The vibrant margins of cities around the globe have long echoed with the silent yet visually boisterous language of graffiti. For artists and graffiti writers, these urban practices and canvases are sacred, bound by several unspoken codes that regulate the street, and may vary somewhat from country to country, city to city. One that is universal: you do not “go over” or paint atop another’s work unless you intend a deliberate provocation.
Yet, Munich-based graffiti veterans Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark, known collectively as Layer Cake, dare to challenge this rule in a groundbreaking collaborative project titled “Versus”. Presenting the fourth iteration of this show at the Subliminal Projects Gallery in Los Angeles, the “Versus IV” exhibition features a brand new roster of collaborations. It is a testament to the boundless possibilities when artists embrace challenge, change, and true collaboration.
Layer Cake’s audacious process commenced in their Munich studio during the last decade or so. They initiated canvases, leaving them deliberately unfinished before shipping them to various artists worldwide. These artists, in an act of trust and faith and an urge to collaborate, completed the paintings without prior discussion of details with Layer Cake. In some instances, this exchange occurred multiple times, spanning up to two years. The artworks emerged as stunning mosaics or hand style and eclectic modernism, a synthesis of diverse visual languages, methodologies, and ideas – a reflection of the artists’ non-verbal dialogues with one another as well as their introspections on personal boundaries.
The Versus project gathers a mosaic of artists, from Hera to MadC to Rocco and His Brothers to “Chaz” Bojórquez and Shepard Fairey, united by a fervent passion for style writing, street art, and graffiti. Each artist brings their distinct style to the canvas and in doing so, contributes to a diverse spectrum that blurs the lines between individual contribution and collective creation. These works aren’t just paintings; they’re conversations, layered dialogues that traverse geographical and artistic divides, embodying a unique intersection of graffiti and contemporary art.
Hartl and Hundertmark, despite being rooted in the world of graffiti, have constantly evolved their artistic expressions. Their collaborative moniker, “Layer Cake,” perfectly encapsulates their artistic ethos. Like a lush multi-tiered confection, theirs is a collection of artworks that is infused with depth – from Patrick’s writing elements juxtaposed against Christian’s hard-edged abstract forms. This joint effort, as they remark, challenges artists to confront an existing work rather than the pristine white of a blank canvas, pushing them out of their comfort zones and into new horizons.
For the uninitiated and the aficionados alike, “Versus: IV” at Subliminal Projects is more than an exhibition; It’s an invitation into a realm where graffiti’s age-old traditions meet the revolutionary ethos of contemporary art. It re-defines visual and psychological spaces where boundaries, both inner and outer, are tested and where creativity resists limits. Layer Cake’s initiative doesn’t just question the norms of the graffiti world; it celebrates the transformative power of collaboration in art.
BSA/Urban Nation’s Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo saw the new works going up at Subliminal Projects yesterday, with Layer Cake leading the way. Please join us all Saturday night with artist and host Shepard Fairey and graffiti godfather “Chaz” Bojórquez for a panel discussion and a grand opening for Layer Cake: Versus IV.
Join us Saturday, September 16th, 6-7 PM for the Opening Reception. To kick off the reception, the gallery will host a special Artist Talk at 6:15 PM with Layer Cake, featuring contributing artists Shepard Fairey (@obeygiant) and Chaz Bojórquez (@chaz_bojorquez), moderated by Steven P. Harrington co-founder of Brooklyn Street Art (@bkstreetart). RSVP to rsvp@subliminalprojects.com to attend. This exhibition is made possible with support from OBEY GIANT ART & URBAN NATION MUSEUM
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
AKTE ONE, Bond Truluv, Carolina Falkholt, Chaz Bojórquez, Cren, CRYPTIK, Dave The Chimp, Flying Förtress, Formula76, HERA, HNRX, Layer Cake, MadC, MAMBO (Flavien Demarigny), Matthias Edlinger, Łukasz Habiera Nawer, Peter “Paid” Levine, Rocco & His Brothers, Shepard Fairey, Various and Gould, and Zepha (Vincent Abadie Hafez).
Click HERE for more information about this exhibition and Art Talk.
It’s a brave and intricate undertaking, receiving someone’s painted canvas into your studio and then determining how you will alter it by painting over someone else’s work. Graffiti writers spend years developing and perfecting their ability to handle letters with a can, to coin their individual style. Partly in recognition of this, other writers avoid going over your work on the street, unless it is done with the intention to provoke.
Each partner in the Versus 3 Project, which we tie up today with some photos we didn’t publish previously, knows that the rules of the street are intentionally, and functionally broken here. The artists tell us it is uncomfortable even when permission is given. The root of collaboration in the project required passing the canvas back and forth between artists in a silent conversation, with no rules about style or materials – and the results can not be predicted accurately.
Patrick Hartl and Christian Hundertmark, as a duo called Layer Cake, repeatedly related stories last week of opening the newly arrived package, unwrapping the painted canvas, and staring intently at it.
“I think we don’t really have expectations, right?” says Hundertmark of the process.
“We know the work from the artists,” says Hartl, “so we probably know what they are about to do. In the end, we don’t know how comfortable they feel when they get not a white canvas, but a painted canvas.”
It’s relevant to mention that the collaborative works of Layer Cake have always been this way between the two – and the Versus project is simply opening up the process for new artists to participate in this way. “We had been doing this for five years already,” says Hundertmark, “so for us, it was just normal.” That practice grew into the Versus Project, a project of trading canvasses that resulted in two mounted exhibitions at Urban Nation’s special project space in Berlin. Now for Versus III, the exhibition travels to Miami with the guys at the Museum of Graffiti.
Jaime Rojo, Christian, Patrick, Alan Ket, and Steven P. Harrington. Layer Cake – VERSUS 3. Museum of Graffiti. Miami.
Some artists they had met only through the Internet or social media, and others were long-time friends. Some had a special meaning because they were introduced by recommendation. Others were revered originators in the graffiti and street art scene, with well-known careers on the street stretching back decades. No two experiences were the same – with multiple variables at play, including how much time an artist took to respond with their new iteration. A few never returned their canvas at all.
“Of course, you always have something in your mind about how the canvas will look when it comes back,” says Hartl during an exhibit tour.
When working with the Berlin art couple Various & Gould, the guys thought they would send them their first layer in tones they would be pleased with. “For this one, it was exceptional because we sent them a green and yellow canvas,” says Hartl. “They opened it and said, ‘Okay, these are not the colors that we usually work with!’”
“For us it was interesting to see what was coming back. So we opened it and said, ‘Wow, they added orange!’ ”
The Swiss graffiti writer and artist Thierry Furger speaks of his ‘buffed’ paintings and relates that it was a tentative process to collaborate like this on a canvas, feeling like he was breaking the rules, but eventually, he liked it.
“In graffiti, going over or crossing other pieces is actually a no-go and sometimes connected with consequences,” he says, and it sounds like he still has some reservations. “But I really hope that if I ever meet the two guys that they do not punch me because I went over them, ha ha ha.”
That’s what we found out today when we got a sneak preview of LAYER CAKE at the Museum of Graffiti with Co-founder Alan Ket leading the way. The Munich-based duo landed in Miami last night to attend tonight’s opening in the Wynwood District.
“Versus III” is the latest iteration of this back-and-forth project between Layer Cake and some of the most accomplished and avant-garde names on the European (and American) graffiti/street art scenes. Ket and co-founding partner Allison Freidin and the museum team are hosting the two former graffiti writers Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark tonight for a special reception in the main gallery. We thought you’d like to see some behind-the-scenes shots of the installation.
Come through tonight for a special talk tonight with Urban Nation’s Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo with the artists about the politics, practices, and possibilities that can pop up when you ship your painted canvas off the someone else and say “do whatever you want to this – and send it back”.
The guys will be showing us photos of the stages of the process and telling the audience how their lives have changed from being graffiti writers to being regarded as contemporary urban artists.
Layer Cake: THE VERSUS PROJECT III / Museum of Graffiti / Miami
The German art duo Layer Cake (aka Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark) are splashing into Miami next week with a new show at the Museum of Graffiti.
After two successful exhibitions with Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin, the two former graff writers from Munich are bringing a brand new collection of canvases they have completed with graffiti and street artists from all over the world.
The unique show relies on unspoken communication, with no words exchanged, an aesthetic call and response that pushes each participant to dig deep and rely on their own courage to collaborate. “In this creative, non-verbal dialogue, painterly mosaics of different ideas, styles and working methods were thus created in an associative manner,’ says the press release.
The project is called “Versus” and both Hartl and Hundertmark will attend in Miami Thursday night. New canvases will be on view for the first time. Artists include Layer Cake (Patrick Hartl and Christian Hundertmark aka C100), Akue, Raws, Flying Förtress, Various&Gould, Bond Truluv, ThierryFurger/Buffed Paintings, Arnaud Liard, Rocco & his brothers, Hera & MadC.
BSA will also be there to help launch this exhibition! As ambassadors for Urban Nation, we’re proud to see these collaborations in person and to join museum director Alan Ket and the team to welcome Layer Cake.
Boy, that Kevin McCarthy is as popular as an STD in a bordello. After begging and paying off more and more people to vote for him so he could become Speaker of the House, it was well past midnight before he got some serious action – and it took 15 ballots over 4 days to award him into his position finally. A classy bunch too, if the pushing and shoving is any indication. Not to be outdone, our own favorite Brooklyn right-wing corporate progressive homesnack Jeffries sliced and diced his foes with some fancy alphabetics in his speech that somehow looked suddenly like a State of the Union speech via Sesame Street.
“FREEDOM OVER FASCISM. GOVERNING OVER GASLIGHTING. HOPEFULNESS OVER HATRED. INCLUSION OVER ISOLATION. JUSTICE OVER JUDICIAL OVERREACH. KNOWLEDGE OVER KANGAROO COURTS. LIBERTY OVER LIMITATION. MATURITY OVER MAR-A-LAGO. NORMALCY OVER NEGATIVITY.”
Meanwhile the BSA office game on Friday was Kevin McCarthy name-that-tune day – challenging us to find popular songs to describe the ongoing losing of votes: Winners of the contest were “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones, “Big Pimpin”, by Jay Z, “Burning Down the House,” by Talking Heads, “Fool on the Hill,” by the Beatles, and “Please, Please, Please” by James Brown, “If It Ain’t Ruff,” by NWA.
Meanwhile, BSA was starting the year in Jersey City to catch some of the newer street art murals that we haven’t published, and the graffiti was on-point as well.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Nespoon, SETH, MadC, Homesick, Manik, Mack, WASP, Beset, JCMP, and Louie Gasparro.
It’s that time of the year again! Our 12th “Hot List” of books – a best-of collection that is highly personal and unscientific and sure to provide you with ideas.
Our interests and network continued to spread far afield this year, and we chose a cross-section of books that are well worth your time – whether it’s the stories they tell or the quality of the stock or the revelation of seeing images previously unseen except by a handful of people. We have political, personal, and professional takes on this beautiful street art scene, as well as a careful instruction book on how to make your own
So here is a short list from 2022 that you may enjoy as well – just in case you would like to give them as gifts to family, friends, or even to yourself.
STRAAT: Quote from the Streets. Lannoo Publishers.
From BSA:
In a space massive enough for a Dutch sea vessel, the Street Art Museum of Amsterdam (STRAAT) has one of the largest collections of today’s mural stars anywhere. During its official maiden voyage, curious street art/graffiti/contemporary art fans look to see if this ship is seaworthy. The brainchild of former graffiti writer, curator, and publisher Peter Ernst Coolen in the early 2010s, the D.N.A. of the museum is rooted in his forward vision as much as the ideal waterfront warehouse that showcases close to 200 international artists.
The human-built city has at times been called a jungle, but the concrete and steel environment flatters itself if it really thinks so. The intelligence and beauty present in the natural plant world far outstrips our modern cityscape, centuries after its origination. At least a few artists have been bringing it back to us in murals over the last few years, introducing a calm, lyrical serenity that dives way beneath the conscious, touching our roots.
The young Italian painter Fabio Petani has been reintroducing a natural agenda to cities across Europe for less than a decade – in a way that only a scientist, botanist, and naturalist with a design sensibility could. What is genuinely original is his subtle re-interpretation of the formal conventions of botany, introducing them to a modern urban audience without lecturing – and rising far beyond purely
Fabio Petani “Spagyria Urbana”. Torino, Italy. 2021. Texts by Alessandra Loale. Layout by Livio Ninni with translation by Mauro Italianodecorative presentations.
An updated version of his initial “Stay Melty” collection a half dozen years ago, street artist Buff Monster expands and shares with you more of his studio production, paintings, sculptures, murals, and ever-growing industry of collectibles in this photo book, a candy-coated volume of eccentricities that capture this moment in an artist’s evolution.
Carlo McCormick’s original text perseveres here as well, most possibly because it still captures so much of the dedicated madness that is Buff, afloat upon the detritus that demarcates our late capitalism era in dirty old New York. McCormick sagely comments on Buff’s take on “a realm of magical thinking in a contemporary visual culture where a few rare artists like Buff Monster can invoke alternate realities as palpably believable and emotionally transformative.”
Poet, urban author, photographer, and longtime NYC messenger Kurt Boone was there too, camera in hand and ready to record the action of the artists getting up on walls and meeting the public. Kurt throws himself into the scene and knows how to navigate while people are enjoying the atmosphere of creativity all around. With his knowledge of the street capturing graffiti, urban cycling, street photography, skateboarding, and busking, you know that his shots are on point.
Instead of uploading everything to a social media platform, Boone asked his friend Anthony Firetto to help lay out his photos to create a book. This is a genuine work of the heart – a self-published hefty book that captures a moment in time, the various players and styles, and a flashpoint in the development of Jersey City as it continues to change.
The political caricature is a treasured form of public discourse that still holds as much power as it did when we relied on the printing press. Able to express sentiment and opinion without uttering a syllable, the artist can sway the direction of conversation with skill, insight, and humor. Artist Robbie Conal has built a career from visually roasting the most sebaceous of our various leaders in the last few decades, often bringing his posters to the street and installing them in advertisers’ wildposting manner.
With the briefest of texts, slogans, or twisted nicknames, he reveals the underbelly as a face, dropping expectations into the sewer. If it were as simple as a political party, one might try to dismiss his work as only partisan. But Conal’s work functions more as an ex-ray, and frequently the resulting scan finds cancer.
ROBBIE CONAL / STREETWISE. 35 YEARS OF POLITICALLY CHARGED GUERRILLA ART. By G. James Daichendt. With a foreword by Shepard Fairey. Published by Schiffer Publishing LTD. Atglen, PA
Page after page of golden NYC hits from the Martha Cooper archive; this new hardcover tome expands the galaxy for fans and academics of that amber-soaked period when it seemed like New York was leading a Spray Nation of graffiti for cities across the country. Known for her ability to capture graffiti writers’ work in its original urban context, Ms. Cooper once again proves that her reputation as the documentarian of an underground/overground aesthetics scene is no joke.
With an academics’ respect for the work, the practice, and the practitioners, Cooper recorded volumes of images methodically for history – and your appreciation. With the vibrant and sometimes vicious city framing their pieces, an uncounted legion of aerosol-wielding street players raced city-wide at top speed, ducking cops and cavorting with a confident abandon in the rusted and screeching steel cityscape. By capturing these scenes without unnecessary editorializing, Cooper gives you access to the organically chaotic graffiti subculture on the move at that moment – directly through her unflinching eyes.
Martha Cooper: Spray Nation. Signed Limited Edtion Box Set is published by Beyond The Streets. With a foreword by Roger Gastman and essays by Steven P. Harrington, Miss Rosen, Jayson Edlin, and Brian Wallis.
One of the exciting book releases this fall drops today in stores across the country – which is appropriate with a name like Spray Nation.
The centerpiece of the complete boxed set released this spring, this thick brick of graffiti tricks will end up on as many shelves as Subway Art; the book of Genesis that prepared everyone for the global scene of graffiti and street art that would unveil itself for decades afterward. See our review from earlier in the year, and sample some of the stunning spreads here, along with quotes by the book’s essay writers, Roger Gastman, Steven P. Harrington, Miss Rosen, Jayson Edlin, and Brian Wallis.
Martha Cooper. SPRAY NATION 1980s Graffiti Photographs. Edited by Roger Gastman. Prestel. Germany, 2022.
Robert Proch: Sketches 2003-2018
From BSA:
“ROBERT PROCH – SKETCHES” : a collection of all the preserved drawings and sketches created by the artist in the years 2003-2018.
We had the opportunity to hang around with artist Robert Proch in 2015 at the No Limit festival in Boras, Sweden. Unassuming and bright, the artist was creating a painting on a massive wall that seemed to us to be insurmountable. He excitedly and with great ease jumped on the cherry picker and dove into the explosion he had sketched – pouring color and gesture into his futurist composition, bending and twisting the axis, capturing the flying energy and elements that appeared to jump off toward the viewer.
Later at dinner in a private home, it was a pleasure to speak with him. A warm, polite, and thoughtful guy – you would not necessarily know that his internal art view was so expansive, except to see his darting eyes perhaps, which didn’t appear to miss anything.
Robert Proch. “Sketches 2003-2018”. Robert Proch Foundation
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.
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.
Color-blocked basketball courts appreciated from a plane, cheerful abstract murals for restaurants, hotels, and cafes, and massive wood collages comprised of assembled pieces that are each finished before joining. What do these expressions of artist Scott Albrecht have to do with one another? If you study the patterns, in time, you will see.
A handsome cloth-covered hardcopy of works by the Gowanus, Brooklyn-based public/studio artist presents a selection of works from 2017-21 that have a rational color theory, smoothly dynamic geometries, and a soothing certitude in their complexity. Spotlighting public art projects, studio processes, exhibitions in New York and LA, and his residency at Hyland Mather’s place in Portugal, the collection is refined yet human.
The Paris-based stencil artist C215 learned his skills in the street and in the studio beginning in the mid-2000s after being influenced by the burgeoning practice in the street art scene of Barcelona and recognizing the practitioners in his home in Paris. Within a few short years, he was watching the evolution of all his peers – and even curating their work into shows. You can see many styles and techniques by surveying the field, and you’ll decide whose work is a cut above.
“The book that you are holding in your hands is, therefore, a manual, an inventory of techniques to be appropriated in order to get yourself started in the art or to help you develop stenciling’s potential. Stencils have no limits and can be adapted to all styles,” says the author in his introduction.
C215 – The Stencil Graffiti Manual. Schiffer Publishing 2022
A new book here features six years of selected works from a Polish graffiti writer, muralist, and professor of art and painting at a secondary school in his hometown of Olsztyn, Poland. He reckons that his life is one of ‘Planned Freestyle,’ meaning that having structure imposed upon him is very helpful in focusing his creative mind. You may quickly appreciate this characterization if you know any artists.
The collection of selected works here by Bartek Swiatecki is as luminous and optically rewarding to the viewer as they are opaque to the mind and stirring to the heart. With prolific and gently evolving abstractions in movement, you can see an artist at work, at play, and at his personal best – topping his previous work. The grandson of another painter and professor (of philology), Miroslaw Swiatecki, and the nephew of a famous painter and animator, Marek Swiatecki, perhaps it was only a matter of time before this 90s graffiti writer moved into more formal practices on canvas and walls.
As we prepare to celebrate 15 years of daily publishing stories and insights about street artists from around the world here on BSA, you’ll know that there are some whose work has merited hours of writing and photography much more than others – perhaps because we first knew her work here in our neighborhood of Brooklyn long before we began this site. Following her through almost every iteration and project, we’ve interviewed her on many stages and in her studio as she continues to unfold, self-examine, recognize the damage, heal herself, give to others, and create on the street, in the studio, gallery, museum, and now on screen.
For her second bound monogram, Caledonia Curry, AKA Swoon, reviews her path as a collection of psychological and emotional journeys, or perhaps one all-encompassing voyage with concurrents and tributaries running alongside and underneath. Whether she is showing you her early work on the streets here or in Italy at a festival called FAME, her Konbit Shelter days, her Braddock Project with the church in Pennsylvania, her Perly’s Beauty Shop, her epic installations at Jeffrey Deitch, LA MOCA in Los Angeles, ICA in Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, or DIA in Detroit, we’ve reported to you on them all – so you have an idea where this new book The Red Skein will take you. It is great to see the memories and the people all pulled together here cohesively and to understand the skeins that all weave together loosely and tightly.
SWOON: The Red Skein. DRAGO Publisher. Rome, Italy. 2022
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. MadC – The Jersey City Mural in collaboration with Jersey City Mural Arts Program 2. Foim & Friends via System Boys 3. Muelle, The Madrid Graffiti Legend
BSA Special Feature: MadC – The Jersey City Mural
A week ago, we were in Berlin to celebrate the closing of our exhibition Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures at Urban Nation Museum. On our last day, we sat front row inside the show at the panel discussion with Martha Cooper and MadC moderated by Nika Kramer.
The three intelligent, hard-working, and accomplished women spoke about their work and the relationship between painting on the streets and the transition of art into the gallery; painting on canvases. Among other topics, MadC spoke about her fear of heights and how this mural in Jersey City proved challenging for her, but in the end, she conquered her fears and set her mind to work on the mural. To her surprise, one morning, she experienced a magnificent sunrise view over Manhattan that she said was worth being high up painting as she wouldn’t otherwise have witnessed such a peaceful and immensely gratifying sight.
MadC – The Jersey City Mural in collaboration with Jersey City Mural Arts Program
Foim & Friends via System Boys
It’s astounding to see the level of Mission Impossible shenanigans that Foim & Friends appear to execute to get into train yards to paint. The results are tight, bright, bubble tags that ride on the lower 2/3 of train cars throughout the city. They are so ubiquitous that you think the train looks like something is missing when it glides past without adornment. But for the writers, its still about competition to get up and its about presence, if not turf.
Muelle, The Madrid Graffiti Legend
“Little did I know. Not only did the Town Hall buy it. But they restored it.” This is when graffiti writers get the recognition by greater society that makes them “legendary”.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. BSA Special Feature: Pejac: “SO FAR, SO CLOSE” 2. ‘APNEA’ Exhibition by Pejac. Berlin, Germany. 3. MadC – Mural Oasis
BSA Special Feature: Pejac: “SO FAR, SO CLOSE” The making of a print.
A recent print by street artist Pejac has a sudden additional resonance as we consider it. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is directly adjacent to Europe and NATO member countries, yet in another perspective, it feels far away for many Europeans.
In an interconnected world that is reliant upon trade and diplomatic ties, and one that is weighted with entrenched war industry interests, no one is far from it today.
“This delicate piece of art depicts a bird’s-eye view of a battle in an infinite trench. ‘‘Sometimes perceiving someone as a friend or foe is just a matter of perspective’, Pejac comments in reference to his artistic rendition of the absurdity of combat.”
“At the tail end of October 2021, a former train manufacturing site in Berlin was home to a 10 days-long exhibition. It was Pejac’s fourth self-produced solo show that saw the Spanish artist push his exposition practice to new levels. Having at his disposal eight different rooms and spaces, Pejac put on display over forty new artworks that literally came in all shapes and sizes.”
MadC – Mural Oasis
“MadC paints 3 murals for Mural Oasis at Prizm OPutlet in Primm, Nevada in 2019, video by Chop ’em Down”
The culmination of a decade-long photography and painting project by artist AKUT (one half of Herakut) brings many of your street art heroes a new level of super-hero status in Heidelberg, Germany, right now until February 25th.
AKUT. “Insight”. Photo series. MadC (photo courtesy of AKUT)
Asking friends and colleagues to sit for a photograph, AKUT (Falk Lehman) projected images of their own artworks across their closed eyes, leaving them gleaming under the imprint of their own distinctive motifs, their skin soaking in the patterns, colors, wildstyles of their own works.
AKUT. “Insight”. Photo series. Obey. (photo courtesy of AKUT)
Now that the Insight project has gathered more than 70 photographs of his cherished circle, AKUT brings the unique program, curated by Metropolink, to the old commissary at Patrick-Henry-Village. Some faces you’ll recognize, others are rarely on public display. All of them keep their eyes closed and their secrets to themselves, preferring introspection to opening their windows to the soul.
“The projection of an artwork onto the face creates a mask-like, archaic expression,” he says, and one wonders if these masks are more obscuring or revealing.
AKUT. “Insight”. Photo series. Kryptik. (photo courtesy of AKUT)
In addition to the photography show, AKUT invited four artists to collaborate on canvasses with him, including KKADE, MADC, STOHEAD, and JULIA BENZ. Additionally he collaborated with the artist KKADE on “the street” for an inaugural mural to celebrate the project in the giant hall of the commissary. The images are stunning, even stirring, in their mystery.
Only AKUT’s uncontested mastery of the photorealist technique can enhance the poignancy of these photos; his hyper sensitive application of texture and volume enables another spirit to free itself from the handpainted works in a way that may supercede the original shot.
Considering the Insight theme, it is evident that on display here as well is the potential network of social and personal connections that one may accrue over time in this street art/contemporary art milieu. If you possess additional talent for listening to the stories of others, not to mention the art of documentation, there can be rich friendships forged too.
The “INSIGHT” exhibition will be on view until February 25th, 2022 at Metropolink’s Commissary in the Patrick-Henry-Village in Heidelberg. (in compliance with the current hygiene restrictions)
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Talking with Tony Tuan Luong AKA Tyle2 2. OLEK: I Have Nothing To Declare Except My Genius 3. Sofles in Brisbane featuring Gamo & Kitsa 4.MadC – Oasis
BSA Special Feature: Talking with Tony Tuan Luong AKA Tyle2
It’s thrilling to see the many twists and turns on the path of calligraffiti. Here we are introduced to Graffiti, Calligraphy, and Tattoo artist TONY TUAN LUONG aka TYLE2 from Offenburg, Germany, who gives a short interview in this first new “Artist Session” with the Molotov brand. Friday is always a great day for inspiration and we hope this can inspire you.
Artist Session with Tony Tuan Luong AKA Tyle2
OLEK: I Have Nothing To Declare Except My Genius
The Polish street artist has nothing but the usual to declare. She’s been saying it for years. If only you would listen.
Man1 on Hollywood Blvd via Birdman.
“A fun mural I shot with LA native Man1 in Los Angeles, CA,” says photographer and video documenter Birdman.
MadC – Oasis
Modern master of styles, MadC knows how to keep it tight and how to let it flow, like an ocean’s mists, across the walls she climbs and conquers. Its not just the dynamism, the scale. It’s also the confidence, the fact that you feel she can see it before she begins. She is an oasis.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening participants at Festival Asalto 2020: 1. “BY VIRTUE OF” a collaboration project between Faith XLVII and Zane Mayer 2. Five Minutes with: 1UP Crew in Berlin – Via I LOVE GRAFFITI.DE 3. MadC1 Via Tost Films 4. Tiacuilos: A film by Federico Peixoto.
BSA Special Feature: “BY VIRTUE OF” a collaboration project between Faith XLVII and Zane Mayer
These hands first appeared projected on a 10 story building in Jacksonville, Florida. A compilation of hands filmed during interviews with America’s homeless, the collaborative video piece by Zane Meyer and Faith XLVII is instructive, expansive, colorful, genuine. Say the artists about the focus of this work, “Like books, the hands tell stories of what they have been through. Slow movements, delicate gestures, and subconscious motions make up the scenes of the film – a match is lit, stones are organized, tattoos are shown, sand is filtered. Clenched hands narrate stories of power, or anger, while open hands suggest an offering or a search for an embrace.”
“BY VIRTUE OF” a collaboration project between Faith XLVII and Zane Mayer
Five Minutes with: 1UP Crew in Berlin – Via I LOVE GRAFFITI.DE
Looks like 1UP Crew are up to no good, as usual. On a large scale, as usual. Impressive, as usual.
MadC1 Via Tost Films
A small taste of the stunning MadC painting her highest mural to date – 56 meters (184 feet) high – in Abu Dhabi for @forabudhabi – with a team from 7 different countries.
Tiacuilos: A film by Federico Peixoto.
As we have always done; here is an excellent opportunity to broaden the conversation about this world-wide people’s art movement that goes by many names. Tlacuilos: “The definitive film chronicle of Graffiti and Hip Hop in Central America”. A film by Federico Peixoto.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
