All posts tagged: Los Angeles

Images of the Week 06.12.11

Images of the Week 06.12.11

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Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 130, BAST, Dark Clouds, David Flores, Enzo & Nio, Mare 139, Skewville, Twenty, and Veng.

brooklyn-street-art-skewville-bast-jaime-rojo-06-11-web-10Skewville and Bast did this new Brooklyn boom box for Bushwick Open Studios last week (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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And this week Skewville was picked as a clue for the “Great Urban Race” a marathon-cum-treasure-hunt dress up in a costume and jog through New York event. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Last-Exit-to-Brooklyn-BSA-Presents-Graphic-smallerSpeaking of Skewville, if you are in Brooklyn next weekend for Northside Open Studios and the Crest Fest 2011 and the Northside Music Festival be sure to see the brand new giant 100 foot Skewville wall unveiling in Williamsburg and come to the afterparty thrown by NOS, Crest and BSA in Greepoint. We’ll be sending out a big announcement about all the street artists involved this year (including some surprises) – so get on our newsletter and we’ll be sure to send you an invite. Great Street Art in Brooklyn!

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Skewville and Bast from a slightly different angle. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Looks like Bast tried his hand with the fire extinguisher (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Well known graffiti artist Mare 139 created this sculpture for El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011 at El Museo del Barrio. This window installation is right across the street from MOMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mare 139 entry for El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011 at El Museo del Barrio. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dark Clouds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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David Flores work in progress in Los Angeles. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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David Flores in LA just completed this piece paying homage to a rebel. With good cause. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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130 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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AM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This sticker reminds us of Kara Walker work. We are not sure if the MEMO tag was an original part of the work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Enzo & Nio continue with their series of Girls and Guns (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pardon me, I seem to have something stuck in my eye. Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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An unknown artist tried to fend the mini heat wave this week by process of  sublimation (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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An angry Mr. Potato head type. Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A teaming mass of people during the one-day sale at Macy’s? Constituents at Representative Anthony Weiner’s office getting ready to give him a piece of their minds about his Sexting? The crowd getting off the roller coaster at Coney Island? This unknown street artist hand draws dozens of faces on steno pads and then wheat paste them together on walls.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Street Artist 2wenty in Los Angeles at night thanks to Carlos Gonzales. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Hey, why the long face? Veng of RWK continues to work on the Vandevoort Place wall in Bushwick. More photos of the work still in progress below (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Veng and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Photo © Jaime Rojo

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The Site Unscene in conjunction with The Loft Salon & Gallery Present: “Fringe” (Los Angeles, CA)

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FRINGE” Street Art Show featuring SMEAR, LEBA and GREGORY SIFF opens June 9th

Los Angeles, California, 2 June 2011 – On June 9th,The Site Unscene in conjunction with The Loft Salon & Gallery brings you the first in a monthly series of art shows to open during the Downtown LA Artwalk. The series will kick-off with street art show FRINGE featuring the work of Smear, Leba and Gregory Siff.

Show opens June 9th, 2011,  6pm – 10pm at The Loft Salon, 560 S. Main Street #8W, LA 90013. The event is free all night, lots of drinks, great music and amazing art.

Smear, Leba and Gregory Siff are three of the most notable street artists in Los Angeles. Each will all be presenting street influenced artwork on June 9th at the opening of FRINGE. Not allowing themselves to be marginalized by accepted norms or considered secondary to any art movement, these three artists all bring a unique voice and style to the public eye.  Never letting fear of adversity, or conformity, influence their artistic visions, these artists persist through their work for FRINGE, a curated collection playing on the concept of ‘marginalized’ society in it’s various forms.


Smear: Cristian Gheorghiu’s (aka SMEAR) visceral, highly personal style of painting emulates the messy workings of the total-information age, layering forms and images with powerful, slashing brush strokes of rhythmic, unifying mixtures and improvised, frenzied lines coupled with brilliant color to achieve a simplified language. Gheorghiu counters his free, muscular brushstrokes by loading his paintings with rags and tatters of cloth, reproductions, fragments of comic strips, and other collage elements of waste and discarded materials to convey maps of mental states. More info on Smear here.


Leba: The artist Leba has been active in the street art scene, from the West to East coast, since the beginning of last decade. He is recognized and admired for combining biting social commentary and fine art imagery into both his street art and fine art.  HE is unafraid to speak his mind with a spray can as on his highly controversial, yet loved, Census billboards and much lauded American Apparel advert takeovers.  His street art is always relevant, exploratory, skillfully crafted, and many times, politically charged. He is skilled in many mediums: sculpting, wheat pasting, stencil cutting, painting and he skillfully conforms each medium to the needs of each individual piece. It is this combination of intelligence and raw talent that has made him one of the most admired and intriguing LA artists around the globe. More info on Leba here.


Gregory Siff: is an American Pop, Street, Abstract-expressionist. He has exhibited un New York City, Los Angeles, London, Itialy, Dublin and Vancouver. His paintings have been featured in Deitch Projects Art Parades, The Standard Hotel, De La Barracuda Wall and Urban Outfitters. Gregory’s work has appeared in Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, Paper Mag, L.A. Times, Marc Ecko’s Complex, Cool Hunting and Glamour. You can also find his art on the street and HERE.

FRINGE  is presented by The Loft Hair Salon & Gallery located in the heart of downtown LA eight stories up. The 1500+ square foot space offers the perfect view of downtown life while showcasing the best of LA art life indoors. More info here.

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Cyrcle + Muska at The Barracuda Wall “Post No Bills”

The famed Barracuda Wall plays host to the Street Art conversation in LA once again with this ironic installation from Cyrcle and Muska, captured here by photographer Carlos Gonzales. Post No Bills, for readers who live outside of Metropolis, is a standard warning that appears on the walls of construction sites to discourage outdoor advertisers from plastering their entreaties for you to purchase deodorant, electronic devices, hair straightening goo, and cruises to Killarney. elmhurst_post_no_bills

(image © Fading Ad Blog http://www.fadingad.com/)

Naturally, poster companies routinely ignore the admonition and plaster thousands of ads every year upon them despite the warnings and usually with indemnity.

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Sandwiched between the ads you’ll find the Street Artist, whose voice jumps out from the commercial cacophony and this installation is a commentary on the claim commercial entities have on public space, while the tiny public voice is often squeezed out.  While some real estate developers have actually hired Street Artists and others in recent years to adorn their construction sites with their work, the majority of these lots simply are a toggled message of “Post No Bills” one day and hoochie mamas in thongs shilling energy drinks the next.

In this installation Street Artists  Cyrcle and Muska playfully draw attention to these signs and cast them as fine art installation, a deliberate postmodern repetitive rhythmic visual chant for pedestrians and drivers in the city to enjoy.

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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For those who need to have their street art labelled, Muska and Cyrcle helpfully provide this placard.  (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cyrcle + Chad Muska (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Carlos Gonzalez is a LA based photographer and contributes regularly on Street Art topics to BSA. Click on the link below to see more of his work:

http://www.facebook.com/CarlosGonzalezPhotography

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Fun Friday 05.27.11

Fun-Friday

If you decide to stay in the city this holiday weekend you can incite your imagination and feed your intellectual curiosity by walking the streets for the great out door gallery, or go inside to see great new stuff.

1. Happy 70th Birthday Bob Dylan (a couple of days ago)
2. “Paint It Now” Tonight in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
3. Miss Van and Gaia Double Bill at Jonathan Levine
4. Shai Dahan Solo Show in Gothenburg, Sweden
5. Melrose & Fairfax Saturday “What Graffiti is to New York, Street Art is to Los Angeles”
6. FAILE SAYZ: PLAY WITH YOUR ART! Release Puzzle Boxes
7. DJ Mayonaise Hands Insightful Review of ELIK at Brooklynite
8. Narcelio Grud
9. FEIK in Brazil by Sampa Graffiti

Happy 70th Birthday Bob Dylan (a couple of days ago)

“Paint It Now” Tonight in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Paint It Now makes its NYC debut in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood (just north of Williamsburg). The show’s curators, Thomas Buildmore and Scott Chasse partner with Fowler Arts Collective for this Brooklyn-centric show, although Philadelphia and Boston represent.

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FEATURED ARTISTS: Morgan Thomas Anderson, Royce Bannon, Thomas Buildmore, Scott Chasse, Darkclouds, Robert daVies, El Celso, Martin Esteves, Veronica Hanssens, Jessica Hess, Keely, Kenji Nakayama, Nineta, Nose Go,
Cense, Damion Silver, John Skibo, Ben Woodward

http://www.fowlerartsbrooklyn.org/paintitnow2011.html

Fowler Arts, 67 West Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11222.

Miss Van and Gaia Double Bill at Jonathan Levine

Miss Van “Bailarinas” and Gaia “Succession” opened last night at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in Chelsea in Manhattan. Miss Van has been painting since her teenage years in France and in Europe and Gaia is celebrating his recent graduation from MICA in Baltimore. Congratulations GAIA!

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(images courtesy of the Gallery)

For more details on this show, times and address click on the link below”

http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/

Shai Dahan Solo Show in Gothenburg, Sweden

Shai Dahan moved to Sweden last year and, wasting no time, he set up to work on his new art  projects as soon as the plane touched ground. Today he invites all people that happen to be in Gothenburg , Sweden to come to the opening of his solo show “Things Come Undone” at the Artspace + Us Gallery.

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Shai Dahan “To catch a thief”. Detail (photo © Shai Dahan)

To read more details, time and location for this show go to:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=20986

Melrose & Fairfax Saturday “What Graffiti is to New York, Street Art is to Los Angeles”

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On Saturday the West Coast Street Art site Melrose&Fairfax invites you to attend the opening reception of their curatorial debut “What Graffiti is to New York, Street Art is to Los Angeles” at the Maximillian Gallery in West Hollywood, CA.

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Desire Obtain Cherish (photo © Birdman). Desire Obtain Cherish collective is included in this show and they are based in Los Angeles, CA. This is their most recent billboard takeover.  Click on their name above to go their site for more information about this project.

Participating artists include: Alec Monopoly, Free Humanity, Smog City, Bankrupt Slut, DeeKay, Bod Bod, 2twenty, Snyder, Gregory Stiff, KH no. 7, Desire Obtain Cherish, CYRCLE. & DD$, Leba and Homo Riot.

For more details on this show, time and address click below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=21183

FAILE SAYZ: PLAY WITH YOUR ART! Release Puzzle Boxes

Brooklyn Street Art: You know I was just thinking about the blocks and interactivity. I wonder if you could make a piece where some of the blocks were free and the person who buys it could play with the blocks.

Patrick Miller: Hey, you’re really onto something!

Patrick McNeil: Let’s go upstairs.

Brooklyn Street Art: You’ve already thought of this!

(from FAILE Studio Visit on BSA last fall)

Street Art Collective Faile have released a set of six different Puzzleboxes to the public. When we visited their studio last year they were in the process of creating these fun, interactive fine art pieces and now they are available, with an app on Itunes to boot.

brooklyn-street-art-faile-puzzle-boxesbrooklyn-street-art-faile-puzzle-boxesFor information about the Puzzleboxes and to purchase go to:

http://failepuzzleboxes.com/

DJ Mayonaise Hands Insightful Review of ELIK at Brooklynite

Narcelio Grud

Brazilian artist Narcelio Grud was filmed getting up all day in Manhester, UK where the only thing that really got in his way was a flock of adorable baby geese crossing his path.

FEIK in Brazil by Sampa Graffiti

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Images of the Week 05.22.11

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Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Enzo and Nio, El Mac, Hargo, L.E.T., Paul Richard, Poster Boy, QRST, Retna, Skewville, Nice-One and Sweet Toof.

With photography by Carlos Gonzalez, Geoff Hargadon, and Jaime Rojo.

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Sweet Toof at Factory Fresh. Today is the last day for you to see this show. If you miss it you’d be upset for the rest of your life. No kidding! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-poster-boy-sweet-toof-jaime-rojo-05-11-webPoster Boy and Sweet Toof. One of the more effective Poster Boy interventions recently spotted. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Annie get your gun. Enzo and Nio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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El Mac and Retna collaboration in LA (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Cash for Your Warhol in LA (photo © Hargo)

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Cash for Your Warhol in LA (photo © Hargo)

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Cash for Your Warhol in LA (photo © Hargo)

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Paul Richard and L.E.T. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Paul Richard has been placing ironic placards in very funny places. Also here is a piece by L.E.T. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville in Bushwick (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nice-One does this wheatpaste that looks like it has some Os Gemeos influences. Thanks Stephanie for the tip! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST sets the birds free (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hush “Twin” Opening Tonight at New Image Gallery (Barring Rapture)

“That’s Great, It Starts With An Earthquake”

Well folks it’s the End of the World, as we know it. How’re you feeling? Actually, according to a certain sect of clairvoyant Christians today is Judgement Day, and the end of the world is not until October, so you should still forget about that Christmas Layaway Plan you have at Walmart.

New York subways and buses have been pummeled for weeks with pulp novel style posters impugning the good name of the Devil and overweight puff pastry people from the Midwest have been milling around Times Square in sensible shoes telling us that repenting from our sins is pretty much going to be the only way out of the Late Great Planet Earth. As usual, these wild eyed tourists never make it out to Brooklyn, so our borough is going now to Hell – which will be big news to the Hasidic population.

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HUSH (photo © Todd Mazer)

For those of you unwashed who are still here after the 6 o’clock earthquakes roll through each time zone across God damned America we bring you the gloriously sanctified beauty of “Twin”, the new HUSH show at that den of iniquity called New Image Gallery in God forsaken West Hollywood.

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HUSH (photo © Todd Mazer)

“Tagging, Graf, Street Art and art; each is always a choice, an action,” HUSH told us a couple of years ago when discussing his work, and his open approach to borrowing from comic books, graffiti, and traditional Japanese iconography is what makes his work modern.

Internalizing and interpreting the energy from Krazy LA has been a dream for a free  expressionist like HUSH, who likes to throw everything at the wall – tagging, painting, collage, – deconstructing and reconstructing until it achieves balance.  “I’m big on progression and I’m always looking at how to take my work forward, pushing it while still retaining pointers back to previous works,” says the artist. With a number of shows and countries and street pieces under his belt, the British native is also quietly achieving a mastery of his technique, as urban turns urbane in the finely sprayed misty glow surrounding these peaceful idyllic visages, rising from the blue cacophony.

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HUSH (photo © Todd Mazer)

Marsea Goldberg, a wild and fine former Brooklyn gal, has been looking out for and championing the new talent on the graffiti/Street Art/fine art scene at New Image since the mid nineties, including artists like Bäst, Cleon Peterson, Clare Rojas, Date Farmers, Ed Templeton, Jo Jackson, Neck Face, Os Gemeos, and Retna, so she knows what she is looking for and knows how to create a charged environment for artists to stretch in.

Hush is a fantastic artist and he has a down to earth, hard working vibrant spirit,” Marsea explains, “I’ve liked his work for a long time – The first time I saw his work was at the “Cans Festival” which Banksy put on in London 4 years ago. When I saw his colorful, ornate murals in the long tunnel I was beyond impressed. The interesting thing about Hush’s art is the combination of influences.”

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HUSH (photo © Todd Mazer)

For his part, HUSH is taking the opportunity seriously, “It’s great to be at New Image because of its history… I’ve always admired the rawness and energy of the place and Marsea’s commitment to whatever this art movement is.”

As his work mutates and configures across mediums, one might wonder how much of this has meaning to him and whether it is an involuntary stream of favorite symbols and techniques combined and recombined. “I feel like my works have matured and I’m creating my own visual language, even though it’s probably only me who understands it,” he says smiling.

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HUSH (photo © Todd Mazer)

“It’s funny – I’ve had this work in my head for the last few years but it’s just fitting into the story now. I think I’ve got until the year 2014 in paintings now but I’ll have to take you through it in real time… I’m looking forward to showing how it all pans out in the future though.” We would love to stick around here on Earth to see how his work turns out in ’14, but there is someone knocking on the door…

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HUSH (photo © Todd Mazer)

Photographer Todd Mazer captured the artist working outside this week on the “Barracuda” wall where Saber and Shepard Fairey did their near iconic flag interpretations. And through Todd’s lense we get to see Hush tagging the gallery walls and the installation underway.

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HUSH (photo © Todd Mazer)

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HUSH “Twin” (photo © Todd Mazer)

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HUSH “Twin” (photo © Todd Mazer)

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The plumbs have just blossomed, but not yet the Sakura. Almost Blue Geishas at the height of springtime’s charm. HUSH, “Twin” at New Image Gallery (photo © Todd Mazer)

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HUSH “Twins” (photo © Todd Mazer)

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This is where it all began for HUSH, who is shown tagging the walls of New Image before “Twins” (photo © Todd Mazer)

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HUSH “Twins” (photo © Todd Mazer)

New Image Art Gallery

7908 Santa Monica Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90046

323.654.2192


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El Mac and Augustine Kofie : Two Cats in an Alley

It happens on a roof in LA, in a back alley. El Mac and Augustine Kofie, two gifted graff writers, street artists, fine artists, balanced assuredly on ledges and ladders, cans in hand and collaborating on a new piece.  It’s a dreamlike sequence of scaling and balancing, backing away and re-approaching, scanning the sky as day folds into night and looking back at the bricked canvas to see a gentle babe gazing upward from an abstract future past.

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Photographer and videographer Todd Mazer, a regular contributor to BSA, circled and treaded nimbly and quietly in panther-like pursuit of the right screen capture while the artists worked. Over time, perched camera in hand, he documents the dexterous and purposeful movement and focus of two big cats on the top of their game. And roof.

“For me I feel like that’s as good as it gets,” says Mazer.

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El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Brick: You’ll make out fine. Your kind always does.

Maggie: Oh, I’m more determined than you think. I’ll win all right.

Brick: Win what? What is, uh, the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?

Maggie: Just stayin’ on it, I guess. As long as she can. *

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El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Read our interview with Augustine Kofie with photos by Todd Mazer here:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=18806

The piece was created behind 33third in Los Angeles http://www.33third.com/ A Graff and Street Art supply store in conjunction with:

The Street Cred Art show in Pasadena  http://www.pmcaonline.org/exhibits/61/index.html

* from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, a play by Tennessee Williams
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BSA Presents “Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 15, 2011

Brooklyn Street Art Presents Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories in collaboration with ThinkSpace Gallery, an art show to exhibit at C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice (LA), California on Friday, August 12, 2011.

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Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories heralds the new highly individual character of stories being told on the streets of New York by brand new and established Street Artists from all over the world. Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com focus on this flashpoint in modern Street Art evolution by curating a strongly eclectic story-driven gallery show with 39 of the best storytellers hitting the streets of New York.

Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories, the gallery show, accompanied by an LA street wall series by selected artists and a public panel lecture and discussion, intends to stake out the New Guard in street art while recognizing some powerful near-legendary forerunners.

The mainly New York lineup exhibits talent from other parts of the US and internationally (Australia, France, UK, Canada, Israel, Germany) and it is as steely, idiosyncratic and storied as the New York scene itself, including Anthony Lister, Adam Void, Broken Crow, C215, Cake, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Creepy, Dan Witz, El Sol 25, Ema, Faile, Futura, Gaia, Gilf!, Hargo, Hellbent, How & Nosm, Imminent Disaster, Indigo, Judith Supine, Kid Acne, Know Hope, Ludo, Mark Carvalho, Miss Bugs, Nick Walker, NohJColey, Over Under, Radical!, Rene Gagnon, Skewville, Specter, Sweet Toof, Swoon, Tip Toe, Troy Lovegates AKA Other, Various & Gould, and White Cocoa.

The staunch individualists in Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories give voice to the evolution of the Graffiti, Mash-Up, and D.I.Y. movements that birthed them; creating an eccentric, highly individual, and raucous visual experience on the street. With widely varied backgrounds, techniques, and materials at play, “The Story” is the story. With truths as diverse and difficult as the city itself, each one of these artists is a part of a fierce, raw, new storytelling tradition that is evolving daily before our eyes.

Show Name: Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories
Location: C.A.V.E. Gallery, 1108 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, California 90291
Date: Opening reception Friday August 12, 2011
Duration: August 12 – September 4, 2011.
Online Press Release: http://mim.io/692a11
Contact: Info@BrooklynStreetArt.com

Presented by Brooklyn Street Art in collaboration with ThinkSpace and C.A.V.E
Curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of BrooklynStreetArt.com

Brooklyn Street Art is proud to collaborate with ThinkSpace Gallery and C.A.V.E. Gallery. Please note that the show will be at C.A.V.E. Gallery. Thank you.

Thinkspace Art Gallery www.thinkspacegallery.com
6009 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232 (310) 558-3375
Wed – Fri 1PM-6PM Sat 1PM-8PM contact@thinkspacegallery.com

C.A.V.E. Gallery (location of the show) www.cavegallery.net
1108 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice CA 90291, (310) 450-6560
Wed – Sun 12PM-6PM or by appointment info@cavegallery.net

Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo are founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com and co-authors of Brooklyn Street Art and Street Art New York, both by Prestel Publishing (Random House). Harrington and Rojo are also contributing writers on street art for The Huffington Post.

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Hi-Graff Hybrids Through the Lens of Carlos Gonzalez

It may seem impossible to imagine, but rock music never dated classical till the Beatles, and before Run DMC married rock and rap there was no love between the two. Hardly seems worth mentioning now as the subgenres of music propagate nearly weekly – have you seen the Techno Hippie Disco people in your neighborhood yet?

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Cryptic, Chor Boogie (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Likewise, it seems like only a decade ago the chasm could not have been wider between hardcore graffiti writers and the relatively new Street Artists popping up on the street. It’s not that the two didn’t know each other and see each other at barbecues and even get drunk together sometimes, but their divisions and personal alliances disallowed hanging out regularly. Those Cold War years are being chopped away brick by brick like the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, and a new language borrowing vocabulary from graffiti, street art, fine art, advertising, and pop/punk/hiphop/skater/cholo/tattoo culture continues to emerge in ways we never thought of before.

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Cryptik, Chor Boogie (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

The current show at Hold Up Gallery in the Arts District of downtown LA called “Hi-Graff” reveals the lengths that artists will go to work together these days, and the results are a surprising hybrid. Photographer Carlos Gonzalez took these shots to illustrate what curator Brian Lee refers to as graffiti’s “embellishment period”.

Says Gonzalez, “Hi-Graff” is “an impressive show featuring some of graffiti’s greats as well as some notable up and comers. ” It’s a thrilling sign to see everyone can actually get along, and with frequently stunning results.

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Foreground detail NICNAK, Background Cryptik, Chor Boogie (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Clearly, the show succeeds in more ways than one and it points very much toward a street art movement where trends and talents can all merge into one cohesive unit, both inside a gallery space and on the concrete streets,” Carlos Gonzalez

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Left -Vyal, Defer, Slick. Right -Cryptik (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Right Wall -Cyrcle. Left Wall -Risky, OG Abel (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left Wall -Cyrcle, Teal. Center Wall -Augor, Zes, Bonks, Right Wall – Vyal, Defer, Slick (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Bonks (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Augor, Zes, Bonks (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left -RTSYSTM, Right-Andy Rios  (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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James Haunt (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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(let to Right) NICNAK, Axis, Rick Ordonez (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left Wall -Vyal, Defer, Slick. Right Wall -Spurn, Codak, Kym CBS (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Left Wall -Spurn, Codak, Kym CBS. Right Wall -Risky (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Spurn, Codak, Kym CBS (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

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Codak, Spurn (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Carlos Gonzalez is a contributor photographer to BSA. To see more of his work click on the link below:

www.facebook.com/CarlosGonzalezPhotography

“Hi-Graff” at Hold Up Art

Featuring the work of Alec Monopoly,Augor,Cache,Chor Boogie,Codak,Coto,Cryptik,Cyrcle,Defer,Free Humanity,Midtz,Rick Ordoñez,RISK,ROOTSYSTM,Slick,Spurn,Teal,Vyal, and Zes

358 E.2nd St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012

On View May 7th-June 2nd, 2011

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Fun Friday 05.13.11

Fun-Friday

A GUIDE TO WHAT’S UP, BROTHERMAN AND SISTERWOMAN

This weekend is a perfect storm of shows that are opening on the East, West and points in between.

Up Close And Personal: RJ Curates Street Artists Into an Upper West Side Apartment (NYC)

In the intimacy of a private residence in the Manhattan suburbs of UWS, RJ Rushmore of Vandalog fame along with Keith Schweitzer and Mike Glatzer of newly minted M.A.N.Y. have mounted a fresh new open house show just off Broadway. An exquisitely curated show with marquee names and a few newbies the selection is solid in quality and unusual in it’s scale.

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Troy Lovegates aka Other (image courtesy of the curators)

Participating artists include:
Aiko, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Don Leicht, Edible Genius, Elbowtoe, Gaia, How & Nosm, Jessica Angel, John Fekner, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mike Ballard, OverUnder, R. Robot, Radical, Retna, Skewville, Tristan Eaton, Troy Lovegates aka Other and White Cocoa.
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Aiko’s cans are on proudly on display at the bachelor pad, and that’s not all (image courtesy of the curators)

Dates: May 12th– 15th, 2011
Times:
May 12th, 7 – 9pm
May 13th, 7 – 9pm
May 14th, noon – 9pm
May 15th, noon – 7pm
Note: Due to the limited exhibition space, people may be admitted in block times every half-hour.
Location: Apartment on the Upper West Side (217 West 106th Street, Apartment 1A, New York, NY 10025) – Between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues.
Cost for entrance: Free

Go to Hellbent and John Breiner Tonight in Brooklyn (NYC)

Mighty Tanka is presenting a show with two Brooklyn based artists: Hellbent and John Breiner.
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Mr. Hellbent says of the show: “The best part of making a show like this is to finally see it up on the wall and the way that everything interacts. I have been thinking of these pieces as parts of a quilt, different fabrics being stitched together. The different colors, floral stencils, animals, and jaw bones melding together and playing off one another, even down to the different depths and sizes of panels, but until it was hung they were just pieces, not yet a whole. Its given me an opportunity to show the different elements that i am working with and how they have grown out of one another and to display all the different carvings and stencils patterns together, where on the street they are separated in different locations.”

To learn more about “Smiled Distress” at Mighty Tanaka tonight please click on the link below:

Matt Siren and My Plastic Heart present “Ghost in the Machine” (NYC)

25 spirits in the material world have made tributes to Street Artist Matt Siren’s Ghost Girl character for this show on the Lower East Side tonight. The custom toy show transforms the character that appears in doorways around New York, each putting its own unique spin on his character.

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The show includes work from 64Colors, Royce Bannon, Steve Chanks, Chauskoskis, DarkCloud, Deeker, Gril One, J*RYU, Jester, Keely, Abe Lincoln Jr., Map-Map, Marka27, Brent Nolasco, Lou Pimentel, Reactorss, Marc Reusser, Todd Robertson, Robots Will Kill, Chris Ryniak, Matt Siren, Scott Tolleson, Julie West, Wheelbarrow, Wrona

Click on the link below to learn more about this show:

http://www.myplasticheartnyc.com/gitm_051311/preview/gitm_051311_preview.html

210 Forsyth St   New York NY 10002 | 646 290 6866
Ghost in the Machine
May 13th 2011 – June 12th 2011

Chicago Street Art Show Tonight (CHI)

Tonight the book “Chicago Street Art” is being released at the the Chicago Urban Art Society  in conjunction with a show titled “The Chicago Street Art Show”

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Brooklyn’s AD HOC has a New Puppy in Los Angeles (LA)

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On the West Coast the dynamic duo and husband and wife Garrison and Allison Buxton have curated a group show “I have a dream, I have a nightmare: Friday the 13th” at The New Puppy Gallery opening this Friaday from 7:00 to 11:00 pm

Artists include: Alison Buxton, Beau Stanton, Bill Fick, Broken Crow, Bunnie Reiss, Chor Boogie, Chris Stain, CRASH, Dabs & Myla, Daryll Peirce, David Loewenstein, Don Leicht, Ezra Li Eismont, Garrison Buxton, Hellbent, Joe Iurato, John Breiner, John Carr, John Fekner, Jordan Seiler, Know Hope, Lady Pink, Michael De Feo, Mikal Hameed, Paul Booth, Peat Wollaeger, Ray Cross, Rex Dingler, ROA, Robert Steel, Sean Starwars, TheDirtyFabulous, & Thundercut.

Ad Hoc Art – www.adhocart.org

New Puppy LA – www.newpuppla.com

WHERE: 2808 Elm Street, Los Angeles, California 90065

English Kills Group Show Saturday, “The Mother Ship” (NYC)

Chris Harding, owner and ringmaster of the Bushwick Brooklyn-based space station English Kills brings out his strong stable of artists for this group show aptly titled “The Mother Ship” opening this Saturday at 7:00 pm. It’s not necessarily Street Art – but this is a hotbed of new ideas so it is always worth your trip.

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Participating artists include:

Brent Owens, Andy Piedilato, Vilaykorn Sayaphet, Jim Herbert, David Pacheco, Hiroshi Shafer, Gyles Thompson, Sarah H. Paulson, Holly Faurot, Tescia Seufferlein, Peter Dobill, Steve Harding, Judith Supine, Lenny Reibstein, Andrew Ohanesian, Jason Peters, Don Pablo Pedro, Steven Thompson, Andrew Hurst and Rob Andrews.

English Kills is located at:

114 Forrest St. Ground Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11206
(718) 366-7323

Specter is a “Repeat Offender” 5/14 at Pawn Works in Chicago (CHI)

Brooklyn based artist Gabriel Specter’s solo show “Repeat Offender” opens this Saturday at the Pawn Works Gallery.

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Opening Reception Saturday, May 14, 2011/ 6-10pm

PawnWorks
1050 N. Damen Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60622

Ph: 312.841.3986

London Police in Denver, “Amsterydynasty”

In Denver Colorado Black Book Gallery brings back the glamour of the 80’s with The London Police and Handiedan in a show titled “Amsterydynasty”

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Opening reception May 14th at 7pm

Click here to learn more about this show

Olek Crochets for a Bicycle in Poland

ROA in San Francisco

Women’s Faces in Art

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art by Philip Scott Johnson.

MoCA Art in the Streets. Wisk, Ser, Chubbs and Prime destroy a wall.

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Ad Hoc Art and New Puppy LA Present: “I have a dream, I have a nightmare: Friday the 13th” (Los Angeles, CA)

Ad Hoc Art
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AD HOC ART GATHERS 34 INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS TO EXPLORE DREAMS, NIGHTMARES, SUPERSTITIONS, AND EXISTENCE TO YEILD CREATIONS RANGING FROM THE PAINFULLY REAL TO THE ETHEREAL FANTASTIC.

— An Art Exhibit Celebrating the Expansiveness of Consciousness & Culture —

WHEN:            Exhibition Opens Friday, May 13th, 7-11pm

with an additional Artwalk Opening: Saturday, May 14th, 7-11pm

Through June 18th, 2011.  Hours: 12-6pm Thursday – Saturday and by appointment.

WHAT:            AD HOC ART presents “I have a dream, I have a nightmare: Friday the 13th”, an eclectic and electric charge of vast creativity, synapses, and neural networks seeping into Los Angeles’ artmind via New Puppy LA.

That we are living in very fascinating and unprecedented times on the cusp of something is crystal clear.   What that “something” is, exactly, is not.  What waits on the other side?  Is it beautiful or horrendous, sustainable or cataclysmic, truthful or deceptive, just or fraudulent?  We all play a leading role in guiding the future of this sweet unraveling already well underway.

Around the world, energies are coming together, people are relating, and the future is so bright.  Is the light from the billions of shining smiles of a humane and democratic existence that sustains life; or is it the glistening blast from a bomb dropped by the sociopathic ceo/politico at MegaGlobalBankCorp determined to take all or nothing at our expense?

To divine an answer, dreams, nightmares and Friday the 13th energies have been harnessed, channeled and will be unleashed this 13th of May in the City of Angels.

Enjoy these visual nuggets swimming through the realms of spacetime.

Artists include: Alison Buxton, Beau Stanton, Bill Fick, Broken Crow, Bunnie Reiss, Chor Boogie, Chris Stain, CRASH, Dabs & Myla, Daryll Peirce, David Loewenstein, Don Leicht, Ezra Li Eismont, Garrison Buxton, Hellbent, Joe Iurato, John Breiner, John Carr, John Fekner, Jordan Seiler, Know Hope, Lady Pink, Michael De Feo, Mikal Hameed, Paul Booth, Peat Wollaeger, Ray Cross, Rex Dingler, ROA, Robert Steel, Sean Starwars, TheDirtyFabulous, & Thundercut.

WHO:                        Ad Hoc Art – www.adhocart.org

New Puppy LA – www.newpuppla.com

WHERE: 2808 Elm Street, Los Angeles, California 90065

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Signs of the BEAST Seen in California (Rapture Update)

I swear if the world does not burst into flames this year and the sky doesn’t cloud with locusts and the Chinese don’t bomb the shit out of the heartland and if Angelina Jolie does not ride naked and pregnant on an 8-headed lion with wings and Jesus Christ doesn’t appear floating in the sky with his arms open to welcome all the Republicans who just got sucked out of their cars up into his embrace – if all that does not happen on May 21, 2011, I will never again listen to any prophecies for the rest of my time here with you.  I’m serious. I have spent my entire frickin’ life expecting supernatural star spangled annihilation and a prison planet and all I got was this orange “War on Terror” t-Shirt and a machine that scans my nuts at the airport.

brooklyn-street-art-beast-los-angeles-4-webBeast (photo © Beast)

Street artist Beast put up his/her own series of billboards in Los Angeles last week.  In this case, we can actually say that we are seeing the Signs of the Beast. He used the back of 25 bus shelter benches, which usually advertise nasal decongestants and accident lawyers 800 numbers, to bring an uplifting message of impending pestilence and catastrophe and unemployment.  Times are so bad that superheroes are trying to cut in line at the job fair.

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Beast (photo © Beast)

You know, we spent $3 Trillion on something over the past 10 years with this war machine, surely someone could start up a World War to give these spandexed and bedazzled folks some work.  Although I don’t see too many people carrying resumes in hand here, so they could also use some career coaching.

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Beast (photo © Beast) This dude will face some stiff competition to snag a position with that crowd ahead of him. Hang in there buddy, Jesus is on his way.

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Beast (photo © Beast)

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Beast (photo © Beast). All 25 benches. Same message, different spots.

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