All posts tagged: Manhattan

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.18.18

March 18, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

A quick recap of two big stories of the week in cold New York: Revok’s lawsuit against retailer H&M for using his work, done illegally, in an ad campaign was answered this week by a counter lawsuit from them. It set off a backlash among Street Artists on social media and elsewhere, garnering a large number of stories in media outlets large and small. Others have said everything we would have – except that whether this suit is withdrawn or not, there is still question whether the matter of illegally done artworks will be copyright protected in the future or not. We like how Juxtapoz has covered the topic HERE.

Secondly, Banksy has been in New York pulling our chain again, putting up new works in the city and announcing them on his social media, then putting them up without announcing them? Regardless, photographers and fans are racing to capture images. Who knows how long this visit lasts or what trick is up his sleeve next.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets (and elsewhere), this week featuring Adam Fujita, Banksy, Don Rimx, Hox Hoh, K-Nor, Naomi Rag, Timothy Curtis, and Zehra Doğan

Top Image: Banksy? We’ll have to wait…(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy. Detail. A tribute. A plea. A denunciation. A well used example of the artist’s platform to bring awareness of the plight of artists who dare to set themselves free with their art. Depicted here is Ms. Zehra Doğan an editor and journalist from Turkey. She is presently serving time in jail for painting Turkish flags on a painting showing destroyed buildings and posting the painting on Social Media. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy. Free Zehra Doğan. NYC Houston/Bowery Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy. Detail.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Naomi Rag. Red Rose in Spanish Harlem. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“There is a rose in Spanish Harlem
A red rose up in Spanish Harlem
It is a special one, it’s never seen the sun
It only comes out when the moon is on the run
And all the stars are gleaming
It’s growing in the street right up through the concrete
But soft and sweet and dreaming…” Jerry Leiber & Phil Spector

Naomi Rag. Hope for the Spring… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toy Ass…Toys are Not Us… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HOX XOH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita (photo © Jaime Rojo)

K-Nor (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Timothy Curtis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Charles…Home Run… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. March 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DAZE: “Daily Commute”, Solo in NYC

February 19, 2018 Artists, Interview

Most people commute to and from work. Some spend hours caught in rush hour traffic, trapped in their cars. Others use their bikes or skateboards or a bobbing, roaring ferry. Some lucky ones just walk. In New York City most commuters use the subway and the buses to get to their offices, kitchens, stores, classrooms, campuses, and after a while, the commute disappears.

On trains and buses we are packed like sardines, avoiding eye contact, keeping to our phones and books or staring at our shoes or out a window. Maybe you get a seat, otherwise you sway back and forth tethered to a silver bar, banging into others, observing or zoning out.
On your commute you may have serendipity, a discovery, a newly germinated idea.

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Subway Interior” 2017. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You may feel ill, or fall asleep, or become riveted by an evesdropped conversation. Children’s faces pressed against windows, parents catching a catnap, helping with homework, putting on eyeliner. Actors practice lines, others rehearse standup routines. Lust is awakened, love blooms, loneliness aches.

The act of commuting in NYC is rarely solitary. Or quiet.

A lifelong New Yorker, artist Daze has found inspiration in the train lines the way many authors do, relishing and memorizing details. Since hitting up trains in the golden 70s-80s era, he has never lost his love of the daily commute and the millions of idiosyncracies. Now in his first ever solo exhibition in New York City, Daze returns to the subways and streets for inspiration, bringing vibrancy and color and a few ragged edges.

Chris DAZE Ellis. “242nd Street” Detail. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For “Daily Commute” the artist revisits some familiar spots, paying tribute to known and unknown characters in a familiar way of someone who knows the city very well, without condescension or sentimentality but with the respect for a city that takes you and shakes you and throws you away and embraces you and comforts you and reads you a line from a play or a poem. If you’re lucky.

We spoke to the artist about his love for his city and his experience on its streets:

BSA: You have never lost your love for New York and its public spaces. Can you talk about something that stays true about the city decade after decade?

DAZE: I think of New York as always being a rather inclusive and diverse city. It has a long history of both that continues till this day. These are a couple of the ingredients that would make it difficult for me to live anywhere else.In choosing subject matter I am always searching for examples that represent these qualities.

BSA: The palette for many of these new works is bright and saturated with vibrant color, even though the actual city can be more subdued and grey. Is this emotion, or possibly imagination at work?

DAZE: I actually have two approaches to creating the “look” of my paintings. One is a more monochrome affect which is usually in greys,whites,and blacks. They are part of a series I call the” Grey Scale paintings” although because there are little bits of color they are not truly monochromatic. These paintings are based on black and white photo’s that I shoot on film.

The other approach is to use make work that is more color saturated. I begin with a color that will establish the overall look or mood of the painting and then work from there. I think that even though my paintings are very urban there can sometimes be something tropical about them.

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Midtown” 2016. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Rush Hour Reflection” 2017. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Blue Portal” 2017. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: When looking at many of the paintings it strikes the viewer that perhaps you are attracted to portals, small viewers that allow one to see further inside a situation.

DAZE: The use of portals is almost voyeuristic. It’s the old looking out at the contemporary. I got the idea for this from my memories as a child. The subways had these portal shaped windows on all of the doors. I really enjoyed looking out of them and watching the neighborhoods change as I rode by.

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Jackson Heights” 2017. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Masquerade, W.H. in Times Square” 2017. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: One of your opus pieces in this show, which we had the pleasure of seeing at its genesis in studio a little while ago, features an iconic personality who creates his own splendid costumery, and has for years.

DAZE: The subject of the painting,” Masquerade” is Wendell Headley. He is an artist that I’ve known since my early days at Fashion Moda gallery in the Bronx circa 1982. When I first met him he would come into the gallery wearing these elaborate outfits that he made himself and just hang out. People would donate clothes and he would take the clothes apart, reconstruct them, and give them new life. He is not only a brilliant designer but truly a living sculpture.

Wendell is not someone that is trying to perform, his life is his art. I had wanted to do a portrait of him for a long time but I would only run into him sporadically in different areas of the city, usually highly populated areas.

One evening I ran into him in Times Square and I photographed him for a bit. It was really great because in the midst of all these people dressed up as Disney or Marvel comic book characters he was just being himself. He was embodying his art and that’s what defines him. I have a lot of respect for him as a creative.

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Generations” 2017. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Can you speak about P.P.O.W and its connection to the graffiti and Street Art scene and what it means to you to be having your solo show here?

DAZE: PPOW is an amazing gallery that is very much like a family to me. I was close friends with many of the artists that they show and represent so it feels very natural to be there. I’ve watch them grow over the years from The east village scene in the 80’s until now and always respected what they do and how they present exhibitions, no matter how difficult.

Being represented by them continues the dialogue I’ve had with people like Martin Wong and Charlie Ahearn. I don’t think they see my work as “graffiti”. I’m not trying to do graffiti paintings. There are elements of it that appear within the layering of my paintings but my work is more about the the urban diaspora of New York and what I have lived here.

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Times Square blizzard” 2016 P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris DAZE Ellis. “Interior of an IND Subway Car” 2017. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris DAZE Ellis. P.P. O. W. Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris DAZE Ellis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DAZE “Daily Commute” is currently open to the general public at P.P.O.W. Gallery at 535 West 22nd Street in NYC. Show closes on March 17th.

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.21.18

January 21, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

The streets across the US were again flooded with justifiably angry, determined women yesterday. Nothing we can say here will do justice to the enormity of the crowds protesting in 250 cities on the first anniversary of the inauguration, nor the range of political and social fronts that are being contested.

Clearly the world stage has been thrown off kilter by the the erosion of trust and confidence in this government, in the economy, in the fraying social fabric, the attacks on people and the earth. “The decline in confidence in the U.S. president has been severe in some countries since Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017,” says FactCheck.org, and it “is especially pronounced among some of America’s closest allies in Europe and Asia, as well as neighboring Mexico and Canada,” the Pew Global Attitudes Project found. That’s in only one year.

Oh, did we mention that the US has a government shutdown right now?

Today we chose the top image by Alex Senna to symbolize the people who are in the shadows who are hiding and who think we don’t know they are there and that no one is looking out for them. Immigrants across the country are being threatened, yet exploited day after day – afraid to go to the police or even hospitals when abused by employers, by family members, by misguided racists. We see you and we hear you. As a nation descended from immigrants, the indigenous, and the enslaved, we remember our history. Similarly, people who are being sex trafficked, or who are unable to speak up because of financial restraints, religious restraints, psychological restraints. We see you.

Heavy topics, but these are the streets, our streets, all of us. Roberta Smith said this week in The New York Times when reviewing the Outsider Art Fair; “Art Is Everywhere”. We’ll widen that sentiment and say that art is for everyone, and the street is more than ever a perfect place to see it.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Fujita, Ai WeiWei, Alex Senna, Cholula, Ernest Zacharevic, Fontes World, Mr. June, Retna, Roman, Stray Ones, Terry Urban, and Zola.

Top Image: Alex Senna ( photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ai Weiwei. “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors”. NYC wide multimedia/multi site exhibition for Public Art Fund. Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Council (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Terry Urban (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita and Fontes World collaboration brings to mind our recent article about artists endless fight for affordable housing in NYC Indeed a Dying Breed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stray Ones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic fills the space with a cube. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist in Cholula, Puebla. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paris (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zola (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn vs Everybody (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Retna in Cholula, Puebla. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Román in Cholula, Puebla. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. June for The Buschwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This public ad campaign against fur borrows from the street art stencil technique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist in Mexico City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. January 2018. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.14.18

January 14, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

A celebrated American, the New York poet Langston Hughes, leads off this edition of BSA Images of the Week, with a firebox posting of a portion of his work “Oh Let America Be America Again.” A part of the Harlem Jazz Age that gave birth to a freedom of expression and heralded fame for many black and brown artists across artistic disciplines, it was Hughes that spoke to the depths and sorrows and aspirations of the human experience here with such poetry. We don’t know who brought his words to the street here, but the timing could not be better.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Abe Lincoln Jr., Anthony Lister, Apexer, Borondo, Katsu, Langston Hughes, Paul Kostabi, SacSix, and Willow.

Top Image: A poem by Langston Hughes (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apexer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Borondo. Padre Cruz Neighborhood. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Abe Lincoln Jr. Phone booth ad takeover. LES, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SacSix and FAME. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paul Kostabi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Katsu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. East Rive, NYC. January 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

J. Demsky and Brad Howe Unite “Off The Wall”

December 6, 2017 Artists

Sophisticated and poppy palette-play coupled with a mid century affection for abstract geometry? Meet the night-glo arcade color selections and graphically charged motion of a 90s inspired digital graffiti artist.

Brad Howe and Demsky, both internationally known on the street and inside gallery walls, are separated by two decades but united by a desire to define the aesthetics and experience of public space.

J. Demsky – Brad Howe off the Wall. GR Gallery, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Their intersections and contrasts are on display in a double-solo show at New York’s GR Gallery with examples of two and three dimensional optical play, similar to the diversionary activities that they both employ on the streets.

J. Demsky – Brad Howe off the Wall. GR Gallery, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A collection of 20 works including paintings, sculptures and installations, “Off the Wall” keeps the focus on interaction with the wall, even though the Californian Howe may be better known for his abstract sculptures, his public art commissions and his Calder-inspired installations.

Demsky’s time-travel to an early virtual place that is optically elegant and illusionary taps a nostalgia for the period when he became a graffiti writer in Spain.

The interplay of these strong singular voices is charged in this common space and is often full of motion.

J. Demsky off the Wall. GR Gallery, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

J. Demsky off the Wall. Detail. GR Gallery, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brad Howe off the Wall. Detail. GR Gallery, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brad Howe off the Wall. GR Gallery, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brad Howe off the Wall. Detail. GR Gallery, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

J. Demsky – Brad Howe off the Wall is currently on view at the GR Gallery in Manhattan, NYC. Click HERE for further information.

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.01.17

October 1, 2017 Artists

Clearly we cannot bury our heads in the sand anymore, for those of us who are tempted to. We try to make light of things here or at least add levity, but right now many of our community in NYC are desperately worried about family members in Puerto Rico, and aid has not been getting to them after the storm.

While it is a relief for many to find that Trump is actually one of the most ineffective leaders in terms of getting major legislation or many of the pillars of his anti-everybody-except-the-rich agenda passed, that same ineffectiveness puts citizens in harms way – as appears to be happening right now on that island of US citizens of 3.4 million. When 55% of the island doesn’t have drinkable water, you know a human disaster is close. Meanwhile Trump is tweeting from his golf course in New Jersey to insult a mayor on the island.

New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito is on top of the situation but cannot countenance the response from the feds: “I wanna cry. This is worse, not better, 10 days in. And Sr. Trump’s fragile ego is what is driving policy. Criminal.” she says in her latest tweet

At the recommendation of Lee Quinones, a proud New Yorker, Puerto Ricano, and NYC train writer of the 1970s and 1980s – here are some charities you can contribute to:

United for Puerto Rico

The Empire State Relief and Recovery Effort for Puerto Rico

Community Foundation of the US Virgin Islands

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Fujita, CB23, Ces53, City Kitty, Dan Witz, Dirty Bandits, GIZ, Jazz Guetta, Kafka is Famous, MRVN, Myth, NeverCrew, Smart, Stray Ones, and Such.

Top image: Adam Fujita . Dirty Bandits (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kafka Is Famous (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MRVN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ces53 . Smart . Giz . Such. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Giz. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Such. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ces53. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jazz Guetta. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stray Ones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

cb23 with friends. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nevercrew in Kiev for Art United Us. (photo © Nevercrew)

Mind The Heart Project (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Utitled. The Last Picture. Hudson River, NY. 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena: “Lifting Us Higher” and #kindcomments At The Houston/Bowery Wall

September 28, 2017 Artists

Despite the impression you may have from exploding, car-chasing action movies, New York can actually be a very kind place. Yes, New Yorkers can be abrupt, opinionated, and unvarnished in their assessment of anything from the Mets to Trump – but if you need a hand or directions to Rockefeller Center, we got your back.

Lakwena. The crowd in front of the wall waiting for the official unavailing. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I found all to be very respectful, really friendly, warm and welcoming. Not too interfering,” says Lakwena, the newest artist painting the Houston/Bowery Wall. “They are really nice to be honest.” The London based artist just completed the first wall for the opening salvo of Instagram’s new #KindComments campaign, according to COO of Instagram, Marne Levine, who was standing in front of the new mural to announce the initiative meant to promote kindness online and offline.

Lakwena with her sister and assistant Abimaro. Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With “Lift You Higher” on NYC’s mural Lakwena Maciver starts the dialogue on walls and on Instagram that will travel to murals in Dallas, Chicago, Washington, DC, Mexico City, Jakarta, Tokyo, Mumbai and more this September, October, and November. “I love the energy on the streets in New York and it reminds me of London,” says the artist who spent just about one week here with her sister Abimaro painting the famed wall that has hosted Street Art names like Haring, Fairey, Swoon, and Faile.

“It was nice having the builders just near by. We kind of interacted with them a lot. One of them even came and painted with us, which is very nice. There was one scene that was very cute when a guy was passing by with his dog then he stopped in front of the wall and sat the dog on a skateboard in front of the wall and took a portrait of the dog. I noticed a lot of dogs in NYC.”

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Photographer and Street Art curator Jaime Rojo, who spent a lot of time documenting the wall again this week covering two full days for famed photographer Martha Cooper, also remarks on the heavy construction that took place only yards away from the wall through much of the week – and how the construction workers were an instant appreciative audience for the painting action.

“It was the interaction between the city and the guest that impressed me,” he says. “It was the workers enthusiasm about art that was going up right before their eyes. They have in fact been working on Houston Street for so long that they have been witnessing several murals going up.

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“These builders were working on a water main replacement for the first two days of production right at the corner of Houston and Bowery by the wall working all day with heavy machinery digging dirt, cables and whatever skeletons are found in the depths of the city. They were also focusing on the mural.” Rojo says that the crew actually assisted with traffic when he, Lakwena and Rusty from the Instagram team were figuring out how to run an electrical chord across Houston to set up a projector one night on the median.

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“But it wasn’t just their assistance that made the days better,” says Rojo. “It was the workers enthusiasm about art that was going up right before their eyes. They have in fact been working on Houston street for so long that they have been witnessing several murals going up.

They have taken photos of them and when we were there they were showing photos of previous walls to the newcomers on the site. For them the art represents a possibility, a discovery beyond the depths of the city’s pavement, a welcomed distraction to the their grueling jobs and a soft breeze of air when they take a moment to rest or for lunch.”

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of course, this wall in particular has been the subject of much controversy as well, with a recent installation even bringing protest on the street and stinging criticism online. Wall owner Jessica Goldman Srebnick appeared before this new wall this week as well speaking frankly about the past and happily about this new positive campaign and the talented Lakwena, who did her first large mural on the street only a few years ago at Wynwood Walls in Miami. “Today was an extraordinary day,” says Srebnick on her Instagram page. “A glorious mural by @lakwena and a moving performance by the cast of Dear Evan Hansen.” Yes, what would a New York announcement be without a live performance from Broadway?”

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cliff Hopkins, Instagram’s Global Head of Marketing, joined in to talk about the new #kindcomments initiative which includes artists Lourdes Villagomez, Dallas Clayton, Chocomoo, Diela Maharanie, Mikhaela Cherry Virginia Chandra, and Yessiow – an international collection of illustrators, designers, and mural artists who will bring new word-based pieces to public space in the coming months.

In New York, you can be sure, there is always another opinion, and the Houston wall has suffered some of the most voracious responses from graffiti writers in recent years. It’s all part of the game on the street.

Lakwena and Abi got a visit from #kidbreak and #bboymarcski. Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I also realize that not everyone will be impacted by the wall,” says Lakwena of the “Lift You Higher” message. “A lot of people will just walk past it and go “whatever” – but some people will be spoken to by so it is well worth it.”

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena. #kidbreak showing some moves. Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena. Photographer Martha Cooper takes a photo of the three sisters. Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena. “Lift You Higher” Houston/Bowery Wall. New York City. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.27.17

August 27, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to Sunday and the last free weekend of summer in New York before Labor Day. We had a fun tour yesterday with the two winners of the Magic City – Munich competition who won the opportunity to see the streets through our half cracked and mostly sunny perspective. The foot tour with Munich-based students David and Nesli zig-zagged through the Lower East Side and Little Italy before we ended with a fresh summer aerosoled view of ROA painting a brand new mural live in Brooklyn. Here as a visiting artist at a new residency in Bed Stuy, we had seen him earlier in the week in studio preparing new works of natures creature – a few shots here for you to enjoy.

Earlier in the week Shepard Fairey was here to create a new mural celebrating musician Debbie Harry and her band Blondie directly across the street from the former site of CBGB, The Village Voice announced it would not be a print paper after 60 years of culture and politics pumping from its downtown offices, and Brooklyn proudly hosts the Afropunk Festival – full of music, ‘tude, and dope street fashion by some of our BK’s finest style denizens. Already in Paris and London, next stops for Afropunk are Atlanta and Joburg. Hot!

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Daze, Dr. Scott, drsc0, Hank Williams Thomas, Invader, Shepard Fairey, Jason Naylor, Rx Skulls, ROA, Rober Janz, and Voxx.

Top image: Shepard Fairey for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC and a bit of nostalgia with Blondie. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader. Yo he’s got the key…let him in! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA. Studio visit at the Bed Stuy Art Residence. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jason Naylor (photo © Jaime Rojo)

VOXX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dr. Scott/drsc0 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rx Skulls (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robert Jenz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hank Williams Thomas / For Freedoms. Phone booth ad takeover for Art In Ad Places Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. L Train. New York City Subway. August 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.20.17

August 20, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adnate, Ben Angotti, Cekis, Cesism, Damien Mitchell, Danielle Mastrion, Dirt Cobain, Evan Paul English, Gongkan, Li-Hill, MeresOne, UFO 907, Vince Ballentine, and You Go Girl!

Top image: Li-Hill. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate and Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate and Li-Hill collaboration for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion with MeresOne for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MeresOne for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dirt Cobain for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Angotti for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vince Ballentine for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO907 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BD White Flies Into Space With Astronauts for “Love, Loss and Longing”

August 17, 2017 Artists, Interview

Street Artist BD White has always been intrigued by the life of astronauts – so much so that he has them tattooed on his arms. Their desire for adventure, the solitude in space, and their storied longings for loved ones far away provide metaphorical inspiration for this new gallery show that he has been developing for weeks.

It’s a trip that BD takes through a darkly mysterious, sometimes disorienting, often sparkling world alone – and with you. To prepare for the new space exploration he has resolved to push himself far above where he has gone before to create a new body of work that is the most technically complex he has ever made, using up to 80 layers of cut stencils to create new paintings.

Eager to distinguish his work from others and to challenge himself beyond his comfort level, BD tells us in his Brooklyn studio that he’s learned a lot in this process and he is enamored with a technique of foreshortening the image and mixing the spray paint on the artwork itself, creates depth in the layers, making the image ‘pop’ off of the surface.

In the Street Art game around New York for a relatively short time, his new studio collection includes 24 original works, 4 original collaboration works, a handful of limited edition screen prints and a statue of an astronaut.

This central new image is one that he’s focused on before: this suited astronaut afloat, tilted at angles in the weightless environment and happily or unhappily disconnected from the earth. With this image in mind, the viewer may gain a better appreciation for the artist, who tells us that his own experience with a broken heart in recent times inspired this theme of “Love, Loss and Longing” – and his prep for the show has proved cathartic, even therapeutic, enabling him to move on.

On a recent evening when we visit his studio BD’s mom and his sister are helping with some stencil production work, clearing the fresh cuttings on the machine cut stencils and silently working while a mid-sized and equally quiet but very friendly orange tabby saunters through the warmly hued space. The feline family member has to be banished from the spraying area and she’s too inquisitive to be easily closed away from the action.

With this many layers of stencils, the labor can be extensive, BD tells us, and he spends a lot of time just cleaning the new cut layers before he can utilize them. Text passages obscured by the new characters are drawn from lyrics of songs that remind BD of love, loss, and longing – but you can tell he’s not singing the blues as he readies for this new solo show at Castle Fitzjohns Gallery on Orchard Street in Manhattan.

Brooklyn Street Art: How would you describe your style and subject matter to a person who hasn’t seen it?
BD White: Recently I’ve had to describe my new work to a lot of people and I’ve been saying “I do paintings of astronauts and women, which sounds strange but I swear they are cool!” But if I were to try to be more eloquent I would say I make extremely detailed stencil paintings of haunting images of astronauts and women about love, loss, heartbreak and longing. Each painting is anywhere from 50 to 80 stencil layers on a bronze patina background.

Brooklyn Street Art: You have done work in studio and on the street, legal, commercial, and illegal. What is satisfying about working on the street? What are you most proud of in this new show?
BD White: What’s satisfying to me about doing work on the street is the immediate connection you get to have with the public. Not everyone goes to art shows, and you might only be doing a couple shows a year even. So there is a huge amount of people that won’t see your work. It’s nice to have it on the street to be able to engage those people as well.

It’s always exciting to me when someone new discovers your work during their daily commute and is able to stop and take a photo before moving on with their day. In this new show however, I’m mostly excited to unveil this new body of work. These paintings are far and above anything I have ever produced before. I really tried to push myself and create the best possible works that I could. I wanted to take stenciling to a level I hadn’t seen before.

I’m one of those artists who gets bored unless I’m growing and making things that are constantly challenging for me. I could never just make one image and repeating it over and over again. What is the point of that? Now I’m not trying to insult anyone when I say this – I’m not referring to any specific artist or anything like that. Everyone has their own style with creative expression and they create things that work for them and I have no qualms about that. This is just personally how I feel about my own work. I always want to be making newer and better things.

I constantly look back on older works of mine with disgust. I kind of hate everything I’ve made in the past, but that seems to happen every time I make something new. I remember loving the child soldier paintings I had done a couple years ago and thinking these are the best works I’ve made. Now I think they are awful. So I’m really excited to be showing these new paintings and I think I’ve been able to reach new grounds in stenciling, but I bet I’ll think all these painting are trash in a year when I’m making my next series.

Brooklyn Street Art: How has your work changed since you first began stenciling on the street?
BD White: I think my work has grown quite a bit since I first began stenciling on the street. I’m always trying to make bigger and better things. When I first started I was making political images and pretty much just copying Shepard Fairey. I soon learned that not everyone wants political images on their walls or on canvas and although I felt strongly about the politics I was putting forward, it limited my audience.

My goal has always been to make work that can resonate with everyone. I want my work to evoke an emotional reaction from the viewer in one way or another. So I’ve tried to grow and form into my own unique style. I think I’ve finally left behind my copying of Shepard Fairey and have produced works that are completely original to me. A lot of artists paint astronauts, there is nothing original about that, I know. But I’ve never seen anyone who has done astronauts with women. And none in these haunting poses about love, loss, and longing.

The works and images I’ve made are 100% mine alone. I draw everything from scratch. I don’t Google source any of my astronauts. There is no reference photo on the Internet for them. I photograph all the women myself but only use that reference in a loose sense. I change a lot from photo to painting. I never want my work to be just a painting of a photograph. I don’t understand the point of that. True art to me is when you can create something that no one else can reproduce. I’m not sure if I’ve reached that stage yet or ever will, but that’s what I’m striving for.

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you feel connected to Ai Weiwei?
BD White: I made that Ai Weiwei painting about 3 or 4 years ago. I had seen that documentary Never Sorry, which was all about him. I felt strongly on his side since he was fighting for freedom of information and free speech in China. I made that piece to basically show my support and help spread his word. It was when I was doing the super political works. It doesn’t really have anything to do with what I’m making now though.

Brooklyn Street Art: Spacemen figure into your pieces periodically. How does the image of a astronaut relate to you?
BD White: I use the image of the astronaut for a couple reasons, first to represent men and myself, but more importantly to represent distance and loneliness. The idea that the astronaut is literally not on the planet and is as isolated as one could possibly be – that is what draws me to them. I’ve always been interested in space and science when it comes to astrophysics, I think everyone at one point in their life wanted to be an astronaut. I think it speaks to our instinctual need to explore and expand our horizons. I also just think they look cool- I’m covered in astronaut tattoos.

BD White “Love, Loss and Longing” exhibition will open this September 7th at the Castle Fitzjohns Gallery in Manhattan. Click HERE for full details.

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.13.17

August 13, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

“I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists,” tweeted David Duke yesterday as #charlottesville, #nazi, #defendcville, and #confederate all trended at the top across the social media platform.

As if Donald ever thinks about those people who marched. Ever.

People marched and bellowed with torches Friday night and with swastika flags on Saturday in Charlottesville; mostly white men and boys encouraged by the Trump/Pence team and all the people who are steering-advising. A fter a car was driven into the crowd of anti-racists the governor declared a state of emergency.

Racism and other -isms are not new. Neither is how they are being fueled and fanned today.

During these caustically hot summer days in the US almost every opinion expressed is characterized as political rhetoric, thanks to years of televised cable shouting matches. Reasoned discourse with gray areas is strictly verboten. But if you really want to know what is happening, just follow the money. Historians tell us that is the struggle, simplified and bare for the eye to see. Paid-for disinformation and millionaire newsreaders may cloud the view, but that’s what’s happening.

The majority of us are good, even fantastic, people who know somehow we are being ripped off and gradually shoved toward the door. The people have the actual power when they seize it. It just may take an economic collapse.

See any on the horizon?

Thankfully we still have Street Art, right? There is no doubt that it has already become more political here in the last year and the odds are that it will probably grow louder – as our graffiti and Street Art is always a direct mirror of us.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuringArt Baby Girl, ASVP, Mad Villian, Brolga, Camo Lords, El Sol 25, Gutti Barrios, Raddington Falls, Monsieur Chat, Myth, Pay to Pray, Raemann, Self Master, Stray Ones, and You Go Girl!.

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.06.17

August 6, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Fashion and surrealism are on the catwalk called NYC with regularity thanks in part to the fact that the city celebrates the art of personal plumage and image making as a matter of course. In fact what struts through the annual fall and spring fashion shows on stage under tents surrounded by walls of flashing cameras is often originated by idiosyncratic street fashion first.

We lead this week with a few fashion-related images including Dee Dee who along with his buddy Dain often collaborates on their pop-scifi-retro-androgen-glam portraits, but also with them we can easily draw for you another 10 surrealists de la mode whom together would make a rocking collection for any designer who is looking for inspiration.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Appleton Pictures, Beast, Below Key, Dain, Dee Dee, El Sol 25, Jamel Shabazz, Parker Day, Paste Cinik, SMER, Sonni, Sr. Lasso, Stick N Twisted, and VIP Citizen.

This piece by Sr. Lasso has many characteristics of Canadian artist Stikki Peaches (including Batman and Robin). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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