All posts tagged: Martin Whatson

Nuart Day 5: Flying High in the Norwegian Sky

September 5, 2015 Artists

Live from Nuart as it’s happening folks, and the festival is proving to be a rather impressive small beast at this point – one with multiple heads and legs and hands waving paint brushes, aerosol cans, saws, drills, stencils, spot lights, fans, ship buoys, shovels, ladders, helicopter blades….. What?

Friday began with an helicopter ride to take the full scope of the giant Ella & Pitr roof top mural. Here we see Martyn saying good bye to all of us earthlings. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yes, Martyn Reed gave a healthy scare to a number of guests by inviting them to view the massive Ella & Pitr piece from a helicopter hovering about on Friday in conjunction with a formal dedication ceremony. It’s the only way to truly see it, darling, and that is not simply a clever manner of expression – it is a literal one.

Ella & Pitr. Detail of their roof top mural. More to come. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ground-based mortals may also see these painted red nails on giant hand inside the public art exhibition planned for Saturday night as the French couple have coupled their installation with the radically smaller scaled sculptures of Isaac Cordel, whose balding concrete curmudgeons lurk and mope and sink into the soil around the perimeter.

All three artists were in the audience at BSA Film Friday LIVE at the cinema downtown, which made us feel relieved because their videos were also featured in our show about PLAY. Thanks to everyone who came, including those sitting in the aisles and on the steps: think we need a bigger theater next time!

Detail of Isaac Cordal and Ella & Pitr collaboration in the Tou Scene tunnels. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elsewhere the Outings Project liberated a number of museum pieces on walls here and there around the neighborhood, their unsung regal figures set loose yet rigidly posed on concrete blocks in empty lots. Some malformed and miscreant monsters have also popped up, seemingly over night, on pieces of printed news. They look rather similar to the installation of Bortusk Leer in the beer halls of Tou Scene, but not much like the realistic children on cut-out wood in Ernest Zacharevic’s installation nor Pixel Pancho’s three dimensional robot – a symbol used in many of his large scale murals appearing in cities around the world.

Stay tuned for more images, as we are a bit buried under a wealth of them right now but feel compelled to run outside and gather more while the sun is shining and the paint is still wet.

Tor channels Banksy with Ella & Pitr collaboration.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Outings Project brings the masters outside onto the walls and Bortusk Leer’s monsters take an art history lesson. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sandra Chevrier at work inside the Tou Scene tunnels at work on her collaboration with Martin Whatson. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bordalo II at work inside the Tou Scene tunnels. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Futura at work on a new outside wall project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bortusk Leer. Detail of his installation inside the Tou Scene tunnels. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic work in progress inside the Tou Scene tunnels. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixel Pancho work in progress inside the Tou Scene tunnels. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The tractor moving in on the chopper with Martyn on board . (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nuart Day 1: Isaac Cordal Installs His Preoccupied Little Businessmen

September 1, 2015 Artists

Tor (@toris64) picked us up at the airport using his hand-made faux-Banksy Nuart sign, wearing his fresh Dismaland t-shirt, and we immediately knew we were home here in Stavanger. Born and raised in this town Tor knows it’s every turn and twist and because he travels extensively for his regular profession, he also gets to explore other cities and take photos of Street Art and share them on Instagram. Luckily there is a pretty notable festival right here and his enthusiasm grows with the opportunity to meet so many of his favorite artists each year.

Isaac Cordal. Nuart 2015. Stavanger, Norway. 09-15 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This small Norwegian town is again hosting a kick-ass mural/street art/graffiti festival again this year and its sort of rainy today but Icy & Sot are painting anyway, as are Ella & Pitr. Ernest Zacharevic has arrived and Martin Whatson has finished his piece, as have Pejac and Dot Dot Dot. Harmen de Koop is devising a live performance with an economist giving a lecture on a wall Thursday (not kidding), Bordalo is gathering garbage and throwing it into the back of a truck for his trash installation, and Martha Cooper just arrived this morning and Tor took her to find a hidden conceptual piece in a doorway by Fra. Biancoshock that says “Martha Please Take a Picture of Me”.

Once settled in yesterday we immediately began tooling around town with Isaac Cordal, the Northern Spanish activist with a big heart in these small sculptures of desperate/guilty/soulless little corporate men who he positions in precarious locations wherever he travels. We carried a bag full of these fellows yesterday while he shouldered an expandable ladder and marched though the hilly streets looking upward, scanning battered Noregian industrial architecture for opportune ledges for his little men to teeter off the edge of.

Isaac Cordal. Nuart 2015. Stavanger, Norway. 09-15 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As we have featured his work numerous times over the years on BSA, it was finally great to meet Cordal and accompany him on his interventions – which sort of magically transform a mundane spot into a stage for his “figurativos” to contemplate their lives. Cordal says they are meant to symbolize many things – one of them being the corrupt wolves in business suits who are running much of the world today, and you immediately know of whom he speaks. Comedic in placement, dastardly in deed, you want them to fall, or jump, but somehow it is better that they are frozen in the midst of their drama, frozen with fright and fear.

Isaac Cordal. Nuart 2015. Stavanger, Norway. 09-15 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cordal also talks about the current romance that many public art fans are having with the mural as a means of public expression (which we can verify) and how he feels like his very small concrete (now resin) men can be just as powerful as a large mural. And in a way we can entirely agree – the placing of these figures transforms the space by engaging your imagination, and you KNOW where that can take you; the key unlocks a part of the viewer that he or she once accessed regularly as a child when wild stallions and robots and Jesus and pop stars and Darth Vader all seemed like plausible characters in the same play. Seeing Isaac and his enthusiasm will assure you that art in the streets can have a formidable impact on a passerby, no matter its diminutive scale.

Isaac Cordal. Nuart 2015. Stavanger, Norway. 09-15 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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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NUART 2014 Roundup : Activism, Muralism, Graffiti and Aesthetics

September 10, 2014 Artists

The Norwegian mural festival named Nuart took place last week with a marked tilt toward the conceptual and the interventionist, a direct debate about the relevance of activism amidst a rising tide of sanctioned murals, and Tilt leading us down a path toward traditional graffiti.

Ironically graffiti seemed a rather tame topic for once.

TILT. “Panic Room” Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

“Urban interventionism is about not only making social commentary through artistic expression, but actually intervening in a public and social space in a poetic, unexpected or provocative way,” said architect and organizer Nicola Markhus when speaking to the local Stavangernews. Markhus may have been thinking about the Portuguese artist ±Maismenos±, who constructed a miniature oil tanker platform from found objects and installed it temporarily atop a sculpture honoring canning workers in Lervig Courtyard, by way of contrasting the past with the present.

±MaisMenos± NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Or maybe she was thinking about the Madrid-based SpY, who painted a massive red-lettered “ERROR” on two sides of a brutal block long building in decay down by the waterside, an ironic judgment on the eyesores of unfortunate urban decay. Among the contextual social commentary as well were the oil-dripping sentiments of geologist/artist Andreco, who regaled the façade of a classic Norwegian building with his geometric interpretation of rocks found poking up from the soil, and the three dimensional mural of homeless people by Brooklyn-based Iranian brothers Icy & Sot only three blocks from an outdoor encampment of homeless travelers whom some locals call gypsies.

SpY. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Such is one of the traditions of Street Art: social and political commentary that some call activism because of its advocacy, or at least its stubborn acknowledgement of imperfections in the human condition. This year’s Nuart fosters the spirit and intellectual pursuit associated with academic examination and in doing so again separates itself from the growing number of Street Art festivals who implicitly or explicitly censor the choices of the invited due to commercial or political pressures. Even during the painting this year there were conversations among artists about a high profile festival underway elsewhere that had just dis-invited certain Street Artists because of their “political” work in the past.

John Fekner. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

As if to drive the point home, New York street and multimedia artist John Fekner, who created hundreds of environmental, social, political and conceptual works consisting of stenciled words in NYC beginning in the 1970s that highlighted failed urban planning and public policy, was invited to reprise his classic text based “False Promises” stencil here. The choice of Fekner was perhaps atypical and one that could be overlooked if Nuart founder Martyn Reed didn’t decide to champion the artists work in his mini-retrospective indoors.

And need we mention that his indoor installation space for Saturday’s gallery opening was shared by Fra.Biancoshock’s instantly controversial merging of the nazi flag with the Facebook logo? Moments after we posted an early image of the installation in progress, cheers and condemnation populated our social media feeds – a happy discord that Nuart isn’t traditionally spooked by.

Fra.Biancoshok. Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

“This is a representation of two different iconic movements; the Nazis and the Facebook age,” says the Milan based Fra.Biancoshock who specializes in street interventions, not Street Art, per se. “I wanted to unite the two concepts in a unique logo as a way of describing two different ways to have control of the masses in two different ages. It is a provocative representation that is meant to say, ‘Imagine if these two things had met in the same period,’ ” he explains of the illuminated wheel of instantly recognizable letter f’s popping from a four alarm red background at the temporary gallery show in “tunnels” at Tou Scene.

“Obviously the story of the Nazis is very dramatic and heavy and Facebook is only social media but for me if it is not used in the right way it could result in some serious damage; in the areas of privacy, in having control (of people). So I wanted to make this interpretation of our contemporary situation of a certain totalitarianism in our communications today.”

DOT DOT DOT. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Comparatively the graffiti writer on display this year is a relative lightweight! Toulous-based Tilt actually created one of the more visually compelling installations (and an instant hit) at the indoor gallery of Tou Scene entitled “Panic Bathroom”, which consists of a tiled men’s restroom evenly split between YMCA and CBGB. The untouched half is pristine and gleaming white while its brother across the line is slaughtered floor to ceiling by pugilistic color, swollen bubbles and drippy tags; all just out of reach of the velvet rope that holds guests back.

±MaisMenos± NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

For the Norwegian born Street Artist named Strøk, Nuart this year is as much about aesthetics and the beauty of the moment as it is the intellectualizing that was on display here during the pub debate and two days of presentations for Nuart PLUS, organized by Eirik Sjåholm Knudsen. He shows us his rendering of figures casting long shadows across the wall on his glossy tablet and he talks about composition, negative space, and the serendipity of catching figures in motion.

Strøk. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

“I like watching people running around and seeing these movements, these frozen moments when they are heading somewhere but you don’t know exactly where – like a moment when time has frozen,” he says. “It’s a snapshot and you just happened to be there.”

Fortunately for many Nuart still knows how to produce a memorable shot of art in the public sphere, and we have some here for you to enjoy.

±MaisMenos± created Norway/No Way as a commentary about joining the European Union. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

±MaisMenos± Detail. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

±MaisMenos± Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

TILT. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Andreco. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Andreco. Deatil. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Andreco. Detail of his installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

SPY. Installation at TOU Scene enabled you to see the “error” part of the word only when the black light revealed it. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Martin Whatson. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Martin Whatson. Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Martin Whatson completed this new mural at the airport – after being stranded on top of the cherry picker for a few hours the first day because the balance was off. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Strøk’s new mural on the right and a large ground installation on the left by ±MaisMenos±. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Anders Gjennestad)

Levalet was one of many of the artists this year who made direct or indirect reference to the oil industry – the one that powers the economy in this town and much of the country. Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Levalet. Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot created this mammoth 3-D installation with wooden cut-out stencils rising above the edge of the the building. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot. Installation at Tou Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Not an official guest this year Hama Woods was one of a number of artists who autonomously brought work to put up during NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Etam Cru. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

M-City. Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Borondo. Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Borondo. By scratching paint from the front of the glass and painting diagrams or symbols on the back, Borondo created a full illustration with shadow on the wall when illuminated correctly. Detail of the installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Levalet’s outside installations. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Levalet. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Mathieu Tremblin created an interactive piece that guests could participate in by photographing themselves before a bluescreen wall and sending the image to him. Installation at TOU Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Due to torrential rains Borondo couldn’t complete this wall before we left for NYC. Here is a composite image of the wall in progress. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

BSA would like to extend special thanks to photographers Butterfly and Henrik Haven for sharing their work with BSA readers.

Our sincere thanks to Nuart director Martyn Reed and the entire staff of Nuart and Nuart PLUS, including all of the volunteers and organizers.

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NUART 2014 Begins with “Broken Promises”

ETAM CRU AND NUART 2014 X BSA

NUART 2014 X BSA UPDATE 3

NUART 2014 X BSA UPDATE 4

NUART 2014 X BSA UPDATE 5

NUART 2014 X BSA UPDATE 6

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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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This article is also published in The Huffington Post

NUART 2014 x BSA Update 5 : Tou Scene Opens Tonight

September 6, 2014 Artists

Beautiful weather here in Stavanger this week – perfect for riding bike all over to find artists walls and check out some hidden spots under bridges and abandoned lots. On a side note, this hotel has a gymnasium so you can keep in shape during your visit – which seems rather superfluous considering right behind the hotel the houses are built on a hill at a 70 degree angle! Just getting around town on this bicycle you will lose 7 pounds in a week. Then the Norwegian beer will add it back on.

Tou Scene, the former beer factory now music and art venue officially opens tonight for the public to hear your favorite electronic music performer like Juan Maclean or Tôg or Hubbabubbaklubb and to of course see the installations by many of the artists invited to Nuart 2014. The morning edition of the Stavanger Aftenblad has arrived and they like the Brooklyn based Street Art brothers Icy and Sot piece for the cover of the Lokal & Kultur section understandably – but you know that the FraBiancoshok Facebook flag piece is going to raise eyebrows across social media with its references to, well, you take a look here below. We are fortunate to have interviewed the artist as he was setting this up so look forward to those comments in a coming post. Okay, gotta run and get ready for Day 2 of Nuart Plus and Icy and Sot teaching local youth how to cut stencils!

Fra.Biancoshock has completed his installation for the opening of Nuart’s Tou Scene tonight. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

SPY. Detail of his installation in progress. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

SPY team pulling the strings. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

SPY. “ERROR” Detail of his installation in progress. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Martin Whatson at work on his wall. A young photographer wants to get close to the action. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Martin Whatson. Detail. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P.

±MaisMenos± cut a stencil out f the NUART Porgram. Contextual Baby. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Strøk begins work on his wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Strøk. Sketch of his wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Strøk begins work on his wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot at work on their wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot. Detail of their installation faor Tou Scene. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Borondo works on a piece for his Tou Scene installation. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Borondo sketching ideas for his outdoor wall at the NUART Studio. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Click HERE for NUART 2014 full schedule of events and details.

NUART 2014 Begins with “Broken Promises”

ETAM CRU AND NUART 2014 X BSA

NUART 2014 X BSA UPDATE 3

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NUART 2014 x BSA Update 4 : Andreco, Icy & Sot, Martin Whatson, Tilt

September 4, 2014 Artists

Stavanger is fully in action today with Borondo, Fra.Biancoshok, Mathieu Tremblin, Evan Pricco, Henrik Haven, and others newly arriving and taking their respective places in the Nuart festival. Sophie at Nuart headquarters got BSA a bicycle yesterday and it was easy to discover that all these hills are much more easy to trek!

Creative Director Martyn Reed is eagerly unpacking classic stencils and ephemera from John Fekner to help with the rather retrospective installation he is creating of the artists’ presageous public work for the Tou Scene opening, and Leon from Dotmasters is giving a punchlist tour of work to be done by the lighting and electric crew that will give artists work in the best stage for Saturday.

Very close to finishing their rather elaborate indoor installation, Iran-via-Brooklyn brother duo Icy & Sot have begun to spray their 80 piece hand-cut stencilled piece on a wall outside now that the Kristel Tav has shown them how to use the lift, and in only two days Andreco has clearly changed the city-scape of Stavanger already with his oil-dripping rock placed primely on the ocean-facing exterior of a quintessential example of Norwegian architecture.

Andreco at work on his wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

For inspiration, the geologist, artist, and researcher only had to look down and dig through the soil of the city to decide what he would paint. “I found these rocks here in the soil,” he says, “I always look at the rocks where I am and I take reference from the shape and the material.”

The masking tape has been peeled from the intersections of planes in this stylized version of a rock that reminds you of 3-D digital renderings, but the dripping oil he is planning to add will make the connection more down to earth.

With a PhD in environmental engineering, this Street Artist takes the work quite seriously and with a surprisingly light disposition considering the weighty matters he works with. “This piece of work for me is a symbol of the environment and of the earth. Basically I took inspiration from rocks that I found around here and I created a shape to mimic the shape and the architecture of the buildings here. I decided to make the color template range from blues, greens and black. These are the colors of the rocks originally and when they are covered with oil,” he says.

Masking tape that has been peeling tor reveal sharp geometric shapes as Andreco and assistants work on his wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Andreco at work on his wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Andreco is a geologist and his new work for Nuart 2014 is influenced and inspired directly by rocks he has collected here. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Andreco at work on his wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot installation at Tou Scene in progress. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot prepare to tackle their wall outdoors. They came prepared with about 80 hand-cut stencils. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot at work on their wall. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Sot gives us a sneak peek of their compositional sketch that will feature a collection of images of people who are homeless. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Icy & Sot. As we said, they came prepared. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

A new collaboration: Icy & Sot’s lil’ friend walks by a DOT DOT DOT stencil from a previous Nuart edition. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Martin Whatson’s installation in progress at the bottom of a steep street. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Team Tilt busily tiling for his installation at Tou Scene in progress. NUART 2014. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Click HERE for NUART 2014 full schedule of events and details.

NUART 2014 Begins with “Broken Promises”

ETAM CRU AND NUART 2014 X BSA

NUART 2014 X BSA UPDATE 3

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BSA Film Friday: 05.09.14

May 9, 2014 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. ECB and ANPU in Delhi, India with Ghandi
2. “If I Live I’ll See you Tuesday” By Gary Gardner
3. René Almanza: Gloves, drawing project
4. Martin Whatson at Memorie Urbane Festival 2014

BSA Special Feature: Hendrick ECB Beikirch x ANPU in Delhi, India

A few years ago in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the German street artist named ECB was painting elongated men’s heads on diminished factory facades with pieces of semi-cryptic text passages accompanying them. This spring he was painting India’s largest mural with ANPU in Delhi for what organizers say is that country’s very first Street Art festival. Check out the angles that you can get with a drone camera that capture the installation of this Ghandi portrait. Dude, the future is drones.

“If I Live I’ll See you Tuesday” By Gary Gardner

Skater culture is gliding through Christie’s storage department here, thanks to smart young director Gary Gardner, who also directed their Basquiat piece last year. Showing off individual pieces that will be auctioned this Tuesday throughout the thrillride, the Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Ed Ruscha pieces rush by you in one of the slickest branded content videos you’ll see this year. Stuff like this makes the competition drool when it comes to marketing to the ADD demographic with collector genes.

There will be more.

René Almanza: Gloves, drawing project.

Often we talk about gestural painting, that is, strokes and movements that are tied to your movements. Dribbled, slashed, smashed, smeared. Action painting. Artist René Almanza allows you to watch him experimenting with a technique whereby each finger has it’s own writing device. That may sound like you can get great specificity, but in fact it looks like he is a bear scratching on the outside of a jar of honey. Please try this at home.

Martin Whatson at Memorie Urbane Festival 2014

Martin Whatson, David De La Mano, Pablo Herrero and E1000 at Memorie Urbane Festival 2014

April 17, 2014 Artists

Memorie Urbane Festival 2014 in Gaeta, Italy is in full swing. Begun principally as a way to promote tourism by David Rossillo, the mural festival is carefully curated to recognize the common history, traditions and the natural landscape of Gaeta and Terracina rather than simply promoting an international roster of Street Artists. Loosely translated as “urban memories” the site specific installations are meant to recall how the memory of a place is an essential starting point for what evolves from it; a dialogue between past and present, between art and public spaces.

Photographers Lorenzo Gallitto and Giorgio Base of Blind Eye Factory are documenting the works as they are going up and here share their photos with BSA readers for our global audience to enjoy.

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

David De La Mano. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

The thoughtful and careful work of David De La Mano for Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

David De La Mano for Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Pablo Herrero and E1000 collaboration. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto . Blind Eye Factory)

Pablo Herrero and E1000 collaboration. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto . Blind Eye Factory)

Click HERE for more news and details on Memorie Urbane Festival

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA 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! <<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Project M/3 Opens for UN in Berlin and Martyn Reed on Table Etiquette

March 20, 2014 Artists, Interview

“good table manners, social awareness, whether or not they are house trained…”

Project M sounds like a James Bond plot feature, and if you’ve seen the smartly swarthy man of mystery at the helm of this installation you may expect him to scale the facade of the Urban Nation, instead of simply curate it.

But that is what Nuart’s founder Martyn Reed is doing in Berlin right now – cultivating a diverse program of urban artists on the ground level of a promising new project now under construction. Last week Martyn met with a number of the participants who flew, drove, walked to this neighborhood in transition to install their works for M/3 – including New York’s Martha Cooper, Melbourne’s Buff Diss, and Berlin’s Various & Gould, among others.

Martha Cooper. Shot from inside the window. (photo © Luna Park)

Project M, now in it’s 3rd edition, is a rotating street level exhibition to draw attention to the birth of an auspicious new cultural and art project that will anchor Berlin even further in the minds of fans and academics alike who follow the scene that continues to evolve around art in the streets.

An international presence in an internationally revered street art/ graffiti/ urban art/ mural city, so far Project M has featured artists such as Faile, Ron English, Know Hope, Sandra Chevrier and Strøk, and by the end of this series will have featured many more who are lending shape and form to this global scene with many names.

Martha Cooper poses in front of her window, 33 years after taking the original photo. (photo © Luna Park)

On hand for the installation action a few days ago was New York based photographer Luna Park, who shares with BSA readers some of the installation action, and we spoke with Mr. Reed about his curatorial vision for this iteration of Project M.

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you tell us about Project M and what you will be drawing attention to here?
Martyn Reed: It’s an interesting project and quite unusual in that it uses the inside of windows to house the work, and due to the nature of the project has quite a few restrictions that we’re not used to on the street or gallery. But like working on a canvas, these restrictions can often focus the mind.

For this iteration of Project M (the third), we set ourselves three tasks; to integrate Berlin artists into the group, to focus primarily on Stencil Art, and to mix well know names with emerging talent. We also asked a few of the artists, Martin Whatson and Ernest Zacharevic for example, to work site specifically.

So much for the “Broken Window” theory. Martha Cooper (photo © Luna Park)

Brooklyn Street Art: When you were thinking about which artists to choose for this project that is still in its early days at UN, what qualities were you looking for?
Martyn Reed: As ever with Nuart, it’s not always just about the art. This was to be a pretty intense 12 hour working period in a relatively small space with a crew who hadn’t yet met the artists. In cases like this it is important, like at all great dinner parties, to get the mix of guests just right.

Failing that, it is important to ensure that there’s plenty of alcohol available. Other qualities we looked for were good table manners, social awareness, whether or not they are house trained, and whether they can they be trusted with sharp implements etcetera. – For the most, I think we got the balance just right.

Levalet at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Brooklyn Street Art: Berlin obviously is a major city for street/urban/graffiti/mural art. How would you describe the influence of the local scene as factoring in to your curatorial vision on this project?
Martyn Reed: I think it’s important to get to know as much as possible about the artists and area you’re working in. Fortunately we have a lot of friends based in Berlin and a pretty intimate knowledge of the scene.

I knew which artists and style of work I wanted for this project and also those I thought who would be valuable allies for the UN project in the future. Berlin’s an interesting place to work with its heady mix of activism, anarchy and youthful abandon. I guess finding a way to harness and present this without becoming it, is key.

Levalet (photo © Luna Park)

Brooklyn Street Art: You have had some view of this already during the installation – but which artist do you think will provoke the most response from passersby?
Martyn Reed: For me it is Martha Cooper’s “Cops” from 1981, a vintage photo install chosen specifically for this location that is overlooked by the U-Bahn, Berlin’s Subway. It’s 20% larger than life and is really imposing in situ and when viewed from the train. It has already garnered the most interest and I’m sure is on its way to being a “future classic”.

I’m really happy bringing this particular work to the street and presenting it as a work of art in its own right, and of course, it’s always a pleasure to honour such a legend as Martha.

Various & Gould at work on their piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Various & Gould (photo © Luna Park)

Martin Whatson at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Martin Whatson (photo © Luna Park)

Buff Diss at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Buff Diss (photo © Luna Park)

Evol. Detail. (photo © Luna Park)

Plot Bot at work. (photo © Luna Park)

Ernest Zacharevic at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Ernest Zacharevic stands aside his new installation for M/3 (photo © Luna Park)

Poland’s M-City through the glass. Detail. (photo © Luna Park)

M-City with David Hochbaum on the right. (photo © Luna Park)

Rone on the facade, upper portion. Curated by Urban Nation. (photo © Luna Park)

David Hochbaum on the lower facade. Curated by Urban Nation. (photo © Luna Park)

We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Luna Park for sharing her photos with us. If you wish to see more of Luna’s work click HERE

PROJECT M/3, curated by Martyn Reed of Nuart features: MARTHA COOPER (US), DOTDOTDOT (NO), ERNEST ZACHAREVIC (LT), VARIOUS AND GOULD (DE), M-CITY (PL), LEVALET (FR), PLOTBOT (DE), MARTIN WHATSON (NO), EVOL (DE), BUFF DISS (AUS)

For more information on Urban Nation, click HERE.

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Splashes of Color in the Norwegian Rain: NUART 2013

September 11, 2013 Artists

The pale wan institutional hues of the Stavanger International Airport now are punctuated by the brilliant blues and stencil patterning wrapping around the control tower.

Small multi-layered stencil portraits pop from post-boxes, primary color-clad children hang off of stoop stairs and balance on stacked chairs and a graffiti slathered Michaelango stands on the corner next to the eye doctors office. Turn up another street and an aerosoled sultry geisha rises, wrapped in boisterous brocade on a typically white wall in this rather monochromatic sea town.

With these new wall works by M-City, C215, Ernest Zacharevic, Martin Whatson, and Hush (respectively) and a number of others, Nuart 2013 brought a lot of color to the streets this year as it celebrated what founder Martyn Reed called “one of, if not thee, finest Nuart events yet”.

“Best Wishes from cold and rainy Stavanger!” says Ernest’s friend Gabija in her note to us as she talks about the cool grey storms that held up many of the visiting artists waiting to paint. It didn’t delay the pieces going up on tunnel walls of the venue where the opening party crowds teamed Saturday night. The special installations by C215, David Choe, and Aiko among others also included a 1,300 slide show at the end of one tunnel that showed 50 years of graffiti, Street Art, and street life photography by Martha Cooper, who was invited as an artist.

Even the minister of culture stopped by for a tour on Thursday, which shows how far graffiti and Street Art have grown, or strayed, in the years since public service commercials equated aerosol art with illicit drug use, truancy, terror, and illegal firearms. Today we give tours in the streets to appreciative people who snap photos and pose with friends in front of the spray painted walls.

Of course this is an international mural festival, and much of the work is done by more accomplished artists who may have once (or still do) sprayed their stuff illegally. The themes may need to pass some review process, but the opportunities that come from taking your time are appreciable also. One of the newest talents showing this year was the Lithuanian twenty-something Ernest Zacharevic, who photographs and paints kids interacting and playing on a variety of wheeled machines, usually the self propelled kind.

Ably steering clear of cute, Zacharevic uses props with his wall paintings to “tap into the original instincts of adult viewers who may have lost their ability to access their playful nature,” or so we said in our interview with him. He also merges 2D with 3D quite seemlessly. For his tunnel installation on opening night, Zacharevic sawed a car in half so his kids could dance on the roof, cram inside, and push it from the back like it was out of gas. More than likely it was the missing wheels that kept the car stationary. But no harm in playing.

But of the 16 artists invited this year, each can say they brought life and their A-game to this jewel of an outdoor art show in Norway. Nuart 2013 included MARTHA COOPER (US), DAL EAST (CN), ROA (BE), M-CITY (PL), FAITH47 (ZA), HUSH (UK), VHILS (PT), ERNEST ZACHAREVIC (LT), C215 (FR), DOT DOT DOT (NO), DOTMASTER (UK), STRØK (NO), MARTIN WHATSON (NO), DAVID CHOE (US) AIKO (JP).

With very special thanks to photographer Martha Cooper for sharing these images with BSA readers.

AIKO and Martha Cooper’s collaborative tunnel, with Aiko’s stencils on both sides and a slide show at the end. This slide is of New York graffiti writer and fine artist Futura as a young buck at the tunnels’ end. (photo © Martha Cooper)

HUSH in a stunning shot by Ms. Cooper, who caught a woman in a hijab walking past at just the right moment. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Founder of NUART Festival Martyn Reed, standing in front of David Choe’s piece while giving a tour of the art to Norway’s Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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NUART 2013 Update – David Choe, C215, Aiko, Vhils, Ernest Zacharevic, Dot Dot Dot, Hush, and M-City

September 7, 2013 Artists

“We’ve had terrible weather–rained most of the day today–so artists have been slow getting their walls done,” said Martha Cooper about the scene in Stavanger for Nuart 2013 on Friday. Today is looking much better, she reports, almost good enough for a boat ride.

Each of the artists have been commenting on the sometimes heavy rains, which can sort of kill your aerosol buzz, but no one really minds because the festival buzz is building toward tonight’s big events. We think the folks at Nuart had it planned this way because there is work that needs to be done underground in the tunnel gallery spaces for the Saturday night opening.

Ernest Zacharevic uses the attitude of childs play in his Street Art installations around the world, often incorporating a third dimensional installation element to complete it. Look for an interview with him on BSA shortly. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Here under cover from the storms C215 is hard at work on a very large and color drenched portrait, Hush is on a ladder glossing the lips of a modern geisha, and Aiko is stenciling a signature sexy pop-inspired theme that covers two thirds of the front of one tunnel – leaving the remaining space for Ms. Cooper to project some 1300 of her photos for the expected crowd this evening.

DalEast and Faith47 have been slowed down a bit too. “Raining now,,, waiting for it to stop,” she taps out on her keyboard in a brief cadence as if sending a guarded cable in Morse code across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, there are some other diversions to be inspected, and other artists to meet. Everyone has been talking about taking a local fjord boat ride up Stavanger Peninsula so they may accompany Martha on the voyage to see the natural beauty of the Norwegian coastline while things are drying out today.

Founder of NUART Festival Martyn Reed, standing in front of David Choe’s piece while giving a tour of the art to Norway’s Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Luckily a fair share of work has been completed, and the Minister of Culture has already stopped by to tour and pose for a photo in front of the David Choe piece, and the scaffolding on the airport control tower came down to reveal the new large stenciled mural wrapping it by M-City, who has since moved on with ROA to Lodz, Poland for the Urban Forms festival.

“We’ll all be here through the weekkend so that’s when the bigger walls may get finished,” says Martha. Martin Whatson is just about finished and Ernest Zacarevic completed his outside installation with a stack of chairs for his stencil to balance upon. He also rather conspiratorially reveals this teaser to BSA, “my main installation for Nuart 2013 will feature a car, half sliced.” He says it will continue a theme in his previous work.

More from Nuart soon, but in the mean time, here are some progress shots for BSA readers including work by David Choe, C215, Aiko, Vhils, Ernest Zacharevic, Dot Dot Dot, Hush, and M-City.

Martha captures the mimicry of Martin Whatson’s body language with the fellow working in his piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Reed Projects Presents: “Stencil Art Norway” (Stavanger, Norway)

April 3, 2013 Afghanistan

STENCIL ART NORWAY

An historical look at the art of cutting and spraying in Norway

PREVIEW: APRIL 12. 2013.

Coming soon ! Stencil Art Norway, a historical look at the art of cutting and spraying in Norway featuring the countries leading stencil artists, past, present and future.

On April 12th Reed Projects will be opening the first historical look at Stencil Art in Norway, featuring new and old works from some of the countries leading names. Norway is unique in that it took to the art of Stenciling like no other. Initially inspired by Banksy, the Stencil took a firm grip on the countries street artists and has developed a style all of it’s own. The show explores the styles and themes from first generation stencil artists Dolk, Anders Gennerstad aka Strøk, Pøbel and MiR to the second wave of names currently emerging on the global scene, Martin Whatson, Dot Dot Dot and others.

http://www.reedprojects.no/gallery/stencil-art-norway

Fun Friday 03.30.12

March 30, 2012 Artists, Gallery, Opening

1. Wooly Bully! (VIDEO)
2. “International Woman” at The Warrington Museum (UK)
3. “While Supplies Last” at Pawn Works (Chicago)
4. Crossing Borders at MSA Gallery (Paris)
5. Isaac Cordal “Waiting for Climate Change” at Beaufort 04 (Flemish Coast, Belgium)
6. HOW & NOSM show you HOW they made “Reflections” (VIDEO)
7. Kid Zoom Crashes Cars (VIDEO)

WOOLY BULLY! Straight from the Desert Island – Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs!

Let’s see if you can shake it as fast as the back-up dancer lady in this video!

“International Woman” at The Warrington Museum (UK)

“International Woman” the new group show at The Warrington Museum and Gallery in Warrington, UK is open to the general public with a lineup of brilliantly talented women artists from around the world including many Street Artists: Catalina Estrada, Cheryl Dunn, Elizabeth Mcgrath, Faith 47, Hera, Kukula, Mel Kadel, Miss Van, Pam Glew, Sarah Joncas, Stella Im Hultberg, Swoon, Tara Mcpherson and Xue Wang. With so much female talent under one roof this promises to be one hot and interesting show not to miss, Miss!

For further information regarding this show click here.

“While Supplies Last” at Pawn Works (Chicago)

The Pawn Works Gallery in Chicago new show “While Supplies Last” opens this Saturday. For this show the space would be transformed into a site specific retail environment where you’d be able to purchase items from books to art from a list of artists that include: Shawnimals, Skewville, Kosbe, 5003, Ader, Amuse 126, Snacki, JC Rivera, Montgomery Perry Smith, Left Handed Wave, Max Kauffman, Nice-One, Swiv, and Jon Burgerman.

For further information regarding this show click here.

Crossing Borders at MSA Gallery (Paris)

MSA Gallery new group show “Crossing Borders” opens this Saturday in Paris, France and arttists including are: DAL, David Walker, Stinkfish, Faith47, David Shillinglaw, Martin Whatson, Klone, Snik, Otto Schade, Ben Slow, Joseph Loughborough, Inkie and Banksy:

For further information regarding this show click here.

Isaac Cordal “Waiting for Climate Change” at Beaufort 04 (Flemish Coast, Belgium)

Sculptor and conceptual artist Isaac Cordal is doing a series of outdoor installations From March 31st to September 30th, 2012 in 30 Locations spread across 9 coastal municipalities throughout the Flemish coast as part of Beaufort 04.

Mr. Cordal’s army of little cement characters are sure to stop you on your heels if you see them that is. His commentary on social issues runs deep and wide always with a humorous touch and an impeccable sense of placement:

For further information regarding this event click here.

HOW & NOSM show you HOW they made “Reflections” (VIDEO)

A custom installation by How & Nosm just finished at the new show opening next week in the Bronx called “This Side of Paradise”. See BSA coverage of the show and more photos of How & Nosm’s installation along with Crash and Daze HERE.>>“Poorhouse for the Rich” Revitalized By The Arts

Kid Zoom Crashes Cars (VIDEO)

The other Australian bad boy Kid Zoom made a video of himself building a house and crashing some cars. We have video to prove it:

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