All posts tagged: Nat At Art

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.15.24 / Dispatch From Berlin

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.15.24 / Dispatch From Berlin

Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week!

Culturally, artistically, and socially, Berlin never stops thrilling, surprising, and offering fresh perspectives. Though artists continue to discuss the rising cost of living and the slow disappearance of key clubs and cultural hubs, there’s still an undeniable fervor for new art and new participants are still shaking things up.

Witness the crowded museum and long lines of youth and middle-aged people, as well as some octogenarians at the Urban Nation opening here called “Love Letters to the City,” which is the main reason we’re here for a few days. The speeches, the beer, the energy, the high-quality installations and the questions they pose, the street fair with parkour and bBoys and bGirlz, rappers, kids tagging their names in aerosol at an open class, the exhibition boxing matches… It was a legit, diverse program, free of corporate overload, and with real talk on gentrification, the environment, and social and financial inequality. Once again, it proves that when art institutions take risks, they can give street art, graffiti, and urban art the respect they deserve.

While the debate still pops up about whether museums should even host street art and graffiti, there are smart and sharp pros teaming up with artists to push the conversation forward, broaden the topics, and bring more people into the mix. In the end, they’re archiving a small slice of this massive, chaotic global art movement – so future generations can get a glimpse of it, reflect on it, and maybe even get inspired.

While right-wing movements are reshaping politics here, leading to stricter border policies and longer lines at the airport, Berlin remains fiercely committed to its ragged, rebellious spirit of protecting individual liberties and free expression. The ironies are hard to miss: just two blocks from the Bulow Street Fair, a family-friendly block-long event celebrating what is officially illegal art on the street and political concerns may dominate conversations, Berlin hosts Folsom Europe, the largest festival for leather and fetish enthusiasts, raging freely for four days with five stages and a “puppy parade”. It’s a vivid contrast—on one hand, they’re tightening borders, and on the other, this is a celebration of personal freedom.

Also, it’s more entertaining than a boring football match. Thousands of (mostly) men parade down Fuggerstraße in neighboring Nollendorfstraße, stomping through the streets in various ensembles—militaristic oppressor, master and servant, or dog and owner themes. Regardless, most will be at brunch with hangovers the next morning. If a drunken one gets disorderly, the police are advised not to threaten with handcuffs. The festival attire may range from severe, almost fascist looks to outfits with a more playful fierceness, like brightly colored hazmat suits or firefighter uniforms. At the lower end of the fetish festival fashion spectrum are the guys who just threw on a leather vest or a pair of Doc Martens—and the “bought it at the mall” crowd are in one-piece leather or rubber jumpsuits with Hoxo sneakers, like race car drivers heading to the grocery store.

At Folsom, you can pick up everything from whips, paddles, original artwork, and adult toys to bratwurst, pretzels, beer, French fries (pommes), and meat skewers. There are also plenty of vegan and vegetarian options available. What’s most remarkable and admirable about the tough, perpetually unimpressed Berliners is that they’ve seen it all before and hardly take note. They go about their business—picking up Saturday groceries, maybe a bunch of flowers, or fetching their kid from Taekwondo class. They take their dog to the park to enjoy the sunny, chilly September weather. Everyday folks in the neighborhood wait patiently at the crosswalk, alongside a cluster of muscular men with mustaches and leather, sometimes greeting one another, but mostly unfazed by each other’s presence.

The current street art and graffiti—what’s been sprayed or pasted up recently—never fails to impress, even when you’re not entirely sure what it’s about. We’re happy to be here and to share some of it with you.

Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Invader, 1Up Crew, Hera, Pobel, Nat At Art, One Truth, Natrix, Roffle, LAYD, T Tan Box, Rise, Petite Agite, Maxim, and PZE.

HERA. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HERA. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
T Tan Box (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JAYD (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ROFFFE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Natrix (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nat At Art for Urban Nation Museum Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
PZE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
MAXIM. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Maxim (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pobel (photo © Jaime Rojo)
One Truth (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (can’t read the signature) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Petite Agite (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rise (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Berlin. September, 2024. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 11.28.21

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.28.21

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is BSA-Animated-Banner_Images-Week-Jan-2021-V2.gif

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are hopeful for the upcoming holiday season. There are Canadians selling Christmas pines in the neighborhood already – there is no time for you to digest that turkey, you turkey. Also, prices are up 10%-30% on trees this year. Speaking of which, the official Rockefeller Center tree lighting is Wednesday to see the 79-foot tall tree from upstate Oneonta set alight. That event, like so many events in NYC, is completely free.

But we know that times are tough for a lot of New Yorkers – and people elsewhere – and it can really put a damper on your holiday enthusiasm. In fact, according to a recent study by Deloitte, a record number of Americans (11.5%) won’t be buying anything for Christmas this year. – almost double last year’s number. Money is tight, bro. Even the Dollar Tree Store has announced its raising prices to $1.25.

And as you have undoubtedly heard, New York is in a State of Emergency as of Friday since the new governor declared it – ahead of an expected surge of illnesses due to the Omnicron variant of Covid that may overwhelm our hospitals. It’s not here yet but Gov. Kathy Hochul says “It’s coming.”

Grab a mask, do the right thing. We love ya.

This week we’re headed to the Miami Art Week – and we hope to see you there. We’ll interview Brooklyn Street Artists Faile onstage at Wynwood Walls Wednesday if you want to make sure to say hello. We’re excited to see a new slate of graffiti and street art and mural work – and have heard of some surprise installations sure to garner attention. Not that Miami is about garnering attention…

Our interview with the street today includes ASAP, Cramcept, De Grupo, Duster, Huckleberry Fuck Up, Marycula, Modomatic, Nat At Art, Pear, Sam Crew, Soli, Ultramarine Dream, and Wild Boys.

Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sam Crew in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sam Crew in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Duster and other unidentified artists put up a handful of stencils outside the unpermitted Banksy exhibition in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
De Grupo, Pear, Wild Boys, ASAP (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Huckleberry Fuck Up in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Marycula in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Marycula in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Marycula in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Modomatic (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ultramarine Dream in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Soli in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nat At Art in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cramcept (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
Berlin’s OKSE 126 Brings His CMYK DOTS Campaign to Walls in 103 Cities

Berlin’s OKSE 126 Brings His CMYK DOTS Campaign to Walls in 103 Cities

Wading and wandering through the late autumn sunlight dappling the graffiti and street art near Alexanderplatz in Berlin, we noticed periodic dotting of the wall above the chaotic visual fray at eye level.

CMYK Dots. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The four dots are a clear, crisp distillation of color that every graphic designer since the print age is well familiar with: CMYK. Expressed in 3-D sculpture dots with a variety of techniques and glued to the wall above us, we were reminded foften during our walk that all colors are a combination of these four.

CMYK Dots. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A one-person mission by Berlin graffiti writer and street artist OKSE 126, the CMYK Dots campaign has traveled across many German and European cities and actually has a map for you to track them down. In addition to prodigious dots on the street, he’s started a line of clothing and art products and has shown his work in galleries like Berlin’s Urban Spree and this month at Hamburg’s Urban Shit Gallery “URBAN ART EDITION 2021” group show. The street art project, which OKSE 126 refers to as a modern technique of pointillism, has exceeded his goals, totaling 1,113 dots, 104 cities, and 16 countries.

CMYK Dots collaboration with Nat At Art. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CMYK Dots. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CMYK Dots. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more