All posts tagged: Manhattan

A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

January 15, 2014 Artists

It’s a House Party Y’all!

With studio apartments in Manhattan now hitting nearly 3K a month the closest thing most Milennials will ever get to a house party in Gotham will be snagging a VCR tape of the Kid ‘n Play danceoff movie at their parents stoop sale. Last week during the “polar vortex” cold freeze some lucky invitees did get access to a secret house party in a dilapidated building on the Lower East Side for 2 hours however. There wasn’t much heat, no DJ, and your flask of Jack Daniels substituted as the bar, but if you made it in you scored a free condensed Street Artist show that is as rare as a New Jack Swing hit these days.

A subtle beam of light from Heaven (or Kevin) above Hanksy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A little more than 40 (mostly) Street Artists brought the four floor former tenement building to life one last time before it will be destroyed – and they did it almost entirely in secret over the course of a week. Just how secret this event was is debatable considering the multitude of blog posts and photos of it that appeared in the days following but in the Internet age, news about stuff like this goes viral no matter what.

All tolled, the varied collection of participants was a cross-section; a blurry screenshot of Street Artists on the New York scene along with a few graff writers, taggers, sticker slappers, painters, illustrators, aerosol experts, installationists, art school students, and visitors to the big city who happened to be around at the right time. Also, a couple of pyros.

A collaborative wall for “Surplus Candy” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While this sort of artist takeover of an abandoned house or building is increasingly occurring in bankrupt cities and neighborhoods in America and Europe where no one wants to live except the creative types, you don’t find this unruly and freewheeling expression much in the increasingly scrubbed and mall-like playground for the rich in Manhattan.

Similarly, producers of large Street Art/Urban Art events in global cities can deliver murals that make you salivate and on a scale that dwarfs this “event” thanks to corporate underwriters and shills for sneakers/sodas/urban-themed tampons these days, but few can truthfully rival the unpolished impromptu spirit of a semi-secret House Party jam session. For one week during installations and on opening night it was like the ghost of New York’s downtown 1970s-80s Bohemia was coming back to the island in all it’s imperfectness to remind everyone of Manhattan’s former greatness as a petri dish for experimentation and discovery.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Considering the huge increase in sanctioned walls over the last two years in New York, this work looks surprisingly alive, and is just the sort of balm needed for the raw nerves of anarchists everywhere who have bemoaned the polished soul-deadening mural painting of late. Even if some of this looks sort of slap-dash and ragged in spots, and it does, it also gives off an air of being authentic and in-the-moment.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Notably, the ratio of penis, breast, and defacation-related themes was higher than your average art show but as you know, there is an audience for every artist, even the ones gravitating to bathroom humor as creative wellspring. Judging by the few hundred images floating around on Flickr and elsewhere, this pop-up was a hit for the people.

Given the growing number of artists communities that have blossomed outside of Manhattan, this could have been one of its last jams for Street Art. Yo! That’s my jam!

And now please step aside as we build another luxury condo.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Mizrachi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trap (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASVP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tony DePew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tone Tank (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Royce Bannon at work on his installation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Royce Bannon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELLE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Foxx Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rusell King (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CB23 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This show, “Surplus Candy” was organized by Hanksy, and is now closed.

A near complete artist list includes:

Alice Mizrachi/AM, ASVP, BD White, Bishop203, CB23, Cernesto, Col Wallnuts, Cosbe, Dee Dee, Dick Mama, Drippings, Edapt, EKG, El Sol 25, Elizabeth Glaessner, Elle, Enzo and Nio, Foxxface, GILF!, Hanksy, Icy and Sot, Left Handed Wave, Lunar New Year, Magda Love, Martha Cooper, Mata Ruda, Moustache Man, Mr. Toll, Mr. Two Three, Mrs. Big Stuff, NDA, Never, Nicolas Holiber, Royce Bannon, Russell King, Sonni, Tako, Tone Tank, Tony Depew, Trap, UR New York, Vulpes Vulpes, Wizard Skull, and Wretched Beast.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Images Of The Week: 01.12.14

January 12, 2014 Artists

Great week in NYC with the new mayor shaking hands for hours in the cold outside City Hall with all New Yorkers last Sunday, then we got smacked with the devastating cold, then sleet, then high winds. Next up, ice locusts! Also, if your Christmas tree is still up, don’t plug it in because that puppy will go up in 25 seconds of flaming glory. Wait until it is safely on the street before igniting.

This week we also featured not one but two yarn artists, which has gotta be a first for us – London Kaye and the Olek. Yarn on the street isn’t exactly a trend, but it is sort of a trend.

– In a related story, Olek is now reporting that the piece we documented her installing in 4 degree temperatures has mysteriously disappeared. Street Art vanishes all the time but the size of this piece was gargantuan and it was a complicated install and it was hung in a very heavily traversed part of Little Italy. Says Olek in her FB/Twitter all-points-bulletin “Alert: 376 square feet of #crochet art stolen.” Keep your eye on Grandma, also Aunt Betty. ‘Cause you know, knitters sometimes get competitive, that’s all I’m saying.

And here we are with our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Beau Stanton, EC13, Etnik, Haculla, Icy & Sot, Miron Milic, Olek, Pyramid Oracle, Rene Gagnon, Seville, Sexer, Steep, Swoon, Team Low Brow, Team Mishka, and Zimad.

Top Image >> Haculla. We are happy to see this veteran Street Artist on this old spot in Manhattan and of course back on the streets of NYC. Nice stash. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon’s collaboration with Groundswell was tagged very heavily during the most recent snow storm in the city. Luckily, the color palette of the new graffiti work complements the overall scheme. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miron Milic’s sketch for his most recent work in Croatia. (photo © Miron Milic)

The finished piece by Miron Milic. When translated, we still didn’t understand the meaning but here it is: “We played at war because it was healthy that were as much in the air.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steep at The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy and Sot depict a feeling of impotence fighting the war machine and the ubiquity of guns and violence. What’s your interpretation? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Beau Stanton for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A new piece in Turin, Italy by Etnik, who is preparing for his first solo show at Square23. Dude’s got skillz. (photo © Etnik)

Zimad at The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RIPO for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EC13 new installation in Spain. (photo © EC13)

Team Mishka vs Team Low Brow for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sexer at The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“There is no such thing as part freedom”. Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rene Gagnon opened with an extensive solo show at the new Mecka Gallery last night. Heavily attended. Read more about the venue, the show, and an interview with the artist HERE. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. The Golden Hour becomes the Manhattan skyline. January 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Olek Warms Little Italy With Giant Multi-colored Freedom

January 9, 2014 Artists

The previous NYC record for frigid cold on January 7th was 6 degrees (F).

Tuesday broke that record at 4 degrees.

Olek decided we needed a blanket.

Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With the help of Shir Lieberman, London O’Donnell, and Whitney Spivey, the crochet Street Artist installed a 60 foot long multicolored comforter to warm a parking lot fence in coordination with Wayne Rada and RJ Rushmore of the Little Italy Street Art Project. The LISA Project, as it is more commonly referred to, is a private initiative that has brought a variety of street and graffiti artists to this tourist neighborhood in the last two years.

Olek never does a project half way, and the size and scope of her psychedelic camouflage skin street projects continue to barely keep pace with her imagination. The sentiment of the slogan appears to augment the work ethic and of course, and it is perfectly timely as the concept and practice of freedom is debated daily in the public and digital spheres.

Having part freedom is like being part pregnant. More germanely perhaps, we think of those “free speech” zones set up outside of political conventions that are basically just cages to contain people and prevent them from moving about freely to protest. They are part free speech/ part totalitarianism. Is there such a thing?

Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek is surprised to see you. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Photographer Martha Cooper braved the very low temps for the occasion. Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Climbing fences sort of comes with the job. Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“…the path of progress, the struggle for equality for all, is a life-long endeavor, achieved through persistence and faith, never wavering. Each individual must participate in this progress through any way available, including public displays of solidarity, creations of art, reliance on the legal system and vocalizations of opinion. Equality for all in some parts of the world is not total equality; it must be worldwide.” -Olek

Olek begins the process of fully encasing a willing participant in crochet for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You shoot me, I’ll shoot you. Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To learn more about the L.I.S.A. Project NYC click HERE.

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13 from 2013 : Yoav Litvin “Jury Duty”

December 19, 2013 Artists

Happy Holidays to all you stupendous and talented and charming BSA readers! We thank you from the bottom of our socks for your support this year. The best way we can think of to celebrate and commemorate the year as we finish it is to bring you 13 FROM 2013 – Just one favorite image from a Street Art or graffiti photographer that brings a story, a remembrance, an insight or a bit of inspiration to the person who took it. For the last 13 days they will share a gem with all of us as we collectively say goodbye and thank you to ’13.

Today Yoav Litvin shares a New York moment he caught in 2013 that can happen to you sometimes in this Street Art and fashion capital, and tells us what he was thinking when he caught it.

Dain in Tribeca, Manhattan, NYC 2013. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

“Jury Duty”

I was on jury duty in downtown Manhattan. It was lunch break but I wasn’t hungry, so I decided to walk around and hunt for art. I knew I was in prime street art territory and like some bloodhound, I trusted my street art “nose” to lead me in the direction of some cool pieces.

After crisscrossing several blocks with no luck, I ducked through an alley and noticed in the corner of my eye a speck of color on the base of a streetlamp that seemed out of place. Shifting my gaze, I immediately recognized that it was a wheatpaste by Dain, an artist I’d grown to admire.

Upon approaching the paste I saw in the distance an ongoing model shoot. Camera in hand, a photographer was standing, crouching, sitting, and lying on the street, continuously taking pictures, obviously searching for the best shot. Directly facing him a model was skipping around, laughing, swinging her handbag, moving to the left, then to the right and occasionally stopping dramatically to face him. Their movements were smooth, natural and flirtatious and I marveled at the site: it was beautiful, charming and intimate. Smiling, I redirected my attention back to Dain’s piece. I felt a new kinship toward the beautifully collaged lady and realized we shared a very intimate moment. Right then and there, she was my model, muse and inspiration and I had to find the shot that reflected her in all her beauty.

I kneeled, took the shot and with a big smile headed back to jury duty.

~Yoav Litvin

Artist: DAIN
Location: Manhattan, New York. 2013

#13from2013

Check out our Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo here.

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The 2013 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

December 18, 2013 Artists

Here it is! Our 2013 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.

Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year, snapped one second before he was singled out of a New York crowd, handcuffed, and stuffed into a police car – sort of like the Banksy balloons he was capturing.

“Among all the thousands of photos I took this year there’s one that encapsulates the importance of Street Art in the art world and some of the hysteria that can build up around it,” he says of his final shot on the final day of the one month Better Out Than In artist ‘residency’ in NYC this October. It was a cool day to be a Street Art photographer – but sadly Rojo was camera-less in a case of mistaken identity, if only for a short time.

Released two hours later after the actual car-jumping trespasser was charged, Rojo was happy to hear the Chief Lieutenant tell his officer “you’ve got the wrong man”, to get his shoelaces back, and to discover this photo was still on his camera. He also gets to tell people at parties that he spent some time in the holding cell with the two guys whom New York watched tugging down the B-A-N-K-S-Y.

What’s everybody looking at? Jaime Rojo’s favorite image of the year at the very end of the Banksy brouhaha. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

When it came to choosing the 112 images for the video that capture the spirit of the Street Art scene in ’13, we were as usual sort of overwhelmed to comb through about ten thousand images and to debate just how many ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ pieces made it into the mix. Should we include only images that went up under the cover of the night, unsanctioned, uncensored, uncompromised, unsolicited and uncommissioned? Isn’t that what Street Art is?

Right now there are a growing number of legal pieces going up in cities thanks to a growing fascination with Street Art and artists and it is causing us to reevaluate what the nature of the Street Art scene is, and what it may augur for the future. You can even say that from a content and speech perspective, a sizeable amount of the new stuff is playing it safe – which detracts from the badass rebel quality once associated with the practice.

These works are typically called by their more traditional description – murals. With all the Street Art / graffiti festivals now happening worldwide and the growing willingness of landlords to actually invite ‘vandals’ to paint their buildings to add cache to a neighborhood and not surprisingly benefit from the concomitant increase in real estate values, many fans and watchers have been feeling conflicted in 2013 about the mainstreaming that appears to be taking place before our eyes. But for the purposes of this roundup we decided to skip the debate and let everybody mix and mingle freely.

This is just a year-end rollicking Street Art round-up; A document of the moment that we hope you like.

Ultimately for BSA it has always been about what is fresh and what is celebrating the creative spirit – and what is coming next. “We felt that the pieces in this collection expressed the current vitality of the movement – at least on the streets of New York City,” says photographer and BSA co-founder Rojo. It’s a fusillade of the moment, complete with examples of large murals, small wheat pastes, intricate stencils, simple words made with recycled materials or sprayed on to walls, clay installations, three dimensional sculptures, hand painted canvases, crocheted installations, yarn installations etc… they somehow captured our imaginations, inspired us, made us smile, made us think, gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it.

Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

A Dying Breed, Aakash Nihalini, Agostino Iacursi, Amanda Marie, Apolo Torres, Axel Void, Bagman, Bamn, Pixote, Banksy, B.D. White, Betsy, Bishop203, NDA, Blek le Rat, br1, Case Maclaim, Cash For Your Warhol, Cholo, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Billy Mode, Christian Nagel, Cost, ENX, Invader, Crush, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Dase, Dasic, Keely, Deeker, Don’t Fret, The Droid, ECB, el Seed, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Faile, Faith 47, Five Pointz, Free Humanity, Greg LaMarche, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Inti, Jilly Ballistic, John Hall, JR, Jose Parla, Judith Supine, Kremen, Kuma, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Love Me, Martha Cooper, Matt Siren, Elle, Mika, Miss Me, Missy, MOMO, Mr. Toll, Nychos, Okuda, Alice Mizrachi, OLEK, Owen Dippie, Paolo Cirio, Paul Insect, Phetus, Phlegm, Revok, Pose, QRST, Rambo, Ramiro Davaro, Reka, Rene Gagnon, ROA, RONES, Rubin, bunny M, Square, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swoon, Tristan Eaton, The Lisa Project 2013, UFO 907, Willow, Swill, Zed1, and Zimer.

Read more about Banksy’s last day in New York here and our overview of his residency in the essay “Banksy’s Final Trick” on The Huffington Post.

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Protest Posters from OWS: The Message and the Medium

December 11, 2013 Artists

There has been some talk recently (meaning, oh, the last 30 years) about the role of street art and graffiti as a form of protest or political speech and its relevance, irrelevance, plenty or paucity. It’s always amusing to see those who otherwise steer clear of self-examination critiquing the political speech of others, and with such veracity. Just as those meat-eaters who put a vegetarian under extra scrutiny and question their purity of allegiances and practices, street art watchers who have an opinion feel entitled to pass judgement on any artist who critiques the establishment.

Did you buy those art materials from a chain store and thus feed the corporate machine? Then your anti-corporate criticisms are meritless. You should have painted with your own blood.

Are those leather uppers on your shoes? Then you are hypocritical for critiquing a factory farming method as animal torture.

It’s a clever, if lazy, way of diverting attention from a matter or opinion that calls into question our own behaviors and viewpoints by way of demanding complete purity or none – as if the world were so black and white.

OWS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These new OWS pieces on the street will probably meet the same fate because they were undoubtedly made with corporate software on corporate computers and printed on a corporate photocopier/printer with non-organic inks. You should have hand pressed your own paper from recycled garbage and rendered the image with a twig and the juice an old pomegranate.

Some Street Art “critics” will belabor the replication, the multiples, the generic-ness of the presentation as being so unimaginative and smacking of the same methods that evil advertisers use, but without irony, therefore the underlying messages are effectively voided. Again, these should be hand made one of a kind, more D.I.Y, more human.

OWS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bottom line is, street artists aren’t asking anyone for permission. In the end, we don’t know exactly what OWS is going for with some of these images or their configuration or materials, but it is refreshing that we’re being asked to think and consider.

Political speech, however imperfect it is (and it always is), is what we have as a voice against a storm of high-powered well funded machines informing and misinforming us today. In fact it sometimes may feel like they are drowning out the singular voices of dissent. We ignore these voices at our own peril.

OWS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Images Of The Week: 11.10.13

November 10, 2013 Artists

Dang, this city is full of a lot of energy and the streets are showing a new-found enthusiasm for art in the public sphere since getting goosed by _____________ (we can’t say that name one more time). And we have a new mayor, by the way, straight outta Brooklyn, yo. And he’s not a billionaire for the first time in 12 years and his family looks just like New York.

So here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring B.D. White, Chuck Berrett, Cost, Hellbent, Hot Tea, Icy & Sot, Marko93, MOR, Mr. Toll, Myth, NM Salgar, Rambo, Smart Crew, The Lurkers, and Vicki DaSilva.

Top Image >> A multi-layered hand-stencilled piece from B.D. White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot for Wall Therapy. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot for Wall Therapy. Detail. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot for Wall Therapy. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Icy & Sot At Woodward Gallery, Project Space. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent wrapped an entire store in lower Manhattan just below Union Squre. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vicki DaSilva lights the night for Le Tour Paris 13. Paris, France. (photo © Vicki DaSilva)

You wonder how the above image was accomplished? Check out this interview with the artist Vicki DaSilva, who has loved graffiti for decades and has found a way to express her appreciation for art and activism in the public sphere using her own unique approach.

A hot shot of Marko93 light writing for Le Tour Paris 13. Paris, France. (photo © Marko93)

Hot Tea says a big hello to “Banksy” in New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rambo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MOR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Lurkers with Smart Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Lurkers with Smart Crew. Deatail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Lurkers with Smart Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cost/Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chuck Berrett/NM Salgar (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Queens, NY. October 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images of The Week: 10.20.13

October 20, 2013 Artists

The leaves in Central Park are aflame and so are the passions of Street Art fans (and artists) this week in New York where the general public is now conditioned to be on alert for a near-daily announcement of a new Banksy installation nearly anywhere in the city. It can be a stencil, a sculpture, a performance, a rolling truck gallery, or a canvas suspended from the Highline – but don’t worry about finding it – it will be announced on the website first…

Lead image above >>Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’ve tried to keep it all in perspective and not slavishly cancel life to run out and capture the latest installation, but the buzz is unavoidable and we get sucked in. It is now taking on some air of a circus, complete with barkers and clowns and otters flapping their flippers (and lips). As a branding “re-fresh”, it’s been a very successful campaign so far with news reportage, Instagramming and re-tweets, crowds assembling at a moments notice to snap images of and/or with the work, and we even found vigilante fans tackling vandals who are vandalizing the vandalism. You can’t engineer that sort of irony. Now an elected leader or two are talking about trying to capture the president of Banksy Inc. LLC – which would send a clear message to all Street Artists that this really is the best way to market your work.

Banksy. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meanwhile there are many other Street Artists and fine artists in general who are still at work on the streets of New York, and you may even give their content, quality and placement more praise than some from this Banksy campaign. We’ve always celebrated the creative spirit however it is expressed and invariably find some of the greatest work is done by people we’ve never heard of, or barely know much about. At a time where large media is consolidating and the individual voice is being marginalized and commodified, we find this to still be an amazingly democratic practice of joining the conversation, if imperfect and confusing. And New York doesn’t stop just because one new guy is getting a lot of attention – Hell, we barely notice when Obama or the Pope or even the Queen of England visits – she’s just one queen after all and we have the entire neighborhood of Chelsea.

So here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Banksy, Bifido, Cali Killa, Dede, Don Rimx, El Kamino, El Sol 25, JC, London Kaye, Meres, Nepo, Pastey Whyte, Shin Shin, and Shiro.

______________________, The Musical! Banksy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The view into the back of a box truck with an installation attributed to Banksy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Dying Breed. 5ptz. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

9 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shiro. 5ptz. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Kamino. American Flag with Cardinal. Welling Court. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx . NEPO. 5ptz. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx . NEPO. Detail. 5ptz. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pastey Whyte (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meres. 5ptz. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shin Shin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. 5ptz. Queens, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cali Killa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JC in Barcelona, Spain. (photo © JC)

Bifido. Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Bifido)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Images Of The Week: 10.13.13

October 13, 2013 Artists

Welcome! Now Go Home! That’s what Tony Carapachio at the corner deli used to say about all the foreigners moving into the neighborhood. Sounds like a lot of the comments being directed at Banksy by locals, although their voices are primarily drowned out by clicking iPhones.

The pie is big enough for everybody, and in a city where 176 languages are spoken by kids in our schools, we can probably handle new voices on the street. Our Banksy-related favorite development this week was the small pack of entrepreneurs who were selling access to his stencil on a wall in East New Yawk for $20 a pop. Nice! They’re not the first or the last who will endeavor to profit from his work.

Also this week came the definitive news that 5 Ptz in Queens will be razed in favor of a new condo development. It is privately owned and has transformed into a graffiti holy place over the last decade and a half, and while you could see the final outcome being something like this, many had held out hope that it would be preserved or saved by a rich Robin Hood sort of character – like Jay Z or even Banksy.

Tweet from @ajayjapan 11 Oct “I wish Banksy would save 5 Pointz while he’s in town. #banksytotherescue“

and @xblaze23 11 Oct “It would be dope if Banksy did something at 5 Pointz considering the end is near. #banksyny“

You may remember our photo essay from earlier in the summer about 5 Ptz. The good news is that they say the new space will set aside 10,000 square feet for graffiti.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Case MaClaim, Christian Nagel, Dase, Dasic, Effy, El Sol 25, Ever, Seed, Tristan Eaton, Zed1.

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“Adios Amigos” – CBGB Memorial with NANTU in a Famous Back Alley

October 8, 2013 Artists

This summer curator and producer Keith Schweitzer invited Ecuadorian artist Raul Ayala AKA NANTU to paint the floor of the alley behind the old CBGB. The piece itself is integral to the history of the revered club known as an original incubator for the punk/New Wave scene in New York and the US. Inspired by the death of Joey Ramone, the mural took on added significance as an ode to the Antagonist Art Movement and even more emotional weight when the completion of the mural itself was interrupted by death.

In a conversation with Keith and Nantu we learned about the artist’s inspiration for the project and how he collaborates with artists who he respects. The time-honored tradition of the community mural and memorial wall is reinterpreted here with new actors and we’re pleased to present Keith’s interview here today for BSA readers.

Keith Schweitzer: Let’s talk about the new mural behind CBGB’s former location. Please describe the mural and the ideas behind it. How did it begin and develop?
Nantu: After being invited to do the mural by you with the Fourth Arts Block, the idea was further developed in conversations with James Rubio from the Antagonist Art Movement. We wanted to celebrate the history of the alley, and what it meant to the punk scene back in the 70s and 80s. At the beginning the conversations were all about having the artwork reference specific people, places and events from the neighborhood.

We were going back and forth between being very literal vs metaphorical and then Arturo Vega, Ramones legend and mentor for the Antagonists, turns to us and hands us this poem written by Dee Dee Ramone and it just all came together. Bang, we knew what we would be painting… a visual interpretation of Dee Dee’s poem, something he wrote shortly after Joey Ramone’s death imagining Joey’s spirit being lifted through blue skies.

After sketching the final concept we began to color block to the dimensions of the alley. Around halfway through was when Arturo passed away. This was a very sad moment for all, and particularly for the Antagonists as Arturo was a friend and member of the Antagonist Art Movement. The project changed immediately for me and I was determined to create something memorable, a worthy tribute. I spent about one month painting the line work and color gradients by brush. The mural is complete in it’s current iteration, but I will be doing additive work on it during the next six months or so. The title is “Adios Amigos” and it’s a little more than 1,000 square feet.

Keith Schweitzer: This was your first mural in NYC since moving here from Ecuador. What were you working on before moving to New York?
Nantu: In the years just before I moved here I had been doing a lot of projects that combine art, community and education to make a final collaborative artwork.

I did a three year series of interventions where I kept infiltrating the Ecuadorian prison system and made art on walls working with incarcerated people. It was completely illicit and unsanctioned, but it was very constructive and a lot of people in prison really got into it. We wore masks to hide our identities and also to remove the individual from what was a group effort. Pretty soon the prisoners’ friends and families began to participate and the project grew, even incorporating video-performances and text message exchanges.

This experience helped me to define myself as an artist who wanted to work with communities. The fact that it was an illegal art practice that brought an entire community together, in a way that the official ways could not, really changed my perspective as an artist.

Recently, in April of 2012, I went to Puebla, Mexico, to a neighborhood called Xanenetla. This was a really dangerous and dilapidated town but soon all the houses were painted with murals and that definitely changed the dynamic of the place. The project was called “Puebla: Ciudad Mural.” There I worked with some really great artists and friends, like Liqen from Galicia and Alexis Duque from Colombia.

Liqen and I did another mural together in Tonsupa, Equador, that I really enjoyed doing, called “Oceangirl”.

Keith Schweitzer: Is there a difference between Nantu and Raul Ayala? How do you approach your street work vs your studio work?
Nantu: Nantu means “moon” in Shuar, an ancient rainforest language from Ecuador. I was working outdoors mostly at night, and I felt the name gave me some protection, a sort of cloak, while I was painting walls. I never sign my street work as Nantu, it’s more of a mental and verbal thing, so you may have seen my work without knowing who did it. Outdoors I used to work quickly, with a limited tool set, but indoors in my studio I had all of the tools and time that I could want.

My last name is Ayala, which is similar to Ayauma, a sacred Ecuadorian clown dancer with two faces. I have an Ayauma mask that we made during our prison workshops that I still use. For a long time, I saw myself as having two faces or personalities, Nantu Ayauma who worked outside without permission and Raul Ayala who created works to show in galleries. Now the two faces are looking in the same direction and doing the same thing. I’m showing in galleries and doing outdoor work with permission and in communities. It’s a great question that you’ve asked, because I am still trying to answer this very question for myself.

Keith Schweitzer: Has New York had an effect on your work? What’s next for Raul?
Nantu: When I first got to New York i had a chance to work with Daze, helping him with an exhibit in the Bronx called “This Side of Paradise.” He is someone that I had always known about and it was an amazing experience to actually work with him.

My first contact with NYC was the Antagonist Art Movement. I was in Ecuador, with no thoughts of coming to NYC, and then a friend came by with a box of dolls that were mailed to us from NYC. The dolls were sent by the Antagonists with an invitation to work on them and we did so, even producing more dolls before sending them back to NYC. They really liked what we did and we began to talk about doing a project together. Then I traveled to NYC and my girlfriend and I decided to stay here and that is when the collaboration with the Antagonists really took off. The Antagonists have been really supportive, helping me find work and projects. In late October they are taking a trip to Ecuador, we’re doing a street art festival, producing fanzines and some murals with local artists, musicians and sign painters.

At the moment I have a drawing in an exhibition called “For Which It Stands” at The Lodge Gallery in NYC and I am beginning a new mural near my house in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. I am doing a fellowship with The Laundromat Project, the “Creative Change Professional Development” Program. I am learning a lot and meeting great liked-minded artists that work with minorities doing socially engaged art. I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

For more information about Fourth Arts Block please click HERE.

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Images Of The Week: 10.06.13

October 6, 2013 Artists

New York was rattled by uncertainty and worry this week as all eyes turned to Washington to witness the forced governmental shutdown that was prompted by a undeniably deep resentment toward the governed. How dare the people try to protect their health and pocketbook against the vulturish free market – one that has left tens of millions of our neighbors without medical care? As a collective punishment we are now nervously marking one week without a working government.

Launched parallel with the shutdown was the startup of a new Street Art/digital campaign by a global patron saint of the 2000s repositioning on New York streets in the 2010s. Through a website about his own secret/public spraying, Banksy is creating a sort of funhouse reinvention; A winking campaign of digital manipulation of friends and detractors alike. Circumspect humor and treasure hunts have triggered a bit of a circus – and we are willingly parlaying the details and conjecture across social media with hashtags and photos and exclamation points. Reviews of the work itself range from tepid to thrilled but the sugary buzz of near daily revelations have given these events a feeling of an October surprise. If the brand can sustain interest for the the entire announced “residency” of one month it will indeed be an accomplishment, as New Yorkers are voracious consumers of culture and attention spans mimic that of the tsetse fly.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring B.D. White, Banksy, Blind Eye Factory, Cost, Specter, Holymafia, Judith Supine, Knarf, Mike Shine, Nychos, and Zed1.

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Images of The Week 09.29.13

September 29, 2013 Artists

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Chris RWK, Chuck Barrett, Cs Navarrate, Damien Mitchell, Deekers, Gilf!, JMR, Katherine Daniels, Kuma, Left, Miishab, NM Salgar, Oculo, RVMP, Sheryo, Skewville, Swil, The Yok, Willow, and Zimer.

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