All posts tagged: Jaime Rojo

Add Fuel: “Youth Eternal” at Subliminal In Los Angeles

November 14, 2022 Artists

Ripped tiles. Wait, you can’t do that. Not traditional Portuguese Azulejo ceramic tiles…

Add Fuel. *“Youth Eternal”* at Subliminal Projects. Echo Park, Los Angeles. (photo courtesy of Subliminal Projects)

Summoning the subversive intentions of rebellious youth, the Portuguese muralist Diogo Machado, aka ADD FUEL, does precisely that.

The ripping is not literal, of course, but the recurring idea of tearing back layers of tradition to reveal something less expected underneath has been his theme on streets for years. Whether it is a blend of pop and sarcasm or simply an escape into the adventures of childhood, ADD Fuel has mastered the art of hiding truths in plain sight with precision and allegory.

Also, he does make tiles; we’ve inspected the kiln personally just outside his native Lisbon. The colors, patterns, and homey motifs are easy to glaze over in such a city, which is perhaps why he beckons you to come and see the real story. You may imagine the specific dysfunction in this household, but Diogo’ll tell you the truth about what has been happening if you look a little closer. Nothing is what it appears to be.

“In my work, I always suggest an adventure, a journey through focused attention in the composition,” he says of his new show YOUTH ETERNAL, which opened Saturday night at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Gallery in Echo Park, CA. He intones that you’ll need to take a moment to experience “the discovery of nuance through layers, patterns, allegories, and the unstoppable constructive dynamism of the story I present in each piece.”

He doesn’t limit the works to studio pieces exclusively: his large-scale wall works across many cities have the effect of transforming, disarming: creating homey energy, sometimes in the oddest of places. His newest mural here in Los Angeles is just outside a place described as “Subliminal Projects’ favorite local watering-hole,” with the name Little Joy Cocktails. The new work has also spawned a new collaborative screen-print with Add Fuel and Fairey in a limited edition.

As with all expressions and output by the artist, the wall invites you. “It guides the viewer to discover intricate details, and a story over time,” he says.

Add Fuel. “Youth Eternal” is now on view at Subliminal Projects. Click HERE for more information about this exhibition.

“YOUTH ETERNAL”

EXHIBITION DATES
NOV 12 – DEC 10

1331 W. Sunset Blvd • Los Angeles, CA 90026

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.13.22

November 13, 2022 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

One of the hardest weeks of our lives. But we’re still here to give you another posting of new shots of street art and graffiti on the streets. Thank you for your support, and thank God for the creative spirit that keeps us inspired, our cities alive, informed, and in-touch with the common person.

The so-called ‘Red Wave’ (red tsunami, red hurricane, etc.) didn’t materialize in the mid-term elections Tuesday despite the drumbeat on corporate media. On the other hand, the Democratic party can’t be too proud of their “squeaker” win – or their incremental moves to the corporate right for four decades. Nothing to sing and dance about.

Meanwhile, a large swath of previously middle-class people continues to slip into poverty every day – working 2, 3 jobs at a time and still not able to make ends meet. It is more obvious than ever in this modern age, there is no party run by the people.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Praxis, SRKSHNK, Lexi Bella, Homesick, Chupa, Ivanorama, Kimyon333, Sinclair the Vandal, Cramcept, SORE, Qzar, Lasak, Uwont, Aidz, Delae, SGVT, and NYC Kush Co. and Sean9Lugo.

Mobb Deep tribute by Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cramcept. Is it just us, or do we see mushrooms everywhere lately? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Praxis with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What a clown. Ivanorama (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UWONT. AIDZ. DELAE. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mantra and the Big-Talking Ruby Crested Kinglet in Williamsburg

November 12, 2022 Artists, Interview, Interviews

Under the clattering rumble of the J Train, as it passes above from Manhattan into Brooklyn, this Ruby Crowned Kinglet hangs onto a small branch. An overcaffeinated and twitchy bird of very diminutive size, its birdsong is non-the-less one of the loudest – and quite musical. It looks like Mantra has chosen a perfect New York bird for this wall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Mantra. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. October 2022. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In collaboration with the Audubon Society and Flora Fauna Funga (FEE), the French naturist, muralist, and former graffiti writer brought this natural scene into a boisterous babble of lateral glass and steel hubris. An artists’ neighborhood at the turn of the century, most of those colorful characters have been chased out by high rents, higher anxiety, and the startling, stultifying cultural homogeneity found in any suburb. It’s nice to see a little color back here.

“I had heard about this Audoban project on the street here,” Mantra explains, “and Martha said, ‘Why don’t you take the subway up to Harlem to see the new walls that feature birds and introduce yourself to the organizers.” He is referring to photographer and friend Martha Cooper whose cat Melia he once painted on a wall in Helsingborg, Sweden.

In the end, it was the Audobon Society in Paris who gave him the first opportunity, and now he is in the sister city of New York to paint this one for them. “We realized that it would be a good idea to have a mural in Paris and another one in New York City anyway,” he says.

Looking for a metaphor he says, “We are not even building a bridge but maybe as birds we migrated from Paris to New York.” New York has of course a public art connection with France at least since the 1880s when the Statue of Liberty opened – designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi , with its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel.

“So basically,” Mantra says, “ I decided to design this mural so we could appreciate this bird above us. The ruby-crowned kinglet arrived and landed on the branch. Maybe he is as curious as we are.”

And what about the new mushrooms that have seeming popped up here overnight?

“There is a fungi foundation that is linked and is sort of a parallel foundation that is also a partner for this project,” he says. “From what I understand, there is a struggle to break into the scientific fields and establish a third order. It would be flora, fauna, and fungi.”

Mantra. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. October 2022. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

BSA Film Friday: 11.11.22

November 11, 2022 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening:
1. The Wanderers – Rone. A Film by Selina Miles
2. The Wanderers – Georgia Hill. A Film by Selina Miles
3. The Wanderers – Amok Island. A Film by Selina Miles
4. Barkaa – Blak Matriarchy

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BSA Special Feature: The Wanderers -Rone, by Selina Miles

This edition of BSA Film Friday is dedicated to The Wanderers, a brilliantly human film documentary series by filmmaker Selina Miles. Today we share with you three of the six films. We published one of the films last week here – the film dedicated to Guido Van Helten. In next week’s edition of BSA Film Friday we’ll bring you the two remaining films.

“Directed by Selina Miles & Produced by Drew Macdonald This 6 x 10-minute documentary series explores Art as Adventure. The Wanderers profile six of Australia’s most exciting street artists as they take their work on the road to unexpected and unusual parts of Australia – discovering the influence of a new environment on their individual artistic styles.

From the Central Highlands of Tasmania to a farming town in regional NSW, a remote community in the Northern Territory to the islands in the Pacific, The Wanderers celebrates the amazing diversity of people and places found in Australia.

Along with a huge range of locations, each of the 6 artists featured in The Wanderers takes on a unique personal challenge. Whether reflecting on inspiration, learning more about Australian art history, or celebrating communities that often go unnoticed. This is a series about the discovery of self; of new cultures and places; and of Australia’s next generation of contemporary artists.”

The Wanderers – Rone

“Melbourne Artist, Rone, travels to Port Vila, Vanuatu to update a cyclone-damaged wall painted several years earlier. He creates a series of portraits of local women, hoping to use his skills to form relationships with people from each neighborhood.”

The Wanderers – Amok Island

“Amok Island journeys to the Heron Island Research facility on the Great Barrier Reef, learning about the ecology of the area and seeking inspiration via underwater photography, before painting a mural at a nearby abandoned marine park.” The Wanderers

The Wanderers – Georgia Hill.

“Georgia Hill brings her monochromatic lettering and pattern work to the isolated central highlands of Tasmania, where she explores the history and remoteness of the area before painting a 10-meter mural in the historic Hydro town of Tarraleah.” The Wanderers

Barkaa – Blak Matriarchy

A powerful message and a dope track from Barkaa.

“Blak Matriarchy is a testament to Blak women… That through all the pain and trauma we carry we cannot be broken and we are still here! It’s a middle finger to all the people who discriminated against me and who were racist towards me growing up, a testimony to the strength I hold within myself and the power I feel as a Malyangapa, Barkindji woman.”

Guido Van Helten Soars in Salina, Kansas

November 10, 2022 Artists

Following our previous story on the public/private art initiative “Boom!” festival in Salina, Kansas, we follow today with the one previous project on silos that ushered in many approvals for the festival by Australian mural artist (and photographer) Guido Van Helten.

Guido Van Helten. Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. (photo © Tanner Colvin / Salina Kanvas Project)

Completed in the summer of 2021, the images of children playing a circular game like “Ring-Around-the-Rosie” fairly surround the HD Flour Mill. With a mix of sepia tones and faded pastels, the scene includes a diverse mix of kids rendered with tender respect, a composition that evokes the moment and captures a timeless truth that children and play go together like peanut butter and jelly. Van Helten got to know the community before he began the project, making this work a mirror of life in the area. His technical skill is remarkable, able to render such imagery on rounded forms and shapes in such a way that perspective is not lost.

The project is part of the Salina Kanvas Project and is privately funded by businesses and property owners with an expressed interest in promoting the area and drawing tourism.

Guido Van Helten. Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Abstract Interpretation of Community by Giulio Vesprini in Reggio Emilia, Italy

November 9, 2022 Artists

“I reinterpreted this facade with elements of color and graphic structures that have clear references to the life of the Social Center and that emerged during the meetings held with residents of the area,” says Vesprini of the inspiration for this new abstract exterior wall in Reggio Emilia, Italy. By asking questions and listening to the stories people told him in the Gattaglio District, he says he understood the way of life here and incorporated symbols, colors, and history into his composition.

Giulio Vesprini. “E SOM DAL GATTO – Struttura G069”. Reggio Emilia, Italy. (photo Matteo Consolini)

The artist tells us he chose yellow to represent the walkway that connects the district to the Crostolo embankment, the round symbols to indicate sports games, green for the plants, blue for the Crostol stream, and red to recall the overall map. With the finished composition, he is pleased that he has worked closely with the community to create it.

“Giulio Vesprini is now truly one of us,” says Graziano Tura, president of the Gattaglio social center.

He commented on “the beauty of the common experience of members and inhabitants of the neighborhood in the relationship and collaboration with the artist,” according to Vesprini.

“E SOM DAL GATTO – Struttura G069,” by Giulio Vesprini.

Kansas Flies Into the Mural Scene: Boom!

November 8, 2022 Artists

Not the first place you think of for a mural festival: Salina, Kansas. But there are new mural festivals in downtowns across the globe right now, and their longevity, among other barometers for success, varies greatly. In addition to having a distinct point of view, we have observed that towns and cities that are beginning public art projects must have a serious budget and an excellent sense of organization. “Boom!” appears to have both.

Members of the Women in Aviation K-State Chapter pose in front of a new mural by Joe Iurato and Logan Hicks. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The pacing has been good too – with the Australian Guido van Helten starting the momentum by painting a sweet scene in 2021 of local children here on the ‘canvas’ that has become a signature for him, a cluster of grain elevator silos. His realistic renderings, fully contextual, are romantic without becoming sentimental and outpace many with his painterly can-control and technical ability. Somehow the Brisbane native may have lit this fuse.

Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Following that Salina Kanvas project (there are a few initiatives on the boards) comes the first organized festival with a solid mix of talents from the international scene crossing murals, street art, and graffiti roots – not easy to accomplish with such a short roster. Like van Helten, the talent is self-assured, and some of it goes deep in self-knowledge and in the culture that fuels today’s scene. Thanks to private donations, corporate sponsors, and the Chamber of Commerce, initiatives like this community-building public art project are well-backed.

Add to this mix the world-renowned photographer Martha Cooper, who captured the scene that birthed this one about 45 years ago in neighborhoods where it started, and balance it with the high-flying image of Kansas’ most famous pilot Amelia Earhart, who pioneered aviation and capitalized well off her self-made brand. This year’s curation may well have put Salina on the mural-fest map in one fell swoop.

Martha shares some of her shots with us today – with a few from the organizers as well.

Tony Sjoman. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Tanner Colvin / Salina Kanvas Project)

Not that the town of 45,000 of wheat, Wesleyans, and women in aviation doesn’t have an organic graffiti scene; It’s here. You can find examples of Salina’s fight against it, including advice on discouraging it with, well, murals. It’s good to recognize that most, or not all, of the participants in Boom! also sharpened their skills by painting graffiti illegally on the street.

Ms. Cooper tells us that “I would have liked to have time to shoot more freights,” a historical method for transporting unsanctioned art and writing across the country on the sides of freight trains that is peculiar to American history as it braids with archetypes of rebels, hobos and cowboy mythology. “The train tracks run through Salina,” Cooper remarks with some relish, and she notes smaller details that a documentary photographer would catch. “The main street had lovely plantings of prairie grasses evoking what we outsiders think of as typically Kansas.”

Here is a sampling of the works and artists from this inaugural “Boom!”. We hear the second one will make some noise as well.

Boom! Salina is an annual mural festival in downtown Salina, KS. Boom! Salina is backed by the Salina Kanvas Project.

Tony Sjoman. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Joe Iurato. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Joe Iurato and Logan Hicks. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Mona Caron. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Mona Caron. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Tanner Colvin / Salina Kanvas Project)

Mantra. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Tanner Colvin / Salina Kanvas Project)

Telmo Miel. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Group shot of the talented artists. Boom Festival / Salina Kanvas Project. Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Behind the shot. Martha Cooper poses with the K-state women in aviation.

A bonus shot of a freight train with graffiti passing through Salina, Kansas. October 2022. (photo © Martha Cooper)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11-06-22

November 6, 2022 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

It’s New York City Marathon Day! 50,000 people running through the street, which is not much different from the Macy’s One Day Sale – except it’s outside.

In other NYC news, do you ever feel like a slowly boiling frog? NYPD is talking about partnering with Amazon’s Ring network; the New York Times explains that all those 5G network towers going up on the streets around the city are really just upgraded cell phone equipment, the police will begin a “Drone Unit” to fight crime– “said to be equipped with night vision technology,” this article says, they “won’t be weaponized,” and the NYPD digi-dog program from Boston Dynamics has been discontinued for right now and drones patrolling streets soon, right? Also on Friday the New York Federal Reserve announced plans for a new Fed digital dollar – a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) and the new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is all in favor of completely digitized money. Meanwhile, it looks like NYC schools are going to be a lot safer with new initiatives to put biometric screening in them including maybe facial recognition. Nothing to worry about, right?

The city pays tributes to its heroes in different ways, and NYC street art loves Biggie Smalls more than anyone, along with folks like Spike Lee and Jean Michel Basquiat. This week we spotted a few new ones among the bevy of new street art beauties we discovered below.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Jason Naylor, Homesick, Savior El Mundo, King Baby, Mutz, Glare, Banksy Hates Me, Ashley Hodder, Raisa Nosova, Qzar, Spin, INU, Cheatz, Ultraboyz, Humble, Carlos RMK, and Yuzly Mathurin.

Hip Hop Is My Religion. Detail. Bedstuy Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hip Hop Is My Religion. Bedstuy Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yuzly Mathurin. Bedstuy Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mahsa Zhina Amini. #iranrevolution (photo © Jaime Rojo)

INU. HOMESICK. KING BABY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy Hates Me. Although truthfully he probably doesn’t. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Carlos RMK. Shop 1 Culture. Bedstuy Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This looks like a version of the children’s street game Skelly. The design is very similar but the numerology is different…and certainly, with some of the words written with chalk, it wasn’t being played by children. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Williamsburg Street Art Meta: Domino Sugar Factory, Hellbent, BSA Redux

November 5, 2022 Artists

It is surprising to see this image reflected back to us again in the harried flurry of Williamsburg’s supercharged real estate development along the waterfront. Posted here on a construction wall protecting the perimeter of the old Domino sugar refinery, a photo that may remind you of the artists who first made this neighborhood a destination, then a desired destination.

Artist Hellbent photographed by Jaime Rojo painting a mural commissioned by Two Trees Management, May 2, 2014. This photo is currently in an open-air exhibition at the Domino Sugar complex of residential and commercial buildings on the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The cool kids would say it is rather meta. This is a photo by artist and photographer Jaime Rojo of a photo by Jaime Rojo – taken of a wall protecting the Domino plant development in 2014, now put back on display on a wall protecting the Domino plant development. In the 1990s, when Rojo moved to the neighborhood as an artist, it was known as an artist’s refuge with a bubbling culture of art shows, loft parties, free-wheeling experimentation with all manner of media, and a laboratory for street artists.

Portions of Faile, Eat Fruit and Die, C215, Ana Peru, PMP on Williamsburg walls in the 2000s (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

Like the rippling reflections on the East River before it, this new picture contains fragments of what this history is.

Hellbent, the street artist featured in this photo painting his site-specific mural, was part of a public art project curated by Brooklyn Street Art, which you are reading. His art had graced the walls of Williamsburg illegally a decade or so before painting legally here on this temporary construction wall. Jaime Rojo had documented with his camera during that stage of his public work as well.

A more organic Hellbent on the street circa 2008 (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

Now 8 years later, we ponder the future of this neighborhood, these real estate developers, and this artist. Street artists’ work is rare to be found here at this moment, while once it was on every block. Murals, many of them commissioned advertisements, affect a curious curation of a culture geared toward consuming.

Street artist duo Faile on Williamsburg walls in the 2000s (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

The graffiti historian and art dealer Roger Gastman mounted the huge “Beyond the Streets” exhibition in this neighborhood only two years ago, drawing some crowds to look – and some customers looking to buy art on canvas by many artists whose work were illegally on Williamsburg walls only a decade earlier – Shepard Fairy, Faile are but two who come to mind.

Shepard Fairey/Obey in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

New York Museums, should they ever change, will be next. Elsewhere, in cities and continents outside of this city known for being a birthplace of graffiti and the street art movement, there are already museums dedicated to this grassroots people’s art movement. New York art institutions follow, in this case.

We will be as surprised as anyone to see what photos we will publish about these street artists in this neighborhood in 8 more years.

Hellbent, Rubin, and Aakash Nihalani In Progress on Domino Walls in BK

“Done!” Murals from Rubin, Aakash, & Hellbent : Domino Walls Part II

BSA Film Friday: 11.04.22

November 4, 2022 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening:
1. The Wanderers – Guido van Helten. A Film by Selina Miles
2. Leon Keer. “Misfit”
3. Duality: A graffiti story. Trailer

BSA Special Feature: The Wanderers – Guido van Helten. A Film by Selina Miles

We focus today on one episode of a brilliantly human street art-related video-short series on artists called The Wanderers, directed by Selina Miles. Today we follow the muralist/portraitist/photographer Guido Van Helten as he travels to a small town in Australia to pursue stories, personalities, and a 10-car project on the train. Train writing, indeed!

“I am very interested in portraiture in a documentary style,” he says as you watch him almost tentatively introduce himself to new people. “I was a painter first, and now through this style of working, I’ve become very interested in meeting people and photography. Now I’m pushing myself to involve that in the process.”

A young veteran of storytelling, Miles allows the details of the scene to illustrate unique aspects of life and the people here. Without gawking, the subjects and their environments, and their body language are observed with the same respectful eye that the artist has as well. Each person responds differently, each brave to allow the film camera to capture them while Van Helton establishes a rapport. Ironically, he’s not comfortable with the process himself. “Sometimes this is challenging for me to introduce myself to people.”

These hand paintings of his subject’s eyes on the cars of a train may remind you of the photography of JR plastered across surfaces everywhere with a sense of spectacle – but these take such adept technical skill rendered with a unique warmth that it wouldn’t be fair to compare. Van Helten doesn’t even seem sure what his agenda is, aside from connecting in a human way to another.

Each chapter of this short film illustrates the connections, and you are rewarded with sumptuous sweeping views of the final results as well as the disarming pleasure the artist takes from it. “I enjoyed the idea of not knowing what reaction it could have with the people who see it,” he says of the project. “No one has any idea what this is going to do in the town. Maybe nothing, maybe something. Maybe someone will go home and say, ‘You know what I saw today! – Something really strange on the side of a train.’ I think that is exciting.”

The Wanderers – Guido van Helten. A Film by Selina Miles

Leon Keer. “Misfit”

Anamorphic street artist Leon Keer does a special project here at Château du Taureau in Baie de Morlaix France. His 3D floor painting ‘MISFIT’, is a reference to the previous use of this compound as a prison for the aristocracy – or at least certain members of their families who might cast them into dishonor.

“Under the Ancien Régime, most of the prisoners at the Château were Breton aristocrats,” says Leon’s description of the previous residents, “which were put in prison at the request of their own families, anxious to avoid dishonor. Libertinism, misalliance, madness, and an immoderate taste for alcohol or gambling could certainly lead to a forced stay at the Château during those days.”

Duality: A graffiti story. Trailer

A new film striking at the heart of the graffiti practice – the fact that many writers have a ‘straight’ life that doesn’t exactly run parallel to their night-time illegal escapades can in hand.

Director by Ryan Dowling, the stories of many are illustrated by the testimony of a small handful of writers who clearly elucidate the complexities of a form of expression that runs the gamut between criminalized and celebrated. Featuring a cast of DUAL, SLOKE ONE, JABER, MERES ONES, and NEVER – the stories vary, but the narratives return to foundational truths even as the scene evolves. Well produced and executed, Duality will join the list of ‘must-see’ documentaries about graffiti, street art, and everything in between.

JDL: “Love is stronger than death” in Belgrade, Serbia

November 3, 2022 Artists

A powerful sentiment is portrayed in this new and acutely personal mural in Belgrade, Serbia, today.

For us, it is a reminder that we don’t always know who is walking near us with a broken heart. We all do at certain parts of our lives, no matter what. Perhaps it is good for us to be a bit more caring, a little more patient, and a little more human in our daily interactions.

JDL. “Love is stronger than death”. Runaway Festival. Belgrade, Serbia. (photo courtesy of the artist)

“It is one year ago since my most loved one got diagnosed with terminal cancer,” street artist JDL shares with us. “Now that he died recently, I will spend my coming murals on dedicating his beautiful piece of mind.”

Part of the Runaway International Street Art Festival here and under the guiding eye of curator Andrej Josifovski, the mural rises many floors about this Belgrade street. It is sponsored by the Embassy of the Netherlands, home to the Amsterdam-based artist known as JDL Streetart (Judith de Leeuw).

Speaking of her dearly departed and much loved one, JDL says, “As he stated in the past year: I don’t have to be present to be here with you, because love is stronger than death.”

Sebas Velasco: Ordinary Story With Chef and Volvo. Sweden

November 2, 2022 Artists

The glaring intrusion of advertising’s florescent night – the stirring it causes inside your head and heart as it demands attention. This is not normal, yet we have tried to normalize it, this shallow gaudy preening cousin of fire. Muralist Sebas Velasco makes a hunt of this sort of late-night urban scene with photographer Jose Delou. Like reporters on the city beat, they play interviewer and sociologist, ultimately portraitist.

Today we have a Latvian chef and a Swedish chariot of a more recent vintage, a Volvo. The parking lot is a depository, now also a stage. The family wagon in the glow of the Swedish hypermart; the modern hunter, circling the prey for dinner.

Jose Delou. *Ordinary Story,* for Oskarshamn street art festival. Oskarshamn, Sweden. October 2022. (photo © Jose Delou)

Sebas Velasco. *Ordinary Story,* for Oskarshamn street art festival. Oskarshamn, Sweden. October 2022. (photo © Jose Delou)

Books In The MCL: The Self-Titled “NeSpoon”
November 26, 2024
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November 24, 2024
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November 21, 2024
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ELFO: Don’t Use This Wall!
November 19, 2024
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BSA Images Of The Week: 11.17.24
November 17, 2024
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SpY’s “ORB” Lands in Montreal: A Mirror of Street Art’s Evolution
November 14, 2024
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
November 12, 2024
In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »