Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Able, Alexis Diaz, Bruno Smoky, Case Ma’Claim, Crash, Dan Flavin, Ernest Zacharevic, Inti, Jose Mertz, Kryptick, Logan Hicks, Maya Hayuk, Miro, Pichi & Avo, Santiago Rubino, Shalakattak, and Sipros.
Murals hold their own place onstage in public space today for a variety of reasons that we discuss regularly on BSA. From grassroots and public, to private and corporate, we have watched the genre professionalize as Street Art festivals and other initiatives are often coupling artists with brands and are selling canvasses through the organizers galleries. Today we have the first of a promised four-part book series by Art Whino gallerist and organizer of the Richmond Mural Project in Virginia, Shane Pomajambo, that features many artists he has worked with in the brand new “The Art of the Mural”.
Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
Featuring more than fifty current graffiti/Street Artists, the survey pays special attention to the show-stopping eye candy that commands attention for these nomadic painters who are developing their craft before an ever larger and more appreciative international audience.
Culture critic and curator Carlo McCormick, who writes the introduction to the Schiffer published hardcover, notes that this mural renaissance is quite unlike the US government funded New Deal era mural programs that produced “hundreds of thousands of murals for schools, hospitals, post offices, housing projects, and various government facilities”. And he’s right, these are emanating from a different place entirely.
Antony Lister. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
The world-traveling media-soaked artists, of which this collection is subset, have had vastly more exposure to corporations and branding perhaps than, say, arts institutions, and a sophisticated self-handling is often on display with artists ever more savvy in their choices of style and content.
A greater percentage are now entering into private collections, galleries, and museums thanks to unprecedented platforms for huge exposure on the Internet, and their public works are adding rich character and dialogue to our neighborhoods and public spaces.
Curiot. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
With academia, art critics, and auction houses all grappling with the rightful place of these artists in contemporary art and society at large it will be instructive to know the history and their lineage, content, context, and patronage. One has to agree when McCormick says that all of these “are helpful for us to consider in looking at and understanding the artists’ walls of today.”
This collection of talent is strong, with many of the mid-large names that are at play in this generation of painters whom are primarily born in the 1970s and 80s. In their work is a cultural appreciation for modern graffiti history as they now channel it along with formal training, art history, advertising, and a multitude of media. With few exceptions, it’s a tight list of artists, the images are riveting (though uncredited to their photographers), and the brief introductions by Pomajambo contain just enough biographical information and artist’ quotes to ground the story and give it context.
“As with everything I do,” says the Queens, New York native Pomajambo, “I always question and observe, and as we reach critical mass with murals I felt compelled to create this project and capture a moment in time.”
Evoca 1. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
Fintan Magee. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
Miss Van. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
MOMO. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
Onur & Wes 21. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
Telmo & Miel. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
Tone (Robert Proch). Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
All photos of the spreads by Jaime Rojo
The Art of The Mural: Contemporary International Urban Art. Volume 01 by Shaen Pomajambo. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. USA.
A lot of people thought so, and the rise of commercial festivals and commissioned public/private mural programs probably brought more artists to more walls than in recent history. Judging from the In Box, 2016 is going to break more records. Enormous, polished, fully realized and presented, murals can hold a special role in a community and transform a neighborhood, even a city.
But they are not the “organic” Street Art that draws us into the dark in-between places in a city, or at its margins.
We keep our eyes open for the small, one-off, idiosyncratic, uncommissioned, weirdo work as well, as it can carry clues about the culture and reveal a sage or silly solo voice. It also just reinforces the feeling that the street is still home to an autonomous free-for-all of ideas and opinions and wandering passions. For us it is still fascinating to seek out and discover the one-of-a-kind small wheatpastes, stencils, sculptures, ad takeovers, collages, and aerosol sprayed pieces alongside the enormous and detailed paintings that take days to complete.
The main image above is from a vinyl subway advertisement that was high-jacked and we published it in February of this year on our Images of the Week posting. It’s small, personal, and very effective as you can see someone suspiciously similar to Batman is jumping out of the mouth of someone looking awfully similar to Hedwig of “Angry Inch” fame.
Of the 10,000 or so images photographer Jaime Rojo took in 2015, here are a selection 140+ of the best images from his travels through streets looking for unpermissioned and sanctioned art.
Brooklyn Street Art 2015 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo
Brooklyn Street Art 2015 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;
365xlos43, Amanda Marie, Andreas Englund, Augustine Kofie, Bisser, Boijeot, Renauld, Bordaloli, Brittany, BunnyM, Case Maclaim, Casg, Cash4, CDRE, Clet, Cost, Curve, Dain, Dal East, Dan Budnik, Dan Witz, David Walker, DeeDee, Dennis McNett, Don Rimx, Ricardo Cabret, LNY, Alex Seel, Mata Ruda, Don’t Fret, Dot Dot Dot, ECB, El Mac, El Sol25, Ella & Pitr, Eric Simmons, Enest Zacharevic, Martha Cooper, Martin Whatson, Ever, Faile, Faith47, Findac, Futura, Gaia, Gilf!, Hanksy, Hellbent, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy and Sot, Inti, Invader, Isaac Cordal, James Bullough, Janet Dickson, Jef Aerosol, Jilly Ballistic, Joe Iurato, John Fekner, Le Diamantaire, Li Hill, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Low Brow, Marina Capdevilla, Miss Van, Mr. Prvrt, Mr. Toll, Myth, Nafir, Nemos, Never Crew, Nick Walker, Nina Pandolofo, Old Broads, Oldy, Ollio, Os Gemeos, Owen Dippie, Paper Skaters, Pet Bird, Kashink, Smells, Cash4, PichiAvo, Pixel Pancho, QRST, ROA, Ron English, Rubin415, Saner, Sean 9 Lugo, Shai Dahan, Shepard Fairey, Sheryo & The Yok, Sinned, Sipros, Skewville, Slikor, Smells, Sweet Toof, Snowden, Edward Snowden, Andrew Tider, Jeff Greenspan, Specter, Stray Ones, Sweet Toof, Swil, Willow, Swoon, The Outings Project, Toney De Pew, Tristan Eaton, Various & Gould, Vermibus, Wane, Wk Interact
The Spanish Street Art duo Pichiavo brought the antiquities and modern day graffiti together last week on a soaring multi-story wall in Borås, Sweden. Ironically both are under attack at any given time these days – one by terrorists eager to erase and loot symbols of unholy civilization and the other by the municipal buffing of unsanctioned aerosol tags. In one mural the Valencia-based duo are encompassing many battles and, as it rises amidst a building complex that was once a textile mill here by the Viskan River, the duality of the piece is awash with color and movement like so many fabric dyes being dumped into a stream.
For Pichi and Avo, who merge their names as one on artworks, the creation process of their murals includes first laying down a blanket of aerosol tags and then precisely rendering the figures of Greek and Roman mythology and sculpture over top as a semi-transparent screen. In this case the fierce Greek goddess Latona guards her son Apollo and his sister Artemis, commanding the bricked space and raising questions.
As a passerby looks at this mashing of imagery one may be reminded of the fiery and perplexing tensions that exist in discussions in academic and public-policy circles about the worthiness of graffiti, street art, and urban art alongside traditionally more revered art forms and styles. Another audience will see the battles between the various practices on the streets themselves, of which Pichiavo are well acquainted. Witness the faded “Toy” bubble branded on the infants hip – a term used to disparaged new unskilled graffiti writers.
Pichiavo tell us that the supportive relationship depicted extends between the mother and her children and that the figures are deliberately chosen to portray their own experiences. “Our aim was to represent graffiti and Street Art and the overall movement through Leto’s figure. Here her children are the writers, or artists. According to Greek mythology Apollo and his sister Artemis were the most important protectors of Leto, defending her from attackers of all kinds. This allegory can be applied in the Street Art world, where many people try to take advantage of something that it is growing and we, the writers ourselves, need to defend and protect that which we care about.”
This is No Limit, the second installation of murals done primarily by Street Artists in Borås, a pristine and pleasant city about 45 minutes east of Gothenberg. With the leadership of artist Shai Dahan and organizers Stina Hallhagen and Anders Khil the local tourism office works year round to promote this festival and the quality of the pieces are top notch due to the careful choices of international big names and up-and-comers.
In addition to this diversity, the scale is varied with massive walls like those by the Chilean Inti and Poland’s Robert Proch, and more personal-sized installations in surprise locations around town by American illustration artist David Zinn and New Jersey’s sculptural stencillist Joe Iurato.
With maps, food trucks, tours, and near daily coverage from local media, including the largest outlet “Borås Tidning”, whose façade was painted this year by Los Angeles native Tristan Eaton, this city of about 65,000 turns out small crowds to watch the progress from the sidewalk and interact with the artists.
“The people here are enthusiastic about the artists and their works and really engage with the art,” says Dahan, who serves as director of the “No Limit” festival and who also organized a pop-up gallery show of work by international and local artists in the heart of the city.
Across the street from the university is a “first” for a mural by the Chinese-born artist DALeast, who has not previously worked in the industrial cerulean hue that dyes the fibre-like threads weaving an enormous flying bird’s wingspan across a graduated modern façade. Dahan tells us that it is meant to be seen from the ground level for students and faculty at The Swedish School of Textiles.
“When he arrived in town he sat with his black book right here,” he says, motioning to the contiguous wooden seating platform running along steps leading up to the august bird. “He sketched the entire mural from this vantage point, and this is the best perspective to see it from.”
Next year the city is planning a sculpture festival and the murals will return in 2017. In the mean time, have a look at new work from Curiot, DalEast, David Zinn, Dulk, Inti, Joe Iurato, Logan Hicks, Robert Proch, and Tristan Eaton.
The process of getting one of these huge murals up in Borås entails many hours, days, paint, a scissor lift, compressors, brushes, buckets, sandwiches, sunscreen, ponchos, lunches, bathroom breaks, discussions, last minute runs to the hardware store, drizzling and pouring rain, warming sun, and entertaining questions from the inquisitive passersby.
That last item on the list is particularly true here in Borås for the No Limit festival because director Shai Dahan and the tourism board here have done such a thorough job of publicizing the festival that literally crowds of spectators have greeted the artists at certain times during the past week, while the normal flow includes at least a handful of new people arriving at all times to take in the action first hand. Families, singles, old folks, boomers, skater kids – the interest level is rather unusual actually.
We only added to that number of spectators this week, but we also get to ride in the scissor lift so that is even more distracting to the artists. But what the heck.
Yes there will be finished pieces all presented together here for our No Limit round-up next Wednesday. In the mean time you can take a look here at some of the artists working on their walls in process high above the street in their buckets aloft in the sky, enjoying their final moments before they soon leave this town.
With a new multi-storey mural in Khirki, INTI again brings the mystery and metaphor to a neighborhood. Part of the 2015 edition of St+Art India, this piece is entitled “Balance”. Yet another astounding piece by the prolific painter from Chile, this one defies gravity regarding a solemn topic of the heart.
Montreal has shown up again on our radar this summer because of the second annual MURAL festival, a large gathering of art fans, performances and live painting. The quality of the work is high and appropriately placed center stage, and the caliber of the event draws a good cross section of modern public art fans who are there to see the art and meet the artists rather than rush past it on the way to the next music performance, beer tent, or drug deal.
A majority of the 20+ artists made their mark initially by doing graffiti/street art, about a third of them are Canadian, and all of them were stunted by heavy rains the first two days of the four-day event. By the weekend the sun had cleared the way for block parties, DJs, live painting, tours, and commercial vending along the Saint-Laurent and the golden age of murals was in full effect once again.
Impossible to place into one stylistic category, many of the massive pieces this year are singular portraits, or at least figurative, appealing on the whole, and with a handful of abstract and surreal tableaus. Transgressive themes, as in many street festivals around the world, are almost disappeared or nearly imperceptible — an irony of sorts considering the rebellious street culture that many of these artists evolved from. Ultimately, it is the quality of the endowment that gives it staying power and many of these new pieces will endure into the future in Montreal.
123 Klan, Bezt from the Etam Cru, Zilon, Alex Scaner, Inti, Vilx, Cyrcle, Zema, Alex Diaz, Seth, Fred Caron, 2501, Zoltan, Kashink, Kevin Ledo, Bryan Beyung, Miss Me, Stikki Peaches, Mathieu Connery, Alex Produkt, and Le Diamantaire.
Our final posting from Montreal’s MURAL festival gives you a sense of the the size, variety, and quality of the expanse of works on display over four days. With any luck, most of these will be up much longer.
If you are ever planning one of these ginormous parties of painting here’s a little advice: don’t plan to shoot photos of all of them during the actual festival because little things like rainstorms, supply shortages, surprising technical challenges, and artists fatigue will undoubtedly slow the progress.
Also raging parties and sudden love interests pull many a wayward heart away from the work to be done, and sometimes a parade of looky-loo new fans will ask 1,001 questions while craning their eyes up to you on the scissor lift. One or more of these eventualities always happens, nothing to be done about it.
“Some walls aren’t finished so I’ll try and get them tomorrow,” says photographer Daniel Esteban Rojas, who has been sharing these great images with BSA readers. Don’t sweat it Daniel, we understand, and these images are worth the wait!
BSA is pleased to partner again with the MURAL Festival in Montreal to bring you images as the events unfold. Daniel Esteban Rojas tells us it has been a slower than usual commencement this year, due to Mother Nature, “We’ve had a huge rain storm and most artists couldn’t start.”
On the plus side, no one got a sunburn, they have four days to finish the 20 or so planned murals. The artists of course couldn’t wait to get busy on these huge, fresh walls – all calling their names like a siren song, and they got a lot accomplished despite the weather, and the DJs kept playing. Today the skies looks good for the all day block party.
Here we have some detail shots, progress shots and action shots and as the festival progresses we’ll bring you the completed walls for your viewing pleasure…
Today we jump right in to the warm Honolulu waters for a swim before padding barefoot up to the painted walls of Pow! Wow! where photographer Martha Cooper is waiting camera in hand and looking for a fly swatter to smack down a camera drone that is buzzing around her head and getting in the way of her shots.
Here’s part deux of some of Ms. Cooper’s pics from PW 2014, beginning with an aquatic version of the sort of poker-playing canines popularized by illustrationist and painter Cassius Marcellus Coolidge about a hundred years ago that still persist in the offices of law firms and investment banks today. This large scale variation is by street humorist Ron English.
“Ron English painted marine animals playing poker. His brother-in-law who lives in Hawaii (I think) had been begging for this wall for a long time so Ron finally did it,” says Martha.
“One of the craziest things I saw was the use of camera drones operated by remote control. There were a couple and they could fly high or swoop down to shoot.” -MC
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. TOOFLY in Miami 2. 8 Artists, One Day in La Perla
3. UNO in Bolonga, Italy 4. Phlegm / Run / Christiaan Nagel in London
5. Surplus Candy
BSA Special Feature: TOOFLY in Miami
“There is a different dynamic that takes place when women get together and paint or build or create something,” explains Queens born Toofly as she scales the ladder in Miami during Art Basel this year. The short by Alexandra Henry gives voice to the artist, designer and organizer as she describes coming up in the 1990s wall painting surrounded primarily by dudes. Now as she moves to a different stage and embraces her Ecuadorean roots, Toofly is joined by a new generation of women who are laying claim to the street and adding their voices to the conversation.
8 Artists, One Day in La Perla
An overcast day in Old San Juan is still better than a sunny one inside an office cubicle, ya herd? Here’s a gently rolling survey of a community called La Perla, who in one day received new gifts bestowed from Alexis Diaz, Faith47, Axel Void, Filio, Inti, Conor Harrington, Poteleche, and Franco Jaz. Captured by Tost Fims, it is free of so many of the video making conventions of Street Art film-making that it may be pulling the genre in a new direction.
UNO in Bolonga, Italy
UNO and Matteo Talone take wheatpasting to a new very long expanse in Bologna, hand coloring meters and meters of pop inspired black and white image/text patterning for the Cheap Festival.
Phlegm / Run / Christiaan Nagel in London
A teaser for a series of films (Last Breath) that will be made documenting the beautification of soon-to-be demolished buildings in London. Touring the remains of structural decrepitude is not new, but doing so artfully like this is.
Surplus Candy
A new video from Nick Heller features a tour from the recent abandoned house takeover on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. Tati by Miguel Endara
2. Art as a Weapon: Trailer
3. Art Basel 2013 from Serringe
4. INTI Time Lapse
5. Faith 47 Time Lapse
BSA Special Feature: TATI
One of the females on the scene who consistently turns in ever more expansive and high quality work. No need for bragadoccio, just skills, which she has for miles. Here is a new video of her painting a mural for a business improvement district project in downtown Hollywood, Florida, directed by Miguel Endara.
Art as a Weapon: Trailer
“Street Art, Creativity, & Revolution collide in this beautifully shot film about art’s ability to create change. The film opens on the politically charged Burma border at the first school teaching Sreet Art as a form of non-violent struggle. Under the threat of imprisonment and torture, the students use stencils, spray paint and wheatpaste to engage the public and question authority. 8200 miles away artist, Shepard Fairey is painting a 30’ mural of a Burmese monk for the same reasons and to support the struggle for Democracy in Burma.” from Breadtruck Films.
Art Basel 2013 from Serringe
Did you make down to Miami this year to see the new murals going up at Wynwood? No problem, here is a very good overview from Element Tree / Art Primo.
Elfo is a graffiti writer and social commentator whose work intentionally sidesteps traditional notions of style or technical lettering. This …Read More »
In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Jose Mertz. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
