The original fires of historical St. Joseph celebrations in Italy neatly coincided with pagan rituals of burning bonfires at the Spring equinox. It was a perfect act of marketing from both that caused both Catholics and heathen to join the dances and songs honoring the heat and the flames reaching high into night skies. In another hybrid activity of sorts, we find a former graffiti writer crossing into a new field to pay homage to his graffiti and Italian roots; employing professional graphic display skills to re-activate a public space.
Matteo Capobianco aka Ufocinque. Creative Living Lab – 3rd Edition. Associazione Culturale Antonio Giordano. Santa Croce di Magliano, Italy. (photo courtesy of ACAG)
Designer and scenographer Matteo Capobianco (aka UfoCinque) lights the municipality of Santa Croce di Magliano with this new flaming installation called “U marauasce” to recall the majestic fires lit over centuries at the feast of St. Joseph, the original caretaker of Jesus.
Foregoing the traditional olive trees and vines from the countryside typically used in fire-making, Capobianco conjures the tall licking flames by cutting plastic sheets and playing with light shining through the negative space.
Matteo Capobianco aka Ufocinque. Creative Living Lab – 3rd Edition. Associazione Culturale Antonio Giordano. Santa Croce di Magliano, Italy. (photo courtesy of ACAG)
The organizers say that as the winning submission for the “Creative Living Lab – 3rd edition” public notice, this fire is part of a more considerable effort to revitalize the municipality. As you can see from the photos, this is a legal installation done with the community’s involvement in the courtyard of the former elementary school. It is yet another way that artists can use urban interventions to alter public space and provoke/evoke discussion, memories, emotions, and historical events.
Matteo Capobianco aka Ufocinque. Creative Living Lab – 3rd Edition. Associazione Culturale Antonio Giordano. Santa Croce di Magliano, Italy. (photo courtesy of ACAG)Matteo Capobianco aka Ufocinque. Creative Living Lab – 3rd Edition. Associazione Culturale Antonio Giordano. Santa Croce di Magliano, Italy. (photo courtesy of ACAG)Matteo Capobianco aka Ufocinque. Creative Living Lab – 3rd Edition. Associazione Culturale Antonio Giordano. Santa Croce di Magliano, Italy. (photo courtesy of ACAG)Matteo Capobianco aka Ufocinque. Creative Living Lab – 3rd Edition. Associazione Culturale Antonio Giordano. Santa Croce di Magliano, Italy. (photo courtesy of ACAG)
Sometimes it just hits you, a joke. You bend back and lift your chin and belt out a joyful laugh.In the pantheon of positive health behaviors, this unbridled outburst must be one of those actions recommended regularly – sure to keep your life lighter and longer.
“The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.”
J.D. Salinger
Bifido. Popularte Festival. Lozzi, Corsica. France. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Italian street artist, photographer, sociologist, and philosopher Bifido shows us this newest diptych of two girls expressing simple emotions in the smallest town we can imagine. Not far from the laughing girl is the shy one, hiding behind her hands, unsure if that will be enough to comfort herself.
“Lozzi is in the Niolu region, about 80 people live there, there is no commercial activity, no bar, no market, no school, nothing,” Bifido says, which makes you consider the impact of these powerful large-scale images before an audience not accustomed to the visual litter of the big city.
We are always intrigued by such small towns across Europe inhabited by a handful of individuals. We asked Bifido about the town and he told us that “I believe that such a village can make you fall in love. Totally surrounded by nature, a precious silence and all noises are children of nature. The gentleman who organizes the festival is a math teacher at the university, when he has to go to work he takes 1 hour by car which I imagine is nothing for you, but for a European, especially one who lives in such a place it is a long way.
He organizes the festival himself and does it for the local children. In fact, he has a beautiful spirit. He likes to invite artists who involve local children, and even sometimes with the artists themselves, the children destroy the works after a few days as an act of participation”.
Bifido. Popularte Festival. Lozzi, Corsica. France. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Even in these photographs, disconnected from logos or brands or campaign messages, an observer is pushed to calculate the scale of a photorealistic image in relation to these settings. It is unclear if the images respond directly to the town, or if they presents new spirits in their midst.
For a town that is barely so, one considers the life here, where “there are only scattered huts, mountains, rivers, lakes, cows and other animals that roam undisturbed through the alleys.” Bifido adds to the public space with these images. Each is in a way similarly isolated – as are the residents of this place that was once full of the everday hallmarks of a healthy society.
In both portraits Bifido creates a poignant distillation of a moment – for anyone to discover and interpret on their way through Lozzi.
Bifido. Popularte Festival. Lozzi, Corsica. France. (photo courtesy of the artist)Bifido. Popularte Festival. Lozzi, Corsica. France. (photo courtesy of the artist)Bifido. Popularte Festival. Lozzi, Corsica. France. (photo courtesy of the artist)Bifido. Popularte Festival. Lozzi, Corsica. France. (photo courtesy of the artist)Bifido. Popularte Festival. Lozzi, Corsica. France. (photo courtesy of the artist)
The Ljubljana Street Art Festival 2022 edition has come to an end, with great flourish. We’ve been reporting on it here on BSA, and now we bid adieu to the uniquely creative organizers. They planned some unusual events and installations – painted with fire extinguishers and activated by fire, for example, or an extended definition of street art via phone assisted augmented reality. We particularly are gratified to see the conscious effort organizers and educators make to engage with the community and to open the experience of art on the street to adults and children.
With an informed balance of mind and heart, the festival presented an extensive program of talks, panels, and related social and performative events remain relevant and educational while entertaining. Screening the documentary Street Heroines – a documentary exploring courage and creativity in the female graffiti/street art scene – was undoubtedly a pinnacle, as was interviewing the intrepid director Alexandra Henry.
The fulsome academic program brought several speakers to examine the role of new technologies in the field of street art, the cross pollination of politics and sociological movements, the response “the street” has to war and propaganda, the intersections with sport culture, and the built environment as memoryscape. As ever, speakers and audience together contemplated our ongoing struggles to define the vagaries of a vast street art practice worldwide presents.
In addition to the presenters and participants in the program, we extend our congratulations to the excellent team of organizers and curators, to the talented artists and photographers, to the team of volunteers, and of course, to the host city of Ljubljana and their welcoming residents. Or special gratitude to photographer Crt Piksi, who shares his documentation here with BSA readers. Until next year…
From throw-ups to tags, banal to topical, paste-ups to high-gloss murals, the New York pays you back in grit and passion when you keep your eyes open. This summer the heat is on – and you really only need shorts, a tee-shirt, and comfy footwear to get lost in this city that is speaking to you at all hours and pouring poetic discourse into your head and heart. As hard as it may be sometimes, we are always thankful to be in a city full of people and artists that inspire daily.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Invader, Elle, Goog, Urban Russian Doll NYC, Homesick, King Baby, Miss 17, Cramcept, You Are Not Alone, Rambo, Dense, Beep Beep, Red Eye Mob, Crypto Compadres, and Dominator.
Ah, summer in the city! New York offers a myriad of choices for your entertainment and to perhaps enhance your appreciation of art and its crucial role in society. Aside from simply cruising the streets to see new works directly on city walls, one exhibition firmly rooted in the New York street art story that we highly recommend this summer is entitled “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure” currently on view in Chelsea. The exhibition is organized by his family with his sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux directing a narrative that is personal and revelatory. The exhibition opened in the Spring and we wrote about it HERE
Christopher Makos. Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure”
Click HERE for more details, tickets and schedules.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Turnout – Michael Van Swearingen 2. ENTER via Graffiti TV 3. Carlos Mare – 12 Levels of Graffiti: Easy to Complex
BSA Special Feature: Turnout – Michael Van Swearingen
Motion Designer Michael Van Swearingen somehow converts graffiti culture into a loveable squishy clean place to break the law, and breaks your heart gently doing so. “Tobin and Sven are street artists involved in a shady lifestyle as middle-men. After Tobin announces leaving his criminal past behind, along with the city, they proceed to finish one last drop off of an unmarked bag. Upon entering a graffiti soaked alley way, they’re confronted by a police officer and make a run for it. Ducking and diving through the glowing alley, they make their way towards a trainyard. With the cops following close behind, a split second decision decides their future.”
Turnout – Michael Van Swearingen
ENTER via Graffiti TV
Mexican graffiti futurist is a cyber punk influenced by Japanese style. Part of the 217 crew, Enter here shows you some of his tricks on this new flick from Graffiti TV.
Carlos Mare – 12 Levels of Graffiti: Easy to Complex via WIRED
NYC Old Skool graffiti originalist Mare 139 schools us all on the 12 Levels of graffiti. Everybody listen up.
Join the party today in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the street art festival Kin Graff 4 brought many to celebrate the murals, the artists, and the festival itself with music, food, and dancing.
Today we see images of the artists and celebrants here in the municipality of Kinshasa called Bandal, which is short for Bandalungwa. It’s the hometown of many of this year’s artists and the site of many works from last year’s edition of Kin Graff. The musical event was called “Live Experience,” and photographer Martha Cooper tells us that there were “performers appearing on an outdoor stage which had been set up for the night.”
It’s great to see so many people celebrating the arts and the positive role that they bring to a community. “White wooden boxes were placed near the stage for graffiti writers to paint live,” Martha tells us. “Many of the musicians were rappers. We heard that there were going to be BBoys dancing, but we didn’t stay late and don’t know whether that happened. There was an enthusiastic reception from the crowd who cheered and danced to the performers.”
Also, we show you some celebrants in fancy dress and creative costumery, some of the older murals, some of the new AIDS-themed artworks, and learn a little about Bonobos – which are found only here and are a celebrated part of the culture. We also speak here with Kin Graff director Yann Kwete, who tells us how he became interested in such a challenging project, and how difficult it is to mount such an event here. We ask him what his aspirations are for the festival and the people concerning graffiti, muralism, and the spirit of creativity that runs through the streets in Kinshasa.
Brooklyn Street Art: How did you come out with the idea of organizing Kin Graff in Congo and how many editions have you organized so far? Yann Kwete: My passion is art and urban culture. In 2013 I met Sitou, a graffiti artist from Togo and we had the idea to create this graffiti festival in DR Congo 2013. This was the 1st edition. From there I continued the project by myself through my organization Culture Plus. I have done 4 editions so far including this one.
BSA:How did you get to know the artists’ work and how did you find them to extend an invitation to participate? YK: I traveled through Europe and Africa and went to an art fair and other graffiti festivals. That’s where I met some of the artists. Some were referred by the artists I knew, and some contacted me directly to participate in the festival.
BSA:What are the biggest obstacles you need to conquer to organize the festival? YK: The main obstacle, or challenge, I would say, is the financial aspect – as the government doesn’t really grant funds for the culture and arts in DR. Congo. We need to be concerned with everything – from the traveling of the artists to the food, hotel, and visa application as well. One of the challenges encountered was also sponsorship and administration. This is completely different from the Occident or Canada and the US.
BSA: Do you get support from the city? Logistical? Financial? If so does it comes from private business or from the government? YK: This was the 2nd time I got the support of the city. That support is administrative, not financial – to be able to have access to murals throughout the city. Most of the financial support we receive comes from private businesses. This year we had the chance to get a big sponsor, Bracongo, who was able to support us financially. Logistically, we had support from Loop Colors who was able to provide materials for the artists. We got also received support from media through TV5, RFI, and France 24 for the marketing.
BSA:Are you a graffiti writer yourself? YK: I’m not a graffiti writer but I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts here and have been an art lover ever since.
BSA: What are the aspirations of the graffiti writers when they come to the festival? YK: It is based on their creativity, the theme of the festival, and their engagement through it.
BSA:Do you invite writers from many different cities and/or parts of the country? YK: Mostly, I get local graffiti artists from Kinshasa and others are international. In the future, I will be able to have other artists coming from other cities to be part of the festival.
BSA:What’s the biggest satisfaction you get from organizing this festival? YK: To show the world the beauty of arts and graffiti in our country, to develop the arts and culture in DR Congo. To teach and help young Congolese to become cultural administrators in DR Congo through their arts. My main goal is to promote art in DR. Congo and Africa.
BONOBOS Bonobos aren’t directly related to Kin-Graff but Martha says they deserve a mention because they are only found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Bonobos share 98.7 percent of DNA with humans making them our closest animal relative,” she says. “Adult bonobos are killed for their meat. Orphaned baby bonobos are adopted, raised and returned to the wild.”
Ignoring or hiding an issue in both the literal and metaphorical sense. For some, it’s a way of life.
For D*Face it’s a humorist’s opportunity to name his new exhibition in Los Angeles at Corey Helford; Basing the August show on the witticism “Papering Over the Cracks”, he’s painting over them.
D*Face. Painting Over the Cracks? Corey Helford Gallery. Los Angeles. (image courtesy of the artist)
Fresh from two years of Netflix and a new broken wrist while skateboarding (don’t ask), the British co-founder of Stolenspace gallery, and street/commercial/multimedia artist returns to LA a bit bruised but with stars in his eyes. In fact, a large part of the show plays on the currency of familiar Tinseltown themes that he customizes with his familiar pop vocabulary.
“I wanted to play on this expectation of predictability in the show by twisting some of Hollywood’s most iconic creations,” he says in a press release. “ ─ defacing and reimagining the images we think we know and trying to break that cycle of comfortable, knowable nostalgia.”
D*Face. “Ghostbusters” Painting Over the Cracks? Corey Helford Gallery. Los Angeles. (image courtesy of the artist)
A post-punk pragmatist of sorts, the *DFace cultural critique is ever-present since there is so much to rail against wherever one looks, but he won’t stir too much discomfort. The police state may be here, but can’t we all get along? He includes a new collection of collaged sticker compositions drawn from his prodigious collection along with new canvasses of familiar twists on pop themes and darker undertones.
As he says, there is still so much to be examined when it comes to cracks in the official stories, and he’s happy to show you what he found. Or paint over it.
“It is this occasional act of stepping outside the usual boundaries, questioning learned patterns and relationships that run throughout the body of work,” he says, “and I think it’s needed now more than ever.”
D*Face at work in his studio. (image courtesy of the artist)D*Face. “Clockwork Orange No.1” Painting Over the Cracks? Corey Helford Gallery. Los Angeles. (image courtesy of the artist)D*Face. “Gone With the Wind” Painting Over the Cracks? Corey Helford Gallery. Los Angeles. (image courtesy of the artist)D*Face at work in his studio. (image courtesy of the artist)D*Face at work in his studio. (image courtesy of the artist)D*Face. Painting Over the Cracks? Corey Helford Gallery. Los Angeles. (image courtesy of the artist)D*Face at work in his studio. (image courtesy of the artist)D*Face. “Adhesive Adventures No.1” Painting Over the Cracks? Corey Helford Gallery. Los Angeles. (image courtesy of the artist)
Painting Over the Cracks? Opening Saturday, August 6th at Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery with over 70 new works, installations and street murals on view through September 10th. Click HERE for more details and schedules.
A community-fueled project in a small town in Upstate New York has the draw of Lady Pink, the well-known 1970s/80s NYC graffiti writer, who lends her art and name, and spearheaded the project.
Today we go outside our fair city for “Roses for Rosendale”, a town-sprucing initiative two hours north of NYC that just bloomed with a number of murals by artists whose names you’ll recognize like Shiro, Queen Andrea, Alice Mizrachi, Muck and others – along with some local talents.
On-the-spot veteran photojournalist Martha Cooper hopped the bus up there to catch the action and she reports that the heroes of the day were the many volunteers who assisted in every way to assure that the artists had what was needed to adorn many walls here.
“The rose murals were painted both on Rosendales’s charming vintage brick and clapboard buildings as well as on the shopfronts of a nearby strip mall,” the renowned graffiti and street art photographer Cooper tells us. “It was a sweet little festival in a non-urban location familiar to a lot of Brooklynites.” It is true that many New Yorkers, especially Brooklynites, escaped to this region in a huge wave along the Hudson River Valley after September 11th, and then again recently many city types ‘discovered’ this storied region after the Covid lockdowns chased them to find greener pastures.
“We have over 16 locations with over 35 volunteers painting,” says Lady Pink on her Instagram posting. “Professional and emerging artists, people who just wanted to help! Locals and artists from as far as Japan came to paint roses and beautify a town. It was a weeklong painting extravaganza that filled hearts with joy.”
These are topics/themes that street artists are addressing this week in New York – pretty much wherever you go. It looks like an uptick in activism, often with a sense of humor. Can we make a song with these words? Somebody please tie these topics together and make a tidy summary. Thank you.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Raddington Falls, Hek Tad, Degrupo, CP Won, Albertus Joeph, Madame Restell, Mike King, Jason Ackerman, Trippin Ape Tribe, Eternal Possessions, and Lask Art.
You hope for it, but nothing is guaranteed. Transitioning from being an artist with a respected, lauded practice of graffiti/street art to a booming professional career on canvas is not a clearly defined route. Although many have tried, are trying right now.
What does it take, you ask? A potent mix of talent, luck, fortitude, applied effort, guts, and a willingness to change one’s approach if necessary, as necessary. In our experience, the last item proves to be the most challenging.
Yo, but Mad C is mad talented.
MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.
She’s made it a dedication to studying and learning the craft, fine-tuning the skills, practicing, perfecting, and persevering. All of those qualities will give you a great measure of personal satisfaction even when it doesn’t land you a big bank balance. In the case of MadC, internalizing the practices and codes of graffiti that originated with the 1960s/70s graffiti writers was core – imprinted her creative DNA forever – even though her first attempt to write was not until 1995 in Germany.
MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.
It’s all here, in “Street to Canvas” and in the introduction by author Luisa Heese, who strikes a confident balance with biographical information and aesthetic description – all placed in context with MadC’s formative culture of graffiti. You track how she moved from apprentice to mastery of the vaunted styles and family of idioms broadly defining graffiti and street art. As her methods, techniques, and visual language evolved and sharpen, a clarion voice rises above it all.
We each turn of the color-drenched plates in this hardcover tome you see a boldly deconstructed freedom with forms that eventually takes flight from the moorings. The planes and shapes begin floating above, below, and over one another, finally cavorting with and supercharging the whole. It is an ever more complex process that ultimately creates deceivingly simple-looking, balanced compositions. If you would like to see the progression of an artist’s professional practice, it’s here for you without reading a word.
MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.
If you peruse the texts, you are rewarded with necessary, dense, and colorful prose. You learn about the utter tenacity and whole-hearted devotion that brought this woman, now only mid-career after such a prodigious run, to the gallery, to private collections and institutions.
MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.
One centerpiece of the retelling are the pages devoted to the 700 Wall she painted in Peissen, Germany in 2010. Only 15 years into the game by that time, MadC knocked out the entire glossary of graffiti, even hinting toward our mural-filled present in a massive timeline. With this aerosol autobiography she presents her story with a dramatic psychological and emotional rendering; this colossus wall of dreams and nightmares. It an adventure filled projection of the inner life of an artist in this way is unusual for such a secretive subculture. Still, the strikingly illustrative story reveals the codes of the culture that formed her, told with over-shadings of personal aspiration, disappointment, fear, and grit.
The book contains her own recounting of this passion production;
“Some days I went up and down the ladder more than 500 times; fell off the ladder 4 times; counted in days, I painted more than months every day at least 10 hours; l used 1489 cans; 158 different colours; 600+ caps; 3 different kinds of caps, 100 liters primer; 140 liters exterior paint; painted at temperatures from +2C° to +38C° in the sunshine, rain, storms, day and night; painted my biggest and smallest piece so far and overall painted my name far more than 100 times on this wall.”
MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.
The contribution of this storytelling to the ‘scene’ informs us all. Completed more than a decade ago, the opus wall foreshadows where she travels next, personally and professionally. Seeing her massive murals completed in cities around the world since then you can appreciate her prophetic quality as well. Author Ms. Heese helps to draw it all into view often throughout “Street to Canvas”, including this time:
“There is no better way to describe the magnitude of The 700 Wall in how the worlds of graffiti, street art, and contemporary visual arts should or should not be related to one another, MadC crosses the boundaries of genres and discourses, the rules of milieus and aesthetic conventions, with charming ease to create a distinctive work that exists in between.”
MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.MadC – Street To Canvas. Heni Publishing, London.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Invader: Invasion Potosi, Mission 4000 2. A VHILS Reel edited by Jose Pando Lucas/Solid Dogma 3. Os Gemeos: “El dibujo es el alma de todo proceso” (Drawing is the soul of every process)
BSA Special Feature: Invader: Invasion Potosi, Mission 4000
Llamas, demons, Scoopy Doo, the Clash.
The French Invader, with his Western symbols painted with tiles takes you to Potosi, one of the highest cities in the world. “Located in Bolivia at 4000m above sea level it was a perfect place to install the 4000th space invader,” says the artist.
Invader installs his 4000 space invader in Potosi, Bolivia.
A VHILS Reel edited by Jose Pando Lucas/Solid Dogma
Os Gemeos: “El dibujo es el alma de todo proceso” (Drawing is the soul of every process). Via Domestika.
Elfo is a graffiti writer and social commentator whose work intentionally sidesteps traditional notions of style or technical lettering. This …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
