All posts tagged: Miss Van

What’s The Word, Bird? Fine Feathered Friends Soar On The Street

August 25, 2015 Artists

It’s a convivial if embarrassing juxtaposition when you witness a bird in flight in this brutish man-made city environment, so unrefined are all of our efforts next to his. He rewards us with a song or a soaring performance in air, and despite our heavy slow selves anchored to this pavement, we shield the sun with our hand and follow him with our eyes, paying some respect for his gift and his splendor.

Mata Ruda. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Another crosses his path mid-air. Her wings are so tempered and fine, allowing her to glide with grace, cutting across the chorus of perpendicular and parallel lines, shapes, and epochs that rise and fall and crash clumsily into one another in this hard-edged city.

How do they do it, these birds – especially when it seems like we do very little to help them? Why do they persist in this city that seems often to be unconscious of nature? Is it just our nature to be so unconscious? They should have abandoned us long ago. Yet they persist, and Street Artists here pay them tribute for all that they give us.

Unknown artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in the air,” says Walt Whitman as he crosses on the Brooklyn Ferry.

Miss Van. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Emily Dickenson writes,
“A Bird came down the Walk —
He did not know I saw —
He bit an Angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,”

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And William Blake paints a couple as love birds here:

“He. O thou summer’s harmony,
I have liv’d and mourn’d for thee;
Each day I mourn along the wood,
And night hath heard my sorrows loud.

She. Dost thou truly long for me?
And am I thus sweet to thee?
Sorrow now is at an end,
O my Lover and my Friend!

He. Come, on wings of joy we’ll fly
To where my bower hangs on high;
Come, and make thy calm retreat
Among green leaves and blossoms sweet.”

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Goslings taking in the graffiti. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DalEast in Rochester, NY for Wall Therapy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill for the Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A passenger pigeon waiting for the J train. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These pigeons appeared on the streets of NYC at the onset of Summer. Was it an ad campaign? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 for Wall Therapy in Rochester, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 for The L.I.S.A. Project in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Robin on a fence in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KA for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blanca . Blanca (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skirl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eder Muniz in Rochester, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two sets of Cardinals in Central Park in January 2015. (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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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

UN & StolenSpace Create PM/8 “Freedom” in Berlin

June 25, 2015 Artists

Urban Nation in Berlin has just completed a new series of walls, window displayed artworks, and a gallery show for the eighth edition of Project M (PM/8) in conjunction with StolenSpace Gallery in London.

Snik (photo © Nika Kramer)

The show is called “Freedom” and features a few of the better known names in the Street Art / Urban Art game along with other emerging artists in the Stolen Space stable. In addition to the opportunity to see new work being created live and meeting many of the artists, this version of Project M also included a roundtable discussion hosted by Very Nearly Almost (VNA) editor Roland Henry and featuring a conversation with D*Face, Shepard Fairey, and UN Director Yasha Young.

Project M is taking it to the street, into a gallery/museum-like setting, and into the community with various educational projects like these. We’re looking forward to seeing the nascent Martha Cooper library project as it continues to grow as well as seeing more panels, discussions, scholarly examinations, and interactive community programming in the future as the UN evolves.

Snik (photo © Nika Kramer)

Project M is meant as a lead-up to the opening of Urban Nation, currently slated for 2016, and many of the window works made here will become part of the future institutions permanent collection. The full PM/8 roster continued to shape-shift as additional artists were painting walls as well but we think we have it right when we say it includes Cyrcle, D*Face, Evoca1, Miss Van, Herakut, The London Police, Shepard Fairey, Snik, Word to Mother, Maya Hayuk, Cyrcle, Case M’Claim, Elle, and Lora Zombie, with many of artists in attendance, and one giving tattoos (see below).

Maya Hayuk took on the large task of the UN façade while Shepard and D*Face knocked out a slim set of tall twin walls and Cyrcle knocked out a modern text balanced graphic piece.

Our very special thanks to Nika Kramer, who shares her exclusive photographs of some of the artists and action at PM/8 here with BSA readers.

Snik (photo © Nika Kramer)

The London Police (photo © Nika Kramer)

Miss Van (photo © Nika Kramer)

Herakut (photo © Nika Kramer)

AkutOne of Herakut (photo © Nika Kramer)

Word To Mother (photo © Nika Kramer)

Evoka1 (photo © Nika Kramer)

Cyrcle (photo © Nika Kramer)

D*Face (photo © Nika Kramer)

Shepard Fairey (photo © Nika Kramer)

Maya Hayuk (photo © Nika Kramer)

Shepard Fairey . D*Face. Urban Nation OneWall Project in conjunction with PM8 “Freedom” (photo © Nika Kramer)

Cyrcle. Urban Nation OneWall Project in conjunction with PM8 “Freedom” (photo © Nika Kramer)

Lora Zombie. Urban Nation “Outbrake” in conjunction with PM8 “Freedom”. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Case M’Claim. Urban Nation “Outbrake” in conjunction with PM8 “Freedom”. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Case M’Claim (photo © Nika Kramer)

ELLE. Urban Nation “Outbrake” in conjunction with PM8 “Freedom”. (photo © Nika Kramer)

ELLE (photo © Nika Kramer)

More detail for Davey. During downtime tattoos were offered by Word To Mother in the back workshop at UN. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Coney Art Walls : 30 Reasons To Go To Coney Island This Summer

June 24, 2015 Artists

The gates are open to the new public/private art project called Coney Art Walls and today you can have a look at all 30 or so of the new pieces by a respectable range of artists spanning four decades and a helluva lot of New York street culture history. We’ve been lucky to see a lot of the action as it happened over the last five weeks and the range is impressive. These are not casual, incidental choices of players lacking serious resumes or street/gallery cred, but the average observer or unknowing critic may not recognize it.

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

By way of defining terms, none of this is street art. These are murals completed by artists who are street artists, graffiti writers, fine artists, and contemporary artists. In the middle of an amusement park, these are commissioned works that respond in some way to their environment by thirty or so local and international heavy hitters and a few new kids on the block comprising a 40+ year span of expertise.

Open to many strata of the public and fun-seekers who dig Brooklyn’s rich cultural landscape, this outdoor show will surely end up as backgrounds for selfies — while perhaps simultaneously elevating a discourse about the rightful place of graffiti/street art/urban art within the context of contemporary art. Okay, maybe not such loftiness will result, but let’s not rule it out entirely.

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It should come as no surprise that it is the dealer, curator, perennially risk-taking showman Jeffrey Deitch who is the ringmaster of this circus, or that the genesis of this cultural adventure is perplexing to some who have greeted his newest vision with perplexity and derision. His Deitch Projects and related activities in the 2000s regularly presented and promoted the street-inspired D.I.Y. cultural landscape, having done his due diligence and recognizing that new life springs from the various youth movements always afoot. The Jeffrey-conceived “Art Parade” itself was a street-based all-inclusive annual panoply of eye candy and absurdity; inflicting humor, sex, gore, fire, glitter and possibility into the minds of Manhattan sidewalk observers.

As MOCA Los Angeles director Deitch also flipped the script with his “Art In The Streets,” organizing a vast survey of a half-century of the modern grassroots genres including graffiti/street art/urban art/tattoo/punk/hip-hop/skater culture that far surpassed anyone’s predictions for audience attendance and public engagement. Aside from tripping wires and a public misstep here and there, the show earned critical praise, pinched art-school noses, and pushed skeptical institutions and patrons to question their prejudices. It also gave voice to a lot of people.

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Notably, that MOCA exhibit drew a little over 200,000 attendees in four months. Coney Island beach and boardwalk gets about 14 million annually. Even if the Smorgasbord pop-up village food trucks feed a fraction of that number, there will be more folks viewing art and interacting with it here than, say, the Four Seasons dining rooms, which also display street artists and contemporary artists in the restaurants’ artistic programming. Side by side comparisons of Smorgasbord/Four Seasons diners ethnic diversity, income, age, education level, museum board membership or real estate investments were not available at press time. But neither can be fairly described as exploitative to artists or audience without sounding patronizing.

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These multicolored and monochromatic murals illustrate a wide and balanced smorgasborg of their own; examples of myriad styles are at play with some engaging in activism and local politics and Coney Island history. From original train writer Lady Pink to aerosol drone sprayer Katsu, from eL Seed’s lyrical Arabic calligraffiti to Retna’s secret text language to graffitist-now-collagist Greg Lamarche, from Shepard Fairey’s elegant Brooklyn salute to polluters and blasé consumerism to Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s spotlight on current Coney Island neighbors, from urban naturalist ROA’s monochrome marginalized city animals to How & Nosm’s eye-punching and precise graphic metaphors, you are getting a dizzying example of the deep command Deitch has of this multi-headed contemporary category that is yet to settle on a moniker to call itself.

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coney Art Walls assembles world travelers from NYC and LA and Miami and internationally; Belgium, Barcelona, Brazil, Paris, Tunisia, London. Some are 80s Downtown NYC alumni, others were train writers in the 70s or big crew graff heads and taggers from the decades after. Some are considered historical originators of a form and cross-genre risk takers pushing beyond their comfort zone. Take a close look and you’ll find names that are in major collections (private, institutional, corporate) and that go to auction.

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Some are regularly showing in galleries and are invited to street art festivals, exhibited in museums and discussed in academia and print. Others have studio practices spanning three decades, are lecturers, panelists, authors, teachers, community advocates, art stars, reality TV personalities, film actors, product endorsers and art product makers working with global brands. One or two may be considered global brands themselves. A handful have been painting on the streets for 40 years. Monolithic they are not.

One more notable aspect occurred to us as we watched this parade making its peregrination to these summer walls – either because of Deitch or the romance or history of Coney or both; When you are looking at the range of ages and ethnicities and family configurations and listening to the variety of accents and opinions expressed and seeing the friendly but tough-stuff attitudes on display — you might guess you were in Brooklyn. You are.

Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jesse Edwards (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Irak (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lady Pink (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maya Hayuk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lady Aiko (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Van (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jason Woodside (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron English (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AVAF (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed (photo © Jaime Rojo)

eL Seed with Martha Cooper (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenny Scharf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mister Cartoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jane Dickson (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marie Roberts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Greg Lamarche (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gregg Lamarche (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Katsu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Retna (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kashink (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kaves (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lauren Halsey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our previous weekly updates track the installation period of Coney Art Walls:

Coney Art Walls: First 3 Completed and Summer Begins

DEITCH Masters, Coney Art Walls Part 2 : Coney With a Twist

Eine, Hayuk: A Riot of Color at Coney (Update III)

Coney Art Walls: Gypsies, Stallions, Mermaids, and Pop Optics! Update IV

Coney Art Walls Opens for the Mermaids! Update V

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Coney Art Walls: Gypsies, Stallions, Mermaids, and Pop Optics! Update IV

June 13, 2015 Artists

Miss Van. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coney Art Walls continues to take shape before your lying eyes, ladies and gentlemen, snake oil salesmen, and painted ladies in fishnet stockings. Watch now as our intrepid camera wielding high wire walker slithers upward into the sky for his shot!

Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making.

~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti

In this amazing expanding collection you can see that the history and legacy of the location is clearly inspiring many of the artists who painted this week. From Miss Van’s “Gypsy With Stallions” to Aiko’s multi-ethnic mermaids to Jason Woodside’s clown-car of pop-optic patterning to Kenny Scharf’s amorphous fun-house characters, Buff Monster’s melty ice cream, and Ron English’s mutated funny/frightening grinning cartoon characters…this weeks additions are giving the place a cheerfully happy and vaguely creepy magic vibe.

One more week of this painting madness and many surprises are just behind this velvet curtain, Ladies and Germs.

Miss Van (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jason Woodside (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenny Scharf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aiko (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron English (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday: 05.15.15

May 15, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Miss Van, Victor Castillo, Easo Andrews in LA
2. Rallitox Invites You to Walk Over Immigrants for Free.
3. Kinetoscope: Angelina Christina x Ease One
4. Cranio in Breda, Netherlands for Graphic Design Festival
5. Michael Beerens: Captivity and Freedom
6. ICY & SOT Interview in Berlin for Vantage Point

BSA Special Feature: Miss Van, Victor Castillo, Easo Andrews in LA

This costume shop in Los Angeles got very lucky this spring when Barcelona based Miss Van visited and asked them if they would like their facade freshly painted. Along with local talents Victor Castillo and Easo Andrews, Miss Van created a bit of costumed magic that will undoubtedly increase sales.

The video is directed, shot, and edited by “Birdman”.

Rallitox Invites You to Walk Over Immigrants for Free.

A social experiment in Berlin this March by Street Artist Rallitox invited passersby to walk on top of Immigrants. A politically and socially charged topic in many countries today, Germany is struggling to strike a balance about where it stands on immigration. It is surprising how many people were willing to try it out, and how many nervously smiled as an upswelling of conflicting emotions were undoubtedly released in all participants, including those who watched.

Kinetoscope: Angelina Christina x Ease One

Slab City is sometimes billed as an isolated desolated off-the-grid sort of place in California so it was an adventure for Christina Angelina and Ease One discovered the remains of this abandoned water tank and transformed it into a circular mural. They call it The Kinetoscope.

Cranio in Breda, Netherlands for Graphic Design Festival

Sort of odd for a festival with this kind of name on our site but we clearly acknowledge the continuum of creativity extends beyond labels today. Brazilian street artist Cranio here provides a look at his technique with cans for creating his instantly recognizable figures.

Michael Beerens: Captivity and Freedom

Icy & Sot Interviewed on Vantage Point in Berlin

In March we were in Icy & Sots’ room in Berlin for the recording of this interview and it was great to watch. Check out the full interview below and go to their main site to hear more interviews as well (including one with BSA)

https://soundcloud.com/vantagepointradio/ep-037-icy-and-sot

Young New Yorkers – A Preview of the Auction Benefitting NYC Youth

March 31, 2015 Artists

Don’t miss this cool auction of work by many of today’s Street Artists on the New York scene, and some other folks you might have heard of! Young New Yorkers works with 16 and 17 year-old kids who have been caught in the criminal justice system, giving them a second chance. This is your opportunity to support this non-profit organization that is doing good work for your neighbors and our neighborhoods and to add art to your collection.

Here are some brand new shots of pieces that will be available. For a full listing and to bid on the auction progress online, click here on Paddle8.

Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We had the opportunity to speak with Rachel Barnard, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Young New Yorkers about the event and their programs. We asked her to explain how the programs work.

“Art exercises in our programs are collapsed with restorative justice exercises and they give our participants a way of exploring the impact of their choices while empowering them to make wiser ones in the future. We work with photography, video, collage and illustration. More importantly, in the second half of the program art allows our participant’s to step into their own leadership and self expression,” she explains.

As the participants explore their creativity, they also examine it through a greater lens. “They explore a social issue that is important to them and develop a public art project around that. This is then presented at the final exhibition – one which the criminal court judges, acting district attorneys, social workers and other members of the criminal justice system, attend. It’s a way for everyone to re-meet our extraordinary participants as more than just their rap sheets. So in this way we use art to meet our main goal; which is to empower our young New Yorkers to transform the criminal justice system through their own creative voices.”

Here are some of the pieces that will be up for auction on April 1st.

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Obey . LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mata Ruda (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Van (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia, LNY and Mata Ruda collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faring Purth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CB23 . Sonni (photo © Jaime Rojo)

COST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Young New Yorkers provides arts-based programming to court-involved young people. The criminal court gives eligible defendants—all of whom are 16- and 17-year-olds and who in New York are tried as adults—the option to participate in Young New Yorkers rather than do jail time, community service, and have a lifelong criminal record. With the ultimate goal of empowering participants to transform the criminal justice system through their own creative voices, all of YNY’s programs culminate with a public exhibition where members of the Criminal Justice System are invited to re-meet the graduates as creative and empowered individuals. In most cases, upon successful completion of the program, the participants’ cases are sealed; so far, 100% of participants have graduated from YNY’s programs.

We look forward to seeing you at Joseph Gross Gallery on April 1 for the Silent Art Auction. Get your advance tickets for only $35 here.

A Brief Look at NY Art Fairs : Spring/Break & Scope

March 16, 2015 Artists

Did you have a chance to hit some of the shows during New York’s Amory Week? Part blessing and curse, New York has this pre-Spring ritual of organized galleries tucked into little booths in far-flung neo-convention center architectural spaces that offer an onslaught of fascinating new ideas and artists who inspire you and give you a glimpse of the future. Alternately the works on display can sadden you with much derivative mediocrity scattered around and small chartreuse plumes of resentful dealers who clearly are not “people” people alternately ignoring or staring at you.

Before we headed to Berlin for a show we had time to made a mad dash through Scope and The Spring Break Art Show. Here are a few things that caught our eye.

“A Door Within a Door” – Grace Villamil curated by Coming Soon and Katya Braxton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Spring/Break Art Show, now in its 4^th year, is perhaps a current favorite because it creates space for exploring and considering. A 40 curator-driven art fair that featured 150+ artists on display in the re-purposed Moynihan Station (the enormous and grand old main post office), the panoply of concepts tweaked and piqued electrodes in the brain with plays on perception – one of the best outcomes you can hope for with contemporary art. Perhaps because the space is free for the curator, the ideas are similarly liberated.

Bazaar Teens curated by Dustin Yellin. 10K of donated cash was shredded to make paintings. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And everyone is welcomed – collectors, artists, galleries, critics, scene junkies. TRANSACTION was the theme in the Skylight wing that looked like it hadn’t been used for about 20 years. There was a faint fear of Asbestos swirling around our heads while we appreciated the institutional decay of the interiors, laying a background for the fairs multiple installations. Somehow the possibilities for the curators to transform the space were endless, and one wasn’t completely sure when the decay of the interior was intentional or residual…but that was part of the fun.

What separates this fair from the rest of the pack is that the art here is not presented as an unattainable commodity, rather for the most part it is an installation/performance art show where you roam through custom fashioned rooms on both sides of long hallways of deadened fluorescent lights and ceiling leaks. Maybe its because we see a lot of urban art in detritus and abandoned buildings, but this was fun. And yes some of the art was amazing. Good to see artists are still experimenting and taking risks and can make site-specific installations that are alive and provocative.

Bazaar Teens curated by Dustin Yellin. 10K of donated cash was shredded to make paintings. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bazaar Teens curated by Dustin Yellin. 10K of donated cash was shredded to make paintings. Shredded money taken from the donations box. Some prankster put some of the brochures in there for color we suppose… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rita Ikonen curated by Yulia Topchiy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Margaret Bowland curated by Tess Sol Schwab. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Christine Sciulli video projection on fog was curated by Ambre. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cate Giordano curated by Eve Sussman and Simon Lee. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anne Nowak curated by Cassandra M Johnson. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Grace Villamil curated by Coming Soon and Katya Braxton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fall On Your Sword Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mark Samsonovich (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mark Samsonovich and friends in the wild on the streets of NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Over at Scope the story was much different. In their press release and on their site they were heralding a “progressive format” in a new location. The latter was true. It was a new location. The former didn’t materialize and we were hard pressed to find what was progressive or new about it. There were still the temporary partitions and rented booths and while some of the spaces did run into each other it wasn’t with any particular goal for a collaborative spirit or some such idealist notion. If anything, Scope was chaotic with visitors and exhibitors remarking about not having enough time to set up when the doors open at 2:00 pm for the VIP and press, giving a frustrated aura of discord that may have influenced our perception.

Many galleries were still hanging works and adding price and information tags on the walls when we were there. But we know how it is when your dinner party guest arrives at 7 on the dot and you haven’t gotten dressed- you may want them to go out for a cocktail and then return.

Additionally, and unfortunately, Scope more than any of the other show seems to incorporate more derivative and secondary market works than their competitors. Street Art/Urban Art is increasingly hot so it appeared at many more galleries this year but without much curatorial consideration. The fair also including works we have already seen elsewhere, so it was hard to get too excited about that. But there were definitely some gems in there as well. Here are some shots of things we saw:

Isaac Cordal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Van (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nathan Vincent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swampy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michael Mut. Click HERE to learn more about this artist and Still Counting Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikki Peaches (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaybo Monk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vinz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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!

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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.15.15 : Berlin Edition

March 15, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Berlin is slaughtered with Street Art, graffiti, stickers. It appears in so many areas and neighborhoods that you feel like you are being spoken to by artists everywhere you go, not just advertisers – although there are plenty of illegal advertisements all around as well. This week of course we have been surrounded by Brooklyn artists as well for the show with Urban Nation (UN) “Persons of Interest” but luckily some kind and witty Berliners showed us some of the hot spots when we had a spare hour or two gaze upon the wild urban forest. Here are a few shots we got as the briefest of introductions.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alaniz, Alias, Case Ma’Claim, Craneo, FLE, Jones, Miss Van, One Truth, Poet, Rhino Berlin, Sebr, Various & Gould, and Vhils.

<<>>><><<>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

Happy New Year 2015 – BSA Readers Choice Top 10

January 1, 2015 Artists

Happy New Year to All! Thank you for inspiring us to do our best and to those of you who continue to support our personal art project / cultural examination, we extend our gratitude more than ever.

Begun as an enthusiastic discovery of what was happening in a few neighborhoods in New York, we continued to expand our view into more cities around the world last year and into the history and future of the scene. We also aimed to provide you with a critical platform for examination of the street art/ graffiti / public art/ contemporary art continuum with interviews with artists, curators, collectors, organizers, observers and thinkers in the street, studio, gallery, and museum – trouble makers and taste makers alike.

In the end, it’s your observations and the conversations on the street that are most important. As we begin the year with over 300K fans, friends, and followers on social media platforms and 225 articles on the Huffington Post (thanks HuffPost team!), we feel like we get a valuable good survey of current opinions heading our way daily.

With in-depth interviews, investigative articles, opinion infused examinations, plain celebratory reverie, occasionally silly non-sequitors, and public appearances where we get to meet you, we get a good analytical look at an ever-evolving movement, glittery polish and warts and all.

As the new year begins we take a look back at the top stories chosen by BSA Readers in the last 12 months. Among them are two takeover pop-up shows in soon-to-be demolished buildings, a story about commercial abuse of artist copyrights and the effort to fight back, a street art community’s response to the sudden death of an activist street artist, a Street Art tourist trip, and a few inspirational women, men, and Mexican muralists. Even though we published at least once a day for the last 365 days, these are the most popular pieces, as chosen by you, Dear BSA Reader.

10. Exploring Lisbon as a Street Art Tourist

9. Kara Walker and Her Sugar Sphinx at the Old Domino Factory

8. Women Rock Wynwood Walls at Miami Art Basel 2013

7. A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

6. Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

5. It’s All the Rage, Street Artists Filing Lawsuits Left and Right

4. Shok-1 Street Art X-Rays Reveal a Unique Hand at the Can

3. 12 Mexican Street Artists Stray Far from Muralism Tradition In NYC

2. Army Of One, Inspiration To Many : Jef Campion

1. Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

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BSA Film Friday: 06.27.14

June 27, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Miss Van, Glamorous Darkness
2. Andaluz The Artist re-works “Nah I’m Talkin Bout”- G-Unit
3. Urban Calligraphy “Lucid Dream,” by Simon Silaidis
4. JR & José Parlá: Wrinkles of the City

BSA Special Feature: Miss Van, Glamorous Darkness

“I like it a little disturbing. As long as they are wearing masks I think it gives them the necessary strength I want them to express. I don’t necessarily need to dress them,” so explains Miss Van in studio in this rose colored atelier of the feminine form. For years the Street Artist has put forward a new definition of the female and the fantasy, and her newer works only invite. Lest you become too confident, Miss Van makes it clear that they also may bite. “I’m not coy in my paintings.”

One tasty bit of irony revealed here is that her own visual research of photography and the female form from a century ago alerted her to her own perceptions of what idealized feminine beauty is.

Andaluz The Artist re-works “Nah I’m Talkin Bout”- G-Unit

Andaluz tells you what it is all about, son, in this new painting/music video. While he looks suspiciously over his shoulder at you he continues with his aerosol portrait tributes to one of his favorite recently re-united Hip-Hop groups, G-Unit.

The real surprise is that mid-way through the jam the artist takes off his mask and starts laying down the lyrics himself which are witty and autobiographical.

Ed note: Wish people didn’t have to say n*****, hoe, and b****h. Otherwise it’s a great piece of creativity and ingenuity we can respect.

Urban Calligraphy “Lucid Dream,” by Simon Silaidis

“Simon Silaidis is a designer, a thinker, a vision-er, a pioneer,” says his autobiography that accompanies this video. He also loves calligraphy, part of a growing number of graffitti / Street Art based adherents to the gestural and decorative lettering of traditional language arts. Sit here with him in his reverie…

JR & José Parlá: Wrinkles of the City

A teaser for the full length piece, here is a gentle and rich introduction to “Wrinkles of the City”, the dual project in Havana, Cuba, completed by JR & José Parlá a couple of years ago.

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BSA Film Friday: 03.21.14

March 21, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Miss Van in Wynwood, Miami
2. Cane Morto + Ema Jons
3. Virtuous Reality * Adam Void and Ryan Seslow
4. In Memory of Shawn Whisenant by Spencer Keeton Cunningham

BSA Special Feature: Miss Van in Wynwood, Miami

In this gentle meditation by Edition Slurp we find Miss Van painting and langorously stroking the canvas with brush while she was at Wynwood Walls in December. Read more about the event Women Rock Wynwood Walls at Miami Art Basel 2013

Cane Morto + Ema Jons

A night time escape captured by El Pacino and Tanguy Bombonera appears to accompany Italian bruta expressionistas Cane Morta in a large scale night time collabo with Ema Jons while traffic whizzes by obliviously.

Virtuous Reality * Adam Void and Ryan Seslow

To file under experimental: a collaboration by practitioners of art in the street that merges the styles of both Adam VOID and Ryan Seslow. Sound and vision chops together a pastiche of images to lull you to sleep and to jolt you awake you from your hypnotic solid state dream life.

In Memory of Shawn Whisenant by Spencer Keeton Cunningham

“You can grab your skateboard and your camera and go outside, and the world is yours,” says Whisenant to the camera as he describes one of the perfect days in the street.

A fine and poignant tribute to artist, skater, photographer and friend to many on San Francisco’s streets, Shawn passed away earlier this month. The stills, music clips, interviews and commentary give a sense of the open approach he had to creativity, to art making, to others – and here these reminders of him are pulled together in an endearing and regardful way. Our thoughts go out to Shawn’s family and friends during this time.

The Golden Age of Street Art in Barcelona – now on FB

January 28, 2014 Artists

Every Street Art scene has what it calls its “Golden Age” – that time when artists are just popping up new pieces every week and you can sense a real evolution in style and substance is happening before your eyes. For Barcelona many will tell you that they had a golden age during the first four years of the century when it felt like walls all over some areas of the city became a vibrant unbridled gallery and the Spanish city became a tourist destination for artists and fans alike. While there is still a scene there now, much of the areas have been developed for commercial and shopping escapades for visitors rather than urban exploration.

“BCN Walls Project” is the brainchild of Daniel Narváez, who recently contacted us to tell us about his project of posting images from 2000 to 2007 during his golden age of graffiti in Barcelona. We took a look at the Facebook page and were pleased to see some images of artwork that recall our own beginnings recording the turn of the century Street Art explosion that began in Brooklyn and New York at large at that time. No telling how his page will develop, but its worth a look to see what else Narváez will be pulling out of his archives.

For more images of Street Art In Barcelona from 2000 to 2007 click on the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bcnwallsproject/511032425656978

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