All posts tagged: Italy

BSA Film Friday 12.05.14

December 5, 2014 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. Street Artist GAIA, Super Modernity in Italy, Austria, Turkey
2. JR: RIVAGES a film by Guillaume Cagniard
3. Curiot at the Mexico City’s Youth Institute

BSA Special Feature: Street Artist GAIA, Super Modernity in Italy, Austria, Turkey

“Traversing places in order to respond to place, what an absurd proposition.”

And yet, that is what Street Artist Gaia has been doing for the last 3 years or so. In route he has been seeing many other artists doing the same thing, and has been feeling super modern about it.

While Street Art grew out of the graffiti tradition of tagging your local city with your name and your artwork and calling it a day, few are satisfied with that audience today. True fame happens via the Internet and mural festivals, and Gaia has made it one of his goals to study the history and culture of his host city and the resulting art works have been affected by his self-education and observation.

In this new video mini-treatise, an existential examination of his own journey to this point, Gaia poses questions while cleverly jabbing at the roving rootless lifestyle that has arrested many artists in the Street Art scene; reveling in its benefits — possibly counting its costs.

The petite piece is scored by Max Muffler in a postmodern electronic timber, evoking the charging swing of perpetual cross-cultural travel that can be rich and repetitively banal.

Sounds like the beginning of a larger work to come.

JR: RIVAGES a film by Guillaume Cagniard

Curiot at the Mexico City’s Youth Institute

NEMO’S Watering Thoughts to See What Grows

December 1, 2014 Artists

It’s just another comedic grotesque figurative painting from the Italian Street Artist Nemo’s. Nothing to lose your head over.

Hidden in an abandoned place in the mountains, Nemo’s and Julieta Xlf share with you their collaboration entitled ‘Watering”, with Julieta painting the branches and leaves. Have you ever heard that saying “geranium in the cranium”? Now you have! Glad we could help.

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NemO’S collaboration with JulietaXlf in an abandoned place somewhere in Italy. “The Watering”. Detail. (photo © NemO’S)

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NemO’S collaboration with JulietaXlf in an abandoned place somewhere in Italy. “The Watering”. (photo © NemO’S)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.23.14

November 23, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Starting to think about what we are thankful for this week as we approach Thanksgiving. So many of our neighbors here in New York are going to be truly thankful that immigration reform, the first in about 28 years, will begin to protect many families and workers from the threat of arrest and being torn apart. For those doing the math, we are talking about probably hundreds of thousands of our neighbors who are sleeping tonight a little better, even if the economy is still pressing people down. “It’s fair to say that we have never seen anything quite like this before in terms of the scale,” said Peter J. Spiro, a Temple University law professor in a Times piece.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing new artists pop up on the Street Art scene, and witnessing some voices getting stronger. Honestly, with the everchanging feast on the streets, you can never get bored in New York. Actually that is still against the law as far as we know – getting bored in NYC.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 2 Face, Icy & Sot, JB Rock, Jerk Face, L’Atlas, LUC, Madame Moustache, Nénão, Nerr, Rita MacDonald, Specter, SPQR, Stikman, Trap, Zed1.

Top Image >> Nénão (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zed1. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zed1 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot created a memorial/tribute to their friends who fell victims to gun violence a year ago. The Buschwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rita MacDonald for Domino Walls 2014. Detail/Reflection. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rita MacDonald (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. Ad/phone booth take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JB Rock/SPQR stirring up the pot in Sicily, Italy with this image by Shepard Fairey and signature from Banksy. (photo © JB Rock)

JB Rock new work in Sicily, Italy. (photo © JB Rock)

LUC. Talkin’ ’bout nuns. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Speaking of nuns, have you seen this remake of Like a Virgin by Sister Christina in Rome? Indeed!

The French Street Artist Madame Moustache left some of her quirky collage drawings wheatpasted around town. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Madame Moustache (photo © Jaime Rojo)

2 Face. The faux fence was done by an unknown artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trap (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nerr . WUFC Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This piece is a collage made with yarn and shredded fabric depicting a winged creature by an unknown artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

L’Atlas at work on his new mural in Rome, Italy in collaboration with Wunderkammern Gallery for his solo exhibition. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

L’Atlas at work on his new mural in Rome, Italy in collaboration with Wunderkammern Gallery and his solo exhibition. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

Jerk Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. From the series American Playground. NYC. 2014. (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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ROA and An Orphaned Bear in Rome

November 18, 2014 Artists

Entirely within the character of Street Artist ROA, his new piece in Rome addresses the underlying rift between man and nature. The urban naturalist is known for his depictions and portraits of creatures who share the earth with us, often endangered or otherwise misused at the hand of man. In town for his solo show, “Suovetaurilla”, at the Dorothy Circus Gallery, ROA painted this particular bear kid who was famously orphaned this summer.

The case of his mother attacking a human hunting mushrooms in the forests of Trentino and open public deliberations about the ethics of killing or capturing her was openly discussed and debated in grocery stores, beauty parlors, and halls of government. It even sparked an online petition drive that gathered more than 120,000 signatures to protect her from being punished while behaving like a bear.

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ROA at work on his new mural in Rome. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto/BlindEyeFactory.com)

Sadly Daniza was accidentally killed by too much anesthesia in the process of subduing her, effectively ending the debate about her fate. ROA paints here a timid orphan baby bear holding a dart similar to the one used for anesthesia. Using his work to advocate awareness is not the first thing that comes to most people’s mind, but ROA once again subtly shows his own method of activism is very effective.

ROA at work on his new mural in Rome. (photo © Giorgio Base/BlindEyeFactory.com)

ROA. Rome, Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallito/BlindEyeFactory.com)

For more on the story of Daniza the bear:

The Guardian August 22
The Guardian September 11

The Online Petition

The Daily Mail

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Icy & Sot on a European Street Art Tour

November 12, 2014 Artists

New York’s adopted Street Art brothers Icy & Sot have been spreading their wings in Brooklyn for a couple of years since we first interviewed them upon their arrival in the US from Iran. In that time they have continued to develop their personal style and voice, which is probably strongest when they use their work to address social issues and express opinion. To say that their New York experience has been a roller coaster of good and bad fortune for these two is an understatement, including having a solo show in Manhattan, being part of a supportive art community formed by ex-pats and street artists, and a horrifying shooting in their home that left three friends dead and Sot injured.

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Icy & Sot. Ad take over in Paris, France. 2014 (photo © Icy & Sot)

The intensity of the experience was fed by a media frenzy, and for a few months the brothers were in a surreal state of mind. The music and art community rallied to support them and they continued working and focused on more positive endeavors, like curating a cross cultural dual show between Brooklyn and Tehran in galleries in both cities this summer.

Now for the first time the brothers were free to travel this fall and they wasted no time hopping a plane to Norway for the Nuart Festival in September and continued their trip through Switzerland, France, and Germany to paint and meet friends and (gasp) collectors. Yes, these 20-somethings who work very closely together to conceive of and produce their work have garnered a growing following of fans in a relatively short period of time. While Icy and Sot have no plans to return to Iran in the near future, the brothers were excited to see Europe for the first time and to experience the sometimes pronounced differences in acceptance of street art and graffiti in various cities they visited.

Icy & Sot. Ad take over in Paris, France. 2014 (photo © Icy & Sot)

“It was our first time traveling and painting around Europe and it was a great experience,” says Sot of their various venues which included in-town interventions and a more intricate and contextual piece high in the mountains of Switzerland. They did some normal tourist stuff of course and Icy says, “From painting in a different environments and cultures to meeting artists, people and friends, we just loved it.” Aside from the many free-wheeling installations, including painting, stencil work, and bus shelter takeovers, they still are relishing the huge wall they did about homelessness in Stavanger, Norway they say. “We were so honored to be part of Nuart Festival,” says Sot, “which is our all time favorite festival.”

Icy & Sot. Paris, France. 2014 (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot. Tout Scene indoor installation in Stavanger, Norway for NUART 2014. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot. Outdoor installation in Stavanger, Norway for NUART 2014 (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot. Ad takeover in Stavanger, Norway. 2014 (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot. Crans-Montana, Switzerland. 2014 (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot. Vitry, France. 2014 (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot for Urban Nation’s One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2014. (photo © Icy & Sot)

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Coffee Break in a Garbage Can with Etam Cru in Rome

November 3, 2014 Artists

Poland’s Bezt and Sainer of Etam Cru start your week with a cup of coffee and this wall completed during late October in Rome. The soaring mural features the illustration style and palette that has distinguished their work since their beginning as students together five or so years ago and their skills have improved and evolved greatly before your eyes. The 30meter high wall piece accompanies the opening of their new show last Thursday at Galleria Varsi, entitled “Bedtime Stories”, ironically the same title of Faile’s show exactly four years ago in New York.

Special thanks to Blind Eye Factory for providing these exclusive images for BSA readers below of the new mural going up, and don’t miss their cool video at the end.

Etam Cru (photo © courtesy of Blind Eye Factory)

Etam Cru “Coffee Break” by The Blind Eye Factory

Oscar the Grouch in his Trash Can singing with Johnny Cash

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“Natura Morta” with Dissenso Cognitivo and NemO’s in Italy

October 27, 2014 Artists

Two Street Artists named Dissenso Cognitivo and NemO’s created this slicing critique of mankind for the Restart Festival 2014 in Imola, Italy that took place over 3 days in the end of September.

Dissenso Cognitivo and NemO’s collaboration for Restart Festival 2014 in Imola, Italy. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Dissenso Cognitivo/NemO’s)

“Natura Morta” takes inspiration from the traditional “still life” that artists usually apply to fruit, food, household items, even taxidermy – and instead objectifies the human as something to be pulled apart and studied. NemO’s typically casts an unsympathetic eye toward the homosapien, featuring him as a feckless desperate loser full of fallibility, blinded by his own selfish instincts.

Dissenso Cognitivo and NemO’s collaboration for Restart Festival 2014 in Imola, Italy. Detail. (photo © Dissenso Cognitivo/NemO’s)

Here too the new piece “alludes to a humanity that has pillaged and transmuted natural resources, killing all them and himself too,” says the artist. And when you learn that Earth has lost half of its wildlife in the past 40 years, one is inclined to agree that we are actively planning a dim end for ourselves.

“Symmetrically, nature as biological system (from Greek bios: life) dies because of destructive human mania,” say the artists, and our collective behavior “opens the door to a dramatic and bleak future.” Not sure if this grotesque depiction of a dissected human will result in a new discovery about our nature, but “Natura Morta” does open the mind, and heart, and throat…

Happy Monday!

Dissenso Cognitivo and NemO’s collaboration for Restart Festival 2014 in Imola, Italy. Detail. (photo © Dissenso Cognitivo/NemO’s)

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“Bluebird” : BIFIDO In Italian Jail Teaching Art Methods to Youth

October 13, 2014 Artists

Part of the lore surrounding graffiti and Street Art is that you are at some point playing cat and mouse with the police and probably doing illegal work and will possibly land in jail because of it. Opposite that stereotypical lore is the story where the Street Artist goes into jail specifically to paint, or to teach about art making.

It happens all the time.

Olek went to jail in Poland, both JR and Eine went to New York’s Rikers Island, and organizations like Young New Yorkers and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Restorative Justice program routinely benefit from the volunteerism of Street Artists who give their talents and time to people caught up in the criminal justice system. So much for the simplicity of stereotyping.

Today we have a fresh new piece from Street Artist Bifido, who just created this work in the Istituto Penitenziario Minorile di Airola, a prison for youth in Airola, Italy. Entitled “Bluebird” it contains metaphors about freedom that one could easily read into. “My work speaks of hope and a desire for rebirth that a person in prison can have and of the possibility for them to reinvent their life,” says the artist.

“In the prison I explained to the young people there about what street art is and taught them some techniques about creating art,” he says of the experience. “I talked with them about how an artist feels painting or making something on the street. They assisted me during the work and we worked together.”

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Bifido. Ariola, Italy. 2014 (photo © Bifido)

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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 Images Of The Week: 10.12.14

October 12, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bishop203, Blek le Rat, Caratoes, Cone SP, Cost, Dasic, Eelco “Virus” van den Berg, ENX, Enzo Sarto, Jerk Face, Nemo’s, Ripo, and Trash Bird.

Top Image >>Eelco “Virus” van den Berg (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wanna taste of this? NemO’s new site specific installation in Sicily, Italy. (photo © NemO’s)

COST. ENX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veteran New York Street Art/graffiti artist COST was in the news this week after being nabbed for putting up illegal work, and as you might expect, is instantly a hero to some because of it. Literally the same day as the police press release about the arrest we noticed a fellow artist mask taping some letters on a buffed portion of this legal wall where COST and his fellow artist ENX have been riding for a while. We returned a day later to find the message below.

COST . ENX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic new wall for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trash Bird shows how the evolution of man has been affected by cellphones. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blek le Rat in collaboration with Low Brow Artique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blek le Rat in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Enzo Sarto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Caratoes for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cone SP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RIPO for The L.I.S.A. Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerk Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop203 for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Afternoon Prayer. SOHO, NYC. August 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andreco Explores Italian Coast and Leads a “PARADE FOR THE LANDSCAPE”

October 7, 2014 Artists

Geologist, public artist, visual artist, earth activist, political activist, anthropologist, researcher, costume designer, environmental engineer PhD. Andrecco is all of these. Add performance artist to the list.

Andreco. “PARADE FOR THE LANDSCAPE” Leuca, Italy. June, 2014. (photo © Yacine Benseddik)

Leading his troupe of volunteers along the easternmost coast of Italy between Santa Maria di Leuca and Otranto, the Rome-born Andrecco says he worked with residents, particularly musicians, to form this merry earth spectacle along a three mile route.

“We are sort of an imaginary tribe ready to march in defense of the environment and in the name of the local geology,” he explains as you watch them carrying fluttering flags representing cliff rocks across the city of Santa Maria di Leuca. “The parade is a reflection on Leuca’s landscape and its natural environment,” he says, “on the meaning of natural boundaries, of political borders, and of public space in Leuca.”

Talking with him you realize that his work is a an admirable integration of his many interests, which if looked upon separately would never have the psychological and emotional impact that this weaving together produces. Add the element of weather, theater and performance – and thinking about rocks has never been quite so sexy. Collective action as advocacy gains relevancy in a way that it had not before.

“The project is possible with the participation of many persons from the local community,” he says of his public artwork called “Parade for the Landscape”. Inspired by the work of geographer Élisée Reclus, he would like this collective action by a group of citizens to help people reevaluate boundaries of landscape. “I aim to reflect on the meaning of limits, finding contradiction and differences between the idea of a natural boundaries (represented by the rocks of the cliffs that plunge into the sea) and political borders.”

It is not clear that an uniformed passerby who is just taking his kids to the cinema or the store will understand the fuller implications of Andreco’s plan or performance as the parade passes by, but the spectacle may yet spark an inquiry.

All you can hope for as your parade winds through critical zones of the city – abandoned areas, treacherous cliffs, challenging terrain – is that you have stimulated thoughts by merging local traditions and imaginative symbolism from the landscape. It can begin a conversation – or at the very least, proffer a question.

Learn more about Andreco HERE.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 10.05.14

October 5, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

School’s back in session, the Jews just celebrated a new year, Kobra painted new portraits of Warhol and Basquiat in Williamsburg, and if you were at Brooklyn Museum last night you got to see Street Artist and muralist Don Rimx and us live – and us with markers in our hands looking completely lost.

But that’s not nearly all the action this week; Gaia was in the Rockaways, Dain showed up in BK, the old Os Gemeos was “unveiled” on Houston Street, Nychos was in Hamburg, Nick Walker was in Yonkers, Ludo was readying his big solo show in London, we marked a year since Banksy hit NYC, students were in the streets in Hong Kong, ebola showed up in Texas, banks are being cracked open by cyber hacks, the US has begun another war, the new SNL is almost unwatchable, and you better start thinking about your Halloween costume.

Other than that, not much is happening.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring $howta, Apples on Pictures, Conor Harrington, Dain, EKG, Funky13, Jack the Beard, Jeff Huntington, Jesse James, Matthew Reid, Mr. Prvrt, Os Gemeos, Pyramid Oracle, Ramiro Davaros-Coma, Sam3, Square, Stikman, and What Is Adam.

Brazilian twins Os Gemeos are back on the Houston Wall after a long hibernation under a constructed cover that hosted Shepard Fairey, Faile, and a petite litany of others. So if you missed this the first time around and you are in NYC go and take a look before the wall comes down. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A portrait of Maya Angelou; a collaboration between Jesse James and Jeff Huntington for Annapolis, Maryland’s first Street Art Festival. (photo © Jesse James)

““I think that the courage to confront evil and turn it by dint of will into something applicable to the development of our evolution, individually and collectively, is exciting, honorable.” ~ Maya Angelou ~

Facing Evil With Maya Angelou (Full Show)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 09.28.14

September 28, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bikismo, Cera, Conor Harrington, indie184, Knarf, London Kaye, Nemo, NemO’s, Pyramid Oracle, Sheryo, Stikki Peaches, The Yok, Troy Lovegates, UNO, and Wolfe Work.

Scroll to the end to see the brand new video of M-City stencilling atop a sea vessel during his Nordic oceanic installation off the coast of Stavanger. Also, check out the blowing winds on the mic at the beginning.

Top Image >> Bikismo’s new mural for the New York Street Gallery sends mixed messages brought during the fog of war, an age in which we currently live. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City and Nuart present Ocean Art

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“Above Ground” : How Martin Wong Preserved the Underground Soul of Graffiti
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ELFO: Don’t Use This Wall!
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SpY, a prominent public artist hailing from Madrid, has unveiled his latest sculptural work titled “ORB” in Montreal’s renowned Place …Read More »
Birch Bark, Rosehips, and a Family Affair: Faring Purth’s New Chapter in Mural Form
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In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »
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