Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bast, Chris Uphues, Cyrcle, Dain, Enzo & Nio, Ja Ja, LMNOP, Shepard Fairey, Skewville, Swampy, and Willow.
All posts tagged: Manhattan
Live Streaming New York City During Hurricane “Irene”
More Shots from “The Grassy Lot”
More artists stopped by to put up pieces for “The Grassy Lot” show, an impromptu little get-together of 15 artists in a little bit of heaven on the Lower East Side. Jaime Rojo gives us some more shots of the lot.
Read more about the project and opening HERE.
XAM’s Feeder Unit near YOK’s Traveling Man Foot (photo © Jaime Rojo)
XAM’s Feeder Unit near YOK’s Traveling Man Foot (photo © Jaime Rojo)
QRST installing his piece (photo © Joe Franquinha)
QRST Rat Tea Party (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Joe Franquinha, life long New Yorker, told us how he assisted Street Artist QRST with his decision of subject matter for this installation: “I told QRST – Rats have lived in this lot for years so rats should be represented here. Because we have the best f*cking rats and no one is going to take that away from us.”
QRST Rat Tea Party (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Veng from RWK and Overunder on the back wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Veng from RWK and Overunder on the back wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Veng and Overunder working on their collaboration (photo © Joe Franquinha)
Night shot of Veng and Overunder piece. (photo © Joe Franquinha)
Jake Klotz installing his piece. (photo © Joe Franquinha)
Jake Klotz shares a wall with Gaia and Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
For more information about this event please click on the link below:
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=23784
To view images from The Grassy Lot Part I click on the link below:
Crest Arts in Collaboration with BSA and MaNY Present: The Grassy Lot Show (Manhattan, NY)
We’re proud to announce the “Grassy Lot Show” coming this Thursday presented by Crest Arts at the Timeshare Backyard. It’s been a little whirlwind of activity with 15 artists putting up brand new work on the walls of this oasis on the Lower East Side for you to come visit. With Keith Schwietzer and us helping Crest out here and there, and of course with Franklin doing lawn roomba duties, it is a bit of a community event. All it is missing is you! What are you doing Thursday?
Crest Arts invites you to the TimeShare Backyard for
“The Grassy Lot Show”
Thursday August 25, from 6-8 pm
145 Ludlow Street between Stanton and Rivington
145 Ludlow Street between Stanton and Rivington
Admission is free.
Take off your shoes and walk in the grass and do a cartwheel while looking at brand new outside work on the walls by Bishop 203, Creepy, Gaia, General Howe, Jake Klotz, Laura Meyers, Nanook, Over Under, QRST, Quel Beast, Shandor Hassan, Travis Simon, Veng, XAM, and Yok.
Check the event out on Facebook
The project is made possible with the help and support of partners Brooklyn Street Art and the MaNY Project.
Crest Has a Posse in an Empty Lot on L.E.S.
Joe Franquinha and his executive personal manager Liza brought their pet pig Franklin to check out the abandoned lot on Ludlow Street on Manhattan’s Lower East side. Franklin surveyed the new sod while Yok put up a new piece.
Yok and Franklin (photo © Mike Pearce)
Invited by a couple of entrepreneurs who have rented the open space for two months to make the outdoor location a little more welcoming, Joe looked at the ground, then up at the walls. Decaying, unfinished, rough, full of New York character, the walls immediately brought his mind to the many Street Artists busy in the city right now.
Nanook working on his collaboration with Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)
With help from Keith Schweitzer, Joe has mobilized a handful of Street Art talent to convert the lot into an impromptu outdoor gallery installation – calling it Timeshare Backyard. With an NYC theme honoring his favorite city, the artists have been getting up here for a week. In Gotham, no story surprises you, so it’s unclear what the fate of this lot will be; New York is always knocking down and building up, the cycle of destruction and renewal never stops. By next spring this could be a new glass and steel condo, who knows. In this brief interlude in this grassy lot, why not mount a momentary show, a commentary on life here right now?
Gaia working on his collaboration with Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
As the owner of Crest Hardware in Brooklyn with his dad, stylishly moustachioed Joe celebrates the local community of artists that has boomed in BK and he’s known for opening the doors to any number of creative types – providing materials, suggestions, conversation, and great opportunities like these to show their stuff. As summer’s long days melt into the firey New York autumn these (mainly) street artists relished the opportunity to paste or paint just one more wall, at their leisure, while Joe and Liza put down giant garden plants and a wood-chip perimeter. If you get invited to some barbecue or bar or fashion show or something on the LES in the next 60 days, keep your eyes up above the gate to see these pieces peeking at you.
Upper East Side represents in the Lower East Side. Gaia working on his collaboration with Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia, Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia, Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia in the background (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia sortin’ out (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia, Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“Too much art. Not enough grass,” thinks Franklin as he surveys his lunch options on the Lower East Side. (photo © Mike Pearce)
Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Creepy was invited by Gaia and Nanook to add some of his organic patterns to their collab (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia, Nanook with Creepy’s subtle additions to the finish wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bishop 203 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“You have many ways to look at New York back here – love, anger, faith in the city,” remarks Joe while looking at the wheatpastes in the back of the lot.
General Howe (photo © Jaime Rojo)
This is a very unusual wheatpaste by Street Artist General Howe, who is making some important decisions in life. “General Howe is physically coming up on a crossroads, and looking at this kid who may be a younger him,” says Joe.
General Howe (photo © Jaime Rojo)
General Howe (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Looking skyward at Creepy’s integrated installation (photo © Mike Pearce)
Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Creepy checking the sketch (photo © Mike Pearce)
Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Laura Mayers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Joe explains, “Laura Myers said she started sketching it and she started seeing the sacred heart, like the picture her grandmother used to have in her house. I love it! I love the way the heart is the apple, with the city coming out. “
Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Yok, Travis W. Simon (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Yok, Travis W. Simon (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Creepy, Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Quel Beast (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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Special thanks to photographer Mike Pearce for his contributions to this piece. See Mikes photos on Flickr at Pearce_Pics
.NO Gallery Presents: Andreco “Contemporary Alchemy Or The Relationship between humans and nature” (Manhattan, NY)
Steve “ESPO” Powers: “Flight of Genius” (VIDEO)
Steve ESPO Powers is a man of letters and he likes to play with them like other kids play with Legos. Informed with a rich commercial vintage signage vocabulary and a sharp eye, and armed with buckets of paint and brushes Powers has created bold messages in a number of cities that play on and satirize meanings and advertising jargon.
Under the watchful eye of Jesus, Street Artist Steve Espo and associate paint. (Still from video)
To celebrate adman David Ogilvy’s birthday and his command of the language in service of fooling people to buy things, Ogilvy & Mather New York and Joshua Liner Gallery commissioned a series of murals by ESPO interpreting quotes of their revered agency founder. ESPO nails it.
The video below by Jun Lee gives a brief introduction to ESPO’s work:
Curated by Joshua Liner and Jun Lee
Images of the Week 07.17.11
Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adri, Banksy, Dan Witz, Deform, Demon, Gaia, Jon Burgerman, Ludo, Nick Walker, Olek, Rambo, Slayers, and XAM with dispatches from Paris, Dubai, and Chicago.
Rambo, Gift, Demon, Slayers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gaia. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“This new piece on the streets of NYC is an extension of some of the past work I have done connecting various concepts of catastrophe. I have found the imagery depicting the horrors of the plague especially pertinent to the state of our environment. Humanity has weathered and lived through various crises that have shaken our imagination and dramatically changed the way we organize our lives moving forward” Gaia
Gaia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Now is this called a sidebust? Street architect to contemporary birds, XAM, is atop a faux sign by Street Artist Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ludo. The Future of Fashion in Paris. (photo © Ludo)
Ludo. The Future of Fashion in Paris. (photo © Ludo)
Ludo. The Future of Fashion in Paris. (photo © Ludo)
Ludo. The Future of Fashion in Paris. (photo © Ludo)
“Banksy” in Da Bronx. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jesus does a skateboard trick in this highly offensive image from Adri. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Deform in Dubai “My Grant” (photo © Deform)
Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Street Artist Olek is a participating artist at The Crest Hardware Art Show currently on view in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Click on the link below to get full details on this show and go check out some imaginative interpretations:
More about the show here http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=22007
Nick Walker. This is the remainder of an old piece from 2008. In the original the figure is remote controlling a very tall Giraffe to who is writing “Vandal” in red spray paint. The building got a fresh coat of paint recently but they decided to save him. We like that. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rocking cans in Chicago (!), world famous doodler Jon Burgerman hits up a wall. (photo © courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)
Jon Burgerman in Chicago (photo © courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)
Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Street Art Summer Hospitality in NYC – OverUnder, Irgh, N’DA, Veng & Chris (RWK)
Somebody Brought Moonshine to this Picnic
You get a chance to go out to the park this weekend and sit under a tree or throw a frisbee? It’s not that far to walk really and its good to reacquaint oneself with nature and barking dogs and deviled eggs and other weird salad creations that Aunt Majiminy always forces you to try – even though you didn’t like it the last time she forced you to try it.
Peace Brotherman. Overunder (photo © Jaime Rojo)
But we don’t know what has been in that jug of punch at these little picnics that Overunder, ND’A and Chris and Veng from RWK have been throwing this summer. The characters, the proportions, and the mixing of elements are ever more stretched and eccentric and colorful. These kids are seriously playing with their food – mixing the olives with the jello ambrosia and spreading it on a grilled hamburger and crumbling some ranch potato chips on top.
Just then, a truck booked by. Booker (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A distant Street Art relative from Berlin named IRGH is in town this summer and these Brooklyn based artists have put down the gingham table cloth and a wicker basket of aerosol cans in multiple locations to welcome their cousin and put him to work…painting walls. We’ve been chasing them around town in Brooklyn and Manhattan and here’s the wackiness we found:
Overunder, IRGH, Veng RWK and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“I’m so excited to have IRGH visiting and get to paint with him. We developed our painting style in the same direction, but in separate scenes, and different parts of the world and now get to combine forces” ~ Overunder
Is this the beginning of Veng’s Blue Period? Or maybe his Blue and Yellow Period? Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Come on in! The doors and the mind is open! Overunder and IRGH, and maybe a Celso over there in a frame? (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Looks like someone is making a very important decision, with counsel. Overunder, IRGH, Veng RWK and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Can you pass me the ball of limbs please? Overunder, IRGH and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Overunder, IRGH and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A classic silver Kuma is next to Overunder, IRGH and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“Don’t mind if I do.”, Overunder, IRGH and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Overunder, IRGH and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“Can we talk about our relationship? I really would like to know where it’s going.” Overunder, IRGH and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)
IRGH and ND’A stop to smell the flowers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Uncle Jimmy may have stopped smoking but he’s still hitting the bottle at this family picnic. ND’A and Chris RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ND’A with Chris RWK holding it down. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Images of the Week 07.03.11
As you scan the skies this weekend for bright lights at night you are likely to see a lot of new Street Art in NYC that has suddenly exploded.
At a steady march French Street Artist JR and company is taking over walls in New York during his campaign of installations culminating in multiples in the Bronx this weekend, bursting like the crescendo of fireworks at the end of a show. Similarly Shepard Fairey is in town for a few more days getting up with some new aesthetic and political stuff he’s been working on around the city. In time for this weekends celebrations and commemorations, Street Artist General Howe has put up a brand new hand carved print (his first?) of the skeletal remains of a soldier, expanding on his themes of war and Brooklyn’s historical connection to America’s bloody founding. If anyone thought that Spring had given us a deluge of Street Art in New York City, it looks like Summer 2011 is going to set some records, and not just on thermometers.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Billi Kid, General Howe, Infinity, JR, Obey, Olek, and Stikman.
JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unknown artist minimalist painting on ceramic tile beautifully placed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
An Unknown artist’s interpretation of the original King Kong in NYC ( (photo © Jaime Rojo)
OBEY (photo © Jaime Rojo)
OBEY (photo © Jaime Rojo)
General Howe first lino-cut ever! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Infinity (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Billi Kid (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A toddler sized Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)
An Unknown artist’s re-interpretation of a Banksy piece, possibly an advertisement (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman continues to place his character in new contexts (photo © Jaime Rojo)
This sculpture is on a wall of a private residence. We don’t know the artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz’ Mind: A Cabinet of Natural and Unatural Curiosities
Anyone on the subway this morning knows what it is like to be mashed together with strangers and attitudes, a roiling mass of boobs and butts and sunglasses on the forehead, Rhiannon on the headphones next to you on the right, death metal on your left, and your upper arm is not as strong as you thought while you grab for something on the ceiling to hold onto. It’s a half sleeping mosh pit of commuters, with people who have just applied nice smelling things, but this ladies bag is still jammed into your back while you are pressing your already wrinkled summer pants against a messengers bike. Here’s an opportunity right in front of me; Might as well smash the lights and crank up the metal and have some Subwaypalooza, people! Or just go see the new Dan Witz show at Jonathan Levine Gallery tonight, that’ll be fun too.
Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn based Street Artist and fine artist Dan Witz has been making art “In Plain View” as he likes to say it, for over 30 years. Throughout his prolific career he has been fearless in his exploration of art and the subjects that he likes to approach. He can paint beautiful photo-realistic canvases of still life scenes and humans in motion with the same ease as murky tormented scenes behind grimy windows and fragile and ethereal humming birds in flight or a lone tiny skate boarder gliding across a rusted metal wall. Pairing his study of light, his classically trained technique, and an enduring punk rock attitude, Witz’s body of work often takes it where you haven’t gone, and might be afraid to.
Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mr. Witz’s new book, “In Plain View”, shows how in a span of 30 years he has pushed psychological limits with triggers in your periphery, a pursuit of interactive art with prickly engaging relevance in the public, if the public slows down and sees it. A storyteller out in the open, you’ll stop dead in your tracks when Witz hits you, commanding you to stay there until you can figure out what the hell that is, and ponder why is it there. What’s the story behind this faux door with two humans passionately kissing in the dark? Or this figure behind the wire crossed window; is she in pain? Is he dead? Is this real?
Dan’s solo show “Mosh Pits, Human and Otherwise” is opening tonight at the Jonathan Levine Gallery.
Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz “In Plain View” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz “In Plain View” This is the limited edition version of the book with a hand painted cover (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz Detail of his piece for this year Welling Court. You can see the full piece here (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz. Street installation from 2009 (still there in plain view) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz “Mosh Pits, Human and Otherwise” at the Jonathan Levine Gallery (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Opening Reception June 30, 2011
6 to 8 pm
Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th floor
New York, NY 10011
212-243-3822
The Market Place Gallery in Collaboration with Brooklyn Art Collective and M.a.n.y. Present: “Town And Country” (Manhattan, NY)
Curated by Jason Patrick Voegele of Republic Worldwide, Samson Contompasis of The Marketplace Gallery, Keith Schweitzer of M.A.N.Y. and Tyler Wriston of The B.A.C.
Hosted by 320 Studios at 320 West 37th Street, 14th Floor
June 28 – June 30, 2011
6 to Midnight with VIP After Party
Concept by Jason Patrick Voegele
Much of what we know and how we learn comes through the study of explicit or subtle comparisons and contrasts. Meaningful opportunities for these comparative studies invite us into a more explicit and intentional approach that can both broaden our understanding of contemporary American art and help us draw connections and distinctions between the studio practices and conceptual intentions of today’s American Artist.
Produced and developed by four of New York State’s premiere curatorial teams, Town & Country presents just such an opportunity.
Much like the rest of the western world, our press, politics, and creative arts thrive on the institutions we have erected to illuminate our differences. We are often reduced to the divisive labels of righteous and heretical, pious and secular, liberal and conservative, formal and conceptual, urban and rural. Dressed up in the costume of duality it appears that we are a bisected people from the fundamentals to our personal tastes. This exhibition challenges those preconceived notions and offers a unique window into the collaborative state of American art. As a people, our founding fathers had faith in the principals of open dialogue, freedom of expression and the multiplicity of our intellectual and creative capacity to bind various philosophies into one singular union. As an exhibition, Town & Country celebrates these great strengths and offers up a chance to draw attention to the ties that bind us as a great creative culture wherever we are from. Through this lens, Town & Country proposes a new vision of American art reinterpreted for a new generation.
On June 28th through June 30th at 320 West 37th Street in New York City, Republic Worldwide, The Marketplace Gallery, Keith Schweitzer (M.A.N.Y.), and The Brooklyn Art Collective invite you to join the discussion and stoke the fires of debate as we present Town & Country: the very best of contemporary American art. Artists include: Scott Michael Ackerman, Doug Auld, Paul Brainard, White Cocoa, Hannah Cole, Annika Conner, Helen Dennis, Eric Diehl, Ira Eduardovna, Tara de la Garza, Charles Koegel, Elizabeth Livingston, Frodo Mikkelsen, OLEK, Sirikul Pattachote, Patrick Porter, Leon Reid IV, Julia Samuels, Tom Sanford, Chris Stain, Veng, Emma Wasielke, and Fedele Spadafora.
Much appreciation to John Stavros from 320 Studios.