All posts tagged: Mr. Toll

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.30.15

August 30, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Dude, Dudette, this is the moment to make the most of Summer before it in subsumed into crazy New York fall. There is so much art on the streets you may not even want to go inside. Actually, if you haven’t seen the China: Through the Looking Glass at the Metropolitan Museum, you have to go – it could blow your mind with all the video and costume and power and history and modern western interpretations of it, sho nuff.

If you wonder what we’ve been up to and what on the near horizon- check out yesterdays posting “Round Up! BSA at NUART, Borås, Coney, BKM, and ON Brooklyn Streets”

Right now Street Artists are beginning to take into account a large pimple on the butt of the US, Mr. Donald Trump. Of course the streets always render opinions in such clever and pointed ways – helping us to cope with a corporate media infotainment machine that can’t help but chase a fire and pour gasoline on it for ratings. Actually NemO’s new mural of a man caught inside a TV-as-guillotine is also apropo.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adam Cost, Aiko, Clint Mario, DRE, Ernest Zacharevic, Foxx Faces, Hanksy, Hunt, Indie184, Ivanorama, LUDO, Mr. Toll, NemO’s, Overunder, Phlegm, Raphail, She Wolf, Sure We Can, Thiago Goms, and Zed1.

Top image above >>> Ernest Zacharevic sidebusts COST. Overunder looms close by. Please help ID the tags. You may recognize the scene depicted from a very familiar promotional image for Nuart 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NEMO’S “Stocks – Pillory” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hanksy. Clint Mario doesn’t seem to mind the stench from the sack of shit on the street. Not the same with the pedestrian going by. He is covering his nose. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hunt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ivanorama (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thiago Goms in Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

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

DRE – The Secret Society of Super Villain Artists (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Raphail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikki Peaches and a pinch of Dain for taste. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Indie184 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sure We Can (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Foxx Faces (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aiko for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

She Wolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zed1 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Times Square. Manhattan, NY. August 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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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.16.15

August 16, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Thanks to LoMan, the island of perdition is popping with new stuff almost daily. Could be coincidence or serendipity but this week NYC has new stuff from heavy hitters mixed happily with lots of newer talents. Summer ’15 is stupendous – mostly because you are here in your flip-flops and shorts and pretty smile, you flirt.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Aiko, Andre, Ayakamay, BD White, Buttless, Clint Mario, Gold Loxe, Hot Tea, Ivanorama, JP Art, JR, Magda Love, Mint & Serf, Mr. Toll, and Os Gemeos.

Top image above >>> JR . Andre . Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR . Andre . Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR . Andre (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR . Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Excuse Me, Your Privilege Is Showing. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll is being coy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ayakamay (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aiko knocking out a big stencilled wall for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clint Mario (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buttless has fallen on the sidewalk. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf added a cool fascinator to this long running drawing while Magda Love plays her very best hits…from a tape no less. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

…meanwhile the sis from hell shows up with a bad attitude… Ivanorama. Young lady needs a Time Out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot ankle boots for fall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gold Loxe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BD White and JP for LoManArt Fest 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. The lazy dogs days of summer. NYC. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.09.15

August 9, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

You can feel it rippling through the streets, the impact of one strong piece after another beguiling and besting your expectations. And that’s just the organic free-range un-permissioned stuff.

The LoMan Festival is enjoying its first official edition, continuing today so you may want to head to Little Italy to see the Secret Walls battle in the lot and Cosbe surfing across a tidal wave of stickers that he and the 200-strong sticker club have procured. The festival itself is a zany mix of music, comedy, street art, murals, and live performance – you’ll probably dig it.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Apple on Pictures, Dasic, Faith47, Gold Luxe, Hunt, JR, Mint & Serf, Mr. Toll, Olek, Phoebe New York, Sean9Lugo, Solus, The Dingle Lane, and Urban Fish.

Top image above >>> Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A well-placed speech bubble in the subway. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hunt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot enough out here to fry an egg on the street. Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (with an old coming apart piece by Jana & JS on the left). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apple On Pictures (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Dingle Lane (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Fish (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gold Loxe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek’s transformation of the Jan Karski sculpture in front of the Polish Consulate in NYC has been a very meaningful project for the artist. It is her goal to draw attention to the work of this WWII war resister and the heroic acts he took to save persecuted people during the Holocaust. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek’s transformation of the Jan Karski sculpture in front of the Polish Consulate in NYC. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phoebe New York is playing with perspectives in a minimalist collage very effectively (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Solus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skulls, Death and “Memento Mori” on the Street Art Scene

May 20, 2015 Artists

Oh death, the world simply brims with it.

Naturally so do the streets.

We’ve been able to cheat it, cavort and dance with it, even bargain with it but so far we have been unable to win the fight. Everyone succumbs.

“Remember you shall die”, or Memento mori, is the medieval Latin theory that we come face to face with, or skull to skull.

Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artists have been doing the danse macabre for centuries and one cerebral motif appears throughout every medium: the skull. From traditional African masks with skull faces to Shakespeare’s exhumed Yorick in Hamlet to 16th and 17th century European paintings featuring the skull as a motif in portraiture. The Mexicans make sugar candy with skulls, Warhol did multiples with them, Bowie sang to one, Tattoo culture covers skins with them, Damien Hirst encrusts them with diamonds, Game of Thrones has the Lord of Bones, they’re featured at the Museum of Morbid Anatomy, and Korean rapper Jay Park is styled as one on his video.

Even current Street Artists have a fascination with skulls, with Swoon in a show called Memento Mori and the Italian Street Artist Borondo’s named his new book after it. Today we wander out into the street with your hand in ours to look at death, as interpreted by artists of the street right now.

Sweet Toof (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vexta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zach Meyer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexis Diaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Katsu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dennis McNett (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Niño de las Pinturas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eurotrash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Code (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (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.

Mr. Toll Goes To The Malaysian Jungle

January 3, 2015 Artists

We have become accustomed to being surprised by the occasional tropical bird perched above head in the urban jungle that is NYC. But Mr. Toll has never looked so site-appropriate until now.

While taking part in the “Urban Xchange: Crossing Over” mural arts festival in Penang, Malaysia recently, Mr. Toll headed straight to the jungle with photographer Henrik Haven in tow. There he placed his now familiar clay sculptures of birds into verdant lush surroundings and you have to admit they look perfectly happy there.

Mr. Toll. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia 2014. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Somehow climbing up and over large moss covered tree roots is a very appealing thought on this grey January day, especially when you are confronted with the bright and colorful plumage of a sculpture by the Brooklyn-based street artist. Not sure about the availability of a deli here, or a corner for that matter.

Mr. Toll. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia 2014. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Click HERE to read our full coverage of Urban Xchange: Crossing Over.

Thank you to Henrik for sharing his photographs exclusively with BSA readers.

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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

Os Gemeos / Blu (photo © Stephen Kelley)

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

Kara Walker. The artist portrait in profile with her sugary sphinx in the background. (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

8. Women Rock Wynwood Walls at Miami Art Basel 2013

Fafi (photo © Martha Cooper for Wynwood Walls)

7. A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

6. Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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

Shok-1 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Sego (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Army Of One AKA JC2 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Pixote in action. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The 2014 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

December 17, 2014 Artists

Here it is! Our 2014 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.

Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year: Ask Jaime Rojo, our illustrious editor of photography at BrooklynStreetArt.com , who takes thousands of photographs each year, to respond to a simple question: What was your favorite photo of the year?

For 2014 he has swift response: “The Kara Walker.” Not the art, but the artist posed before her art.

It was an impromptu portrait that he took with his iPhone when the artist unveiled her enormous sculpture at a small gathering of neighborhood locals and former workers of the Domino Sugar Factory, informal enough that Rojo didn’t even have his professional camera with him. Aside from aesthetics for him it was the fact that the artist herself was so approachable and agreed to pose for him briefly, even allowing him to direct her just a bit to get the shot, that made an imprint on his mind and heart.

Of course the sculpture is gone and so is the building that was housing it for that matter – the large-scale public project presented by Creative Time was occupying this space as the last act before its destruction. The artist herself has probably moved on to her next kick-ass project after thousands of people stood in long lines along Kent Avenue in Brooklyn to see her astounding indictment-tribute-bereavement-celebration in a hulking warehouse through May and June.

But the photo remains.

And Rojo feels very lucky to have been able to seize that quintessential New York moment: the artist in silhouette before her own image, her own work, her own outward expression of an inner world.

Jaime’s personal favorite of 2014; The site specific Kara Walker in front of her site specific installation at the Domino Sugar Factory in May of this year in Brooklyn. Artist Kara Walker. (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

And our holiday gift to you for five years running, here is the brand new video of favorite images of graffiti and Street Art by Brooklyn Street Art’s editor of photography, Jaime Rojo.

Of a few thousand these 129 shots fly smoothly by as a visual survey; a cross section of graffiti, street art, and the resurgence of mural art that continues to take hold. As usual, all manner of art-making is on display as you wander your city’s streets. Also as usual, we prefer the autonomous free-range unsolicited, unsanctioned type of Street Art because that’s what got us hooked as artists, and ultimately, it is the only truly uncensored stuff that has a free spirit and can hold a mirror up to us. But you have to hand it to the muralists – whether “permissioned” or outright commissioned, some people are challenging themselves creatively and still taking risks.

Once again these artists gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it. We hope you dig it too.

Brooklyn Street Art 2014 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

2Face, Aakash Nihalani, Adam Fujita, Adnate, Amanda Marie, Andreco, Anthony Lister, Arnaud Montagard, Art is Trash, Ben Eine, Bikismo, Blek Le Rat, Bly, Cake, Caratoes, Case Maclaim, Chris Stain, Cleon Peterson, Clet, Clint Mario, Col Wallnuts, Conor Harrington, Cost, Crummy Gummy, Dain, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Damon, Dan Witz, Dasic, Don’t Fret, Dot Dot Dot, Eelco Virus, EKG, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Etam Cru, Ewok, Faring Purth, Gilf!, Hama Woods, Hellbent, Hiss, Hitnes, HOTTEA, Icy & Sot, Jana & JS, Jason Coatney, Jef Aerosol, Jilly Ballistic, Joe Iurato, JR, Judith Supine, Kaff Eine, Kashink, Krakenkhan, Kuma, Li Hill, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Mais Menos, Mark Samsonovich, Martha Cooper, Maya Hayuk, Miss Me, Mover, Mr. Prvrt, Mr. Toll, Myth, Nenao, Nick Walker, Olek, Paper Skaters, Patty Smith, Pixel Pancho, Poster Boy, Pyramid Oracle, QRST, Rubin 415, Sampsa, Sean 9 Lugo, Sebs, Sego, Seher One, Sexer, Skewville, SmitheOne, Sober, Sonni, Specter, SpY, Square, Stay Fly, Stik, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swil, Swoon, Texas, Tilt, Tracy168, Trashbird, Vexta, Vinz, Willow, Wolfe Works, Wolftits, X-O, Zed1.

Read more about Kara Walker in our posting “Kara Walker And Her Sugar Sphinx At The Old Domino Factory”.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

“Urban Xchange: Crossing Over” A New Festival in Penang, Malaysia

December 11, 2014 Artists

Urban Exchange: Crossing Over 2014 is a brand new street art festival in George Town, Penang in Malaysia. In November they hosted 16 artists to paint walls throughout this city of two and a half million on the Strait of Malacca.

It is not a city that has hosted Street Art traditionally and one that frowns strongly on graffiti, but ever since Lithuanian Street Artist Ernest Zacharevic did some very successful installations here in 2012 which drew crowds and cameras, the citizenry and elected officials have become very hospitable to the idea — and have even enacted a formalized process for approving public art.

Skolo brings tradition, sport, and modern communications together in this brand new mural for Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Today we travel to Penang to see the brand new pieces for this first-year show, co-curated by Gabija Grusaite and Eeyan Chuah, who run Hin Bus Depot Art Centre, a creative space in the ruins of a bus depot that hosted a corollary gallery show. Alongside Berlin based Urban Nation’s director and curator, Yasha Young, the two invited a mixture of local and international artists to complete murals and to host some community workshops.

“There’s never a dull moment at Urban Nation’s exchange program,” says Young, “after a year in the planning we were excited to finally make the journey.”

Tank Petrol at work on is wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Among the various murals you’ll see a selection of figurative, realistic, and illustration styles that carefully walk a community moderated fine line, hoping to bring locals to be more actively engaged in the program. As a novelty outlier, you’ll also see Brooklyn’s Mr. Toll installing his colorful hand formed clay sculptures in unusual spots if you keep your head up.

In an interview with Malay Mail Online, Ms. Grusaite says, “We want to create an artistic international cultural exchange so that local artists can learn from international artists who will be here for the project while the international artists will get exposure to the local culture and art scene.”

Tank Petrol. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

As is the case more often, with Urban Exchange we are again seeing a new model of public art developing where at the forefront are artists who have laid their groundwork in graffiti rather than university exclusively. We’ve been using a term we’re calling the “New Muralism” to indicate the grassroots nature and populist generation of these works and we still think its definition is evolving. Not quite community murals in the strictest sense, and not seeking the approval of gate-keeping institutions either, these artists are looking for and finding new ways to challenge themselves creatively in the public sphere while being responsive to needs of the public. Huh!

Included in the Urban Exchange project are Antanas Dubra (Lithuania), Bibichun (Malaysia), Don John (Denmark), Donald Abraham (Malaysia), Elle (United States), Ernest Zacharevic (Lithuania), Fauzan Faud (Malaysia), Karl Addison (Germany), Kenji Chai (Malaysia), Rone (Australia), Sk10 (Singapore), TankPetrol (United Kingdom), Black Fritilldea (Malaysia), 4Some (a crew from Kuala Lumpur consisting of Donald, Black, Fauzan and Jojo), Mr Toll (New York) and Vexta (New York)

Our heartfelt thank you to Henrik Haven, who took a trip from Copenhagen which took 31 hours (and four different flights) for sharing his excellent photographs here with BSA readers.

RONE at work on is wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

RONE on the left with Karl Addison on the right. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

RONE. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Ernest Zacharevic at work on is wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Ernest Zacharevic. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

4Some Crew at work on their wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

4Some Crew (Donald, Black, Fauzan and Jojo) Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Vexta at work on her wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Vexta. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Bibichun. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Nikko Tan)

Don John at work on his wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Don John. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Elle at work on her wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Elle. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Karl Addison at work on his wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Karl Addison. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Antanas Dubra at work on their wall. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Antanas Dubra. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Sliz assists Skolo. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Mr. Toll installing his clay sculptures. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Mr. Toll. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Collaboration between Ernest Zacharavic and Etoja. Urban Xchange: Crossing Over. Penang, Malaysia. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 09.07.14

September 7, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Crummy Gummy, Dan Witz, Dasic, Dot Dot Dot, Flood, Hama Woods, Jaye Moon, Jerk Face, LMNOPI, Mr. Toll, Ostream, Pobel, QRST, Robert Janz, The Department of Well Being, Tilt, and Todo Es Mentira.

Top Image >> Tilt. Stavanger, Norway. September, 2014. Tilt embellishes his throwie with the flag of the countries he visits. Norway it is this time, next to an encampment of people living on the street. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

LMNOPI. Portrait of Nasir Kidbreak Malave. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crummy Gummy. Albuquerque, NM. (photo © Crummy Gummy)

We caught a rare glimpse of Robert Janz taking a photo of his just installed art on the streets of NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hama Woods. Stavanger, Norway. September 2014 (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

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

From The Department of Well Being. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These new pieces by QRST recently appeared with his ever more sophisticated technique of sculptural painting, now popping the forms forward into the street. The symbology is known to him only, combining religious iconography with street, science and mythological metaphor to tell a story, sometimes to write a diary entry. We found out that these are 3 of 4 new pieces that are about loss and death, relating different aspects of the the same experience, “different personifications of the same dark thing,” according to the artist.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerk Face for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dot Dot Dot in Stavanger, Norway for a previous edition of NUART. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Todo Es Mentira (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Flood (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pøbel and Østrem collaboration in Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. New York City. September, 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.17.14

August 17, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This weeks “21st Precinct” show of graffiti and street art style mural / installation work did blow some minds for sure, as did last nights official opening – mostly because of the great display of work on four floors. But additionally all sorts of paranoia was afoot when people began writing on social media and to us that they really thought this was a sting operation of some sort.

Aside from the fact that we clearly said in our postings on BSA and Huffpost that the building had long since been decommissioned as a precinct and we were simply focusing on the irony of the facts, minds and nerves were blown nonetheless. Truth is, this is a good show with some thoughtful pieces and installations and not surprisingly, many thematically addressed the contentious relationship some have with the police traditionally. But there is lots of other stuff too and it is worth your time. Just don’t get arrested. Kidding!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring APC Crew, Art is Trash, Bishop203, Castellaneta, Chekos, Cruz, Foxx Face, Franksy, Gaia, Hek Tad, JJ Veronis, Lorenzo Maza, Mark Samsonovich AKA Love is Telepathic, Melty Cats, Mr. PRVT, Mr. Toll, Nekst, Opiemme, Pixote, Shantell Martin, Skrew, UR New York and Wolfe Metal Work, Tommy Wolfe.

Top Image >> Mark Samsonovich says open your mind, although it looks like someone blew this guys. See the video of the Delfonics at end of posting if that song is running through your brain now. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JJ Veronis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolfe Metal Work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Who is he? Who is that other one?”

“These are the questions that people asked most often while Chekos and I were painting in Castellaneta.
Ernest Hemingway, Sean Connery, Sigmund Freud, Steve Jobs, Padre Pio, Van Gogh, Giuseppe Verdi, George Clooney, Lenin, Cavour, Garibaldi…are some of the guesses.

The work came from Chekos’s idea, a reflection on the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. We tried to bring the spectator to have an experience close to a personality test, with an iconographic work that recalls the Rorschach test. The words “Stereotype” in the center of the composition refer to the process that brings people to recognize different famous people.” ~ Opiemme

Didn’t I Blow Your Mind? The Delfonics

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

August 14, 2014 Artists, Interview

This weekend the NYPD police precinct is hosting a graffiti and street art show, and the public is welcome to see every floor completely swimming in aerosol and plastered in wheat-paste.

Admit it, it is not often you receive an invite like that.

Pesu (center), Pixote (left) and Bill Claps Morse code writing the history of the building on the walls. (right) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When this precinct was built it was a very bad, very poor neighborhood. When the cops came in there was a lot of brutality and there was a lot of corruption,” says curator Robert Aloia of this building architected for the NYPD in 1863 and closed down fifty years later. A quick search on the web shows a history of thuggery born of Dickens. Records at the time of closure indicated there were 9,500 arrests annually and this tiny slice of Manhattan alone had 37 brothels.

So why not have a graffiti show here before tearing it down, right?.

Brooklyn Street Art: So you literally could hit every wall here and it wouldn’t matter because it is coming down at the end of the month?
Robert Aloia: Yeah the inside walls. The outside walls they don’t want us to touch.

In a twist of events pulled from a satire, one of the artists on display this weekend was arrested this month in Brooklyn and spent the night in jail before seeing a judge. The following day he came to this precinct and hit up some walls with impunity.

“It’s just amazing that these artists can put their time, their money, and their talent into something that is just coming down,” says Aloia while touring us through rooms and stairways during one of the four visits we made for these exclusive first images, “ and it is only going to be seen for a certain amount of time.”

Hellbent has his own room. So does Rambo. Cash4 and Matt Siren are sharing one together, as are Sheryo and the Yok. Elle spent an entire night in hers watching her black wax sculpture melting away with the candles she planted in it. An unconfirmed story says it is a sculpture cast of the elusive Judith Supine.

“She painted it black, melted it and filmed it,” says Aloia.

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you thought of the irony behind the fact that this is a former police precinct and many of the artists would have been running away from this place instead of trying to get into it?
Robert Aloia: That is true, I didn’t think of that aspect of it really, but the gallery area was the actual holding cell.

Brooklyn Street Art: So how did you draw these people together?
Robert Aloia: Every show I’ve done I start with my friends, and then it’s friends of friends, and that’s it. It’s just about one degree of separation.

In the last three years the New York native has curated a number of shows heavily weighted with graffiti artists and Street Artists, primarily on Manhattan’s Lower East Side at bars, event spaces, and venues with downtown history like Fuse, White Box, and La Mama.

A bartender and DJ who has mixed with a lot of New York nightlife and street life without becoming hardened, Aloia and co-curators like Erik Foss and Ricky Powell have been doing sometimes star-studded yet unassuming one-off shows the past few years with Street Art names like Bast, Supine, and Aiko and some of the newer kids like N’DA and Icy & Sot.

“I am from New York and I always knew a lot of graffiti artists, that’s how I ended up getting into it. I was just lucky enough to have access to some venues to do stuff.”

Brooklyn born, Aloia’s been on the LES since the 80s, which explains his devotion to the memory of “outlaw parties” where people would set up an illegal bar and a pumping sound system in improvised celebrations at unsanctioned locations. Outlaw parties and pop-up speakeasies still exist of course, but more often they are in Brooklyn now as Manhattan is shoving artists out by the truckload.

For “21st Precinct” he’s called in nearly 50 artists from as far away as Japan, Australia, California, and nearby New Jersey. The mix of artists is eclectic and sometimes quite powerful like the tribute to SAMO (Basquiat) in the gallery by his co-conspirator Al Diaz, and the dark room built by Swedish photographer Jesper Haynes which features images from the downtown New York in the Reagan era.

“I definitely always have a mix with fine art, photography, installation, but you know I always have old-school graffiti artists and street artists,” he says as he looks over the four floors of thickly gritty splendor by renowned and unknown.

For those lucky enough to see the show in this venue this weekend or next, “21st Precinct” is a quintessential New York minute, a steamy grimy melting pot of authentic attitude that begs to differ and perhaps stick a finger in your chest just before the wrecking ball hits. Thank Aloia while you’re there. Not surprisingly, the new building that replaces this one will be for…..wait for it…. luxury residences.

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OUTLAW ARTS Presents: “The 21st Precinct”
Curated by Robert Aloia & VNA Mag

The show will be in the old 21st Precinct located on 327 East 22nd Street. More information HERE.

Contributing Artists:

Adam Dare, Al Diaz, Amanda Marie, ASVP, Bad Pedestrian, Ben Angotti , Bill Claps, Bishop203, Bunny M., Cash4, Chris RWK, Chris Soria, Coby Kennedy, Curtis Kulig, D. Gaja, Danielle Mastrion, Dasic, Dizmology, Duel, ELLE, Erasmo, Esteban del Valle, Faust, Ghost, GIZ, Hellbent, Hue, Icy & Sot, Iena Cruz, Jesper Haynes, Justin Carty, Ket, Lexi Bella, Li-Hall, Lorenzo Masnah, Matt Siren, Mr. Toll, N. Carlos Jay, Nepo, Nick Tengri, Pesu, Phil, Pixote, RAE, Rambo, Ricardo Cabret, SAE, Savior Elmundo, Shery-o & The Yok, Shiro, Tone Tank, URNY, Vexta, X-O.

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Images Of The Week: 03.30.14

March 30, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adam Dare, Bunny M, COL Wallnuts, Don’t Fret, Icy & Sot, JMR, John Ahearn, Judith Supine, Michael McKeawn, Miss Me, Mr. Toll, Paper Skaters, Pyramid Oracle, and What is Adam.

John Ahearn. Florant 2013. Plaster portrait of Florant Morellet, the colorful restaurant owner and business pioneer in the Meat Packing District of Manhattan installed at the High Line Park for the BUSTED Series. The portrait was inspired by the 16th century painting of Bacchus by Caravaggio. John Ahearn of course is a crucial link between public art and street art in New York and has been for thirty years or so, aligning his work and practice with actual people who live in our neighborhoods – especially in the Bronx. Mr. Florant, a longtime fixture and heart of the Meat Packing District, abandoned Manhattan for Bushwick, Brooklyn last year. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michael McKeawn “Winter Laundry”. Look closely and you’ll see that this is an installation of rather large clothing. photo © Jaime Rojo)

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