection of unique ceramic plates and vases.”

Faile. Multilayered Large Plate Collection. Stenciled and Glazed Terracotta Plate. (photo courtesy of Faile)

The pieces incorporate the familiar pop and pulp imagery and visual vocabulary of canvasses, collaged media, wheat-pasted posters, and street art stencils on a plate. Now you can enjoy your Friselle bread and tomato salad with your favorite stenciled skateboard girl in pink while looking at a vase that may recall prayer wheels.

Faile. Small Plate Collection in Blue. Stenciled and Glazed Terracotta Plate. ( Photo courtesy of Faile)

Faile. Small Plate Collection in Red. Stenciled and Glazed Terracotta Plate. ( Photo courtesy of Faile)

Collection available now via the StudioCromie Shop. Click HERE to see more.

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Canemorto & Angelino Release “Golden Age”

Canemorto & Angelino Release “Golden Age”

Not quite Domingo, Carreras, and Pavarotti but it’s still an historic achievement in the field of music. The inimitable trio of lively street canines known as Canemorto (dead dog) have just dropped a new track straight from Italy entitled “Gipsy Kings”, the eponymous single from their EP “Golden Age”, performed near the end of the mini-documentary below.

Canemorto & Angelino “Golden.Age” Hand painted album cover. Studio Cromie. Grottaglie, Italy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And now they’ve brought Angelino into their mix so you know its all FAME for the future with 4 MCs on the mic. Or, to paraphrase the lyrics, Canemorto with their homie from Studio Chromie gives you zero phonies on the microphoney. Talents like this rarely make it past security, let alone into the studio, so the howling results of this musical are remarkably fresh, painfully funny, and sometimes just painful.

Canemorto & Angelino “Golden.Age” Printed album cover. Studio Cromie. Grottaglie, Italy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Seen here is the still-warm vinyl for all the old skool DJs rocking turntables, with a custom screen printed B side. For a frameable edition of the cover the artists have also dug deep in created custom painted versions. A new single to add to a list of musical contributions to the Street Art/graffiti world, surely a greatest hits collection is on the horizon as these neo-brutalists show their tongue-style is as slick as their handstyle.

Canemorto & Angelino “Golden.Age” Lyrics. Studio Cromie. Grottaglie, Italy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Canemorto & Angelino “Golden.Age” The vinyl. Studio Cromie. Grottaglie, Italy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Canemorto X Studio Cromie Salute this “Golden Age” in Famed Grottaglie

Canemorto X Studio Cromie Salute this “Golden Age” in Famed Grottaglie

“Angelo, you’ve brought many oafs here,” says his mom at the dinner table, “but these guys… ”

“They really look like rabid dogs,” remarks his father.

Yo Daddy, you’re closer to the truth than you may realize.

Canemorto rapping through the winding streets of Grottaglie, Italy in Golden Age.

Everyone’s favorite Italian trio of graffiti-writing, Street-Art-painting, canvas-painting, rapper-pizza-makers are back on the big screen! And they are still failing successfully.

It’s a running joke now that these witless brothers-in-art are tormented by myriad intertwined demons about their insecurities and conflicts with seeking/avoiding commercial “success” and the mainstreaming/authenticity of the Street Art scene in street culture.

Golden Age, their solo show this fall, is hosted by Studio Cromie and Angelo Raffaele Milano, the owner of the 11-year-old gallery and impresario behind the FAME festival.

FAME, of course, was one of the first so-called Street Art festivals, far before the current onslaught of festivals in cities and towns everywhere. FAME was underground and seemingly authentic before Milano halted it after five years for many of the same conflicting feelings Canemorto has expressed about the commodification of the counter-culture. You’ll see an ad for his now-touring “FAME” movie embedded within this one.

Fake it till you make it—Canemorto sporting slick New York shades in Golden Age.

Golden Age is the new partner video to the show, and the Marco Prosperpio directed film follows the hapless trio through the streets of Grottaglie, Italy, or as one Canemorto calls it in their rap, a “historic shithole.”

“It represents a sort of sequel of our previous video Toys,” Canemorto tells us, “this time the infamous trio has to fool both a crazy gallerist and a gloomy record producer in the desperate hope of getting rich and famous.” Ever brutal and ever witty, this is an ingenious way to fail.

Together with the video, Canemorto is publishing Golden Age EP, a vinyl record (12” – 30×30 cm) with 4 of their jams on side A and a silkscreen print on side B.

Alongside the standard edition, there is also a special edition of 10 copies with handpainted covers, all different from each other.

CANEMORTO

CANEMORTO & ANGELINO – GOLDEN AGE LP

12″ vinyl one-sided record, screen printed on the other side.
4 tracks recorded by CaneMorto & Angelino. Only 100 copies available. Click HERE for more information.

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FAME Festival Is Cinematically Human in Grottaglie, Italy

The Fame Festival doesn’t take itself too seriously, but you should. Now in its fifth year, the festival is run by one fella and his friends, offering interesting walls and an opportunity to work with local artisans in the “aesthetically depressed” areas of this beautiful town named Grottaglie. A dozen or so international artists descended here again this year as summer turned to fall to eat amazing food, paint huge walls, and to create pottery works and limited edition prints with their host, Angelo Milano, in his print shop called Studiocromie.

Erica Il Cane (photo © Henrik Haven)

Free from corporate sponsors or too many meddlesome civic interests, which can muddy the creative waters and contort presentation, FAME has reliably produced singularly striking work on the Streets: the kind of free-form ingenuity that could only result from a being in a positive environment. Artists who return from the experience report that Studiocromie and their peeps know how to make you feel right at home, complete with the dysfunctional human frailties we’re all prone to. Again this year some of the pieces that have come out of FAME have been remarkable for one reason or another – it also helps when the talent pool is so strong.

Erica Il Cane. Detail. (photo © Henrik Haven)

The lineup this year officially included;

ERICA IL CANE – Italy, INTERESNI KAZKI – Ukraine, BORIS HOPPEK – Germany, CONOR HARRINGTON – Ireland, 108 – Italy, LUCY MCLAUCHLAN – UK,  MONEYLESS – Italy, NUG – Sweden, Giorgio di Palma – Italy, AKAY – Sweden, CYOP E KAF – Italy, VHILS – Portugal, PAPER RESISTANCE – Italy,  JR– France, BRAD DOWNEY – US, and MOMO – US

Photographer and BSA contributor Henrik Haven was on hand the to cover FAME and he shares these exclusive images with BSA readers of works in progress by Erica Il Cane and completed walls by Vhils, Interesni Kazki and Conor Harrington. The videos are produced by FAME and they give an additional cinematic appreciation and humor to the entire experience.

Stay hungry, FAME.

Erica Il Cane. Detail. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Angelo remarks on the FAME website what his take on the festival has been as he sets up the video below, “It’s been an intense couple of weeks here at FAME, three artists at the same time and it was a hell of a mess. This is what happened with KING Erica il Cane. Here’s my advice to all artists around, both new and old, watch him doing what he does, and how he does it. You won’t get as good as he is, you won’t end up painting such a huge wall in just two days, but at least you can take notes: have fun and don’t think about the whole art world bullshit.”

Erica il Cane “Gipsy Disagio” @ Fame 2012

Erica Il Cane (photo © Henrik Haven)

Erica Il Cane (photo © Henrik Haven)

Erica Il Cane (photo © Henrik Haven)

Vhils (photo © Henrik Haven)

Is Vhils ticklish? Climb into the back of a crowded car and find out.

Conor Harrington (photo © Henrik Haven)

Conor Harrington (photo © Henrik Haven)

Conor Harrington. Detail (photo © Henrik Haven)

You ever notice that Conor eats a lot? Dang!

Interesni Kazki (photo © Henrik Haven)

 Interesni Kazki. Detail. (photo © Henrik Haven)

The harrowing and hilarious video helps explain why Interesni Kazki needed 12 days to complete the piece. Angelo describes it as “an extreme amount of bad luck”.

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