All posts tagged: Jaime Rojo

Los Asbestos: “Let Me Unsee” in Belfast

May 5, 2022 Artists

I see you, Asbestos.

The war on our minds continues apace, advertising and propaganda selling shampoo and wars and sowing confusion at such a rate that increasingly, we are willingly forgoing critical thought – willing to be triggered.

Los Asbestos. *Let Me Unsee.* Hit The North Festival. Belfast, Ireland. (photo © Los Asbestos)

Asbestos has seen this as well and suggests that it’s all too much. Here in Belfast for Hit The North Festival, his new masked figure the human pantoscopic, the master of surveilling, seeing all.

He is calling this new mural, “Let Me Unsee”.

“It feels like the world is bashing more and more through my eyes, filling me with more and more and more,” he tells us. “It’s all consuming, screen after screen, scroll after scroll, ad after ad, another painting, banana jelly, cat memes, peppermint fondant paint, the texture of her hair, conversations, work, war, conflict, love, lust, art, friends. Everything is new, bigger, brighter, better, faster, smoother, sexier.”

His commentary on this glut is engaging, and so are these new eye-popping visuals, virtually guaranteeing his new mural a place alongside the stream of cat memes and banana jelly that are flooding feeds.

“It’s impossible to not be enraptured by it all, but it’s bloody exhausting,” he says. “I feel I need to unsee, to switch off a few of my eyes, and to try to process fewer things. I’m overstimulated, which I love, but sometimes I just need a break.”

Luzinterruptus: “The Plastic We Live With” Looks Like Painted Glass in a German Facade

May 4, 2022 Artists

Wherever you go, there it is.

All that plastic you use, have used. You tucked those bags into drawers, plastic bins, containers, closets, cupboards, and boxes. They propagate and spread themselves and take over rooms, and very soon your home is overflowing with them, bursting from the windows, nearly ready to cause the place to explode.

Luzinterruptus. *The Plastic We Live With*. Essen Light Festival. Essen, Germany. (photo © Melisa Hernández)

Or so it would appear in this installation in the middle of a fine shopping district of Essen in western Germany. During the recent Essen Light Festival the artist collective Luzinterruptus says their goal was to show in a dramatic way the effect of “our compulsive use of plastic in our daily lives.” Collecting bags and packing windows of this historic façade was tricky work requiring a sense of design and engineering construction so that it could glow from inside.

Ultimately, the team was satisfied, they say, because the installation “rendered the impression that the building was about to explode due to the pressure of the plastic stuffed in its interior.”

“The contrast between the traditional architecture and the colorful appearance of the windows generated an unsettling, though somehow beautiful, sight that brought to mind the lively stained windows of a cathedral with interior lights.”

The team would like to thank the volunteers who helped with this project, including Bigrit, Maren, Misha, Sanine, Nygam, Lukar, and Satya, “who worked with us during the entire process and offered us their kindness and companionship.” In addition, “We also want to thank the building owners for letting us intervene in their lovely edifice.”

New York City Ranks #1 In Street Art In The US. Who Knew?

May 3, 2022 Artists

Remember lists and rankings on websites? Clickbait? Yes. But readers flocked after those in the early 2010s like TED Talks, shutter shades, and skinny jeans.

For old times sake, we just saw this scintillating list of top US cities for street art and clicked. For those who are interested in the street art rankings, SINGULART Magazine has released a report about the popularity of street art in major urban centers in the United States. We don’t know what it means. But enjoy – with analysis based on Social Media platforms, the authors of the report have listed the top 12 cities for street art in America.

New York City, New York. # 1

Chris Soria and Misha Tyutyunik (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chicago, Illinois. #2

Are you curious to know what the rest of the 12 top cities for street art are in the USA? Click HERE to find out.

Meeting of Minds and Methods for “The Versus Project 2” at Urban Nation, Berlin

May 2, 2022 Artists

“I didn’t know Christian and Patrick personally at the beginning of the project,” says graffiti writer/artist EGS, “but then we met and went spraying together.”

So many relationships on the street begin as easily, but this one is in service of a greater contemporary art effort – The Versus Project.

Mick La Rock vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now unveiling Part 2 of their collaborative canvasses exhibition here at Urban Nation’s special project space, Munich’s Patrick Hartl and Christian Hundertmark (C100) have combined their more painterly efforts as Layer Cake since 2015.

Reaching out to long-term and newer associates from the graffiti scene, they have been trading canvasses and ideas, and techniques for the last few years to discover how to work with others in a unique collaboration quest.

EGS vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The work on the canvases was very slow,” says EGS in the printed description of his participation in this second exhibition here. “One applied a layer of paint and then waited months again until it went on. But I wanted to take this time because the project was very close to my heart.”

Imaone vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I’m super happy with the finished paintings and don’t even know who painted what in the end – that feels super. Working on the canvases together and sending them by mail seems extremely important to me in this age of digitalization, where everything is about speed It’s nice to send and receive art that’s measured by weight – not gigabytes.”

Here is a selection of the canvasses on display in the gallery now – each has its own fusion of minds and methods, an encoded presentation that contains the mark of two, presented as one. “In this way, an artistic dialogue is created,” say the project leads, “the canvases become the platform for a discussion on a painterly level – in this case by artists currently or formerly active in style writing from different generations, countries, and continents.”

Bust vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vincent A. Hafez (Zepha) vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Usugrow vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mina Mania vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jake vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Formula 76 vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Flavien (left) Chaz Bojorquez (right) vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dave The Chimp vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bisco Smith vs Layer Cake. The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Versus Project 2. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Versus Project 2 presented by Urban Nation and Layer Cake is currently open to the general public at Urban Nation Project Space in Berlin. Click HERE for additional information.

BSA Images Of The Week: 05-01-22 / Berlin

May 1, 2022 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

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Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Happy International Workers Day!

It has been a somewhat delirious spring week in Berlin-town as we cope with that special blend of bliss and dysphoria that envelopes you – mixing intercontinental jet lag, blooming cherry blossoms, birds chirping, aerosol spraying, and the chaos and grief of war at the doorstep. The shadow of war was never far from conversations.

All week we have been gratified, elated, to see the spirit of creativity everywhere- murals, tags, stickers,pop-up gallery show; but friends and colleagues speak of institutional failures, inflation, and fears of war spiraling. Notably in three conversations Berliners told us they expect America to re-elect Trump and that the US will soon be convulsed into war.

But the art! The streets! The spring! The murals in the rag-tag parks here that are dotted with skater half-pipes and blooming lilac bushes, the smell of piss and marijuana and cherry blossoms – it is all here in gritty and eclectic Berlin. People help point you in the next direction, and you discover more. The new real estate developments tend toward towering glass, and some previously artist neighborhoods are decidedly gentrifying, but the balance with the creative sector is still healthy, or so we think.

Today we are back in dirty old Brooklyn, but we already miss our sister-brother Berlin and the beautiful people we spent time with.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: 1UP Crew, Nafir, CMYK Dots, Anchor, Emikly Strangre202, Andrea Villanis, Andioh, Liz Art, Tobo Berlin, Devita, and Mash.

DEVITA. Equality Jam Berlin. Organized by Emily Strange202 and Graffiti Lobby Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tobo Berlin. Equality Jam Berlin. Organized by Emily Strange202 and Graffiti Lobby Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Liz Art. Equality Jam Berlin. Organized by Emily Strange202 and Graffiti Lobby Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mandioh. Equality Jam Berlin. Organized by Emily Strange202 and Graffiti Lobby Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andrea Villanis. Equality Jam Berlin. Organized by Emily Strange202 and Graffiti Lobby Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anchor. Equality Jam Berlin. Organized by Emily Strange202 and Graffiti Lobby Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nafir for Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Spring 2022. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Berlin Diary. Day #5 / BSA Hits the Sticker Wall to Say Farewell to “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures” at UN Museum

April 30, 2022 Artists

In a triumphant finishing act, we slapped a few stickers on the board this week to say goodbye to our exhibition, Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures at Urban Nation museum in Berlin. The original sticker board in the gallery area had become overloaded and layered with stickers from visitors to the show and also from sticker artists who mailed them to the museum, so we had to replace it with a new one that is filling up as well. Of course we had to slap one in the wash room too to join the visual chorus of tags and stickers always propagate there as a nod to the restrooms in clubs and concert venues all over this city.

BSA / *Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures*. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our sincere thanks to Martha for entrusting us with her history and her hundreds of photographs, ephemera, and personal effects so that we could tell the story 7+ decades and 100+ cities traveled to snap pictures. Thank you to the artists who allowed us to exhibit 80 original artworks that reinterpret her photographs and to pay tribute to her.

BSA / *Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures*. Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Thank you especially to film director Selina Miles for her 16 screen visual poem made specifically for this exhibition, to street artist Seth for his original mural painted directly on a two-story wall in the exhibit, to street artist AIKO for her mural on the facade of the museum, and to artist Shepard Fairey for creating a new Martha Remix collaboration artwork and for producing a 550-print release of it with us and Martha and Urban Nation. Thank you to the entire team at YAP for skillfully bringing the exhibit to fruition and to Urban Nation for entrusting us with the entire museum for this unprecedented show of the photographer’s career.

People like Martha Cooper only come around once in a while and her uncanny ability to capture many of the benchmarks in a changing culture give us collectively greater understanding and appreciation for it. Speaking of the many youth she photographs for her “street play” projects, she may as well be speaking of all the graffiti writers and street artists she captured as well. “”As I photographed these kids, I came to admire their creativity, energy, humor, and willingness to share.’” We are forever grateful for Martha’s willingness to share what she captured with all of us as well.

Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures is currently on view at the Urban Nation Museum Berlin. The exhibition will close this May 15th. For more details click HERE.

BSA Film Friday: 04.29.22

April 29, 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. A Playgirl and Lowrider Life in Paintings
2. DRM Crew & Edward Nightengale in Berlin. I LOVE GRAFFITI
3. Elmgreen & Dragset: Useless Bodies

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BSA Special Feature: LA Playgirl and Lowrider Life in Paintings

“One of my friends said, ‘You make fine art for cholos,” says Los Angeles-based painter Jacqueline Valenzuela who depicts women lowriders in urban landscapes, murals and street art.

“For me its more important that the communities that I’m depicting feel like I am doing them justice.”

DRM Crew & Edward Nightengale in Berlin from I LOVE GRAFFITI

These young graffiti fathers are somehow feeling middle-aged and trapped: looking for the chance to return to painting trains. An open diary narrated describes the yearning to return to an earlier way of life, specifically graffiti bombing Berlin trains. The camera, sounds, and storyline all reveal how far they are willing to go to recapture memories for Berlin for graffiti writers Acid79, Micro, Shus, Area, Mad and Edward Nightingale. The result is an honesty about vandalism that is almost touching; a study of technique, materials, and patience – and a passion that is never quite quenchable.

Elmgreen & Dragset: Useless Bodies

Elmgreen & Dragset explore the present condition of the body in the post-industrial age – of course street art fans will think of Mark Jenkins here, but their additional narrative tells you that they think of the displacement of people wandering through post-industrial modernity, while his often references a more hopeful outlook.

Berlin Diary. Day #4 / Berlin Visuell

April 28, 2022 Artists, Berlin

Imagine landing in a new city where you don’t know the language. Signs make no sense, people speaking around you are a puzzle. Looking out the window of the bus or plodding along the sidewalk you see posters, ads, and graffiti. Look for the expressions on faces, body language, and interrelationships. These are the visual clues that may tell you about the culture you have just landed in.

Berlin Visuell / April 2022 (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Berlin Diary. Day #3. Putin in Berlin

April 27, 2022 Artists

European sentiment toward their neighbor to the east is nearly unanimous right now due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Russians. As usual, the art on the street reflects society and based on the number of works we have seen these last few days on walls here, there is a lot of dislike for Vladimir Putin.

A very cursory survey of the art in the streets yesterday turned up a multitude of small street works that mock, insult, and protest Putin. Expect many more politically charged portraits if war continues like this, and if inflation persists, and if fuel and food shortages begin in earnest….

Unidentified artist. Berlin, April 2022. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Berlin Diary. Day #2. JPS

April 26, 2022 Artists

JPS is crashing again here in Berlin – this time we found him on the steps of the Urban Nation museum with his miniature stencil works that are tragicomic. The UK street artist planted many of these throughout Berlin as a kind of egg hunt, but we only caught these four as we toured the Schöneberg neighborhood – often just big enough to fit in your hand, there is no question that they fit in the street.

JPS at Urban Nation Museum. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JPS in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Berlin Diary. Day #1 / Stop Wars

April 25, 2022 Artists

A highly effective work of political street art in the heart of Alexanderplatz, Berlin, this enormous blood-red “STOP WARS” slogan has been recently refreshed after fading. The message was undoubtedly on the minds of the hundreds who were gathered here in the plaza yesterday to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Abstract, it is not.

The eight letter scream hovers above the corner of Otto-Braun-Strasse and the cars, bicycles, trams, and pedestrians who course by in this commercial and governmental district. Unpolished and urgent high above on the top 3 floors, no message could be clearing, or more of a draw for tourists who snap it and share.

Stop Wars. Haus der Statistik. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The former Haus der Statistik (House of Statistics) between 1968 and 2008, it has been abandoned ever since, according to locals. Naturally it has been a magnet for urban explorers and graffiti writers – even though its proximity to the police station is close. Now a consortium of public and private interests are supposed to be conjuring plans for the 65,000 square meter building that will engage the arts, culture, social, and housing needs, but you know how long that can take in Western societies.

The sentiment that roars across the top of this gleaming white modernist box is as timely right now as ever. An urgent response to this modern era of continuous wars bolstered by a profitable war industry, the danger here on Berlin streets feels more palpable as well.

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.24.22

April 24, 2022 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

Colors wash over the city again, the greys now fading to the background. Even now, we stand in the shadow of war and all those who profit from it. Nevertheless, thanks to artists the streets are popping with promises, warnings, aspirations, exhortations, codes, and proclamation.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Adam Fujita, Jason Naylor, Almost Over Keep Smiling, Lauren Asta, Chris Soria, DEK@DX, SidkaOne, Misha Tyutyunik, TDM2DX, Ergot, Flye Lyfe, YoYo Cam, Let It Out, and Suizid.

Almost over, keep smiling (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A three-dimensional tag on a sidewalk in NYC. It made our day:-) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Spring 2022. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Books In The MCL: Tokyo Tattoo 1970. Martha Cooper
November 28, 2024
Book review by Steven P. Harrington & Jaime Rojo/Brooklyn Street Art. Martha Cooper Library Martha Cooper. Tokyo Tattoo 1970. 2012. …Read More »
Books In The MCL: The Self-Titled “NeSpoon”
November 26, 2024
Book Review by Steven P. Harrington & Jaime Rojo / Brooklyn Street Art for the Martha Cooper Library at Urban …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 11.24.24
November 24, 2024
Aunt Marge is on the phone to see if your mom can locate the recipe for the cranberry relish dish …Read More »
“Above Ground” : How Martin Wong Preserved the Underground Soul of Graffiti
November 21, 2024
Museum of the City of New York PresentsAbove Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection In the heart of …Read More »
ELFO: Don’t Use This Wall!
November 19, 2024
Elfo is a graffiti writer and social commentator whose work intentionally sidesteps traditional notions of style or technical lettering. This …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 11.17.24
November 17, 2024
Right out of the gate, Pres-elect Trump is telling us that one must destroy the government to save it, just …Read More »
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 »