From a previous career playing in seminal bands, Los Angeles based artist Deedee Cheriel has evolved into an acclaimed and sought-after street artist and one of the genre’s few female success stories. Her first solo exhibition in the UK – Little Spirit and the Infinite Longing – utilizes seemingly disparate influences including Indian temple imagery, punk, feminism and naturalism, set within a landscape inspired by a childhood amidst the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest United States.
These unique visual narratives convey an unsettled sense of yearning and the complexities inherent in human connection. The images are created with Cheriel’s signature ‘pop’ multi-colored stripes on canvases and posters, murals and billboards with techniques acquired as a street artist, filmmaker and during her time as a touring musician.
With nuances of East Indian folk art, Cheriel’s use of bold elements – both urban and natural, as well as pop culture – suggest an ability to find commonalities and relationships between self and surroundings. Trees reach down towards woodland creatures, animated by life forces within; life-changing journeys are undertaken with spiritual intent. These are stories of loss, hope and inspiration, profound reminders of the very things that inevitably confirm our common humanity and our ultimate quest for connection.
Gaia is a young American street artist, whose work shows a sophistication far beyond his years. Gaia often works on a huge scale to depict his subjects, always managing to capture great depth of emotion via the delicate tracery of his lino-cut pieces…not a show to be missed!
“In many countries people are imprisoned simply because of their political views,” begins the video just released by Dan Witz and Amnesty international.
So dangerous are those views that their outspoken owners are persecuted and hidden from us in an attempt to silence the ideas and opinions that may threaten a prevailing status quo. With his “Prisoners” series of installations on the streets of London, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Los Angeles, Witz is bringing much needed attention to those who are hidden against their will just behind walls, doors, and windows.
For Witz, using actual names and case histories brings the conceptual to painfully full light, and his well-known artistic command of light in these photo-realistic works gives these individuals an opportunity to step out from the shadows. In conjunction with an innovative street campaign entitled “Wailing Walls”, the street art pieces become interactive with QR codes and a phone app that allows passersby to learn instantly about the people depicted and to send their opinions to government officials while standing right there on the sidewalk with traffic driving past them.
During his presentation this weekend at the Amnesty International conference in Washington DC, Witz detailed his Frankfurt project in front of an audience of hundreds, giving a riveting first person account of how art on the streets has the power to impact social and political change.
Along with the video explaining the street and digital campaign that he created in collaboration with the Leo Burnett Agency in Frankfurt, the Brooklyn-based fine artist and street artist shares here his personal slides of the project, which he showed at the conference. Of special note is the soundtrack to the new slide show which is composed by Witz at the piano and recorded on his phone; a tonal reflective transmutation of the myriad emotions that the images evoke.
Premiere: Slideshow of Dan Witz’s “Prisoner” Series of Street Art Installations
Shown at Amnesty International’s Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC, March, 2013
Premiere : “Wailing Walls” campaign by Dan Witz for Amnesty International
Photos by Dan Witz and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer
Our sincere thanks to Dan Witz for sharing his work and this very important project with BSA readers. A special BSA shout out to Christoph Wick, Tiffaney McCannon, Monika Wittkowsky, and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer for their talents and tireless work on this project also.
London Street Artist Stik has breathed a relaxed at-ease quality into the familiar stick man of your childhood and expanded his reach across walls, boarded windows, doorways, and buildings. Working on the street (and sometimes living on it) for the last ten years, the former live art-school model has grown in stature on the scene with his ability to imbue this archetype of the human with some measure of humanity, while keeping it purely graphic.
“The Street Art scene is a dialogue. It’s more than a dialogue – it’s a whole forum,” he says in the video posted below, a promotion for a new issue of Big Issue, where his figure is given center stage.
Here are a couple of photos recently taken by photographers Jaime Rojo and Geoff Hargadon as well as a look at the new figure from Stik that he says is “perfect… balanced.”
2 + 2
Private View 21st February 6 – 9pm
Open 22nd February – 16th March.
2 + 2 = four very talented and contrasting artists and styles. Two being stencil artists alongside two more traditional painters. Also two of the group are well known to fans of the gallery, while the other two are new. As normal, we curate our group shows to demonstrate the range of work that we show, as well as breaking down the barriers between artistic labels such as ‘Urban,’ ‘Street,’ and ‘Fine’ art. We have given the artists a free reign to produce work that is currently exciting them and the result will be a dynamic mix of ideas, techniques and approaches.
A visually compelling show formed solely from text and pattern based pieces, Write and Repeat is a modern exploration of the two much celebrated forms.
Patterns are all around us. The repetition of shapes and colours form our environment, our natural and manmade landscapes. Even the landscape of our minds are built upon patterns and repetition; the habits and rituals, the ‘rites’ that we perpetuate.
The use of text in art has drastically evolved over time, and has been used as a purely visual element, as a more direct form of artistic expression, a political tool, and as an art form in its own right. From blatant slogans to seemingly meaningless shapes, text in art offers a unique opportunity for expression.
By combining the two exclusively, we hope to create a visually and mentally captivating collection for January 2013.
Featuring:
Arth Daniels, Charlie Anderson, Chloe early, Cyrcle, D*Face, David Bray, Eelus, EINE, Hayden Kays, Jim Houser, Josie Morway, Julie Impens, Kai & Sunny, Lucas (Cyclops), Maya Hayuk, Mobstr, Nylon, Pete Fowler, Ryca, Sylvia Ji, Shepard Fairey, Tilt, Usugrow, Will Barras, Word To Mother and more.
London is looking alive and on top of things at mid-winter, with a great variety of materials and techniques, imaginative styles and of course varying results, according to your tastes. During a quick trip on a somewhat blizzardish day, photographer Geoff Hargadon found “tough conditions: snowy, cold as f***, and a camera battery that refused to stay charged.” Tough going for the intrepid Street Art photog you see. Of course the upside of inclement weather is that no one is outside to obscure your shot. Except the falling snow, that is.
From the comfort of you warmly glowing flatscreen, this selection of pieces looks like Street Art in London is largely mural based, right now, as much of the scene continues to be. The players are more or less familiar to your eyeballs, with a few newbies on the scene.
Enjoy these exclusive shots just for BSA readers. And special thanks to Geoff for his heroism and for sharing these scenes with us.
Brooklyn by way of Austrailia Street Artist and fine artist Anthony Lister continues to communicate with the eyes. His disembodied faces and features appear on walls and corrugated surfaces on the streets, like these recent London installations, without context and full of expression. At turns mythic, gothic, and comic, the true intentions may not be clear but the (multiple) eyes say it all.
A new snow in the city blanketed and quieted clattering, chattering public spaces last week, giving a distilled quiet arena to quickly pass through. For the intrepid urban explorer, it can be a quiet city all your own to discover while others huddle inside cooking a winter stew, doodling in a journal, or maybe playing “catch me catch me” with a playmate. The newly pristine coating keeps the public away, but these Listers continue to grapple, grip, and clutch at you who walk by, giving you a look.
Special thanks to photographer and BSA contributor Geoff Hargadon for sharing these exclusive photos with BSA readers. Stayed tuned on Monday for more from London.
New York-based artist Dan Witz makes his solo debut with Lazarides at our Rathbone Place gallery with Prisoners 2012-2013, displaying paintings from both his Prisoner and Mosh Pit series.
Dan Witz has been at the forefront of artists working on the street since the late 1970s. Combining digital reproduction with the old master’s technique of illusionism, the artist’s lifelike figures appear as if from nowhere on signposts, walls, windows and manhole covers across the world. Painted and layered over digital photographs, each image is designed to surprise the viewer, taking them aback and from the expected into an alarming state of disbelief.
Introducing the up and coming street artist RAE, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. This will be his first show in London. The artists says: ‘Nocturnal Trips’ means everything and nothing about how art relates to my existence. In a literal sense, it deals with the the “trips” I take to install the work I put up on the streets at night and how the city seems a lot different when your scheming as opposed to getting a latte.
Happy Friday! Wipe that stain off your shirt from last nights office holiday party and brush your teeth and get to work so you can be a zombie all day. For our part – it’s time for a little Street Art roundup of some things that you might like.
1. Miami in The House All Weekend
2. “Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)
3. “Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)
4. Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)
5. Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)
6. “Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)
7. Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)
8. Zombie Nation – Ezra Eismont
9. Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)
10. SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)
Miami in The House All Weekend
This weekend the fun is for Street Art in Miami and check out some of our recommendations (Best Miami Street Art: BSA Picks Awesomest for Basel ’12) for hoofing it around that we posted Wednesday. Tonight of course there are a number of grand opening parties/after parties (including Fountain), but really just being on the street is equally fun if not funner! Thanks for that adverb from 7 year old Darnell Wilsen of Brooklyn.
For a full listing of Art Fairs, Events and Street Murals click here and here.
But not all the fun is in Miami here are a few picks of what’s happening elsewhere in the world:
“Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)
Greeting cards are a nice way to say Merry Christmas to Grandma, and for suburban white middle class families to distribute photos proving that their kids are not on drugs. This is Stolen Space Christmas Show celebrates greetings cards and holiday cheer with D*Face, Word to Mother, Will Barras and David Bray among others putting their own imprimatur on Christmas. Come on, Uncle Bert and Aunt Dolittle will be there, so comb your hair, put some shoes on and get out of the house!
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)
With a collection of Australian Graffiti and Street Art Artists, “Rinse & Repeat” finds its inspiration by taking a look at the Old Masters and re-interpreting them with their own styles and techniques. An interesting proposition albeit fraught with risks – there are a few good ones here though that will delight your academic/street sensibilities. Included in the line up are: Adnate (AWOL Crew),Bridge Stehli, Cam Wall, Carl Steffan, Deams (AWOL Crew), Fintan Magee, Guido van Helten, Phibs, Shannon Crees, Slicer (AWOL Crew) , Team and Teazer.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)
Hope they realize what they have gotten themselves into, but Vertikal Gallery is hosting Brooklyn Street Art collective Skewville for a solo show entitled “Be Inside”. Considering we have had one or two Lillians in Brooklyn putting work up on the streets over the last few years, this sounds like a cultural exchange program of some kind, right?
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)
New York Street Artist Jaye Moon is in Seoul, Korea on an Art Residency Invitation and tonight his her solo exhibition with her “Lego Tree House” opening tonight at the Paik Hae Young Gallery.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
“Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)
The Art Collective Just Seeds new group exhibition titled “Sowing The Seeds of Love” opens tonight at the Munch Gallery in Manhattan. The artists in Just Seeds aim to put forth their world views on a variety of issues – looking to inform and bolster you through the power of art. Participating in this show are: Jesus Barraza, Kevin Caplicki, Melanie Cervantes, Santiago Doesntsitstill, Alec Dunn, Molly J Fair, Thea Gahr, Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, Fernando Marti, Colin Matthes, Dylan Miner, Roger Peet, Jesse Purcell, Pete Railand, Favianna Rodriguez, Shaun Slifer, Chris Stain, Meredith Stern, Mary Tremonte and Bec Young.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)
Iranian expats and brothers Icy & Sot invite you to celebrate with them their first foray in the hospitality business. The brothers designed a room at the Nu Hotel in Brooklyn and you are invited to come over tonight for some refreshments.
Artist Ezra Eismont has a Kickstarter fundraiser to help publish his Zombie Nation book, which features his zombified portraits of icons and celebrities. Seems like a heartwarming holiday thing to do, doesn’t it? Please support your local artists and small family businesses.
Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)
SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
